The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1904-04-08
THE NATIONAL SIN.
Or. Talmage's DenunCiatlon OF
Divorce Laws.
Indicates In His sermon the Only
Way Out of the TangIc which II
Wrecking the Home aud Desc
Grating the Marriage Altar.

llop}rght. 1904. by Lorts klcrschl
Los ANGELES. Cal In thi
sermon the nations fragrant bcscttin
Fin. easy divorce. and the incongruou
conflict Of state laws ON the sublec
are unsparin-y characterized. tn
preacher indicates the only way out O
/ this immoral tangle which is wreckini
/ the home and desecrating the marriag
altar. The text is Mark y. o, "Wha
therefore God hath joined together le
not man put asunder.'
As the civil war was the mortal clasl
between two conflicting ideas, so TO
day we find conflicting ideas i'm morta
combat over the marriage altar. Th'
one is the Christ idea, which declares
that marriage is not a confederation
that can be broken at viii, but an in
dissoluble union. This idea asserts thai
after marriage the twain I'm every sense
becomes one. The second idea declare.
that easy divorce is not a crime. but
often. for the social good. q necessity
Ii says that when a man and a woman
are unequally yoked together it is bet
ter that they be separated by law, even
if the cause for separation be not so
serious as that recognized in the Bible
and. more, that they may, if they WISH
contract new marriages.
But though James Bryce in IBIS
american Commonwealth ahirms that
the family as a unit is "the one funda-
mental and permanent problem Of hu-
man life and society" yet everywhere
by reading the signs OF the times we
can see that by easy divorce the sane
tity Of the home is imperled. Every
where the danger signals are being lift
ed. 10 prove that marriage is becoming
more and more a mere temporary con-
venience. Carroll d. Wright i'm bis la
Dor statistics declares that in the year
1889 there We're 3GOT2 divorces in the
state of Illinois alone and that there
was one divorce 10 every fifteen mar
riaces. He went on to show that from
1867 10 1856 there were 32S.1lO divorces
I'm the United States and that each year
the proportion Of divorces to the num-
her OF inhabitants I'm the United States
was on the increase. just as the indi-
vidual wealth Of the Americans per
capita increases year by year. Surely
such an evil record as that ought TO
bring a blush of shame TO the checks
Of American manhood and womanhood
and might be regarded as a national
disgrace even by the inhabitants Of
the French capital. 1t would have been
a blot on the historical pages Of licen-
tious Rome. So awful is the spread OF
this divorce evil aud so blunted are be-
coming the once keen edges Of public
sentiment upon this question that Nor
gan Dix. who in no sense can be called
a sensationalist. uttered last Thanks
giving day this scathing invective
against wholesale licensed libertinism,
now being practiced through the wide
open doors Of the legal courts Of our
land: "The divorce evil is terrible. 1t
is an evil we must try to uproot Once
upon a time if we ever mentioned the
fact that a person had been divorced
we spoke Of It under our breath. as
subject not proper for conversation. We
then regarded divorce as something
closely related to disgrace, and that not
long ago either" Now rapid degen-
eracy Of social sentiment upon this evil
has taken place. We look upon easy
divorce as respectable. We even honor
some Of those who have thus criminally
broken their nuptial vows, when. in
stead. we should hold them in everlast-
ing disrepute.
Against the further spread and for
the determination Of this divorce evil
the Catholic church is already mp in
arms. Against it the Presbyterian
church. with its general assembly COM
mittee working in unison with the sis
ter churches. is struggling night and
day. Against it only few weeks ago
an the Rhode Island ministers banded
together TO give religious
combat. Thus. as the public leaders OF
many denominations are fighting this
and would be destroyer |
Of the home. # IS not inappropriate for |
me TO speak few words i'm reference |
TO those legal and domestic causes |
which might hereafter make easy di- |
yorce" an impossibility.
First, nothing can be accomplished in |
q material way unless there is national |
legislation or at least concerted action
among the differoat state legislatures /
upon this subject. There must be all I
over the land harmonious and united /
legal action against the divorce evil.
Il should be made impossible for
man TO get a divorce in one state
which he could not obtain on the same
ground in any one Of the 5000 diYorce
courts Of the United States. All those
courts ought TO be in agreement as TO
what causes justify and what do not
Justify the dissolution Of a marriage.
We recognize the necessity Of the
criminal courts OF the United States
working I'm harmony. Why should we
not recognize the necessity OF concert
.d action by divorce courtsf Some
-ears ago i'm Chicago a man killed his
wife and burned her body in the vat
# a sausage factory. Supposing after
hat crime he could have stepped across
he state line and in Indiana deGed the
ocal authorities Of Illinois What
would have been the result? Suppos-
ne that notable murderer could have
walked free man I'm Philadelphia aft
,r he had poisoned his child wife in
Iew York city why, murder and out
awry would be everywhere in the
United States running rampant. To
lay your life would not be worth the
.alue Of a pin only as you were able
o protect # with your own arm and
iefy your would be murderer behind
he barricaded walls Of your own home.
TO- mo- The only safety Of life de-
ends upon this fact: If you commit a
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