The Russellville Democrat., 1888-01-26
ThLMAGES SERMON.
Second Discourse ot the Series to
 the Women of America.
Advice as to the Choroe of a Husband-An Uneongen ai Marriage IA Living Death High, Worldly Marriages Not
 Necessarily Happy.

hbETlh&b AOT " oIihtF CuiE6AS " AthSNs Regard t" Moral Character" His text was:
 And tnere was a man in Maon whose posses tions were in Carmel and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep and thousand goats.-I Samuel XIV ?.
 Dr. Talmage said: My text introduces us to a drunken bloat of large property. Before the day of safety deposits and governments bonds and national banks people had their investments in fiocks and herds, and this man, Nabal, of the text, sad much of his possessions in live stock. He also came of distinguished family and had glorious Caleb for an ancestor. But this descendant was a sneak, a churl sot and fool. One instance, to Illus trate: It was Q wool-raising country, and st 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 Nabai, sent to him ask iug,' in this time of plenty, for some bread for their starving men. And Nabal cried out; "Who is David" As though an Englishmnn had said: "Who is Wellington@ or q German should say: "Who is Won Moltke?" or an American should say: ''Who is Washington" NOlnluR ulu NdDhl SlNb tp buS SAftl titb men, and that night the scoundrel lay dead drunk at home, and the Bible gives us a full-length picture Of him spra wing and maudlin and helpless.
 Now that was the man whom Abigail, the lovely and gracious and good woman, married--a tuberose planted beside a thistle, a 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 creature, We'll, she no doubt thought that it would be an 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 banquetsrs seated at tables laden with wines from the richest vineyards and fruit 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 l endure him? To be associated for life with such debauchee 1 can not and will notw But then, again, she said to herself Tt is tims l was married, and this is cold world to depend on, and perhaps I might do worse, and may be will make sober man out of him, and marriage is a lottery anyhow" And when one day this representative of great house presented himself in Q parenthesis of sobriety, and with all as sumed geniality and gallantry of man. ner, and with promises of fidelity and kindness and self-abnegation, q June morning sii.i'ed on a March squall, aud the great-souiad woman surrendered her happiness tu the keeping of this infamous son of fortune whose possessions were in Carmel; and tho 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 ristendom-marriag for worldly sue cess without regard to character. So Marie Jeanne Philpon, the daughter of the humble engraver of Paris, became the famous Mime. Roland of history, the viva cious and brilliant girl united with the cold, formal, monotonous man because he came of an affiuent family of Ameins and had lordly blood in his veinss The day,when through political revolution, this patriotic woman was led to the scafold around which lay piles of human heads that had fallen from the axe, and she said to m 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 uneongenial mar riage day was the first.
 Good and genial character in e man is the very first requisite for woman's happy marriage. Mistake me not as depreciative of worldly prosperities. There is a religious cant that would seem to represent poverty as virtue and wealth as a crime. l can take you through thousand mansions where God is as much worshlped 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 four hundred or five hundred years; for if, according to tho Bible, in those times a child shall die one hundred years old, the average of hu. man life will be at least five centuries. The whole tendency of sin is toward pow erty, and the whole tendency of right eousness Is 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 eonsecrated to God, and of sculpture and of libraries and pillared magnifcence, and of parks, and fountains, and gardens in the ownership of good men and women. The two most lordly residences in which was ever guest had morning and evening prayers, all the employees pres af Ia,r tbat. al. ,f cheerful piety in tho conversation and behavior Lord Radstock carried the Gospel to the Russian nobility. Lord Cavan and Lord Cairns spent their vaca- tion in evaugelistic services. Lord Com gleton became missionary to Bagdad. And the Christ who was born in an east ern caravansary has again and again lived in palace.
 It 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 q glimpse of all the past, and shelves of poetry to which you may go and ask Milton, or Teunyson, 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 disgusted with the shams Of the world ana ask lnackeray 10 e&. press your chagrin, or Charles Dickens to expose the Pecksnitlianism, or Thomas Carlisle to thunder your indignation, or the other shelves where the old Gospel writers stand ready to warn 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 horse that takes four minutes to go mile if you can own one that can go in a little over two minutes and half; no virtue in cunning into the teeth of northeast wind with thin apparel if you can afford fms; 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