The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-01-27

ter as that of a lifetime's welfare they will
lie about bill Of goods and lie about finances
and lie about anything. Society today Is
brimful II gallants, and man milliners, and
carpet knights, and coquettes and those most
God forsaken Of all wretches-fiirts. And
they 60 about drawing rooms and the parlors
of watering places simpering and bowling,
and scraping and whispering, and then re-
turn to the club rooms II they be men, or to
their special gatherings If they DO women, TO
chatter and giggle over what was said to
them in confidence. Condgn punishment IS
apt to come upon them, and they get paid IN
their own coin. could point you to score
whom society has let drop very hard in re-
turn for their base traffic in human hearts.
As to such men, they walk around IN their
celibacy, after their hair is streaked with
gray, and pretending they are naturally
short-sghted when their eyes are SO old In
sin that they need the spectacles of sep
tuagenarian, an eyeglass about No. T. and
think they are bewitching in their stride and
overpowering in their glances, although they
are simply laughing stocks for all mankind.
And if these base dealers in human hearts be
females, they are left after while severely
alone, striving in very desperation OF
agony Of cosmetics to get back to the at
Effectiveness they had when they used to brag
how many masculine affections they had
slaughtered. Forsaken Of God and honest
men and good women are sure to be all such
masculine and female trifiers with human
and yet immortal affections. Oh man, oh
woman, having plighted your troth, suck
to it!
And here my idea widens and have to
say not only to those who have made a mis-
| lob ;,,c ica Of r,arriQ huf tn
those who have already at the altar been pro-
nounced one when they are two, or in diver
sity of tastes and likes and dislikes are
neither one nor two but dozen-make the
best you can Of an awful mistake And here
let me answer letters that come from every
state of the American Union, and from
across the sea, and are coming year after
year from men and women who are terrific
ally allianced and tied together in hard
knot, very hard knot. The letters run
something like this: ''What ought to do,
my husband is a drunkard?" my wife is a
CAD about and will not stay at home"
my companion is ignorant and hates books
and revel in them" 81 like music and
piano sets my husband crazy" 81 am fond
of social life and my companion is recluse"
81 am trying to be good and my life long as
sociate is very bad. What shall dog" My
answer is, there are certain good reasons for
enforcement. The Bible recognizes them.
Good society recognizes them. But it must
be the very last resort, and only after all
reasonable attempts at reclamation and ad-
justment have proved a dead failure. When
such attempts fail it is generally because OF
meddlesome outsiders, and women tell the
wronged wife how she ought to stand on her
rights, and men tell the wronged husband
how he ought to stand on his rights. And
let husband and wife in an unhappy mar
riage relation stand punctiliously on their
rights and there will be no readjustment,
and only one thing will be sure to them, and
that is hell on earth.
If you are unhappily married, in most
cases I advise you to make the best you can
of In awfully bad bargain. Do not project
yS,,k peculiarities more than is necessary.
Perhaps you may have some faults of your
own which the other party in the marital al
lance may have to suffer. You are in the
same yoke. If you pull aside the yoke will
only twist your neck. Better pull ahead.
The world is full of people who made mis-
takes about many things, and among
other things about betrothal and par
riage, and yet have been tolerably
happy and very useful in the strength
of God, and by the grace promised
in every time of need if those who seek it
conquer the disadvantageous circumstances.
am acquainted with lovely women married
to contemplate men, and genial men yoked
with termagants inspired of the devil. And
yet under these disadvantages my friends are
useful and happy. God helps people in other
kinds of martyrdom and to sing in the flame,
and he will help you in your lifelong misfor-
tune.
Remember the patience of Job. What a
wife he had! At time when he was one
great blotch of eruptions, and his property
was destroyed by a tornado, and, more than
ali, bereavement had come and the poor man
needed all wise counsel, she advises him to
go to cursing and swearing. She wanted
him to poultice his boils with blasphemy.
But he lived right on through his marital
disadvantages, recovered his health and for
tune and raised splendid family, and the
closing paragraph Of the Book of Job has
such jubilance that wonder people do not
| oftener read it,
$50 the Lord blessed the latter end of Job
more than his beginning, for he had four
teen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels,
and thousand yoke of oxen, and
| thousand she asses He had also seven
| SOnS ana UnTee uauSnUeIS. ana ne called the
| name of the first Jemima, and the name of
the second Kezia, and the name of the third
| Kerenhappuch And in all the land were no
women found SO fair as the daughters of Job,
and their father gave them inheritance among
their brethren. After this lived Job one
hundred and forty years, and saw his sons,
and his sons sons, even four generations.
So Job died, being old and full of days"
Now, my badly married friend of either
sex, if Job could stand it by the help of God,
then you can stand it by the same divine
reinforcement. You have other relations,
oh woman, beside the wifely relation. If you
are a mother, train up your children for God
and heaven If you are a member of
church, help move on its enterprises. You
can get SO much of the grace of God in
your heart that all your home trials will
seem insignificant. How little difference
does it make what your unrighteous husband
calls you, if God calls you his child and
you are an heiress of whole kingdoms beyond
the sky?
Immerse yourself in some kind of outside
usefulness, something that will enlist your
prayers, your sympathies, your hand, your
needle, your voice. Get your heart on fire
with love to God and the disenthrallment of
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