The Lesson of History 147 



Kingdom should change its policy in this matter. It 

 has hitherto shown the world the way ; and while in 

 this transitory period it is necessary to be prepared to 

 defend itself against attack, it must continue to main- 

 tain its present position of opposition to further 

 conquest. It must continue to oppose the military 

 spirit per se, which is incompatible with social ameliora- 

 tion or with the higher evolution of mankind, and is in 

 direct opposition to the teaching of Christian ethics. 



Mr. Kidd always maintains that the basis of action 

 and feeling under the altruism of Christianity is ultra- 

 rational. He holds that when a man acts against his 

 own self-interest in order to benefit those around him 

 who are in need of food and housing and necessary 

 comforts, and particularly on behalf of the generations 

 which are to come, he is acting contrary to " pure 

 reason." Reason so interpreted means simply self- 

 interest, but, as a present-day concept, has come to 

 mean something entirely different ; pure reason ap- 

 peals to the very ideal which the Christian religion 

 shows forth. Self-abnegation is self-realisation ; if, 

 then, by self-denial the true self is realised, reason 

 cannot mean self-interest ; it must mean its direct 

 opposite. As Lord Haldane showed in the Gifford 

 lectures delivered at St. Andrews, the " Pathway to 

 Reality " is by means of a life of self-denial towards the 

 realisation of the God in man — the immanence of the 

 Divine. 1 And this brings us to a further stage in this 

 chain of thought. How are we to explain the gradual 

 uplifting of the human race ever since the dawn of 

 Christianity, the changed attitude of man to man, of 

 ruler to subject, of government to people, of the sub- 

 mission of individual self-interests to that of the state, 

 or " the unborn generations which are to come after," 



1 " The purpose of the religious man is to die to self in order to 

 live in God." — " The Pathway to Reality," 1904. 



