The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-05-09


from The fact that so many men, and
some of them strong and wise, have
wrecked their lives at this iuncture Wit
ness Samson and this woman Of Timnathl
Witness Socrates, peeked Of the historical
Aantippel Witness job, whose wife had
nothing 20 prescribe for bis carbunces
but allopathio doses Of profanity Witness
Ananias, a liar, who might perhaps have
been cured by a truthful spouse, yet mar.
ryng az great a liar as himseli-Sapphira
Witness John Wesley. one Of the best
men that ever lived, united to one Of the
most outrageous and scandalous of women,
who sat in City Road Chapel making
mouths at him while he preached! Wit.
ness the once c0nnubial wretchedness OF
John Ruslcn, the great art essayist, and
Frederick w. Robertson, the great preach
en-. Witness q thousand hells on earth
hndled by unworthy wives, termagants
that scod like a March northeaster; fe-
male spendthrfts, that put their hus-
bands into fraudulent schemes to get
money enough to meet the lavishment Of
domestic expenditure; opium-using wo-
men-abOut four thousand of them in the
United States-who win have the drug,
though it should cause the eternal damna.
ton of the whole household; heartless and
Overbearing, and nambypamby and un-
reasonable women, yet married-marred
perhaps TO good men! These are the wo-
men who build the low club-houses where
the husbands and sons 60 because they
can't stand 1t at home. On this sea of
matrimony, where so many have wrecked,
am not right in advising divine pilotagey
Especially IS devout duplication needed,
because of the fact that society is so full
of artihcialities that men are deceived as
to whom they are marrying, and no one
M ~
maker, and the milliner, and the jeweler,
and the hair-adjuster and the dancing
master, and the cosmetic art have com
pleted their work, how is an unsophisti
Gated man to decipher the physiological
hieroglyphcs, and make accurate judg
ment of who it is to whom he offers hand
and heart? That is what makes so many
recreant husbands, They make an honor
able marriage contract, but the goods de-
hvered are so different from the sample
by which they bargained. They were
swindled, and they backed out. They
mistook Jezebel for Longfelow's Evange-
line, and Lucretia Borga for Martha
Washington.
Aye, as the Indian chief boasts of the
scalps he has taken, so there are in society
to-day many coquettes who boast OF the
masculine hearts they have captured. And
these women, though they may live amid
richest upholstery, are not so honorable
as the cyprians of the street, for these
advertise their infamy, while the former
profess heaven while they mean hell
There is so much counterfeit woman
hood abroad it is no wonder that some
cannot tell the genuine coin from the base.
Do you not realize you need divine guld-
ance when l remind you that mistake is
possible in this important affair, and, If
made, is irrevocable?
The worst predicament possible is to be
unhappily yoked together You see 1t IS
impossible to break the yoke. The more
you pull apart, the more CALLING the yoke.
The minister might bring you up again,
and and in your presence read the mar
riage ceremony backward, might put you
on the opposite sides OF the altar from
where you were when you were united,
might take the ring off of the finger, might
rend the wedding veil asunder, might tear
out the marriage leaf from the family Bible
record, but that would fail to unmarry
you. 1t is better not to make the mis-
take than to attempt its correction. But
men and women do not reveal all their
characteristics till after marriage, and
how are you to avoid committing the fatal
bmnder? There is only one Being in the
universe who can tell you whom to choose,
and that is the Lord of Paradise. de
made Eve for Adam, and Adam for Eve
and both for each other. Adam had not
large group Of women from whom to
select his wife, but it is fortunate, Judg-
ing from some mistakes which she after
ward made, that it was Eve or nothing.
There is in all the world some one who
was made for you, as certainly as Eve was
made for Adam. All sorts of mistakes
occur because Eve was made out of rib
from Adams side. Nobody knows, which
of his tWenty-four ribs was taken for the
nucleus, If you depend entirely upon
yourself in the selection Of wife, there
are tWenty-three possibilities to one that
YOU will select the wrong rib. BY the fate
| of Ahab, whose wife induced him to steal;
by the fate of Macbeth, whose wife pushed
him into massacre; by the fate Of james
Ferguson, the philosopher, whose wife
entered the room while he was lecturing
and willfully upset his astronomical APP
paratus, so that he turned to the audience
and said, Ladies and gentlemen, l have
the misfortune to be married to this
woman" by the fate of Bulwer, the
novelist, whose wife's temper was so in
compatible that he furnished her a beau
tiful house near London and withdrew
from her company, leaving her with the
dozen dogs whom she entertained as pets
by the fate of John Milton, who married
termagant after he was blind, and when
some one called her rose, the poet said:
II am no judge Of flowers, but it may be
80, for / feel the thorns daily" by the
fate of an Englishman whose wife was SO
determined to dance on his grave that he
was buried IN the sea; by the fate of a
village minister whom / knew, whose wife
threw cup of hot tea across the table
because they differed in sentiment-by al
these scenes of disquietude and domestic
calamity, we implore you to be cautious
and prayerful before you enter upon the
connubial state, which decides whether &
man shall have two heavens or two hells
a heaven here and heaven forever, or &
hell now and hell hereafter.
By the bliss Of Pliny, whose wife, wher
her husband was pleading in court, haC
messengers coming and going to inform
her what impression he was making; b!
/ the joy Of Grotius, whose wife delivered
him from prison under the pretence o
! | having hooks carried ont lest theV he in