Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1895 — OUR NATIONAL SCOURGE [ARTICLE]

OUR NATIONAL SCOURGE

The Divorce Mills That Unceasingly Grind. An Eloquent Plea in BVhalf of the Sacred - nesi of the Marriage Relation -Dr. Talmage’s Sermon. « “Wholesale Divorce” was the subject of Dr. Talmage’s sermon at the New York Academy of Music last Sunday. The text selected was Matthew xix, 6, “What, therefore, God has joined together let not man put asunder.” That there are hundreds and thousands of infelicitous homes in America no one will doubt. If there were only one skeleton in the closet, that i might be locked up and abandoned, I but in many homes there is a skele- ' ton in the hallway and a skeleton in all the apartments. “Unhappily I married” are two of many a homestead. It needs no . orthodox minister to prove to a bad!ly mated pair that there is heli. They are there now. Some say that for the alleviation of all these domestic disorders.- of , which we hear easy divorce is a good ‘ prescription. God sometimes au- | thorizes divorce as certainly as he authorizes marriage. I have just as much regard for one lawfully divorced as I have for one lawfully married. But you know and I know ' that wholesale divorce is one of our National scourges. I am not surprised at this when I think of the influences which have been abroad militating against the marriage relation. I For many years the platforms of the country rang with talk about a free love millennium. There were meetings of this kind held in the 1-C.oo.per Institute. New York; Tremont, Temple, Boston, and all over tiie land. Some of the women who were most prominent in- thatMnovement have sinee been dist’n<»ui.shed for great promiscuosity of affection. Popular themes for such occasions were.the tyranny of man, th&oppression of the marriage relation, woman’s rights and the affinities. Prominent speakers were women with short curls and short dresses and very long, everlastingly at war with God because they were created women, while on the platform sat mbek men with soft accent and cowed derpj?anor, apologetic for masculinity and holding the parasols while the termagant orators went on preaching the doctrine of free love. > Another influence that has warred upon the marriage relation has been polygamy in Utah. That was a stereotyped caricature of the marriage relation and has poisoned the whole land. You might as well think that you can have an arm in a state of mortification and yet the whole body not be sickened as to have those Territories polyiramized and yet the body of the Nation not feel the putrefaction. Hear it, good men and women of America,rihat so long ago as 1862 a law was passed by Congress forbidding polygamy in the Territories and in all the places where they had jurisdiction. Twen-ty-four years passed along and dive administrations before the first brick was knocked from that fortress of libertinism. ' | Another influence that has warred against the marriage relation in this country has been a pustulous literature, with its millions of sheets every week choked with stories of domesticjvrongs and infidelities and massacres and outrages unfit it is a wonder to me that there are any decencies or any common sense left on the subject of marriage. One half of the news stands of all our cities reeking with the filth. 1 “Now,” say some, “we admit all these evils, and the only way to clear them out or correct them is bv easy divorce,” Well, before we yield to that cry let us And out how easily it is how. I I have looked over the laws of all the States, and I find that while in some States it is easier than in oth--1 ers in ‘'every State it is easy. The State of Illinois, through its legisla--1 tures, recites a long list of proper causes for divorce and then closes up I by giving to the courts the right to make a decree of divorce in any case ‘ where they deem it expedient. After I that you are not surprised at the announcement that in one county of the State of Illinois in one year there were 833 divorces. If you want to know how easy it is, you have only tQ look over the records of the States. In the city of San Francisco 333 divorces in one year, and in twenty years in New England 20,000. Is that not easy enough? I wan t you to notice that frequency lot divorce always goes along with 'dissoluteness of society. Rome for 500 years had not one case of divorce. Those were her days of glory and virtue. Then the reign of vice began, and divorce became epidemic. If you want to know how rapidly the empire went down, ask Gibbon. What we want in this country and in all land< is that divorce be made more and more and more flifficult. Then people before they enter that relation will be persuaded that there will probably be no escape from it, except through the door pf the sepulcher. Then they Will pause on the verge of that relation until they are fully satisfied that it is best, and that it is right, and that it is,happiest. Then we shall have no more marriage in fun. Then men and women will not enter the relation with the idea it is only a trial trip, and if thev do not like it they can get out at the first landing. Then this whole question will be taken out of the frivolous into the tremendous, and

