(Mk
12«'i).
Their
special
duties
towards
God,
which
are
also
privilegea,
are
these
—
to
trust
Him
wholly,
to
make
their
desires
known
to
Him
in
prayer,
to
perform
with
fidelity
the
work
He
gives
them
to
do,
and
to
submit
in
meekness
and
patience
when
He
calls
them
to
suffer.
(ii)
Duty
towards
man.
—
The
supreme
fraternal
obliga-tion,
like
the
filial,
is
love.
'
Thou
shalt
love
thy
neigh-bour
as
thyself
(Mk
12!').
By
our
neighbour
we
are
to
understand
aU
who
are
in
need,
and
whom
it
is
in
our
power
to
help
(parable
of
the
Good
Samaritan,
Lk
10'«).
When
we
inquire
how
this
principle
manifests
itself,
it
appears
that
the
Christian
ethic
has
three
features
which
are
commonly
described
as
inwardness,
self-sacrificing
service,
and
the
passive
virtues.
Without
going
into
de-tail,
it
is
sufficient
to
illustrate
how
these
form
an
ethical
ideal
which
has
its
prototype
in
the
life
of
the
family.
(a)
Inwardness.
—
A
distinctive
feature
of
the
ethical
teaching
of
Jesus
is
the
insistence
that
it
Is
not
sufficient
to
refrain
from
overt
acts
of
wrong,
and
to
perform
the
overt
acts
which
duty
requires.
The
heart
must
be
pure
and
the
motive
right.
From
this
point
of
view
benefactions
that
are
not
accompanied
by
sympathy
lose
half
their
value.
On
the
other
hand,
the
evil
purpose
has
the
quality
of
an
evil
act;
hatred
is
murder
in
the
minor
degree.
Now,
startling
as
is
the
demand
for
a
perfect
heart
in
an
ethic
of
general
obligation,
it
is
familiar
enough
in
family
life.
There
a
woman
counts
all
benefactions
as
worthless
if
she
do
not
possess
her
husband's
love;
or,
again,
the
hatred
of
brothers
and
sisters
is
at
once
felt
to
have
an
enormity
of
guilt
beyond
that
of
most
evil
deeds.
(6)
Disinterested
service.
—
In
what
is
said
of
the
forms
of
service
the
ideal
is
manifestly
suggested
by
brother-hood.
Of
the
chief
forms
may
be
distinguished
first
beneficence,
which
is
specially
directed
to
the
relief
of
the
poor,
the
entertainment
of
the
homeless,
the
tending
of
the
sick,
the
visiting
of
captives
(Mt
2S''*),
the
com-forting
of
the
sorrowful,
the
reconciliation
of
those
who
are
at
feud
(Mt
5').
Another
is
the
ministry
of
teaching;
without
doubt
Jesus
intended
His
disciples,
as
one
of
their
chief
forms
of
service,
to
follow
Him
in
the
dis-seminating
of
the
truths
which
He
taught.
A
third
is
the
spiritual
ministry
proper,
which
has
the
same
end
as
His
own
pastoral
work
—
to
save
souls
from
sin,
and
to
help
them
to
rise
to
higher
ends
of
excellence
and
nobility.
The
ideal
here,
in
short,
is
that
the
kind
of
things
which
the
parent,
the
brother,
and
the
sister
do,
or
may
be
expected
to
do,
in
accordance
with
the
spirit
of
family
life,
are
made
binding
in
their
application
to
our
fellow-
men
as
such.
We
may
also
notice
two
accompanying
rules.
(")
The
service
Is
to
be
disinterested.
This
is
enforced
by
the
counsel
that
we
are
preferably
to
perform
acts
of
kindness
to
those
who
are
not
in
a
position
to
make
a
return
(Lk
6^').
(/3)
They
are
also
to
be
done
unostentatiously
—
not
as
by
the
Pharisees,
who
blow
a
trumpet
before
them,
but
so
that
the
left
hand
knoweth
not
what
the
right
hand
doeth
(Mt
6'-*).
In
the
first
of
these
counsels
we
see
a
refiexion
of
the
spirit
which
has
its
purest
expression
in
maternal
devotion.
The
second
states
the
condition
without
which
the
best
service
in
any
sphere
loses
its
grace.
(c)
The
passive
virtues.
—
A
third
group
of
graces,
specially
known
as
the
passive
virtues,
includes
meekness
and
patience
under
adversity
and
wrong,
and
the
forgive-ness
of
injuries.
Very
great
stress
is
laid
on
forgiving
injuries,
of
which
Jesus
alludes
to
three
kinds
—
injury
to
the
person
(Mt
5''),
loss
of
property
(v.<»),
and
defama-tion
of
character
(5").
Instructions
are
given
as
to
the
steps
to
be
taken
in
securing
reconciliation,
beginning
with
private
expostulation
(Mt
18").
As
motives
to
forgiveness
we
are
reminded
that
we
ought
to
forgive
as
we
hope
to
be
forgiven,
and
also
that,
as
God
sets
the
example
of
ready
clemency,
the
child
ought
to
imitate
the
Father
(Mt
S").
