The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-02-10
DR., TkLNAGE'S SERMON.
Clandestine Marriages AID Esca'
pades.

conrses on s'thc Marriage Ring" was preached
ot the BROOKLYN Tabernacle from the follow.
ing text: ''Stolen waters are sweet, and breat'
eaten in secret is pleasant, but he kno"etn
not that the dead are there. .'-ProverDs X,
II. .E,o
was a GREAT orchard of fruit bearing trees,
and there was large. round, ripe fruit, bush
els and bushels: but the horticulturist and his
wife who had charge of the place got hank
erine after the fruit of one tree simply be-
cause it was Notwithstanding bad streak
in human nature so that sometimes children
will want O thing simply because they are
forbidden it. If there be company OF Vlsl-
tors in house where there are twenty rooms
and they may enter all tho rooms save one
tbcy have more anxiety to see what is IN thai
one room than in the other nineteen, al.
though that one room were garret and all
the others were picture galleries. II IN dis
trict of mineral springs there be- twenty
fountains of water. but the proprietor mas
fenced in one we'll for his own use, the visitors
are more anxious to taste of the water of that
one we'll than to drink of the other nineteen.
Solomon discovered this principle IN human
nature and the disastrous result OF 1t, and SO
he wrote in my text: "Stolen waters are
sweet, and bread eaten in secret IS pleasant,
but he knoweth not that the dead are there. "
on ''The Marriage Ring" want this morn
ing to aim point blank shot at clandestine
marriages and escapadeS. That ship coming
m through the ''Narrows' Of New York har-
Dor has on it all the evidences of tempestuous
passage. Salt water mark to the top OF the
smoke stack. Mainmast, foremast, mlz2en'
mast twisted off, Jib-sheets and lee bow
lines gone. Captains bride demolished Bull
warks knocked in Lifeboats off the davits.
1>,,o1,o,, tho ,o1,roYoS working
to keep the ship from sinking before it gets to
wharfage. That is the institution of mar.
riage. God grandly and gloriously built 1t
and launched it from the banks Of the Eu-
phrates and it foated out on the seas for the
admiration and the Joy and the happiness OF
all nations; but the waves of freelove-,
ism have struck it on one side and
the waves of Mormonlsm nave
struck it on the other side, and the hurricanes
of libcrtinism have struck it from all sides
until the old ship needs repairs in every
nlank and beam and bolt and spar and sail
and clamp and starchion and transom. In
other words, the notions of modern society
must be reconstructed on the subject of the
marriage institution. When those notions
in regard to the institution shall be recon
structed, and the institution shall be put back
inst as God built it, the world will be far on
toward resumption of paradisaical condltlons
Does any one ask the use OF course or SER
mons like this? The man or woman who asks
such question either demonstrates ignorance
or guilt. New England, by many considered
the most moral part of this country, has 1000
divorces O. wear. Massachusetts,, the
headquarters of Steady habits, one divorce to
IA marriages. The State of Maine, by many
supposed to be almost frigid in its proprie-
ties, 47S divorces in year. In Vermont the
swapping Of wives is no rarity. In Con-
necticut there are women who boast they
have bcen divorced three or four times.
Moreover, our boasted Professionalism IS more
lax than Roman Catholicism on this subject.
Roman Catholicism allows only one excuse
for divorce, and that the excuse that Christ
admitted. Professionalism is admitting every
thing and anything as an excuse. In pro-
portion as Protestants are numerous and
dominant in community, divorce
is prominent. have all the facts for the
substantiation of that statement, and l ask
Won under such consideration II Professionalism
does notneed some toning up9 Aye, this sa-
cred and divine institution Of marriage is be-
ing DETAINED and caricatured by clandestlne
marriage and escapades. You hardly take
up morning or evening newspaper but you
see the announcement of such an occurrence.
and where there is one case reported tnere are
fifty not reported because it is to the interest
of all the people to hush these things up.
There is not an hour Of the night but its vic
tins are climbing down ladders and crossing
from State to State to get to place where
there is greater laxity of law, and holding
the reception six months after marriage, for
the first time announcing the marital union
which took place half year before. ministers
of religion, officers of the law, justices of the
peace, mayors Of cities willingly uniting IN
holy marriage runaways from other States
and npiphborhoods. The coach box and tie
back seat of the princely landau in filtration
Telegrams flashing across the country for
the arrest of absconding school misses who
started off with an arrnful of books In the
and took rail train to meet their
affianced. The snowdrifts of two weeks ago
I read. buried some of them. Thousands of
people in marriage, the banns of which have
never been published Precipitate conJugal-
it Bigsmy t5omRhant bonBed al oyea MrrafS WfS
putrefaction on this subject which none but
almighty God can arrest. We admit that
there are cases of clandestinely and escapade
that are justifable because of parental tyran-
nv or domestic conditions There are parents
who are monomaniacs on this subject and
would keep their sons and daughters in cell
bacy, and prohibit things which are all right.
There are parenvs who through absurd family
ambition demand that the candidate for
fortune, or have qualifications which they
have no right to expect, or which are simply
impossible. Children. in marriage are to
please themselves and not theirparents. Civ
en- good morals, means Of support, appropriate
age, equality Of social position, and parents
have no right to prohibit a marital union
which seems deliberate and matter OF the
heart. If the hand offered in marriage be
bloated by dissipation, if the life of the candi-
date be one of debauchery, if he has no means
of support, if the match seems every way un-
fit to be made prohibit and protest, and bring
the opinion of others to reinforce your own
opinion, and put all lawful obstacles in the
way: but do not join that number OF parents
who through plutocracy of domestic crankl-
ness have caused so many elopements. l have
known of few cases where marriage has
occurred under the fiery. protest of parents
and the denunciation Of the community,
and yet the marriage has been under the
blessing of God, for the results have been
beautiful and positively Edenic. Rev. Philip
Henry. man distinguished all through
christendom for piety as well as wisdom. said
to his children while discussing this subject:
"My dear children, please go and please
yourselves and you will not displease me-"
During our civil war company had as
sembled in Charleston, South Carolina, to
witness the marital union of Lieutenant DE
Rochelle and Miss Anna, the daughter Of ex-
Governor Pickens, and just as the ceremony
was about to be solemnized bombShell
fell through the roof, wounding nine
of the guests and the bride
dropped dying. She put upon a sofa,
and there she lay wrapped in her white we'd
ding robe, her bctrothed kneeling at her side,
and il two hours she expired. And there have
been as bright marital unions as that pro-
posed which the bombshell of unreasonable
and outrageous parental Indignation have
I admit all this, Il have to declare that ninety
nine out of the 100, aye 900 out of the 900
of all clandestine marriages and escapades