rime
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 unincumbered with a family of
children. "Disguise the matter as you will," says Dr. Pomeroy, "yet the
fact remains that the first and {257} 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.

10. THE SIN OF HERO