Connecticut western news., 1894-08-09

sermon Ol ulitll WHO ulcS llke ftp8b. | will blurt out the whole truth and tell that he was strangled to death by his wife's ribbons Our countries are dress ed to death You are not surprised to find that the putting up of one public building in New York cost millions of dollars more than it ought to have cost when you find that the man who gave out the contracts paid more than $5,- 900 for his daughters wedding dress Cashmeres of a thousand dollars each are not rare on Broadway. It is estimat- ed that there are 10, 900 women in these two cities who have expended on their personal array g.. 900 a year.
 What are men to do in order to keep up such home wartirobes? Steal? That is the only respectable thing they can do! During the last 15 years there have been innumerable fine businesses ship wrecked on the wardrobe. The tempta- tion comes in this way: A man thinks more of his family than of all the world outside, and if they spend the evening in describing to him the superior ward robe of the family across the street that they cannot bear the sight of the man is thrown on his gallantry and on his pride of family and without translat- ing his feelings into plain language he goes into extortion and issuing false stock and skillful penmanship in writ ing, somebody else's name at the foot of promissory note, and they all go down together-the husband to the prison, the wife to the sewing machine, the children to be taken care of by those who were called poor relations. Oh, for some new Shakespeare to arise and write the tragedy of human clothes!
 Will you forgive mo if I say in ters- est shape possible that some of the men have to forge and to perjnre and to swindle to pay for their wives dresses? will say it whether you forgive me or not!
 Again, inordinate fashion is the foe of all Christian almsgiving Men and women put so much in personal display that they often have nothing for God and the cause of suffering humanity. A Christian man cracking his Palais Roy al glove across the back by shutting up his hand to hide the cent he puts into the poorbox A Christian woman, at the story of the Hottentots, crying CO., pious tears into s25 handkerchief and then giving cent piece to the collec- tion, thrusting it under the bills so peo- pie will not know but it was a SIC gold piece One hundred dollars for incense to fashion; 3 cents for God. God gives us 90 cents out of every dollar. The other 10 cents by command of his Bible belong to him. Is not God liberal &C., cording to his tithing system laid down in the Old Testament? Is not God lib- eral in giving us 90 cents out of a dollar when he takes but 10? We do not like that. We want to have 99 cents for our selves and for God.
 Now, would great deal rather steal 10 cents from you than from God. l think one reason why a great many peo- pie do not get along in worldly acculnu- lation faster is because they do not ob- serve this divine rule. God says, Well, if that man is not satisfied with 90 cents of a dollar, then 1 will take the whole dollar, and will give it to the man or woman who is honest with me. The greatest obstacle to charity in the Chris tian church today is the fact that men expend so much money on their table, and women so much on their dress, they have got nothing left for the work of God and the worlds betterment In my first settlement at Belleville, N. J., the cause of missions was being preseoted one Sabbath, and plea for the charity of the people was being made, when an old Christian man in the audience lost his balance and said right out in the midst of the sermon, MT. Talmage, how are we to give hberally to these grand and glorious causes when our families dress as they do?" I did not answer that question. It was the only time in. my life when had nothing to say.
 Again, inordinate fashion is distrac- tion to public worship. You know very well there are good many people who come to church. just as they go to the races-to see who will come out first. What futter it makes in church when some woman with extraordinary display of fashion comes ini What love of bonnet!" says some one What 8 perfect frightr' say 300. For the most merciless critics in the world are fash i ion critics. Men and women with souls to be saved passing the hour in wonder. | ing where that man got his cravat or what store that woman patronizes. In many of our churches the prelim- mary exercises are taken up with the | discussion of wardrobes. It is pitiable. Is it not wonderful that the Lord does not strike the meeting houses with lightning? What distraction of public worship! Dying men and women, whose bodies are soon to be turned into dust, | vet before three worlds strutting like peacocks, the awful question of the :oul's destiny submerged by the ques. | lion of navy blue velvet and long fan lrain skirt, long enough to drag up the | church aisle, the husbands 8 store, office, shop, factory, fortune and the admira. ton of half the people in the building Men and women come late to church tt show their clothes People sitting dowr in pew or taking up a hymnbook, al absorbed at the same time in persona array, tD sing: .-.a
 Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings; | Thy better portion trace.
 Rise from transitory things
 rowarI heaven, thy native place.
 | adopt the Episcopalian prayer ant ny, Good Lord, deliver usr'
 Insatiate fashion also belittles the in fellect. Our minds are enlarged or the, dwindle just in proportion to the i'm portance of the subject on which W, constantly dwell Can you imagine any thing more dwarfing to the human in tellect than the study of fashion? se men on the street who, judging iron their elaboration, I think must hay, taken two hours to arrange their ap parel. After few years of that hnt of absorption, which one of McAAister' magnifying glasses will be powerful enough to make the mans characte visiblef They all land in idiocy.
 have seen men at the summer wa tering places, through fashion, the mer,
 wreck of what they once were Sallov of cheek. Meager of limb. Hollow a