The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-10-04
DIR, TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE Blythe NOTED
DIVINE.

Subjec .he Divorce Ques tion-Domestic
Disorders a Subject of National I'm
por,ance-UniformItyo of Divorce Laws
In the Various States Suggested.
rCopyright, Louis Klopsch. 1899
WASHINGTON, D. CDR. Talmage In this
discourse discusses q question OF national
importance, which is confessedly as diff
cult rs it is urgent. The ext is Matthew
xix, 6. "What therefore God hath Joined
together let not man put asunder."
That there are hundreds and thousands
of infeiicitous homes in Am erica no one
will doubt. II there were only one skeleton
in the closet, that might be locked up and
skeleton In the hallway and skeleton In
all the apartments "Unhapplly married"
are two words descriptive OF many home
stead. It needs no orthodox minister to
prove to badly mated pair that there is
hell. They are there now. Som etimes
grand and gracious woman will be thus In
carcerated, and her life will be cruel.
tl1ion, as was the case with Mrs. Sigour-
ney, the great poetess and the great soul.
Sometimes q consecrated man WILL be united
to q fury, as was John Wesley, or united to
and generally both parties are to blame,
and Thomas Carlyle Is an intolerable
Crumber, and his wife has a pungent re-
tort ALWAYS ready, and Froude, the htsto.
rlau, pledged to tell the plain truth, has to
pull aaide the curtain from the lifelong
squabble at Craigenputtock and Cheyns
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
rs He authorizes marriage. Ihave just as
much regard for one lawfully divorced as
have for one lawfully married. But you
know and I know that wholesale divorce
Is one OF our national scourges. am not
surprised at this when think OF the infu-
ences which have been abroad initiating
against the marriage relation. For many
years the platforms OF the country rang
with talk about free love millennium.
There we're meetings OF this kind held IN
the Academy OF Music, Brooklyn; Cooper
Institute, New York; fremont Temple,
Boston, and all over the land. Some OF the
women who we're most prominent in that
movement have since been distinguished
for great promiscusity Of affection. P3pu-
lar themes for such occasions were the tyr
anay OF man, the oppression OF the mar
riage relation, women's rights and the
uff1nities. Prominent speakers were
women with short curls and short
uEeSS uuu very lOuS lOuSuo, CNCl-
lastingly ut war with God because they
were created women, while on the plat
form sat meek men with soft accent and
cowed demeanor, apologetlc for mascuIiu-
ity and holding the parasols while the
termagant orators went on preaching the
gospel OF free love. That campaign OF
about twenty years SCI more 1eyl into the
marriage relation than will be exercised In,
the next Atty. Men and women went home
from such meetings 30 permanently con-
fused ns to who were their wives and hus-
bands that tEey never got out OF the per-
ple1ity, and the criminal and the civil
courts tried to disentangle the Illad OF
woes, and the one got alimonv, and that
one got q limited divorce, and this mother
kept thu children on condition that thu
father could sometimes come and look Mt
them, and these went into poorhouses,
and those went into an insane asylum, and
those went into dlssolute public life, and
all went to destruction. The mightiest war
ever male against the marriage Institution
was that free love campaign, sometimes
under one aame and sometimes unde: an
other.
Another influence that has warrej lpon
the marriage relation has been polygamy
in U:ah. That IL stereotyped carlcature
OF the marriage relation ind has poisoned
the whole land. You might rs we'll think
that you can have an arm In stute OF nor
tlf1cation and yet the whole body not he
sickened as to have any Territories or
States polygamized and yet the body OF the
nation not feel the putrefactiou. Hear 1t,
good men and women or America, that so
long AGO MS 1862 law was passed by Con-
gress forbiddtpg polgamy In the Territories
and in all the places where they had iurts-
diction. Thirty-seven years have passed
along and nine administrations, yet not
until the passage of the Edmundy law In
1892 was any active policy OF polygamtc
suppression adopted. Armed with all the
power Of government and having an army
at their disposal, the first brick had not tiil
then been Knocked from that fortress OIL lib.
ersiuism. Every new President In his inaus-
ural tickled that monster with the straw
condemnation and every Congress stultfeh
itself In proposing some plan that would
not work. Polygamy stood In Utah, and
In other of the Territories more intrenched,
more braZen, more puissant, more brag-
CART and more internal than at any time
In its history. james Buchanan, a mucl-
abused man OF his day. did more for the
extirpaton OF this villainy than all the
subsequent administrations dared to do up
to 1882. Mr. Buchanan sent out an army,
and, although it was halted in Its work, still
lie accom- plished more than the subsequent
administrations, which did nothing but
talk, talk. talk. Even at this late day and
with the Edmunds act in force the evil has
lot been wholly extirpated. Polygamy in
Utah, though outluwed, Is still practiced
in secret. 1t has warred against the mar
riage relation throughout the land. 1t Is
impossibleto have such an awful sewer OF
iniquity sending up its miasma, which is
waited by the winds north, south, east and
west, without the whole land being affected
by it.
Another influence that has warred
against the marriage relation in this coun-
try has been pustulous literature, with
its millions Of sheets every week choked
with stories Of domestic wrongs and III
fldelities and massacres and outrages un-
til 1t is u wonder to ME that there are any
decencies or any common sense left on
the subject OF marriage. One half OF the
newsstnnds OF our great cities reek with
the filth.
Now" say some, "wo admit all these
evils, and the only way to clear them out
or to correct them Is by easy divorce"
Well, before we yield to that cry let us find
out how easy 1t Is now. I have looked
over the laws OF all the States, and find
that, while in some States it Is easier than
in others, in every State 1t is easy. Tho
State OF Illinois, through its Legislature,
recites 4 long list OF proper causes for
divorce and then clo$es up by giving
to the courts the right to mako de-
cree OF divorce in any case where they
deem It expedient. After that you are
not surprised Mt the announcement
that in one year there were S33 di-
vorcas. II you want to know how easy
it Is, you have onlyto look over the records
OF the States-in Massachusetts, GOO di-
vorces in one year; in Maine, 473 il
ono year, In Connecticut, 4Ol divorces
in one year; in the city OF San
Francisco, 333 divorces In one year; in
New England in ona year. 2ll3 divorces,
and in twenty years In New England, 20,-
COO. Is that not easy enough? II the samo
ratio continues the ratio OF multiplied iii.