Chapter II: Purity and Dignity in Morals

THE world knows many things, but it does not yet know how to make people contented and happy. It devotes immense pains and energy to providing for the comfort and convenience of the body. Comfort at home, comfort while travelling, comfort while waking, comfort while sleeping, is studied by numberless keen brains and provided for by countless nimble fingers. The conveniences of life have increased enormously of late years. We wonder how people could have lived without them in former ages. And yet all these comforts and conveniences for the body do not make people more happy. Those who have them in abundance soon begin to take them for granted, and when they are wanting their absence is all the more keenly felt. And then some people have more of them while others have to be content with less, and the latter suffer from envy and discontent in consequence. The world tries to educate men’s minds, and to give them a wider outlook than their own immediate surroundings afford. Immense sums of public money are devoted to education, and anyone who wants it, and is capable of taking advantage of it, can obtain it without much difficulty. The great majority make very little use of the education provided for them. Those who have devoted more time to it are seldom made more content or more happy by it. An increase of knowledge does not bring an increase of joy.

There is a third element in man’s composition, the soul, but the world does not cater for the soul. It has not quite made up its mind for certain whether man has a soul. The question is debated, there is much to be said, the world thinks, on both sides. In the meantime it devotes all its attention to the body and to the mind, and is disposed to ignore the soul. And yet the soul is the important thing. “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul ?”

Jesus Christ is the supreme physician of souls. He cares for the body and he cares for the mind, but the chief object of his solicitude is the soul. And, of course, he is right. The soul is the noblest part of our being, and it is immortal of its own nature. It is destined for life everlasting. Jesus Christ teaches us how to save our souls, how to find true contentment and happiness both here and hereafter by looking after our souls. “Come to me, all you that labour and are heavy burdened; learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.” We shall find contentment and happiness by practising the virtues taught by Jesus Christ, by leading a good Christian life. It is the only way and it is the sure way. It has been tested in every condition of life by the experience of two thousand years.

To a great extent the modern world has forgotten this once familiar teaching, and therefore it has lost the secret of contentment and happiness. It is sick, and the only way to recovery is to learn again how to lead a good Christian life. Before that can be done it must be purged from many a deadly disease. Not without reason does His Holiness ask us to pray for Purity and Dignity in Morals. Much purifying will be required before the Christian standard of morals can appear in all its lustre and splendour. At the root of much modern discontent lies a loss of faith, or at least a serious weakening of it. Many writers during the last century or so have been teaching the people that science, not faith, is the modern guide of conduct and life. When Lord Kelvin wrote that science positively demanded a creating and directing Power, he was bluntly contradicted by a well-known popularizer of science. He was told that such an assertion robbed the people of the chief fruits of science, and that he knew no more about it than anybody else. Of late there has undoubtedly been a decay of faith and religion. A decay of Christian morality which rests on faith has been the inevitable consequence. The world has been flooded by the new paganism which has penetrated into every department of life. People seek distraction, if not happiness, in amusement and pleasure. This has added a new spur to the greed for money. With money the appetite for debauchery, drinking, and gambling can be gratified if not satiated. And so the old saying of the pagan poet is repeated to-day: “Get money, honestly if you can, but at any rate get it.” One is not surprised to learn that although murder and robbery with violence are on the decrease, yet pilfering, fraud, cheating, and similar offences are more frequent.

Family life is not what it used to be or what it ought to be. Marriage has not gained in strength and holiness by being secularized. Divorce, whether legalized or not, is on the increase. Birth control, which was almost unknown fifty or sixty years ago, is now openly advocated and practised. Domestic discipline has been relaxed. Parents, too frequently, will not take the trouble to enforce it; they seem to have handed over a portion of their responsibility to public authorities and to schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. As a consequence the modern child has lost a great deal of the reverence and respect which is due to parents.

Modern business is not conducted according to the rules of justice. Many who are regarded as authorities in such matters deny that justice has anything to do with business. Prices, like the weather, are governed, they say, by certain necessary laws. When the market is glutted with goods, their price necessarily goes down; when there is a scarcity prices necessarily rise. Justice and morality have nothing to do with the matter. You might as well pass laws to punish the weather for too great or too little rain, as pass laws against monopolies and profiteering. The argument has all the appearance of having been framed in the interest of traders. It is false, but it serves to cloak a great deal of unscrupulous tampering with honesty in business transactions. There is plenty of evidence to show that secret commissions in trade are demanded and given to a very large extent. They corrupt both buyer and seller and add to the high price of commodities. Adulteration and the selling of one commodity or quality of goods for a higher and better is another fraudulent practice in business. It is done even in the sale of foodstuffs and drugs where human lives and people’s health are directly concerned.

The rules of morality bind all men, and they should be observed between one nation and another as well as between one man and another. The Great War was an object-lesson to the world on the neglect of this truth.

What I have said is matter of common knowledge, and I have tried to avoid all exaggeration in my statements. They are enough to show that His Holiness had very good reasons for asking the members of the Apostleship of Prayer to pray specially for Purity and Dignity in Morals. Prayer can do much; it merits God’s help and grace, without which nothing can avail. It focuses the mind on what is really important, directs attention to real needs, and prevents us from being led astray by false issues and wasting time and energy on visionary schemes. For the problem of morals is at the root of all our ills. If only we could get the Ten Commandments decently observed we could afford to dispense with all other reforms and remedies.

This truth suggests that we can all do something more for the world than pray. We can all lead good lives, and by so doing we shall secure our own contentment and happiness, and contribute very powerfully by our example to the contentment and happiness of our fellow-men. A good life gives dignity to the humblest position, and without it the highest position ceases to command our respect. Many years ago a friend who has long been at rest told me that when he was a boy he often, in company with his father, passed by the statue of a certain king of England who was more distinguished for his position than for moral qualities. The father of my friend would raise his hat as he passed by the statue, and as he did so he would remark to his son: ‘ I do that to the office, not to the man.” Purity of morals is the best title to true dignity, and the only real test of worth. We shall be ranged in heaven or hell for all eternity by that standard alone.