Article December 31, 1966 Issue

Signs of the Times

Esme Wynne-Tyson

Animals' Defender

Esme Wynne-Tyson
in Animals' Defender, London

"Good ends . . . can be achieved only by the employment of appropriate means. The end cannot possibly justify the means, for the . . . obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced." (Aldous Huxley in Ends and Means.)

Ever since our spiritual pastors . . . began giving their consent to such means as the rack and the stake in order to achieve the proclaimed "end" of saving men's souls, mankind has lacked any positive instruction . . . from those responsible for its morals as to the relation of ends to means. Yet the original Christian Gospel—especially that part of it known as the Sermon on the Mount—was largely a disquisition on that theme. The very essence of the Master's teaching was the good "end" known as the Kingdom of God, and by precept and practice, he showed us the perfect means for its attainment. He taught that in order to "see," or understand, the nature of God, we must be pure in heart, and that in order to experience His heavenly Realm we must make ourselves fit for it by living righteously; . . . and that if we would obtain mercy we must employ the means of being merciful.

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