THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 225 



" that flieth by day ; nor for the pestilence that walketh in 

 " darkness ; nor for the destruction that waste th at noonday. 

 " A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right 

 " hand ; but it shall not come nigh thee ; there shall no evil 

 ■' befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.'"' 

 Were it necessary to preach biological truths in the exalted 

 language of imagery and addressed to a people to whom the 

 methods and aims of science were unknown, is there any better 

 language than this of the Psalms, to preach to men a subUrae 

 resignation to the powers of their own fitness or unfitness ? If 

 a man is naturally alert and wise of understanding, he is not 

 caught by " the snare of the fowler." If he is innately brave, 

 the " terrors of the night " have no meaning for him. If he be 

 constitutionally strong, having that chemistry of blood and tissue 

 which renders him immune or only difficultly susceptible to 

 disease, he will escape the " pestilence that walketh in darkness 

 and the destruction that wasteth at noonday." And, if he be 

 not wise and strong, do we want him to be a breeding centre for 

 our nation ? The Psalmist in effect said " No," but modern 

 social sentiment says " Yes." Here, then, is an opportunity for the 

 Church. It nfey further justify its existence by its social service. 

 It is not ritual but guidance that the nation wants. Behind the 

 Psalmists and the Prophets stands the justification of Biology. 



We now no longer resign the faltering to the call of the 

 Inexorable. Save life at all costs, and disregardful of every 

 national requirement, prolong it under all circumstances, is the 

 attitude we have substituted. 



In appealing to the community to face the social problem 

 which confronts us, two classes of men — each characterised by 

 its own code of behef — present themselves. There are those who 

 have no behef in a future State. " To such minds," the authors 

 believe, " pending the revival of a deeper faith, the thought of 

 the future welfare and improvement of the nation may supply 

 the ideal necessary for a worthy fife." But those "who regard 

 each man's frame as the dwelling-place of an immortal soul, will 

 feel more the awful responsibihty that is ours to determine, by 

 our individual and corporate action, whether or no the bodies; 

 and minds of succeeding generations shall be fit temples for such 

 sparks of the divine, fit habitations in which they can expand 

 and develop until they are worthy of a sublimer sphere." Those 

 who for years have been engaged in an attempt to obtain a recog- 

 nition of more rational methods in dealing with the congenitally 

 hopeless, civic and physical wrecks of civilisation, have long 

 recognised that one of the greatest difficulties athwart their path 

 is the theological conception of man's relation to a future state. 

 The pure biologist can, of course, express no opinion upon this 



