The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-12-13
Tee ENEMY OF HOME
Rev. Robert Wick breaches
His Third Sermon in the
why Men Don't 60
toChuTch" Series.
WOMEN AND CLUBS CONDEMNEI
The Lack Of Goodness in House
holds the Preacher Declares
Is the Real Cause.

The Rev. Robert *. Wick, pastor Of
the Wayne Street Reformed Church, de-
iivered the third OF a series of sermons
last evening. on the influences which pre-
vent our churches from effecting greater
results, and discussed the views of one
hundred gentlemen on the question::
What is the Greatest Enemy Of Our
Home Life?'
Il would like said Mr.. Wick, ito have
the opinions of some women on this ques-
ton. They are accredited by a number Of
my correspondents with being the cause
of all domestic ~unhappiress. l do not
quite agree with them. and | am sure if
the women made some of our laws there
would not be so many snares and pitfalls
in the path Of the young men. One
gentleman says a quarreisome woman
will drive the best intentioned of men to
seek on the street and in the saloon the
-conpanionship he is denied at home.
Horace Greeley once compared a con-
t~entious woman to the continuous drip
ping of water. AS the most adamantine
rock is worn into by the drops, so are the
nobIAst qualities of a mans soul enabit-
tered by the constant nagging and fault
finding of even the one most dear to him.
l. am AFRAID the women coulu lcli y l ot-
t~entious men.
IAN educator thinks that too many
social functions prevent q mother giving
| tho attention necessary to the proper
rearing Of her children. That sacred
duty is too often entrusted TO persons
who are totally unfit to fulfill 1t. An
| other educator say nome is not MADE
attractive enough. a sweetest OF all
words, home, implying in many instances
nothing more than a. place to eat ana
sleep in. l believe all innocent amuse-
ments and even card playing should be
countenanced | hope | do not shock any
that will help TO make home a place or
entertainment, or contribute to the hap..
piness of it's members cannot be evil. OF
| course this is a matter to be adjusted to
the circumstances
club and thirteen persons think nothing
can be more conducive to the destruction
of home than poverty. One minister says
the tenement house. There are good ana
bad ones, but taken all in all / think the
tenement is an institution of the devil
They are the Offspring of greed and Gu
! pidity, where families are herded to-
| gether like beasts. l read of one case IN
New York some time ago where seven
teen people occupied one small room.
Despised Heathenism knows no such de-
basing influence as that. TO me 1t is
not surprising that the inhabitants OF our
tenement house districts are immoral, the
| wonder is that they are so good. l think
it can only be the innate nobility Of the
human mind which prevents them from
descending to the depths of degradation.
A number of others maintain it to be our
extravaganza the spirit of unrest. ara q
desire to appear other than what we are.
Happiness will soon jump out of the win
dow if one has to struggle continually to
keep up appearances, and a large pro-
portion of the inmates of our prisons can
aScribe their first steps in crime to no
other cause.
Twenty of my correspondents believe
the evil to be in the club; some of them
- 80 -. to- = +AAeaM rrh tah
are in connection with saloons or where
liquor is sold; others do. There IS no
doubt there are some social organizations
which help to keep young men away from
temptation; but there are others to be
connected with which is a contemplation.
1t is safe to say the club is an institution
whic threatens the integrity of our
homes. l do not wish to curtail the liberty
OF our young men, but think of the num-
Der of houses where wives and mothers
are left to spend the cherries night alone
while their husbands and sons are at the
club? If the women were to do the same
thing l am afraid there would be a great
many suits for separation in the courts.
mo less than thirty-five believe intern
perance to be the supreme enemy of the
home. The saloon is a tremendous
enemy. the desire for the jolly companion
| ship. and glittering surroundings of the
bar room engrafts itself so ~insidously on
mems nature that they have become en-
slayed to the habit ere the danger is
realized. Then comes domestic estrange-
ment, the parting, slight at first, grows
until it widens into a chasm impossible to
bridge; the home is broken and the chill
dTen are subjected to privations and hard
ships and exposed to temptations to which
they too frequently succumb.
There are thirteen gentlemen who say
it can be nothing but ungodliness, and |
think they have struck the nail on the
head. When a physician fnds a patient
with a fever he knows there must be
| some internal disorder and when that Is
corrected all other symptoms disappear.
So it is with a moral fever, without god
1iness in the heart all other dangers as
sail us; without Jesus in our hearts, we
will not prove that with Christ in our
homes there is no enemy powerful enough
to break asunder the ties of love, happi-
| ness and contentment."