The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1902-05-01
iii 4 OF DR.. TALMAGE
Makes Appropriate Reprinting
HIS FAMOUS SERMON
Considered by Many the Mas
terpiece Of the Great
Pulpit Orator
ION the Choice Of a Wife. "
Marriage Not For AII-Muititudes Who
NeveFwnI Marry. Who Are Not Fit
to &arry-Some Eminent Blunderers-
<FAvoid observation-disclosures Quail
ties-Eeauty a Benediction.

WASHINGTON, ID. C.-The following
discourse Is one of a 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 commemoratlon
OF his death it is now republished. 1t was
founded on the text, Judges xiv, 8; Is
there never a woman among the daugh-
tiers OF :. by brethren. or among all my
people, S1at thou goest to take wife OF
the uncircumcised Philistines?"
Samson, the giant, is here asking con-
sent of his father and mother to mar
rage with one whom they thought unit
for him. He was wise In asking their
counsel, but not wise in rejecting 1t. Cap
tivated with her looks, the big son wanted
to marry daughter of one OF the hostile
families, a deceitful, hypocritical, whining
and saturnine 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 madens of your own country,
are you so hard put to for lifetime part
ner that YOU propose conJugahty with this
foreign hirt? Is there such a dearth OF
lilies in our Israelitish gardens that you
must wear on your heart Phillstne
thistle? Do you take a crabapple because
there are no pomegranates? Is there never
a woman among the daughters OF thy
thou goest to take wife OF the unelrcum-
cised Phiistlnes?"
Excuseess was he for such a choice in a
land and amid a race celebrated for fe-
male loneliness and moral worth, land
and a race of which self-denying Abigail
and heroic Deborah, and dazzling Miriam
and pious Esther, and glorious Ruth, and
Mary, who Rugged 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
posture and gait, were only typical OF the
greater brilliance and glory of their soul.
Likewise excuseless 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 opulenee
of womanly character or such splendor of
.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-
ligous nature, which Is the best part of
us, she is seventy-hve 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 if they continue to
advance mentally at the present ratio, be-
fore long the majority of men will have
difficulty in finding in the opposite sex
enough ignorance to make appropriate
consort. If | am under a deluslon as to
the abundance of good womanhood abroad,
consequent upon my surroundings since
the hour | entered this life until now,
hope the deusion will last until ] embark
nj IN understand
If | say in this course of sermons some
thing that seems severe, L am neither
cynical nor dsgruntled.
There are in almost every farmhouse in
The country, in almost every home of the
great town, conscientious women, worship
fui women, selfsacrtcing women, holy
women, iunumerable Marys, sitting at the
feet of Christ; innumeraDe mothers, help
ing to feed Christ in the person OF His
suffering disciples; a thousand capped and
specialized grandmothers Lois. bending
over Bibles whose precepts they have to-
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
good and happy homes, that shall eclipse
iall their predecessors, 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 munlfi-
cence OF womanhood. marres a fool. But
ssome OF YOU are abroad suffering from
such disaster, and to halt Others OF you
from going over the same preclpice, ! cry
out in the words of my text: as there
never a woman among the daughters OF
thy brethren or among all my people, that
thou gOest to take a wife of the uncr-
cumcised PhiIistnes"'
That marriage is the destination of the
human race is mistake that | want to
correct before / go further. There are
multitudes who never will marry, and still
greater mutitudes who are not fit to
marry. In Great Britain to-day there are
nine hundred and forty weight thousand
more women than men, and that, | UNI
derstand, is about the ratio in America
BY mathematical and memorable law, you
see, millions OF women will never marry
The supply Tor 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 a woman who has sacrificed
her honor is untitled for marriage, so is
any man who has ever sacrificed his pur
ity. What right have you, o masculine
BEAST whose life has been loose, to take
under your care the spotlessness of a viz
gin reared in the sanctity of respectable
home? Will buzzard dare to court a
doves
But the majority OF you will marry, and
have a right to marry, and as your re
ligious teacher | wish to say to these men,
in the choice of wife first of all seek
divine direction About thirty-fve years
ago, when Martin Farquhar Upper, the
English poet urged men to prayer before
they decided upon matrimonial association,
people laughed And some of them have
lived to laugh on the other side of their
mouth.
The need of divine direction I argue
from the fact that so many men, and
some OF them strong and wise, have
wrecked their lives at this juncture. Wit.
ness Samson and this woman of Tlmnathi
Witness Socrates, pecked OF the historical
Xantippe Witness job, whose wife had
nothing to prescribe for his carbuncles
but allopathic doses OF profanity Witness
~ ,ar.- hatrr