The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-02-28
PASTOR TALKS ON
FRIGHT AND WRONG"
Their Origin an1 Meaning Dis
CUsSed by Rev. William
ThurSton Brown.
STANDARD DETERMINES
SAYS COOPERATIVE ACTION WAS
The PROPER SORT.

Rev. William Thurston Brown, pastor
Of the Unitarian church, spoke yesterday
in Unity hall on THE Origin and Mean
ing of Right and Wrong" He said in
part:
Up to fifty years ago there was scarce
iy any difference of opinion as to the
origin and meaning of right and wrong.
OF what determined them. Why? Be
cause from the universal teaching Of the
church it was assumed that right and
wrong are either divinely implanted in
conscience or are the result of divine
revelation. The spirit of inquiry for a
long time was smOthered. Men did not
say; Is this Bible the Word of God?
Do we know it to be that? How do we
know it?' They said: This is the Word
or God and they burned at the stake
any one who Ventured to say anything
else. 1t is interesting to note that this
burning at the stake existed only so long
as public temporal power was in the
hands of priests-any kind of priests.
The prospect of being burned has
slight tendency to discourage inquiry
so history had its Dark Ages" period
in which priests and prelates ruled in
human society.
But changes came-changes growing
out of evolution and the rise of new social
classes, and with them came the spirit
of democracy, with that the establish
ment of schools, then wider and wider
inquiry, the steady challenge of old be-
liefs and institutions. Then came modern
science, the denomination of every de
partment of human knowledge, and the
discovery of the law of evolution. With
that came the dissolution of every notion
based on the older and fanciful view OF
the world and life
The root origin of right and wrong
was found far down in the scale of ami
NAL evOlution-at its very beginning; the
instinct of self-preSeTVatiOn and the in
StinCt of representation. The first
corresponds to nutrition, the second to
reproduction. The one Henry DrummOnd
calls the struggle for life the other he
calls the struggle for the life of others
What was right?-whateveT tended TO
self-preseTvatiOn and misrepresentation.
Whatever menaCed either was wrong 1t
has been found that the greatest factor
in both these processes is cooperation.
So, that action was right which was CO.
operative, and that action wrong which
violated that principle and so menaced
the existence of the tribe or herd or
swarm, and therefore each individual
member.
1T has been believed that right and
wrong are absolute and eternal Nothing
could be farther from the truth. Both
have suffered radical change and must al
ways be subject to change, What was
right under the tribal order of society
does not seem so under the present order.
Under the tribal system there could not
be hunger or want unless the whole tribe
was in want. Commander Peary in Hamp-
tons expresses the hope that no effort
Will be made TO civilize or ChTistianize
the EskimOs, because to destroy their
tribal communism by introducing private
property would destroy the whole race.
Under that system all except a few trif-
ling things belong to the tribe, and not to
individuals. No one need go hungry as
long as the tribe has food But our moral
sense declares that II is wrong for
starving boy to steal a loaf of bread or
for a man out of work to steal coal from
loaded cars or any other trifllng thing,
even though il be to keep his family from
starving or from the disgrace of charity.
But if the stealing is big enough-say,
senatorship or legislature or a governor
ship-it doesn't seem wrong to US. on
the contrary, the big thieves Of today
are members Of churches, pillars of So
ciety, hOnOred above all others.
rs it not a striking fact that every
great religious soul, every man who has
been a moral inspiration to succeeding
generations, was a man who violated
current notions Of right and wrong? Most
OF such men-like Jesus-suffered death
as the penalty. What explains this fact?
This-that life is an evolutionary pro-
cess, a process of change, morally, spirit
ually. What il is today, it cannot be to-
morrow 1t is toward higher, greater
rights that humanity moves. To know
this as a fast of moral consciousness is
God, not some dead God. The signifi-
cant thing about any life, that of man
or woman or society itself, is not what it
seems at given moment, but what it is
growing toward. Childhood is not the
significant thing in any life. is not life,
is only a stage in the process of life.
We do not want our children always to
be children We want them to find full
fullment in manhood and WOmanhOOd.
THAT is equally true of humanity. And
it is in this growth of man, rather than
In that of men. that the meaning and in
SEPARATION of religion is to be found. There,
too. is the standard which determines
right and wrong. That is right which &C
cords with the trend of race unfolding
toward a more abundant life for all, to-
ward freedom. fellowship, fraternity. And
anything IS wrong, not because some
priesthood says so or because some stat
ute condemns it, but because it violates
this higher law of social growth and we'll
being"