The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-07-05

there are those who will always carry
that which is right into the extraordi-
nary and indiscreet. 1 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 will tell
you that there are multitudes of men
who owe their eternal damnation to
what has been at different times the
boldness of womanly attire.
Show me the fashion plates of any
age between this and the time of
Louis XVI., of France, and Henry
Will, of England, and will tell you
the type of morals or minerals of that
age or that year. No exception to it.
Modest apparel means a righteous peo-
pie. Immodest apparel always means
q contaminated and depraved society
Yon wonder that the city of Tyre was
destroyed with such a terrible destruc-
ton. Have you ever seen the fashion
plate of the city of Tyre? l will show
it to you:
Moreover, the Lord saith, because
the daughters of Zion are naughty and
walk with stretched forth necks and
wanton eyes, walking and mincing as
they go, and making a tinkling with
their feet, in that day the Lord will
take away the bravery of their tink-
ling ornaments about their feet, and
their curls, aad 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 60 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 be-
d
give him time. No one ever runs
drunkenness alone. That is a carrion
crow that goes in a 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 a 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 drinking bar before,
or one behind, or one above, or one
underneath. These people escape
legal penalty because they are all
licensed to sell liquor. The courts
that license the sale of strong drink,
license gambling houses, license liber-
tinism, license disease, license death,
license all sufferings, all crimes, all
despoliation, all disasters, all murders,
all woe. 1t is the courts and the leg
islature 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 us how
they swing in to allow the entrance of
the doomed. Will you not, please,
before you get through the sermon,
tell US how these gates of hell may
swing out to allow the escape of the
penitent?" l reply: But very few
escape. OF the thousand that go in,
nine hundred and njAety-nine perish.
Suppose one of these Wanderers should
knock at your door-would you admit
her? Suppose you knew where she
come 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 in
troduce her among your &C
Would you take
the responsibility of pulling on the
outside of the gate of hell while the
pusher on the inside of the gate was
trying to get out? You would not
Not one of a thousand of you would
dare to do so. You would write beau
tiful 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
70 other way for her to 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 if it is deep |
1t is No boatman is near |
enough to hear the plunge. No watch
man near enough to pick her out be- |
tore she sinks the third time. No |
other way? Yes; by the curve of the |
railroad at the point, where the engi- |
1eer of the lightning express train |
cannot 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 for
yive@ Yes; but man will not, woman
will not, society will not. The church
If God says it will, but it will not
Dur work, then, must be prevention
-ather than cure.
Those gates of hell are to be pros
rated, just as certainly as God and
he Bible are true, but it will not be
lone until Christian men and women,
quitting their prudery and squeamish-
less in this matter, rally the whole
,hristian sentiment of the church and
SSai1 +basa or-aa4 evils Of eoo;afr The |