The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-01-27
DR., TALHAGE'S SERMON.
THE CHOICE OF A WIFE.

Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at the Brook
lyn Tabernacle on Sunday, January
10. the first of series of sermons on
the Marriage Ring, the subject being the
'Choice of a Wife" After expounding a
passage of Scripture DR.: Talmage took tor
woman among the daughters Of thy brethren,
or among all my people that thou goest TO T.;
take wife of the uncircumciSed Phlllstlnes:
DR.. Talmage said:
Sampson, the giant, is here asking consent
of his father and mother tomarriage with one
whom they thought unfit for him. He was
wise in asking their counsel, but not wise III
rejecting it. Captivated with her LOOKS tne
big son wanted to marry daughter of one OF
the hostile families, deceitful, hypocritical,
whining and saturnine creature, who
afterward made for him world
of trouble till she quit him forever In my
text his parents forbade the banns, practlcal-
" saving: "When there are SO many honest
and beautiful maidens Of your own country
are you so hard put to for lifetime partner
that you propose conjugality with TINS for-
eign flirta Is there such dearth of lilies IN
our Israelitish gardens that you must wear on
your heart q Philistino thistle? Do you take
q crab apple because there are no pome-
pranates? is there never woman among the
daughters of thy brethern or among all my
people that thou goest to take wife OF the
uncircumcised Philistines?'"
Excuseless was he for such choice III a
land and amid a race celebrated for female
loveliness and moral worth, land and race
of which self-denying Abigail and heroic De
borah and dazzling Vashti and plous Esther
and glorious Ruth and Mary who hugged to
her heart the blessed Lord were only magnl-
ficent specimens. The midnight folded IN
their hair, the lakes of liquid beauty in their
eve, the gracefulness of spring morning ID
their posture and gait were only typical OF
the greater brilliance and glory OF their soul.
Likewise excuseleSS is any man IN our time VINO
makes lifelong alliance with any one who BE-
cause of her disposition or heredity or habits
or intellectual vacuity or moral twlstlhcatlon
may be said to be of the Phillstines
The world never owned such opulence OF
womanly character, or such splendor OF Wo-
manly manners of such multitudinous in
stances of wifely, motherly, daughterly,
sisterly devotion as it owns to-day. have
not words to express my admiration tor gcod
womanhood. Woman is not only mans equal
but in affectional and emotional nature,
which is the best part OF us, she IS seventy, Y
five per cent. his superior. Yea; during the
last twenty years, through the increased op'
portunity opened for female education, the
women of the country are better educated
than the majority of men, and II they con.
tnue to advance in mentality at the present
ratio before long the majority of men will
have difficulty in finding in the opposite sex
enough ignorance to make an appropriate
consort. If am under delusion as to the
abundance of good womanhood abroad conse
quent upon my surroundings since the hour
/ entered this life until now, | hope the delu-
sion will last until embark from this planet
So you will understand if say in this course
of sermons some things that seem severe am
neither cynical nor disgruntled.
There are in almost every farmhouse in the
country, in almost every home Of the great
town, conscientious women, Worshlp1u
women, holy women, innumerable Marys
sitting at the feet of Christ, innumerable
Marthas preparing to feed Christ in the
prison of his suffering disciples a thousand
capped and spectacled grandmothe1s' Lois,
bending over. Bibles, whose ,Precepts they
have followed from early girlhood, and tens
of thousands of young women that are dawn
ing upon us from school and seminary, that
are going to bless the world with good and
happy homes that shall eclipse all their pre-,
deceSsorS, a fact that will be acknowledged
by all men except those who are struck
through with moral decay from toe to cram
ium, and more inexcusable than the Samson
Of the text is, that man who amid all this un-
paralleled munifcence of womanhood marrleS
fool. But some OF you are already suffering
from such disaster, and to halt Others OF you
from going over the same precipice cry out,
in the words of my text: rs there never
woman among Jne daughters of thy brethren
or among all thy people that thou goest
to take q wife Of the uncircumciSed PhiliS-
tines"
There are thousands of American pulpits,
among them this pulpit, guilty in the fact
that on some Of the subjects on which man
and woman need practical advice they have
been silent or teaching them only in forceless
circumlocution. About the choice of q life
time companion in which so much of time
and all of eternity are involved, what almost
universal silence in the church, so that there
are not ten people in this house who haveever
heard q discourse upon this theme, and the first
one have ever heard is the one / am preach
ing. We leave to the flippant novel or the
spectacular play or the jingle of doggerel
rhyme that which ough. to burden the most
tremendous sermon minister ever breaches
from the day when he takes ordination to the
day when in Judgment he meets his Cod
And so, in this course of sermons, am going
to hitch up my best team to the whiftietree
and put the coulter Of the plow clear up to
the beam and 60 straight on from fence to
fence, however many nests of moles and SER
pents may be ripped up by the furrow, and
however many alarmed persons may cry
"whoa!"
That marriage is the destination of the hui
man race is a mistake that I want to correct
before l 60 further. There are multitudes
who never will marry, and still greater null
titudes who are not fit to marry. In Great
than men. And that, understand is about
the ratio in America. By mathematical and
inexorable law, you see, millions of women
will never marry. The supply for matrimony
is greater than the demand, the first lesson of
which is that every woman ought to prepare
to take care of herself if need be. Then
there are thousands of men who have no right
to marry, because they have become SO cor
rupt of character that their offer of marriage
is an insult to any good woman. Society will
have to be toned up and corrected on this sub
iect, so that it shall realize that if woman
who has sacrificed her honor is untitled for
marriage, so is any man who has ever sacri-
feed his purity. What right have you, OH
masculine beast, whose life has been loose, to
take under your care the spotlessneSS Of a vir-
gin reared in the sanctity of @ respectable
home! Will a buzzard dare to court a dove?
But the majority of you will marry, and
have right to marry, and as your religious
teacher | wish to say to these men in the
choice of wife first of all seek divine direc-
ton. About thirty-fve years ago when Mar
tin Farquar Tupper, the English poet, urged
men to prayer before they decided upon mat
rimonial association, people laughed And
some OF them have lived to laugh on the other
side of their mouth. The need of divine
direction I argue from the fact
that so many men, and some of them
strong and wise, have wrecked their lives at
this juncture. Witness Samson and this
woman of Tmnath Witness Socrates, pecked
of the historical Xantippe. Witness Job,
whose wife had nothing to prescribe for
his carbuncles but allopathic doses of
profanity. Witness Ananias, a liar
who might perhaps have been cured by truth
full spouse, yet marrying as great liar as