' They preferred to think Thy substance did suffer ill, tluiu that their own did commit it' (Conf. vii. 4).
That, as our Lord predicted, hypocrisy has con- tinuetl to work under the New Dispensation as under the Old, may be seen from the state of things in the Eastern Church as pictured by Eustathius, in the Western as drawn by Dante and Chaucer, and in later times as reflected in a literature too abun- dant and familiar to require to be named.
Literature. — Hamburger, RE^ 18S4, art. 'Heuchelei,' vol. i. p. 615 ; Cremer, BM.-Tlicol. WiirterbucK^ p. 627 ; L. Lenime, Die Silndc wider den Ueitifjcn Geist, 1SS3, and art. ' Heuchelei ' in PRE^ ; J. M. Schulhof, The Law of Fomiceness as presented in the NT, 1901, pp. 43-48 ; Martensen, Christian Ethics, Ist Div. 'Individual Ethics,' 1881 [Eng. tr.], pp. 114-118; Emtathii Opuscula, ed. by Tafel ; Exiles of Eternity, by J. S. Carroll, 1903 ; llozley, Unic. Serm. Serm. U. ; Seeley, Ecce Homo, 116if.,
253 ff. John Oman.
HTSSOP (31IX, uffo-uiros) is twice mentioned in the NT (Jn 19», He 9"). Wo know that it was used for sprinkling (Ex 12~), and that it grew on walls (1 K 4^3). By Tristram it is identified with the caper-plant {C'apparis spinosa) ; and this view is very generally accepted. It is ojien, however, to the serious objection that the caper is not well adapted for use as a sprinkler. Many still favour the opinion of Maimonides that it was the m tar of the Arabs. This plant, which ' springs out of the walls, those of the garden especially' (Thomson, LB p. 112), is a species of Satureia. In Morocco, the name sa'tar is given to marjoram (Orirfrimim). Carruther.s' (Bible Educator, iv. ^26) suggests that hyssop was a name applied to various plants of the genera Thymus, Origanus, and others nearly allied in form and habit. The balance of probability is in favour of this view. Hugh Duncan.
IDEAL. — The word 'ideal' does not occur in EV of the NT, nor is there any term in the Gr. text which exactly corresponcls to the general notion of the English word.* The subject of the highest good or moral ideal, however, is one that is constantly present in the teaching of Christ, and is wonderfully illuminated by His own charac- ter and life and influence in hiunan history. An ideal may be defined as a mental conception taken as a standard of absolute perfection. The word is used with regard to various kinds of excellence. There are intellectual and aesthetic ideals as well as those which are properly to be described as moral. But it is to the realm of moral worth that the notion of the ideal is peculiarly appro- priated, and it is with the moral ideal alone that we are at present concerned.
In the history of Ethics, discussion has always centred in this question of the ideal, the s^immum bununi, the 'chief end of man.' Aristotle lie-ins his Nicom. Etliir.i (i. i. 1) by describing the good as that at which all aim, and he goes on to say (I. ii. 2) : ' And, like archers, shall we not be more likely to attain what is right if we have a mark ((7K07r6s) ? ' This ff/foTris, the target or goal of human endeavour, is just the ideal. Aristotle takes the human o-icoxds to be happiness, which he defines as ' the active exercise of man's living powers, according to their highest virtue, in a life attording full room
* The translators of the Twentieth Cent. XT render Eph 41Sb ' until we reach the perfection of manhood and that degree of development of which the ideal to be found in the Clhrist is the standard.' But this is a paraphrase rather than a translation of the original.
for their development ' (I. vii. 15). It is a striking coincidence that the only occasion on which the word ffKoTfos is found in the NT is in the saying of St. Paul, ' I press toward the mark {(TKo-n-ds) for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus' (Ph 31^). The Christian ideal of St. Paul was very diflerent from the pagan one of the Stagirite. But the Apostle, no less than the philosopher, recognized the necessity of an ideal, and its power to shape the whole conduct of life.
It would be interesting to discriminate the various ideals or ultimate moral aims which, in the progress of the world's history, have been advocated by the representatives of the leading religious or philosophical systems. These ideals, however, do not directly concern us here. It will be sufficient in the course of the article to refer to them in passing, when they serve, by way of con- trast, to bring more clearly into view the distinctive features of the Chri>tian ill.:il. Apiilying ourselves to a .special ccmsidir.ui'iii of the latter, we shall deal with it (1) .is it is srt forth in the teaching of Christ, (2) as it is embodied historically in His own person, (3) as it is made real in human experi- ence through His constraining power.
i. The Ideal as set forth in the teaching OF Christ.— One great fault of all non-Christian, or pre-Christian, or imperfectly Christian ideals is their narrowness or one-sidedness : they ignore whole departments of the kinjrdom of moral worth, and do justice to one part of luiman nature at the expense of the rest. In contrast with this, the Christian ideal, as we meet it in Christ's teaching, strikes us by its comprehensiveness and perfect