The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-19
DR.. DIX TALKS or MARRIAGE.
REFERS INCIDENTALLY TO MRS.
CLEWS PARSONSS BOOK.
Dcno unecs ''the plan 10 Abolish Marriage
and Decries h Ease with which
divorces May Re ont aimed Neglect
Of Children Another Crying EVIL.


Divorces May re Obt aimed Neglect
Of Children Another Crying EVIL.
The Rev. Dr.. Morgan Dix. rector OF
trinity Church. made Il strong appeal
from the pulpit yesterday morning for the
preservation of the American home against
radical ideas such as are set forth in Mrs.
Herbert Parsons's new book, which sdvo-
Gates among other things trial marriage
DR.. Dix disclaimed any intention to make
his sermon an answer to her book.
The sermon about to be preached was
prepared and completed some time ago,
he explained, before I heard OF a book
which has been the talk of the town for the
last two days. It is not intended as a reply
to that book. l meant to speak to you,
in the order of my course, on the subject
Of childhood and the home from the Chris
tian point of view. By a strange coincidence
/ happen to preach this sermon just a.
we have been startled by reports about
the book referred to-
DR.. Dix said in beginning hat few per-
sons know, and very few reflect, to what an
extent the radicals Of the day are pushing
their schemes Of social revolution.
where so much il bad, said he, 1T Is
0AIu 10 say NHd Il Nuo vOhrNf ONN
the worst is the plan to abolish marriage
and break up the home. II Is In the mind
of these fanatics that marriage should
cease; that men n women should mate
and part at pleasure and that the children
resulting from these temporary unions
should belong not to the animals which
produce them, but TO the State. which must
have citizens and own them like other kinds
of property and use them for it's purposes.
This odious scheme is seriously presented
in books In wide circulation, and its ad-
vocates in trying to make converts in places
f~requented by the seditious
and the murdsroue anarchist are not inter-
fered with by the police. While such mis-
chief is in the air it may not be deemed
out of place to speak about childhood from
the Christian point OF view"
Childhood, as DR.. Dix regards II, Is the
Introduction Of an idividual into Gods
family, the first stage of the ascent toward
everlasting life.
There is," said he, "a place for the train
ing of such a person new born TO such, a
prospect and hope, and that place n the
next to the church; rather it is a part, an
outer portal of the church. To love the
children Is the Instinct or humanity. 10
sacrifice for them one of the first OF duties.
Monstrous il the un~willlngnees 10 nrlhs
them into being lest they should prove a
trouble or interfere with the selfish enjoy
ment Of life,
DR.. Dix continued:
"Perhaps we may come 10 realize the
better what the home should be by notlng
carefully the things which work TO ruin
and destroy il: For il Is not the adica
socialist. nor his inevitable follower, the
communist, nor his after conner, the
anarchist, who, with their wild dreams
and revolutionary tactics arc at hat iatal
work. but in the home itself and by. those
very heads Of the home who should have
been its protectors and defenders are found
fun often the causes of its destruction.
First. there IL, Or. Dix said, that vast
and growing scandal, that national dis
grace-divorce." All of Europe, with its
$40 900. 900 Of people, has in the last twenty
wears had 2ii. 1000 divorces, while IN the
United states, with its 80, 900 900 OF people,
there nave been granted in the same perlod
SOC, 900 divorces.
followed at once by new marriage. What
becomes OF the home? What about the
children OF whom the possession must De
settled by a judicial decree? We see the
awful thing going on. We see enoIts 70
check IL and restrict il within some decent
bounds and steady opposition on the part
of free thinkers to every project Tor re-
form. and we grow sick at heart as We Walt
and cry to God for help.
After divorce the next among the de-
stTuctive agenciee for the home, III DR..
Dix's opinion. IL the neglect OF children,
either because the parents must he away
all day at work to gain the means OF NE
or because they are bent on pleasure ana
amusement and CAD and fit about, leaving
the children TO hired caretakers ana onlS,
studious 10 keep them out of the way
DR.. Dix said in concluding his sermon:
We're We to pursue this subject We might
land in disgust and despair. But that would
never do. We must face the storm with cour'
age and hope There are dangers in the
State; there are dan gers in the Church WhAt
goes on in the one inevitably affects the other.
To be on ones guard il the first duty OF the
hour, 70 work Tor the security OF interests
in peril IL the second. The children, the nome
they are possessions beyond all price. They
must not be lost. We must fight strenuously
every enemy that threatens to rob us OF what
we owe to the Christian Church and rho Chris
tan State. For ours II vet a Christian state,
not withstandin G the rise of spectres OF RADICAL
ism upon the view. and ours Is yet a Christian
Church, notwithstsud ing the uneaslness OF
those who ask TO remain in her in order to
get a better leverage to undermine her doc
trine.
II Christian marriage goes the home goes,
and with it the safety OF the children. II the
home goes the state goes. for the wells of life
are there. II the State goes social order goes
and individual freedom and the right to
acquire property and enjoy II and to make
of ones self the most he ran by honest toll
and lawful Effort. And II the social order
goes, with its enCours cement Of the peaceable
and Industrious citizen and security from
class domination of any kind. barbarism
comes back and there must be a lODse into
the savs &c state again.