The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-02-02

hard knot, a very hard knot. The letters
| run something like this: "What ought !
to do, my husband Is drunkard2" "My
wife Is gad-about and will not stay al
home" AMy companion is ignorant and
hates books and reVel In them" II like
music and piano sets my husband crazy
II am fond OF social life and my COM
pAnion is recluse." Al am trying TO be
good and my lifelong associate is very bad.
What shall I dor" My answeris, there are
,ertain good reasons for divorcement. The
Nble recognizes them. Good society re-
,ognizes them. But it must be the very
.ast resort, and only after all reasonable
attempts at reclamation and adjustment
have proved dead failure. When such
attempts fail 1t is generally because Of
meddlesome outsiders, and women tell the
wronged wife how she ought to stand on her
rights, and men tell the wronged husband
how he ought to stand on his rights. And
let husban and wife in an unhappy mar
riage relation stand punctiliously on their
rights, and there will be no readjustment,
and only one thing will be sure to them,
and that is hell on earth.
If you are unhappily married, in most
| cases I advise you to make the best you can
of an awfully bad bargain. Donot project
your peculiarities more than is necessary.
Perhaps you may have some faults of your
! own which the other party in the marital
| alliance may have to suffer. You are in
the same yoke. If you pull aside the yoke
| will only twist your neck. Better pull
| ahead. The world is full Of people who
made mistakes about many things, and
| among other things about betrothal and
marriage, and yet have been tolerably
| happy and very useful in the strength OF
God, and by the grace promised in every
| time of need if those who seek it conquer
the disadvantageous circumstances. l am
| acquainted with lovely women married to
contemplate men, and genial men yoked
with termagants inspired of the devil. And
yet under these disadvantages my friends
are useful and happy. God helps people
in other kinds of martyrdom and to sing in
the flame, and he will help you in your life
long misfortune.
Remember the patience of Job. What 8
wife he had! At time when he was one
great blotch of eruptions, and his property
was destroyed by tornado, and, more than
all, bereavement had come and the poor
man needed all wise counsel, she advises
him to go to cursing and swearing. She
wanted him to poultice his boils with bias
phemy. But he lived right on through hia
marital disadvantages, recovered his health
and fortune and raised splendid family.
and the closing paragraph of the Book OF
Job has such a jubilance that l wonder
people do not oftener read it:
$50 the Lord blessed the latter end Of
Job more than his beginning, for he had
fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand
camels, and athousand yoke of oxen, and
thousand she asses. He had also seven
sons and three daughters. And he called
the name of the first Jamima, and the
- tbo ho
of the third Kerenhappuch. And in all the
land were no woman found 80 fair as the
daughters of Job, and their father gave
them inheritance among their blethern.
After this lived job one hundred and forty
years, and saw his sons, and his sons sons
even four generations. So Job died, being
old and full of days"
Now, my badly married friend of either
sex, if Job could stand it by the help OF
God, then you can stand it by the same
divine reinforcement. You have other
relations, oh woman, besides the wifely
relation. If you are mother, train up
you children for God and Heaven. If you
are a member of church, help move on
its enterprises. You can get so much Of
the grace of God in your heart that ali
your home trials will seem insignificant
How little difference does it make what
HOuE uuESSutCOub NOu1 II OOu
calls you his child and you are an heiress
of whole kingdoms beyond the sky?
Immerse yourself in some kind of OUT
side usefulness. something that will enlist
your prayers, your sympathies, your hand,
your needle, your voice. Get your heart
on fire with love to God and the disen-
thrallment of the human race, and the
troubles of your home will be blotted out
in the glory of your consecrated life. /
cry out 10 you, oh woman, as Paul ex-
claims in his letter to the CoIithians
what knowest thou, oh wife, whether
heu shalt save thy husband2" And if you
cannot save him you can help in the
srander, mightier enterprise Of helping
az 9 the world. Out of the awful mistake
f your marriage rise into the sublimest
ifQ Of self-sacrifice for God and sufferins
humanity. Instead of sitting down to
NOPE over your domestic woes, enlist
your energies for the worlds redemp-
ton.
Some parts of Holland keep out the
ocean only by dykes or walls Of stout
masonry. The engineer having these
dykes in charge was soon to be married to
maiden living in one of the villages, the
existence of which depended on the
strength of these dykes. And there was to
be great feast in one of the villages that
approaching evening in honor of the COM
ing bridegroom. That day a great storm
threatened the destruction Of the dykes,
and hence the destruction of thou
sands of lives in the villages shell
tered by that stone wall. The ocean
was in full wrath, beating against the
dykes, and the tides and the terror were
still rising. "Shall / go to the FEAST"
says the engineer, cor shall go and help
my workmen take care Of the dykes?"
"Take care Of the dykes, he said to him
self; II must and will" AS he appeared
on the wall the men working there we're
exhausted and shouted: "Here comes the
engineer. Thank Godl Thank God"
The wall was giving way, stone by stone,
and the engineer had rope fastened
around his body, and some of the work.
men ha6 ropes fastened around their
bodies and were let down amIu Ipe
surges that beat the wall. Everything was
giving way. "More stonesl" cried the men.
"More mortar!" But the answer came
"There is no more!" "Then," cried the
engineer, "take off your clothes and with
them stop the holes in the wall" And SO,
in the chill and darkness and surf, it was
done, and with the workmen's apparel the
openings in the wall we're partially filed.
But still the tide rose, and still the ocean
reared itself for more awful stroke, and
for the overwhelming of thousands of
lives in the villages. "Now we have done
all we can, said the engineer; down on
your knees, my men, and pray to God for
help" And on the trembling and parting
dykes they prayed till the wind changed
and the sea subsidized, and the villages be-
low, which, knowing nothing Of the peril,
were full of romp and dance and hilariiy,
we're gloriously saved.
Now, what we want in this work of WALL
ing back the oceans Of poverty and drunk
enness and impunity and sin is the help of
more womanly and manly hands. Oh how
the tides come inl Atlantic surge of sor-
row after Atlantic surge of sorrow, and the
tempests of human hate and satanic fury
are in full cry. oh, woman of many
- - 800 Ill tba faaats ~ xvorI11,y