Moral Institution—I - Chambers, Oswald
In Precept
By in precept is meant necessary principles laid down beforehand.
God has ordained that man is to govern man, whether he wants to or not. This keeps socialism from being it; the socialistic scheme falls to pieces because it ignores the fact that human institutions are not utilitarian, that is, they do not spring from the ingenuity of man, but were deliberately ordained by god for the government of man by man. Peter brings this out when he says, be subject to every ordinance of man, but he is careful to add for the lords sake (1 peter 2:13 RV).
Man is responsible to god for the government of the whole world, but if a man succumbs to the temptations of his official position, that very position will have the effect of hardening his heart away from god. We read in the old testament that pharaoh hardened his heart (exodus 7:14, et seq. ); and we read also that god hardened his heart (exodus 4:21, et seq. ). The difficulty of this apparent contradiction is purely superficial. It must not be interpreted to mean that god hardened a mans heart and then condemned him for being hardened. The harden- ing of pharaohs heart by himself and by god is the expression of the working of one of gods laws, and gods laws do not alter. Any ruler or ordinary man who refuses to obey the right law will find himself distinctly hardened away from god. If a man is to govern rightly he must see that the institutions he builds up are based on the stabilities of human nature as god created it; otherwise havoc will be produced.
One of the first general principles to be borne in mind is that we must never think of men and women in the mass. We talk about the struggling mass of humanity there is no such thing, the mass is made up of separate individuals. The danger of thinking of people in the mass is that you forget they are human beings, each one an absolutely solitary life. Everyone has something or someone to govern, the most ignominious slave has an influence somewhere, and god is going to hold us responsible for the way we govern.
Another thing to be borne in mind is the incalculable element in every life. In the government of man by man you are not dealing with a mathematical problem, but with human beings, and you can never be sure how they will act, any more than you can always be sure how you yourself will act.
These are simply indications of the problems a man has to face in the government of other men, and yet god has so constituted things that man has to govern man and to answer to god for the way he governs.
Desire. One of the biggest ingredients in a mans make-up is what he desires, or regards as good. Discouragement or any kind of sulks is accounted for by the fact that the good a man aims at is not good enough. A man of character will set himself at nothing less than the highest. The remarkable thing about the universe of desire is that at any second it may alter. Every now and again a tumult comes into a mans life and alters what he desires. For instance, death has an amazing power of altering what a man desires, because death profoundly affects his outlook; or the experience of new birth will do it. When a man is born again he stops desiring the things he used to desire, not gradually, but suddenly; things begin to matter that did not matter before, and the things that used to matter no longer do so. He experiences a conflict of desire; at one time he wants to do the old things, at another, the new, and for a while he is in an unbalanced state. That is the result ethically and morally of conviction of sin, and is exactly what Jesus meant when he said, think not that i came to cast peace on the earth: i came not to cast peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34 RV mg).
This sudden alteration in the universe of desire is one of the perplexities in the government of man by man. You cannot be sure that the man you are dealing Of his desire may change. To remember this will bring a tremendous hopefulness and cure us of our unbelief about any life. Another thing to bear in mind is the difference between a young life and a mature life. A boy or girl just emerging from the teens is always chaotic; if a young life is normal it is a chunk of chaos; if it is not, there is something wrong, there ought to be the chaotic element. A precocious young life rarely ends well, it becomes ordered too soon. God holds us responsible for the way we judge a young life; if we judge it by the standards by which we would judge a mature life, we will be grossly unjust. As you watch the life it seems sometimes to lean towards the good, sometimes towards the wrong, and you find yourself getting either excited or depressed over it; but there is one main trend coming out, and that trend can be guarded by prayer. This emphasises the importance of intercessory prayer. Much misjudgement of young life goes on in the religious domain. There is a stage when a young life manifests a sudden interest in everything to do with religion, but never bank on these awakenings because they are not necessarily awakenings by the spirit of god, and when the intense stage passes and it certainly will pass if it is not born of the spirit the one who is judging is apt to say that the boy or girl has back slidden. What has happened is that they have passed through a dangerous stage of development. The defects of a growing life are one thing; the vices of a mature life are another. Be as merciless as god can make you towards the vices of a mature life, but be very gentle and patient with the defects of a growing life.
These things make us understand how careful we have to be to recognise god in our government of other lives. If the government of our own life is upon his shoulder, we will be careful to rely on him in connection with the lives we are called on to influence and govern.with will always be the same, at any second he may alter. You see someone set on a line you know to be wrong, but remember, at any second the universe