The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-02-25
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Third Discourse Of the Series on
"The Marriage Ring"
Clandestine Marriages, Elopements and
Other Matrimonial Escapades Com
sidered BY the Light of Script
ure and Common Sense.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered the
third of his series of discourses before
large congregation at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle, the interest in the series having be-
come quite marked. In presenting the
division of his subject under the heading
of "Clandestine Marriages and Es-
capades," Mr.. Talmage took the following
text:
Stolen waters are sweet, and bread taken
in secret Is pleasant. But he knoweth not
that the dead are there.-Proverbs tx, 17-l8
The preacher said:
The garden of Eden was great orchard
of fruit-bearing trees, bushels and bushels
of round, ripe, glorious fruit, but the horti-
culturist and his wife having it in charge,
cause it was forbidden, starting bad
streak in human nature, so that children
will now sometimes do something simply
because they are forbidden to do it. This
kink in the human race is not easily un
snarled. Tell company that they may
look into any twenty rooms of a large house
except one, and their chief desire is to see
that one, though all the others were pict-
ure galleries and that garrett. If there
were in a region of mineral springs twenty
fountains, but the proprietor had fenced in
one well against the public, the one fenced
in would be the chief temptation to the
visitors, and they would rather taste of
that than of the other nineteen. Solomon
recognized this principle in the text, and
also the disaster that follows forbidden
conduct, when he said: Stolen waters
are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is
pleasant. But he knoweth not that the
dead are there"
In this course of sermons on "The Mar
rage Ring" I, this morning, aim point
blank shot at "Clandestine Marriages and
Escapades." Yonder comes up through
the narrows of New York harbor a ship
having all the evidence of tempestuous
passage: Saltwater marx reaching to the
top of the smoke stack. Mainmast, fore
mast, mizzenmast twisted off. Bulwarks
knocked in. Lifeboats off the davits. Jib-
sheets and lee-bowlines missing. Captains
bridge demolished. Mainshaft broken. All
the pumps working to keep from sinking
before they can get to wharfage. That ship
is the Institution of Christian marriage,
launched by the Lord grandly from the
bank OF the Euphrates, and floating out on
the seas for the admiration and happiness
Of all nations. But free-loveism struck it
from one side, and Mormonism struck it
from another side, and hurricanes Of lib
ertinism have struck it from all sides, until
the old ship needs repairs in every plank,
and beam, and sail, and bolt, and clamp,
and transom, and stanchion.
In other words, the notions of modern
society must be reconstructed on the sub
ject Of the marriage institution. And when
we have got it back somewhere near.what
1t was when God built it in Paradise, the
earth will be far on toward resump-
tion of Paradisaical conditions. Do
YOU ask what is the need of a
course of sermons on this subject The
man or woman who asks this question is
either ignorant or guilty. In New En-
gland, which has been considered by many
the most moral part of the United States,
there are 1900 divorces per year. And in
Massachusetts,, the headquarters of steady
habits, there is one divorce to every four.
teen marriages. The State of Maine, con.
sidered by many almost frigid in proprie-
ties, has in one year4 7S divorces. In ver-
mont swapping wives is not a rare trans
action. In Connecticut there are women
who boast that they have four or five
times been divorced. Moreover, our boast.
ed Professionalism is, on this subject, more
lax than Roman Catholicism. Roman
Catholicism admits of no divorce except
the reason that Christ admitted as a law
ful reason. But Professionalism is admit
ting anything end everything, and the
larger the proportion of Professionals in any
part OF the country, the larger the ratio OF
divorce. Do you not then think that
Professionalism needs some toning ND on
this subjectfn
We admit that clandestinity and esca
pade are sometimes authorized and made
right by parental tyranny or domestic
serfdom: There have been exceptional
cases where parents have had a. mono
mania in regard to their sons and daugh-
ters, demanding their celibacy or forbid
ding relations every way right.
Through absurd family ambition parents
have sometimes demanded qualifications
and equipment of fortune unreasonable
to expect or simply impossible. Chill.
dren are not expected to marry to please
their parents. but to please themselves
Given good morals, means Of a livelihood
appropriate age and quality of social posi-.
ton, and no parent has a right to pro.
hibit union that seems deliberate and q
matter Of the heart.
Rev. Philip Henry, eminent for piety
and good sense, used to say to his chill.
dren: "Please God and please yourselves
and you shall never displease me.n
During our civil war q marriage wa,
about to be celebrated in Charleston, s. C.
between Lieutenant de Rochelle. and Mis-.
Anna, the daughter of Ex-Governor Pick.
ems. As the ceremony was. about to b.
soiemnized, a shell broke through the rool
and wounded nine of the guests, and thu
bride fell dying, and, wrapped in be,
white wedding robe, her betrothed kneel.
ing at her side. in two hours she expired
And there has been many as bright 8
union OF hearts as that proposed, that th.
bomb-shell of outrageous parental indig.
nation has wounded and scattered and
slain.
II the hand offered in marriage bs
biotched Of intemperance, If the life of thu
marital candidate has been debauehed. Il
he has no visible means of support. and
poverty and abandonment seem onlv .