Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-04-01

LLlNOk w VILLAINS.
- 60.
DERIVING TIE FEMALE SEX.--Rev,
DR.. Alexander, in recent volume Of
Sermons commenting upon the abuses
prevalent in society, uttcrs the follow
ing true and pointed language
What horrid fraud Satan is prac-
ticing on the Church in regard to the
daughters Of the covenant! In fash
ionable circles - dare [ call them
Christian ?-the years when girlhood
merges into maturity are frequently
sold to the adversary. The young
American woman is taught to deem
herself a goddess. If there be wealth,
if there be beauty, if there be accom-
plishments, nothing less than a miracle
seems necessary to rescue the soul from
death. Behold her pas from the ped
estal to the altar-the charming victim
is decked for sacrifice. Every breath
that comes to her is incense. Her
very studies are to fit her for admira
ton. Day and night the gay but
wretched maiden is taught to think of
self and of selfish pleasures !; until some
Lenten fashion Of solemnitv comes to
interrupt the whirl, and the season is
too short for her engagements. Grave
parents shake their heads at magnii-
cent apparel, costly gems, night turned
into day, dances, at which the Romans
would have blushed, pale cheeks, bend
ing frame, threatened decay and
yet, and yet they allow and submit
And thus the sex, which ought to show
the sweet, unselfsh innocency of youth,
is carried to the oyerheated temples Of
Pleasure. Thus the so-called Christ
ian verifes the Apostles maxim -
"She that liveth in pleasure, is dead
while she liyeth."
ANONYMOUS LETTER WRITING
Henry Ward Beecher, in one of his last
Star-papers, handles this subject in
his own peculiar style. He says that
when he gets letter making an attack
on ary person, and without a sigma
ture, eve pitch the letter in the fire,
and fear that the writer will follow, in
due time, unless he repents of the inef-
fable meanness of writing evil Of fell
low, and hiding his own name. This
is an attempt at assassination. No
person." he holds, "has any business
to express an opinion of public affairs
that is not willing to put his name to
it,"
He is also Of opinion that "repent
ance behind a mask is suspicious" and
adds: "We disdaiu to consider the
case Of those miscrcants who seek to
make mischief in families, in neighbor-
hoods, or between friends, by anony-
nous information, whether true or
false. A man who, under cover Of
darkness, would stab another's name or
hopes, is an own child Of the Devil, and
is about his fathers business with an
internal fidelity"
RESIGNATION IN SoRROw.-There
arc times when some great sorrow has
torn the mind from its familiar sup
ports, and levellcd those defcnces that
in prosperity seemed so stable-when
the most rooted convictions of reason
seem rottenness, and the blossoms of
our heaveuward imaginations 60 up be-
fore that blast as dust-when our works
and joys and hopes with all their null
titudes, and pomp and glory, seem to
60 down together into the pit, and the
soul is left as a garden that hath no
water, and as bird cast out of the
nest-in that day Of trouble, and Of
treading down perplexity, the noise of
viols, the mirth of the timbrel, and the
joy of the harp, are silent in the grave.
Blessed is the man who, in the midst
of his utter wrctchedness, far away
from all creatures and from all com
fort, can yet be willing, amidst all his
tears and anguish, there to rem in as
long as God shall please.
PARENTAL INSTRUCTION. If your
child asks you question on subject
entirely beyond its comprehension, say
to it at once, "You would not under
stad that, my dear, until you are old
err" If it is wrong, say that it is not
a proper question. If your treatment
Of your children is reasonable, they will
be perfectly satisfied with your word (;
and you mustnot allow them to tease you
by frequent repetitlons Of a question
thus disposed Of. If, en- the other
hand, you do not know the proper an
swer-and children's questions some
times take a wide scope-say so frank
ly, honestly, thong h it be ever so pain
full. Better anything than to tell your.
children falsehood, or to practice de-
ceit. And your replies Let them
rather be to lead to further inquiry
than to satisfy or check it. Your PROV
ince is to elicit thought, gently, almost
imperceptably, yet surely. Nothing
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