a commentary on modern social and commercial life‏

“The hurry and railroad rush of modern social and commercial life have shortened or even cut off entirely the hours for family worship. In the modern effort to emphasize the fact that God is love, the other fact that sin deserves and receives punishment has been thrown too far into the background or is ignored altogether. Regular reading of the Bible has become as rare as it is universal. Irreverence and skepticism in regard to its truths and teachings permeate a large portion of society, and the general influence of the social life of young people is opposed to the cultivation or expression of the religious spirit or aspiration.”

How accurate and spot on is that synopsis of the state of contemporary worship in the United States of America?

About as accurate as it was back in 1886.

The excerpt above is taken from Helen Ekin Starrett’s Letters to a Daughter and a Little Sermon to School-girls published in 1886 by A.C. McClurg & Company in Chicago in 1886.

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11

9 What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who come after.

The good fight is not over.

It is not only just now beginning.
It continues.

Daily.