peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face; and I have found thee. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. For the good man is not at home; he is gone a long journey; he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. With her much fair speech she caused him to yield; with the flattering of her lips she forced him. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine HEART decline to her ways; go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded; yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. A foolish woman is clamorous; she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to call passengers who go right on their ways; whoso is simple, let him turn in hither; and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.—Solomon. No. 4. A VICIOUS MAN. "She wove the winding sheet of souls, and laid POLLOCK. A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly suddenly shall he be broken, without remedy. These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies; and him that soweth discord among brethren. My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother; bind them continually upon thy heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life, to keep thee from the evil woman; from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread; and the adulteress will hunt for the No. 1. JAN. 1832. 2 precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul, when he is hungry; but if he be found, he shall restore seven-fold; he shall give all the substance of his house. But whoso committeth adultery with a woman, lacketh understanding; he that doeth it, destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is the rage of a man; therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, come with us, let us lay wait for blood; let us lurk privily for the innocent, without cause; let us swallow them up alive, as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit; we shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: my son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path; for their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. (Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.) And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the opening of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words, saying, how long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity, and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof; behold I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; they would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.—Solomon. No. 5. MAGDALENS-THEIR PROSPECTS. The most of the unfortunate females in this city must go down to hell. How can it be otherwise? If they die in their sins, God will not receive them into heaven; and they must die in their sins, unless a general reformation prevent it. In case they reform, for them Christians must provide lodgings in chaste families. But these women will die soon. And will there be no unfortunates when these are in the grave? Will the vice cure itself? No-never. Whose mothers, sisters, wives and daughters shall fall into infamous courses of conduct, to occupy the places their deaths shall vacate? Even now, subjects are daily supplying the ranks in which disease and murder are making daily havoc. So it has been for centuries. Shall it continue for centuries to come? Oh, is not he to be pitied, whose narrow, selfish soul stands aloof, and refuses to aid in exterminating this monster sin? Can he unmoved see these friendless women sink unpitied, unaided into a premature grave, and their places supplied by others? No. 6. MAGDALEN-HER CHARACTER. The character of a Magdalen is as good as the character of a seducer or debauchee. Do not birds of like feathers, according to the proverb, flock together? Will a man consent to associate with his inferiors? Will he walk the street with an unchaste female hanging on his arm, or attending his steps as a companion, close at his side, when he considers her beneath him in point of excellence? Is he better than the company he keeps? If a Magdalen is his associate, why is not a Magdalen as reputable as he is? The truth of this remark is apparent to every mind, and no man will hazard his reputation for good sense by denying that a Magdalen is as good, or even better, than the unprincipled fellow who visits her, to gratify his carnal propensities. No. 7. MARRIAGE. Marriage was instituted by our Creator for the noblest purposes. Conjugal, parental and filial affection will abide a perpetual monument of its praise. It propagates the race, connects families, and forms nations; encourages literature, science, the liberal professions, commerce, agriculture, trades, useful inventions and industry; sustains criminal, humane, literary, scientific, theological, legal, medical and commercial institutions; and promotes virtue, and happiness, and long life. Licentiousness destroys the blessings marriage is designed to convey. It proceeds from vicious principles, riots in triumph in the seat where Satan dwells, and is the parent of bloody crimes. Therefore the necessity and propriety of marriage as its remedy is apparent. It is apparent from the fact that the evils which it would counteract and suppress, are great and alarming. Licentiousness is the most dangerous and destructive vice incident to the human race. It not only makes the guilty idle, consumes their earnings, deranges their business, blasts their credit, loads them with debts, impoverishes their families, transforms them into paupers, mendicants, vagabonds, and thieves; but it impairs their health, weakens their intellect, vitiates their moral feelings, destroys their self respect, and shortens their lives. Every person intimately acquainted with the administration of justice, and the lives of convicts, knows that most of the murders, manslaughters, riots, tumults, and breaches of the peace, besides a large proportion of other offences, for which criminals are convicted and punished, are occasioned by prostitution. Kindred vices are associated with it. It fills the jail with convicts, the hospital with patients, the mad-house with maniacs, and the city and country at large with wretches whose families, if they have any, are left to beg or starve, and their children are brought up in ignorance, idleness, vice and rags. Hence the frequent calls upon us for charitable contributions, which would not be required if the source of these streams of wretchedness was dried up. This desolating evil is seen, admitted, lamented, and suffered to exist, without applying the remedy-the purification of public sentiment and the honoring of the marriage institution. Its ravages are under out daily inspection. We cannot easily avoid seeing this moral pestilence, and if we do not exert our power to prevent it, we are accessory to its continuance, and, in the sight of God, responsible for it. The preventive measure is in our power. We can abstain from it ourselves, and endeavor, both by precept and by example, to discountenance it in others. And this is an effective mode in which to operate; for the supply of unfortunates being equal to the demand for them, it is evident that a diminution of the demand must diminish the supply in the same proportion, and that when the demand shall cease the supply will cease. But, supposing that the demand for loose women shall never cease, a supposition utterly inadmissible, still much misery may be relieved, and more prevented, by means of a society combining, concentrating, and directing its influence against this single vice. The object to be accomplished is momentous, and the proposed measure offers a hopeful prospect of success. No. 8. LICENTIOUSNESS SHORTENS LIFE. "I saw him enter in, and heard the door POLLOCK. In the fall of 1830, I saw a young man from New Jersey in a house of ill fame in New York, sitting at the side of a girl of the town. The lines of vice, in his livid countenance, prompted this abrupt address"Sir, unless you reform, your head, in less than three years, will be in the grave." A gentleman from the neighborhood in which he lived, told me that the young man died in about three months after I saw him, and that, a little prior to his death, his head presented a most disgusting assemblage of the effects of lewdness. It is probable that the history of this youth is brief. It may be, that on coming to the city a few years before I saw him, he was met at the corner of the streets by a ruined woman, who accosted and conducted him to her abode; or that he accidentally entered it, on the supposition that it was only a tippling house; or, that some of his more knowing acquaintances persuaded him to go there; or, that his carnal passions influenced him to seek for it; or, that a pander, the pimp and house dog of such an establishment, met him at the vessel, at the market, or in the grog shop, and persuaded him to go and visit the gardens, the museums, and the theatres, and then to accompany a theatre girl to her lodgings, where he first learned to be a drunkard, a gambler, a bankrupt and a thief. To the young men in the country I would say, remember the Jersey boy. Hundreds of country boys fall as he fell. Others are treading in his steps. Now though a parent's, sister's, wife's or child's eye may not see you strolling through the street, at the side of an infamous woman, led as an ox to the slaughter, or as a fool to the penitentiary; or trace your guilty steps through doors that are locked behind you, until you step into that chamber of crime, the eye of an offended God sees you, and traces your steps, and marks all your behaviour. The curse of the Lord is on you there. Beware. Disgrace neither yourselves, nor your families, nor your neighbors. When you are about entering on guilty, degrading courses of conduct, ask yourselves whether she has a father, a mother, a husband, a brother, or a child susceptible of feeling the reproach you are about to impose and to deepen on them. Make the case your own. Suppose her to be your sister, or daughter, receiving like treatment from a stranger. Moreover, before you sin, be certain that you have a constitution able to resist the shock of lewdness, and a soul capable of bearing the suffering debauchery brings on it. Country parents, keep a vigilant eye on your sons. From the adjacent towns in this and the neighboring states, hundreds of men every night visit places like that in which I saw the Jersey boy. On Saturday afternoon, but more especially on Sabbath morning, multi |