lmost every nation. But the
boundaries of these two--when and how far self-denial is right--what
are the bounds of charity--this it is for different circumstances yet
to bring out and determine.

And so, it will be found that there is a different standard among
different nations and in different ages. That for example, which was
the standard among the Israelites in the earlier ages, and before
their settlement in Canaan, was very different from the higher and
truer standard of right and wrong recognised by the later prophets.
And the standard in the third and fourth centuries after Christ, was
truly and unquestionably an entirely different one from that
recognised in the nineteenth century among ourselves.

Let me not be mistaken. I do not say that right and wrong are merely
conventional, or merely chronological or geographical, or that they
vary with latitude and longitude. I do not say that there ever was or
ever can be a nation so utterly blinded and perverted in its moral
sense as to acknowledge that which is wrong--seen and known to be
wrong--as right; or on the other hand, to profess that which is seen
and understood as right, to be wrong. But what I do say is this: that
the form and aspect in which different deeds appear, so vary, that
there will be for ever a change and alteration in men's opinions, and
that which is really most generous may seem most base, and that which
is really most base may appear most generous. So for example, as I
have already said, there are two things universally
recognised--recognised as right by every man whose conscience is not
absolutely perverted--charity and self-denial. The charity of God, the
sacrifice of Christ--these are the two grand, leading principles of
the Gospel; and in some form or other you will find these lying at the
roots of every profession and state of feeling in almost every age.
But the form in which these appear, will vary with all the gradations
which are to be found between the lowest savage state and the highest
and most enlightened Christianity.

For example, in ancient Israel the law of love was expounded
thus:--"Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy." Among
the American Indians and at the Cape, the only homage perchance given
to self-denial, was the strange admiration given to that prisoner of
war who bore with unflinching fortitude the torture of his country's
enemies. In ancient India the same princi