Salter Ethical - Religion

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!
.
..
I I
BY
. WILLIAM MACKINTIRE SALTER.
BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHER&
CO/JyriJrM, 1889,
By WILLIAM MACIUNTIRB SALTER.
··..
·...
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAIlIBIUDGB.

TO
FELIX
GEORG VON GI~~Y(:KI. AND EDWIN D. J.fJ..c.,4U,
THIS BOOK
IS GRATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.
,
..
to anyone who may
to say that it is made up
for the most for
Ethical is due to my
lea~Els in the to say that
are not for the views
£ll>llUCliI.1 I but
~[ov·errlent."
it. bond of
lecltulrers, as between mem-
£l~llllCliU Societil9s is not a spl~culative but
ho'we,rer. that my own
is so
it would be dilfficult to measure it.
th()Ug:hts in this the best
his th()Ughts
in my
never me, that are a
I ha,re gone o\"cr
ii PREFACE.
these I con-
stant are my obliga·tiOl18 to him.
An criticism which a trans-
of some these 1 leads
me at the outset to disclaim for any
It is not even a connected
series discourses; there are
lec:tmres were not written in
for putliiclil.tioin at but to qui,ckelll,
th(luR'ht.s and lives
There is
is a Moral Action?"
to anfLlY2:e and fix a COIJLCe~ltioJIl,
to
I was gratifi€~d Arist<ltle had made
tbolllR'b the master
out in as many
attempted to write a
metbcld would been
per'halls have been to
clear up some cOllfusion and in(:onsisteIlLCi€IS
with which my tl1clughts may seem to be involved.
For I to eXlllai,n
1 Published under the title, "Die """'''l'i'''U
translated von
Berlin, Wilhelm Friedrich, 1885. A Dutch
the same, the hand of the Rev. P. H. Hu:geJwoltz,
of in 1888 under the
Amsterdam, van Holkema.
the Nicomacbean U. 4, § 8.
PREFACE.
im~biJlity to assent to on the one

POl5iti"visliD on the other; I should have
to
which I cannot
tarian or I say "att;emlptl~d,~
do not assume that my intelll~ctlilal pmliti()lls
own
phiJosoJphicaHy I
enlfLrge them.
to come· be-
practical and
but men
and women who are in the midst stress of
is that it may be too scholastic
as I it too much in
nrnlm~l)nto tbeformer.
iv PREFACE.
with
count
I wish to
for val:uable c()unl~els
was pas!ling throu~th
W. :M:. S.
1889.
CO TE T
P.lGB
ETHICAL RELIGION • 1
~ II. THE IDEAL ELEMENT IN MORALITY 22
.Jill. WHAT IS A :MORAL ACTION? 42
• V IV: Is THERE A HIGHER LAW? 59
'" V. Is THERE ANYTHING ABSOLUTE ABOUT :Mo-
RALITY? • 88
VI. DARWINISM IN ETHICS 102
.j VII. THE SOCIAL IDEAL 121
VIII. THE RIGHTS OF LABOR 142
IX. PERSONAL MORALITY 159
.JX. ON SOME FEATURES OF THE ETHICS OF JESUS 119
oJ XI. DOES THE ETHICS OF JESUS SATISFY THE
NEEDS OF OUR TIME? • 200
XII. GOOD FRIDAY FROM A MODERN STANDPOINT 221
.~ XIU. THE SUCCESS AND THE FAILURE OF PROT-
ESTANTISM 244
WHY UNITARIANISM FAILS TO SATISFY 266
J XV. THE BASIS OF THE ETHICAL MOVEMENT 281
XVI. THE SUPREMACY OF ETHICS " 304
XVU. THE TRUE BASIS OF RELIGIOUS UNION 319
I.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
moral nature is that which we transcend

ourselves and enter into an ideal Sci-~
enee, with its methods of observation and ex:peJ1m:ent,
is limited to the world as it is. Ethics is esslentially
the of what to be. It is not an account
of man as he nor is it a and summary
abstract of the facts of j it declares the law
after which man should and in obedience to which
should be constituted. holds
up the of our ideal and us back
For man has two sides to his
lookin:g out on what the other on
be. It is a meritorious task to
and brain and mind of man j to ex-
cOlJiscient;io1Jisly and the
But and sociol-
ogy do not take the of nor even its
ini!islpeJlsable foundation. In the strict sense of the
science the science of man as as any
other knows of and wrong, but
of what is; of and the law of their connection.
8 ETHICAL RELIGION.
To the pure virtue and vice do not

exist. These notions arise in virtue of our ju<lgIllleIlt
upon facts; and the organ of that jucLgulent. is other
than that which we learn of and the facts
themselves: men call it Conscience. It pronounces
upon the worth of facts; for may sometimes
seem as firm as the earth and as constant as
and and have no moral to be. Such
self-a:sserti~[)D, wrong,-
may be continuous with the course of
; and all the laws and institutions created
under their influence are withont force or
The of life consist in in

mind the ends and laws of our existence.
For man is not to but to do and to achieve.
' Stl'ange, is it that man should not be content
with what he sees; that he should turn his back on
the known and familiar in search of bet-
ter; that he should stake his life sometimes on a
or dream of his mind? Yet to man:
it is the ideal ends of human life on him for
their ; and and does
not fail to hear.
Ethical would turn men's this
I way, It would
It would be
I tical and
on men a
a
to a new confidence in ideas.
to them a
not prac-
because ideal. It would
- a bur-
den the relief from which is in action; a ta:sk
which is till it be Like an
architect's an idea means in itself: it
proposes a new form of as the involves a new
ETHICAL RELIGION. 9
structure. For as the whose soul some
form of the seizes the brush or the chisel to
..........+,.,,'u it; as the thinker's drive him
uti;er:anl3e,-so in the moral nature every idea
becomes a every of the
a command j all that we dream of and that
seems 80 far away becomes an end and for our
action and our life. Yet how is the full prac.-
tical of the ideal side of human nature
realized! In what illusions do men them- '-
selves in of the ideall
there is the rosthetic or sentimental mistake.
:; Men wander into an ideal to luxuriate there.
II
jThe of;
love say, - do ev.~rvthiinl!'
it. Much of the of onr
is but a kind of wherein
men allow themselves the use of all kinds of fine sen-
timents and after whioh life is as flat as
ever. This is but because
it is false idealism. That ideas are but the pal~tel~n
after which we are to fashion our lives is not realized;
the element of for them is If a mau
is not in the mood to if he will not become
let him not think the ideas of the better at all. It
is a kind of of them to face and not
to act as command.
C!!""",11"" akin to this resthetic or sentimental mistake
philOilophic:al mistake of the ideal as -
another world of the actual world. It is so
easy to those who are accustomed to deal with ideas
to think of them as substantial
become so familiar with them that the natural order
10 ETHICAL RELIGION.
I
of human is iuverted j and the ideas are
of as aud the actual world as an appear-
ance. This seems to have- been the Platonic view.
Goodlless, JI.ll:I~J"~", - moral as well as all
Plato looked at as entities.
The ideal world was another literal world like onr
own, more If this were so, what should
we have to do but to lift our to that ideal
and there find the rest ahd peace that are
denied to us here?
'\ That be one kind of ; but it
would not be a And what is more,
it would be an ; for there is no such
ideal world as Plato The Platonic world in
its moral is more than the world as we
should like to see the world as it to be. It
is in truth but an ideal for our world j and to
transform this actual order of our human life into an
of it would be the task of a practical rElligion.
The truest word that could be addressed to us If
thou wilt ever see the thou must create it;
till thou over the earth or thr,oug:h
the heavens in vain! The idea of is
in us; the itself is to be. Meu Cau we be
satisfied with such a view j cau we be content to
all that is and better as a of our
minds? But a noble mind does not first What is
satisfll.Ct<)ry ? What is true? And I am sure that
one who has been up the of the
and felt that the burden and the of ac-
cOlnplis]ling it rested upon would feel the rich·
est satisfactions denied him if told that the
was and he had to open some
ETmCAL RELIGION. 11
fancied spirit1l1al eyes to discern it. What me:aning,
what would there be in our with
tho,ugllt and purpose to learn that that
which we were to do is ? "Cer-
said the on
p.orninJl up to the Earl of and
fin,din,f!' the battle wou, have neither
been courteous nor behaved to my
enemies without for me, that you had.
sent for me." That is an view of life
which leaves us to which fixes on us no
reslpo:usibilitiEIS, which encircles us with no
trusts. In in our heart of we want to
we want to dare j we do not care even to be as-
sured of : there is a in us
which disdains the need of such assurances.
And as the mistake is to the hill:helilt
of mind not untrue and but uu-
satisflwtory rather thau so is the theo- -
mistake. all our th()Ug:htll,
of the and better and conceives the
in the form of a persou who rules and
the world. There is a noble side to
mean, of course, not as savages or narrow but
as pure and souls have conceived it. God is the
j there are no lilIlita,tious,
measureless infinite J
W"WAVV,
of the mind. And if the alternative were

between the world as it with no tholngllt
. above it which to and this
of excellence which be ever
not see how we could hesitate in which
would be the better. must lcok on all that is r
~
from some ideal we must in our
minds some aud standard of excel-
lence; and until is made for this iu the
new order of the old belief will and
deserve to remain. For man has these two sides to
his of which I have and the most per-
fect of what is will not take the of
the of what to be. the noble side
of is from itself.
• When one ceases to believe in God in the orclinluy
sense, one does not need to flat to the world and
life as we see them and know them. All that made
that admirable all those
qu:alit;ies that we call divine and that
mankind wherever any hint or
sUI~g€lsti.on of them appears in human
ness, boundless "h"r,f,'7
We do not find these in the we do not see
them in ourselves; and so, foolish creatures that we
are, we to the conclusion that are in an-
other that to God. And here is
the side to ; for not is the per-
sonal of bnt the
divine into a form outside of man, it allows
us to that are for man, and reli-
becomes the of exist-
instead of the sense of a burden and a task. We
are to become divine: we are to this world a
- scene of All that men have into the V
form of a God is but the of our possible
'Ve make a of love aud JW"U4VV,
that are in the as Chris-

tian believers hold; or as Emerson says, that "t.lflOl1u"h
ETHICAL RELIGION. 13
ministers of and that the
ethica.llaws are self-e:lteciutimg, instantaneous.l Justice
is forever in the world. Whenever ministers
of it fails; for it a real existence
in those who execute Aside from it
what to that is. There are
self~ex:e(mtilng, installta:neclUs, ethical laws;
one when one thinks of all the nn:regluitied
wrong there is in the wish to heaven that there
were. The laws are over us, but wait for us to
execute them: are shorn of their as
our lives are of their if we do not exe-
cute them. We can say that the ethical laws
should rule in all our that forever calls
for ministers; and of not that it is supreme in
the but let as Buddha even the love
that fills the mother's heart as she watches over an
animate alL For the ideal itself of the
religi()Ds is not different from that of
the new. The old however say, The' ideal does rule:
the new will say, Let it rule! The' ola: ap-
pear to open to us the secrets of what lies bl:lhind the
veil: the new will take those and make
them in all their the aim and the rule of hu-
man life. The old leave us on our knees in
cOIlte:mpilation and : the new will sum·
mon us to stand and to believe that all that men
have aU that have dreamed all
that has seemed so far above them and
men and women in the future are to become and 110
realize.
But if man's ideals do not reveal ltn,rt.hi'nl7
1 The Preacher.
outside indicate what we ourselves

should be and do we of devotion to
them as at all 'f I do not covet that
and disbelieve in all the forms of religi'on,
I do not with a.ny to with
them, And I am driven to of relig'il[)n,
not indeed in the common way, as of ad-
ditional to but of as religion.
This may be made evident in two ways.
from the human side be defined as man's
... supreme interest: has an concern
may be said to have a We often hear per-
sons of as devoted to some
religiouisly faithful in some some
some affection. There are those who have memories
that are to them a -statesmen to whom the
service of their has been a refOl'mers
who their lives and fortunes in devotion I
to the servioe of some idea. Those who oare for no
one more than who have no
who are listless and cannot be conceived as to
I
any of these are the
of any time. In vain would the I
a
of life and the universe be called
if it could not stir the souls of men, if it
could not take hold of life aud mould it into
I
j
forms. If
becomes supreme over all other
of any, if it sts their
if the of the
in the minds
and masters their
I
it is their n. I that there
is no other that wins so instinctive a reverence I
as this of the j that of the and
for a truer take hold of men
as in some sense or it. The "-
qUElstiLon whether can become a for
men in is the whether men in gen-
eral are of unselfish admiration j whether
can love the unmoved fears
and because it is the and has au intrin-
sic charm for them. I do not doubt it. I believe we
ordimuiJly think too of man. The na-
ture is in us all: it is not often and it
is for this very reason that human life re-
mains on so low a level. Let a new arise
which should dare to take man at his which
should summon him to and and
all because these are bis true and
proper and I believe the world would be as-
tonished at the answer.
But may also be defined from
side. In this it is man's relation with what is
ultimate and supreme in the world. The truest reli-
would be that one in which the supreme interest
6~"~"""U about that which is supreme and ulti-
mate in the world.
does man into contact with the final nature of
'Whatever else I may doubt I cannot
doubt the law of that there is a and a
wrong j that the me, that I to do it.
It makes no difference that I have learned this that
others have learned it that I know little more
about it than I have received or been ; it makes
no difference that I do not know it now that
I may err sometimes in my about it.
I am sure, as Dorothea in the that there is
1 Middlemll.J.'ch.
ETffiCAL REl~IGlON.
ETmCAL RELiGIOl!t.
reverence and it
become to of another human
or any rational And men have failed
reverence, in for others l have unllliushinglly
used are so and them
How has the law been ! The law is'
it were never OutlYtllll.
mOirality becomes religi,on. He alone \
does a gelluineJly moral act who does it because he
because the nature of bears down upon
him to do it. would be to
become a ; to own the pressure that would
the form. For man, it can be to be a man,
to peldorm the human of the universal task. Mo-'
one form of the universal law ; and in
yiElldilng to its demands man is lifted out of him-
and as the tides of ocean throb " to
the far-off so do his beat in unison with
the movement of the universe. Yet how little is the
transcendent of realized in these
! How often are divine and eternal con-
trasted with it! Ethics cover the
and amenities of this it is sometimes said. But
there' is no of this world: there is
as as on any other shinin,g
as on and above the moral virtues
the soul a fed from "
so reads a Unitarian tract. Whence come then the
moral virtues? From from from
the sense of from selfishness?
who think so never breathed the climate of mo-
ChBmnilng, when a of niuleteien,
"All sentiments and affections have
2
I once considered mere moral attainments as the

I had to pursue. I have now solemnly
up to God." This is an uwnea,niDlg a:ntil~he:sis,
a of the falsehood of the old religiOlls CI.lUlln::,
which he afterward himself for years
later he wrote: (, The love of God is but another na:me
for the love of essential benevolence and " and
the of not to "raise us to some-
than for that would be to raise
I but to us snblime ideas
fj of is a pure concern of man with
. man, it is often said; it is that binds us to
a order of Yet ethics is but
the response which man and man make to the
order of ; for the reason of not that
another wants it and I choose to but that he
to have it and I to it. The
abE,oltlte, not conditioned on our will or th(lUg:ht,
to us in and the nature of
• realized in its is ; it is the reli·
for the rational man. In my humblest human
"."",,,,,,,. I may be conscious of the call which a
nUi'hAr--niltv. the makes upon me.
reverence, awe, all those sentiments so often
contrasted with are but mo-
; and when the moral act is is its
-eCl$t3sy, which is the grace heaven sets npon
the moment in which the 80ul weds itself to the
8pe~aking of an eL[IlU~H. an essent;ial]!y practiCll1

religion, I have not in mind a few 8ul>erllicua.1
imlPro'veUlentson the old religi()Ds. I mean not
, a little more .( prsl.CticaI " a little more attention
to the necessities of the poor, a little better education
of the young among a of their life a lit-
tle more An
ethical would mean but because it meant
more. It is else than a Chll.nl':ed thl)u~:ht
of the nature of which I have in
that it can be no for rational men
w(Jlrsllip or pray, but to have the sense of a the
sense of somewhat limitless to and to 00-
cOIuplish it. The Christian Church in one of
its
"Oh, where are kings and empires now,
Of old that went and came 1
But holy Church is praying yet,
A thousand years the same."
it not go on a thousand years more,

and no better result come of it ? If we must pray, let
us pray to men; for there all the trouble lies. Could
you, 0 but open the hearts of your worship-
as you seek to move the heart of the need
all other prayer would soon be gone. is
not the evil and wrong in the aud trust-
that somehow in the counsels of God it is all for
the but in the evil and the
wrong, and in on the as John Stuart
Mill says, to its distant and not uncertain trillm.ph.
The truest the truest voice of the nature of
is not in what we see, but in our of
what to be. Trust 0 Reformer!
thou comest never so to the heart and of
as in them. This that thou this that
seems 80 so secure, so will after a
20 ETffiCAL RELIGION.
time vanish away; and what thou thinkest what

thou art called for to think will
tlum be the real!
To the finest flower of New En.glawd CU1"UJ:t:!, to
EIIlLers:on. was the essential
between morals and I
know what true of mine the reader will not
striplled of its of in him.
n~~~ ~ ~~ ~
the that come alone out of the culture
of the moral nature.1 was to him the rhet-
oric of morals.' "The mind of this age," he says, "has
fallen away from to morals. I conceive it to
be an advance." Unbelief to him was hold of
the moral intuitions.4 was the pr.iLCtices,
vate and in honor of the moral sentiment.* The
COIJlIIlandiIlg fact which he never lost of was the
suiticienc:y of this sentiment.· He will not allow that
ethics do not or that
a and not the which the rule is ani-
mated.s All the he says, is the eth-
ics of one or another And whenever
the sublimities of cbar.iLCter are incarnated in a man,
we may that awe and love and insatiable curiosity
will follow in his "No he says, "can
tell what revolutions await us in the next
1 The Sovereignty of EtbiCl (in Lectures and Biographical
Sketches).
2 Divinity School Address.
, ChllrllCter (in Lectllrel and Biographical Sketche!l).
4 The Preacher. I Sovereignty of Etbica.
• Ibid. 1 Ibid.
S Character (in Lectures and Sketches).
II Sovereignty of EthiCII. Character.
ETmCAL RELIGION.
years; and the education in the divinit;v c()lleges

well hesitate and vary. But the science _"::..==~"'"
I.!2....!!!~~~s j and whoever feels any love or skill for
may out all his and
wl1!1"kilnp' that mine. The may
pla,tfolrm will not. All the victories of re-
to the moral sentiments." He has a
faith that America shall introduce a pure religi(lD,l
since a true nation loves its vernacular and
will not its as we have ours from
Judea. 1
It is a to to translate the old
truths of the moral nature into the of
T1Jleolog~ is not ;plOre, but less than the truth. Life in
the future shall not be but more with
sig:nifica:nce than ever before; for no shall men
be of a divine task acc:omlplish-
in the but themselves the of
themselves the hands which the eternal purpose
realizes itself.
So1rerelgtrty of EthiCil. I Character.
THE IDEAL ELEMENT IN
HE current views of are low and con-

ventional. Even the which should
us with an ideal view of talk of "mere
Mo,rality is to be without mys-
Wo!rsllip is contrasted with it.!l A celebrated
En,glish prea,chl~r says, of di-
vine and eternal becomes a moral
dis:ctt:1licie without the of awe and
love and and fear." 3 is
not one of those divine and eternal j there is
nothicig about it to touch the soul with love or awe,
with or fear I it is often said that moral-
cannot live save as it is in ; that
it is but a branch from the root of reliigiclD. t
1 Natural Religion, p. 132; cf. the passage on p. 188: "At this
point it is, at this disappointing identification of religion with
morality, that the breach takes place. Can, then, relipon mean
no more than that we should PO.'! our debts, our en9,agllments,
and not be too hard on ollr enemies f " (The italice are Thill
is all then that morality means I
2 Ibid., p. 184.
I R. W. Dale, ContemlJ'OrlLry Review, April, 1883.
4 So Channing sald,ln early life (Life, A. U. A. ed., p. 74); but
later he wrote, "To love God Is to love moralIty In its most per-
fect form," and the office of religion is not to raise us "to some-
thing higher than moralIty," but to give us "sublime Ideas of
THE IDEAL ELEMENT IN MORALITY. 23
in contrast with these conventional views I
wish to out the ideal of I
wish to show that it before us
and the I
wish to show that there is sOJtIle'thing
hold of j that it may and does in all but
the coarsest stir awe and love and and
fear. I wish to show that the true res
it nowhere exists now - is but the
1
blo,ss()mi,ng out of j that is its
instead of a branch from the root of reJ.igion.
And I am anxious to show this to the
satisfaction of those who are not accustomed to
are called idealistic modes of th(lUg:ht.
Let me say at the outset that the ideal
view' of with which I am now concerned does
not rest upon idealism in There is no
reason the materialist should not
me in what I shall say of As matter
of there seems to be as much moral idealism
among those who call themselves materialists as
among any other class of Think for a mo-
ment of the revolutionists in - most of them
young men and women, it is you could
not offer affront than to call them idealists.l
are materialists j do not believe in a God or
a future life j the world of the senses is alone real to
morality" (Life, 230, 231). The conventional view is weU

brought out in .. above by Rev. Richard
Metcalf, - a tract published by the American Unitarian Associa·
tion, Boston. ,
1 M. Leroy·Beaulieu in Lalor's Cyclopoedia of Political Sci·
ence, article "Nihilism."
them. Yet where do' their In

what see, in what their senses can
in the actual order of social and poJlitical
forever confronts them? No; but in sornethiIlg
do not see, in that is not and never has
been in - an era of an era. of democ-
racy, an era. of brotherhood. So as this era is
it is but a an idea. And for that pos-
"","n,v. for that leave sometimes rank
l:ll'a.1JIUU, become almost ascetics in their mode of
and are to go to Siberia or the scaffold.
.No1thing, not life is so dear to them as the
the of their and their hearts.
Nor is moral idealism inconsistent with the utilita-
rian of the and sanction of our moral
ideas. Utilitarianism says that our notions of
and wrong do not come from some intuition or
re'7el:ati,on, but arise in the natural course of human
eXl)eriLenl~e and and that has
its ultimate sanction in its to the
the universal I am not con-
cerned with this or any other but with
the content of the ideal natnre of which is
often so realized. As matter of utilita-
rians are as often in the sense in which I
am now the as the advocates of any other
of are. Bentham is called
the father of modern utilitarianism; what gre,ate~r
reformer has had the last hundred
years in and
edllC&'tiolll, than Bentham? Of him and Mill
it has been well that .that was
all·po,ver1I'ul,that no bard and fast line could be drawn
THE IDEAL ELEMENT IN MORALITY.
between the sound and the prllCticaUy

feasibl.e, and that every and int1elli,gible
recluiJred energy and determination to convert it
at once into a of maxims and set
to work in all directions with undaunted applicat;ioIlS
of their brand new doctrines to the crude material of
fact." 1 This is the very of asI am
concerned with it at this time. Reform is eS!lentially
reformer takes his staud not with
what but what conceives to be; not
with the customs and traditioIlS and institutions that
have come down f:rom the but with the ideas
that he believes must rule in the future. Successful
reform means, a fact an idea.
J ideal of
~ in to show that it us away from what we
I see and know to what we can think let me be
! ~ understood as to the realm of
!r the human mind. is involved in the same
. of
. ". . • thoughtll beyond the reachell of our SOull."S
I But moral
. with are
however much may contrast
of the human mind. To
win them and to live in them is not to lose oUlrselves,
but to ourselves. We are not so much
space as is covered our but minds that can
take in the and the that can wander over
the earth and climb to the that can muse on
what is and think of the better that be. There
1 G. S. Bower's and Jamel Mill, p. 227. See also
Maine's Ancil.'nt Law, p. 75-
2 Hamlet, act i. scene 4.
is no outside to the mind; the most

( are thcmg.l1ts of what may be.
With these let me pro1cee,d to my task.
What are more natural and COIUUIODlpll:l.Ce eXlper'ieIlCe,s
with us than our wishes and wants? But if we reflect
a it is easy to see that have an ideal
nificance. We do not wish for what we have or for
what we are ; we wish for what we have not
or are for what we are for in the
literal sense, we want. What is then the wished-for
but a or an idea? If we to
we shall see that all our wishes and wants
go out to ideas. It may seem that we should
often set more store what is not than what is.
should we; it may be asked. We canuot answer
save that it seems a of our nature to
do so. As it to us to hear and see, so it does
to think of what we do not hear or see, to be dis-
contented j to reach to form ideals. it
is a for progress, for for movement; for
if one is conscious of no if he has no
nor what is he but without an
incentive to without the even of
becoming more than he is ?
Our ideas are, of two kinds. It is a
way from a child's for a doll or a sled to a
young man's or a young woman's desire to lead a pure,
blameless or the mature to see
• reflected in the of l:luc:1tn,y •
There is a all life between
our after what we may call COUI-
prclspElrit;y, el1io'"ml~ut. and those after gocldnl~ss.
We cannot say we to
be but that we should like to be; but we

do say that we to be aud this even if we do
not wish to if our matter-of-fact desires chance at
any moment to be clean of a sort. In a
the note of seems to go with a certaiu
class of ideas. We live amid ideas to the extent that
we live at all; but some of the ideas we
crave, and others seem to bind us, - some we can make
a for our lives if we and others seem
fixed for us, so that we cannot turn from them with-
out some kind of
There is no necessary dishonor in not a home
and a or in not on a business career.
But with a to be unfaithful to or in business
to the laws of trnth and honor is moralJ.y
To read this or that book on a leisure
aft;erltlo()n. or to leave our books and take a
to turn our this street
or there to bind us in any of these
alternatives; it may be that no one is better than an-
other; the " better" may be to suit our to
do to our own sweet will. But often we
are in the face of one of which has a dis-
tinct nrgency about it j we know it to be even
we do not choose it; it seems to have a claim
upon ns whether we will or no, and our real task is not
to wait and see if our natural choice will not cllcmgt:,
but to to choose ever the true and the
those ideas out the countless nnmber that
that have this urgency about
that are int;ritLsic~aIIy better and seem to constrain us,
we call moral ideas; the sum of them make what we
call mOl~a1lt;y.
MlJ1rality is thus in essence ideal. It is not what

but what to do; not what
but what to wish. It is as with
truth. Truth is not what one to think; it is
not this or that belief which one may but that
which to the fact of And so with
art: a or a statue is not a work of art because
the brush or the chisel has been nsed in
but becanse it reflects in some the ideal of
the beautiful. Let me use some very illustra-
tions of the ideal nature of kind-
liness a of nature to most men; it
finds a field of in the where
others are so near to us, - how much sweeter
and more beautiful is the life of the where
kindliness is the law! But suppose that in some
this ceases to be the law; that some member
of it to show this loses his tem-
per, and grows and cross; and that
this affects the life of the and the
kindliness that was wont to be there goes and
leaves faint traces of do we hesitate to say
that kindliness is still the true ideal for that
that it is no it to be
and all should be with its ? Because
the facts have come to be to the have
we now doubt abont the ideal itself? not.
What difference does it make that mankind has come
from a time of barbarism in the
when there was no kindliness and no ideal of it; that
men have learned the that many have still to
learn it j that the of the best of us cor-
respOllds to our that the ideal itself may grow
THE IDEAL ELEMENT IN :MORALITY.
COl1l1pl.etElr and finer? The is it not

a trne ideal, could there have progress in the
in any other direction tha.n toward it; is it pos-
sible that there can be any progress in the future that
is away from it? No; the life of man may go
actua:lly in one way or but it can go one
way and go There is an ideal for it we
canuot conceive as ch:lIon~r.nlg.
Or take an illustration from the life of
men. The concern of the State should be for
I do not sa.y this has been the case, or tha.t
it is pe:rfectl:y so now. The State has often sim-
for power; the head of the State has often made
others his - men have held even
at his mercy. But does anyone hesitate to say that
the State should stand for that this makes an
ideal for it; that there can be progress in one di-
rection j that if the State comes to be in the pO!ISeElSioln
of men or classes of men, who rule for their own and
not for the this would be ?
lSnpPllSe that now makes a distinction
bet'weeln those men, hut are of dif-
ferent color j or in it has one law for the
rich and or none, for the poor, - should we not
hear within us and that
this be Is there not command-
BOllilethillg ilnpera,tiv'e in the of universal
? -- it is a word j but
is it even in our democratic a COIl1mOnl~la<le
? What is then? It is an - and one
it were never would not cease
to the and the for human gov-
ernment. Not all the and no will
ETHICAL RELIGION.
or combined will of the can

it. The supreme is to find it out
cornplletE~ly, and to establish it ; and if
human do not establish not the
but will be humbled and cast down. He
who stands -let him be aware of it-
stands the firmer and the louder
seems to stands an idea. Let
his it does for in truth
never be on this and not
of its ideal worth and its ideal
Or take an illustration from business life. What

honorable man does not truth before success in
business? Who does not feel that he to be
trlllthjEul, whether it will be to him or
not? Who does not feel that truth the ideal
for business and own it in his if not in
his and want to know how business can be
arr'anl~ed so that there will not be even the semblance
of a for else? What is many a
man's secret distUl'bance about the matter but a kind
of confession that the idea to that some-
he catches a of within is in its nature
cOlnuLan.diIlg and and that with it he
must somehow make peace? What matters it that
men once had little or no notion of that
have learned that many have still to learn
that it is an and in advance of the gerlerlu
prllctice of men? I Is our confidence in it
any less on these accounts i is not progress
towards it i is not all from it ;
men should cease to own even in the
do now, would not be cuI·
unmista.kably in the wrong?
And 80 with all the institutions of and all
the relations of human there is an ideal and a
law for them j and for each and every one an
ideal and a law fitted to its nature and con-
stitution. For the the for hWlinElss,
in all their there is a true and
way of them; for every individual life
there is an ideal which it is to find and follow. For
even if we have not the we believe that
it is there. We know that we do not make and can·
not the conditions of that we
bave to learn them; that there is indeed an ideal
method of which would insure to everyone who
would follow it health and strlElnll:th.
We believe that the conditions of social welfare and
prl)sp,eri,ty, the sources of peace and satisfaction for
each individual are fixed. There is some
form of which would secure universal well·
; there is some ideal of thinki,ng, J.t:tlUD1!h
that when make a TV>"'''''T.
We know the law that makes this
marvel of this this this
movement without which we see in the outward
world. How and how is the
law of I But the law that would turn this
chaos of human life into a cosmos, we do not know.
It differs from the law of in
that it does not act : if it we should
have an order here to that we see
in the material world. But we have to discover it;
and when we shall have discovered we shall bave
to it the free consent of our wills. We have

indeed some notion of it. We know
to a certain extent what makes for order and peace
among men. What we call the moral ideal is so much
of it as we know. But how much more is there
to know 1 Even the idea of which is the best
of our moral who understands who
fathoms who sees all that it means and must meau
to the future?
Ethics calls us away to these visions of the
and the better. It is a science of not as it
as it to - as it would be if it were tra,nsJaglued
with its idea. It means at life from the
est ; it means our
stand and not to criticise the actual life
.of men to the ideal standard. It may be no
welcome task to on if
we are real in matter of moral I do not
see how we can avoid so. If we have way
to if we have done an ungenerous
if for selfish reasons we have broken a pr()miise,
if in any way we have followed the lower rather
than the reason, let us not treat the matter
as of no consequence, but remember it and our..
selves for yes, better in some way to to atone for
it than to pass it with indifference. Still less wel-
come is it to pass npon others. How easy to
excuse a friend where we would not excuse ourselves 1
How hard to have anyone whom we love sink in our
estimation 1 The Which comes
to a person or to truth? I am sure that while there
is often not of in the there is
also much false ; and that while is
more uncalled for than and the pre-
8UIUiIJIg to be of another's conscience i and that
at no time are we so called to ourselves of all
mere as when we of an.otbler.
when truth us, we should remem-
that not out of any are we to
the of the ideal standard.
M<lrEl()Ver. as we read we are to take our
moral with us. How the telnp1l;atjion
will often be to abandon our moral so fre-
qUlmtJly do the facts of seem to do violence
to them I
.. Truth forever on the _ffold, wrong forever on the throne," -
how does the sense of this make us almost doubt

at times whether there is any or any wrong i
wllletller our ideas of instead of unalterable laws
of human are not relative aud conven-
tional or eveu 1 These are the tenlotll\·
tions of the moral are the words
of those who do not fail in their moral COIlvilltklns.
however these may be confirmed the actual
course of of the Roman
Consul called his fortune "the crime of the
"1 I confess to an unbonnded admiration for the
TlllOUgh it savors of it hides what is
to my mind the and the For what
was the and the end of that man,
-sts.rting as he did a fortune him a
C01Jlrtllsalil, m.aking his way the of it over thou-
sands of the and slain to the dicta-
torshiD of his i from office in old age,
1 Conlolatio ad :Marciam, xii. 6.
a
ambition to his villa to pra.ctille

IUIltUlluS habits of his j and then
his funeral attended hundreds whom
he had his and whose
minds he had - what is all this but a.
satire on every sentiment of ? 1& alone
could have dared to tell us of a end to such a
life as his j and and the
defiance to our moral sense." 1 Was it not natural for
",."""c,.., with the view of the as guidiIllg
and in the affairs of men, to say that this
fortune of Sulla. was the crime of the ? What
what a not of men
but of the standard of moral ideas! For this
is ever the test of a true man, - will he up his
ideal conviction to any amount of facts j will
he take his stand and it contra and
the powers of the visible and
im·isi1ble. to him? lose the sense of
an ideal it up before a show of U"IU''''--
that is the the atheism we need
have any fear of. a fairer world than
that we see about us the world of moral truth and
N>!mr.v - - would be shattered and and
were worth while to live. In
I would stand I do not stand
and the company of men called utilitari-
ans and materialists as well as many others.
John Stuart Mill that he would
rather go to hell than do violence to his moral nature
a who bore no traces of the
1 Review. Fel)l'Ullr;r.l~n, I.rtil:le on "The Moral
Influence of George Eliot,"
chal'll.Cter 1
that word. A passage from
Hl.llxlElY reveals the same noble of moral dis-
tinctions : I "For suppose established the
existence of au evil some
even Christian ones, have come very near is
the a.tIection to be transferred from the
ethical ideal to any such demon? I trow
not. Better a thousand times that the human race
should under his thunderbolts than it should
say, t be thou my "
But with all the most dislClouraging facts in the
there is no evidence that the ultimate powers
of the world are evil. those who freedom
and to man, and affix all blame for what-
is wrong upon the ultimate nature of can
that ultimate nature evil. Let for
fixed where it - on the human doers
of - and the is cleared of the hideous of
an evil and the ideals of and of gocldness
come to be as the voice of the ulti*
nature of and obedience to them and
wo,rki[ng-for them whatever what-
ever show of on the side of wrong and
the the nay the The
mistake would be in that those ideals will
be some power ontside in
thi.nking of a and In
so far as we can see, there is no such pr()videl:l*
and and the Christian belief is
mv'thical as the old Roman belief. There wer~ DO
as Seneca and there is no such
1 EXllminAtion of Sir W. Hamilton'. PhJiloll)pb;r, chap. 'riI.
I and P!4~
ETWCAL RELIGION.
as the Christian believes in. Justice and

ness have power not outside of us, but in our minds;
are to rule the if ever as we sur-
render ourselves to them and make them rule. Yet
are are are set
fast for us in the nature of and the nature
of ; and when all notions of a prclvidelltilll
are gone, bnt shine clearer in their own
and evidence in which are rooted that
can never go, that is eternal and Some
time will be so aroused to its own true
and in the world that such a life and such
a death as Sulla's can never ; 1l0f>1At:v
will be so individuals will be so treated and
]UCllgel:l, that a man like Sulla will have no chance of
or if he will die in universal colltemp!t.
The fortune of Sulla was the crime of the Roman
lilnt'i",tv' will have such monsters of
inil:Iuil~y till it purges and the task set for
the task from which it cannot escape it too is
to rot and is to purge and the
relligicln the future can must be a volluntary
dedication on the of to that task.
Alphli>1UiiO of Oastile's words have a charm like those
of Seneca. "If he had been at the creation,
he could have some useful hints for the better
oriLeriing of the universe!' if had
realized that a of creation was there in his
own power to if he would I The respon·
"ihilit:v for the order of that prevailed
in the Middle when he was not Cfil"r~,e-
able on the but on men thElm~lehres, and
paJ~ticu1arly on those lords and pnnCtlS to the number
of which Al]:>honso belonli:ed. He have

a better to his little of the uni-
verse, and set an to the other about
Wbiel1lby oplpressil:>Ds and robberies and all mau-
ner of of the weak the
have in some measure ceased.
It is when we bear in mind the ideal natuM
of to hear that mnst be based upon
facts. is not a of hut
of the of facts to of their
with a standard of the mind. For all scientific
pol~heses we must look for a foundation in the world
as it is; for are but attempted e:x:planl....
tiona of the actual order of and we believe in
them mOM or as theM is more or less evidence
from facts in their favor. But is in its na.-
ture an ideal and a and we can account for .many
of the of and of human life
on the that was not and is
not lI.t:~'UtlILl, and not even of. Base
mll.rality on facts? Which facts? There are innu-
memble an induction from which would
The then? But
nlo.inl·"'. this is in a circle. In there
is on which to base We do not so
much find as demand it in the world.1 All the
Be):>arate moral rules may be resolved into the supreme
one, to seek the the universal
But who can a reason for the supreme rule? In-
1 Amiel, .. the lweet-lIOuled Genevan mYltie," sayl: .. It il not
wldeh teachl!l rigllteoUIDeu to tbe conllClence; it II con-
lCience which teachel rigbteousDl!Is to bistory. The actual is
corrupting; it II WIl who it by loyalty to tbe ideal."
1
ETHICAL RELIGION.
no serious man wants a reason. The supreme

command to the human mind;
it is an assertion 'of the human mind. No honest man
wants a reason he should do any more than
he should allow the sun to be in the heavens.
The sun is and he sees it; and and
and warmth come, he from nnder its
influence. So with the idea of the universal : to
know it is to love it; to become aware of it is
to feel it to be the true law of our lives.
Aud not to own not to own the several forms in
which it comes to us, what is this but to make our-
selves wanderers and waifs on the earth; yes, to con-
tradict the universal law of since even the
atoms own their even the senseless rain
owns its bond to the sea whence it came? Man he-
to the idea of the universal ; he is
himself as he acts from it and for it.
Does us no ? That
man can to a universal ; that he can con-
nect himself with the fortune of those whom he has
never seen nor shall see; that he can bless in
unborn and reach out to the world to
heal it and to lift it up, - is there not,hinlg JIlvsltiCBil.
not,bin,g wondlrouls, D,othing strange in all that? In
sOIDe:thing limitless in human
of which it conceives. Our
,souls crave a we feel the thither-
we own the law that in that direction.
Does this stir no awe, nor nor Dor fear? I
know of but one in this world that may well ex-
cite awe: it is not any of not any
show of power or of but the of the
supreme law under which we

are set for us, of the TU>"TP"T.
our inmost teuds. We are,
here amid these scenes, where so much meets the eye
that afflicts the soul; we cannot avoid our
home and proper as far away, and ourselves
as thitherward. What seize us aJI
we think of this! what what what
lest any chance or carelessness we should 1088 our
way!
What does rel:igiclD to ethics; what l71'~!atf\r
thl)u~~ht does it us than this of a law that forever
encompasses ns? that I can see; and what
it to add at
Religion conceives the in the form
of a person, and asserts that he is in the world.
But this is an and harmful one.
A and rational religi,on, - so, be-
premis,es that could be
per'fected ethics. Mo~
I well
to be revised and ; and as
morality may have been identified with these
ideas may refuse the name as tame \
But is in truth a I
and the mentioned has been

on the basis of the of and has al-
ways issued in a moral .
seems also to add to the of heaven;
but when is not sornethirlg
from but the of gocldnlElSs.
as believers in the look for its Not
is the end and issue of but far away i
we know selves shaJI ever

see the we can think of it and
know that there will be an outcome of our strug,gleis
and there.
Religion in the future must not it-
self from the elements of the old religioDl~,
it must of The reli-
of the have had a taint of selfish-
ness about them. have held out the of
recompense i have not commanded and sum-
moned men in the name of the and for its sake
alone; have not taken men out of themselves.
I see a new itself on trust
in man; to the hitherto unstirred of
in that he can love the
without that he can rise sn]>erior
to the motives determine men, that
the heaven of can rule in the human breast.
Man's as to what will become of him after
he dies never a a soul.
It may drive the the -those so anxious
to know whether their poor self-centred selves are
to live - to or to the as
call of the and the church. Poor souls !
let them have the comfort while may. But
live on forever and never what true
blessedness is. This will not know till
cease to think of whether are to
live or and themselves over to
and live now in the supreme eternal moments. For
religion, if it means binds us to a law above
us and raps us out of ourselves. The men
and women of the future will themselves to all
their dreams of the without or

concern; will know that are in
8tronl~er keElpill,g than any can themselves de..
- that the blessed which DO man can
name, contain them and enfold them; that if there is
an~,thiDg of worth in that will and all else
will themselves let die. An idea.l per-
is the ultimate reason for existence. If
we do not turn our faces our how-
ever full of shows and business and and works
may are without rational ; and if
we there are at bottom no more or cares
or anxieties for us, - in our heart of hearts there is
a peace aDd that no reverses or dis:a.ppoi.ntluelilts
can disturb or mar.
WHAT IS A MORAL ACTION?
HAT is it that a moral to an

that lends it moral worth? I do
not mean to contrast moral with immoral lWlilUDlI,
but wbat of the multitude of our actions
ag~linlst which can be said from a conventional
stllma:-p(nut, deserve to be out and have this
mark of honor attached to them j that
are moral actioDs? Most of our actions are prclba1bly
unmoral. In our we do as others do
about us j we think and act to the nre,vall·
customs. There is not any hv,rvw,,.i,,v
in this j a kind of natural we settle
into the grooves that are for us.
Not is there wrong about but reI-
sJlleaking there may be So-
is was, iu the
ages of the of an
instinct of imitation among meD, holds in
check and lawless individualism. Still the
mere of custom and usage, however use·
ful to cannot be said to rise to the dilltllit;v
of mOJ~ality.
A moral act must be our own act. It must
from conviction. A conventional life is with.
out moral We to live when
WHAT IS A MORAL ACTION!
we wake out of this unconscious instinctive follmvin:1I!'

of and and know that we are our·
selves and have minds to use, and when we to
use them. What we do when we are aroused;
what expresses our - that has moral
and that alone. This is from
we think or or whether we
pO]lUIIU' current ; for when
one thinks for it is that he will
not vary somewhat from the hitherto cns-
the trouble with the conventional life is not as
to its ideas and but that it is con·
veliltil:mSu., that it expresses no con·
viction. A moral action may be in entire accord with
what convention demands; it will be
more than that. is the assertion ofourselves.
How sad is his who has no sacred self; who
never falls back on a as a believer on his
Mcause he has none; who lives all out.of.dcors;
whose soul is the mirror of the world's pal!lsinlJ!:
fashions and shows I A man who once defied a
and lived to see the world come around to
and is one of the ideal in our histo.
ry,- Wendell -said in a mixed
assem1bly OD the II Till you
men and on different I do not care

much what you think of me; I have that
interE!sti.ng an:ltiety." 1 No man rises into the
of moral till he says the same. A
man shonld have no other ultimate than to
the of his own bosom. II Whoso would
be a man must be a said Emerson;
1 OratioDI, etc., p. 66.
.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
from motives. It is true that

an action does not have results because
are as a is not neces-
true because it aims at the truth. it
has been is with and at
any rate we know that the earth is well covered with
and that often forth little sound or
fruit. How many kind.hearted persous, for
nh".".'i·.v in a way that it does more
harm than I The trouble is not with the kind-
heartedness or the but with the lack of in-
telligen(~e that is j and the real is
not to bnt to It np with in-
An action ceases to have a moral
nlll~.I1t;v if it does not take of all the
and which it may be directed j and
those who would tnrn ethics into a of social
mechanics do not realize that automata would do as
well as men for these outward per-
better. Professor says that if
some Power would agree to make him
think what is true and do what is on condi-
tion of his himself to be turued into a sort
of and wound up every before he
out of he should close with the offer.!
What an infinite and trouble such
an would be I Yet I doubt if there
is one in a hundred or a thousand who wonld share
with Mr. in snch a readiness j who would not
rather say with if God held out II trUth" in
one hand and II seek a.fter truth" in that
in all he would take II seek after truth."
1 Lay SermoDI, etc., p. 840.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
? Because the other attitude would pnwtilcally

the of our intellectual
cause we feel that if the truth is the learning
and so the truth is still In'andElr.
of our action over into the hands of another Power
is that our moral has no
nificance j while we on the other hand are sure that
the of the moral universe is not alone in the
but in the of the in the conscious
voluntary pra.ctil18 of and would count it better to
struglgle for and sometimes miss the than tbat it
should never be learned finite at all. But
whether this be true or any sllch mechanical
l:tocPdn,ess as Professor supposes would have
no moral ; even if the results were the
same as those a moral no
or blame would to such any
Illore than to an of Nature. Alexander the
for took the Greek and Gre-
cian and manners wherever he went in
his i and what a. benefit to the
world was this of Greek civilization I Yet
as is the of Alexander was for
coIlquest and power and renown j if the bene-
fit to the world came as an unintended conse-
quence, an incident of his moral credit
has he in the matter? I have heard it that it
is for a man to follow his own interests
witbout others i that one, for can-
not build up a business without
and a livelihood to those who would other-
wise be in need i yes, I have sometimes heard it
in extenuation of of our
WHAT IS A MORAL ACTION'
that in the nature of the case ,t

maintain themselves save as themselves
under the rule of service to others. This is all true "
tlUllugJU, perJ:l.&ps, as matter of but all delusion if
SUllposed to answer to the re(JluiJ~eDllents
What is the business man or the mon-
intent on? that is the which de-
cides whether there is any mOl'al worth in what he
or not. Are the benefits which come to others
BOlnet;hirlg that he aims or the necessary inci-
dents in the of his own aims?
I the introduction of motives
into business would more or less affect the manage-
ment and all the details of business; but I can im.
two businesses almost "y,,,,tl,,,,
ma,nagelneJlt of one of would be dominated
a moral and the other would be without
any moral character whatever is far from say-
that it would have an immoral The
difference would be all in the Man may
go many times iu what he thinks to be
but on the other hand no action wl1ich is without the
pr(lm!)tirlf,t of the what is no matter
how and it may can be called
a moral action; and every time we sin;cel~el~r, hODElstly
mean to do what is no matter how mistaken we
may turn out to be in our our action has a
moral worth. What we mean to what we want to
that is from a moral stana··DOllnt.
related with is another mark of a moral
action; it is an act that is done. What-
ever I do under under has no
moral worth. to take a hOlrnel,v illustratiolD,
ETHICAL RELIGION.
I rise because I am Obl~geil1

cause if I am not at the store of myemDlover
tain I sballiose my sit\lation,
no in this; but if I do so, not thus cOlnpeU.ed,
but with the that it is a
and that I to form I a ma:ste17
laziness that has some moral worth.
a book to the Public to escape a or on the
other hand I know that others want
the to consider them az well az my~
- would anyone hesitate to say which action
alone had any virtue in it? I live a sim~
unprEltelltil)US life because I have not the means
to live otherwise j or with abundant
means, I have a sense of how a man should so
az there is so much want and in the world
about would not need to re:llect before
which manner of were so far az
the eye could see had any moral worth.
The economy that when necessitated has almost an air
of meanness, becomes divine when in obedi~
ence to an idea. Take the case of an emlpll)YE!r
who to his II because he is
forced because have so that
if he will not them an advanced rate of wages he
cannot find any workmen j and then of another who
does not for a and has 110 reason to fear
~ny, but pays the rate out of
for his and with a of their needs
and ends as human and heads of farniliies,
that not because he is but because he
WIJll.--i;l'UU can there be any as to which one
of these men rises to the a moral
WHAT IS A MORAL ACTION r
FrEledil>m, sp(JIDUlJleity, is the very

An action dictated fear is
- as when Richard II.
to the angry revolt of the
gr~mtjing them the reforms which
them letters sealed with his
deln3Jlds forma.lly acceded to; and
was over, ordered under
of death that all those who had the letters
should deliver them up. A do we say,
succeeded an one? never a
eous act at but the forms of rig:hteouElUel;s
coIlnplied with fear. What we do when no
pressure is upon us, when we have the thl)U~tht
of what we the
of the soul within us, - that alone is moral.
And a moral must have no motive
of self-interest behind it. This is not that
many interested actions are not proper, and
necessary, as the world now but that do
not rise to the of moral actions. How in-
At.!ll.nl:liv does an action to a lower
estimation when we discover that some self-l'lega.rdiing
motive lies behind it! a. man is and
refrains from on the who come into
hIS because he knows that he will the,retlY
build np a for and increase his
chances of business success, - do we do more tb3J1
commend his ; do we think of him as
into the of virtue? a son devotes
himself to his not in the of filial
but with the that some will come
sometime to him from so, - that he will per-
4
ETHICAL RELIGlO:s".
be assisted in bWlinElss, or be remem-

bered in his will: do not such in
connection with those to if to anyone in this
wide we should be seem a
kind of and recall Sluw]:lewt'tl'S
" Love is not love,
When it is mingled with respectl that ltaud
Aloof from the entire
Suppl)se a. man becomes a. not out of unselfish

attachment to a cause, but for not our estimate
of him all ? Who that has Been the
ficent creation of the lion carved in the
solid rock at in commemoration of the Swiss
Guard that fell the TuBeries in but
is wheu the comes over him that these
men after all had sold themselves for and in aid
of a cause which every instinct and tradition
of iu Switzerland would seem to have pre-
tested? a man I will not say for so
a motive as money, but because he is tired
and wants a and the rest and comfort of
what is he but a selfish creature after and without
any in that in which a man, if ever,
is taken out of and if never
the disinterestedness which is the soul of mo,rality ?
A moral act is one in which we rise to per-
sonal considerations; there dare not be with
it that stand aloof from the entire
:Molrality does not descend to the low on which
we ordinarily and seek to influence us show-
that we should be better off to
but takes for that we have a
WHAT IS A MORAL ACTION'
and the hig:hes:t, K"VU.llU.

