Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1880-10-04
MARRIAGE.
CONCLUDED from First Paoe.1

might uuLDdITy dSthSy pieocS
in one year 10000 divorces took place,
and in one year $4,000 children were
sent to the founding hospital. when
the law let's down the bars, all the
cattle OF moral beastliness breaks into
the gardens OF home. In the prosperous
DAYS OF Rome, there was only one d.
vorce recorded in 500 years. She
changed her laws, and then the deluge.
Divorce is too easy in this country:
The town OF Lacrosse, Wisconsin, had
seventy-iour cases OF divorce suits ! n
one wear. Philadelphia had 272 suits
for divorce in one year. Divorce cases
in New York have increased nv per
cent. To get rid OF your obligation you
have only to absent yourself a short
time in Illinois or Indiana. Ii marriage
be a civil contract merely, then all this
is right, and you may part with a con-
iugal companion as you do with a store
or a farm or a horse. II it be a divine
union, then let those legislators or
Judges OF courts, who have TO do with
these matters, bewarethat or no grounds
except those announced by the Go OF
Heaven, this relation be unlocked.
"Whom God hath Joined together
let no man put asunder." When the
people oithis land are taught that mar
riage is a divine contract from which
their names will not be erased except
on the marble slab Of the se%pulcher,
more deliberation and common sense
and prayer will be exercised before this
%stupendous step is taken. Instead OF
being lassoed with a curl, or rlsklng
their hearts in a philopena, or marrying
lust for fun, they will realize that be-
tween the cradle and grave there is no
| place as tremendous as the marriage
altar. And while before il the pair are
Joining hands in ~betrothal, standing be.
tween them, all unseen, is either the
white-winged angel of blessing, or the
horned and hooied and fired nostrel oil
despair.
Corrupt Literature.
Again / count corrupt literature as
the foe OF the marriage relation. The
slushy books and pamphlets tn at tell
how impossible men were married to
impossible women and got into impossi-
Bile difficulties with impossible conse-
enc The fact is that some OF Il
Young married people, through such
literature, get so filled with sentimental
ami false ideas about this plain, serious
! old-fashiomel institution o! marria.e
that they are untitled Tor the humble
| duties OF everyday life. Better, when
YOU 90 home to-day, gather up all that
| Frenchy and internal stud and fling II
into the kitchen crate, otherwise il will
corrupt you and your children alter
you
Now, want TO make you enc
mics Of everything that a~ntagoniZeS
the marriage relation. The most OF you,
born OF honorable %parentage, ] want to
swear Won by the cradle III which you
were rocked aud the family altar nj
which in childhood YOU knclt, and the
graves u your Christian father gnd
mother, ii they have laid down beside
each other in the last sleep, 10 set your
faces against the influences which would
bring marriage into isrepute. Remem-
Der, the best eulOgy that you can pass
upon the institution is to make your own
home relations night and beautiful. Do
not take ofiense too easily from each
other. Remember that unkind words
or unhappy treatment Is often not a
matter OF the heart but a matter OF the
nerves. Husbands at the store and
wives with household anXleties, have
their equipolse unbalanced. sui few
men and women IN America have any
nerves that are worth speaking Oi.
These delicate telegraph wires OF the
body are damaged by the storms
and so Jet the lightIings OF temper run
over them irreguiarly. Know that these
relationships at the longest will be brief.
Spare all the harsh words you can and
all severe retorts as far rs possible, for
before long a hearse will drive up TO
your door and from your presence will
he taken out your hes. friend you have
in all the word, and the richest worldly
boon that God has in his omnipotence
and iniinity a capacity 10 bestow-a
good wife. When Il child is taken, that
desolates the home; but Il wiie's depart
urc dcsOlates all the house, and all the
heart, and all the earth. The ~silences
are So appalling after her voice is still,
the vacancies 50 CHASTITY, the gloom, as
though the midnight Of fifty years hur-
tied; Il child wandering from room TO
room with a hurt finger crying for
mother, who will not come, and waking
in the night and crying Tor a drink, say.
ing "No. ! want mother to bring 1t"
Remembrance rushing upon the soul
like a mountain torrent over which a
cloud has burst. Her Jewels, her books,
dresses, suggestive OF banquet or burials,
put in the trunk, the iall OF whose lid
with heavy thud seems to say, Dead"
The morning dead and The night dead
and the air dead and the world dead.
| teal you, o man, in that hour, il never
before, you would be willing to pay out
in red coin OF blood every drop from
your heart to buy back all the Ia sty and
reckless words you have ever uttered
and all the sights. But you cannot
buy them back. Words gone forth
forth from your lips fly not in circles so
as to come back again like doves TO their
cJt,but in a straight line amilliOn mil. 8 a
minute across the %eternlties. Flattering
epitaphology, though Dryden composed
it, and polished Aberdeen granite,
though Angeles chiselled it, could never
atone for unkindness to the living.
Finy-nIne Years. Together.
| have in my mind a couple united in
holy marriage December -, 1903. Their
Wi itii'o wv Nv
like themselves-David the one, Gather.
inc the other. Legal contrs C Of couIs,,
but most OF all the heart married them.
They lived to celebrate their crystal
wedding, their silver wedding, their
golden wedding, and nine years beside.
over 3 childreh's graves they had wept,
but through all struggles OF life they
kept the Christian faith. They lived Tor
God, Tor each other, for their children
and for every body but themselves.
Their hair whitened and their steps
grew shorter and their voices tremblcd
in the church psalm, though once they
had led in the village choir. Tie one
leaned heavily on the staff which | have
in my house but heavier on the arm OF
that God who had never failed him,
These two married ones were well
mated. What was the JOY Of one was the
JOY OF the other. What was the sorrow
OF one, the sorr)w Of the other. At last
they parted. Three years precedence in
departure did the Lord give her