be'--the order of society, human law, the state, the Church: all this,
into which the science of politics inquires, forms part of the
obligation involved in love to man. How comprehensive is the reply of
an early Apologist to the charge of disloyalty, 'we behave towards
Emperors exactly as we do towards our neighbours. To wish, or to do,
or to think evil is equally forbidden to us in any case[549].' 'Thou,'
cries S. Augustine, apostrophizing the Church,--'Thou bringest within
the bond of mutual love every relationship of kindred, every alliance
of affinity; Thou unitest citizen to citizen, nation to nation, man to
man, not only in society, but in fraternity. Thou teachest kings to
seek the welfare of their peoples, and peoples to be subject to
kings.... Thou shewest how to all love is due, and injury to
none[550]!'
III. In the life of active beneficence, self-sacrifice is no
'occasional heroism,' but an 'habitual mood[551].' And yet from the
very nature of Christian love it follows that there is a right
self-regard, a zeal for God's kingdom in the soul, a desire for the
highest welfare of the personality as an object of worth in itself,
and destined to find its perfection in God.
Love to self becomes _Temperance_, that is, the spirit of purifying
discipline. Thus, a mark of Christian character is the passion for
holiness: i.e. the desire to combine inward purity of thought, desire,
and motive, with the external fulfilment of duty.
This process of self-purification is both mental and moral. It
includes the culture of imagination not less than the control of
appetite; 'sobriety' not less in judgment and reflection than in the
indulgence of desire; humility in self-estimate, not less than
restraint of passion[552]. The dominant feature of Christian character
in this connection is a peculiar self-severity, a deep sense of the
ideal as something not yet attained, a strict fidelity to known truth
and the claim of moral law, sensitiveness to moral evil, and
watchfulness against even its distant approach; in a word, disciplined
rule in the affections, intellect, and will. For as the Hellenist sage
says of Wisdom, 'The very true beginning of Her is the desire of
discipline, and the beginning of discipline is love[553].' Temperance
includes that reverent care of the body which receives so high a
sanction in the New Testament; indeed, respect for the sanctity of the
body may be viewed as reverence for the presence of God Himself, and
for the place of His abode[554].
IV. Finally, in relation to the hindrances which Virtue
encounters--the stress of circumstance, the pressure of misfortune,
persecution, loss, temptation, and the like--Love displays itself as
_Fortitude_, and finds both a passive and active sphere of exercise.
As a passive virtue fortitude is the 'world-resisting' element in
character. The hostility of the world to virtue is only one form of
its hostility to God[555]. Fortitude is thus essentially the same in
all stages of social development. When the world-principle was
embodied in a concrete form, and became in the imperial power of Borne
a definite force hostile to the Church[556], fortitude displayed
itself for the most part as patience under persecution (S. Augustine
in his treatment of this virtue naturally contemplates it under this
aspect); but the precise form of influence to be resisted will
obviously vary from age to age, while the element of _resistance_ in
Christian character remains constant.
The name of 'fortitude,' however, must not be restricted to passive
endurance, prominent as this virtue is in Christ's teaching. Fortitude
embraces spheres of action, and will display itself on occasion as
_resentment_. Righteous anger has its source in the temper exactly
opposed to Stoic apathy respecting sin--that 'loveless view' of
mankind which said 'Trouble not thyself; thy neighbour sins, but he
sins for himself[557].' There can be no true love of good without a
just abhorrence of evil. Hence it sometimes occurs that love takes the
form of indignation and holy zeal--when directed, for example, against
oppression, cruelty, ingratitude, deceit, selfishness. Such resentment
is a natural and generous emotion, born of sympathy with God Himself.
Comparing with the Christian conception of resentment Aristotle's
discussion of anger, we find that Christian teachers lay stress on the
_social end_ of resentment. What the good Christian resents is not a
personal hurt, but injury and wrong-doing viewed as injurious to his
neighbour or the community; such resentment is distinguished by purity
of motive; in certain circumstances it is not unwilling to inflict
pain.
