The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-03-22
..If am affianced to that man, it is for

/ that one can be easily released, peOpie
enter the relation without inquiry and
without reflection. Romance and inn
pulse rule the day. Perhaps the only
ground for the marriage compact is
that she likes his looks and he admires
the graceful way she passed around
the ice cream at the picnic! It is all
they know about each other. 1t is all
the preparation for life. A woman
that could not make loaf of bread to
save her life will swear to cherish and
obey. A Christian will marry an
atheist, and that always makes con-
! Joined wretchedness; for if a man does
not believe there is God. he is neither
to be trusted with a dollar nor with
your lifelong happiness. Having read
much about love in n cottage, people
brought up in ease will go and starve
| in hovel.
BY the wreck of ten thousand homes,
by the holocaust of ten thousand men
and women, by the hearthstone of the
family which is the cornerstone of the
state, and in the name of that God who
hath set up the family institution and
who hath made the breaking of the
marital oath the most appalling of all
periuries. implore the congress of the
United States TO make some righteous,
uniform law for all the states and
from ocean to ocean. on all this subject
of marriage and divorce.
Let me say to the hundreds of young
people in this house this afternoon, be-
fore YOU give your heart and hand in
holy alliance, use all caution; inquire
outside as to habits, explore the diSpo-
sition, scrutinize the taste. question
the ancestry and find out the ambitions.
Do not take the heroes and heroines
| of cheap novels for n model.
Do not put your lifetime happiness.
| in the keeping of man who has the
reputation of being a little loose in
morals. or in the keeping of woman
who dresses fast. Remember that
while good looks arc kindly gift of
God. wrinkles or accident may despoil
them. Remember that Byron was no
more celebrated for his beauty than
for his depravity. Remember that Alb
salom's hair was not more splendid
than his habits were despicable. Hear
it, hear it, The only foundation for
happy marriage that has ever been or
ever will be is good character.
Ask God whom you shall marry, if
you marry at all. A union formed in
prayer will be a happy union, though
sickness pale the cheek, and poverty
empty the bread tray, and death open
the small graves, and all the path of
| life be strewn with thorns, from the
marriage altar. with its wedding
march and orange blossoms, clear on
down to the last farewell at that gate
where Isaac and Rebecca. Abraham
and Sarah, Adam and Eve. parted.
And let me say to you who are in this
relation. if you make one man or wom-
an happy you have not lived in vain.
| Christ SAYS that what he is to the
church. you ought to be to each other:
and if sometimes through difference of
opinion or difference of disposition. YOU
make up your mind that your marriage
was mistake, patiently bear and for
bear. remembering that life at the
longest is short, and that for those who
have been badly mated in this world,
| death will give quick and immediate
| bill of enforcement written in letters of
green grass on quiet graves. And per-
haps. my brother. my sister-perhaps
you may appreciate each other better
in Heaven than you have appreciated
each other on earth.
In the Farm Ballads" our American
poet puts into the lips of repentant
husband, after life of married per-
turbation, these suggestive words:
And when she dies wish that she would be
laid by me.
| And lying together in silence perhaps we will
| agree;
| And If ever we meet in Heaven. would NOT
/ think it queer
| II we love each other better because we quar-
relied here.
And let me say to those of you who
are in happy married union, avoid first
auarrels; have no unexplained CORE
spondence with former admirers; Guilt
vate no suspicious; in moment of bad
temper do not rush out and tell the
neighbors; do not let any of those CAD
abouts of society unload in your house
their baggage of CAB and tittle-tattle;
do not stand on your rights;
learn how to apologize; do not be so
proud, or so stubborn, or so devilish
that you will not make up. Remember
that the worst domestic misfortunes
and most Scandalous divorce cases
started from little infelicities. The
whole piled-up train of ten cars tele-
scoped and smashed at the foot of an
EN- bankment one hundred feet down
came to that catastrophe by getting
two or three inches off the track. Some
of the greatest domestic misfortunes
and the understanding divorce cases
have started from little misunderstood
ings that were allowed to go on and
go on until home, and responsibility,
and religion, and immortal soul went
down in the crash. crash!
And. fellow-citizens as well as fell
low Christians. let us have divine rage
against anything that wars on the mar
rage state Blessed institution! In
stead of two arms to fight the battle of
life, four. Instead of two eyes to
scrutinize the path of life, four. In
stead of two shoulders to lift the bur-
den of life, four. Twice the energy,
twice the courage, twice the holy am
bition, twice the probability of worldly
success, twice the prospects of
Heaven. Into the matrimonial
bower God fetches two souls
Outside that bower room for all con-
tentions, and all chickering's and all
controversies, but inside the bower
there is room for only one guest-the
angel of love. Let that angel stand at
the floral doorway of this Edenic bower
with drawn sword to hew down the
worst foe of that bower-easy divorce.