The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-03-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The First of Series Of Discourses
on the Marriage Ring"
The Choice Of q Wife-Some Men Who
Have No Right to Marry-Moral and
Spiritual Beauty More Desirable
the Mere Physical.

Have No Right to Marry-Moral and
Spiritual Beauty More Desirable
the Mere Physical.
The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage has begun
a series of sermons on @The Marriage
Ring,n the first of which, covering the
'sChoice of Husband and Wife," we give
below. The following was the text:
Is there never a woman among the daugh :
tiers of thy brethren, or among all my peo-
pie, that thou goest to take wife Of the un :.
circumcised Observation-Disclosures. xiv.,3
Samson, the giant, is here asking con-
sent OF his father and mother to marriage
with one whom they thought unfit for him.
He was wise in asking their counsel, but not
wise in rejecting it. Captivated with her
looks, the big son wanted to marry daugh-
ter of one OF the hostile families, a deceitful,
hypocritical, whining and saturnine crea-
ture. who afterward made for him q world
of trouble till she quit him forever. In my
text his parents forbade the banns,
practically saying: When there are
so many honest and beautiful maidens
Of your own country, are you 50
hard put to for lifetime partner that
y4A propose conjugality with this for
eign fifty p there such a dearth of liz
lies in our Israelitish gardens that you
must wear on your heart Philistine
thistle? Doyou take crab-apple because
there are no pome granates? is there
never a woman among the daughters Of
thy brethren, or among all my people,
that thou goest to take wife of the un-
circumcised Philistinesv"
Excuseless was he for such choice In q
loneliness and moral worth, a land and a
race of which self-denying Abigail, and
heroic Deborah, and dazzling Vashti, and
pious Esther, and glorious Ruth, and Mary
who Rugged to her heart the blessed Lord,
were only magnificent specimens. The
midnight folded in their hair, the lakes Of
liquid beauty in their eyes, the graceful
ness of spring morning in their posture
and gait. were only typical Of the greater
brilliancy and glory Of their soul. Like
wise excuseless is q man in our time who
makes lifelong alliance with any one who,
because of her disposition, or heredity, or
habits, or intellectual vanity, or moral
classification, may be said to be one Of the
Philistines.
The world never owned such opulence Of
womanly character or such splendor of
womanly manners or maltitudinous in
stances OF wifely, motherly, daughterly,
sisterly devotion as it owns to-day. I
have not words to express my admiration
for good womanhood. Woman is not only
mans equal, but in affectional and re.
ligious nature, which is the best part Of NJ,
she Is seventy five per cent. his superior.
Yea, during the last twenty years, through
theincreased opportunity opened for female
education, the women Of the country are
better educated than the majority Of the
men; and il they continue to advance in
mentality at the present ratio, before long
the majority of men wild find diffiulty in
finding in the opposite sex enough ignor-
ance to make appropriate consort- II
am under q delusion as to the abundance
Of good womanhood abroad, consequent
upon my surroundings since the hour en-
tered this work until now, hope the delu-
sion will last until embark from this
planet. So you will understand, If say
in this course Of sermon something that
seems severe, am neither cynical nor dis
gruntled.
There are thousands Of American pull
pits, among them this pulpit, guilty in the |
fact that on some Of the subjects on which |
men and women need practical advice |
they have been silent, or teaching them |
only in forceless circumlocution. About |
the choice of q lifetime companion, .
question in which SO much OF time and all |
Of eternity are involved, what universal |
silence in the Church, so that there are not |
ten people in this house who have ever
heard discourse OF this theme; and the
first one have ever heard is the one am |
preaching. We leave to the ilippant novel
or the spectacular play, or the jingle Of .
doggerel rhyme, that which ought to bur-
den the most tremendous sermon minis
ter ever breaches, from the day when. he |
takes ordination to the day when in judg-
ment he meets his God. And so, in this
course of sermons, am going to hitch up |
my best team to the whi1aetree, and put
the coulter of the pillow clear up to the
beam, and go straight ON from fence to
fence, however many nests Of moles and |
serpents may be ripped mp by the furrow,
and however many alarmed people may
cry "Whoa!n
That marriage il the destination Of the /
human IL mistake that want to correct
before 60 further. There are multitudes
Who never win marry, and stil greater
who are not at to marry. In
Great Britain to-day there are 94S, 900 moro
women than men, and that, l understand,
. about the ratio in America. By maths-
NAUTICAL and memorable law, You sse, mil
ions Of women will never marry. The
'upply for matrimony greater than the de-
nand, the first lesson Of which is that sv-
ny woman ought to prepare to take cGre
u herself il need be. Then there are thou
lands Of men who have no right to marry,
BECAUSE they have become 50 corrupt Of
character that their offer Of marriage ID an
INSULT to any good woman. Society win
AVE to be toned up and corrected ON this
ubject, 50 that it shall realize that IL .
woman who has sacrificed he honor IL I'M
lifted for marriage, 30 is any man who has
ver sacrificed his purity. What right
lave You, oh masculine beast, whose HE
las been loose, to take under your care the
potlessness Of virgin reared In the sanc-
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