In the old
men used to seek to the that
it would be to pay wages than to own slaves;
that their would be safer; that even those
luxuries ice-cream and vanilla would
cost less if the negroes were on a fair ';
and that the with their
Etllliopia,n manners, their silent their
hue of bronze and turbaned would find it to
their interest to remain on the masters' estates even
if were freed. I know not which to wonder at
that such foolish should be made with
the that would be or on
other hand that the citadel and seat of the evil
were not and it not that the
slaveholders were not as and business-like
as but that were a.
wrong. There are some where it seems not
UOlIDOI~, but almost immoral to to any
the motives. There are some sacred
in this world. We are told that Jesus made a scourge
of small cords and drove, the out of
the ~'Make not my father's house a
house of merchandise!" I have almost a similar in-
diirna,tiein when I hear the cause of human the
"h" ..,t,v treated from any other than the
These to lift us imme-
to their level. I heard a man not ago
advocate more and effective be-
cause, if we thus took care of the poor we
should have less need to fear the of socialism.
It was not man then - man in man in sore dis--
ETmCAL RELIGION.
l
tress that we were to but that our
prc,pe,rty become secure the attacks of social-
ism I Fie on merchandise thus of ,
But he who urges the cause of on any other
grounc[s than the not the hUJnatlity
of those who are in in us, and
treats us as if we had no and could not
transcend these considerations about the and
of our prclpel~ty•
.. Unlelll above himself be can
Erect himself, how poor .. thing iI man I"
man can rise above himself; and in this

animated more than affections and
asl>ira,tio,ns, is his home. There he first knows himself;
it as it were, his native as the stainless
azure is that of the of birds.
Nor for considerations of comfort and pel:1l01rtal
in another world does man need to be con-
cerned. I hear it said that we must believe in a
future whether there is one 01' to preserve
ns in of virtue here. I the im'pul;atilon
on hnman nature. The fault with many churches
not that are too but that are not
religiclus encJUI!~l1; that do not the di-
vine element in man, - that do not to it
nor pay it reverence. What were the moreover,
if men were made "moral" nnder the inlluence of the
and fears of another world? would be
no better; whatever outward of moral-
be led to with would not
the first toward which is
a renunciation of fears and of any
WHAT IS A I\IORAL ACTION?
and without or concern

to the would still be their old
selfish in their case would
be a of such a of existence.
What claims could such to such a des-
what could be purpose
of the universe worked them a new
lease of life? How is the view of a
Christian that and
differ in that in the one case we consider what
we shall or lose in the and in the
also what we shall or lose in the world
to come! How does he in such a
view omit all moral as he calls about
the and of our the su]periority
of the soul to the of the rational to the animal
of our since in truth to
him and the of many Christian there
is no or divine in onr and no
differenoo between the animal and the man, save that
man has a and the animal his eyes to
see what is for his selfish interests. In how strik-
a contrast is the strain of another Saint
Francis who pasisionately exc:laiilDs,
" Thou, 0 my JelIUS , thou didst me
the crOllS embrace;
For me didllt bear the nails and spear
And manifold dis(mtce,
And griefll and torments numberless,
And sweat of agony,
E 'I'D death itRl'lf, - and all for one
Who was thine enemy'
1 Moral Philosophy, book i. chap. vL
ETillCAL RELIGION.
Then why, 0 bleued JeaUll Christ,

Shall I not love thee well?
Not for the sake of winning heaven,
Or of ellCaplng hell ;
Not with the hope of galoing aught,
Not seeking a reward,
But u thyself hut loved me.
o everluting Lord I"
And of Saint Theresa. it is said that she wished to
have a torch in her hand and a vessel of water
in her that with the one she burn up the
of heaven and with the other the
flames of that men learn to serve God
from love alone. What a noble outburst! what a sub-
lime with the low views of man and reU-
that were current in her - that are curreDtt,
still I What an assertion of the moral
as that in ns reason of which we can transcend
all and and serve the hig:helst
from love alone I How near does it come to Emer-
son's bold summons, it to turn onr back on oel,ve,n..-
and how is the of it reflected to us in Matthew
Arnold's lines:
"Hath man no second life' PitCh this one I
Sit, there no in heaven our sin to Ilee 1
Jlort then, I
Wu Christ a man like Ull , let III tfJ
then, too, 0011 be lIUCh 111611 IU he! ..
The of moral health is in sllch liues; let ns
take them and be thankfnl for from·whatever
source come.
Still furthe,r, and per·hal>s ont
what has been imlplied, a moral act must be
done on If I way to a chari-
WHAT IS A .\J'na.LI ACTIO:S1
table is no with me, my

act is an not a. moral one. If I am
truthful with a and deceitful toward another
who is not a even my truthfulness with my
friend has no moral value. To do to my in~
cli:llat;ioII, -- that is not is
according to a or is the pri:ucil~le.
It is brlIlglIlg all my chance incliDl~tio;ns,
ural that look iu this way or into con-
formit;v with the thus order and stead-
fastness and into my life. Of how many
persons is it not that if you find them at the
proper moment will do the ! But the
""'·nT.T.n1THJ' is for i as it does not on our
moods for its so it not for its reali~
zation in action. 'l'he moral man is he
who says it shall not i to whom the is a con-
an rule. I see not any way of escape
from a universal consecration to I mean to all
that is Most of us live DrCltKelll, fl~agllDelltaJry
lives i we have our fits and starts of goodnless,
do not come to i and when we do one that
is we leave another undone. "Bursts of
heart and in sensual " --how true is that of
many men I How little of of COllsisteIllCY,
of is there in our conduct r one of
the kindliest of men, open on almost every side to the
geliltliest im]~ulISeS, could sacrifice his convictions
and the welfare of as Wendell re~
to his ambition. Daniel with a
intelll~ct, and with a sense for the heroic and sublime
could make his 7th of March and sell his
intellectual for a thank fortun.e,
56 ETHICAL RELIGIO:S,
he never Yet as there is no reason we

should be which does not hold at all or
we should be true which does not hold in face of
all or humane which does not in
reference to all persons whom we 80 there is no
reason we should be which is not eQllalllv
for and none for true which is
not for humane, There is no reason for
one virtue which does not hold for all virtue; not this
or but all is commanded to DS, I suppose a
person does a moral act when he does
it not because it to be or truth or any
palrticmbLr form of but because it is and so
with the that he would do all A
moral act has in strict a universal or in-
finite and he who it has a worth
to which no limits can be It is as if there
were some forms of matter that conld be
or or flower or or snn or any-
in the whole material universe; for it is
faith in man that har'deIled, stilfeDied,
as he may often seem to be in this or that
habit of he can become that is ; that
he is at heart and not cast in any inevitable
mould; that there are no out-
side of and him; that if
need he can oecom'6.
We often I am sorry to say from reli-
teachers and
tuous words about mOirality; but if what I have said
is it is far from a or or
to a moral action. The
of man lies in his for such action i for
such that man need not follow the

thClUgllts can determine that he
that he can be
unselfish in so that he can take his
wa,ndering desires and and reflect the pure
heaven of in his life. And this were, it
seems to me, to be a man; this were to be lifted
above to be no the slave of fears
or The could be to be more
this i the fear to fall from such a tho!ugllt
such an and become and en1~anglE!d
of lower concerns that are so easy, so .u1;l,~Ul"l;l,l,
teJlo.pting to men.
There is an ideal aim for every child of man. It is
not outside of ourselves j it is not to
80me in the skies; it is not to fol-
low 80me historical in the It is
closer to ns than this j it is in our own
to ns in our very nature as moral There is
than to a moral action j there
not;hjn,g in wliich the full idea and of
comes so to as in that. It is the
v'I',bu'v of the divine in us, of a of those elemen-
tal forces which in the wide ages of the have been
turniJllg chaos into and darkness with
moral action we is a new star in
the inner firmament j and I sometimes think that once
gat;hel~ed out of the unformed nebula of our wishes
and these stars will in some sense shine
forever. I sometimes even dare to think that if the
stars of heaven should these would Dot; since
the stars of heaven would fall if more
np,.fp"t: were to take their and more
58 ETmCAL RELIGION•
than a. moral action there cannot be. It could

.......·T...U.
grow more
resolved and cbia.nl~d

a moral action is not most
any act of the will
moral actions are after all
is the total of the
in one direction or another. No we

do counts save as it is of a purpose which sweeps
on it j and no pnrpose is which does
not cover, in at the whole life and all
its futnre. The star which we are to set in
the firmament is the total act of onr life j after a time
we may cease to see but if there is any any
fOI'6sI1adloVi'inl'tS of a in it will go on.
No.thiinf,t is so treacherous as memory j nothinlf,t
so a thread as - the consciousness
that I am the same as I was years ago; the
cotlscioUSDl~8S, which some suppose will have in
another that are the same persons as
were here. It is all an uncertain prop. Death
to bar and teach us the of these crav·
; but heedless oreatures that we are, we fill up
those endless horizons of the future with the
of our and deem the we have
won, the we have and the unselfish-
ness that has in us too to stand
of themse!ves without the "I" to Yet
o is -the "1" or the ?
the in us is to and that
IS THERE A HIGHER LAW?
are upon
the worth of actions. Some us aud
others do not; some are and some are wrong.
We do Dot mean this that are, or are of
ad1.anlta~~ to us the satisfaction we de-
mand is in view of a standard from our per-
sonal interests. We have at heart certain ideals of
conduct which we like to see reflected iu the actions
of men about us. Whether a falsehood or any wrong
done to another affects us or we may feel none the
less that it is wrong, that it should not have been. We
may understand the traiu of circumstances which led
to the we may have a of for the
doer our condemnation of what he has
but it is wrong, and we know that we
should go too far with our it led us to
this. We may be mistaken in onr jUllgrnellts
paln.ic:ula,r cases i motives the character
and we do not know the motives. We
know that if there are such and such the
act is or wrong i but them to
we pronounce on its moral character.
is what should be i it is an idea this
altogElthler relation to the fact. Even if our
ETHICAL RELIGION.
circumstances should and our wishes come

somehow to be interests
served the wrong it would be wrong
none the and we in a. real con-
demn ourselves for it. The
1D(lepeUl1eIlt of our wishes or our interests. In ac-
cordance with these we can say that we should
like to have be j we cannot say it
to be: we can say as we rise into ..
atllilosphl~re, as we transcend cOlllsildetati,oUiS,
as we from the stsmdlpoint of reason.
The is also of the wishes or
pel~so:nal interests of another. does not mean
up wishes to your or
personal 3(IValllta.f;~ to your adv'antage.
wishes must be must conform with an
im]:>erflon:a.l st;anllarid, - yonr personal a<lvaJnta.!ote must
be in with the universal else I
cannot to it. not
many cases it may be that I to
as well as is
better indeed and nobler than selfisl~nElss,
liable to lead us as as selfishness
and controlled moral considerations.
is i is Even if
it is your dearest friend who has done a wrong, it is
none the les8 wrong, and must with
your tenderness in of it.
The and wrong, we feel further, are in<1lepenl:l-
ent of our about them. When ou~
eyes are open, we see the sun; when
• it is lost to us; should we become it
lost to us forever. In such a case vain would be
IS THERE A HIGHER LAW' 61
one's effort to prove to us that it still if we
were and insisted on the of pres-
ent alone to prove that it did; but for
all that it would still be and if we w~e rea-
sonable and would call to mind our former ex]perietICe,
we be assured of it. So there are moments·
in our moral experIence which in au1tholrlt,y
all others. In such clear moments we
we say. that we see the truth; at other over-
borne our passions or our overawed
the customs and of men, we may
almost be aware that we are of but
it is there all the same. If one asks we do not .
see it if it is the answer is that
we do not our concern
often rather to and our
dices. If one asks the customs and of
men have often been so various and I
answer that these customs and have
in the formed other thau rational consid-
eratioDs. Men have with a eye,
for the and wrong of ; their customs and
opinic)ns have at best a little mixed
with them. The time is to come when men, di-
velltil1ll7 themselves as best may of con-
sidlerli~tiCJIDS, shall seek to reflect in their the
pure ideals of Moral culture - I mean in
the disinterested to fashion human
life after the ideals of - is in its veriest
infanc:y; it is as science was before the birth of a
Bacon or a Darwin. Men had not the truth;
studied if-studied it at to con-
firm certain old theories of cosmogony or thlwl0lr.'f'
ETHICAL RELIGION.
can you find now the disinterested student

painst:akilng, laboriclus, scrupu-
rlddID:g himself of attachment to mere custom
and and for the ?
When such students and men become as eager
to the world of moral ideas as are DOW
to the realms of there will gr~i.d.ulall.y
lMll"Vt:l. an as to moral
COILlCE,pt:ion,s, as there is DOW to be an increas-
among disinterested observers as to
scientific fact. The of men are still various
as to matters of science; but we do not doubt that
some are true others are for
the test of truth is to and fact is
not but one. Even we do not know
what are true and what are we know
that such a as truth or falsehood and that
it is for us to find them out in each case.
So I th~t as to many we may not know
the and the wrong; there may be various
cOIltr~.di(ltol·y o:pinlioIls about them; and we
may feel that there is a and wrong, and that it
is for us to find them ont in each case. No
more than the facts of Nature are the ideals of mo-
opiuioln of them j there is a
way of
It is not for us to make to to create it; we
make it or create it any more than
we can the sun in the heavens ;we have to
discover it.
Grant;ed, h01lVe1rer. that there is a
our C~l.Dging wishes and opi.ni<:ID8, it may he
ca.n t h e b e of as a law? Laws we
IS THERE A HIGHER LAW 1
know of in or in connection with the

Is not the it may be an idea of
our minds? But if we reflect a we shall
realize that it enters into the very notion of
to be a law. The and the are what
shOftld be J' of have
no save as ideals of action.
have a relation to are laws
of action; and I if are not more
laws than any of the or even of Na-
ture. The laws of the State are not laws unless
are laws; do not bind us. An im-
moral like the may be broken
every it may be afllrmed and com-
manded the and be no law at
all. That is a law which binds me, to which I
must if I am to preserve my honor as
a rational It may be whether the
laws of Nature the law of for eULlnl)le,
the law of the law of chemical a.tIi,mt:v-are
prclpe:rly called laws at all; state-
ments of if you
but and a law is a pre-
scription of what facts to be. We may
deceive ourselves if we think of the law of QTs,vita-
tion as outside of the facts tbl~m!lehres,
as we say in common the
the law may be but a statement of the
SUmllniDlg them up iu a convenient way.
It added that a law of morals is more
a law than the so-called laws of health or laws of busi-
ness. A law of health means that if we want a per-
fect must lif'e in a. certain
we must maintain certain habits; but suppose we do

not to such a what do the
laws of health ? The laws of business mean
that there are certain essential conditions of business
success: but if we are not ambitious in that diI'ecj~iOl[l,
or if we do not enter upon a business career at
what do these laws of business ? The laws
of health and the laws of business declare
that if we desire certain we must use certain
means; but so far as their upo~ us goes,
all upon whether we desire the ends. If I
wish to go to I must cross the ocean; it is
the way of it be
called the law of there; but the law means
not;hin,g if I do not wish to go. A law of morals is
different from this. It not llhat
there are certain means we must take to achieve our
but that there are certain ends upon
us, which we must choose if we are to maintain
our as rational The laws of mor-
als are sometimes to be show-
that the way which one must take to
secure the welfare; if one chooses the gen-
eral welfare as his end in be must act accord-
to these for has that
and alone conduce to the welfare.
But suppose that one says, "I do not choose the gen-
eral " - if means more than
the what possible o!)!igati()D
has it upon him?
In mO!r&lity must mean more or it is notbilng
at no more than the law of the ocean.
M.olrality rises above our wishes and wants as
IS THERE A HIGHER LAW' 65
in the determination of our ends as of the
means which we must reach them. is
but l'easoD itself; and there are ra-
tional ends as as there are rational means
of them. If a man does not choose the
wetlfa.re, the laws of are none the
less upon him. says, You to
choose the welfare. It indeed cove:rs aU our
action j it is in nowise upon
what we do or what we fail to it is an
ideal for It is co-extensive with the whole of
our active life j not an nor a nor a
nor a nor a nor any utterance but
may be confronted with the Is it in hal"
mony with the standard of which is so,rerleign
over aU?
Thus is a law unfolded to us in the very na-
ture of ; it is to us in our very can·
stitution as rational We call it a law
because it is of the standard to which
men pay How is custom I
how often does it almost lull to voice of
conscience! Yet the may be
Are the customs ; do conform to the reo
quiirelrne:nts of the law that is above them? How
easy it is to with the current of pOlmhtr
sellitiDileIlit, to think and love and hate as about
us do! Yet any sentiment can be
before a bar; and from that bar a jUlIgrnetlt
will go out as to whether such sl"ntiment bas a
to be and we have a to follow or whether
it is our to seek to reform it. law
is of the of statutes. We
{)
say, fortunate are the statutes if reflect

and so hold up an ideal for the peo-
do if contradict the
it and not w:e to be The whole
rnean:ing of ethics is ill the seuse of au invisible au-
; to bow to to or to
is moral ido'latry.
, Whence comes the of this law that is
within and over us? The answers seem to
me here to fail."I' of our du.
ties may have their sanction in that tend to the
15"'.''''-'''' welfare. But what is the sanction for the su·
preme of the welfare? Who can
a reason for this? The sources of the author-
of the laws of the statute book in our democratic
communities are in the will of the Civil
gO'veI'nnleIlts, we say, derive their powers from
the consent of the But there is no prac-
tical consent on the of men to the
supremacy of the laws of The
consent of most men is to the law of individual self·
interest; but if men shonld consent to' the laws of
if were consent to
that those laws had an inher-
and the would still reIl~alll.
Whence comes t h i s ? the
law does not rest on onr consent to nor
is the determined a or any kind
of vote. It is us whether we con·
sent to it or not; our business is to our aUe-
to it as a whom we have not
upon, and cannot his throne. Ethics
and are distinct in their methods of open.-
IS THERE A HIGHER LAW!
tioD. The last basis for po],u1ltr sClvel'eignty

Dot that the have a
but that the are more
any one ma1~ or class men au-
thllr1t;v of the laws of the as as
those of any or rests on their cOJlformity
to a standard of and of
of-
" That worst of tyrants, an W1urping crowd." 1
-Socrates knew that he was very much hated many

persons; that if condemned it would be to the
malice and the slander of the multitude.
does not mean any of the of the
educated and the but is a new oppor-
for a. new call upon them to their
and among the It is the
ideal of every human to rule himself j
this truth is the moral basis of but the
rule of one's self must be in accordance the
thCJ;llldlt of the and the best.
As little are the sanctions of the law to be
found -in the Bible. It would be idle to of this
among serious-minded persons, were not a COlltr:a.ry
opiinioln so in the colnmuniity.
"We should do because the Bible commands
- bow often do we hear this among
Christian I I read the other of a.
teacher in one of our who said
he that conscience could not vary from the
- the consciousness of as he dt'-
derived from the Bible. Yet if this prlwtilcal
1 Iliad, ii. 204.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
atlleilsm, this absence of moral COllvictil3n. mask~

itself under the of reverence for a - if
this is in the of the leaders of our chlllrc:hes,
what have we reason to believe is the mental condi-
tion of the themselves? The Bible
.. to the sacred literature of the world j hut it does so
because it the moral ideals and
tiolls of man, not because it has created them. There
are other Bibles than that the Hebrew and
Christian : every line that utters a th()UJlrht
of the and the is a sacred line; and ont of
the heart of man, out of his dream-
on to come, will come Bibles
and more sacred literatures than any has
known.
More "h<'P1tv must we have for the view that the
aUlthclrit;y of the is in some way connected with
God. God is sometimes a name for the invisible
that is within and over us. When Socrates says;
Atl~eD:iaDls, I love and cherish you, but I shall
rather than you jill when Peter and the
answered the and his
" We must God rather than men; Illl when Wen-
dell took his stand with the as "that
absolute essence of which lives in the of
the Eternal and Infinite;" I when set the
unwritt,en, immovable laws of the • above the pro-
clamation of the of and the last
honors to her brother's corpse that pr()Clltm:a-
_1tn,,·V each and had in mind the
hig;helst tilouight in man, and felt that it was
1 § 29.' IIActs, v. 29.
I Speeches. p. 272. , Antigone, 455.
IS THERE A mGHER LAW 1 69
there to that were to brave rather
, than be untrue to it. " God" is I suppose,
a name for that supreme which is in
every man's would he but become aware of it.
Socrates says, "Wherever anyone stations himself
beoause he thinks it to be or is stationed
his there I think he to remain
and face into acoount neither death nor
anvtlilinll!' else in with 1 The
binds him; it holds him as a charm
to the where he is. The to there
is ultimate; we can say it exists in the reason
and nature of And if the term "God" was
meant the reason and nature of it
he used;' hut the word means Bome-
else to most persons. If one should .of
the reason and nature of to many, would
not understand him; he should use the
word would think did. But in truth
not understand him any better in the one
case than in the for would think that he
meant "God" what it; and as
use the term it
To them the
perhB.ps was onoe a metallbor,
rowed from the sbiniDlg
ened into a
mo,rality are
1 AIKnoKY,
ETHICAL RELIGION.
but rather No Or
divine will that is not of
itself If this were it would follow
that if that will commanded what was wrong, it would
cease to be wrong; and hence there would be a total
• subversion of moral distinctions. • The noblest Chris-
tian have held to a of
the will of and made their best claims for a wor-
of the divine will in that it pel~fe(ltly &C(IO:nla
with that Robert 8a:r8, -
" good, And truth were sull
Divine, if, by some demon's will,
Hatred and wrong had been proclaimed
Law through the worlds, and right misnamed."1
If this is the last answer to the as to

the sources of the of the law fails as
as the first. In is no answer; there
"I
are no sources for that supreme We cannot
go the law of God is not mOl'e ultimate i
human reason is hut that in us which it. It
indeed has no ; its source is not in the he:a.VE~DS
or the earth j it is a uucreated
I say, the adamant on which the
mOl'al universe is huilt. It is the same as old
Stoic called the law of contrast-
as it in so many ways with the law of nations j
the same as the Roman of as an ideal
which to I'e-fashion the mass of traditional
....u'ut"... law. It is the same as that which in the eyes
of our forefathers gave the basis for the natural and
of man. It is the same as prc)m:pted
1 Christmas Eve, Jl.vu.
"
IS THERE A HIGHER LAW?
the exclamation of " Oh that my lot

lead me the innocence of and
the which laws -laws which
in the heaven had their neither did the
race of mortal man nor shall oblivion ever
them to j the power of God is in
and not old! " 1 It is the same as that
of which Cicero that we can take from
nothin.g, al)ro~~ate not,hiu:j:t j that the
Senate nor the have a to free ns from it.
It is the same as Rousseau had in mind when he said
that the eternal laws of Nature and of order are still
in and the of laws in the
eye of the man of discernment; 1I as when he
said that the sentiment of is so so uni-
versal1ly felt that it seems to be indlep,en-
dent of all all all 'l'he
law is that indeed which mankind its ; it is
the foundation of States; it is the basis for all the
worth and of human life.
That this law is no mere and

a power in human is in - that
no·thing which is not in accordance with it can last. I
have not detined this law; I have taken for gra,nte:d
that we all have some sense of it. Its mean·
may be discovered in the different virtues which
we all have as ideals in our minds. Precise scientific
statements are not even if are
pollsil)le, in of so a theme. It satisfies
me in a way to say that the law is
which commands us to seek the universal
1 Tyrannu, 863ft. I
ETHICAL RELIGIOS.
Another statement be that every man has the

ends of a man, and is hence to be treated as sacred and
inviolable. now that if we do not so re-
every man, we offend the law j and if there
are many in a who have a similar disregiMi,
the fate of that is sealed. are so
ordered that alone is and last-
order and peace. We did not make
this so, and we cannot it j it is a of the
nature of which overrides our will and makes
of our intentions; it that we are in
stronlger hands than our own. The of
the old time were those who took the side of
the denounced the wickedness and the cor-
rul)ticlD that saw about and the
disaster and ruin that would follow. Greek
tralledly is full of this ; it is retigi(IUS,
the of the Old Testament are.
laws are not indifferent
and and so to when are of-
fended. You caunot escape the consequences of any
wrong you commit; if you do Dot will
your children will suffer: somehow the wrong
must be There is a moral order in the
hol.dil1ig up to us what we should and aveng-
itself upon us if we do not do it. is but
an lesson Of this. The Greeks of
the Furies that followed and would sooner or later
overtake the man; the Hebrews of the
wrath of the Eternal the doers of wickedness.
These these of are not more
but less than the fact. The of
will avenge itself. u.As the whirlwind pas,seth,
IS THERE A HIGHER LAW!
the wicked no more, but the is an everlast-

foundation." 1
Time may be necessary for the
Our at wrong and injustice
have immediate satisfaction j but time it around
to us, - if not to us, then to those who inherit the sense
of from us. For the of l"ig:bte,ous
retribution is not made for our pel~so:nal sat;lsfacl;ioJIl,
it works itself out on its own account i are
we, we may say, if we are to see the con-
sUJnm,atiou, but the consummation will come whether
we see it or not. The end and issue of wrongs
are in the are hid from our eyes j but
the end and issue of are before
us. What have become of of those
mj,,,,ht:v ellDpilres that at their of sway felt a
sense come on, - a sense that their frames
were not constructed
.. And and slowly died upon their tbrone."11
were with
were doomed to fall. What has be-
uc't:ece, whom her art and her literature and
her could not save? - of whom
Matthew Arnold says that every educated man must
love her? - who was the lifter up to the na-
tions of the banner of art and and brilliant
as she was, for lack of attention to
COlldtlCt, for want of character.'
What has become of her so
gra.nd:ly as she did over the western whom her
1 Proverbs, x. 26. II Matthew Arnold: Poems.
8 Ibid., Literature and Dogma.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
Ciceros and
failed to save? Gone down because of because
of because of the idleness of the
classes and the of the lower; because of the
COlltemI>t of human because of
because of What was the Freuch revolu-
I mean the horrors and the bloodshed of
that which made as SOUle one has "a truth
clad in - what was it but a rig:hte,olls
ment npon a a cOl"ruI>t JIlon:archy,
nAYHl.l1:v visited upon France
?
the late war in this but the
natural and result of a wrong that was
pel.'mi:tte:d to fester in the vitals of the and
came near to it away? The statesmen be-
fore the war to with the wrong f
hid themselves under the forms of law and the
But the and wrongs
the Constitution Wel'El causes of
the war j the war was a on the
for such for such a
Wendell used to say that the
sOlne'~hing " which
en(}Ogu to no constitution
to endure;" and he used to his
"Remember this when you go to an anti-
in a and know that
weilzl:led agl:Linl~t its solemn purpose, its terrible reso-
its earnest Webster and all
bucJksteriinK statesmen in the shall kick
the beam." 1 The has come huck-
1 Speechell, p, 50.
IS THERE A HIGHER LAW,
statesmen have kioked the and now 110

man wants to have it known that he or his father hall
any with those statesmen. "How shall a
feeble cl'ied " without or
influence in the with no of millions to
delilOtlDOed, Vl1.lnelll. and - how
shall we make way the OVI~l'\\rhelming
of some colossal if we do not turn from
the idolatrous and to the human race ?
to your idols of 'Here we are, de-
feated i but we will write our with the hOIl
pen of a to come, and it shall never be for-
if we can that you were false in your
gelrlel'ati:on to the of the slave.' " 1 brave
it will never be i your to the
human race is heard; yOll were not defeated;
the whioh was so colossal in your
upou us now, and the man who
of the
" some Webater " sOlDething
somewhere between here and the third I
do not know he lives in our national his-
in no measure to be exoused and
for.
What are the now and then croppiing
J.rtl.lll.ltlIl, the assassinations now and
in but the furies of an ?
Sylclne,y Smith said that at the mention of Ireland
" the seem to bid adieu to common-sense, and
to act with the of and the of
En.gis,nd's union with Ireland
the shark with his prey;" Burke
1 Speeches, p. 114.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
fast enclUgJIl.
1 See Wendell Phillips's" The Scholar in the from

which I have taken these quota-tiona.
IS THERE A HIGHER LAW 1
solemn debt to the poor and ignoralllt So does

the law make itself not
to the but in the course
of human and in the unrest and dislluilet of
The law is the solution of our social

lems. It was but one minor po:Litical apJPli(latilon
that to There is demanded an app1liCl&-
tion man is whether free
or not. The rule Treat each man
with whom you are in contact as the ends of a
man, and as far as in you lies him to realize those
ends. What are the ends of man? I need not at-
any formal enumeration. What are the
that we deem suitable and proper for ourselves?
What is for us, what is dear to us, is to
be for others. we not suppose that others
would like a a decent some lei-
SUfe for for the culture of the of
their nature? If I am that in some cases
do not care for these that have no ambi-
tion for more than a hand-to.mouth that
live a brutalized and are content with
must we not as Matthew Arnold said English-
men must when think of the of Irish
Oatholic resentment upon Whose fault is
it ? 1 Is it not in that these men
have had to live a hand-to-mouth and to
become content with it? it was
almost vain for them when left to themselves to strive
for more, and as a have been left to them-
1 God and the Bible, p. 46.
•
ETHICAL RELIGION.
Have we the when we think of to

of their brutalized life ? will go
on so, it is to be till we become brothers
to till we carry to and
the of what are
be. If no law of no law of the com-
mands shall we not say that the law
commands it? that law us all
as and us our as in
that and knows of no limits to our save
those in a universal honor and love? If
this is our true relation; as Marcus Aurelius
we are made for like like like
; if it is to nature to be angry with
kiILsmlen, or to hate or to be indifferent to
-then does so much that we waste on what is
to us to waste i does so much of
the time that we devote to our selfish interests
to ourselves i is there not a call for over-
lea,pil1lg all conveutional a that shall
assert in our lives our brotherhood
with the and the least? The law
still in advance of and above the orcliDl~ry
tice and of men. Men do not
of the duties that to them j
content with the average standards of m01rality
them. would not countenance slavery.
but that which made wrong makes anvtllinl7
wrong which hiDders or makes a free pro-
gress of every to what is and best.
The law is inconsistent with the cUistomal.l'Y
law of wages j the law is with
1 MeditatioDl, ii. 1
•
IS THERE A HIGHER LAW 1 79
the of women, with all that view of her
as a mere attendant and for man j it is
inconsistent with any home where one person exists
to serve and another to be served j it calls for a
universal of the rule of and honor
aud love.
For the law is not a beautiful to
indlul~re in; it calls for a life. If we win a
thl)u~rht in advance of the common of the
it is a summODS to us to lift our life to a new
and contribute so much to the onward movement of
the world. we are but ill at ease, as we
think of the condition of it may be
that the of progress marks us out and
us the first of the work it has for
us to do. Discontent because our wants and
wishes are not may be far from noble j but
discontent with ourselves and our lives in view of the
su!sgestil::ms of an idea that calls us up nI~rner,--1inel~e
is almost sacred about that.
of this discontent that we are not at
home in the world as it is; that in some sense we have
a better and to another order of
There are those who tell us it will not do to have our
ideals too j that this would unfit us for life as it
is. that it is not our
to life as it - that our may be to
make it over. It is sometimes with reference
to our that to act with entire
and one needs to live in a pure
atlltlosphl~re, and it is added that the of
politic)s is Is one, to his atmos-
as if it were and not
REUGION.
to know that he may be himself a. factor in creat-

it? A man with a too keen sense of rec:titudIB.
says Herbert a too elevated standard of con-
find life and Im-
possible? unless in those rare times when for
reasons it were better not to live. Intolerable?
Yes j and the sense that it was so would to
the necessary efforts to make life tolerable. Intoler-
able wrongs? -- then we will overthrow them. Intol-
erable circumstances? then we will revolt a~LiDlit
them.
., He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts too small,
Who dares not put it to the touch,
'1'0 gain or l08e it all." S
But a of some I, in real

believe that we cannot lose or fail. The world
is meant to go that way, -- it is in its make and na.-
ture to do so; and every every is sim-
a new a new to that onward
movement. that fails in this world
is wrong, it takes men and nations
with and involves them in ruin. The is that
which preserves and alive. I almost at
times that if a should ever conle
to it would never cease i that the elements would
wax kind for it; that the would off its
of final destruction to do it -- or if that dire
event should ever come, that the divine would
then be to some " ever
clear in and unvexed with Sl;clrIIJIS,"
1 Education. p. 169.
I Marquill of Montrose llOIIli-llOlilJI).
· IS THERE A HIGHER LAW! 81
be dowered with But whether or no, we
to sllch a law that sounds
within us is we to another state
than that in which we to a divine commonwealth;
and a man is to remember this as he
walks the streets of his - it is to him
erect while he walks that is uu·
belloIlllinlg or mean or common. is not the law
of that ideal and it is not for him to
lie; honor is before and his first thl)U~:ht
should be to himself here; selfishness
is not matched with selfishness and it is
for him to live in an element of disinterested love
now. 'rhe he may have now that he will
find no room for is at and resistance
to wrong; and even these cannot become settled habits
with for exist to the end of reID01,ing
all wrong; and when that time shall come, should he
ever see and and will take
the of all other emotions. To act now, not ac.
cordin,g to our poor human statutes and COIIVEintiions,
but to the law that we know
within our owu breast; to live here as the citizen
of an ideal it seems to me, were the
prclUdest distinction a man could crave. Tllat
dom is not the and the law of it are
in us, and the is to be. We are to make that
killgcLoDl, and we know of its nowhere
else than here. A creativa rests
upon mankind and upon us fO!' our measure of the
task. To be as as our said we
must be better. 'rhe duties of their were new to
them; let it not us if there are duties for us
6
ETHICAL RELIGION.
and the future that have never dawned on mankind

before. is like the we are ever discov-
it. The the may be old;
their their in our
are ever new.
" New occasionll teach new duties,
Time makell ancient good uncouth;
They must upward, still, and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth I" 1
1 J. R. LowelL
IS THERE ANYTHING ABSOLUTE ABOUT
MORALITY'i
T is sometimes that morality is entirely a

matter of custom and One per-
son holds one to be another and
it is has an to his op:inil:m.
both are near the for there is no truth
in this case from each one thinks. It
of course, that should be any strenl:tth
or ardor of moral conviction among those who habit-
uate themselves to such a view. if it be
CUl'rtlC;~, it is difficult to see how there can be such a
as a science of If is but the
VaxYlD:g o]pinions and of man from primit,ive
times we can indeed arrange and cla:ssif'v
and have as the result a. sort of moral - but
we can no more have a science of than we
shonld have a science of and
arr'an:ging all the notions of men about the he~Lve:nlv
bodies from Homer's time to the Science is
not an account of but of those that
are believed to be true i and if ethics is robbed of tIle
notion of truth with an objlect,ive
standardl). its scientifio must be abandoned.
But it is easier to raise than to answer
them; and if the actual
conduct of men, we have our que&-
ETHICAL RELIGION.
and say there is absolute about moral.

since the conduct of men has been after any bnt
Human have yieilded
to all the varied and of
nature. have hated and loved; been crnel and
kind; and faithful; and there is a con·
ceivable vice or virtue that has not been illustrated in
their lives. If anyone law has been it is one
op'po!led to rather than one it;
nalnelv. the law to which each one seeks his
own selfish interest and Freeman tells us of
the old Frankish games, in which thousands of
ers of war were over to the of wild beasts
in the the ecclesiastical hi~
an account of a certain Duke Ra,ukhilJg,
who amused himself out the hairs of a
- the tears of the serf of de.
in his master.S There may be a uniform DS',CU'O-
law in accordance with which men have acted;
naluely, that each one does what he most desires to
or what it him best to Of, in a
acc,ording to his But this law has
no moral since in with
it both moral and immoral actions are pe:rfo,rmled.'
No uniform moral law is discoverable in the actual
conduct of men.
"t..l ...f.1lv s]p8a.kilJg, mo,rality is not an account of
feel to act.
1 Fortnightly Review, October, 1869.
I History, v. 8.
S Cf. some remarkably acute observations in
eki'll Grundziige der Moral, S. 88, fL; also hill
MOJ·alplwOlilOph.ie, S. 92, ft.
IS ANYTHING ABSOLUTE ABOUT MORALITY! 85
We must between what men
and even in and what ap-
prove. When we think of Khan his
first into caldrons
of water; or of Timour a hnndred
thousand Indian and a of
thousand human heads on the ruins of
Ba,gdaid; or of Attila. and ernsin2
sev'ent;y .""·..,,.·--we a.re to that
to do these monstrous nor, on
that were aware it was wrong j
to the barbarous im-
of their without conscience one way
or tbe other. Such outbursts of are prclbalbly
attended with as little moral as an eal~thqnakle,
or an of a volcano. So when we are told of
the that revenge, rape, and
murder are nnder many circumstances not held to be
",n.un:".- this does not so mnch prove that conscience
sometimes wrong, as that sometimes it does not

at or rather that to this extent conscience
does not exist.
Conscience is and there must
have been a time when was no sense of
or wrong at all; but because a says no'thing
when it does not is no or even
of its untrustworthiness when it arises.
Because a man born has no sense of is no
reason for he may them
when he once And as travellern
1 Social Statics, Introduction, lemma i. § 2.
I Lubbock, of Civilization, p. 269. From this writer
mOlt of the foliowing in.tance. of .avage moral. are taken.
tell us of savage tribes without so tell

us of those without conscience. The Tasmanians are
without any moral views or
The Anstralians have no sense of what is
table in the their test of
in cases whether are or
to brave the vengeance of
provo~.e or
does not exist in eastern and
expresses for missed OP:pOI'tu-
nities of mortal crime. The have no words
ex))relsshre of such ideas as
nor, on the of such ideas as
Lubbock says he does not remember a
instance in which a savage is recorded to have shown
any of remorse. In the absence of moral
IeellU,g, savages follow their or con-
sult their own interest or When
a tells us that the whole of
his residenoe in the Tahiti Islands he does not recol-
lect found a female to motherhood
the of who had not im-
brued her hands in the blood of her it would
be foolish to that any moral acaom-
these acts; and the motive with whioh the
murders were committed beoomes when we learn
that were more often killed than because
were of less use in and in war. So when
the ancient their young warri-
ors to and assassinate helots for this
is not so much evidence of a conscience as
it is of the absence of all conscience in their feelinl~
toward their who were looked upon as
IS ANYTHING ABSOLUTE ABOUT MORALITY,
no more than animals•. When the Sioux !n<liaIlS

in their dances and at their feasts recite their deeds
of and as and
it becomes the ambition of a yonng brave to
secure the feather is the of mur·
dered some and after secured the first
to add as many more as to his cap, the feel-
seems to be that of admiration for strenl-tth
and - and and valor are admirable
as contrasted with weakness and cOlvardic:e,
and seems to have been the contrast their
savage minds were of We do not
admire such and valor now,
we bear in mind still for
human the sense of its sat:rel1nE~S, and believe
that the rule of action. I doubt
if a savage that was
that excited his adlrnir'ation,
admirable. I a savage ever admired
as such: he admired the and the
were in it. I doubt if be ever admired theft
as such: he admired the cleverness of it. Lubbock
says that he cannot believe that theft and murder
have ever been virtues in in the
absence of moral were no doubt means
of and were with no rel)robal;i0I1.
In a similar way it is to
which is said to have been /I the eXE~rcilse, the
the and the virtue of the Scandinavian
The earliest form of virtue was or valor.
We may in this way even the reversal of
moral distinctions among those savage tribes who ra-
theft as a and who the thief
BTHICAL RELIGION.
when he allowed himself to be detected. From

the savage the contrast was be-
tween cleverness and j and leav-
other considerations aside rather un-
conscious of as these savage tribes may have
there can be no which of the two is
'rhe same may be said of the craft of
'.HH.I~""". which was so admil'ed in the
of Greece j if there was faint consciousness of
and the chief contrast familiar to
men's minds was between craft and the lack of
de.xtElrit.y in one's ends and to
do so, I do not see how we can refuse to allow that
craft was admirable.
'rhe absoluteness of does not mean that
man has had a or that he has al-
ways the ; if it there
would be Man has
grown into his of and wrong j there
must have a time when he had no such knowl-
as he has grown a of the
world about and there was a time when knew
nothi.Dll but what his trained senses imme-
gave him. No truth of science is invalidated
becanse it was not or because when
first
graspEd it j it is found it in some
measure when that the understand.
is not involved illusion. So it is
that when men have the
have in some measure found it; and as for those
and customs that were formed irr,eSpiElctiive
of such an I do not see that the defender of abso-
IS ANYTHING AJ:I'l)VI.JU·~·~ ABOUT MORALITY 1
lute need be concerned about them.

