GLORY
886
GLORY
the Son (John xii, 28; xiii, 31, 32; xiv, 13 ; xv, 8 ; xvii, 1, 4); of Christ as glorified by the Father (John viii, 54 ; xiii, 32 ; xvii, 1, 5 ; Acts iii, 13), or by the Spirit (John xvi, 14), or by Christians (John xvii, 10), or generally (Lev. x, 3 ; John xi, 4 ; xiii, 31). — Bas- tow, s. V. See Glorify.
Other terms less frequently rendered " glory," "glorious," etc., are: "I'^'^N, large; "l'^f^, to swell; nin, fwnor; il";NEn, beauty, etc. ; Kk'toc, renoirn; Kav- X"w, to boast. On these and the above, consult the Hob. and Or. Lexicons.
We may be said to give glory to God when we con- fess our sins, when we love him supremely, when we commit ourselves to him, are zealous in his service, walk humbly, thankfully, and cheerfully before him, and recommend, proclaim, or set forth his excellencies to others (Matt, v, 16; John xv, «; Gal. ii, 20). In Exod. viii, 9 we read, "And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me." The margin has for "glory" "hon- or," and for "over me" "against me." Pharaoh had besought Moses to pray that the Lord might take away the frogs, and Moses wished the king to have the honor and glory (in preference to himself) of ap- pointing a time when he should thus pray to the Lord to take them away. This was not only compliment- arv to Pharaoh, but it would have a strong tendency to convince him tiiat the Lord had heard the prayer of Moses, because he himself had appointed the time.
As man's real glorj' on earth consists in submitting to the will of God, and in doing it, so will his glory in heaven consist in being eternally pleasing to God, and in finding in him his perfect happiness. There can be no real glory, either in this world or in the next, aside from virtue. The glory we seek here consists in the esteem of our fellow-men, and it would never be a false or a dangerous glor}- if men were wise enough not to esteem anything but what is virtuous. Christ com- mands us to practice virtue, not in view of gaining the approbation of men, but to please God. At the first glance his instructions on this point may appear some- wliat contradictory. He says : ^'' Let your lif/ht so shine before men, that they may see your good tcorlcs, and glori- fy your Father which is in heaven (Matt, v, 16) ; then : Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them ; otherwise ye have no retvard of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypo- crites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that tiiey may have gbiry of men. Verily I sa}' unto you, they have their reward," etc. (Matt, vi, 1 sq.). But these passages are reallj' not contradictory. Christ means that he does not want the desire of being ad- mired and praised by men to be the motive of our good actions ; but he wants us to do those good actions in order to edif}' our neighliors, to lead them by our ex- ample to the practice of virtue, so that they mav glo- rify God, and not us. There is a great difference be- tween these two motives : the first is very wrong, the second right and praiseworthy. We are consequently to keep secret our good actions, whenever an opposite course is not necessary for puldic edification ; but when it is, then we are to let them be seen. St. Paul says: " Our rejoicing (or glory) is this, the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundant- ly to you-ward" (2 Cor. i, li').
The word glory, in St. PauTs writings, has often lieen misunderstood. In speaking of the destiny of the Jews and Gentiles with reganl to faith (Rom. ix, 22, 23), he says: "What if God, willing to show liis wrath, and to make his power known, endued with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to de- struction ; and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory," etc. We do not think that
the word glory here refers to eternal glory, but rather to God's glory here below and to the glory of his Church ; for God has really showed its riches iu the virtues of those who have been called to faith. St. Paul uses the expression again in the same sense when he speaks (1 Cor. ii, 7) of "the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory,'''' and when he saj's (Eph. i, 5, 6) that God predestined us for adoption "to the praise of the glory of his grace." So Au,t;ustine (^Enarr. in Psa. xviii, ">, and in Psa. xxxix, 4) understands these passages. — Bergier, Diet, de The- .ologie (Paris, 1854), iii, 139.