THE MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS.
1. MANY CAUSES.—Many causes have operated to produce a corruption
of the public morals so deplorable; prominent among which may be
mentioned the facility with which divorces may be obtained in some of
the States, the constant promulgation of false ideas of marriage and
its duties by means of books, lectures, etc., and the distribution
through the mails of impure publications. But an influence not less
powerful than any of these is the growing devotion of fashion and
luxury of this age, and the idea which practically obtains to so great
an extent that pleasure, instead of the health or morals, is the great
object of life.
2. A MONSTROUS CRIME.—The abiding interest we feel in the
preservation of the morals of our country, constrains us to raise our
voice against the daily increasing practice of infanticide, especially
before birth. The notoriety that monstrous crime has obtained of late, and the hecatombs of infants that are annually sacrificed to Moloch, to gratify an unlawful passion, are a sufficient justification for our alluding to a painful and delicate subject, which should "not even be named," only to correct and admonish the wrong-doers.
3. LOCALITIES IN WHICH IT IS MOST PREVALENT.—We may observe that the
crying sin of infanticide is most prevalent In those localities where
the system of moral education has been longest neglected. This inhuman
crime might be compared to the murder of the innocents, except that
the criminals, in this case, exceed in enormity the cruelty of Herod.
4. SHEDDING INNOCENT BLOOD.—If it is a sin to take away the life even
of an enemy; if the crime of shedding innocent blood cries to heaven
for vengeance; in what language can we characterize the double guilt
of those whose souls are stained with the innocent blood of their own
unborn, unregenerated offspring?
5. THE GREATNESS OF THE CRIME.—The murder of an infant before its
birth, is, in the sight of God and the law, as great a crime as the
killing of a child after birth.
6. LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY.—Every State of the Union has made this
offense one of the most serious crimes. The law has no mercy for the
offenders that violate the sacred law of human life. It is murder of
the most cowardly character and woe to him who brings this curse upon
his head, to haunt him all the days of his or her life, and to curse
him at the day of his death.
7. THE PRODUCT OF LUST.—Lust pure and simple. The only difference
between a marriage of this character and prostitution is, that
society, rotten to its heart, pulpits afraid to cry aloud against
crime and vice, and the church conformed to the world, have made such
a profanation of marriage respectable. To put it in other words, when
two people determine to live together as husband and wife, and evade
the consequences and responsibilities of marriage, they are simply
engaged in prostitution without the infamy which attaches to that vice
and crime.
8. OUTRAGEOUS VIOLATION OF ALL LAW.—The violation of all law, both
natural and revealed, is the cool and villainous contract by which
people entering into the marital relation engage in defiance of the
laws of God and the laws of the commonwealth, that they shall be
unencumbered with a family of children. "Disguise the matter as you
will," says Dr. Pomeroy, "yet the fact remains that the first and
specific object of marriage is the rearing of a family." "Be fruitful
and multiply and replenish the earth," is God's first word to Adam
after his creation.
9. THE NATIONAL SIN.—The prevention of offspring is preeminently the
sin of America. It is fast becoming the national sin of America, and if it is not checked, it will sooner or later be an irremediable calamity. The sin has its roots in a low and perverted idea of marriage, and is fostered by false standards of modesty.