3i6 PRESEMT-DAY RATIONALISM 



Of course, one has no quarrel with Materialistic 

 Monism or Rationalism for accepting Christian ethics. 

 So far, they are Christians in spite of their infidelity ; but 

 when Haeckel says Christ insisted upon a " narrow " 

 kind of altruism with a "denunciation of egoism," he is 

 conspicuously in error. Duty to oneself is as much in- 

 sisted upon as duty to one's neighbour ; whether the 

 former be purity and honour, to which St. James refers 

 in his well-known definition of religion ; ^ or to working 

 for a livelihood.^ Where the "narrowness" of altruism 

 appears in 'AyaTrr) one is at a loss to comprehend. The 

 Christian knows nothing of it. 



" Two things certainly remain beyond dispute — the 

 lofty principle of universal charity and the fundamental 

 maxim of ethics, the ' golden rule,' that issues therefrom ; 

 both, however, existed in theory and in practice centuries 

 before the time of Christ." ^ 



" In this greatest and highest commandment our 

 Monistic ethics is completely at one with Christianity."* 



It is gratifying to hear this conclusion of Monism ; 

 but it is quite obvious from all ancient history that the 

 " golden rule " was practically a dead letter, both among 

 individuals and between nations. Moreover, if the truth 

 could be recognised by Haeckel and Rationalists, the 

 above lofty sentiments would never have been known to 

 them had not Christ come. 



^Chap. i. 27. 2Eph iv 28. 



'Op. cit., p. 322. " Op. cit., p. 359, 



