{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_57752/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_57752","id":"gutenberg_57752","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57752","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Ethics"],"text":"Produced by Turgut Dincer, Chuck Greif and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nbook was produced from images made available by the\nHathiTrust Digital Library.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                           LIFE AND DESTINY\n\n                                  BY\n\n                              FELIX ADLER\n\n                               AUTHOR OF\n            \u201cCREED AND DEED,\u201d \u201cMARRIAGE AND DIVORCE,\u201d ETC.\n\n                                LONDON:\n                             WATTS & CO.,\n                17 JOHNSON\u2019S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.\n                                 1913\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                           s      PAGE\n\nTHE MEANING OF LIFE                 3\n\nRELIGION                           17\n\nIMMORTALITY                        31\n\nMORAL IDEALS                       37\n\nLOVE AND MARRIAGE                  53\n\nHIGHER LIFE                        65\n\nSPIRITUAL PROGRESS                 81\n\nSUFFERING AND CONSOLATION          89\n\nETHICAL OUTLOOK                   105\n\n\n\n\nPUBLISHERS\u2019 PREFACE\n\n\n_Dr. Felix Adler, from whose Addresses the following gems of thought are\nextracted, is widely known in the United States as an impassioned\npreacher, a distinguished scholar, and a leading citizen. He founded in\n1876, in the City of New York, the first Ethical Society, of which he is\nstill the much-beloved inspirer and guide. Since that date the Ethical\nMovement inaugurated by Dr. Adler has taken root in many lands, and an\nInternational Union of Ethical Societies has been called into being, of\nwhich he is President. According to him, the three fundamental tenets of\nthe Ethical Movement are \u201cthe supremacy of the moral end of life above\nall other ends, the sufficiency of man for the pursuit of that end, and\nthe increase of moral truth to be expected from loyalty in this\npursuit.\u201d_\n\n_In this volume connected excerpts bearing on the more intimate side of\nlife, as apprehended by the author, are offered to the reader. Here Dr.\nAdler reveals himself not only as some one who has explored the deeper\nrecesses of the human heart, but his words prove him to be of the long\nline of poets and prophets who have contributed to purify and elevate\nhumanity._\n\n_This small work appears destined by its form and content to be a\nreligious and ethical classic, to be placed on the book-shelf alongside\nof \u00c0 Kempis\u2019s \u201cImitation of Christ,\u201d Pascal\u2019s \u201cThoughts,\u201d and Emerson\u2019s\n\u201cEssays\u201d. Whoever craves for self-knowledge, reveres his deeper self,\nand seeks to be captain of his own soul, will feel that these pages\noffer him precious and sympathetic counsel._\n\n_In conclusion, the Publishers desire to express their grateful thanks\nto Dr. Adler for permission to issue this popular edition, and to state\nthat they are entirely responsible for the few omissions in the text._\n\n\n\n\nTHE MEANING OF LIFE\n\n\nThere are two kinds of light, the light on the hither side of the\ndarkness and the light beyond the darkness. We must press on through the\ndarkness and the terror of it if we would reach the holier light beyond.\n\nWe are here--no matter who put us here, or how we came here--to fulfil a\ntask. We cannot afford to go of our own volition until the last item of\nour duty is discharged. We are here to make mind master of matter, soul\nof sense. We do so by overriding pain, not by weakly capitulating to it.\n\nWhen we are smitten by the rod of affliction do not let us sit still,\nbut rather get to work as fast as we can. In action lies our salvation.\nBut it must be remembered that only a great aim, one which remains\nvalid, irrespective of our private griefs, is competent in the critical\nmoments to put us into action and to sustain us in action.\n\nThe thought that extreme suffering is a key which unlocks life\u2019s deepest\nand truest meanings is the final rejoinder to the plea on behalf of\nsuicide. It is a thought which, when fully apprehended, is calculated to\ngive peace to every troubled soul.\n\nThe fact that there is a spiritual power in us, that is to say, a power\nwhich testifies to the unity of our life with the life of others, which\nimpels us to regard others as other selves--this fact comes home to us\neven more forcibly in sorrow than in joy. It is thrown into clearest\nrelief on the background of pain.\n\nIn the glow of achievement we are apt to be full of a false\nself-importance. But in moments of weakness we realise, through\ncontrast, the infinitely superior strength of the power whose very\nhumble organs and ministers we are. It is then we come to understand\nthat, isolated from it, we are nothing; at one with it, identified with\nit, we participate in its eternal nature, in its resistless course.\n\nThere are two terms of the series of progress which we should always\nkeep before us. The one is the starting-point, and the other the final\ngoal. The former is the cave man; the latter is the divine man. We know\nin a measure what sort of being the cave man was. Instructed by\nanthropologists, we know how poor and mean were the beginnings of\nhumanity on earth. But of that other term of progress--the goal of\nprogress, the divine man of whom the cave man was the germ, the first\nrough draft--of the man who is to be, our notions are vague. He rises\nbefore us, indeed, in a vision of glory, but his shape is nebulous. And\nthe result of progress is just this, that it makes us more and more able\nto define the outlines of that shape, to draw sharply and finely the\nnoble lineaments of that face; that it makes us more and more able to\nsee the divine, the perfect man, the only begotten son of all the\nspirits of the myriads of the generations of men--the man that is to be,\nthe perfection of our imperfection.\n\nThe perfect man has never yet appeared on earth. The perfect man is an\napparition of light and beauty rising in the boundless infinite, an\nideal to be more and more clothed with particularity. The purpose for\nwhich we exist is to help to create the perfect man, to incarnate him\nmore and more in ourselves and in others.\n\nThat the lofty form of man may be wholly disengaged from the\nencompassing clay, that the traces of our bestial ancestry may be wholly\npurged from our nature, that our spirits may stand erect as our bodies\nalready do--this, I think, is the end for which we exist.\n\nEvery man, however humble, is worthy of reverence because, in his\nlimited sphere, he can be a beneficent, forward-working agent, he can\nhelp a little to create the perfect man. Every child is a possible\navatar of the more perfect man. On every child the whole past lays its\nburdens, and of the outcome of its life the whole future is expectant.\n\nThe way to overcome dejection is to energise our nature vigorously. An\neminent physician is quoted as saying: \u201cI firmly believe that one-half\nof the confirmed invalids could be cured of their maladies if they were\ncompelled to live busy and active lives, and had no time to fret over\ntheir miseries. The will has a wonderfully strong and direct influence\nover the body. Good work is the safeguard of health. The way to live\nwell is to work well.\u201d If this be true, even when the cause of the\ndejection is corporeal, how much more likely is it to be true where the\ncause is seated in the mind.\n\nIn cases of bereavement, what is it that can enable a man to weather the\nhurricane of grief which is apt to descend upon the soul immediately\nafter a great loss; and what can enable him to live through the dead\ncalm which is apt to succeed that first whirlwind of passionate\ndesolation? It is the thought that the fight must still go on, because\nthere are issues of infinite worth at stake; and that, though wounded\nand crippled, he must still bear his part in the fight until the end.\n\nFor singleness of purpose, I plead. This alone can give strength to our\nwill, coherence to our life. Without it we drift; with it we steer. Let\nus have before us, whatever we do, a sovereign aim, but let us also make\nsure that it be a worthy aim, one that will purge the clay from our\neyes, from our lips, from our brains, from our hearts.\n\nA great man helps us by the standard which he erects. He never really is\nlevel with his own standard, and yet we do not therefore reject him. He\nhelps us by what he earnestly tries for, and by what he suggests to us\nthat we should try for; he helps us, not so much by what he achieves,\nas by what he reveals, by the insight which he gives us into the nature\nof good.\n\nSo far as the forward movement of the human race is concerned, it is the\neffort that counts, and not the attainment; the realm of time and space\ncan never be the scene of complete realisation. The reward of the effort\nis the wider outlook upon the ultimate aim; the truer estimate of its\ncharacter as infinite, and, along with this, the recognition of that\ninfiniteness of our own nature which enables us to conceive of and\naspire to such an aim.\n\nJoy is a light which those who possess are bound to keep burning\nbrightly for the sake of others as well as for their own sake. Every\npure joy in the world is so much pure gain.\n\nCold and bare is youth without the glow of generous idealism.\nContemptible is middle age without the sense of definite attachments\nand the willing acceptance of limitations. And ungracious and unlovely\nis old age if it be not illumined by the light of contemplation, if it\nbe not fruitful in counsel.