The Penn's Grove record., 1895-03-22
REV. DR. TAIMAGE.
EuM BRooKLYH DTvNE,s sUx-
DAY SERMON.
subject: ..wholesale Divo.ce..'

ti&d ifRppily married" are W words De
M we OF many a homestead. 1t needs nc
PuHiox minister to prove to a badly mated
CHAT there is a hell. They are there now:
ny Zines a grand and gracious woman viii
IT, pf. rs incarcerated, and her life will be
tAo;,kion, as was the case with Mrs. Sigour-
etiNe he great poetess and the great soul.
fury, basues q consecrated man will be united
m, as sls a as was John Wesley, or united to q
rally, Swas John Milton. Sometimes, and
mas Carr sd. both parties are to blame, and
smoi lyle was an intolerable scold, and
,rian, ~ ked and swore, and Froude, the
ong sous Id ,alled aside the curtain from the
me Row prfbble at Cra~igenputtock and Five
. dome dsthat for the alienation Of all
divorce Sstic disorders OF which we hear
al is q good prescription. God
Iuthorize2h sthorizes divorce as certainly as
I'd for onen marriage. Ibave Just as much
one lawful. lawfully divorced as ! have
I know thai " married, Bat you know
So. WHOLESALE divorce is one OF
lis when yourges, ! am not surprised
sheee. l think Of the influences which
abroad initiating against the mar
relation,
many years the platforms Of the coun
rang with talk about q free love millen-
<Afum. There were meetings Of this kind held
in the Cooper Institute, New York; fremont
Il Temple, Boston, and all over the LAND,
4 oOhAO "a WIZ SLh VAO WNhN ~ N
nent In that movement have since been dis
| tinguished for great promiscuosity OF affec-
tion. Popular thems for such occasions were
| the tyranny Of a the oppression OF the
marriage relation, women's rights and the
afinities. Prominent speakers were women
with short curls and short dress, and very
long tongue, everlastingly at war with God
because they were created women, while on
the platform sat meek men with soft accent
and cowed demeanor, apologetic -or mascu.
Unity, and holding the parasols while the
termagant orators went on preaching the
doctrine Of free love.
That campaign Of about twenty years So.
more devilsi into the marriage relation than
will be exercised in the next fifty. Men and
women went home from such meetings so
permanently confused as to who were their
wives and husbands that they never got out
Of their perplexity, and the criminal and the
civil courts tried to disentangle the sIliadn
Of woes. and this one got alimony, and thai
one got a limited divorce, and this mother
kept the children on condition that the
father could sometimes come and look at
them, and these went into poorhouses, and
those went into an insane asylum. and those
went into dissolute public life, and all wen
to destruction. The mightiest war ever
made against the marriage institution was
that free love campaign, sometimes undel
one name and sometimes under another.
Another influence that has warred upon
the marriage rgsl tion has been polygamy II
Utah. That wa q stereotyped earicature o.
the marriage relation and has poisoned th'
whole land. You might as well think thai
i-fou can have an arm In a state Of mortified
ton and yet the whole body not be sickenet
as to have these Territories polygamized ant
yet the body OF the Nation not feel the putre
faction Hear 1t, good men and women o
America. that so long ago as 1852 o law wa!
passed by Congress iorbidding ~polygamy II
4 IT, ntx-i4a-faz n~I a., all tho nI0naa whQrt
they had jurisdiction. Twenty-four year
passed along and five administrations before
the first brick was knocked from that for
tress of libertinism.
Every new President In his Inaugural
tickled that monster with the straw OF con
domination, and every Congress stultffied It
self In proposing some plan that would no
work. Polygany stood more intrenched
and more brazeD, and more puissant, ant
!, more braggart, and more internal. Jane
Buchanan, a much abused man of his dey
did more for the e~xtirpation OF this villain,
than most Of the subsequent ADMINISTERS
tions. Mr.. Buchanan sent out an army, an
sithoueh it was halted in its work stu h
| accomplished mora than some OF the admin
istrations which did nothing but talk, talk
: talk. At last, but not until It had poisone'
generators, ~polygsmy has reoeivedit its death
/, blow.
