The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-06-02

On III SECOND Ot MAY, In Iii Il ETA IL
1, ADAM, THE FIRST MAN, TO EVE, THE FIRST
WOMAN, THE LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH
oFFICIATING-THE DEADLY FOES OF THE
MARRIAGE INSTITUTION DENOUNCED BY THE
REV. DIR neutrality-suspicious. INCREASING
The Rev. DR.. Talmage preached as follows
from the text Genesis H., 23), 'This is now
bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh -
SUBJECT, MARRIAGE"
Marriage without a cloud. Atmosphere
without chill Foliage without crumpled leaf
Fruits without curculio. Meadows without a
thorn. Fit morning for the worlds first we'd
ding 1t is to be in church-the temple of
orld-sky-domed, mountain pillared, sap
phire-rooted; sparkling waters of Hiddekel
and Gihel filling the baptismal fonts, larks and
robbins and goldfinches to chant the wedding
march violet and lily. and rose burning in
cense in the morning sun; luXuriant vines
sweeping their long trail through the forest
aises gorgeous upholstery of a spring morn
ing on all sides !; the wild beasts standing out
side, the servants looking from the back room
upon the nuptials. The eagle, king Of birds,
the locust, king Of insects, the lion, king of
beasts, waiting. Carpets of grass, like emer-
aid, for the human pair to walk on. Hum of
expectation, as there always is before the cere
mony. All the leaves, and grass fields, and
branches whispering, and birds a-chatteriDg
each one with his mate But, hush the Windsl
Hush all the birds! Hush the voices of the
waters The king of the human race is adj
vancing, and his bride-a perfect man leading
to the altar perfect woman. God, her father,
gives the bride away and angels hear the be-
trothal, and tears OF morning dew stand in the
eyes of the violets as Adam takes the round
hand that had hnap of frOrlT or
stung Of pain IN his strong grasp and says:
This is now bone of my bones and flesh of
my flesh" Then tumults of joy break FORTH
and the trees clap their bands and all the gal
leries of the woods break forth with carol and
chirp and chant, and the circle of Edenic glad
ness was complete. For while each quail had
answering quail, and each fish its answering fish,
and each fowl its answering fCavl, and every
| beast OF the forest its appropriate companion
ship, at least man immortal had for mate Wo-
man immortal. Married, on the second Tues
day morning OF May, in the year 1, Adam, the
first man, to Eve, the first woman, the Lord of
heaven and earth officiating Away with the
coarse notion that marriage is a mere civil con-
tract. 1t is paradislacal, six thousand years
old divine institution, and all the laws made
before and since Blackstone can never marry
two hearts till the Almighty God marrles them.
| l propose to consider some Of the deadly
foes of this marriage institution. First of all
craWls out upon our observation polygamy ;
more people in this country believe it now
| than ever before, and in all parts of the land
there are many who, under one name or an
other, or no name at all, practice it. Not only
do Mormans, but men who despise that name,
say that the Bible sanctioned plurality Of
wives, and Christian people do not know how
to meet the SANDER The Bible in many places
recognizes its existence las it does all other kinds
| OF sin but it does not in any one case sanction
| it. On the contrary, in Leviticus, eighteenth
chapter and 18th verse, the unmistakabe COM
mand is: Neither shall man take one wife
unto another" while Paul puts it squarly be-
fore all nations when he says "Let every
man have his own wife and every woman her
own husband" Lamech was the first polyga-
mist mention in the Bible. and he, by his own
confession, was murderer. For forty years
the Israelites, Gods own chosen people, were
| in the wilderness. Yet among the 100000
Israelites there was in all the forty years only
one case ofpoygamy. And when in the Bi-
BILE you find man with more than one wife
you find him up to his neck in trouble David
! dates his letter from the belly of hell and
| Solomon, pestered to death with his own I'M
governable household says There is no good
under the SUM- Vanity of vanities, all is van
| ity', The whole drift OF the Bible is against
| polygamy. God said at the beginning, at is
not good that man should be alone I will
make for him helpmeet." Mark you, it is in
the singular number-a helpmeet Ifanybody
ever needed more than one companion, Adam
was the man, for
THERE WAS NO SOCIETY
| As God was starting the institution, He Of
course would start it right and if polygamy
was right, then of course it would have been
demonstrated, and instead of one rib taken
Adam would not have had rib left The
human race was to bridge over the flood How
many wives did Noah take into the ark His
wife, and each Of his sons wife Ifpolyga-
my and been right, they would each have
taken a dozen, and so much larger number
would have been saved from drowning The
men and women i'll each generation and in all
countries since the world stood have been
about equal, or, in cases of slight exceptions,
men have been in the majority. No surplus
of Womalhood. Does that look as if the Gre
ator OF the race favors polygamy? The Bible
is not more antagonistic to theft and bias
phemy and murder than it is to polygamy
| Yea, in proportion as civilization is in high
advance, and in proportion as general good
morals prevail, plurality of wives is discon-
: tinued. Where polygamy exists, there may
be house, large house, a splendid house,
but no home. How much peace and prosper
ity in England would there be if four or five
OF twenty queens attempt with Victoria to
occupy the same throne or live in Windsor
Castle? Just as much as there can be quiet
and happiness in a domestic establishment
where more than one wife attempts to be
| queen. One OF the mightiest foes Of the fam
lily relations is polygamy.
women must be recognized as an equal OF
the men. All that poetry about man being an
oak, woman the ivy is stale, flat and untrue.
In tens OF thousands OF cases of financial dis
aster, Where men have been flung and troddeu
under loot, they have gone home determined
to give up the struggle of life, wishing they
were dead. Although when man says he
wishes he was dead he lies Attempt to kill
him and see how much he wants to be dead
But, utterly disc uraged, men haye gone home,
and the wife has given encouragement; the
wife, by her faith in God hidden him to be of
good cheer; the wife has told him not to mind
the mlstortune,and she planned out other ways
OF getting along, and on the strength of the
wlfes courage, the husband has been helped
into renewed prosperity. Who is the oak
now, and which of the twain is the ivy? In
order to domestic felicity, the wife must at
least De treated as the equal. like the ring
OF that worldly merchants maniness, who,
when some one called on him soliciting aid
Importance of that institution myself, and
therefore must decline subscribing; but you
may call on my wife; perhaps she will take a
different view of the subject and, if so, we
will act according to her pleasure" Such a
scene as that could not be enacted in a polyg-
amous househo d.
Again, all those entertainments are foes o.
the domestic relation which take from theil
families majority of evpninUa am mi