I have mentioned these instances from what
Professor Jowett has so called the" ages be-
fore or from savage life to out
what I do not mean the absoluteness of ;
that to clear up the confusion and misunderstand-
that lie at the threshold our 8U[I]6C;1i.
Have men, with the supreme to do what
was ever what was wrong? - that is
the of to the defender of
absolute that have grown up
c.u~~lllle, or are due to or self-illterest,
or even the interest of the or tribe with which
any individual's interest may be bound up,
- these are not and are of no concern to the
nloral teacher. is what we do under the
pressure of the of what we to do j and
I doubt if there was ever an instance of a np'r",nn'",
into this zone of his who did
in some measure, do what was
The cases of most are those in connec-
tion with seems to make sacred all
that it commands. The follower of any is
to take as his supreme law whatever that reliigicln
enj,oil1ls upon him. there have been
instances where have commanded their fol-
lowers to do what was wrong, and the followers have
UUt:lVtll.l. with a that were this
their I have recounted so many barbar-
that it is DO task to add to their
a few instances must be There
is a sect in India called who
tion &B a act. The Israelitish
the of their enact;ed

numberless massacres among the tribes of Canaan;
and sometimes a like under a
commission from this would ask reIlro:acllfully
aft('r a barbarous to Have saved the women
alive?" and then commaud all wives and mothers
to be and the women to be divided
among the warriors) Jesus knew that the time would
come when those who should kill his would
think God service; I and he-'
fore his that he
to do many to the name of Jesus of
Nazareth! What need to rehearse the wrongs and
cruelties the Christian Church itself on
heretics and all with the of
God service? The Frankish after his
cOIlve,rsion, incited son to kill his
then had the son and himself killed many
other even some among his nearest relatives;
and the writes of him:
God caused his enemies to fall into his hands and
aUlsment;ed his because he walked with an
upl~igllt heart before and did the that
were in his ' What need to refer to
the massacre the to the ?
There is a crime or an act of that
has not been made sacred the Church; pop('s have
rel'leat;edJly said that there is no to
faith with an infidel.
The qmlstion, b01iVel'er. arises in all these cases,
1 Nl1mben, xxxi. Iii-lB. I John, J:vL 2-
I ActI, xxvI. 9.
, Guilrot'l Hiltory of Civilization, i. 41, 42.
IS ANYTHING ABSOLUTE ABOUT MORALITY! 91
What was the dominant ? Was it to do sim-
what was of any motive of in-
terest or fear or or has it been to some
person, to serve some or class interest?
Uel~D6:r. we may What is the of re-
? Was at the man's
thougllt of what to idealized or pelrSODl-
or was it au which he to
further his own interest? I think be
clearer to student of the
than that and mo!rality
tinct in their ; and that relilgio!n
contrivance to ward off or Will ad1'aII:ta.l;~e
one's self or for one's tribe. "It is very " says
LUObClCk, "that in advanced races, has
no moral or influence." The deities are often
evil rather than is a means of
pro;pitiat:ing them and their and what-
ever was necessary to that end believers inclined to
do. The believed that their
could be satisfied with the murder of those who
did not him. The same
ins:piJ'ed the tl'ibes of Israel in their wars the
Calnas.nU;es, in with their natural hOI;tility
to those in poelseElsicln of the land which coveted.
I doubt if or one of the heroes of Israelitish
ever seriously asked What is ?
How I, of any interests of my own,
to treat my fellow ? I doubt if ever had
a of outside of tribal or ever
agliUU~lli that In all likelihood
had in mind the interests of their own
hook or all natnral and all 8uIJlertlat-
ural means, were to further those inter~

ests. When Paul he to do many
eOl1trll.l'y to the name of his was of
to that old tribal who it is been
eDl,ar~red and moralized to a certain extent under the
influence of the of the but
not moralized since sanctioned the
pel,selJution of the followers of a new form of faith.
poissiltlie that the conversion of Paul was
ul1;imlatlaly dne to a of his seuse of in
OP'PO!l1tlon to mere to a tribal Can
you once or the of
the down to ask themselves in a
calm and serious What we to do? Do we
not know that in the one case it was
for power, and in the other case for the Church
and the God of the Church that dictated the action?
If did not knew that should
offend their God; and if offended their God there
would no for themselves here or
hereafter. If ever the conscience of one
of those Catholic arose, it was
shown not in auy he made of his cOlldulct,
but in the fact of his to it.
a time the way a man's conscience shows
itself is not in that he but in a lurkiul!l:
sUlspicio'n that he has done wrong, and in some kind
of an to make it appear that he did
And a man's conscience never does
arise; it is swallowed up in some enormous religicllls
or zeal. For a man's is often like
his : as the fanatic says coun~
or so the religic)us .1,11.11111.,1<11.:, "
IS ANYTHING ABSOLUTE ABOUT MORALITY'
m d~
tance fl'om that and undis-
tnrbahle condition of the in which one
asks what is and what is wrong. How different
an ethical would be from as it is 01'-
diIlal'i1y undel'stood ! to most persons still
get;tlDtg the favor of God. Some it
"""JO'1:''''''' to have been more or less affl~ctEld
morality, and so us a God
erence. But an ethical would
a different Illotive j the first
brea&t of every follower of it would What
I to do in with the widest and most per-
fect ? And its if the nameless Power that
"infects the world" should ever receive that
palrtic:ul~Ll' d,esiIJIl8,tion, would be the ultimate
supreme in virtue of which man and all finite
exist.
Hence I doubt if any of these instances from the
of are to the opinio,n
I have that when a man
What I to of the fear or favor
of God or man? his answer is in some measure
Of course, if there has been no idea of a
the tribe or the church or the the wr'Ollj'C·aoel:S
we have mentioned were not for the
wrong did; nay, their was to act ao-
cording to the standard of knew.
No man is bound to act his even
if his conscience commands a murder; Done the lesB
should we say that his conscience in Buch a case was
Dot a true that it did not conform to that
.....,.i'...,t. standard of in with which
ETHICAL RELIGION.
consciences should be. But in very truth it is doubt-

ful whether any of the acts we have considered were
done under stress of conscience j were rather done
under the blind of and
religili>us zeal and conscience may as their whole
entirel.y different
Yet even if this view could not be if
there were instances in which not
but the moral sense itself had unmil~ta]kal}ly
gone wrong in the this would not nec}es:sarily
affect our confidence in the affirmations of the moral
sense now. No of our nature seems to be guaran-
teed ; our senses and our undelrstlmciing
sometimes deceive us, we have a confidence
that in their normal exercise are
We are not any the less certain now that the world is
round because meu it was even
if had been to go to the stake for such a
conviction. I suppose we may say we are abllolt'tei~y
certain that the world is round; and even if we were
not the fact itself would cerwlnly
be one way or the - it could not be both.
may we not sure of certain moral
while that there has been de..
ve]oplnellt in the of these and
oCllasionall.y a away from of
them even after it has been ?
The of an absolute mOirality
whether man but whether pri.nciipll}S Clilll.Il.ge.
The Are there not unalterable princiiplEls
for human whether human conduct conforms
to and whether men have any knowl-
or not? Take any that we
IS ANYTHING ABSOLUTE ABOUT MODALITY! 95
are most sure of of before the

for or of the of each 'one to own his own
person, - and are we not sure that any from
it would be a from the true ideal for human
i that if the interests of order or civilization
should seem to demand the such an order
or of civilization be false and and
would lead sooner or later to its own overthrow? Even
if our selfish interests should come to blind our own
eyes, as was often the case with the Southern slave-
holdE!rs, and we defend and treat as sacred the wrongs
we have would any the less be wrongs
we should cease to them as and
no man as to their real char-
acter? I think we in such an ex-
that our moral sense does not make and
wrong any more than our interests or our but
finds as we open our eyes upon the
wondrous order of the world about us, and know that
not but we, are new comers on the scene. It is as
with the conditions of health: does anyone think that
he can these at or that his of
them can make them one different from what
wonld be from his ?
The conditions of the universal or welfare are
as fixed and so far as our will or our
thl)U~rht are concerned; and the universal or
welfare is the aim of every act
we do or leave undone we or hinder its attain-
and our moral task at each time and in every
to the least and the most. We do not
know what to do : is often a pr()bl,sm
to 118; but the not to do as we
.\
, ,
ETHICAL RELIGION.
tmstiIlg that it will tum ont for the

the to and we will or
can tum out for the best. We do not make an act
one better it is if it is not
nar·ticle less harmful
Aots are
correspoIlLd with the requirl~mEmts
of the nature of in so far as advance or
retard the ends which Nature herself has at heart.
There is a way of now for you and me, per-
in a measure different for eaoh to
our circumstances and - that would tend
to nearer the time when the uuiversal welfare
would be when the ends of existence would
be realized in child of man. I believe that
way is - fixed in one way for you and
in another for me, but fixed for both; nnd
we in the literal sense of the to find out
that way, as it were fixed other
hands than our own, with which we have to
our and lives into This makes
the ideal for each one of us, aud the supreme busi-
ness of our life is to discover it and follow
it. It is no alien It aims at a
oursel'i1es. naluel:y, the of all; but it is
our true is in the of all. It ap-
to us with no show of force or power, but
its owu sweet reasonableness; for it is
our own proper and we are wander-
ers from our true till we have found it and
become obedient to it. Does it hinder the freedom of
tbe that it grows to its own aPlilotnte:4
form? Does it hinder the freedom of the bu:rst:ing
IS ANYTHING ABSOLUTE ABOUT MORALITY!
leaves of the that

an inward of comeliness and
their will is one with the law of their !
man's is not; he does not know his true and
when he he often an inferior Yet
man may have a that the leaves and the trees
and all in Nature cannot have: he may
himself the la\v that he shall follow; he may, his
own it make it his life.
Man can be the achiever of the purposes of
J.'1~'lju:['tl,-and that the leaf on the tree is not; he can
be at once free and the servant of a nniversal
while all in Nature seem to be servants with-
out freedom. addresses what he conceives
to be an ideal of when he says,
.. OUI' wills are OUI'lI, we know not how;
OUf wills are OUI'lI, to make them Thine."
And I should say that man's is that he has a.

will of his own, and can make that will conform
with the of a. law. That law
stretches all that is written down in human
statutes; it marks out for us a course of a
mode of and an order of that would re-
Bult in the of a. I but
in substance the
politiciu elJonomist, M. de who does not
a..'l 80 many the ideal aims of his tlCl'~Ullt:,
when I say that at every moment of
every to the nature of mankind,
there is a social and which an-
Bwers best to the rational of man, and is
most to his This order con-
7
Science is called in to
le~tisJ,ati:on to
sanction it. law
COI:lformabJle to this order is
OPl)Ostld to it is bad and ini'(Jui.tolJ!a.
the one j
should we desire in the latter? But it
is the order which to exist for the grt!atlElst
of the human race.1 An absolute is
law of a social and order in which the
est of the human race would be secured; and
it seems to me, would reach the loftiest moral
without for to- sanction
it or for other human to set them the eJULml?le,
so far as make it the rule
of their lives now.
But if there are moral which do not de-
on our for their which in ac-
cordance with our conditious and cal)&CitiEls
to each one of us the true ideal of and which
no means conflict with our since
our freedom cau become realized in us, if such
what are ? I believe may
be stated as Jnstice and Love. It is sometimes said
that circumstances alter duties. Edmund Burke said
that the situation of a man was the of his
But are there any circumstances which 'Would
a man in ? Is there any
situation in 'Which it is to us to hate? I
believe not. I believe these laws are of unIJoIlidil;iOllal,
universal All duties
are but the of these laws to par-
va1~inl1 circumstances. Justice may re(]luiJ~
1 Primitive pp. 346, 858.
IS ANYTHING ABSOLUTE ABOUT MORALITY 1
us to reward one man and to another: to treat

them even be Jnstice may
lead us to make war, or to maintain peace; but to
make war or to maintain peace at any
would be to Justice may
us to our families and or to
leave them and enlist for the defence; but if
we should leave our families for selfish rather than
unselfish reasons, or to and the
same that before us would now ab-
solutl31y condemn us. The admission that cir-
cumstances the character of our is
not in the inconsistent with the recog-
nition that there is an absolnte for each
nltl,til1nbll' set of circumstances. The admission that
with circumstances of course, lia,.
ble to and the wicked man may take it to
mean that he may do whatever it him to do;
but the man knows that itself still
cluLng:ed its form. may
vltl'vil1lU and actions. Out of
alms to a poor man, or withhold
- in either case not to our
caJllflce, but for the best of the man himself.
Love may lead us to the or to withhold
it; to a or to break one; to strive to
preserve our or to sacrifice it. There
is that is absolute that fixed and nnva,.
rvlnQ'-aDllU1i these maxims. The ab-
solute rule is that of love itself; one may act
under its You may rebuke your child
in love i a man may thwart his friends in love. It is
one of the touches of even in the Homeric
ETHICAL RELIGION.
poems, that now and then two brave foes eXI~hamg:e

prl~seDts at the conclusion of a combat to prove that
not out of hate but for have In-
if there is any act that can be done in pure
it stands self-condemned. We may hate wick-
"Ulll""". but must remember that a wicked man
is more than his wickedness. We may not hate even a
mortal eDemy i we take his life in self-defe'llCIB.
we are not allowed to take in so.
there is no one pal~ticula,r act that is
pall·ti(mll~r maxim like" Pre-
your "which
be it does not follow that there
is absolute whatever about The
absoluteness of is in its supreme ;
need never be dare never be
If I do not follow anyone
maxim of it must never be because I substitute
some interest or of my own, but because I
seek to some broader some more
....l>,.fl>,>+' e:ll:pression of the itself. And if an
air of unl}erltaillty seems thus to be left about sPElci~IO
let me su~:gel~t a rule I will
us guildalilce in a emergency: when
we find ourselves about any pal~icula,r
let us ask ourselves the "Am
I because I desire to do diffpr1ent;ly.
or because a seems to command
me?"
It is a of the wonderful range of the human
that it is so to to transcend
and to discover laws that would be as true had
1 Iliad, vii. 800 do
IS ANYTHING ABSOLUTE ABOUT MORALITY 1
not been -laws that are older than

the and will go on, in their opera,..
after the mind to all appearance, ceased to
be. Such are all the laws of Nature. It is certain-
at times to escape out of these
fieElting, so - and feel the
and the laws of this and
eternal movement in the world around us. Matthew
Arnold as a for
the the world
dces not goes on. 1 I
if I of other laws
and of another order of than this
one with which we are surrounded. I
the of deathless to the man.
I would have him think that does not die be-
cause he dies; that love does not cease to urge its
claims because his own heart's love seems about to
cease. I would have him think that
and love had failed in all the to an entrance
into human to have had an en-
for - their was
wn'~~". - and that are the unalterable
after which the life of men must be in the
future. These are stable; seem to
sOlue'tbing of their own firmness to those who
COl1tem]J,lat;e them; are witness that as
well as wit;hout, man is connected with an eternal
order of
1 PoelDl, - " A Wlab."
DARWINISM IN ETHICS.
is the and noble to do what is

and of our own accord. We do not reach
the of till is the free choice
of the soul. I believe that man, with his wonderful
of reason, can discern a and
unconstrained all that is without can choose
it. It constitutes the of man
that he need not be like a cloud driven before the
but can, as Eliot says, "elect his
and be the not of his but of that
alone he has discerned and chosen." 1
Nelve:rthele'ss, we have a curious and in-
terest in the as to the of
from our own will. We know that we are not
masters of our own life j there are conditions outside
of us to which we have to conform. To take one
of the - we know that if on
a cold winter we are not snliiciiently pnlte1cted
the we shall
ourselves to our emrircIDDlen,t,
come into vogue; we are COInpEllled
live. The of is thus to encourage
and Nature may be said to be on
Gyplly, book Iii.
DARWINISM IN ETHICS. 103
the side of those who are since those who
are not she does not to live.
The Does Nature sustain any such re-
lation to - does the force of outside
of us incline the race to be moral ? Or is per.
CDILDce. favorable to or is it so
and bad men thrive well? In other
is a about which a per·
son need have no more serious concern than about
any other of individual inclination and taste j
or is it whether we will or no, is·
sues of life and ? We incline to take
the former view. When we any of the
laws of we like to say to ourselves that it
is our own affair j that outside us takes
cOJi{nizalllce of nor will any grave result follow.
It is at this that the views of Darwin have a
wonderful interest. Darwin does not write as aneth.
philoso])hElr, but as a naturalist. In his famous
in the H Descent of Man" 1 his not
us a of but to show the
mOl~ali'ty has in the of the
one who thinks that is a
UU',bWlJr, and that and mental ca·
are the that Nature takes account
should read those chlLptlers.
to as among the lower
orders of there is a to live j and those
who are best fitted to the conditions of life succeed
and leave behind and those who are
less fitted rend to extinction. casual va:ria1tioJl1.
which an individual has an ad'il'ar,talte
1 Par' I. chap. tiL iv. and T.
is seized upon, intensified and pe:rhs~ps

in time rise to a well-marked spelCles.
Pl1lysica.lly a man is no match for a bear or a buf-
j in an actual tussle he would be worsted.
None the less is he their virtue of his
intellilgelt1Ce j he invents a spear, a or
the:relJlv outdoes them. So as between men
of men, variations in the direction of
strenl~h of are of com-
with variations in the direction of mental
powers; in war it is not the most
numerous or the one with the hardiest sol-
but the oue with the ablest and in pos-
session of the most methods of warfare that
the But Darwin shows that
the of moral is an in
the for existence i that a race with
moral other win in
a contest with another race destitute of such feE!liIlgB
in othel' that Nature is on the side of mo!rality
as as on the side of the arm or the
brain. Darwinism" is often in a
different way j it is often to sanction the
efforts of the individual to the weaker
to the wall. Let every man stand on his own feet j
and those who cannot let them it is said.
To the doctrine: if a man can pro-
vide for himself an well and i if he
let him go without never should he be
If a woman has power to her
very well if let her go without them. If a per-
son is smart to defraud let him do
so j if he is to do violence to another
DARWINISM IN ETmcs.
with very - that is his as the

This is the creed of unmeasured individu-
and was well Rob in Word&-
worth's poem, as the old
"That tlley should take who baTe the power,
And they should keep who can."
But it is very crude - nay, it is 0PlpoSled

to the of Darwin j for to him
our notions of what we should and should not do are
from the social and the social in-
stincts contradict such heartless indifference to the
welfare of others as the creed of extreme individual.
ism allows. Doubtless such did exist
in the ages of the in the "ages before
conscience i" but the fact is that the
itive races without conscience did not
themselves i that had no no sta,mina,
no cohesive power in the with those sUlperlor
races in whom the social instincts were de'iI'el;()J)Eld
,t that so far as do survive survive as
savages, and are on the border line between man and
the brute.
Let us observe now in detail how to
build man up, so that his very love of life is nat-
deterred from those courses of conduct that co11-
science condemns. A is one
element of I do not mean the dislpositiion
to submit to hut the to
inflict iDjuril~s; I mean the of a violent and
At first it may seem as if
violent others rather than thElm~leHres,
as if their violence them an ad'7an:t8f~e in the
106 ETmCAL RE]~IG][ON.
strlLlggle to live. But turn the matter and

as between men and men,
other which are the more to
suffer in and themselves come to an
I think there cannot be a doubt that
pellceful men are more to survive and rear off-
than violent men i that violence is to be a
bOomelran,g, st;riking at last the of it i that
vio'len:ce, even in uncivilized at'!!
and the ways of peace are the ways
TemIler:ate habits are another element of
The man, who his
for thinks it his own
and that he will not suffer i but the laws
of life think cut short his
It is a statistical fact that persons at the
age of in are not to live more
than thirteen or fourteen years while the ex-
of life of the average laborer at
years. Another element of mo-
for woman, and the sense of the
Ballctity of the l'elation. Does it make no
difference if men or women lead lives? So
pr()tligal;e persons are to think i
serious about it. But Nature is to pr()fiigal~y,
for she will allow women to have but few
if any children; it is as if she had a distaste for their
wanted it In the natural conrse of
pr()fiiigat,e men, as Darwin mar-
ry i on their the breed of those with ungov-
erned lusts tends to extinction. And in another
way, men or women sin and
in solitude and darkness the orimes that the
would blush to look upon, does the darkness

hide and Nature take no ? Witness
the weakness that comes on, the weakness of
and weakness of the loss of memory, the child-
ishnes:s, yes, the 't is as if Natnre would
cover them with And in to the per-
sistent disuse of moral do we realize
what one of our scientific Maud&-
tells us, that it a man may succeed in manu-
fa<}turin:g in his progeny, and that insane
are allowed to become at
last a race of sterile idiots?
Look at the matter on a wider scale. Consider men
not as but as societies. If we think that
natural selection favors the in
or consider the of the the most
rUliinleJlLtaJ~y of human societies, What would a fam-
be without some measure of unselfishness? To
answer, we have to go to the lowest savages.
the AndaDlanese the husband cares for his wife until
the that is born to them is then the
mother bas to look out for herself and for her
the father seeks another mate. Is Nature iD(HfferEiDt,
and do we that this is a tribe? The
fact is that to a recent the An-
damanese are out i he saw but one
woman who had as many as three children; few
members of the tribe live the age of
And now suppose the mothers had as little unselfish-
ness as tbe fathers i that let their care
for as soon as the tribe would
1 Science MOlumy. Sept,emliler. 1870.
. I SnenCll!l"S Soci~llogy. i. 668.
prc,baltlly in a or two become extinct. It is

some measure of unselfish that allows our race
to be at all. Darwin shows that the
social instincts to some extent exist in the lower ani-
80 that there is no chasm in that ra-
between them and man; timid birds will face
to their young. If there were
unselfisllDEiss, it is doubtful if we should have
the world at all but the elements and
perha]lS the very lowest forms of
need 110 care. All the
forms of animal as well as men, exist
because unselfishness has watched over the bel~nnirlgs
of their existence j and what
human from of course with
int;elligEmce, is that the social instincts in men
and cover and have a
AccordlI:lg to human are
nn,.t:,,,.n of the animal creation in whom
val'iations in the direction of unselfishness and in-
telligenlle have been transmitted and pelrpetlUltel:l,
which have secured a firmer foothold and a more
on the earth. Think of it: if the
fishes of the sea., or the wild animals of the
or even the birds of the air had the lellO"-II:elllnll
and the tbat men would
themselves to be so or or shot?
Would not be a match for man; and unless some
new power on the one side
or the arose, would it not be a battle
between them and man? We are men be4:laUi8e.
with more of we do care for one another;
are animals because are to such an extent di..
DARWINISM: IN ETHICS.
social rather than and because in a contest each

One is left so to his own battle.
Consider next the or the tribe. What
is to the or
is on the scale. Do we think it makes
no difference whether our unselfishness goes
our families i that all we have to do is to care for our..
selves and our children; that and zeal for
the welfare are idle sentiment j and that obedi.
ence to the laws is necessary so far as it is for
our own interest? and those who have writ-
ten in his do not think so j and proves
that are in the In times of peace, as one
writer 1 sleek and prosperous selfishness may
a certain element of to a But
these are not the times that test a i it when
either from without or from
it is in times of that the real and cohe-
siveness of a are tested. Can it down
internal dissensions that threaten its life? Can it
withstand a foe? as Darwin not
individuals to but communities and
nations i and natural selection tends to build up or to
deeltrc.v p1eo]J.les with the same with which it
determines the fate of individual lives. Who does not
see the truth of what Darwin that even
1 Prof. Dr. C. C. Everett on "The New Ethics," in the Unita-

rian Review, October, 1878, a most suggestive and often elo-
quent article. reprinted, it may be added, In the author's recent
volume, - " Comedy, and Duty." I am also indebted to
I'rof. Georg von
0 valuable article on .. Ethics and the
Development Theory," in the Populllr Science 18116
(tl'lUlllaUld from tbe .. Delltllche Rundllchall ").
ETHICAL RELIGION.
in the case of animals who live in

themselves or attack their enemies in cODlcel't,
must be in some faithful to one aDl)t.b.er,
if have a leader be obedient to else
will be exterminated? How mnch more
is this the case with men! the members of
a tribe are to and
among how will hold tog:etl:ler,
even if have no external foe? And if
hoW' will be I The fact that
a tribe or cannot live at all unless there
is more of than of in it; and the
amount of wrong and crime that exists in some
savage communities seems so in with
the standards of that. are in
civilized aud does not interfere with the
fact that it is less than among savages who sca,rC4~ly
live in communities at and have if any, fixed
customs or laws. It is as if Nature would force a
cOlomuni.ty, whether any disinterested love
of virtue or to learn some semblance of it; for
those oommunities that do so learn-whose mem-
bers some measure of of faithful-
ness, of of obedience to law - sUlrvive.
and fail to meet the conditions which
Nature Darwin says in 80 many
U A tribe many members from possess-
the of patlrioti.sm, fideJlity,
obiildilmce, courage, and were
to aid one and to sacrifice themselves for the
common would be victorious over most other
tribes; and this would be natural selection. At all
the tribes have sUT,plawtEld
DARWINlSM IN ETmCS. 111
other tribes; and as is one im]portatlt ele-
ment in their success, the standard of and
the number of well·endowed men will thus every-
where tend to rise and increase."
All this holds of civilized
The same that lifted the social savage above
the unsocial savage or and gave him the pre-
emjmlUce, lift the civilized man out of the ranks of
savagery and to civilized States
ful in the world. Crude interJl11'eters
of Darwin's would have us eschew all
shut up our and abolish
and let the weak and the take care
thElmelehres, or die. But this would not be
of but would be
COJ]lyiDIR: after the IncliaD,s,
leave their feeble comrades to on the i
or the who when their old or fall
them alive j or those animals that a.
wounded animal from the or gore or worry it
to death. there are savages, and even aDllm~Lls,
who are in sentiment to these heartless Dar-
WIDlans j for Darwin tells us of Indian crows that
fed two or three of their blind and says
that he himself saw a who never a. cat
that sick in a basket without her a few
licks with his - the surest of kind feel-
in a the social up the
founts of and in man, and you strike
at the social bond itself j would be dissolved
into and the work of
build:ing up the race of man would to be taken
up from the Let any coIum.un:ity
ETHICAL RELIGION.
Or~tan.iz8 itself on the extreme individ-

ualistic with no since each man looks
after himself with for those who are
able to command the rest without it
as best can i and let it enter into .comIlEltilticm
with other communities ill whose midst the poor and
sick are cared and is done to every
man, woman, and there be some who
are unable to it for let the
atrug,gle come to a clash of arms, and can anyone
doubt what the result will be? Professor
Everett says, will its money, it will not its
for the common cause. If the social has
been weak in peace, it will a become
in war. The unsocial will
go as it deserves to go before the enthu-
the courage, the devotion of men who have been
bred in a. social to habits of and
if the whose principle
was II every man for himself" were a bit of
fortune to be and never called to enter into a
strug:gle with other I believe in time it
would from dissensions within itself i it would
disint;eglrate, like any of matter whose par-
ticles are no held any common at-
tra.cti,on, and from which the breath of life
has Hed.
The that builds up a cOlnmuni.ty, is
not less but more SYlnPI~thY - more
of all the virtues that from these sources.
Think for a moment of obEldilmce, reverence
for whether the law is made a chief or a
for - what what an almost
pow~r,would a. whole trained to

have! The were not in
to other Grecian but for a.
ahort time held the supremacy over all Greece;
-and when I think of the three hundred who defended
the pass at the and held
it at such fearful odds until their last man had
and remember that to their
but obedience to the laws of them at their
I do not wonder that a which bred such
a rose once to the very head of Greece I
" Stranger, go, and to the tell
'.fhat here, obeying their commands, we fell,"
stands graven on the rock as their memorial.

Socrates the of Darwin and of
J:Sa,geJllot,' one of the most fruitful thinkers who has
followed in Darwin's when he said that State
in which the citizens pay most to the law9
is in the best condition in peace, and is invincible in
war i I and Socrates himself had such a sense of the
sallctity of the laws that he refused to flatter and
the at his trial which
forbadle), and had he consented to
An1rt.hinll' of the kind he have been
a.cquit1~ed, as l1e to die abid-
the rather than them to
live. What could other
a nation of men like Socrates? I believe that the
that tend to make a
i that tend to it a in the
1 See his PhysiCil and PolitiCil.
I Memorabilia, iv. 4. 15. I Ibid, Iv. 4, 4.
S
for existence j and

the to - are moral
j that from its ideal stand-
would approve. This does not to tem-
porary but to those that are held.
look to the end and issue of aU
one can doubt that those eastern that we
have of in connection with Hebrew
and the the the
Ba,bylolltialrl, the in turn because
were not fit to live. Noone can doubt that
Greece fell a prey to Rome when she was no
wonhv to rule herself. Noone can doubt that
rial Rome herself fell when it was best she should
fall; and that it was to natural selection that
the barbarians of the North hecame then the leaders
of the world's progress, since out of their spl.enclid
energy and purer stock the foremost nations of a new
world have come. It is difficult to of the pres-
ent and the future j but the same laws will hold
I will the nations that have
aU1.thinl? like a in the world's
affairs be the best I mean, those that have
the amount of virtue and within
their borders. It may that no nations at
prElseIlt el,isting will be j this would not
be to natural but a of its
power. It may be that none of them have the con-
ditions of j for natural selection I
DelleVe, as in its as severe, as nnre-
leD\;lug, as any ideal of the that has ever been
conceived. Nations that are full of ana
injnat,ice cannot stand; will be turned and over-
turned j the powers of Nature will not allow
them to last. with classes up to
.LU""U.l', to effeminate to "the
lust of the the lust of the eyes, and the
of and to of the poor and the
will not stand. " this was the of
fulness of and abundance of
idleness i neither did she the hand of the
poor and And were and com-
mitted abomination before me j I took them
away as I saw 1 So Natural Selection
and for it is a power as
as summary, and as as Jahveh. Nations
full of violence toward weaker eager with
ya'wnJing necks to swallow them up and them
for their own purposes, will not stand i who are
inllioleint, and know no above the shall
the sword. The power of natural selection
is a moral power, and no success or trium,ph
conceived and in shall stand. This
of all the earth holds up the
and says to the For every act of injust;ice
thou shalt pay! Amer-
each thinks it is dear to the heart of
and cannot fail; and all
the of the U I care for none of you;
you may go, have your little and pass away, as

and Greece and Rome have done before
you. I care for for a State of virtuous citizens,
with pure homes and clean hearts and honest ;
men and women who truth ahove and would
rather their State should faU than that it should rest
1 Ezekiel, ll:vi. 49, 60.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
on I call for this. Give it to me, 0 Sons of

menJ and you shall be dear to me j I shall cherish you,
and your work shall stand while the earth lasts I "
This is my of the ethics of Darwin.
does not us a of
80 far as he I should have SOlillethiDlR'
say in criticism of it j but he does a I!Tf!ll.Ulr ...,nf .. .,"'.
almost than if he had us a.
ory, he shows how ethics work in the world. It is
a and belief that the powers of Na.
ture are on the side of man's after
and a The hid from our
gaze the thin screen of Nature and of Nature's
is not in love with you or me, but it is with our
8trug~:les after a for to them it
and are the salt that the earth
sp<)iling, and their effect is while all
thliVal~tell, cut and passes away.
brave act we and every true word we utter
to build up human life here on the and
every mean act and false word tend to it down
and it. I have of and nations,
-let us not think that these are too for
individual actions to count upon. The fate of a na.
tion at not on or or
lelJ~slat\lreS, but on the lives and characters of the in-
dividual men and women who comp<>ae it. U The well-
of the State upon the of its
individual members."l We think we are not respon-
sible for the evil and wrong there are in - we
arc, to the extent that we submit to them. A.
I Statement of Principle. of for Ethical
Culture.
wrong cannot be done a there is

of wrong, or of tolerance for wrong, wide-
among its members. Each one of us, no mat-
ter how we seem, counts 8.8 a factor in
the sentiment from which or bad
al'e born. Frederick W. Robertson -that tender and
strenuous too soon away from earth
said: "There are current maxims in Church and in
in in in to which we
obedience, For this obedience every {)ne is respon-
sible. For in trade Rnd in the pr()fel.si(ln
of law everyone is the servant of the rec-
titude of which his heart can half approve;
everyone of all are involved in
them. when such sins reach their cn:max.
the case of national baIlkrupjhcy
there may be some who are
actors in the j but evildeutlv
each of the is res:ponsible in that
and so far 8.8 he has himself in the
of careless
witness, h8.8 done
in the reduction of to that state in
which the monster h8.8 been 1
you do count j and the difference is
you may count in those influences that to
man up here on the or in those that tend to
weaken and undo him. You may build on the
and the floods will come and wash your work away j
or on the and your work will stand forever.
You may to make a nation of
of the
1 Robertlon'l Sermonl, Third Series, p. U7.
honor and shame and the sense of humanity, even life

for the sake of to see the
if you could live on, crumble and disiint;egrate.
and its wealth in ruins; or you may cast your lot
with those who would be lovers of their who
wou.ld rather see done than amass who
would be clean in and honor woman and ...__. n
the defenceless; and if you do not win the nation to

your you, or those who follow after you, will form
the whom and whom a
new and wiser nation may arise. Men to rear
States without in their hearts are like
his stones up to see them.
down natural ; and when one
sees them with laws and
constitutions and courts and armies to buttress them-
selves so with their ODe thinks
of poor in Homer's and strain-
the sweat the while down his and
the dust from his head. I. Wash ye,
make you away the evil of your from
before mine eyes; seek relieve the oPl)re:ssed."
is the voice of Natural Selection as well as of Israel's
God. Otherwise man's work is and all the
labor and of it are for ; the God of
world will not allow it to stand.
I two remarks in Think
of the Athenian race, whose average Francis
\.Td;lWIU. another writer who has followed in Darwin's
says 1 was two than onr

own; that as much as our race is above that of the
African negro. did this race
Heredllary Gel1llU, p. 84S.
decline? Galton says, because of social j
bel}8.USe, in became unfash-
ionable and was and courtesans held sway.
every man whether immoral or
who has of woman, who is not in-
dig:nrolt when she is who lets
pass his or lewd in his
to swell the tide of our social for
to make the in which it grows.
do Dot come from come from
thEmghts and and what we hear others say,
from a thousand and one nameless that seem
in themselves to count for no'thlog.
On the other let us not that the
Vlr\;UCS. the graces of the count
not,hiD.g with the powers of Nature with
deal. Never let us think that
eVElrvthingj it is not even
world. Professor Everett has beauti-
that to the powers of natural selection
"the the the the beautiful
are as dear as the fierce and the It was the
law of natural selection itself that the
nightiJrlgale to and that the hurnmi.ng-
hird with his hues. It is this that whispers
to the timid hare to and this that binds the
to~~et]l1er in their harmless federation."
The virtues all count in humanit,y's strugjirle
for existence. As there are
human that do not
so there are no and that do not
to draw men nearer and make them str'onjger
in any time of or distress. fortitude in
ETHICAL RELIGION.
a mother makes brave sons and Love in

peace makes heroism in times of Selfishness
di!lintegl~atlls and j love builds up and
Nations stand not on not
on not on but on rig'htllou,snIBs8 j and
if becomes rainpliUlt in a eornmuni,ty,
not all its dollars or its will save it. You and
I lives as we do.
let us count for fOl' for unselfish-
ness, - for all that makes human life and
stable on the earth I
SOCIAL IDEAL.
T is sometimes said that all involves social

I relations. There can be no
of it does. What is
that a
but a certain kind of
conduct or relation between man and man? What is
what is what is what is
chivalry, save as there are to which these feel·
go out? What is if there is no one to
whom to be truthful? What are and
but ideal of social I need not
of of so are
their references. Even what are called vir.
are after ?
sOInetiml3s called a virtue; hut it
ke1epi.ng one's word with another. is
called a ; but is not a
denial of the relation of the sexes, but a pure rela-
tion of the sexes. is a ;
ternpE~ralnce is an but a means to an
the maintenance of the supremacy of the
rational and moral in us. The man is so
much more a man; but as man hisa and
are, in measure, with men, and is to
fit him to take his well in the life and work of
-122 ETHICAL RELIGION.
Even when we assert some stricter some nobler

strain of honor than obtains among men, it
is not so much that we sever ourselves from
as that we to the claims of an ideal ; if
we see and will a than the State com-
it is that we own ourselves members of a
which exists as in idea.
above custom or written statute is an assertion
that the ideal is our true home; it is but an espous-
of the ideal as over the of
the actual and the sensible. For it is not so much to
as as to the social ideal
that we
But our life is in it is pos-
sible for us to live and to our OWll
individual if we will. Such individualism is
the sin. every form of
social wrong are but over
the law of social in other
than its ac-
count at least of another with in deter-
my action. And widens and embraces
new duties as the circles of and
as the law of each circle becomes in its turn the
law for me. As matter of so as a man
was bent on he was
more than an animal; he to be when
the of his determined when he
owned himself a of it and acted for to main-
tain and defend it. He became still more nu:ma'u.
when he was a member of a and felt
the welfare and the honor of the to be
his own; still more human was he when he won the
THE SOCIAL IDEAL.
th()u~:ht of and would tolerate no intel'ests

of his own, nor action of his which tended
to hurt or 01' wrong any, even the humbllesit,
child of man. It is evident that the of
our social is the measure of its real worth.
If I feel an insult to or my or the
cOInmmnity in which I and have no sense of
wrong when some one outside these circles is siulila,rly
a1I:I.'Oliltel:l, ",1";,,,1,, I do not value man as man, that
am not but have a pelmliar
for those who are near me. Some Sense of the
claims of every human he be the lowest
and the and that will not allow us to trampJle
upon him he be in the dust at our feet;
some of indescribable awe, even it be
blended with when any human form passes be-
fore our eye, this is the measure and the yes,
the very of mo,rality.
It is this that determines the form of the social
ideal. And let me say, before that
I do not to to the social
ideal. This has been a and occu-
for many men, but I have neither the wit nor
thereto. I can in a.
way indicate its And this principle
in a that in the ideal order every man shall be
an end as well as a. means. I need not out that
this has not been in the
Not has been almost but
there have been elaborate of "1,,.vp.t·\1
some of the We now
know what a battle the reformers before
our late war had to The notion of the universal
ETHICAL RELIGION.
of man is a modern one. It is neither in the

Old Testament nor in the New. I doubt if it he in
the of any of the of the world.
Plato took for and appears to have
jUlltified it in that the statesman should
reduce to that condition those who are and
base.1 Aristotle for that it was not
a of the economy of but that
it was in in the between
those endowed with and those who
poi3sessed mental a very wide
ex:pel~iellce and the clever of some
of the thinkers of the race, our brave reformers had
but to themselves on the ideal of the
the of every human and say,
"What these have been denied in al-
most all the what the cries of out;r8.l!red
human nature have been and the slaves
become do not the shall
not the cries now be and shall the slaves not
themselves be summoned to arise out of their l1ea,thJly
? II How may you find the defences of
slll,'ITer:y, made even now I the other I
was a writer who says, "Refinement is
poi3siltlle where leisure is j and' first
made it It created a set of persons born
to work that others may not and not to think
that others may think. • • . The pat:ria,rctls A.bra.haID,
and Jacob could not have had the calm
which marks if had themselves been teased
1 Zeller's PhiiOllophle der Griecben, ii. 1 (8 Ad.), S. 755. Ct.
Plato's StRlesman, 309.
1I ibid., ii. 2, S. 600. Cf. Aristotle'. Polities, I. 5.
THE SOCIAL IDEAL.
and hurried about their flocks and herds." 1 .need

not that as matter of tllere is some truth
in this; none the less dOl::s say that it would
btl uetter that refinement should not than that
it should rest on so a foundation. His-
tells us what was, not what have been j
and there are other ways in which an and a bet-
ter refinement have come without any enllla'vinll!"
of one human another. I do not think there
ia any refinement that does not consist with a
fine for the of others.
every every kindness that is not in some
shown to all with whom we come in CODltac:t,
indicates a hidden root of selfishness from which
The form of the social ideal is then that of eq\lali,ty.

