And yet, around us on every side are those who are relying upon something
short of this new life. They have set up a sort of human virtue in the
place of the God-life. They are slowly mastering their disordered
passions. The base instigations of their lower nature are being thwarted.
Greedy appetites which reign in others are in them compelled to serve.
Tendencies to cunning and falsehood, the fruits of which are only too
apparent in the world at large, they watch and harass and pinch.
Animosities, and jealousies, and envies--those enemies of all kinds of
peace--are repressed, if not controlled.
And these followers of virtue go further than this. They aim at building
up a character which can be called noble, or at least virtuous. And some
succeed--or appear to themselves to do so. They cultivate truth. Honesty
is with them, whether as to their business or their social life, the best
policy. They are just. They are temperate. By nature and by training they
are kind and generous; so much so that it is as difficult to convict them
of an unkindly act as it is easy to prove them more generous and liberal
than many of the professed followers of Jesus. Often they are charitable,
giving of their substance to the poor; not hard to please, considerate of
their inferiors, patient with one another; in a very high sense they have
true charity. And after long periods of struggle, and lofty and faithful
effort, they may be able to claim that they have developed a fine
character; that by self-cultivation, and perhaps by a kind of
self-redemption, they have produced a very beautiful and desirable being!
I will not stay to inquire how far heart conceit and heart deceit may
account for much of this, or to suggest that a great contrast may exist
between the outer life and the unseen deeps within. I will admit for the
moment that all is as stated, and even more. What, then? With much of
grace and beauty, it may be; trained and tutored in the ways of humility
and virtue; able to live in the constant and kindly service of others, and
devoted to truth and duty--with all these excellencies they may yet be
dead while they live. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Generous, lovable, dutiful,
honourable flesh, but only flesh. A chaste, and, if you like to have it
so, a useful life, but LIFELESS. A fine product of a lifetime of labour in
the culture of the physical, intellectual, and moral powers, but, after
all--DEAD. For "_He that believeth not on the Son of God hath not
life_."