Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-02-03

touch death. Here is an evil that men
cannot stop, but women may. Keep all
such out of your parors, have no recogni-
ton for them in the street, and no more
think OF allying your life and destiny with
theirs than "gales from Araby" would con-
sent to pass the honeymoon with an
Egyptian plague. All that money or social
position bad man brings TO a woman in
horror, II brilliant agony, prolonged
death, and the longer the marital union
lasts, tho more evident will be the fact
that she might better never have been
born. Yet you and | have been Mt brilliant
weddings where, before the feast was over,
the brdegrooms tongue was thick and his
eye, CLASSY and his step stagger as he
going with lightning limited express train
to the fatal crash over the embankment of
ruined life and o lost eternity.
I Woman. Join not your right hand with
such right hand. Accept from such an
one no jewel FOR finger or ear, lest that
sparkle OF pre- cious stone turn out to be
the eye of a basilisl, and let not the ring
that ring turn out to be one link in a chain
that snail bind you in never ending cap
tivity. In the name of God and Heaven
and home, in the name Of all time and all
eternity forbid the banns. Consent not
TO JON one OF the many regiments of
women who have married for worldly sue
cess without regard to moral character.
| it You are ambitious, oh woman, for
noble at1iancing, why not marry a king?
And TO that honor you are invited by the
Monarch of Heaven and earth, and this
day voice from the skies sounds forth:
AS the bridegroom rejoiceth over the
bride so shall thy God rejoice over thee"
let him put upon thee the ring of this
royal marriage. Here is an honor worth
reaching after. By repentance and faith
you may come into marriage with the
Emperor OF universal dominion, and you
may be an empress unto God forever, and
reign with Him in palaces that the CEN
turtles cannot crumble or cannonade or
| demolish.
High worldly marriage is not necessary
for woman or marriage of any kind in order
to your happiness. Celibacv has been hon
ored by the best being that ever lived aud
What higher honor could single life on
earth have? But what you need, oh wo-
man, is to be affianced forever and forever,
ana the banns OF that marriage l am this
moment here and now ready to publish.
Let the angels of Heave1 bend from their
galleries of light to witness while pro-
nounce you one-a loving God and for
given soul. One of the most stirring pas
sages in history with which am acquainted
tells us how cleopatra, the exiled Queen of
Egypt, won the sympathies of Julius Caesar,
the conqueror, until he became the BRIDE
groom and she the bride. Driven iromher
throne, she sailed away on the Mediterra-
mean Sea IL a storm, and When the large
ship anchored she put out with one
womanly friend in small boat until she
arrived at Alexandria, whore was Caesar,
3l,n
would not be permitted to land or pass the
guards on the way to C;esar's palace, she
laid upon the bottom OF the boat some
shawls and scarfs and richly dyed uphol-
stery, and then lay down upon them. and
her friend wrapped her in them and she
was admitted ashore in this wrapping of
goods, which was announced as Il present
for Caesar. This bundle was permitted to
pass the guards of the gates of the palace,
general. When the bundle was unrolled
there roso before Cesar one whose cour-
age and beauty and brilliancy are the as
tonishment of the ages. This exiled
Queen of Egypt told the story Of her sor-
rows, and he promised her that she
should get back her throne in Egypt and
take the throne CT wifely dominion in his
own heart. Afterward they made q tri-
umphal tour in a barge that the pictures Of
Barge" and that barge was covered with
silken awning, and its deck was soft with
luXuriant carpets, and the oars were silver
tipped, and the PROV was gold mounted,
and the air was redolent with the spicery
of tropical gardens and resonant with the
music that made the night glad as the day.
You may rejoice, oh woman, that you are
not a Cleopatra, and that the one TO whom
you may be aftianced had none of the sins
of Caesar, the conqueror. But it suggests
to me how you, soul exiled from happi-
ness and peace, may find your way to
the feet of the conqueror Of earth
and sky. Though it may be dark night
OF spiritual agitation in which you put out
into the harbor of peace you may sail. and
when all the wrappings of feal and doubt
and sin shall be removed you will be
found at the feet Of Him who will put you
on q throne, to be acknowledged as His in
the day when all the silver trumpets Of the
sky shall proclaim: behold the BRIDE
groom cometh, 7" and in barge Of light you
sail with Him the river whose source is
the foot of the throne and whose mouth is
at the sea of glass mingled with fire.