The Wedding Ring

The Wedding Ring, by T. De
Witt Talmage

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Title: The Wedding Ring A Series of Discourses for Husbands and
Wives and Those Contemplating Matrimony
Author: T. De Witt Talmage
Release Date: August 16, 2007 [EBook #22343]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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The Wedding Ring.
A Series of Discourses for Husbands and Wives and Those
Contemplating Matrimony.
[Illustration]
By
T. DE WITT TALMAGE.
Reprinted from THE CHRISTIAN HERALD.
PUBLISHED BY THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, LOUIS KLOPSCH,
Proprietor, BIBLE HOUSE, NEW YORK

Copyright, 1896, BY LOUIS KLOPSCH.

CONTENTS.
The Choice of a Wife, 5
The Choice of a Husband, 24
Clandestine Marriage, 42
Duties of Husbands to Wives, 60

Duties of Wives to Husbands, 78
Costume and Morals, 95
Husbands and Wives, 114
Matrimonial Discords, 136
Hotels Versus Home, 148
Easy Divorce, 166
Maternity, 184
The Children's Patrimony, 198
The Mother of All, 217
Sisterly Influence, 234
Trials of Housekeeping, 252
Woman Enthroned, 268
Old Folks' Visit, 286
Home, Sweet Home, 303

The Wedding Ring.
THE CHOICE OF A WIFE.
"Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or
among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the
uncircumcised Philistines?"--JUDGES 14:3.
Samson, the giant, is here asking consent of his father and mother to
marriage with one whom they thought unfit for him. He was wise in

asking their counsel, but not wise in rejecting it. Captivated with her
looks, the big son wanted to marry a daughter of one of the hostile
families, a deceitful, hypocritical, whining, and saturnine creature, who
afterward made for him a world of trouble till she quit him forever. In
my text his parents forbade the banns, practically saying: "When there
are so many honest and beautiful maidens of your own country, are you
so hard put to for a lifetime partner that you propose conjugality with
this foreign flirt? Is there such a dearth of lilies in our Israelitish
gardens that you must wear on your heart a Philistine thistle? Do you
take a crabapple because there are no pomegranates? Is there never a
woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people,
that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?"
BEAUTIFUL JEWESSES.
Excuseless was he for such a choice in a land and amid a race
celebrated for female loveliness and moral worth, a land and a race of
which self-denying Abigail, and heroic Deborah, and dazzling Miriam,
and pious Esther, and glorious Ruth, and Mary, who hugged to her
heart the blessed Lord, were only magnificent specimens. The midnight
folded in their hair, the lakes of liquid beauty in their eye, the
gracefulness of spring morning in their posture and gait, were only
typical of the greater brilliance and glory of their soul. Likewise
excuseless is any man in our time who makes lifelong alliance with any
one who, because of her disposition, or heredity, or habits, or
intellectual vanity, or moral twistification, may be said to be of the
Philistines.
MODERN FEMALE LOVELINESS.
The world never owned such opulence of womanly character or such
splendor of womanly manners or multitudinous instances of wifely,
motherly, daughterly, sisterly devotion, as it owns to-day. I have not
words to express my admiration for good womanhood. Woman is not
only man's equal, but in affectional and religious nature, which is the
best part of us, she is seventy-five per cent his superior. Yea, during the
last twenty years, through the increased opportunity opened for female
education, the women of the country are better educated than the

majority of men; and if they continue to advance in mentality at the
present ratio, before long the majority of men will have difficulty in
finding in the opposite sex enough ignorance to make appropriate
consort. If I am under a delusion as to the abundance of good
womanhood abroad, consequent upon my surroundings since the hour I
entered this life until now, I hope the