The Nicodemus cyclone. [volume] (Nicodemus, Graham County, Kan.) 1887-1888, 1888-01-20
10 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S SUNDAY DISCOURSE.

Logical Disquisition.
SpeciGl to the Kansas Cify Times.
BROOKLYN, Jan. 15-In the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this morning the Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage, d. D., preached the second of the
series of sermons to the women of America,
with important hints to men. The subject of
the sermon was Marriage for Worldly
Success Without Regard to Moral Character"
and the text was from l Samuel, XIV 2: And
there was man in Maon, whose possessions
were in Carmel; and the man was very great,
and ne had three thousand sheep, and a
thousand goats" DR.. Talmage said:
My text introduces us to a drunken bloat
of large property. Before the day of safety
deposits and government bonds and national
banks people had their investment in hocks
and herds. and this man, Nabal, of the text
had much of his possessions in live stock He
came also of distinguished family and had
glorious Caleb for an ancestor But this
descendant was & sneak, churl, a sot and
fool. One instance to illustrate: 1t was a
wOol-rasing country and at the time of shear
Ing great feast was prepared for the shear
ers; and David and his warriors, who had in
other days saved from destruction the thresh-
ing floors of Nabal, sent to him asking, in
this time of plenty, for some bread for their
starving men. And Nabal cried out: "Who
is DayidP' AS though an Englishman had
said "WhO is Wellingtonp or a German
should say: "Who is Won Moltke2" or an
| American should say: ''Who is Washington?r
Nothing did Nabal give to the starving men,
and that night the scOundrel lay dead drunk
at home, and the Bible gives Us a full length
picture OF him sprawling and maudln and
helpless.
Now that was the man whom Abigail,
the lovely and gracious and good
woman, married-a tuberose plant
ed beside thistle, palm
branch twined into wreath of deadly night
shade. Surely that was not one of the
matches made in heaven. We throw up our
| hands in horror at that wedding. How did
she ever consent to link her destnies with
| such a creature! Well, she no doubt thought
that 1t would be honor TO be associated
with an aristocratic family and no one can
despse great name. Besides this, wealth
would come and with it chains OF gold and
mansions lighted by swinging lamps Of aroma
| tic oil, and reSOunding with the cheer of ban
queters seated at tables laden with wines
from the richest vineyards and fruits from
| rpest orchards and nuts threshed from for
elgn woods and meats smoking in platters of
| gold set on by slaves in bright uniform. Be-
fore she plighted her troth with this dissipaU-
ed man she sometimes said to herself, GLOW
can | endure himl To be associated for life
with such debauchee | cannot and will notw
| But then again she said to herself: "It is
time was married and this is a cold world to
depend on and perhaps | might do worse and
| may be will make a sober man out of him,
and marriage is q lottery ANYHOW" And
| when one day this representative Of a great
| house presented himself in a parenthesis of
| sobriety and with an assumed geniality and
| gallantry of manner and with promises of fl
| deity and kindness and self abnegatiOn,
June morning smiled on March squall and
| the great-souled woman surrendered her hap
| piness 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 thousand goats.
Behold here domestic tragedy repeated
every hour OF every day all over Christendom
to character. SO Marie Jeanne Phil
pom, the daughter of the humble
| engraver OF Paris became the famous Madame
| Roland of history, the vivacious and brilliant
girl united with the cold, formal, monotonous
man because he came of an affuent family of
Amiens and had lordly 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 and she said to an aged
| man whom she had cOmforted as they ascend
ed the scaffold: 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
marriage day was the first.
Good and genial character In man, the
very first requisite Tor q WOman's happy mar
| rage. Mistake me not deprecatiVe of
worldly properties, There is religious cant
that would come to represent poverty as a
virtue and wealth as crime. l can take you
| through thousand mansions where God is as
much wOrshipped as He ever was in a cabin.
| The Gospel inculcates the virtues which tend
toward wealth. In the millennium we will all
dwell in palaces and ride in chariots and sit at
sumptuOus banQuets and sleep under rich en-
broideres and live four or five hundred years
for, if according to the Bible in those times a
child shall die hundred years old, the aver
age Of human life will be at least five centu-
ries The whole tendency of sin is toward
poverty and the whole tendency of righteous
ness Is toward wealth. Goodness is profitable
Tor the life that now Is as well as for that
which is to come. No inventory can be made
OF the picture galleries cOnsecrated to God and
of sculpture and of libraries and pillared mag
nlflcence and of parks and fountains and gar
dens in the ownership of good men and wom-
en-. The two most lOrdy residence in which
was ever guest had morning prayers, all the
employees present, and all day long there was
an air of cheerful piery in the conversation
and behavior. Lord Cavan and Lord Cairns
spent their vacation in evangeliStic services
Lord CongletOn became missionary to Bagdad.
And the Christ who was born in an eastern
caravansary has again and again lived in a
palace.
IL Is 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 20 and ask Milton or Tennyson or Spen-
Ger or Tom Moore or Robert Burns to sep
down and spend an evening with you: and
other shelves to which you may go while YOU
feel disguised with the shams of the world
and ask Thackeray to express your chagrin or
Charles Dickens to expose the Pecksnifian-
ism or Thomas Carlyle to thunder your indig-
nation; or the other shelves where the old
Gospel writers stand ready to warm and cheer
us while they open doors into that city which
is so bright the MONDAY sun Is abolished.
There is no virtue in owning a horse that
takes four minutes to go mile if YOU can
own one that can 60 in little over two min
utes and half; no virtue in running into the
teeth of a northeast wind with thin apparel
If you can afford furs; no virtue in being poor
when you can honestly be rich. There are
names of men and women that have only 10
mention and they suggest not only wealth
but religion and generosity and philanthropy,
such as Amos Lawrence. James LeunoX. Peter
Cooper, William E Dodge, Shafteshury, Miss
Wolfe, and Mrs. Aston recent writer
SAYS that of fifty leading business men in one
of our Eastern cities, and of the fifty leading
business men of one OF our Western cities