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but it could not henceforth be a mere torturechamber or slaughter-house.

Having thus, by a wholly internal restoration, repaired the basis of man's society with man, in his treatment of inferiors, Christian teaching went on to deal with him in his relation to equals. Thus it placed the obligation to truth not on a conventional point of honour, but upon the Incarnation itself. "Putting off falsehood, speak truth each with his neighbour; for we are members one of another."* And the same idea is elsewhere expressed as to the peculiarly Christian grace of truth. "Do not use falsehood towards one another; because you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new, who is renewed unto knowledge according to the image of his Creator;"† where falsehood seems made of itself the criterion of fallen man.

In the same way the virtues of gentleness, mercy, long-suffering, meekness, and humility, are urged by the example of Christ. "Put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, tender compassion, goodness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, supporting one another and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another; as Christ also forgave you, so do you also."

So likewise the standard of liberality in assisting the poor, which is set before men, is no less than the act of Christ Himself in becoming man for us. "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, † Col. iii. 10.

Ephes. iv. 25.

Col. iii. 12-13.

who for our sakes became poor, being rich, that by His poverty you may become rich."*

In short, every act of daily life, however seemingly insignificant or indispensable, was to be penetrated with this thought. "Whether you eat

or drink, or do any thing, do all to the glory of God." "Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to our God and Father through Him." And every condition in which man 'might be was to be seasoned with the reflection, that what was present was merely temporary. "This I say, the time is short. It remains that those who have wives be as though they had not; and those who weep, as though they wept not; and those who rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and those who buy, as though they possessed not; and those who use this world, as though they used it not; for the fashion of this world passes away."†

But the temper and habit of mind towards others which Christianity specially created out of the example of our Lord Himself, and which may be said to sum up the whole of man's conduct to his fellow-man, is brotherly love, kindness, or charity. Thus it is directly out of their filial relation to God, obtained for them by the unspeak

• 2 Cor. viii. 9.

† 1 Cor. x. 31; Col. iii. 17; 1 Cor. vii. 29-31.

This is expressly said by St. Paul, Rom. xiii. 8-10. See also 1 Pet. i. 17-23, and 2 Pet. i. 5-7, and 1 Thess. iv. 9. The first and last make φιλαδελφία and ἀγάπη identical.

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able sacrifice of His Son, and in virtue of the power given by Him through that Son, which he terms "regeneration from an incorruptible seed,"* that St. Peter calls on the disciples to "purify their souls in the obedience of the truth, through the Spirit, unto unfeigned brotherly love, and so out of a pure heart to love one another earnestly." No such conception as this of the relation between man and man is to be found in the whole heathen world. They had neither the thing nor the name for it. It is a derivation to man from the Sonship bestowed on him by God in Christ, which encircles the whole brotherhood with a new tie, and draws them together in a bond unknown to those for whom Aristotle thought, or Cicero compiled the thoughts of others.

While thus creating a new virtue for the practice of those who were to be associated in a new brotherhood, the attitude of the Christian society to the existing civil society is specially remarkable. It was a new doctrine to all the heathen subjects of Nero, when St. Paul declared that " every soul should be subject to higher powers; for there is no power but from God," and "the powers that are are ordained by God, so that he who resists this power resists the ordinance of God." Thus the duty of obedience to civil government was established on its only true basis by declaring that civil authority is not the result of agreement be† Rom. xiii. 1.

1 Pet. i. 22.

tween men, but of divine appointment, and therefore claims submission to itself, not on account of the temporal consequences only which would attend denial, but for conscience-sake. This principle alone could stay the interminable fight of adverse factions, which rent asunder cities and republics in old times, and supply the only stable foundation of a really Christian order. Here again the supernatural motive reinforced the natural conditions of society. And the example of our Lord Himself was before men, who recognised the divine authority of government when unjustly accused, by observing to His judge, who represented the Roman em“Thou wouldst not have any power against peror, Me unless it were given thee from above.”*

Yet the same Christian teaching which thus consecrated civil authority and fulfilled the whole circle of duties between man and man by the divine virtue of fraternal love, removed by a consequence of that very virtue that exclusive regard to the greatness and welfare of one's own country which formed the heathen's patriotism. No other consideration will bring out more fully the kind of that supernatural order which our Lord established by the teaching of His Church, or exhibit more distinctly how the spiritual and most inward renewal of the individual man is connected with the advance of the whole society. For instance, if there be any relation which is dear to men in the

John xix. 11.

in man.

natural order, it is that of country; which indeed to those who have consciously or unconsciously rejected the supernatural order becomes the leading passion, devotion to which is their standard of what is great and good. Patriotism to the Romans was the first of virtues; and there is a nation of modern times which often recalls to mind the heathen greatness of old Rome, in the minds of whose people patriotism likewise seems to be the symbol of all greatness and the test of character Now it can scarcely be doubted that Christianity did not allow this exclusive feeling of patriotism at all. It would not allow the denizen of an eternal kingdom to give to an object of the natural order the devotion which is due only to the mystical body of Christ. "Our commonwealth, or citizenship, or political life," for the word means all this, says St. Paul, “is in heaven ;" and again: "You are fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God." "You have approached Mount Sion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem;" whereas here you have "no abiding city, but seek that which is to come."* The people of Romulus believed in the immovable rock of the Capitol; the people of God believe in the immovable rock of Christ. The Christian's country, so far as he could have one in what was represented

* Phil. iii. 20, ἡμῶν τὸ πολίτευμα; Ephes. ii. 20, συμπολῖται τῶν ἁγίων; Heb. xii. 22, προσεληλύθατε πόλει Θεοῦ ζῶντος; xiii. 14, οὐ γὰρ ἔχομεν ὧδε μένουσαν πόλιν,

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