Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-05-01
DEATH OF DR.. TALMAGE
Makes Appropriate Reprinting
HIS FAMOUS SERMON
Considered by Many the Mas
terpiece of the Great
Pulpit Orator
''01 The Choice OF a Vile. -

Marriage Not For All-Multitudes Who
Never Will Marry, Who Are Not Fit
to Marry-Some Eminent BIunderers-
Avoid Matchmakers-Essenti Quail
:. ties-Beauty Benediction.
WASHINGTON, D. C-The following
discourse is one Of series of sermons on
domestic life delivered several years ago
by the late Rev. Dr.. T. De Witt Talmage,
and by many admirers is considered his
pulpit masterpiece. In conmemoration
of his death it is now republished. It was
founded on the text, Judges xiv, 8: 'Is
there never i woman among the daugn-
ters of thy brethren, or among all my
people, that thou goest to take wife of
the uncircumcised Phihstines?"
Samson, the giant, is here asking con-
sent of his father and mother to mar
| riage with one whom they thought unfit
for him. He was wise in asking their
tivated with her looks, the big son wanted
to marry a daughter OF one of the hostile
families, deceitful, hypocritical, whining
and saturnlne creature, who afterward
made for him world Of trouble till she
quit him forever. In my text his parents
forbade the banns, practically saying
when there are SO many honest and
beautiful maidens Of your own country,
are you so hard put to for lifetime part
ner that you propose conjugality with this
foreign firt? Is there such a dearth OF
lilies in our Israelitish gardens that you
must wear on your heart a Philistine
thistle? Do you take a crabapple Because
woman among the daughters Of thy
brethren, or among all my people, that
thou goest to take wife Of the uncircum-
cised Phiistines:"
Excuse,ess was he for such choice in a
land and amid race celebrated for fe-
male loveIness aud moral worth, g land
and race Of which self-denying Abigail
and heroic Deborah, and dazzling Miriam,
and pious Esther, and glorious Ruth, and
Mary, who hugged to her heart the blessed
Lord, were only magnificent specimens.
The midnight folded in their hair, the
lakes of liquid beauty in their eye, the
gracefulness of spring morning in their
greater brilliance and glory Of their soul.
Likewise eAcuseless is any man in our
time who makes lifelong alliance with any
one who, because of her disposition, or
heredity, or habits, or intellectual vanity,
or moral justification, may be said to be
of the Philistines.
The world never owned such opulence
womanly manners or multitudinous in
stances of wifely, motherly, daughterly,
sisterly devotion, as it owns to-day.
have not words to express my admiration
for good womanhood. Woman is not
only mans equal, but in affectional and re-
us, she is seventy-fve per cent. his SUI
perior. Yea, during the last twenty years,
through the increased opportunity opened
for female education, the women of the
country are better educated than the ma
jority Of men; and ii they continue to
advance mentally at the present ratio, be-
fore long the majority of men will have
enough ignorance to make appropriate
consort. If am under a delusion as to
the abundance of good womanhood abroad,
consequent upon my surroundings since
the hour I entered this life until now,
hope the delusion will last until I embark
from this planet. So you will understand
# l say in this course of sermons some
cynical nor disgruntled.
There are in almost every farmhouse in
the country, in almost every home of the
great town, conscientious women, Worship
full women, self-sacrifcing women, holy
women, innumerable Marys, sitting at the
ing to feed Christ in the person of His
suffering disciples; thousand capped and
spectacled grandmothers Lois, bending
over Bibles whose precepts they have fol-
lowed from early girlhood; and tens of
thousands of young women that are dawn
ing upon us from school and seminary
that are going to bless the world with
all their predecessors, a fact that will be
acknowledged by all men except those who
are struck through with moral decay from
toe to Uranium; and more inexcusable
than the Samson of the text is that man
who, amid all this unparalleled munifi-
some of you are abroad suffering from
such disaster, and to halt others of you
from going over the same precipice, cry
out in the words of my text: els there
never woman among the daughters Of
thy brethren, or among all my people, that
thou goest to take a wife of the uncir
eumcised Philistines?"
That marriage is the destination of the
human race is a mistake that I want to
correct before [ 60 further. There are
multitudes who never will marry, and still
greater multitudes who are not fit to
marry. In Great Britain to-day there are
nine hundred and forty-eight thousand
more women than men, and that, I un-
derstand, is about the ratio in America
By mathematical and inexorable law, you
see, millions of women will never marry.
The supply. for matrimony greater than
the demand, the first lesson of which is
that every woman ought to prepare to
take care of herself if need be. Then-there
are thousands of men who have no right
to marry, because they have become so
corrupt of character that their offer of
marriage is an insult to any good woman.
Society will have to be toned up and cor
rected on this subject, SO that it shall
realize that If woman who has sacrificed
her honor is unified for marriage. so is
any man who has ever sacrificed his pur-
ity. What right have you, 0 masculine
beast! whose life has been loose, to take
under your care the spotlessness of vir-
gin reared in the sanctity of respectable
!, home? Will a buzzard dare to court a
dove?
But the majority of you will marry, and
have right to marry, and as. your re-
IN s'h the choice of a 9 wife fl first t Of ali seek
divine direction. About thirtT-6ve years