Show NOT ART BUT RELIGION in the notorious notor loua case of oscar wilde now DOW on trial in london a lesson la is offered that should not be lost load on the present generation this Is ia an age I 1 n D which it la is often maintained that mao man by his bia own strength la Is fully prepared to rise to enormous heights of mural moral excellence excelled excelle excel let ice ce and that the aid of religious influences consequently to la superfluous the case referred ret erred to la Is a direct contradiction of this assumption and as aa it comes with the force ot of a tact fact it cannot be riot act aside aalde by any amount ot of theoretical reasoning ever since oscar wilde appeared on the horizon of society he be startled the world by idiosyncrasies and amused it by his bis ideals looked upon as odd he to la now a man thirty liae years jean ot of age possessed of much talent he la is described an aa a bard worker notwithstanding that he be poses as an idler idiot he be la is said to be unusually honest towards his bla creditors cre ditora and a kind husband and ana father as a the world goes his genius secured him admittance to the exclusive social circles where he be was wao accounted an interesting conversa tio of his big accomplishments may be judged from the fact that hat he has written a tragedy in french which sarah bernhardt pronounced truly great if the question to ia asked hew such a clever iodus indus orloue apparently good aud and gifted man can be found in the horrible quicksand of scandal from which he Is ia now endeavoring to extricate him self the reply is that all these qualities it if not strengthened by the gitt gilt of the divine spirit are powerless to keep kee men and women from falling the principle announced by the greatest of men that without regeneration and reception of the holy ghost no man is in fit for citizenship in the kingdom ot of heaven is ia well exemplified in the lives of such mortals the trouble with oscar wilde as with many others was that he prostrated himself before the sitar altar of art and beauty without at y other object apparently than the adoration and glorification of those deities for their own sake in big hi cult there was no room for an earnest effort to find and to know the creator through his ad mirable works it was nothing more than a species of idolatry none the less pernicious because designated as the of art for art arts arta a sake it was a veiled effort at the revival of that spirit which prevailed to in ancient greece anu rome borne when the religious instinct was nearly extinguished iu in the wonderful arts art and sciences science that were substituted the results were similar tor for on reliable authority two we know that those fadous at the very height of their culture were morally rotten to the core professing themselves to be wise they became fools foole this was wilde wildes a fate even artl atlo instinct it 11 not sanctified to the honor hodor of the creator stands io in danner danger of becoming the veil for all that offends and outrages morals and propriety something more than love if cf art ait is needed in the struggle for purity of the soul something to be found only in that which our age is in too apt to overlook in an acknowledged and personally accepted dependence on god |