p. 306 | On the Down Grade by J. O. Corliss

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 22, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 20.

"On the Down Grade."

By J. O. Corliss

This is the heading of an editorial which appeared in the Sunday Oregonian of April 27. The article is so much to the point that we give it below almost entire:—

"Even the most confirmed optimist, were he entirely candid, would be forced to admit that the standard of personal virtue and public morality in these times, if not actually waning, is really making little progress toward a higher plane. No one can view the daily movements of civil society in this land at the present time without becoming profoundly impressed with the thought that there is a great moral leakage going on somewhere amidst the complicated organism of individual, State, and national life. This deficiency is not particularly discernable in any one direction or country more than another, but it consists principally in the gradual and general lowering of moral tone and sensitiveness to shame in public thought and private activities. Many things are passed by now, or merely winked at, which ought to excite pronounced abhorrence and indignant comment. There seems too little of a restraining sense of honor among the people. Too many are inclined to do that which is right in their own eyes, and no notice is taken of such variations in conduct unless they happen to conflict with the civil law, or with the private interests of other parties. Even the absence of personal virtue is not generally considered a crime, if the person himself in other respects is a useful citizen, and especially if he has considerable wealth and influence. Thus, in rebounding from the excessive strictness of Puritan decorum and morals, we are fast going over to the opposite side of Parisian looseness and reckless license.

"This, however, is only the negative side of the matter. On the positive side there is obviously a very marked increase of all kinds of crime. Murders, robberies, embezzlements, defalcations, lying, cheating, housebreaking, fighting, and drinking are now as common and regular as the succession of day and night. Every paper is full of such occurrences from week to week the year round. There seems to be no break or let-up in the hideous procession of criminal events, but, on the contrary, they are apparently growing more numerous and sanguinary in character. The apology of increased publicity which is sometimes offered as an explanation or a reason of this rampant criminality will not always hold good. Every one with two eyes and a medium share of common sense knows as well as he knows anything that the spirit of lawlessness is ruling among the people in all civil and social spheres to-day with more potent auxiliaries and to a greater extent than formerly, and that many of the prevailing habits, customs, and practices of men and women are growing morally worse instead of better as the world becomes older and larger. To try to smooth over this ugly fact, or explain it away in self-justification, is cowardly and uncandid. In business life, methods of adulteration and fraud are openly resorted to and justified without the least appearance of shame or compunction of conscience. In politics, deception and perjury are as common as elections, and every one knows it. Why, then, pretend to deny it? What good can ever be accomplished by indulging in shallow and commendatory excuses, when the loathsome cancer of criminal infection is eating steadily inward towards the center and seat of personal and national life?

"How has this state of things come about? Chiefly from two causes. The first is through the rapid and abnormal growth of selfish, money-making greediness. . . . Money is all that is thought of or cared for by the masses, and in the hot pursuit of this supreme object many better things are allowed to go by the board or take care of themselves as best they can. In a very emphatic sense this raging love of money is one of the principal roots of all our social and civil defections and evils.

"But another cause, equally potent and prolific, is the growing laxness of moral and religious education at home and in the church. The sense of active and personal obligation to God seems to be slowly dying out of the public mind. Every man is too much becoming a law unto himself. Some of the churches are little more than fine religious club-houses, with private terms of admission and an annual fee. They do a certain amount of good among their own members, but exert almost no power over the outside sinful world. Ministers meet their limited congregations weekly, hammer out a smooth essay on doctrine, make a few appointments, and then, one and all, go home for a season of weekly rest. If any unbeliever publicly attacks their creed, they will throw after him a huge bundle of deluding statistics and then retire with a feeling of victorious complacency within their own exclusive circles. But where is the moral power which is designed to make men lead better lives and abhor wickedness in thought and in conduct? Where is the public restraint against the commission of sin and iniquity?"

When the morals of the church have fallen so low, and the state of society has become so corrupt, as to call forth such a scathing rebuke in a secular daily, it would seem high time for the churches to set about remedying the evil. But we cannot hope for this very strongly, for the very reason assigned in the closing paragraph above quoted, namely: "If an unbeliever publicly attacks their creed they will throw after him a huge bundle of deluding statistics, and then retire with a feeling of victorious complacency within their own exclusive circles."

It is well that this comes from a secular source, and from a paper with the standing of the Oregonian. If any particular sect should formulate such ideas it would be cried down by every religious organ in the land. This is well illustrated by the lack of wisdom and charity manifested when one faithfully and conscientiously points out the low state of morals in the church, which is daily becoming painfully more apparent. The individual who undertakes such a work, whether of their own number or not, performs a thankless task. His suggestions are sneered at as unworthy of notice, and he himself is ridiculed as an ascetic—one to be shunned by all who would retain a popular standing in the church. In this way, those who otherwise would look at these things in the light of Scripture are deterred from acting out the suggestions of their feeble consciences. Yet this is called the church of Jesus Christ. Surely "Babylon is fallen, is fallen."

It is not so much to be wondered at, that the world at large appears to be given up to the committal of such hideous crimes as are daily recorded, and which multiply at so fearful a rate throughout the length and breadth of the land.

The church has lost its power to restrain even those within her borders. Nay, more, she does not even acknowledge the necessity of restraint. How, then, can she be expected to have a saving influence over those outside her inclosure? Many of her representatives to-day deny that the world is worse than in former days. More than this, they confidently proclaim from their pulpits that the millennium—the golden time when all shall know the Lord and walk in his ways—is about to dawn on the world.

In view of the startling statements of the above extract, from one who is daily chronicling current events, and therefore ought to know the moral and social standing of the country, shall we not conclude that it is time to arouse from the lethargy that has hitherto enveloped us, and inquire the true way to holiness? As our minds become enlightened in these matters, may we have help from God to walk in the way of truth.

J. O. Corliss.

Walla Walla, W. T.