Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-02-18
CITY S COMPLETELY
DR.. A. E.cRAtG DELIVERS STRONG
SERMON AT FIRST METHODIST
EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
"The clty's Shameful Completely With
the Social Vice" the Subject At
tendance Large-"The Saloon and
City Administration" Next Topic.

"The City's Shameful Completely
With the Social Vice." was the sub.
1ect of the address delivered at the
First Methodist Episcopal church last
evening by the pastor, Dr. A. E. Craig.
The attendance while not quite so
large as on last Sunday evening was
large considering the extreme cold but
few seats remaining unoccupied
THE Saloon and the City Admins.
tration" will be the topic Of the ser.
mon on next Sunday evening. The
full text of last evenings sermon was
as follows:
Can man take fire in his bosom
and his clothes not be burnt? Prov.
vi, a.
He cannot Neither can commun-
ity play with fire without being
scorched. It is the law of the universe
that Suffering follows wrong, as
echo follows song, on and on" "The
soul that sinneth. it shall die" was
not first written in the book of God,
1t was written from the beginning in
the book of nature. You can no more
repeal the laws of nature touching
morals than you can repeal them
touching crops. Whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap"
feel like emphasizing these plain facts
because it would appear as If ever
and anon men rise W who think they
can repeal the ten commandments,
and ieer at the Sermon on the Mount
The sacred laws that were Numbered
from the holy mount cannot be contra
vened by city ordinance nor are the
dictates of city officer sufficient to
abolish the tremendous utterances of
Him who spoke with authority on the
Galilean hillside. l would apply these
plain principles to a most serious sub
ject this evening, the relation of
community to what we commonly
know as the social vice.
An old writer has said, Chastity is
delicate tender grace, and can
scarcely endure the naming of itself,
much less that which is contrary to
it" Who shall furnish me words fit
to clothe my subject this evening,
words clear as crystal, penetrating as
fire, pure as becomes the sacred Of
flee of the ministry (of divine things) :?
almost feel as if I owe an apology to
purity for broaching such subject in
this presence. So sacred is the inner
sanctuary of the individual, that to
drag its secret thoughts into the glare
OF public gaze seems an offense little
less than sacrilige. Modesty would
seem to suggest that we observe decor
GUS reserve and say with Dante lie
US not speak of them. but look and
pass by."t.s5s
Possibility Of Tainting Purity.
4 know there is the possibility
of tainting sensitive and unsus-
pecting purity. There are those whose
minds retain the dew and freshness
of innocence. whose cheeks are yet
tinted with Edenic purity, the virgin
Wilderness of whose hearts the shadow
OF evil has never darkened. Should
such receive even the suggestion Of
evil from the oracle of the house of
God? At first glance the thought ap-
pears repulsive. But reflection may
remind us that INFESTED innocence is
not virtue, and seeing there is no pos
sible way of retaining this innocence
of simplicity when thrust out into life's
realities we believe virtue may suffer
more from the silence of shame than
from the honest voice of truth.
There is a criminal fastidiousness
which is the counterfeit of modesty. 1t
comes from that Pharisaic hypocrisy,
which like the whited sepulchre Is all
clean without. but within is full of i'm
purities. 1t apes modesty and affects
a high sense of propriety but in reality
goes no further than the shallow ex-
terror. Such would silence the pulpit,
and let. loose its dogs of invective
against all public utterance not from
any concern for the moral tone Of the
community, but because its bosom sins
have been laid bare.
The time has come when there Is
the need of great frankness, fidelity
and thoroughness in dealing with this
destructive social evil. You will then
bear with me this evening if l am
constrained out of the depth of my
sincerest convictions to speak the
things that believe ought to be said,
and with no uncertain emphasis.
trust l shall not be nelegated to the
role of sentimental reformers and i'm
possible moralists while l draw the
lines this evening with strictness.
am very free to admit the difficulty in
dealing with a vice that is stimulated
by passion, fortified in frailty and hid
den In, solemn secrecy.
am ready to admit all that
lax moralists have to say about
the antiquity Of this vice, which
has come down hoary with
years from the very beginning of his
tory. I am perfectly willing to admit