\n\nEvery vocation, even the lowliest, which we pursue in a spirit of entire\nsincerity, is a means of acquiring culture. The artisan may be, in his\nway, as truly a cultivated man as the artist or the scholar, for by\nculture I understand insight gained into all manner of activities\nthrough genuineness and thoroughness in one. To be cultivated is to see\nthings in their relations.\n\nOur daily avocation, whatever it be, if we cling to it closely enough,\nis sure to engender in us a new respect for reality, a new humility.\n\nTo put forth power in such a way as to be provocative of power in\nothers is the ethical aim that should guide men in all vocations and in\nall their relations.\n\nThis fair earth, with its fir-clad hills, its snowy mountains, its\nsparkling seas, its azure vaults, and the holy light of the stars, is\nbut a painted screen behind which lurks the true reality.\n\nThe beauty of this earth and all that is precious and great in this\nhuman life of ours is but a hint and a suggestion of an eternal\nfairness, an eternal rightness.\n\nWe need something of the virility of stoicism to grapple with the\ndifficulties of life; we need to cultivate a large patience; an humble\nspirit that teaches us to be prepared for every loss, and to welcome\nevery joy as an unlooked-for gain. There are a thousand pleasures in\nlittle things which we, with the petulance of children, daily spurn,\nbecause we cannot have all we ask for.\n\nThe question, Is life worth living? implies a species of blasphemy. The\nright question to ask is: Am I worthy of living? If I am not, I can make\nmyself so. That is always in my power.\n\nAt bottom, the world is to be interpreted in terms of joy, but of a joy\nthat includes all the pain, includes it and transforms it and transcends\nit.\n\nThe Light of the World is a light that is saturated with the darkness\nwhich it has overcome and transfigured.\n\n\n\n\nRELIGION\n\n\nReligion is a wizard, a sibyl. She faces the wreck of worlds, and\nprophesies restoration. She faces a sky blood-red with sunset colours\nthat deepen into darkness, and prophesies dawn. She faces death, and\nprophesies life.\n\nReligion has been so eager to supply us with information concerning the\nuniverse outside of us, its origin and its destiny, because our life is\nlinked with that of the universe, and our destiny is dependent on the\ndestiny of the universe.\n\nThe dependence of man on outside forces which he cannot control is the\npoint of departure of religion.\n\nIt is the moral element contained in it that alone gives value and\ndignity to a religion, and only in so far as its teachings serve to\nstimulate and purify our moral aspirations does it deserve to retain its\nascendency over mankind.\n\n\u201cThere is a time to act for the Lord by breaking his commandments\u201d was a\nsaying current among the ancient Hebrews. This means there is a time to\nact for religion by protesting against what passes for religion; there\nis a time to prepare the way for a larger morality by shattering the\nnarrow forms of dogma whereby the progress of morality is hindered.\n\nEthical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless\nefforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an\nupward movement, without limit.\n\nThe symbols of religion are ciphers of which the key is to be found in\nmoral experience. It is in vain we pore over the ciphers unless we\npossess the key.\n\nTo understand the meaning of a great religious teacher we must find in\nour own life experiences somewhat akin to his. To selfish, unprincipled\npersons whose heart is wholly set on worldly ends, what meaning, for\ninstance, can such utterances have as these? \u201cYou must become like\nlittle children if you would possess the kingdom of heaven;\u201d \u201cYou must\nbe willing to lose your life in order to save it;\u201d \u201cIf you would be\nfirst you must consent to be last.\u201d To the worldly-minded such words\nconvey no sense whatever; they are, in fact, rank absurdity.\n\nOf the origin of things we know nothing, and can know nothing.\nPerfection does not reveal itself to us as existent in the beginning;\nbut as something that ought to be, something new which we are to help\ncreate. Somehow the secret of the universe is hidden in our breast.\nSomehow the destinies of the universe depend upon our exertions.\n\nThe Infinite, from which comes the impulse that leads us to activity, is\nnot the highest Reason, but higher than reason; not the highest\nGoodness, but higher than goodness.\n\nThere is a city to be built, the plan of which we carry in our heads, in\nour hearts. Countless generations have already toiled at the building of\nit. The effort to aid in completing it takes, with us, the place of\nprayer. In this sense we say, \u201c_Laborare est orare_.\u201d\n\nThe essential faith is the product of effort and is sustained and\nclarified by effort.\n\nWhat is the way to get a religion? We know, at all events, what cannot\nbe the way. It cannot be to prostrate our intellects before the throne\nof authority; to bind the Samson within us, the human mind, and deliver\nhim into the hands of the Philistines; to abjure our reason. Whatever\nreligion we adopt must be consistent with the truths with which\nwe have been enriched at the hands of science. It may be\nultra-scientific--indeed, it must be; but it may not be anti-scientific.\n\nBut, on the other hand, we need to be equally warned against expecting\ntoo much from the intellect. One cannot attain religion merely by\ntrying, in his closet, to think out the problems of the universe.\n\nIt is a mistake to approach the subject of religion from the point of\nview of philosophy. All really religious persons declare that religion\nis, primarily, a matter of experience. We must get a certain kind of\nexperience, and then philosophic thinking will be of use to us in\nexplicating what is implicated in that experience. But we must get the\nexperience first.\n\nThe undulatory theory would not help any one to know what light is who\nhad never seen light, and the chemical formula for water would not help\nany one to know what water is who had never tasted it. To know light one\nmust see it; to know water one must taste it. So, too, philosophy will\nnot help any one to know what religion is.\n\nThe experience of religion is not reserved for the initiated and elect,\nit is accessible to every one who chooses to have it.\n\nThe experience to which I refer is essentially moral experience. It may\nbe described as a sense of subjection to imperious impulses which urge\nour finite nature toward infinite issues; a sense of propulsions which\nwe can resist, but not disown; a sense of a power greater than\nourselves, with which, nevertheless, in essence we are one; a sense, in\ntimes of moral stress, of channels opened by persistent effort, which\nlet in a flood of rejuvenating energy and put us in command of\nunsuspected moral resources; a sense, finally, of the complicity of our\nlife with the life of others, of living in them in no merely\nmetaphorical signification of the word; of unity with all spiritual\nbeing whatsoever.\n\nA religion which is to satisfy us must be a religion of progress. But we\nmust be progressive ourselves if we are to have faith in progress. We\nmust be constantly developing if we are to have faith in unbounded\nfurther development. And especially we must be progressing in a moral\ndirection.\n\nWe should acquire the habit of taking stock from time to time of our\nmoral possessions, of keeping faithful count of our net gains and\nlosses. Do we, for instance, possess more fortitude, or less, in\nencountering unavoidable pain? Are we in better or worse control of our\npassions, of our tempers? Alas, that many of us, as we grow older,\nbecome more fretful and irascible, a greater trial and burden to our\nsurroundings. Are we more broadly charitable in our judgment of others;\nmore ready to make allowance for their faults, to bear with their\nshortcomings? Are we more or are we less devoted to the public ends of\nhumanity? Does our idealism turn out to have been a mere ebullition of\noptimistic youth, a mere flash in the pan? Or does it grow wiser and\nwarmer with the years? Does it burn with a steadier glow? Are we\nlearning resignation, renunciation? It is by an honest answer given to\nsuch questions as these that we may decide whether we are progressing or\nretrograding.\n\nWhen we have reached a certain stage of culture, genuine gratitude and\nthe verbal expression of it are inconsistent. We can say thanks for the\nlittle gifts, the lesser favours. But when the gift is great, and the\ndebt exceeding heavy, when we are full to overflowing with gratitude,\nthen the words die upon our lips, and the only way to show our gratitude\nis by the use we make of the benefits we receive. For this reason, among\nothers, the verbal expression of thanks to the Infinite Being in the\nform of prayer has always seemed to me a kind of desecration.\n\nBecause the Hebrew view of life is essentially the ethical view,\ntherefore we still go back to the writings in which this view was first\npromulgated, and delight in them, as we do in no other scriptures in the\nworld.\n\nAll of us are spiritually the heirs of the Hebrew prophets, including\namong them Jesus, the greatest of their number.\n\nThere are moral traits in all religions, but, as a rule, they are\nsubordinated. Morality is subordinated to _beauty_ and _harmony_ in the\nGreek ideal. It is the accompaniment and consequence of _order_ in the\nConfucian scheme. It is but one form of the _brightness_ of things, as\nopposed to darkness and evil, in Zoroastrianism. But to the Hebrew\nthought, moral excellence is the supreme excellence to which every\nother species of excellence is tributary.\n\nThe Hebrew religion and its descendants are the only ethical religions,\nstrictly speaking, because in the Hebrew religion the moral element is\nconstitutive and sovereign.\n\nThat the moral \u201cought\u201d cannot be explained as the product of physical\ncausation, is the greatest contribution which the Hebrew people have\nmade to the religious and moral history of mankind.