Morning journal and courier., 1889-02-04
ABOUT MODERN SOCIETY.

ABOUT MODERN SOCIETY. Rev. A. J. Wheeler Speaks of Woman
 as the Queen Ofrhe Universe-Temp-
 tatIons That Reset Her - Jealousy |
 Her Greatest EvIl-Cr1mes Caused by |
 the Fashion PIaIe-StOopinE to Sin
 in order to Dress Well-A Dress Re- |
 form Association Needed-Bad Liter
 ature-Ho Says Ghe Club Rooms are
 Curses 50 SocIety-Sin In High Life In
 New Haven.
 Rev. A. J. Wheeler of the Beers street mission last night preached the second of his series of sermons to young people, the subject being 'tNew Haven After Dark and It's Temptations" The sermon was to young women. Ha toek for his text Proverbs Il, xii: "As 8 Jewel of Gold in Swine's Shout, So is Fair Woman Which is With out Discretion"
 He began by saying that the making of woman was not an afterthought by God, nor is woman inferior to mar, ,as the latter would have us believe. Woman was made the equal of man, and, in fact, she is superior, which is proven by the fact that when she begins to fall she goes lower than man. You may boast of civilization, but it has never done for woman what the gospel has. In Chris tendon the most beautiful words are girl, wife, mother. She is the queen of humanity, and to see her cut down by the vices of to- day without warning is disgraceful to civili- zation. 1t should be the duty of every Chris tian minister to warn her.
 The future of this government and all society depends on young women. A vast responsibility depends upon you. Young men, your future depends upon woman, al- though you may not know it. Men say that warning young women is to delicate sub ject; but God says to cry out against the sins of the people. I would rather see daughter of mine sick with the smallpox than in modern society to-day. The very roots of society life is poison. The spirit that in fuences woman is jealousy, and it is drag ging them lower and lower every year. Jeal- ousy was born just outside the Garden of Eden, where Cain slew his brother. It has acted as great factor in destruction, and to- day it is just as alarming.
 It is the great effort to exceed another wo- man in style and dress that is the ruination of women. Young ladies, whose minds are susceptible, are led on to do things they would not otherwise do if it were not for dress.
 The textbook of modern society is the fashion plate. The men are just as guilty in this direction, but their fashion is to attend the club and smoke and drink wine. God loves beauty. This is proven by the fact that he has given to nature everything that is beautiful. But the result of the fashion plate is a curse to it and to civilization, and | to Christianity. In walking down Chapel ! street Saturday night you would be impress \ ed with the great dress parade. The poor ! butterflies! How they fit from State street ! to Temple. Here is the sin of the fashion ! plate. Our girl sees another and she thinks ! she ought to have just as good clothes. l The laboring classes cannot belong to modern society on account of it's great de- mand for money. Men who have families | run up bills because they can't do better; but would if they had chance, because they l want to keep their craft aloft in modern so- | ciety. The reason it is at times so hard to l get money is not because there is so much in l circulation, but because of financial depres- | sion due to the fact that one-half the people are in debt to the other half. Just so long l as this continues, the financial system will be poor.
 1 Living beyond your means for the sake of modern society causes crimes. You read of men every day who have absconded because l they could not meet their debts honestly. 1 Many men commit suicide. A man who ends his life in this way does so because he wants
 to dress his family up to his neighbors. If I were to erect monument over his grave I should say: ''Choked to death by his wife's 1 ribbons"
 l It also causes great poverty in the church 1 of God as you spend so much for dress. Out | of every dollar you earn ten cents belongs to the Lord, yet you will only put cent in the l box.
 | What we need here in New Haven is to or- ganize dress reform association which will become national. There are more dying to- day of dress delirium than of delirium tre-
 mems. This country is dressed to death.
 Young women should not read bad litera-
 ture. The very power that could do great good is doing harm by the class of literature
 that is being printed. It has seemed to me
 that the devil had mortgage on all the edi-
 tors, reporters and printers. Never read a
 book that misrepresents life. In the novels
 of to-day everything is beautiful, and nearly ali the characters are heroes; but I can tell
 you life is not made up of beautiful things
 and heroes. Beware of all books that have
 blood and thunder stories, and beware of all 1 books that inhame the passions.
 A thing that every clergyman and every
 lecturer should take up his cudgel against is
 the sending throughout the country of ob-
 scene pictures. I have come to think that
 amateur photography is a cause. What we
 need here is an Anthony Comstock.
 What is the conversation heard in the club
 rooms in this city, frequented by men ot
 modern society," It seems that one-half the
 men are wondering how they can get the
 that will defend. In the gilded club rooms
 of this city is more crime than in the saloons
 of the city. Everything that is curse tc
 society is plotted in the club room. Ol ! course there are exceptions, butN It remains | that the club rooms and hotels are becoming
 the sinks of corruption.
 Sin in high life is worse than sin in low
 life, because 1t is covered up. New Haver
 has to congratulate itself that it is so fret from low dives that generally infest cities
 but in its high life there is sin and corrup
 tion enough to overbalance it. I know of
 man, prominent resident of this city, tC shake whose hand is considered great priv ilege, who has two families in the United States. There are probably others also. Marriage is the most sacred thing in thi
 world, but each year the marriage relation il . sinking lower and lower in corruption. Pub ! lic opinion fails to sustain 1t. The numbe of divorces show that marriage is getting t' be little more than a joke. The best ant
 only thing for the welfare and protection O the government is that every young maI
 shall have a home of his own. This stat
 depends on the home. Young men ant
 young women, your life in society will form and shape your future. There is only ont
 principal that can govern marriage. and tha
 is real love. When young woman is mar ! ried, ninety-nine times out of the hundred l temptations that would otherwise beset he
 are removed. Above all, be woman, anG
 stand by your womanhood.
 Times a re Lively There. There are no dull times at the large fur niture house of P. J. Kelly & Co.,, on Grani