Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-01-26
MISTAKEN MARRIAGES.
SERMON BY REV DIR. TALMAGE.
Marriage for Worldly Success With.
out Regard to Moral Character.

TEXT: "And there tcds man IN Mdon,
sDhose possessions lOers fn Carmel; and the
oion tCds veTy great, and he had three thou
sand sheep and q thousand goats. NJ Sam
uel, XIV,
Ny text introduces us to q 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 the text,
had much Of his possession In live stock.
BE came also OF q distinguished family and
had glorious Caleb for an ancestor But this
descendant was sneak, churl, a sot and
fool One instance to illustrates: II was q
wool raising country, and at the time OF
shearing great feast was prepared for the
shearers; and David and his warriors, who
bad In other days saved from destruction
the threshing floors Of Nabal, sent to him
asking, In this time Of plenty, for some bread
Tor their starving men. And Nabal cried
out: "Who is Davidln As though an Eng
hshman had said: "Who Is Wellington7n or
q German should say: ''Who is Won Moltkeln
or an American should say: "Who Is WASH
tngtoni" 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 sprawling and
maudlin and hopeless
Now that was the man whom Abigail, the
lovely and gracious and good woman, mar
ried-a tuberose planted beside thistle, 9
palm branch twined into a wreath Of deadly
nightshade 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 destinies with
such creaturel Well, she no doubt thought
that 1t would be an honor to be associated
with an aristocratic family, and no one can
despiss 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 dissi-
pated man she sometimes said to herself;
"How can endure himi To be associated
for life with such q debauche cannot and
will notl" But then again she said to her.
self: "lt Is time was married, ard this is a
cold world to depend on, and perhaps
might do worse and may be / will make q
sober man out Of him, and marriage is lot
terry anyhow" And when one day this rep
resentative OF great house presented himself
In parenthesis OF sobriety and with an
assumed geniality and gallantry of manner,
and with promises Of fidelity and kindness
and self-abnegation, June morning smiled
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 thou
sand sheep and thousand goats
Behold here domestic tragedy repeated
every hour OF every day all over Christen-
dom-ma1riage for worldly success without
Phhpon, the daughter of the humble en-
graver of Paris, became the famous Mime.
Roland of history, the vivacious and brill
jant girl united with the cold, formal mo-
notonous man, because he came of an affiuent
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 ak, and she
said to an aged man whom she had comforted
as they assembled 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 the tragedy Of
which her uncongenial marriage day was the
first
Good and genial character in a man, the
very first requisite for woman'shappy mar
riage. Mistake me not as depreciative of
worldly properties There is a religious
cant that would seem to represent poverty as
q virtue and wealth as a crime can take
you through thousand mansions where God
Is as much worshiped as he ever was in
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 embroideries, and live 400 or 500 years,
for, If according to the Bible. in those times
- child shall die 100 years old, the average of
afhuman life will be at least five centuries. The
whole tendency of sin is toward poverty, and
the whole tendency of Righteousness is toward
wealth. Godliness is profitable for 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
lulficence, and of parks, and fountains and
gardens in the ownership OF good men and
women. The two most lordly residences in
which l was ever guest had morning and
evening prayers, all the employees present,
and all 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 vaction in evangelistic service. Lord
Congleton became missionary to Bagdad
And the Christ who was born in an eastern
'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
q glimpse of all the past; and shelves Of
poetry TO which you may go and ask Milton
or Tennyson or Spencer or Tom Moore or
Robert Burns to step 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 Thack.
cray to express your chagrin, or Charles
Dickens to expose the Pecksniffianism, OF
Thomas Carlyle to thunder your indignation;
or the shelves where the old gospel writers
stand ready to warn and cheer us while they
oDen doors into that city which is SO bright
the MONDAY sun is abolished as useless. There
is no virtue in owning horse that takes four
minutes to go a mile, if you can own one
that can SO in little over two minutes and
q half; no virtne in running into the teeth
of northeast wind with thin apparel,
IL 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 to mention and they suggest not
only wealth but religion and generosity and
philanthropy, such as Amos Lawrence, James
Iennox, Peter Cooper. William f. Dodge,
Shaftesbury, Miss Wolf and Mrs. Astor.
A recent letter 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 three-fourths of
them are Christians. The fact is that about
the side of religion. lnfdelity is incipient in.
sanity. All infidels are cranks Many Of
them talk brightly, but you soon find that in
their mental machinery there is a screw
loose. When they are not lecturing against
Christianity they are sitting In barrooms
squirting tobacco juice, and when they get
mad swear till the place issulphurous. They
only talk to keep their courage up and at
best will feel like the infdel who begged to
be buried with his Christian wife and
dannhtar and xuhan asked why he 1RanfaG