ontent. Goodness, as the philosopher himself came to see,
cannot be represented as a mere impersonal abstraction. Virtue has no
meaning except in relation to its ultimate end. And life in union with a
personal God, in whose image we have been made, is the end and purpose of
man's being. Noble as it may be to live morally without the thought of
God, the man who so strives to live does not attain to such a high
conception of life as he who lives with God for his object. Motives
advance with aims, and the higher the ideal the nobler the incentive.
Fear of future punishment and the desire for future happiness may prove
effective aids to the will at certain stages of moral development, but
ultimately the love of God and the beauty of holiness make every other
motive superfluous. Indeed, the reward of the Christian life is such as
can only appeal to one who has come to identify himself with the divine
will. The Christian man is always entering upon his reward. His joy is
his Master's joy. He has no other interest. His reward, both here and
hereafter, is not some external payment, something separable from
himself; it is wholly conditioned by what he is, and is simply his own
growth of character, his increasing power of being good and doing good.
And if it be still asked, What is the great inducement? What is it that
makes the life of the Christian worth living? The answer can only
be--The hope of becoming what Christ has set before man as desirable, of
growing up to the stature of perfect manhood, of attaining to the
likeness of Jesus Christ Himself. But so far from this being a selfish
aim, not to seek one's life in God--to be indifferent to all the inherent
blessings and joys involved--would be not the mark of pure
disinterestedness, but the evidence, rather, of a lack of appreciation of
what life really means. The soul that has caught the vision of God and
been thrilled with the grace of the Son of Man cannot but yield itself to
the best it knows.

[1] Cf. Fairbairn, _The Phil. of the Ch. Religion_, pp. 358 ff.

[2] Peabody, _Christ and the Christian Character_, p. 44.

[3] Peabody, _op. cit._, pp. 53 f.

[4] Peabody, _op. cit._, p. 68.

[5] See Paulsen, _System der Ethik_, pp. 56 ff.; also Troeltsch, _op.
cit._, vol. ii. p. 847.

[6] Cf. Ehrhardt, _Der Grundcharacter d. Ethik. Jesu_, p. 110. 'The
ascetic element in the ethics of Jesus is its transient, the service of
God its permanent element.' Cf