hed by it. But, if it possesses any efficacy at all,
it consists in its power to repress open and shameless wrong; and where
any such wrong _is_ open and shameless, public neglect is the cause, and
such public neglect, therefore, is an Ally of the Tempter. And let us
consider the enormity of such evils. In every great city there are some
omissions of executive duty, which, though grievous to be borne, are
noticed with good humor. But there are moral swamps, sending up their
foul steam to pollute the common light; there are kennels of
uncleanness, running with the waste of human lives, sweeping along with
the death-gurgle of human souls; there is a dry-rot of impurity
infecting the town-air, withering the dearest sanctities of society and
of home--and over this kind of evil we cannot be facetious. Think how
much is risked here, and how much is lost! Domestic happiness,
reputation, honor, health, order, the prospects of the young, the peace
of the old--Fathers, the hopes of your sons! Mothers, the interests of
your daughters! and, though speaking may have little effect, say whether
we ought not to speak, and to speak indignantly, of the neglect which
lets these evils spread with deadly luxuriance, and winks at them as
though they were harmless?

But, my friends, what do we mean by "public sanction," or "public
neglect?" There are some convenient synonyms which help us to cover up
our personal responsibility--help us to transfer our own sense of duty
to a vague secondary agent, and keep peace with our own consciences.
And yet they are only _synonyms_, after all. Now this term "public" is
but another word for the aggregate of our personal obligations, and does
not for a single moment rid us of our share in the general influence.
The real point of my present topic is this--you and I and every other
individual involved in this network of social relations, are helping or
weakening the force of these prevalent evils. And it may arouse us to
some decision of conduct to consider how the most respectable--those who
would shrink with horror from these foul customs--are, nevertheless,
Allies of the Tempter. And I might state, as a comprehensive
proposition, that every man _is_ an Ally of the Tempter, who does not
put forth a conscious and positive moral energy; who does not habitually
throw his example and his influence in the right direction. It is not
enough that he abstains from wrong himself--that he is chaste, and
temperate, an