The Penn's Grove record., 1911-09-08

By Rev. Guy E. Shipler
Assistant Rector of St. Peters
St. Louis

There is in our civilization a class
of women branded as moral lepers,
the presence of any n of whom
would not be tolerated in our homes.
Yet our daughters are allowed to min
gle freely with the men who prey
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, b ate
with harlots and sinners, not to CON
done their acts, but to save them from
evil.
Let us ask in all frankness, Is it not
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 q thing is conventional, adhere to
its announcements without stopping
to question the right or 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 hat they stupefy all moral prog
ress.
There is a tendency in most of. us
toward legalism; this false use Of the
law, and the subtlest foe with which
Christianity has had to cope. One OF
the most remarkable things in history
is the speed with which Christianity
morally iran off the track" and al
lowed It's 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
u standard of conduct? Or shall we
accept what are called the average
judgments of mankind-the consensus
Of opinion-as our standards? If so,
what shall we do with the prophets;
those men of vision who sometimes
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 our political life
today-how can we hope to progress
as a civilization? Or shall we accept
as 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 for
clearer thinking than we have be-
slowed upon it as a church or as in
dividuals in the past. Conscience 1s
the souls discernment of right and
wrong for the purpose Of its own
moral choice. 1t has as a standard
not any exterior law, which means the
reduction OF religion and morals to
Jurisprudence and restraint; but 1t
must have an inner law. which means
freedom.
Jesus Christ's most emphatic teach
ing. about which centered all else ne
said and did, was the sacredness OF
the self. We have Christian morality
then when we set before y the task
of developing this self. This self,
loyalty is the only morality we know
It is truth for truths sake, not truth
for e-;pediency.
Conscience is the voice of God wit
Messing to eternal right within the In
diyidual soul. 1t is the voice OF mans
true self, and the true self is one VIII
God. AS our sense of beauty leads us
on TO things beautiful, so u moral
sense should lead us to things moral
And. as in art, we turn to great mas
ters. whose genius has wrought IL
tbe world of beauty for the standards
of valuation; so in the world OF morals
"
must we turn with ever-increasine
-earnestness and appreciation and
longing to the master OF men,
And as our study of the great can
vas reveals ever and anon some deep
err truth that lay In the heart of the
artist, so our serious study of Christ
must reveal more of the truth that lay
like gold in the depths of his heart
It is for each one of us to say-for nc
n else can say it for us-whethei
the light that is in US shall become
darkness and so spread the gloom Of
itself through the hearts of humanity
or whether it shall become a part o.
that light that lighteth every mar that
cometh into the world.