are virgins.. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb."

The plain meaning of these passages is that celibacy is important if not indispensable to the righteousness of Jesus. The first quotation in this section means that they who are worthy of salvation do not marry in this life; and it is in complete harmony with the subsequent quotations from the language of Jesus, and with many in the epistles of Paul, who said, "It is good for them [the unmarried] if they abide [remain] even as I [in celibacy].

careth for

. He that is married careth for the things that are of the world. The unmarried the things of the Lord." Jesus himself never married, and, according to the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, Peter put away his wife. That church imposes celibacy on its clergy, and ascribes a higher condition of righteousness to its priests and to the members of its celibate orders, than to the married laity. Jerome, who is a very high authority among the Roman Catholics, says that "matrimony fills the earth, but celibacy replenishes heaven."

SEC. 525. Moral Theory.-The Christian who wishes to act in accordance with the moral teachings of the gospels must renounce all the pleasures of the world. He must have no wealth, no luxury, no fine clothing, no elegant dwelling, no political authority, no wife, no anxiety save that for his eternal salvation. He should become a hermit or monk; he should govern himself always by the rules of poverty, chastity, and submission. He should remember the command, "Resist not evil." He must stay away from the theater, from the dance,

and from the concert, and must even abstain from all jovial company. Jesus says to him, "Let your communication [conversation] be yea, yea, nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil," and again he says, "Every idle word that men speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."1

These commands are explicit and are not abrogated or qualified by other passages not here quoted. If they were ever authoritative for anybody, they are now in full force for everybody. They have been interpreted literally and made a rule of life by millions of Christian monks; and that they were meant to be taken literally is proved by the fact that similar rules had been adopted for centuries before the time of the evangelists by the Essene and Buddhist ascetics.

The only ethical maxims not ascetic in their tenor attributed in the New Testament to Jesus are the golden rule and the injunction to observe the Mosaic decalogue; and these do not contradict, abrogate, or modify the specific commands of celibacy, poverty, submission to all forms of oppression, and abstinence from jovial conversation and from social pleasure of every kind.

The average Christian of our time says these ascetic maxims are not addressed to him. He must say something of this kind to excuse the discord between his conduct and the gospel precepts which he pretends to make the rule of his life. He loves the world. He respects humanity. He believes in progress. He is proud of his freedom. He protects his rights at the risk of his heart's blood. He delights in the pleasures of love, of wealth, of intellectual companionship, of the fine arts, and of many forms of luxury. He wants an excellent table, elegant clothing, a commodious dwelling, good books,

dramas, musical entertainments, and social gatherings of many kinds. He will not give up all his worldly possessions and go out with a single garment, preaching the gospel. Between the position of Dives and that of Lazarus, he prefers the former with all its certainties in this world and its chances in the next.

Christians generally, as their habits prove, put a very liberal interpretation on the ascetic maxims of Jesus. They understand them to mean, first, Do not mutilate yourself; second, marry; third, accumulate property; fourth, do not sell it and divide the price among the poor; fifth, live in luxury if you can; sixth, when a man smites you on one cheek, knock him down; seventh, if a man steal your coat, send him to jail; eighth, resist evil; ninth, avoid people who do not laugh and who limit their conversation to yea, yea, and nay, nay; and tenth, enjoy yourself, love this life, do not worry about another, and deal justly here.

To persons not familiar with orthodox Christian literature, this method of interpretation may seem disrespectful to Webster's Dictionary, but it is in accordance with the long established and general custom of commentators in high repute. The ethical works of Roman Catholic and of Protestant theologians, including such men as Paley and Liguori, will be found to agree substantially with the interpretation in the preceding paragraph.

There is no asceticism in Paul, but he instructs his converts to submit to those clothed with authority. He does not want his doctrine to become a source or excuse for disorder. He says, "The powers that be are ordained of God." Again he says, "Servants, obey in all things your masters." In reference to the sexes he writes: "The

.

head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man. For the man is not of the woman but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man.”2

In the New as in the Old Testament, the idea is held out that the highest authority in morals is not human. conscience but Jehovah's instruction. To "fear God and keep his commandments" was declared to be "the whole duty of man" for the Jew; and for the Christian it was to keep the Ten Commandments, give up all property to the poor, and follow Jesus. According to the leading advocates of the Biblical theory of ethics, the recognition of the superior moral authority of the human conscience would be an insult to revelation. The Roman Catholic, following the doctrine of papal infallibility to its logical results, recognizes his obligation to obey all the ethical decisions of the Pope addressed officially to the whole church.

The Utilitarians, who are the successors of the Epicureans, and who, since the disappearance of the Stoics, Idivide the civilized world with the adherents of the Biblical theory, claim that morality is a natural product of the human mind; that it germinates in an innate ethical faculty; that plain traces of it are found in the maternal and social affections of brutes; that it appears prominently in the strong mutual obligations of the lowest savages towards one another; and that, guided by reason and experience, and aided by a higher culture, it has advanced beyond the teachings of Jesus to the positive recognition of the rights and duty of political equality, religious freedom, popular education, free inquiry, self-respect, enjoyment of wealth, and resistance to evil. It is an undeniable and for the Biblical theory an

unfortunate fact that the most eminent Christian priests have been advocates of slavery, despotism, religious persecution, aggressive war, witch burning, censorship of the press, and the accumulation of immense wealth in ecclesiastical institutions.

SEC. 526. No New Religion.-The main doctrines of Jesus in regard to his divine commission, attributed to .him by the evangelists, are that he was the Messiah of Jewish prophecy; that his authority as Messiah was proved by his miraculous powers; that he could transfer and that he did transfer such powers to cure the sick, to cast out devils, and to revive the dead to all who then had, or should in the future have, faith in him; and that in the future life he was to be the judge of mankind. These ideas furnish no sufficient basis for a new religion.

If he had intended to establish Christianity as it has been conceived since 300 A. D. by the majority of Christians, he would have done many things which he did not do. He would have prescribed the main points of the creed and the main rules of the discipline in clear terms. He would have said explicitly that he was the Savior of mankind. He would have explained the relation of Adam's sin to the future life, and would have added that he was the bearer of a new covenant under which all who believed and entered into his church by baptism would be relieved from the penalty of that original sin. He would have announced that the ceremonial law of Moses was absolutely repealed; that worship by sacrifice was abolished; and that all the sacred days of the Pentateuch were to give way to new holidays. He would have selected some apostles among the Gentiles, so that all should understand that he was the founder of a universal religion, which offered salvation on