The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-04-09

Enter everything splendid
ACT V. (Winding up tho scene). En-.
ter the assignee. Enter the sheriff. En-.
ter the creditors. Enter Humiliation.
Enter the wrath of God. Enter the con.
tempt of society. Enter death. Now let
the silk curtain drop ON the stage Ths
farce is ended and the lights are out.
viii you forgive me if l say in tersest
shape possible, that some of the men in
this country have to forge and to periurs
and to swindle to pay for their wives
dresses: I will say it whether You for.
give me or not.
Again: extravagant costume is the foe
of all Christian aims giving. Men and
women put so much in personal display
that they often have nothing for God and
the cause of suffering humanity. A
Christian man cracking his palais royal
gloves across the back by shutting up his
hand to hide the one cent he puts into
the poor box, A Christian woman at
the story of the Hottentots crying eopi.
Gus tears into twenty-five dollar hand.
kerchief and then giving a two-cent piece
to the collection. tnrusting it down under
the bills so people will not know but il
was a ten dollar gold piece. One hundred
dollars for incense to fashion-two cents
for God! God gives us ninety cents out Of
every dollar. The other ten cents, by
command of his Bible. belong TO him. Is
not God liberal according to this tithng
system laid down in the Old Testament
is not God liberal in giving US ninety cents
out of dollar when he takes but ten. We
a hat m hay-
nine cents for ourselves and one for God
Again, extravagant costume Is distrac.
ton to public worship You know very
well there are a good many people who 90
to church just as they 90 to the races. to
see who viii come out first. Men and
women with souls 20 be saved passing the
hour in wondering where that man got his
cravat. Of what store that woman patron.
ICES. In many of our churches the prelim.
inary exercises are taken up with the dis.
cussion of wardrohes. Il is pitiable. = it
not wonderful that the Lord does not
strike the meeting houses with lightning.
What distraction of public worship. Dying
men and women. whose bodies are soon to
be turned into dust, vet before three worlds
strutting like peacocSs. People sitting
down in a pew or taking up hymn book.
all absorbed a. the same time in personal
array. to sing:
Rise, INV soul, and stretch thy wings,
Thy better portion trace;
RISE from trsnsitory things,
Toward Heaven. thy native place
/ adopt the Episcopalian prayer and say:
"Good Lord, deliver us!"
Extravagant costume belittleS the intel.
lect. Our minds are enlarged or they
dwindle just in proportion to the import-
lance of the subject on which we constants
" dwell. Can you imagine anything more
dwarfing to the human intellect than tbs
study of dress. I see men on the street
who. Judging from their elaboration,
think must have taken two hours to ar.
range their apparel. After a few years Of
that kind of absorption, which one Of Nc
Allister's magnifying glasses viii be
powerful enough to make the mans char.
acter visible: What viii be left of q
woman's intellect after giving years and
wears 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 anima-
ton save in rushing across a room to pick
up a ledy's fan. Simpering along the cor
ridors the same compliments they sim.
pered twenty years ago.
Yet, my friends, have given you only
the milder phase of this evil. 1t shuts q
great multitude out of Heaven. The first
peal of thunder that shook Sinai declared,
'Thou shalt have no other gods before
me-" and you will have to choose between
the goddess of fashion and the Christian
God There are a 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 quiet spirits.
Heaven is for those who think more OF
their souls than of their bodies Why II
you. with your idolatry of costume, should
somehow get into Heaven, you would be
for putting a French roof on the '.house OF
many mansions" and you would be for in.
Producing the patterns of Butterick's Quar-
terly DelineatOr.
Give up this idolatry Of fashion or give
up Heaven. What would you do standing
beside the Countess of Huntington, whose
poor, or with that Christian woman
of Boston, who fed fifteen hundred chill
dren of the street. at Fanueil Hall. one New
Years Day, giving out as sort of doxolo-
gy at the end of the meeting, pair
Of shoes to each one of them; or those Dor.
cases of modern society who have conse.
Grated their needles to the Lord, and who
viii get eternal reward for every stitch
they take? Oh, men and women, give up
the idolatry OF costume. The rivalries and
the competitions of such a life are stu
pendous wretchedness. You will always
find some one with brighter array and
with more palatial residence and with
lavender kid gloves that make atighter ut.
And if you buy this thing and wear it you
will wish you had bought something elsa
and worn it. And the frets of such life
will bring the crows feet to your temples
before they are due, and when you come
to die you viii have a miserable time.
Ny friends, we must appear in judgmens
to ans yer for what we have worn on
our bodies as well as for what repentances
we have excised with our souls. On thas
day see coming in Beau Brummel OF me
lost tit-a which