Smyrna times., 1874-10-28
MISc eIIUW e eOWS.
The Trouble and Its Remedy.

American society is suffering change. The
period of steady habits has gone by and the
age of hifalutin is at hand. The chief charac-
teristics of the times are an overestimate of
money and an underestimate Of character.
Rough gold has little value, while highly !
FURNISHED guilt is greatly priced. The men
are Overstimulated by huge business without
capital, and, after forty, walk on the ragged |
edge of apopleXy, while the women are over
stimulated in the Imagination by d corrupt |
literature which has lowered the moral tone of |
the whole community.
Everywhere there exists and Unsuitable ap- |
petite for mere sensationalism. Even science |
and religion must startle in order to attract |
attention. Plain English does not satisfy any
more than Old-fashioned morality. The old
adage which tells us it is better to live in
wooden house and have plenty than to live in
brick house and be pinched has been turned
upside down and the preference given to the
brown stone and constant duns.
It's pitiful to see science in the parti-colored
pantaloons of the general folly; but the scien-
tist of the day, instead of confning himself to
his Legitimate sphere, must needs bring the
batterlng ram of his newly discovered facts to
bear against the oaken door of the Church. and
pound awsy until crowd gathers to see what
will come of it all. If he narrOws his labors to
glacial theories or to theories of evolution, he
lives amid the applause of the few and dies
unknelled, uncofined and unknown. TO es,
cape this terrible fate he saddles the hobby
horse OF induction and rides rough she'd over
the faiths and convictions of centuries, sending
dismay into the camp of tho unlearned and
inviting everybody to assemble quickly to wit
ness the explosion and the general conhagra-
| ton. Ut all men our scientists should care
! fully cOnfne themselves to their several de-
partments of research. 1t is not theirs to
kbo, coc,
but to make new discoveries 1t is the busi
ness of the theologian to make inductions from
facts ascertained, and thereby to modify the
religious creeds of the people. The new school
| of scientists, however, seems determined to
leave the theologians nothing to do, but as
sumes the right to judge not only the facts Of
the physical but the faiths of the spiritual
| world.
1t is still more pitiful to note the tendency
to sensational buffOonery which is creeping
into the pulpit. If minister desires to be
popular, and has the requisite amount of
shrewdness and brass, he begins by display
of rhetorical pyrOtechnics which attracts the
common eye, and holds his own so long as he
has strength and agility to make his audience
laugh at his picturesque gymnastics So NOR
bid has the taste of the people tecome that
they actually require large amount of spirit
ual buncOmbe in order TO keep up their in
terest. Plain Scripture seems to he fat, stale
and Improbable, and they demand the pepper
and salt of eccentric phraseoOgy, and seem tC
be most delighted when the preacher is mos
a ranting actor tearing the air with frantic
gesticulatlons and making sport of things atOre
time held sacred. Crowds wait on the minis,
tratiOns of the clerical comedian who burles
ques religion, while the pews of the reverend
expounder Of Holy Writ remain empty anC
unrented SOber,minded men sooner or late
become disgusted with the general farce bu
while looking upon the current methods o
dealing with religion as the equivalent Of tn
counterfeit currency that is afOlt feel pOwerles
against the strong tide of public opinion.
The trouble begins with American education
and homes. schoolgirls who should con6n
their attention to short clothes and arithmeti
are fed with the exciting pabulum of a falls
literature. and are uncnnSciousy stimulated b
q style of novel which undcrmines the mori
nature by unduy heating the imagination
The fiction of the day hides under cover of a
interesting story theories of domestic life whic
honeycOmb society, and these theories are al
sorbed into the moral nature of the young
such an extent that we are almost daily con
PEELED to record extravaganCes which show thi
the common seESe of the community is on tt
ebb. Home education is entirely neglected
and that delicate sense of honor which shou
be as bright and as dangerous to touch rude
as the edge OF razor, Is giving way to ce
tain waywardness and recklessness, the logic
result of which will be i'll assorted marriage
domestic unhappiness and crop of divOrc
twenty years from date. All chivalric relation
between the sexes are fast fading out, al
American society is being given over to Il
control of boys and girls in their teens. Tn
are the false queens and knights of the chez
board, while ambitious mammas are convene
pawns, occupying position in the backgrouu
and never appearing unless called for.
Every one knows that this political, soci
and moral bankruptcy comes from the want
early training, and history is not backward
illustrating the consequences of general cOrru
ton. There is an inevitable logic in the life
a people, as in the life of an individual
must get down on the hardpan of honora|
manhood and pure womanhood or we sh
meet the fate which has overtaken nations Il
we're stronger than we are. This sickly ser
mentalism in religion and this social nam
pambyism must be exercised by decent lite
ture aud by a pulpit that darcs to be hon
and simple, before our girls will make &c
wives or our boys honorable merchants.
Y. Herald.