Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1895-03-22
REV. DR.. TAlMAGe.
SUNDAYS SERMON IN THE NEW
YORK ACADEMY OF aUsIC.
Subject: "whOIesaIe Divorce. "

| That there are hundreds aud Thousands OF
lnfelicitous homes in America no one will
/ ioubt. II there were only one skeleton in
/ he closet. that might b. locked up aud
abandoned, but in many a home there Is a
skeleton in the hallway and skeleton in all
he apartments.
"Cnhappily married are two words de-
scriptiye of many homestead. Ii needs no
/ orthodox minister to prove to a badly mated
1 pair that there is a hell. They are there now.
| Sometimes grand and gracious woman will
Dc thus incarcerated. and her life will be a
| ,ruciiiNion, rs was the ease with Mrs. Sigour-
/ ney, the great pOetess and the great soul.
/ Sometimes a'eonsecrated man will be united
/ % fury. as was John Wesley. or united 90 a
| vixen "a was John Milton. Sometimes. aud
/ generally. both parties are To- blame. and
| Thomas Carlyle was an intolerable scold. and
his wife smoked and swore, and Froude. the
| historian, pulled aside the curtain from the
lifelong squabble at Craigenputtock and Five.
/ Cheyne Row.
Some say that for the alienation of all
these domestic disorders Of which we hear
easy divorce is good prescription. God
| sometimes authorizes divorce as certainly a.
He authorizes marriage. Ihaye just as much
| regard for one lawfully divorced as / have
for one lawfully married. But you know
and know that wholesale divorce is one Of
our National scourges. am not surprised
NJ luls Witch tLlnh u lHt lnluenceS WHICH
have been abroad initiating against the mar
riage relation.
For many years the platforms of the coun
try rang with talk about a free love millen-
mum. There were meetings of this kind held
In the Cooper Institute, New York; fremont
Temple, Boston, and all over the lend.
Some of the women who were most promi-
nent in that movement have since been dis
tinguished for great promscuosity of affec-
| Dppnlar tbar,ag Tor email, Sfn
the tyranny of man, the oppression Of the
marriage relation. women's rights and the
aftlnities. 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, Apologize 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 in the next fifty. Men and
women went home from such meetings 81
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 10 diSentangle the "lliad'
OF Woes and this one got aiimony, and that
one got limited divorce. and this mother
father could sometimes come and look nj
them, and these went into pOOrhouses. and
those went into an insane asylum. and thOst
went into dissolute public life. and all wen
to destruction. The mightest war eveI
made against the marriage institution wa,
that free love campaign, sometimes unGel
one name and sometimes under another.
Another influence that has warred upOr
the marriage relation has heen polygamy IL
! IFfab That "a gtLFnatX-fat - ripnf11PA "A
the marriage relation and has poisoned tn
whole land. You might Is well think tha
you can have an arm in u state OF mOrtiflca
tiOn and Yet the whole body not be siCkenet
as to have these Territories pOlygamized ant
yet the body OF The Nation not feel the putrc
faction. Hear it, good men and women o
America that 50 long ago a. 1862 law wa.
passed by Congress forbidding polygamy il
the Territories and in all the places wher'
passed along and five administrations befor,
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
demnation and every Congress Stultitled it
self in proposing some plan that would no
work. Polygany stood more intrenched
and more brazen, and more puissant. an,
more braggart, and more internal. Jane
did more for the eXtirpatiOn Of this villain
than most Of the subsequent administers
tons. Mr.. Buchanan sent out an army, an
although it was halted in its work still h
| accomplished more than some Of the admin
istrations which did nothing but talk talk
talk. At last. but not until il had poisone
generations, polygamy has received its death
blow.
polygamy in Utah warred against the mar
ria relation thrpuphnut the Iand If WA
impossible to have such an awful sewer c
lniquity sending up its miasma, which wa
waited by the winds North, South, East an
West, without the whole land being afecte
by it.
Another influence that has warred agains
the marriage relation in this country ha
been pustulous literature. with its million
Of sheets every week choked with stories c
domestic wrongs and inndelities and massa
cres and outrages, until 1t is a wonder to N
that there are any decencies or any commo
sense left on the subject OF marriage. Ont
half of the newsstands of all our cities reek
ing with the tllth.
''Now' say some, I'VE admit all thes
evils, and the only way to clear them out G
correct them is by easy divorce" Well. be-
fore we yield to that cry let us find out ho'
easy ii is now.
have looked over the laws OF all the State
and find that, while in some States it
easier than in others. in every State il
easy. The State of Illinois. through its Leg
islature, rectes long list of proner caus,
for divorce and then closes up by giving [
the courts the right to make the decree
divorce in any case where they deem il e.
pedient. After that you are not surprise
at the announcement that in one county
the State Of Illinois, in one year, there wei
1913 divorces. If you want to know how eas
1t is, you have only to look over the records
the States. In the city of San Francisco 3;
| divorces in one year, and in twenty yea
In New England 10000. Is that not eas
enough?
II the same ratio continue-the ratio
. multiplied divorce and multiplied causes
divorce--we are not far from the time whe
our courts will have to set apart whole day
for application, and all you will have
: prove against man will be that he left
newspaper in the middle of the floor. and a
you will have to prove against woman wi
be that her husbands overcoat is buttonles
Causes Of divorce double in few years
, doubled in France, doubled in England an
doubled in the United States. To show yc
how very easy it is | have to tell you that
Western Reserve, Ohio, the proportion
divorces to marriages celebrated Is one
eleven, In Rhode Island is one to thirteen,
Vermont one to fourteen. Is not that ca!
enough?
want you to notice that frequency
divorce always goes along with the dtss
luteness of society Rome for 500 years hi
not one case of divorce. Those were h
days of glory and virtue. Then the reign
vice began, and divorce became epidemic.
you want to know how rapidly the empi
. went down. ask Gibbon.
What we want in this country and in O
G lands is that divorce be made more al
. more and more difficult. Then people b
fore they enter that relation will be pc
. sauded that there will probably be no escal
from 1t except through the door Of the Sc
ulcher. Then they will pause on the veri
- of that relation until they are fully statistic
'' that it is best, and that it is right, and tn
It is happiest. Then we shall have no mo
marriage in fun. Then men and women W
= not enter the relation with the idea it is on
n trial trip and if thew do not like Ii tn