Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-14
THE STRANGE WOMAN
Is the Topic of DR.. Sutherland's Dis.
course, Being Largely
A PLEA FOR GOOD LITERATURE.
Rev. ]. ]. satchell Bids Farewell to the
North Avenue Church.
ONE SERMON UPON THE FUTURE STATE

The subject of DR.. Sutherland's sermon
at the Second Presbyterian Church last
night was, "The Strange Woman" 1t wa,
one of his course of sermons to young
women, and was listened to by very large
and interested congregation. Among Other
things he said:
Ever since the introduction of sin into
the world, women as well as men have been
divided into two classes, the yirtuous
and the vicious, the good and the bad. The
good woman has ever been an object of ad-
miration and praise and deservedly SO, for,
as Schiller exclaims, They twine and
weave the roses of heaven into
the life of man; it is they that
unite us in the fascinating bonds of
love, and concealed in the modest veil of
the grsces, they cherish gracefully the
eternal fire of delicate feeling with holy
hands That is the ideal, and often it is
Jesus Christ is there woman is, indeed all
that poets and novelists have described
her to be. How many mans home is
the only green spot on earth to him, and it
is made so bv the pure love and unselfish
devotion and helpful ministry of some vir-
tuous noble woman, who is the sharer of
his JOYS and sorrows, his burdens and bless
ings.
The Dark Side of the Picture.
''But as woman can rise to SO pure level
of virtue all the more pitiable and dlsas-
trous her fall. The glory of purity which
inspires reverence and wins blessedness is
the first glory OF womanhood. And remem-
Der that there IS no cloistraf seclusion in
land like this, where liberty of printing is
allowed; and the books and periodicals we
read are our companions for good or evil.
There is nothing that parents, sollcitous for
the welfare of their children, should scru-
tinize more carefully than the literature
upon which their minds are fed. And no
young woman who is at all regardful of her
purity, and who has any adequate concep-
tion of the influence what she reads
has upon her life and hopes will
deliberately indulge the cravings of the
lower nature by making companions OF
books and periodicals that are vicious in
sentiment and impure in tendency.
THE is no agency, in my opinion, which
hands of evil to destroy virtue and degrade
womankind than that of literature.
Impure thoughts are easily lodged in the
mind, and when once lodged there it is not
soon manifest themselves in the conduct
Persons will receive q suggestion from a
book without protest which they would
spurn with Indignation did it come from the
lips of a living companion. And this makes
the danger all the greater and the necessity
OF being on ones guard all the more impera.
tive
The Remorse That viii Follow.
"The time comes when remorse shadows
all as an executive officer of Gods Justice.
1t is stern-browed, unyielding and unbriba-
bic. Like shadow it follows crime, criminal
thoughts, intent and actions 1t takes up
its abode with the victim of sin. 1t is
the shadow across the brightness
of the banqueting hall and the
brilliance of the ballroom. Remorse says,
sleep notn Macbeth has killed sleep. 1t
makes the victims of lust and crime dizzy as
though they were standing on the very
verge of precipice looking down into an
abyss of blackness. 1t drives to despair and
Self-desUruction.
"No one can long continue in a course of
crime against self, against society and
against heaven without being made to suffer
the stings and agonies of this avenger. Truly
the way OF the tranSgresSor is hard, dark,
dismal-downward to despair and death.
And yet this is not merely a remote posi-
bility, but an actual fact witnessed over and
over again in actual life.
"W oman's work for woman is o-day one OF
the most blessed and fruitful departments
Of modern missionary enterprise And
might not this work in the centers of popu-
lation in this and other nominally Christian
countries prove blessing to hundreds and
thousands were it properly organized and
prosecuted in the spirit of the Master who
came not to call the righteous but sinners
to repentance.' -