Progress: Which Way? Morals, Church Attendance, and Reading by John Norton Loughborough

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 29, 1872

Progress: Which Way? Morals, Church Attendance, and Reading

By John Norton Loughborough

Progress.

This is said to be an age of progress; but, which way?

“Dr. Manning, in an eloquent lecture on progress, declared that the church was progressing in extent, in external unity, in internal unity, of faith and in self-evidence; that the nations were departing from the principles which created their civilization in faith, unity, and morals; that civilization was becoming more and more material, though less moral; that modern civilization was, therefore, not progressing; that nations were not growing happier; that society was not more solid and safe, but the reverse; and that individuals were becoming more anarchical and stubborn.”

How could we expect a great progress in morals when the mind feeds on fiction and neglects its real food. The general agent of the American Tract Society, who visited this coast some two years since, gave as the result of careful statistics, that, in the State of California, not over two persons out of every hundred ever attended church, while in the older States it was about seventeen to every hundred that attended church.

The last monthly report of the reading matter drawn from the Mercantile Library in San Francisco speaks for itself:—

“WHAT THEY READ.—If the books of the Mercantile Library for the past month may be taken as a criterion, our people read romances, scientific and religious books, etc., in about the following proportion: Total number of books taken out during the month of June, 6,957, of which 4,806 were romances; Juvenile books, 620; Travels, 256; Biography, 190; Belles Letters, 213; Science, 251; History, 158; Poetry, 106; Miscellaneous, 41; Religious, 45. Of books in foreign languages, 172 were in French, 69 in German, and 7 in Spanish.”

But few religious books are kept for sale in the city. Having occasion to inquire for religious works for our church library in Santa Rosa a few weeks since, I visited two of the largest book stores in San Francisco, and was told in the onset that there was but very little demand for religious works, that they would order for me anything I found in their catalogues that I wished; that they found greater demand for romance and such like. In one store, Mr. Bancroft’s, I was conducted to shelves in one corner where were about four bushels of books he called religious, which constituted his supply in his massive store. He said he would be glad to sell me anything I found there at one-third rates.

On examination, I found his religious works were religious! Spiritualism and Mormonism all classed religious. I thought, If the saying be true, that “supply and demand wait on each other,” there cannot be much demand for truly religious books in San Francisco, surely. The catalogue above of the Mercantile Library, a good criterion, too, shows that one hundred and six works on romance are read in San Francisco while one is read of a religious nature.

No wonder that divorces in San Francisco average about twenty per month, and family broils abound, when minds are deceived into fictitious ideas of life by romance. How can there be true progression until the mind is stored with the real and substantial?

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.