The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-01-19
ENCOURAGING WORDS.
ney are Addressed to Women
by Rev. DR.. Talmage.
Good Advice to Young Girls-They Should
Prepare Themselves for the Battle
Of Life by Learning Some
Useful Occupation.

who are compelled by adverse circum-
stances to earn their own living. Text,
Proverbs ID: L: Every wise woman
buildeth her house."
Woman mere adjunct to mana an
appendix to the masculine volume, an
appendage, sort of afterthought,
something thrown in to make things
even-that is the heresy entertained
and implied by some men. This is evil
dent to them because Adam was first
created, and then Eve. They don't read
the whole story, or they would find that
the porpoise and the bear and the hawk
were created before Adam, so that this
argument, drawn from priority of crea-
tion, might prove that the sheep and
the dog were greater than man. No.
Woman was an independent creation,
and was intended, if she chose, to live
alone, to work alone, act alone, think
alone, and fight her battles alone. The
Bible says it is not good for man to be
alone, but never says it is not good for
woman to be alone; and the simple fact
is that many women who are harnessed
for life in the marriage relation would
be a thousandfold better off if they
were alone.
Who are these men who, year after
year, hang around hotels and engine
houses and theater doors, and come in
nnd out to bother busy clerks and mer-
chants and mechanics, doing nothing,
when there is plenty to doP They are
men supported by their wives and
mothers. If the statistics of any of
our cities could be taken on this sub
ject, you would find that vast multi
tude of women support not only them
selves, but masculines. A great legion
of men amount to nothing, and wo-
man, by marriage manacled to one of
these nonetities, needs coincidence. A
woman standing outside the marriage
relation is several hundred thousand
times better off than woman badly
married. Many bride, instead of a
wreath of orange blossoms, might more
properly wear bunch of nettles and
nightshade, and, instead of the we'd
ding march, a more appropriate tune
would be the Dead March in Saul, and,
instead of banquet of confectionery
and ices, there might be more appro-
priately spread table covered with
apples of Sodom.
Many an attractive woman, of good
sound sense in ether things, has mar
ried one of these men to reform him.
What was the resultP Like when a
dove, noticing that vulture was ra-
pacious and cruel, set about to reform
it, and said: II have mild DISPOSE
tion, and like peace, and was brought
up in the quiet of a dove-cote, and l
will bring the vulture to the same
liking by marrying him." so, one day,
after the vulture declared he would
give up his carniverous habits and
cease longing for blood of flock and
herd, at an altar of rock covered with
moss and lichen, the twain were mar
ried, bald-headed eagle officiating,
the vulture saying, "With all my do
roinion of earth and sky, thee endow,
and promise to love and cherish till
death do us part" But one day the
cove in her fright saw the vulture busy
ct carcass, and cried, "Stop thatl did
you not promise me that you would
quit your carniverous and filthy habits
if married you?" "Yes," said the
vulture, 'but if you don't like my way,
you can leave" and with one angry
stroke of the beak, and another fierce
clutch of the claw, the vulture left the
dove eyeless and wingless and lifeless.
And flock of robins flying past, cried
to each other and said: "See there!
that comes from dove marrying q
vulture to reform him."
Many woman who has had the hand
of young inebriate offered, but de-
clined it, or who was asked to chain
her life to a man selfish, or of bad tenn
per, and refused the shackles, will bless
God throughout all eternity that she
escaped that earthly pandemonium.
Besides all this, in our country about
100000 men were sacrificed in our
civil war, and that decreed million
women to celibacy. Besides that, since
the war several armies of men as large
as the Federal and Confederate armies
put together have fallen under malt
liquors and distilled spirits, so full of
poisoned ingredients that the work was
done more rapidly, and the victims fell
while yet young. And if $4,000 men are
destroyed every year by strong drink
before marriage, that makes in the 33
years since the war 1850, 900 men slain,
and DEGREES 1850, 900 women to celibacy.
Take, then, the fact that so many wo-
men are unhappy in their marriage,
aud the fact that the slaughter of
1850, 900 men, by war and rum COM
bined, decides that at least that num-
ber of women shall be unbalanced for
lie, my text comes in with cheer and
potency and appropriateness that you
may never have seen in it before when
it says: every wise woman buildeth
her house," that is, let woman be her
own architect, lay out her plans, be her
own supervisor, achieve her own des-
tiI,y.
IN addressing those women who have
to 6ght the battle alone, l congratulate
yc u on your happy escape. Rejoice for
ev Or that you will not have to navigate
the faults Of the other sex, when you
have faults enough of your own. Think
OF the bereavements you avoid, of the
risks of unassimilated temper which
you will not have to run, of the cares
ycu will never have to carry, and of the
opportunity of outside usefulness from
which marital life would have partially
dsbarred you, and that you are free to
&c. and come as one who has the re-
spOnsibilities Of household can seldom
ha Gnd hos not n.;,,a,, 49,, n ln,.l -