Connecticut western news., 1899-09-21


 the prize surely he will not give up his cups" And so that woman will say to the man: No, sir; you are already married to the club, and you are mar ried to that evil habit, and so you are married twice, and you are bigamist. Cor
 Hasty Marriages.
 A rigorous divorce law will also do much to hinder nasty and inconsid- crate marriages. Under the impress sion that one can be easily released people enter the relation without in- ouiry and without reflection. Romance and impulse rule the day. Perhaps the only ground for the marriage compact is that she likes his looks, and he ad- mires the graceful way she passes around the ice cream at the picnic! It is all they know about each other. It Is all the preparation for lfle. A man not able to pay his own board bill, with not a dollar in his possession, will stand at the altar and take the loving hand and say, with all my worldly goods 1 thee endow." A wo- man that could not make loaf of bread to save her life will swear to  health. A Christian will marry an atheist, and that always makes con joined wretchedness, for If man does not believe there is God he is neither to be trusted with dollar nor with your lifelong happiness. Having read much about love in cottage, people brought up in ease will go and starve in a hovel. Runaway matches and elopements, nine hundred and ninety nine out of a thousand of which mean death and hell, multiplying 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 an officer of the law must give certificate that all Is right, so clergymen are left defense less 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 ten thousand homes. by the holocaust of ten thousand shcri- feed men and women, by the hearth stone of the family, which Is the cor nerstone of the state, and in the name of that God who hath set up the fam ily institution and who hath made the breaking of the marital oath the most appalling of all perjuries, implore the congress of the United States to make some righteous. uniform lave for all the states and from ocean to ocean on this subject of marriage and divorce.
 Warning to the Young.
 Let me say to all young people, be- fore you give your heart and hand in holy alliance, use all caution. Inquire outside as to habits, explore the dispo- sition, scrutinize the taste, question the ancestry and find out the ambi- tions. Do not take the heroes and the heroines of cheap novels for a mod el. Do not put your lifetime happi- ness in the keeping of a man who has a reputation of being a little loose lu morals or in the keeping of a woman who dresses immodestly. Remember that, while good looks are a kindly gift of God, wrinkles or accident may despoil them. Remember 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 despica- ble. Hear 1t! Hear 1t! The only foun- dation for happy marriage that ever has been or ever will be is good char acter.
 Ask the counsel of father and moth CT 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 any one else ever did, and they will do more today for your happi- ness than any other people. Ask them, and, above all, ask God. I used to smile at John Brown of Haddington because, when he was about to offer his hand and heart in marriage to one who became his lifelong companion, he opened the conversation by saying. Let us pray" But I have seen so many shipwrecks on the sea of mat rimony 1 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 wedding march and orange blos- soms, clear on down to the last fare well at that gate where Isaac and Re becca, Abraham and Sarah, Adam and Eve, parted. And let me say to you who are in this relation, If you make one man or woman happy you have not lived in vain. Christ says that what he Is to the church you ought to be to each other, and If sometimes, through difference of opinion or difference of disposition, you make up your mind that your marriage was mistake pa tiently bear and forbear, remembering that there is glory In the patient en- durance 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 divorcement 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.
 Divine Institution.
 In the Farm Ballads" our Ameri- can poet puts into the lips of re pentant husband, after a life of mar ried perturbation, these suggestive words:
 And when she dies wish that she would be laid
 by me,
 And, lying together in silence, perhaps we will
 agree ...#- r .s....--+.
 And If meet in heaven would not think
 1t queer
 If we love each other better because quarrelcd
 here.
 And let me say to those of you who are in happy married union, avoid first quarrels; have no unexplained core spondence with former admirers; cul- tivate no suspicious; in a moment of bad temper do not rush out and tell the neighbors; do not let any of those gadabouts of society unload in your h.,, Nlx,l,. T, l