mere Christianity
1. THE LAW OF HUMAN NATURE
The Law which is peculiar to his human nature, the lsaw he does not share with animals or vegetables or inorganic things, is the one he can disobey if he chooses.
This law is called the Law of Nature because people thought that every one knew it by nature and did not need to be taught it.
If anyone will take the time to compare the moral teaching the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our town.
Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you wil find the same man going back on this a moment later
Two points I wanted to make
1. Human Beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it.
2.Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it.
These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.
2. SOME OBJECTIONS
Law of Human Nature, or Moral Law, or Rule of Decent Behaviour
"Isn't what you call the Moral Law simply our herd instinct and hasn't it been developed just like all our other instincts?"
At those moments when we are most conscious of the Moral Law, it usually seems to be telling us to side with the weaker if the two impulses.
Surely it often tells us to try to make the right impulse stronger than it naturally is
We often feel it our duty to simulate the herd instinct, by waking up our imaginations and arousing our pity and so on, so as to get up enough steam for doing the right thing.
There is no always right impulse, they are all right at some times just like a piano note is right sometimes and wrong sometimes.
3. The Reality of the Law
Nothing in nature (rocks, trees, etc.) can be truly wrong or bad
decent behaviour is not always what we consider to be beneficial to us
humans see that you cannot be truly happy if you are not in a society where everyone plays fair.
Men ought to be unselfish, ought to be fair.
4. WHAT LIES BEHIND THE LAW
The Human Behaviour must be explained by something above and beyond the actual facts of Human Behaviour
We have a law which we did not invent but somehow know to follow
If there is "something behind' the law, then either it will remain unknown, or reveal itself in some other way (revelation/Jesus)