CHAPTER VI.

CHRISTIAN MORALITY.

THE

HE moral code of Christ contains rigid rules of action, and a definite outline of means for future salvation. He assumes this sphere to be a place of trial and preparation for another life, so vastly more important as to justify a rather contemptuous view of our present surroundings. Acknowledging all as sinful, he makes forgiveness from the Lord depend on repentance and fear. While counseling good behaviour, he holds conduct subsidiary to awe of divinity. The whole tone of his teachings is essentially spiritual, with an absolute disdain of earthly interests.

The fundamental error of this doctrine lies in the recognition of that Jewish absurdity, The Fall of Man, and its necessity for an Atonement. No careful logic can admit a present responsibility in a new-born being for the errors of an ancestor. Such evil traits as may be inherited are properly excuses rather than a birthweight of dutiable sin. It is hard enough to find ourselves handicapped by the past, without the added accusation of intention and collusion with it. If salvation of those living demands sin-erasure for those dead, each new-born generation has an ever increasing responsibility. Christ endeavoured to suffer enough for us all, but we can fairly doubt the justice of the stern

parent that would sanction such a method. Many of us, as it is, must bear punishment in diseases of mind and body for the crimes of our progenitors, transmitted to our powerless existences. We refuse to multiply the penalty! Let Adam answer for his derelictions-we have trouble enough of our own!

We are now ready to criticise the religious counsel of Jesus with relation to its present applicability. The conditions leading up to the state of things now existent, were evolved without our participation, and if we admit the presence of an Omnipotent Ruler, we must naturally throw the responsibility on his shoulders. It is evident that conditions largely govern the tone and standard of thought, so that each age necessarily conforms more or less to the one immediately preceding it. If we have drifted away from the ideals of past centuries, it has been by a steady process of advancement, justified by evolutionary experience. When centuries of development lead men to gradually release their grasp on inherited principles, the obvious deduction is not complimentary to those principles. The fact that past ideals are not wholly relinquished, may simply prove that some are slower than others to recognize signs of

progress.

All theories must finally bear the test of practical application. Specific advice must also stand trial in varying conditions. Christ spoke to men well realizing their imperfections. If his ideas were too advanced, illogical or impossible for us, the mistake was his-not

ours.

There may be many roads to a single end; there also may be many purporting to lead directly that wander off

to no end at all. If we take the path advised by Christ and stick to it, no matter how devious or impenetrable it may seem, we should fairly consider ourselves in the way of Christianity. If we start for this same finality by some other route, the name does not necessarily apply. If we strive to reach some wholly different end we are certainly outside the clan.

It will be shown that the great body classed as Christian, thinks the way prescribed by Christ narrow, tortuous and brambled, so its adherents roam through smoother thoroughfares, endeavouring to parallel direction more or less. It will be shown that the name is adopted simply for their continued belief in the good intentions of that divine guide whose footsteps they decline to follow.

The religion of Jesus is properly distinguished by the novel portions. Such morality as was formerly taught by other moralists is only Christian by adoption. Those who think to be Christians simply because they are good citizens, mislead themselves. They are simply converts to the evolved propriety which has resulted from countless combinations of human experiment. Christians become rightly named only when following all of their master's commands, or at least those peculiar to his creed alone.

The definite intent of Christ's teaching is clearly read in his reported sermons and conversation. The language is plain enough for the weakest intellects. A child might easily comprehend the entire moral code, and yet to hear a convert vainly trying to wriggle from a penned