Ill'"""";:"", silmi.lar'ity of and function for every
one; not that all should do the same work or the
same returns for their work; but that all should
be in turn ends as well as means, that no one should
dare make of another a mere instrument to his own
satisflil.Ctions, but should him as an in-
de])endellt worth and of his Own. when
shall the time come when the name MAN shall have
more honor in our eyes than any title of rank or
power; when in every man we shall see the thai
1 Bagehot, Physics and PolitiCII, chap. ii. § 8. cr.

thropology, p. 486): "Though the civilized world has outgrown
the ancient institution the benefits which early society
gained from it still remain. It was through slave-labor that
agriculture and indUlltry increased, that wealth accumulated, and
leisure wal given to priests, ICribel, poets, to raise
the level of men's minds."
is his crown be soiled and his gar..

ments tattered; when our shall
as we look back upon our owu that in every re1&-
tion of life we have owned and honored the man, that
we have remembered the ideal brotherhood to
which we all ? I believe it is not to
rest in our own till to the eye of the soul
that time shall have come; till in vision we see human-
transfigu:red; till the of
tice are into every fibre of its life; till one
tide of love and of sweep and it is in-
deed lifted out of the realm of the that como
and go, and becomes a in the of the
purpose that created it. I see not how it is pOl$siltlle
to short of I see not how one can be con-
tent with at ameliorated con-
ditions. I see not how the that leads him
to go so far does not lead him to go farther. I see
no rest save in the of the I see no
sat;isf'acl~iOlt1, DO peace for the soul save ill
itself in to that limitless in
makin,g it to move us, stir us, us) and a
limitless to each act we do.
I believe in a of the 1''3. It ia the social
ideal i and from the of from the consecra,..
tiOD to and the of our lives in accordance
with its I look fop. a new birth of reliigioln
in the world. We are builders of that There
are those who not in but in a. sad siulce:rit:'f,
abandon prayer. It is no to tbink of
the as a boon down out of the he:!l.VElnS,
1 The reference it to the Ii nell UDder thai title
Prafel101' Adler. p. 277 of tbill volume.
THE SOCIAL IDEAL.
to look for it from without. The burden is laid on

human j houor calls us to bear the very pur-
pose of our is to bear it. A voice from out the
unseen itself seems to say: " 0 Man I from
and act. I call thee to be not a but a
creator j the now, and out of
the chaos and the darkness that thou seest within and
about thee thou order and thou I"
If pl'ayers would the " of should
we not think that centuries of Chl'istian
would have it? And if have if
the condition of the the selfishness of human
the the wrongs, the hardness and con-
of the laws and yes, and
the low content and unbelief in the pOissilbil-
of better that so are all
an open and contradiction of that ideal order
of - what is the what is the moral to
be drawn from the facts but that 80
as we look without and above the answer will never
come;' that if it will be and no more
child's must its and
set men themselves to the of the
which have so intrusted to another?
Ha,Villlg now considered the social ideal as reR:arc[s
its the element of pel~f613tic.n ~~IO[lgil1lg
and the true method for its
us What is its pr~l.CtlCaI meanilng
what is its upon our po:litical instittltio,ns,
the forms and habits of our social life ? in re-
to the State. In ancient ethics was almost
identical with j a moral was one
which subserved the interests of the Our ideal
is wider. Aristotle would - that

those who were not - as little better than
anjimlds, and war to the end of them
slaves. 1 To us, nations have over na,.
as individuals over individuals; and it
is not one nation to make another an in-
strumE'nt to its own ends The social ideal
in a a law of nations. It does not
forbid war, nor does it forbid ; but it forbids
either of these for selfish It makes
the of a for commercial interests
and without a conscious purpose of
edlllca,tiI:lg and and those who
to it for the duties of a crime. It was
such a mere business that Great Britain
wished to make of her colonies in and it
was this tbat roused their and led the
embattled farmers at Concord stream to fire
" • • . the shot heard round the world."
And that civilization has a

barbarism of an exclusive and
prclfitless occ;up:ittiClD of the it is none the less a
crime and a heinous crime to do as our has
- treat the barbarians as if
had no claims whatever npon us. The Indians are
human have the of human be-
l and if cannot defend those all the
more shame on that which will want<ml:r
t1'll,mlple upon them. The Indians have been
may still be It may be ques-
tioned whether there is a race of men on the earth
1 Politica, i. 8.
THE SOCIAL IDEAL. 129
if and may not lose
its savagery and take a in the ranks of civilized
Not all the interests civilization
Rather is it the for the 8ujlel'ior
race to lift the other with to use its su]periority
and its for semce and not for oPJpre,ssion.
The of the social ideal in
the relations between the officers of any
State and its citizens. 1'he time is gone when any
or emperor can claim to the service
of his In the claim never did
it has existed often in fact. the
is half taken out of and the reJ:lrolLch
almost from when the aim of the
monarch and the comes to be to use his power
for and the of the citizens
as one another or any external "U1N",..".-
One may be freer under a monarch than under the
rule of a class. It is uot the name or form of gov-
erUlme,ut, but whether the interests of all its citizens
are made supreme, that is of moment in any
State. What are the holders of office in our
own land? Are there for or are
there for ? Are their
own ends and sec,uriing'
the ends of the welfare? I will not answer
the I am not so much con-
cerned for a answer as to out the
of the of which I am j
and I Is not the very notion of it faint and un-
1 Thill may be laid to have been the significance of the
Ab~olute Monarchy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, U
contruted with the old Feudal mo:nar'CbJr.
9
130 ETHICAL nELIGIO~.
certain in the mind? Is it not almost for-

that men in the service do so
service? Is it not deemed that
once in the should reward them-
I selves for their laborious exertions in get;tilJig
- yes, and their friends their faithful IrllmaS,
who them in the ? What it
that in accordance with our democratic we
have rotation of if the effect is when a
of or of Ie bosses" comes, to introduce
a new set of selfish men to and thus to distrib-
ute the and make it wider and more gelleriilJ.
in the ? It is said that we want "busi-
ness " in our civil service; in the
in which the reformers use this I agree
with - in the sense of and of fitness de-
termined no or on the
of those who But in another sense of
the word " the very root and foundation of
the evil in the matter is the the essential
distinction between and business. Business!
we all know what that means: it is for and
not for anyone or everyone, bnt for onrselves. The
business is to make that as as
po:ssible: and with this idea and aim in what
other result could we than that of which
we hear now ? I maintain on the
other hand that life is not business; that it is
a than business; that a attaches
to it that cannot attach to any on ol1r
own that it means up llYlVlllr,A
and ones; that it means
in the State and for the ; that the pec:uniary
TJIE SOCIAL mEAL. 131
return which one receives is not reward or or
but not so much as to BUIlpo:rt
one in service. It is the idea of the U salaried service
of the State" that needs to be introduced; and if our
oftice·holders do not have and our has so
it is because the cOInm.unity
- because we.u-nurn AV".,.v·thinO'. for-
with us a. matter of
itself sometimes no we do not dUltililCtl:y
see should be the sole exc}eption,
M()rel)Ver. if the of the social ideal has
this to the it has also another. The
social ideal commands that the members of
"''''Q""",t the weaker. The state of nature is
the reverse of and as communities
are formed is pl'(ltelltioin vouchsafed to the and
a curh on the self-assertive of the
What is the of our courts of
but to see that what many a man would to do he
shall not or if he has done that he he ?
What would the civil of any of us
amount if there were no to guiil;rantl!8
them? In fact any civilized at the pres-
ent is a Tealization of the social and
a11such have an to
in it. For where shall the limit be set of
interference iu behalf of the weak as
agl'inist the ? Does exist
to life and ? But suppose the life
of many is worth the may not
govel~nll(leIlt interfere to make it hetter worth the
? do we have do
we have interferen08 with the order of industrial
ETHICAL RELIGION.
and the of the of children

under a certain age, or of women save under certain
conditions? Men can live without education; and
children and women can while
go to work before are ten years of age and
work more than ten or twelve hours a The State
these its that it is
but to make life tolerable.
may it not aim to make it more than tolera-
ble ? may it not strive to at
least for every life to become a both
to itself and to others? And as for prClpelrtv.
may not the State not at pr(,te(~tiDlg it as
it however it may have been won, without
art,it1';ari1ly dilsp()sin;g of at so prop-
gerler~Ll1y distributed? Is the State
the character ·of
gramting of it tends to assist the pro-
cess of the accumulation of in tIle hands
of a and to widen the gap between the dmerent
classes in the ? I have no scheme to pro-
; I am for the limits of the
pli'~atiion of a And I do not believe
there are any limits to be as the say,
a ; the limits are in what the State CU1J
acc'om:pli;;~h; and this in turn upon what those
think and want who compose the State. A revolution
of or an of the
If'ad to the of the
of the State's so that it should do for the }(,88
favored of the what now it does
not dream of It is not aRy
but the idea and mission of
I urge that it stands for for the com-
that when men act of the common
are to be to submission before it j
is indeed no other than the of re-
social and that it differs
in the element of force which it
geIJLUil1le rElligion and a and far-
pol.iti(~s would go hand in hand. The social
of all our institutions. There
secular ,The statesman too
should be a and while here
among the intricacies and difficulties and disorders of
should have his eye on the and
be and sanctified the that makes
heaven and earth one.
But the social ideal has closer appli,cat;iollS to us.
We must aU but we have not all control
of the means of nor
to create them. We have not all first-hand access to
the soil; and we are not on those
who cultivate but on those in whatever way,
control of its We want not
but means of even of lux-
ury j for in the economical seuse all is counted
that the eye, that the intelli.gellce,
that the of our
man has in him the of a more than
matel'ial existence. are after
all but a on which the nobler house of
the soul is to be reared. But to cir-
cumstances and natural one of
the comes to on the other for
the of its necessities. In a
ETIUCAf, RELIGION.
there arises the relation of and em-

This is not the which was
rather that of master and but it is that which
now in civilized coun-
tries. Can we hesitate to say that the of the
social ideal has an that in in
business of every we should not use any man as
1iIIIl8MJS to our ends but should also him
as an end in himself? I can see no reason for making
the I know I may seem to contradict the
ordliDl~ry pri.nci:pIEls of business j I know the maxim
is that evel·y one must look out for himself. But I
must dissent from such a maxim; for in form
it is and everyone mnst look out for
biulsel.f, the that lurks behind it is a
nelmtiive. for that I am not bound to look out for an-
other is false. It was a excuse for that sin
that had "the eldest curse upon it i" it is a
denial of the social bond; it hides that which
if it had unrestricted course, and were not checked
selfish would make an of social
life. Yet I would not have an air of harshness in
this. I would not in my own name; but
I would rather call up the of weary, toil-
worn of bowed of stunted start-
in the earliest of human and
not down to the whO have toiled
and stitched and hammered and and delved and
sweat for man, and bid this this un-
broken array, for me. Ah' their nay,
their their dumb and rel)rOaCIl-
ful looks are more m(lvilnl!:,
POliSi13ly be any mean,
THE SOCIA L IDEAL.
could to you,
that there was them which never had
a chance to grow j that now and then
a of the and knew it the
it gave the darkness was ever down
upon till at last did not know whether
there was any more j that their whole existence
was in the means for further existence i
that knew that what went some·
.but it was not to save to enable them to
continue the weary round j that knew that
were in the that deeds were
hut that had no or share in and
could pray the to them grace to
for to was not allowed them.
Ah! is there a sadder in the wOl'ld than
that of the waste of the tIlat are thrown
into it? is he who never had this reflection
in back upon his own but still
he who has never been the cause of such reflections
or of such a fact in another! There is no need of
waste. I of course, of the order of J.''11I..url:,
but of the order of human over which we have
control. It is not the who decree hnt we
who nay, who cause it j every failure to act
a<l(lor,liin,g to the of the ideal which we are
colilsidel~inig, is a a virtual of such
a waste. I know the his workmen
wages i but what determines the rate of wages that
he pays? If bis motive is and he pr(ICel~ds
to business he so
much wages as he must in order to that
If the workmen want or demand more,
he does not need to when are

in a situation force him to
will he do so. In a he considers his
own and uses others as means to those
ends. Of course, it is understood that in so splealting
I have not in mind any individual man or meD, but
men as actuated business motives. It
principle I have in - a contradio-
to the of the social ideal.
Sometimes one may hear the commercial estimate
of workmen in the most and un-
manner. "Will any business said
the of a horse-car company, in a
few years ago, "tell me the difference between
labor and and other
sUj:>plies ?" And I think must be
that there is no business
If the has his own ends
in what difference can it make to him what the
means are which the ends are reached? A ma-
chine in a is as a maD, pel~hsLp8
as a dozen men, viewed as so much muscular
force and skill; and the business manufacturer
will have machines as fast as he can
for in fact no wages at all. He may
use and the finer and more
are the better i and he may trl?at them as he likes.
He may make all the forces
of his servants. he may harness the
hl?asts of the and make them to do his bidding
for I in that old sentiment of human
which finds all that is not moral and rational to be
rightf'ully tJ'ibtltaJ~Y to man. But when he touches
THE SOCIAL IDEAL.
another human this whole order of

nation ceases, and he dares in the name of
the I say he dares him
a mere tool or servant for himself. Rather JIlust he
say, " w e we win whatever
recompense for our toil we do win j and I,
as the leader in the have the to the
leader's and to the leader's share of the recom-
peuse j and as I undertake the must
submit to my and not I to yours, - you
are my and not a j I am, at
your not your in the march of
The solution of the industrial pr(lbll~m, - the aboli-

tion of all that is not in itself disihono:t'atile,
the of the classes to the full tHo'nit'"
and worth of the to all at least the
means and the for true and Doble U V'!:'::l.-
is after all a very : a I say,
it has not beeu achieved in the centuries of
the and it should not be alas!
. for many centuries to come. It is not combinations
of labor these are necessary and in
the for this is but selfish·
.ness class class; it is not
gOll'et'nnle[it assistance to it is not any
of legislation, these may both serve in
their way; it is not pr(Jifmle which often
those who and no means
blesses those who as the very means for ",h<l".it,,,
are often won selfishness and wrong. It
is a much SilIlpll~r and a much more radical reIll'ledtv
than is in the of a new
ETlDCAL RELIGION.
principle into the hearts of men j it is in the

law of the social ideal and it the law of busi-
ness itself j it is in every man in our emnlo,v
not as a but as a man, and hinl the means
to l'ealize the ends of a man j it is in no
that we do in some measure, make common
with him.
There are still other and closer of the
social ideal on our lives. I can hint at
We stand in the relation to one another of husbands
and of and children. the
instincts of self-assertion have had free in the
j and the notion is but upon us that
the wife is not the servant of her bUllba'ud,
nor are the children means for the
ends. the of the wife may be ditlferEmt,
it is an to that of her husband. As has
she is not a but a twin star with
him. And the their weakness
exposes them to all the more sacred is
the to bear in mind the manhood and the
womanhood that are in to make
them ends of our action and our love.
But the of the here are
in~irell.Sillgly rleoo'gnize,d, are there no others in
our homes whom we still inoline to as means
to our own ends? there are those in our
UUI,,,n'l:l, if not our whom we indicate
the title "servants." Do you say, but are
not ours; are on us; we SUIlpolLt
and we them and are in-
deed inc:ideiutlliJ.ly O'",t.i:;nO' a valuable tra:inulg with us
Profeuor Adler;
THE SOCIAL IDEAL.
that will be of use to them in the future? I all

this. I know are not slaves; I know
be treated; I on their
satisfied with what have and
Are we satisfied? Are not human ; have
not the ends of human and can we rest
till we concede them these ends? Can we rest short
of a universal of this law of the social
ideal? I confess that I want no one to be my "ser-
" in the one-sided use of that term.
The consciousness that anyone does not at all elate
me. I like not these these humble
this and obs:eqtliotlSllless.
do not become man, or woman either j humble
me, as if I were of them I want no
service that I do not return. I feel if I do not
honor another I do not honor for I funda.-
mentaHy am every other: it is one common
wherein we all share. I am lifted with every
and cast down with every that comes to an-
other child of man. Am I are to
be the forms of our domestic life? I answer, I have
DO of I have no even of the
destruction of the forms. I ask for the
admission of a into men's hearts j I ask
that it be and allowed to and fashion,
or and as it will.
Tboog:h I have traversed mnch I have done

to illustrate the compass and sweep of a
And I have not to
but to indicate its princi:ple,
PrEl8el1t order of our life
and the intercourse of the

it; if we can business and
inclustl'y transformed nnder its influence;
if we call see our and our to the
hmublest, lit up and the
of - we oan, to the inward eye at pre-
what the would be. I deem
it not too a for the humblest man. The
humblest man has that in him which will to
it; the loneliest man may cherish those feflliIlgs
and purposes which would fit him for in
the ideal j the man may find existence
for a moment rich ill the of it j the
sick man may find in it U medicine for sickness j "
the man may feel himself eternal in
the of it. For the issues of every individual
existence are there j our live or as
rise to its demands. It I no human
but a and the is
to own those who cleave to it.
Religion has been described Professor Adler as
the "homesickness of the souL" In it is so.
There is in us which tells us that we do
not to a realm of of clashilng
inl;erlests, of selfish We have another conll-
The home of the soul is I know not where j it
is not here. We to peace j we to love;
we to all that is covered the sacred name
of the Good. Where are those who will assert these
bel,oll,ginigs, and their surrender to s017erehl:n
the with which
every human the new order of their lives
and the peace of their prove that even on
are connected with "realms that know
not "?
The trouble with the established that
it has ceased to stand for ideal convictioDs. 'The
churches are friends of the order. Mo-
has become a tradition. Little is now said to
shame men, and to contradict their lives and the or-
der of with an ideal of what these should be.
Who will once more lift up the standard of absolute
rill:h~i!Ouisnless ? Who will of its con-
ventional and rebuke sins that now go
un:rebluked, and make demands upon men that now
do not dream of? who who see
infinite element in who with
.J ..."....,,'"', and make the law of the the law for
_1:h"v will be the the of the
Rel.igicln of the Future.
THE RIGHTS OF LABOR.
OTHING is at the than that

the of men are stirred on the
Labor In the discussion of it there is
to be more heat than Those who do not range
themselves on one side or the other are liable to be
hal~shl.y handled. Men who cannot subscribe to the
orthodox economy are berated as sentimental-
ists. On the other I have heard it that
the time is gone for discussion when men are suf-
and women and children are ; there
must be it was action was identi-
fied with violence and the
civil authorities! There is DO sane man who does
Dot believe in action in to this matter; but
the how to - with reason or wi'themt
it? One better fold his arms and do n01~hing,
than to take such action as would make ten sta.rviiDll
men where there is DOW one. We need more reason,
more more all around in deal-
with the We should
to do of view.
I know of a more instance of the
lack of this ethical than the claim sometimes
made for that are the of
all and hence that the wealth of the commu-
THE RIGHTS OF LABOR. 143
belonl~ to them. as what is called
sometimes it never makes so a
l
I
claim as this for itself. Let me illustrate.
a
tion of a modest
to
has saved to pay for the erec-
He must himself continue
aud therefore he hires other per-
sons to excavate the cellar and the foundations
and build the house. Let us suppose that these hired
men do all the - that not a shovelful of earth
is thrown the man or a stone or brick
laid or a nail driven him. The hired men build the
house: do therefore own it? I cannot imagjine
anyone so. Yet it would be
true to say so as to say that because wOirki:ngme:n
have built the railroads of the therefore
own them j or because have done all the
cal work in boots and or cotton
or therefore the total pro-
duct is their one who will re-
flect for a moment will see that in most cases there are
three factors in business the labor j
".,..:....11'' ', the direction and of the Is.-
and the of the materials on which
the labor and the shelter under
. which the labor is the or
tools means of which it works. All these factors
may be united in the same hands. Labor may super-
intend and find the market for its own pr(ldu.cts
it may own its own its tools or ma,chlinery,
and the necessary shelter. This is the case in all
There is abisolutElly
notbing in our laws or or in the
tes.chingiS of economy, to hinder all inolusltry
ETHICAL RELIGION.
in this manner, thus

with all for and
talists. Under such circumstances labor would
and would be entitled to the total value of its
pr(J.dul~t to itself. Not a cent of or of interest
would have to be all that is called
and interest would then be a of labor's
reward. since and wages
would in such a case all go to the same persons, such
co-o~lrat;ive enl;er]pri:ses could afford to work for lower
and interest than can business as
orclinl~ril.y conducted at and could successful-
cOinpete with them. is not so
orl~anjzed at ? It is in a few cases: not
in all? The answer is The hindrances are
not but internal. Labor is not orcliDl~ril,y
able to and to find the market for
its It does not own the mate-
rials on which it must nor the nor
the shelter it stands in need of. Some one else must
these desiderata. Instead of one person or
set of persons and often sets of
persons are necessary. The the emul()ver.
and the often hands and be-
in a common No one of
emp)(lved unless he were needed;
in each one is entitled to some recom-
pense for his services. It is it does
violence to every sentiment of to say that the
whole to the when the em-
and the are necessary factors
in the entierIlrise.
The of labor do the ordi- !
THE RIGHTS OF LABOn. 145
nary socialistic claim. The demand of labor
is that it ·shall have a fair share of what it
I do not say a fair share of what
prlldtlCes, for it is entitled to all it j but
of modern labor is
and so I say a fair share of what it
pr()dulce. When a shoemaker makes a
of shoes in his own out of his own material
and with his own he is entitled to the whole
value of the shoes; but when he works in a facltm'V
which is not with leather and that
some one else has it would be rob-
for him to claim the entire value of the of
shoes for himself. A fair share of what the work-
to - this is all that in
can ask for.
But do not have a fair share now? I do not
think do; and to my lies the real
of the labor I am far from
any accusations or
one as he grows in years, if
of view at the same must
in(lrellSililgly how and wide and mll,nV-IIu1el1
the labor is. Almost we incline to
leave some factor out of the not because we
mean .to do so, but because our minds are not able to
take account of at once. I do not
for that cannot have more out
of the wealth to create than that wealth
amounts to. are aU too to
that if money is
deal of it;
ETHICAL RELIGION.
em,plllyeirs. are and most like-

But this no means follows. No
business for himself without the
j but that many do not realize this to
extent is shown the fact that after a
time go out of business no better and per-
worse than when went in. What does
per cent of failures in the business world
mean but that in these cases no at all have
been ? per cent and more of busi-
so fail. It is imlPOs:sihle
to of the of labor to
tion in a business that is
may at any time be to sUllpend
claim to remuneration in such a case
Two years ago I read of a strike
wages among the of a New
newspaper. The paper was not a success,
and the showed his books to the workinll-
men j he even offered to the paper over into their
hands for three to receive all the
refused the and insisted on their
and the second the paper ceased to It
is that the had no idea of the em-
bal~X:aJlsDllents of their and that did
as much to themselves as to him their fool-
ish conduct. I know a in who says
he would be to make as much as his foreman.
It is difficult to statistics on this
the Massachusetts Labor Bureau of 18R3
tlJI\Hn::u that while some business in that
State were per cent
1 8M The Nation, Ma, 6, 1lll!6.
THE RIGHTS OF LABOR.
out of in to which information was ob-

made none at the value of the
sufficient to meet the expenses
and to pay the current rate of intel'est on the
invested. an is no
how can his workmen to have
than those receive? It in a
su,)erl~tition to suppose that wages can be raised to
prclviCled the are sufti-
united and determined therefor. must
COllsil:1er'ablly short of the value of the articles
that short to fair compen-
sation to the for his and dir'ec1~ioID,
and to the for the use of his Ci:lo~Jn~".
But because there are limits which the re-
turns to the cannot go, it no means
follows that the returns to at
prElsel1t are fair and What determines the rate
of wages? At first it may seem as if it were
the worth of the service rendered. It is true
that as a rule skilled labor is more than
nnskilled; hut if we go a little and ask the
reason it is not hard to discover that skilled
labor is more not because it is l:lA.I,Ut:ll1.
but becanse it is rare. In what branch of work is
more mind than in in our sooools?
What service ranks in relation to the welfare
of the ? Who exercise more power for
or for ill than those who are the first
lessons in and virtue to our children and
? teachers so re-
warded? The answer to it be-
cause there are so many of
ETHICAL RELIGIO:lf.
to be teachers. And are teachers who are

women less than teachers who are men,
may be as may even
take the same that men have ? Be-
cause there are so many more women to be
teachers than there are men. In other it is
not the worth or or intellectual character of
the services but the Dumber of those who
are to reDder that determines their
In technical it is and demand. If
skilled trade-schools or the inCOfl)()1'lf1o.
tion of manual into the should
become more common than it now there is
a other conditions the same, it
would command less wages than it now does. I
say not a word manual and believe
in it as much as anyone can j I note what I
think would be the fact. If skilled labor should be-
come as common as unskilled labor now its wages
would be as low. When the value of a is
and in as it
is common it is
there can be no to this so far as the
value of commodities in is concerned. Air
is so free now, so that it costs at all:
no one would wish it to be different. Water is al-
most as ; and conlmodities in gelleria!
cl01~hiIlg of every descri]ltio1n
too abundant and too But when we come to
human every ODe with a heart feels as instinct
that the AU these commodities ex-
ist for man; and the very earth we value
acc)or1dinlg to their power to serve and to con-
THE RIGHTS OF I,ABOR. 149
tribute to his Other exist for man,
but man exists for himself j we feel it to be a kind
of a kind of of the lli~:helst
and holiest we to turn him too into a commod-
and treat him as we would a which one
wears or the" food which one eats. Yet human labor
is from human life j it is the means
which in most cases life is That labor
shall be means that life shall be miserable. It
means less food and poorer; it means scantier cloth·
; it means less for the mind; and
if not all too it means in-
creased to to vice and shame.
We want commodities for man's sake j but
for whose in Heaven's name, will you make man
himself ? The fact is that man is never made
save that some other man, who to be his
br()ther, may rich off his labor. Man is never
made merchandise of save that may make
money ont of him. the shame of that we who
are brothers to one and should hold one an-
other in honor and seek one another's should not
hesitate to use one another and make out of one
am)th.er, and for ourselves onr brother
- yes, him down to the very
dust! For this is what the law of and demand
often involves when men it in
with one another. It means that the many shall be
sacrificed to the few. It means that the few caIlabJle
of in business shall have re-
turns for their have returns sim-
because -and that the many, who
pel~o:rm the labor and are as necessary
as the shall have small and often returns.

It means that the few shall out the many; and
because the many are many, and each must have bread
and for his crowd one
aU1otlJler, each in his a lower bid than
U~Alt:C,.-·iWJlU the result is that those who make the
other succeed in
emplc,yulent, and wages as a rule tend to the
that men will consent to live upon. The
this process, and also so-
so far as it is not made up of worki:nJt-pelople
but the I are It is this sense
of wrong that rise to socialistic and anarchistic
the wrong may often be exm~glerated
and so plausible occasion on the other side to a
denial that any wrongs exist. one is w1'1omred
who has an honest service to render to SOCltl1.>;Y, which
and is beaten down
tion to take returns for it that will
and is within lim-
its. There may be services that are held too
COlnp(ltition is to them down to sOInethiIlg
normal and reasonable. There are many in our
industrial where not but more, cOlnp,etl-
tion is needed. But when it pa1upl~ri:~es
when it leads men to one
another for the very chance to is worse than
USEllell,ll, - it is a curse. at the best can
never be more than a ma,Xllll, a rule of eXlpedjelilcy
it can never be a in a true econ-
omy. For must look to to
the sentiments of and which are as
are in
in in in every of
human life.
I have stated my conviction that labor as
does not a fair share of the wealth it
prl)dllCe j this must be the case so
as Nature endows mankind more with mus-
cular than with mental and those with the supe-
rior are not restrained in their with
moral I need cite
statistics and facts. Labor is better off in
solid and successful business than it is in
those which are to live; but it is as
a bettel' off to like the extent to which
the are successful. Successful enl;eljpri:ses
pay the mal'ket rate of wages and salaries about as .
others do; any other course would be
deemed unbusiness-like. To pay more than is neces-
sary to a certain service done is deemed cOIltrli.ry
to business The the
est labor as he
ch«~apest raw material (m~ovided
and as he borrows at the lowest rates.
An industrial of this sort is bound to create
1)OVel~tv among the lUasS of men. Mr. Edwal'd Atkin-
son has made an of the
cost of an average New cotton-mil1.1
His is to show how a of
enters into the of each of manufac-
tured cloth. The he says, is one third of
a cent in a that sells for cents. The number
of in the mill he at
on the average for a year each.
1 The :Marlin of Prollll. G. P. Putnam'l Sou, 1887.
item in the expenses of the next to that of the

raw is that of wages, - in all. _The
mlll-cl.Wllerl~. over and above all ex-
and a liberal allowance for
he estimates at or
pondlered much over these
1 he supposes that
may be wasted " on
and that sort
of the he '''''''''''-
will be turned into fresh Who will
say that this is a fair division of the of the
mill among those who to it? a little
less than a as much for the three owners as
for aU the 950 men, women, and children em,p}()yed
to~:etller I to it one owner has
SlXtV~SlX times as much as one of his I I
advocate no socialism; I the of the
owners; I admit do much more than any of
their and are entitled to a much I7I'P·ltt.f·'I'
reward; but times - it is impOllsi-
ble I It cannot be denied that the owners
made their in their pr()sp1eri,ty,
were in the labor of pr()ducti,on,
out any sensible loss to themselves.
Mr. Atkinson's the owners could SClI~rcl~lv
their income save to "fast
and that sort of " For
of the that of
1 The term is loolE'l.v used by Mr. Atkinson, no doubt; technl-

It would be divided Into Interl'llt on capital, wagel of IUper-
mtendence, and 10 called.
8. manner the and women and children
of the mill were j that it was wrung from
them because were not in a to
demand it. I cannot rid of the that
these owners were on the toil and hlood of
others as as if had been their slaves.
1& It was written in the do you say? yes!
the lives and liberties of slaves have been
away" in the bond." But such bonds do not stand j
before the white bar of have not the
of the paper are written 011, or of the
eubic inches of air consumed in to them.
Free contract? There is no free contract when on
the one side is to live at one's and
on the other no bread in the house unless work is
iDlltan.tly obtained.
Speall:in.g in a. way, and full allowance
for the business that fail or that
make their way, it is doubtful if labor has its
in this or in any other. Wherever self-interest
has had its way labor
has almost been upon. In most ages of
the world labor has been enslaved and denied
to have any which its owner was bound to re-
Where not enslaved it has been treated
as an attachment to the and sold as if a of
it. And the in modern civilized
countries is either a sla.ve or a he is at the
mercy of the and may sometimes be pUl'chiElSed
as as in the of or if
not more so. The abolition of it is is no
regTetted at the South; and a rema.rk made to
ago a Southern a
ETHICAL RELIGION.
reason He said in sul:.$tance that the free negro

was, after than the since formerly
the master was to care for his slave all the
year and to food and shelter for him in
old age, while now wages have to be to the
negro while he is at and slack times or
in old age he may be left to his own resources.
How little do we seem sometimes to have advanced
on the of one thousand years before
when the of the was not
but the free laborer! 1 We have a better
th(Hl~rht of the laborer now, but we have not created
for him a much better condition; and it is the contrast
between our - which are to be his
th'OUI'th1:s too - and his condition which makes U the
the sore and of the
time. The lalJorer feels himself a man, but he is still
treated like a a He believes in
bl:clth,erbloolc1. or at least he hears of it i but he fails to
ex])erjienl~e it. The brotherhood he knows any·
of is that of the U " and the
that which is to seem pl'lwticable
is the brotherhood of all workers aj5<Linlst
arraYEd to them down.1
What eRn be done? we can fast to our
thclUJ't,nts as to how labor should he treated. 'fhis of
itself is a. not to not to ""I
1 Cf. xi. 489, and Gladstone'll comment thereon in
.. Studiell on Homl'r," iii. 74.
II Cf. Adam Smith (Wl'alth of Nations, Ii. 70): '~Masters are
alwayll and in a sort of tacit, but constant and uni-
form, combination not to raille the wages of labor above their
actual rate."
THE: RIGHTS OF LABOR. 155
beeause the facts are the other way. It
tel1npl;atl,on to settle down to the idea that
are and have been so must be. It in-
yolves a and is a to hold fast
to an ideal when the facts contradict it. There is
a about our If we think
cannot be different from what are, we but add so
mnch to the dead inertia of the which
them as are; while if we will not we
may be of the very forces that will to make
different. Let us our faith j let us
our discontent and it in the ; let
us never cease to ask that become a principle
in business that the Golden Rule be made the
rule of till the common remark that" busi-
ness is when to the remuneration
of human be turned into a and
a shame to those who use it.
Sel~ol1ldl:y, let us make our as clear as pos-
sible as to what constitutes a fair return to labor for
its services in the work of It is im-
posisilileto ofwh~are and wa~s
in terms of money; the power of money
chamgl~s llIQco,rdilng as the cost of commod-
ities becomes or less. What we have a
to ask for the who year after year ren-
ders service to is that he shall have "'U\I","!,>U,
in return to enable him to run a fair chance of liv-
out the average term of human life; to have
a of moderate size; to let his children go to
school till are at least fifteen years of age; to
let his wife attend to the duties of a mother and a
with reasonable economy to aside
sotnethiIlg for his in old age. These are the

wages, whatever their money may which
everyone who works with his - I care not how
COlUU10DlpllitCe and rude his work may so that it
be necessary work to - should receive. There
is not a who works on our streets who
not to have so much. I advocate at
all for those who will not work not even j
for those who cannot work for those whose
minds or whose bodies are too feeble I ask the ten-
derest consideration and the But for
those who can and who do snch remuneration
as I have described above I ask for as
may reduce wages below this
nay, it does. There are of skilled as well as
unskilled laborers who do not such remuneration.
Enlpl,oYElrs, whether or allow them to
bid one to the end of pul;ting
money into their own or of redlucilng w:ation,
allow them to work on terms that tend to cut short
their to drive their children of tender years into
the or the to force their very wives to
work with them or in with and
to all sometime or other to to
and the It is all a monster ini-
Below the I have descril>ed, COIDPEltitioD
never be allowed to determine the wages of
the laborer•
...... uu.•;1l we can do every
honest of labor to at least this minimum
of remuneration for itself. The Unions that work·
ing:men form and the "strikes" enter upon are
not useless. The Unions may have many and
THE BIGHTS 011' LABOR.
foolish their members may sometimes overreach

and go on false in upon II strikes."
To demand wages for all whatever their
of skill and is ; to
nse violence those who take their when
leave work is criminal; to "strike" an
emiplll)VElr who is his way, or to take
ad1raDita~te of his is as of cen-
snre as for the to tl·eat in a similar way his
men. But where a business is where divi-
dends and are it is
both allowable and that should share
in the which to and the
should encourage them in every effort to reach
at least that minimum of which I have
if we are in business mat-

ter comes home to us in a way. I am well
aware that a man in business cannot
do as his heart He starts in a CO[npl~titive
field. There may be to undersell
him and drive him out of the market. He has to
make himself a foothold in the midst of a stream that
would be to carry him away. He is per'ha}>s
thence to the market rate of
wages to his workmen; he has to appear to stand in
a. commercial relation to his men.
h01we1rer, the may dwell in him.
He may still cherish the wish to establish a real
brotherhood with his to run the race not
them but with to treat them as his
co-workers and his ; and as his
enliel1)ri!le s1i1ooeedJl, he may carry his into
ETWCALRELIGION.
- not with but :::ather ;

dis:apJPointed because his men do not at once be-
but determined perseverance and
eVld.ellt Il:l)OO-Wl.l1 to make them believe in him. In
technical he may either raise their wages,
or their nominal wages to remain the same,
may make them share in his This to my mind
would so far as circumstances orclinll.l'il,y
the ideal form of At any it
would be ethics carried into business life; it would
be the Golden Rule a realm where it is ordi·
thougllt to be Love is to
be a dream i it the that is pra.o-
tical. It so to the world that there is
no or even peace, without it.
PERSONAL MORALITY.
L
RE is no more wonderful or more
tbCl1Ugllt than that of
It seems to go to the centre Gf (Iur
which is not the mind or the conscience or the
but the will. A voice seems to say: II To
o is a task. Thou art not
one of a mass thou conntest
Thou art what no one else in the world is. Thou
hast a that no one else in the world can do.
Sacred art thou in the of the world. Revere
and fill out arc of the circle
of Without thee that circle must remain for-
ever !"
The first lesson of ethics is sellf·r1lvlere:nc1e.
M(lral.ity is sometimes resolved into and
for others. But there is due our·
selves as as to father or mother or wife or
sister or friend; the same reason that exists for reo
s~ecting them exists for ourselves. I want
no one to show of to me who does
not stand on his own and in his and
demeanor show that has. an sense of what
is due himself. I cannot conceive more
ETHICAL RELIGION.
laulentable than that one should think that

tion first arises when we consider the claims of
and that in his and life he may do
this 01' and as he because it con-
cerns himself alone. He who that there is
a to himself is liable sooner or
whether there be any real to others; for others
are human like and if he feels
no to should he to them?
The truth all others and himself.
To each one is a - to each one par'tlC1ll-
and as if no one else were in ex-
istence ; the task to a certain be
each one and alone.
What are the for which we are thus person-
resipo'Dsible; what are the over
we ourselves have control? our
vate habits. These may be known no one but
we are as for as if
were known to aU the world. We are respon-
not because of their effect upon
but because of their effect upon because
we to pure since these alone are
m",..t.hvof human one should be watch-
ful of should take an honest
his own in all
he knows may be too for in his
as well as his soul what is onseen and what
is seen sweet and clean. Tell me, if it were pos-
what a man's and most soliitar'y
are, and I will tell you whether he
- whether whatever del~I1lcy
he has are for show or are a of his very fibre
PERSONAL MORALITY. 161
and as a man. I read of some one
when sat down to dinner with the same
for form and as if he were enter-
binh,,<V a company of friends. His at
was ; for whatever measure of form and cere-
mony is proper on such an occasion is so because
human sit down to the and not because
of their number. All our habits should re-
veal our sense of what is due to the in us.
Therefore we should not drink to excess or eat to
excess, for this is brutish; therefore we should con-
trol all our - otherwise there is the abdi·
cation of the reason, which makes the humau
of us; therefore the should be treated
with reverence, because it is abode and taberna.-
cle of our ; therefore of the person
and slovenliness are because reveal
the lack of a sense of what is to a man.
every unchaste every snrrender of reason
to all excess and all meanness in our
manner of of the as well as
nel~le('1j of the the fair that is in us
and to be reflected iu our person and behavior
is dishonored; we sink to the level of the animal
instead of to the stature of the man.
Another field wherein we aloue have is
that of our aims in life. Au aim is nowise
set save the person whose aim it is. An aim is
the direction of onr own will. A aim
cannot be to a man save himself. He may
hear of hut it is not his own till he makes it so.
Our outward acts may be ma.y not
express us; but the will is centre and citadel of
11
our and no power in heaven or in

is master there but ourselves. With this m~lgnlifil}eIlLt
power we can choose or lower we can
direct the channel of our life in this or that direction j
or, if we we can refuse to aim at at
and and become and 19I1lobJle
wanderers on the earth. any aim is better than
none j but the aim is alone of a man.
What is the aim? I will venture to
that it is to contribute to an ideal order of human
life. The other answers are either
lKIJiOUJltl or unreal to us. To save one's who of
us- can consider that the noblest aim we can have?
To God and him - how far
away and unreal and does that seem to
us! To seek the of ab I but what
is the of God? To do the will of
but who will tell us what the will of God means?
for that sauctiou in the course of man's religi()l1s
hil'll:ol"'v. covered almost every conceivable aim of man.
and devilish and divine. But to contribute
to an ideal order of human life seems to me an aim
that man can hold of j and it is an exalted aim.
For we love this human life of ours. and wish to see
it lifted to its ideal. We love it most not for
what it but for what it may be. We are in love
with its ideal. The aim I have is legitilnal;e
for the for f;l)"l for the for
the for the for the One
may he can have the aim j and
the aim is that for which alone we are reEIp<l'nsiiblle.
and may to our smallest actions and
a value eveD to our ineffectualllb·ivi:nll'lI.
PERSONAL MORALITY. 163
Once in a. while we need to turn back on these
lives of ours, and ask how far this aim is
of them. Are the actions we are
the sort of lives we are toward an
ideal form human life j are such as, if
were in the would that
ideal form of life nearer to the earth? Let the mer-
chant ask himself what are the the maxims
of his trade j and if are not what should
is he to them to pel~pej~uate
or is he to them? Let the
and the ask themselves as to the
of their and whether the su-
preme aim is them from that is dis-
hOlilorable, and them to seek to elevate
the tone and of their in every
possibile way. Let the mother ask "Am I
tra.inilng my child so that it will be a new factor in
the or a of old·time
dices and hatreds and shams?" Let the child too
have its solemn when it shall nurse its grow~
soul on deeds of heroism and and
ask itself whether it too could venture for an
and be nnder and the world's con-
Let the ask "What is
my motive; and would it if it were tend to
an ideal form of life? Do I work for
or do I take in a. of "'UJl!~>l,? tllor,ougrh
work? In my demand for ch::l.n~~s, perh~Lps revolu-
in the industrial am I actuated the
of malice and revenge or
of ?" even the unempll)yed 'W'orJitin.grn,an
may feel the pressure of that supreme aim upon
.
Jl'\';WClAL RELIGION.
and in his sorest misfortune may will to commit no

and he be not to insult
and to bear even to the death rather than do a wrong
to others. does this supreme aim hold
j may it take from the of
those who are and to those who
are humble. How does it recall us from those
aims in which it is so easy to settle down! To earn
a comfortable and for wife and chil-
- how IDany seem to have this as
their aim in life! But there is
human about this; beavers and the whole tribe of
animals do the same. Man has has im-
has a moral has dreams of uni-
sometimes he the nio·n1t:v
to turns his back on his
CODiscienc:e, loses his im~Lgirlati.on,
and uses his gmUili,e so far as to
prclvicle for himself a comfortable
his selfishness and hardness
children out. 0 lift up
of what thou art called to be!
i1111l.gillatilon, and life with a
because with all and
W8lStlDIg tllysielf, hec:oming little while thou sbouldst
be growIIlg old while thou shouldst
be k.el~ping ever young, life into a game of
and loss while it should be for
all noble action and the service of all causes I
The old contains a subtle " Thou
mUl~t born and to us
as is the that has been based upon
it hides a vital 'T is not the mendiin(f
..
PERSONAL MORA.LITY.
our actions that is first needed j 't is not the fOI'mi.ng

of this or that 't is not any outward It
is the renovation of the fountains 'of our life; it is
the victorious a new aim in life; it is the
our and the trans-
fOI~milng power of a new purpose. This does not alone
us in one but in all: it involves an
advance the whole line of And the dif-
ference from the old is while it
seems to say that such a purpose must come from
we say that it must be formed ourselves.
We do not fallon our knees and pray: we and
summon our and resolve. And the
old nature in us may not at once, old
faults may and old habits be we
can win the over them j and our
connection with that Power which uphoJlds
the world and the human is in
the belief that he is behind us and beneath us and
above us, and pours his into us, so that
we can ourselves do all that in our nature we are
summoned to do,
Not the supreme dominant aim of our
but our motives in all our 'are under our con·
trol; and for them we are It
is here that the based on the results
of our actions fails. An action may have
eXILctlv the same at one time have moral
worth and at another have none. A dollar to a
poor man will go 80 80 much
whether to rid one's self of his or out
of love for the man. But an act of former sort
is not a moral act at all. It is wonderful how com-
our moral value is hidden from all the world

but and how in it tran-
scends all else we can think of. I would not
the of results in the of ethics. Our
acts must not be must be
must with an standard j
and with the determination of the results of our
actions have a deal to do. An action is
which tends to the of the results of
which are beneficial to A moral
action is one in aims at the of hu-
It is not to be peI'fecitly rigJh.teIJUS,
we must mean to be i and in our so mean-
wanting', PUlrposing, our whole moral worth con-
sists. The l'eal life of man is Dot the seen, but the
unseeu one j what we see are but the causes
are hidden away. The world is satisfied with a cer-
tain and we ourselves all too in-
cline to take the world's standard j bnt in our graver
moments we know what a surface it and that
our unclean our our envies and
and all our littlenesses and unchllril;ablenes~le8,
no one else knows of
that defile us. Oli for a clean heart' Oh to be
within' - to be as pure in our own eyes as we would
be in the eyes of the world without! Oh to ban-
ish all and to look on others with
love! - so that if we chide or are severe toward
them it shall not be in anger; so that jf
us we shall not hate and if we are
we shall not The care, after
of each one should be for and for that
which is most to himself. in that
PERSONAL MORALITY.
inner no one else can

I co:n~,ive. a man well "This
I welcome to my heart all and
will that should and all my ac-
tion. I banish I banish I banish all low
cUllning and ; and I will not let a word escape
my or an act be that truth and honor and
love cannot sanction!" It is I to con-
trol our actions than our motives. It takes
it may involve a and
mean many a to be able to banish an un-
as soon as it appears, to check an
im]JUl!le as soon as it arises. It that
we have ourselves well in that the will is
Ah! but this is our this is that to which we are
called. There were no honor in easy victories. To
contend to hold to the after defeat
once and the is weak
the heart is to the purpose - there
is in that j and into the secrets of such a strife
the well look with wonder and awe.
'T was Hesiod of old who said that before the
of virtue the immortal had a.nd the
way to it was and 'T is hard to
what in life is to be had for the
The whole of our is
we are made and called to be pex':r8Cili.
" And. oh, if Nature sinks, as oft she may,

'Neath long-!in·d pressure of obscure distress,
Still to be strenuous for the bright reward,
Still in the soul to admit of no d€'Cay,
Brook no continuanee of weak.mindedne",-
Great is the glory, for the .trife is hard."
168 ETHICAL RELIGION'.
It is wonderful how every move-

ment in the has been marked a new sense
of the need of 'T was thu8
when real arose among the ancient HE!br!ews.
and a cry went forth from the prC)plletilc
in me a clean and renew a
me!" 'Twas so when Jesus called for a
eousneS8 than even the most of his own
'T was so when Lnther threw off the bond-
age of dead and wrote and to the con-
BellenCa, and said that au act in itself becomes
sinful if its motive is sinful. If I ever have a doubt
of the of a ont of Liberal-
ism it is because Liberalism more of
the of men than of their duties; because it
talks more of the reform of than of the re-
form of ourselves; because its ideal is philantltlrc,py
rather than ; because it that u
no'thing,," as Emerson says, "while a man not
himself renovated to renovate about
or, as John C. Learned that those" wbo
are in the wrong cannot cure " Let us pu-
ou:rselves. let us leave the world's standards be-
hind us, and ask what manner of men we ourselves
are; and if we find ourselves pas-
to take in
leave
selves I
But life is not all in is not all in
and - it is sometimes in wll,iting.
in in what we cannot remove. Per-
our battles ate with our and
PEHSONAL MORA.LITY. 169
with seems a. cruel fate that us burdens
heavier than we can bear. often we cannot
receive j we cannot tell our 'l'he
dies of our life are in and this is what makes
them traigedies.
I allow that is
us in life than we can bear. It may
seem as if the were too sore, but we can
endure it. We cannot control our
but \ve can our We can bear the
death of friends j we can bear the of
Ull~nU.Il, or their unfaithfulness j we can bear to have
our defeated j we can bear to have and
vanish out of our bear it without bitlterlnes.s,
hear it with The purpose of our
does not lie in that can be taken from
us. 'T is not in our and it may be accom-,
plisheid in of j 't is not in the rela-
of in tender with
J:rumUIl, in honor or 0
Fellow-man or woman, is in - in
in thine in readiness to
whatever the universe iu
whether amid sunshine
or amid or sorrow. We know not any
more than Socrates what we to wish for our-
selves j we know what is best for us j
we know not out that which is most
divine and within ns. The lamented
said we could not know anyone per'fectly
well II while he was in and as the
ebb-tide discloses the real lines of the shore and the
bed of the sea, so and
,
" I
170 ETHICAL RELIGION. I'
out the real character of a man." Matthew Arnold

says of a friend
.. I saw him sensitive in frame,
I knew his spirits low,
And wished him health, luccelll, and fame, -
I do not wish it now.
"For these are all their own reward,

And leave no good behind;
Tht·y try us, - oflen est make UI hard,
LeiS modest, pure, and kind."
Emerson even says, " is

of the ;" and if this seems we do not
feel it so when we see some heroic man or woman
be~Lrilllg up under ills with go(llil~e eClullmilnity
and 0 think not off the
track of because are awry, and fortune
does not smile upon and thou hast
a that thou cravest! think not that the World
has not au;)' marked out for thee to follow!
of is still the ; and
it be no to but to bear but as
h""lVAllv as thou wouldst and never was there better
soldier than thou!
II.
THE field of our thclug:bts is a wide one; the field
of our actions is a narrow one. Ethics
covers both. It asks that we have
true j it the ideal also
for each smallest as it may seem, most
imligllificatlt actions. The real world to most of us
is not at all ; it is 80 near and cOlmuloIlpl:ace
A ...
PERSONAL MORALITY.
that we are it. Our real that

which we see and are in the midst of
almost COIlstl:l.nt,ly, is made up of those in our own
hOlllSElho,ld, of a and of a few more ac-
qu'!l.intatlCes, and of ourselves. Yet it is here that our
actions and here that our centres.
The home lies closest about us. How tender we
should be there! What solace every member
of that intimate tlircle to find there! If in the world
without we feel that we are misunderstood and mis-
J--'O"-' how should the fret and that come
from it vanish and as we return to that lov-
atllo.osph1ere and to those generous hearts
and us tend to
onl)o,.lr.nnit.vAolu"bl that of pal'enl~s
toward their that of elder brothers or sis-
ters toward the younger? With what consid-
eration should we treat those who are not so
not 80 in or who have some
that causes the world to look down upon
and the sense of which to themselves
at times confusion and mortification! How watchful
we should be about them! How we should
strive to in them of that selt-rl~spect
which is the basis of all the virtues! What is more
than a child or
treated at home? . those who
are nearest to us, and for whom we can do
we sometimes treat the most and for
them do the least. a man who is
itself to other women, comes to show little to his
wife j many a son who has deference for men
in shows little before his own father j many
ETHICAL RELIGION.
a. young woman who has consideration for the

fai'lin~rs of her sex, is im:pat;iellt and ungenerous
toward her own sisters. Oh that we learn that'
our nearest duties are .u~,.u",;",~; that we
think more and more tellderly of those whom we
and perwLps see j that we
our for them; that we bear with
have the will to do them I
-thou
PrElCl()US as these j none who
love j DODe for whom thou
wilt ever have a to do so much I,
NOithilng more befits a man in his intercourse with
his than a certain
of and soul. It be almost
called the due to humau nature as such to
be generous toward it. are so constituted that
if we think evil of them we are to find some
and if we look for what is we find the
instead.
lookil1lg for the
to allow the till we
are forced to. It means, where there are two inter-
prl~taj;10JIS of a man's conduct the in-
clined to take the more generous one, not ont of
cna~rlt:YI but because of an instinct of breadth and lib-
M~LgI1lanimity is to consist
in but I say it was more
shown in to credit them. Some-
times we are like the who on their
shoulders and dare some one to knock them off; and
then come to us that are never meant to be
illjuriles, that exist .in our active and
PERSONAL HORALIT~
our minds. " Trifles as

