The law of Renunciation has been repeatedly restated in modern literature. ' Die and re-exist ' was a maxim of Goethe. Self-renoirncement was expounded by Matthew Arnold (Lit. and Dogma) as the secret of Jesus. ' Die to live ' is a principle of Hegelianism. This latter axiom has been ex- jjounded by Dr. E. Caird (Hegel, ad fin. ; Evohdion of Religion, ii. 6-8) as the fundamental principle of a universal ethic. According to this authority, it is a law of the spiritual world, as contra-dis- tinguished from the natural, tiiat self-realization is to be attained by self-sacrifice. The theorem ' die to live ' involves on the one hand absolute surrender of self and of every good to the Father of spirits, and on the other hand restoration in another form tiirough the possession of an enlarged life filled with deeper and wider interests. The sacrifice of selfisiiness proves the birth of the true self, the individual deriving from the universal the good for which it exists. The death of Christ was no accidental phenomenon, but the highest revela- tion of the Divine in conflict with the world's evil. The surrender of a life as a sacrifice to a cause tends to give a universal value to the life so sacri- ficed. This, of cour.se, does not differentiate the death of Christ from ordinary martyrdom ; but we
498
REPENTANCE
REPENTANCE
may agree with Caird that paramount moral doc- trine must accord both witli the lessons of liistory and with the highest reason of a universal spiritual philosopliy. By such tests we distinguish the true from the false renunciation, and arrive at a clearer comprehension of the Divine intuition of Jesus.
On the other side, the reverse doctrine, that self- assertion is the essence of sin, has been rightly accepted as a fundamental truth of the moral sphere. The term so used includes the exaltation of the lower nature over the higher, and the placing of the individual or particidar before the social or universal'. This principle denies equality of right, repudiates the primary law of love, and treats with scorr, the consciences of men. Its essential mani- festation is in the lust of power and pride of life, though every other selfish gratification may be included. In mediaeval ideas pride held the dark pre-eminence, and conceptions of Satan were formed therefrom. But in modern times, and especially since Milton, the historic view is modified. In the career of the master-fiend whose history is the his- tory of evil (as that career is in Paradise Lost portrayed for all time) it is 'pride and, worse, ambition' that rule. True it is that down the Christian ages, and even within the Church, self- assertion has been as prominent (though not so abundant) as self-denial. But it is equally true that where such egotism has ' flourished spiritual life has died. See, further, art. Selfishness.
Literature. — Hastings' DB. art. ' Self-Siin-ender' ; Newman Smyth, Christian Ethics, p. 372if. ; Muller, C/rrixtian Doct. of Siti, ii. 362 tf. ; Channing, Complete \Vo>*s [ed. 1SS4], p. 259 If. ; W. Archer Butler, Serm. i. 27 ; A. Kempis, Imit. of Christ ; George Ehot, Millonthe Floss, ch. iv. bk. 3 ; G-. Macdonald, The Religious Sense in its Scientijio Aspect (1903). 79 ; J. Strachan, Ueb. Ideals {V.m),i%. R. SCOTT.
**REPENTANCE. — In Christ's own life repentance has no place. The four Gospels contain no ex- pression, direct or incidental, of any feeling of penitence or of regret for anything He ever did or left undone, for anything He ever said or left unsaid. He never prays for forgiveness. He never knows of a time when He was not in peace and harmony with God ; He never speaks of coming into peace and harmony with God. Though He teaches insistently that all others must repent and become sons, and even then must pray for the forgiveness of their sins, yet He Himself knows nothing but that He is the Son of His Heavenly Father, and He never loses by any act the consciousness of the Father's approval. See, further, art. Sinlessness.
1. Christ's teaching on repentance. — In the teaching of Jesus the fundamental category was the Kingdom of God (/SatrtXeia toO deov), i.e. the spiritual rule of God in the heart of a man or in the hearts of men. This jSacrtXeta simply means God's authority established, God exercising His will and having His way, whether it be in a single human soul, or in a Church, or in a Christian community (as in the X3riinitive Church of Pente- cost), or in the Church universal, or in the world. God's Kingdom has come, that is. His rule is established, when and where His will is done as it is supposed to be done 'in heaven,' that is, ideally, whether that be in a single heart or ' on (the whole) earth.'
This enables us to understand why Jesus has so much to say about righteousness. Righteousness was another name for the fulfilling of "the will of God ; it was doing what God wanted done ; it was the realizing of the rule of God. Hence men were called on to repent and become righteous. Re- pentance, as conceived and taught by Jesus, meant a change of the whole life, so as to subject it and to conform it to God, a radical and complete revolution of one's view of God and attitude