Hence no adequate account of the end of
life can be given without regard to that which, if it is true, must be
the most stupendous fact of history--the fact of Christ.

If the Christian is a man to whom no incident of experience is secular
and no duty insignificant, because all things belong to God and all
life is dominated by the spirit of Christ, then Christian Ethics must
be the application of Christianity to conduct; and its theme must be
the systematic study of the ideals and forces which are alone adequate
to shape character and fit man for the highest conceivable
destiny--fellowship with, and likeness to, the Divine Being in whose
image he has been made. This, of course, may be said to be the aim of
all theology. The theologian must not be content to discuss merely
speculative problems about God and man. He must seek above {2} all
things to bring the truths of revelation to bear upon human practice.
All knowledge has its practical implicate. The dogma which cannot be
translated into duty is apt to be a vague abstraction.

In all ages there has been a tendency to separate truth and duty. But
knowledge has two sides; it is at once a revelation and a challenge.
There is no truth which has not its corresponding obligation, and no
obligation which has not its corresponding truth. And not until every
truth is rounded into its duty, and every duty is referred back into
its truth shall we attain to that clearness of vision and consistency
of moral life, to promote which is the primary task of Christian Ethics.

It is this practical element which gives to the study of morals its
justification and makes it specially important for the Christian
teacher. In this sense Ethics is really the crown of theology and
ought to be the end of all previous study.

As a separate branch of study Christian Ethics dates only from the
Reformation. It was natural, and perhaps inevitable that the first
efforts of the Church should be occupied with the formation and
elaboration of dogma. With a few notable exceptions, among whom may be
mentioned Basil, Clement, Alquin and Thomas Aquinas, the Church fathers
and schoolmen paid but scanty attention to the ethical side of
religion. It was only after the Reformation that theology, Roman and
Protestant alike, was divided into different branches. The Roman
Catholic name for what we style Ethics is 'moral philosophy,' which,
however, consists mainly of directions for father confessors i