The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1880-10-14
DIR. TALMAGE ON THE FOES OF
MATRIMONY,


MATRIMONY.
married, the second Tuesday
morning 10 May of the year l, Adam,
the first man, to Eve, the first wo.
man, High Heaven off oiating," was
the announcement with which DR..
Talmsge closed his exordium at the
Brooklyn Tabernacle. He contin-
ued: "Away with the gross notion
that marriage lie a merely civil con-
tract; it is a paradisiacsl ak thou
sand.yearscold divine institution. -
All the laws since Blackstone or be-
fore Blackstone can't properly mar
ry two hearts unless the Lord AL
mighty has first married them. -
What are the foes, the bitter enc
mics, of the marriage relation p
The first foe | discern is polygamy
There are now in this country more
people than ever who believe in
polygamy. Some believe in it uu.
der another name; some practise it
under no name. When it is assert
ed that the Bible sanctions poIygamy
or plurality of wives, there is not
one Christian in five hundred thou>
sand who cannot refute the SANDER.
The Bible recognizes polygany just
as it recognizes all other styles of
sin, but in no case sanctions it.
Wherever in the Bible you find
man who has more than one wife
you find him up to his neck in trou
BILE. Laughter David and Solo,
mon were grievously punished for
their sins. David mourns 'out of
the belly of hell Solomon says:
There is no good thing under the
sun. Vanity of vanities all is van
ity.' Good for him Ifhe had had
500 wives less he would have taken
more cheerful view of things. -
God said, i will make a helpmeet'
for man. He did not say helpmeets.
If God had intended plurality of
wives, instead of taking one rib from
Adams side, He would have taken
out more, until Adam would not have
had "a rib left. Then, how was it at
the DelugeY How many of each
kind were theres Each man had
one wife. If poIygamy had been
right they would have had twenty
wives each, and thus have saved
multitude from drowning. The his
tory of the world shows that men
and women have almost always been
equal in number. Where there has
been any exception the women have
been 10 the majority. The Bible is
not more thoroughly against theft,
blasphemy, and murder than it is
against polygamy. Where polyga,
my exists there may be a large,
splendid house, but no home. Sup
pose twenty women tried to occupy
the throne of Victoria, how much
prosperity would there be in Eng
land Just as much as in any home
where more than one wife tries to be
queen. God intended woman to be
mans equal. But 10 polygamy that
is impossible, because it presumes
that it takes ten, twenty or thirty
women to equal one man. All that
poetry about man being the oak and
woman the vine is fiat, and stale,
and untrue.
Another great foe of domestic life
is easy divorce. How many enter
the marriage relation recklessly p
In France the laws were made easy
for divorce, and there were 10000
divorces in a year in Paris. There
we're 49,, 900 children carried into
the founding hospital and kindred
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. foundlings in a
year When law let's down the
bars, all the cattle of beastliness
break into the garden of home
While Rome was moral there was
only one case of divorce reported iu
500 years She changed the law t:
then the deluge. Divorce is too
easy in this country. In La Crosse,
Wis, there were in one year sevenN
ty-six divorces in Philadelphia
there were 284 1t has been an
nounced that divorces have incress>
ed largely in New York lately-at
least 500 per cent. Now, all this is
right if marriage be merely civil
contract. Then you may dispose of
a conjugal citation as you would of
a house, or a barn, or horse. But
if it be a divine institution, then no
other ground than that announced
by the Almighty himself can dis
solve that relation.