Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1902-04-25

reasonable women, yet married-married
perhaps to good men! These are the wo'
men who build the low club-houses, where
the husbands and sons go because they
can't stand it at home. On this sea OF
matrimony, where so many have wrecked,
am l not right in advising divine pilotaIge,!
Especially is devout duplication needed,
because of the fact that society Is so full
of artificialities that men are deceived as
to whom they are marrying, and no one
but the Lord knows. After the. dress
maker, and the milliner, and the leweler,
and the hair-adjuster, and the dancing
master, and the cosmetic art have COM
pleted their work, how is an unsophlstl.
Gated man to decipher the physiological
hieroglyphics, and make accurate ludg..
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'
livered are so different from the sample
by which they bargained. They were
swindled, and they backed out. They
mistook Jezebel for Longfellow's Evange.
line, and Lucretia Borgia for Martha
Washington. -,
Ave. 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. ana
these women, though they may live amid
richest upholstery, are not SO nonoraDIe
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 Dase.
Do you not realize you need divine gulo-
ance when remind You that mistake u u
possible in this important analr, ana, IL
made, is irrevocable?
The worst predicament possible IS to be
unhappiy 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 6iDlei
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
blunder? There is only one Being In the
universe who can tell you whom to choose
and that is the Lord of Paradise. lie
made Eve for Adam, and Adam for Eve,
and both for each other. Adam had not
a 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 fol-, 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 a 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 lecturlng
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 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
a termagant after he was blind, and when
some one called her rose, the poet said.
81 am no judge of flowers, but 1T may be
so, for | feel the thorns daily" by the
fate of an EngEshman whose wife was so
determined to dance On his grave that he
was buried in the sea; by the tate OF a.
village minister whom L knew, whose wife
threw a cup of hot tea across the table
IN tipoo nv 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 a
hell now and a hell hereafter.
By the bliss Of Pliny, whose wife, when
her husband was pleading in court, had
messengers coming and going to inform
her what impression he was making; by
the Joy of Grotius, whose wife delivered
him from prison under the pretence OF
having books carried out lest they be in
furious to his health, she sending out her
husband unobserved in one of the book
cases. by the good fortune of Roland, in
Louis time, whose wife translated and
composed for her husband while Secretary
of the Interior-talented, heroic, won
derful Madame Roland; by the happiness
of many man who has made intelligent
choice of one capable being prime coun-
selor and companion in brightness and in
grief-pray to Almighty God, morning,
noon, and night, that at the right time
and in the right way He will send you
good, honest, loving, sympathetic wife; or
if she is not sent to you, that you may be
sent to her.
At this point let me warn you not to
let a question of this importance be set
tied by the celebrated matchmakers -four
ishing in almost every community. De-
pend upon your own judgment divinely
ilumined. These brokers in matrimony
are ever planning how they can unite i'm
pecunious innocence to an heiress, or cell
bate woman to millionaire or marquis, and
that in many cases makes life an unhappi-
ness How can any human being, who
knows neither of the two parties as God
knows them, and who is ignorant of the
future, give such directions as you re-
quire at such a crisis?
Take the advice of the earthly match
maker instead of the divine guidance, and
you may some day be led to use the words
of Solomon, whose experience in home life
was as melancholy as it was multitudinous.
One day his palace, with its great wide
rooms and great wide doors and great
wide hall, was too small for him and the
loud tongue of woman beaboring him
about some of his negects, and he re-
treated to the housetop to get relief from
the fungal bombardment. And while there
he saw a poor man on one corner of the
roof with mattress for his only furni-
ture, and the open sky his only covering.
And Solomon envies him and cries out
1T is better to dwell in the .Gerwa6nfafn IL
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