The Henson Journals

[137]

7th Sunday after Trinity, August 3rd, 1924.

Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things; Graft in our hearts the love of thy name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Epistle contains S. Paul's earnest appeal to the Romans to break with the uncleanness which had marked their past lives, and for the future to live purely..."as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness, unto holiness". He reminds them that the self–arrogated exemption from moral law had ever been shadowed by misgivings & self–reproach. "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?" He bids them exchange this pseudo–liberty for that service which is perfect freedom, & gain thus inward peace in this world, and immortality in the next. "But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord".

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. Frank Berry communicated, and his mother. He and William start for South Africa next week.

[138]

I spent the morning in reading the book which Archbishop D'Arcy recommended so strongly, "Ethics and some modern World Problems" by Wm McDougall. It is a suggestive & stimulating volume, but deeply depressing. He shows the necessity of national ethics if civilization is to continue, and the ruin which the unmitigated acceptance of 'universal ethics' (i.e. the ethics of Christianity) must involve. Is it really necessary to assume the incompatibility of national with universal ethics? The author thinks not, and postulates a Utilitarian basis for morality. His utilitarianism, however, takes account of society, & not merely of the individual. For 'the nation's most valuable assets' are 'the strains of superior ability comprised in the population'. Under the influence of 'universal ethics', proceeding inevitably on the fictional assumption that all men are equal, it is precisely these 'strains of superior ability' that are being destroyed. The author carries his readers easily with him while he dissects the existing situation, and demonstrates its promise of disaster, but when he proceeds to offer "suggestions towards the synthesis" of national and universal ethics, he is less successful. The probability that modern democracies will accept an argument so dishonouring to themselves, and in deference to it will consent to go back on the line of political development in order to recover some genuinely "representative" democracy, is extremely slight. Every day adds strength to the vested interest of spoon–fed incompetence which governs the modern world.

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