The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-01-27
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Second Discourse Of the Serisa q
the Women Of America.

| eSOSNSAASA AAoOVOkOO Va SAAD SoA 49, =
| the Women Of America.
Advice ~ to the Chsace Of . Hu.bnnd-Al
Uacon9sn al Marriage = Living Death
High. Worldly Marriages Not
Necessarily Happy.
"A the second sermon Of his series ad
dressed to the women Of America, Dew.
Dewitt Taimage took for his subject
Marriage for Worldly Success Withou
Regard to Moral Character" His tex
was:
And there was man In Maon whose posses
sions were in Carmel: and the man was yer!
great, and he had three thousand sheep and I
thousand goats.-I Samuel, XIV. 2
| DIR. Talmage said; My text introduces
ms to drunken bloat OF large property.
Before the day of safety deposits and
government bonds and national banks
people had their Investments in fiocks and
herds, and this man, Nabal, OF tho text,
had much Of his possessions in live stock.
He also came Of a distinguished family
and had glorious Caleb for an ancestor
But this descendant was sneak, churl
a sot and fool. One instance, to illus.
trate: 1t was a wool-raising country, and
at the time Of shearing great feast was
prepared for the shearers; and David and
his warriors, who had in other days saved
from destruction the threshing floors
of Nabal, sent to him ask.
ing. in this time of plenty, fol
some bread for their starving men. And
Nabal cried out: "Who is David:" AS
though an Englishman had said: "Whc
is Wellington" or a German should say:
"Who is Won Moltke:" or an American
should say: ''Who is Washington?'
Nothing did Nabal give to the starving
men, and that night. the scoundrel lay
dead drunk at home, and the Bible gives
us full-length picture of him spraw ling
and maudlin and helpless.
Now that was tho man whom Abigail
the lovely and gracious and good woman,
married-a tuberose planted beside q
thistle, a palm branch twined into q
wreath of deadly nightshade. Surely
that was not one of the matches made in
Heaven. We throw up our bands in
horror at that wedding. How did she
ever consent to link her destinies with
such creature! Well, she nc
doubt thought that it would be IN
honor to be associated with an aris-
tocratic family and no one can de.
spise a great name. Beside this, wealth
| would come, and with it chains of gold
| and mansions lighted by swinging lamps
of aromatic oil, and resounding with the
cheer Of banqueters seated at tables laden
with wines from the richest vineyards
and fruits from ripest orchards, and nuts
threshed from foreign woods, and meats
| smoking in platters of gold set on by
slaves in bright uniform. Before she
plighted her troth with this dissipated
man she sometimes said to herself: "How
can endure HIM? To be associated for
life with such debauchee can not and
will notw But then, again, she said TO
herself: ut is tins l was married, and
this is cold world to depend on, and
perhaps might do worse, and may be
will make q sober man out Of him, and
marriage is a lottery anyhow" And
when one day this representative Of a
great house presented himself in a
parenthesis of sobriety, and with au as
sumed geniality and gallantry of man.
ner, and with promises of fidelity and
kindness and self-abnegation, a June
morning smiled on q March squall, aud
the great-souled woman surrendered her
happiness to the keeping of this infamous
son of fortune whose possessions were In
Carmel; and the man was very great. and
he had three thousand sheep and one
thousand goats.
Behold here . domestic tragedy re-.
peated every hour Of every day all over
ChristendOm-marria for worldly sue.
cess without regard to character. So
Marie Jeanne Philpon, tho daughter Of
the humble engraver of Paris, became the
famous Mms. Roland Of history, the viva
cious and brilliant girl united with the
cold, formal, monotOnous man because he
came of an affluent family Of Ameins aud
hadlordly blood in his veins. The day, when
through political revolution. this patriotic
woman was led to the scaffold around
which lay piles of human heads that had
fallen from the axe, aud she said to an
aged man whom she had comforted: Go
first that you may not witness my death, /"
and then undaunted took her turn to die
that day was to her only the last act of
a tragedy of which her uncongenial mar.
riage day was the first.
Good and genial character in Q man Is
the very first requisite for a woman's
happy marriage. Mistake me not as
depreciative OF worldly properties.
There is q religious cant that would
seem to represent poverty as a virtue
and wealth as q crime. / can take
you through a thousand mansions where
God is as much worshiped as he ever was
in q cabin. The Gospel inculcates the
virtues which tend toward wealth. In
the millennium we will all dwell in
palaces, and ride i'm chariots, and sit at
sumptuous banquets, and sleep under rich
embroideries, aud live four hundred pr
five hundred years; for if, according to
the Bible, in those times q child shall die
one hundred years old, the average of hu.
man life will be ut least five centuries.
The whole tendency Of sin is toward pow
erty, and the whole tendency of right.
eousness IL toward wealth. Godliness Is
profitable for the life that now is as well
as for that which Is to come. No inven.
tory can be made Of the picture galleries
consecrated to God, and Of sculpture and
OF libraries and pillared magnificence,
and of parks, aud fountains, and gardens
in the ownership of good men and women.
The two most lordly residences in which
was ever q guest had morning aud
evening prayers, all the employees pres
ent. and oil day long there was an air OF
cheerful piety in the conversation
and behavior. Lord Radstock carried
the Gospel to the Russian nobility. Lord
Cavan and Lord Cairns spent their vaca.
ton in evangelistic services. Lord Con-
gleton became missionary to Bagdad.
And the Christ who was born in an east.
ern caravansary has again and again
lived in . palace.
1t is q grand thing to have plenty Of
money, and horses that don't compel you
to take the dust of every numbering and
lazy vehicle, and books of history that
give you . glimpse of all the past, and
shelves of poetry to which you may go