The Cecil Whig., 1886-07-10

education ana culture seem solheitihe'
to feel it "A kind of condescension to at
tend upon its services.
t. Nor can it be disputed that the i'aS-
sion for tie rapid accommodation Of TtdHh
is extending swiftly and almost univer-
sally throughout the land. Men are
seeking to draw fresh wealth from every
running stream, as well as from the me-
tallic resources hidden under the granite
of the hills. They are trying to suck
fresh wealth from the abundance of the
seas, to make life more sumptuons. The
American people are striving after this
with fervent enthusiasm, which, perhaps
more than in any previous time, certainly
more than fifty years ago, pervades the
country. And the palatial houses which
are continually arising in cities for which
] Europe is ransacked to furnish bronZeS
and tapestries, pictures, mosaics and
costly marbles-all foster and renew this
tendency.
But we must remember always that
whenever the insatiate passion for wealth
becomes the predominant motive OF a
people, moral decay is inevitable. 1t has
begun. Venice, Corinth and Rome can
teach MS this.
| ). Then. we must remember also the
constant pressure which comes from the
immcnSe ,toreign 600, 600
in ten years, and about 500 600 the last
year. We take them all-English, Irish,
\ German, Scandinavian, Swiss, Italian,
Poles, Africans, Asatics, everybody, ex-
cept the Chinese. They all will add IN tie
end, no doubt, to the power, wealth and
augmented moral force of the nation.
But they come into the midst of moral
influences, at first at least, with which
| they have been unfamiliar. and they then
exert an influence to chill and darken,
not to brighten and revive. 1t usually
takes full generation for those who
come from distant regions, from differ
ent training, under different institutions,
to become thoroughly and practically as
simulated with the moral forces which
preceded them upon this Continent.
When they do, they add to the fullness of
vigOr in the nation: but until they do,
they exert, of necessity, this more or less
confusing, depressing influence upon the
public moral life.
Out of all these influences has come
without question a certain loss of power
in the restraining institutions and forces
whose dominance in our fathers time
gave them continual courage and hope.
| have no doubt it is true that the Bible
is less re'crc~tly and carfuilg read, if not
less widely, in the country at large than
in past time. 1t certainly is true in our
cities that the Lords Day is by degrees
into Continental Sunday of festivity
and social pleasure. 1t Is true that there
is a certain increase in the power and the
| temper of unbelief. Infidelity has now
its platforms, its presses, its constant
publications: it is vehement and aggres-
! sve; it allies itself naturally with IL
y Icentious literature, and insists upon the
I free distribution of that everywhere
| through the mails.
| 1t seems to me that men are right in
| affirming that there is noticeable moral
| languor in American communities, com
ing possibly in the way of reaction. Even
the marriage relation has lost some
thing of its sacredness. There is no de-
stroying flame of righteous Indignation
against the vleness of Mormonism itself;
and cannot but think it discreditable
to the country that there has been no
more vehemence of resistance against
the practical expulsion from our shores
of the peaceful and Industrious China
men. Crime is, in certain directions a.
any rate, on the increase. And crimes
are the bubbles rising upon the sullen
and swollen tide of human depravity
don't wonder that people sometimes
say, in view of such facts and of the ten
denotes manifested in them, that we are
all going to the dogs together The
nation is increasing in wealth; but 1t
| seems not to be gaining in moral power.
Certainly the indications which we thus
far have considered would lead us To that
| opinion, and we thus see that cool men
may be apprehenslve, not without reason,
| that decay and decline are not to be az
rested in the moral life of the Nation.
But, after all, do not believe that we
are coming to such an issue. There are
conservative and educational forces work
| ing in the other direction as well, which
we must not fail fully to recognize. have
never get been pessimist of the Carlyle
type, and hope | never shall have reason
to be. | am an optimist, and believe
that the world is growing better. And
therefore invite your attention
III. In the second place, to same Of tie
eridenres Nt 0ar hdtionM morality is not
dec"yt"g:
/. In the first place, believe that the
po,rer Of home atachmcM is as strong in
American society to-day as it has ever
been in the past. In the country at large
home is now more attractive than it ever
was before. 1t has more of literature,
more of art, more music in it than it
had and, while parental authority is
hardly recognized as distinctly as it used
| to be, parental influence is as strong as
ever; while enforced obedience on the
| part of children is not as universal, filial
confidence, tilial affection, the free ser
vice of tilial liberty, have taken the place
of it, to the great advantage of house
| hold and community. Now, as long as
boy is anchored to happy Christian
home to the experience of it in his youth
and the remembrance of it in his man.
hood, he is reasonably safe for this life
and the next. And as long as nation is
anchored to its homes. that nation is rea-
| sonably secure of a continuing, develop
ing, and constantly more powerful spirit
ual force. The homes of the North and
the South, of the East and the West, are
the unseen springs among the hills out
! of which must flow the vast. constant,
commanding currents of public moral
prosperity and life.
?. Then, TOO, the press of our time con-
tributes, in very important and con-
slant measure, to a sound and vigorous
moral life. Editors are not all angel$.
They do not undertake often to teach the