Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1911-09-07
Morality


There is in our civilization q class
Of women branded as moral lepers.
the presence of any one Of whom
would not be tolerated in our homes.
Yet our daughters are allowed to min
gle freely with the e who0prey
upon these women; to receive them in
our homes-and too often-to marry
them. Such is custom and conviction,
SO totally an inversion of the teaching
and practice of Jesus Christ, who ate
with harlots and sinners, not to con
done their acts, but to save them from
evil.
time for the church to inquire rather
more seriously into this matter Of
conscience and morality? Shall we
go on being satisfied that custom and
convention have said the last word on
these vital matters?
There are too many false judgments
Of morality in society, as a result Of
unframed conscience. The thing we
call convention is too often but a
cloak for false morality. Custom and
convention are made up of elements
both good and bad, though most of us,
If a thing Is conventional, adhere to
its announcements without stopping
to question the right OF wrong of It.
Convention and custom are good
when they conserve the good OF the
past; they are ~viciously evil when
they cloak evil, and even worse when,
they SO enslave the minds of the peo-
pie that they stupefy all moral prog
ress.
There is a tendency in most Of US
toward 1egalism; this false use Of the
law, and the subtlest foe with which
the most remarkable things in history
is the speed with which Christianity
morally ran off the track" and al
lowed its freedom to become elaborat-
ed and stiffened into dogma, and then
into legalism.
The church, which was to bring God
and man together, became burdened
with ecclesiastical machinery, which
kept God and man apart. What is
the standard? Shall we frankly be-
come legalists and accept the law as
Jul standard Of conduct? Or shall we
accept what are called the average
judgments of mankind--the consensus
of o~Dinion-as our standards? If SO,
what shall we do with the prophets;
rise in our midst, to point the way to
a clearer conception Of truth than the
average man has attained?
And If we do not listen to the
prophets-for example, those men of
vision we have in ottr political life
today-how can we hope to progress
as a civilization? Or shall we accept
az our standard that which satisfies
us? Or shall we accept that which
works-pragmatism, which has be
come popular among certain ethical
thinkers.
This matter of conscience calls fol-
clearer thinking than we have be-
slowed upon it as a church or as in
dividuals in the past. Conscience is
the souls discernmenr Of right and
wrong for the purpose of its own
moral choice. It has as a standard
not any exterior law, which means the
reduction of religion and morals to
Jurisprudence and restraint; but II
must have an inner law, which mean
freedom.
Jesus Christ's most emphatic teach.
ing, about which conferred all else he
said and did, vas the s~acredness Of
%hA ca1f yy~ hory0 rh~{ot{o~ xo~wo1{%v
then when we set before u the task
OF developing this self. This self
loyalty is the only morality we know
It is truth for truths sake, not truth
for e1pediency.
Conscience is the voice of God wit
Messing to eternal right within the in
dividual soul. It is the voice Of mans
true self, and the true self is one with
God. AS our sense OF beauty leads vi
on to things beautiful, sc III mora
sense should lead us to things moral
And, as in art, we turn to great maj
ters, whose genius has wrought II
the world of beauty for the standards
Of valuation; SO in the world of morals
must we turn with kever-increasins
earnestness and appreciation ant
longing to the master of men.
And as our study of the great can
raj reveals ever and anon some deep
or truth that lay in the heart Of thu
artist, SO our serious study of Chris
must reveal more Of the truth that LAY
like gold in the depths Of his heart
It is for each M of us to say-for NJ
n else can say it for us-whethel
the light that is In us shall becom.
darkness and SO spread the gloom O
itself through the hearts Of humanit,
Of whether it shall become q part O
that light that lighteth every man tina
cometh into the world.
The Crown for the Faithful.
Tho virtf1a NJ fdo1ifv ia MT oo~S(