The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-24

that the penalty for their violation can
 not be imposed. It may even lead the | Christian to forget that he is Chris
 tian, and encourage him to conform
 his standard of conduct to that of his
 fellow contestants. But the difference
 of. spirit remains the same; and if we
 allow our standard thus to be lowered
 the best possibilities of life are at an
 end.
 1 For selfishness, though it will ac- compllsh much for society, will not ac-
 complish everything. There remains a
 need for the acceptance by the mem | bers of society of self-imposed obliga- | tions going beyond the letter of the strict rules or the purvieW of the um- | pires The greater the liberty which a
 man enjoys in his social and profess | sional life, the more necessary is it for his own character, for the interests of
 his fellow men. and for the perma-
 hence of our civilization as a whole, that he should recognize these wider
 obligations which no authority can en- force except his own conscience. The larger his power and the newer the field in which he works, the more i'm
 perative is the necessity that he should
 treat life as g trust.
 It is, think, the distinguishing char
 acteristic of a gentleman that he ac
 cepts self-imposed obligations. Dis
 functions of dress, of speech or of man.
 ners, however impotent, are but super
 flcial things as compared with this un-
 derlying spirit. And it is this readiness
 to accept self-imposed obligations
 which constitute the fundamental char
 acteristic of Christian. eT The only diff
 ference in the meaning of the two
 words is that the gentleman may re-
 gard these obligations as resulting
 from his duties to a restricted class,
 and capable of acceptance only by that
 class; while a Christian receives them
 as a trust on behalf of the community
 as a whole, and has faith to believe
 that as time goes on the whole people
 will be capable of thus accepting them
 Of course there are other conceptions of Christianity which are widely preva- lent. Some men-less common, fortu- nately, to-day than they were a cen tury or two ago-judge Christian by his creed. This is like judging a gen tleman by his dress. Some judge him by his church affiliations This is like judging a gentleman by the society in which he moves. Some-and to-day a yet more numerous class-judge him by his outward acts. This is like judging gentleman by his accomplishments. But the spirit of Christianity goes deeper than all, Let me quote the words of a man who had good under ,to,, 1f tb.Ne Af 1.,,n Ch,.i.. i,,, ity if ever there was one. Though I have the gift of prophecy, and under stand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burn ed, and have not charity it profiteth me nothing" Not good works is it that constitute Christianity, but the spirit which "beareth all things, be- lieveth all things, hopeth all things, en- dureth all things"
 I said a moment ago that the spirit of | a gentleman might be more restricted l In its sympathies than the spirit of a 1 Christian. But I believe that the time IS dl lldIu WueH lH1 two IluSt more | md more definitely coincide if the mod ern civilized world is to maintain its institutions and its morals
 One of the distinctive things about / he Christian spirit for many ages, was 1 ts essentially democratic character Not for a class and not for a tribe, but Or the whole community, were its deals framed and its obligations ac- 'epted. Throughout the Middle Ages he church, in spite of it's hierarchical organization was the great demo- ratio body-the one place in the ocial order where the poor man lad his chance. When the church vas thus democratic and civil society vas not, it was inevitable that there hould be distinction between those ivil or social virtues which were ar anged within an aristocratic frame york and those broader ideas of virtue n which the church laid stress In he days when civil order was upheld I y a few men who could fight it was I levitable that personal courage and ther qualities essential to a ruling { lass in a lawless society should be un- I uly emphasized in the moral stand z rds of that, class; that the man who f these qualities should be re- T arded as a gentleman, even though he T tiled to possess other things which T ere equally important in the commu- r ty as a whole. Tn these rude days T ,e church, working for a people who e ere unable to fight, laid relatively Y eater emphasis on the more passive f rtues of obedience, of forbearance N Id of peaceful love.
 But with the coming of democracy in l, e political as well as the spiritual a orld, the historic reason for this dis g notion is done away. Where political 'wer falls into the hands of all men, 9 can no longer let the possession of D e group of qualities condone the ab- N nee of others, No man is henceforth N gh enough to allow the practice of fl
 itical virtue to excuse the habitual H 7lation of personal morals, nor to al- W W traditional creed of persnal mor- u; }, inherited from social conditions of m e past, to justify his non-acceptance pl
 political obligations. The people as tl1
 body cannot rest content with the actice of those personal virtues of D Ter times which did well enough G len they were but the subjects of a ci ling class. They must larn to accept D lsts As the extension of industrial CT q political power gives them wider al erection in their conduct they must tn arge themselves with self-imposed ci; II,