els that a high-hearted
indifference to life would expiate all his shortcomings.

The metaphysical mystery, thus recognized by common sense, that he who
feeds on death that feeds on men possesses life supereminently and
excellently, and meets best the secret demands of the universe, is the
truth of which asceticism has been the faithful champion. The folly of
the cross, so inexplicable by the intellect, has yet its indestructible
vital meaning.

Representatively, then, and symbolically, and apart from the vagaries
into which the unenlightened intellect of former times may have let it
wander, asceticism must, I believe, be acknowledged to go with the
profounder way of handling the gift of existence. Naturalistic
optimism is mere syllabub and flattery and sponge-cake in comparison.
The practical course of action for us, as religious men, would
therefore, it seems to me, not be simply to turn our backs upon the
ascetic impulse, as most of us to-day turn them, but rather to discover
some outlet for it of which the fruits in the way of privation and
hardship might be objectively useful. The older monastic asceticism
occupied itself with pathetic futilities, or terminated in the mere
egotism of the individual, increasing his own perfection.[219] But is
it not possible for us to discard most of these older forms of
mortification, and yet find saner channels for the heroism which
inspired them?

[219] "The vanities of all others may die out, but the vanity of a
saint as regards his sainthood is hard indeed to wear away."
Ramakrishna his Life and Sayings, 1899, p. 172.

Does not, for example, the worship of material luxury and wealth, which
constitutes so large a portion of the "spirit" of our age, make
somewhat for effeminacy and unmanliness? Is not the exclusively
sympathetic and facetious way in which most children are brought up
to-day--so different from the education of a hundred years ago,
especially in evangelical circles--in danger, in spite of its many
advantages, of developing a certain trashiness of fibre? Are there not
hereabouts some points of application for a renovated and revised
ascetic discipline?

Many of you would recognize such dangers, but would point to athletics,
militarism, and individual and national enterprise and adventure as the
remedies. These contemporary ideals are quite as remarkable for the
energy with which they make for heroic standards of life, as
contemporary religion is rem