does not look to himself.  He blames the faults of others, but does not govern himself.  When the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor, the noble and the ignoble, the proud and the humble, have departed to the cemetery and all sleep there, their troubles are at an end, and their bodies are stripped of flesh, little else than bones, united by tendons—­other men then perceive no difference between them, whereby they could recognise a distinction of birth or of form.  Seeing that all sleep, deposited together in the earth, why do men foolishly seek to treat each other injuriously?  He who, after bearing this admonition, acts in conformity therewith from his birth onwards, shall attain the highest blessedness” (Ibid, xi. 116, p. 23).

Such are a few of the moral teachings current in the East before the time of Christ.  Since that period, these non-Christian nations have gone on in their paths, and many a gem of pure morality might be culled from their later writings, but we have only here presented teachings that were pre-Christian, so as to prove how little need there was for a God to become incarnate to teach morality to the world.  “Revealed morality” has nothing grander to say than this earth-born morality, nothing sublimer comes from Judaea than comes from Hindustan and from China.  Just as the symbolism of Christianity comes from nature, and is common to many creeds, so does the morality of Christianity flow from nature, and is common to many faiths; when nations attain to a certain stage of civilisation, and inherit a certain amount of culture, they also develop a morality proportionate to the point they have reached, because morality is necessary to the stability of States, and utility formulates the code of moral laws.  Christianity can no longer stand on a pinnacle as the sole possessor of a pure and high morality.  The pedestal she has occupied is built out of the bricks of ignorance, and her apostles and her master must take rank among their brethren of every age and clime.

It is a serious fault in Christian morality that it has so many OMISSIONS in it.  It is full of exhortations to bear, to suffer, to be patient; it sorely lacks appeals to patriotism, to courage, to self-respect.  “The heroes of Paganism exemplified the heroism of enterprise.  Patriotism, chivalrous deeds of valour, high-souled aspirations after glory, stern justice taking its course in their hands, while natural feeling was held in abeyance—­this was the line in which they shone.  Our blessed Lord illustrated all virtues indeed, but most especially the passive ones.  His heroism took its colouring from endurance.  Women, though inferior to men in enterprise, usually come out better than men in suffering; and it is always to be remembered that our blessed Lord held his humanity, not of the stronger, but of the weaker sex” ("Thoughts on Personal Religion,” by Dean Goulburn, vol. ii., p. 99; ed. 1866).  What is this but to say, in polite language, that Jesus was very effeminate?