"GOLDEN RULE" IS NO RULE OF THUMB

"Jesus never intended to save us the trouble of thinking," declared the Reverend Samuel McChord Crothers '82, pastor of the First Unitarian Church of Cambridge when asked to comment on a recent statement by Alfred W. Martin of New York to the effect that "there are pressing problems of our modern world on which the ethics of Jesus does not help us.

"The sayings of Jesus are not intended to be a specific code of laws to govern everyday action," he said, "but are made up of broad statements of principles through which to attack individual problems.

Golden Rule Not Rule Of Thumb

"It is not the purpose of a teacher to prevent his pupil from thought on the subject he teaches," Dr. Crothers went on. "I agree with Mr. Martin that the sayings of Jesus do not solve modern problems of ethics. The acceptance of the Golden Rule does not enable one to master the intricacies of political economy; but the same can be said of the maxims of law or medicine. The general principle does not take the place of specialized knowledge.

Refutes Martin's Remarks

Dr. Crothers disagreed heartily with Mr. Martin, who in his speech before the Boston Ethical Society last Saturday denied any connection between Christianity and the more modern problems.

"I cannot conceive of any modern problem, such as the relation of capital and labor, or the marriage and divorce question, to which certain principles are not applicable," he said. "The ideas of Jesus will hold as well in Bolshevist Russia as in capitalistic America, if we are capitalistic. New applications of Christian principles of action are discovered in each generation."