\n\nA new Easter Day will come for mankind, when a race of religious\nteachers shall arise, who will be consecrated for their work by a more\nadequate training and a deeper moral enthusiasm, whose word will again\nbe mighty as of old to inform the conscience of nations, and who shall\ncarry the glad tidings of a higher life to the ends of the earth.\n\n\n\n\nIMMORTALITY\n\n\nThe dead are not dead if we have loved them truly. In our own lives we\ncan give them a kind of immortality. Let us arise and take up the work\nthey have left unfinished, and preserve intact the treasures they have\nwon, and round out, if possible, the circuit of their being to the\nfulness of an ampler orbit in our own.\n\nThey that have left us are not afar; their presence is near and real, a\nsilent and august companionship. In still hours of meditation, in the\nstress of action, in the midst of trials and temptations, we hear their\nvoices whispering words of cheer or warning, and our deeds are, in a\nsense, their deeds, and our lives their lives.\n\nSo does the light of other days still shine in the bright-hued flowers\nthat clothe our fields. So do they who have long since been gathered\ninto the silent city of the dead still live in the deeds we do for their\nsake, in the earnest effort we put forth toward greater rectitude,\npatience, purity, under the influence of their unforgettable memories.\n\nThe conservation of moral energy is in a certain sense as true as the\nconservation of mechanical energy. We are not dust merely that returns\nto dust; we are not summer flies that bask in the sunshine of a passing\nday; we are not bounded in our influence by the narrow boundary of our\nyears.\n\nIn aspiring to noble ends, the soul takes on something of the greatness\nof that which it truly admires.\n\nThe evident disparity between virtue and happiness has led men to take\nrefuge in the thought of compensation hereafter, and the necessity of a\nfuture state in which the good shall be rewarded and the evil punished\nhas been deduced from the very inequities and moral inconsistencies of\nour present experience. The argument in this specific form is worthless,\nbut it is based, nevertheless, upon a capital truth--the truth, namely,\nthat our moral ideal is destined to be realised, though we may not know\n_how_ it will be realised.\n\nVast possibilities suggest themselves to us of an order of existence\nwholly different from all that we have ever known; a gleam reaches the\neye, as it were, from a far celestial land, and the crimson dawn of a\nSun of Truth appears, to which the splendours of our earthly mornings\nare as obscurity.\n\n\n\n\nMORAL IDEALS\n\n\nAs the light of morning strikes now one peak and then another, some\nbeing illuminated while others are in the shadow, so the light of the\nessential moral principle shines now upon one duty and then upon\nanother, while others are in the shadow.\n\nLet us religiously set apart times and seasons in which to gather up the\nfruits of action and to experience the reactions which should follow on\naction. The most valuable of these fruits is just the intensified\nappreciation of the disparity existing between our achievements and the\ngoal, the clearer vision of the goal, the sublimer and truer conception\nof it.\n\nIn order to join vigorously in the moral work of the world I must\nbelieve that somehow the best I can accomplish will endure, will leave\nits trace on things, will aid the final consummation.\n\nWhat is needed above all else, is to find a more secure basis for\nmorality, now that the theological basis has slipped away; to rekindle\nthe belief in the ideal, to bring into new prominence the unchanging\ntruths, and to discover the new truths which men need for their moral\nguidance.\n\nIt is said that we live in order to make the world better, but this\nphrase is ambiguous. Often it is used as referring merely to an increase\nof the sum of human pleasure. And this would be an aim by no means\ncomparable in grandeur and sublimity to that which Religion in the past\nhas set up.\n\nWe live to unfold the unmanifested potentialities of the universe, so\nfar as they are latent in man, who, as far as we know, is the highest\nproduct of the universe. We live to enhance mentality and morality in\nthe world. A developed mentality and morality will of itself cure the\nevils of poverty, and ignorance and sin. It may bring pleasure in its\ntrain, or may not bring it--it matters not. Not the fool\u2019s paradise of\nease and enjoyment, but the heightened mentality and morality is the\naim.\n\nThe moral ideal in its simplicity is all-sufficient. Its native charm\ncan derive no added splendour from the drapery of creeds. Its severe\nbeauty needs no factitious embellishment of myth and legend. The\nconviction that this is so has long been cherished by solitary thinkers.\nWe should endeavour to spread it among the people. The hope of a perfect\nsociety is entertained vaguely. We should seek to lift it into the\nclear light of consciousness as the one commanding end of human\nendeavour, the supreme object of reverence and devotion.\n\nDay by day there are triumphs to be won over the passion that stirs in\nour breasts; over the rising anger that sears our lips; over the\nturpitudes that defile our hearts; over the spirit of impatience and\nmutiny that threatens the authority of our reason. By such triumphs we\nare raised above our baser selves, and the fire which consumes our\ngrosser natures, like the flaming chariot of Elijah, bears us living\ninto a higher world.\n\nTo those who take part with all their heart and all their might in the\nstruggle, there comes, at last, a great peace, a purified gladness.\nGladness, in some instances, springs from a natural buoyancy of\ntemperament, and is quite consistent with shallowness and\nsuperficiality of character. In other cases it is coincident with the\nswift flow of the currents of the blood, and ceases when the stream\nflows more slowly and begins to stagnate. Or it is due to gifts which an\nexceptional good fortune showers into the laps of favoured mortals.\nGladness of this sort comes with happiness and departs with it.\n\nBut the purified gladness of which I speak is not dependent on these\naccidents. It is the mark of the ripest wisdom, and is based on the\nconviction, gained through experience, that life is worth living, that\nthe victory is assured, and that the ends we pursue are of such\nexcellence as to be incapable of ultimate defeat.\n\nThe moral ideal would embrace the whole of life. In its sight nothing is\npetty or indifferent. It touches the veriest trifles and turns them\ninto shining gold. We are royal by virtue of it, and like the kings in\nthe fairy tale, we may never lay aside our crowns.\n\nThe moral order never is, but is ever becoming. It grows with our\ngrowth.\n\nWe call him a hero who maintains himself, single-handed, against\nsuperior numbers. We call him a master-horseman who sits a fiery and\nvicious steed, guiding him at will. And in like manner, we call him a\nmoral hero who conquers the enemies within his own breast--and we admire\nand revere the soul which can ride its own passions and force them into\nobedience to the dictates of reason.\n\nThe legend of St. Christopher, who undertook to carry the Christ-child\non his shoulders across a stream, is applicable in a wider sense to us\nall. The deeper he entered into the water the heavier became the burden\nwhich he had assumed so lightly in the beginning, until it pressed upon\nhim like a mountain, and he threatened to succumb beneath its weight.\nSuch likewise is the case of him who, in the sanguine days of youth, has\nassumed the moral task of reforming himself, or others. The deeper he\nenters into the stream of life the heavier becomes the burden, and there\nis no salvation for him unless his strength increases in proportion as\nthe load increases.\n\nDo not court temptation. You cannot know whether you will be strong\nenough to resist it. But prepare yourself to deal valiantly with those\ntemptations that are sure to come to you unsought, especially if you are\na \u201clive\u201d man.\n\nThe marks of evil upon the soul are like the lines left by the glaciers\nof the ice-age on the ancient rocks. The glaciers have retreated, the\nice-age has past, a warmer climate has succeeded, but the marks remain.\n\nMorality does not mope in corners, is not sour or gloomy. It loves to\nconvert our meanest wants into golden occasions for fellowship and happy\ncommunion.\n\nThe moral ideal seeks to influence and interpenetrate the most ordinary\naffairs of private life.\n\nThe moral view of politics teaches us to hold the idea of country\nsuperior to the utilities of party, to exact worthiness of public\nservants, and to place the common good above the interests of particular\nclasses.\n\nThe moral view of commerce bids the merchant put conscience into his\nwares and dealings and keep steadily in sight the larger purposes of\nhuman welfare.\n\nThe moral view of the professions leads their representatives to\nsubordinate the claims of ambition and of material gain to the enduring\ninterests of science, of justice, and to all the permanent social\ninterests that are confided to their keeping.\n\nThe purpose of man\u2019s life is not happiness, but worthiness. Happiness\nmay come as an accessory; we dare never make it the end.\n\nWe shall find men who are in the best sense successful in the miserable\ntenements of the poor.\n\nAn exalted type of morality is achieved by him who renounces in spirit\nthe opportunities which he lacks, who accepts his limitations, and who,\nunder the most trying circumstances, does not remit his efforts, no\nmatter how insignificant may be their result, to promote the good.\n\nAn exalted type of morality is displayed by aged men who, with weakened\nframes and energies impaired, are yet resolved to die in harness.\n\nAn exalted type of morality is displayed by those who, cut off from the\nopportunities of culture, and from most of the pleasures and comforts of\nexistence, yet nourish, under the ashes of disappointed hopes, the\nfeeblest remaining spark of the spiritual life, because they believe it\nto be a spark from an imperishable fire, even from that undying flame\nwhich burns at the heart of things, and which is destined to grow\nbrighter and brighter as time rolls on.