Comment By Torchlight

A Courageous Protest

Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls and President of the Marriage Guidance Council, in a speech at Nottingham last month, expressed himself vigorously on the subject of "the permissive society". He said, "It is time for all good folk to take a stand, else the permissive society will soon become the decadent society". He then attacked certain "women who are in the public eye-who, in a kind of bravado, seem ready to parade their unchastity for all to see". Later in his speech he added, "Promiscuity, before marriage or after marriage, is an evil thing. It is an evil to those who indulge in it. It is destructive of family life. It is altogether to be deplored".

In the present climate of public opinion it needed courage for his Lordship to speak so plainly on this subject, but there is no doubt that he voiced the unspoken sentiments of a growing minority who are increasingly worried about the rising tide of immorality. Impressionable young people tend to ape popular figures in public life. It is significant that last year in Britain twenty-two thousand teenage girls gave birth to illegitimate babies. Those who blatantly advertise their unchastity must bear some responsibility for this growing evil. The tragedy of children born in these conditions and brought up without a father was stressed by Lord Denning in his speech. This is one element of this grave problem which is the cause of much suffering.

In sections of the secular Press there was qualified approval of Lord Denning's statement, but there was also an outcry by humanists and others who acclaim the growing laxity in sex relations - "freedom", as they describe it. Any public figure who speaks out in this way may expect to be ridiculed, and dubbed as attempting to put back the clock by reverting to "Victorian puritanism" - whatever that may mean. It may well be that in Victorian society there was a veneer of hypocrisy in such matters, but now the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. The decay in social and family life is there for all to see. In Lord Denning's words, permissiveness is leading to decadence. Some observers have compared social conditions in Britain today with those obtaining when John Wesley began his evangelical campaigns. Undoubtedly Wesley's preaching touched the public conscience and halted the decadence which was eating at the vitals of the nation.

It may be questioned, of course, whether such protests as that we have cited, welcome though they be, will stem the rising tide of permissiveness to any degree. There are many who regard morality as a purely social problem; they are interested in human conduct only in its bearing on an orderly and just society. Paul's classic appraisal of society in his epistle to the Romans places the emphasis on man's accountability to his Creator. This, undoubtedly lies at the root of the problem. Neither public opinion, nor social legislation, will restrain men who refuse to acknowledge accountability to God. The fear of God is the only effective deterrent; and where this is absent man is adrift. Sin is very much more than a social problem-it is first and foremost a matter between man and God. King David expressed this forcibly in his penitential Psalm. He had sinned grievously against Uriah the Hittite, and this no doubt, when it was brought home to him, caused deep sorrow. But David viewed his terrible sin in a much graver light, and acknowledged:

"Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, And done that which is evil in Thy sight" (Psalm 51:4).

Meanwhile those who tread the permissive path can never evade the inexorable law:

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man

soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7).

Conversely, it remains true, that

"Godliness with contentment is great gain ... godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come (1 Tim 66 48)

Give heed to Reading

"If the reader understands very little about the Word of God, he ought to read it very much; for the Spirit explains the Word by the Word. And if he enjoys the reading of the Word little, that is just the reason he should read it much, for the frequent reading of the Scriptures creates a delight in them, so that the more we read them the more we desire to do so. Above all he should seek to have it settled in his own mind that God alone, by His Spirit, can teach him; and that, therefore, as God will be enquired of for blessings, it becomes him to seek God's blessing previous to, and while reading" (George Muller).

unknown | Nov 1971
Comment By Torchlight