The Prospect of a Moral Interregnum by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · January 15, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 3

The Prospect of a Moral Interregnum.

By Editor

Prof. Goldwin Smith contributes to the Atlantic Monthly for November a thoughtful article upon “The Prospect of a Moral Interregnum” consequent upon the decadence of religious faith. He draws attention to the unsuspecting complacency with which thinkers of the materialistic school seem to regard the immediate future, as though religion were merely an obstruction to scientific progress, which could be got out of the way without any peril to morality. He points out the essential weakness of current Agnosticism, in that it accepts so much of the moral code based on Christianity, and of the results of the Christian system, as it finds convenient, at the same time that it endeavors to overthrow the Christian faith. Religion, he insists, is, and has always been, in its various forms, something more than a mere cosmogony or an explanation of physical phenomena; it is the basis of moral life, the support of righteousness and the terror of unrighteousness. Always, in the past, morality has rested upon religious belief, and the collapse of religious belief has been followed by a sort of moral interregnum.

In the view of Prof. Smith, we are upon the verge of a collapse of religious belief of the most tremendous kind, affecting, not the form, but the essence of Christianity. We must, therefore, he argues, look for a moral interregnum similar to those which have followed like revolutions of faith in the past. What is to become, he asks, of the Christian type of character, the brotherhood of man, and the very idea of humanity itself,—all of them beliefs which are inseparably connected with the universal Fatherhood of God and the fraternal relation of all men to Christ? If we dispose of the religious idea, there is thenceforth nothing truly sacred; everything must present its title to existence through some sort of force. The scientific theories exclude morality, and they exclude responsibility and effort, which are the elements of moral life.

Practical symptoms of the change in progress may be discerned in England in the changed sentiment and conduct toward weaker communities, and the substitution of “policy,” interest, and passion for the rules of international law, in the treatment of the Zulus and the Afghans and the relations with Turkey and her subject peoples. The world, Prof. Smith believes, is “in considerable danger of a desperate conflict between different classes of society for the good things of that which people are coming to believe is the only world;” and he asks, “Is it likely that the passions of such a conflict will be controlled by any motive derived from scientific definitions of evolution; by any consideration connected with the rhythm of motion, the instability of the homogeneous, or the multiplication of effects? Force is force, and its own warrant; so the strong will say, and upon this principle they will act in the struggle for existence and for the enjoyments of existence.”

We have presented the substance of Prof. Smith’s reasonings, and the conclusions which he reaches, because it seems to us important that the connection between morality and Christianity should be more distinctly emphasized than it has been. The assaults which materialism makes upon religion can be rightly estimated only as it is remembered that with the Christian faith, if it were to go down, would perish the restraints which hold society together, and we should have an era of brute force in place of the dominion of law. Skeptics and men of science, who direct their energies to knocking away the pillars on which society rests, must not flatter themselves that they can sustain the superstructure after they have demolished the foundation. If the work which they have undertaken were to be carried on with the success which they anticipate, the result would be something quite different from what they look for; for with Christianity would disappear the civilization which has drawn its ideals, its laws and its sanctions, from the Christian system.—Boston Journal.