\n\nThere was once a teacher who had many pupils. Some of these he placed in\na garden and bade them cultivate flowers, and said to them: \u201cFail not to\nbring your fairest flowers to me.\u201d But they became so much absorbed in\nthe delights of the garden, as to forget entirely the master who had\nplaced them there.\n\nOthers of his pupils he admitted to his library, and gave them access to\nmany volumes rich in learning, and bade them ponder these stores of\nwisdom and bring the fruit of their reflections to him. But they also\nbecame wholly engrossed in their occupations.\n\nAnd, again, there was a third company of pupils, whom he selected to be\nthe dispensers of the hospitalities of his household. He bade them\npreside over his feasts, and entertain the guests as they arrive--\u201cOnly\nforget not,\u201d he said, \u201cto bring the guests at last to me.\u201d But these,\ntoo, became wholly interested in their pleasures, and forgot the master\nand his charge.\n\nBut there were other pupils, whom, for an inscrutable reason, the master\nappointed to the hardest sort of service. He made them door-keepers to\nadmit others into the festive halls, while they themselves were\ncompelled to remain without in the cold. He commanded them to be hewers\nof wood and drawers of water, and to carry heavy burdens all day long.\nBut, behold! these poor drudges constantly thought of him. The very\nrepulsiveness of their tasks made them think of him. Loyalty to their\nmaster alone kept them faithful to their tasks. And so those who seemed\nat the greatest distance from him were really nearest to him in their\nthoughts. They could bring him, it is true, neither flower nor book,\nthey could only tell him of the heavy loads they had borne, of the hard\nlabour they had performed in the service of his entire household, and\nof their implicit obedience to his will.\n\nIn the great Academies of the Middle Ages there were four faculties,\nfrom at least one of which a student must graduate before he could claim\nthe title of Doctor, or \u201cLearned One.\u201d So likewise in the great\nuniversity of life there are four faculties, each having at its head a\ngreat professor. The name of one professor is Poverty; of another,\nSickness; of another, Sorrow; of the last, Sin. In one of these\nfaculties we must be inscribed; the searching examination of one of\nthese teachers we must pass before we can obtain our degree as Learned\nin the Art of Life.\n\nOf most persons it may, perhaps, be said, without exaggeration, that\nthey have a feeling of duty rather than a knowledge of it. When a\ncertain situation presents itself they tend to act in a certain way,\nbut they cannot clearly state the principle or rule which determines\ntheir action. The business of the moral teacher is to clarify, to\nclassify, and to enrich the content of the conscience.\n\nWe cannot demonstrate the existence of disinterested motives. The sole\nfact that we demand unselfishness in action assures us that the standard\nof enlightened self-interest is false. And, indeed, if we consult the\nopinions of men where they are least likely to be warped by sophistry,\nwe shall find that disinterestedness is the universal criterion by which\nmoral worth is measured. If we suspect the motive we condemn the act.\n\n\n\n\nLOVE AND MARRIAGE\n\n\nLove is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each includes\nthe other, each is enriched by the other.\n\nLove is an echo in the feelings of a unity subsisting between two\npersons which is founded both on likeness and on complementary\ndifferences. Without the likeness there would be no attraction; without\nthe challenge of the complementary differences there could not be the\ncloser interweaving and the inextinguishable mutual interest which is\nthe characteristic of all deeper relationships.\n\nIn the companionship of marriage our worth is tested. In that close and\nintimate relationship faults are inexorably laid bare, and virtues\nbecome doubly resplendent.\n\nThe fairest tribute that can be paid to a wife by a husband is that the\nlove she inspires becomes stronger and deeper in the lapse of time; that\nnearness serves to heighten respect, and familiarity to enhance\naffection; and that each year, as it passes, but adds another gem to her\ncrown as a wife and mother.\n\nThe spiritual quality of love transfigures the passions, transforms the\nfleeting fancy into a constant and growing attachment, the passing\nromance into a story without end the interest of which never flags.\nUnity of life is the keynote of love; the continuous blending of two\ninto one lends to love its noble beauty, its divine significance.\n\nMarriage is fundamentally holy because it is the foundation of homes.\nAll the humanities have their origin in the home. All the virtues draw\nfrom it their nourishment. The human race is distinguished from the rest\nof the creation by the possession of homes.\n\nThe home is not built of brick and stone. It is a \u201ctemple not raised\nwith hands.\u201d A man may live in a palace, furnished with all that wealth\ncan afford or luxury invent. He may have at his command books, servants,\ntroops of friends, and yet there may be a void in his life which tells\nhim that he is homeless.\n\nAnd what is the home feeling--if we consider the partners of the wedded\nlife for a moment, apart from their offspring? It is the blessed sense\nof safety that comes to him who feels that he is rooted in another\u2019s\naffection, the sense of mutual protection, of mutual care and kindness,\nin sickness and in health, in good and in evil fortune, in life and\nclose to the gates of death. Where the wife is, there is the home; and\nwhere the husband is, on land or sea. Oh, what a glad feeling it is to\nhave one\u2019s own hearth! As the hearth gives warmth to the house, so\nmarriage supplies an undiminishing inner warmth to those who partake of\nits blessings in the right spirit.\n\nMarriage is the fountain upon which the tree of humanity depends for its\nlife. If the fountain be pure, the tree will flourish and bear wholesome\nfruit. If the fountain be poisoned the tree must perish.\n\nThe god of Love is a jealous god. This does not mean that love should be\nwholly concentrated upon one person, but rather that the god of Love is\njealous of anything in the heart that is not akin to love--jealous of\nhate, jealous of meanness, jealous of low and sordid aims.\n\nThe love of husband and wife is an epitome of every other kind of love.\nThere is included in it something of the same feeling that brothers and\nsisters entertain for each other. There is a maternal element in the\nwife\u2019s feeling for the husband, and something of the fatherly spirit in\nthe attitude of the husband toward the wife. And there is besides\nsomething more which is inexplicable and ineffable.\n\nThere are fundamental differences which distinguish the sexes in their\nmental and moral make-up, and marriage is designed to bring about the\ncorrelation of these differences, the mutual adaptation and\nreconciliation of them in a higher unity.\n\nThe present tendency to accentuate the qualities in which the sexes are\nalike is a temporary reaction against unjust discrimination in the past\nin favour of men. The differences are more important than the\nsimilarities, and ere long they will again receive the preponderant\nattention which is due to them.\n\nOne of the finest results of the further development of the human race\nwill be the increasing differentiation of the sexes, leading to ever\nnew, ever more complex, ever more exquisite reciprocal adjustments in\nthe organisation of the wedded life.\n\nThe modern advocates of the elevation of women seem to be fundamentally\nmistaken in so far as they rely on the use of force--political or\neconomic--for the attainment of their ends. Woman has secured her\nelevation in the past, and has immensely contributed toward moralising\nthe human race, by precisely the opposite method; namely, by teaching\nmen that there are certain rights which they must respect, though these\nrights cannot be enforced; that there are certain rights which men must\nrespect on penalty of losing their self-respect.\n\nIt is the voice of tradition, the voice of humanity, the conscience of\nmankind pregnant with implicit truths which it may be impossible ever to\nmake wholly explicit, that speaks from the lips of wives and mothers.\n\nThis I take to be the service which the wife can render the husband--she\nteaches him to submit to a law which is not sanctioned by force; and, in\nmatters of the intellect, as well as of the character, she is his critic\nand his guide--not by a formulated code, but by the things she approves\nof or disapproves of.\n\nThe wife is just the one woman in the world who best performs for her\nhusband these high offices. She helps him to decipher his soul, to gain\nself-knowledge--the most difficult kind of knowledge, to discover what\nqualities are latent in him; she reads his defects in the light of his\npossible excellence; she spurs him on to his best performance; sustains\nhim by her faith when he fails; and when he succeeds and gains the\nworld\u2019s applause helps him to rate it at its proper worth, and to aspire\ntoward aims that rise beyond the common approbation. And the husband, in\nturn, renders a corresponding service to the wife.\n\nOnly those who are linked together in the lifelong companionship of\nmonogamic marriage can thus serve one another. Apart from the interests\nof offspring, the spiritual interests of the wedded pair themselves\ndemand that the union shall be a permanent one.\n\nWe are not married on our wedding-day; on that day we do but begin to be\nmarried. The true marriage is an endless process, the perpetual\ninterlinking of two souls while life lasts.