St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-08
SPURIOUS REsPECTABILITY.
Rev. William Wilkinson Uses Plain
Language to the Churches


took for text, ROM, xii, 2: BE not
transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that We may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of
God" and said:
This text enshrines the design of the
gospel of the grace of God. It's purpose
is seen, in that it intends and promises
to make peculiar people, who will not
be led by the maXimS, or follow the
customs of the ungodIy world by which
1t is surrounded. but who will uplift the
standard Of the cross, inscribed with
the words Holiness to the Lord and
who will hold this as an ensign
for the people, to which they may
turn, find rest, and that rest glorious :;
for this holy generation a seed royal.
There shall be constant providential
leading, which shall show them in
sweet experience what is that good, ac-
ceptable perfect will of God. Thus will
God be honOred, not by lip service,
which costs little, and is dear at the
price, but by service which engages
the entire manhood, and at which the
sorrowful shall rejoice as new Joy when
holy solemnity is kept. Thus are the
children to show the glory of the king
dom and talk OF its:pOwer. Being trans
formed by the renewing of our minds,
we are to reflect the glory of God in a
world cursed and blighted by sin.
The church is to. be a faithful
and true witness for her Lord
until He comes. This is the
plan upon which the church is to be
built, and If it is not so built it has no
right TO call itself by the name of Jesus
Christ. Let Us look at it as it is, in the
light of what it ought to be, as l have
shown. almost entirely in the words of
holy Scripture. That it is not walking
III the full light of the Lord is evident
TO any man who possesses the slightest
spiritual insight and who can read lite
as 1t is. One of the most whitening and
weakening things connected with the
church today is what is known as it's
eminent responsibility. If ever it dies,
this Will be the disease of which it will
perish. That it makes inroadS upon the
church's life and prevents its progress
IS far too plain to be denied by any
man who expects to be believed. Its
pernlciOuS work is seen in almost every
department of the proper work for
which the church is placed. What is
known as society of a certain kind
has SAID what things are proper, what
improper, what it is becoming for per-
sons who hold certain positions to do
and what unbecOming. These things it
holds and would have other people ac-
cept as both law and gospel, but they
are neither in most cases.
lone of the chief gdos of spurious
is money. At it's shrine
1t worshlpS with absolute abasement.
The first question it asks of any man is
How much is he WORTH If he is rich
enough he can buy his way into any
society, almost his cash makes room
for him. Yes, man may have an
empty head, wicked heart and
vicious life, but the modern respect
ability crowd will shield him from pains
and penalties. and let him nave place
at its well filed tables. There is today
no one thing which needs TO be pro-
claimed against as much as the Verv
general worship of money for its own
sake.
The next thing our spurious respe ct
ability does is despise work. This is
beginning to spread through all the
body religious and polite alike, and as
bad as gangrene in mans foot. Look
round. See how many people want
something for nothing, high pay, easy
employment. They will not soil their
hands. these ''plnks OF probability"
10 work is not for persons of their
tastes, which they call refined. Better
Judges call them extensively vulgar. ig-
norant and pernicious. With a long
train OF evils worse than scarlet fever
or diphtheria, more dangerous than the
craIt OF the burglar, because more ex-
tenslve. stealthy, subtle and insldious,
it saps manliness and wOmanliness at
the very foundation, leads to forms Of
crime and sin L cannot particulariZe
now, but Of which our police
reports are full. A love of easy
life and gay appearance, is a sad state.
but it leads to conditions much sadder.
The places it wants to fill are crowded
to overtiowing, and the paths leading to
them are streWn with the wrecks of
those who have died in despair or made
ruin OF all good men hold dearest and
best. These dainty personageS who make
up the ranks Of the spurious respectable
class, hating work, do not want to
live in style in which small income
will go long way. No, they want to
board at some fashionable hotel or
boarding house, or keep one or more
servants; will not carry home a parcel
from the store of an honest man, whom
in many instances they pay neither for
the man to carry it, nor for the things
carried. This fraternity of responsibility
do not call people their friends who work
or who live within their incomes, or
carry their own parcels, for which thew
go through the honest form of paying.
Such persons are common people, or
they belong to the lower orders They
do not belong to the elite set Re
spectability is not their strong points ,
They do business in their own name ::
they are not trustees for their wives.
they make their own bargains, take
their own profits, bear the losses they
make by the persons who stand most
upon their responsibility. All this, of
course, is plebeian, but it has one quality
it is honest. 1t will stand the wear of
time, and it has no ruin in its track: il
does not settle for 80 cents on a dollar
on its just debts. 20 through legal forms.
get releases, and next week begin bust
ness richer than it ever was before.
Only 1t is not respectable.
"A good deal of modern respecta-
blllty IS IN the churches, and the church
Is for various reasons afraid to speak
about 1t IN words of strong condemna-
ton, partly because it is dependent
upon the money support given by re-
spectability, which 1t far too often
net only pardons for the shame brought
upon 1t bytthese people, but positively
apologies for their sins, and has been
known to call honest men trying to get
their own. from men who are on good
grounds believed to have stolen it. in
plain English, prosecutors. AWAY with
all such weak-kneed religion. Modern
responsibility often ISLANDERS its neigh
bors and speaks i'll of persons whose
pens it is not fit to mend In its So
cial talk it fritters away character, and
tries, by whispering what it dare not
proclaim or own,t to separate friends.
Thus, and in a thousand other WAYS,
some Of them worse, if worse can be.
does 'respectability,' so called, work.
But this is to the real article what tin
sci is to gold, or mask to beautiful
face; it is often used for selfish ends.
and in the end ever defeats its own OBJ
1ect. have more sympathy with, more
pity for. and more hope of reforming
persons in the workhOuse than have of
ever seeing some persons. who pride
themselves on being respectable, ordi-
narily decent people. Bishop Hunting
ton, of Central New York. in a book on