Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-09-27
SERMON
Rev. DR.. CaIllage

Rev. DR.. Caln1age
suhIe. :: The Divorce esiic
Dis"r.iers n Subject OF National I'm
Portanc--Unifornity OF Divorce Laws
in the Various States Suggested.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1892,
WAsHINGroN, d. CDR. Talmage In this
discourse discusses question of national
emit as 1t Is urgent. The text 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 America no one
will doubt. II 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 a skeleton in
all the apartments. "Unhappily married."
are two words descriptive OF many home
stead. 1t needs no orthodox minister to
prove to badly mated pair that there is a
grand and gracious woman will be thus in
earcerated, and her life will be cruci-
fixion, as was the case with Mrs. Sigour-
ney, the great poetess and the great soul.
Sometimes n consecrated man will be united
to fury, AS was John Wesley, or united to
u VIXtu, us WIS JONI MittOu. sometimes
and generally both parties are to blame,
and Thomas Carlyle is an intolerable
grumbler, and his wife has pungent re-
tort always ready, and Froude, the histo-
rian. pledged to tell the plain truth, has to
pull aaide the curtain from the lifelong
sluabble at Craigenputtock and Cheyne
:Ow.
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
as He authorizes marriage. Ihave Just as
much regard for one lawfully divorced as
have for one lawfully married. But you
know and l know that wholesale divorce
Is one OF our national scourges. am not
surprised at this when l think Of the inf1u
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 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-
lEr themes for such occasions were the tyr
a9 ~ Of man, the oppression of the mar
rbge relation, women's rights and the
afflnities. Prominent speakers were
women with short curls and short
uEcSS anu very long Tongue, ever
lastingly at war with Goi because they
were created women, while on the plat
form sat meek men with soft accent and
cowed dcmeanor, apologetic for mascuiin-
ity and holding the parasols while the
termagant orators went on preaching the
gospel OF free love. That campaign of
about twenty years set more 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 rs to who we're their wives and hus-
bands that they never got out OF the per-
plexity, and the criminal and the civil
courts tried to disentangle the Iliad Of
woes, and the one got alimonv, and that
one got limited divorce, and this mother
kept the children on condition that ths
father could sometimes come and look at
then md these went into poorhouses,
and s-..A went into an insane asylum, and
sn0ss s1 ssns Sees .s Rishtiesi ,s sai ~sI
ever madeagainst the marriage institution
was that fres love campaign, sometimes
u4dsr one name and sometimes under an.
,sther.
tine marriage relation has been poiygamy
In Utah. That Is a stereotyped caricature
of the marriage relation md has poisoned
the whole land. You might as well think
that you can have an arm in state OF NOR
tiacation and yet the whole body not be
Sickoheu as 10 nave any Ierritortes OF
States pOlygamized and yet the body of the
nation not feel the putrefaction. Hear it,
good men and women or America, that SC
long ago as 1862 law was passed by Con-
gress forbiddtng polgamy in the Territories
and In all the places where they had juris.
diction. Thirty-seven years have passed
along and nine administrations. yet not
until the passage of the Edmunds law in
1882 was any active policy Of polygamie
suppression adopted. Armed with all the
power OF government and having an army
at their disposal, the first brick had not till
then been Knocked from that fortress Of lib.
ertinism. Every new President in his inaug-
ural tickled that monster with the straw
condemnation and every Congress stultifled
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-
gart and more internal than at any time
in its history. James Buchanan, a much
abused man Of his day, did more for the
extirpation OF this villainy than all the
subsequent administrations dared to do up
to 1882. Mr.. Buchanan sent out an army
and, although 1t was halted in its work, still
be accomplished 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
not been wholly extirpated. Polygamy in
Utah, though outlawed, is still practIced
In secret. 1t has warred against the mar
riage relation throughout the land. 1t f.
lniquity sending up its miasma, which is
waited by the winds north, south, eust and
west, without the whole land being affected
by It.
"Now," say some, I'VE 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. 1 have looked
over the laws of all the States, and l find
that, while in some States 1t is easier than
in others, in every State 1t Is easy. The
State OF Illinois, through its Legislature,
recites long list OF proper causes for
divorce and then closes up by giving
to the courts the right to make 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 1888 di-
vorce.. II you want to know how easy
1t Ia, you have only to look over the records
of the States-in Massachusetts, 600 d.
vorces in one year; in Maine, 478 In
one year, in Connecticut, 401 divorces
in one year; in the city OF San
Francisco, 333 divorces in one year; in
New England in one year, 2113 divorces,
and in twenty years In New England, 30
900. Is that not easy enough2 II the same
ratio continues the ratio OF multiplied di-
vorce and multiplied causes of divorce,
we are not far from the time when our
courts will have to set apart whole days
for application, and all you will have to
prove against man will be that he left his
slippers In the middle OF the floor; and all
you will have to prove against a woman
will be that her husbands overcoat was
buttonless. Cause OF divorce doubled In q
few years-doubled in France. doubled In
England and doubled in the United States.
To show how very easy 1t is, 1 have to tell
you that in Western Reserve, Ohio, the
proport ion of divorces to marriages cele-
brated was In one year TO IL; in Rhode
Island, to 3; in Vermont, to IA. Is not
that easy enough?
1 want you to notice thPt frequency OF
divorce always goes along with the disso-
luteness OF society. Rome for 500 years
had not one case of divorce. Those we're