\n\nA woman should be a home-keeper, but she should also go out from her\nhome. She should take part in the struggle of society to create new and\nbetter conditions in politics, in social life, in religion. The real\nhome-keeper should be in touch with the larger life of the world, in\norder that she may bring the breath of larger interests into her life,\nin order that she may open the windows of her house and let in the fresh\nbreezes of the intellectual world around her. The finest, highest\nconception of a modern mother is that of one who trains the growing\ngeneration to take their places in the new world which is at present in\nthe making, and how can she do this unless she herself carries the new\nworld in her heart, is receptive to the great ideas that are struggling\nto be, and comprehends them?\n\nMarriage is an estate in which we seek to help each other to solve the\ntotal problem of our lives. The attraction of the sexes, seen in the\nlight of this conception, is glorified and transfigured. Marriage is an\nestate in which we charge ourselves, not only with the comfort and the\nhappiness of another, but with the problem of the total spiritual\ndestiny of another. And because we live in our influence, because our\nlife is strongest and purest where our influence is most penetrating,\ntherefore in the estate of marriage it is possible for us to attain a\ndepth of spiritual development such as can be achieved in no other human\nrelationship whatsoever.\n\n\n\n\nHIGHER LIFE\n\n\nLet us earnestly strive to ascertain in what direction our strength\nlies, in order that we may become still stronger, and at what points we\nare weak, in order that we may fortify them, to the end that we may\nobey, however partially, the greatest of the commandments, \u201cBe ye\ntherefore perfect.\u201d\n\nIn general, the higher life may be characterised as the life which\npostpones the private to the public good, which is swayed by principles\nrather than impulses, and which bears testimony to the reality of the\nsupreme ideals.\n\nMan is like a tree, with the mighty trunk of intellect, the spreading\nbranches of imagination, and the roots of the lower instincts that bind\nhim to the earth. The moral life, however, is the fruit he bears; in it\nhis true nature is revealed.\n\nIt is the prerogative of man that he need not blindly follow the law of\nhis natural being, but is himself the author of a higher moral law, and\ncreates it even in acting it out.\n\nThe higher life includes not only such virtues as personal purity,\ntruthfulness, and a forgiving spirit toward enemies, but also embraces\nour obligations toward the State. No one can be, in the full sense, a\ngood man who is not a good citizen.\n\nThere is a difficulty in the way of teaching the higher life, due to the\nfact that only those who have begun to lead it can understand the\nmeaning of it. Nevertheless, all men can be induced to begin to lead it.\nThough they seem blind, their eyes can be opened so as to see. Deep\ndown in every human heart is the seed of a diviner life, which only\nneeds the quickening influence of right conditions to germinate.\n\nIt may be impossible for a man by merely willing it to add wings to his\nbody, but it is possible for any man, by merely willing it, to add wings\nto his soul. This perennial miracle of the moral nature is capable of\nhappening at any time.\n\nAn ideal is a port toward which we resolve to steer. We may not reach\nit. The mere fact that our goal is definitely located does not suffice\nto conduct us thither. But surely we shall thus stand a better chance of\nmaking port in the end than if we drift about aimlessly, the sport of\nwinds and tides, without having decided in our own minds in what\ndirection we ought to bend our course.\n\nThe moral law is the expression of our inmost nature, and when we live\nin consonance with it we feel that we are living out our true being.\n\nThe authority of conscience is founded on human nature itself. The\nimperative, which we cannot disown, comes from within. The distinction\nbetween right and wrong is as aboriginal as that between the true and\nthe false. But whence shall we derive the strength to do the right and\nshun the wrong? What feelings are there which, in default of the hope of\nhappiness and the fear of punishment in another world, and apart from\nthe penalties of human legislation, shall sustain us in the struggle\nagainst evil? I believe that the fear of self-condemnation and the\ndesire for self-respect can, by appropriate training, be so\nstrengthened as to serve our purpose. For what man is there among all\nour friends and acquaintances whose opinion we have reason so greatly to\ndread as the opinion of the man within the man--our own self, namely,\nsitting in judgment upon us?\n\nAmong those who acknowledge the obligation of the moral law there are\ntwo classes--the class of moral bondmen and the class of moral freemen.\nAmong the former belong those who recognise the particular moral\ncommandments, but fail to recognise the unifying principle from which\nthey flow; who see the satisfactions of which morality deprives them and\nthe pains which it imposes, but fail to see the superior satisfactions\nto which obedience opens the way, and the ineffable peace that comes\nafter the pain. Duty is a burden and a bondage to those who fix their\nattention only upon the negative aspect of it. It is a source of\nexaltation, despite the sufferings with which it is complicated, to\nthose who firmly keep in view the positive aspect of it.\n\nThe \u201cgreat occasions,\u201d morally speaking, are those that add to our\nstrength by the very magnitude of the calls they make upon us, and that\nflatter our self-esteem by the dramatic incidents which are apt, at such\ncritical moments, to attend the struggle against evil; but it cannot be\ntoo forcibly stated that the higher life, as a rule, must be led on the\nlevel of everyday existence, where the temptations to be resisted are\ncommonplace and the petty details of duty seem to deprive the effort we\nput forth of all dignity and grandeur. Whether, under such\ncircumstances, we shall be able to save our souls alive depends\nentirely on our point of view, on our bearing in mind that no detail of\nconduct is petty if it serves to exemplify a great principle.\n\nIn seeking for the highest good I cannot separate my quest so far as it\nconcerns myself from the same quest so far as it concerns others. On the\nway to the highest goal I must take my fellow-beings with me. For the\nhigher life--the germ of which exists in every man--is adequately\nrepresented by no man. The one represents more adequately some\nparticular aspect of it, another a different aspect of it. It follows,\ntherefore, that no one can love the higher life unless he seeks to\npromote it in others as well as in himself. All the so-called duties\nflow from the principle of the unity and interdependence of humanity in\ntheir effort toward the attainment of their goal.\n\nThe supreme ethical rule may be stated as follows: So act as to elicit\nthe latent spiritual possibilities in others, and thereby in thyself.\nThe aim definitely in view should be to influence others. Not one\u2019s own\ninterests, not even one\u2019s own spiritual interests, should be in the\nforeground of consciousness. Yet we can in no wise draw out what is best\nin others without constantly renewing ourselves, making ourselves better\nfitted to exercise regenerative influence, and thus attaining the\nhighest mental and moral growth of which we are capable. This, it seems\nto me, is the true harmonising of opposites, this the point of view that\nreconciles the ever-conflicting claims of individualism and altruism.\nNot the good of self as a thing apart is the aim, nor the good of others\nas a thing apart, but a higher, overarching good, to promote which is\nalike the highest good of self and others.\n\nAs light is light when it strikes on objects, so life is life when it\nsmites on other life. We live truly in our radiations. We grow and\ndevelop in proportion as we help others to grow and develop.\n\nThe question of paramount importance, therefore, to be kept ever before\nthe mind, is this: How, as a matter of fact, am I influencing the\npersons with whom I am in contact? How, as an employer, am I influencing\nmy employ\u00e9s? How, as a citizen, am I influencing my fellow-citizens? How\ndoes the effect of my personality tell on wife and children and friends?\nAm I supremely interested in getting the best results out of the people\nwith whom I am in touch? Am I helping them to make the most of\nthemselves?\n\nThere are certain obvious marks of the higher life. One is Purity. This\ndoes not mean that the senses shall be suppressed, but that the inferior\npart of our nature shall be taken up into the superior, the senses\nwedded to the soul.\n\nA second mark of the higher life is Serenity, and there is perhaps no\nsurer sign by which exalted natures can be known. To be serene under all\ncircumstances whatsoever, even in moments of imminent peril, in times of\nsudden reversal of fortune, of grievous personal loss or of public\ncalamity, is the unmistakable badge of moral ripeness. But is it\npossible to preserve one\u2019s serenity in the supreme trials of life? It is\npossible, I should answer, if we have formed the habit of asking on\nevery occasion. What is it right to do now? The habit of fixing our\nattention on how we are to conduct ourselves, on what, in a given\nsituation and quite apart from our feelings, it is right to do, steadies\nthe pulse, clears the eye and preserves the tranquillity of the soul.\nAnd there is always something which it is right to do, even in the most\ndesperate circumstances, if it be only to maintain our dignity as human\nbeings, to keep up the drooping spirits of those around us, and to\nassist our weaker brethren to the last.