MISCELLANEOUS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 13, 1870

THE PRESENT MORAL STATUS OF THE FRENCH NATION.—

In a recent exchange we find the following description of the morality of the French people. In what a fearful condition must a country be against which such terrible charges can be made. And although the French people perhaps take the lead in these things, other nations cannot be far behind. Is not the world about ripe for the judgments of the Almighty?

The Rev. M. Pilatte, a Protestant clergyman of Nice, says, in an address to his people:

“Our principles and manners have been corrupted. We have absolved, glorified, and crowned, perjury. We have regarded as mere prejudices, conscience and truth. We have made light of whatever is pure and sacred among men. Woman, marriage, and its holy duties, all the domestic virtues, have been for us subjects of ridicule. Our theaters and our schools have become schools of immorality. By the frivolity of our character, by our long resignation to servitude, by the lowness of our tastes, by our shameful fashions, by our obscene songs, we have dishonored our times, and scandalized the world. In all the ranks of our society vice has flourished, exposing without shame, before the eyes of all, that which it is not permitted even to mention.”