Shamelessness In Sinners. _There met him three men that were lepers, who stood afar off and lifted tip their voice, saying: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us._ --The Gospel of the Sunday. Leprosy, my brethren, is often spoken of in Holy Writ, and is considered a type of sin. It is a loathsome and contagious disease, and when a man was so unhappy as to contract it, besides being driven away by the Mosaic law, he fled in very shame from the company of others. {390} So it is with the common run of sinners; one of their direst sufferings is shame, from which comes such remorse, such self-detestation, such reasonable envy of the happy state of the innocent, that, standing afar off, the poor sinner at last lifts up his voice and cries to our Lord for mercy. So there is always some chance for a poor sinner while he is ashamed of himself; where there is shame there is hope. But, brethren, it happens in our times that there are many sinners without shame. Many great sins are done almost as a matter of course, and some even made matter of jest, perhaps of boast. Need I mention them? Time was that if a man wished to see a vulgar play he was forced to creep up some dark alley; now he may go to a filthy opera in a coach and four, and with the lords of the land, ay, even the ladies of the land. When you and I were boys there was but one commonly known illustrated paper with immoral pictures and bad reading matter; the news dealers now hang their stands all over with them, and young men, and even young women, buy and read them without a blush. You and I can remember when it was a disgrace for a man to idle behind a bar-room counter and get his living from the drunkard and spendthrift. These men make our laws now. It used to be the pride of a young man to get to work as soon as possible to help the old folks along; we hear now too often of hearty young men shamelessly dependent on their parents. And we know of too many parents who are not ashamed of habits of intoxication nor of cursing in the hearing of their little ones. {391} And how many mothers of families are there whose harsh voices are heard all over the neighborhood, quarrelling with their husbands and scolding their children! Time was when a drunken woman was what Scripture says she is, "a great wrath, and her shame shall not be hid." Now they publicly send their little boys and girls to the saloon for beer.