The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-02

a LE.
by the devil. and the saint-Wen, not la
Kipling. indeed. no. it is the same story
II was told about st. Anthony this story,
long. long ago; and then. in a way, Haw-
thorne told 1t in the Scarlet Letter" and
then more modern novelist told 1t again,
but not quite in the same way, inasmuch
as it was the saint and not the syren. who
did the tempting. But now a modern
dramatist puts il upon the stage and au-
dfences are Mortified or pleased. wearied
or delighted. But nobody seems to realize
that sossse part ef the same story is being
told every day. When woman was made,
an experiment had already been tried on
man and subtiety was left out Of his com
position. In the creation OF woman it was
not omitted From the very first she had
what might be called little ways of her
own, and these little ways were approved
OF and increased by her close acquaint-
anceship with the serpent.
Too often, and I am woman who says
1t, religion in woman is hysterical and
dramatic; consequently. in approaching a
clergyman, nine times out of ten she looks
for certain amount of spiritual enjoy
ment She joys in laying bare her heart
10 him. she feels a keen delight in telling
they we're virtues, and, will give her the
benefit Of the doubt, she forgets that this
clergyman is a man as well as priest.
If she is dainty. sympathetic. charming to
look upon, and of that mysterious age
which gives her the privilege of speaking
a little more plainly than girl would,
she becomes a firebGand that touches, moi
only the soul, but the heart of the man
81, in
He is a High Churchman who fasts rig
orously, who is stern and cold, severe, ana
really more than bitter with the sinner.
Most people are who have never been
tempted He forces an unhappy girl 70
confess her weakness before the Whoie
congregation. Then there comes INTO ms
life woman, hard of heart ana sweet "
face. Charming in manner and fiippant OF
speech; exquisite in dress, and with all the
dainty touches that individuaize Wohldh'
such as a sweet perfume, about her.
He claims IL was fate that threw TINS
woman into his arms, that maze MN 4 ear
ize that he was a man and not spirit,
and then, poor. coneelt ss ~ ssn t.ban
ne got up before the congregation ana
told them that he was the greatest SIN
ner among them, but, ike DAVID ne hdu
fallen. and that he asked their prayers
Where was the dramatistS skill? or ala
he count on all of his audience being
man, You and / know that once we talk
a thing over we feel better. 1t was a
magnificent exhibition of the vanity OF a
clergyman. If. instead of getting up in
the congregation and speaking his little
speech, in which he compared nImself
to David, he had kept quiet with MS sin
ever before him, fed the hungry. warmed
the cold cared for the sick, and made his
life the penance for his sin, 1t would have
amounted to something. But no, with MS
magnificent vanity, he takes II for grant
ed that all the world, or all his world, Is
interested in his sin. My dear friend,
generalizing, the world doesn't care about
our sins unless they happen to pc the
kind that are considered bad form, There
are only two people interested in our
temptations and our falling, or our re-
sisting, and these are God and satan. The
sum and substance of 1t all was that this
melodramatic clergyman, who, to the very
last. says the only happiness he ever had
was when he was SHINING, simply gave to
his congregation a sort of gossip, kind
of exaggerated essay, with himself as the
hero, and his sin as the chief incident.
and nobody was the better for it. He
shamed the church to which he belonged;
he shamed the father whose name he
bore, and he did nobody any good. The
best expression Of penance is good
works.
My dear good woman, just remember
that the clergyman with whom you fiirt,
spiritually, is physically, a man, and the
toss of the hand, the dropping of the eye
lid, the culver of the lip and the whole
dainty get-up is as attractive TO him as
IL Is to any other man, and his tempta-
tons are three times as great because you
make them so. If you feel that you must
tell a clergyman your sins, do it with
chaperone. The lovely library with its
stained glass windows, the rows OF beau
tiful books whose bindings tend to make
a soft framing to the pictures, the table
covered with religious books and with
religious symbols, the prize dieu, the soft
carpet which sends forth no sound as the
clergyman approaches you, all tend to
what might be called an aesthetic peni-
tence on your part. The place isn't cold:
II is warm. The fragrance of flowers is
in the room. and you feel how good a
q. thing it is to be a sinner. Then you tell
this man Of the sins on your soul You
dilate on your temptations. You quote
from your favorite authors, you whisper
of the woman or the man whose effect
upon you is least good, and you go away
feeling yourself a saint. Though you re-
member that Rev. Iced Purple pressed
your hand in such an expressive way when
you lefti And there is a pleasant smile
about your lips and you feel sure that
the pressure of the hand was from the
man and not from the priest. Possibly
the next time or the next time he gives
you a special blessing which includes a
kiss on your forehead, and then-well,
there is another story. But you see how
it begins. 1t would be a good idea if you
would remember that, while the Mag
dalene confessed to Christ and was for
given, there is nothing told of her going
around the world announcing her sins and
dwelling on the quality of them from the
various churches.
When Peter fell he went out alone and
wept bitterly. He may have repented in
sackcloth, but he wrought out his saliva
ton in good works.
There came into my life once a woman
who had been in the habit of making lust
such confessions as have described How
ever, she was a good woman. After a
while she found no happiness in the church
to which she belonged, and she became a.
member of the Catholic church. To me
she confided the great joy she expected
from her first confession. She made it
but not where it was warm. not where the
odor of flowers was strong, nor where there
was a soft carpet and a soft cushion to
kneel upon, but at o'clock in the morn
ing in cold church, in a cold
confessional and to a priest whom
she could scarcely see. She began
her pretty little story of her
dainty little sins. as she had been in the
habit of doing, when she was told to stop
and the priest coldly and calmly Informed
her that she hadn't come there to gossip,
but to accuse herself of doing wrong 10
hear of the right, and that he didn't wish
TO listen to romances, nor did he desire
TO hear stories about her friends. The
trouble is that women expect in a clergy
man the spiritual to triumph so entirely
over the physical that a fall is impossible
They forget that Satan dared to tempt
Christ Himself. What will he do with men
who are fighting to overcome him and vet
who are far very far, from being immac-
ulate2 The manifest of poets expressed in
four lines what the AVERAGE woman ex-