Profligacy in New York

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 141, 4 June 1887, Page 3

Profligacy in New York

The moral atmosphere surrounding the upper classes in New York does not seem to be a healthy one, if the statements of Dr Nix, a prominent Protestant clergyman, are any indication. / That gentleman recently preached on behalf of a refuge for fallen women, and boldly rebuked the aristocratic congregation he was addressing in terms of a most uncompromising character. In brief he said alluding to the passage in St Paul which calls the body the temple of the Holy Spirit : — Our body is the most . material of all' the material things in this material world, and yet they are the temple of the Holy Ghost even as much as our churches, that are more than lecture rooms. Now, to come down to how the temples are defiled in the lurid days and the shameless nights. In Corinth there was nothing dreamy. It was a busy town, cultured, enterprising, and sensuous. Tied was represented by art and made almost a religion. St. Paul was a man of the world, and he went there to stem the tide: Women displayed themselves immodestly; men ran up and down snuffing pleasure, and the philosophers said that it was all right—that it was natural law. cst. Paul's words are applicable to New York to-day. The. sin is the more shocking because society ignores it or trie* to excuse it. Who is there present absolutely without complicity in the sins of the age? It is a very hard matter for anyone to be, so many are the evil influences that surround us. The shop windows exhibit pictures galling to the eye. It is impossible to visit art galleries without seeing some revolting objects of nudity or sensually represented women. Young men £f -boast of their profligacy, and it is re- ■.."'< garded as a matter of course that young women should be seen in the streets flaunting their degradation. ' The theatres, the academies, and the studios all help to drag morality into the mire. Perhaps the greatest of all evil allurements is wrought by the customs of the day by presumably good women. I appeal, O woman! to your pity for man's weakness. If you have no shame left to appeal to, that you will try to remedy the pre- ' sent immodest manner of female apparelling/ Shame mnst have died in ,you that you can dress so. Think of the men to whom the very sight of you so arrayed gives rise to lustful passions. And then think of the prayers for forgiveness that are 6ent up from the bouse of mercy every night. They should make some men's ears tinele Nevr York is worse in many respect* than wa« Corinth.— American paper.