The Newtown bee., 1905-12-29
THE HOME CIRCLE.
INFORMATION WANTED.

A SERMON BY REV G. L. FORTE, SOUTH
BRITAIN. PRINTED BY REQUEST.
Pittsburg, September l3-The Ale
gheny County Woman's Christian
Temperance Union has appointed a
committee which will put the follow
lug question to President Roosevelt:
did you receive sixty bottles OF beer
from brewers association, and did
you or your representatives send the
brewers letter of thanks on White
House stationery for the same pack
age, and what became Of the sixty bot
worked up to-day over the fact that
members of the union read clippings
from newspapers reciting the facts re-
ferred to in the question. "We will
give the President the benefit OF the
doubt until the charge is sifted," de-
clared the woman who presided -Spe
cial to the New York Times.
The Outlook would like to answer
the question Yankee-fashion with an
ipQuiring mind. Saint Paul especi-
ally declares that women should not be
adorned with broidered hair, or gold,
or pearls, or costly array" Have you
purchased during the past year any
gold trinkets or pearls? If so, what
did they cost you? And what have
been your dressmakers' and millinerS'
bills? And what are your husbands
incomes, and what Is the relation of
your bills for dresses and bonnets to
those incomes? Please also send the
receipts, that the public may know
whether you are paying your working
women promptly (see Deut. xiv. 15),
and whether you are running your
husbands into debt (See Romans xiii,
81. We are very much worked up over
the fact that clippings from the news
papers charge that extravaganza in
dress is common feminine failing in
America, and that many women do
not pay promptly their dressmakers'
and milliners' bills. We will give the
women the benefit Of the doubt until
the charge is sifted.
We do not know whether at the
meetings Of the Allegheny County
Woman's Christian Temperance
Union 1t Is customary to invite cler-
gyman to preach. If SO, we venture to
suggest as an appropriate text for their
and to do your own business
The article have just read from the
Outlook is good modern text and
point of departure. could select such
an one as Matthew 8: 3, "And why be-
hOldeSt thou the mote that is in thy
brothers eye, and cOnSidereSt not the
beam that is in thy own eye" But
somehow there is lacking force in this
old saying for we have heard it so many
times that already we have dull ears to
its meaning. This up-tO-date day
needs an up-to-date Illustration. some
thing concrete and tangible according
to the present tense.
The women of Albany had an excel
lent motive, and furthermore we need
criticism for all quarters Of our public
officials. Yet the incident at Albany,
picked up and exaggerated properly by
the Outlook editor, is a timely and
wholesome hint to all men and women
to beware of inconsistency. Long
enough the world has gone on one
sided in criticism and attitude; long
enough have men been holding partial
balances. The Outlook deserves, then,
much praise that it dared meet the
dislike of an institution or power
among US that has often proved it's
beneticence. AS a paper it exercises
its nobleSt function; it breaches as the
pulpit ought to preach, sane and Wig
Orous Christianity, not the sanctimOn-
iouS kind, nor the Pharisaic tendency
to blindness, but the kind that appeals
to an age of straightforward effort,
OF OPEN VISION, OF CHARITABLE AND
PRILANTHROPIC TENDENCY.
What care we for the opinion of a man
who is not aware of his own twist, for
the opinion of a woman or women that
do not see how they transgreSs the |
law Of reason?
Christianity has proved wrong some
human tendencies and results: murder, |
theft, cruelty, vice; these always had
their places in proper pigeOn-holes;
H,,t tn Hn G thprn q
other forms of sin as gross, as much a
violation of divine law as theSe?" 1t |
is not common sense to kill fellow |
being, nor is 1t common sense to run in |
debt for the sake of show. Consistent
cy requires more than an avoidance
OF evils so long tabulated and so loudly |
denounced; consistency is more than
the passing of resolutions in reference
to an act prominent and fragrant, both |
because of the man s position and the
thing concerned. Consistency is made
of sterner stuff. 1t investigates and
OverruleS in all phases and influences
OF experiences, weighing Alright every
obscure and unprecedented factor; it
accepts criticisms Of all actions, but al
so looks around and farther to the not
easily noticed issues yet not attacked.
The American Board Of Foreign Mis-
siOns finally accepted ROckefellers
/ think Of this-hOwever | will say
that consistency had gone farther than
Rockefeller and his methods to the
methods of all other business men.
The gambler runs needless risk with
his money: and so does every honest |
man who seeks unexpected returns.
The horseman is extravagant to spend !
fortunes on horses: no more SO than
fashionable women who spend fortunes
for clothes. If God holds responsible |
the drunkard for the ruin Of his home
and the prospects of his children. no
less responsible is an ill-tempered wife |
or husband or the society enthusiast
who drove her husband to stealing and
then to suicide.
INCONSISTENCY IS IGNORANCE.
1t is seltishness, blindness, self-decep
ton, pharisaism, "a Straining at gnat
and swallowing camel" We are in
consistent every day because we have
not the power to be Symmetrcaland all
round men and women. We are incon-
sistent in judgment Of ourselves and
of others because we do not see the
whole universe Of actually and still
more exactlng as it ought to be for
man, as it always is for eternity. |
toto nf