Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1899-10-05
| DR.. |ALMAGt'S SERMON.
PREPARED ESPECIALLY FOR YOUNG
AND OLD.
subject: The Divorce Uucs..on-Dornestis
Disordors n suhjsct o: N.tiona, I'm
portance-uniformity OF Divorce Laws
in the Various states euSkested.
C0py-teat. Louis Klopscb. lse9i

WASHINGTON, ID C.-Dr. TainaCe II rniS
discourse discusses a question Of national
cult rs il Is urgent. The text is Matthew
XIX, g, What therefore God hath Joined
together let not man put asunder''
That there are hundreds and thousands
OF infeiicitous homes in Americc no one
will doubt. If there were ONLY one skeleton
IN the closet. that might be locked up and
Abandoned, but in many home there is a
skeleton In the hallway and skeleton in
9il the apartments. "Unhappily married.
s-se two words descriptive OF many home
stead. It needs no orthodox minister to
prove to badly mated pair that there is a
hell. They are there now. Sometimes q
grand and gracious woman will be thus in- 1
carceratej, and her life villa be a cruel !
1lxlon. as was the ease with sIrs. Sigour-
nev. the great poetess and the great soul.
Sometimes n consecrated man will be united
to Il fury, as was John Wesley or united to
q vixen, as was John Milton. Sometimes
and generally both parties are to blame,
and Thomas Carlyle is an intOlerablo
Grumbler, and his wife has a pungent re-
tort always ready, and Froude. the histo-
rian, pledged to tell the plain truth has to
pull aside the curtain from ,he lifelong
s1uabble a, Cralgenputtock and Cheyne
-UW.
Some say that for the alienation of all
these domestic disorders of which we hear
easy divorce IS a good prescription. God
sometimes authorizes divorce as certainly
as He authorizes marriage Ihave lust as
much regard for one lawfully divorced as
l have for one lawfully married. But you
know and | know that wholesale divorce
is one OF our national scourges. | am not
surprised at this when think Of the in flu-
enceS which have been abroad militatinS
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, and all over the land. Some Of the
women who were most prominent in that
movement have since been distinguished
for great promiscusity of affection. Popu-
lar themes for such occasions were the tyr
aply OF man, the oppression of the mar
riaSe relation, womens rights and :he
atfinities. Prominent speakers were
women with short curls and short
lastingly at war with God because they
were created women, while on the plat
form sat meek men with soft accent and
cOWed dcmeanor, apoloGetic for mascuin-
ity and holding the parasols while the
termagant orators went On preaching tho
gospel of free love. That campaign Of
about twenty years set mere devi into the
marriage relation than will be exercised in
the next fifty. Men and women went home
from such meetings so permanently con-
fused as to who were their wives and hus-
bands that they never got out Of the per-
| ,~lexity, and the criminal and the civil
courts tried to disentangla the Iliad OF
woes, and the one got alimonv, and that
one got limited divorce, and this mother
| kept the children On condition that the
| father could sometimes como and look at
them, and these went into poOrhOuses,
! and those went int an insane asylum, and
those Weat into dissOuto public life, and
all went to destruction. The mightiest war
| ever made against the marriage institution
| was that free love campaign, sometim es
| under one name and sometimes under an
| other.
| Another iunuence that has warred upon
! the marriage relation has been polygamy
/ in Utah That is stereotypeI caricature
Of the marriage relation and has poisoned
| the whole land. You might as Well think
| that you can have an arm in Il state OF NOR
tifcation ard yet the whole body not be
| sickened as to have any Territories or
| States polygamized and yet the body ottha
nation not feel the putrefactiOn. Hear it,
good men and women or America that 50
long ago as 1862 a law was passed by Con-
| gress forhiidinC pOlCamy in the Territ cries
| and in all the places where they had juri~-
dictiOn. Thrty-seven years have passed
| along and line administrations, yet not
| until the passage Of the Edmunds law in
1882 was any active policy Of poygamc
| suppression adopted. Armed with all the
|
at their disposal. the first brick had not till
then been Knocked from that fortress Of lib
ertinism Every hew President IN his inaug
ural eickled that monster with the straw
condem nation, and every Congress stultified
itself in proposing some plan that would
| not work. Polvgamy stood in Utah, and
in other OF the Territories more intrenchei
more brazen, more pussant, moro braS-
CART and more internal than at any time
in its history. James Buchanan. mucL
abused man of his day did more for the
extirpation Of this viIlainy 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 accomplished n ore than the subsequen
administrations which did nothing but
talk talk talk. Even at this late day anl
with the Eimunds act in force the evil ha
lot been wholly extirpated. Polygamy il
Utah. though outlawed, Is still practIceC
| in secret. l. has warreI against the mar
riage relation throughout the land. IL /
impossible TO have such an awful sewer .
iniquitv sending NJ it mlaoma, which /
waited by the wrnds north. south, east an
west, with the whole land beng afiecte
by il.
Nov" say some. VIC admit all the@
| evils and the only way II clear them eu
or 10 correct them - ~ Easy divorce
Well. before ge WELD = that cry let y IN
} out how easy it Is h9S. / h axe loos~
over the Jaws q al tAr State. All in
that while IL son@ stats I i .a-ier tia
il .her-. in every Sta1A i j. easy. f.
state Il Illinois thr 81 - Lesls3. r
recites a lQu- .l-t 81. fr 3Yer causes II
divorce ani then closes UP bE -iF}a
! t. tho courts tac rl-,4t - r.sc ~
cree q dsye1." ~ aav ea-+- wt-E- ST.
Geea. Il exTe.t.-n,. A.t~- taa- tG
not surprised - tn anHalt "~-ar
t4at Ii oue vea- cs~.e weT- - i
; v8re~-. i 1 ~us. Ai.t. AaF -