Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-05-03
SATAN IN MODERN SOCIETY.
The Debauchery OF Our Social -4;fo
Attacked by DIR. Dix.

women. many OF them prominent in So
cial life.
DR.. Dix said that he had to talk upon
subject which it was at once most
necessary and most unpleasant to dis
cuss. Impurity of mind and body was
me of the most dreadful of human sins
Love was noble and lofty, and the Bible
best thing, when corrupted. became
the worst. and of all vile and abomin-
able things tho West and most abomin-
able was the horrid passion which took
the place of the sacred flame. TO the
pure oil things were pure. but to the
lustful nothing was pure. Desire was
natural and good in its place. 'Oh.
God from the whom all holy desires
proceed" were the blessed words of
the collect But the will of the flesh
was substituted to the will of God
"When Adam and Eve sinned," said
DR.. Dix, 'they were ashamed, for they
knew that they were wicked. But men
have become hardened now. and have
sci up the lust of the flesh as a special
and worthy desire. Schools of phil
osophy teach this frightful doctrine.
Poetry idealizes it. Painters and sculp-
tor, delight to picture the nude in las
civiouS forms. The carnal has been
exalted with cultus called religion.
| 1t Is noticeable fact that this sin. which
! theology has named conupiscence, goes
| hand in hand with iniidelity. st. Glenn
ent of Alexandria has depicted the
shameful tn ngs of paganism in words
which | shall not repeat, but which, if
did, would drive you from your seats
with horror. The characteristic of pa
ganism has always been RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The battle which Christ began is still
! on-the church against the world,
against pagan philosophy and habits.
Wherever pagan philosophy is, its fol-
lowers adopt tho horrid pagan prac,-
| ces rs much as they can, and look
wistfully back TO the panorama of pa
gan lust and corruption in the old
ia, $.
The devil has a double headed pro-
paganda on foot to-day-Of inlidelity
and of impurIty. He is ut work every
where. The missionaries Of the cross
! find the heather naked, indolent and
| licenlious. And in France we see in
this age II political propaganda of athe-
ism and n social and literary carnival
of indecency. There flourishes liter
AZURE which is uneqnallcd for lcentious-
ness i'm any time or age, and Il school
of art whose motto is 10 display the
naked human body in every lasc,v Gus
and filthy att tude. Nowhere is there
Il more easy field for THIS devils pro-
paganda that IN America, and the
signs of his handiwOrk are on every
side. We see the public journals pan
dering to an unwhOlesome appetite by
feeding the public mind with the filthy
details of criminal and licentous deeds
We see Il popular school of fiction. the
plots of whose books are mostly adul-
ter,, murder, seduction and suicide;
whose heroes and herOnes lead inn
moral yes and make Il jest of purity.
We see Il poetry which scducively
stimulates animal pass on; dramas
which whet II sentuel appetite aud glor-
fly murder and shame; salacious and
lcentious figures used on every hand
VS. advertisements. and p clures i'm
. |
ashamed TO say. of a shocking lascivious
character.
Aud what is the state of society in
which these things are? The poorer
classes. living in crowded tenement
houses in which it is imposs bic to be
decent! Girls among the higher class
es taught to cultivate the attractions
of their bodies and to lure men by
these-young girls with their lunches
of II dozen courses and half q dozen
courses of understandable attired at
the opera and fondled by the hands OF
careless men. and holding supper par
ties afterward. where champagne and
the liquors notwithstanding to broad
speeches and filthy gossip and unclean
stories which make them lose all faith
in virtue and manhood of men-when
married. so accustomed to tlattery and
Irritation that their husband comes TO
occupy second place in their affec-
tons until separation or divorce fol-
lows!
"rhese are the commonest things to.
day. We sec men in high social places
whom no self-respecting woman
ought to admit over the threshold of
her characterization carried on by
people, each of whom has plighted his
or her troth, probably. to two or three
persons scandal and disgraceful stories
about households. with strange limiting
at mysterious and immoral dongs in
high places the common gossip; mar
rled men with the DEVILS look in their
eyes and their aduterer's desire in
their hearts running after young girls.
and all biding the men and women hold
their tongues who dare TO cry on;
aga INST the horrid business.
If these are The things in sight in
the open day. what in heavens name
are the things out of sight? Think of
the sin and shame which one night in
New York hides In the slums and
faubourgs, dance houses and ballroom:
tho theatres, with naked women on the
stage and naked women in the boxes
with men behind the scene. dallying
with the actresses-men who invent
n story of business and absence for the
ears of loving wives and daughters al
home; the adulterer stealing forth and
saying to himself, In the twilight nc
| II, Al.