Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-10-03
Moths In The Candle.


full and warm, and attractive; and.
unscared by the dead, the foolish
creatures rush into the flames, and
drop, hopelessly singed, their little
lives despoiled.
1t has been thought that men rea-
son, and have a moral sense. 1t has
been supposed that they observe, draw
conclusions, and learn by experience.
Indeed, they have been in the habit
of looking down upon the animal
world as a group of inferior beings,
and as subjects of commiseratlon on
account of their defencelessness, yet
there is large class of men, repro
duced by every passing generation,
that do exactly as the moths do, and
die exactly as the moths die. They
learn nothing by observation or ex-
perience. They draw no cOnclu-
sions, save those which are fatal to
themselves. Around a certain class
of brilliant temptations they gath
CT, night after night, and with
singed wings or lifeless bodies, they
strew the ground around them. No
Instructions, no eXpostulations, no
observation of ruin, no sense of duty,
no remonstrances Of conscience, have
any effect upon them. If they were
moths in fact ts.S could not be sill
lier OF more obtuse. They are, ip,
deed, so far under the domination
of their animal natures that they act
like animals, and sacrifice themselves
in flames that the worlds experience
has shown to be fatal.
A single passion, which need not
be named,-further than to say that,
when hallowed by love and a legiti-
mate gift of life to life, it is as pure
as any passion of the SOULS one of
the candles around which the human
moths lie in myriads of disgusting
deaths. If anything has been prov
ed by the observation and experience
of the world It is that licentiousness,
and all Illicit qualification of the pas
sion inv olved in it, are killing sins
against a mans own nature, that
by it the wings are singed not only,
but body and soul are degraded and
spoiled. Out of our illicit indul-
gence come weakness, perverted
moral nature, degradation of charac-
ter, gross beastliness, be4umbed SEN
sibilities, a disgusting life and dis
graceful death. Before its baleful
fire the sancity of wOmanhOod tades
away, the romance of life dies, and
the beautiful world loses all its charm
The lives wrecked upon the rock OF
sensuality are strewR N every di-
rection. Again and again, with end
less repetition, young men yield to
the song of the siren that beguiles
them to their death. They learn
nothing, they see nothing, they
know nothing but their wild desire,
and on they go to destruction and
the devil.
Every young man who reads this
article has two lives before him He
NAV choose either. He may throw
himself away on a few illegitima4e
delights, which cover his brow with
shame in the presence of his mother,
and become an old man before his
time, with all the wine drained out
of his life; or he may grow up into
a pure, strong manhood, held in
healthy relation to all the joys that
pertain to that high estate. He may
be a beast in his heart, or be may
have a wife whom he wOrships, chill
dren whom he delights in, seif-re-
spect which enables him to meet un-
abashed the noblest woman, and an
undisputed place in good society.
He may have a dirty imagination, or
one that hates and spurns all lmpqrl-
ty as both disgusting and poisonous.
In brief, he may be man, With q
mans powers and immunities, or a
sham of mana whited sepulchre,
conscious that he carries with him
his own dead bones, and all unelean-
illness. II is a matter entirely OF
choice. He knows what one life is,
and where it ends. He knows the
essential quality and certain destiny
of the other. The man who says he
cannot control himself not only lies,
but places his Maker in blame. He
can control himself, and, If he does
not he is both fool and a beast:
The sense of security and purity and
eaIf-resneet that come of confluence
entertained for single day, is worth |
more than the Illicit pleasures of a
world for all time. The pure in |
heart see God in everything, and see
Him everywhere, and they are su-
premely blest.
Wine and strong drink form an
other candle in which millions of
men have singed themselves, and de-
stroved both body and soul. Here
the signs of danger are more appar-
ent than in the other form of sensu-
ality, because there is less secrecy.
The candle burns in open space,
where all men can see it. Law sits
behind, and sanctions its burning.
1t pays a princely revenue to the
Government. Women faunt their
gauzes in it. Clergymen sweep their
robes through it. Responsibility
uses it to light its banquets. In
many egions of this country it is
highly respectable candle. Yet ev-
cry year, sixty thousand persons IN
this country die of intemPeTance;
and when We think of the blasted
lives that live in want and misery,
of wives in despair, of loves bruised
- ond bIottad ont, of children disgrae- !
l5U an of sims-bouses filed, of crimes
eu, oo,,,Witted NJ through its influence, of
;n5nstry extinguished, and of dis
nase engendered, and remember that
tbis has been going on for thousands
of wears, wherever wine has been
known; what are we to think of those
who still press into the 6reG Have
they any more sense than the mothss
1t is almost enough to shake mans
faith in Immortality to learn that he
belongs to a race that manifests so
little sense, and such hopeless reck-
leSSness.
There is Just one way of safety,
and only one, and a young man who
stands at the beginning of his career
ran DhuOAs whtthtr he will WHlk u