52 



PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



the person of Christ became active. The simple flu- 

 ent creed of the early Christians took rigid form in 

 the subtleties of the Nicene Creed, and as " Very 

 Grod of Very God " the final appeal was, logically, to 

 the words of Jesus. Hence another barrier against 

 inquiry. 



Conflict has never arisen on the ethical sayings 

 of Jesus, which, making allowance for the impracti- 

 cableness of a few, place him high among the sages 

 of antiquity. Comparing their teaching with his, it 

 is easy to group together maxims which do not yield 

 to the more famous examples in the Sermon on the 

 Mount as guides to conduct, or as inspiration to 

 high ideals. The " golden rule " is anticipated by 

 Plato's " Thou shalt not take that which is mine, 

 and may I do to others as I would that they should 

 do to me " (Jowett's translation, v, p. 483). And 

 it is paralleled by Isocrates, a contemporary of Plato, 

 in those words spoken by the King Nicocles when 

 addressing his governors, " You should be to others 

 what you think I should be to you." But if there was 

 nothing new in what Jesus taught, there was fresh- 

 ness in the method. Conflict is waged only over 

 statements the nature and limits of which might be 

 expected from the place and age when they were 

 delivered. They who hold that Jesus was God the 

 Son Eternal, and therefore incapable of error, may 

 reconcile, as best they can with this, his belief in the 

 mischievous delusions of his time. If they say that 

 so much of this as may be reported in the records of 



