THE PROBLEM OF LIFE’S PURPOSE wrong to be righted”: but this is not practical, this dashing at the job without the necessary preliminary theorizing. For if you do not know what men are — that is, are for — how do you know what is good for them? That thing is good for any being which helps it to achieve the true purpose of its nature. How can you help men to that, if you do not know what their true purpose is? Nor should we be misled by the fact that there are certain obvious things that such a man can do. Principally he can relieve bodily suffering. But all his aid is “first aid”: of profound, permanent, certain help to man he can do nothing. In fact the general effort of those who thus would help their fellow men with no thought of God is almost exclusively confined to bodily well-being, or the relief of bodily suffering. And when they approach such questions as birthcontrol, divorce, the killing of the incurable, and a dozen others, it is beyond their power really to answer the question raised. For these things are right or wrong according as they help or hinder a man in the achievement of the purpose of his being: and it is not so much as possible to express an intelligent opinion on them save in the slight of a sure knowledge of what the purpose of life is. When the philanthropist is not merely unaware of God’s revelation, but definitely convinced that man is only the matter of his body, his position is easier. If he has to decide upon the question of divorce, for 17