“AN EVIL OF MODERN LIFE.”
The New York Observer of April 30 has an article with the above title; the evil discussed is the increased nervousness of humanity. It points out as illustrative of this evil the change in the use or interpretation of the word “nervous.” Fifty years ago a “nervous man” meant a strong man, but now nervousness stands for “invalidism in a greater or less degree, for a timidity which shrinks from the rough and tumble of life.” In discussing the primary cause it thus speaks:— “Physicians tell us that under the rush and pressure of modern life, not only the muscular, but the nervous tissues of men are giving away. Many of them insist that the greater part of the current ills of life are due to this strain, and that unless something is done to relieve it, the race will become invalid, without physical or mental stamina. “There are good reasons for such a forecast. All our modern conveniences, tho intended to make life easier, really make it faster, and so tends to shorten rather than to lengthen it. The business man does not find his labor lessened by the multiplication of inventions for its speedy transaction, but increased. The telegraph, telephone, the railway, typewriter, and daily newspaper are in a way killers of men. The modern school system, which crams the young brain and leaves the young body largely to care for itself, has much the same disastrous effect. “Then, with all this overwork, comes worry as its natural and inevitable accompaniment. There is so much to be done in so short a time that there must be a great deal of feverish anxiety as to results. No one forced to crowd the work of a day into a few hours can work tranquilly, or even avoid a certain trepidation as to the outcome. The result is an incapacity for rest, a continued tendency to fuss and fidget, until the constitution ceases to have sufficient spring to dispose itself for quiet. We live so constantly in a flurry of hope and anxiety that we come to be distracted by the fear of distractions. We can not fix our minds long enough on one subject to subdue the unrest within.” And in all this feverish unrest God and his power and wisdom and love, and the rest which he alone can give, are forgotten. Better the quieter days of old, and the time for rest and meditation. The world has more of a certain kind of knowledge, but less wisdom. It does more work and secures less lasting results. It gathers more of the mammon of unrighteousness, but less and less of the true riches of God. Many of the things which fret and harass and drive and crowd and astonish and enchain are Satan’s means to draw the mind and heart from the eternal rest and blessing and riches of God.