come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me; " "When thou doest alms, let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth; "He that looketh on evil to lust after it hath already committed it in his heart;" "Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father's notice;" "Where your treasure is there will your heart be also;" "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." This is my chaplet of wisdom associated with the Ethical Christ. I would tie it about my neck and bind it upon my heart. Philosophy will never dissolve it for me; a study of the events of history cannot change it; for it is the Christ which is born out of the hunger and yearning and aspiration of the Universal Human Heart.

And yet we make a mistake when thinking of this as a complete example of the Ethical Ideal. This unfortunate conclusion has led many a person to turn away from the Christ-image. He has expected to find there all the virtues, all the noble types of character, blended in the one. But there could be no such composite picture. Men have instinctively surrendered to the Christ because they found there such a complete example of one aspect of an ever unfolding Ideal. It is an illustration of absolute humility. All the instinctive reverence we would pay to this one virtue, we would pay to the Christ.

Every type of character which appears in history, will be characteristic of the age when it was being developed, and will emphasize the virtues most essential for that time. In the earlier centuries, when the Christ-picture was taking shape, the ideal aspect most called for was passive endurance, heroic sub

missiveness, gentle humility. It was the meek and lowly of heart, who could be the truly great men and women of those times; for there was no field or no sphere for the aggressive virtues. The bold, determined, energetic will, pushing ahead to change the course of events and to alter the trend of history, would have had little opportunity to display itself if, at the same time, it had been united with the spirit of self-denial or self-surrender. The "Christ" character of that age knew how to endure and to submit. This is one side of the perfect ideal, and, as such, it will hold its exalted place through all ages to come.

But it is in our own time that the aggressive virtues in their noblest form are beginning to find a sphere or opportunity to display themselves. It is only in more recent times that social conditions have taken shape so that there could be any hope of altering or improving the structure of society. What is called for now is not merely a sublime humility or passive endurance, but also the aggressive energy, the determined will, the venturesome mind by which we may go forward and plant anew the garden of life. If we neglect these other virtues, we shall pay the consequence, and may witness the aggressive spirit of man plunging ahead without being guided or held in check through the opposite virtue of self-denial or self-surrender.

We say it in all reverence: Humanity has now to clothe in more realistic form this other aspect of the Ethical Ideal. It was only vaguely or dimly outlined in the Christ-picture, because little called for in those earlier ages. We do not wish to be out of sympathy with the past, nor seem to commit sacri

lege toward its treasures. We know only too well what those treasures are worth; yet we cannot avoid expressing the conviction that a New Conscience has to appear; that a new type of character should be called forth, adapted to existing needs and possibilities, though it too must be the offspring of the Universal Human Heart as one further aspect of the Ethical Ideal.

VII

THE MESSAGE OF THE STOICS TO THE PEOPLE OF TO-DAY

ETHICAL literature has this value, that it nerves or refines the spirit. Systems of philosophy come and go. They appeal to the mind and are outgrown by the mind. But ethical experience may voice itself in a single sentence, and the sentence lives for centuries after the teacher dies. There are any number of jewels of such wisdom scattered throughout literature. They do not come through the groping of the mind after universal principles, but rather as the sudden cries or exclamations into which moral experience has been crystallized.

In this way, as we know, a few great and strong souls, and a few who wanted to be strong and great, but who made a sad failure in the effort, left behind them certain stray utterances which we speak of as "the teachings of the Stoics." Those men said: "We have found this to be true about what life is worth and about the purpose of life." At the present time we take up these collections of ethical experience and they meet an answering echo in many of us, although not in everybody, and not in anybody completely and fully, because we see further than they did. But those sayings give some of us

new strength, and we like to read them as gleanings from the world's Sacred Literature.

Stoicism was something more than a system of thought or abstract truth. It inspired the heart to endure nearly every form of trial. It sweetened the cup of pain and sorrow. Men became firm, brave, and heroic under its influence. Because of their confidence in its teachings they were able to meet death as they would a peaceful slumber. It had the quality of stirring men to self-sacrifice. It enabled them to be calm and serene in misfortune. It gave to history some of the grandest illustrations of human character. It had within itself the elements that we attribute to religion. It was the highest product of pagan thought, the noblest gift to the world from Europe in antiquity.

At the outset I should like to give an instance of its spirit from one of its teachers. It is the oftquoted selection from the thoughts of the slave Epictetus:

"How is it possible that a man who has nothing, who is naked, houseless, without a hearth, without a city, can pass a life that flows easily? Behold, a man has been sent to you to show you that this is a possibility. Look at me who am without a city, without a house, without possessions, without any one to serve me. I sleep on the ground, having no family, no home, but only the earth and heavens and one poor cloak. And what do I lack? Am I not without sorrow? Am I not without fear? Am I not free? Did any of you ever see me fail in securing my desires? Did I ever accuse any man? Did any of you ever observe me with sorrowful countenance? Did I ever blame man or God?"

This was the Stoic, the man who under all conditions could be calm and serene, yes, even happy,

K