Wives

A servant indeed one will be able, perhaps, to bind down by fear; but not even him, for he will soon start away and be gone. But the partner of one’s life, the mother of one’s children, the foundation of one’s every joy, one ought never to chain down by fear and menaces, but with love and good temper. For what sort of union is that where the wife trembles at her husband? And what sort of pleasure will the husband himself enjoy, if he dwells with his wife as with a slave, and not as with a free woman? Indeed, though you should suffer anything on her account, do not scold her; for neither did Christ do this.

If you are a man of holiness, you must look more for a portion of grace in a wife than for a portion of gold with a wife. You must look more after righteousness than riches, more after piety than money, more after what inheritance she has in heaven than what possessions she has on earth, more at what interest she has in Christ than at what interest she has in creatures, more at her being new-born than at her being high-born, more at her being good than at all her worldly goods.

With perfect propriety Scripture has said that woman is given by God as “a help” to man. It is evident then, in my opinion, that she will charge herself with remedying, by good sense and persuasion, each of the annoyances that originate with her husband in domestic economy. And if he does not yield, then she will endeavor, as far as possible for human nature, to lead a sinless life.