\n\nAnother token of the higher life, which indeed is implied in the former,\nis the habit of taking what is called an objective or Impersonal View of\nour personal relations. This is especially important as helpful to\nself-control. We are at best but tyros in the art of living, so long as\nwe continue to give effect in our dealings with others to our mere\npersonal antipathies and sympathies. As soon as we learn to speak and\nact medicinally, not from personal resentment or under the impulse of\npersonal attraction, but with a view to promoting just the good in\nothers, the whole atmosphere in which we breathe changes; a kind of\nperpetual sunshine illuminates our inner world, the clouds of hate and\nthe mists of passionate feeling dissolve and peace reigns within the\nborders of the soul.\n\nA fourth token of the higher life is Wisdom. Wisdom is situated at the\njunction of the intellectual and the moral faculties. It consists in the\nhighest use of the intellect for the discernment of the largest moral\ninterests of humanity. It is the most perfect willingness to do the\nright combined with the utmost attainable knowledge of what is right,\nand with the clearest perception of what, in a given situation, is\nfeasible. Wisdom is the attribute of one who works toward the most\nsublime ends imaginable, but who at the same time realises the\nlimitations due to existing conditions and who, free from impatience at\nthe unavoidable imperfections of man\u2019s estate, seeks to achieve the\nbetter as a step leading in the direction of the best. Wisdom consists\nin working for the better from the love of the best. The world is full\nof reformers who thunder at the gates of the Impossible, seeking to\nforce an entrance, and who injure their causes, as well as themselves,\nby the inevitable reaction which ensues when their schemes are found to\nbe impracticable. Wisdom teaches that it is possible to lead the higher\nlife, even now.\n\nBut the crowning grace of all is Humility, in the sense in which it\nimplies and presupposes dignity. Dignity is based upon the\nconsciousness of a divine element in human nature, of an infinite aim, a\nboundless destiny. Humbleness is due to a sense of the incalculable\ndistance which still separates us from the goal. These two, inseparably\ncombined, are the invariable accompaniment of moral greatness wherever\nmet with. Self-righteousness and a cynical contempt of human nature on\nthe other hand are the two chief enemies of moral progress. These\nmonsters must be slain if we would hope to continue in the upward path.\n\nThe higher life cannot be attained without rigorous self-discipline, and\nself-discipline always involves pain, but the end in view is worthy of\nthe sufferings we are called upon to endure, the prize is worthy of the\nprice exacted of us.\n\n\n\n\nSPIRITUAL PROGRESS\n\n\nBy what sort of experience are we led to the conviction that spirit\nexists? On the whole, by searching, painful experience. The rose\nReligion grows on a thorn-bush, and we must not be afraid to have our\nfingers lacerated by the thorns if we would pluck the rose. For\ninstance, a person who endures great bodily suffering with fortitude\nwill discover that there is something in him which physical agony cannot\novercome, something not of the senses, which all the assaults of the\nsenses are powerless to affect.\n\nWhy in this world of ours there should be so much suffering no one\nknows. But this we know; that, evil existing, the world being such as\nit is, we can win from evil, if we choose, an inestimable good,\nnamely--the conviction that there is in us a power not of the senses,\nthe conviction that spirit exists, and exists in us.\n\nA sceptic may say that in a world ideally conceivable we might have\nsecured this precious conviction without the necessity of undergoing the\nordeal of pain. To which the reply is: that in a world ideally\nconceivable what he says may be true; but in the world as it is, with\nwhich alone we are concerned, we have ample cause for gratitude that we\ncan turn suffering to such far-reaching account, that we can distil from\nthe bitter root this divine elixir; that by manfully bearing the pains\nof the senses, inexplicable though they be, we are able to gain the\ncertainty that a power not born of the senses exists in us, operates in\nus. It is this effect of pain that accounts for the serenity and peace\nof many patient sufferers, a peace and a serenity which surround their\nbed of misery with a kind of halo.\n\nThe same is true of moral pain. The experience of Guilt, for instance,\nif it leads us to pitilessly honest self-scrutiny and self-judgment,\nwill at the last disclose the marvellous fact that even in the most\ndesperate cases there remains a part of our nature unspoiled by the\nguilt. We become aware of a power within us, to slough off the guilt as\nthe serpent sloughs off its skin; to triumph over the evil we have done\nas well as over the evils we suffer. We realise that there is in us a\nfount of inexhaustible moral rejuvenation.\n\nWhat, then, are the compensations of Sin? In the first place, a truer\ninsight into the moral order of the universe, a more adequate\nrealisation of the authority of those holy ordinances against which we\nhave offended; and then the conviction that the soul can ever rise again\nby its own efforts. The tree may fall, but the root remains\nindestructible; the spring of moral endeavour may appear to be dried up,\nbut there are hidden subterranean streams from which it can ever be fed\nanew.\n\nThe stages of the progress of mankind may be compared to a series of\nmountain ranges. First the foothills, then the higher hills, then\nmountain range on mountain range beyond them. As we gain the loftier\neminences we see the snowy summits before us, touched by the light of\nthe moral ideal, transforming themselves before our eyes into what\nappear to be the ramparts and the spires of the Golden City. We climb\nstill higher, and the vision travels with us, lighting on the next\nsucceeding range. And so, on and on, as we ascend.\n\nWe live in our activities, in our influence. The success or failure of\nlife is determined, not by our conditions, but by the effort we put\nforth despite our conditions. A man who, though himself poor, labours to\nkeep alive the higher life in his fellows, to inspire them with the\ncourage to strive for the better, and with patience to bear the evils\nwhich are for the time being unavoidable, is a spiritual hero and a\nnobler benefactor than many of the so-called benefactors who invade the\nslums.\n\nWhen human nature fights in the last ditch, when it is pressed against\nthe wall, when the clutch of circumstances is about its throat and\nthreatens to choke it, then human nature, by way of reaction, exhibits a\npower which we call spiritual. This is rarely displayed in prosperous\ncircumstances. It is the compensation of adversity that it elicits in\nmanifold ways this spiritual power and makes man\u2019s life in a spiritual\nsense a success.\n\n\n\n\nSUFFERING AND CONSOLATION\n\n\nLet the Stoics say what they will, so long as we remain human we shall\nalways open our breasts to those warm loves that make the sweetness of\nexistence, if also they make its bitterest pain.\n\nIt is written that the last enemy to be vanquished is death. We should\nbegin early in life to vanquish this enemy by obliterating every trace\nof the fear of death from our minds. Then can we turn to life and fill\nthe whole horizon of our souls with it, turn with added zest to all the\nserious tasks which it imposes and to the pure delights which here and\nthere it affords.\n\nThere are hours of great loneliness, when the frost of desolation\npenetrates into the very soul, when the burden seems too heavy to bear,\nand the draught of life too bitter to swallow. But the very keenness of\nthe ordeal begets the strength to bear it, and patience and unselfish\nresignation will come as with the rustling of angel\u2019s wings to dry our\nscalding tears.\n\nWhen the light of the sun shines through a prism it is broken into\nbeautiful colours, and when the prism is shattered, still the light\nremains. So does the light of life shine resplendent in the forms of our\nfriends, and so, when their forms are broken, still their life remains;\nand in that life we are united with them; for the life of their life is\nalso our life, and we are one with them by ties indissoluble.\n\nThey say that it is a blessed relief in times of grief to shed tears.\nBut a more blessed relief than to shed tears is to wipe away the tears\nfrom others\u2019 eyes.\n\nIn hours of great sorrow we turn in vain to Nature for an inspiring\nthought. We question the sleepless stars; they are cold and distant. The\nwinds blow, the rivers run their course, the seasons change; they are\ncareless of man. Only in the human world do we find an answering echo to\nour needs.\n\nThe body is incapable of supporting for longer than a few brief years\nthe weight of the life that dwells within it. The vehicle cannot sustain\nthe content. The instrument falls short of the demands upon it, and\ncrumbles into ruins. But in its ruin it sets off, in tragic contrast,\nthe grandeur of the power which, for a time, employed it for its uses, a\npower greater than itself, greater than any instrument, whose glory\nrises above the ruins and gilds them with unearthly splendour in\ndeparting.\n\nWe are soldiers fighting a good fight. The call that awakens us out of\ndespair in times of affliction is the trumpet-call of duty, summoning us\nback to the battle.\n\nThe experience of progress in the past, the hope of progress toward\nperfection in the future, is the redeeming feature of life; it is the\none and only solace that never fails.\n\nIt is the nature of the noble and the good and the wise that they impart\nto us of their nobility and their goodness and their wisdom while they\nlive, making it natural for us to breathe the air they breathe and\ngiving us confidence in our own untested powers. And the same influence\nin more ethereal fashion they continue to exert after they are gone.\n\nThe condition of all progress is experience. We go wrong a thousand\ntimes before we find the right path. We struggle, and grope, and hurt\nourselves until we learn the use of things, and this is true of things\nspiritual as well as of material things. Pain is unavoidable, but it\nacquires a new and higher meaning when we perceive that it is the price\nhumanity must pay for an invaluable good.