ShakI8pE~rle, " are to the confirmations
of writ;" but to the ma,gnani,m()us
are like those discords of which
" quem:hed
and charitable air." I have seen misulldEll'sl,an,diJlg8
arise betweeu persons who I am sure meant no ill
to one because each was
of his own that the other was
to wrong involved themselves in grave
and sad ; and I have that the
way out of the was not in how far
each was and each was wrong, but in the
both of a and nobll'r I see
no way to go in the world without
an habitual There are so many
" persons, to use a who are
makillig others uncomfortable all the what
as themselves uncomfortable too.
are on the as it were, lest some one tres-
pass on their' ;
and come to wear often a
which would be were it
All this is the of A mag-
nanimous man never doubts that others will
him. with those who tri-
fles; lie is conscious of rectitude in and be-
lieves in it in others in of a few appearances
to the cOIltra,ry.
And what an occasion for ma,gn,animity arises in
the little differences of op:mllcm, in the discussions
between friends aC~luaintanlleS, that often arise!
How many of our dUlcu:8silcms are,_ bec;3WI8
ETHICAL RELIGION.
we in our own of and do

not even to understand what the other person
means! How we are to seize upon some
mi:stake, to some error, and
overlook the drift and tenor of the dijjferllng opinicln
as a whole! What a it would if ne~~lect-
these minor blemishes we seized upon the main
idea of the person with whom we are
and to do to and to understand it!
one has little confidence in the truth of his
own view who is not for a moment to enter-
tain a different one. A discussion never should de-
gellerate into a j if ill-will there should
be an end of it. can never be cOllquerEld
Bi~totl'Y can be and
a noble breadth of view that will make even the
idea of the swim in a sea of Let
Liberals not harbor narrow those of
Jewish or Christian faith. Let us be to con-
sidpr all the truth there is in the old all the
services have rendered all the uses to
which their nobler adherents are still them in
the world. And let us do this not or as if
we were but with a tfllltO··1017IDIl
; and this will pass to those
with whom we converse, and lead them to deal with
us in a fairer The test of any set of views
after to what extent open, "'''l!U'''''. tll'UtD-lIOVlnll
minds can hold them. The best in our
favor lies in the noble we at all times
in our aversion to all the tricks which the palssil)US
and of men are in our m~lgIllanimity
to friend and foe alike.
PERSONAL MORALITY.
Aliother which the

and sweet,eDling of our life much is
about little There is much
conceit and nonsense about what makes the
man or Oue essential mark of such persons,
I should say, is mindfulness of little the
habit of little kindnesses of which the or-
grosser man or woman thinks. The
root of after is in a fine sym-
with others. We err in that
are necessary to make us A wo-
ma.n does not ask much from her husband t bnt she
asks his - and shown in l1Ulmberll~ss, b·i'Hin,O'
ways. You do not count on favors from your
friend; but a done with real goes a.
way with you. I believe that the
ness of most of us, so far as others are cOlloo,rn1ed,
de'peIlds more on their their their
their evident friendliness for us, than upon anvtl1inll
can do for us. 1 believe that so contri-
butes to the evenness and and cheerfulness of
onr own minds as the habit of
ren,deIlng little and little insigulifi-
ca.nt services which we should be ashamed to
after are done. "Small service is true ser-
vice while it " says Wordsworth: yes, if we
love into it. It is these small services that bind
,U;U~DUS, that the love of lovers fresh. are
the flower of go to make up what the
same calls
" That belt portion of a good man'l life,-
Bill little, namelell, unremembered actll of klndnesl and of
love."
ETHICAL RELIGION,
persons are with the littleness of

their lives i would like to be
and the duties of each take up all their
time, do not recollect that faithfulness is the
first and of us, that this may
be shown as well as in and
that the commonest lot may be the
pal;ieIJICe, and the sweetness we into it.
What after wanted most in the world is not
persons fitted for
ones fitted for the ordlina,ry, who
will throw their who
will show how much
how much sweetness may characterize the life of
every j whose minds are convel'sant with
that their JOost actions ; whose
very " " makes us and whose
" " seems like a benediction; whose
look mirrors a. heaven of of sel,f-reDl)UllCemEmt,
and of peace. the battle in
scure corner of the battle with thJ~sel.f,
and lot I 'fhou
pelrba,ps, but thou canst
well." Thou canst not do what
thou thou canst do what thou
must. Do it I fo1' the law of human life is
faithi'uilless, and it thou dost a
worth that life itself cannot exhaust and death can-
not "He that is faithful in that which is
least is faithful also in said Jesus. A
for it the measurements of the world
and of our It is to endear
, to the men; for it shows that he
I
1
J
PERSONAL MORALITY.
upon the what were,

&nd not
Another virtue much needed in our inter.
course with is readiness to own a fault.
The whole virtue is in our -in
to own we have been in the wrong. We do not like
of course to shame not before
but in our own eyes. is more unwelcome.
TherefOl'e there are few more moral
enees than those of a
apcmtanlwu.s, and we are not driven or to it.
SelJarate ourselves in such an act from what we
to and feel the €I to be" as above us
and as it were us. It is sensitiveness
we need to have. Most persons know when do
wrong, bnt do not rue do not
over it; do not confess it - if confess at
all until the of contrition have lost
warmth and the confession half its It
an passage of : €I Let not the sun
go down upon your wrath." Each blessed in
this life of ours makes a kind of and no evil
should be done in it that is not of before
its close. For who will allow that confession is
a childish or, if it were, would not ask that
he the child's heart and the child's
and even if it be before some sainted of the
or before or before some of the
Hi,ghl~st, which seems to bend over and listen to
pour out his sorrow and his shame rather than
not have any sorrow and shame at all? But the
man's habit should differ from the child's in that
while the child confesses to a. or the
12
ETHICAL RELIGION.
man confesa to The of man

is that he is both the doer and the of his
The child could not humble itself before
the did not the voice the dormant con~
science of the child. The man reaches the true
stature of a man when his conscience becomes awake
&I1d alive.
"Sib there no in heaven, our lin to see ,
More Itrictly, then, the inward
Is this ? No j an un\vel[collDe, a difficult

task it may be to sit in on but
not I believe a man can be as viltil~.nt
over himself sa ever God or could be. I believe
he may be sa toward as in his
dellDand:s, and as sure in his condemnations. There is
a. God in every mao, and it is for us to let him
and to hear him j and not till we do this is the true
aim of our carried out.
ON SOME FEATURES OF THE ETHICS OF JESUS.
I.
HERE bave been noble-minded men, like Schil-
ler and John Stuart who have been offended
with one of the of Jesus. The
is in substance that his is sometimes mer-
cenary. - that he does not ask men to do be-
cause it is but because shall be rewarded
in a future state if or if do
not. There are passages which lend thelu.
selves to this J'esus unqulestiionablly
believed in future rewards and ; and it
is a mistake to him a modern hnmani-
without a sense of law or of the deserts of
men. But this is not that he to the
self-r,egll.rd:ing motives when upon men moral
conduct. It is one to that wickedness
will call down vengeance from heaven; it is another
to seek to dissuade from wickedness or
for fear of that vengeance.
I cannot consider the l'lll."IJ,inr'l! of Jesus in but
a. to their seems to me to
lie in the distinction between the and the mere
exhorter or Christian have
used the ideas of heaven and hell as motives to deter-
ETHICAL RELIGION,
mine men in their conduct; and Christian as

in the has been tainted
with the mercenary But Jesus was not
a or exhorter; he makes few aplJeals
men. His attitude is one all uncommon,
if not to us of th-e Western
world; he stands for the and as a prlJpllet
deolares the law of the to men. Wbo does
not at times crave a of the ways of the
Eternal? Who has not at times had his soul stirred
within him ,as the course of has Heemed to
if not to be in lDan and
the QppressOl', and to be if not hos-
to the ? Wilo has not cried out for
and asked: " standest thou afar 0
Lord? . . . Break thou arm of the wicked and
the evil man!" A Hebrew once the
rigrht,eOtlS man as a tended and pro-
tected the Jahveh. No one can fail
to see the and the of the ; but
how often is it true? Yet we believe it to
be - that the nature of must some-
the to the man, and that this
to be made manifest, The prll,phl~t
addresses himself to this or rather an
answer to it; and the answer which Jesus gave has
written itself into the hparts of of men, and
has been the and consolation not of actual
sufferlers, but of those harassed with - of those
who but for it would have lost all intellectual satis-
faction with life. A was in
human he declared; the power of evil and
wrong would 800n come to an end; the world would
Or
SOME FEATURES OF THE ETHICS OF JESUS.
show itself on the of the poor and the merciful

and the pure in and of those who love peace
and thirst for For these a new would
soon dawn j the" of heaven" should
and mercy and blessedness and the vision of
the Hil~he:st should be theirs; while for the
the the and the wicked there
should as there to
gllli\Shing of and the fire that is not qUlencheli.
l'he of so soon as Jesus to
be ushered was his answer to the ;
it was his of the ways of the Eternal to
men j it was to be the end of the mazes and
the solution of the riddle of human UUIW".'Y'
when Jesus says, lC There is no man that
hath left house or bI'ethren or sisters . • • for my
sake and the but he shall receive an
hundred-fold now in this . and in the world
to come life I do not conceive that he is
makillig an to or even men so much
as a what to his in the
moral nature of must and what the appar-
ent contradictions of upon him a pas-
sionate of At another when
Jesus drove the out of the
TemIlle, we are told that his called to mind
a ont of the lC The zeal of thine house
shall eat me up." If we in these secular could

realize the of suell a - if we could
enter into tIlat "zeal for God" and for the vindica-
tion of a Divine order in the world which
with a kind of tender for the wronlled
one of the of J e8us'
ETHICAL RELIGION.
not find it so easy to call his mercenary, and

should reserve our and for
those who conceive no other uses for his words than
as allurements or as threats to men in the way
of rigllteousness.
An of Jesus' moral tea,cbling
is that it is H How can
it is "resist not turn the other

away our cloak to one who takes our and
lend to everyone? Are not law and economy
eQ11alllv to such ? How would
endure if were ? Is it not
.the of the new that we are not to
and not to lend save on some kind of business
? " I think a measure of confusion is in
qu,estionis of this sort. Jesus does if I understand
condemn resistance for but bas in
mind the old of "an eye for an eye, and 8.
tooth for a and the of retaliation which
was at their basis. For we may use vio-
lence to our person or our or our
For one nation may rise agllim;t
anltltb,er, or one class another. If Jesus would
have condemned such it was in connection
with a view of Providence which we of can no
IIhare. is an dif-
ferent matter. I know of no rule of
to which we may return blow for blow or OPPrElssiion
for This would not be & wrong,
but a double wrong. Better than this would
be the other cbeek and the seo-
ond mile.
Nor do the new rules of now ha])pilly mtakiing
SOME V11; A'I"lTll'11;j;! OF THE ETHICS OF JESUS.
their way in our midst contradict the prllce'pts

A business ill one sense of the
be at all. To to no one for
because of a conceived that every
one to would not be to au
advance upon Christian but to go to the
bal~dness of heathenism. It must not be because we
love less or are to do less that we up the
, habit of but beCause we love more, be-
, cause we wish to institute more radical means of
and not relieve dis;tre~ss.
but do toward it at its sourcE's. If
there is the economical or the business in
the new if the aim is to rid ourselves
of annoyances and banish from the
gaze, npon no results will come
from - no such results as l3ame from that mi,rrhtv
movement of and tenderness which streamed from
the heart of and took the weak and unlprotected
under its care, which established beneficent
ins:tituti,onsl, l and made the relief of want or suffering
one of the virtues. No i a new birth of
a new enthusiasm for will effect any
radical revolution in human conditions j a new
wave of such tender as was in Jesus him-
it be in connection with om: view of the
world and not with and in its manner
of all the
and scientific observation and can
us. The best will after a time lie
if there is not the force of human love to
1 The lll'llt general Council of the Church (at Nicaea, 825 .11.. D.)
ordered the erection of a hOlpital in every city.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
lScithllng - not all kmlw].edlre or skill- will take its
Jesus told the rich young man to go and sell all

that he had and to the poor. Let us very care-
discrimi!llate, if we to that I
almost say it is at our if we do so; for the very
breath of it is the utterness of consecration it eOJoms.
AccordiIlg to there is which is to be cher-
ished as our own: what we have and all of it
is for common I have a faith in man
than those economists and there are
soIDe "ministers of " among who think
it necessary, in this to its ex-
actions of their and trim and them
to the levels of conventional benevolence. I believe
man at his does not be left where he
but to be lifted I believe that he can
all he his pOlISeIISi(IDs,
yes, not at his when some cause makes
transcendent claims upon him. Prudence is indeed
called for j but there are two kinds of - the
one from the other born of re-
itself. The same outward acts may have mean-
at a heaven-wide distance frOID each other.
pose, for that I refuse alms to a on
the street. I may do so hardened my-
self into the idea that every man is himself en:tirl~ly
res:polDsible for his I feel no of
in my breltSt j on the other I may refuse
for very and how little
such would how much are his needs
than those I could thus cover, and with the thllug:ht
either to go with him to his home and learn well of
mi:sfortlline:s, or to some one wiser and hetter

qUl'l.lified than I to do this for me. This would be -a
different and would be nowise con-
tra.dicitm'y to the of Jesus himself; "Give to
him that asketh and from him that would bor-
row of thee turn not thou The indiscriminate
and of whioh has heen too
chluactElri~ltio of the Christian we indeed
censure, it has done and still is
much harm; but it must be because there is
within us a and more serious
"",,, ...H·w than the Church has orclinluil,y
the
Another to the moral of Jesus
I shall pass over ; it is that an
earnest radical thinker should ever make it. It is
that Jesus tlte relations. That he held
sacred the idea of the and of the
which is at its is shown words so se-
vere and exalted that few of his followers nowa1da'TS
are able to bear - I mean those which declare
marrillge indissoluble save for the cause of adul-
the Catholic which with
whatever additions and seems most
faithf'ull.y to have the Christian
tradition.s, insists upon obedieuce to these words. But
it is at a of ties that the
objection is aimed. It is true that Jesus called upon
men to leave brothers and sisters and and
follow him. He would not even suffer a
to go and his rather as it may
Beem, "Let the dead their dead." He
not peace, but a was he
ETHICAL RELIGION.
intO the world: he was come to set a man at

ance his and the her
and to cause a man's foes to be those of
his own honsehold. And when his own mother and
brothers wished to see we are told that with
no very deoided show of affection he to
dielciIJle:s, and "These are my mother my
brethren."
if has no other intent than pre-
serve mankind in families as the families may
pen to be constituted at anyone then is Jesus
at fault. But can this be admitted l' Is all
realized and in
social institutions? Is there no and no call
for its as wide as the human race, and
imme'astIrably in advance of that which onr pl'EISellt
laws and social habits reflect? In tbose wbo
to the divisions in life which necess&-
followed in tbe wake of the
which all forward movements in his-
are made : go over into the ranks of the
conservatives. thrown into the fer-
ment of human and is a
of division; those who assent to it are
from those who do not. If it be indeed a sover-
pri:nciJple, like, that of tben no lower al-
legiances have a to interfere with the supreme
aUegi,l\DCle due to it. Man must choose the j
he has no peace or honor in his own €Iyes save as he
does. And with this choice all his other
relations in life must be ordered; dare never
assert that it shall be modified and accommodated so
as to harmonize with them.
SOME FEATURES OF 'fHE ETHICS OF JESUS.
Jesus did set a man at variance his

He was stern and in his demand of absolute
aUegian(:e to the cause he j he did a
clos6r tie of to those who heard his call and
it than to any mother or brothers j and
no cause has ever thrived in the world that has not
in a measure these facts. No of
the future will be a successor of the relilgiclu
of the that does not introduce a similar di,risi,on.
that does not have a similar attitude of exaction to
all and double-minded persons, and does not
introduce a bond of union over and if not some-
times in contradiction the traditional bonds that
DOW hold men The of that future
rel,igion. of which we kuow 80 little and believe
80 is strewed with flowerS to many a prl)plletilo
young of the I have no idea that it
will be 80. I have no idea that there will be any less
call for for stem for courage,
yes, for for the than thel'e has been
in the has not gone one-tenth or one-
hundredth We compare ourselves
with the with 01' with mediroval
times: it is for ns rather to compare ourselves with
the idea of the to feel how how' well-
measureless is the distance to be travelled
over. The is still far and the way to it is
no easy one, but and and has
many its side. Are we for
new for more heroic for severer or will
we take our ease on the we have alr'eailv r'eac:he,d,
this is the answers to which will reveal
whether or not 'we are children of the time.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
It
I turn now to some features of the ethics of Jesus
such clear and merit that little ob-
to be made to them. I
COlnplll'ielOn of with Socrates or i:jaJltn~-mOUllll
Coufucius. This is a difficult and delicate
should not be undertaken without an eq'lljllml~nt
historical and and im:ll.ginal~iol[l,
which few of those who so often and so
the seem to me to have. I do not in-
that there may be no one idea in Jesus' tea.chlLDg
that is not found in the of others as well;
but I have rathel' in mind the of Nazareth in
connection with the times in which he and the
actual influence he has had upon men in our
Western world. It cannot be claimed that we stand
in any such relation to Socrates or the Hindu
or as to J esllS. Socrates has not been with-
out influence upon us, but it cannot be called
a tithe of that which Jesus has had. Would that men
read t h e " " would find meat
and drink in a tonic and an for their
lives I But there is need for no such wish in relation
to the Jesus is an ideal of all too
indistinct but in the of well-
everyone of us. It is true that there is much
unl~erll;ail.lty rell~ting not to his but to his
tea.chjing j as there need be no doubt as to the
main tenor and events of his so there be
none as to the features of his teacbi.ng.
make too ooDsistent a
a mind of too much freshness and orilgill1ality
n
and power, to allow us to think of them as cornin.!l

an indefinite way from an age otherwise so tra.dit;iollal,
so and so 1)1"1.1:1<1.11;.
we that he opposes the tr~Ldll~10Inaj mo-
of his time. And in this' what other
fUllcti.on, we may . is there for the than to
and the moral ideal of men, to
rig·htl~olJlsness of conventional and reveal
its absolute and all.euicom]J,asliling natme? To ac(~ui.es(}e
in the moral recLuiJ:eIIlents ordinal~ily allowed, to pro-
claim the old Mosaic so and insist
upon all the of its -what
need for Jesus to do that? All this was done
the teachers of the and eSl)ecialLy
Pharisees. The Pharisees were, no
patri()ts, conservers of the national life and
its ancient and as some one has ra-
mllL,·1r,p.il to Judaism much as the Jesuits do
to the Catholic Church in its con:liict with liberal ideas.
had on their the of the law.
yers of the - a class inclined to con.
ser'va1Gisln. and whose function is somewhat obscured
to us the title which is them
in the New Testament. As the Pharisees with this
fnl1nvvinO' had a cause and au for
were more influential and held in honor
the mass of the than the of the Sad·
with their inclination to and
their varnish of ideas and manners, had lost a
measure of both and zeal. But it
was the mistake of the Pharisees to esteem as final
the moral code contained in their Chris·
tia.ns affect to find this very in view of the
ETHICAL RELIGION,
added of Jesus; but that it is not str:an~:e

is shown the very fact that Christian
mOl~alll;y as final and incapa.ble
It in the
world over to that
than the old cannot come. 'fhis is as true now
as at any time. I find even, who look with
a kind of if not upon any de-
pal'tUl,e from and advance upon their n ....,,,,,,,t: rc~li~:i01IS
attitude. That which we know and are accustomed to
the old wine - we all think is best. But
Jesus did add to the old he was, in a
second" Moses" to those who him. We will
not to say how far his was new,
and to what extent there were of it
the old Law and It is to note
that almost when advances are made in the
either intellectual or moral ad'vaIlces,
are all to accredit after
pUl:lH'I'U, to the authorities whom we revere, t.htUH,·h
when were the authorities to us
with no such clear and our may
have amounted to in the
it is that no reforms will ever be
ac(:oulplisl1led for the human race that clever Chris.-
tians will not after are ac(lODlplished, to
have been the natural of their own
now it can be said that their Master
to them in such a way as to make them feel
that must themselves the reforms.
One reformer honors one
feels that he to a succession. Each
knows well that it is not.this or that pal~tic:ul~1.r cause,
as he is hut these as forms of one cause,

-demands of one is itself absolute
aU be limitless all
be finite. Ever is it the of the ideal the
of the in the world. he is a geIllUIIle
reformer or who serves his cause
cause of its and to his
fOl'm of this absolute It no means fol-
hOl~e~'e~thateach honors the of
pr()pllet, who cherish his words with-
aware of the' animus and reach of tll()U€~ht
behind them. Circumstances and conditions
cn~mge, and the eternal motive must to new
words and new actions. As he would be no to
us who should with skilful com-
mp,nt.ll:rv the message of hundred years ago,
had he but recast the words of
would have been a Scribe with
the rest. One with them in fundamental he
was;, but he from his own consciousuess and
not from theirs. He vindicated the ideal to a gener-
ation in which idealism had become a trll,dilciolll,
amI convinced the most followers of the old
law of of and of a judgment
to his over their nation.
Spealidng more be gave the moral law
distinct inward that our
tbclug,hts and words have a moral like that
of our actions. That we are not to act from wrong
motives is indeed a of morals j but Jesus
virtullJlv teaches that we are not to have the wrong
motives. ReprE!SsilOn has been the rule laid
down. implil~s an state of in which
ETHICAL RELIGION,
there shall be no call for Is it that

this is -that our inward are be-
CUUIUC'.l, and that in any case we cannot be
held fOl' but for the harm
may lead us to do others? Jesus will allow none of
these in the line of what is is
If our inward are wrong, we are
resiponsible for them to and can
them; and there is such a as ourselves
in a more sel'ious sense than we can ever harm others.
Life is to become to be held to a purpose, to
involve and the ideal on which we set our
hearts is not to be abandoned for numberless failures
to win it, What a yes, I may say awful
moral seriousness does J ems reveal in his commands:
&I If eye causeth thee to it
and cast it from thee. , . . If hand caus-
eth thee to cut it and cast it from thee."
Yet the truth may be all with and none what..
ever on the side of the easy conscientiousness that
makes the moral outfit of most of us. It may be that
there is no in life to fear but a moral in-
; that is no comfort nor no grace
of or of that can make up for the stains on
the moral nature that come from any of ac-
tual or It may be that it would
be better to lose the eye or the hand than
to allow either to become an instrument of del51'3da-
tion to the nature. Is this asceticism? No;
but would be asceticism of the
severest than the of conscience which al-
lows us to feel and DO
and when unwortb:v
SOME FEATURES OF THE ETffiCS OF JESUS.
are in. There is no

of the command of absolute Are we thf!,rel1lv
str:ainin2 the of human nature?
tells us that when the Roman consul "Marius had
vallQtlislled au army of the their wives be..
the conqueror to them to become the
servants of the vestal in order that their
at be secure in 'l'heir was
re1tused. and that all their own
hands." 1 No i if honor be a dream to many, in others
the fine is their very life.
1<'",.1-]..... Jeans removes all barriers to the love we
:>we our fellow-men. and kind-
ness had indeed been doubtless
the mind now and theu of
a time of universal love and brotherhood. With Je..
sus, this love was to beoome the and
abi.dir,A' rule of life. Even our enemies are to be loved i
no kind of malice or wish to is to be tolerated.
We are to not but sev-
times seven; that is an unlimited
These are, it is
it be of or rather
than of actual sentiment. Rut when Jesus uttered
them were not even of th()ujl:ht.
'1'he of the ancient world was, at a tri-
bal or a national rather than a universal hUllDa:nit;y.
It may seem and it is that
natural condition of mankind is one of mutual
rather than save in limited circles
of : nay, with all our and
with all our real advances in this is pl"()bably
1 Hiltory of Morals, ii. 361.
18
to a extent true It is true of

nations, true of true of tll1e of
nM,v,,1'., individuals who are the same in
life. '1'he reason is obvious: it is the instinct of self-
nl'F·RP.l'Vllt.i01r1. the desire to maintain ourselves and to
the best in life, it is often

love most who have least to do with the actual
of life. who are in the battle must assert
themselves i can have no fine but must
take where can, and may even
where DlUSt. 'fhe it is that science
has revealed to us as on in the lower
world is on in human Love and
brotherhood are hence for the idealist to talk pos-
for the of heaven to realize somewhere;
but in this world is for the And per-
it ia childish and even if it is Chris-
to care for so many weak and mem-
bers of our not follow or rather
let Natnre have her own way, and then
the and the fit would survive?
In sober I believe that all this is but the as-
sertion of the brute instincts in us, indeed to
a to on
the airs of science and human but nowise
the utterance of what is human in us. The
human is in us as we act from
other motives than those of as we re-
member the ties that bind us to one and seek
that for ourselves which is consistent with
the of all. It is the of that
makes us human i it is the bond us to and
makitlg us a of - a bond which is DO
natural force cOInplelli,ng us, but a fact in the ideal na-

ture of and ns with an ideal
constraint that makes our very and
Human as Jesus is an idea
if it took of human would
not allow some of the features of our pr€iSellt politic,:l.1
and social institutions to last a W e act for the
most from the lower with modifica-
tions and a of the conduct to
the influence of ideas from above. demands
that the ideas have an
supremacy. In the" of of which
Jesus this demand was to be realized. None
should be members of it save those in whom love was
the absolute ; and this should be
their owned the claims of the lowest of their
those in the bitterness of fate or in
return for their own had come to nakedness or
falnishing or the of walls.
There is this element of truth in Jesus' that
the " " is to come from and not in
the natural course of ; that it is not
to come, and from the of man's
natural It is the of
a certain school of Liberal that if men
"are left free to act in accordance with their obvious
interests their natural their conduct
will tend to the benefit of the whole of mankind."
There to my a of truth and a mass
of error in such a The Middle was a
time when the natural differences hetween men had
cornplua'tiv1ely free when law and go'veI'nDler:,t
meant little but what those "'''''''''n,''' chose to
ETHICAL RELIGION.
make them. Did the differences hal)pillv Sll1PIllelnellt

one and the conduct of the and capa~
ble "tend to the benefit of the whole of mankind H ?
Instead of discloses to us the
few in almost wanton in
power j ecclesiastical as well as lStlCUli1,l',
" " men them their vassals and
slaves; and a of the of the rise of
the absolute in the fifteenth con~
sisted in checks upon the unrestricted free~
dom of the ill them in many an
instance from their "obvious interests and
natural in a in the
inequJi\.Iit.ies which in a pure state of nature and fl'e~
dom are bound to show themselves. And ill
will it fare with any when its boasted free-
dom comes to mean the freedom of one class
of its citizens to to itself the services of
the remainder. The future will with the
in my in it to be but a ple!asiing
dream that the selfishness of one man shall so
itself to the selfishuess of another that
will live as brothers. Brotherhood
means DO such contrivance; it is a of the
and must come from the heart. It must crown our
selfish ; it can never fmm them. It
will if ever it does descend UpOll the
out of an ideal and rule us, if it dOE'S rule
the and of its ideal and its
the of that prilDE,ry aim which

Jesus would set to human to seek the
" of God." How little of have those
words to us now! - I mean, not to .LiliJerIUS,

to the whole modern
Christian world. How we seek to turn the kiI1tgdom
into a or to substitute for it all manner of
abstractions I Or if we still hold to its concrete sub..
how we the divine and afar
off in' the clouds and to the end of say-
that it is well but cannot be SEll'i-
th()Ug:ht of as the ideal and the rule for
this life I the enthusi-
asms of meu, so far as have any, seem so meas-
ured and finite; do not lift us to any nor
do touch our Ah! to have lived - who
does not at times wish it? - when the measureless
of the " of God" seemed for
men to enter into it j when human life was lit up with
the transcendent ; when heaven seemed about to
descend and touch and the earth! There is
no wonder that the multitude of those believers
were of one heart and soul j that not one of them said
that of the he was his own, but
had all common. As were not
with but believed in the" of
how could forbear to live in some measnre
in their as believed should live
thereafter?
The of God" is outworn
for those who would under a cloak and venerable
remnant of hide the that is in them j but
the which lies at its basis is of DeJrenui~LI
interest and worth. Of what is untrue and harmful
in the Christian of I may later.
The truth it may be stated in a few words:
198 ETHICAL REUGION.
It is that man to another order of

than that of which he has He can
see what and at the same time form a COllCEipt:ion
of what to be; and in that he finds
the of what is and the end to which his thCtughts
and turn. And as he forms this con-
in virtue of the that is in all
rational can form as matter of with
VarVIDl? clearness do form it j and the is thence
a for all rational the is
of that is from those who
far and above them as it is j
it is a rational and is more
nor less than that of a
of them. we now
may more call it a if we are not
the:retlY made to that· the laws of
in one sense of our own are in another sense
set for us in the ideal nature of as unalter-
as the itself. For us, is the
creation of ourselt'es after the ideal Rut bet-
ter we may call it a since
the:reblv the idea of of a common interl:lst,
a common are most and
most to us. There is a yearn-
in our human nature for brotherhood. We are
no more satisfied with the modern aim of 8e1£-o11lture
than with the older one of the salvation of our indi-
vidual souls. 'Ve want in our moments to rise
above the the and feel that we are
of some some nobler and
we have in it a more than mission and
work. The very and we crave we do
not wish to win for but to have come in

r consequence of our to be a kind
of and benediction from the whole.
Tbis is when the law for me is the la\v
for all j when the for me is the of all j
when the tides and the of universal
sweep me, and I know it is no this
poor finite self that but the world-self that lives
in me, and the that leads me on.
And so do I believe the " of God"
in its essential to be the central theme of
rel.igion, that I some fresh of
some of its truth so real aud that all
nncertain and traditional shall be
avoided in and some uu-
aD1lbil~U()US statements of its in con-
nection with habits of and to
be the for a for
the Future. And in this sense we are still on the
foundation of the Jesus himself the
corner-stone.
DOES THE ETHICS .JESUS SATISFY THE
NEEDS OF OUR TIME?
is to the moral services which

Judaism aud have rendered the
world. 'fo seek to relax the which the
old have made us to lower or an'vwi!>A
abate from the loftiness of the ideals which '~
to the would be to make not prcigrE!SS,
Who would the
and heroism of an Amos or an Isaiah ?
would out of his or could if he
lessons of of of of
of of which fell from the
and shone out in the life of the of Nazareth?
not but all the
the has won, can we to advance in
the future.
None the less must the advance be made i and in
truth all Jewish and Christian
has a as well as a element.
Jesus to those of his and with the lan-
guage and the - and we ~ay add with the
limitations of his time. But the time and the
languiil.ge and the of men and wider
horizons are to their minds. What is the
voice of for ? is the All
DOES THE ETHICS OF JESUS SATISFY'
in vain would it be for me to assume the prl)ptlet:ic

attitude. The does not raisH he
answers them. He has none of that .ten-
tative and method which mark the of
even the best men of this transition age, and which
will cease when the new age shall have come,
and the fire of irresistible convictions shall once more
~ burn in the human. breast. I am but a quest;iorler
with the rest. I but seek to turn the attention
toward the needs and of the and to
show at least call for distinct answers and
soluti.on:s, such as we look for in vain in the tea.chjillg
of .:Iesus. For I am far from
rather have that Jesus eternal
I must add that we want more than this; we
want the of the to the issues
and of and in a form apJprehelusible
to the of as has been the
Dlay become as barren as are old.l
NClthing is so common in these as seElmilllg
ence for the rules of rightElousnl~ss,
igIlIOrl;\nc:e of or indifference to what mean and
exact in the conduct of life. We want to make this
iIUpOilsil>!e, save with a distinct consciousness of
sometimes those who themselves most
sincerely and utter the ideas are
unconscious ot the full sweep of their aplp1iclati.on.
The personage in Terence's who utters the
1 Conscience; righteoullneu, what ill there new in these 1 Their
maxims Are 8S old all the hills. Truly, and as barren often as the
rocks. The novelty of righteousnels is not in it8elf, but in ill
Dovel application to the particular unrighteousness of a partictrlar
age. - Fnu: ADLER: Crefld and Deed, p. 164.
202 ETIIICAL RELIGION.
famous "Homo sum, humani nihil a me

alienuln " lIas no horror at and calls
it irrational to a child alive who is in of
f!T(lwinl!' up into a career of shame.1 I do not. cite it
as a case; but it is not to be that
Jesus who utters the Golden which adleqt:latl~ly
would an end to all the ills
l5U\ll~~,Y, makes no condemnation of ; and
a existed in his which had
of moral which
cOIldelDDled, - the Essenes. " Chris-
could be of service in the late
ArltisIla17el'y st;l'U!~gll~S in om land. 'rhere is not;hilllg
in the New Testament inconsistent with the main-
renance of if masters are of no
wilful or It was
back to of which Christian ethics
themselves are but a and which
str'an,gely .,::UUtl/.:U have found modern in
that of human to which the Chris-
tian Church has as often taken an attitude of hos-
as of that the way was for
the abolition of in this cmmtry.
What let us ask without
""ll:l'l.llvi:np' any kind of formal are some
of the moral needs of our time?
1. I will mention that of scrupu-
lOftslles8 and It was an old ROlDan
that" two augurs could never meet each other with-
out " I doubt if there is any intellectual
vice so or coarse as this. I have rather
in mind what may seem to many for
1 Leeky, Hiatol'y of Morals, ii. SO, a.
DOES THE ETHICS OF JESUS SATISFY!
eX::Lm])le, pllj~til1lg illterpI'et~Lti(ms on dootrines not in

accordanoe with their natural to
usages after the ideas at their basis have oeased to be
matters of ill a church or denomi-
nation on and not beoause of a
common belief DOllbtless this is often
done with and some may be
with it as with all evil j but it strikes at
what is of value I say, of
absolnte to the teacher; na'melv.
the full heart and the oonsciousness of entire ve·
proves, that doctrines and
institilltil)ns which this kind of are
themselves on the downward road; and the process
can at the best be and may even at
if in of our be
the use of such means. is said
pointed out Dean to a and
"There goes our friend the
holes in the bottom of the Church of
- and does n't know it!" 1
Yet not of the uselessness of the
but of the fact that it: is to a true
standard of intellectual would I Not
a few have to the idea that the
intellect as well as the will and outward life is under
law; that are not at to believe what
like; that conviction is honorable as it is
pO!~RII()le in any when formed in obedience
to some kind of I do not wonder that with
such notions meu deem ethios too small a to
1 The anecdote is related by G. W. S. In the New York
"Tribune" (semi-weekly), Feb. 25, 1881.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
become un-
derstood. But ethics to
and hence is without on every of
life; it holds up an idea for the intellect as well as
the outward und searches the most hidden
motives and processes of the soul of man. "Thou
sho111dst believe the " it says j "and thou
not twist it to or with it j and
the truth must be to thine own reason, else
thou art of the holiest within thee."
And the evil is not one that can be lllet any
It is a secret and can be met
another which as it were
health and soundness into the whole intellectual
nature. It is the of of absolute
and utter If such a should abroad
in the it would turn many a young man
from the easy, course he is now con-
and churches of not a. few who
listen as well as of some who
A new seriousness is needed in all our
1\len with and think if can use the
same differences of need not selriously
concern them. build enormous conclusions on
the slenderest and assume to know on the
of for what never
often as assluDlptive
the way of thinkilDg. Or
of rational is ablmllloned,
and or for some
sullje(ltiv"e irlterest, a settlement of phillosiop:hicaJ.
lelns is assumed to be reached.
now, have we in the ethics of Jesus that
DOES THE ETmCS OF JESUS SATISFY'
can be disltincltly felt be~~riI1lg upon

this lack of
not to say dts.honelsty in matters of the intellect? It
is hal'd to find I 'tio not mean that J eSllS
the intellectual and I do
not agree with those who this on
the first beatitude. It is that he does not
take allY account of them j that there is not a sin-
passage, to Illy in which he makes
any statement them j alld let it
be remembered it is such distinct utterance that the
moral haziness of the time calls for. The rea-
son of the of Jesus is not far to seek. The
of man was in that because life itself
was and the horizon of man narrower. More-
over, the it was would
soon break in upon the natural j and the
duties of the heart and life were Science
and criticism were not as .now up an old
view of the world j and so far as the time was transi-
conceived to be toward the com-
and realization of a view which had
had currency. At the our views
of Nature and of man are in many ways l'adi-
recast j less than a ne\v a
new view of the Sflems to be in process
of and never before was there such oc-
casion for the exercise of severe intellectual virtue.
As matter of fact the ethics of the instead
of the followers of are most
those whom Christian teach-
ers have it their to oppose
or rebuke: I mean the students and in
ETHICAL RELIGION.
science and I am no believer in the a11-

SClienc:e, or in the of the les-
sons of the researches of students in
these have in many oases illustrated to
us an an eagerness and revel'ence
for faithfulness of utteranoe that
make a model for the oonduct of all A
lesson in in ideal is COllvE~ved
every soientifio and none
more than those of the revolutionizer of our
views of the foremost soientifio of the
cel1turv. Charles Darwin. Let the same openness, the
same fearlessness of the ~ame
of and the same exact of
word to characterize our religillUs thiinll:in:R:.
and a revolution of consequence in this dell1art-
ment of human interest will be the result.
:to I turn now' to the need of
cep.ti01I.' and The State is not
some would have a necessary but has a.
I almost say, a character and mission.
One of its functions to to
restrain to act As the
law of the in their oourses
and binds every atom to every so at
the State is to maintain a similar order aDlong
men. far more and than the State is
a and is to secure the ends needful
for all. Each man an individual of
where he is to himself; but when his
action touches the interest of he has another
to the State. The State
must see that in matters and affairs where the ends
DOES THE ETHICS OF JESUS SATISFY?
of the many are those ends are not made

impo:ssible of realization; it cannot allow individuala
or combinations of individuals to win at
the expense and to the loss of others.
in our own where ideas of eqll1ality are at
the basis of the is such pr~Lctical
lDJustace out of
antI of their we have a govern-
ment of the Shall it be a
the ? I do not mean a class
called that name, but for all. Shall the common,
the universal be and no individual free-
dom or be allowed which tend to the destruc-
I
); tion of the freedom and of others? These
questioI1S must be one way or in
the next of our national existence; and if
the choice were between a of the old 80rt and
a intent on them a answer,
I see not how any young man could
hesitate to choose the service of the State. There is
a touch of in all unselfish devotion to
and it is snoh devotion that is the
pol.iti1cal need of our time. The of better
civil service is at bottom else.
But what are the lessons which the Christian Go&-
read lIS in ? The
I,. ideas of Jesus are a
know of
contrast to
His land was a Roman
we
There is no evidence that he did not love

and every reason to believe that bis for it
was and But his ID('thod of
relielnption was oue of which we in these can
.sClllJ:cl~ly entertain the idea.. It was not indeed
.-
cal redemption, but rather deliverance at the hand of

one from whom emperors and empires derive their
powers, and who, though the Lord of the whole earth,
was in a special sense the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, Do we suppose that the nobler motive
which leads wen into the service 'of the State, - the
passion for justice and the common weal, - was ab-
sent from the breast of Jesus? Rather can our sense
of justice be nowhere better refreshed than by drink-
ing in his words; nowhere has the tenderness for the
least among men been more strikingly shown than in
the memorials left us of his sacred life. If justice
was not to come from the State, it was, as he believed,
to come from a higher than the State; if not thl'ough
blundering human instrumentalities, it was to come
through the heaven-sent" Son of Man," before whom
and his angel ministers all mankind would soon be
gathered. Christian men and women lived on this
faith in the early time, and nothing is more pathetic
in history than the story of its gradually fading out
of human souls. Even now one will find it in the
creeds; and a slight sense of the old awe and the old
triumph may perchance come over us as we listen to
the chanting of the Te Deum, that chiefest of Chris-
tian hymns, and hear the words, "We believe that
thou shalt come to be our Judge;" but such confes-
sions are on the lips rather than in the hearts of the
worshippers.
Accorilingly nothing is so lightly and even apologeti-
cally treated by liberal Christian critics and teachers
as this primitive and always, at least, professed Chris-
tian belief. Yet it is no accident, no bit of Oriental
coloring, however much of this there may be in filling
DigItIzed by Coogle
DOES THE ETHICS OF JESUS SATISFY1
ont the details of the final scene, but the climax and
consummation of the Christian view of the
an answer to that of man's
is not what are the and the but
how are to be ; how is an actual
end to be made of and wrong.
will dawn anew on the world when the old pr()bllem
mi,ght;ily engages us, and another and pnllllJlv
wi,de-rell.ching answer is won. The is J~"U'uu,
the to everyone the means and opJportu-
for the and best To every one, -
this is the very of The and
best are not for you or for me, or for any sort
or class of men, but for all: are the the
the ideal of every human But if
this is the Jesus' method of it is no
lOlllge:r Cllpll;ble of belief. Iu it must be
to the of hUIUal1lity's bJligl1lted
The U Son of who was to come so soon,
has not come in all these centuries-to
ised : the very idea of his COlnlIllll bl~lol[lgs
to a way of now OU1CJ:{f1ow:n.
Since Jesus believed in the impol;silJle, he outlined
for us no way of the de-
sired end. He was not concerned with the
indlica.tin.g neither ideal nor course for it to
follow. A similar indifference to and unbelief in what
is to us is shown in the of the
Christian Fathers. in the third cen-
says that " is more remote from his
interests than affairs." 1 remarks of
t
r
1 NE'C u1la
:u:xdii.
rei aliena magill quam pUlmClL--apwlJf/!/. chap.
14
rEr
ETJEIlC~AL RELIGION.
Saint a little later in the same

that" the
iP.P.lltUI·V\ of a converted empu~e
never appears to have flashed across the mind of the
saint: the he for the Church
was that of another world." 1 Saint a can-
It What difference can it
make to a man who is about to die whose I-{O'lier'nnlerlt

he lives if there is no
and ? " I His
qUlotation is was intended to accord-
that the " of God" was not to be
on and that the downfall of the under
barbarian need not trouble his fellow Chris-
tians. If we wish a of the mission
of the we shall find it in the old lleathen
los,opheJrs amI emperors and rather than
Jesus or his followers. Marcus says
"made it his aim to realize the of a free
State in which all citizens are and of a rO'lTaltv
which makes it its fit'st to the
the citizens."· U says the Roman
Fl()rentinu:s, is It a cnstom of the law of na'tions,
which one man, to the law of ..l'ULvUr",
to the dominion of another." " As
natural law is said another
men are natural
are born free."
1 History of Morals, i. 485.

