Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-12-04
UNCONSCIOUS DETERIORATION.
By Rev. Charles Z


Gray hairs are here and there upon
him and he knoweth it not-Hosea
viii, 9.
The comic paragraphists-
whose elevating trade it is to take all
the dignity out Of sentiment and all
nobility out of life-are in the habit
of making fun over the discovery Of
the first gray hair.
There is nothing funny about it.
When some poignant experience forces
upon US the realization of that for
which the gray hair conventionally
stands; when we realize with a shock
that our youth has fed forever and
that age is creeping on, the flood Of
new emotions may easily carry us off
our feet
If this is not true for you and has
not been, then you are either much bet
ter or worse than the average of hu-
mainly. Either you have already
grown unthoughtful, shallow and cal
lous, or else you have strong, close
grip upon the unseen but everlasting
realities of life And it would be good
for US if there were some physical sign,
corresponding to the approach Of gray
hairs, which might warn US Of moral
deterioration and awaken US to the ne
cessity Of renewing our youth by wait
ing upon the Lord, by taking in great
re-enforcements of moral energy to re
pair the waste and decay Of moral It's
sue.
The shock, in the nature Of things,
could not be pleasant The awakening
might be rude and painful But it
would be salutary. It would be chast-
ening. And If for the moment it was
humbling, in the providence of God
1t might be permanently uplifting If
VIC could really see this soul destroying
process at work, leading downward to
something worse than second child
hood, leading to second slOthfulneSs,
unreasonableness, barbarism, back to
the old unspiritual, unaspiring life
from which we have emerged, would
not that be good for US? With great
price," said the officer to Paul, 81 pur-
chased this freedom" With great price,
indeed, we delivered ourselves from the
cramping littleness and debasing pleas
ures of other days. And now are we
to sacrifice the freedom which cost US
dear to open our fingers in mere sum-
mer wantonness and let it slip from us
while the years bind us again in the
old honda fn f01lu sin II-hi1n tra
gers devour our strength, though we
know it not, and gray hairs are here
and there sprinkled upon us and we
cannot see them?
The poet tells us of hair growing
white in single night from sudden
fears. 1t may be SO. But this moral
deterioration is slow, gradual, silent
No man becomes desperately wicked all
at once. When discovery, scandal and
prosecution at the hands of the law
present to you a spectacle of one who
has held an honOred position. a betray-
er, an outlaw and a castaway, the real
tragedy is not that which you see and
the very tears are for the long, slow
processes which no eyes but Gods have
seen. How the high resolves must
have dropped and died, and how the
man has juggled with words, played
fast and loose with honor, tempered
with the sacred realities of conscience
Do you think he has deliberately lied
to his own soul, lied in church, lied to
his God? Indeed, but you are wrong
He has lost his soul and lost his God
before he comes to high-handed, brazen-
checked, deliberate lying.
First, the mining, then the explosion
First, the moral muscle grown f1abby
then the helpless weakness before
temptation. First, the gray hairs here
and there sprinkled upon him and he
knows it not; finally the spiritual sen
ility and swift oblivion. This is the
course Of unconscious deterioration