NOTES AND COMMENTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 35, 20 November 1937, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

ETHICS AND ECONOMICS. “The social sciences have recently prided themselves on their " ethical neutrality,” said Professor M, Ginsberg at the British Association. “They insist that they are concerned not with things as they ought to be, but as they are. There can' be no doubt that much confusion has been caused by a failure to observe this distinction. Economics is said to be concerned solely with means, while the problems of ends is left to ethics. This is clearly untenable. Ethics cannot ignore means and economics cannot ignore ends. It is the moral issues involved which at present are most urgently in need of clarification The effective handling of social problems involves a synthesis, but not a fusion of social science and social philosophy. If this he so, then the present organisation of teaching in the universities is sadly out of balance. The need for closer co-operation with social philosophy is even clearer in connection with the teaching of political science, and especially of international relations.” THE BOOK OF LIGHT. “The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.” So spoke Sir Edward Grey on the night of August 3, 1914, and who of us can deny that his prophecy has been fulfilled? writes the Rev. John A. Patten, literary superintendent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in “The Master-Light.” The lamp of international friendship was quenched when the mighty armies of Europe marched to battle, and although it is now nearly 19 years since the war ended, it has not been relit . . Without dwelling on the lamps of happiness put out in millions of homes through the losses of the war, we may note that the lamp of moral and religious idealism was also quenched in those years of bloodshed. War is the enemy of goodness and religion. The lamps must be relit. Never let us surrender to the idea that all is lost, pleads Mr Patten. But groat effort will be needed. We shall not slide out of darkness into the light—we must step into the light. “Lighten our darkness, O Lord,” is the prayer of Christian people everywhere and the worldwide circulation of the Word of God is part of the answer to that prayer. Whether we think of the Bible itself—its contents, its spirit, its teaching—or the influence that has streamed from it, it is not merely a Book of Light, but the Book of Light.