Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-01-11
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE, DID,,
Pastor Of Jefferson Park Presby.
terrain Church. Chicago


sin. easy divorce, and the homogeneous
conflict of state laws on the subject
are unsparingly characterized. The
preacher indicates the only way out of
this immoral tangle which is wrecking
the home and desecrating the marriage
altar. The text is Mark X, 8. What
therefore God hath Joined together let
not man put asunder."
AS the civil war was the mortal clash
between two conflicting ideas. so to-
day we find conflicting ideas in mortal
combat over the marriage altar. The
one is the Christ idea, which declares
that marriage is not a confederation
that can be broken at will, but an in
dissoluble union. This idea asserts that
after marriage the twain in every sense
becomes one The second idea declares
that easy divorce is not a crime, but
often, for the social good, necessity.
1t says that when a man and q 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 his
American Commonwealth affirms that
the family as a unit is 1.-The one funda-
mental and permanent problem of hui
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 imperiled. Every
where the danger signals are being lift
ed, to prove that marriage is becoming
more and more a mere temporary con-
venience Carroll d. Wright in his la
Dor statistics declares that in the year
1889 there were 36,072 divorces in the
state of Illinois alone and that there
was one divorce to every fifteen mar
riages. He went on to show that from
1867 to 1886 there were 32S, 716 divorces
In the United States and that each year
the proportion of divorces to the num-
Der of inhabitants in 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 cheeks
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 and 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
q 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 q
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.
A Call For United Action.
Against the further spread and for
the determination of this divorce evil
the Catholic church is already up in
arms. Against it the Presbyterian
church, with it's general assembly COM
mittee working in unison with the sis
ter churches, is struggling night and
day. Against it only few weeks ago
all the Rhode Island ministers banded
themselves together to give religious
combat Thus. as the public leaders of
many denominations are fighting this
undermining and would be destroyer
of the home. it is not inappropriate for
me TO speak a few words in reference
TO those legal and domestic causes
which might hereafter make easy di-
vorce" an imposSibility.
First. nothing can be accomplished in
a material way unless there is national
legislation or at least concerted action
among the different state legislatures
upon this subject There must be all
over the land harmonious and united
legal action against the divorce evil.
1t should be made impossible for a
man 10 get a divorce in one state
which he could not obtain on the same
ground in any one of the 5000 divorce
courts of the United States. All those
courts ought to be in agreement as tC
what causes justify and what do mo-
Justify the dissolution of marriage.
We recognize the necessity of the
criminal courts of the United States
working in harmony. Why should we
not recognize the necessity of concert
ed action by divorce courts? Some
years ago in Chicago a man killed hi:
wife and burned her body in the va
of a sausage factory. Surprising after
that crime he could have stepped across
the state line and in Indiana defied tn,
legal authorities of Illinois. Wha
Eha