kingdom of God. His poverty and celibacy have nothing to do with asceticism, but represent, the one the condescension of his redeeming love, the other his ideal uniqueness and his absolutely peculiar relation to the whole church, which alone is fit or worthy to be his bride. ISTo single daughter of Eve could have been an equal partner of the Saviour of mankind, or the representative head of the new creation. The example of the sister of Lazarus proves only, that the contemplative life may dwell in the same house with the prac- tical, and with tlie other sex, but justifies no separation from the social ties. The life of the apostles and primitive Christians in general was anything but a hermit life ; else had not the gospel spread so quickly to all the cities of the Roman world. P^ter was married, and travelled with his wife as a missionary. Paul assumes one marriage of the clergy as the rule, and notwith- standing his personal and relative preference for celibacy h\ § 32, LIGHTS AJTD SHADES OF MONASTIC LIFE. 163 the tlien oppressed condition of the church, he is the most zealous advocate of evangelical freedom, in opposition to all legal bondage and anxious asceticism. Monasticism, therefore, in any case, is not the normal form of Christian piety. It is an abnormal phenomenon, a hu- manly devised service of God,' and not rarely a sad enerva- tion and repulsive distortion of the Christianity of the Bible. And it is to be estimated, therefore, not by the extent of its self-denial, not by its outward acts of self-discipline (which may all be found in heathenism, Judaism, and Mohammedanism as well), but by the Christian spirit of humility and love which animated it. For humility is the groundwork, and love the all- ruling principle, of the Christian life, and the distinctive char- acteristic of the Christian religion. Without love to God and charity to man, the severest self-punishment and the utmost abandonment of the world are worthless before God.'^ § 32. Lights a/nd Shades of Monastic Life. The contrast between pure and normal Bible-Christianity and abnormal Monastic Christianity, will appear more fully if we enter into a close examination of the latter as it actually appeared in the ancient church. The extraordinary rapidity with which this world-forsaking form of piety spread, bears witness to a high degree of self- denying moral earnestness, which even in its mistakes and va- grancies we must admire. Our age, accustomed and wedded to all possible comforts, but far in advance of the Nicene age in respect to the average morality of the masses, could beget no such ascetic extremes. In our estimate of the diffusion and value of monasticism, the polluting power of the theatre, oppressive taxation, slavery, the multitude of civil wars, and the hopeless condition of the Roman empire, must all come into view. Nor must we, by any means, measure the moral importance of this phenomenon by numbers. Monasticism from the beginning-