A LOW STANDARD.—THE VITAL NEED.
By Editor
We are glad to note that some brave souls are still standing for original Christian ethics, notwithstanding the fearful trend in society. At the monthly meeting of the Channing Society, Boston, Dec. 17, 1903, Ex-secretary of the navy, John D. Long, spoke on the topic of “Co-operation Among Laymen.” Among other good things he said:— No one can look at the seething current of modern society and not be utterly appalled by the brutalities and crimes, the drunkenness and villainies which are almost epidemic. The real truth is not that the world has outgrown the simple precepts of Jesus, but it has never reached them in their height or depth. We have never attained to the perfect practice of that simplest Christian rule—to love those that hate us, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to be pure in spirit. These brutalities and crimes, this drunkenness and misconduct9are not confined to the lower classes, but they break out among young men and women who have had the opportunity of benefiting by our boasted education. There is corruption, bribery, and embezzlement by our public servants. The sacred ties of domestic life are disregarded. The temple of the Lord is invaded by mere birds of prey who should be whipped out of it with lashes of scorn. To correct these evils is our work. The remedy is not in the effort of labor or capital to promote their material interests, it is not in the efforts men make to better their conditions by theories of social organization. These things will, under natural laws in a free country, work out their only salvation. The vital need is the religion of Jesus; it is Christ in the individual man—reverence for the great fundamental precepts of the Master—their incorporation into actual daily life as controlling springs of action. And all this is said of these very times in the Word of God.