The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-07-12

there are those who viii always carry
that which is right into the extraOrdi-
nary and indiscreet. / charge Chris
tian women, neither by style of dress
nor adjustment of apparel, to become
administrative of evil. Perhaps none
else will dare to tell you, so l will tell
you that there are multitudes of men
who owe their eternal damnation
to what has been at differ
ent times the boldness of wom-
anly attire. Show me the fashion
plates of any age between this and the
time of Louis XVI. of France and
Henry VIII of England. and I will
tell you the type of morals or i'm
morals of that age or that year. No
exception to it. Modest apparel means
a righteous people. Immoral apparel
always means a contaminated and de-
PRAYED society. You wonder that the
city of Tyre was destroyed with such
terrible destruction. Have you ever
seen the fashion-plate of the city of
Tyre? / will show it to you:
Moreover, the Lord saith, because
the daughters of Zion are naughty
and walk with stretched-forth necks
ing as they go, and making a tinkling
with their feet, in that day the Lord
will take away the bravery of their
tinkling ornaments about their feet,
and their cauls, and their round tires
like the moon, the rings and nose
jewels, the changeable suits of apparel,
and the mantles, and the wimples, and
the crisping pins"
That is the fashion-plate of ancient
Tyre. And do you wonder that the
Lord God in his Indignation blotted
out the city, so that fishermen to-day
spread their nets where that city once
stood?
Gate the fourth: Alcoholic beverage
Oh! the wine-cup is the patron of i'm
purity. The officers of the law tell us
that nearly all the men who go into
the shambles of death, go in intoXi
Gated, the mental and the spiritual
abolished, that the brute may triumph.
Tell me that young man drinks,
and / know the whole story. If
he becomes a captive of the wine
cup, he will become a captive of
all other vices; only give him time.
No one ever runs drunkenness alone.
That is carrion-crow that goes in
flock, and when you see that beak
ahead, you may know the other beaks
are coming. In other words, the
wine-cup unbalances and dethrones
ones better judgment, and leaves one
the prey of all evil appetites that
may choose to alight upon his soul.
There is not place of any
kind of sin in the United States
to-day that does not find its chief
abettor in the chalice of inebriacy.
There is either a drinking bar before,
or one behind, or one above, or one
underneath. These people escape le-
gal penalty because they are all Ii
censed to sell liquor. The courts that
license the sale of strong drink, license
gambling houses, license libertinism,
license disease, license death, license
all sufferings, all crimes, all despolia-
tions, all disasters, all murders, all
woe. 1t is the courts and the legisla-
ture that are swinging wide open this
grinding, creaky, stupendous gate of
the lost.
But you say: "You have described
these gates of hell and shown how
they swing in to allow the entrance of
the doomed. Will you not, please, be-
fore you get through the sermon, tell
us how these gates of hell may swing
out to allow the escape of the peni-
tent?" l reply, but very few escape.
OF the thousand that go in, nine hun
dred and ninety-nine perish. Suppose
one of these wanderers should knock
at your door, would you admit her?
Suppose you knew where she came
from, would you ask her to sit
down at your dining table? Would
you ask her to become the governess
of your children? Would you intro
duce her among your acquaintance
ships? Would you take the RESPONSE |
bility of pulling on the outside of the
gate of hell while the pusher on the
inside of the gates is trying to get out?
You would not, not one of a thousand
of you would dare to do so. You
would write beautiful poetry over
her sorrows, and weep over her
misfortunes, but give her practical
help You never will. But you say:
Are there no ways by which the
wanderer may escape?" Oh, yes;
three or four, The one way is the
sewing girls garnet, dingy, cold, hun
ger-blasted. But you say: rs there
no other way for her escape?" Oh,
yes. Another way is the street that
leads to the river, at midnight, the end
of the city dock, the moon shining
down on the water making it look so
smooth she wonders # it is deep
enough. 1t is. No boatman near
enough to hear the plunge. No watch
man near enough to pick her out
before she sinks the third time.
No other way? Yes. BY curve of
the railroad at the point where the |
engineer of the lightning express
train can not see a hundred yards |
ahead to the form that lies across the !
track He may whistle down brakes"
but not soon enough to disappoint the |
one who seeks her death. But you |
say: Isn't God good, and won't he |
forgiven Yes; but man will not, |
woman will not, society will not. The |
Church of God says it will, but it will |
not. Our work, then, must be proven |
ton rather than cure.
Those gates of hell are to be pros |
trated just as certain as God and the |
Bible are true, but it will not be done !
until Christian men and women, quit |
ting their prudery and squeamishness |
in this matter, rally the whole Christian |
sentiment of the church and assail |
these great evils of society. The |
Bible utters its denunciation in this |
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