The morning journal-courier., 1908-06-08
Individual Conscience the Thing to Consider, President Will son Tells Princeton
 Graduates.
MORALS CAN'T BE POOLED
Malady of the Age Lack of Individual Courngc Cynlcism and "Practl- car' Tcndcncy-Moral
 Awakening Here.

part, The lifc of our own age shows no touch of system; lt must be the des- pair of the logician, the delight of the critic and of the cynIc, You must de- vise your own system of success. The difficult questions of the day are mor- al questions
 The words of scripture have chosen for the guidance and stimulation of our thought this morning are these: Let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He Is righteous dhat is, ChrisD." If you want 10 know the real difficulty 0, modern life, try to apply the utter simplicity of such a test as that to it. Who is he that doeth righteousness in our modern life? Men do not choose their parts in life separately and indI- vidually In our day as they did in the days of our fathers. Every affair of life takes on more and more the as- pect and practice of wide organizations each man finds himself a small part of some great whole, whose operation is decided by votes taken about long tables in directors rooms, whose nor als are composite morals comprom- lse combination of what the material interests of the body dictate and what the enterprise of It's managers sug- gets, the character for every man who participates being merged in the gem eral compound. Each man concerned feels the range of his own choice to be very narrow and is forced to be con tent with seeing questions of con- science either ignored or administered by commission, II Is a composite world, and It's standards are for the time be- ing sadly confused by its attempt to compound Its morals with It's materiai ambitions, to set up composite notions of righteousness and dispcrse virtue through the intricacies of an elaborate organization.
 This Is our peculiar and funda- mental moral problem; where and how to separate the individual from the mass, You will find that you cannot pool your consciences: you had better then not try to pool your morals Keep your liberty In the one and you can afford to live with the other Morality Is of necessity ind- vidual, nor corporate. Men are bad, not societies. Wrong is conceived in the individual heart not In boards and committees, and those who par ticipate stain themselves with the same inlquity with which the author and originator of the wrong is black ened We shall find our reforms not | n l1 ftf htlt In
 Look about you with candid eve. and you shall find that the malady of the age Is lack of individual cour- age, lack of individual integrity of thought and action. What Is the law of life in America now? It Is that every man should form his own moral judgments and speak them fearlessly, that every man should seek to govern his own life and square 1t with his own Independent moral judgments 1t has always been the exceptional individual here and there who asserted his own rights of conscience and took com. mand of his own conduct Does America to-day show large or small proportion of such men? That ia our ultimate test of vitality Imi- tation is not for the strong, but for the weak; not for the individual, but for the mass. If imitation has become the law of our life. for the strong as well as for the weak, then are we in- deed impoverished, and a time of do- cline Ia At hand A democratic country, more than any other. needs for its enrichment for Its growth, for that variation which Is ife men by the score, the hundred. the thousand who have indomitabe intellectual and : moral initiative. IL needs more than that; 1t needs men by the hundred thousand who will not submit to be put in the wrong who will not sell their consciences, who will not run with the crowd out of craven fear and in despite of their convictions. And where shall it get such men if not from the colleges, if not from amongst you who know the truth, If you will but follow it You have sold your birthright when you have sold your independence of moral judgment
 The tendencies of our minds. the ten dencies Of our age, have affected alike our standards and our conduct. We , have grown very practical" Our pres ent cynicism will not last, Is not last ing. The tendency to be practical" . will not conquer the tendency to be } moral. The great awakening we have , just had to the moral aspects of so much of modern business Is but the ] beginning of change, The moraist will dictate both to the lawyer and to the man of business
 } It is strange and interesting thing that in this very age in which we have become so intensely practical We have grown also exceedingly senti- mental There Is no more subtle dis solvent of morals than sentimentalty; and there is no more hopeless method of seeking to moralize an age than be- ginning at the edges. Go straight to 2 the point. Put every individual great and small upon stern probation. Let B him not escape your Judgment because fe is unfortunate and well-meanng { Be just Distinguish what is really un- righteous from what is not really un- righteous, Go to Christ for the abid- ing standards of moral judgment. Be , sure that you allow the individual his real liberty to live truly and serve oy- ally Do not impose your private judg- : ments upon him; but within the limits , of Christian justice judge inflexibly, t Let standards be standards, not sliding e scales that follow your sympathes, e Judge nen according 10 their essential ' character, but demand that they have 5 some essential character to be judged and be not time-seryerA.