American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-11-22

Sunday-this is not all of religion =
Where are the characters whose exercise
is demanded ana commanded, all around
us, and daily? What is the ere'yddy
life? True, when within one'smeans,th the
accomplishments and graces of life are
but so many duties; but these are subor-
dinate to such practical things as belong
to the solidity and gravity of mortality,
which, after all, is but breath, which is
only the threshold to vast and awful
altered state of being, but, during which,
aghat IRE owe to others requires that we
shall be able to do something, women and
men, besides talk and amuse ourselves
Talk, music, wit, mirth, will not ov rsee
a servant. nor cook dinner, nor nurs.
an invalid, dor economic the household
expenses, nor will they darn stocking.
The gaieties and pleasures; but alas, for
the poor selfish beings, the warp and wQof
of whose existence are made of such
syllabui s-what wonder if (when de-
privod of such triAes) these become ner-
vous' and morally insane ! Then, what
they call the 'incompatibilities' of we'd
ded life--what fruitful source this is
of nervous arrangement, perhaps only is
known to the great Father, The two
people may be well enough naturally; they
met in a fit of romance, they played a
part to deceive each other in courtship,
each assuming character which was
thought to be most in harmony with the
others taste; aud SO they united for life,
wedding a positive lie, very often on both
sides. SO they are incompatible, and
each bames the other while each is equal
ly culpable in the little cheat of court
ship Oh, if now only true religion were
at the bottom of these characters oh,
if healthful aud practical education had
been theirs, how soon these blessed a9en-
cics would tame the mere FIRE in the blood,
and draw each to the other by the tender
cords Of love, and the iron bonds of duty .
Regulated thus the natural and innocent
coquetrics, by which they deceived each
other. would fade into the great duty of
sclf.rcstraint, of forbeaRncc, Of model
ing each others lives to please and 10
strengthen each other, aud their petty
faults would varnisL before the dignity
aud sobriets 9orr of the influences of
proper carly education; these would thus
fade and fashion into solid, loving and
useful characters. But the poor pets and
popinjays, the summer birds and flowers
life, all music, all living on ertel7tais, all
sensual, with feeble roots ssarce resting
on the earth, and with wings aud songs
made for the sunshine only, how shall
they bear poverty aud disappointment? +?
Each mas lived for self and each expected
to have self ministered to in wedlock.-
Neither ever. dreamed of self-sacrifce !;
neither is anchored Oh the strength of re-
ligion, which gives dignity and strength
to the character Aud so they become
nervous, guilty, morally insane, toss
ed about by the storms Of passions and
impulses. If they break by by divorce
the bands of the church, it is generally
TO whirl about the earth notorious and
unrcspccted fast, and fallen or falling,
men and women. The happiness they
sigh for and dream of taey -aayer or rare
ly (such natures ind, because happiness
is cithjR ourselves, and can not be extrac-
ted as the bee sucks honey, from the va
riety attempting and sensual flowers that
excite and bewilder the giddy and silly.
And so society gossips over and casts out
such; and the lunatic asylums and the
5arrooms have them; and the courts write
shameful records about them, and the
Tempter of souls at last decoys them often
with all their pretty gifts and unregula-
ted fancies, into his net
'ERAsMUs' has 'beenled into tlris sub
ject by reading the shocking tales of male
and female crime that now load the news
papers. Here horrid case, then anoth-
er nearly like it, then some dozen more
met our eye, all about pistols and love
and such has Jcen the record, at inter
vals for many years past, of crime of this
kind in America Far be it from us to
deny that these are real and incurablc
{not selfentailedD nervous diseases, even
among the young. These may be inher-
tied J these may proceed from organic
causes, and their resblt may be, and Of
ten is, species of true insanity. But
these are the few and the peculiar cases
The large classes that we have described
are the creatures of imperfect and per-
verted educations, the growth of pctting
and of maternal end paternal indulgence
of vanity and pride, of sensuality and
self Indulgence, of idleness and dissipa-
finn of ppraot,l.t. -. Il