I De Civitllte Dei,v.17.-" luten',t Bub
vivllt homo moriturus,11 lUi Imperant, ad impia et Inlql1ia non
cogent."
I Morals, I. 435.
• Morals, i. 264. ct. M. Aurellua', MeditatioDlI, I. 14.
DOES THE ETHICS OF JESUS SATISFY 1
These with all that were

never taken up the Church j and the work of
them effect the State is a far IDore diffi-
cult one than that of and for the
" of as the Church has done. Weare
COIDII1lll' to feel that if is to be done iu
perluLps pOllallv in any it is
we who must do that pray-
for its is but wasted energy j that
its very sacredness commands that we cease all such
with it as prayer has now come to and
it a seat in our own hearts and an execution in
our laws and institutions. Man is to inherit the
sallctity and the that were to invest the" Son
on his I take
is a sacred There is a
n;";n-ih:r heldging about every or or
,",·,,,<>1',,, citizen who takes this task into his
in human
gmrerl:lmlmt is a pOOl' the
demand for it is and issues not from man, nor
from the nor from the but from somewhat
older than ; and he who executes it acts in that
moment as the of God.
A new reverence for the State we
not the blind not the
which has so often been the attitude upon
but a reverence .for the mission of the
for its idea; a reverence which s11all reC\ogni2:e
the of the servants of the which shall
demand that all and administration shall
in measure fulfil the demands of the idea;
a reverence whioh shall thus be the source of proi-
ETHICAL RELIGION.
ress, and not the of conserva-

tism. A new we not as an ap:pellll-
but as a of ethics and Here is
where we eat and and work and
but this land is a field of ; here we are
here we have a task. Weare linked to
a. whole than our or the circle of our
. business interests. For ends we are to live.
The service must come to have a and
honor in our eyes such as no wOl'k on ac-
. count can have; and we enter this
we are as enter a and
with as as theirs. The more do
we need a new since as men are now so
COllSi(lering what has been
rather than what may and to and learn-
that free institutions have so often a kind
of as to the future
of this if a distrust of our funda-
mental doctrine of the of man. It is a
expeI'im.ent, viewed from the st~mdlpoint of ""'Lorv.
this of the power
hands of all citizens; and those who will have cer-
tain of success before act must halt and
tremtlle, if not for other times. But those who
have it in their blood to believe in the
their very to carry it on to tri-
American is more than attachment
to this land of ours: it is attachment to an it
is belief in a cause, - the cause of and hu-
man ; and for the issue everyone of us bas a.
measure of res'polnsi'bility.
The State itself must also advance. It must assume
A m
DOES THE ETHICS OF JESUS SATISFY 1
- new, that not to its but to

its Freedom is but it must
be universal; and if my freedom tends to the destruc-
tion of mine must be limited. What makes
the of the State to interfere and domes-
tic ? What but its very mission to secure
and maintain the of everyone within
its borders? Are there then no other encl'oachments
of the over the weaker?
I will not now undertake to answer this
spl~cillica.lly; but wherever there is a tell(1ElDc:y
sort; wherever one man or a set of men
in land or means of or instruments of
prC)dllCt:ion or the means of to such an ex-
tent as to others at their mercy, - there
the State should whether
tion or actual administration in its own name, nrl3vEmt
the and act for the of all. The State
with us is as it often was in old the rule of
the over the weaker: if it were, it would
have no or defenoe; if it shou1l1 become so,
then revolution would be commanded. The State is
for - to see to it that the do not rule
the to break the force of the brnte for
existence. Most ominous of all would be the future of
that State whereiu freedom should be hon-
and in the very name of freedom the bonds
of servitude be on men, women, and ohildren; 1
wherein freedom would thus mean a. freedom from
from State exa.mination and and be
1 Cf. John Stuart MiIllP(,litlcal Economy, it 679): "Freedom
of contract, in the case children, is but another word for free-
dom of coercion."
a cloak behind which men pursue

their worst selfishness.
A very different must animate the new re-
from that which animated the old. 'The Stoic
maxim and not that in the of Jesus
must furnish the rule for human life: "'The wise
man nlUst take in 'lTOJ\tT£v(u8cl.l TOP
For the State rather than thr,ong:h
in the the ends of
and are in an measure to
be worked out.
3. But if we have need of a new poJliti1cml moraljity,
very related thereto is our need of a new bl<-
dustrial ethics. While the State should to my mind
include economy to a certain so that there
be some in the econ-
omy," and hence the true is toward the
assum,ption, or at least the State of such
l>rloPl~rties and businesses as become and
inttUE!nc:es, - the time is far distant when
and detailed and can be
prlesc:ril>ed or done the State. In any case, indus-
may, relatively slpeeLkiug', be treated as a seJ>ar:ate
We live from to
or that of others; for I mean
kinds of but those which aim to our
physical needs and for our material comfort.
Industrial concerns are those which touch ns to the
: a disorder here means 80 much less bread for
some one to so much of an increase in the death-
rate. has been I may say
~~J:K"::JJ>', made up of those whose means of com-
mandiing the not to say the of
DOES THE ETHICS OF JESUS SATISFY! 215
life in their hands and arms, either way of
labor or of I say I do not
say ; and llere is the whole There
are doubtless native among men, and there
will be. But the true industrial order would
be one in which the would sup-
ple~mEmt one to an ideal law of
tice and This ideal order does not however
to hut to the did not
fall from hut is to rise to it; and the call to rise to
it is felt to lie in the very nature and constitution of
humanit.y, whenever it sees its vesture
of and and becomes aware of the
be~ltillgS of its own heart.
The ideal order in CO-OPERATION. It
means for those of any
means of. subsistence seek no
more than a fair which
serve, and that among
themselves. There is of
fairness and in the industrial arrange-
ments. Services are doubtless done both to the com-
,n"",il·.v and the to the as
the to the ; but the fact
that business is uudertaken for $I " or,
as is with $I business " shows that fair-

ness or not to say are not the
de1l;er:rnilling motives.
The limit of the is not
ordinalrilyany of .1~U'''vv,
of what can or will be And the wages he is
to pay go as lIot as cOllsiderations of
tice would but as the demands of the labor-
216 ETmCAL RELIGION.
ers can make them go, and sink as low as men 01'
women - and perhaps children - can be found who
will take them. "The very idea," says John Stuart
Mill, "of distributive justice, or of any proportional-
ity between success and merit, or between success and
exertion, is in the present state of society so mani-
festly chimerical as to be relegated to the regions
of romance." 1 A review.ar naIvely remarks, "The at-
tempt of writers like Bastiat to show an exact har-
mony between the rules of political economy and the
demands of absolute justice involves, like the opposite
error of Mr. Froude, a confusion between economical
rules and moral precepts." S That is, in plain words,
economy is one thing, and ethics quite another; and
by the "opposite error of Mr. Froude " was probably
meant a demand on his part tha.t there be an infusion
of ethics into economy, which is at least more hon-
orable, and I believe more likely to succeed, than the
attempt of those who would defend and justify the
present industrial arrangements on the ground not
only that they are rooted "in the nature of things,"
but that they al ways mean "service for service.'"
Service for service? In words, yes; but what not only
of the intention, but of the equity of the exchange?
Suppose that I succor a drowning man, and before
doing so, exact of him the greater part of his posses-
sions. That is undoubtedly service for service; his
life he plainly values more than his possessions. But
J Chapters on Socialism.
~ The Nation, Oct. 4, 1877, p. 216.
; Cf. article on the identity of .. Private Wealth and Public
W('lfare." by Han. Edward Atkinson. in Unitarian Review, Decem-
ber,I881.
DigItIzed by Coogle
DOES THE ETIDCS OF JESUS SATISFY!
what should you say of my exaction? So there are

those who take the of men often
the entire - for possess little or
but of hand and - and in
return them but the bare means of subsistence.
o !
A new ethics of must arise; or, I
almost say, ethics must now for the fit-st
time in this of human What
does the ethics of Jesus us in this direction?
In if we turn from the ideas of our time to
those of it is almost like from one world
into another. Did he not feel for ? Yes; his
sYlnpl:l.thies were boundless. But his for
aside from of indicates a notion of
of the relation between man and that
may at times adorn a poem or a but has lost all
hold upon our sober belief. It was not so much even
individual toil and labor as - belief that as we
are of more value than the sparrows, so we shall be
no less for than Consider the
he that neither reap nor into barns; the
that toil nor How con-
trasted with this view of the world is that to
which we in recent years have become accustomed!
The of Darwin is here better than any para-
: " We he says, II the face of Nature
with ; we often see su'peJ'abun1dal1ce
of food. We do not see, or we that the birds
which are round us live on insects
and are thus COlllstan1tly np!~t,r,r'lVinO' life; or
how these or their eggs,
birds and beasts
ETffiCAL RELIGION.
of prey. We do not bear in mind that

food may now be it is Dot so at all
seasons of each yeal'. . . . I he says
U from the reduced number of nests
in the that the winter of 1854-55 delltr()ved
four-fifths of the birds in my own " 1 The
fact is that the" of whom Jesus
pr(lbably denies food and to more of
his creatures than he for; if he did
the earth would soon be covered the progeny
of any of them. there often arises
a for which for and
lesslless can be our im-
agiinatiou can conceive. Man also is involved in the
same process, Is he not often with
the and as left to his fate
the " Father" ?
Darwin would console us, in reference to the lower
orders of U with the belief that the war of Na-
ture is not that no fear is that death is

gellefliLlly pro!mpt, and that the the hea.lth'v.
and the survive." Ah! but man is not one of
the lower orders of and the consolation nowise
fits our for him. Man is an animal who
and does feel fear; his death is often drawn
ant; he survives often after he or others can see
the use of and sometimes it is at last fot'gotten
that he is a man, and he becomes to many bnt a mass
of flesh or the if we
have a view of human nature that causes us no shud-
der and no resentment wheu we think or know of
this; if we do not say, 0 remorseless thou
1 Origin of pp. 49, M.
DOES THE ETHICS OF JESUS SATISFY?
or in the circle of human rela.-

the law of and and
should have sway! then am I at loss to know how
to I cau address at the outset to
those who have a different estimate of human
who to the of Jesus' if not to
the inference he draws from "Ye are of more
value than many sparrows j " who believe that Ham-
let's "How noble in reason! how infinite in
faculties! in form and how express and admi-
in action how like an in ap'pre!henSllon
how like a ! " - that these are none too
man, since flatter him as he often
is with the of what he may be. I can
address those who see in man, in every man, some-
what of measureless of worth.
On those who think in this way a new burden is laid.
We can no without commend the
poor and unfortunate' to the care of the" heavlenl.v
Father i" nor can we assent to the cool imlifl'erlmc:e
and materialism of ta~8se:Z-J'at7'e doct.rin:aiI·es,
the facts of the economist and the thcmg.l1ts
of man at the basis of the Christian confidence
have We in a
thongllt and to the facts.
For the facts of external Nature - of rain
and the soil and its fruits - are not in our power, the
facts of human institution and custom and will are;
and I believe there is no need that a human
in the limits of civilization should suffer or
or live any but a human if
would but awake and to the task laid upon.
it. There is no trouble in the nature of
the nature even and and

in a way. The trouble is with man, who will
not ideal but each one to
take bis own way, and to act without reference to the
of all.
if the old centred in prayer to
the ne\v must be an address to man, and not as
if the word came from but in the name
of the and with the aim of hn-
man life once more with a supreme This
8al1ctity is that of as we have
the Golden which is a and ap-
prl~hEmsible, if somewhat statement of ;
but he left no distinct and that
industrial life must be ordered With his
pellUliar view of Providenoe and of the
impelildi.ng in human the of life was
serious to call for such distinct inculca,..
for the little time that his
OO1IVerfui force in the minds of his
demands were matohed in the or-
der of their and the earliest had
some of the features of a when
disicoluagelneltlts came, there was felt to be no bindill,g
obJiga,tion to continue these features; and later on,
and the centuries of Christian very
little was done to abolish the class into
which human falls. The
pr~LCti.cal workllD~ ideal of the Church has for
t'hll.l·1t:V and and considera-
of the classes in their treat-
ment of the and of deference and submission
from the lower to the J nstice would make
DOES THE ETmCS OF JESUS SATISFY?
",h~l".;i:'" in measure, and the airs

of self·humiliation an offence. Instead of <l Christian
-inI3Iu'din.g the poor and the the alma..
would us a
wherein should be neither ......,......,,,-
but a mutual
COUrtel;V and reSIlect;.
"One hour of said an old Mahometan
llrl~cetlt. " is worth years of Let us
say the same of All these and
homes and while in one wayan are
in another an indication of the disease of our civili·
zation. We do not strike at the root up
more while the evils this must
be done. Yet the of the Future will
come with those who do strike at the and
whether at the command of the State or in obedience
to the law in their own do no business and
engage in no in which is not
meted out to all who them in it j who will use
talents for and not
to them over but as Godin and
Leclaire in France have for the elevation of
and will feel in all and in their most
material concerns as
constraint. For no meaus necea·
includes a or
prayer or in the eUlltOJlIlaJ!'Y senses, I have no
confidence that any industrial reform will come
save as a of man's natural self-
are aR'l~iUl,1i auy reform. Those
1 The old locial ideal ia Pdtmyed in AddlioD'1 "Sir
Roger de eo,rerl,ey."
ETmCAL RELIGION.
WiILDiIl~ m the battle would rather have the hattIe go

on as it is; and those who do not and who may
some mstead of for what can
most turn and their successful com-
petitolrs who seem to be them from get;tiulg
more, - even if should would
solve the for themselves and not for
hUJlUalnit:y, and would in turn have to
way to inferior class tMir op-
prElssi.on, would rise and overthrow them. The root
of the the solution of the industrial pnlblE,m.
is no more with the classes than with their
Both are for the ma.ste:ry,
and I have heard it said a manufacturer that no
foreman was so self-assertive and as one
sucldeJnly elevated from the rank of a 'common work-
man. I The solution of the pr()bl,em
a and in persons as
and actuated the idea and
the of the idea under the stress of no
selfish desire or but because it is
and in ia as it
does man's link with what is
and to him as in a dream-
"The hills where his life rose,
And the sea where it goes."
4. A fourth ethical need of our time is that of a.
new statement of the end human e:J;iatence. There
is with the idea that this end
is for each one in the of his own soul. The
1 Cf. (Prometheus Bound,
.. Who holds a power
Bllt newl)' gained, ill ever stern of mood."
DOES THE ETmCS OF JESUS SATISFY!
Ohristian idea of the of heaven" was

mnch and has indeed a basic of in-
estimable worth i the form and with
which not the but Jesus hiulself,
connected it have and delusive. '
The of human which was to
come with the reappearance of the "Son of "
and to come so soon, has failed to come in all these
centuries. And the notions which are the survival of
that old of a heaven the
of a who will be seen, a Son on his
and of who are their ministers,
rather to the realm of than to that
of actnal fact. There a ten-
to find the ends of existence in what is near,
palpalole, of even of interest.
is not to sylnp:atblize
teIldenc:rr, so far as it contrasts with the old
attention to human affairs and
interests, it too has its limitations; and there are
moments in our in which we dis-
feel them. There is within ns
at least in and purpose, rIses above
all limits and seeks a measureless As that
one to find a share of his
halPpine!ls in that of so it makes it imJpossiblle
to find content in others One
feels that the have but learned the
alp,halbet of existence i that the notion of pelrfe(}ticm
includes the of the the worthiness
to be of the the en-
these all carried on to
eXl)erllenl~e or even iml~giJllation
ETHICAL RELIGION.
not;bin:g less than the and this shared

can be the the It is character-
relJigic,n to start from the idea of this limit-
to discern the worth of all minor or
from their to ultimate to send
asJ!iira:tio~IS to the very and thus lend an
sanctit;y to each act. Jesus struck
the note of when he counselled his disciples
to be content with no traditional rules of gQl:>dIless,
but with v. His
sioned struck it when he l€ W7tatsoever
are true or honorable or or pure or

think on t h e s e " is the
pallsiolD of the soul for all
As there are means and ends in the - as
for matter is for and lower forms for
in()rganiic for insentient for seI1ltient,
and the sentient for the - so the
ends of rational existence are the ends of the
and is not a human but a world
On every act of virtue the stars shine;
for every choice of the for the for every
sacrifice of to universal a mute symp&t-
runs universal nature. And no act of
ours born of that aim can fail of its issue.
There can be no destnlctioD of what is
There is we mortal men can do that is not
mortal; that
"Will last and shine tral~8ftl~1'l~
In the tlnal reign of Right,
II will merge into the splendora
Of the City of the Light!' 1
1 Prof. Felix Adler, .. The City of the
DOES TilE ETHICS OF JESUS SATISFY'
It is no mere that is hinted at in

these to strive for a nobler order
on the earth as a form of the is
necessary, but an end and outcome of human toil
and unaffected or "'''T>t:h1.,.
in a wherein world-
issues are to be and a con-
SUlmulated, and the of which is once more
to aud the sense of permanence to life.
Do we survive with this j shall we know in
some other state of existence the we have done
in this j shall we meet those for whom we have
and those whom we love? I know
aud I hold it to be at the best a. curious al-
beit one these affections that
make up so much of the sweetness of human life.
The ends of moral are not for our pelrsonal
satisfllcti,on, but we for them. He who loves not the
true and the better than himself j he who does
not them above all attachments j who
does not find in the dearest of his love a re-
of somewhfl.t above and not a
individual however else for-
tunate or has never found himself in an act
of veneration. For this is not man mEletilng
with man, but man before the nnl!lltElra}Jle.
eternal ideal nature of j not
nary sense of that but the God of some-
so secret and necessary that were it to cease,
the stars would vanish out of the and were it
to cease in human human
would into barbaric chaos. Emerson said not
ago: til see that sensible men and conscientious
16
men all over the world were of one

l'elilgioin of and men of
men of and of for others.
ence is that there is a statement of relilgic.n possiible
which makes all absurd." 1 It is such a.
statement of that the time needs; and I can
believe. that of God or
imm(lrtlllit;y will make a necessary of which
is far from that men shall be forbidden to
entertain them. The and the of
to my in man's moral nature. Here
alone in addition to the or the the
MUST, - the voice of the tone of anl;borit;i'.
without and without assent to
is but a with or our fe€ilin,gs.
We are under orders; we are free to or
honor and lie in obedience. And
relilgio.n will come to us afresh when there is a new
peI'Cel)tio.n of this and a new of life
and and all our hnman relations in obedi-
ence to it.
1 "The Preacher," in Lectures and Bi~,gn,pbJical SketcbH.
GOOD FRIDAY FROM A MODERN STANDPOINT.
FRIDAY commemorates one of the most

pa1~hetic events in The orthodox idea.
of the death of Jesus takes us back dim
of Hebrew when the national
was conceived as the source of thunder
and the of and and
a(l(lol',dinlfl to the the fierce wrath with which
he smote the the first-born in
every was as the Hebrews
the blood of lambs dashed upon the or
the liutels of the houses wherein lived. The
of blood was to the
to have softened the heart of the stern and in
his mercy he the houses of the Israelites.
Thenc:e 8.l3C01~diIlll to the Biblical
j arose the
festival of the Passover. Thousands of lambs were
every in ancient to com-
memorate the favor in the and to secure
his favor for the future. It that it was
one of the Passover festivals that Jesus came
to his and the coincidence could not
fail to affect the of the Christians.
Jesus was their -- their
and had no need to sacrifice any other. Be-
hind him and his blood could take and
the hand that would soon be stretched out

in the dread of would pass them
'l'he traditions even J esns as
this view of his death. As the shadows of his cOlniulg
fate fell upon him he of
his life as a ransom, which the destruction of many
should be averted; and the before the cruci-
at the last meal with his he identified
the bread and wine upon the table with his and
which were to be offered up as a prclpit,ia-
tion to 'rhis is the of the com-
munion which all Christian churches celebrate j here
lies the of the Catholic mass: to Prot-
estants to Catholics the bread and
the wine are the and blood of that pas-
challamb whose life was taken centuries ago.
Unless God is unless blood is there
is to be no favor from the unseen world for
man j and to those who do not trust in this sacrifice
alr,cadly made there is to use SCl~ipl;nrl'l.lla,nj,tllage.
a certain fearful of and of
de1O'Oulriulg fire. 1 Here is one of the power
which orthodox still has over the minds
of men. At bottom it is a of fear; and before
the advent of science and its disclosures of an eqtlablle
of fear is more natural to men in contem·
Nature than any other There is Doth·
men crave so much as to have their fears ;
and 80 to anxious men and women every·
whether among the earliest Jewish COl:llVeltts.
or among the multitudes of or among
the untutored barbarians of the or amoDg the
1 Hebrews, x. 27.
uneducated masses in our - Chris-

has come as a. them that if
will trust in "the blood" that has been shed for
the unseen powers of the world will be kind and
What occasion have those to whom this whole circle

of belief is and erroneous to of
G o o d ' l l answer, Because the death of Jesus
may be looked at from a different We may
ask What led to it j what does it show us as
to his character j what is its as an incident
in the moral progress of the race; what value has it
still for us when we look upon it
as the death of a and heroic man ? We may
treat the death of Jesus as we would that of Socrates
or of Savonarola or of John
all of them; deaths that have moved the hearts of
men and influenced the course of and still
have an power. The death of it seems
to me, surpasses them all in and in its influ-
ence on the fortunes of maukind. I think it not pre-
sUlnptu()Us to from Jesus' own estimate in this
matter. We human often fail to understand
ourselves. Garfield said that "the lesson
of is learned the actors themselves."
We who are are too earnest about the
matter to sit down and form calm j time
and the which time are necessary.
Jesus may have valued his death for one
may value it for another.
How was it that Jesus died so Boon? did he
not live on to a old age, like Socrates? I answer,
essent;iaIly because he was not a phillosopller, hut a
':'
ETHICAL RELIGION.
rel:or:mer, an For this reason his prl~dece~,-

sor, the ascetic was cast into one of Herod's
dU1DgE!OnS, and came out to be he had
too of social in the court. Jesus
had no ascetic ways about him. He did not love the
lonesome he the towns and
cities where meu were and was touched
human aDd as well as human
wickedness. But he threw himself into the social
tations of his ; and the one agitating thl:lU~~ht
that with which all few
dared to and
from it-was that of an overthrowal of the hated Ro-
man power, and the of a new social and
under the name of the " of
heaven." This was the Messianic dream of his
his or manhood there had been
uplrisings and resistance to the Roman
Jesus had a horror of war, and looked not
to the hands of any to the
revolution on which had set his heart. The
t.laJlVI::IIJ.-he who had flashed fire out of
heaven in of his faithful who had
the waters of the Red to let his
pass thl~ou~h and escape from their oppressors, - his
arm, Jesus would be stretched out
and it was that he be and
that the be out of Israel who should
be to form the new and gloriO\ls
a bold and no bolder than other Mes-
siahs took before and after Jesus assumed the
of a new movellnent. gifl.th.ereid f()lloweJ",
with the
and made others and believed that when

the " of heaven" should come, he should
be at its head. H The old order will soon
he "and a new one is j in the old is
opprElssiion and cruel and and
setlsu:alit;y and all manner of evil; in the new there
will be a recompense for every wrong, and comfort
for all who mourn; in the new, the poor and the per-
secuted and the pure in and those who love
others as do will be the nrivillel1'erl
ones, while all who oppress, all who are senSUll"'-,
who are and for a prEltel3ce
prayers, shall be humbled and cast out." The heal't
of the to such fervid utterances.
Those in on the other - the props,
the the ornaments of the old order of
-looked askance at Jesus. It is the old of
cOlnfl.Jlctilng interests j the Sadducean the zeal-
ous, the were in
a of revereuce, and it did not look as if in
the dream of the future which Jesus unfolded
should have any at all. On the other
those who were and miserable had every-
to ; and that many of them were ins:piI'ed
no motives is shown the fact that when
Jesus into the clutches of the civil power
made a very rabble him. The Roman author-
ities never seem to have troubled themselves at aU
about Jesus j 80 was his attitude and so ex-
clu.sivelv did he address himself to his own COtlDtrv-
men, that knew of him; and when be
was to trial before them seem to have
reg:arcled him as a harmless and would never
ETHICAL RELIGION.
have consented to his death had not been driven

to do so the fierce and determined attitude of the
leaders of Jewish But the conflict into
which Jesus had himself could have no
other issue. He did not trim his as
conscience him to invective
than that he out the false of
was never would not en~
ter into the " of nor would let
others go in. It was but a of time j and when
one of his at a r~
buke his master had
or with the thOIUgJlt
his as the nation's
Jewish authorities in of the offer
was closed with; Jesus was made a prisoliler,
and the next after hurried throul'1:h
cial which was little better than a
nailed to the cross.
Such were the causes that led to the event which
Good 80 far as can be
ered into a few words. Jesus died the victim of a
for his and for the world. He
belon~l'8 to the company of those who cannot be p.
tient with as see and because
meet with and and
perha]ls violence and death. His
was not free from nay" in one sense it
was illusion j for wrong and
will never cease in this world the intervention of
divine power to and nor do men
return from the dead to do the work which have
left undone on earth. But we have to diSltililguish
GOOD FRIDAY FROM: A M:ODERN STANDPOINT.
between one's ai11~ and the meam which one may

to see that aim ; and there is
more for the world from one Jesus than from a
dozen or a thousand men trained to scientific habits
of without any transcendent aim and
pallsic;n for a of The aim of Jesus was
sound; it was it was There
is no other aim for man than that of
and of love upon which Jesus set his heart.
.LV''''''''.', in the measure that we have that aim and
to realize it there is order and and in
the j and that there·is so much lawlessness
and defiant wickedness abroad is evidence to
how an extent men have it not. We must seek
not power, and not science nor
but the l< o f " there is in-
spiration for man in this of Jesus. The
significa'Dce to us of the death of Jesus is that
this in the form that was pos:sible
to to the bitter end. We now can distin.gnish
the aim from the method which it was to be real.:
ized; we can the form from the substance of
Jesus' But Jesus was not a philo:soI>he,r,
his consciousness was one and indivisible; and for
him to doubt that he was the Messiah would have
been to doubt that there was any Messianic
to be j and to doubt that would have been to aban-
don his faith in Israel and in Israel's God j and that
he could not it was a of in his
blood and in every fibre of his
For my own I can say that there are no events
in Jesus' life so as those toward the close.
At no time does he reveal so much character. To stand
ETHICAL RELIGION.
our faith wheu all go well with us, - there

virtue iu that j to stand it when it is
ase.ailed, when we may suffer loss from our adhesion
to - that tests whatever manliness there is in us.
Jesus had no stoical about death. It was not
a matter of indifference to him whether he lived or
died. He who loved the flowers of the field and the
birds of the the lakes and the hillsides of his na-
tive and the of to which
he had made from his up,
could not turn from all these without some reuldiIlgB
of the heart and tears; and pang than
he who had counted on divine he who had
looked to elevated to a divine whence
he could execute the that was in his
- how could he die like other men and leave
his work undone? In Jesus had as-
sented to his death: on his way from Galilee to J e..
rusalem for the last he surmised what the end
would be; yes, on the before his
have seen, he made a mouruful COlupluieion
self to the lamb. But after1lliarlrl.
the darkness of the the dread
stood before his human
were too ; he feU on his face and to
God that the cup be removed from
three and sweat feIllike blood from his
face. It was an almost mortal agony, so that
we hold our breath as we read of we feel the
wrestUn,g as if it were our own, we hear the cry of
; and then the cry ceases, and a more than mor-
tal calm passes his he has yielded
his love of he goes forth to the sacrifice.
Never was man serener than Jesus before his

When idle were up him he
was he would not honor them even with a de--
nial. But when asked as to the central core of all his'
- whether he was the - he prClmlltly
anl~wl~rel:l. tI I and took the oath administered to
him the he had his
followers not to swear; he his
away to the time when he should sit on the
hand of and come in on the clouds
of heaven i and when in return the priiesltly hirelililgs
in his face and cuffed him and
he held his peace. Before Pilate Jesus
the same his
but to the
and elders. He submitted to the
the brutal Roman cruel
a red gown upon
of thorn-branches upon his
into his hand a
kn1celing in ;!;urn and
Jews!" and not a murmur
way to the of execution he
own cross, until in his weakness
no when a was im'pressE~d
service. On at the
OIIlcrelil, " to Jewish usage, a
which from a sentiment
of was to the sufferer to him." 1 He
touched the cup to his and it from him. As
Renan says, "this sad solace of common criminals was
unsuited to his nature;" he would face death
1 Renan'll Life of JesulI, cb. xxv.
ETmCAL RELIGION.
with mind unclouded. The horrors of that

death no one could describe j nor shall I to.
Crucifixion was reserved for slaves and the lowest
criminals j it was a horrid and orclinlU'ily
drawn out. But if we may trust the
no the of unless it was once
when consumed with thirst. So ma.gnanimclUs
was that he God to his eX:llcutio:nel~s,
since knew not what
for a moment his heart failed and he felt as one for-
he reassured himself at the
commended to the hauds of God his ,.....",+;1Y1.",
Where shall we read of a more a more noble
death than this? Where is one that more stirs our
millgllld fEleliJngs of and and admira,.-
tion? Do we wonder that his death Jesus has won
a closer in the hearts of men than he could ever
have a most and successful life j that the
crucified one has been covered with honor and
that men have raised him to a of
to the of shame in w:b.ich he was once
plungeld? Who would not like to be a Chris-
tian for a moment on Good even more than on
Easter since aU the instincts of honor and
in a man incline us to take the side of one who was
once at such bitter ? - and we
should rather err with such an one than com-
pany with those who are and have Dot
hearts for a noble mistake I I for one
would cast my tribute of honor at the feet of Jesus.
There are Liberals who would who would
up thf'ir children in of or per-
chance would ridicule him. I am not of their num-
berG Jesus is no paragon to no model

of or of infa.llible wisdom; I do not
call his follower. But this he is to me,
insipiI-ation! He touches my he stirs my con·
IlOll~noe, he warms me with love of a noble ideal i and
this is which few Liberal or
have done or are for men, - so tha.t
in certain lines may correct Jesus
and a few others like him that indefinable
we call I should rather have the which
Jesus communicates and be left to form my own
than to have the of our wisest phllOSlt)..
without that motion of the heart toward
ness and all unselfishness which is so nat;unLlly
the of the life and death of this son of
man. It is not that moves the but
ch:uacter, love j and outside of the where
is there a man who has so himself upon the
and created and so many channels of
and as whose we may
oul;grc)w, but whose heart never?
The death of Jesus sets the last seal to his smcer:ity,
and to the of that wonderful love of man which
made him brave so much and count the cost so little.
A man of commoner mould would never have risked
80 much j a man with a heart less pure would never
have assumed so a mission. We are to
8ay, that if Israel and the world were to be redeemed
and and transformed to the outlines
of his he was to be the instrument of
the Unseen in 80 j for never was there one who
less more identified him·
self with the as he conceived
ETHICAL RELIGION.
never one better to sit at the hand of

his as he he one and dis-
pense and merciful juclglneIlt to the assembled
nations of men.
As an incident in the moral progress of Bumanit;y
the death of Jesus may be said to have a threefold
signi.ticanice : -
1. It is the consecration of sorrow, of Cast
over in your mind the of the Grecian and Roman
paliltb:eolil, and where shall you find one with the down-
sorrowful of the Son of Man ? where among
the fair shall you find a. face so telJlde:rly
beautiful as that which Christian has
to the Mater Dolorosa? A an in-
congruous to a Greek or a Roman! But a suf-
a man whom his followers have
made a is the central in Christian worsb;iD.
This means an immense difference in the moral senti-
ments of men. It means a to the
ancient it means that the more men suffer
the more shall be
cared for; while in civilization it too
to be the case that the more men the more
No one can turn in reflection to
or to any of the incidents
of the last two of his and not feel his heart
softened toward all the of his IellOllT·men.
and a double aversion to all the with
which one man sometimes makes of another man's
distress. Such incidents as those at the trial and cru·
cifixion of Jesus would not be tolerated now, even in
the of our worst oriminals; the of
hUlmalllit:r, even in is felt now, and a Ivn,,,hiinu
I
its victim to such in<lignities

as were on Jesus. It is not
that we care for the sick now as never was the case
in the old that the poor have a love shown
to them that never had in Greece or Rome i it
was not that in old Rome itself the
iatorial shows were when Christian influences
the upper hand in the State. a
new arose, a new for all the outcast
members of j for no ODe suffered shame and
loss without the remembrance of him who was
in h i s " and of men," and who
asked no honor for himself save that of remem-
bered in the form of the least and feeblest of those
who were his bl'ethren.
2, The death of Jesus home to us in a vivid
way that sacrifice is a law of progress. It is not that
the unseen is angry and will not be favorable to
man until some of blood is made to but
that the conditions of are such that progress
posisible tllrOllf,th effort and and sacrifice.
have my exclaims the
Buddha, "but it came from search and strife and lov-
sacrifice? " It is a beautiful ideal that each of
us should live a full and without any
mall'riI1lg of any of it short for the sake of
others i but it is the of evolution rather than an
prElseIlt possiibi.lit,Yi in the mean time we have
often to suffer to ourselves that may come
to others. What what devoted what
leader of what in any useful cause, does
not know that without to with some-
~Ul11~. - with time or means or or
ETHICAL RELIGION.
perha!)s with life are not fitted to the

tasks to which nature or their own hearts call them?
And this is the innocent ideal of of
baIlpiIless for falls so far short of the real
recluirelneltlts of life. It is Bummer-weather p!l,iloso-
and if we have cherished the first storm of
ad'lrersit;'{, the first may it like a
dream from our and is too to leave us
bitter because we were so For we are in
truth bound to one - we to bu:mani~y.
It is our nature to seek a for oUlrse,lves,
alone and j it is to our nature to find
hal~pinells in the commou - to to
in the service of None
on we 80 often Bet our hearts
are absolute. Health we should but we may dis-
and as Eliot says, "glclric)us
harm" in some disinterested service. " Who
would not rather be " says " like
than in health like the multitude?" Who would
not rather I would and bear his cross like
and be buffeted and upon and made the
butt of cruel and at last be ,than to
live to a old age as the did who con-
demned him to and left children after so
as says, he was held to be one of the
most fortunate men of his ? Let us not use
words let us not rate ourselves too I do
not the truth of those lines of Neww,an,
.. Prane tllou thy words, the thoughta control
That o'er thee swell and throng;
They will condense within thy soul,
And change to purpose lltrong.
.
GOOD FRrJAY FROM A MODERN STANDPOINT.
..But he who letll his run
In soft,luxurioUlilllow,
Shrinks when hard service must he done,
And faintll at every woe,"
Ah I we should shrink from the cross of Jesus. We

shrink from of now; we shrink from
all the little crosses that us from to
Ppl'h~l.nl'l I should not say we should rather suf-
fer like Jesus; but oh that we be to I
that we school ourselves now acts of self-
pW~llceun~r to
there are those who hate us,
sW7rel[ldElriIlg our self-will in face of the divine neces- •
sities that sW7round us, - school ourselves so that we
shall be should we be called upon, to reuder
the last and withhold not life itself from the
service of the world I Death is a sorry fact j there
is no in it that we should desire it is the
op]poslite of all we crave; we do not like to think of
we turn from it when the mention of it is made.
un.gr~LCi()us visitor I 0 I
thou be traJnsti,gw~ed,
be made welcome. "Let death come strai~:ht'wa:y,
said " after I have the wrlon,~-a(>er.
so that I remain not here the beaked
lau,gb:ing-s~ock and a useless burden of the
Jesus "Let death come." is almost made
sacred since J esns and other generous souls
have there have been that have
evell courted that have been to throw the
world away that follow in the foo,tsteps
of the whom revered. Do not fear
o Friend I bnt rather fear that thou not die
16
ETHICAL RELIGION.
worthily" -,selfisll, fl~etj:ul; blt1tel', reloelJ.10UlS, when thou

pea,cefll1l and thankful
and to and even if in way
death may oontribute to the world's
8. There is another of the death of Jesus.
It is to out of mind the element of
illusion in the to which he fell a The
world's progress is not all in a line. Those
who would benefit the world we remember the more
teIlderly for their mistakes. The road to humanit;y's
is not revealed to us Hashes from
we have to find it out ; and
incidental to are mistakes and
failures numberless. The of Jesus to come
to the world in power and was ; the
solemn he made to the at his
trial was Had he had no illusions he would
not have died as he - he would not have endured
to be upon and mocked and tortured and cruci-
fied. But when I think of this of the case I
call to mind Eliot's words :
"Even our failurell are a prophecy.

Even our yearninll1l and our bitter teal'll
After that fair and true we cannot gnuP.-
All patriotll who lIeem to die in vain
:Make liberty more sacred by their
Jesus died in others before him or

since his time; his cause is the dearer to us be...
canse he failed in it. I would we write his
thlou,rht on our foreheads and in our hearts; I would
make it the aim of our lives to
II of heaven" for which he
and to pass in the world. What

are we for 'I "What is in our
souls? is fitted to be there but the thOUg!lt
which Jesus cherished. Let us it from all
that to his time and race; let it be
to us a for America and the instead as
it was to for Israel and the world; let us strive
to build a true of a of the
let us hold to such an aim ag~LiDlst
the selfishness of men, our own
aglliniilt all the odds that count on the other side; and
then we in turn make others will
remember us the more for and press
the harder to :lind the way that is true and sure.
THE SUCCESS AND THE FAILURE OF
PR.OTESTANTISM.
HAT is the sigltlificmnc~e of Protestantism? In

what has it been successful; in what
has it failed?
Protestantism was successful in the first in
that it was a break with the Catholic and
not a mere reform of it. Here Luther himself was
and not the of his doctrines.
IJuther was indeed no violent of tradition
and In his very nailed up on the
door of the church at he did con-
to the common attack the nor the
power to H e " Cursed be
he who of the ;
but blessed be he who the foolish and
iml)udent lanlgulfl.ge of the of I"
To the second ambassador from the Luther even
offered to be silent on the and to let it die
away of if his would be silent
on their he " if
continue a serious will soon
arise out of a He declared that he
had made his "as l\ faith-
ful son of the and offered to address the
.to that effect. And in this
SUCCESS AND FAlLURE OF PROTESTANTISM.
tion he said that was in a very

wretched state in the Roman II this is not a
snfiicient reason for from it. On the con-

the worse on within it the
more shonld we to it; for it is not separa-
tion that we shall make it Luther was
sJ)C)ili.ng for a ; in he be-
cause he had to. And I do not know of a sublimer
instance of the courage and the and the defi-
ance which a inward may into
a man. He took his stand because he must; bellause,
as he said before the assembled at he
could Dot do otherwise.
I need not reconnt the which Luther was
led to break with the Church. I need not recall his
spildtual strug,gles in the at
when he came to feel the of all mere outward
and that faith can man be jus:titi.ed,
this was the of the Reforma-
tion. I need not his with Eck
at where he realized that his own views were
like those of Huss and before and hence
if popes and councils had condemned that popes
and councils could not be infallible. I need not re-
count the of his intellectual de'~ell:lpIlleIlt
at about this time; how his seemed to rise at
the rumor of a Bnll him; how he saw
that his cause was the cause of and hence
issued his address to the German ; how in an
almost exuherance of burned the
Bull; and how at last he tcok his wOlrld·histor:ic
stand before the diet at he
would not that to act agaiinst
ETHICAL RELIGION.
and a. ... ;.",'h+,.. e:mn,JrR
nor safe.
the man is the of the
scene is That was the first act of the Prot-
estant revolution. III would it have fared with the
world had Erasmus stood there. in common with
other scholars of the was disaffected; he wrote
satires on the monks and and in gelJerl~l
sVlnpatbdzEid with Luther j but he would in the
\.IUllUC:lI. would reform from and conciliate and
at any cost. He continued his satires
and Dre,aclled tolerance to the last j but he could not
endure that " error was
better than truth." It was as it is to-
with the Broad Churchmen who in the
lish or the Liberals in who feel
that cannot stand on their own feet outside the
Church. Above every other fear is that of breiak:Lng
with the of a to the institu-
tions in which have been nurtured. Luther knew
but one to the convictions
that were in him j if the Church did not him
freedom to hold to and express he would do
so the same.
We what an immense
fact on the Luther had to face. To break
with Or any form of Protestant Christianity
is an with one-
self out of the of that communion which held
the of earth almost as as it seemed to
those of heaven. For if the Catholic Church is com·
DQ,rat;ivI31v harmless now, then it was an that
brooked no rival. The State was no more than a
SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF PROTESTA."ITISM.
with the Church for its soul. It was a univer-

empIre, and knew no national distinctions; it bad
of like any other a
of the of the soil of Christendom
went to it; it owned almost a third of the land of
'rhe officers of this weI'e not amena-
ble to the civil could be tried
in their own and under the cover of this pro-
tection to themselves could fleece their flocks
about as liked; alone could marry
and alone could divorces; had the
disPOlsiti,on of the of deceased persons, - a
will had to be in their courts; alone
buried the and could refuse Christian burial in
the And this men in
almost every relation in life centred in and its
it was well were administered not for
the benefit of its but to hei,gh1ten
the influence and pomp and and to swell the
revenues of Roman popes even as in
the old of the the masses of the
scattered the were ruled
nors, not for their own but for the cOIlquerclr's
It was this over the souls and bodies of men;
over life and and what was believed to come
after death; over what men should and how
should and not in the name of truth and
the of men, but of a view of the
world which almost every scientific and al-
most every reflection tended
to it was this old that
un.'1I..t:.u, smitten on its crown and set to totter-
when Luther lifted up his voice over
ETmCAL RELIGION.
three hundred and years ago. All 0 valiant

man, for this first and blow I We breathe
freer now at the very of it. Other blows will
follow after; and all the reforms the
may all the
efforts it may make to show its with mod-
ern and the of political fl:-ee<loDl,
DOltwj.thl.talndilng all its councils of and all its
leadil1lg CllDtlve here and there a weak-minded
man or woman, it will never have its old
supremacy. It is an outlived institution; hU'manit'1
and the of progress have it
This was the first success of Protestantism. A
second is related to and for this too we are
indebted to Luther himself. Goodness had become
an formal in the Oatholic Ohurch. It
tends to become so. It first creates certain
forms and then loses itself in them; and as men are
connted citizens who pay their and
hold of their and motive
so men were counted Ohristiaus
the rules of the I have
who said so many Aves or Pater"nOlstElrs,
did so much or penance, gave so much money
or received of such and such sacraments. That
there was an external test of - and the
significaltlCe of Luther is that he an internal
test. In one of his earliest two years be-
fore he his he the
doctrine that consists not in outward
but in an inward ; that an act in itself
even becomes sinful if the motive is sinful.l Luther
1 Sean's Life of Luther, p. 169.
SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF PROTESTANTISM.
did not use and his thougllt

was cast in moulds; but the fun-
damental of his doctrine of
cation faith rather than works seems to me to
have been - that the inward attitude alone deter-
mines the worth of a man; so that a man's
whole outward life were if the or
imlPullle that within and were sel-
he would still be in the wrong. Luther did not
say works were of no nor does his principle
of involve of itself any of the
rules and ritual of the Church; he did say that works
or acts severed their and to
rites and rules in were of no - yes,
that when viewed as themselves those who
prllctise them moral were harmful and an
offence. Luther said "iu the of God"
where I have said" " and an offence to him
was not to an ideal but to a pel'SOllal,
angry God. Protestantism thus sprang from a
of the conscience and a of the moral
life. Luther could find no rest in and pen-
ances and humbled the
did not It was at the centre of his
that rest; and he found while
still at the in in the
su~rge:sti()Ds of a passage of " The shall
live faith;" and ever and anon it in
his ears and send a peace over his
" The shall live faith." I
ern version of that old the chllrDling
of
"I often think there's sOInethil:ltg
ETHICAL RELIGION.
is still;" and she in a voice so soft and

the narrative goes OU, that her felt as
if he had heard it now for the first time. "It is
the within our own he answered. And
it is true that when a man, instead of to do
this or that external which will commend him
before the world or him a kind of in
his own eyes, turns and himself over to the
forever to does within;
and whether we call it the or whether we
say "the " or "God is well " it is
all the same; the differences are differences of u ....."'''',,,,
not of fact. Protestantism is so far as it is true
to the Lutheran more more
8e~Lrcl!ling than Catholicism; its is more per-
sonal; it may make less but it has more sub-
stance; it men face to face with the central
truth of it them before the
nameless of which all else is shadow and
reflection. I do not say this of Protestantism every-
where. In it was more a and
instead of the moral it came into
with a of in obedieoce to the
intrigues of VIII. The Puritans were the first
true Protestants in as the were
in and the followers of and Calvin
in Switzerland. But in Protestantism
brl)u~tht a new moral seriousness· into life.
but for one moment Luther or or Calvin with
Leo and see the difference in the of man.
In another way, Protestantism has been a
success; it has us freedom of conscience. It
must be confessed that here Luther himself is not 80
m
SUCCESS FAILURE OF PROTESTANTISM.
as the of the movement which he ll.l,arlieill.