\n\nThe consolations of the moral ideal are vigorous. They do not encourage\nidle sentiment. They recommend to the sufferer action. Our loss, indeed,\nwill always remain loss, and no preaching or teaching can ever make it\notherwise. But the question is whether it shall weaken and embitter, or\nstrengthen and purify us, and lead us to raise to the dead we mourn a\nmonument in our lives that shall be better than any pillared chapel or\nstoried marble tomb.\n\nThe criterion of all right relations whatsoever is that we are helped by\nthem. And so, too, the criterion of right relations to the dead is that\nwe are helped, not weakened and disabled, by them. Does the remembrance\nof our departed beloved ones have this effect upon us? Does it make us\nbetter and purer men and women than we should otherwise have been,\nstronger if not happier? Do they come to us as gentle monitors in silent\nhours of thought? Does their approving smile stimulate us to greater\nbravery for the right, to more earnest self-conquest? Does the pressure\nof their invisible hands guide us in the better way? If so, then truly\nblessed is their memory. Then will the pain which is associated with the\nthought of them gradually be diminished; the wild regrets, the\nunappeasable longings which, at times, assert themselves gradually be\npacified. Then will the bitter sense of the loss we have sustained be\noverborne by the consciousness of the treasure of their influence which\nstill remains to us, and which can never be taken from us.\n\nActivity is our great resource. To be active is to live. The glow that\ncomes with activity supplies the heat that supports our mental and moral\nenergies. Activity is the antidote to the depressions that lower our\nvitality, whether they come from physical or psychical causes.\n\nThose whom we love are not given to us merely for our joy or our\nhappiness. Their truest ministry consists in being to us revealers of\nthe divine. They quicken in us the seed of better thoughts, help us to\nestimate rightly the things that are worth trying for and the things\nthat are not worth trying for; help us to become more equal to the\nstandard of our own best insight, and grow into our truer selves. And\nthis influence abides when they are gone.\n\nLet us learn from the lips of death the lessons of life. Let us live\ntruly while we live, live for what is true and good and lasting. And let\nthe memory of our dead help us to do this. For they are not wholly\nseparated from us, if we remain loyal to them. In spirit they are with\nus. And we may think of them as silent, invisible, but real presences in\nour households.\n\nIn a storm at sea when the peril is extreme, the captain lashes himself\nto the mast in order that he may bring the vessel safely through the\nraging seas. So, in times of great affliction, we should lash ourselves\nto the mast of the ship of life, by the cord of duty.\n\nThe bitter, yet merciful, lesson which death teaches us is to\ndistinguish the gold from the tinsel, the true values from the worthless\nchaff.\n\nThe terrible events of life are great eye-openers. They force us to\nlearn that which it is wholesome for us to know, but which habitually we\ntry to ignore--namely, that really we have no claim on a long life; that\nwe are each of us liable to be called off at any moment, and that the\nmain point is not how long we live, but with what meaning we fill the\nshort allotted span--for short it is at best.\n\nThe wine of pleasure which once we quaffed so passionately, where is it\nnow? The cup is empty and only the lees remain, and they are as wormwood\nto the taste. The flowers which we wove into chaplets at our feasts to\nwreathe ourselves withal, they are withered and noxious. But the good\ndeeds we have done, the nobler traits of character we have\ndeveloped--these are imperishable.\n\nAs in every battle, so in the great battle of Humanity, the fallen and\nwounded, too, have a share in the victory; by their sufferings they have\nhelped, and the greenest wreaths belong to them.\n\nWe conceive of ourselves as somehow identical in being with those who\nare to come after us; for it is in the nature of spirit that its\nseparate members, dispersed though they be in space and time, are still,\nin essence, one. So that we may say concerning those who come after us,\nand who will reap the benefit of our labours, that we ourselves shall\nattain to increasing perfection in them.\n\nAll of us have felt after some great bereavement the beneficent\ninfluence of mere work. Even the mechanical part of our daily tasks\naffords us some relief. The knowledge that something must be done\nprevents us from brooding over our griefs, and forces us back into the\nactive currents of life.\n\nThe resources of the intellect, too, stand us in good stead in times of\ntrouble. The pursuit of knowledge is directed toward large impersonal\nends: into the calm and silent realm of thought the feelings can gain no\nentrance. There, after the first spasms of emotion have subsided, we may\nfind at least a temporary relief--there for hours we drink in a welcome\noblivion. But mere plodding toil and mere intellectual preoccupation do\nnot suffice, the discharge of the moral duties in the light of the moral\nperfection to which they point alone can really sustain and console us.\n\nIn alleviating the misery of others our own misery will be alleviated;\nin healing there is cure.\n\nWhen we endure some heavy affliction we are apt to say, \u201cOh, there is no\nsuffering like my suffering. There is no one who bears such a load as\nmine.\u201d This is a mistake--the guilty suffer more than the afflicted.\nBetter a thousand times death than shame. There are depths below depths,\nabysses below abysses.\n\nPoverty, Sickness, Sorrow, and the experience of Sin are the great\ninstrumentalities for moralising our natures. They are dark gateways\nthrough which we pass into a temple of light--into the innermost\nsanctuary of a truer life. Yes, for the guilty also there is consolation\nand redemption. \u201cCome ye that are heavy laden unto me, no matter how\nheavily laden with sin,\u201d says every religion, \u201cand I will give you\nrest.\u201d For those who have transgressed the moral law realise more fully\nthan others do the sublime majesty of the power which they have\naffronted. And in a sense greater than words can convey, those who have\nhad the profoundest experience of guilt are more capable than others of\na divine transfiguration of their natures.\n\nWe are not free to stand aside in idle woe, but should make for the\ndeparted a memorial in our lives and complete their half-completed\ntasks. The widowed wife shall be both mother and father to her children;\nthe afflicted husband both father and mother to his children.\n\nFaith in the sublime ideal of humanity is the saving faith that will\nwork miracles to-day, as of old at Cana, that will change the waters of\nearth\u2019s grief and misery into the wondrous wine of life and joy.\n\nDeath and the dead should be associated with what is brightest and\npurest in Nature, with glorious sunsets, with the dawn of summer\nmornings, with the fragrance of Spring.\n\n\n\n\nETHICAL OUTLOOK\n\n\nThe right for the right\u2019s sake is the motto which every one should take\nfor his own life. With that as a standard of value we can descend into\nour hearts, appraise ourselves, and determine in how far we already are\nmoral beings, in how far not yet.\n\nThe supremacy of the moral end of life above all other ends, the\nsufficiency of man for the pursuit of that end, the increase of moral\ntruth to be expected from loyalty in this pursuit--these are the three\ntenets, if we may call them so, of an ethical creed.\n\nThe question what to believe is perhaps the most momentous that any one\ncan put to himself. Our beliefs are not to be classed among the\nluxuries, but among the necessaries of existence. They become\nparticularly important in times of trouble. They are like the life-boats\ncarried by ocean ships. As long as the sea is smooth and there is every\nappearance of a prosperous voyage, the passengers seldom take note of\nthe boats or inquire into their sea-worthiness. But when the storm\nbreaks and danger approaches, then the capacity of the boats and their\nsoundness become matters of the first importance.\n\nEthical religion affirms the continuity of progress toward moral\nperfection. It affirms that the spiritual development of the human race\ncannot be prematurely cut off, either gradually or suddenly; that every\nstone of offence against which we stumble is a stepping-stone to some\ngreater good; that, at the end of days, if we choose to put it so, all\nthe rays of progress will be summed and centred in a transcendent focus.\n\nReligion is concerned with the foreign relations of mankind, that is to\nsay, with our relations to the whole of outside nature. The mission of\nreligion is to convince us that the foreign power is friendly. The\nnon-ethical religions have represented the eternal outside power as\nmanifesting its friendliness by warding off unhappiness and ministering\nto the temporal well-being of man. Ethical religion restricts itself to\naffirming that the eternal power assures the fulfilment of our moral\naims. The non-ethical religions have based the belief that there is a\nhigher power on the testimony of supernatural revelations. Ethical\nreligion bases its belief solely upon the testimony of conscience, which\ndeclares that progress ought to be achieved, hence inferring that it\nwill be.\n\nThat the moral obligation remains in force is the capital fact to which\nwe must hold fast, no matter what may be our theories of life and the\nUniverse. The recognition of this obligation, the hearty avowal of the\nsupremacy of the moral end above all other ends of life, is the first\narticle of a practical ethical creed.