The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-02-05
TALMAGEs SERMON.
Fhird Discourse Of tho Series ON
'The Marriage Ring"

Clapdestine Marriages. Elopements amp
Other llAtriUonlal Escapsdes Con-
sidersd By the Light Of Script.
ure and Common Sense.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered The
third Of his series of discourses before
large congregation at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle, the interest In the series having DO.
come quite marked. In presenting the
division Of his subject under the heading
"Clandestire Marriages and Es.
.apades," Mr.. Talmage took the following
text:
stolen waters are sweet. and bread taken
IN secret Is pleasant. But he knoweth not
that the dead are there.-Proverbs X, IT'S.
The preacher said:
The garden Of Eden was great orchard
of fruit bearing trees, bushels and bushels
Of round. ripe. glorious fruit, but the horti-
culturist and his wife having Il in charge,
hankered for one special tree, simply be-
cause Il was forbidden, starting q bad
streak in human nature, SO that children
will now sometimes do something simply
because they are forbidden to do It. This
kink in the human race fs not easily un.
snarled. Tell q company that they may
look into any twenty rooms of large house
except one. and their chief desire is to see
that one. though all the others were pict-
ure galleries and that garnet. II there
were in q region of mineral springs twenty
fountains, but the proprietor had fenced in
one well against the public, the one fenced
in would be the chief temptation to the
visitors, and they would rather taste Of
that than Of the other nineteen. Solomon
recognized this principle in the text. and
also the disaster that follows forbidden
| conduct. when he said: "Stolen waters
| are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is
pleasant. But he knoweth not that the
| dead are there"
| Tn this course Of sermons on 1.-THE Mar.
riage Ring" I. this morning. aim a point
blank shot at "Clapdestine Marriages and
| Tecapaies." Yonder comes up through
the narrows of New York harbor a ship
having all the evidence Of tempestuous
passage: Saltwater mark reaching to the
ton of the smoke stack. Mainmas.. fore
mast. mizzenmast twisted off. Bulwarks
Knocked in. Lifeboats off the davits. lib.
sheets and ee-howlines MISSING. Captains
bridge demolished. Mainshaft broken. All
the pumps working to keep from sinking
before they can get to whsrfage. That ship
! IL the institution of Christian marriage,
launched nv the Lord grandly from the
bank of the Euphrates. and floating out on
the seas for the admiration and happiness
OF all nations. But free.loveism struck It
| from one side. and Mormonism struck It
from another side. and hurricanes Of lin
ertinism have struck it from all sides. until
tho old ship needs repairs in every plank,
and beam. and sail. and holt, and clamp,
and transom. and Sanction.
In other words, the notions Of modern
society must be reconstructed on the SUBJ
iect of the marriage institution. And when
we have got it back somewhere near what
it was when God huiit it in Paradise, the
earth will be far on toward resump-
ton of Paradisaical conditions. Do
you ask what is the need Of a
course of sermons on this subject? The
man OF woman who asks this question is
either ignorant or guilty. In New En-
gland, which has been considered by many
the most moral part Of the United States,
there are 1900 divorces per year. And in
Massachusetts, the headquarters of steady
habits. there is one divorce to every four
teen marriages. The State OF Maine, con-
sidered by many almos: frigid in proprie-
ties. has in one year 47S divorces. In YER
mont swapping wives is not a rare trans
action. In Connecticut there are women
who boas. that they have four or five
times been divorced. Moreover. our boast
ed Professionalism is, on this subject, more
lax than Roman Catholicism. Roman
Catholicism admits OF no divorce except
the reason that Christ admitted as law
full reason. But Professionalism is admit
ting anything and everything, and the
larger the proportion of Protestants in any
part of the country, the larger the ratio Of
divorce. Do you not then think that
Professionalism needs some toning up on
this subjects"
ave. when You realize that the sacred
and divine institution is being caricatured
and DETAINED by clandestine marriages
and escapades all over the land, does there
not seem a call for such discussion? Hardly
a morning or evening paper comes into
your possession without reporting them,
and there are fifty of these occurrences
terest of all parties to hush them up. The
victims are. all hours of the night. climb.
ing down ladders or crossing over from
State to State that they may reach laws Of
greater laxity, holding receptions six
months after marriage to let the public
know for the FIRST time that half year
before they were united in wedlock
Ministers Of religion and justices of the
peace, and mayors of cities willingly
joining in marriage runaways from other
States and neighbors; the coach-boz
and the back seat Of the princely Ian.
, dau in Irritation; kilograms flashing
across the country for the arrest of alb.
seconded school misses who started of with
armful of books. and taking rail trains to
meet their affianced-in the snow drifts oil
the great storm that has recently passed
/ over the country some of them, read
have perished-thousands of people in q
marriage whose banns have never been
published; precipitated conjugality; big.
amy triumphant; marriage q joke; so.
ciety blotched all over with putrefaction
on this subject, which no one but the Al
mighty God can arrest.
We admit that clandestinity and esca.
pade are sometimes authorized and made
right by parental tyranny or domestic
serfdom: There have been exceptional
cases where parents have had q mono.
! mania in regard to their sons and daugh
tiers, demanding their celibacy or forbid
ding relations every way right.
Through absurd family ambition parent.
have sometimes fema uded nual;fica ton,