Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-03-28
OUR SOCIAL IIFE

The clergy, in various parts of
The country, (without regard to de
nomination" are denouncing the
extravagant fashions of the day
without stint. The following ex-
tract of a recent sermon, from a
Presbyterian minister of New York
city, is to the point
The diary of a fashionable chris
tian woman would be a sad history
TO read, if we only looked at the one
item of the use of time. Look over
the day from nine in the morning to
twelve or two at night-ffteen or
seventeen hours-and if it is a fully
fashionable day, with its hollow Wis
ltIDg, its dinner and its evening
party, you have four hours of the
looking glass, while all the rest
Except ten minutes given, in all, to
running over a chapter and a form
OF prayer in the morning and at
night belongs to the world as dis
tinct from and opposed to God.
This is the full-blOwn, fashionable
christian woman. Preserve the
principle, but reduce the dimensions,
and you have avery common type of
christian lady. As with time, so with
money. The quality and quantity
alike empty the purse. By actual
computation, fashionable lady's
garments and adornments (taking
the average would neatly clothe
twenty of the most refined of her
sex. She has put upon her person
twenty times more than was neces-
sary to give her the modest and be
coming appearance God requires.
Where the waste can be afforded, il
is a fearful displacement of value
but alas, where in one case it can
be afforded, in a thousand it pro-
duces debt, domestic Earring, and
often bankruptcy. | see christian
mothers justiiying it on every hand,
aud christian daughters dragged
INTO the vortex by the very hands
that ought to have been thrown
around them for protection l see
the influence of this collaboration
by the force of example extending
itself over all classes and conditions
of society, like subtle poison, eat
ing out the life of Christianity, and
leaving the mere name. And seeing
this, L cannot, as a minister of Jesus
Christ, keep silent without becoming
oartaker Of the sin"
And now we trust we shall have
equally effective discourses on the
wickedness Of young persons of
the other sex-the fast youths who
frequent the race course, the gam
bling saloons, drive fast horses on
the streets, indulge in Intoxicating
liqEors, smoking, chewing, and
multitudinOus other vices and ex-
travagances. The women are much
to blame, doubtless, but these pull
pit batteries, it seems to US, should
he directed, quite as often, at the
other sex.
But after all, it is folly to be try
ing TO draw distinctions between the
sexes in a matter of this kind, or TO
show on what side the balance OF
extravaganza inclines. 1t il enough
to know that we live in Z very fast
1age, and that our young men and
women are not rid of the follies and
recklessness which were begotten Of
the late civil war. We are not sorry
to see the pulpit making an effort tt
give our social life, viewed from
this stand point, a turn for the bet
ter, and as there is no danger 0
wounding the sensibilities of any
body in particular, we suppose tn
effort may be persevered in withou
mourning the charge of being to-
personal, or too sensational.
s-