They should never permit their
parlor to become the scene of fashionable tyranny. The Christian parlor can
be no depot for fashion. It should be sacred to God and to the church. It
should be a true exponent of the social elements of Christianity. It should
not be a hermitage, a state of seclusion from the world; but should conform
to fashion, yet so far only as the laws of a sanctified taste and
refinement will admit.
These laws exclude all compromise and amalgamation with the ungodly spirit
and customs of the world. Allegiance to the higher and better law of God
will keep us from submission to the laws of a depraved taste and carnal
desire. We must keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Whenever we submit
with scrupulous exactness to the laws of fashion; whenever we yield a
servile complaisance to its forms and ceremonies, wink at its extremes and
immoralities and absurd expenditures, seek its flatteries and indulge in
its whims and caprices, by throwing open our parlors as the theatre of
their denouement, and introducing our children to their actors and
master-spirits, we prostitute our homes, our religion and those whom God
has given us to train up for Himself, to interests and pleasures the most
unworthy the Christian name and character.
There is much danger now of the Christian home becoming in this way
slavishly bound to the influence and attractions of society beyond the pale
of the church, until all relish for home-enjoyment is lost, and its members
no longer seek and enjoy each other's association.
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