THE GREATEST BLESSING

Evening Star, Issue 19788, 11 February 1928, Page 10

THE GREATEST BLESSING

ROBBING DEATH OF ITS TERRORS

The Bishop of London, speaking at Gaston Hall, told his hearers that ho regarded death as “one of the greatest blessings wc have,” and asked them “ to think of the state of the world to-day if no ono ever died. It would lie absolutely intolerable.”

I have long been ot the Bishop's opinion about the mercy of death, and for the same reasons (writes Sir Edward Parry, m the ‘ Sunday Chronicle ’). Anyone who has suffered from sleeplessness can dimly imagine the terrors of deathlessness. “Death is a friend,” as Lord Bacon says, “ and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.” I accept the Lord Chancellor’s ruling and tho Bishop’s message with equal gratitude. But when I try to think cpiscopally of a world without death my imagination is not equal to the task. I am not sure such speculations are good for common citizens. Tt would seem that, if death were abolished there must be a deal of congestion and overcrowding, unless, of course, tho birth rate foil with (lie death rate, and then the world would merely stagnate with a sparse and very second-rate population. A COMIC CONCLUSION. If the birth rate continued some scheme of emigration to new planets might he devised. ■ War, it would seem, must disappear, since war without killing is unthinkable, hut bo to me is eternal life on worldly conditions. , , • - , That brilliant philosophic jester, Mr Bernard Shaw, tried his hand in ‘Back to Methuselah’ at the speculation suggested by the Bishop. He came to what seems to mo a comic conclusion: that if human beings could live longer they would become wiser. I see no evidence of it; they seem to mo, in fact, to become more conservative and reactionary. His own drearv super-men and women arc incredibly dull, joyless, and absurd creations.

HERITAGE OF LEGENDS. The artist in Air Shaw contradicts the philosopher. For when he portrays the human race as we know it lie makes his elderly politicians and scientists talk nonsense, and the scraps of wisdom. with which he decorates the dialogue of his comedy are apt y put into the mouth of that delightful little lady tho ingenue. And if the genius of Mr Shaw can make nothing of a speculative eternity of things as they arc, why should the man in the street ponder on the horrors of it? Let him. ratlici, Become tho fact Hint the Bishop, in reminding ns that “death is the most merciful thing in the world, is ranging himself on the side of the BOikls greatest thinkers of all time. ° ]f yon come to think of it, any cowardlv, terror-stricken idea of death has not been the theme of tlm lay writers and poets and thinkers of the nast. 'Hie wrong idea of death is the heritage of legends of old magicians and hteh priests, who invented those filings to keep their ignorant- congregations under their thumbs by playing on their fears. PAGAN IDEAS. And in ray childhood it was not the custom of the nursery to teach the vonim idea the Bishop's message of the mercy ©f death. I can remember nursery bonks of a grim and gns y nature’ that no sane parent would hand to children nowadays except as examoles of perverted humor. [ can well recollect gloating over the picture of Air Fairchild taking Ins

offspring to see a jnalclactor hanging dn chains, and moralising to them about his ideas of death. For in the AHctorian era the idea ol death was distinctly pagan, or indeed worse than pagan, for many Greek and Roman teachers fold their pupils that death, which men. in their tear apprehended to be the greatest evil, was probably, as the Bishop tells ns, a blessing. BOYCOTTED THEME. AVill the world accept the Bishop’s message of ibe mercy of death? ihe average man of tho world is apt to boycott the subject or to make it palatable by evasion. on do not p.ot rid of the 'gravedigger by calling him a mortician. j\nd if wc accept ibo truth that death is a blessing, wo cannot, with nnv reason, continue to show our sense of our departed friend’s blessedness by black feathers and black horses and tho obelisks and sculptures of sorrow that crowd tho aisles of our cafflioclrals, to the disgust and discontent of future generations. SHROUDS AND AA’ORMS. If death is a hlossedthing why these dismal stone yards, with gratings and vaults and stone lids and headstones tumbling all ways amid the rank grass? The old world affection lor knells and shrouds and mattocks and mould and worms was utterly unwholesome and evil. Let ns hope the Bishop s message will sweep them out of the heart of man. J rather fear the Bishop has a long way to gf before tie Bill persuade his clergy and his people really lo accent the gnat truth he has so boldly expressed. For many generations there has been a complete reticence among human beings about tho subject _of death. It is taboo in most societies. It will take time to alter that. Nor, indeed, B - niild it he bTsc tn rush all at once to the other extreme, for if a mar, spends too much time in thinking of death the business of life will stand still. A SECURE HARBOR. It nil! he interesting to see how the Bishop’s message finds a response in the hearts of Hie people. ft is to be hoped that it will do so. Unman beings will find increased happiness in life and more poßcr of doing good in this world when they have calmly convinced themselves that death is certainly a secure harbor from the storms of life, and a complete rest after toil. AH those blio ask in the B r ords of the old Roman poet; “Is it then so sad a thing tn die?” should take heart and rejoice at the Bishop’s ansß-cr: n lt is the most merciful tiling in the B'nrld.”