Because It Is Right by S. S. Times

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 22, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 40.

Because It Is Right.

By S. S. Times

FROM the very beginning, many children are trained, unconsciously, by their parents, to build right deeds upon a wrong foundation. Children naturally want a reason why they may do this thing and may not do that thing; and the principle which is given them is very often a wrong one. "You must not take what does not belong to you; because, if you do, you will be found out and sent to prison." "You must not go to the river when I tell you not to; for if you go there, you will fall in and be drowned." "You must not do this or that; because, if you do, you are sure to suffer for it."

What is this but to teach a child that wrong is wrong because it hurts; and to hinder him, as far as possible, from seeing the true reason why it is wrong to do these things? The parental teaching which says distinctly to a child, "You must not take what is not yours; for God, who made us, forbids us to steal," is worth a thousandfold more to a child, as a guiding principle through life, than all the examples which could be collected of thieves who have been caught, and who have been imprisoned or pilloried for their sins.

In the one case, the parent teaches the child that God has forbidden theft, always and everywhere; in the other case, he teaches him that theft is likely to be resented and punished by men, and that, therefore, it is unsafe, and so wrong. A child who has nothing else to guide him than such teaching as that, will soon notice that theft is not always found out, and will ask himself why he may not thieve if he can thieve with impunity. The radical defect of all such teaching is that it makes the right or wrong of an action depend upon its pleasant or unpleasant results for the person doing it, instead of upon the supreme law of God.

Sooner or later there will come to the person so taught a time when to do the wrong will result, for the time being, in profit to himself; and to do the right will result in loss. If he does not go down before that temptation, it will not be because of any vital principle in his teaching. It will be rather because he finds himself in circumstances which seem to throw doubt upon his teaching; because he feels, as we may suppose a boy to feel, who, trained to distinguish the parts of speech by colored type, sees for the first time a book printed throughout in plain black letters, and who begins to wonder whether, after all, a noun is a noun because it is red, and a verb a verb because it is yellow.

There are a thousand forms of teaching now current which do not differ essentially from that of the father who teaches his child not to do wrong, because to do wrong generally hurts. There is even a philosophy which claims that that is right which will turn out for the best good of the highest number—right because it will turn out for the best good of the highest number—a specious fallacy, which owes its popular acceptance to the truth that that which is right will ultimately prove to be for the best interests of all.

It would be difficult to say how large a proportion of the human race practically proceeds upon the assumption that personal enjoyment, refined or coarse, rational or irrational, is the one standard by which all things are to be measured. The principle masks under many names; it borrows for itself the plumes of social refinement, intellectual progress, even spiritual culture. But under whatever form it appears, it is insufficient as the guiding principle of life, and can only be followed with disaster. It fails to recognize that right is something higher than the rational happiness of one man or of any number of men; that while right generally makes men happy, right is not right because it makes men happy, any more than a noun is a noun because it is red, or a verb a verb because it is yellow.

The majority of men are too timorous to strike down boldly to the basal principle of God's word. This timorousness ought to be thrown aside. There is a sure foundation upon which men can safely build. That foundation, indeed, no man can take away; but it is to the shame of many a Christian parent and of many a Christian teacher, that, instead of exhorting those committed to their charge to build boldly upon the eternal rock, they first pile sand upon the rock foundation, and then invite Christ's little ones to build upon the shifting mass.

There is a lack of candor and a lack of courage shown by every believer who attempts to make anything else than God's revelation the foundation upon which he builds his life-work. Most of the social evils which perplex society would be greatly diminished if Christian men were generally to make it known that for them neither pleasure, nor happiness, nor the material prosperity of any or of all, could justify the slightest deviation from the law of God.

That law often shuts the door upon pleasant paths. We believe that it is well, even where we do not see that it is so. But we know that neither our own happiness nor our own safety, nor the safety and happiness of those nearest and dearest to us, would justify us in entering a path which God has closed to us. Right is something higher than our own weak choosing; and right does not cease to be right because it may bring to us pain, or even fatal disaster.

He that is set to teach should utter no uncertain sound on this subject. Modern life is full of pitfalls, and the only safe guide is the word of God. Happy is the child, who, from his earliest days, is trained to make that the light of his feet and the principle of his living. So long as he walks in that light, he will not stumble. —S. S. Times.