there will be no more joking about the blossoms in a bride’s hair than about the cypress on a coffin. What we want is that the congress of the United States change the national constitution so that a law can bp passed which shall be uniform all’ oyer the C&untry, and what shall be" right in ohe Stare shall be right in all and what is wrong in one State will be wrong in all States. How is it now?. If a party in the marriage relation gets dissatisfied, it is only necessary to move to another State to achieve liberation from the domestic tie, and divorce is effected so easily>jthat the first one party knows of it is by seeing in the newspaper that the Rev. Mr. Somebody on March 17, 1895, introduced in a new marriage relation a member of the household who went off on a pleasure excusion to Newport or on a business excursion to ChiMarried at the bride’s house. No cards. There are States of" the™ Union which practically put a premium upon the disintegration of tiie marriage'relation, while there are other States, like our own New York State, that had for a long time the pre-eminent idiocy of making marriage lawful at twelve and fourteen years of age. More difficult divorce will put an. estoppel to a great extent upon marriage as a financial speculation. There are men who go into the relation just as they go into Wall street to purchase shares.. The female to be invited into the partnership of wedlock is utterly unattractive and in disposition a suppressed Vesuvius. Everybody knows it, but this masculine candidate- for matrimonial orders, through the commercial agency or through the county records, finds out how much estate is to be inherited, and he calculates it. He thinks how long it will be before the old man will die and whether he can stand the refractory ternper until fie docs die. and then he enters the relation, for he says ’’if I cannot jriand it, then through the divorce’ law I’ll back out.” That process is going on all the time, and men enter the relation without any moral principle, without any affection, and it is as much a matter of stock speculation as anything that transpired yesterday in Union Pacific, Illinois Central or Delaware & Lackawanna.

Rigorous divorce law will also hinder women from..the fatal mistake of marrying men to reform them. If a young man by twenty-five years of age or thirty years of age has the habit of strong drink fixed on him, he is certainly'bound fora drunkard’s grave as that a train starting out from the'Grand Central depot at . 8 o’clock to-morrow morning is bound for Albany. A rigorous divorce law will also do much to hinder hasty and inconsiderate marriages. Under the impression that one can be easily released,- people enter the relation without inquiry and without reflection. Romailce and impulse rule the day. Perhaps the only ground for the marriage contract is that she likes his looks, and he admires the graceful way she passes around the ice cream at the picnic! It is all they know about each other. It is all the preparation for life. A woman that could not make a loaf of bread to save her life will swear to cherish and obey. A Christian will marry an atheist, and that always makes conjoined wretchedness, for if a man does not believe there is a God he is neither to be trusted with a dollar nor with your life-long happiness.

Let me say to the hundreds of young-people in this house this afternoon, before you give your heart and hand in holy alliance use all caution. Inquire outside as to habits, explore the disposition, scrutinize the taste, question the ancestry and find out the ambitions. Do not take the heroes and the heroines of cheap novels for a model. Do not put your lifetime happiness in the keeping of a man who has a reputation for being a little loose in morals, or in the keeping of a woman who dresses fast. Remember that, while good looks are a kindly gift of God. wrinkles or accident mav despoil them. Remember tnat Byron was no more celebrated for his beauty than for his depravity. Remember that Absalom's hair was not more splendid than his habits were despicable. Hear it, hear it! The only foundation for happy marriage that has ever been or ever will be is good character. Ask God whom you shall marry, if you marry at all. A union formed in prayer will be a happy union, though sickness pale the cheek, and poverty empty the bread tray, and death open the small graves, and all the path of life be strewn with thorns from the marriage altar with its wedding,march and orange blossoms clear down to the last farewell at that gate where Isaac and Rebecca, Abraham and Sarah, Adam, and Eve parted. And let me say to you who are in this relation if you make one man or woman happy you have not lived in vain. Christ says that what he is to the church you ought to be to each other, and if sometimes through dif—ference- of opinion or difference of disposition you make up your mind that your marriage was a mistake, patiently bear and forbear, remembering that life at the longest isshort, and that for those who have been badly mated in this world death will give quick and immediate bill of divorcement written in letters of green grass on quiet graves. And perhaps, my brother, my sister—perhaps you may appreciate each other better in heayen than, you have appreciated each other ou earth.