Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-08-09
ENGLAND IS LESS
MORAL, CHARGES
divine


LONDON. = as England becoming
less morai?" This question Is now
being seriously discussed In Great Bril-
tain, and there have been found quite
a large number of public men and wo-
men ready to come forward and assert
that there Is no fixed and infallible
standard Of right and wrong here, and
that It is practically impossible to be
certain when anybody Is doing right
or wrong in morals.
III the state of the churches In this
country be any criterion, there Is this
fact to face: Most OF them are now
only half filled. This has stung Bishop
Weldon, who is dean Of the great
manufacturing city Of Manchester, to
utter a very outspoken indictment on
the way in which English people at
present are drifting away from the old
moral standards and ideals.
There is not now, as there once
was" he declares, ANY sense of abso-
lutte authority in morals. Modern crit
icism has set the Bible IN a less CO.
gent relation to human lives; the
moral law which the church has incul-
Gated, in marriage especially, is chal-
lenged on all hands. II is the fashion
to regard all such questions as open.
l am amazed at the levity with, which
men are prepared to undertake the SUI
premely difficult task of building mo-
rality anew from its foundations. Util-
itarianism. even IL 1t is an adequate
motive of moral conduct in an en-
lightened and dfsinterested society,
can never speak to the conscience
with the same commanding voice as
revelation.
/ notice then that not only are the
moral standards and principles of the
past called in question, but that the
sense of law itself Is waning in the
community. 1t is easy to pass laws
and to inscribe them in the statute
book, but behind all law, II it is to be
imperative, lies the moral sanction
which alone invests law with dignity
and permRnency. II Is an ominous
feature of the times that such widely
different sections Of the people as the
Ritualists, the Passive Resisters, the
Suffragettes and the Ulstermen should
unite in repudiating allegiance to law,
WnCS1CA o(tOoi VI pei cPCCLANCs
AS such a time, any gerrymanier-
ing of the Constitution, any precipi-
fancy of Legislation, any violation of
the mutual understanding which has
made one political party acquiesce,
however reluctantly, In the acts pass
ed by the other, is a serious peril
to the stability Of the nation"
And Rev. F. B. Meyer, the veteran
leader Of British Nonconformists,
points out:
The code of morality on which
modern civilization, i. e.. the civiliza.
ton of the foremost races Of the
world. Is built up, is homogeneous
man for one woman. Our power as a
nation Is due to the integrity and pur-
ity of our home life, which is built on
that principle. AS Christians we be-
lieve that that principle has the high
est sanction. but we are prepared to
argue for 1t on lower grounds. It is
the emergence of the Hottest concep-
ton of self-control in sexual matters,
because 1t has shown itself to be the
strongest. and fittest. and most capa,
BILE OF all the methods that one after
another have presented themselves to
humanity for acceptance.
1T Is therefore not only essentially
divine, but absolutely human. And II
would be a blunder and crime to re-
turn to lower code, which has been
discarded as working basis for hui
man society"