1. INSULT TO MOTHER OR SISTER.--Young men, it can never tinder any
circumstances be right for you to do to a woman that, which, if
another man did to your mother or sister, you could never forgive!
The very thought is revolting. Let us suppose a man guilty of this
shameful sin, and I apprehend that each of us would feel ready to
shoot the villain. We are not justifying the shooting, but appealing
to your instinctive sense of right, in order to show the enormity
of this fearful crime, and to fasten strong conviction in your mind
against this sin.
2. A RUINED SISTER.--What would you think of a man, no matter what his
wealth, culture, or gentlemanly bearing, who should lay himself out
for the seduction and shame of your beloved sister? Her very name now
reminds you of the purest affection: think of her, if you can bear it,
ruined in character, and soon to become an unhappy mother. To whom can
you introduce her? What can you say concerning her? How can her own
brothers and sisters associate with her? and, mark! all this personal
and relative misery caused by this genteel villain's degrading
passion.
3. YOUNG MAN LOST.--Another terrible result of this sin is the
practical overthrow of natural affection which it effects. A young man
comes from his father's house to Chicago. Either through his own
lust or through the corrupt companions that he finds in the house of
business where he resides, he becomes the companion of lewd women. The
immediate result is a bad conscience, a sense of shame, and a breach
in the affections of home. Letters are less frequent, careless, and
brief. He cannot manifest true love now. He begins to shrink from his
sister and mother, and well he may.
4. THE HARLOT'S INFLUENCE.--He has spent the strength of his affection
and love for home. In their stead the wretched harlot has filled him
with unholy lust. His brain and heart refuse to yield him the love of
the son and brother. His hand can not write as aforetime, or at
best, his expressions become a hypocritical pretence. Fallen into
the degradation of the fornicator, he has changed a mother's love and
sister's affection for the cursed fellowship of the woman "whose house
is the way to hell." (Prov. VII. 27.)
5. THE WAY OF DEATH.--Observe, that directly the law of God is broken,
and wherever promiscuous intercourse between the sexes takes place,
gonorrhoea, syphilis, and every other form of venereal disease is
seen in hideous variety. It is only true to say that thousands of both
sexes are slain annually by these horrible diseases. What must be
the moral enormity of a sin, which, when committed, produces in vast
numbers of cases such frightful physical and moral destruction as that
which is here portrayed?
6. A HARLOT'S WOES.--Would to God that something might be done to
rescue fallen women from their low estate. We speak of them as "fallen
women". Fallen, indeed, they are, but surely not more deserving of the
application of that term than the "fallen men" who are their partners
and paramours. It is easy to use the words "a fallen woman," but who
can apprehend all that is involved in the expression, seeing
that every purpose for which God created woman is prostituted and
destroyed? She is now neither maiden, wife, nor mother; the sweet
names of sister and betrothed can have no legitimate application in
her case.
7. THE PENALTIES FOR LOST VIRTUE.--Can the harlot be welcomed where
either children, brothers, sisters, wife, or husband are found?
Surely, no. Home is a sphere alien to the harlot's estate. See such
an one wherever you may--she is a fallen outcast from woman's high
estate. Her existence--for she does not live--now culminates in one
dread issue, viz., prostitution. She sleeps, but awakes a harlot. She
rises in the late morning hours, but her object is prostitution; she
washes, dresses, and braids her hair, but it is with one foul purpose
before her. To this end she eats, drinks, and is clothed. To this end
her house is hidden and the blinds are drawn.
8. LOST FOREVER.--To this end she applies the unnatural cosmetique,
and covers herself with sweet perfumes, which vainly try to hide her
disease and shame. To this end she decks herself with dashing finery
and tawdry trappings, and with bold, unwomanly mien essays the streets
of the great city. To this end she is loud and coarse and impudent.
To this end she is the prostituted "lady," with simpering words, and
smiles, and glamour of refined deceit. To this end an angel face, a
devil in disguise. There is one foul and ghastly purpose towards which
all her energies now tend. So low has she fallen, so lost is she to
all the design of woman, that she exists for one foul purpose only,
viz., to excite, stimulate, and gratify the lusts of degraded, ungodly
men. Verily, the word "prostitute" has an awful meaning. What plummet
can sound the depths of a woman's fall who has become a harlot?
9. SOUND THE ALARM.--Remember, young man, you can never rise above the
degradation of the companionship of lewd women. Your virtue once lost
is lost forever. Remember, young woman, your wealth or riches is your
good name and good character--you have nothing else. Give a man your
virtue and he will forsake you, and you will be forsaken by all the
world. Remember that purity of purpose brings nobility of character,
and an honorable life is the joy and security of mankind.
[Illustration: THE GREAT PHILANTHROPIST.]
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