st help can come from
wise action by parents to prevent their powers of direction and control
being undermined through young persons having too much freedom and too
many of the material things which are not necessary for their
well-being.

_XV. The Law and Morality_

=(1) History of the Law Regarding Morality=

At no time in the history of the British Commonwealth have Parliaments
or the law-courts endeavoured to impose a system or code of morality on
the people. Men are not required by the governing powers to observe the
moral law, any more than they are required to attend Divine worship. But
Parliament, in the shaping of legislation, and the Judges in the
administration of justice, have frequently had regard to that
indefinable sense of right and wrong which becomes implanted in the
human breast. Furthermore, the law, while not coercing any one into
following a particular course of moral conduct, has, nevertheless,
always been careful to restrain people from acting in such a way as may
cause offence to those who do observe the principles of religion or of
morality.

Offences against religion (for example, blasphemy and disturbing public
worship), and offences against decency and morality (for example,
indecent exposure, indecent publications, and prostitution) are strongly
reprehended.

In determining what conduct on the part of an individual should be
condemned the law has always endeavoured to maintain a balance between
freedom of the individual and the rights of the community not to be
harmed by the exercise of that freedom.

The law is not interested in sin, or even immorality, but it is vitally
interested in the effects of them. A person may stay away from church,
but he must not scoff at the Holy Scriptures. He may bathe in the nude,
but not at a public beach or near where persons are passing. A human
model may be posed for an artist, but must not be exhibited in a shop
window.

One other feature of the law regarding morals is that there are some
things which adults are not restrained from doing but which the law will
not suffer to be done by minors. Common examples are found in the
restraints which are imposed on children smoking, or entering upon
premises open for "drinking" or betting.

Similarly, through reason and experience, the law has found it necessary
to set some limits on the right of an individual to do what he likes
with his own person. The community has an interest in the life of