Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-01-28
An Earnest Prayer for Heavenly
Guidance Should Precede
the Fatefm Choice.
Some Of the Terrible Mistakes q Man
May Make In Taking q Connu-
~ biaI Partner.
Noble Examples Of Wffeiy Devo-
tiOn and Sclf-ForgetfaIness
for Her Husbands's
Sake.
A Sermon Preached at Brooklyn Tabernacle
by the Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage, D. D.,
Sunday January 10, 1886.

"~eyt se4Ae"AJ ~ ~SS~'
The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached this
morning in the Brooklyn Tabernacle the first
of his series of sermons on @The Marriage
Ring" the subject being sThe Choice of o
Wife" In the series will be treated the follow
ing subjects of the greatest importance to
every person: rThe Choice of Husband and
Wife," 3Clandestine Marriages and Esca-
pades;" aDuties of Husbands to Wives" @Du-
ties of Wives to Husbands;" sin Matters of
band, or the Husband go with the Wife9" 4The
Wrong Ways of Womeu;" Costume and Nor
ais" Competent Housewifery;" Sensible
Young Womanhood;" :" "Women Who will Pass
Life Single;" Influence of Sisters Over Broth
~rers;" @Ihe Modern Novel and Woman;"
Boarding house and Hotel Lfe;" Treatment
of Man-servant and Maid-servant" The hymn
sung on the occasion was:
-The morning light is breaking
The darkness disappears.
An organ solo was rendered by Prof Henry
Eyre Brown, who selected the first sonata in
ID Minor, by Ritter, for his musical theme
After expounding passage of Scripture, DIR.
Talmage took for his text, Judges xiv, 3: "Is
there never woman among the daugaters OF
the brethren, or among all my people, that
thou goest to take wife of the uncircumcised
Philistnes?" DR. Talmage said:
Samson, the giant, is here asking consent 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 ii. Captivated with her looks, the
big son wanted to marry daughter Of one of
the hostile families a deceitful, hypocritical.
winning and saturnlne creature, who afterward
made for him world of trouble till she quit
him forever. In my text his parents forbade
the bans, practically saying: @When there are
so many honest and beautiful maidens in your
own country, are you so hard put to for a life
time partner that you propose conjugality
with this foreign firts Is there such a dearth
of lilies in our Israelitish gardens that you
must wear on your heart Philistine thistle?
Do you take a crab-apple because there are no
pomegranates? 1s there never woman
among the daughters of thy brethren, or
among all my people, that thou g0est to
take wife of the uncircumeised Philistines?'
Excuseless was he for such q choice in
land and amid race celebrated for female
loveliness and moral worth, q land and a race
of which self denying Abigail and heroic Deb
orah, and dazzling Vashti, and pious Esther,
and glorious Ruth, and Mary who hugged to
her heart the blessed Lord, were only magnii-
cent specimens. The midnight folded in their
hair, the lakes of liquid beauty in their eye,
the gracefulness of spring morning in their
posture and gait, were only typical of the
greater brilliance and glory of their soul.
Likewise excuseless is any 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 sail to be of the Phil
istines.
The world never owned such opulence of
womanly character or such splendor of
womanly manners, or multitudinous instances
Of wifely, motherly, daughterly, sisterly deyo-
ton as it owns to-day. have not words to ex-
press my admiration for good womanhood.
Woman is not only mans equal, but in affec-
tional and religious nature, which is the best
part of us, she is rs per cent his superior.
Yea, during the last twenty years, through the
increased opportunity open for female educa-
ton, the women of the country are better edu-
Gated than the majority Of men; and, if they
continue to advance in mentality at the present
ratio, before long the majority Of men will have
difficulty in fin ing in the opposite sex enough
ignorance to make appropriate consort If
am under delusion as to the abundance Of
good womanhood abroad, consequent upon my
surroundings since the hour entered this life
until now, [ hope the delusion will last until I
embark from this planet So you will under
stand, if I say in this course Of sermons some
thing that seems severe, am neither cynical
or disgruntled.
There are in almost every farmhouse in the
country, in almost every home Of the great
town, conscientious women, worshipful women,
self sacrificing women, holy women, innumer-
able Marys sitting at the feet of Christ; innli-
merable mothers, helping to feed Christ in the
person of His suffering disciples; Q thousand
k.capped and specialized Grandmothers Lois,
4 bending over Bibles whose precepts they have
followed from early girlhood; and tens of thou
sands Of young women that are dawning upon
as from school and seminary, that are going to
bless the world with good and happy homes,
that shall eclipse their predecessors, fact that
viii be acknowledged by all men except those
who are struck through with moral decay from
toe to Uranium; and more inexcusible than the
Samson of the text is that man who, amid all
this unparalleled munifcence Of womanhood
marriesa fool But some of you are abroad
suffering from such disaster, and to halt others
OF You from going over the same precipice, I
cry out in the words of my text: "Is there never
q woman among the daughters of thy brethren,
Or among all my people, that thou goest to
take wife from the uncircumcised Philia-
tines?"
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 cir
cumlocution. About the choice of lifetime
campanion, question In which 80 much of
time and all of eternity are involved, what
almost universal silence in the church, ~ that
there are not ten people in this house who
have ever heard discourse upon this tacme;
. <and the first one have ever heard is the one
am preaching. We leave to the fiippant novel;
or the spectacular play, or the jingle Of a ttog-
gerel rhyme, that which ought to lnr,ic'i the
most hemen,o ,ous sermon u miiistar ser
breaches, from the ay when he takes ordaa-
ton to the cay when in judgment he meets his
God And so, in this course of sermons, ! am
going to hitch up my best team to the while
tree and put the coulter of the plow cleaY up
to the beam, and go straight on from fence {,
fence, however many nests of moies and ser-
pents may be ripped up by the furrow, and
however many alarmed people may cry
swhoa"
That marriage is the destination of the hut
man race is a mistake that want to correct
before go further. There are multitudes who
never w1ll marry, and still greater multitudes
who are not fit to marry. In Great Britain to-
day there are $4,000 more women than men,
and that, understand, is about the ratio in
America. By mathematical and inexerable
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 corrupt of char
acter that their offer of marriage il an insult to
any good woman. Society will have to be toi.ed
up and corrected on this subject SO that it
shall realize that if woman who has sacrificed
har honor ia unfttad far tnarriaoe - 'c,.nv