The Penn's Grove record., 1899-09-22
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE By THE NOTED
DIVINE.

SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BIZ THE NOTED
DIVINE.
subiec The Divorce Que. tion-Domesiic
disorders u Subject of National I'm
MISUNDERSTANDING OF Divorce Laws
In the Various States shggesteds
copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1899 !
W~AsH,SaroS, D. CDR, Talmage In this
discourse discusses a question Of national
importance, which liz contessedly as diff
cuF as 1t Is urgent. The text is Matthew
aix.. 6, ''What therefore God hath Joined
together let not man put asunder,"
That there are hundreds and thousands
OF infelicitous 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 4 home there is u
skeleton in the hallway and n skeleton in
all the apartments "~UnhappiIy married"
are two words descriptive OF many II home
stead. 1t needs no orthodox minister to
prove to n badly mated pair that there Is a
hell. They are there now. Sometimes a
grand and gracious woman will be thus in.
carcerated, and her life will be n cruel
Gxion, as was the case with Mrs. Sigour.
ney. the great poetess and the great soul.
Sometimes n consecrated man will be united
to a fury, ms was John Wesley, or united to
n vixen, us WAS DOUu MillOus NUlubtliIbS
and generally both parties are to blame,
and Thomas Carlyle Is an intolerable
erumbler, and his wife has Il pungent re-
tort always ready, and Froude, the htsto.
fiau, pledged to tell the plain truth, has to
pull aside the curtain from the lifelong
~squabble at C~raigenputtock and 8 Cheyne
row.
Some say that for tho alienation Of all
these domestic disorders OF which we hear
easy divorce is a good prescription. God
sometimes authorizes divorce rs certainly
as He authorizes marriage. have just as
much regard for one lawfully divorced as
1 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 infu.
ences which have been abroad initiating
against the marriage relation. For many
years the platforms of the country rang
with talk about a free love millennium.
There were meetings OF this kind held In
tho 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
anay Of man, the oppression OF the mar
riage relation, women's rights and the
aflnities. Prominent speakers were
women with short !eurls and short
dress and very long tongue, ever
lastingly mt war with God because they
were created women, while on the plat
form sat meek men with soft accent and
cowed~ demeanor, apologize for mascuiin-
ity and holding the p~arasols while the
termagant orators went on preaching the
gospel OF free love-. That campaign Of
about twenty years set more devi 8 into the
marriage relation than will be exercised in
the next nfty. Men and women went home
from such meetings so permanently con
fused MS to who were 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 Had OF
woes, and the one got alimony, and that
one got n limited divorce, and this mother
kept the children on condition that the
father could sometimes come and look at
them, and ithese went into p~oorhouses,
and those went into an insane asylum, and
those went into dissolute public life, and
all went to destruction. The mightiest war
ever made against the marriage institution
was that free love campaign, sometimes
under one name and sometimes under an
other.
Another influence that has warred upon
The marriage relation has been polygamy
in Utah. That is a stcreotyped carlcature
of the marriage relation and has poisoned
the whole land. You might as well think
that you Gun have an arm 10 u state OF NOR
tilleation ard yet the whole body not be
siekened as to have any Territories or
States polygamized and yet the body Of the
nation not feel the putrefaction. Hear 1t,
good men and women or America, that Sc
long ago MS 1862 Il law was passed by Con-
gress forbidding polgamy in the Territories
and in all the places where they had iuris-
diction. Thirty-seven years have passed
along and nine administrations, yet not
until the passage OF the Edmunds law in
1880 runu INV uattya n0iiav NJ nnluDpm In
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-
uraI tickled that monster with the straw
condemnation, and every Congress stulti1ed
itself in proposing some plan that would
not work. %Polygamy stood in Utah, and
in other of the Territories more intrenchedi
more brnzen, more puissant, more brag-
gart and more internal than Mt any time
in Its history. James Buchanan, n mLcl
abused man Of his day, did more for tho
extirpation of this villainy han all the
subsequent administrations dared to do up
10 1882. MIR. Buchanan sent out an army,
and, although it was halted in its work, still
he accomplished more than the su bsequent
administrations, which did nothing but
talk, talk, talk. Even at this late day and
with the Edmunds net in force the evil has
bOt bCtu WuOilf VAIL IutOut ApiN 6u lll ~
Utah, though outlawed, is still practiced
in secret. 1t has warred against the mar
rage relation throughout the land. 1t Is
impossible to have such TN 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 1t.
Another influence that has warred
against the marriage relation in this coun'
try has been n pustulous literature, with
its millions Of sheets every week cboked
with stories OF domestic wrongs and in
fdelities and massacres and outrages I'M
Ill it is n wonder to me that there are any
decencies or any common sense left on
the subject OF marriage. One half OF the
newsstands of our great cities reek will
the Nth.
Now" say some, 1--WE 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 It is now. l have looked
over the laws of all the States, and | Inc
that, while in some States it is easier thar
In others, in every State 1t Is easy. The
State of Illinois, through its Legislature,
~recites a long list Of proper causes fol
divorce and then closes up by giving
to the courts the right to make a de
cree of divorce in any case where they
deem 1t expedient. After that you are
not surprised at the announcement
that in one year there were 1873 di
vorces. II you want to know how cas-,
it IL, you have only to look over the records
of the States-in Massachusetts, 600 di
vorces in one year; in Maine, ATS II
one year, in Connecticut, 4Ol divorces
in one year; in the city OF SaI
Francisco, 333 divorces in one year; il
New England in one year, 2l13 divorces
and In twenty years In New England, 20,
600. Is that not easy enough? II the sam
ratio continues the ratio OF multiplied dl'
vorce and multiplied causes Of divorce.
We are not far from the time when oui
courts will have to set apart whole days
for application, and all you will have tC
prove against u man will be that he left hi!
shippers in the middle OF the floor; and al
will have to prove against u woma
will be that her husbands ovcrcoat wa
1 buttonless. Cause OF divorce doubled in
'ew years-doubled In France. doubled II
highland and doubled in the United states
TIC show how very easy 1t is, 1 have to tel