Chapter I: Back to Morality

WHEN a doctor is called to a sick man the first thing that he tries to do is to find out what is the matter. A good doctor is distinguished from a bad one in that he diagnoses the disease correctly and applies a suitable remedy. If the doctor mistakes a case of broken ribs for pneumonia he is not likely to do the patient much good.

The world has been confessedly sick for some years past, and the quacks have been busy with the patient. One said the poor patient was suffering from capitalism and applied doses of Socialism. Unfortunately, the patient grew steadily worse. Another said that the world was ill because nationalities were oppressed by alien governments. Give the oppressed nationalities freedom, the power of self-determination and parliaments, and the world would be at peace, prosperous, and happy. But that was no remedy for the disease. The self-determined nations seem to be more preoccupied than ever with self-defence or self-aggrandizement at the expense of their neighbours. A third doctor turned his attention to the perpetual strife between employers and employed. It was to be settled by Conciliation Boards, on which both sides were represented. But somehow the Conciliation Boards failed to conciliate. A fourth doctor said the world was too old-fashioned, too rigid, too straitlaced. Give women, the young, and everybody more liberty, let everybody go his own way, everybody would be pleased with that, and would be contented and happy. And so the experiment was tried, but the results are hardly satisfactory. More skilled doctors have not been wanting.

In 1917 an enquiry was held all over the country to try to find out the causes of the prevalent unrest. The doctors who conducted the enquiry gave it as their opinion that the gravest symptom of all was want of trust. They found suspicion everywhere. The men did not trust the masters; the masters did not trust the men; nobody trusted the State; the workers did not even trust their own trade-union leaders. A similar verdict was given by the Headmasters’ Conference at the beginning of the year 1924. The Conference recorded its dismay at the diminishing respect paid to the sanctity of industrial, political, and international agreements. Peace and concord among men rests largely on mutual confidence and trust. There cannot be confidence and trust where parties break their engagements as soon as they find it to their interest to do so. And that is at least one of the chief causes of modern unrest. The cause is lack of morals: we must get back to morality.

Few thinking men will quarrel with this conclusion. Practically all men agree that there is nothing wrong with the world; what is wrong are the people in it, and their ways. If these could be mended we should have a new and a better world, so—Back to Morality is our maxim.

But we have not yet solved all the difficulties. We have to admit with sorrow that the modern world is not agreed on even the fundamental principles of sound morality. Here, too, there are profound differences of opinion among the doctors. One large class proclaims that the human will is autonomous, independent, a law unto itself. Neither priest, nor prophet, nor God himself has any right to trespass on the sacred enclosure of the human conscience. A morality which is subject to an external authority is the negation of morality and the rankest immorality. Another teaches that anyone of mature age has a right to do as he pleases provided that he does not interfere with the equal liberty of others. Another preaches the old theory that impulse is a better guide in conduct than reason, so follow your instincts. No wonder that the new morality is of various sorts, and that there are several different ways of palliating divorce, birth control, suicide, and even murder, not to mention smaller matters like pilferage and theft. Honesty, fair dealing, justice, fidelity to one’s word are old-fashioned, and hardly suitable to modern requirements.

And yet it is quite plain to anyone who thinks that here we have a quite sufficient explanation of the unrest of the modern world. The world has lost touch with morality because it has forgotten what morality is. We must recover the true idea of morality from the teaching of Jesus Christ. To anyone who will go to the right sources that teaching is quite clear and satisfactory. The rules of Christian conduct are in accordance with the nature of things and the nature of man. They come from the same source. They have stood the test of long experience, but they are not true merely on that account. They are true because they are commands of an all-wise, all-holy, and infinitely good God, given to his creature not arbitrarily or from whim, but because it is right that a rational creature should conduct himself as they prescribe. That is the true morality. We shall not find rest till we get back to that.