IDEAL
balance. A consideration of the fullowing iiarticu- lars may serve to bring out this rounded symmetry of the Christian conception of the liit;hest good.
1. It is an ideal of blesscdmsn (ittuincd tlirotirjh perfection of character. — Pojju invokes happiness as ' our being's end and aim . . . for which we bear to live, or dare to die' (Epistle, iv. Iff.). And Herbert Spencer, in his Data of Ethics (p. 46), affirms that 'no school can avoid taking for the ultimate moral aim a desirable state of feeling, called 1>y whatever name— gratification, enjoyment, happiness.' Newman Smyth criticises Spencer's statement as a confusion between the form and the ,iubstance of the moral intuition (Christian Ethics, p. 86 f.). But if the conception of hap|)iness is enlarged so as to include the apjiropriate Christian contents, if blessedness (wh. see), in other words, is taken as the NT synonym of happiness, little fault can be found with the language of either the poet or the philosopher. The Westminster Divines were very far from being mere Eudannonists, but in the first question of the Shorter Catechism they define ' man s chief end ' as consisting in this — ' to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.' If happi- ness IS not the very substance of the Christian ideal, it is none the less, as Dr. Smyth himself says, ' its natural result and its necessary form ' (op. cit. p. 119). By beginning His Sermon on the Mount with His great series of Beatitudes (Mt 5'"-, cf. Lk 6™'^-), Jesus places the ideal of blessedness in the forefront of His teaching. So far, therefore, we may say He is on the side of the Eudaemonists as against all who have sought to set up a hard abstract ideal of duty as the moral aim. But note the content of Christ's ideal, and it will be seen at once how far removed it is from ordinary Utili- tarianism. The blessedness of whirh lie' s]ieaks belongs to a character distiTiuui-lna l,y mrckiir,-, mercy, purity of heart, and similar >|iirilual ■(iiaii- ties (Mt 5'-'-)— a character whirl i limU it-stamlurd not in human perfection merely, Imi in iioihing less than the perfection of the lha\riily lailuT Him- self (v.-"). In its form of lik'^-.din' .>. hajipiness is to be desired by Christ's disciiiles ; but only through perfection of character can this happiness come. No man will find delight in that vision of God which Jesus promises (v."), no man will 'enjoy God,' unless a resemblance to the perfection of the ' FathLT wliicli is in heaven ' has been growing up within his heart.
2. II !.■' an ideal of natural as well as spiritual rrood. — Even when it is fully recognized that blessedness belongs to the Christian ideal, this lilesseilness is sometimes conceived of too narrowly. Not only is the spiritual set aliove the natural, as it ought to be, but thr. natmal i^ Ijimred or despised and then refused it- pi m, . . ., inherent fault of all in^ or Christian. Now <'l.' spiritual above the nat ness depend, as we have seen, upon inward qualities. Moreover, He taught that His disciples must be ready to make any sacrilice — to cut off hand or foot, to pluck out the right eye— for the sake of entering into life (Mt 5'^-'" 18'»-» || Mk 9«f), and that a man was nothing profited if he gained the whole world and lost l,is own -..nl (i\It 16=«). But the blessedness He laiMs l.rfor,- Hi, followers is by no means a purely s|Miiiual Ihiir . The Beatitude of the meek is that Ih.y -hall ii.li. lit the earth (Mt S'). The petition for daily bread is enshrined in the very heart of the Lord's Prayer (6'"- "). And when Jesus comes to speak more particularly of food and raiment, the very things wliich are most fundamental to our natural life in this world, while He forbids anxiety regarding them, the reason given is not that they are unworthy of a Christian's thought and care, but that ' all these things shall
This is the 1 , Nvhether pagan II inly exalted the He made blessed-
be added ' unto those who seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (6^"^^).
3. It is an ideal of social well-being attained through individual worth. — That the ideal of Jesus was a social one it is impossible to doubt. Deeply as He impressed upon His hearers the unspeakable value of the individual life or soul (Mt lU^"'- 16-'", Lk I5'"''- etc.). He never said anything to justify a religious individualism which concerns itself only with personal salvation. The very fact that ' the kingdom of God ' (wh. see) is the phrase by which He most frequently refers to His moral ideal, shows that it was an ideal of social good. In this He was coming, so far, into touch with the prevalent Jewish conceptions of His time ; for it was a social, not an individual good for which Israel looked. But whereas the Jews conceived of this social good on purely national lines, Jesus enlarged the bounds of the blessed society so as to make room in it for men of all nations. 'They shall come,' He said, ' from the east and west, and from the north and south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God ' (Lk 13-1*, Mt 8"). Yet while His moral ideal takes not only a social form, but one of universal breadth. He always taught that it must be through making its power felt in the individual heart that the Kingdom of God would be realized upon earth. This was where His teaching ditl'ered so greatly from the contemporary Jewish expectation, and from the thoughts of many in modern times who have been seized by the greatness of Christ's social purposes without grasping the individuality and spirituality of His methods. The Kingdom of God in popular Jewish hope was an exaltation of Israel brought about by deeds like those of Judas Macca- ba'us. The Kingdom of God in the vision of many earnest dreamers and workers of our own days is I he result of a social revolution brought about by l"ilitiial activity. According to Christ's teaching, the Kingdom of God can come only through the regeneration of individual hearts. ' The kingdom of God Cometh not with observation,' He said, ' . . . for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you ' (Lk 17"°- -'). That this, and not the marginal readings ' among you ' [AV], ' in the midst of you ' [RV], is the proper rendering, seems to be confirmed by the second of the ' New Sayings of Jesus ' dis- ci .vorrTl by Grenfell and Hunt (cf. p. 770" below). And lie smnniril nji the whole matter when He srt a little rliiM in the midst and said, 'Except ye turn and liiMiimr as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven' (Mt 18' jl ; cf. Jn 3»).