The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1895-06-22
UNHAPPY NJ
Subject Of the Latest Sermon by
DR.. Talmage.
Plain Truths That Should Re Well Con.
sidersd-Wby There Are So Many
Skeletons In American Family
CIosets-The Divorce Evil.

Il0lu IEutnB Anbt SuOulu BO % oAs
sidered-wby There Are So Many
Skeletons in American Family
Closets-The Divorce EVIL.
In a late sermon at New York Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmage took for his sub
ject: Wholesale Divorce" the text be-
ing from Matthew xix. 6: what, there
fore, God hath joined together let no
man put asunder." Following is the
text of his remarks:
That there are hundreds and thou.
sands Of infelicitous homes in America
no one will doubt. II there were only
one skeleton in the closet, that might be
locked up and abandoned; but in many
a house there Is a skeleton in the
hallway and Q skeleton in all the
apartments.
"Unhappily married. are two words
descriptive of many a homestead. 1t
needs no orthodox minister TO prove to
a badly mated pair hat there Is a hell;
they are there now. Sometimes q
grand and gracious woman will be thus
incarcerated, and her life will be a
crucifixion, IS was the case with Mrs.
Sigourney, the great poetess and the
great soul. Sometimes q consecrated
nan will be united to fury,
as was John Wesley, or united to q
vixen, as was John Milton. Some.
times, and generally. both parties are
to blame. Thomas Carlyle was an
intolerable soold, and his wife smoked
and swore; and Froude, the historian,
pulled aside the curtain from the life
long squabble at Craigenputtock and
Five, Cheyne Row.
Some say that for the alienation of
all these domestic orders Of which we
hear, easy divorce is q good prescrip-
ton. God sometimes authorizes di.
vorce as certainly as he authorizes
marriage. have just as much regard
for one lawfully divorced as l have for
one lawfully married. But you know
and / know that wholesale divorce Is
one Of our national spourges. l am not
surprised at this when ! think OF the
influences that have been abroad mill
tating against the marriage relation.
For many years the platforms Of the
country rang with talk about . free
love millennium. There were meet
ings of this kind held In the Cooper in
s~titute, New York; fremont temple.
Boston, and all over the land. Some
of the women who were most promi-
nent In that movement have since been
distinguished for great p~romiscuosity
Of affection. Popular themes for such
occasions were the tyranny of man.
the oppression Of the marriage rels-
ton, women's rights and the afinitisa.
Prominent speakers were women with
short ourls 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 cowsd demeanor,
apologize for masculinity, and hald,
ing the p~srasols while the termagapt
orators went on preaching the doctrine
Of free love.
That campaign of about twenty
years set more devils into the marriage
relation than will be exercised in the
next fifty. Men and women went
home from such meetings so perma-
nently confused as to who were their
wives and husbands that they never
got out Of their perplexitY, and the
criminal aud the civil courts tried to
disentangls the uiad of woes, and this
one got alimony, and that one got .
limited divorce, and this mother kept
the children on condition that the
father could sometimes come and look
at them, and these went into poor
houses, and those went into an insane
asylum, aud those went into absolute
public life. and oil went to destruction.
The mightiest war ever made against
the marriage institution was thot free-
love campaign, sometimes under a
name and sometimes under another.
Another influence that has warred
upon the marriage rslstiop has been
polygamy in Utah. That ives . stereo.
typed c~aricature Of the marriage rela-
ton. and has poisoned the whole land.
You might a web think that you can
have an arm In a state Of modification
and yet the whole body not be sick
ened, as to have those territories polyg-
amized, and yet the body Of the nation
not feel the pu~trefaction. Hear II,
good men and women Of America, that
70 long ago as 1862 q law was passed by
congress f~orbiddipg polygaRy In the
territories and In all the places whore
they had jurisdiction. Twenty-four
years passed along and FIVE sdministys-
tions before the Arst brick was Knocked
from that fortress Of libcrtiaisw.
Every new president in his inaugpral
tlcklsd that monster with the straw
of condemnation, and every congress
stultifed itself In proposing some plan
that would not work. Polygamy stood
more sntrenched, and more byazsp,
and more p~uissant, and more internal.
James Buchanan, = much abused man
Of his day, did more for the ex~tirpstlop
of this villainy than most Of the subss-
quent administrations Mr.. Buchanan
sent out an army, and although 1t was
halted In its work, still he accom-
plishsd more than some of the admins.
trations which did nothing but talk,
talk, talkl At last, but not until 1t
had poisoned generations, polygamy
has received its death blow.
Polygamy in Utah warred against the
marriage relation throughout the land.
It was impossible to have such IN
awful sewer of iniquity sending UP its
miasma, which was waited by the
winds north, south, east and west,
without the whole land being affected
by It.
Another influence that has wsrred
against the marriage relation in this
country has been a p%ustulous litera-
ture, with its millions of sheets every
week choked with stories of domestic
wrongs and inAdelities, and massa-
cres, and outrages, until it Is Won
der to me that there are any decenciss,
or any common sense left on the sub
feet Of marriage. 0ne-half Of the news
stands of all our cities reek with the
filth.
Now" say some, i've admit al.
these evils, and the only way to clear
them out or correct them Is by easy
divorce" Well, before we yield "a
that cry, let us find out how easy it Is
now.
have looked over the laws Of the
states and while l find that In some
states 1t is easier than in others, In ev
cry state 1t is easy. The state Of ILL
pois, through its legislature, ~recites q
long list of proper causes for divorce,
and then closes up by giving the courts
the right to make Q decree of divorce
In any case where they deem It expedi
ent. After that you are not surprised
at the announcement that in one coun'
ty of the state of Illinois, In n year
there were s3S divorces. II you want