LOSING THE POWER OF THOUGHT.
By Jos. Clarke
THE Toledo Blade, a secular newspaper, in an article on the degeneracy of the times, speaks to this effect: “There is at the present day such a tendency to the pursuits of pleasure among the upper classes in our cities, that they are fast losing the power of thought.” This is a very grave charge, coming, as it does, from such authority as the condemned will hardly think of disputing; moreover, it is ominous as an index of the corruption of the times. Losing the power of thought! what a misfortune! prelude to the direst calamities! This love of pleasure is spreading and increasing, and the power of thought is gradually being lost. Thus it is with our nation, and thus it was with Greece before she fell; and Rome, too, in her decline, became intoxicated with pleasure. Let our nation become a nation of pleasure-seekers, and how soon will Christianity give way to heathenism, and anarchy and disorder prevail. Not long, and we shall behold all the evils attendant upon ignorance and depravity. How long does it take destructive wars, famines, and pestilence, to desolate the fairest country? But chiefly does pleasure-seeking unfit the mind for the investigation of religious truth; and present truth, connected as it is with prophecy and history, calls for clearness of mind, in order that it may be appreciated and understood, and lovers of pleasure will probably never relish it.
JOS. CLARKE.