Luther was no advocate of freedom of consoienoe as
a. ; he desired freedom for his own
oonscienoe. But the of does 110t rest
on any individual's of it. When
Luther said at U It ill not safe nor
to do conscience; here stand I, so

me he stood for every sincere re.-
former since; he for every move.-
ment in and down to our It is
not fair to my to the narrowness
and of many whether individuals
or to their Protestantism; it is to be CblfU'g:ed
to them as men or as for narrowness
and too attach themselves to men and
associations: it may sometimes be to them
as Christians and as Christian but it can
be due to the lack of real Protestantism. The
very of Protestantism is freedom. Puri-
tanism was a characteristic Protestant for
it was an assertion of conscientious soruples aglLiDl3t
the laxness and formalism of the ohurch.
Unitarianism was another Protestant
mc)vement, for it was a revolt of reason and con-
science the of When any
one stands up for the conviction of his soul
~tiDllt whatever of or respec:ta-
UU,I~lt1't1, he is in: very essence a. Protestant. If Luther
then if Calvin burned SeJ~ve1;us.
if the Puritans banished wel'e
80 far not Protestants; and in the very name of the
whioh secured their own freedc)m,
may be condemned. It takes a. while for
ETmCAL RELIGION.
a thrown into to work out its conse-

quences, but sooner or later it will This principle
of freedom of conscience is first realized in
any in this ; but it is a fruit of
it was thrown in among the forces
of he little knew all he was
the hand of Martin Luther.
As a fourth success of PrlClte:stantism, and as a re-
sult of this of freedom in connection
with the tendencies of modern not the
old church but the old is break-
up. itself is and pal!Isin.g
away. was not half 80 much in
the last Paine and Voltaire as it is in
the minds of the most serious and men
the new indirect influences of science and
historical criticism. Men who never hear
liberal who have never read Paine or Vol-
are a new view of the world in the
very intellectual and the
old ideas of miracle and prayer and Providence
away so that do not know have lost
them. The new is in litl~ralture,
in in the newspaper. The differences
between cultivated men in all churches and in none
are smalL If we do not ask for
partiC\llar opinio'DB, much less attack but
are reflected in a man's of
and this is the real
educated do not differ essen-
from educated Baptists or Methodists or Unita-
rians. Their denominational connections
are a matter birth and tradition; their relJlgi(J;n
SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF PRI)Tl1:STJi\.N~['ISll1.
under a of names and a

reverence for and a confidence that the
universe is on that side; their is much
like that of a friend who once said to me he was not
anxious for the name but if anyone should
say he was not a should resent it. The
ideas that were at the foundation of the dif-
ferent denominations have little interest for any man
now, unless he be an or a zealot.
no other result could well follow from the Protestant
principle of freedom of conscience and
ment j for it could be eX]leclted
jmlgllnellt would rest with
,LHllUtl" - sooner or later it must essay to
worth of contents of the Bible. Luther
to the mind in the consciousness of its
oWn over the of the
Church j when the mind reaches incon-
sistent with the of the same
to a similar confidence here. Nor can any
sacred perspn more than any sacred book be allowed
to remain an over the
when Jesus ceases to be an Christian-
in any distinctive sense ceases to be. Thns fear-
and is the of Protestantism
cOIJdulcti.ng out of the very in which it was
born. Luther would have stood at those who
call themselves to whom Jesus
a and Master; no other result
and he is
for and to the future this result will be counted as
one of the successes of Protestantism. For bu:manity
cannot wear forever its old ; as it casts off
:ETHICAL RELIGION.
old 80 it does old 'l'h& of

the future calls upon it to do 80; for the future is
rich with and will
than ever the has known.
As I pass now to my fifth I am at lOBS to know
whether to rank it among the successes or failures
of Protestantism. It is that has prae-
us the Bible it was almost a sealed
....,~.u.n:'}, and that it has
face with J esllS and the The
in the time of Luther knew little
notJiillLg of the Bible; Jesus and the aP'llstll~S
vagmellv tlloujght of as the founders and
that was about rather
than as in And if the secular
renaissance is to be commended for an iu-
terest in the old Greek and Roman ina-
specti,re of ecclesiastical so is the later
reliJV,l)us renaissance to be for pUl;tilllg
the old Jewish and the Christian literatures
into in which every one could read them for
himself. as a result of the Reformation
the Bible came to be the of the common
man, and J esns and the were seen somewhat
as were. So far Protestantism was a.
success. For I it as no of a. radi-
calism to condemn the Bible and to
wish that the world should know of it. The
Bible has ha.d its uses in ; it testifies to and
is the of some of the creative in his-
l\Iost of the for of
the Old the narratives about Jesus and the
wri.tinlgB of his followers in the New Te:sta:me:nt,
came from real men, to whom was not a

and whose minds were intent on the supreme
in life; the of rightElousnl~ss.
The very reverence for the Bible that so
many have had is a to its power; Cicero
and Plato and Aristotle never touched the heart and
conscience to any sU][>ersti1tiolilS
about themselves. while in one way the
open Bible of Protestantism was one of its successes,
in another it bas been and is more and more
to be seen to be one of its failures. The Bible
with the idea. of as DO other book does
that has become the of our Western
and to those who have the wit to substance
from form it is and may a means of
moral But the whole intellectual
of this idea is no true to us.
not;hilllg in to us as
the will of a ; our confidence in
its in the world is nowise the
n,~,~,,,·.. of a which shall some time Sel)arate
the and wicked as and
open Bible was not even an
defence the Roman Chnrch. the Bible
said of the Roman Church or the or
of councils or or of the intercession of
the saints; and this to many narrow-minded Prot-
estants may have been But the Bible does
furnish from which some Catholic doctrines
are no means conclusions. If one man
with infallible is there any reason
in the nature of others should not
with the same If one man could
ETHICAL RELIGION.
it can be denied that he have left

this power to others who should .come after
as indeed he is to have done. If we may
pray for those who are still on the earth and our
prayers may may we uot for those who
have gone into the ? If the inter-
cession of men now may avail before
not much more the intercession of those
who have become saints in heaven? Protestants af-
fect a horror that Catholio should
for to sins; the Pharisees manifested
a similar horror when Jesus claimed we read
that he gave the same power he had himself to his
"Whosesoever sins ye remit
are and whosesoever ye are re-
tained." 1 Was there some reason men
should be in the first of the Christian
era that does not hold of the centuries?
But however lame an instrument the Bible may be
~UlllSu Ciatllol'icislm, it can still less be a rule of faith
and for men Its idea of rig'htElOUS-
ness is of but the whole
ture in which it was written is now a
We cannot think as the Bible would
we cannot believe or as Jesus and
apJstles would have us believe and we cau-
and act as command us to act; we are
seIlarlil.ted from them not oenturies
of but centuries of of
knowledlj:te, and of over minor dif-
feren(les, what man in with the culture of
1 John xx. 28. If this be as of doubtful au-
thority, a saying of similar tenor ill fonnd in Matthew xvi. 19.
can believe in the of heaven as Jesus

believed in it; what man can look out on the world
and trust in a Providence as J esns trusted i
what man can believe in miracle as Jesus
or pray as J esns or entertain the th()n~:ht
J esns that Jesus bad of himself ? Jesus is no
aU1choirity to us, the are no
to us i the whole Bible what the Germans
call an Uberwundener of view that
has become Men the Bible is
anchclrity to as are not
with as have never taken the
it in the of the circumstances in it was
written. Protestantism to rnle the world with
its open Bible is a failure.
Another failure of Protestantism is that it has not
ns any new such as the world needs.
Protestants have for the most to
certain remnants or shreds of an old gaJ~mlmt
do not see that cannot live on and
have to the world no new regen-
erative The Catholic Church has all the
of the Protestant of doctrine.
for save themselves
keElpilllg the Christian name and pr()fe!ISilllg discipl'e-
for J esns; but Catholics are all Christians and
of Jesus. Orthodox believe
in the of the and the
ment; but Catholics believe in all these doctrines and
many more. churches have their
and and ritual; but all this the Cathcllic
Church has in much For freedom of
conscience aud is but
17
ETmCAL RELIGION.
s. formal It means the truth

as we see or, at readiness for truth: it does
not mean new and truth - and before
there can be a new there must be new ideas.
the of an internal as to an
external test of character is not The thougllt
alone to the life; but what shall be
the ? Protestantism has no new
thIClU~tht; it has no new ideas of life and ; it
has seemed to moral idealism as exhausted in
the statements of the Sermon on the Mount: it has
even no of these sta,teluellts.
for if it it would take the hint
orate an ideal of social riR:htl~ou,sn;ess
For this is what the world
nor revisions of nor a rational of it;
no, nor Jesus nor a trne estimate of his life
and but an era of social This is
what Protestautism has not us, what it has
apPaJ~eD.tlv had no aim of ns; for its thl)u~tht
of a social order is nowise different from that
of as that has elsewhere
its which is not of our
creation and has on this actual order
in which we now live. as Cb:ris:tia.nil':y
ge:nel'a1ly, has a kind of sanction to the order of
that it and feels to create
a new one. Therefore a new must come, not
and but hoJldiIlg
up a contrast to what we see about us, that
in the idea alone is sacredness and and that
as secure as the ~th and as
have no warrant before it.
The world needs no kind of an ecclesiastical religilon,

with and prayers and books; it needs a
reliigio'n of In the new will
count but clear and honest deeds.
trust in an outside all reliance on another
for what man must do will be abandoned;
man will have his connection with the Unseen in
the command which issues uThou must do
the that thou and in his answelinR'
obedience.
Protestantism in the person of Luther cast the
of its influence the era of social
eousness on which the hearts of the poor 0Plpre,ssEid
German were set. It must suffice
to refer to this instance of Protestant faith-
lessness. The German wanted - he
wanted ecclesiastical and freedom. The
Church and the feudal lord united in him;
he had no worth either.
He was bound to the to render any
service the lord called and had lost his to
the old common woods and and pas-
tures; and to the Church he not
the tenth of all his com, grass,
geese and and even every tenth
egg, - but he' money for every ser-
vice he from the Church. A Catholic writer of
that brother to the of the EUlperor
Charles says:" We can from
Christian ministers without money; at money;
at money; at money; for con-
money - no, not extJeme unction without
money. will no bells money, no
ETHICAL RELIGION.
burial in the church without money j so that it seemeth

that Paradise is shut upon them that have no money.
. . . The rich man may but
the poor uone, because he wanteth money to pay for
them." No wonder the pell8&Dts
such a double drew up twelve artie
in which stated their deIDaIlds,
1. The to choose own 2.
would pay tithe of corn j but small as every
tenth calf or or egg, would not pay. 3.
would be and no serfs and bondmen.
4. Wild game and fish to be free to all. 5. Woods
and forests to to all for fuel. 6. No services
of labor to be more than were of their fore-
fathers. 1. H more service wages must be
for it. 8. when above the value of the
to be valued and lowered. 9. Punish.
ments for crime to be fixed. 10. Common land to
be up to common use. 11. Death
the of the lord to take the best chattel
of the deceased to be done away with. 12.
of these articles to be to the
SCln.p1;ur46s or God's to be null and void.
What a chance in view of this for a that
meant to be of any use in this that meant to
vindiCate the and down the wrong, to assert
itself! this time many of the had be·
come Protestant. Did their Protestantism mean any
increased seuse of social ? What did Luther
himself say? was not indeed without sVlun:il.tb,v
for the - he was too much of a man, to say
not:hilllg of for that j and he did not
as a valiant man, to the his of
SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF PROT:ES'JrAliITIlSM.
them. Even before the al'ticles were pul:>lia:heI1, he

said: "The common man, tried all enldul~anlce,
overwhelmed with intolerable will not and
cannot any submit j and he has doubt-
less reasons for with the flail and the
as he threatens to do." of the articles
he says to the that some of them "contain
demands so that the mere circum-
stance of their to be forward dis-
honors you before God and man;" and he reminds
them that was not instituted for its own
nor to make use of the persons to it for
Q.C(}ODlpJ,istlmlent of its own and evil pas-
but for the interests of the pea-
the have become
with this and will no tolerate your shame-
ful extortions. Of what beneflt were it to a pea'SaIlt
that his field should as many florins as it
does of corn, if his master may him
of the and lavish like dirt the money he
has thus derived from his vassal in fine fine
Ca.tll>itlll, fine and ?" But when the
refused to to his wheu
the to make their words
their when threatened to arise in
Luther himself vip.1np.n_ and went over to
the other side.
It is not a Luther's langUllge
agl;unl~tthe after were once started
on their violent career. It is not the man but the
churchman who His was, €I Christians
must Buffer rather thau take up arms j " must
bear the cross, "that is a Christian's he
ETHICAL RELIGION.
"he has no other." He of 88

flocks of not to be tended but to be sIal11gtlte]~d,
one after the "Nicht Weideschaf - Schlacht-
schaf! nur so hin i eins nach dem anderen I" If
rebelled the civil power, there was bnt one
fate for them. As to the "murderous and robbmlg
hordes of as he he said to the
pHUCllll, II Let them be destr01red. stl'lmgled, stalbbed,
seclre:tly or whomsoever is able to do

even as a mad is away!" I do not
believe that this was all due to cowardice and a de.-
sire to side with these
motives may have with Luther j for
as he did not fail to commend at the end of
the war, he did not its contmuance cease to
of the "mad " of and lords.
In my it was not Luther that failed
at this critical moment j it was not Protes-
tantism that - it was and its
unphjilol~Ol=lhililaI, and untrue doctrine
of non-resistance. It was the Christian doctrine that
we are not to take mto our own but
must leave it to that was answerable for the
horron of the Peasant's War. Luther had said
and passages to this effect from the
very start. There was not so much a in his
view or his as in the circnmstances to
which his view could He said from the
such as these: "To revolt is to act like
heathen j the of the Christian is to be pat;ien.t,
not to j defensive is for God alone. No
one can be his own j an to be that is
sOIoethin,g which God cannot it is agajinst
SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF PROTESTANTISM:. 268
God and God is it." Such a view is to men

mythologiical j but to ,L/U~lltlr, f(lllOWIDlll
after the of his it was sober truth.
But if Luther had been more of a he would
have stood before the world a. truer man. Not on
the basis of such a. view has progress been made in
the world. Had been the rule of life
for Frenchmen a hundred years ago, there
would have been no French Revolution j had the
thll>ugJlt that the arm of Luther been the
conviction of our forefathers in this magniifiC1ent
still have been a British nr(lvillce.
P1'l:ll:rre88 is with those who know that is to be
done who would not honor themselves did
not defend themselves those who out-
rage their I do not answer for all that the
did i many of them were as fanatical as
LlU.OI"''C''', and were as little to mercy
as Luther the nobles to be to them. But
the not in their claims
at the outset?
How mean an idea of the of this whole
matter many have! says that the
were not for the of poJlitical J:tlJ.UJ:J.U,
that· many souls were not for
The cant of it I for social or-
he says, the Luther i for what
would have had he carried his extensive
influence into the CaDlp of the ? One can
cOllj61Jtu;re what would have j the
"";"'+:n~",,, of the assisted the towns and
which were almost hostile to the no-
of the Reformation, ill. 181.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
wd ~eoo~rs~
massacre no two hundred added years
was of miserable serfdom for
the wd power for the lords.
Froude can of the Peaswts' War as ~e
H first scandal" to the Reformation; 1 in had the
Reformation ~e moral fibre which we de~
mand of a it would have been its first
A of Luther
in this connection of the H dark clouds" that threa~
ened a new to the cause of the Reformation: ill
what a cause, I am say, that did not find a
of its very mission in the I
who look at the with the sylnpl",thies
of can say it was a reformation
that Luther had at heart. But what is
reljgi.on ? Must not our very concern for truth and
lead ns to disown as thus nnderstood?
The a free man could care
about would involve up the cause which Lu~
ther wd to usher in an
era of social on the so,
that with that we are bound to do so,
~at the world and the invisible of
call us to the work.
Who are the way for such a religi1on,
as much needed now as ever it was in the of
feudal and ecclesiastical ? If you doubt
listen to the bitter cry of the outcast poor in
Protestant London; listen to the cry of the poor in
all our Protestwt cities; listen to the cry of the poor
COilternpc,nu', Review, August, 1883.
~ Dr. WIlliam Rein', Life of Luther, p. 124.
SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF PROTESTANTISM:.
Not Protestants as not Christians

not ministers and churches as such are pre-
the way for such a but who
a.D'VWhel~e or under name utter or listen to a call
Now and a man dares lift up his
voice wealth and power i now
and then a man utters his belief that unselfishness
may be lived and not drcaDlcd of j now and
then a demand is heard that ends be above
in politics, bllsiness, P.VAl'V11l7hAl~A
!/
WHY UNITARIANISM FAILS TO SATISFY.1
ARIANS are not are per·

as a class humane and
to with·
out as within ecclesiastical have little
otlJier-worldlinIBss, and is with them
nearer to a sentiment to cover and refine the
life than with any other of
then do not ?
In the first too mnch in the way of
specnlathre beliefs. have taken a
in the direction. Other churches will not allow
the doubt that the Bible is the word of or that
Jesus is Divine. Unitarianism not these
and many other doctrines as essential. It holds
to the of Christian faith j naInel:r,
that men have a Father in that will live
after and that Jesus meantime is our
Guide and Master. But the time has come when even
these are under a shadow for Bome
and earnest men. Not any moral unfaitW'ulJllesIB, not
any for but seri-
ous has led not a few to a pelMo:nal
and individual as rather
than matters of and to look on Jesus as too far
1 I beg not to be undentood in this lecture as instituting any
comparison between Unitarianism and the Ethical Movement. I
altogether from an ideal standpoint. Whether the EtiJical
MO'l'emlent itself shall be true to its ideal inspirations remains to
be iceD.
WHY UNITARIANISM FAILS TO SATISFY.
removed from us, in his of the world and his

for to be our and master. This
attitude of mind is j and before it was
before there was any break. with his-
toric Ch~istianity, and while there was a vague
unwiJlliDlgness to call Jesus the title "Lord" and
" it was frowned upon, if not rel>Udiated,
the Unitariaus in their National Conference. The
result was that those who manifested this un'willinlg-
ness felt to leave the Unitarian
The Free Association which formed
aimed at a limited no cOIJlfesision, Chris-
tian or in the Bince the
time of that the which Uni-
tarians sometimes make of alliilwiinl! cOlnplete
of and of the deed above the
have an air of An individual Unit&-
rian may, of course, in this way j but Unitarian-
sO far as that word has any has
The Conference I have referred to had
the alternative before to avow
these broader or to confess "the Lord
Jesus Christ; " it chose the as
Mr. F. E. Abbot has freedom in
the name of its own Lord." 1 Unitarianism tbereb,y
itself among the Christian deIloulimlticlns,
the freest indeed of them and many vari-
eties of but all withiu the fundamental Chris-
tian - and closed the door which was
opl9ning out on the of the future. For such
1 See a most instructive pafJ~pblet,
Two Rev. J.
BOlton,
ETHICAL RELIGION.
a had been the

of many Unitarians. a new
order of he lamented toward the end
of his life that what he called a "Unitarian Ortho-
"1 was the of the old of
progress. An a a Potter
in such a when to the call
for that Conference of which I have j did
not believe there would be a but an alliance
with the free of the and that the future
would be a natural from the Sad men
were at the result j Mr. Abbot writes that he
never went to rest with a sadder heart than after one
of those memorable of fruitless But
in truth we may be sadder for Unitarianism than for
him and his since it cut itself off
from one of the most careers that ever
out to a while he and those
1 Life (one vol. ed.), p. 435. Recent Unitlllrian. Orthodoxy is

represented in the following from the Unitarian
1880, p. 83): "There IIITe Unitarians who believe
in God, and honor Jesus, and hope for the life everlasting, and to
whom this faith Is the substance of their religious life, Its procla-
mation their main work, its fellowship their main joy. The work
they seek to do for finds in this faith its chief sanc-
tion and inspiration; and they rejoice in aU work done for
rig'htE'oulmess and on whatever basis, and desire not to
backward in any of philanthropy, will not
coll'PT'I'miJ"! ill their tM oosi8
UIliQII, nor invite to the place of instruction their churches those
who contradict and contemn the main agencies of religious cul-
ture and the fundamental postulates of Christian truth." (The
italics are ours.) The" basis of religious union" is still found in
belief In God, Jesus, and I need not point out how
far removed this is from III pure of righteousness.
, WHY UNITARIANISM FAILS TO SATISFY. 269
with him have to wait for the future to do them
adElquate honor. as a has made
no progress worth since that
But there is another and reason for dissatis-
faction with Unitarianism. freedom for
the mind is and the modern world will have it ;
but there is a cOllnplete moraljity.
I have said Unitarianism demands too much of us on
the side; I will it demauds too little
on the side. Unitarians manifest no
discontent with the world about them;
rate but do not go very
and their seems to go
Their is pure,
far as it goes, but ; any ranges
of any such as would
enthusiasm into the souls of those who assume
do not seem to be aware of.
1 It should be stated, however, that the Free Religious spirit

bu infected lOme of the Unitarian churclles in the WelIt, and that
under its influence the Western Unitarian Conference bu recently
taken a remarkable forward. The last remnant of a theo-
logical creed wu from itl in 1886, and it now
boldly welcomes to its fellowship all who care for the cause of
truth, righteousness, and love in the world. The churches belong·
ing to the Westeru Conference - for those wishing to continue the
historic attitude of Unitarianism have formed a separate usocia-
tion-have thereby themselves in the very vanguard of
progre8ll. however, one can hardly help asking, if the hill-
torical meaning of Unitarianism is abandoned, is tbe Unitarian
name retained 1 Why is not union sought with those who have
. been advocating and seeking to maintain an ethical basis of fel-
lowship for some past1 It is surely to be that in the
nelll' future aU believe in a religion of goodness, whatever
their historical lJI,ncelltry, may join b!LJIds in one fellowship.
270 ETIDCAL RELIGION.
but to Dr. for

the elevation of the poor in them but
SUIJ'pOl1i, and little of his kindliIlg
emotion at the of in
human Too often has their been one
if it ever now benumbs the world;
that the lot of men is ordered
Divine that the social order which exists
with its classes and has a divine sanction.
Let me make what 1 mean, the
actual of one who became a
the of Unitarian in later years :
" The - wealth and and
ignorance -of our social condition must felt to be the
allotment of Providence, a wise for the RTElatest
hallpirlesS of all, before the poor can be with the
tendemesB and deserve. . . . The Saviour haI'J
told WI, • The poor ye have with YOUi' and the Chrill-
tian would not have it otherwise. He learns teo
lessons of and faith and from the poor j
teo much satisfaction in to their Dece8lli·
receives too many admonitions to his and
seli[.itldu.Igeinc,aj he is made to feel his own teo
grs,tef'uIIy,--to wish that were no known on
the earth." I
How such a view as this strikes at the root of

aU reform I How it lulls to - I do not
mean to but to a that with a
little kindness and aU
are weIll How it
1 Workl (one T01. ed.) p. 98.
I Sermon before the Boston Men'l Benevolent
by Rev. H. W. Bellowl, Dec. 9,
creative and task intrusted to hu-

man ! Do we wonder that Dr. tells
us that no sect took less interest than the Unitarian
in the or waS more inclined to con-
servatism ? 1 U Even in his own says a com-
U his message was unheard save
a few. When asked that the doors of his church

be open for a to be upon
his beloved friend Dr. a warm-hearted Aboli-
another dear friend Rev. S. J.
shut in his II No wouder
to his such an occurrence led
him to the usefulness of his whole mililisl;ry,
and to ask to what end had he out his soul all
those years, if this was the conduct on the
of his John Adams even says
that was II deserted his in the
la.ter years of his a.nd was driven from
his active on account of his
1 MemoinJ, vol. ii. p. 894. The passage (from a letter to J.
Blanco White) is not given in the one-volume edition published
by the American Unitarian Association. It is perhaps worth quot-
ing entire: "I wish I could look to Unitarianism with more hope.
But thill system was, at its recent revival, a protest of the un-
derstanding against absurd dogmas, rather than the ,work of deep
religious principle, and was early paralyzed by the mixture of
a materialistic philosophy, and fell too much into the hands of
IICholars and political reformers; and the consequence is a lack
of vitality and force, which gives us little hope of its accomplish-
ing much under its present auspices or in its present form. When
I tell you that no sect in this country has taken less Interest in
the slavery question, or is more inclined to conservatism than oW'
will judge what may be of it."
Johnson in Centeunial Volume, p. 61. Cf.
Chllnniinll:'s Life (one voL ed.), p. 671.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
views.! I do not adduce these

of idle criticism or but
that to whatever of Unitarians may
have carried the conventional Christian nrr.ue,ll.
I believe have carried them to a
bave bad no moral COIlvil3ticlns,
been without a moral life.
In tbis be said of the churches in
the last hundred years. Tbe hig:hel~t
moral ideas have been the move-
ments of moral life have gone on, ontside of them.
And the fact is not without connection with the fun-
daJneIltal Cbristian view of In the estimation
of the founders of was to
be and done another
Power than man; human were to love one an-
to be kind and and and the
reorga.nizatillD of were teo teo difficult
tasks to be assumed human hands. In its
"'It:JJ""~-ii:U features the world was as it and
a an ideal order of was to be
held in reserve us. The noblest exercises of Chris-
tian bave been in longing, n:ravinl1. pn~parin,g
oneself for that future age is
_n"';"A up to another It is not inclined to
the order of human life as it but to it
and test it a of it to be; to
see wbetber it meets the the of hnman
aud of all human It is in-
clined to that the satisfaction of these
wants and the to those need not
1 See AdaUlll's published Diaries, and the comment thereon in
the Unitarian Review, August, 1881, p. 161.
WHY UNITARIANISM: FAILS TO SATISFY.
delavEld to a future but may be undertaken

that no other power than ourselves.
This thougllt was at the hasis of the French Revo-
lution i it lies at the heart of all the social unrest
of our time. I that it makes a seed-
for a new we hear more
yes, more faith from the social
reformers of our time than from almost any other
class of men. The modern world is tired of of
the of heaven and if one insists on
any he has under that old-time
it passes him What it wants is a of ;
what it wants is a and of all our in-
stitutions that ideal standard; what it wants is a
company of men who will make that an of
religion, and vow to it for life and death.
I must say I see little of this among Unita-
rians: there is much laudable effort to make
a little but no surrender to no incli-
nation to take life in hand and count it well
and lost in devotion to an idea. I cannot discover
that have in mind any world·trsiJl8Jl'orlniIllg
or idea.. brother-
hood are often I cannot see
that mean much them. For mc.raJity
is not what is left of the old after
their are up. To make the
basis of a movement does not mean that the·
souls of men shall with a few kind feelinl~s
pe:rhs~J)s, for the sake of nov-
philanthr,opy or two. No I is n01iliiIJlg
more than and philan.thropi!es
nol;hulg save as are incidents of a thclugllt
18
ETHICAL RELIGION.
that takes not this or that

in its grasp. What we want is a of ;
to aim not at the but at the best j to fear not
to make the rule of a life the rule of every
j to the and of heaven here
on the earth. How do our lives stand with the moral
law j how will our treatment of one another in our
bear the reflection of the white
of truth and ? Do we ever
take of the weakness or the of
another? Do we ever another's
? Do we ever represen-
tations? Do we ever excuse ourselves
are necessary? Has shame gone out of us when we
have done a wrong an ? Do we
divert or amuse when we better be
penance? think not that in aclOlclwledJt-
mo,rality you are up with an easy master!
It indeed nowise limits or offends our reason, but it
impol;es no or transient on the will
and life. It has a grave face; its are severe j 1
it makes no and will not be served for ease,
pleasulre, or any It may command the
renunoiation of all these j it may once more to
the world as it did and say that neither
father nor mother nor wife nor nor any station
or business or in sball be 80 dear as
itself. I know that it means that it involves
the the universal ; but it does
not mean the order of any of SOC:161i:r.
nor a or which one class of men share and
another do nor my nor your haJl?pinel;S
1 .. Rei severa at verum "
WHY UNITARIANISM FAlLS TO SATISFY.
of the universal
desltrclv as well as build; it
may as well as ; it may say with Chan-
of a social order whicb blesses a few and rests
on the of the many, Let it ! 1 Mc-
means the of all j moral are
social ; and there has been
a man, to my among Unitarians who
addressed himself in the of to the
social or even his words: nay,
sometimes even have said that their leader
was and that he bad an almost morbid
vision of moral evil.'
When I say Unitarianism demands too little of us
on the I do not mean that it does not
undertake a few more nor that it is not
beIlevolent, hurna:llle, pll1ilamtllro]pic, as those words go,
but that it does not call on us to create a new heaven
and a new earth j that it does not to the infi-
nite side of human that its enthusiasm
matches with the tasks it proposes, for eX~Lml)le.
pul;tingchurches in Universi1~v theo-
denominational houses and
CllllD-rOOlns. and su})pcorting old churches whose natu-
rallives seem to be ab~lE!adv
.A. work comes out of a
I do not discover any such
anism. Think of the of
of those first three centuries when the Chnrch
1 Works vol. p. 82.
2 Cf. Prof. J. H. Allen's" Our Liberal Movement in Theology"
(p. (1), - a book, it IIhonld be added, giving a remarkably candid
review of the history of Unitarianism.
ETIDCAL RELIGION.
as has been with the pace of a conquer~

and to conquer I It was not foroo that was the
secret of her ; it was not it was not
chll1rc:he,s, nor nor bibles; it was not even
the sweet tale of the nor the of the
of the man of Na.zareth j no, nor the innooo:1t
of his resurrection and ascensioll:
it was back of and ahove all it was
the of the " of God." In 'ilie
proportiOIls of that idea Jeans his san.ctity,
from it churches derived their in it
world found satisfaction and redlem,ption.
idea was but a dream of the r-----'--
went love and tears at the thll1ug]lt of
such a death itself was when be-
it men saw the eternal Do you won~
der when I say that no less a. thOUgllt than this
can another religion,,-·somelth:ing encompass-
-"I. ~-_.- and death; us
UeEiPUle the world as we see it and for a. better;
stillT1IlLg love and
tears and soug and ? Yet I believe it. Man can~
not thrive on He must have sODllet.bing
before him as grandest tllou:g-ht of the pos-
sible j not,hiIlLg pel':reel;. nothing but a """,pf"",t:
t1uc:!tl~.y, an ideal a of the
him. It is not necessary that he
to witness the fiU>al it is tllllIUg.U,
that he can think of it; that of the
of it may descend upon him as he toils for it;
that the lahors of his hands have an eternal issue
there. " we said a condemned
1 John Henry Newman.
""UllU''''''. U we have " He did not asIt to

see the nobler and social order that he
lieved was to come; it was for him that it
'Would come, and that he could his life for it: nay,
in he could across the years that sep..
arated him from and cry, as if even then
in the midst of an "
live the Rnssian !" Can we not so think
and of the the Commonwealth
of the nniversal wherein "the no,.i'"."i-
doth - which the heart and conscience
and reason nnite in as the end and con-
summation of the whole course of hnman the
outcome of the toils and all the genera-
tions of men? What matters it if it is far on in the
distant - can our be from
Jea,piIllg out to it? And can we not even now take
our stand in with our aetna!
and institutions and rest and con-
tentment as we know that we and the world are
on toward the ? Not from Unita-
riani~lm, not from has come the song
that best utters and almost chants this It
is from Felix upon I sometimes
more than upon any other man of our the mantle
and of have and whose
Dellev,e. are those which him-
should he come and his solemn
pallSi<lln into the :-
.. Have you heard the Golden City
Mentioned in the legends old 1
Everlasting light shines o'er it"
WondroW! tales of it are told.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
Only righteous men and women
Dwell within Ita gleaming wall ;
Wrong ia banished from ita horden,
Juatice reigIlllllUpreme o'er all
Do you uk, Where is that City,

Where the perfect Right doth
I must answer, I must tell you,
That you seek ita lite in vain.
You may roam o'er hill and valley,

You may pus o'er land and sea,
You may search the wide earth over,-
'T III a City yet to be I
We are buildera of that City,-

All our joys and all our groans
Help to rear Ita shining rampartll ;
All our lives am building-stones.
What that plan may be we know not.

How the seat of Justice high,
How the City of our vision
Will appear to mortal eye, -
That no mortal eye can picture,

That no mortal tongue can tell.
We can barely dream the glories
Of the Future's citadel.
But for it we stiil mUllt labor,

For ita sake bear pain and
In it find the end of living
And the anchor of belief.
But a few brief yean we labor,

Soon our earthly day ill o'er;
Other builders take our places,
And" our place knOWIl us no more."
WHY UNITARIA.NlSM FAILS TO SATISFY.
But the work that we have builded,

Oft with bleeding hands and teare,
And in error and in angulllh,
Will not perish with our yeare.
It will be at last made perfect
In the univenal plan;
It will help to crown the labon
Of the toiling hoatl of man.
It will laat and llhine tranefignred
In the finai reign of Right;
It will merge into the llplendon
Of the City of the Light! "
Does not this cover life j does it not death j

does it not take hold of the the hl~:heI3t
lOIlgililgS of our nature j are we not touched with un-
sPE~ak:ab.le awe to know that our humblest even
done" in error, in and II with bleed-
hands and cannot fail of its but
on to the ultimate consummation? I am reminded of
Eliot's
"Even our are a prophecy,
Even our yearnings and our bitter tean
After that fair and trne we cannot grasp,-
As patriots who seem to die in vain
Make liberty more sacred by their pangs." I
Not a uot a not an ideal has

ever said or can ever say his word or do his deed in
vain. live in vain who with
their ideal who believe in no
for who would rather live
housed and honored in this prElSeJlt
than dare condemn it and to create a better.
1 A Minor Prophet.
ETHICAL RELIGION.
I have said Unitarianism is on its

because it lacks a ; and
this is to my I utter it at the risk
of that the order of
which was to for us in
another we are ourselves to create here. I
believe there is a kind of in human na.-
ture: I do not mean, of course, as men are,
up in
and but as under
the influence of ideas. I more say, I
believe in the and of men in so
far as are with - and men
need to open their hearts to be so pollsellsel:l.
true atheist is he who does not believe that an ideal
and can conquer in the that men
all men and universal human and gov-
ernment cannot will and do the
There is no need of the mi:rac:le-vmr:kin.g,
God of the old ; nay, he is our enemy to
the extent that men are led to to him the tasks
and trust him for the results which
cOl:laplish themselves. There is a mirac:le"wo:rking,
hei!l.VEm~}reatiDg power in ourselves. So
pray, this is Until he aw:ake,s,
there is no salvation.
Unitarianism does not see and does not because
of what I must call-and this is my third its
lS,a>,,>,.... lack of seriousness in of issues
of the Nowhere is this better shown than
its attitude toward of prayer. for
for rain or fair for food or
tI.I1t:llJt:ir, Unitarians do not a of the
WHY UNITARIANISM FAns TO SATISFY.
; but pray for for the

kirlgdom of God. But are not these the
that need for the that are most within
our own power? Rain or fair weather are very evi-
in some other control than our own; but
how can these ever come to us
our to have them? A order
l:IlAl'l"'l..y, how can it ever dawn on the earth save as
man sets his heart upon it and determines that it
shall be? these are the best and
if prayer would would be the most
worth for; but because are the
ay, the most sacred therefore all the more
scrupl1lolJS should we be in hold of the
true and effectual means for them. The dif-
ference between those who do not pray and those
who is not in any lessened value the former set
on these or in any diminished
tion or for but in the sense of
the law of cause and effect. Rain does not come save
as there are oertaiu conditions in the atllDosphlere
and the of the can no more
come save as there are certain conditions in the hu-
man certain in human
is a survival from an old unIClri1;icail,
unscientific habit of mind; it remains with men to-
because it is a habit; it remaius above
UIlitaa-ill,ns, who are rationalized in so many
and because it is a. habit.
And not see that it is a COllfusillLg
to abandon which is not to up a form or a. few
words but to the of view
that has come over the world in to the means
ETHICAL RELIGION.
hig;hel;t and dearest ends. Jesus

kiIigd'om of God j nor
after he gone on
as him to come
believed he would come, and he be-
lieved that the faith which remove mountains
could also be answered the establishment of the
Divine How vain then is it to his
or their when the belief that was in
it is no ours I Let those who have a new belief
not with an old form. Let us to men as
feYven,tlv and with as absolute a faith as ever of old
pr()mlpted prayer to God; and the divin-
that lies down in us all will loosed
from his go forth to recreate the world.
There is a similar lack of seriousness in the Uni·
tarian attitude toward Jesus. As pray without
any belief in prayer, 80 own Jesus as Mas-
ter with scant sense of that supreme that
which has earnest Christian
men and women the world over. It is a venerable
and beautiful form of "our Lord and J.Ul:lll:l~t:r,""
and Unitarians often seem to use it because
C4n, rather than because must. Sometimes their
claim has been to ;
but in truth it must be said have made
little effort to understand
have looked at it from nineteenth cen·
and not from first eyes; have been
anxious to see what the would
rather than what teach.1 And at
1 Rev. Dr. James Martineau - an English Unitarian who com·
bines in a remarkable manner ideal with the historical
gr~lJl.t:ing whatever formal resemblanoe there may

be in Unitari~ism to it is as
mutlh like it as the framework of a
that is to is like a similar framework
around which a noble structure is up. The
framework in both cases may be the same; but in the
of the house was ~d
it is in ruins. One I venture
to say, be a whole-hearted Christi~ after the
without up the
of the ~d more.
And even those Unitari~s who do not own Jesus
as Master or olaim to rep,resent primitive OhJdsti~ity,
incline to fast ~d loose with the Ohristian name.
treat in a generous way as a.
historical and an ungNwil)US
mininllizilng of its essentials do make out that
have a to be oalled Ohristi~s at all. Some-
times Ohristi~ faith is at so Iowan that
claim the Ohristian name because are
of Ohristian descent or live under a Ohristian civili-
zation; and if up tbe Obristian
name, it is with so little heartiness that
no enthusiasm to the cause of a new rel.igion.
in the of itself Unitarians
sometimes manifest a lack of seriousness. Is
8DlIrlt--lIavs: "No one who hu once become familiar with the

definite images and ideu of the Messianic Christianity in any of
its forms can ever again give to its language the loose and lsrge
interpretation which alone renders it available for the voice of
UvinR He knows it really means what he cannot mean;
and constrained to adopt it, he feels that his 'Kingdom of
heaven suffereth violence.'''
ETHICAL RELIGION.
it not to oneself ovel;' to the

in a. covenant never to be broken? Is that an easy
a ? Is the mood in which one
it a mood that with the use of such
tives as " rare, and "1 to
describe it? Yet there is a deal this 1/ deli-
rare, and " among Unitarians.
Another writer says that "there is a grace of sen-
a tenderness of that is as beautiful
as it is rare, which
this word any other in our Ian-
<71",""" .. ~ Did any movement ever
start with such as these? Does not real
men, aud set before them arduous tasks?
Hear the words of the old : 1/ Wash you aud
make you aud away the evil of your do-
!" Hear the words of J eaus: 1/ Let the dead
their but go thou and the of
God !" Hear hear and you will not
fail to realize that means and gr8mdlar
of stricter rules of life j and that it
muat be a out of which strenuous convictions
are gone, aud wherein a few flowers of
sentimeut that can bear to be described in
these "rare, and "terms. I said
in the of my that with
Uuitarians was a sentiment to cover and refine the
life; but must be more than this. A
new must call for a new life j its in-
fluence must be not to make us pass our
as our fathers but to stir a divine un·
1 Rev. Dr. H. W. Bellowl, BOlton Unitarian Anniversary,lSSl.
~ Unity, Nov, 16, lSSl, p. 842.
rz .....
WHY UNITARIANISM: FAILS TO SATISFY.
rest for a. life. of Unitarians is

too near this - it offers too few contrasts with
it; it does not rap our souls a.way into the vision of
an eternal that lies it. I have in mind
a - I cannot tell whether I ever saw or
whether it is made up in from hints
that I somewhere found in - of Saint
AU.gUl~tiDte and his with eyes
turned up'waJ~d and to rest on some distant
transcendent It is this which I miss
in and which I seem to find in the
tOlllchiing song of a which I have
To look away from this or-
der of hnman life to an to feel that our
true life and home are whether the ideal
is conceived as another sepa-
rated from us in space and or the and
form after which we are to and recreate pres-
ent as I - this is indeed the
of and must be the snpreme attitude of an
Ethical reli,gion.
I am aware that I have considered Unitarianism in

its actual character and rather than in those
inspirati10ns that have now and then visited it.
before Unitarianism
gaIlizE!d existence. Then were heard
of the of the mind as over external
an1;horit:y, vindications of the moral and rational na-
ture of man; then it was said that was not
in name or form or but in the soul to
the love and of : almost pr()pl:letilo
strains were, which and still rellleeID,
ETmCAL RELIGION.
as we read the Biblical and the,olo,giClu

controversies of those times. And the
reason Unitarianism cannot become the relilgioin
of the is that when it came to its
word to the world it was not to take its stand
on that but felt it before
its in the Christian and to its
small half-believed remnant of the Christian creed.
the brave little company of "Ethical" Unita.-
rians in the a.nd other earnest individnals
here and reclaim the to which
and lift it to the level of its hill:helst
insj:lirations !
1 See note to p. 269.
THE BASIS OF THE ETmCAL MOVEMENT.
HE Ethical movement has a serious aim. It is

not a movement; nor is it a.
philoso])hical movement. It does not aim at CUlliure,
in the sense of the word. A wider knowl-
of man and of the best of the human
slllrn.-that is very but it does not make
our central aim. We want to touch the of
man's moral to influence character and conduct.
Our aim is moral culture j and it is natural that I
should to answer the On what basis
does such a movement rest; what is our
what is the unmovable rock on which we
our feet?
I must say that the Ethical movement
does not find a. sure basis in the that
have come down to us, nor even in the rationalized
forms of them that are more or less current.
There is no occasion for and at Judaism
and not but in the
order of the from which we have
sprung, the mother of us all. are sometimes
directed them as if the human mind were not
reElponsible for as if from
without or had descended from heaven.
But this is a shallow from
ETIDCAL RELIGION.
the of fte themselves. The truth

that mankind has its own be-
liefs j that neither God nor Devil revealed them j and
hence that to ridicule them in a wholesale way is to
ridicule the human mind itself. None the less are
the old beliefs to our and
Th10ugh it is one of hnman
culture another and lower the tran-
sition is so as to amonnt to a revolution. To
go to the heart of the meu have here-
tofore couceived of the Power of the world
as a like themselves; and have
had so a notion of the order of Nature and the
of Nature's that ha.ve thOUgllt
pray to him and ask him to do for them what
could not do for themselves. on
the other to the influence of
to that of pOl5liti,re
the of
qUli)8tilon, and prayer as 8. useless
energy. is a con-
ceI)tilJln borrowed from our in connection
with human j it may be whether we
ha.ve a to it to what is all
unless it be way of or
- as we may of the unknown mJr8t1~ry
as a sun, or as or life. is
into prose. That unseen Power
we live is than all our of
shiues our most brilliant - is indeed
un:a.PI)rollcllablle, unthinka.ble. seems almost
a of that solemn in the bosom of
which we and this wide world rest. For it is
THE BASIS OF THE ETHICAL MOVEMENT.
let me say, in the name of materialism or

phlElnO,mElna:Lisln, but because of a sense of that
mJ'stElry, that I abandon prayer. At the same time
that we are less able to make assertions ra...
SpElctilng the we are and are able
to more and more in the field of the known.
A vision of law and order is upon us j the
of is and before
our eyes j a of the universe is de'l"el,opiu2'
which if it has less fascination for a childish
has more and is to the
thc,ng:htful and IDatura. purposes that
and these may be in man, bnt are
not in Nature j are not in that ultimate and total
order of of which man and Nature are
We may pray to our we may
one another to to onr wishes and
• wants; bnt prayer to the Unknown God involves a
donble distrust of the beneficence of that
order which he is and
which holds fast whether we pray or not; a
de!mair of our to act as causes, and
about the results we wish ourselves.
very are" the results to
which modern is some and
earnest men a.t the time. It is because the
rationalized forms of the old do not make
room for those who and these
that their is too narrow for me:
For with much of the work of Liberal Ch:ristaaJllity
and reformed Judaism it is not to sympa,-
thize. have battled with and left behind many
old and outworn notions and forms j ha.ve tried
19
ETHICAL RELIGION.
to reconcile reason with and freedom with. a

spi.ritual faith. But have not gone far enclUgh
with their rationalism. I find fault with not
for what have but for what now
un'williDIl to do. Liberal for exam-
believe in the three persons of the old
thElOlclgy, but seem to with no less energy
to the doctrine of one person. Judaism has from
the beg;inn,ing tenacil)UsJly held to this doctrine. Do
we now and hear that this must not
be taken and j that it is
pel~SOJllifi,cat,ion that is had in mind j that the
as is but a ?
much seriousness are we to attribute to
eX]~la:Dat;ioIlS when the old that have their
in connection with the old are
peI~sisted in? Is it child's which I am witness-
when after the concession that" God" may be
but a I hear a solemn address to or
a solemn benediction invoked from him upon the peo-
? Which of the or rabbi
shall I which does he mean? Or is it
pOlssilble that which one would suppose,
the the truthful attitude of the soul
before what is and best to it - is to
and men are themselves with shifts
and and the use of words with double
me:a.nings? what is said and then done in
to prayer. He would be a foolish man now-
who would or the of law
in the world j and the Liberal and
teaches it. The of it upon prayer is also
and we are told that prayer cannot or
THE BASIS OF THE ETIDCAL MOVEMENT.
I
us into con-
str:aight\17ay we hear not
that he will bless
our and our that he will heal the
sick aud the poor,-all which involve a prac-
tical denial of the view in the discourse.
Meanwhile the contiimes and
the sick are not and the poor are defence-
less; and in the name of I ask would it not be
better for the to address its entreaties to the
men and women in the pews, and say that to them
is trusted the care of the and the guar-
dia.nslnip of their families; to them is the sacred task
committed of out and the sick and raia-
up the unfortunate; to in their laws and in
their is the work of establishing
tice for the poor? Oh for a wave of seriousness to
sweep the I
not the rationalized forms
~ ~ ~ M~
is does not an abllohlteJly
sure basis on which to stand. in the popu-
lar sense, on and Immor-
I do not indeed that there is a wider
sense of the word a sense that would
a to which at its WM with-
out any of the beliefs and would in-
clude any which sets a supreme ideal before
the human miud and a rule for its attain-
ment; and I do not conceal my own faith
that ont of a fresh sense of the demands of mOirality
upon ns, out of a new contact with the ideal
tendencies of the there will dawn npon us and
ETHICAL RELIGION.
bum into US a. new conviction as to

and its a new sense of a and
a But now, and at the our word
is a one. We do not new views of
the universe. We wish rather a new sense of ;
we wish to throw ourselves into the stream of moral
progress. We need not ask how it is there j we need
not peer down its course to catch a of
the sea into which it flows. 'We want to throw our-
selves into it and bathe in because we know it is
; because when we have so much as touched our
feet or hands to we have its sweet-
ness and felt the life and of its waters: we
want to because we are and and there is
an arid waste around us.
But if not the current religiclus is it per--
5CU3D08, or that attitude of much of
modern science known as which is to fur-
nish a basis for the new movement? This seems to
be the of many; we will
as we cannot sci.entifilca'lly demon-
strate. There is a certain amount of truth in this
One should be to all the re-
sults of scientific demoustration; one should to
no old-time belief which there is a balance
of scientific evidence. I am with
the methods of modern !lCl1tlllCtl,--
which instead of affi.rming pos:ithre knmvle,ill{8
1 It mUllt not be understood thlu we thereby propOlle a negative
do@rmatisrn. and would exclude those who believe in the" current
religious doctrines;" we differ from the churches simply in not
l'eQ.wring &Slent to them, in not putting them at the basis of the
Movement.
is 8 confession of what we do not and cannot know.

