Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-04-16
same regard for genuine purity and virtue.
From the New York Evening Post.
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Shameful Life.


Rev. e. II. Chaplin, in the course of
recent series of sermons on the phases Of
Life,p delivered one entitled shameful
Life" that excited more than usual atten-
ton. AS the evening happened to be stor-
my, he was requested to repeat it, and did
so last evening, when the spacious church
was crowded to excess, and many we're
obliged 10 leave, unable to find even stand
ing-room. After the preliminary exercises,
consisting of prayer, reading Of Scriptures,
and singing by the Congregation, led by
Sunday-school children, Mr. Chaplin deliver
ed his discourse, taking as his text the 10Th
and llth verses Of the 9Th chapter Of
John
"When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw
none but the woman, he said unto her, Where
are thine accusors Hath no man condemned
thee She said, No man, Lord. Aud Jesus
said unto her, Neither do 1 condemn thee go
and sin no more"
Mr.. Chaplin remarked he should leave
the question of the authenticity of the pas
sage from which the text was taken to be
settled by the critics He was satisfied to
take the words, as he found them in our
English version, as genious expression Of
the spirit of Christ's teaching. This pas
sage presented, first, our Savior in contact
with the shameful phase of human life I;
secondly, it showed men, convicted by their
own conscieuces, not DARN to "cast the
first stone )" & it exhibited, thirdly Christ's
treatment Of pentent guilt in His words,
Neither do | condemn thee go, and sin
no more" He proceeded to show the bear
ing of the text upon the subject of shame
ful life, in the order of these three points
suggested by the text. .
In remarkable work Of fiction publish
ed some time since, two personages in the
story we're represented as entering the Pal
ace of Eblis, the halls of Fate, the abodes
of the dead, and there, amid profusion of
splendors, rows of columns, rich perfumes,
stately banquetS, vases of crystal, dances
and music, they observed the vast crowd
traversing the boundless galleries, each with
his rigl hand upon his heart, all in silence,
while over the vast grandeur of the scene
there hung a shadow of lowering gloom
This description not inuptly symbolzed our
civilization. In the midst of the great city,
with its grandeur, its luxury, its glitter, its
show of refinement, there hangs the dark
shadow Of one prevailing sin, she presence
of which every one knows and feels, but of
which no one dares speak, even though to
thousands the guilt and anguish are as close
as the fiery torment burning within those
hearts which the spectral crowd pressed
with their right hands as they moved
through the halls of Eblis. Even in speak
ing of that sin now, as speak lie must, he
must refer to it by circumlocntlon--as
something understood, but not to be ex-
pressed--and yet there was no social evil
touching more nearly the hearts of all, or
calling more urgently for earnest discussion
and uncompromising effort. 1t was an evil
as old as the records of the race, coeval
with the human heart, cursing alike savage
life and the refined society, mingling its pol
luted stream with the foremost tides of
civilization, marching with armies, moving
with colonies, waiting on literature, phlos-
ophy and religion, aud as sure to be found
in great cities as crime or death
And as in the text. so everywhere and
at all times it has beeu woman who stands
in the foreground and upon whom the NAL
ediction aud condemnation fall. 1t is to
her the accusers, point, not caring to ask
whether they themselves are clear of all
guilt. Woman is the victim always-sinned
against and SHINING. lie appealed in be-
half of these victims Consider moment
this army of 5000 unfortunate women, so
many of them mere children, and the ma
joriIy accomplishing their guilty career and
dying on the very threshold of existence
Homes somewhere they have had, many Of
them homes of purity hopes were born
with them, to be crushed in their perdition; !;
hearts are broken by their shame. While
they have whrled through life in guilty
revelry, honored heads have grown gray
and gone down in sorrow to the grave.
We should pity fallen woman. Not
merely for herself personally should we be
lifted above all profgate scorn and fiend-
ish contempt in the treatment of this sub
iect but for the humanity that in her is
stained aud perverted; for the type of pure
womanhood that lies diSheveled and cast
down under the light of heaven and before
God. The life of every one of these vic
tins, if truthfully unfolded, would be IA ter
rible romance of reality Some were born
in vice, and their history is therefore the
more terribly appalling, They exhibit not
only degraded womanhood, but de-
graded childhood; they came pure into the
world, as the white snow fake ialls fnto the
mire and pollution of the streets Graded
in g sarcophaguS, swathed with the cere
ments Of moral death. But many other:
have fallen, and it has been a fall as awful
as if it were the fall of star in the sphere
In the earlier stuges where sin SINNERS in
fashionable show aud etiquette, where the
deaths head wears glittering crown, there
may be an illusion to cheat the sense O
shame but as the victim descendS with
rapid steps to baser conversion and rougheI
realities. the hand writing comes out fear
fully distinct the fallen soul makes known
the reflected shape and shadow of itSef-
And at the close of her ghastly career, al
on bed Of straw in some damp, dark de
pHrtment, ringing with curses, the dying
wreck Of humanity and womanhood lies, tt
her ear the voice Of memory comes, as t.
the drowning comes the sound Of far OF
Sabbath bells. Before her glazing eye ap
pears mothers look of broken-hearted wo
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