The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-02-12
r-iLMAGES SEKuON.e
Fourth Discourse OF the Series on
the Marriage Ring"
TIE Mutual Duties o. Husband and Wife.
with Suggestions on the Preservation
OF Domestic Harmony and Cul-
ture of Home Pleasures.

OF Domestic Harmony and Cul-
ture of Home Pleasures.
We give below the fourth Of Pew. 7. De.
Witt Tslmage's series of discourses on
"The Marriage Ring" delivered recently
in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. The text
was:
Can two wall, together, except they be
agreed-Amos Ill, ,
He said: No. Amos. thsv can not. They
will he tripping each other Up. or pushing
each other down Married life under such
circumstances viii be tn. sounding of per =
pesual warhoop. In this course of SER
mons on ''The Marriage Ring."I will to-
tav speak OF the mutual duties of husband
and wife. preparatory to discourses on
their individual duties.
A church within church. a republic
within republic world within a world,
Is spelled by four lesters-home. If things
go right there. they 90 right everywhere: if
things go wrong there. they go wrong
everywhere. The door-sill of the dwell
ing-house is The foundation OF Church and
State. man never gets higher than his
own sarre. 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 circle:
the rockingham in the nursery is higher
than the throne. George Washington
commanded the forces of the United
States. but Martha Washing
ton commanded George. Chrvsostom's
mother made his pen for him. If man
should start ont and run seventy years in a
straight line. he could not get out from
under the shadow OF his own mantlepiece.
therefore talk to You this morning about
q matter OF infinite and eternal moment
when I speak OF your home.
As individuals we ara fragments. God
makes the race in part. and then he grad
uafly puts US together. What lack YOU
make up: what YOU lack I make M: our
deficits and surplusses of character being
the coy-wheels in the great social mechan-
ism. One person has the patience. another
has the courage, another has the placiditv,
another has the enthusia =m: tina. which is
lacking in one is made up by another. or
m ade up by a1l. Buffaloes in herds. grouse
in broods. osails in fiocks. the human race
in circles. God has most beautifully ar
ranged this. Il is in this wav that ne
balances society: this conservative and
that radical keeping things even. Every
ship must have its mast, cutwater. taffrail.
ballast. Thank God. then. FOR Princeton
and Andover. fo- the opDosites. |
have no more RICH. to blame man for
being different from me than driving
wheel has right to blame the iron shaft
that holds it TO toe center. John Wesley
balances Calvin's institutes. A cold think
er gives TO Scotland the strong bones OF
Theology: DR.. Guthrie clothes them with
throbbing heart and warm flesh. The diff
ficulty is that we are not satisfied with Just
the work that God has given vs. TO do. The
water-wheel wants TO come inside the mill
and grind the grist AMI the hopper wants
to go out and dabble in the water. Our
usefulness ard the welfare of society de-
pend 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 temperament and tastes. 1t is
fortunate that it should be so. If the hus-
hand be all impulse the wife mast be all
prudence. If one sister be saaguine in
lher temperament the other must be
emphatic. Mary and Martha are ne
cessi:fes. There viii 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
Seausfully constructed. Eden is gone:
the bowers are all broken down: the ami.
mails that Adam stroked with his hand
that morning when they came up TO get
their names have since sho: forth tusk and
sting. and growIsd panther at panth er:
and midair, iron beaks plunge till with
cist-ed wing and eyeless sockets the twain
come whir,in- down from under the sun
in blood and fire. Eden has gone, but
there is Just one little fragment left. It
foated down on the river Hiddekel out Of
Paradise. 1t is the marriage institution.
It does not. as at the beginning, take
away from man q rib. Now it 10 an addi-
ton of ribs.
This Institution Of marriage has been de-
famed in our day, and influences are
abroad trying to turn this earth into .
Turkish karem or great Salt Lake CITY.
While the pulpits have been comparative
ly silent, novels-their cheapness only
equaled by their nastiness-are trying to
educate, have taken upon themselves to
this Nation in regard to holy |
which makes or breaks for time |
and for eternity. Oh, this is no. a |
mere question OF residence or wardrobe, |
1t is question charged with gigantic joy |
or sorrow, with Heaven o. hell. Alas for |
this new dispensation Of George |
Sands! Alas for the mingling /
OF the nightshade with the mar
riage sarlands, Alas for the venom |
OF adders spit into the tankards, Alas FOR
the white frosts OF eternal death tina: xii /
the orange blossoms! The gospel of Jesus |
Christ is to assert what is right and 70 as
sert 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 il mere l
enterprise: an exchange of
houses ard lands and equipage: a business
of two stuffed up with tbs
stories OF romance and knight errantry,
and unfaithfulness and feminine angel
hood. The two after awhile have reused
Up to find that instead of the paradise
they dreamed of, they have got nothing
but q Van AmburSh's men,gerie, filed
with tigers and wild cats. Eighty thou
sand divorces in Paris in one year preced-
I'd the worst revolution that France ever
saw. It was only the first course in that
banquet Of hell: and I tell you what you
Know Is well as do, that wrong notions
,n the subject Of Christian marriage are
the cause at this day of more moral out