_Moral courage_, again, is the form which fortitude assumes under
other circumstances, too numerous to be specified. Generally it is
displayed on occasions when the Christian is bearing witness to the
cause of truth or righteousness before men. No Christian can rid
himself of his share in the function of _witness_, committed to His
followers by Christ. And fortitude, or manliness, is the virtue of a
witness--of the solitary champion of a good cause confronting
opposition in any of its forms. The name 'athlete,' which we find
applied to martyrs in early times, may remind us that the task which
beyond others must needs test a man's power to endure, and to stand
alone, is that of witnessing stedfastly for righteousness and truth.
Yet the call to bear witness comes in ways unexpected, and difficult
to define or classify: it may, for example, be a man's difficult duty
to withstand not opponents, but adherents and friends; to hold his own
not against 'the sneers and opposition of the bad, but the opinion and
authority of the good[558].' With this passing remark we quit the
subject.
In the above sketch of Christian character we have confined ourselves
to some salient features. We have said nothing of the gracious union
it presents of delicacy with strength, of communicativeness with
reserve, of energy with restfulness, of passion with tenderness. It is
difficult to delineate character without giving a look of formality to
what is essentially a mysterious, albeit well-marked, product. In
Christian goodness we see the handiwork of the Spirit of God, and
where He is, there is liberty.
It is indeed objected that this type of character is too rare, too
exalted for the majority of mankind. It is said that a standard of
perfection is set before them which it is hopeless to think of
attaining; that men are disheartened; that Christian teachers 'ask for
the impossible,' and undermine belief in the possibility of virtue. It
is further suggested that the rarity of the type proves that the saint
'is born, not made;' and that radical change of character and
disposition is impossible[559].
The last point may be noticed in another connection. At present we may
suggest, in reply to these reflections, one consideration. The
objector forgets that Christianity does not merely present a moral
standard to men; it provides them with an entire system of moral
education. The Church recognises different degrees of maturity and
attainment in her children. It is no part of her method, though
possibly an accident of a particular age or set of conditions, that
she sets strong meat before babes, and appeals to children as if they
were grown men. That very 'individual treatment' of characters on
which the writer of the _Service of Man_ insists, is a fundamental
principle of the Christian system[560].
IV. _Christ the Source of the Recreation of Character._
The subject which we now approach is, taken as a whole, peculiar to
Christian Ethics. For it will be admitted that Christianity alone
offers a solution of the practical problem, how is the ideal of virtue
to be translated into life and practice? 'It is the essential
weakness,' says a living writer, 'of all mere systems of morality, and
of most, if not all, other religions, that they confine themselves to
pointing out what the facts of life ought to be, and make no provision
whatever for dealing with facts as they are.... It is their main
defect, not that they conflict with Christianity, but that they fail
to touch the problem with which it most directly deals[561].' Of
course, in advancing this claim for Christianity, we imply that it is
something vastly greater than a system of morals. It is a Divine way
of salvation, that is, of deliverance from sin, as well as from its
effects; the process by which the ideal becomes actual in life and
character is also, as we have seen, a process of restoration.
Christianity, in fact, professes to be a Divinely-provided remedy for
disorder and disease; strictly speaking, therefore, a treatise on
ethics must investigate the pathology of sin, regarded as the
violation of moral order, and the fatal misdirection of desire. This
aspect of the Gospel has been too much disregarded, even by Christian
thinkers[562]. It follows, however, from the Scriptural account of man
that he has lost something which can only be supernaturally restored:
and it is the practical task of ethics to point out the means of
renewal, which Divine Wisdom has provided.
