The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-28
THE EXAMPLE OF ABIGAIL.
DR.. De Witt C. Talmage's Seventh Ser
mon of "The Marriage Ring Series.
Gentle Consideration and Womanly Attrac-
tions Make Perfect Home and Happy
Husband Home the Woman's World.

read and expounded the last chapter of Proverbs,
descriptive of prudent and sensible wife Pro-
fessor Browne rendered on the organ soccato
in miner by Bach The congregation united
in singing the hymn:
''Blow We, the trumpet Blow
The gladly solemn sound;
Let all the nations hear
To earth's remotest bound.
The text was Samuel, ky, g. THE name of
his wife, Abigail; and she was woman OF good
understanding and of a beautiful countenance.'
Following is the sermon:
The ground in Carmel is white, not with fallen
snow but the wool from the backs of three thou
sand sheep for they are being sheared. And
hear the grinding of the iron blades together,
and the bleating of the focks held between the
knees of the shearers while clipping goes on, and
the rustic laughter of the workmen Naoal and
his wife, Abigail preside over this homestead.
David, the warrior, sends a delegation to apply
for aid at this prosperous time of strengthening.
and Nabal peremptorily declines his request
Revenge is the cry. Yonder over the rocks
come David and four hundred angry men with
one stroke to demolish Nabal and his sheepfolds
and vineyards. The regiment march IL double
quick and the stones of the mountain loosen and
roll down, as the soldiers strike them with their
swift feet, and the cry OF the commander is For
ward! Forward
Abigail to save her husband and his property
hastens to the foot of the hill She is armed,
not with sword or spear, but with her own beau
~ and self sacrifice, and when David sees her
kneelng at the base of the crag, he cries: Hold!
holdm Abigail is the conqueress! One woman
in the right is mighter than four hundred men
in the wrong! hurricane stopped at the sight
Of water,lily! A dewdrop dashes back Mag
aral BY her prowess and tact she has saved her
husband and saved her home, aud put before all
ages an ilustrious specimen OF what wife can
do if she be godly, and prudent, and selfsacri-
fcing. and vigilant, and devoted to the interests
Of her husband, and attractive
AS, Sabbath before last, took the response
bility of telling husbands how they ought to
treat their wives-and. though L noticed
that some of them squirmed little in their pews,
they endured it well-I row take the response
bility of telling how wives should 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
suspect, it has also displayed excellencies that
more than overbalanced them. Isuppose that if
could look into the heart of a hundred wives
here present and ask them where is the kindest
and best they know of, and they dared
speak out, ninety nine out of hundred of
them would say: ."At the other end of
this pew" Though sometimes you may have
snapped each other up little quick, think the
most of you are as well paired as couple OF
whom | have read. The wife said to her hus-
band: Il have made up my mind to be submits
siye notwithstanding all the misfortunes that
have come upon u.s. They had lost their chill
dren, he mad lost his health, and hence the in
come of his profession, and the wife had tempo
rarily lost her eyesight. YES" said the hus-
band, I'VE ought to be submissive. Let me
what we have to submit to- First, we have
home; submit to that Then we have
each other we can submit to that Then we
have food and Tament; we can submit to that.
Then we have great many friends; we can sub
nit to that Then we have heavenly Father to
provide for us" Stop! stop" said the wife,
II will talk no more about submission"
4 1s,ka hax,1 4
Christian and as well-balanced as that But
even if you were worsted in conjugal bargain,
you cannot be worse off than this Abigail in my
text Her husband was coarse and ungrateful,
an inebrate. for on the very evening after her
heroic achievement at the foot of the HILL where
sne captured whole regiment with her genial
and strategic behavior. she returned home and
found her husband so drunk that she could not
tell him the story, but had to postpone it until
the next day. &c. my sister, do not want you
60 keep saying within yourself as | proceed:
'"That is the way to treat perfect husband" for
you are to remember that no wife was ever
worse swindled than this Abigail of my text.
At the other end of her table sat mean, selfish,
Rnarlng, 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 fef
First-I counsel the wife to remember in what
severe and terrific battle of life her husband is
engaged Whether in professional, or CONNER
cial, artistic, or mechanical life, your husband
from morning to night is in a Solferino if not
Sedan. 1t is wonder that your husband has
any nerves, or patience, or gravity left To get
q living in this next to the last decade of the
nineteenth century is struggle. Ii he come
home and sit down preoccupied, you ought to
excuse him. If he does not feel like going out
that night for a walk or entertainment, remem
Der he has been out all day. You say he ought
to leave at his place of business his annoyances,
and come home CHEEKY. But if man has been
betrayed by business partner, or a Gus
toner has iockeyed him out Of large
bill of goods, or a protested note has
been flung on his desk, or somebody has
called him liar and everything has gone wrong
from morning to night he must have great
genius and forgetfulness if he do not bring some
of the perplexity home with him. When you
tell me he ought to leave it all at the store or
bank or shop you might as well 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 hims elf as he is over
working for you and the children. 1t is the eff
feet of his success or defeat on the homestead
that causes HIM the agitation. The most of men
after forty Ave years of age live not for them
selves, but for their families. They begin to
ask themselves anxiously the question: Now,
If l should give out. what would become Of the
folks at home? Would my children ever get
their educationl Would my wife have to go out
into the world to bread for herself
and our little ones2 My eyesght troubles
me; how if my eyes should fa9 My head gets
dizzy; how if / should drop under apopexyl
The high pressure of business life and mechan-
ical life and agricultural life is home pressure
Some time ago large London firm decided
thai if any of their clerks married on salary
less than ESQ. that is $3.50 year. he should be
discharged, the superstition being that the temp
tation might be too great for Misrepresentation.
The large majority of families in America live
by utmost dint of economy and to be honest and
yet meet ones family expenses is the appalling
question that turns the life of tens of thousands
of men into martyrdom. Let tho wife of the
0verborne and exhausted husband remember
this and DO not nag him about that and say you
might as we'll have no husband, when the fact
is he is dying by inches that the home may be
kept up
charge, also. the wife to keep herself as at
tractiye after marriage as she was before mar
Fiage The reason that so often man ceases to
sove his wife is because the wife ceases to be
tovable. In many cases what elaboration of tot
let before marriage and what recklessness of an