young man: "Go and sell that thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and
come and follow me" (Matt. xix. 21). The fact is that Jesus held the
ascetic doctrine, that poverty was, in itself, meritorious; and, in
common with many sects, he regarded the highest life as the life of the
mendicant teacher. His doctrine of poverty passed on into the Church
that bears his name, and one of the three vows taken by those who aspire
to lead "the angelic life" is the vow of poverty. The mendicant friars
of the Middle Ages, the "sturdy beggars," are the lineal descendants of
the Eastern mendicants, and are the fruits of the morality taught by
Christ. On this point, as on many others, the morality of the Epistles
is far higher than that of the Gospels, and the common-sense and
righteous law, "that if any would not work neither should he eat" is,
however, incompatible with Christ's admiration for mendicancy, a far
more wholesome and salutary kind of moral teaching than that which we
have been considering.

The dogma of rewards and punishments as taught by Christ is fatal to all
reality of virtue. To do right from hope of heaven: to avoid wrong for
fear of hell: such virtue is only skin-deep, and will not stand rough
usage. True virtue does right because it _is_ right, and therefore
beneficial, and not from hope of a personal reward, or from dread of a
personal punishment, hereafter. Christianity is the apotheosis of
selfishness, gilded over with piety; self is the pivot on which all
turns: "What shall it _profit_ a man if he gain the whole world, and
lose _his own_ soul?" (Mark viii. 36). "He that receiveth a prophet in
the name of a prophet _shall receive a prophet's reward_; and he that
receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man _shall receive
a righteous man's reward_. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of
these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple,
verily I say unto you, he _shall in nowise lose his reward_" (Matt. x.
41, 42). "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, _him will I
confess also_ before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall
deny me before men, _him will I also deny_ before my Father which is in
heaven" (Ibid, 32, 33). "Pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy
Father, which seeth in secret, _shall reward thee_ openly" (Ibid, vi.
6). "We have forsaken all and followed thee: _what shall we have
therefore_?... When t