The mysterious facts which lie at the root of the recreative process
must be briefly noticed. Christian holiness is the reproduction in the
individual of the life of the Incarnate Son of God. That this might be
possible, there took place that series of events which S. John
describes as the glorification of Jesus Christ. The life, perfectly
well-pleasing to God, and therefore the supreme standard of holiness,
passes through the stage of death. The Sacrifice on Calvary removes
the barrier raised between the Creator and His creatures by sin. The
Resurrection is, on the one hand, the seal of God's acceptance stamped
upon His Son's atoning work; on the other, marks the final stage in
that process by which Christ's human nature is 'perfected[563].' For
by the Resurrection that Nature is spiritualized, is released from
earthly limitations, and becomes available as a recreative force. The
Ascension is the condition of Christ's manifestation as 'a quickening
Spirit,' as the 'power of God.' By sacramental channels He
communicates to our entire nature His life-giving humanity, as the
means of our recreation after the image of God. Thus the life of the
Incarnate is extended in the life of the redeemed, and by a natural
and orderly growth, the character of Christ is reproduced in His
members through the continuous operation of the Spirit, whose office
it is to 'take of the things of Christ and shew them unto' men. He who
is outwardly our example thus becomes an inward principle of life.
We now are in a position to estimate the extent to which Christian
morality depends on dogmatic truths. Apart from Jesus Christ there can
be no true life. The secret of holiness lies in _a permanent relation
to a living Christ_. He, by His life and death, 'became unto us
Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption[564].' The example
was not upheld in vain; for Christ placed within our reach the
spiritual forces by which alone the pattern can be reproduced in human
life. 'Sanctification' means the progressive appropriation by man of
the life of the Son of God; the formation in him, by successive
stages, of the very image of Christ. The objective aspect of
Sanctification is clearly presented in the Old Testament; holiness
there implies consecration, and is thought of chiefly as an objective
work of God. In the New Testament, the idea of holiness passes from
the sphere of worship to that of morality. But the Old Testament
conception is not lost; it is expanded. Holiness, according to the
Christian view, results not from the efforts of man, but from the
outflow and operation of a Divine Life. Holiness is spoken of as 'the
righteousness of God,' as a 'free gift' imparted to man; and in the
first instance requires receptivity rather than activity on the part
of the human soul.
The ethical significance of baptism is thus intelligible. By baptism
the individual is brought into vital contact with the Source of the
new life, and enters the sphere within which radiate the spiritual
forces that flow from the glorified humanity of Christ; the germ of _a
new personality_ is imparted; the kingdom of God is entered. But in
this new birth the work is only begun; for the 'Grace of God that
bringeth salvation' has an abiding home among men. It is misleading to
speak of Grace as 'an unknown factor.' Still more so to assert that
'Theology has always been celebrating the power of Grace to the
depreciation of Ethics[565].' Grace has its fixed channels and
methods, its orderly movement and outflow, its certain conditions, its
appointed places and seasons, its definite, though mysterious, laws of
operation[566]. Grace is, so to speak, stored and dispensed within the
mediatorial kingdom which Christ founded in His Church. From an
ethical standpoint the Church of God is before all else _a school of
character_[567], the Divinely-appointed sphere in which, normally, the
recreation of personality proceeds, in which men are sanctified by
being kept in living union and contact with Jesus Christ Himself.
To enumerate the several 'means of grace' committed to the stewardship
of the Church is the task of theology, as also to explain the
conditions of fruitfully using them. On one point only it may be worth
while to make a few remarks.
To Christianity, as we have seen, each individual personality is an
end in itself. Each has a right to moral education; each was called
into being that it might embody a particular thought of God, that it
might fulfil good works prepared specially for _it_, and correspond
with its own separate ideal[568]. Hence, true to the spirit of Him who
was a Physician of the sick, Christianity offers her Divine remedies
to the worst and most hardened natures. She believes in her power to
renew and transfigure them, to achieve in them a moral miracle. Nobler
natures, again, she endeavours to train up to the full stature of
Christ-like character, sanctifying, consecrating, and elevating the
innate capacities of each. Her healing mission extends to all men. She
knows nothing of the aristocratic temper of ancient ethics, which
would confine the very possibility of a moral life to the few. She
rejoices in the infinite variety of typical forms which character may
assume. A Christian poet has said--
There is not on the earth a soul so base
But may obtain a place,
In covenanted grace;
So that his feeble prayer of faith obtains
Some loosening of his chains
And earnests of the great release, which rise
From gift to gift, and reach at length the eternal prize.
