THE DEGENERACY OF SOCIETY.
By Francis M. Wilcox
THE social factor plays an important part in the history of every nation. If the social life of the people is pure, simple, and uncorrupted, the national life will be correspondingly strong. But with marked degeneracy in the social life we could not naturally expect otherwise than to see the same leaven of evil working in every phase of human existence. As the last days were to be particularly signalized by wars of nations, and oppression of the poor, so were they likewise to be especially marked by degeneracy in the social life of the people. To this point our Saviour bears the following testimony:— “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” The three leading, prominent sins of the human family in the days of Lot and Noah were excesses in eating, excesses in drinking, and unbridled passion: “This was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” Read also the sixth and nineteenth chapters of Genesis. It needs but a brief consideration of the condition of society, as shown in the world to-day, to see that the signs given by our Saviour are meeting their fulfilment. Consider the conditions He pointed out in the following order:— Multitudes of earth's inhabitants to-day have no higher ambition in life than to secure enough to satisfy the demands of indulged and pampered appetite. This age is noted for its high living. Content no longer with the simplicity of their fathers, and with the necessaries of life, there is a reaching out after display. Those things which appeared to the human race a century ago as luxuries, are now deemed absolute necessities. In consequence, the cost of living is materially increased; and by these indulgences, thousands of families are held down to a hand-to-mouth existence, and in every period of stress come to suffer actual need. While this extravagance is seen in the lower stratus of society, it is of course much more apparent among the so-called higher classes. And so we find during every season of entertainment, receptions tendered on the most gorgeous scale, and dinners served in the most sumptuous order. While in the hovel of the poor there may be scarcely enough food to keep soul and body together, in the palace of the rich, oftentimes in the same block, thousands of dollars are squandered in pure selfishness and elaborate display. It is no uncommon thing now for dinners to be served costing hundreds of dollars per guest. At a recent dinner party given in New York City, covers were laid for 80 guests, costing $1,200 per plate, entailing an outlay of nearly $100,000. Gluttony is seen on every side. Men eat and drink for wagers, and, not alone content with matching their appetites against each other, they often enter into contests with the brute creation. Some time ago, in one of our Eastern cities, a man entered into an eating contest with a dog. To the credit of the brute, let it be said that he stopped when the natural demands of his appetite were satisfied. The brute man only ceased when he had exceeded the dog in the quantity of food devoured. Notwithstanding the heroic and earnest efforts put forth by the W. C. T. U., and other temperance organizations, there has been a steady increase in the amount of spirituous liquors consumed. This serves to prove that men cannot be made righteous by legal enactments. So long as the heart remains unregenerated, its evil desires and propensities will be manifest in some form. The following item we take from a recent number of the Union Signal: “The people of this country spent last year for chewing gum, $2,000,000; for amusement, $4,000,000; for jewelry, $6,000,000; for tobacco, $8,000,000; and for strong drink, $1,400,000,000.” As an offset to this, the combined churches in the United States only spent $5,500,000 for work among the heathen nations of the world. We do not for a moment disparage the excellent results which have attended the agitation of the temperance cause. All honor and credit and praise to the worthy men and women who have given their lives to the fighting of this terrible monster; and yet, notwithstanding these efforts, the power of the drink habit is increasing, for the sole reason that the power of appetite in man has been strengthened in proportion as he has degenerated morally, and separated himself from God. As the world continues to grow worse, the exhibition of the evil propensities of human nature will be more and more apparent. It is not necessary to state statistics along these lines. To look at the figures representing the sum total is interesting and appalling, but the observation and experience of every reader are sufficient to indicate to him the degeneracy of society. Saloons are increasing on every side. They outnumber our churches and educational institutions ten to one. In our large cities almost every corner grocery has its wine room, and its side or back door, where its customers in this department can enter unnoticed. And one very sad consideration in this connection is the fact that these wine rooms are coming to be patronized to-day by women as well as men. This shows that the power of this terrible evil is taking hold of the very citadel of the family, and attacking its very center of purity and innocence. The social gatherings and dinner parties spoken of above are the great promoters of the saloon; and, in fact, we find on the family table of the ordinary home that class of foods, rich, luxurious, and highly seasoned, which serves to create and foster in the children a desire for spirituous liquors. When the home itself becomes corrupted, what can be hoped for of the church, of society, and of the nation? Closely associated with the saloon stands the brothel. One is the father of the other. Indulged and pampered appetite, gluttony and strong drink, lead to lower sins and more degrading practices. Every line of business and industry to-day have been reduced to a science, to a system, to an organized effort. Satan is not behind in his work of deception. The so-called social evil of to-day has likewise been reduced to a science, and it is carried on as an industry, serving conjointly the combined interests of the god of lust and the god of mammon. As shown by the disclosures in the Pall Mall Gazette several years ago, and later by the Lexow Committee of New York, and in numerous instances by the efforts of Law and Order Leagues, rescue mission workers, and others, there is carried on in every city an organized system for entrapping the unwary and unsuspecting, and luring down to the pit of hell the guileless and innocent. The leading brothels have their agents or procuresses, the same as mercantile houses, for this very work, and the columns of thousands of newspapers are open to their advertisements. And that which makes more terrible this organized system of iniquity is the fact that in many of our large cities, as proved by investigation, the so-called officers of the law work hand in hand with these criminals. It is known that in scores of cases the brothels of our large cities pay to the police force a certain pro rata to buy their silence and protection. And in this system of iniquity is seen still further, as brought to view in the preceding article, the oppression of the poor in the last days. In scores of instances virtue is sold for gold, in order that soul and body may be kept together, and that there may be dragged out a little longer a miserable existence. In the formation of monopolies, and in the sharp competition going on between the wage earners of the world, bare necessity has driven thousands to this life as a means of existence. The church and the world view with professed abhorrence this condition of affairs, and yet in the very attitude assumed toward these classes, there is given the lie to this abhorrence. The keeper and the inmates of the brothel are placed the lowest in the scale of human existence, but oftentimes those who are the aiders, abettors, and the supporters of these infamous institutions, are received by open arms in society at its most lordly functions. Sin is the same in God's sight whether practised by the society leader, by the flourishing man of business, or by the sunken, sodden specimen of humanity who has no home only in the den of infamy. If there be a difference, God will judge with a sterner judgment the man with great capabilities of mind and wealth, rather than the one who, having been lost to the world, finds nothing to draw her upward toward the better life. If the fifty thousand fallen women of New York City must sometime be brought into judgment, and receive their just deserts at the hand of a pure God, will that same pure and righteous Judge pass by the more than double and treble that number of fallen wretches who move in respectable circles, and occupy pews in Christian churches, who have made these women what they are to-day? It is difficult to see how the days of Noah and the days of Lot could have been worse than these times. Until society is cleansed, until the human heart is changed, this world will never be converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord help us to discern the signs of the times, to be wise according to that which is written, and, while we see the evil, to shun the evil, and to cultivate that purity of life and heart which will enable us to enter unabashed into the presence of the Holy One. FRANCIS M. WILCOX.