Connecticut western news., 1895-03-21

Christian will marry an atheist, and that always makes conjoined wretched- ness, for if a man does not believe there is a God he is neither to be trusted with dollar nor with your lifelong happi- ness. Having read much about love in cottage, people brought up in ease will go and starve in a hovel.
 By the wreck of 10, 900 homes, by the holocaust of 10, 900 sacrificed 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 perjuries, implore tho congress of the United States to make some righteous, uniform law for all the states. and from ocean to ocean, on this subject of mar riage and divorce.
 Character the One Essential.
 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 disposi- tion, scrutinize the taste, question the ancestry and find out the ambitions. Do not tako the heroes and the heroines of cheap novels for a model. Do not put your lifetime happiness in the keeping of man who has Q reputation for be- ing little loose in morals or in the keeping of woman who dresses fast. Remember that, while good looks are kindly gift of God, wrinkles or acci- dent may despoil them. Remember that Byron was no more celebrated for his beauty than for his depravity. Remem- Der that Absalom's hair was not more splendid than his habits were despica- ble. Hear it, hear itl The only founda- tion 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 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 arc in this relation, if you make one man or woman 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, remem bering that life at the lon gest is short, and that for those who have been badly mated in this world death will give quick and immediate bill of divorcement written in letters of green grass on quiet graves. And perhaps, my brother, my sister, perhaps you may ap- preciate each other better in heaven than you have appreciated each other on earth.
 In the Farm Ballads" our Ameri- can poet puts into the lips of repent ant 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 I would not think it queer
 If we leve each other better because we quar- reled here.
 The Speck on the Horizon. And let me say to those of you who are in happy married union avoid first quarrels; have no unexplained core spondence with former admirers; oulti- vate no suspicious; in moment of bad temper do not rush out and tell the neighbors; do not let any of those gad- abouts of society unload in your house their baggage of gab and tittlo 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 scandal ous divorce cases started from little in- ielicities. The whole piled up train of ten rail cars telesooped and smashed at the foot of an embankment 100 feet down came to that catastrophe by get ting two or three inches off the track. Some of the greatest domestic misfor- tunes and the wide resounding divorce cases have started from little misunder- standings that were allowed to go on and go on until home and respectabil- ity and religion and immortal soul went down in the crash, orashl
 And, fellow citizens as we'll as fellow Christians, let us have a divine rage against anything that wars on the mar riage state. Blessed institution! Instead of two arms to fight the battle of life, four; instead of two eyes to scrutinize the path of life, four; instead of two shoulders to lift the burden of life, four. Twice the energy, twice the courage. twice the holy ambition. twice the prob ability of worldly success, twice the prospects of heaven. Into the matri- monial bower God fetches two souls. Outside that bower room for all con- tentions, and all bickerings, 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. And for every paradise lost may there be paradise regained. And after we quit our home here may we have a brighter home in heaven, at the win | dows of which this moment are familiar faces watching for our arrival and wondering why so long we tarry. = Pigeon Shooting a Disgrace.