The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1899-11-18
TALMAGE SERMON.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS or THE olvlNE's SUN
DAY DISCOURSE.
Subject: The Divorce Question-Domesuc
Disorders a Subject of National In
portance-Uniform1ty of Divorce Laws
in thesvarious states Suggested.
tCopyright, Louis KIopsch, 1885,


In thesvarious states Suggested.
tCopyrighs, louis KIopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, D. CDR. Talmage in this
discourse discusses Question of national
Importance; which is confessedly ss difn-
cult as 1t is urgent: The text is Matthew
tix,. 6. ssWhat therefore God hath Joined
together let not man pitt asuhder!"
That there are hundreds and thousands
Of infelicitous homes In America no ono
will doubt. II there were only one skeleton
In the closet, that might be locked up and |
Abandoned. but In many home there is q |
.keleton In the hallway and skeleton 10 |
Ill 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
hell. They are there now. Sometimes
grand and gracious woman will be thus In
,arcerated, and her life will be cruel |
Axiom. as was the case with Mrs. Sigour-
ney, the great poetess and the great soul.
Sometimes eonsecrated man will be united
to fury, as was John Wesley, or united to
vixen, as was John Milton. Sometimes
and generally both parties are to blame,
and Thomas Carlyle Is an intolerable
yrumbler, and his wife has a ,pungent re-
:ort always ready, and Froude, the histo-
rlan. pledged to tell the plain truth, has to
pull aside the curtain from the lifelong
;auabble at Craigenputtock and Cheyne
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
IS He authorizes marriage. Ihave just as
much regard for one lawfully divorced as
have for one lawfully married. But you
know and know that wholesale divorce
| Is one OF our national scourges, l am not
surprised at this when / think OF the infiu-
snces 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
Tor great promiscusity OF affection. Popu.
ar themes for such occasions were the tyr.
anny OF man, the oppression OF the mar
riage relation, women's rights and the
sffnities. Prominent speakers were
women with short curls and short
lress and very long tongue. ever
lastingly at war with God because they
we're created women, while on the plat
form sat meek men with soft accent and
.owed demeanor, apologize for masculin-
Ity and holding the parasols while the
.ermagant orators went on preaching the
gospel OF free love. That campaign OF
ibout twenty years set more devi into the
marriage relation than will be exercised in
he next fifty. Men and women went home
.om such meetings so permanently con-
used as to who were their wives and hus-
'ands that they never got out OF the per,
lexity, and the criminal and the civil
ourts tried to disentangle the Had oil
woes, and the one got alimony, and that
one got limited divorce, and this mother
kept the children on condition that the
father could sometimes come and look at
them, and tthese went into poorhouses,
and those went into an insane asylum, and
those went into dissolute public life, and
, all went to destruction. The mightiest wal
ever made against the marriage institution
, was that free love campaign, sometimes
ander one name and sometimes under an
other.
Another influence that has warred upon
the marriage relation has been polygamy
| In Utah. That is stereotypej caricaturt
Of the marriage relation and has poisoned
, the whole land. You might as we'll thinl
that you can have an arm In a state OF NOR
!, LITIGATION and yet the whole body not b.
J sickened as to have any Territories o.
States polygamized and yet the body OF thu
nation not feel the putrefaction. Hear 1t
l good men and women or America, that 81
long ago as 1862 law was passed by Con
and In all the places where they had 1uris
, diction. Thirty-seven years have passe,
. along and nine administrations, yet no
:. until the passage of the Edmunds law II
1882 was any active policy OF poignant
o suppression adopted. Armed with all tn
!. power of government and having an arm,
Il at their disposal, the first brick had not til
then been'knocked from that fortress Of lib
. srtinism Every new President In his inaug
z ural tickled that monster with the stray
condemnation, and every Congress. subtitle
Itself In proposing some plan that woui
q not work. Polygamy stood in Utah, an
It In other of the Territories more intrenched
s more brazen, more puissant, more brag
J. cart and more internal than at any tim
;, In its history. James Buchanan, a niue
- abused man OF his day, did more for tn
u extirpation OF this villainy than all th
subsequent administrations dared to do u
a to 1882 Mr.. Buchanan sent out an army
"a and, although it was halted In its work, sti
be accomplished more than the subsequer
d administrations, which did nothing bu
IN talk. talk. talk. Even at this late day an
~ with the Edmunds act in force the evil ha
" Dot been wholly extirpated. Polygamy
Z; Utah. though outlawed, is still practice
10 In secret. 1t has warred against the MAJ
SO riage relation throughout the land. 1t
q i'm possible to have such an awful sewer c
lniquity sending up its miasma, which
west. without the whole land being anecte
by 1t. - N 49,,
IL evils. and the only way to clear them o,
u or to correct them Is by easy divorce
ed Well, before we yield to that cry let us fin
-, out how easy It Is now. / have locke
os over the laws OF all the States, and IN
p that, while in 9ome States 1t is easier ths
Id In others, in every State 1t Is easy. III
on state OF Illinois, through its Legislator
recites a long list of proper causes 4
y divorce and then closes up ny glviI
tc to the courts the right to make d
cree OF divorce in any case where thu
"a deem it expedient. After that you a
~ not surprised at the announeeme
OF That in one year there were 1888
eG yorce.. II you want to know how ca
IL is. YOU have only TO look over the recor
-. Of the States-in Massachusetts,, COD
w yorces in one year; In Maine, ATS
one year, in Connecticut, 40l diyorc
st- In one year; in the city oil s
: francisco, 33S divorces In one year;
New England in one year, 2ll3 divorce
and in twenty years In New England, z
BOO. Is that not easy enough? IL the SAL
fos ratio continues the ratio OF multiplied I
na yorce and multiplied causes OF divort
by We are not far from the time when Q
IN courts will have to set apart whole da
for application. and all you will bave
q prove against fnau will be that he left
to Slippers In the middle of the floor; and
hs you will have to prove against WON
\. will be that her husbands overcoat v
~ buttonless. Cause OF divorce doubted II
de few yenrs-doubied in France. doubled
no England and doubled In the United Stat
&c. To show how very easy 1t is, / have to
YOU that in Western Reserve, Ohio,
1rnnnrffon OF divorces to marriages &c