Before You Get Engaged

Before you get engaged, dear girl, are you confident that the young fellow would be to you a life companion dearer than life, with a love stronger than death, and that your marriage would have upon it the blessing of the Christ of Cana?

1920 The Northwestern Lutheran

The following article is taken from the September 5, 1920 issue of The Northwestern Lutheran, Volume 7, Number 18, on pp. 285-286. A PDF scan of the original issue may be found in the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Digital Library.

Before you get engaged, my dear girl with the dreamy eyes, consider whether the young fellow is the kind of man whose company you could enjoy—not only on Sunday evenings, but on Monday mornings.

Find out how he treats his mother and sister and younger brother, when he is alone with them.

Discover the opinion of him entertained by his employer, and by his fellow employees, way in the back of their heads.

Learn the caliber of his religion; can it hold its own in the face of disappointment and loss and sickness and death?

Do you regard him as a suitable companion, not so far above you intellectually that you can not stimulate him, nor so far below you intellectually that he cannot stimulate you?

Do you believe in him so thoroughly that your promise to love, honor—yes, and obey—will come without hesitation or reservation and with glad and proud loyalty.

Are you sure that he would bring to you the same unsullied purity that you would bring to him?

In short, are you confident that he would be to you a life companion dearer than life, with a love stronger than death, and that your marriage would have upon it the blessing of the Christ of Cana?

Then, dear girl with the dreamy eyes, place your heart in his hands.

But not until then.

—Christian Endeavor World.