The Russellville Democrat., 1888-02-02

water and then put them on the boards or a Bible, making their pledge of fidelity. On the cover of the old Testament Of that book to this day, in Robert BYns' hand- writing. may be found the words: "Levit- icus. xix, F: Ye shall not swear by my name falsely; am the Lord" And on the cover of the New Testament, in his own handwriting, "Mathew, v., 8: Thou shalt not foroswear myself, but shalt per form unto the Lord thine oaths."
 Suppose ship captain offers his serv- ices to take a ship out to sea. Alter he gets little way be comes alongside ot q vessel with a more beautiful flag, and which has perhaps richer cargo and IS bound for a more attractive port. Sup pose he rings a bell for tho engineer to slow up and the wheel stops. Now sse the captain being lowered over the side of the vessel into small boat, and he crosses to tho gayer and wealthier craft, and climbs up the sides and is seen walk ing the bridge of the other ship. pick up his resigned speaking trumpet and shout through it: Captain, what does this meanY Did you not promise to take this ship to Southampton, England" "Yes," says the captain, "but l have changed my mind, and have found can do better, and am going to take charge here. shall send back to you all the let ters got while managing that ship, and every thing I got from your ship. and it will be all right" You tell me that the worst fate for such captain as that is too good for him. But it is just what man or woman does who promises 10 take one through the voyage of life, across the ocsan of earthly existence, and then break the promise. The sending back of all the letters and rings and necklaces and keepsakes can not make that right which is in the sight of God, and ought to be in the sight of man. an everlasting wrong. What Amer. ican society needs to be taught is that be- trothal is an act so solemn and tre- mendous that all men and women must stand back from 1t until they are sure that 1t is right, and sure that it is best, and sure that no retreat will be desired Before that promise of lifetime companion ship any amount of romance that you wish, any ardor of friendship, any com ing and going. But espousal is gate, golden gate, which one should not pass unless he or she expects never to return. Engagement is the porch of which mar. riage is the castle, and you have no right in the porch if you do not mean to pass into the castle.
 The trouble has always been that this whole subject of alliance has been rele- gated to the realm of frivolity and joke, and considered not worth sermon or even a serious paragraph. Aud so the massacre of human lives has zone on. and the devil has had it his own cruel way; and what is nightly needed is that pulpit and plat lrm, and printing press, all speak word of unmistakabie and thunderous prot on this subject of infinite importance. We put out into thin poesy and light eading the material engagements of Pet dreh and his Laurs, Dante and his Beatrice, Chaucer and his Philippa, Lorenzo de Medici and his Luerelia, Spencer and his Rosalnd, Wal.
 Ter his Saucharissa, not realizing that it was andthe style of theirengagement that decided their happiness or wretchedness, their virtue or their prohgacy. All the literary and military and religious glory of Queen Elizabeth's reign can not blot out from one of the most conspicuous pages of history her infamous behavior toward Seymour, and Philip, and Mel yille and Leicester and others. All the ecclesiastical robes that Dean Swift ever rustled through consecrated places can not hide from intelligent people of all ages the fact that by promises of marriage which he'- never full filled he broke the heart of Jane Waring after an engagement of seven years, and the heart of Stella after an en- gagement of fourteen years, and the poetic stanzas he dedicated to their ex- cellences only make the more immortal his own perfidy.
 But suppose should make mistake" says some man or woman, land find it out after the engagement and before mar riage?" My answer is, you have no ex- cuse for making q mistake on this sub ject There are so many ways of finding out all about the character, and preferences and dislikes, and habits of man or woman, that if you have not brain enough to form q right jud gment in regard to him or her, you are not so fit candidate for the mat rmonal altar as you are for an idiot asy. lum. Notice what society your especial friend prefers whether he is industrious or lazy, whether she is neat or slatternly, what books are read, what was the style of ancestry, noble or depraved, and if there be any unsolved mystery about the person under consideration postpone all promise until the mystery is solved.
 Jack son's Hollow, Brooklyn, was part of the city not built on for many years, and every lime crossed it l said to my self or to others, why is not this land built onf 1 found out afterward that the title to the land was in controversy, and no one wanted to build there until that question was decided. Afterward l un- derstood the title was Fettled, and now buildings are going up all over it. Do not build your happiness for this world on q character, masculine or feminine, that has not settled and undi sputed title to honor, and truth, and sobriety, and kind. aess, and righteousness.
 c woman, you have more need to pause before making such an important promise than man, because if you make mistake 1t is worse for you. If man blunder about promise of marriage, or go on to an unfortunate marriage, he can spend his evenings away, and can go to the club, or the Republican or Democrat 10 headquarters, aud absorb his mind in city, or State and National cleo tions, or smoke himself stupid, or drink himself drunk. But there is no place of regular retreat for you, O woman, and you could not take narcotics or intoxi- cants, and keep your responsibility. Be- fore you promise, pray and think, and study and advise. There will never again in your earthly history be a time when you SO much need God.
 It seems to me that the world ought to cast out from business credits and from good neighborhood those who boast of the number of hearts they have won, as the Indian boasts of the number sf scalps he has taken. If man will lie to a wom. an and a woman will lie to a man about SO important matter as that of a life time's welfare, they will lie about bill of goods, and lie about finances, and lie about any thing. Society to-day is brim full of gallants and man .millin CTS and carpet knights and coquettes and those most God forsaken of all wretches -hirts. And they go about drawing rooms and the parlors of watering places, simper- ing and lowing and scraping and whis- pering, and then return to the club