The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-03-10
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
DUTIES OF WIVES TO HUS-
BANDS.

of Wives to Husbands"
The text was: 1.-THE name of his wife was
Abigail, and she was a woman Of good un-
derstanding and of a beautiful countenance." "
Il. Samuel, XIV, 8.
The ground in Carmel is white-not
with fallen snow, but the wool from
the backs of three thousand sheep.
hear the grinding of the iron bla'les together
and the bleating of the flocks, held between
the knees of the shearerS while the clipping
goes on, and the rustic laughter of the work
men. Nabal and his wife Abigail preside
over this homestead. David, the warrior,
sends a delegation to apply for aid at this
prosperous time of sheep shearing, and Nahal
peremptoliy declines his request. Revenge
is the cry. Wonder over the rocks come David
and four hundred angry men with one stroke
to demoiish Nabal and his sheep-folds and
vineyards. The regiment march in double
quick and the stones OF tho mountain loosen
and roll down as the soldiers strike them with
til ir swift feet, and the cry of the commander
is Forward! Forward.
Abigail, to save her husband and his prop
erty, hastens to the foot of the hills. She is
armed not with sword or spear, but with
her own beauty and self-sacriice, and
when David sees her kneeling at the base Of
the crag he cries to his storm of men, Halt!
Halt!n Abigail is the conqueress One
woman in the right mightier than 400 men in
the wrong. A hurricane stopped at the sight
of water-lily. A dew-drop dashed back
Niagara. By her proves and tact she has
saved her husband and saved her home, and
put before all ages an llustrious specimen Of
what a wife can do if she be godly and pru-
dent and self-sacrihcing and vigilant aud de-
voted to the interests OF her husband, and al
tractive.
As Sabbath before last took the RESPONSE
bility Of telling husbands how they ought to
treat their wives, and though I noticed that
some of them squirmed a little in their pew,
they endured it well, I now take the re-.
sponsibiIity of telling how wives ought to
treat their husbands. hope your domestic
alliance was so happily formed that while
married life may have revealed
in him some frailties that you did not sus-
pect, it has also displayed excellencles that
more than overbalanced them. l suppose
that if I could look into the hearts OF hum
dred wives here present md ask them where
is the kindest and best man they know of, and
they dared speak out ninety-nine out of q
hundred of them would say lat the other end
of this pew" Though sometimes you may
have snapped each other up little quick, l
think the most of you are as well paired as a
couple of whom l have real. The wife said
TO her husband: Il have made up my mind
to be submissive notwiths anding all the mis-
fortunes that have come upon us" They had
lost their children, he had lost his health, and
hence the income of his profession, and the
wife had temporarily lost her eyesight.
yes" said the husband. ''we ought
to be submissive. Let me see what
we have to submit to: First, we have home
we can submit to that. Then we have each
other; we can submit to that Then we have
food and raiment; we can submit to that
Then we have a great many friends; we can
submit to that. We have q heavenly Father
10 provide for US" ''Stop! Stop" said the
wife, will talk no more about submis-
sion"
| hope, my sister, you have married man
as Christian and as we'll balanced as that
But even if you were worSted in conjugm
bargain, you cannot be worse off than this
Abiga in my text Her husband was coarse
and uneTatetul and inebriate, for on the very
evening after her heroic achievement at the
foot of the hill where she captured whole
regiment with her genial and strategic be-
iiavior, she returned home and found her
husband so drunk that she could not
tell him the story, but had to
postponed it until the next day; so, my sister,
I do not want you to keep saying within
yourself as proceed. THAT is the way to
J
member thatno wife was ever worse swlndled
than this Abigail of my text. At the other
end of her table sat mean, selfish snarling,
contemplate Sot, and if she could do so well
for bastard how ought you to do with that
princely and splendid man with whom you
are to walk the path Of life.
First I counsel the wife to remember in
what a severe and terrific battle Of life her
husband is engaged. Whether in professional
- e.
your husband from morning to night is in a
Solferino if not a Sedan It is a wonder that
your husband has any nerves or patience or
suavity left. To get a living in this next to
the last decade of the Nineteenth Century is a
struggle. If he come home and sit down pre-
occupied you ought to excuse him. IT he do
not feel like going out that night for walk
or entertainment remember he has been out
allday. You say he ought to leave at his place
of business his annoyances and come home
CHEEKY. But if a man has been betrayed by
q business partner or q customer has jock
eyed him out OF large bill Of goods, or a pro-
tested note has been flung on his desk or
somebody has called him liar and every
thing has gone wrong from morning till
night, he must have great genius at forget
fuiness if he do not bring some of the perplex-
ity home with him. When you tell me he ought
to leave it all at the store or bank or shop,
YOU might as we'll tell storm on the Atlantic
to stay out there and not touch the coast or
ripple the harbor. Remember he is not
overworking so much for himself as he is
overworking for you and the children. 1t is
the effect of his success or defeat on the
homestead that causes him the agitation. The
most of men after forty-fve years of age live
not for themselves but for their families
They begin to ask themselves anxiously the
question: ''How if should give out, what
would become Of the folks at home! Would
my children ever get their education? Would
my wife have to 60 out into the world to earn
bread for herself and our little ones! My
eyesight troubles me, how if my eyes should
fail! nv head gets dizzy, how if I should
drop under apoplexyy" The high pressure Of
business life and mechanical life and agricul-
tural life is home pressure.
Some time ago large London firm decided
that if any OF their clerks mtr-
fcd nor9n On say ye,r bs hess shond tnia ba
discharged, the supposition being that the
nj tation might be too great for misappro-
prIation. The large ma ority of families in
America live by the utmost dint of economy,
and to be honest and vet meet ones family
exLen,eS is the appalling question that turns
the fe Of tens of tn ,usands Of men into q
martyrdom. Let the wife OF the overbonrne
and ihaus' ell husband remember tbs and
do not nag him about this and nag him about
that, and say you might as well have no hus-
land, when the fact is he is dying 10y inches
tn 1t the home may be kept up.
charge also the wife to keep herself as at
ira tive after marriage as she was before
marriage. The reason that so often man
ceases to love his wife is because the wife
ceases to be lovely. In nmany cases what elabo-
ration Of toilet before marriage, and what
recklessness of appearance after. The most
disgusting thing on earth is a slatternly
woman. I mean a woman who never combs
h, r hair until she goes out or looks like
fright until somebody calls. Thata man mar