and drawn together in a unity which leaves untouched the free and beautiful play of diverse tendencies and gifts. God is Spirit; God is Light; God is Lovethese are the fruitful truths which surpass all the ecclesiastical creeds, and their day is yet to come. LECTURE VI. ETHICS.-I. CHRISTIANITY is a religion which, in all its forms, is profoundly ethical. A very large proportion of the teaching of Christ is devoted to moral questions. He sets before men the highest standard of conduct, and makes the most imperative demands upon their faithfulness. Whatever doctrines may be assumed as the spiritual roots of morality, Jesus never passes judgment on a man on account of his speculative belief, but it is invariably conduct which calls forth his approval or his rebuke. It is necessary to insist upon this point, because in later times this order of judgment has frequently been reversed, and men have been condemned and tortured for their carefully formed and conscientious belief, while vice and crime have been Though this false and cruel leniently condoned. Р judgment has unhappily been one of the marked features of Christendom, nothing could be more contrary to the teaching and spirit of the Master; and we must regard it as one of those lower and alien elements which fastened themselves upon Christianity, and succeeded in utilizing some of its vital force for the nourishment of their own corrupt life. But in spite of such malignant influences, the holy exaltation of Christian character has never perished from the world; and one can always turn with refreshment from the disputes and violence which have disfigured the history of the Church, to the quiet retreats of piety and love, where the Spirit of Christ has carried the soul into communion with God, and ministered through the hands of disciples to human want and pain. It is now our task to analyze and describe this ethical life, as it appears in the earliest records of our religion. The conception of the ideal end, or highest moral good, rests upon the doctrine of the Divine Fatherhood, which we considered in the last Lecture. Man, as a child of God, is to aspire to be in all respects worthy of his birthright. He is to share the spiritual nature of God, to be led by the Spirit of God, to dwell in God and have God dwelling in him, to be perfect as the |