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    Contents

    CHAPTER XIV. THE STUDY OF MORAL SCIENCE

    MORAL science must be taught in every Christian school. This is no less important than the teaching of mental science, though in the nature of things it is second in order to mental science, because it is only with the mind that it can be studied.PBE 126.1

    Right morals can be discerned only with a right mind. Therefore true moral science can be understood only through true mental science. Thus, though in this sense moral science is second in order to mental science, it is not less in importance; indeed, the two are inseparably connected.PBE 126.2

    However, though we speak of these as “moral science” and “mental science,” and treat them as sciences which they truly are, let no one fall into the mistake of thinking that these sciences are abstruse things, obscured and confused under long sentences of high-sounding words, and beyond the reach of people of common understanding. It is not so. True science is always simple and easily understood. The nearer true, and the better understood, any science is, the simpler it is, and the plainer it can be made to those who would know it.PBE 126.3

    “Morals” is the common name for virtue: so that moral science, or the science of morals, is the science of virtue. And virtue pertains to right, the good, the true, the pure. It relates to conduct, and conduct relates to character. In other words, moral science is character-science. And science is knowledge. Fully expressed in other words, then, as morals is character, and science is knowledge, moral science is character-knowledge; the science of morals is the knowledge of character.PBE 126.4

    What shall be the field, then, for the study of moral science? What Character shall be the basis and subject of this knowledge? Shall it be the human character, or the divine character? That is to say, Shall it be human moral science, or shall it be divine moral science, that shall be studied in Christian schools?PBE 127.1

    As these schools profess to be Christian, the only moral science that can there be consistently studied is Christian moral science. Christian character is the character of Jesus Christ, and the character of Christ is the character of God; therefore, the only character-science that can be consistently studied in any Christian school is science of the character of God.PBE 127.2

    In education, character is everything. In all true education the one chief aim, the one thing to which all other things must tend and must be made to contribute, is character. For it is even written that, though I have understanding of the profoundest philosophy, and of all science; and though I have such versatility and eloquence that in these I could speak with the tongues of men and of angels; yet “I am nothing” if I have not charity, which is simply supreme character, “the bond of perfectness.” And we have seen in Greece and Rome the vicious nature and ruinous results of the highest classical education without character: of the almost perfect mental and physical culture without morals.PBE 127.3

    The story of man’s morals is parallel to the story of man’s mind. This is inevitable, for the mind is the citadel of morals: “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he:” “With the mind I serve the law of God.”PBE 128.1

    God made the man upright, in His own image, clothed with His own glory, reflecting His own character. God made the man to stand in this estate forever: yet free to choose not so to stand. And the man did choose not so to stand with God; but to take the way of Satan and sin. Instead of abiding forever in the realm of God and His righteousness, the man chose the realm of Satan and his sin, the realm of the transgression of the law of God, the realm of immorality.PBE 128.2

    If it be asked. Could not God have made the man so that he could not sin? the perfectly safe and true answer is, He could not. That is. He could not so make him a man: so to have made him would have been to make him unintelligent, a mere animal machine, incapable of morals. For to have made the man so that he simply could not sin, would have been equally to make him so that he could not do right. It would have been to make him so that he could not choose: and to have made him unable to choose would have been to make him incapable of virtue. Freedom of choice is essential to morals. God made man to be moral. Therefore He made him free to choose. And He forever respects that of which He is the Author, the freedom of choice in man. He Himself will never invade a hair’s breadth the freedom of man to choose for himself.PBE 128.3

    Thus in His wisdom God created the man upright, holy, and free, only “a little lower than the angels.” He gave to him paradise for his home. He gave to him dominion over the earth and over every living thing upon it, as the representative of God. He made to grow from the ground “every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food,” and “the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” He gave to him everything that could please the eye, charm the senses, and delight the mind. He gave it all to the holy pair to be enjoyed by them forever. He made them free to enjoy it or to refuse it: therefore He put also in the midst of the garden the forbidden tree, “the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Thus for the man then, as for man forever, there was established the principle, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve:” the divine principle of self-government, and government with the consent of the governed.PBE 129.1

    And in the exercise of the freedom of choice the man chose not to govern himself, but to sell himself to Satan in the bondage of sin and to the principle of lawlessness—immorality. And just there when the man had sinned and was lost, Christ offered Himself to save him. And the only reason why the man did not die that day, even in the very hour in which he sinned, is that just then Jesus Christ offered Himself in his behalf, and took upon Himself the death that would have then fallen upon the man; and thus gave to man another chance, a probation, a breathing space, that he might choose life. This is how God could immediately say to the deceiver: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed.” This is how it is that He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;” and how He can say forever, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”PBE 129.2

