The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-07-05

Womanly attire, Show pe the fashion
plates of any age between this and the
time of Louis XVI of France and Henry
VIII Of England, and will tell you
the type of morals or immorals Of that
age or that year. No exception to it.
Modest apparel means righteous peo-
pie. Immodest apparel always means a
contaminated and depraved society. Yod
wonder that the city of Tyre was de-
stroyed with such terrible destruction.
Have you ever seen the fashion plate Of
the city of Tyre? Twill 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 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 snits of apparel, and the
mantles, and the wimples, and the crisp
ing 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 today spread
their nets where that city once stood?
a stupendous Gate.
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 intoxicated, the
mental and the spiritual abolished, that
the brute may triumph. Tell me that a
young man drinks, and know the whole
story II he becomes captive of the
wine cup, he will become captive Of
all other vices Only give him time. No
one ever runs drunkenness alone. That
is carbon 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 the evil
appetites that may choose to alight upon
his soul. There is not a place Of any
Kind of sin III the United States today
that does not find its chief abettor in the
chalice of inebriety. There is either a
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
libertinism, license disease, license
death, license all sufferings, all crimes,
all despoliations, all disasters, all muir
ders, all woe. 1t is the courts and the
Legislature 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 to
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 penitent?" l
reply, But very few escape. Of the thou
sand that go in 900 perish. Suppose
6ne of these wanderers should knock at
your door, Would you admit her? Sup.
pose you knew where she came from.
Would you ask her to sit down at your
dining table? Would you ask her to be-
come the governess of your children?
Would You introduce her among your &C
quaintanceships? Would you take the
responsibility of pulling on the outside
of the gate of hell while the pusher on
the inside of the gate is trying to get
out? You would not. Not one Of thou
sand 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,
hunger blasted. But, you say, Is there
no 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 enough. 1t is.
No boatman near enough to hear the
plunge. No Waterman near enough to
pick her out before she sinks the third
time No other way? Yes; by the curve
of the railroad at the point where the
engineer Of the lightning express train
cannot see hundred yards ahead to
the form that lies across the track. He
may whistle Clown brakes" but not
soon enough to disappoint the one who
seeks her death. But you say, "Isn' t
God good, aud won t he forgive?" Yes,
but man will not, woman will not, So
ciety will not. The church of God says
it will, but it will not. Our work, then,
must be prevention rather than cure.
a Call to Christians.
Those gates of hell are to be Frustrated
just as certainly as God and the Bible
are true, but it will not be done until
| Christian men and women, quitting
their prudery and squeamishness in this
matter. rally the whole Christian seIti-
ment of the church and assail these great
evils of society. The Bible utters its de-
nunciation in this direction again and
again, and yet the piety of the day is
such a namby PANTY sort of thing that
you cannot even quote Scripture with
out making somebody restless. As long
as this holy imbecility reigns in the
church of God, sin will laugh you tt
scorn. l do not know but that before the
church wakes up matters will get worse
and worse, and that there will have tt
be one lamb sacrificed from each of the
most carefully guarded folds, and the
wave of uncleanness dash to the spire o.
the village church and the top of The
cathedral tower.
Prophets and patriarchs and apostles
and evangelists and Christ himself hav,
Numbered against these sins as agains
no other, and yet there are those Wit
think we ought to take, when we speal
of these subjects, a tone apologize.
put my foot ON all the conventional rhet
ORIG on this subject, and l tell 20,
plainly that unless you give up that sill
your doom is sealed, and world withou
end you will be chased by the anathema
of an incensed God. / rally you to
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