All may save self;--but minds that heavenward tower
Aim at a wider power,
Gifts on the world to shower.
And this is not at once; by fastings gained
And trials well sustained;
By pureness, righteous deeds, and toils of love,
Abidance in the truth, and zeal for God above[569].
Now this idea of individual perfection, so characteristic of
Christianity, is in the New Testament not dissociated from the idea of
a society, family, or household of God, in which alone the _full_
development of Christian character can be achieved. Corporate life,
with its network of relationships, its mutual services, its common
worship, its visible pledges of brotherhood--this is God's great
instrument in the edification of character. So far, indeed, as the
body is divided or weakened, the pressure it exerts on the individual
is hindered, and the free play of its forces diminished[570].
In the Church, then, we have the true school of character, the true
'home of individuality,' and sphere of spiritual edification. The
normal course of spiritual growth is one of widely varied experiences:
it passes through the stage of repentance with its appropriate works;
it is schooled by the chastening discipline of common life[571]; it is
marked by progressive power of submission to the leadings of grace.
This would suggest an interesting line of study, and one suitable for
ethical treatment, but must not now detain us. It is advisable,
however, in this connection not to overlook the subject of Christian
_ascetics_: a word which has often excited unjust suspicion and
contempt, and thereby been robbed of the noble associations which
rightfully belong to it.
The name 'ascetics' is suitably applied to those Divinely-sanctioned
exercises which, by precept and example, Christ commended as aids to
holiness--Prayer, Almsgiving, and Fasting. Reflection, indeed, shews
that these ordinances occupy a conspicuous place in the Gospel,
because they have a natural connection with the three principal
spheres of Christian duty,--duty towards God, towards man, towards
self. They are ways in which devotion to God, love to man, discipline
of self, find each an appropriate expression. Reason and experience
alike suggest that the Christian character, with its harmonious beauty
and delicate strength, can only be the product of continuous spiritual
discipline, wise restraint, and regulated effort. A feature,
therefore, of Christ's practical teaching is His provision for what
is, to average human nature, at least a moral necessity. Presenting
Himself as the supreme example of the freedom which can control and
use circumstances for a spiritual end, He lays down the threefold rule
of Christian ascetics, to guide the wills and affections of those whom
He calls to follow His steps.
The end of discipline is, of course, freedom: that is, the perfect
dominion of the Spirit in man. Aiming at this liberty the Christian
looks on the threefold ordinance of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting as
a help to his development; it is to him no mere arbitrary direction
imposed by authority, no vexatious restraint on lawful pleasure; but
an efficacious aid to Christ-like holiness commended by the practice,
and proved by the experience, of holy men in every age, and expressly
enjoined by our Lord Himself[572].
It may surprise us somewhat to find _Prayer_ included among ascetic
exercises. For prayer is the ordinary activity of the human spirit in
relation to God: man's natural expression of self-dedication: his
effort to embrace God's Will as his choice, God's Law as his rule,
God's Perfection as his pattern. Yet because prayer implies
regularity, discipline, persevering effort; because it has its
different parts, its proper occasions, and methods; because it is the
exercise of a distinct faculty; in short, because it is an arduous
work, it finds a place among exercises which seem at first sight to be
of a more formal character.
This will appear more clearly on consideration of the different parts
of prayer. Thus prayer is in part to be viewed as humble
acknowledgment of an ideal unattained, and consequent renewal of
desire in that direction. As containing, therefore, an element of
self-purification, of striving after deeper self-knowledge, prayer
includes the practice of self-examination and confession of sin.
Regarded, again, as an exercise of affection and intellect, prayer
takes the form of _contemplation_, and communion with God, as the
supreme object of reverence and love. Thus it is evident that prayer
is a real exercise, well fitted to be an education, of the soul, and
arduous because it implies an intense activity of the entire
personality. Even the body has its share in this exercise. It is the
appointed instrument of man's spiritual self-oblation; and prayer is
the acknowledgment not only that God is the 'Father of spirits,' but
that the body also 'is for the Lord[573].'
