Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-07-04

sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, ID.


days Of widespread separation and di-
vorce. and when the integrity of the
home is assailed from without and
within, the advice of the preacher who
takes love for his theme may help to dis
pei tie clouds that now overhang many
n household The text is Ephesians
V, %, Husbands. love your wives"
Two startling facts about PauPs per-
sonality have always wildly impressed
me. The one is the estimate of his
physical personality formed by his en-
emies in the Corinthian church who
had sat under his ministry and there
fore knew him we'll Paul himself
tells US that they said, His bodily
presence is weak and his speech con-
temptble." Chrysostom, according to
Albert Barnes, declared that "Paul's
stature was low, his back crooked and
his head bald" According to Nice
phorus, Paul was a little man with
curvature OF the spine and a pale
countenance, long and wrinkled, and
with a head like julius Caesar, noted
for its scarcity Of hair. Whether these
descriptions are true, we know not;
but it is little likely that the Corin-
thians would have spoken of him as
they did, and that writer's so near his
own time as ChrysOstOm and NicephO-
rus would have so described him, if
this intellectual and spiritual giant had
possessed an imposing personality. And
yet, all through the Pauline writings,
figures of speech bristle with the
symbols of the athletes arena The
runner, the fighter, the gladiator, the
struggle with the beasts of Ephesus,
all have their inspirations and gospel
teachings
The second fact, which stands side
by side with the first, about the per-
sonality of Paul is this: Paul was a
bachelor 1t has been cOntended that
he was a member of the sanhedrip
and, if so, must have been married,
but the expression in Acts XVI, 10, on
which the theory of his membership
is based, is vague and may have
amounted to no more than the testi-
mony of a witness. On the other hand
his argument in l Corinthians TX, 3,
clearly implies that both he.and Bar
nabas were unmarried. This cOndi-
ton, however, by no means indicates
that he was deficient in the affection
ate side of his nature. His letters
show that he lavished on his children
in the faith the love that other men
give to their offspring and that he was
an exceedingly affectlonate, warm
hearted man. He taught parents that
they should love their children and
children that they should care for their
parents, wives that they should honor
their husbands and husbands that they
should love their wives. 1t is in refer
ence to this last commandment that
would speak today.
MARITAL Affection.
There is a special reason at this time
for showing the need of a husband
being truly devoted and loving to his
wife, becqtse there seems to be pop
ular thesIy abroad that the old fash
toned idea of a family home is gone
and gone forever But. instead of be-
levigs that the old fashioned idea of
love Should be done away with, 1 be-
lieNe that, like the garden beds which
V&ea 10 ebe planted in our ancestors
Font yards, they should be cultivat-
I'D more and more. Marital affection
10y be old fashioned, but believe it
as one of the nobIest, finest, most beau
f%~ful things in life What could be
M more tender, more pathetic, than the
n words uttered by the great DR.. Thomas
De Witt when, struggling with I'm
trollable grief. he stood 10y the OpeI
grave in which he had just laid til,
mortal remains OF his beloved wife
He said: Farewell, my beloved anl
honored and faithful wife. The til
that united US is severed. Thou ar
with Jesus in glory, and he is will
me by his grace. l shall soon be will
you. Farewell" The Holy Book &c
clares, Whose findeth wife fndeth
good thing" 1t is no part of my pur
pose TO tell young men how they
should proceed in trying to win th
affections of the girls they desire t
marry. My design rather is to urg
married men to show their wives tn
same Difference, the same love and de
votion, that characterized them befor'
lnG NV dln SlOONA az l4lC maj AAtls5C uANSAA
hearing ard saying the solemn word.
which made them one flesh.
- Why is the true wife's value above
the price of rubies, as King Solomon
declared? She is her husbands bust
ness partner; her husbands equal il
brain as well as in heart power. She
fights with him. in a financial way
the great battle of life; therefore, like
her husband, she has a right to expec
the same rewards for her labors tina
he has for his. 1t has been the habi
of some cynics to represent wife a
n mere parasite, a hanger on. cling
ing vine. a barnacle or human Ieec
smoking out the life's blood Of her mas
culine partner. Polygnotus, the grea
Grecian artist. painted her 426 B. {
as a four legged beast in The Rope o
Genus devOuring all the labOrs of he
husband, while he works on and OF
A-oo,-;r,oy ont his life work in a ron