The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-11-23
SUPREME LAW OF SOCIETY
ADDRESS BEFORE THE MEN,S CLUB
 BY REV. T. T. MUNG ER.

Altruism, Mans Highest Law, Has solen-
 tifc and Logical Place in Evolutionary
 Process-Difiiculties In Carrying Out
 Such Law.
 The first meeting of the Mems club was held at the United church last evening and was we'll attended, The meeting was addressed by the pastor Rev. Dr. T. T, Munger, on the subject "The Supreme Law of Society,"" He said, in part:
 The progress of creation has been in the main by the great principles of nat ural selection and of destruction by which the stronger crowds out the smaller and weaker. Every order must have the desire to increase and the strength to kill off others in order to progress. If humanity seems over weighted by passions there is possi- ble explanation for it in these two prn- ciples just named.
 These two laws of the desire to in- crease and the power to destroy still continue on in human society, although changed and modified in some degree. As civilization advances, however. there are new forces brought into use, not from without, but from within,
 ;., toIro tn posing that the laws of the brute uni verse are still in full force in society, and in supposing that other forces may not enter in to vary and change these laws It is possible that the law of morality is the opposite of these laws by which it has been evolved.
 'The supreme law of society, namely, altruism, is foreshadowed faintly, As man has gradually been evolved through the lower animal forms, the capacity for destruction has diminish ed. The body has been made subject to the head and mind. Along with the brain has come heart and with the con- sciousness of self-consciousness of oth- CTS. And man finds himself altruistic. The force of altruisln is just as scien- tific and just as logical as any other force which has been acting throughout the process of evolution in the world. The practical question is raised as to how society is to get along without the activity and exertion which the strug- gle for existence engenders, and the answer is that altruism has its com pensatory results in this respect just, as for example, in the medical science there could be no science at all unless there were weaker people, and so the strong as well as the weak would be deprived of it's benefits. So in the ap plication of the altruistic force the whole race is benefited in the endeavor of the strong to help the weak. 'The question of over population un- der the principles of altruism which forbids the destruction of the weak, is another question often raised and 1t is answered, in part, by the progress which science has made in increasing the means of sustaining human life by the discovery of new lands or by the reclamation of old, and while these will not supply all the needs of the race we have reason to. believe that altruism w III itso uidtc pppuidtlOii ny ei ie'N oL ies0 | own.
 "In it's highest sense society has no | other duty than that of carrying out | this law of society; nor has man him. | self Altruisln cannot take the place of | deserts If a man deserves to be hung he should be hung Equality is uneth- | ical. Altruism cannot be hastened by revolution or by legislation alone, It is moral process, and as lay must be wrought out by natural means. 1t is also limited by the slow unfolding of | human society and never had full eX- pression until it was exemplified in the | life of Christ"
 It is expected that Professor Charles | A. Briggs will address the Mems club next Sunday evening on ''The Wisdom | of Jesus.
 |