River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-11-04


prodigal. Her picture is given us In
l. Timothy, Sc: "She that liveth in
pleasure is dead, while she liveth."
She is dead to duty, dead to love OF
God or her fellows, dead to noble as
pirations. Her one purpose is to have
good time. Like butterfly, she
flies from one flower of Indulgence to
another, careless of the future. Her
person, so beautifully dressed, is mere
ly a decorated sepulcher in which
abides a soul dead to all high Ideals.
Though the goddess woman and the
pleasure-seeking woman are prod1gals,
the prodigal most to be pitied is the
unchaste woman. She is fallen in
her own consciousness. When her sin
becomes public she is an outcast from
society. She realizes that she is
Stunned as leprous.
False teaching makes prodigals. Let
a girl be taught that the moral law
is not binding because it has been alb
rogated by grace and she becomes an
easy prey to temptation. Teach her
that any one of the ten command
ments is effete and it is easy for her
to infer that all are effete.
Bad influence or no influence at
home makes many a prOdigal. The
daughter is apt to look to father and
mother as ideals, and what they are
she is apt to become. The wreck of
many a girls life can be traced to
the condition in the home which re-
suited in divorce proceedings. Pure
homes will make pure children and
impure homes will make impure chill
dren.
Bad literature does it's pernicious
work. In some popular periodicals of
to-day are stories which seem to have
been written for the purpose OF
polluting the imagination and corrupt
ing the morals. Realistic, sensational
novels cannot fail to defile the mind
and prepare the way for the life OF
shame. Drink and drugs weaken moral
stamina and produce many fall. The
theater with it's fetid moral atmo-
sphere, it's vocal and spectacular OBJ
scenity, makes it easy for men and
women to be bad The associations
behind the footlights are so corrupt
ing, that, according to the testimony
of theater people themselves, it is diff.
ficult for an actress to remain pure.
The dance destroys the virtue of more
women than anything else. The dance
house with it's adjacent saloon is the
gate of hell through which thousands
of once innocent girls go to the bot
tomless pit. It is the testimony of
all managers of homes of refuge for
fallen women that more than rs per
cent. go there through the dance
Misplaced confidence in fallen man
has been the ruin of many good
woman. There are some fiends in
human shape who are proud of their
acts as seducers, and of late it has
been discovered that there is sys-
tematic traffic in the virtue of women
as well organized as any other COM
mercial enterprise, and it covers the
world in it's extent.
Ofhindrance to the reform of the prod
igal, phariseeism stands first. Men and
women who are guilty of other sins
as black in Gods sight as unchastity
discourage all efforts to save the prod
igal daughter, while they place her in
the pillory of public contempt. The
men who brought that poor sinful
woman to Christ were doubtless
chaste in their lives. For her ter
penalty imposed by the law of Moses,
but for their sins of covetousness, ly.
ing. pride and dishonesty the judg.
ment of God was postponed. Jesus
said: Let him that is without sin (of
any kind) execute this woman. And
they skunk out, beginning with the old
est ones, who became suddenly con.
scious that they had many sins to con.
denim them. Jesus asked: HAS no
man executed thee?" she said, No
man. Lord" "And Jesus said, Neither
do | execute thee! go and sin no
more" In men this spirit of phari.
seeism is bad, but in good women it
is often worse and keeps them from
extending to the prodigal daughter the
hand of help she often needs.
Another hindrance is hopelessness
in the heart of the prodigal daughter.
She thinks that she is too bad to be
saved; and, though she is often dis.
gusted with her life and longs for sal.
walton from it, she feels that God is
against her. Her greatest temptation
is suicide, only restrained from it by
the instinct of Immortality and the
dread of the future.
This brings me to the encourage
ments l would give TO every prodigal
daughter, and the first is that God
loves you. He loves you well enough
to give his only begotten Son to die
for you and his great heart yearns for
your faith and love. To him your soul
is as valuable as the soul of any queen
on earth.
But what must the prodigal daugh-
ter do to be saved? Come straight to
Jesus just as you are. He may be
in the house of pharisees, surrounded
by pharisees who will be more EN-.
barrassed by your presence than you
are by theirs. But come to Jesus in
spite of the protest of every pharisee
in the world. Jesus will receive you
and rebuke the pharisees who would
hinder your coming.