The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1874-11-14
Our Olio.
Moths in the Candle.

candle burns. Every night, while the
candle lasts, the slaughter goes on, and
leaves its wingless and dead around IT,
The light is beautiful, and warm, and
attractive and, unscared by the dead, the
foolish creatures rush into the flames and
drop, hopclessly singed, their little lives
despoiled.
1t has been supposed that men have
reason, and moral sense. 1t has been
supposed that they observe, draw conclu-
sions, aud learn by experience. Indeed,
they have been in tho habit of looking
down upon the animal world as a group of
inferior beings, and as subjects of com
miseration on account of their defencelsss-
ness, yet there is 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 a
certain class of brilliant temptations they
gather, 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 con-
science, have any effect upon them. If
they were moths in fact they could not be
sillier OF more obtusc. They are, indeed,
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, ed,-furthcr than to say that, when
hallowed by love and legitimate gift of
life to life, it is as pure as any passion of
the soul lis one of tho candles around
which the human moths lie in myriads Of
disgusting deaths. If anything has been
proved by the observation and experience
of the world it is that licentiousness, and
all illicitgratiiication ofthe passion involved
in it, are killing sins against mans own
nature,-that by it the wings are singed
not only, hut body and soul are degraded
and spoiled. Out of all Illicit indulgence
come weakness, perverted moral nature,
degradation of character, gross beastliness
a disgusting life, and disgraceful death.
Before its baleful FIRE the sanctity of
womanhood 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 in every
direction. Again and again, with endless
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 may choose
either. He may throw himself away on
few illegitimate 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
mpnhood, held in healthy relation to all
the joys that pertain to that high estate.
lie may be beast in bis heart, or he may
have wife whom he worships, children
whom he delights in, selfrespect which
enables him to meet unabashed the noblest
woman, and an undisputed place in good
society. He may have dirty imagina-
tion, or one that hates and spurns all i'm
purity as both disgusting and poisonous.
In brief, he may be man, with mans
powers and immunities, or a sham of q
man "a whitcds dsepulchre, e,--conscious that
lie carries with him his own dead bones,
and all uncleanness Its matter entirely
of choice. He knows what one life is, and
where II ends. He knows the essential
quality and certain destiny Of the other.
The man who says he cannot control him
self not only lies, but places his Maker in
blame. He can control himself, and, if
he does not, he is both fool and beast.
The sense of security and purity and self
respect that come of confluence, enter
tained 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
supremely blest.
Wine and strong drink form another
candle in which millions Of men have
singed themselves, and destroyed both body
and soul Hero the signs of danger are
more apparent than in the other form Of
sensuality, because there is less secrecy.
The candle burns ia cpen space, where all