A friend once spoke to the mother of a large family of girls in regard to the anxiety she must feel about their future settlement in life. She answered with a bright smile, which suggested anything but anxiety, “I try so to train my girls that they will be fit for the sacred duties that wives and mothers have to fulfil, and I leave the rest to God.” One would like to see all girls actuated by the same spirit, that, without undervaluing anything that helps to make them externally attractive, they should cultivate every quality that will place them on a level with the best man in the best things. In speaking to you, dear girl members of my Twilight circle, I assume that you desire in all your ways to acknowledge God, and pray that He will direct your paths. Can there be a more important matter on which you need guidance than that on which the happiness of your future life depends? And yet, how common it is for girls to be so carried away by flattering words and delicate attentions, which make them the envy of others, that they do not pause to think how small a part these things play in most married lives. Are you accustomed to lay bare your heart to God in prayer, and to seek His aid in all things? If so, have you asked yourself whether the one to whose keeping you think of committing your future, will be likely to kneel by your side and join heart to heart with you in making your joint requests known to God? Believe me, if husband and wife never pray together, they never taste the sweetest portion possible in the cup of wedded happiness. If their ways diverge when the path leads to the House of God; if they neither worship together in the home nor the sanctuary, they are without the precious bond of union that makes their lives truly one here, and gives the assurance of an eternal reunion beyond the grave. There are many indications of character which may seem trivial in the eyes of some of you, but which ought to be deemed danger signals in regard to married life in the future. For instance, an occasional giving way to intemperance. Jesting about sacred things or passages from the Bible. Breaches of faith in minor matters. Disregard of truth, duplicity or evasion. Lavish expenditure and indifference about incurring debts. Carelessness as to the comfort and convenience of other members of the family, and want of respect towards parents. These are but a few of the tendencies which are almost certain to develop into habits later in life, and to bring anxiety and sorrow with them. A girl can make no greater mistake than to think that, after marriage, her influence alone will suffice to conquer all such tendencies. A man naturally tries to present the best side of his character to the girl he seeks to win, and if the best is disfigured by serious blemishes, believe me, these will be more likely to grow than to disappear after marriage.