The record-union., 1898-09-30
MRS. MARY TEATS' LECTURE.
SHE TALKS ON TEMPERANCE
AND PURITY.
Says Licentiousness Has Been King
Of Sin for Six Thousand
Years.

Mrs. Mary Teats, of the Women's 5
Christian Temperance Union, conduct
ed a temperance prayer-meeting yes
terday afternoon at the Sixth h-street
Methodist Church, and afterwards spoke
to those assembled upon the subjects of
temperance and the purity work in
which she is engaged.
Mrs. Teats said that she had for
gotten what her subject was to be-
but she wished to speak of whatever
would most interest her hearers in the
work of the W. c. T. IT,, it being Cru
sade' Day She hoped they would all
pray that she might have the leading
of the spirit
She took it for granted that every in
telligent, thinking man and woman, es-
pecially those in Gods church, wished
to lead lives that would lead them 10
the highest possible plane of living. COO
has always something yet in store 1or
US, that we have not yet reached to.
There is a great field ahead on the
subject of purity She found that
there are many men and women that
she could interest in the purity work,
whom she could not interest in the
temperance work The ground taken
in this work regarding purity in the
marital relations may seem too ad-
vanced and strict to many, but it is
being taken up and advocated by fore
most scientists and educational lead
ers. This divine truth is being recog-
nized more and more and Gods plan,
for the reproduction of the human race
is being more and more studied by
Christian thinkers. Licentiousness
has been the king of sin for six thou
sand years. 1t caused the deluge; it
was the cause of the decay Of Greece
and on its account the great Roman
empire sank into the pit of impurity.
We cannot set our ideal any too high,
especially on Christian lines If we set
it high and work toward it, as we ap-
proach to it, the landscape broadens
more and more before US and we can
set it still higher again. Christian
men and women err in the matter of
marital purity through ignorance and
not from desire to do so. She wanted
to say right here that the idea many
women have that all men are bad is all
wrong. She had found in her meet
ings for men that there are scores of
high-nlinded, Godlike men, who ac-
knowledge that things are wrong and
bend their energies to better the con-
ditions and to practice in their own
cause purity in the marital relations.
The terrible mortality in infantile
ages is due to the abuse Of Gods laws.
No mother can give her best to the
little child just toddling by her side
while she has another in her arms. The
mother has robbed the children and the
children have robbed the mother.
Parents do not do their duty unless
they teach their children, sacredly and
purely the laws of life and so fit them
for the responsibility they incur when
they enter into the marriage state. We
do not reach out to what God has in
store for us, or attain the full benefit
Of what he holds out to us.
The meeting resolved itself into
free parliament, to discuss the various
phases of the purity question.
In answer to a question Mrs. Teats
said she knew of a case where a teeth
ing child was thrown into convulsions
and died from the effect Of the fumes
of tobacco smoke, the father being
confirmed smoker and the rooms sat
urated with tobacco smoke. She did
not think that any Christian man had
any business to carry tobacco or other
poisons in his system.
In the evening Mrs. Teats spoke on
the subject, Women Constantly Tor
ment U.s.
At 2:30 p. m. to-day Mrs. Teats will
lecture in the English Lutheran Church
on Sixteenth street, and at 7:45 this
evening. At 2 p. m. on Saturday she
will lecture in the Congregational
Church IN vollnp ladies'