Condition of Society by Bishop Coxe

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 29, 1885

Condition of Society.

By Bishop Coxe

WHAT an age we live in! An age to which the Lord has given great power to get wealth, opening men's minds to new forms of using and economizing the resources of the physical system. And, in return, man only grows vain and self-sufficient, and makes gods of his right hand and his proud brain. Nay, your flippant scientist, who ought to be humbled by the universe which lies about him like an ocean, as impenetrable as ever, is conceited enough to exalt himself because of the few pebbles he has gathered upon the sands, and turns traitor to the human race in refusing to recognize its Creator. And when all this arrogance of false science gets down to the lowest class, look at its effect upon the vulgar mind in the practical atheism that is increasing among us. Monstrous marriages and criminal divorces are multiplied, and adulteries and abortions are a staple of our daily news. In many parts of our country, courts and judges give reins to universal licentiousness. Our own quiet villages and orderly cities are invaded by social outlaws, the reek of whose blasphemy and obscene ideas is rank beyond all description. Our journalism condemns this, or treats it with deserved contempt, but, nevertheless, patronizes it by advertising its enormities and becoming its "tract society," printing and distributing its filth and profaneness.—Bishop Coxe.