God, the Invisible KingWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Religion
God, the Invisible King
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
God (Christianity)
Now this condition of things is clearly incompatible with the modern
conception of the world as becoming a divine kingdom. When the world is
openly and confessedly the kingdom of God, the law court will exist only
to adjust the differing views of men as to the manner of their service
to God; the only right of action one man will have against another will
be that he has been prevented or hampered or distressed by the other in
serving God. The idea of the law court will have changed entirely from a
place of dispute, exaction and vengeance, to a place of adjustment. The
individual or some state organisation will plead ON BEHALF OF THE COMMON
GOOD either against some state official or state regulation, or against
the actions or inaction of another individual. This is the only sort of
legal proceedings compatible with the broad beliefs of the new faith.
. . . Every religion that becomes ascendant, in so far as it is not
otherworldly, must necessarily set its stamp upon the methods and
administration of the law. That this was not the case with Christianity
is one of the many contributory aspects that lead one to the conviction
that it was not Christianity that took possession of the Roman empire,
but an imperial adventurer who took possession of an all too complaisant
Christianity.
Reverting now from these generalisations to the problem of the religious
from which they arose, it will have become evident that the essential
work of anyone who is conversant with the existing practice and
literature of the law and whose natural abilities are forensic, will lie
in the direction of reconstructing the theory and practice of the law
in harmony with modern conceptions, of making that theory and practice
clear and plain to ordinary men, of reforming the abuses of the
profession by working for the separation of bar and judiciary, for the
amalgamation of the solicitors and the barristers, and the like needed
reforms. These are matters that will probably only be properly set right
by a quickening of conscience among lawyers themselves. Of no class of
men is the help and service so necessary to the practical establishment
of God’s kingdom, as of men learned and experienced in the law. And
there is no reason why for the present an advocate should not continue
to plead in the courts, provided he does his utmost only to handle cases
in which he believes he can serve the right. Few righteous cases are
ill-served by a frank disposition on the part of lawyer and client
to put everything before the court. Thereby of course there arises a
difficult case of conscience. What if a lawyer, believing his client to
be in the right, discovers him to be in the wrong? He cannot throw up
the case unless he has been scandalously deceived, because so he would
betray the confidence his client has put in him to “see him through.” He
has a right to “give himself away,” but not to “give away” his client
in this fashion. If he has a chance of a private consultation I think he
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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