    Here it may be queried: As God made man, and of course all intelligent creatures, free to choose, and therefore free to choose the way of sin if they should so choose, did He not then have to provide against this possible choice, before man was made?—The answer is, Certainly He did. And since He made and must make all creatures of moral sense also thus free to choose, He had to make provision for the possibility of the entrance of sin, even before ever there was a single intelligent creature created. And He did so. This provision is but a part of that eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.PBE 130.1

    Let us, in thought, go back to when there was no created person or thing: back to the eternal counsels of the Godhead. The existence of God is not a self-satisfied existence. His love is not self-love. His joy is not fulfilled in wrapping Himself within Himself, and so sitting solitary and self-centered. His love is satisfied only in flowing out to those who will receive and enjoy it to the full. His joy is fulfilled only in carrying to an infinite universe, full of blessed intelligences, the very fulness of joy.PBE 130.2

    Standing, then, in thought, with God before there was a single intelligent creature, He desires that the universe shall be full of joyful intelligences enjoying His love to the full. In order that this shall be, they must all choose to enjoy His love and His joy. In order to choose this, they must be free to choose it. And in order to be free to choose it, they must be free not to choose it: free to choose not to serve Him, to choose not to enjoy His love and joy. They must be free to choose Him or themselves, life or death. This involves the possibility that some will choose not His way, but their own way apart from Him; and so involves the possibility of the entrance of selfishness, the entrance of sin, which is directly the opposite of all that is Himself. Shall He then refuse to create intelligences at all because if He creates, it must be with the possibility that sin may enter? If this shall be the decision, the result could only be that He must eternally remain self-centered and solitary. But that itself is also the opposite of all that is Himself. Therefore to decide thus would be to decide that He would cease to be God. But He can not cease to be God; “He can not deny Himself;” therefore He must create even to the infinite limit.PBE 131.1

    And He did create. He created intelligences. He created them free to choose: free to choose His way, or to choose the opposite: and therefore free to sin if they choose. And at the same time, in His infinite love and eternal righteousness, He purposed to give Himself in sacrifice to redeem all who would sin; and give to them a second freedom to choose Him or themselves, life or death. And those who, against all this, would the second time choose death, let them have what they have persistently chosen. And those who would choose life—the universe full of them—let them enjoy to the full that which they have chosen: even eternal life, the fulness of perfect love and of bliss forevermore.PBE 131.2

    This is God, the living God, the God of love, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is fully able to do whatsoever He will in heaven and earth, and yet leave all His creatures free. This is He who from the days of eternity “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” And this is “the mystery of His will .... which He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him.” This is “the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” in whom God reconciles the world unto Himself.PBE 132.1

    Yet even in this supreme and divine act of reconciliation, God does not seek to bind man to Himself in an absolute and irresponsible bondage, as Satan bound him when his way was chosen. God ever respects the freedom of choice of which He is the Author. He will not even now compel man to take the way of righteousness, nor compel him to keep that way after he has chosen it. When that creative word was spoken, “I will put enmity” between mankind and the enemy, He made man free again, to choose for himself whom he will serve. By that word man’s will is freed, and forever abides free, to choose to serve whom he will, to choose deliverance from the bondage of sin or to remain in it.PBE 132.2

    This word of God which plants in each soul enmity against Satan; this hatred of evil that desires deliverance which is found only in Christ;—this is the gift of faith to man. The object of this faith is Christ, and the Author of it is Christ: and so He is the Author and Finisher of faith. Hebrews 12:2. Thus the planting of eternal enmity between Satan and the woman, and between the seed of these, was the beginning of the revelation of the mystery of God which had been “kept in silence through times eternal.” Romans 16:25, R. V. And “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Galatians 4:4, 5. Then were seen and heard things which many prophets and righteous men had desired to see and had not seen, and had desired to hear and had not heard. Matthew 13:16, 17. And then in the words of Him who spake as never man spake, there were uttered things which had “been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Matthew 13:35.PBE 133.1

    Thus Christ in His gospel is the one only Way from sin to righteousness, from vice to virtue, from immorality to morality. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works [unto morals], which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10. And thus moral science stands equally with the thought of redemption in mental science, as preceding the study of the thought of God as expressed in the original or physical creation. The thought, the word, and the work of God in the moral creation, in His creating the lost soul unto the good works—the morals—which He originally ordained as the way of man, must be known and understood, before these can be correctly known or understood in the physical creation. For it is only “through faith” that “we understand” or can understand “that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Hebrews 11:3.PBE 133.2

