The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-30
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT.
REV. CHARLES Ii. STRONG's SERMON
LAST NIGHT ON MORALITY.

Corrupt Social Life and Counsel
for Their AVOidancc-The House,
hold the Starting Point ana Its
Examples and Lessons should BE
Made of Benefits in Raising the
Moral Tone of Society.
Rev. Charles H. Strong preached on the
Seventh Commandment at st. Johns
Church last night. His sermon was the
seventh of a series he is rendering ON the
Ten Commandments
THE Commandments of Jesus Christ"
said Mr. Strong, should always be pure
to the pure. When I began this series of
sermons on the commandments 1 had
never a thought of emitting the Seventh.
He said he recognized the delicacy of his
subject, but that its Importance is such as
to make il necessary for him to include it
among those of which his sermons treat.
1t is very evident, Mr.. Strong said. that
the observance of the commandment is
the very corner stone of all order. The
sancity of the family is revered and
watched over with a faithfulness that
shows the strongest difference God has
placed between man and brutes.
Polygamy was touched upon as it exist
ed in Old Testament days. and the rector
said there might be seen rea sons that
might Justify its practice, but he charac-
terized the practice as existent at the pres
ent day as a blot upon the fair name of
the law and civilization
There was a reverence, Mr.. Strong said,
among the Jews and the Romans for the
law governing the sexes, but social purity
they could not obtain owing to the lack
of restraint to their natures Ii remained
for Christianity to accomplish the emanci-
patton of woman. 1t declared marriage
a religious ceremony and protected it by
the blessing of God. Christ's conception of
the law is the protection of the sacrednesS
of the marriage rite, as revealed in the
sermon on the mount, and he recognized
but the one reason for divorce. Christian
ity won a great victory in thus enamel
pating woman and throwing about her the
protection of its rites
Under the law Of Moses divorce was per-
mitted and man might put away his wife,
but Christ said for naught but adultery
should divorce be given. In this country,
the rector said, marriage 'can never be
anything in the eye of the law except a
civil contract, whether performed in the
court room of the justice or in the church,
and it should therefore be guarded with
all the strength of morality. Sometimes,
the rector said, ii may be right and proper
for a woman to be released from what is
bondage of such i'll trea tment as to make
it unbearable, but he believes if divorce
should become as prevalent in the South as
in some of the Western states all the cher
ished affections of the household would
pass away and it is therefore safeguard
that the church throws about social life
with its attitude of recognizing but the
one cause for divorce.
Mr.. Strong referred to conditions that
existed in the middle ages when men and
women retired to monasteres and nun
neres TO avoid the influences for evil. He
said history should be viewed charitably
and that the circumstances of the times
should be considered. Thus it may have
been the proper thing for these people to
withdraw from the world, but he said the
religion that shuns social life is not that
of Christ. Now there is a more healthy
social life, and it should be the object of
Christians to make it yet purer. The
homes of Christian people were named
as the best schools in which examples of
purity might teach the most splendid of
lessons and thus become the salvation of
children and the means of increasing So
cial purity We meet the outcast and
shudder, but do we not always stop to
think that she may have had bright and
happy childlife; that she may have been
the child of wealth and luxury,
pampered by the love of fond
parents and admired and caressed
by good men and women: that she
may have grown into young womanhood
that might have been pure had it not been
for some neglect of parents; and that
when temptation came, she was unable to
withstand it and lost home, happiness,
almost heaven, itself.
Politeness of speech as grown of re-
cent years and the culture that is shown
in polite society has removed something
of the dangers of years ago, but this cul-
tUre and superfieiality may cover insidiouS
sin in the heart Then, too, the rector be-
lieves, much of evil is instilled by the per-
rusaI of romances of the French school,
He said he would rather place Shakes
peare with his big open heart, in its ex-
purgated editions, in the hands of youth
than those realistic novels. Amusements
that foster thought that result in evil
were condemned. Mr.. Strong said he favors
harmless amusements that delight the
young and he mentioned number of plays
that he regards as beneficial, but it is The
play that skip across the surface of inn
morality and leave impressions that attack
purity that should be avoided.
Hypocricy and the mercenary giving In
marriage that is frequently to be seen
we're named as fertile sources from which
immortality springs The rector regards il
as fortunate that these marriages Of con-
venience are not made as often in this
country as abroad and that men and
women do not bring to this country in the
same degree the customs of Africa and
barter their daughters.
In the Magdalens of the present day Mr..
Strong sees much of the worlds mock
cry He considers the world turns its
hack on the victim while the author of
the wrong still moves in his high places.
The one should be blamed with the other.
The vice of the cities and those who live
in their dens are the rolled down debris
of society. Women are in them who,
tempted, were unable TO resist and fell
from their positions in society Here an
there there are noble women going about
lifting up these Magdaens, but Mr.. Strong
saws he feels this is but checking a vein
while a great artery is left flowing. So
ciety should purify itself; should base it,
self on pure households and follow the
doctrines Of the Lord.
HIGH-CLASS LIGHT OPERA.