ness. It cannot survive violations of the moral law. The profession may remain, but it is hypocrisy. Duty to God and duty to one another are in inseparable union. Jesus emphasized the latter; he said more about it than even of the former. In referring on one occasion to the commandments, he mentioned only those which refer to our duties to one another; and it is written that Jesus loved the young man who said, “Master, all these have I kept from my youth up."

The moral law is the same for all men. Those in public life are prone to abandon it in the interest of personal, party, or supposed national advantage. Mr. Gladstone, speaking of “Disestablishment" in Ireland, which all the bishops in the House of Lords voted against, except one, said, that his "experience burnt into him the conviction that a man should beware of letting his religion spoil his morality." He added, "We are all tempted to this great sin." It is the sin that has brought many public men to grief. "With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in," said Abraham Lincoln. It was by this "firmness in the right,” that Christianity was first established in the world, and it became a sign of a Christian that he was one of a company of faithful men who were banded together in a holy covenant to do no iniquity. Thus Pliny, governor of a Roman province, describes them in a letter to the Emperor Trajan. It is one of the earliest notices of Christianity that history has preserved, outside of the New Testament. It was this exemplification of the new religion in virtuous lives, that won to it the approval of mankind in the second and third centuries. It was not by dogmas and creeds that Christianity made its way. Those things came later. It was as a saving health for a sick and weary world, recovering men to virtue, lifting them up to honor, with promise of the life that now is, and of a blessed future, that the Christian religion was seen to be God's gift of love and mercy to mankind, and that millions embraced it.

A

XXII

INTEGRITY

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me.

PSALMS 25: 21.

N integer is a whole number, complete in itself, as distinguished from a fraction or part. The idea enters into the word integrity as applied to persons whose character is without flaw or defect. This idea is one of the best ideas, in human thought.

To complete things, to put parts together, from opposites and contradictions to evolve order, is the business of every art and science and of all human work. It is the problem of the farm, of shop and store, of the school and the church, and of every household. For the start of things is in raw materials, and advancement comes by growth from crude shapes into finer forms and a better condition.

The primary elements and forces exist in heterogeneous mixtures, and must be handled with industry and skill to reduce them to our service, that we may have food and clothing, and houses to live in, and a thousand things for comfort and pleasure. We have learned to apply steam and electricity to transportation over sea and land, and to use electricity for sending messages, and even the human voice long distances. The nineteenth century made the sun an artist. More inventions are now promised and we are encouraged to hope that some day man will regain his original dignity and all things be put under his feet. Out of the bowels of the earth, out of arid wastes, out of waves of air, out of falling waters, the wit and labor of man will evolve new integers of wealth to enrich the world.

Working with nature, and cooperating with one another, it is possible for all mankind to acquire a sufficiency of things they need for their comfort and happiness. By faithful work, by good management, by prudential savings, upon a farm, in a factory, in commerce and trade, or in other pursuits, every person may gain something ahead, and in time secure a competence. This is the proper ideal and should be the aim of every person.

"Reason's whole pleasure all the joys of sense,

Lie in three words - health, peace, and competence."

In the struggle for these things the chief problem is to bring all work from time to time to a finish. Not by procrastination or shifts, not by improvidence or waste, not by haphazard or spurts of activity, are honorable gains secured, but by steady application to business continued from year to year. It is by completing their tasks, gathering up the fragments, uniting odds and ends, that men multiply their possessions, and are enabled to hold things in their integrity, without incumbrance of debt or mortgage. Attention to these things is the common duty of all persons. In a world full of the sources of wealth the hand of the diligent maketh rich. The creation is lavish in bounty and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully.

The idea of integrity in earthly and temporal things belongs equally to things spiritual and eternal. As a moral being, man begins his existence in weakness and ignorance. He is a little bundle of raw material. He comes to moral responsibility through the verdant experiences of childhood. He masters the alphabet, the multiplication table, and the Ten Commandments, and gains command of his temper and tongue, of his appetite and passions, not without mistakes, mortification, and falls. Neither knowledge nor virtue nor piety are acquired without frequent correction and amendment. The jewel of a pure heart and an upright mind is

developed from among the cares and common conditions of ordinary life.

Michael Angelo's statue of Moses once lay hidden in the quarry, under a shapeless mass of rock. So Moses himself was once hidden, now in a basket cradle among the rushes of the Nile, now under the luxury and pomp of a court, and again, like the mysterious Sphinx, amid the sands of the desert. By self-denial, by his choice to suffer affliction with the Hebrew people rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, by cherishing the hope of Israel, by vigils and prayers in the wilderness and among the solemn mountains, he carved out a heroic character, and became a man whom God knew face to face.

In a similar way the worthy men of all ages have disencumbered themselves of low and vulgar things, and risen to virtue and greatness of soul. Paul did not become the apostle of the Gentiles until he had been a bigot and a persecutor, nor until he had suffered the goadings of his own conscience, nor did he attain that elevation of mind which he subsequently gained, without keeping his body under, and working out his salvation with fear and trembling. From the shame of his youth, Augustine rose to a saintly life, and told others that they might do the same, and make their very vices a ladder to the skies by sincere repentance and firm determination. His "Confessions" and his "Retractions" show how he labored to put away his sins, and to correct the errors of his earlier writings. By renouncing low and base thoughts, and every sordid and selfish feeling, "cleansing himself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit," as holy writ puts it, a man may scale and climb, by slow degrees, by more and more, the shining heights, and gain integrity of character.

The idea of integrity, as thus explained, involves the whole subject of morality and religion. One cannot be a truly moral man, or a truly religious man, unless he makes this the uppermost idea in his mind and cherishes it as the aim and purpose of

his life. Religion enforces all duty and corresponds to man's moral nature, to his reason and conscience, in much the same way that material things correspond to the different parts of his physical nature, as light to the eye, the harmony of sound to the ear, or food to the stomach and the sustenance of the body. And as man wants the light to be clear, the harmony perfect, and the food pure, so he wants a pure and holy religion, that shall bring him to his God and Saviour. Such is the religion of Jesus Christ. It has come to restore man to his original integrity, as made upright in the image of God. It is the conclusion of the whole matter, that to fear God, and keep his commandments is the whole duty of man. Integrity and uprightness will preserve him. He may deliver his soul by righteousness. The testimony of his conscience is the approving witness of the divine monitor within. A good man shall be satisfied from himself.

It is an egregious folly, but too common, to disparage the moral virtues in connection with religion, as though they were alien to it, or a hindrance to the conversion of "moral men." When preachers tell the "moral man" that he is far from the kingdom of God, they reverse the teaching of Jesus, and show themselves unskilful in the word of righteousness. They set a premium upon vice when they parade its victims, who profess conversion, as heroes of faith. If vice is to be discouraged and virtue advanced in the world, the former must be reprobated and condemned, and every measure of the latter be commended and approved.

The Gospels show that Jesus was in sympathy with "moral men," and gave them acknowledgment and honor. It was of the pure-minded Nathanael that he said, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." It was of a Roman soldier, a man generous and public-spirited, a friend of the Hebrew people, and tenderhearted for one of his household servants who was sick and at the point of death, that Jesus said, "I have not found so great faith,