Note and Comment by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 1, 1914

Note and Comment

By Editor

An Age of Bad Manners

ARE the people of the present day losing their good manners? That they are is evidently the view taken by the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church. They have recently called attention to this condition in the following statement:—

There has been a decay in manners, and men and women have been led astray into accepting the novel because it is exciting, without heeding the fact that it tends to lower respect for self and for others.

In a similar strain the Independent recently commented upon this evil tendency:—

The present age has acquired the habit and the pose of bad manners. It is brash, brazen, and uncivil, both unconsciously and consciously. As a fact of general observation, we are fresh, impertinent, immodest, and common. We cannot help being fresh, we like being immodest, and we mean to go on being common, on principle. . . . In New England and in Virginia, two or three generations ago, people admired character and family pride, and social intercourse reflected their preferences. . . . In present-day America we admire business success, political sagacity, good ball pitching, heavy batting, Dr. Cook and Harry Thaw.

This statement of conditions is all too true. True Christian courtesy springs from the heart; it finds its exercise in the home as well as in public life; it is forgetful of self and considerate of others; it is refined, modest, and dignified.

It is thus tersely expressed by the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:8-11:—

“Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.”

Let us seek to exemplify these principles of deportment in our lives, and not follow the lowering standards of the world’s ethics.