The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1886-02-11

nacle, the interest in the series having be-
come quite marked. In presenting the
division Of his subject under the heading
of "Clandestire Marriages and Es-
capades," Mr.. Talmage took the following
text:
stolen waters are sweet, and bread taken
I'm secret is pleasant But he knoweth No
that the dead are there-Proverbs tx, Ills
The preacher said:
The garden of Eden was a 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,
hankered for one special tree, simply be-
cause IL was forbidden, starting a 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 I'M
Snarled. Tell a company that they may
look into any twenty rooms Of large house
except one. and their chief desire is to see
that one, though all the others were pict-
IRE galleries and that garnet. II there
were in region ofmineral springs twenty
fountains, hut the proprietor had fenced in
one well against the public, the one fenced
in would be the chief temptation to the
NlSitttSs anu lutN "OuIl IdIHtI IdSIt OI
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
riage Ring" |, this morning, aim a point
blank shot At "Clandestine Marriage and
Fscapades." Wonder comes up through
the narrows of New York harbor a ship
having all the evidence of tempestuous
passage: Saltwater mark reaching to the
top of the smoke stack. Mainmast, fore
mast, mizzenmast twisted off. Bulwarks
knocked in. LifeboatS off tn. 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 maria ge,
launched by tue Lord grandly from the
bank of the Euphrates, and floating out on
tha seas for the admiration and happines $
of all nations. But free-loveism struck it
from one side, and MormonIsm struck it
from another side, and hurricanes of lib
tIllniSill nave STRUCK IL from all SlueS, 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 SUBJ
ject of the marriage institution. And when
we have got it back somewhere near what
it was when God built it in Paradise, the
earth will be far on toward resump-
ton of Paradsaical 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
Massa chusetts, 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 year Ats 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 law
full reason. But Professionalism is admit.
ting anything and everything, and the
larger the proportion of Protestants in any
part of the country, the larger the ratio OF
divorce. Do you not then think that
Professionalism needs some tonng up on
this subject"
Aye, when you realize that the sacred
and divine institution is being caricatured
and DETAINED by clandestine marriages
and escapades all over the land, does there
not seem a call for such discussion? Hardly
a morning or evening paper comes into
your possession without reporting them
and there are fifty of these occurrences
where one is reported, because it is the in.
terest of all parties to hush them up. The
victims are, all hours of the night, climb.
ing down ladders or crossing over from
State to State that they may reach laws OF
greater laxity, holding receptions six
months after marriage to let the public
know for the first time that half year
before they were united in wedlock
Ministers of religion and justices of the
peace, and mayors of cities willingly
joining in marriage runaways from other
States and neighbors; the coach box
and the back seat of the princely Ian.
dau in Irritation; kilograms flashing
across the country for the arrest of alb.
seconded school misses who started off with
armful of books, and taking rail trains to
meet their affianced-in the snow drifts OF
the great storm that has recently passed
over the country some of them, l read
have perished-thousands of people in q
marriage whose banns have never been
published; precipitated conjugality; big.
amy triumphant; marriage a Joke; So
ciety blotched all over with putrefaction
on this subject, which no one but the AL
mighty God can arrest.
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-
tiers, demanding their celibacy or forbid
ding relations every way right
Through absurd family ambition parents
bave 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 livelihood.
appropriate age and quality of social posi-
ton and no parent has right to pro-
hibit union that seems deliberate and a
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,