Article January 6, 1923 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Effie MacGregor

[From the Times, London, England]

It may be said that the one hope of humanity resides in a still wider acceptance of the doctrine of the right of each individual to a full, complete, and unthreatened life, in so far as this may be obtained without damage to the same right of others. The foundation of that doctrine is necessarily life itself, whether lived on a plane of abounding energy or in physical circumstances of distress. He who stoops to heal or help the sick, the broken, the dying, exemplifies in that act the highest purposes of the human spirit. He, on the other hand, who suggests that a diagnosis of cancer might well be followed by an overdose of morphia sets his face backward on the way of man's journey from darkness to light. It is, in short, only by defying what are called natural laws in the name of spiritual necessities that humanity has raised itself from the plane of the animals; and the cynic who sneers at "Christian principles" sneers in reality at all the qualities of his own mind which are not bestial. It may be given to some, or even to many of us, to bear long-suffering. Yet there is no escape from the conclusion that courageously to bear, in so far as it may [appear to] be unavoidable, is a duty we owe to our fellows and to humanity. For the right to life, like all the other rights which proceed from it, can be sustained only by that fortitude which from generation to generation has been man's noblest and purest gift to man.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Signs of the Times

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access