: Poiygamy In Utah warred against the mar
. 1 nHE6 ftlAtlOu IHTOukuoul Inc ldnuf ~ VIC
impossible to have such an awful sewer @
iniquity sending up its miasms, which wa
3 waited by the winds North, South, East al
+ West, without the whole land being affecse'
by 1t.
Another influence that has warred agains
, the marriage relation in this country ha
been a pustulous literature, with its million
Of sheefs every week ehoked with stories Q
domestic wrongs and infldelitles and massa
ores and outrages, until 1t Is q wonder to m
that there are any decencies or any commo
sense left on the subject Of marriage. One
Q half OF the newsstands Of all our cities reek
ing with the filth.
e evils, and the only way to clear them out o
correct them Is by easy divorce" Well, be
: jipre we yield to that cry let US find out hoy
Sasy 1t fs now.
Ihave looked overthelaws Of all the State.
: ind I find that, while In some States It I
! sasier than In Others, ~ every State It !
! Eeasy. The State Of Illinois, through its Leg
'~tslature, recites Q long List Of proper cause
or divorce n then closes up by giving I
he courts the right to make the decree Q
lyorce In any case where they deem 1t ez
pedient. After that you arc not surprise
it the announcement that In one county
he State OF Illinois, In one year, there wer
S3s divorces. Hyou want to know how cas-
tbs, you have only to look over the records q
he States. In the city Of San Francisco So
divorces in one year, and In twenty year
IN New England 10000. Is that not cas-
enough?
1.-THE same ratio c~ontinue-the ratio q
multiplied divorce and multiplied causes
Il diyorce-We are not far from the time whe
our courts will have to set apart whole day
for application, and all you will have I
prove against q man will be that he left b
Newspaper in the middle Of the floor. and a
you win have to prove against a woman wi
! Be that her husbands o~vercoat Is buttonlesl
7 Causes OF divorce double in . few years
Idoubied In France, doubled in England an
doubled in the United States. To show 70
y how very easy 1t Is / have to tell you that 1
% Western Reserve, Ohio, the proportion {
divorces to marriages celebrated Is n I
eleven, in Rhode Island Is one to thirteen, 4
n Vermont n to fourteen. Is not that cas-
d ~enough7
/ want you to notice that frequency {
divorce always goes along with the dissc
IA lluteness OF society, Rome for 500 years ha
: not one case Of divorce. Those were ht
days Of glory and virtue. Then the reign {
vice began, and divorce became epidemic
i you want to know how rapidly The emp
= vent down, ask Gibbon-
Io What we want In this coul..ry and in a
lands Is tina divorce be made more an
lmore and more difiealt. Then people b.
& fore they enter that relation will be pei
2 sauded that there wiifprobably be no eseap
from II except LuNuuBh tuo uOtf VI IA sVl
tulcher. Then they will pause on the yerg
Il Of that relation until they are fully Statistic
i that IT is best, and that 1t Is right, and thl
= It Is happiest. Then we shall have no MOI
: marriage In fun. Then men and women wi
not enter the relation with the idea 1t is onl
q trial trip, and II they do not ike it the
ran get out ct the first landing. Then tn
& whole question viii be taken out Of the fri
= elous into the tremendous ana there VIII
M more Joking about the blossoms In
brides hair than about the cypress on
n conn. -,
WHAT We want Is that tho Congress Of Il
q United States change the National Qonstit
" ton so that q law can be passed which shi
be uniform all owe the country, and wh
shall be right In one Stab shall be right
IS ali the States, and what Is wrong IN one Sta
al viii be wrong In all the States.
How is it now2 liza party In the marrial
relation gets dissatisfied, - Is oaiy necessa
to Q 70 another State To achieve iber
I ffon from the domestic ffeA and divorce