Page:Counter-currents, Agnes Repplier, 1916.djvu/171

The Repeal of Reticence

Daily we make atonement,

Golgotha again and again.

"O happy Christ, who died for love,

Judge us who die for lust.

For thou wast man, who now art God.

Thou knowest. Thou art just."

Now apart from the offence against religion in this easy comparison between the Saviour and the woman of the streets, and apart from the deplorable offence against good taste, which might repel even the irreligious, such unqualified acquittal stands forever in the way of reform, of the judgment and common sense which make for the betterment of the world. How is it possible to awaken any healthy emotion in the hearts of sinners so smothered in sentimentality? How is it possible to make girls and young women (as yet respectable) understand not only the possibility, but the obligation of a decent life?

There would be less discussion of meretricious subjects, either in print or in 155