PAGAN MORALITY

Evening Star, Issue 20052, 18 December 1928, Page 14

PAGAN MORALITY

A PARSON’S INDICTMENT THE SINS OF SOCIETY A trenchant indictment of modern society formed the subject \of a remarkable presidential address, entitled ‘ A Society .Really Chrisian,” delivered by tho llcv. Bertram Smith, of Leeds, at tho opening of,tho autumn assembly of tho Congregational Union of England and Wales at Leeds recently (reports tho London ‘Daily Telegraph’). Admitting there was much that was happy and good to bo found in the progress of social civilisation throughout tho world, Mr Smith declared that there was still “ a dark background to human life which must fill, mankind with great anxiety for tho future.” “ What aro wo to say to tho gambling menace,” ho asked, “which threatens to bring under its degrading thraldom every activity of life? What aro wo to say to tho renaissance of a pagan morality almost unknown in tho last century, a morality infecting with its deadly poison much of the poetry and many of tho novels wo read and manv of tho plays and films wo see? “What aro wo to think of the new claims made for .sexual jwssion—uob made by tho outcast and_ the fallen, but by youug people born in luxurious homes and educated at our universities? What aro wo to think of tho decline of the old Puritan sense of duty and self-restraint and tho demand fur sensuous excitement at all costs? Above all, what are we to think of a society whoso economic structure is frankly un-Christian, a society in which tho most essential sendees aro scarcely rewarded with a living wage and tho greatest fortunes can bo won by tho idlest and most useless members; a society in which an honest and industrious man can toil all his lifo at work socially essential for a wage upon which ho and his family can scarcely live, and in which a worthless speculator can amass an enormous fortune in a few years?” With this lie contrasted what ho considered should he tho chief concern of Christian people! . . “When society is really Christian,” ho said, “no children will bo horn in slums to tho cufeeblemcnt of their bodies and the degradation of their minds; no crowds of disheartened men will tramp tho streets in search of work they cannot find; no gifted lads and girls will bo denied a university education because of the poverty of their parents; no women will sicken to their death in dismal crowded dwellings when a sea voyage or a lung holiday in the country would restore them to health; no gangs of bookmakers will infest our sport fields like ill-omened birds of prey; no speculating stockbrokers will bo allowed to ‘ bull ’ and ‘ boar ’ the markets and gamble in tho primal needs of life, to the hurt of the whole commonwealth. “Newspapers will not find it necessary to appeal to tho baser elements in human nature to secure a circulation; clever novelists will nob dirty their pages with all kinds of nasty realism; theatres and cinemas will show how tlio drama, with its laughter and tears, can become tho true handmaid of religion; and, of course, prostitution and drinking dons and night clubs will be only a painful memory.” Sober judgment compelled tho verdict; society was nob really Christian nor its step's set firmly on the upward track. “ Sunday is becoming little less than a weekly bank holiday, and, what is perhaps worse, numbers of men and women with genuine social enthusiasm, confess that they have little room for organised religion. Unless the church genuinely Catholic established .the society really Christian nothing can prevent our civilisation following the old civilisations into decay and oblivion.” At no period 111 the world’s history was ib moro difficult to bo spiritually minded, than in those early years of tho twentieth century, tho speaker declared, and two forces were especially antagonistic in addition to the aftermath of the war. These were tho victories of applied science over Nature and the prevailing economic theory of wealth. , Gould wo escape the conviction that tho competitive system, laissez-faire, economic freedom, call it what wo would, was the most dangerous enemy of the spiritual life, and must bo cliaifegcncd and conquered before we could ‘have a society really Christian? The Congregational ministry ‘ itself presented cue of the most unfortunate illustrations of the competitive system. A talented minister might be offered £SO to £IOO moro per annum to leave tils church and become tho minister of a richer church.. “In another three or four years the process is repeated, and a still richer church makes a similar offer, and so often commences that nob very heroic pilgrimage from the country church to what we speak of as' tho more influential churches in our denomination. The system is bad—bad for tho minister and bad lor tho churches.”