News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-01-26
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject: THE Women who Fight
the Battle of Life Alone"

dix to the masculine volume something
thrown in to make things even-that is tht
hereSy entertained and implied by some men
This is evident to them: Woman's insignifi
canoe, as conn AIRED to man, is evident K
them, because Adam was first created and
then Eve. They don't read the whole story
or they would find that the porpoise and the
bear and the ark were created before Adam
SO that this argument drawn from priority
of creation might prove that the sheep and
the dog were greater than man. No! Won al
was an independent creation, and was in
tended, II she chose, to live alone, to walls
alone, act alone, think alone and fight heI
battles alone. The Bible says it is not good
for man to be alone, but never says it is not
good for woman to be alone; and the simple
fact is that women who are harneSsed for
life In the marriage relation would be a
thouSandfo,d better off if they were alone.
God makes no mistake, and the fact that
there is such large majority of women in
this land, proves that he intended that multi
tudes of them should go alone.
W no are these men who year after year
bang around hotels and engine houses and
theatre doors and come in and out to bother
busy clerks and merchants and mechanics,
doing nothing even when there IS plenty TO
do. They are men supported by their wives
and mothers. If the statistics of any of our
cities could be taken on this subject you
would find that vast multitude of women
not only support themselves but masculines.
-
and woman by marriage manacled to one
of these nonentities needs coincidence. A
woman stancing outside the marriage rela-
ton is several hundred thousand times better
off than woman badly married. Many a
bride instead of a wreath of orange blossoms
might more properly wear bunch of nettles
and nightShade, and instead of the Wedding
March a more appropriate tune would be the
Dead March in Saul, and instead of a ban
quet of confectionery and ices there might
be more appropriately spread a table covered
with apples of Sodom, which are outside fair
and inside ashes.
Many an attractive woman of good sound
sense in other things has married one of these
men to reform him. What was the result.
Like when a dove noticing that a vulture was
rapacious and cruel set about to reform it
and said: 8 have a mild disposition, and
like peace, and was brought up in the quiet
of dove cot, and | will bring the vultnre
to the same liking by marrying him." So
one day after the vulture had declared he
would give up his carnlyorous habits and
cease longing for blood of flock and herd, at
an altar of rock covered with moss and
lichen the twain were married, a bald headed
eagle officiating, the vulture saying: with
all my dominion of earth and sky | thee en-
dow, and promise to love and cherish till
death do us part But one day the dove, in
her flight, saw the vulture busy at a carcass
and cried: ''StOp that! did you not promise
me that you would quit your carnivorouS
and filthy habits if married youF' Yes"
said the vulture, but if YOU don't like my
way you can leave" and with one angry
stroke of beak and another fierce clutch of
claw the vulture left the dove eyeless and
wingleSS and lifeleSs. And a flock of robins
flying past cried to elch other and said: See
therel that comes from doves marrying
vulture to reform him."
Many woman who has had the hand of a
young inebTiate offered, but declined it, or
who was asked to chain her life to a man
selfish or of bad temper, and refused the
shackeS, win bless God throughout all
eternity that she escaped that earthly pande
monium.
Besides all this, in our country about
1,000, 900 men were sacrificed in our civil
war, and that decreed a million women to
celibacy. Besides that, since the war, several
armies of men as large as the Federal and
Confederate armies put together have fallen
under malt liquors and distilled spirits SO full
of poisoned ingredients that the work was
done more rapidly, and the victims fell while
vet young. And if 5000 men are DESTROYED
every year by strong drink before marriage,
that makes in the twenty three years since
the war / ,l50,0OO men slain, and DEGREES
$50, 900 women to celibacy Taking then the
fact that SO many women are unhappy in
their marriage, and the fact that the
slaughter of ,, 100, 00O men by war and rum
combined decides that at least that number
of women shall be unbalanced for life, my
appropriateness that l never saw in it before
when it says: Every wise woman buildeth
her house, that is. let woman he her own
architect, lay out her own plan, be her own
supervisor, achieve her own destiny.
