Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1899-09-22
DIVORCE QUESTION.
Or. TALMAGE OlSCOURSES ON AN
URGENT DIFFICULTY.

| In this discourse discusses question
Of national importance. which is con-
fessedly as difficult as it is urgent The
text is Matthew xix. 6, "What there
fore God hath joined together let not
man put asundcr.'
That there are hundreds and thou
sands Of nfelicitous homes in America
10 one will doubt. If there were only
one skeleton in the closet that might
be locked up aud abandoned, but in
many home there is a skeleton in the
hallway aud skeleton in an the apart
mtnts. "Unhap9.ly msrrici' ai' tVo
y0 - descriptive CO.. .Eu '"le-
C.. aoa.t % or l. '. 10
pre- . .. .4 s.....-. .-.lt... ..-- .D.. there
is a hell. They are there now. Some
times a grand and gracious woman will
| be thus incarcerated, and her life will
be a crucifiXion. as was the case with
Mrs. Slgourney. the great poeteSs and
the great soul. Sometimes a c0nsecrat-
ed man will be united to a fury, as was
John Wesley. or united TO a vixen. as
was John Milton. Sometimes and gen
orally both parties are TO blame, and
Thomas Carlyle is an intolerable grum-
bier. and his wife has q pungent retort
always ready. and Froude. the histo-
rian. pledged to tell the plain truth,
has to pull aside the curtain from the
lifelong squabhle at Craigenputtock
and ) Cheyne row.
Domestic Disorders.
Some say that for the alienation OF
all these domestic disorders Of which
we hear easy divorce is a good pre-
scriprion. God sometimes authorizes
divorce as certainly as ne authorizes
marriage. have 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 scourgcs. l am not
surprised at this when | thinl, of the
| influences which 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 meetings
of this kind held in the Academy Of
Music. Brooklyn Cooper institute, New
York: fremont temple. Boston, ana all
over the land Some Of the women who
were most prominent In that move
ment have since been distinguished for
great promiscuoslty Of affection. Popu-
lar themes for such occasions were
the tyranny OF man, the oppression of
the marriage relation. women's rights
and the a.iinities. Prominent speakers
were women with short curls and short
dress and very long tongue, -eYerlast'
lncly at war with God because they
were created women. while on the plat
form sat meel, men with soft accent
and cowed demcan0r. ap0logetic for
masculinity and holding the parasols
while the teriuagant orators went on
preaching the gospel of free love. That
campaign Of about - years set more
devils into The marriage relation tnah
will be exercised ia the next 30. Men
| and women went home from such
meetings so permanently confused as
IN who were their wives and husbands
that they never got out Of the perpleX-
itv. and the criminal and the civil
courts tried to disCniangle the Had OF
woes. and the one got alimony, ana
that one cot q 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 dis
solute public life. and all went to de-
struction. The mightiest war ever
made against the marriage institution
was that free love campaign, some
times under one name and sometimes
under another.
Suppress POIygnmy.
Another influence that has warren
upon the marriage relation has been
nolvgamy in Utah. That is a stereotyp
cd carlcature Of the marriage relation
and has poisoned the whole land. You
might as well think that you can haV,
an arm in n state Of modification ano
vet the whole body not be sickened as
to have any territories or states pOlyg
amized and yet the body Of the natiol
not feel the putrefaction. Hear II
GOOD men and women of America, ina
so long ago as 1862 law was passed
bv congress forbidding polygamy in the
territories and in all the places where
they had jurisdiction. Thirty-seVel
J wears have passed along and nine al
ministrations, yet not until the passage
of the EdmundS law in 1SS2 was am
active policy Of polygamic suppression
. odopted. Armed with all the power o
government and having an army a
their disposal, the first brick had no
: till then been knocked from that lor
F. tress of lbertinsm. Every new presl
, dent in his inaugural tickled that mon
ster with the straw Of condemnation
' and every congress stultified itself il
: proposing some plan that would no
o work Polygamy stood in Utah, ana !
othor Of the territories more intrench
ed. more brazen, more puissaht' Wo'
It bracgart and more internal than at an
i time in its history. James buchanan
much abused man Of his day, dl
" more for the extirpation of this vi
G lainy than all the subsequent admins
d trations dared to do up to lSS2. Nj
., buchanan sent out an army, ana,
though it was halted in its work st
D he accomplished more than the SUBS
II ouent administrations. which Oil
. nothing but talk. talk. talk. Even
this late day and with the Edmund
5 act In force the evil has not bee
r wholly extlrpated. Polygamy in Otal
Y though outlawed. Is still practiced
secret. 1t has warred against the ma
riage relation throughout the land
k is impossible to have such an avn
ie sewer Of Iniquity sending up its mia
n ma. which is waited by the wine
north. south, east and west wltno'
10 the whole land being affected by H.
Divorce Easy.
Another influence that has ware
against the marriage relation in th
al ItlI