Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-03-17
"THE MARRIAGE RING" !"
"THE DOMESTIC CIRCLE" :"

''THE MARRIAGE RING"
''THE DOMESTIC CIRCLE"
| BROOKLYN, N. Y, March REV. T.
Dewitt Talmage, D. D., preached to-day
in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, the ninth of
his series of sermons on ''The Marriage
Ring" the subject being ''The Domestic
Circle"
Before the sermon he read the names of
seventy new members, making the pres
ent number of communicates about
thirty-three hundred. The hymn sung
was:
"Oh, could speak the matchless worth!
Oh. could sound the glories forth
That in my Saviour sinner!
Appropriate passages of Scripture were
read and expounded by DIR. Talmage, af-
ter which he took his text from Mark ",
19: "Go home to thy friends, and tell
them how great things the Lord hath
done for thee" Following is the sermon
in full:
There are great many people longing
for some grand sphere in which to serve
God. They admire Luther at the Diet
of Worms, and only wish that they had
some such great opportunity in which to
display their Christian prowess. They
admire Paul making Felix tremble, and
they only wish that they had some such
grand occasion in which to preach right
eousness, temperance and judgment to
come; all they want is only an opportunity
to exhibit their Christian heroism. Now
the Apostle comes to US and be practically
says: II will show you place where you
| ayh oil haf 10 nd hQa l1ti fnl
and glorious in Christian character, and
that is the domestic circle"
If one is not faithful in an insignificant
sphere, he will not be faithful in resound
ing sphere. If Peter will not help the Grip
pie at the gate of the Temple, he will never
be able to preach 5000 souls into the king
dom at the Pentecost. If Paul will not take
pains to instruct in the way of salvation the
jailer of the Philippian dungeon, he will
never make Felix tremble. He who is not
| faithful in skirmish would not be- faithful
in an Armageddon. The fact is, we are all
placed in just the position in which we can
most grandly serve God; and we ought not
to be chiefly thoughtful about some sphere
of usefulness which we may after awhile
gain, but the all-absorbing question with
you and with me ought to be, "Lord, what
wilt Thou have me now and here to do ?"
There is one word in my text around
which the most of our thoughts will this
morning revolve. That word is s'Home."
Ask ten different men the meaning of that
word and they will give you ten different
definitions. To one it means love at the
hearth, it means plenty at the table, indus
try at the workstand, intelligence at the
books, devotion at the altar. To him it
means greeting at the door and smile at
the chair. Peace lowering like wings. Joy
clapping its hands with laughter. Life
tranquil lake. Pillowed on the ripples sleep
| the shadows.
| Ask another man what home is, and he
will tell you it is want, looking out of
cheerless fire. CRATE, kneading hunger in an
empty bread tray. The damp air shivering
with curses. No Bible on the shelf. Chill
dren, robbers and murderers in embryo
Obscence songs their lullaby. Every face
a picture of ruin. Want in the back ground
and sin staring from the front. No Sab
bath wave rolling over that doorsill. YES
tibule of the pit. Shadow of Internal walls.
Furnace for forging everlasting chains
Faggots for an unending funeral pile.
Awful word! 1t is spelled with curses,
it weeps with ruin, it chokes with woe it
sweats with the death agony of despair.
The word "Home" in the one case means
everything bright. The word "Home" in
the other case means everything terrific.
shall speak to you this morning of home
as a test of character, home as a refuge,
home as political safe guard, home as
school and home as type of heaven.
And in the frstplace remark, that home
is powerful test of character. The dis
position in public may be in gay costume,
while in private it is in dishabille. As play
actors may appear in one way on the stage
and may appear in another way behind the
scenes, SO private character may be very
different from public character Private
character is often public character turned
wrong side out A man may receive you
into his parlor as though he were dstilla-
tion of smiles. and yet his heart may be a
swamp of nettles. There are business men
who all day long are mild and courteous
and genial and good natured in commercial
life, damming back their irritability and
their petulance and their discomfort, but at
nightfall the dam breaks and scolding pours
forth in floods and freshets.
Reputation is only the shadow of charac-
ter, and very small house sometimes will
cast very long shadow. The lips may
seem to drop with myrrh and cassa, and
the disposition to be as bright and warm as
a sheaf of sunbeams, and yet they may only
be magnificent show window to wretch
ed stock of goods. There is many a man
who is affable in public life and amid COM
mercial spheres, who, in a cowardly way,
takes his anger and his petulance home and
drops them on the domestic circle.
The reason men do not display their bad
temper in public is because they do not
want to be knocked down. There are men
who hide their petulance and their irrita-
bility just for the same reason that they do
MT 1ot fhfi ir fn
pay. Or for the same reason that they do
not want man in their stock company to
sell his stock at less than the right price,
lest it depreciate the value. AS at some
times the wind rises, SO after a sunshiny day
there may be a tempestuous night. There
are people who in public act the philanthro-
pist, who at home act the Nero, with re-
spect to their slippers and their gown.
Audubon, the great ornithologist, with
gun and pencil, went through the forests of
America to bring down and to sketch the
beautiful birds, and after years of toll and
exposure completed his manuscript and put
it in a trunk in Philadelphia and took a
few days of recreation and rest, and came
back and found that the rats had utterly
destroyed the manuscript; but without any
discomposure and without any fret or bad
temper, he again picked up his gun and
pencil and visited again all the great forests
of America and reproduced his immortal
work. And yet there are people with the
ten thousandth part of that loss who are ut
terly unreconcilable; who, at the loss of a
pencil or an article Of raiment, will blow as
| long and sharp as q northeast storm.
| Now, that man who is affable in public
and who is irritable in private, is making
fraudulent over-issue of stock, and he is as
bad as bank that might have four or five
hundred thousand dollars of bills in circula-
tion with no specie in the vault Let us
learn to show piety at home. If we have
it not there, we have it not anywhere. If
we have not genuine grace in the family
circle, all our outward and public plausi-
bility merely springs from fear of the
world or from the Shiny, putrid pool of our
own selfishness. I tell you the home is
mighty test of character. What you are at
home you are everywhere, whether you
demonstrate it or not.
Again, remark that home is refuge.