Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1871-11-22
Theodore Tilton at Tyrone Lecture,
ssHOme Sweet HOme," or Marriage and
Divorce and Woman SuRrage.

following distinguished lecturers Theo-
dore Tilton, Olive Logan, John B
Cough, Fred Douglass, Anna +. Dicken
son,
Last Wednesday evening we were
there to see and hear the opening of the
series by Theodore T.lton, at Caldwell
Hall. The audience was abundantly
large, considering the inclemency Of the
weather. A light rain with cold wind
blowing at the rate of twenty-five miles
an hour-as we inferred from the regular
pace that Heetipg clouds kept with the
cars that took us to Tyrone-prevailed,
and made the evening unpleasant. out Of
doors.
The lecturer came on the platform at
8 o'clock, and the close attention of an
hour and half that the entire audience
gave hira was conclusive evidence of the
attractiveness of the lecture.
Mr.. Tilton is not only the possessor
of large and well proportioned body
standing nearly. if not quite. six feet
but he is also the possessor of face such
as nature seldom gives to man, without
whiskers or hair upon his face. His is
the most regularly formed face that it has
been our privilege to see in pulpit, on
stage, on platform, or on forum. The
eyes, the nose. the chin, the forehead,
the mouth, the cheeks, all harmonize and
give him facial expression that inclines
one in his favor regardless of what one
heard said, or read against him in regard
to his position as to the existing mar
riage ties and divorce laws.
The lecturer announced his subject for
the evening to be Home Sweet Home"
We believe that those who listened to
him, will not declare us presumptious
when we say that the lecture should
have been styled Home Sweet Home"
Marriage and Divorce, and Woman Suf-
frage.
He said that he had not come to the
Hall to tell those present what kind of
house they should live in, to constitute
a home, of the kind of furniture they
should have, of the table service, how
they should adorn and beautify their
residences. These were all external OBJ
jects, and could not of Themselves con
stitute home. A place merely to eat
and sleep was not the home that he came
to talk about He was there to speak |
of the home of the heart; where its
purest affections are centered that is
home-whether in cabin or palace, on
sea or land-and without this centraliza-
ton of affection their could be no real
home The Object of the union of per-
sons in matrimony is to create home.
How often the oil ject is missed. The
haste of young people in this matter, and
their incompetency in many cases to form
correct views as to the true motives of
their own hearts that hastens them on to |
marriages that should have never been
solemniZed, was considered, and the con-
tinuance of the marriage relationship
when it had failed of creating what
should be the grand object of life, that
of securing Home Sweet Home" was
dwelt on.
The lecturer here raised the question
of, What is marriage :" and answered
by declaring that the Church holds it to
be sacrament, and the State prociaims
it to be civil contract. There must be
something wrong here in this conflict of
of the highest authorities in the world.
Where is the errorl Which is right ?"
The marriage ceremony of both the
Church and State was here introduced,
and the differences pointed out, followed
by sharp criticism of the church
for what the speaker alleged were appa-
rent contradictions. Love, he said, was
the ''great central principle of marriage,
and that without love their could be no
That if persons by i'm
proper motives. or deception, misplaced
affection in marriage create discord in
the family and drive out love, then mar !
rage ceases. Marriage is a matter of
the heart. When infdelity takes pos.
session of the heart, and rules it, then
ceases. and parties should be
divorced. Faithlessness of the spirit or
leart to the marriage vows is as great
sin as faithlessness Of the body, and if
parties are so moved by their discordant
ceilings that they cannot possibly live
happy together, they should be divorced.
The lecturer believed that the 30d I
verse of the fifth chapter Mathew pro-
claimed that doctrine. Fornlcation in !;
hat verse. by linguists and biblical stu
tents, did not alone mean prostitution Of {
he body, but it means prostitution of the q
pirit or heart, as we'll. Milton and !;
'ther good men SO interpreted it.
The divorce laws of the different re- 6
igious denominations were here passed 6
n review, and the divorce laws of =
he forty different States constituting
his Government-no two being alike
we're considered at length in three of T.
which for seven specified reasons divorce e