The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-01-27

took Jezabel for Longfellows Evangeline,
and Lucretia Borgia for Martha Washington.
Aye, as the Indian chief boasts Of the
scalps he has taken, 50 there are in society to-
day many coquettes who boast OF the mascu-
line hearts they have captured. And these
women, though they may, live amid richest
upholstery, are not so honorable as the
Cyprians of tho streets, for they advertise
their infamy, while the former profess heaven
while they mean hell. There is SO much
counterfeit womanhood abroad it is no
wonder that some cannot tell the genuine
coin from the base. Do you not realize you
need divine guidance when remind you that
and, if made, irrevocablea
The. worst predica1nent possible is to
be unhappily yoked together You see
it is impossible to break tho yoke. The
more you pull apart the more CALLING the
| yoke. The minister might bring you up again
and in your presence read the marriage core
mony backward might put you on the oppo-
site sides Of the altar fronrwhere you were
when you were united, might take the ring
off Of the finger, might rend the wedding veil
asunder, might tear out the marriage leaf
from the family Bible record but all that
would fail to unmarry you. 1t is better not
to make the mistake than to attempt its cor
rection. But men and women do not reveal
| all their characteristics till after marriage,
fatal blunder2 There is only one Being in the
universe who can tell you whom to choose,
and that is the Lord of Paradise. He made
| Eve for Adam and Adam for Eve and both
| for each other. Adam had not a large group
of women from whom to select his wife, but
it is fortunate, judging from the mistakes
which she afterward made, that it was Eve
or nothing.
There is in all the world some one who was
made for you as certainly as Eve was made
| for Adam. All sorts of mistakes occur be-
cause Eve was made out of rib from Adams
side. Nobody knows which of his twenty
four ribs was taken for the nucleus. If you
! of q wife there are twenty-three possibilities
| to one that you will select the wrong rib. By
the fate of Ahab, whose wife induced him to
steal; by the fate of Macbeth whose wife
pushed him into massacre; by the fate of
James Ferguson, the philosopher, whose wife
entered the room while he was lecturlng and
wilfully upset his astronomical apparatus so
that he turned to the audience and said:
| Ladies and gentlemen, have the mlsfor-
tune to be married to this woman" by the
fate of Bulwer, the novelist, whose wife's
temper was so incompatible he furnished her
beautiful house near London and withdrew
| from her company, leaving her with the one
dozen dogs whom she entertained as pets; by
| the fate of John Milton, who married ter-
magant after he was blind, and when some
one called her rose the poet said II am no
| Judge OF colors, but it may be so for feel the
| thorns daily" by the fate of an Englishman,
! whose wife was so determined to dance on his
grave that he was buried in the sea; by the
| fate of village minister, whom l know,
| whose wife threw cup Of hot tea across the
| table because they differed in sentiment--by
all these scenes Of disquietllde and domestic
calamity we implore you to be cautious and
prayerful and before you enter upon the
/ connubial state which decides whether man
shall have two heavens or two hells, heaven
here and heaven forever or hell now and
| hell hereafter.
By the bliss of Pliny, whose wife
when her husband was pleading in
court, had messengers coming and. going
| to inform her what impression he was
making; by the joy of Grotius, whose wife
delivered him from prison under the pretense
of having books carried out lest they be inju-
rious to his health, she sending out her hus-
| band unobserved in one of the bookcases; by
| the good fortune of Roland in Louis time,
whose wife translated and composed for her
| husband while secretary Of the lnterlor-tal-
ented, heroic, wonderful Madam Roland; by
the happiness of many man who has made
intelligent choice Of one capable of being
prime counselor and companion in brightness
and in grief-pray to Almighty God morn
ing, noon and night, that at the right time
and in the right way He will send you q good,
honest, loving, sympathetic wife, or If she IS
| not sent to you that you may be sent to her.
| At this point let me warn you not to let a
! question Of this Importance be settled by the
| celebrated match-makers in almost every
community. Depend upon your own Judg-
ment divinely llumined. These brokers in
matrimony are ever planning how they can
unite impecunious innocence to an helress or
celbate woman to millionaire or marquis, and
! that in many cases makes life an unhappineSs.
How can any human being who knows
neither of the two parties us God knows them,
and who is ignorant of the future, give such
direction as you require at such q crisis. Take
| the advice Of the earthly matchmaker in
stead of the divine guidance, and you may
some day be led to use the words of Solomon,
| whose experience in home life was as melan-
| choly as it was multitudinous.
One day his palace with its great wide
| rooms and great wide doors and great wide
| hall, was too small for him, and the loud
| tongue of woman belaboring him about
! some of his neglects, and he retreated to the
| housetop to get relief from the ingual bonn
bardment And while there he saw poor
man on one corner of the roof with mat
| tress for his only furniture and the open sky
his only covering. And Solomon envies him
and cries out: "It is better to dwell in the
corner of the housetop than with brawling
| woman in a wide house."
| And one day during the rainy season the
water leaked through the roof Of the palace
and began to drop in pail or pan set there
| to catch it; and at one side of him all day
| long the water went dropl drop drop! while
| on the other side female companion quar-
reling about this and quarreling about that,
| her acrimonious and Detulant words falling
on his ear IN ceaseless peltlng-drop! drop!
| drop! And he seized his pen and wrote: "a
continual dropping in very rainy day and
! contentious woman are alike"
| If Solomon had been as prayerful at the be-
ginning of his life as he was at the close, how
much domestic infelicity he would have
avoided.
But prayer about this will amount to
| nothing unless you pray soon enough. Wait
until you are fascinated and the equilibrium
| of your soul is disturbed by a magnetic and
exquisite presence and then yoI will answer
your own prayers and you will mistake your
| own infatuation for the voice of God.
If you have this prayerful spirit you will
surely avoid all female scoffers at the Chris
tian religion, and there are quite number of
| them in all communities 1t must be told
| that, though the only influence that keeps
woman from being estimated and treated as
| a slave-aye, as brute and beast of bur-
denis Christianity, since where it is not
| dominant she is so treated, yet there are
women who will so forget themselves and for
get their God that they will 60 and hear lee
turers malgn Christianity and scoff at the
| most sacred things of the soul. A good wo-
man, over-persuaded by her husband, may
| go once to hear such TRADE against the
Christian religion, not fully knowing what
she is going to hear. But she will not 60
twice. A woman, not Christian but re-
was persuaded by my husband to go
| and hear an infidel lecturer once but ooinr