Kant in the last and Herbert in this
were the first to draw the line be-
tween the realm of the known and knowable and that
of the unknowable. is limited to expe-
rience: what is may be gu'Bssed,
imagi.nel1, or but in the nature of the
case no guess or or can be veri-
and thus converted into scientific
. This critical distinction has undermined the very
foundations of and has
to as WEIll as a lon:ll-Diee(led
lesson of and hu:mility
All is very different from re~:ar(iing
or science as the lJasiB of our
movement. In the Dew and clear of mod-
ern many of us have seen the old "castles in
the air" vanish from our view j one one have
seemed to lose' their basis in this world of
enca in which we live. But an is
a on which to - it is at best a
medium which and the
which we may discover the real foundations.
ticism is no more than a. confession of the limit.
ti0n8 of our But what we do not know is
a hasis for action. because men no
believe in the old is no reason
should form an Ethical There are
of who have little with us,
whose unbelief may extend to the foundations
of as well as to those of and who
may live lives of and refined ego-
tism. is bnt the of the intel-
ETmCAL RELIGION.
which may be used to the noblest but may

also be to the meanest. Nor is
tea.ch:ing us what we do a sufficient
for us. I will to none in my admiration
and wonder before the world which science has re-
vealed to us. How has space widened and time
grown and how does one seem to hold
in its grasp the movements of and
the least tear that trickles down a child's face I It
is a in the midst of which
we and it would seem to to us and
solemn as to what our own lives should be.
But when I turn from Nature to consider human life
and the order of human my reverence in one
way lessens rather than grows The science
that the varied
facts of our human existence is not a
sant page to read. which is one branch of
the science of man, tells of of brutal sel-
fislllDesls, of wrongs, of Siow-I'etlllrnilng
often of a blind infuriated
the innocent and leaves the
vation - which is else than scien-
tific observation - reveals almost as many that
not to be as which should be. Statis-
tics of crime are as much science as would be
statistics of peace aud - statistics of
tutiou as scientific as those of
no~rerl;v as as those of comfort and COIlnp€lterlce.
What science teaches must be as
but it may none the less moral
sion and rebellion. We may to some of the
"You have no to he I " the very end of
THE BASIS OF THE ETIDCAL MOVEMENT.
our scientific observation may sometimes be to render

such observation in the future that
to the facts. science is not ul-
timate. It tells us what is; it tells us noth-
of what to be. What to -that
is to us a than that of
scientific observation; it a demand
of the conscience.
is to my mind the true basis of our
movernerlt,--not the old ; not relilgioln
in the of that term j not ag-
as matter of fact some of us may
the facts of IlCll~nUB,
should have our recogJliti:on.
is and more I
than any of these: it is the rock of the I
eternal laws that announce themselves in man's moral

nature. Our may be limited to the senses;
but conscience is not for is
of what and conscience is the of what
to be. It may be that our senses have never
revealed to us a man j that we have
nevel' known or heard of an govern-
ment. None the less does conscience say to every
man, "Thou to be I " And if it could
find voices clear and it would puli>lisih
aloud to every and every State
<l There is no other law for you save that of absolute
.I_'V'V'~' and in the measure that you fail you

have no and no defence." in a
ushers us into an ideal realm. Genuine ethics
have in this m01'e in common with art than
with science. For true I take is not
ETffiCAL RELIGION.
pa:inst&long ph01~ograI)hy; it does not consist in reno

in the terms of the senses nnillumin-
but in the idea of the
so that in the or the statue
we S66m to feel the flush of the artist's and
are touched with the wherewith he con·
ceived aud If the master Sh:a.ksipelU'e
said that the of his art was "to hold
the mirror up to to show virtue her own fea-
scorn her own and the very age and
of the time his form and I must say that
ethics is an art of very different character. It holds
up the not of the but of the
that mirror we feel vice to be and know
virtue to be and which we the age
and of the and declare what its form and
pressure to be. It is ideal rather than realistic
art to which I would compare the art re-
vealed in the matchless of an in the
divine grace of a Venus of in the of an
in the radiant freshness of a
el's Madonna. These are and are
more than human; for the artiRt's of the per-
fect has worked in and we feel in at
them a reflection of that" which never was on
land or sea." Art is the realization of the beautiful;
ethics means the realization of the As we lcok
on men and women, we see the of the
that are in we think of what
are meant to rather than of what are. We
are to ourselves and about us as
material, in which the divine ideas of goc)dness
to take but have never reached adE!quate
THE BA.SIS OF THE ETmCAL MOVEMENT.
l.UI·W.-·!WllU are so hemmed and that if we

with the senses alone· we doubt if
tlXllHltllU, and to the eye of the soul are still
and need to be seen and believed in to
stir and move, and to human life to finer forms
and nobler issues.
Who as he looks on the face of human can
be content with what he sees there? Who does not
find his notions of of of the brother-
hood in which men to contradicted? Who
with a conscience or a heart has not felt that this sys-
tem of in which self-interest is not the
iml)ull~ but the rule; in which we consider not so
much the or claims of men as the extent to
which may serve ns and contribute to our own
; in which any means, any any
down that do not involve open violence or fraud
are viewed as and which any
one mnst because all I say, has
not felt that this of he
be a in is wrong, and as a. man in
thick darkness for for some other order of
in which he should not be to beat
back the best and of his nature?
The social are the of the I
And the social are moral i
involve the relations of man to man,
- and is but an ideal of what the
relation between man and man should be. Not the
smallest merest detail of on
the is out of the of
a. moral is as wide as ;
it has a on the whole life of j it
ETmCAL RELIGION.
demands less than that every man have at

least the means and for a human life.
Material interests have a. if are human
interests; the of wages has a. moral bea.ring
if wages mean the substratum of food and drink and
clo,thi.ng and on which a human is to
build up his existence. Education has a moral
be~~rilllg: the and into a;
rational and hnman scheme of education is one of the
moral of the time. Politics a moral
be~lZitlg: the State has no other end than and
the and and the are
a demand of " Political" life should mean
- the abandonment of interests
or class and the dedication of one's self to
interests. I know not indeed on what C1.elPart-
ment or of life to cast a and find that
mo,rality has no there. is not a
sUJ)plian.t, a for an entrance and
tion in one corner of our existence; it is a so1'erl~igJ[I"
and it he unheard and unllOti'Cled, prescrilhes
the law and ideal for the whole. It has a on
the and condemns the conscienceless inter-
prEltat;ioIIS of the clever with
words not uncommon in some of our churches. It
has a on our domestic that
anyone should be a slave there. It has a on
our on our OD the conduct of the
State.-· It is indeed an invisible cOl1npsmi(1U c]learnlR'
to us wherever we go,-
man 1 has with us in the mClrn:mg
to rest with us at and
1 GladlItone, Vatican Decreel, §~.
leave the of life. A do I say?

it is closer than any for it warns
DB and commands us, it does so in that supreme act
in which we warn and command ourselves; it is the
\ utterance of the God in us, of the soul "
in which we all and that we are
and of another order of than that which
we can see and and are rooted in somewhat
than the and more more vener·
able than the heavens. To a new sense of this
inward monitor; to feel that its demands are be-
any mere traditional rules of that it
means not this or that but all ; to
have thus an infinite horizon open to our and
to feel that a of ceaseless progress lies before
DB, this is to me the aim and of the
Ethical MoveIIlen1;.}~
I know the churches sometimes of It mere
mo!rality," and ask if that can save a man. I answer
that a mechanical no matter
whom does not and cannot save a man.
But if so, the call in my is Dot for some-
to take the of but for a
a more one the whole of
and no ncok or corner of it to lie outside
of the sacred sway of the and the It is
a standard of which the world
- one which shall convict even the of
the of the lowness of their own standards; which
shall awaken the consciences of men, and
and social. If the churches
had the idea of as a would
dare to of it in this way ? No;
ETHICAL RELIGION.
mean CDstom or or at best a

set of commands Moses or and written
down in a book. That it is an idea and
law of man's own to all custom and tradi-
tion and books and persons, and 80 of super-
them all and them is hard-
But it is else than this that 1
mean the pure dictates of- conscience &8
the basis of our movement. We assert the incLepencl-
ence of We do not rest on because
there is in man closer and more constitu.-
tional to him than i we do not rest on .Illllw,ry.
because we believe that within man lie the splin~ts
of and that movements
started from no that we cannot draw on
Anll~lIv well The modern world talks of pro-
gress: we believe in moral progress, that the ideas of
righteowmel!!8 are not hut of end-
less i that there can be no final statement
of ethics; that men may in the future
that have no of now; for e:lUun]l!et
• a sense of may that will make our
prelseIlt manner of business and incllustry
a and a shame.
It is a word of this sort which I should like to
throw out among men and women of It is a
new centre of a new basis of that we
have to propose. The old and Liberalism
in its rest on other issues. Judaism
is a race - a pure, a but still
a race is more but
it is founded on and limited Jesus of Nazareth;
and I will not be in rev-
THE BASIS OF THE ETmCAL MOVEMENT.
erence for that that of blended

ma,jes1;yand which has cast a. down
the and has been without inflluellce,
even when Christians were maddest and most UlgUlA;l'U.
truth the admission that Jesus does
not furnish a basis and
for the and Jesus him-
self rests upon a foundation in the reason
and conscience of man; and on that bottom rock we
may stand as as he and may build
upon it as with as undaunted a faith and as
firm a as ever he or his followers did eig:htl~en
hundred years ago. No more is orcliol'l.ry
Liberalism. It is still critical i it, is often but
a wild and bitter attack on the old ; it is
at best a calm and clear that the old re-
are no to us; it is not sel-
colllpleid with indifference to moral and
where it is its zeal must often be confessed
to be on the wrong side. I believe the future is for
those who have cut loose from the old-time forms and
and who have no with them. But
their must go must become
impat:ieIlt with themselves and with the moral state
of the ; must turn a deaf and relent-
less ear to all the siren calls that would confound
with license; mnst rather own the call
of stricter of ideals of and feel
that with the old citadels of faith in mins at their
feet their work has but It is to earnest and
brave-hearted men and women who will turn
faces in this that the Ethical Movement
addresses itself.
For let me make clear that the basis of our move-

ment is not a of but itself.
The moral teacher is not to a me,tallhlr-
sical of transcenden-
talism or he may have views
of his own, aud on occasion need not refrain from ex-
prElssiing them. 1 He desires if he can, to hold
up the idea of the itself; to make men love it
for its own and own its in the COIldulCt,
in the beautiful order and beneficence of their lives.
There is but one of morals which I
have any and this not because it is a
but because it is subversive of itself. I
mean the view which we uow aud then hear advo-
that is but a refined a.
long-slgntea. prtldence; that the end of life is and
can be nowhere else than in the accumulation of in-
dividual and the avoidance of individual
That man cannot go out of himself; that he
cannot love another with himself; that he
1 I may be to quote the followlnll' notable worda of
thE' late lamenled Profe88or T. H. Green, of Oxford, which I have
come upon since writing the above:
.. It Is probable, indeed, that every movement of reform
has originated in some clearer conception of the of human
conduct, arrived at by some penon or penons, - a conception,
perhaps, toward which many men have been silently working,
but which finally finds in some one individual the c:haracter which
can give decisive practical expression to it. But in the initiation
of reforms, the new theory of the ideal. as a theory,
always holds a secondary place. It ill not absent, bnt it is, 110 to
speak, absorbed In a character. - a character to which the llpecn-
lative completeness of the thpory Is of little interest; and it is
thill character which gives the new conception of the ideal ita
power In the world." (Prolegomena to EthiCll, p. 861.)
THE BASIS OF THE ETffiCiAL MOVEMENT.
cannot find an end of his in his in the

cOInmuniety, in the State; that for all these he cannot
and cannot die rather than see them dishOllored,
this is what I call the real and whether
uttered or has and shall
have my dissent and my rebuke. is this
out of one's self and some-
these are and
may well be the the attendants on j
never dare take the of masters. Aside from
which is not a but a statement of moral·
a moral teacher need have little to say, at least at
the of the of ethics. It is sOIoethiDlg
far more and than even
the that must be our immediate concern. It
is the to the world that mo,raJity
is an foundation for our lives; it is the de.
mcms'trating that unselfishness can be it ;
and that a
possibJle tban the world now
the stricter of our
notions of honor in our business or
conduct to our em-
plo,vel~s j yes, a new wave of and human-
that shall take us out of ourselves and out of our
bU!linElss, and make us bear the burdens of the sick
and the poor and the forlorn in our as
have never been borne before.
THE SUPREMACY OF ETHICS.
HEN all else that the world holds

dear falls or becomes confidence
in may remain unshaken. One may doubt all
the articles of the Christian and have much
in so, never be never have
shame; but to doubt that love and truth and honor
are upon us is so unnatural that it can
be accounted for on the of some moral
These moral laws of our are so
close and constitutional to us, that the very existelD.Oe
of virtue is bound up with a of them. .A.
man is virtuous on or he is not virtuous at
he may conform to all the external re-
of virtue; and if there is no priincipl1a,
no and
there is no is not
a matter of of or of tem-
pe:rallnetlt; it is obedienoe to a it is self-
surrender to the OUGHT that sounds within us, it is
the free choice of what we cannot avoid
without shame and dishonor.
"If that fan,
The firmament ill rottennelll,
And earth'll bue buUt on lltubble."
THE SUPREMACY OF ETffiCS.
The Ethical as I understand

itself on this nltimate fact of man's na,..
ture. We start with a Human do
not choose the laws of and make them
laws: those laws would be over us, did we not choose
them j rather choose us. Man no more creates
the moral world of than he does the
sical one of fact j he has to fit himself iuto
and let its make him sublime. Man is uot
the summit of : as the heaveus bend over his
and the stars so the moral
law arches over the BOnl of man, and he is as
he bends in to it. magna,..
-these
are not ours, but we are bound to them as the
iron to the as the needle to the as the
tides to the" far-off orb" of heaven; bound to
that in and shonld be in fact.
Great and are the lessons of the moral
sentiment. It us a whereon to our
feet. It casts out fear. See how it deals with the
fear of so many anxious minds that in face of modern
conditions not but itself
will pass away from the world. We live iu an age
of and all the way from the Catholic to the
Unitarian there are and as if
in case this or that or the other creed loses its hold
on man the and consolations of human life will
be gone. Idle fears! so far as it has not
been the and of the moral sen-
1Jlllltlll~, has been at best an to the
race, and has come nea.r to a curse. That man's
peace and and upon
20
ETHICAL RELIGION.
whose favor must be sacrifices and

prayers, this that made the basis of
tive and survives in all the branches
of the Christian has caused more distress of
more false torments of more waste
of energy, moral and than we can ever cal-
culate or dream of. - the of it in
the I mean - is endurable to the free man
and earnest lover of his kind as moral elements have
been taken up into it and an end has been made of
sacrifices j as the prayers have come to be prayers
for - or else have ceased
before the stern determination to be at
whatever cost j as has come to mean
eousness, and the will of God has been identified with
the of man. Bnt the moral sentiment that has
such a and in
the field of in the is still with ns; it
was never more alive than It is born into
the world with every child; it is as fresh as if this
were creation's morn. It is that from which we can-
not away, in to which is aUlIUI"lll.
and out of with modern CUlture,
shall come, I a nohler than the world
has ever known before.
The not of hut of awe, were never
stirred in man till he felt the suhlime of
the OUGHT within him. The ancient or gocldessEls
were never reverend and till were
reg:ardled as the authors of the pure and com-
mands that the law to man's life and condnct;
and so far as were in this way,
must be revered. The moral sentiment bIos-
5E
THE Sm~RJl:MA,CY OF ETHICS.
Boms as natiUr~Llly into a faith as the buds

of open out into leaf or flower. A man may
up all that passes current as up
God and and
as well as the claims of the Church or of
if he his hold on if he
bend before Truth and Justice and if he feel
there is within him which it
were better to die than to he is on the open
hi~,h\'\rav that leads to those confidences and
tl'Usts that are the of religion.
For the sense of is the sense of somewhat
j it is the sense of a law above all other
laws. There is not a law of Nature that may not con-
ceivaJlly be altered or or that we may not
violate or should command. We use Na-
ture every her her we are forever
turniIllll to account. We cannot Nature or the
sum of Nature's powers. That s01rer,eilzn a]lle~r.al[}Ce
and we owe to what is ab110ltlteJly il[lviolaLbll~.
to what we dare not use, to what exists for its own
and we for -to to to eternal
Truth. The moral dwarfs it goes
out to that which is Nature. What is reg-
nant in the universe is no nor sum of facts j
no law in the actual sense, nor sum of but a
commandment. And the the bottom
the universe must be that which is of
a commandment: not nor nor
but reason, or that ineffable of which human
reason is a poor and Matter
is ; our come and go, our acts
are ill-matched even with our ; but that to
ETmCAL RELIGION.
which our and from which alas

so often does Dot with our chlm~~nl~,
does Dot rise when we or fall when we - but
we the wide earth and the ever-
hills fade away into insubstantial mist and
the are rolled as a lives for-
ever I Without and the infinite sUI~gestilous
it could not find an and the
word "adorable" would have to pass out of liUlraltuf1a,
-and so-called men at the pres-
ent of that
relilgioin with and of sOIlletJ:llng
above and in addition to ethics
votional truths as well. above and
go<xlD.ess! - there is above. Devotional tmth
in addition to ethics! - 't is the merest sentimental-
Religion has had connected with it much besides
j it has been with blood
and with and it is with unrs-
and maudlin sentiment and cant. But so far
as it has had more, it has been a disturber and full
of .harm to men j and so far as it has more
no taken it is at best a su-
perfhlit;'f, which men and women are
to do without. is divided into
duties to man and duties to God. But there are
no duties to God in the sense nor have we
reason to suppose that God as so conceived exists.
"God" is the infinite element in all its eternal
without which and man and the world
wou1cl alike disap],ear.
And what an aim does ethics to man I With
what does it invest our life I We are here
THE SUPREMACY OF ETmCS.
to lift ourselves to the measure of j

exists to lift itself to Life
is not for but for so that some-
what divine may be into it. How low
men's are I itself some-,
times takes sides with the world as it and dis-
trusts reform. How many in bis Church
wouLd hear should he come em~aptUI'ed
with his of a of God?
ever socialist so wild and as he? Car-
used to say there was no in
A steru but when we remember
bow stern a is it is ; when
we remember the fact of absolute which
is its essence, and ask ourselves how many men and
women in our own live bound to
truth and bonor and - we cannot all
credence to the and may ask Are
we in America much better off? Our own Emerson
years ago of "the universal
and now almost of faith in The
\.JllllU:C,Il, he "bad lost its grasp on the affec-
tion of the and the fear of the bad." 1 It is as
if bad at last itself well in
this and its dreams of another.,
Yet its dream of its vision of a so-
that should the order based so
on selfishness and and wrong, was at
be€:inltlin,g its very and life. Hence
deIDaIlds, its pre-
throul'l:h an
del.mlvinll and recre-
ETHICAL RELIGION.
There is little of this enthusiasm now. You

cannot have enthusiasm and aims. En-
thusiasm is born of an and idealism is at a low
ebb among the. churches. There is more
idealism outside the Church than within it j it is born
in mangers and makes its home in dellpilled
social among men who cannot live and
see the world go on as it is. The on the
other with our social reform is that it does not
start from that it is that its aims are
Dot severe and ; and so its enthusi-
asm is and does not reach the of man.
Not resentment and not but the moral senti-
ment must anew the aim to human life. Once
more must the call go forth for a life j once
more must it be home to man that not food
nor raiment nor not comfort nor ease, not sci-
ence nor are the end of but the "
dom of God;" and that this is not the end but
the since without and human sym-
science and art may minister to vice as well
and Dot even comfort or bread are
nelleSisarily within the reach of all. Louise .....U 'vu"..,
prEldi(ltiIlg the outcome of the social re,rolllltilCln,
at last attained
nor afIlioted
will be
hUlnaIlity in suoh a philollOphy.
eVl)lutional~y doctrine to a
impra.cticaI)le, save in
is COInmiELndled,
prll.Ctjica'ble now or in
SUPREMACY OF ETillCS.
any state of) Goodness is the so~rerleign

of first as well as last i it is over
even Indians may - three of
Darwin tells us, once allowed themselves to be
one after the rather than their com-
parliolls in war.1 I look for the social reformer who
shall to,the sublime in man; who shall be
able to hold a savage, angry mob in and make
them more to die than to do wrong; and who
shall with the power of his convictions thlcough
the and selfishness of the prosperous,
and make them own with the law now
and his entreat them and woo
so that with tears and pelnibent gla.dness
will do tasks of love and tenderest Such
social reform will be once more on the face
of the earth i such a reformer will be another
come with his solemn his his un-
to shame and to heal the world.
What power, what will come in that
to our poor old human poor now
because it will not surrender itself to the moral senti-
because it will not unlock its heart and receive
of the infinite riches of and love that lie for-
ever and even at the door I The
moral sentiment is - it is the open door to
infinite power. in answer to the inner Imli>er:a.-
man he is and feels the fresh-
ness of an eternal in his heart and all
the arteries of his There is no age to the
that lives in sentiments." young
llD<l:Jn:y," exclaimed Dr. The faith born
1 Descent of Man, p. Ill, n.
ETffiCAL RELIGION,
of ethics is that man can do the The lmlper:EL-

tive itself the power to meet it. To say that
commands us but that we cannot is to
suppose a lie in the nature of There is no
if I cannot it. And as exists and
charms and binds me, I know I can do it. The will is
not bound. Men say we are born
and cannot be otherwise. Yon can be; and
is to feel in heart of hearts that
to - and the iron of that ob-
ligl:Ltioln felt in your inmost soul will transform you
you its iron Yet how the reli-
of the travesties our nature I Not does
Or1jhodolty teach the of man, but Liberal
Ch.ristianit;y teaches the of prayer, which
comes to the same that we poor crea-
tures are weak and must have But Emerson
answers, "Such as you are, the themselves could
not " The of the nniverse
down on the shoulders of each moral
to hold him to his task. The of
escape known in all the worlds of God is pel'fol'm-
ance."l 'rhere is a breath as of mountain air in
such and for the
moral life of man, and the secret of for
as Emerson says, now effeminates and
demoralizes. It is a sublime faith that whatever the
outward man is made for the
sta:l1iiDlg iInpl~rfl~ct, he is called to be i that
and all the races of men have the way open
to an infinite which will fail to reach
if do not will to. What is in us, what
1 .. in Conduct of Life,
is in is not the power, but the

to do and dare and suffer. The wide earth
be a scene of and every of our
land transformed into a. of the if men
and women would wake with to-morrow's sun to will
the which now lies like a half-formed vision in
their minds.
It is thus that the moral sentiment a
peace to the soul. often seem so had about us
that we are to think evil cleaves to the na-
ture of With all the boasted progress of the
modern world in and seem
little better for the mass of men. The of
debasement and among classes in the
very centres of our civilization and is almost
ma.ddeni,ng to a sensitive and breeds
If all this and are neces-
sary, there is no escape from the conclnsion that this
is a black and cruel world we live in; and the
way to live and to have any contentment is to harden
one's heart and out of one's self. But
suffer:ing and wrong are not necessary;
as well not be as nay, never would be if
men listened to the from on that
visit them. and wrong are to the
nature of are to
exist it. The Heart of the world is sound;
and would we but way to it in onr own
the face of be as fair as Nature is in
her most moods. We have not to make the
world over, bnt ourselves. In the midst of our
work we can and pass into that central peace
which the world and which all our heat
ETHICAL RELIGION.
and worry cannot nor man's extremest faith-

lessness mar. If man does not do the he can-
not have peace, that is alL An ethical is
nowise conoerned with the of the order
of as it is i it has little in common with the
weak that sometimes passes current as re-
i it must oppose those economists who
say that there no suoh as the
Christian must sooial conditions as
the hest else would not he consistent
with the of a. wise Providence. If a man
is a and is not faithful to the result
cannot he the nest The and
of nowise of the pres-
ent order of God commands to
almost all the this and to many
lre~IUI:l~, to'do from what do j and
do not are off the track
for and the of
concerned in forever them to nOl1gn.1i.
Where did Jesus find peace as he confronted the
order of in his ? In the of a
judgment that should it. curse
liDJ'sel.I, curse and about
but not the fundamental of!
bless thou canst not dream so as it makes
Heard are the voices which if thou
and all wouldst the dread chaos and- aDllU'Cllly
that now dishearten thee would pass away.
Out of all this of faith and o"btldilmce,
and as the issue of it is bred a Our
current doctrine of is weak i it has little
moral fibre in it. That for valor-
THE SUPREMACY OF ETIDCS.
ous and virtuous souls is made the of all

alike j and no saint or damnable sinner
but he or she is to Ii ve and
live forever. There was never such We
have reason to believe there is another if there
are souls of it. The is that W ll;Jl.tl'l1,
frivollous. selfish men and women live out their nat-
ural term of life here; the are
and to it j and when death
to an end their vain career, 't would seem the
of to let them rest in eternal forgel'fu.L-
ness. But for the the heart a bet-
ter fate. The are those who to
the demands which the invisible world makes upon
them. are who are so because
must because a divine constrains
could not hold up their heads if
were unfaithf'ul, because in such a case would feel
like traitors to the trust the universe had ass,iglled
to them. The value of a faithful soul is all
estimation. is that which we link ourselves
to absolute and which absolute linb
itself in turn to us. man looks aloft and
sees the and with every moral act the
becomes a of him. No DO
no DO man of self-sllrrren<ler,
has this worth and The stars
in heaven are not so in obedi-
ence to the moral and when it is
"better not to Ii ve." Yet there is no caste in virtue.
In this in this the
of this world have no The that
di~:nij!ies the is within reach of the lowliest.
ETmCAL RELIGION.
The savage the obscure ref,ornler, ma;rtYlI.'S

and heroes who died in nooks and corners of the
and all who loved and did the are the
stars that shine in this firmament j and all others
count for This world will pass away j the
geIlerill.ti()ns of men are and.sometime will all
be gone j in Nature or that to Natnre
j there is or out.
side the blessed Powers that are over all and in all.
Yet a arises in the breast that out
of all the countless that have been or
shall he born on "this bank and shoal of there
shall be some accounted to share with these
blessed Powers their own Such a faith is
too for demonstration j it rests on the cumula.-
tive and of the moral senti-
ment. Rut it is that kind of which has
supreme interest for the serious man. That
we are immortal I can discover very little
reason for ; that any whether of
book or could settle the qUEiSti<)D
for us seems like an offence to reason. Our pell.'So:nal
affections and desires of reunion do not appear to he
a solid foundation j Jesus says not a word in their
he does of those who he
" accounted to attain to that world and the
resurrection of the dead." 1 That science can ever
us of seems since
8Cll~nce, save in its formal deals with
the sensible with what may he observed or
j and is a if it
The doubtful vistas of
1 Luke :no 85.
SpiritllalilSm make the other world but a poor faded

copy of with immortal cats and as well
as human until that life seems more feeble
and ineffectual even than this. What reason for the
pelrpeitw~ti(m of an old worn-out show? For my
I would rather leave death with all its solemn
and and trust that some--
how transcendent issues will be worked out thl:ough
it. There is no of reward for the
what I say. As the are so for gOl:>drlesIS'
80 their must come and un-
Such are Bome of the lessons of the moral senti-

ment as have made themselves felt in my own
mental and such is of what I
conceive would be the and scope of an Ethical
Ethics is not a closed so that when
one has forborne to cheat and his he is
at the end of it. It starts with the lowest uses of
but covers the and widest of
the of man. To oneself on the funda-
mental and then allow its natural su~tgestil)ns
and impli,catiolllS to have an unhindered de'velopltDent
in one's mind and in one's seems to me one
of the most and tasks of the
What a is that which ElOOrson held out!

"There will be a new he U founded on
moral science j at first cold and a babe in a

manger the and mathematics of ethical
-the chnrch of men to corne, without shawms
or or sackbut. But it will have heaven and
ETHICAL RELIGION.
earth for its beams and

and illustra.tion; it will fast C ....JUW~ll
Was never stoicism so stern
and as this shall be. It shall send man home
to his central shame these social su]:>plica,ting
manners, and make him know that much of the time
he must have himself to his friend. He shall
he shall walk with no cOJnp::mion.
Thlou~:ht, the the super-
pel~solnal ~.u,_ lV. -- he shall repose alone on that. He
needs his own verdict. No fame can
no bad fame can hurt him. The Laws are his con-
solers; the Laws themselves are
know if he have animate him with
the of and an endless horizon." 1
1" WOlrllDIP. in Conduct of Life.
XVII.
THE TRUE BASIS OF RELIGIOUS UNION.
HAVE had the of

I with the utmost freedom in the
hmlVe'li'er. oue
pages.
to express one's views
and another to propose them as a basis of re-
union. This I am to do.
All that one can ask at the time is that he
shall be free to think and to express that
he shall not be under the ban because his views
do uot accord with old-time standards; but to pro-
pose any new set of views 1 as a of the basis
of would be so far to revive the
intolerance of ancient ort;bodoll:y.
I wish to ask now, not what is the truth with re-
to various ancient and bnt
what should make the fundamental terms of fellow-
in a ? This is an prac-
tical I am aware that in to
answer it I may an ideal of fellow-
which has little or no relation to any exilSti.ng
religillus movement.1
1 Mr. Frederic Harrison declaret that the Polritivlst "bond of
union is a :real, scientific, demonstrable conception of Nature and
of man" (Unitarian Review, March, 1888, p. 236).
I The only bodies of which I have any knowledge, whose
platfOl'DlS suggest such an ideal as I hne in mind, are the Free
Religions ASloclation, the Western Unitarian Conference, and the
RELIGION.
ge:nel:l:IJ, I conceive that assent should not be re-

to any truth about which
it is for a and man to doubt.
The basis of should be so broad that no
person for an ideal order of human no
one tQ live before
should be excluded from it. assent
to the doctrines of Catholic or Prl)telltal~t Christi~mil;y
or even of pure not be No
one will that serious and men can, and in
some cases these doctrines. Shall
thllre:fore, be excluded from the most sacred of all
unions between man l:IJ)d man? For my there
is no materialist or atheist who loves and pursues
the who feels that truth and honor bind
whom I do not wish to call in the and most
sacred sense my brother.
The truth which it appears imlPossible to doubt is
that binds a man. Not that we know
our and not that we need be sensible
of its force. There may be to from
Wordsworth's "Ode to "
Union of the Societies for Ethical Culture. The Free Reiligioul

Association aims " to promote the practical interests of pure reli-
gion, to increase fellowship in the spirit, and to encourage the
scientific lltudy of man'll religious nature and history!' The West-
ern Unitarian Conference declares its" fellowship to be condi-
tioned on no doctrinal tests," and welcomes t. all who wish to join
UI to help establish truth and righteousness and love in the world."
The aim of the Ethical Movement, as represented by the Union,
is " to elevate "the moral life of its members and that of the com·
munity; and it cordially welcomes to its fellowship all persons
who sympathize with this aim, whatever may be their theological
01' phiiolOl?bical ollml~,nl."
THE TRUE. BASIS OF RELIGIOUS UNION.
"Glad hearts, without reproach or blot,

Who do thy work, and know it not I "
For may become one with
j the between what we
what we to do may pass away.
not cease to be because it is no
to be. We may sometimes be o f ; but
when we learn what it we know that we are bound
it. It is also true that men may differ in their
theories of the nltimate of j but the fact
of moral and the broad outlines of pel~so:nal
and social nnder any The truth
that the of what to be is as elemen-
tal a of man's as the sense of what is. It
is even to be more clear as to what we
to do than as to what we have done or are
We know we should be : whether we are
80 or may be often a difJicult to decide.
The tho!ugllt of the is indeed one that cannot be
ou1t;grIOW:D, that has entered into every rel'igicm ...rn1"l,h".
of our reverence, that even the savage has in some
half-conscious that man can lose
as he ]oses his reason. One conld easier drive
the sun from the heavens than banish the moral sen·
timent from the mind of man. I can our
under other in other and all the
dear familiar of this life no
known; but without the moral sentiment we should
cease even on the earth to be men, and the sun and
all the stars would shine on vacancy. We can
not say, that the of the Atha-
nasian or even the Creed are thus rooted in
the nature of mau; neither can this be said of the
21
ETHICAL RELIGION.
theistic or per'ha]ls
A true religillus would not
sent to of these doctrines j it would re~luiJ~e
the that binds a man.
Positi.ve]y S]leaJld.nlg, the ideal would
he a union of all those who owned the of
and who to live as commands. The
feILow'shiln aimed at would be that of all men j
that of all to be and to advance the
cause of in the world. For the omission of
a doctrinal basis does not mean a "mush of conoo&-
or the of conscience in sentiJuental·
Not because one is a human but because
he strives to realize the ideal of in his
and to contribute to the establishment of an ideal
order of human life on the should he he wel-
comed to the moral communion. Love cannot have
fel.lmwsllip with those who hate i men cannot be
in sacred union with and oppressors i
men who are to lead pure lives cannot frater-
nize with those who are reckless and Con-
ditional for admission must be the desire to
oneself of all that is to live to
one's best ideals. But other conditions should be un-
known. One should not he to confess himself
a Christian or to confess himself a Jew; the all1;alZl[)o
nisms of Protestant and of' and
should be j all barriers should
pass away save those which consoienoe sets up.
I am aware that the realization of such an ideal
involves a iu the habits aud sentiments
of men. It argues a new of oentral inter-
a new a new blended
THE TRUE. BASIS OF RELIGIOUS UNION.
with a new ardor. It is not nncommon to even

in the most liberal of Christian denominations
UIdta.rian), that a as a matter
of conrse, have doctrines.1 It seems to be
taken for that and earnest men who
differ cannot to one fello"7ship,
that or views are
more to divide than moral aims
can be to unite. It is a sad and sa<1ldenin:g o:pinion
I am afraid there is more in the religillD8
of the race to confirm it than there is to encourage
the aim I cherish. Never has there to my
kn,ow.led.lle. such a as I crave. Men seem
to have been to their intel-
disl'l.grceen::len1JS, and to a
purpose and the pnre hea~ I
in Matthew Arnold's essay
on "Saint Paul and I an observation
of one of the Christian to the
effect that in the of the Church
wickedness was the ; that and
divided the whole world into erroneous
and orthodox. I should like to believe that this
was so, and no doubt there was some apprc)xi:ma,tio,n
to it; but I am afraid that it was an ideal of
the transferred to a time in
to which be had Iu any case,
not much later than the time of when a
was in a Church with uDchas-
the cry weut up, U What do we care about his
Chl:l.llt:ity? Is he orthedo:\{? -that is the ;"
1 See II The Octo~r, p. 442.
I 120.
ETHICAL RELIGION. •
€tWorse than a Sodomite is he who will

mother of God!" 1 does
not much to such a as
I propose j and as with in the dream
of a moral basis of union is an ideal of the
heart rather than else. Those who believe
in it will have to strive for it: it will Dot come of
itself. Yet it has on its I make bold to say,
the best instincts of not a few men j the
minds in almost all the historic Ohristian commnnions
are in this may far
from a clear vision as of the
one who is with old walls of seIlarli.ti<ln
between and asks that all who love the
Lord Jesus Ohrist shall hands for united war-
fare sin and wrong, works in this di-
rection j anyone who still more summons
whether Ohristians or to unite in the love
of God and the service of man, works in this
direction. both are however nncon-
SCioUllly, of that to come, which
shall include all whatever their differeuces in
the and whatever their intellectual differences
are to work to down the evil
and to enthrone the in the world.
Let me now state a little more what a
moral basis of would involve.
it would not necessitate the up of any
thElolclgi1eal or beliefs which one
hold dear. Because one's beliefs are not made a
of the bond of union does not mean that ODe shall
1 See an article by Rev. Dr. F. H. in The Unitarian
January, 188i,p. 14.
not be free to hold them. If one found in

the theistic of the he should be free
to cherish it; if one felt to be an agllos:tic
as to the nature of or if one took ma.te)~alistic
grlJ'UI.l'u., he should be free. The aim of the
fellolvslrip would not be to make theists or materi-
alists or agllostics, but to confirm the purpose
in the make fathers and
mo,thElrs, to make lovers of and haters of all
wrong. If one wished to company with
those of his own he would of course not enter
the ; but the would not exclude him: he
would the narrow range of his sylmp,atllies,
exclude himself. Oue would not have to renounce
Cb:ris:tianil;y nor Judaism in the fe]lolvsllip
his would involve a willlingnlBss
live on terms of brotherhood with others who
Dot be Christians or Jews; that he would
np or J ndaism as the basis of religil)us
SeclODllly, the free of theologic:ill

8O]lihical o])inions would not be nrevented
than the of them. It
those who were drawn the of in-
tellectual conviction would form subordinate gronps,
as those who were united in to certain
prBl.Ctical solutions of the of do
the same. is not to be nor de-
sired; to be the road to
ual while in means life. The
ne(lessiity would be that no group should make
80 much of its views and alms that it would
be in of and the sense of
ETHICAL RELIGION.
union with the One with

many brl~n~lhes, one with many one
subtle life..blood rulllnillig tllrOl1gh the whole and malt·
every kin to every - that would be
the ideal of a true rell~il)US fello,rshjp.
UU.l:lU~Y, a new would attach to
in connection with such a That
I well is no covered with oppro-
brium. Men who have stood faithful to the
that was in and have refused for the sake of
life itself to be untrue to have made almost
h01we,rer. from its historical associar
the of is : a
heretic is one who is seJlarl~tet:l, or seJ?aratEls him:self,
from a Whether is honorable
or dishonorable on the attitude of the
The Christian Church has
not allowed of save within compara·
narrow limits i it has even decreed from time
to time that certain ideas were to be on
of eternal damnation. The Church has thus become
to many minds a very emblem of intolerance. A
fundamental of the ideal rellgll)UB
fel1lo\1i'sh:in I have in mind would be freedom of 1»
lief; the should neither decree nor prl~sc:ribe,
nor in any way stand any set of thl~ol.()gical
The query
not cease to have any meaDllDg
with such a ? It in the cus·
."...."•.'" sense of the word. There would be neither
ne(~esslity nor motive for anyone to
to the of of or utterance.
But suppose that another set of motives should
THE TRUE BASIS OF RELIGIOUS ·UNION.
SU11poise that the theistic members of the should

say, uOur theism has become so to us that
we cannot hold out any the fraternal hand to
materialists or that or
materialists should say, II We cannot have
with theism; it is an anlGiq1Ilat;ed, eXIl!O(led dOl}tri,ne,
and we must refuse to fraternize those who
to it." a socialistic group should say, U Indi-
vidualists must be without heart or con-
science;" or that individualists 1 should retort that
socialists must be bad men. In any of these cases,
the fundamental bond of union of the relif,ticlUS
would be assailed; each and every group which thus
withdrew and formed a new would in the
literal sense of the heretical. Instead of stand-
for would thus stand for the
of intolerance. The heretic would be one who re..
fused to concede to others the same he claimed
for himself; who said in II I am determined
that all others shall think as I and if do •

I will have no or lot with them."
No one has more the secta,.
than the late Matthew Arnold.
II The dissidence of dissent and the of
the Protestant " was the of his deli-
cate and merciless satire. The various disse'IJltiIllg
bodies iu were for the most II hole-and-
corner" out of relation to the common

religi()us life of the nation. His ar~~UDleIJlt
J I am aware that all these minor clUllificationl are somewhat
arbitrary, and beg that they shall, be taken simply as attempts to
illustrate the I am seeking to elul..idate, not al nece_ry
imllliClltio'DS Jof it.
the ass1llm]pticm that the Church

Eu:ghmd was of that nation's com-
mon relij{i()us life. He called it "a national associa.-
tion for the of ,! It is in trnth
not but an association well for
the of the ideas embodied in the
tIes' and not to say the creeds.
Bnt in he was wrong, his ideal was
There shonld be an association in every na.-
tion for the of one that wonld
to itself all the elements in the nation
to work for that end: whether it should have
any official connection with the poJlitiloal or~:aniza,tion
of the nation is another I think not. And
when a and all-inclnsive of this nature
does wbether in then all
that Mr. Arnold so said of the of
dissent will hold Then the churches
that may be set np the theistic or or so-
cialistic or individualistic sects will be called
" hole-and-corner" churches j I must not till
that Almost all the churches in
and almost all the denominations in
COllUtry, have had an excuse for have
because freedom in the from
which was not allowed. Better dis-
order and confusion and an infinite number of "hole-
and-corner" churches than and iron law.
When a better shall and a reli-
order with a principle
of - shall arise on the then could
narrowness and the very of schism and
odious lead to from it.
TRUE BASIS OF RELIGIOUS UNION.
FOllrtllly, it would follow that the entire

and in all its groups and local more
should be made of the commou ideals of the
than of else. A branch which
made more of theism than of the love and of
gOi:>dIlesls, would be its function as a branch
of the and in of see-
tarian. A materialistic group which gave itself up to
eX]Xlsitilms of materialistic would be in
similar views or eco-
nomic aims could make a kind of in
each group or but could not take the form of
a creed or statement. The basis of local fel-
10VirshiLp should be the same as the basis of the gen-
eral should be TeGrui:red ,uVlTwh"",..
wbich was not In other
the of and social 'Should
have the ·first (I do not say, the claim on the
attention of every branch or local If
from any some one should not go away with
clearer as to or with some fresh iml?ull~e
toward the ideal the of that me,etiIlg
would be is not a it
is a life i it is as as as exhaustless
as - yes, it is often as as are many
of the situations of life. There few men who
do not sometimes crave and
tion to follow the have.
is in one sense the most natnl'3l to
man; in it is at times a most difficult and
arduous and seems to almost super-
human watchfulness and Those most hon-
est with themselves are the to feel that the
ETHICAL RELIGION.
of them is not what are, but what

to be. As for our actual
of ns know we are anxious for
tickled with without and
Others know are
mll'8tE!ry and in others
still are full of irrational aversions
pre,juc[fC€lS, and to let the
of reason their minds. Some
are' and others are close and nngenerous.
Then in the realm of social how we flouu-
del' ! We that selfishness as a is dis-
orlsarlizi.ng and and our industrial order
is to a extent founded on and we think it
is aU ! We call it in the a devilish
ma,x\lU, that everyone should look out for hitnsEllf,
and woe betide the hindmost j in our business re-
we are to a.et upon and there are those
who can business conducted on
apy other basis. the of and'
are when are to be
iIoPJflU",'U. in this realm j to advocate them is th()u~rht
to be seJltilnelllta'usm or, at The
world is divided into CaDlpS,
when it to be a unit in a of
peace and brotherhood for the industrial life of soci-
It is not to the Golden Rule j it
is necessary to say what the Golden Rule means. To
hold up more elevated ideals of and social
to create and to sustain an enthusiasm for
to lift life to - this would
be the and the central mission of a true
But is all this it may be asked? Is it

not ? I answer, that for my own it is
to between them.
is true when it is
8e(lra1~iOll, and is first a sacred
when it becomes an exalted moral enthusiasm. I am
aware arose indlep,enc[ently
of arose
But the the root-
reliigiclU was not so much any pel~uliar
to sentiment went as the
that the was sacred. It is reverence
and awe that make the heart of Whoever
holds to as has a or the
elements of one. It is a mistake to bind up relilgio,n
with any of the universe; he who con-
sci!luslly has no may be as he
turns his mind this way and it falls sooner or
later on that strikes him with indescriba,..
hIe awe and reverence. the of the
laws under which we of their inviolable
of their supreme in obedience to which is
and life and and in from which
we into darkness and the may as
excite awe as did the of the
powers of earth and which first enohained the
attention of the forefathers of the race. The reli-
of may be as l'eal and as sacred as
relilgio,n of of which almost all histori-
religi()Ds are varied forms. The most re-
to my own would be a of the
relilgio,n of and the of Nature into
an ideal

Salter Ethical - Religion

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Salter Ethical - Religion

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. WILLIAM MACKINTIRE SALTER.

JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAIlIBIUDGB.

GEORG VON GI~~Y(:KI. AND EDWIN D. J.fJ..c.,4U,

IS GRATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

im~biJlity to assent to on the one

moral nature is that which we transcend

To the pure virtue and vice do not

The of life consist in in

of the mind. And if the alternative were

that are in the as Chris-

outside indicate what we ourselves

I once considered mere moral attainments as the

8pe~aking of an eL[IlU~H. an essent;ial]!y practiCll1

it not go on a thousand years more,

time vanish away; and what thou thinkest what

years; and the education in the divinit;v c()lleges

HE current views of are low and con-

morality" (Life, 230, 231). The conventional view is weU

them. Yet where do' their In

between the sound and the prllCticaUy

is no outside to the mind; the most

be but that we should like to be; but we

MlJ1rality is thus in essence ideal. It is not what

COl1l1pl.etElr and finer? The is it not

or combined will of the can

Or take an illustration from business life. What

to it the free consent of our wills. We have

how does the sense of this make us almost doubt

ambition to his villa to pra.ctille

as the Christian believes in. Justice and

of which Al]:>honso belonli:ed. He have

no serious man wants a reason. The supreme

supreme law under which we

and the mentioned has been

we know selves shaJI ever

their dreams of the without or

HAT is it that a moral to an

we wake out of this unconscious instinctive follmvin:1I!'

men and on different I do not care

from motives. It is true that

? Because the other attitude would pnwtilcally

that in the nature of the case ,t

I rise because I am Obl~geil1

FrEledil>m, sp(JIDUlJleity, is the very

be assisted in bWlinElss, or be remem-

Suppl)se a. man becomes a. not out of unselfish

and the hig:hes:t, K"VU.llU.

man can rise above himself; and in this

and without or concern

Then why, 0 bleued JeaUll Christ,

table is no with me, my

he never Yet as there is no reason we

such that man need not follow the

than a. moral action there cannot be. It could

resolved and cbia.nl~d

in one direction or another. No we

circumstances should and our wishes come

can you find now the disinterested student

know of in or in connection with the