The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-04-10
DIR. PARKHURsT's PRoF1rLEss RAID.

1t will occur to a good many people
that the Rev. DR.. Parkhurst, of New
York, is likely to do more harm than
good by the method of his crusade
against vice. To urge the enforcement
of law against vile resorts is one thin &;
to do 1t in such manner that great
numbers OF people, who only know in
the vaguest way that such vileness ex-
lists, are made acquainted with its gross
details is a very different and far less
commendable thing. 1t was not neces-
sary for DR.. Parkhurst to visit the dens
OF iniquity to prove their character
either to himself or to the officers of the
law. In his ministerial capacity as a
comforter of the afflicted he had not
explored the slums without being thor
oughly aware that vice, rampant
and flambOyant, fourished under the
eyes of the legal authorities, with their
consent If not their connivance. He
suppress these resorts of their own mo-
ton. his testimony as to their character
could avail little. In the face of this
knowledge DR.. Parkhurst visited one of
these dens, not as missionary, but in
the guise of one seeking entertainment.
With him was young member of his
congregation, Sunday school teacher
of the male persuasion-and presum-
ably guileless and innocent as Sunday
school teachers should be. DR.. Parkhurst
may be encased in a triple-cOat of spirit
ual armOr that no contact with sin can
affect. but how about the pink-cheeked
Sunday school teacher? DR.. Parkhurst
may have been able to consume beer for
righteousness sake, but was the Sun
dayschoOl teacher proof against
contamination from his surround
ings? Was this youth moved
by love of purity and holy zeal for re-
form when he danced with the sirens.
or was he precipitately overcome by
that feeling towards vice which leads a
new acquaintance first to abhor, "then
stances of the case at least give room for
the question. And what of the many
thousands of young men who may not
be Sunday school teachers, and are
therefore more susceptible to tempta-
ton, whose first knowledge of the orgies
OF the depraved comes from DR.. Park
bursts disclosures They. too, may wish
to investigate evil, and being unpro-
tected by the mantle of sanctity the con-
sequence may be disastrous.
And, after all, the arrests instigated
by DR.. Parkhurst resulted in nothing,
as lie might have known would be the
case. His motives in engaging in the
assault against Satan's strongholds were
doubtless good, but he moved in the
wrong direction. What can one man.
or a dozen, or a thousand, do toward the
enforcement of law when the legal
authorities and the mass of those who
put them in place are opposed to such
enforcement DR.. Parkhurst and his
friends in New York city cannot expect
to bring about q reform from the outside
in this way. The moral sentiment of
the community may be with them, but
it must manifest itself more openly and
vigorously, first by the extension and
Strengthening of the principles of purity
| and sobriety, and next by a participa-
ton of all the moral people in city poll
tics. If the good men who want vice
suppressed in New York are in the ma
jOrity they can, If they choose, put men
of their own kind in charge of munich
pal affairs. The modern evangelist who
wants to accomplish his aims must do
more than preach and pray. He need
not go to houses of ill-repute to see how
they are operated, but he must oppose
his influence to that of the vicious in
the control of public affairs. This course
may be worldly. but it is wise.