Here in Britain there is great concern about the number of knife crimes.  Just watching the news brings another death  – a young man stabbed in the heart. Such stabbings don’t happen by accident; it could not be a blow dealt in self-defence.

Then I was brought a poem written by someone suffering from depression. It started, “It’s me, not you…” and went on to reflect a very introspective concern with trying to find a way out of the black dog of depression.of depression, which obviously wished the author dead, a cry for help which has become very common these days, especially among the young.

In my own country, Australia, the similar figures for self-harm and even suicide among the very young are worse than allarming, and this can be traced back to the results of drink, drugs, and often, child sexual abuse.

I cast my mind back, and ask my family if they remember anything like that occurring in the days of their youth. Thy cannot. It is simply a symptom of a sick society where lawlessness, drink, drugs, pornography and evil have gained such a grip that some people feel lost and can see no way out of their sad circumstances.

Have we arrived at this by accident? No. We have brought it all about ourselves as a society, by our rejection of all moral authority. It used to be, not long ago, that people understood the difference between right and wrong. In those days every school in Britain had by law to include a dominantly Christian religious assembly in the morning. As a teacher I listened to and gave many myself. Youngsters learned that right and wrong were determined by the Ten Commandments, given by God…  And as a result, authority still existed in schools, in the police force, and the laws of the land, as well as in the self discipline which stemmed from that recognition of a God who determined right from wrong.

All of this is no more. Today it is all about “me, my ‘Facebook’, self-respect, my ‘rights’,  no matter how evil, and the result is lack concern for others, the concern of which is actually the only way out of the depression which afflicts so many in society. Read about that choice in Leviticus 26, or Deuteronomy 28, and find the Way to overcome depression and gain the moral compass we all need.

Deuteronomy 28:1, ‘Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God:’…..

But, Deuteronomy 28:15, ‘If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:’……