\n\nThere may be, and there ought to be, progress in the moral sphere. The\nmoral truths which we have inherited from the past need to be expanded\nand re-stated.\n\nIn times of misfortune we require for our support something of which the\ntruth is beyond all question, in which we can put an implicit trust,\n\u201cthough the heavens should fall.\u201d A merely borrowed belief is, at such\ntime, like a rotten plank across a raging torrent. The moment we step\nupon it, it gives way beneath our feet.\n\nGood deeds remain good, no matter whether we know how the world was made\nor not. Vile deeds are vile, no matter whether we know or do not know\nwhat, after death, will be the fate of the doer. We know, at least, what\nhis fate is now, namely, to be wedded to the vileness.\n\nThe question for any one to decide, who hesitates between good and evil,\nis whether he aspires to be a full-weight man, or merely the fragment,\nnay, the counterfeit of a man. Only he who ceaselessly aims at moral\ncompleteness is, in the true sense, a human being.\n\nThere is a universal element in man which he can assert by so acting as\nif the purpose of the Universe were also his purpose. It is the function\nof the supreme ordeals of life to develop in men this power, to give to\ntheir life this distinction, this height of dignity, these vast\nhorizons.\n\nLife has ever seemed to me a task. It has its interludes of joy. But, on\nthe whole, it is an arduous, often a desperately arduous task. I think\nof the dead as of those who have finished their task, who have graduated\nfrom this exacting school, who have taken their degree--and some of\nthem, surely, with honour.\n\nWe need to feel that no effort is ever wasted, that no honest reaching\nout toward the good is vain, that the great All is pressing forward\ntoward a transcendent goal. And there is but a single way to obtain this\nconviction. It is not possible to enter into the nature of the Good by\nstanding aloof from it--by merely speculating upon it. Act the Good, and\nyou will believe in it. Throw yourself into the stream of the world\u2019s\ngood tendency and you will feel the force of the current and the\ndirection in which it is setting. The conviction that the world is\nmoving toward great ends of progress will come surely to him who is\nhimself engaged in the work of progress.\n\nBy ceaseless efforts to live the good life we maintain our moral sanity.\nNot from without, but from within, flow the divine waters that renew the\nsoul.\n\nThe ethical element of religion has ever been its truly vital and\nquickening force. It is this which lends such majesty to the speeches of\nthe Prophets, which gives such ineffable power and sweetness to the\nwords of Jesus. Has this ethical element become less important in our\nage? Has the need of accentuating it become less imperative?\n\nTo-day, in the estimation of many, science and art are taking the place\nof religion. But science and art alike are inadequate to build up\ncharacter and to furnish binding rules of conduct.\n\nWe need also a clearer understanding of applied ethics, a better insight\ninto the specific duties of life, a finer and a surer moral tact.\n\nIt is the business of the preacher, not only to state moral truths, but\nto inspire his hearers with a realising sense of their value, and to\nawaken in them the desire to act accordingly. He can do this only by\nputting his own purpose as a yeast into their hearts. The influence of\nthe right sort of preachers cannot be spared. The human race is not yet\nso far advanced that it can dispense with the impulses that come from\nmen of more than average intensity of moral energy.\n\nLet us produce, through the efficacy of a better moral life and of a\ndeeper moral experience, a surer faith in the ultimate victory of the\ngood.\n\nLet us found religion upon a basis of perfect intellectual honesty.\nReligion, if it is to mean anything at all, must stand for the highest\ntruth. How then can the cause of truth be served by the sacrifice, more\nor less disguised, of one\u2019s intellectual convictions?\n\nTo those who are longing for a higher life, who deeply feel the need of\nreligious satisfactions, we suggest that there is a way in which the\ndemands of the head and the heart may be reconciled. Religion is not\nnecessarily allied with dogma, a new kind of faith is possible, based\nnot upon legend and tradition, not upon the authority of any book, but\nupon the moral nature of man.\n\nTheologians often say that faith must come first, and that morality must\nbe deduced from faith. We say that morality must come first, and faith,\nto those whose nature fits them to entertain it, will come out of the\nexperience of a deepened moral life as its richest, choicest fruit.\n\nPrecisely because moral culture is the aim, we cannot be content merely\nto lift the mass of mankind above the grosser forms of evil. We must try\nto advance the cause of humanity by developing in ourselves, as well as\nin others, a higher type of manhood and womanhood than the past has\nknown.\n\nTo aid in the evolution of a new conscience, to inject living streams of\nmoral force into the dry veins of materialistic communities is our aim.\n\nWe seek to come into touch with the ultimate power in things, the\nultimate peace in things, which yet, in any literal sense, we know well\nthat we cannot know. We seek to become morally certain--that is, certain\nfor moral purposes--of what is beyond the reach of demonstration. But\nour moral optimism must include the darkest facts that pessimism can\npoint to, include them and transcend them.\n\nTo give to actual life the formal poise and finish of a work of art is\nthe tendency of those who see in learning and beauty the highest end of\nhuman endeavour. It is a tendency the value of which as an element of\nwisdom cannot be denied; but it cannot, on the other hand, be said that\nit is \u201cthe religious teaching which is proper to our time.\u201d The\nwatchword \u201cculture\u201d we may indeed adopt. But there is needed the\nqualifying prefix \u201cethical\u201d to give it a practical direction and a\nhigher than the merely \u00e6sthetic connotation.\n\nWe should teach our children nothing which they shall ever need to\nunlearn; we should strive to transmit to them the best possessions, the\ntruest thought, the noblest sentiments of the age in which we live.\n\nThe moral ferment that has worked from the beginning in human nature is\nactive still. To-day it is manifest in the great social problems that\nagitate our age, demanding a higher justice, if they are to be solved,\nthreatening social disruption if they are met in the hard spirit of\nselfish greed, while promising a fairer future than the world has yet\nseen if dealt with in wisdom and forbearance.\n\nThe frontier of the higher life is everywhere contiguous to the common\nlife, and we can cross the border at any moment. The higher life is as\nreal as the grosser things in which we put our trust. But our eyes must\nbe anointed so that we may see it.\n\nThe office of the religious teacher is to be a seer, and to make others\nsee, and thus to win them into the upward way.\n\nThey have not grasped the whole truth who see in the sympathetic side of\nhuman nature, in the tender and amiable impulses of the heart, the\nwell-spring of our moral judgments. These gentle qualities--pity,\ntenderness, sympathy--are the sweet, younger sisters of Virtue; but\nVirtue herself is greater than they.\n\nWe should seek to free the moral life from the embarrassments and\nentanglements in which it has been involved by the quibbles of the\nschools and the mutual antagonisms of the sects; to introduce into it an\nelement of downrightness and practical earnestness; above all, to\nsecure to the modern world, in its struggle with manifold evil, the boon\nof moral unity, despite intellectual diversity.\n\nIn order to improve ethics as a science it is necessary to fix attention\non the moral facts, to collect them, to bring them into view, especially\nthe more recondite facts.\n\nMany of us stumble, not because we lack the desire to do what is right,\nbut because we fail to discern what the right is.\n\nI believe in the supreme excellence of righteousness; I believe that the\nlaw of righteousness will triumph in the universe over all evil; I\nbelieve that in the attempt to fulfil the law of righteousness, however\nimperfect it must remain, are to be found the inspiration, the\nconsolation, and the sanctification of human existence.\n\nWe live in order to finish an, as yet, unfinished universe, unfinished\nso far as the human, that is, the highest part of it, is concerned. We\nlive in order to develop the superior qualities of man which are, as\nyet, for the most part latent.\n\nThe test of genuine moral culture is to be found in the attention we pay\nto the oft-neglected details of conduct; in the extent to which we have\nformed the habit of asking, What is it right to do in those little\nthings which yet are not little?\n\nThe thought of the brevity of life is the prod that spurs us on to the\nachievement of our task; it is like the blast of a bugle from the walls\nof a fortress that warns us to make haste lest the gates be closed\nagainst us.\n\nWe are to go out as teachers among the people, discarding the\nlimitations imposed by the theologies of the past, and holding up the\nmoral ideal, pure and simple, as the human ideal, as the ideal for all\nmen, embracing all men, binding on all men--the ideal of a perfect\nsociety, of a society in which no men or class of men shall be mere\nhewers of wood and drawers of water for others; in which no man or\nwoman, or class of men or class of women shall be used as tools for the\nlusts of others, or for the ambitions of others, or for the greed of\nothers; in which every human life, the life of every man and woman and\nchild, shall be esteemed a sacred utterance of the Infinite.\n\n\n                                THE END\n\n\n     WATTS AND CO., PRINTERS, JOHNSON\u2019S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.","title":"Life and destiny","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":13973}