The early question of the old creeds, "What is the chief end of man?"
was conceived in a spirit more practical than academic. It was the
voice of the constant inquiry as to the purpose of living. But the
answer given by the creed lacks the assurance of a moral conviction; it
fails to find any response in us. "To glorify God and to enjoy Him
forever" may be the portion of angels, but honest men have to confess
that they have no great desire to be angels, yet.
The emphasis of the creed with that as its basis practically was on
dying rather than on living; it owed whatever grip it had on men to the
promise it held, to those who were in the midst of the sordid round of
tasks or the dull, heavy grind of poverty, of a felicitude that knew
neither hunger, fear, nor pain; it offered a heaven forever to those
who could endure a hell for a short time.
The logical consequence was to make dying the chief end of living. Who
cannot remember being told to despise the present, to consider how
brief it is, like a cloud before the dawn of the endless day? It was
compared to the short waiting outside some door beyond which was
warmth, cheer, and unending bliss. So that the pious soul thought of
life only in terms of waiting, watching, enduring. Piety became
positive only in prospect, negative in the present.
To say to a man, be patient with wrong and oppression to-day and you
will be prospered tomorrow, is to teach him to compound a felony, to
wink at the despoiling of the earth by the iniquitous for the
consideration of a title to the riches of heaven. It is to lose sight
of the fact that unless the life finds itself now it never will find
itself, that to dwarf a soul to-day is to dwarf it forever.
"Then," says the practical man, "this means that we can ignore the
future; we must make the most of the present; get all you can; keep all
you get; the whole purpose of life is to make a good living, to enjoy
yourself." This is only the swing of the pendulum away from the old
thought. The ideal of the present day is material advantage. The
chief end of man is to make money. If once he was the slave of an
unjust order, he now is the slave of an unworthy appetite.
Living only for wealth or for wages is not living at all. Who knows
less of life than the slave of modern commercialism, the man who lifts
his eyes no higher than the pay roll, or the ticker tape? It is better
to be the victim of a delusion that gives some happiness, that gives
some fortitude, and to live the simple life of the poor than to be the
slave bound to the wheel of modern social greed and money madness.
Life itself is the object of living; the chief end of man is to become
glorious as his ideal of God is glorious, to realize the highest that
comes to him in the song of poet, the vision of seer, the hope of his
own heart. The money, the acres, the resources are the tools for the
development of life. This world is a workshop; it has failed utterly
if it produces nothing but an array of machines and a heap of shavings;
it must turn out the finished product of men.
Are you living thus for life, or are you living to do no more than make
a living? We need to educate our children to set honour, truth,
justice, a high life, before all things, to prize noble attainments so
that they shall not be content with the lesser prizes of prosperity in
things, so that whether we win or lose in the markets of the world we
shall stand rich and glorious in manhood, finding the ends of life in
the achievement of high character and finding in commerce but the
servant of character.