In like manner, the natural object of the virtue of hope is the second coming of our Lord, and the consummation of all things which that event will bring. It is this hope that enables men to endure the sorrows and pain of the world ; it is hidden in some sort in the groaning and travailing of creation (Ro S'"'^). It results from the steady endurance of persecution (Ko 5°), and it does not make ashamed. It is not ditiicult to see how this con- fidence in the future will affect life on its practical side. It involves no unreality, and no o|itimistic veiling of the real evil in tilings. With a full sense of the presence of pain and other troubles in the world, it looks upon the course of history with certainly and fearlessness. There is no haunting dread lest the world may be, after all, a chaos ol irrational forces without purpose or true guidance ; because the events of Christ's life, the truth of His person, and the certaintj' of His promises, prevent all sucli hazy and depressing conditions of mind. The virtue of hope is closely allied with the virtue of faith. They both rest upon the character and self-manifestation of God ; they both affect life by bringing within its sphere the realities of the spiritual order.
And, lastly, the virtue of love depends upon the cessation of the feeling of hostility and cstran"e- nient which had so long been abroad in the wond. The eflorts of God for the salvation of man, His care for the souls of individual men — that is, the prominent events in the incarnate life of His Son — coimiicnd the love of God to us. From of old, men had sought by various means for intercourse with God, and yet had fallen short. The life of Christ opened the way to a fuller communion than they had ventured to anticipate. Tlie law of God, seen in the light of the dcatii and resurrection of Christ, could be a regular principle of action ; not imposed
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ETHICS
ETHICS
arbitrarily from witliout, but accepted and under- stood as the true form of intercourse with God in life. Again, in regard to men, the old barriers which separated them would tend to be broken do^vn, because all alike came under the con- demnation of sin and within the range of salvation. The brotlierhood of men amongst themselves is the expression of the knowledge of the love of God towards all. To profess love to God and to fail in love to man is, morally speaking, a contra- diction. The one, by the logic of moral life, involves the other.
We have now concluded what it seems necessary to say as to the ethics of the Bible. It would be possible to develop the similarities and the con- trasts between the ethics of tlie Greeks or of modem philosophy and the moral doctrines of Christianity. Or we might endeavour to trace the effect of the principles here indicated in the history of the Christian Church. Both of these topics would be necessary to a complete discussion of Christian ethics. Being restricted here to the ethics of the Bible, we must leave tliem aside as irrelevant. It remains, therefore, merely to emphasize the general principles which follow from our consideration of the subject. It seems to emerge clearly as a result of the whole, that the ethics of the Bible from one end of it to the other are religious. In the early days an ethical mean- ing was given to religious ceremonies whicli dis- tinguished them sharply from the generality of such rites. In the hands of the propliets the ethical principles of life were asserted with ex- ceptional vigour and clearness ; but always, with however severe a side-glance at ceremonial, as an essential element in the worship of J". In tlie Psalmists tlie various shades of moral feeling are described with inhnite knowledge and fulness, but the further reference is always to tlie desire for intercourse with God. Even in the Sapiential Books, where the tone is least lofty and spiritual, the msdom of man is found in the fear of the Lord and in obedience to His law.
The change which results from Christianity is partly due to the deeper insight and more alluiing attractiveness of the example and preacli- ing of Clirist ; but it owes more still to the vast increase in knowledge of actual spiritual truth which Christ brought to man, and the infinite significance of the acts of Christ upon the life of men. The truth is summed up, finally, in the words of St. John, ' The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ' (1'"). It was not merely that He charmed the world with tlie example of a sinless Man suffering because other men were sinful ; nor, again, does the effect of His life rest merely upon the graciousness or the austerity of His words ; but it flows from the fact that He brought truth as well as grace ; power to achieve what the world had so long failed to attain ; and knowledge of the spiritual order when all had been guesswork and hazardous conjecture before.
Many things follow from this. The various ethical doctrines which are from time to time represented as the only contribution of Cliristianity to the world's history are really corollaries of the facts upon which Christianity rests. The infinite value of each human soul, with all that has come of it in the changed position of individuals, jire- Bupposes, speaking historically, the belief in the scheme of salvation. The idea of universal love is not the result of a change of sentiment in the world, so much as the practical exposition (as we have indicated above) of the true relation of God to man. And, again, the principle of self-.sacrifice is not an arbitrary law imposed on men, challenging an explanation which it never receives, but is the practical expression o'' the law of love, together