Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-04-01
PAST AND PRESENT.

lie burden OF pulpit ulterauce IL so
generally in praise of the past and de-
probation Of the present that it is a real
comfort to happen occasionally upon a
sermon like one recently preached by
Rev. DR.. VINCENT, of New York,
wherein healthy and manly plea was
made in defense of our own time as
compared with what is familiarity
known as "the good old days" ECCLE-
sIASTES was correct, DR.. VINCENT con-
tends, when he declared that those who
are always proclaiming that the former
days were better than these "do not en-
quire wisely concerning Them" The
world is not paradise, of course, and it
never will be; but its constant general
tendency is toward better condition.
With all our undoubted wickedness and
fippancy, we are quite as good and Use
full as any former people were; and
there Il no necessity TO bemoan our de-
gcnercy and belittle ourselves by NOR
bid and gratuitous talk about the
alleged superior virtue of bygone ages.
One of the chief difficulties in the
way Of fair and just contrast between
the average moral standards of the
present and any former epoch is that
the former is seen in a glazing light,
while the latter is advantageously
yelled by the shadows of distance aud
the historic survival of the fittest aud
most honorable things only. We can
not tell from the records how accur-
atcly bad, so to speak, the earth was a
thousand, or even hundred, years
ago; We have an account, mainly, of
the lofty and exceptional occurrences,
not the plentiful groveling and despica-
bic deeds which, at most, are dismissed
with rapid and superficial mention. So
it comes to pass, as BACON puts it, that
"What is hit is history and what is
missed is mystery" On the other
hand, the present must be viewed with
out any subduing background, its good
and i'll together; and it so happens that
our increased facilities for finding out
and making known the bad deeds of
mankind result in bringing to light a
large measure Of sin and shame which
in the old times went undiscovered and
unchronicled. Nothing Is missed in
these prying days, and hence current
history presents us at our worst rather
than our best.
1t is entirely safe to say that crowded
as our criminal calendars are, the aver
age of ofenses in proportion to popula-
ton is all the time diminishing instead
of increasing, and that the nature of the
crimes committed is not as 3 rule so
benious as it was even ten years ago.
The statistics of any prison will show
that the men confined there have been
convicted of what We term minor
otienses in majority of cases; and 1t
is equally true that they owe their in
generation not so much to greater
prevalence of crime as to improved
methods of detection and condemna-
ton. Thus, in comparison with times
when much of crime remained hidden
aud unestimated beca use the appliances
of justice were more defective than
they now are, the present period is
made to suffer by reason of what should
be placed to Its credit, namely: A re-
markable activity in ferreting out and
Furnishing violations of the laws. There
has never been q time in the worlds
history when 1t was so hard for q Grim
inal to elude pursuit and apprehension
as it is now; and OR courts, with all
their delays aud faults, rarely fail TO