suicide, both men, women, and girls. It is the continual gnawings of the
conscience over the secret sins and crimes they have not the moral
courage to confess. Like the hidden spark of fire in a bale of cotton,
it continues its ravages until the whole bale is reduced to ashes. This
will account in great measure for the hundreds and thousands of
_unaccountable_ suicides of to-day, which are principally confined to
the young of both sexes.

I do not mean to say that all the young men go to drinking saloons as
soon as they carry their girls home, or as soon as the ball or dance is
over. No, many of them go to other places, such as are described in the
5th chapter of Proverbs. _Men will not deny this_. Who caused these men
to go to these places? Shall I answer? Shall I tell the truth? If I do,
I must say it is the virtuous wives, daughters, sisters and sweethearts,
who have been participating in the dance. _Every man knows that this is
true_. Let every honest physician send in a report of all his male
patients, giving the disease of each and the cause, and then let us have
a correct report from the dead of the same kind, and I am confident that
no husband, father or brother would ever permit his wife, daughter or
sister to be seen at a ball or dance. HUSBANDS, FATHERS, BROTHERS, your
wives, daughters and sisters do not know these things, _but you do know
them_, and now that your eyes are open, will you, can you, as a husband,
father or brother, ever permit the females under your care to even take
the chance of being RECRUITING OFFICERS for these sinks of perdition,
THESE ANTE-CHAMBERS OF HELL. These places, dripping with the blood of
hundreds and thousands of young and middle-aged men, who, but for their
enchantment, might have been good and true men, and have filled
honorable graves. These places have broken the hearts of thousands of
wives, mothers and: sisters, when they have seen their loved ones bound
in the fetters and chains of eternal death. These funnels, through which