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General Outlook

It is sometimes said that religious observances have deteriorated in these latter days. "In 'the good old times,'" people cry, "everybody went to church all day. Now look!" and they point out house after house up and down this street and that, from which not a single church-goer issues on Sunday morning. "As to an afternoon service," they say, "nobody thinks of going; it is too hot in summer and too cold in winter, and too wearisome all the year round. Ministers used to preach two sermons, each a solid hour long, every Sunday; and absentees were admonished, disciplined, fined: now, a single half-hour sermon is quite enough, both for preacher and people. Thanksgiving and Fast days were religiously observed once; but now the latter is a mere holiday and the union service of all the churches at Thanksgiving is more thinly attended than the service of the one church was, in 'the good old times.'"

Very true, the ancient austerity has passed away, and a more cheerful, but we think not less earnest religion has taken its place. The church no longer dictates, nor is the pastor regarded as a higher order of being, little less than divine. Forms and methods have changed, both in worship and in work; and though it must be confessed, there is too much laxity in Sabbath observance, too much neglect of public worship, perhaps too little aggressive christian work done, yet it is certain, the demands of the times are more nearly met by present methods than they would be by a return to the old order of things, if that were possible.

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