_Almsgiving_ is placed by Christ among known and admitted forms of
devotion. Viewed simply as an action, it is an obvious outlet of
Christian love to man[574]. But almsgiving has another aspect, on
which early writers insist with some fullness. It is a means of grace,
a purifying element in the spiritual life of the agent. It is not
often, perhaps, that this side of the duty is adequately taught. The
danger of 'charity' becoming reckless or ill-directed is real, and may
cause Christian teachers to be reticent on the subject. Yet this
aspect of the truth must not be suppressed. And after all, almsgiving
seems to be specially mentioned by our Lord as a type of all works of
mercy[575]. Love, in its effort to imitate God, need not be less
discriminating than communicative. The Fatherly providence of God is
in fact the Christian's inspiration and his model: and we interpret
the scope of our Lord's commandment by study of _His_ life who 'for
our sakes, though rich, became poor,' and 'went about doing good,' and
who taught us in one pregnant sentence the mysterious efficacy of
almsgiving[576]. It need not be added that true Christian charity is
ever controlled by a due sense of the dignity of human nature, and of
the moral bond that unites giver and receiver.
Each of the three exercises under consideration is conditioned and
aided by the other two. There is a specially close connection,
however, between prayer and _fasting_. As a means of self-discipline,
fasting has been strangely neglected. Some regard it as a burdensome
restraint on the will; others as 'unsuited to a spiritual religion;'
others as unduly interfering with Christian liberty. Chiefly, perhaps,
the neglect of fasting is due to inexperience of its value as a
condition of spiritual power, and forgetfulness of the place assigned
to it in the teaching of our Lord and of the early Church. It is thus
right to insist, first, on its claim to be a Divine ordinance[577].
There can be nothing superfluous or incongruous in a practice which
Christ is so careful to regulate, and which He commends by His own
example. But the practice of fasting justifies itself as a point of
simple wisdom in the care of the personal life. Christian holiness
requires, as we have seen, an inward unity of the personality, in
which no one element has undue predominance. Bodily instincts and
passions, the powers of thought and imagination, the bias of
temperament--all have to be brought into subjection to the controlling
will. And the result is a character exhibiting a due balance of
different elements: a chastened spirit of dependence, spiritualized
affections, subdued thoughts, sober judgment, a purified heart, a
sensitive conscience, a just fear of unbridled appetite, a true
simplicity. Such is Christ-like holiness; and one great condition of
its attainment is fasting, chiefly in its literal sense of regular
abstinence from food[578], though its forms may be as varied as are
the avenues of sense-impressions. The motive of fasting may not be
always the same: sometimes it is the expression of penitential sorrow
for sin, or of the passion for inward purity; sometimes it is used as
a special aid to prayer; sometimes, again, it is the sign of wearisome
conflict with the lower nature; in any case it should be an exercise
of love. Thus we regard fasting, not as mere soulless, joyless
abstinence; but as a needful condition of purity, energy, vigour of
will, clearness of moral insight, and capacity to impart spiritual
gifts to our fellow-men. 'Wise souls,' says S. Leo, 'mortify their
bodies and crucify their senses; and therein set before themselves
God's will, loving themselves the more, in proportion as for the love
of God they love not themselves[579].'
Our apology for touching on topics so homely might well be that the
practical aim of ethics gives such points importance. There can be no
excuse needed, however, in days of wide-spread luxury, and of much
needlessly imperfect Christianity, for recalling and re-asserting the
necessity of the discipline, as well as of the moral precepts, of the
Sermon on the Mount.
V. _Christ's teaching as to the Consummation of God's Kingdom._
An outline of Christian Ethics would be incomplete without some
reference to those eschatological truths which occupy so large a place
in theology, and have so direct a bearing on morals. We have already
touched on them in connection with the Christian doctrine of the Chief
Good. It remains to consider them in relation to the perfection of
man's nature.