The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-09-23

linen look AT the impurities OF JneSo
great cities. Ever and anon there are
are in the newspapers explosions OF
social life that make the story of Sod
ON quite respectable; "for such
things" Christ says, were more toll
cradle for Sodom and Gomorrah" than
for the Chorazins and Bethsaidas of
greater light 1t is no unusual thing
in our cities to see men in high posi-
tions with two or three families, or
refined ladies willing solemnly to
marry the very swine of society, IL
they be wealthy. The Bible all aflame
with denUnciation against an impure
life, but many of the American minis
try uttering not one point-blank word
against this inquiry lest some old lib
ertine throw up his church pew. Ma
chinerr organized in all the cities of
the United States and Canada by which
to put yearly in the grinding mill of
this iniquity thousands of the unsus-
pecting of the country farm houses,
one procuree confessing in the courts
that she had supplied the Internal
market with $50 victims in six months.
o, for $50 newspapers in America to
swing open the door of this lazar
house of social corruption Exposure
must come before extirpatlon.
When the city van carries the scum
of this sin from the prison to the po-
lice court morning by morning, it is
full time, If we do not want high
American life to become like that of
the court of Louis XIV, to put mil
lionaire lotharios and the pompa-
dours of your brown-stone palaces
into u van of popular Indignation, and
drive them out of respectable asso-
Citations. What prospect of social
publication can there be, as long as
at summer watering places it is usual
to see a young woman of excellent
raising' stand and shipper and giggle
and roll up her eyes sideways before
one of those frst-class satyrs of fash
ionable life, and on the ball room
floor join him in the dance, the ma
ternal chaperon meanwhile beam
ing from the window on the sceneP
Matches were made in Heaven, they
say. Not suGi matches; for the brim-
stone Indicates the opposite region.
The evil is overshadowing all our
cities. BY some these immoralities
are called peccadillos, gallantries, &C.
centrcities, and are relegated t.. the
realms of popularity, and few efforts
are being made against them. God
bless the white Cross" movement, as
it is called-an organization for maxi
ing a mighty assault on this evil!
God forward the tracts on this su Acct
attributed by the religious tract so.
cieties of the land! God help parents
in the great work. they are doing, in
trying to start their children with
pure principles! God help all legisla-
tors in their attempt to prohibt this
crime.
But is this all? Then 1t is only
question of time when the last vestige
of purity and home will vanish out Of
sight Human arms, human pens,
human voices, human talents are not
sufficient. begin to look up l listen
for artillery rumbling down the sap
phire boulevards of Heaven. / watch
to see if in the morning light there be
not the fash of descending scimitars.
Oh, for Godl Does it not seem time
for His appearance? 1t is not time for
all lands to cry out: Let God arise,
and let His enemies be scattered?"
l got a letter asking me If / did not
think that the earthquake in one of
our cities was the Divine chastisement
on that city for its sins. That letter |
answered by saying that if all our
American cities got all the punish
ment they deserve for their horrible
impurities, the earth would long ago
have cracked, opening crevices trans.
continental, and taking down all our
cities so far under that the tip of our
church spires would be 500 feet below
the surface. 1t is the Lords mercies
that we have not been consumed.
1t will be no exertion of omuipo-
tence. 1t will be no banding or brac-
ing for mighty lift. 1t will be no
sending down the sky of the white
horse cavalry of Heaven or rumbling
war chariots. lie will only rise. Now
lie is sitting in the majesty and pa
thence of His reign. lie is from His
throne watching the mastering of all
the forces of blasphemy and drunken
ness and impurity and fraud and Sab
bath breaking, and when they have
done their worst, and are most surely
organized He will bestir Himself and
say: My enemies have denied Me
long enough, and their cup of iniquity
is full. | have given them all
opportunity for repentance This
dispensation for patience is ended,
and the faith of the good shall be
tried no longer" And now God begins
to rise, and what mountains give way
under his right foot l know not; but,
standing in the full grandeur of his
nature, he looks this way and that,
and how his enemies are scattered
Blasphemers, white and dumb, reel
down to their doom; and those who
have tratiicked in that which destroys
the bodies and souls of men and fam
lilies will fly with cut foot on the
down grade of broken decanter;
and the polluters of society,
that did their bad work with
large fortunes and high social sphere,
will oyertalse in their descent the de-
graded rabble of underground citv life.