midnight
After years of delay the love of the no longer youthful pair found its consummation in a happy marriage , followed by a calmly tranquil wedded life . `` Although this cruel war , '' whispered George to his bride upon their wedding-day , `` has robbed us of all our own worldly wealth , has cost you your father , and has left me a cripple for life , yet it could not take from us the priceless wealth of our affection . '' `` Nay , dear heart , '' she replied , `` the long trial of our love has purified it from earthly dross , and proved it the type of love immortal in the skies . '' In after years , to children and to children 's children on his knees , George Horton used often to recount the perils of those fearful scenes of war and wasting ; but no theme was more pleasing to himself and to his youthful auditory , while the comely matron in her mature beauty blushed at the praise of her own heroism , than the episode of the fair Mary Lawson 's midnight adventure in the ice on the Niagara , in the terrible winter of the war . The state of religion in Canada could not be expected to be prosperous during the prevalence of the demoralizing influences of war . The Methodist circuit work , as well as the work of other denominations , was very much disorganized . It was , from the interruption of intercourse caused by the unnatural conflict , without any supervision of the American Conference by which the Canadian preachers had been stationed .