Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1888-01-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Second Discourse of the Series to
the Women OF America.
Advice to the Choice Of q Hu .band-An
CnconEen al Marriage u Living Death
High, Worldly Marriages Not
Necessarily Happy.

Dewitt Taimage took for his subject
Marriage for Worldly Success Without
Regard to Moral Character" His tex,
was:
And there was a man in Maon whose posses
sions were in Carmel: and the man was very
great and he had three thousand sheep and q
thousand goats.-I Samuel, xxy.2.
DR.. Talmage said; My text introduces
us to drunken bloat of large property.
Before the day of safety deposits and
government bonds and national banks
people had their investments in flocks and
herds, and this man, Nabal, OF tho text,
had 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, churl,
sot and fool. One instance, to illus
trate: 1t was wool-raising country, and
at the time of shesring great feast was
prepared for the shearers; and David and
his warriors, who had in other days saved
from destruction the threshing floors
of Nabal, sent to him ask.
ing, in this time Of plenty, for
some bread for their starving men. And
Nabal cried out: 'Who is David?" AS
though an Englshman had said: "Whc
is Wellington:" or German should say:
''Who is Won Moltke?" or an American
should say: 'Who is Washington:'
Nothing did Nabal give to the starving
men, and that night the scoundrei lay
dead drunk at home, and the Bible gives
US full-length picture Of him sprawling
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, 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 a creature! Well, she no
doubt thought that it would be an
honor to be associated with On aris-
tocratic family and no one can de-
spise 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 banqueters seated at tables laden
with wines from the richest vineyards
and fruits from ripest orchards, aud nuts
thresEed from foreign woods, and meats
smoking in platters Of gold set ON by
slaves in bright uniform. Before she
plighted her troth with this dssipated
man she sometimes said to herself: "How
can l endure HIM? To be associated for
life with such debauchee l can not and
will not" But then, again, she said to
herself: 1T is time l was married, and
this is cold world to depend on, and
perhaps I might do worse, and may be 1
will make sober man out Of him, and
marriage is a lottery anyhow" And
when one day this representative of a
great house presented himself in a
parenthesis of sobriety, and with au as
sumed geniality and gallantry of man.
nor, and with promises Of fidelity and
kindness and self-abnegation, June
morning smiled on a March squat, aud
the great-souled woman surrendered her
happiness to the keeping of this infamous
son Of fortune whose possessions were in
Carmel; and the 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
Christendom-marriag for worldly sue.
cess without regard to character. So
the humble engraver of Paris, became the
famous Nine Roland Of history, the viva
cious aud brilliant girl united with the
cold, formal, monotonOus man because he
came Of an affluent family Of Ameins and
hadlordly blood in his veins. The day, when
through political revolution this patriotic
woman was led to the scaffold around
which lay piles Of human heads that had
fallen from the axe, and she said to an
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 uncongenial mar
riage day was the first.
Good and genial character in man is
the very first requisite for a woman's
happy marriage. Mistake me not as
depreciative OF worldly properties.
There is a religious cant that would
seem to represent poverty as a virtue
and wealth as q crime. l can take
you through thousand mansions where
God is as much worshiped as he ever was
in q 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
embroideres, and live four hundred or
five hundred years; for if, according to
the Bible, in those times a child shall die
one hundred years old, the average Of hui
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. GodIiness is
Etoh fDc tho "a hot iS oil
as for that which is to come. No inven-
tory can be made of the picture galleries
consecrated to God, and Of sculpture and
of libraries and pillared magnificence,
and of parks, and fountains, and gardens
in the ownership Of good men and women.
The two most lordiy residences in which I
was ever q guest had morning and
evening prayers, all the employees pres
ent, and al day long there was an cir Of
cheerful piety in the conversation
and behavior. Lord Radstock carried
the Gospel to the Russian nobility. Lord
Cavan and Lord Cairns spent their vaca-
ton in evangelistic services. Lord Con-
gleton became missionary TO Bagdad.
And the Christ who was born In an east
ern caravansary has again and again
lived in palace.
1t 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 a glimpse Of al the past, and
shelves of poetry to which you may go
and ask Milton, or Tennyson, 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 Disguised with the shams
of the world and ask Thackeray to ex-
press your chsgrin, or Charles Dickens to
expose the sniff;anism, or Thomas
Carlisle to thunder your indignation, or
the other shelves where the old Gospel
writer's stand ready to warn and cheer us