The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-27

Tn his pulpit at the First Prespyte- r,an church. last Sunday Rev. Henry M. Edmonds preached a strong ser mon. and one that made deep i'm precision upon shis hearers. on tns Seventh Commandment. At the re- quest of many who heard 1t The Ao- vertiser pripts 1t int fun.
 Mfr Edmondss said:
 The Seventh Commandment includes all sins of this general character and God was in earnest when He satd' .'rhou. shalt not We are in the presence of the worlds greatest perils and of the most inevitable proof ot God on earth. ~
 To the state He said Thou shalt not.s when I was boy eight years old | said: 1What Is that houseT' and thing could be leEaiized by decent government and I am wondering yet. Prostitution has been called the sham of> women; 1t is in reality the shame of men and the shame of the State. But God said Thou shaltS not, snd He meant It. The ancient nations did not heed Him and historians. say that was the vulture that ate out their vitals And we of the flower fair South have not been guiitless and particularly in one respect. i For two generations and more we have degxaded the woman of the ney gro race, and out~of the mills has been ground the new crime to pay us hack. You may burn the black wretcheS, you may tear them in pieces, you may make bullet pouches out of their flesh, but the engine of vengeance blows on. And it must go on until past and present have paid their debt of blood, Whatsoever a man soweth. that shall he also reap. The harvest Is not all In.
 The Family.
 God said Thou shalt not to the family. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the way in which the Commando ment has been enforced or punished here. The disintegration, the tears. the bitterness, the bloodshed and the death are well known to us. Nor Is it necessary to dwell upon the duty. of preserving inviolate this unit of our social and national integrity. He who violates the Thou shalt not here. steals out tile keystone ef the arch of our civilization, and would sooner or later plunge all into irremediable collapse. It Is in accord with the spontaneous verdict of intentiye jug tice that our unwrftten law allows the guilty man 10 be shot down. He is a multfple-murderer He kills not one but many. He kills not Immediately, but by long torture process. He kills not the individual but the family and not the family, but the State. TIe kills not the body but the soul. He kills not a citizen. but virtue and honor and hope.
 Divnrces in America.
 The divorce situation Is a stsrtline commentary on our American family life. We are now divoYctng one out of every twelve marriages And we are growing from bad to worse. Tn 1870 diyorces were twenty-nine to 100000 of population; in 1880 1t had increased to thirty-eight in 1900 it had increased to seventy three; in 1905, to eIghty- two. With murder increasing by leaps leaps and bounds. the question is. Where are we Rotng-T America. you had better go back to the farm, and to the old time simplicity and purity of the country boy,
 Moral Fibre.
 You choose to disobey7 Very we'll you shall learn that God Is in earnest It is most plainly visible in woman. One woman says. Behold, the hand maid Of the LordF' and l sec her on some arch of sky. like a pearl in the fingers of the morning, mayhap with a child in her arms. It is the fairest picture let down from heaven to earth, and the artist must rob Paradise of lights and shades and colors and dis tance to make 8 fitting background for 1t. Another says: Let wrong be my right" and I see her on tho black threshold of eternal night the fire within eating.through to lip and cheek and eye. An angel fallen. It is the ghastliest picture sent up from the pit, and the artist must rob hell Of flame and smoke and worm to make e fitting background for it, And man likewise. It shows on face, in voice, in carriage. The man has become less than a man. My strength is as