The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-04-03
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
SUNDAYS SERMON IN THE NEW
YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC.
Subject: wholesale Divorce"


together let not man put asunder. .'-Aatthe"
Six., 6.
That there are hundreds and thousands OF
infelicitous homes in America no one Will
doubt. II there were only o2e skeleton in
the closet. that might be locked up and
abandoned, but in many home there is q
skeleton In the hallway and skeleton in all
The apartments.
"Unhappily married" are two words de-
scriptiye OF many homestead. 1t needs no
orthodox minister to prove to badly mated
pair that there is hell. They are there now.
Sometimes grand and gracious woman Will
pc thus incarcerated, and her lie VIII Do a
,rucihxion as was the case with Mrs. Slgour-
ney, the great poetess and the great soul:
Sometimes consecrated man will be united
10 a fury, as was John Wesley, or united to q
sixem, as was John Milton. Sometimes, and
generally, both parties are to blame, and
Thomas Carlyle was an intolerable scold, and
ais wife smoked and swore. and Froude, tho
historian, pulled aside the curtain from the
lifelong squabble at Craigenputtock and Five,
Gheyne Row. =,
Some saw that for the alienation of all
.hese domestic disorders of which we hear
,asy divorce is good prescription. God
sometimes authorizes divorce as certainly as
He authorizes marriage. Ihaye just as much
regard for one lawfully divorced as I have
.or one lawfully married. But you know
and know that wholesale divorce is one OF
sur National scourges. am not surprised
ut this when l think of the influences which
have been abroad initiating against the mar
fiage relation.
For many years the platforms of the coun-
try rang with talk about a free love millen-
nium. There were meetings of this kind held
In the Cooper Institute, New York; fremont
Temple, Boston, and all over the land.
Some of the women who were most promi-
hent in that movement have since been dis
hnguished for great promiscuosity OF atfec-
tion. Popular thems for such occasions were
the tyranny Of man, 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 for mascu-
Unity, and holding the parasols while the
termagant 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 10 the next fifty. Men and
women went home from such meetings 80
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 "Iliad"
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 poorhouses, and
those went into an insane asylum, and those
went into dissolute public life. and all went
to destruction. The mightiest war ever
made against the marriage institution was
that free love campaign, sometimes under
one name and sometimes under another.
Another influence that has warred upon
ehe marriage relation has been polygamy in
Utah. That was stereotyped caricature Of
the marriage relation and has poisoned the
whole land. You might as well think that
you can have an arm in state OF mortitica-
don and yet the whole body not be sickened
as to have these Territories polygamized and
yet the body OF the Nation not feel the putre-
faction. Hear it, good men and women of
America. that SO long ago as 1852 a law was
passed by Congress forbidding polygamy in
the Territories and In all the places where
they had jurisdiction. Twenty-four years
passed along and five administrations before
The first brick was knocked from that for
tress OF libertinlsm.
Every new President in his inaugural
hckled that monster with the straw OF con-
demnation, and every Congress stultified it
self in proposing some plan that would not
work. Polygany stood more intrenched,
and more brazen, and more puissant, and
more braggart, and more internal. James
Buchanan, much abused man Of his day,
did more for the extirpation Of this villainy
than most OF the subsequent administra-
tions. Mr. Buchanan sent out an army, and
although 1t was halted in its work still he
accomplished more than some of the admin
istratiops which did nothing but talk. talk,
talk. At last, but not until 1t bad poisoned
generations, Lolygamy has received its death
blow.
Polygamy in Utah warred against the mar
riage relation throughout the land. 1t was
impossible to have such an awful sewer of
iniquity sending up its miasma, which was
waited by the winds North, South, East aad
West, without the whole land being affected
by it.
Another influence that has warred against
the marriage relation in this country has
been pustulous literature, with its millions
Of sheets every week choked with stories OF
domestic wrongs and inf1delities and massa-
cres and outrages, until it is a wonder to me
that there are any decencies or any common
sense left on the subject Of marriage. One
half Of the newsstands of all our cities reek-
ing with the filth.
'Now," say some, eve admit all these
evils, and the only way to clear them out or
correct them is by easy divorce" Well, be-
fore we yield to that cry let us find out how
easy 1t is now.
T have looked over the laws of all the States,
and find that. while in some States it is
easier than in others, in every State 1t is
easy. The State Of Illinois, through its Leg
;slature, recites long list Of proper causes
for divorce and then closes up by giving to
the courts the right to make the decree OF
divorce In any case where they deem it ex-
pedient. After that you are not surprised
at the announcement that in one county of
the State Of Illinois, in one year, there were
833 divorces. uyou want to know how easy
It is, you have only to look over the records OF
the States. In the city of San Francisco 333
divorces In one year, and in twenty years
in New England 10000. Is that not easy
: enough?
II fthe same ratio continue-the ratio OF
multiplied divorce and multiplied causes OF
divorce-we are not far from the time when
our courts will have to set apart whole days
for application, and all you will have to
prove against a man will be that he left his
newspaper in the middle OF the floor. and all
you will have to prove against woman will
be that her husbands overcoat is buttonless.
Causes OF divorce double in few years
doubled In France, doubled in England and
doubled in the United States. To show you
how very easy it is have to tell you that in
Western Reserve, Ohio, the proportion oi
divorces to marriages celebrated is one to
eleven, in Rhode Island Is one to thirteen, in
Vermont one to fourteen. Is not that easy
enough?
+ T want you to notice that frequency oil
divorce always goes along with the disso-
luteness Of society. Rome for 500 years had
not one case Of divorce. Those were her
days of glory and virtue. Then the reign g,
vice began, and divorce became epidemic II
you want to know how rapidly The empire
went down, ask Gibbon-
What we want in this couI.-y and in ali
lands is that divorce be made more and