Among the circumstances that mark the downfall of the nation, God mentions these: "And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable." (Isa. 3:5.) Mutual oppression and decline of respect and reverence--these are symptoms of national decay, monitors of an impending crisis and catastrophe. They both are ominously prevalent, and on the increase in this land. In some other countries the former is more accentuated; in this country the latter is more in evidence, and that to an alarming extent. Middle-aged men, even, remember the days when children were more respectful toward their elders and obedient to their parents; when age, position, [254] acquirements, office, were held in more honor than to-day. The doctrine of equal rights has been perverted and misunderstood and mistakenly taught until every low wretch deems himself every whit as good as any man alive, and demonstrates his equality in contemptfully familiar manner to or speech about men who in work or station are due honor and esteem. In their self-importance they clamor for "rights" which are not due to them by any statute of man or God. The youth also are catching the same spirit. The good days when children were "seen, but not heard," are pretty well past. Children come out of their schools fired with ambition--not to fill a humble place in life, and fill it well, but to do something big, that will bring them into the lime light before the public. They revel in the thought of being "great men" in the making, with a false sense of what constitutes greatness. They feed their minds with glowing fiction which can be had in any quantity from free public libraries, or for a pittance at bookstores, and live on impossible tales about Brave Tom and Plucky Jack and other boy heroes, fifteen years old, who stepped into the arena and before whose superior powers all the strength and skill and experience of older men paled into insignificance. They feel themselves the match of any man and masters of any situation. The "old man" at home is grouchy. He is an old-timer, and not up to date at all. He knows nothing. The preacher--the very mention of him provokes hilarity. Mother is all right; but, then, she is a woman. But the loafers on the street--they are fine fellows, every one. He copies their impudence and contempt of authority. We still remember the case of the boy in Nashville who shouted, "Hello, Teddy!" to President Roosevelt as he passed; and that was not just one instance, but the breaking out of a spirit that is characteristic of the times. Thus the distinctions between youth and age, and the base and the [255] honorable, are wiped out, and once again we find ourselves face to face with conditions that betoken a nation's downfall.

[TAG 254-256]