Decadence of Church Attendance
SPEAKING of the fact that, according to the secretary of the Board of Sunday-schools of the Methodist Episcopal Church, there are eight million young people in the United States who do not attend the Sunday-schools of any church, the Washington Post, while contrasting somewhat satirically the difference between these and earlier days, says truly:— What a contrast to an earlier day, when, though perhaps people were not a whit better than at present, there was no such laxity in the sedulous observance of church attendance by both the young and the old! There was no escape then, except for the two or three in the village who had no parents to look after them, and whose society was particularly coveted because it was forbidden. To Sunday-school you went, rain or shine. . . . This is retrospect, and not disrespect. They were famous days. Far off they seem now, but at times there comes the memory of them to refresh and sweeten the grind of the present.