The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-07
HARMONY IN THE FAMILY.
DIR. Talmage's Fourth Discourse Of the
Series On "The Marriage Ring"
Suggestions as to the Best Methods of Pre-
serving Domestic Wisdom
of Cultivating Home Pleasures.

vainly attempted to enter the building, repre-
senting the usual attendance, when the Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage, D. D., is at home. The mu-
steal exercises were exceedingly interesting. and
| included performance on the organ of Thieles
| Concertsatz No 1, in minor, by Prof. Henry
| Eyre Browne. The congregation sang the hymn
| beginning:
Joy to the world, the Lord is comel
Let earth receive her King.
DR.. Talmage founded his remarks On the sub
| ject: Husband and Wife in Harmony or Out
| of Tune" on the words:
Can two walk together, except they be agreeds
Amos iii, 3.
He said: No. Amos, they cannot. They will
be tripping each other up, or pushing each other
down Married life. under such circumstances,
will be the sounding of perpetual war-whoop.
In this course of sermons on 'Fhe Marriage
Ring WILL to-day. speak Of the mutual duties
of husband and wife, preparatory to discourses
on their individual duties.
church within church, q republic within a
republic, a world within world, is spelled by
four letters-home If things go right there,
they go right everywhere; if things go wrong
there, they go wrong everywhere. The door
sill of the dwellinghouse is the foundation of
church and state. A man never gets higher
than his own garnet or lower than his own cellar
In other words. domestic life overarches and
undergirds all other life. The highest house of
Congress is the domestic circles the rocking-chair
in the nursery is higher than throne George
Washington commanded the forces of the United
States, but Martha Washington commanded
George. Chrysostom's mother made his pen for
him. IF man should start out and run
seventy years in straight line, he could not get
out from under the shadow. of his own mantel-
piece therefore talk to you this morning
when / speak of your home.
AS indivi duals we are fragments God makes
the race in part, and then he gradually puts US
together. What lack you make up; what you
lack I make up; our deficits ind surpusses of
character being the cog-wheel in the great social
mechanism. One person has the patience,
another has the courage. another has the placidi-
ty, another has the enthusiasm; that which is
lacking in one is made up by another, or made
up by all. Buffalos in herds, grouse in broodS,
quails in focks the human race in circles God
has most beautifully arranged this It is in this
way that he balances society; this conservative
and that radical keeping things even. Every
ship must have it mast cutwater taffrai bal
last Thank God, then, for Princeton and An
dover, for the oppostes. l have no more right
to blame man for being different from me than
drlving-wheel has right to blame the iron
shaft that holds it to the center. John Wesley
balances Calvin's institutes. A cold thinker
gives to Scotland the strong bones of theology;
DR.. Guthrie clothes them with throbbing heart
and warm flesh The difficulty is that are
not satisfied with just the work that God has
given US to do. The water-wheel wants to come
inside the mill and grind the grist and the hop
per wants to go out and dabble in the water.
Our usefulness and the welfare of society depend
upon our staying in just the place that God has
put US or intended we should occupy
For more compactness and that we may be
more useful, we are gathered in still smaller
circles in the home group And there you have
the same varieties again; brothers, sisters
husband and wife, all different in temperaments
and tastes. 1t is fortunate that it should be so.
If the husband be all impulse. the wife must be
all prudence. If sister be sanguine in her
temperament, the other must be Emphatic,
Mary and Martha are necessities There will
be no dinner for Christ if there be no Martha;
| there will be no audience for Jesus if there be
no Mary. The home organization is most beau
tfully constructed. Eden has gone the bowers
are all broken down; the animals that Adam
stroked with his hand that morning when they
came up to get their names have since shot
forth tusk and sting, and growled panther at
panther; and midair, iron beaks plunge till with
clothed wing and eyeless sockets the twain come
whirling down from uudev the sun in blood and
fire. Eden has gone, but there is just one little
fragment left 1t foated down on the river
Hiddekel out of Paradise. 1t is the marriage
institution. 1t does not, as at the beginning, i
take away from man a rib. Now it is an addi-
ton of ribs.
This institution of marriage has been DETAINED
in our day, and influences are abroad trying to
turn this earth into Turkish harem a great
Salt Lake City While the pulpits have been
comparatively SILENT noves-their cheapness
only equaled by their nastiness-are trying to
educate, have taken upon themselves to educate,
this Nation in regard to holy marriage, which
makes or breaks for time and eternity. Oh,
this is not mere question of residence or ward
robe! 1t is question charged with gigantic joy
or sorrow, with heaven or hell. Alas for this
new dispensation of George Sand! Alas for the
mingling of the nightshade with the marriage
garlands! Alas for the venom of the adder's spit
into the tankards! Alas for the white frosts of
eternal death that kill the orange blossomsl The
gospel OF Jesus Christ is to assert what is right
and to assert what is wrong. Attempt has been
made to take the marriage institution, which
was intended for the happiness and elevation of
the race and make it mere commercial enter
prise; an exchange of houses. and land, and equi-
page; business partnership of two stuffed up
with che stories OF romance and knight errantry,
and unfaithfulness and feminine angehood. The
two after awhile have reused up to find that, in
stead of the paradise they dreamed of, they have
got nothing but a Van Amburgh's menagerie,
filled with tigers and wildcats. Eighty thou
sand divorces in Paris in one year preceded the
worst revolution that France ever saw. 1t was
only the first course in that banquet of HE'LL and
tell you what you know as we'll as 1 do, that
wrong notions on the subject Of Christian mar
rage are the cause at this day of more moral
outrage before God and man than any other
cause.
There are some things that want to bring be-
fore you. l know there are those of you who
have had homes set UP for great many years;
and, then, there are those here who have
just established their home. They have only
been in it few months, or a few years Then,
there are those who will, after awhile, set I'D for
themselves home. and it is right that should
speak out upon these themes.
My first counsel to You is have Jesus in your
new home, if it be a new home; and Leu him who
was guest at Bethany be in your household;
let the divine blessing drop upon your every
hope, and plan. and expectation Those young
people who begin with God end with heaven