St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-10-21

all my wordfS goods thee endCw. 4
woman that could not make q loaf OF
bread to save her life will swear to love
and keep him in sickness and in health.
A Christian will marry an atheist. and
that always makes conjoined wretched-
ness; for if a man does not believe there
is God he is neither to be trusted with
a dollar nor with your lifelong happi-
ness. Having read much about love in
q cottage. people brought up in ease
will go and starve in n hovel. Runaway
matches and elopemefits, nine hundred
and ninety-nine out of a thousand of
which mean death and hell, multiply-
ing on all hands. You see them in every
days newspapers.
Our ministers in some regions have
no defense such as they have in other
regions where the banns must be pre-
| viously published and m officer of the
law must give certificate that all is
right, so clergymen are left defenseless
and unite those who ought never to be
united. Perhaps they are too young,
or perhaps they are standing already
in some domestic compact. BY the
wreck of 10000 hou IS, by the holocaust
of 10000 sacrifices men and women, by
the hearthstone of the family. which Is
| the corner stone 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, i'm
| plore the congress of the United States
| to make some righteous, uniform law
| for all the states and from ocean to
ocean on this subject of marriage and
divorce.
Let me say to all young people. before
you give your heart and hand in holy
alliance, use all caution. Inquire out
side as to habits, explore the disposi-
| ton, scrutinize the taste, question the
ancestry and find out the ambitions.
Do not take the heroes and the heroines
of cheap novels for a model. Do not
put your lifetime happiness in the keep
ing of man who has reputation for
being a little loose in morals or in the
keeping of woman who dresses Inn
modestly. Remember that, while coed
looks are kindly gift of God, wrinkles
or accident may despoil them. Remem-
ber that Byron was no more celebrated
for his beauty than for his depravity.
Remember that Absalom's hair was not
more splendid than his habits were
despicable. Hear it! Hear it'll The
only foundation for happy marriage that
ever has been or ever viii be is good
character.
Ask the counsel of father ard mother
| in this most important step of your life.
They are good advisers. They are the
best friends you ever had. They made
more sacrifices for you than anyone else
ever did, and they will do more to-day
for your happiness than any other peo-
pie. Ask them, and, above all, ask God.
I used to smile at John Brown, of Had
dington, because, when he was about
to offer his hand and heart in marriage
to one who became his lifelong compan-
ion, he opened the conversation by say
ing: "Let us pray" But have seen
SO many shipwrecks on the sea OF mat
rimony have made up my mind that
John Brown, of Haddington, was right
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 we'd
ding march and orange blossoms clear
on down to the last farewell at that
gate where Isaac and Rebecca, Abra-
ham and Sarah, Adam and Eve, parted.
And let me say to you who are in this
relation, if you make one man or wom-
an happy YOU have not lived in vain.
Christ says that what He is to the
church you ought to be to each other,
and il sometimes, through the differ
ence Of opinion or difference of dispo-
sition, you make up your mind that
your marriage was mistake patiently
bear and forbear. remembering that
there is glory in the patient endur-
ance of a sad yoke. Life at the longest
is short. and for those who have been
badly mated in this world death will
give quick and final bill of divorccment
written in letters Of green grass on
quiet graves. And perhaps, my brother,
my sister, perhaps you may appreciate
each other better in Heaven than you
have appreciated each other on earth.
poet puts into the lips of repentant
husband, after life of married per.
turbation. these suggestive words:
And when she dies i wish that she would bo
laid by me.
And. lying together in silence. perhaps We
will agree.
And IL ever we meet in Heaven I would
not think 1t queer
II We love each other better because we
quarreled here
And let me say to those of you who
are in happy married unicn, avoid FIRST
quarrels; have no unexplained ccrre-
spondence with former admirers: cul-
tivate no suspicious; in a moment OF
bad tember do not rush out ard tell
the neighbors: do not let any of those
gadabouts of society unload in your
house their baggage Of CAB and tittle-
tattle; do not make it an invariable
rule to 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
scandalous divorce cases started from
little infehcities. The whole piled up
train of ten rail cars telescoped and
smashed at the foot of an bankment
100 feet down came to that catastrophe
by getting two or three inches off the
track. Some of the greatest domestic
misfortunes and the widest resounding
divorce cases have started from little
Misunderstanding that were allowed
to go on and go on until home and re-
spectability and religion and immortal
soul went down in the crash.
Fellow citizens as well as fellow
Christians, let us have a divine rage
against anything that wars on the mar
riage state. Blessed institution. In
stead 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 probability of worldly success.
twice the prospect of Heaven. into that
matrimonial bower God fetchcs two
souls. Outside the bower. room for all
cont tj0r,s and all chickering's and all