These
virtues,
it
will
again
be
noticed,
were
not
new
on
the
soil
of
family
life.
From
the
beginning
there
have
been
women
who
within
the
sphere
of
the
home
have
borne
hardship
meekly,
endured
wrong
patiently,
and
been
ready
to
forgive
unto
seventy
times
seven.
(5)
The
unique
Son
and
His
work.
—
It
may
be
thought
that
the
scheme
which
has
been
followed
is
inconsistent
with
the
witness
borne
by
Jesus
to
His
Person
and
His
work,
inasmuch
as
His
claims
have
no
obvious
counter-part
in
the
life
of
the
family.
The
whole
subject
is
treated
in
a
special
article
(Person
of
Christ),
but
must
be
glanced
at
here
in
the
general
context
of
Synoptic
doctrine.
In
the
first
place,
it
is
certainly
true
that
Jesus
'
asserted
for
Himself
a
peculiar
dignity,
and
for
His
work
a
peculiar
efficacy.
He
calls
Himself
not
a
Son,
but
the
Son
(Mt
11''),
who
stands
in
a
unique
relation
to
the
Father,
and
who
also
makes
upon
the
other
children
a
demand
for
faith
and
obedience.
If
now
we
ask
what
it
is
that
makes
Christ
unique,
we
find
that
the
stress
is
laid
upon
three
particulars
—
(o)
He
is
in
the
Father's
confidence,
and
from
Him
the
other
children
obtain
their
knowledge
of
the
Father
(ib.).
(&)
He
fully
pos-sesses
the
privileges
and
fulfils
the
obligations
which
are
involved
in
sonship.
(c)
His
death
was
the
means
of
procuring
for
them
the
highest
blessings
(Mk
1*"||).
Now,
all
these
things,
if
not
explained
by,
have
at
least
parallels
in,
the
life
of
the
family.
The
son,
who
in
all
respects
obeys
his
father's
will,
enjoys
a
position
of
peculiar
intimacy
and
influence.
The
eldest
son
in
many
countries,
and
not
least
in
the
Jewish
tradition,
often
occupies
an
intermediate
position
between
the
head
and
the
subordinate
members
of
the
family.
And
if
Jesus,
as
He
certainly
did,
looked
upon
Himself
as
the
eldest
brother
of
the
family-Kingdom
—
who
first
realized
its
privileges
and
its
righteousness,
and
as
the
Son
in
whom
the
Father
was
well
pleased,
and
whom
consequently
He
tookintoHis
deepest
confidence
—
we
can
see
how
He
could
teach
that
faith
in
Him
was
an
element
in
the
gospel.
Nor
are
the
references
to
the
necessity
of
His
death,
as
is
sometimes
said,
inconsistent
with
the
gospel
of
the
Heavenly
Father.
Every
death
in
a
family
tends
to
be
a
means
of
grace;
the
death
in
a
noble
cause
of
one
who
is
revered
and
loved
is
an
almost
matchless
source
of
inspiration;
and
there
were
reasons,
apart
from
deeper
theological
explanations,
why
Jesus
should
teach
that
His
death
would
do
more
even
than
His
life
to
make
effective
the
gospel
of
Divine
and
human
love.
(6)
The
brotherhood
as
a
society.
—
It
followed
from
the
nature
of
the
teaching
of
Jesus
that
His
followers
should
form
themselves
into
a
society.
Community
of
faith
and
aim
made
it
natural
for
them
to
do
so,
and
those
whose
relations
were
of
the
nature
of
brotherhood
were
bound
to
realize
it
in
a
common
Ufe
and
common
service
as
well
as
in
common
institutions.
That
the
purpose
of
Jesus
went
in
this
direction
from
the
first
appears
from
the
call
and
training
of
the
twelve
Apostles.
In
the
later
period
of
His
Ministry
we
have
references
to
a
Christian
society
under
the
name
of
the
Church
(Mt
16"
IS's-^").
These
references
have
indeed
been
thought
by
some
critics
to
be
of
later
ecclesiastical
origin;
but
when
the
breach
with
the
Jewish
authorities
became
inevitable.
He
must,
in
thinking
of
the
future,
have
conceived
of
His
followers
as
a
separate
society.
The
omissions
are
as
remarkable
as
the
provisions.
There
is
nothing
said
about
forms
of
worship,
nothing
about
ecclesiastical
constitution.
The
few
provisions
may
be
gathered
up
under
the
following
heads:
—
(a)
General
principles.
—
The
ruling
spirit
is
the
desire
of
each
member
to
help
all
and
each
according
to
the
measure
of
his
ability.
Titles
which
involve
the
assump-tion
of
personal
authority
are
to
be
avoided
(Mt
23').
Honour
and
infiuence
are
to
be
proportionate
to
service
(Mk
10"-
").
It
is
to
be
a
contrast
to
the
natural
society
in
two
respects
—
that
no
one
seeks
his
own
but
only
the
general
good,
and
that
there
are
no
distinctions
of
rank
and
power
resting
upon
accident,
intrigue,
or
violence.
In
the
light
of
these
maxims
the
promise
to
Peter
must
