4890 THE ADDEESS AT TOYNBEE HALL 231 



In the midst of these scientific labours and scien- 

 tific controversies, Mr. Eomanes found time for other 

 thoughts and for other work. 



At the beginning of 1889 he delivered an address 

 at Toynbee Hall on the Ethical Teaching of Christ, 

 of which the following is an extract : 



' The services rendered by Christ to the cause of 

 morality have been in two distinct directions. , The 

 first is in an unparalleled change of moral concep- 

 tion, and the other in an unparalleled moral example, 

 joined with peculiar powers of moral exposition and 

 enthusiasm of moral feeling which have never before 

 been approached. The originality of Christ's teach- 

 ing migJit in some quarters be over-rated, but the 

 achievement it was impossible to overrate. It is 

 only before the presence of Christ that the dry bones 

 of ethical abstraction have sprung into life. The 

 very essence of the new religion consists in re- 

 establishing more closely than ever the bonds be- 

 tween morality and religion. One important effect of 

 Christ's teaching and influence has been the carrying 

 into effect of the doctrine of universalism, for pre- 

 viously the idea of human brotherhood can not be 

 said to have existed. Again, in the exaltation of 

 the benevolent virtues at the expense of the heroic, 

 the change effected is fundamental and abrupt. 

 Christ may be said to have created the virtues of 

 self-abnegation, universal beneficence, unflinching 

 humility — indeed, the divine supremacy of com- 

 passion. Whether Christ be regarded as human or 

 divine, all must agree in regarding the work of His 

 life as by far the greatest work ever achieved in the 



