The Saint Paul globe., 1898-11-14

Martyr of PergamOs in Mysia Is
Cited as a Valuable Pattern for
Those Entrusted with Enforcing
the Law in This Community
Severe Arraignment of Crying
Evils in Local Affairs.
Rev. DR.. A. B. Meldrum preached a
forcible sermon at Central Presbyterian
church last night on Social Purity
and Purity in Politics." Reciting the
story of Antipas, the martyr of Perga-
mos, DR.. Meldrum said:
Just now there is crying need of men
Of this type.
Andpas is needed in social life The gods
OF ancient Greece and Rome have passed
away, but other gods have taken their places.
Ioo;atry mas not passed away. There may be
a change of form without a change of prin-
ciple False and vicious principles of life
and morality may prove as mischievous and
degrading to a people as false worship. False
maXims may be as full of evil as false gods.
So long as the principles, the ideas, which
govern social life are false we cannot eX-
pect the life to be true and pure and strong.
as man thinketh in his heart so is he. His
life is determined by his thoughts. He will
net act right until first Of all he thinks
right. At the basis of every evil that de-
grades social life today there is wrong think
Ing.
Men demand of their wives and their sisters
what they are not willing to give themselves
Many woman is hanished from the pale Of
decent society for q fault no more grave or
glaring than that Of which many man has
been guilty who is welcomed with open arms
TO what We call the best society.
Is that right? Is that just? What right
have to demand purity on the part of
part of men? The wrong thinking is obvi-
Gus, not in what men require of women, but
IN what they are unwilling to concede in
themselves. Not that the standard by which
thew trV WOmaQlV morality is high hut
that the standard by which they test manly
morality is too low. And this wrong thinking
is found not on the Part of men only, but
on the part of the women themselves. Blessed
be the name of God for the high-toned purity
of American womanhood And yet our
women pure and noble as they are, re-
sponsible in no small measure for the fact
that men are tried by a lower standard than
that by which they try themselves. Women
tolerate in men what they will not tolerate
In each other. They make light of obliquities
on the part of men which they would count
member Of their own They expect less
OF man, and they are, a rule, not dis
appointed. But is that right thinking? When
women demand that men be tried by the
same standard men try them, when they
expect the same kind of purity of men that
men expect of them and that they expect of
each other they will by no means sink in
the estimation of men, and their right ideas
will be productive Of a higher standard of
living on the part of men.
SAME FOR EACH SEX
uS IhOutI1 AHIlpaS 81 Social lie D6I6VeS
that it is just as possible for a man to be
pure as for a woman. He believes in one
standard of morality for both, and that is
Gods standard. He will protest against the
fallen woman being kicked out into the cold,
so long as the fallen man is welcomed with
smiles He viii stand for right thinking, an
even-handed justice applicable to man and
woman, morality whose principles admit
of no variation on the basis of sex, and
charity that goes out as freely and sponta-
neously TO the tempted woman as to the
tempted man. He will stand for a pure man
hood as well as pure womanhood.
He will maintain that the one is as i'm
possible as the other. And 1t is. He will
stand up not only for higher respect to be
paid to woman's .nobleness and purity, but
he will stand up for truer and higher self
respect on the part Of men themselves. He
will show the emptiness and the sham of
that sort of gallantry which doffs its hat to a
trails its own honor and virtue in the mire
And l ask sou, young men, whether you
wGGd won wdn9 nike t9st ss6d sort Of S man Whether
would sneer at him and call him a crank and
a fool The idea of a man being as pure as
woman Well, why not? One of the most
pitable, most contemplate, most unmanIy
things young man can do is to excuse his
own obliquities by pleading the temptations
to which he is exposed. know the tampta-
tlons to which men are exposed; and / know
and you know that whatever may be the
temptations you meet in your daily life, as
you go about your daily business-the temp
tattonS which floor you, the temptations
which rob you of your sobriety, your self
respect your honor and your virtue ale
as rule not those which take you unawares
but those into whose power you deliberately
put yourself. The company which debases
the company you seek. The places where you
are unnamed are the places where you are
not called, and where you have no business
to be, but into which you voluntarily go.
THEY ARE NOT TEMPTED.
There are young men who deliberately seek
temptation, fall under its power and then
whine about the temptations to which men
are peculiarly exposed. 1t Is unmanly and
contemplate. What would you think if you
should see your sister or your wife or daugh-
ter entering saloon by the side entrance
for women while you are going in by the
aghast. You would say: This is awful
horribleip And you would be right. Your
wrong thinking is evident when you imagine
that that sort OF a thing is really worse
for her than for you. 1t may look worse, but
1t is no worse. God has set up no higher
standard for her than He has for you. A
womans purity is no more sacred in Gods
sight than a mans purity.
1t is no more necessary for a man to de-
bauch himself than 1t is for a woman Young
men should understand this, and young wOm-
en- should understand it, too. The safeguard
lies in their self-respect, in the value they
attach to personal purity, good conscience
clear conscience, their sensitive recol from
what is low and bad. God bless themi And
terrible will be the day when they lose one
whit of that self-esteem. And yet they
have allowed themselves to fall into the de-
fusion that less is to be expected of men
than of them. On the other hand men cher
Sh-as a rule, a sort of reverential regard
tor woman's purity and nobleness, but want
ing proper seR-respect they are less exacting
with themselves than they should be. They
do not honor womanhood too highly, but they
do not honor their own manhood enough. This
is wrong thinking. 1t Is vicious and mis-
chievous thinking Antipas the Faithful would
protest against It. He would stand for pure
manhood as well as pure womanhood and
the same unalterable standard of morality for
both. And he would be right.
NEEDED IN POLITICS, TOO.
Antipas the faithful Is needed in political
life. What a stir he would make IL ever he
should get into the town council! OF course
he should be laughed at called all sorts ot
names, but he would stand as he stood OF
old, one against all. l do not know any
place where the heroic spirit of that ole
martyr is more needed than in the councils