The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1888-01-27
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Second Discourse of the Series to
the Women OF America.
Advice as to the ChOlce of a Husband-An
Uncongen al Marriage "a Living Death
High, Worldly Marriages Not
Necessarily Happy. - "a

Necessariiy HAPPY LIZ
! In the second sermon of his cries ad-
1 dressed to the women of America, Dew. I.
Dewitt Taimage took for his subject
| Marriage for Worldly Success Without
| Regard to Moral Character." His text
was
And there was man in Maon whose posses
/ sions were in Carmel; and the man was very
great, and he had three thousand sheep and a
| thousand goats.-I Samuel, XIV 2.
! DR.. Talmage said; My text introduces
US to drunken bIoat of large property.
| Before the day of safety deposits and
! government bonds and national banks
/ people had their investments in fiocks and
| herds, and this man, Nabal, of the text,
| had much Of his possessions in live stock.
! He also came of distinguished family
1 and had glorious Caleb for an ancestor.
/ But this descendant was a sneak, churl,
a sot and fool. One instance, to illus
/ trate: 1t was a wool-raising country, and
at the time of shearing great feast was
prepared for the shearers; and David and
1 his warriors, who had in other days saved
from destruction the threshing floors
of NabaS sent to him ask
ing III this time of plenty, for
some bread for their starving men. And
| Nabal cried out: ''Who is David?" AS
though an Englishman had said: "Who
| is WellingtOn?' or a German should say:
"Who is Won Moltke?' or an American
should say: ''Who is Washingtonp
| Nothing did Nabal give to the starving
men, and that night the scoundrel lay
! dead drunk at home, and the Bible gives
us a 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, a palm branch twined into a
wreath of deadly ightshade 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 creaturel Well, she no
doubt thought that it would be an
| honor to be associated with an aris-
| tocratc 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 banqueters seated at tables laden
| with wines from the richest vineyards
and fru its 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: "ETow
can | endure him? To be associated for
life with such a debauchee l can not and
| will notH' But then, again, she said to
| herself: 1T is time L was married, and
this is a cold world 10 depend on, and
perhaps l might do worse, and may be
| will make a 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
parenthess of sobriety, and with an as
sumed geniality and gallantry of man
ner, and with promises of fidelity and
| kindness and self-abnegation, a June
morning smiled on a March squall, 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 a domestic tragedy re-
peated every hour of every day all over
misunderstanding for worldly sue
cess without regard to character. So
Marie Jeanne Philpon, the daughter of
the humble engraver of Paris, became the
famous Nine. Roland of history, the viva
cious and brilliant girl united with the
cold, formal, monOtoL GUS man because he
came of an affluent family Of Ameins and
had Iordly blood in his veins. 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 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.
Coed and genial character in man is
the very first requisite for a woman's
happy marriage Mistake me not as
depreciative of worldly prosperities.
There is a religious cant that would
seem to represent poverty as a virtue
and wealth as a crime. l can take
! You through thousand mansions where
God is as much worshiped as he ever was
in a 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 on
five hundred years; for if, according to
, the 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
J profitable for the life that now is as well
as for that which is to come. No inVeu-
tory can be made of the picture galleries
Z consecrated to God and of sculpture and
of libraries and pilIared 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 a guest had morning and
] evening prayers, all the employees pres
ent and al I day long there was an air 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.
tion in evangelistic services. Lord Con
. gleton became missionary to Bagdad
And the Christ who was born in an east
ern carayansary has again and agar
lived in palace.
1t is a grand thing to have plenty o
q money, and horses that don't compel yol
: to take the dust Of every numbering and
+. lazy vehicle, aud books Of history that
. give you glimpse of all the past, anC
r shelves Of poetry to which you may q
: and ask Milton, or Tennyson, or Spencer
: or Tom Moore, or Robert Burns 70 steI
down and spend an evening with you;
: and other shelves to which you may e
while you feel disgusted with the shams
/ OF the world and ask Thackeray 10 ex
/ press your chagrin, or Charles Dickens 4
expose the PecksnifIianism, or Thoma.
. Carlisle to thunder your Indignation, d
the other shelves where the old Gospe
writers stand ready 10 warn and cheer u
while they open doors into that city whicl
> Is so bright the monday sun is abolis he'd
There is no virtue in owning hors'
o that takes four minutes to 90 a mil'
4 if you can own one that can 60 in Iittli
- over two minutes ami half; no virtue il
5 running into the teeth Of a uortheas
1 wind with thin apparel IL you can atfor'
furs; virtue ia being poor when yol
/ can honestly be rich. There are name
? OF men and women that / have only {
mention, and they suggest not onil
wealth but religion and generosity ant
2 pb.lautkrony such as Amos, Lawrence