holds an important place in Paul's teaching. Among the fruits of the Spirit it appears at the end of the list as a kind of climax.1 The word used here is not owopoσúvn but ékpáтeiα or self-control, although owopoovn or sobriety is mentioned along with justice and godliness in Titus ii. 12 as making up the threefold requirement of morality. It is one of the qualities required of a bishop (Titus i. 6). It is inculcated by the example of the zealous athlete (1 Cor. ix. 25). In regard to this virtue we may see how the ethical ideas of the apostle differed from the views of contemporary Greek writers. According to the Greek conception the material side of man was not an actual element in virtuous action. It called for suppression, not control. The Christian virtue, on the other hand, does not imply that the physical nature of man is an evil to be crushed or a foe to be conquered, but rather an element which is to be disciplined and brought into proper relation to the whole of life. Though in Galatians v. 23 Paul inculcates temperance in antithesis to "drunkenness and revellings," which close the list of the "works of the flesh," the word includes much more than the avoidance of strong drink, as it is too often narrowed down to signify in modern times. It covers the whole range of moral discipline, and has to do with every sense and passion of human nature. Temperance is the practised mastery of self. It means the control of hand, foot, eye, tongue, temper, tastes, and affections. "He is the temperate man, according to the apostle, who holds himself well in hand, who meets temptation as a disciplined army, meets the shock of battle, by skill and alertness and temperate courage, baffling the forces that threaten it." 2 This virtue in a Christian is exercised not for himself alone. He knows 1 Gal. v. 33. 2 Findlay, Expositor's Bible, Epistle to Galatians, p. 388.

what great issues hang on his personal faithfulness. But he knows also, even if he be a Paul, that only through self-mastery can he save his own soul alive. "I keep my body under," says the apostle, "I make it my slave not my master, lest having preached to others I myself should be a castaway."

(4) Justice in the Pauline use of the term has scarcely the same connotation as with Plato. As used by the Greek philosopher it does not simply mean the virtue of rendering to all their due, but stands rather for the harmonious development of the inner man by means of which each faculty of the soul, without interfering with the others, performs its due functions and thereby produces within him complete and perfect order.1 The place which Plato assigns to justice in the hierarchy of the virtues, Paul gives to love, and when he refers to justice it is in its more limited sense of equity or duty to others. On the whole, however, justice in its ethical, as distinguished from its theological use, is a word not frequently employed by the apostle. It may be regarded as more distinctively an Old Testament requirement. It is not indeed superseded in the New Testament. Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfil, and therefore every Old Testament attribute is taken up and deepened by the Gospel. Justice, as righteousness forms the solid substratum of moral character both in God and man, but mercy lifts it to a higher power. "He that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law."2

II.

The amiable virtues. If this were all that Paul had to teach with regard to the moral life, the apostle would

1 See Plato, Rep. book iv.

2 Rom. xiii. 10.

have little claim to originality, and there would be some ground for the statement of Huxley and others, that there was comparatively little difference between the ethical principles of Christianity and those of the best pagan philosophers. But the most superficial reader of the Pauline epistles is at once conscious that the so-called cardinal virtues do not exhaust the apostle's list, nor do they represent those that are most characteristic of his teaching. "It is well," we could fancy Paul saying, "to have the pagan virtues, nay, it is indispensable, to be wise and brave, temperate and just, even the heathen acknowledge as much-but more is demanded of the disciple of Christ. Humility is required not less than courage; love not less than justice; patience as well as temperance; faith and hope as much as wisdom. and knowledge." But these other virtues are not to be added on merely to the pagan virtues, or even incorporated with them. They are the distinctive elements of the Christian character which give a new meaning and value to those which were already in vogue. All virtue, in other words, has a higher worth for the Christian, and even those which obtained in the heathen world are baptized with a new spirit and are clothed with a new beauty as the fruits of faith.

It has been truly said that Christianity so profoundly modified the character of the moral conceptions which it took over from the past, that they became largely new creations. The order and proportion of the virtues were changed, "The old moral currency was still kept in circulation, but it was gradually minted anew."1 Fortitude is still the cool and steady behaviour of a man in the presence of danger, but its range is widened by the inclusion of dangers to the soul as well as the body; it is the bravery

1 Strong, Christian Ethics, p. 141.

of the man who dwells in a spiritual world. Temperance is still the control of the physical passions; but it is also the right placing of our affections and the consecration of our appetites to nobler ends. Justice is still the absence of all self-seeking, the suppression of conflict with the rights of others; but the source of it lies in giving God the love and adoration which are His due. Prudence is still the practical moral sense which chooses the right course of action; but it is the prudence of men who are pilgrims towards a country where the object of their love is to be found.1

If we compare the qualities of character which Paul commends with those which were current in the old world, the contrast is startling and significant. While Plato lays stress on the intellectual and heroic features, Paul brings into the foreground what may be called the gentler virtues. Two reasons may have induced the apostle to this preference. First, he may have specially dwelt upon the self-effacing side of character as a protest against the spirit of militarism and worship of physical power, which were prevalent in the ancient world. Though he does not disparage fortitude, as we have seen, yet he would remind his converts that physical courage is not the only excellence, and that indeed heroism may be shown as much by patience and forgiveness, as by retaliation and self-assertion: A second reason probably was that the gentler selfsacrificing virtues more truly express the spirit of Christ. The one element in all these virtues commended by Paul is the element of sacrifice, of self-effacing lovethat which is of the very essence of the Gospel-that attribute of God which the Saviour manifested in His death. If we are to learn of Him who was meek and

1Strong, Christian Ethics, p. 141.

lowly, then surely the distinguishing mark of our character must be that love which seeketh not its own.

Reserving consideration of love till we come to deal with the special Christian graces, there are three prominent types of the amiable or self-effacing virtues which the apostle mentions as flowing from it.

(1) Humility (таTEшoрoσúvn), lowliness of mind. It is the first exercise of love, and next to it the most characteristic grace of the man who has come to know God and himself as a sinner in the light of God's holiness. It is essentially a religious virtue, and betokens a man's attitude to God rather than to his fellow-men. It does not consist in false demerit or meanness.

To be poor in spirit is not to be poor-spirited. In nothing is the whole temper of Christianity as compared with Greek conceptions of worth more truly disclosed than in the prominence which it gives to this quality. In Greek Philosophy it was regarded as a vice rather than a virtue. It was the magnanimous man, the man of arrogant spirit who was admired. The classical ideal was based on the greatness of man: the Christian on the goodness of God. All supercilious pride and vaunting ambition are laid low in the man who has seen the grace of God in Christ. Contrite, chastened, submissive, he forgets himself as he gazes in wonder and adoration on the image of divine love. But humility is not a barren emotion which paralyzes the resolves of the will. There is courage even in humility, and it takes a great man to be modest. Lowliness of self manifests itself in the service of others. Indeed, humility is not so much a separate virtue as a quality which gives tone to the Christian character, and is therefore the common stamp set upon every excellence. Humility, which has its root in faith and love, issues in the