In addressing these women who will have
to fight the battle of life alone, / congratulate
you ON your happy escape. Rejoice forever
that You will not have to navigate the 1anits
of the other sex, when you have faults
enOagAeL SOtar own. Ihink-ot t<asA beFeaNe-
of tha Of "a
tprr1IcE which yOu viii not have to run, of
the cares you will never have to carry, and
Of the opportunity of outside usefu' ness from
which marital life would have partially de-
barred yOu, and that you are free to go and
come as one who has the responsibilities of a
household can seldom be. God has not given
you hard lot as compared with your sisters.
When young women shall make up their
minds at the start that masculine companion
ship is net necessity in order to happiness,
and that there is a strong probability that
they viii have TO fight the battle of life
alone, they will be getting the timber ready
for their own fortune, an their saw and AK
and plane shaIpened for its construction,
since every wise woman buildeth her
house"
As no boy ought to be brought up without
learning some business at which he could
earn livelihood, so no girl ought to be
brought up without learning the science of
self support. The difficulty is that many a
family goes sailing on the high tides of sue
cess, and the husband and father depends on
his own health and acumen for the welfare
of his household, but one day he gets his feet
wet, ana il: three days pneumonia has closed
his life, and the daughters are turned out on
a cold world to earn bread, aud there is
nothing practical that they can 90. Tn
friends OF the family come in and hold con-
suitation.
give music lessons" says an outsider.
Yes, that is a useful calling; and if YOU have
great genius for it go on in that direction.
But there are enough music teachers now
starving to death in all our towns and cities
To occupy al the piano StoO.S and sofas and
chairs and front doorstepS of the city. Be
side that, the daughter has been playing only
for amusement and is only at the foot of the
ladder. to the top Of which a great multitude
of masters on piano and harp and flute and
organ have climbed.
.'Put the bereft daughters as saleswomer
in stores" says another adviser. But Their,
they must compete with statesmen of long ex
perienCe or with men who have served an ap
premiership in commerce, and who began a
shop boys at 10 years of age Some kline
hearted dry goods man having known TIN
father, nov gone says: I'VE are not in nesC
of any more help just now, but send YOU
daughters to my store and | viii do as wei
by them as possible Very soon the que
ton comes up: Why do not the female EN-
pl0yeS of that establishment get as mucl
Nd2CS d. INC mat eli kJsOJGS. TOT LnE SlulDit
reason in many cas- IS the females were sud
denly flung by misfO. tune behind thai
counter. vale the males have from the day
they left the public school been learning the
business.
How is this evil to be cured? Start cleal
back in the homestead and teach your daugh
tiers that life is an earnest thing and that
there is a possibility, If not strong prob.
ability, that they will have to fight the battle
of life alone. Let every father and mother
say 70 tEair daughters: Now. what would
you do for livelihood il what now own
were swept away by financial disaster, or old
age or death should end my career
wen, could paint on pottery and dc
such decorative work Yes that is beauti,
Ial, and II you have genius for it go on in
tnaJ dlTect on. But there are enough busy al
tLaV now TO make a line Of hardware from
here to the East River and across the bridge.
Wei, could make recitations in public
and earn my living as a dramatist. could
reader King Lear or Macbeth till your hair
would rise on end, or give you 'Sher1dan's
Ride or Dickeass 'Pickwlck.' Yes, that IS a
beautiful art, but ever AMI anon, as now.
there is an epidemic of dranatiZation that
makes hundreds of households nervous with
the cries and shri ,kS AMI grOlns of young
tragedians dying i'll thu iifta act, and the
trouble is that while Your friends would like
to hear yon, and really think tllJ You could
sIrpaSs Rstori AMI Charlotte Cash II IN al
Fannie Kemble of the past, to say moth NJ of
the present, You could not, in the way of liv-
ing, in ten years earn ten cents.
NV advice to all girls and all unmarried
women, Is neither in a.iiuent homes or in
homes where most stringent economies are
grinding, to learn to do some kind of work
That the word must have while the word
stands. l am glad 20 see marvellous change
for the better, and that women have found
out that there are hundreds of practical
things that woman can do for living if
she begin soon enough, and that men have