they are not content with it, and because they yearn for something better — and certainly that is true; it shows ambition, and souls that will not be satisfied with a meager pittance of living. But many fall into the error of abandoning a former companion to seek happiness at the side of another, when what such a case requires is a change of circumstance and of conduct. Thus we find that their idealism has turned in a wrong direction and lost the road that leads to the result they sought. Had they put into solving their marital problems efforts equal to those demanded by running away from facing those problems, they would have reached what they desire. But if they lack the capacity to create the atmosphere suited to their condition in their new marriage, they pass a pleasant time at first, then the newness of the relations fades, and the waters return to their former courses.

The story of the couples just men-tioned is like the boat that was car-rying sailors from a ship wrecked on the open sea: they were nearly dying of thirst, not knowing that they were at the mouth of a river of sweet water. This parable applies to the failed marriage whose par-ties allege that the solution of their problems lies outside, while all the time it dwells with them and stands beside them at every moment.

I noticed a sentence that came from the pen of one writer, to the effect that after long trial it was found that nothing helps a marriage to endure and keeps its bonds safe except the resolve that it shall stand firm in the face of any storm, however stubbornly it blows. This is an omen that makes us reflect that the fate of marriage is in our own hands, and not in the hands of luck or of destiny.

The lukewarm marriage is a deadly destroyer of personal happiness, of the security of tomorrow, and of the safety of society; yet it is not so dreadful as we think, for any two partners possessed of solid learning and sound knowledge can

solve this problem however tan-gled it becomes, and there is no cause to despair of overcoming this coldness and replacing it with a harmonious life that pulses with warmth and renews itself in love...

So beware of the lukewarm, maimed marriage, for upon you two depends the happiness of the children and of society — which, if you do not raise it up with your own arms, will fall prostrate, and hard indeed will be its rising!...