The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1888-02-24
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Sixth Sermon of the Series to the
Women of America.
Female Suffrage Not the Remedy for
Drunkonness-ResuIts of Good ana
Bad Advice From Wives
to Husbands.

In the sixth discourse of his series to
the Women of America, delivered at
Brooklyn Tabernacle, Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage took for his subject: "Wifely Ambi-
tion, Good and Bad.'' His text was:
Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be
merry; I viii give thee the vineyard Of NIaboth.
Il Kings, xxi. 4
DR.. Talmage said:
One day King Ahab looking out of the
window of his palace at Jezreel, said to
his wife, Jezebel: "We ought to have these
royal gardens enlarged. If we could only
get that fellow, Nabotb, who owns that
vineyard out there, to trade or sell. we
could make it a kitchen garden for our
palace"
'Fetch in Naboth, says the King to one
of his servants.
The gardener, wondering why he should
be called into the presence of His Majesty,
comes in a little downcast in his modesty
and with very obsequious manner bows
to the King. The King says:
''Naboth, 1 want to trade vineyards
with you. 1 want your vineyard for a
kitchen garden, and / will give you a
great deal better vineyard in place of it,
or, il you prefer money for it, 1 will give
you cash"
'Oh, no." says Naboth, st can not
trade off my little place, nor can sell it.
1t is the old homestead I got it of my
father, and he of his father, and I can not
let the old place go out of my hands,"
In a great state of petulancy, King
Ahab went into the house and flung him
self on the bed, and turned his face to the
comes in and she says: "What is the mat
ter with you? Are you sick?"
"Oh," he says, 81 feel very blue. "I have
set my heart on getting that kitchen gar
den, and Naboth will neither trade nor
sell, and to be defeated by a common gar
dener is more than / can stand"
''Oh, pshaw," says JezebeI, "don't go
on that way. Get up and eat your din
ner and stop mOping. [ will get for you
that kitchen gardan.'
Then Jezebel borrowed her husbands
signet or seal, for then, as now, in those
lands kings never signed their names, but
had ring with the royal name engraved
on it, and that impressed on a royal let
ter or document was the signature. She
stamped her husbands name on a
proclamation, which Re esulted in getting
Naboth tried for treason against the
King, and two perjured witnesses swore
their souls away with the life of Naboth,
and he was stoned TO death and his prop
erty came to the Crown, and so Jezebel
got for her husband and herself the
kitchen garden.
But while the wild street dogs were
rending the dead body of poor Naboth,
Elijah, the prophet, tells them of other
CANNES that viii after awhile have free
banquet, saying: ''Where dogs lick the
blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood,
even thine"
And sure enough, three years after,
Ahab wounded in battle, his carriage
dripping with the carnage, dogs stood
under it tapping his life's blood. And a
little afterward his wife, Jezebel, who had
been his chief adviser in crime, stands at
her palace-window and sees Jehu, the
enemy, approach ng to take possession of
the palace. And to make herself look as
attractive as possi BILE aud queenly to tine
very last, she decorated her person and
according to oriental custom closed her
eyes and ran brush dipped in black
powder along the eyelashes and then
from the window she gl ared her indigna-
ton upon Jehu. As he rode to the gates
in his chariot he shouted to the slaves in
her room: t'Throw her DOWN." But no
doubt the slaves halted a moment from
such work as assassination, yet, knowing
Queen Jezebel could be no more to them
and the conqueror Jehu would be every
thing, as he shouted again:
''Throw her down." They seized her and
bore her struggling aud cursing to the
until she came tumbling to the earth,
striking it just in time to let Jehu's horses
trample her and the chariot wheels roll
over her. While Jehu is inside at the
table refreshing himself after the excite
ment, he orders his servants to 90 and
bury the dead Queen. But the wild street
dogs had for the third time appeared on
the scene, and they had removed all her
body except those parts which in all ages
dogs are, by strange instinct or brutal
supers tition, kept from touching after
death-the palms of the hands and soles
Of the feet.
Ali this appalling scene of ancient his
tory was the result of a wife's bad ad-
vice to a husband, OF wife's struggle
to advance her husbands interests by un-
lawful means Ahab and JezebsI got the
kitchen garden of Naboth, but the dogs
got them. The trouble all began when
this mistaken wife aroused her husband
out Of hi melancholy by the words of the
text: ''Arise and eat bread, and let thine
heart be merry; will give thee the vine
yard of Naboth."
The influence suggested by this subject
is an influence you never before heard dis
coursed on, and may never hear again, but
a most potent and semi omnipotent
influence, and decides the course of indi-
viduals, families, nations centuries and
eternities. I speak OF wifely ambition,
go~d and bad. How important that every
wife have her ambition-an elevated,
righteous and diviEely- approved ambi-
tion.
And here let me say, what I am most
anxious for is that woman, not waiting
for the rights denied her or postponed,
promptly and decisively employ the
rights she already has in possession
Some say she viii be I'm fair way to get
all her ri ights when she gets the right to
the ballot-box. I wish that the expert
ment might be tried and settled. I would
ike to see all women vote and then watch
the result. / do not know that it would
change any thing for the better. Most
wives and daughters and sisters would
vote as their Islands and fathers aud
Drothers voted. Nearly all the families
that 1 know are solidly Rspubli can or
Democratic or Prob btion. Those families
all voting would make more votes, but no
difference IN the result. Besides that, as
now at the polls men are bought up by
sthe thousands, women would be bought
up by the thous ands. The more voters
the more opportunity for political corrup-
tion. We have several millions more
voters now than are for public good.
We are are tod that female suffrage
would correct two eviIs-the rum busin ess
and the iusuficiency Of woman's wages.
About the rum business, have to say
that multitudes of women drink and it is
no unusual thing to see them in the
restaurants 50 overpowered with wine
and beer that they can hardly sit up,
while there are many sO-called respectable
restaurants where they can go and take
their champagne and hot toddy all alone.
Mighty temperance voters those women
would makel Besides that, the wives Of
she rum sellers would have to vote in the
interest OF their husbands business. or
have a time the reverse Of felicitious.
Besides that, millions Of respectable and
refined women in America would prob
ably not vote at all, because they do not
want to 90 to the polls, and on the other