Wilmington daily commercial., 1874-09-24
Moths In the Candle.


burns. Every night while the candle lasts, the
slaughter goes on, and leaves its wingess and |
dead around it. The light is beautiful, and warm
and attractive and, unsecured by the dead, the |
foolish creatures rush into the flames, and drop
hoplessly singed, their little lives despoied.
1t has been supposed that men have rea-
son, and n moral sense. 1t has been sup
| posed that they observe, draw conclu-
| sions, and learn by experience. Indeed
| they have been in the habit of looking
downupon The animal world as group of infer |
| or beings, and as sui jects Of COMMUNICATION on
account of their defenseleseneas, yet there is a
large class of men, reproduced by every passing
generation, that do exactly what the moths do,
and die exactly as the moths die. They learn
| nothing by observation or experience. They
| draw no conclusions, save those which are fatal
| to themselves Around certain class of bril-
liant temptations they gather, night after night
and with signed wings or lifeless bodies, they
| strew the ground around them, No instruc-
| tion, no expostulation, no observation of ruin,
no sense of duty,no remonstrance of conscience,
| have any effect upon them. If they were moths
| in fact they could not be sler or more
obtuse. They are, indeed, so far under
tie domination of their animal natures that
| they act like animals, and sacrifice themselves
in flames tnat 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
pllb Oh NE 10 lllt IL ~ Ms pure
asany passion of the soul,-is one of the candles
around which the human moths lie in myriads
ofdisgustng deaths If anythng has been proved
| by the observation and experience OF the world
it is that Righteousness, and all Illicit gratilica
, ton Of the passion involved III in 1t, are killing
sins against a mans own naturo.-that by it
the wings are snged not only, but body and soul
: are degraded and spoiled. Out of all
illicit indulgence come weakness, per-
verified moral nature degradation OF character,
gross beastlmess, benumbed sensibilitles, dis
: gushing life, and dsgraceful death. Before
G its baeful fire the sanctity of womanlood fades
/. away, the romance Of life dies, and the beautiful
world loses all its CHARM The lives wrecked
. upon the rock of sensuality are strewn III every
g direction. Again and again, with endless repet
II ton, young men yield TO the song of the srer
that beguiles them to their death. They Learn
nothing, they see nothing, they know nothing
g but their wild desire, and on they go to destruc
ton and the devil.
Every yourg man who iea Is this article has
IA two lives before him. lie may choose either. liz
al may throw himself away on a few egitmat
al delights, which cover his brow with shame. il
u the presence of his mother, and become an oil
Il, man before his time, with all the wine draine
q out of his life or lie may grow up into pure
strong manhood held in healthy relations to al
the Joys that pertain to that high estate. He ma
be beast III his heart, or he may have wifi
whom he woIshils, children whom he delight
II in, self-respect which enables him to meet una
d dashed the noblest woman, and an undispute
place III bOuu hOCltlN. ne may uuNe ulI
III lmag nation or one that hates and spurns all in
lie putty as both disgusting and poisonous. |
o. Sgicf, he may he a man, with a man'spower an
n imnluui.ieH,or sham Of II man--a whted sepu
ID" chre,-conscious that he calnes with him hi
own dead bones, and all uncleRnness. IL Is
he matte entirely of choice. He knows what oil
as life is and where it ends. He knows tue essei
al tal duality and certain destiny of the other. I'll
w, mau who says lie cannot control himself not ON
ed, lies but places his Maker in blame. He can col
we troll himself and if he does not, he il both
of fool and beast. The sense of security and pu
Of ty and sef-respect that come of confluence e
nd tertained for single day, is worth more than Il
led illicit pleasures of world for all time. The pu
eg- in heart zee God in everything, and see Iii
ed. everywhere, and they supremacy blest.
vas Wine and strong drink form another candle
in which millions of men have singed tnemselye
In. and destroyed both body and soul. Here Il
ats signs OF danger are more apparent than in b
other form of sensuality, because there is le
ne secrecy. The candle burns in open space, whe
the all men can see it. Law sits behind and san
IN tons its burning. Itpays II prncely revenue
Inf the government. Women ilaunt their causes
ore it, Clergymen sweep their robes through
n ia Responsibility uses it to light its banquets.
viii many regions of this country it il higl
al respectable candle. Yet every year, Six
not thousand persons i'll this country die OF intel
perance and when we think of the blast
r lives that live in want and misery, of wives
! ne despair, Of loves bruised and blotted out,
! ~ children dsgraced, of alms-houses filled,
are dustry extinguisled, and Of disease engendcrt
tos aud remember that this has been going on
We thousands of years, wherever wine has be
'n- known What to think of the men W
still press into the fire Have they any me
d TO sense than the moths II il almost enough
the shake mans faith in immortality to learn IL
por lie belongs to that manifests so ttle ser
wer and such hopeless recklessness.
There is just ore way of safety, and only OIL
tory and young man who stands at the heginO'ug
lnf bis career can choose whether he will walk in
Or in the way of danger. There is notion abfC
ho- among men that wine il good, that when pre-
tato erly used it has help in it-that in certain
''''' it is food or help in the digestion OF fot
We believe that no greater or more fatal h
iict lucinatiOn ever possessed the world and ii
lrg, none 30 great ever possessed it for long tin
FOR Wine is a medicine, and men would take
on more of it than of any other medicine if it W.
tue not pleasant in its taste, and agreeable in
ing first effects. The men who drink it, daink it
ted, cause they like it. The theories as to its heal
fulness come afterwards. The world cheats
and self and tries to cheat itself in this thing
anne the priests who pirate of "using this world
for not abusing it," and the chemists who claim
sort of nutritious property in alcohol which n