As Ijearing ujjon the subject of chance, reference may be mail.- t.i tlir casting of lots by the Roman solduM> l.ir 111., -.tiinents of Jesus. The incident is meiitiiincil liy (xi-iy one of the Evangelists, and is exphiini.-(l l,y .lohn as referring only to HLs seam- le.ss tunic (Mt 27^\ .Mk 15-', Lk SS-'', Jn 19=3- «). Among the Jews the casting of lots was regarded not as a reference of a question to the fickleness of chance, but as a solemn appeal to the Divine jud^ient (cf. Pr l&^). And though by the time of Christ such a game of chance as dice-playing (Ki//Seia) liad teen introduced into Palestine (cf. St. Paul's ev T5 Kv^dq. tQ>v aveptliiruv, ' by the sleight of men,' lit. ' by the dice-playing,' because of the trickery and cheating which had come to Ix; a.s.sociated ^Wth the game), it was repudiated by those wlio adhered strictly to the Jewish law (see Schiirer, HJP II. i. 36). With the Roman soldiers it was otherwise. Dice are thought by some to have been an invention of the Romans, and cer- tainly dicing was very common among them. In his famous ' Crucifixion ' in the Church of Sta. Maria degli Angioli at Lugano, Luini represents the four soldiers a.s rising from a game of dice to dis- imtt- witii one another the possession of the .seam-
less robe. Anil more than one writer who li;us sought to describe the awful scene of Calvary has con- sidered it natural to suppose that the soldiers would amuse themselves diiring the hours of wait- in-j; by playing- tlicir favourite g:ime (see Farrar, /.//;• :.f Christ", a,J lor.). No infi.ruiation is given us liy the E\unyelists as to the manner in which the hits were cast. But it may be that a cast of tlie dice-box Avas the plan which suggested itself most readily to those rude men, and that tliej' actually gambled for the Saviour's coat while He liung above them on the cross, dyin" for the sins of the world. See, further, art. Lots (Casting of). J. C. Lambert.
CHARACTER may be defined as the result of the interaction between a personality and its environ- ment; or, if the word is used in its special and favourable sense, as tlie ad\antage gained by per- sonality over its environment, especially by the exercise of the will. In the terms of Aristotle (Nk. Eth. I. vii. 15), it is 'an energy of the inner life on the lines of \irtue.' The question to be answered is. How have the life and gospel of Christ made this more possible? First, He diminished tlie moral weight and dread of life's environment. Secondly, He enlarged the resources and opimr- tunities of personality.
1. The following are some of the powers which the soul has to meet in conflict : —
(1) Suffering. — ' If a perfectly good man foreknew what was going to happen to him, he would co- operate with nature iu both falling sick and dying and being maimed, being conscious that this is the particular portion assigned to him in the arrange- ment of the Universe' (Epictetus). Christ in- spired men to put their foot on disease as an evil (Mt 108, jik i6i8), and won His first fame by His own powers of healing (Mt 4^-=^' U*'^ etc.). Such deeds were good on the Sabbath day (Lk e'"^-), for it was a breaking of Satan's tyranny (Lk 13'").
(2) Death. — He died to ' deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to lx)ndage ' (He 2'=). Jesus not only so faced death as to convince a Roman centurion and a dying criminal that He was more than man (Jit 27°'', Lk 23*"), but did not in His teaching allow it to have a decisive place in life, except to the fool (Lk W"). He spoke of it as a sleep (Jn ll""^-), which the good man need not fear (Mt 10^), and as a going to the Father and His many abiding-places (Jn H'-^).
(3) The world.—
' If but the Vine- and Love-abjuring band Arc in the Prophet's Paradise to stand, Alack, I doubt the Prophet's Paradise Were empty as the hollow of one's hand ' (Omar).
Jesus was in complete independence of all that the world otters, accepting poverty (Lk 9^*), repudiat- ing popularity (Jn 6"'), not expecting to be waited on (Mk 10''°). 'Be of good courage,' He said, 'I have overcome the world' (Jn 16^"); and on ac- count of the promise of His presence His disciples were built up in the same avTdpKeta (Pli 4").
(4) Racial barriers. — ' It is .an unlawful tiling for a man that is a Jew to join himself or come unto one of another nation ' (--^c 10^). Jesus struck at the limitations of race prejudice and enmity in the parables of the Good Samaritan (Lk lO^"-) and the Last Judgment (Mt 253"f-). Though He sought first the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mt 10"-), He 'opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all be- lievers' (Mt S'"-'", cf. Mk 7^), and thereby achieved on moral lines what the status of Roman citizen- ship created on legal lines. His short career was an encounter with tlie dead hand and narrowing force of nationalism (Mk 12^ Mt 21^'-'*), and it was in the name of Son of !Man that He lived and died.