St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-01-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Second Discourse Of the Series on
1.-THE Marriage Ring"
Pointed Suggestions as to What Woman
should Avoid in Choosing Husband
None But God q Safe Guide i'm
Deciding the Question.

We give below Rev. T. De Witt Tai
IMAGES second sermon of his course on
'sThe Marriage Ring" delivered recently
in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. The text for
this discourse was:
The Lord grant you that we may find rest,
each Of you, in the house of her husband.
DR.. Talmage said:
This was the prayer of the pious Naomi
for Ruth and Orpah, and is an appropriate
prayer now in behalf of unmarried wom-
anhood. Naomi, the good old soul, knew
that the devil would take their cases in
hand if God did not, 50 she prays: "The
Lord grant you that we may find rest,
each of you, in the house of her husband"
In this series of sermons on "The Mar
riage Ring" I last Sabbath gave prayer
full and Christian advice to men in regard
to the selection of a wife, and to-day give
the same prayerful and Christian advice
to women in regard to the selection of
husband, but in all these sermons saying
much that hope will be appropriate for
all ages and all classes.
applaud the celibacy of multitude of
women who, rather than make unfit selec-
ton, have made none at all. 1t has not been
lack of opportunity for martial contract
on their part, but their own culture and re-
finement and their exalted idea as to what
husband ought to be, have caused their
declinature. They have seen SO many
women marry imbeciles, or ruff1ans, or in
cipient sots, or lifelong incapables, or
magnificent nothings, or men who
before marriage were angelic and
afterward diabolic, that they have
been alarmed and stood back. They saw
so many boats go into the maelstrom
that they steered into other waters.
Better for a woman to live alone, though
she live thousand years, than to be
annexed to one of these masculine fail
ures with which society is surfeited.
The patron saint of almost every fam
lily circle is some such unmarried woman,
and among all the families of cousins she
moves around, and her coming in each
house is the morning, and her going away
is the night.
In my large circle of kindred, perhaps
twenty families in all, it was an Aunt
Phoebe. Paul give letter of introduce
tion to one whom he calls "Phpbe, our
sister," as she went up from Cenchrea
to Rome commenting her for her kind
ness ana Christian service, and implor-
ing for her all courtesies. I think Aunt
: Phoebe was named after her. Was there
sickness in any of the households, she
was there ready to sit up and count
out the drops of medicine. Was there
a marriage, she helped deck the bride for
the altar. Was there a new soul incar-
mated, she was there to rejoice at the
nativity. Was there q sore bereavement,
she was there to console. The children
rushed out at her first appearance crying,
"Here comes Aunt Phube," and but for
parental interference they would have
pulled her down with their caresses, for
she was not very strong, and many severe
Illnesses had given her enough giimpses of
the next world to make her heavenly
minded. Her table was loaded up with
Baxter's sSaints' Rest" Doddridge's
"Rise and Progress" and jays morning
and Evening Exercises" and John Bun
vans "Pilgrim's Progress" and like books,
which have fitted out whole generations
for the heaven upon which they have
already entered.
Had she mission in the world? Ger
6ainly. AS much as Caroline Herschel,
first amanuensis for her illustrious brother,
and then his assistant in astronomical cal
culations, and then discovering worlds for
herself, dying at ninety EIGHT years of
age, still busy with the stars till she sped
beyond them; as much as had Florence
Nightingale, the nurse of the Crimea; or
Grace Darling, the oarswoman of the
Long Stone Lighthouse; or Mary Lyon,
the teacher Of Mount Holyoke Female Sem
mary; or Hannah Moore, the Christian
authoress of England; or Dorothea Dix,
the angel of mercy for the insane; or Anna
Etheridge, among the wounded of Black
burns Fort; or Margaret Breckenridge, at
Vicksburg; or Mary Shelton, distributing
roses and grapes and cologne in Western
hospitals; or thousands Of other glorious
women like them, who never took the mar
riage sacrament. Appreciate all this, my
sister, and it will make you deliberate be-
fore you rush out Of the single state into
another, unless you are sure of betterment
Deliberate and pray. Pray and deliber-
ate. AS I showed you in my former SER
mon, man ought to suplicate divine
guidance in such crisis; how much more
important that you solicit it! 1t is easier
for man to find an appropriate wife than
a woman to find good husband. This is
a matter of arithmetic, as showed in a
former discourse. Statistics show that in
Massachusetts, and New York States
women have a majority of hundreds of
thousands. Why this is we leave others to
surmise. 1t would seem that woman is
q favorite with the Lord, and that there
fore he has made more of this kind. From
the order of the creation in Paradise it is
evident that woman is an improved edi-
tion of man. But whatever be the reason