nothing else than the working out of the initial energy of the soul into
virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness,
and charity--all that makes life worthy and excellent. Character is not
built like a house, by the addition of stone to stone. It is evolved as
{190} a plant from a seed. Given faith, there will ultimately emerge all
the successive qualities of true goodness--knowledge, temperance,
patience--the personal virtues, rising upwards to godliness or the love
of God, and widening out to brotherhood, and thence to charity or a love
of mankind--a charity which embraces the whole world, even those who are
not Christian: the enemy, the outcast, and the alien.

These descriptions are not formal or systematic, but are characterised by
a remarkable similarity in spirit and tone. They all reflect the mind of
Christ, and put the emphasis where Jesus Himself invariably laid it--on
love. But the point to which we desire to draw attention is the contrast
between the classical and the Christian type of virtue. The difference
is commonly expressed by saying that the pagan virtues were of a bold
masculine order, whereas the Christian excellences are of an amiable and
passive nature.

Yet if we carefully examine the lists as given in Scripture, we shall see
that this is hardly a just distinction. Certainly Christianity brings to
the front some virtues of a gentle type which are apparently wanting in
the Platonic catalogue. But, on the other hand, the pagan virtues are
not excluded from the New Testament. They have an acknowledged place in
Christian morality. Fortitude and temperance, not to speak of wisdom and
justice, are recognised as essential qualities of the Christian
character. Christianity did not come into the world as the negative of
all that was previously noble in human nature; on the contrary, it took
over everything that was good and true, and gave to it a legitimate
place. Whatsoever things, says the apostle, are true and just and fair,
if there be any virtue or praise in them, think of these things.

Courage is not disparaged by Christianity. In writing to Timothy Paul
gives to this virtue its original significance. He only raises it to a
higher level, and gives to it a nobler end--the determination not to be
ashamed of bearing testimony, and the readiness to suffer hardship for
the Gospel's sake. And though the apostle does not expressly {191}
commend courage in its a