Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-02-25

princes and princesses OF New York life. Enter
magnificent plate and equipags Ehterlsyery-
thing splendid
Act the Fifth and Last Winding Up the
Scene Enter the assignee. Enter tho Sheriff.
Enter the creditors Enter humiliation Enter
tho wrath of God Enter the contempt of soci-
ETY.. Enter death
Now Let the silk curtain drop on the stage
The farce is ended, and the lights are out
VIII you forgive me il / say in tersest shape
possible that some of the men in this country
have to forge, and TO perjure, and to swindle
10 pay for their wives dresses? i will say il
whether you forgive me or not
Again, extrayagant costume is the foe of ell
Christian aims giving. Men and women put
90 much in personal display that they often
have nothing for God and the cause Of suffer-
ing humanity A Christian man cracking his
Palais Royal gloves across the back by shut
ting up his hand to hide the cent he puts into
the poor box! A Christian woman at the story
OF the Hottentots crying copious tears into
SIS handkerchief, and then giving 2-cent
piece to the collection, thrusting it down under
the bills so people will not know but it was
Sl0 gold piece One hundred dollars for in
cense TO fashion, cents for God! God gives
M 90 cents out Of every dollar. The other 10
cents. by command Of his Bible, belong to Him.
70 not God liberal according to this tithins
system laid down In the Old TESTAMENT Is
not God liberal in giving us 90 cents out Of
every dollar when he takes but 10? We do not
like that We want to have 90 cents for our
selves and for God.
Now would great deal rather steal 10 cents
from you than God think one reason whys
great many people do not get along in worldly
accumulation faster is because they do not OBJ
serve this divine rule. God says: @Well, II
that man is not satisfied with 80 cents out of .
dollar, then will take the whole dollar andl
will give it to the man or woman who is honest
with Me-" The greatest obstacle to charity in
the Christian church to-day is the fact that
men expend so much on their table and women
so much on their dress that they have got
nothing left for the work Of God and the worlds
betterment
Again, extravagant costume is distraction tO
| public worship. You know very well there are
good many people who go to church just as
they go to the races, to see who will come out
first Men and women with souls to be saved
passing the hour in wondering where that man
got his cravat, or what store that woman pat
| roniZes. In many of our churches the pre-
liminary exercises are taken up with the dis
cussion of wardrobes. 1t is pitable. Is it not
wonderful that tho Lord does not strike the
Westinghouse with lightning? What distrac-
ton of public worship! Dying men and wo-
men, whose bodies are soon to be turned into
dust, yet before the world strutting like pea
cocks. People sitting down in a pew or taking
up hymn book, all absorbed at the same time
in personal array, to sing:
Rise my soul. and stretch thy WINGS
Thy better portion trace;
Rise from transitory things,
Toward heaven, thy native placei
I adopt the Episcopalian prayer andsay: aGood
Lord, deliver us!"
Extravagant costume belittles the intellect
Our minds are enlarged or they dwindle just in
proportion to the importance Of the subject on
which we constantly dwell Can you imagine
anything more dwaring to the human intellect
than the study of dress? I see men on the
street who, judging from their elaboration,
think must have taken two hours to arrange
their apparel After few years Of that kind
Of absorption, which one Of McAllister's mag
nifying glasses will bepowerfule enough tomake
the mans character visible? What will be left
of woman's intellect after giving years and
years to the discussion of such questions?
They all land in idiocy. have seen men at
the summer watering places through fashion
the mere wreck of what they once were Sallow
of cheek. Meager of limb. Hollow at the
chest Showing no animation save in rushing
across room to pick up lady's fan. Simper-
ing along the corridors the same compliments
they simpered twenty years ago
Yet my friends, have given you only the
milder phase of this evil It shuts great
multitude out of heaven. The first peal Of
thunder that shook Sinai declared: @Thou
shalt have no other gods before Ne" and you
will have to choose between the goddess Of
fashion and the Christian God. There are .
great many seats in heaven, and they are all
easy seats, but not one seat for the devotee Of
costume. Heaven is for meek and quie
spirits. Heaven is for those who think more
of their souls than Of their bodies. Why, if
you with your idolatry of costume should
somehow get into heaven, you would be for
putting q French roof on the ahouse Of many
mansions" and you would be for introducing
the patterns of Basttericb's Quarterly Delinea-
tor.
Give up this idolatry of fashion or give up
heaven. What would you do standing beside
the Countess of Huntington, whose joy it was to
build chapels for the poor, or with that Chris
tian woman Of Boston who fed 1,500 children
of the street at Fanueil Hall one New Years
day, giving out as a sort Of doxology OF the
meeting pair of shoes to each one Of them;
or those Decreases of modern society who
have consecrated their needles to the Lord, and
who will get their eternal reward for every
stitch they take? o, men and women, give up
this idolatry of costume. The rivalries and the
competition of such life are stupendous
wretchedness. You will always find someone
with brighter array and with more palatial
residence and with lavender kid gloves that
make tighter fit And if you buy this thing
and wear it you will wish you had bought
such life will bring the crow's-feet to your
temples before they are due, and when you
come to die you will have miserable time.
have seen men and women of excessive
costume die, and I never saw one Of them die
well. The trappings of, there they lay on the
tumbled pillow, and there were just two things
that bothered thcm-a wasted life and q COM
ing eternity. Icould not pacify them, for their
bodies, mind, and souls had been exhausted in
. the worship of costume, and they could moi
} appreciate the gospel. When knelt by thei1
bedsides they were mumblng out their regrets
and saying 20 God! o God!" Their garments
hung up in tho wardrobe never again to be
seen by them.r Without any exception, so far
j as my memory serves mo, they died without
. hone and went into eternity ,rnprepared The