    Therefore, after wisdom, which is the fear of the Lord, and the beginning of knowledge, Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived since Adam, exalted morals as the sum of all books and of all study, the conclusion of all that has been or can be said: “Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13. And one reason why wisdom stands in the lead of all things, is that she “leads in the way of righteousness,” which is morals. Proverbs 8:20. And that “One greater than Solomon,” the model Man of all the ages, and “the last Adam,” also exalts morals to this same place: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.” Matthew 6:33. The righteousness of God is the only true morality. The law of God is the only true moral law. And the Book of God, the teaching, the instruction, of God is the only true moral instruction.PBE 134.1

    What, then, does this Book, this instruction, of Him who “is perfect in knowledge” say on this subject of morals? What does it say to the morals, the character, of man as he is: human morals?—Here is the Word of Him who teacheth man knowledge: “Both Jews and Gentiles ... are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:9-18. “Out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” Mark 7:21-23.PBE 135.1

    That is a sketch of human character by the One who certainly knows. And the study of human moral science is simply the study of that sort of character: or rather the study of men’s conception of that sort of character. And in this, men’s conceptions are altogether amiss; for the writers on moral science do not believe that human character is such as is here truly described. They conceive of it as a far different thing. But when moral science is “the science of human duty, based on a knowledge of human nature, its springs and faculties of action;” and when men’s conceptions of human nature are altogether different from what human nature really and truly is, and these false conceptions of human nature are built up into a “moral science” for the guidance of men; it is perfectly plain that the whole worldly idea of moral science is not only “science falsely so called,” but is a fatal delusion.PBE 135.2

    Moral science is “the science of human duty, based on a knowledge of human nature, its springs and faculties of action, and [a knowledge] of the various relations in which man, as a moral and social being, is, or may be, placed.” And it must not be forgotten, in the study of any science, that a guess is not knowledge, conjecture is not knowledge, hypothesis is not knowledge; but that knowledge is to know, to know for certain. It is to know, and to know that we know.PBE 136.1

    Where, then, shall be found the certainty of “knowledge of human nature, its springs and faculties of action,” etc.?—Certainly only with Him who is perfect in knowledge, who is indeed the Fountain of knowledge. and who teacheth man knowledge. Only this can possibly be the true knowledge of human nature. And only that which is built on this knowledge of human nature can possibly be true moral science.PBE 136.2

    The true knowledge of human nature as it is, He has revealed to us in the passages of revelation above quoted. But surely no person who believes that revelation, no one who receives as the truth that knowledge of human nature, would ever think for a moment of using it as a basis upon which to build the science of human duty. For that revelation, that true knowledge, of human nature, shows that all that human nature is is essentially immorality. And any science of which that is the basis, is clearly immoral, not moral, science: is but the science of immorality. And the study of any such “moral science” is only the study of immorality. Of course it is not meant to be that. By the misconception of what human nature really is, such study is supposed to be the study of veritable morals. But in the light of the true knowledge of what human nature really is, it is as plain as A B C that the study of human moral science is but the study of immorality. This can be tested by any one for himself by reading the books that are published as treatises and text-books on moral science. They will almost invariably be found to be essentially pagan, where they are not essentially papal, which is worse. So entirely is this true, that, with one exception, or possibly two, we have never yet seen, and we do not believe there is in the world, a work on moral science, as such, which is not essentially pagan, where it is not essentially papal. This is because the true. the divine, basis of morals is not discerned: but the human lingers through all. It is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: which in essence and at the last is found to be only evil. Yet these books—books in which there is neither true morals nor true science—have been and are used as text-books on moral science in professed Christian schools. This will never do. Christianity is of the tree of life. Proverbs 3:18.PBE 137.1

    It is not the science of human nature as it is, but of human nature as it was and as it must be, that is the true moral science. It is not the knowledge, even the perfect knowledge, of human nature as it is with its springs and faculties of action, that is the basis of true moral science: that, as we have seen, could be only the perfect knowledge of immorality. The perfect knowledge of human nature as it was and as it must be, with its springs and faculties of action—only this can possibly be the basis of true moral science: this is the perfect knowledge of perfect human nature with its perfect springs and faculties of action, and is therefore the perfect knowledge of perfect morals. This knowledge is revealed in Jesus Christ in human nature; and is found in the Word of that revelation from the day that human nature departed from what it was until the day when human nature shall be fully redeemed to what it must be. Human nature as it is, is blind, in the darkness, sunken in sin, and under the dominion of Satan. Human nature as it was and as it must be, sees clearly, is in the light, is freed from sin, and is in the kingdom and under the dominion of God in Christ. “Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.” Acts 26:17, 18. Christianity, then, the science of Christianity, as it is in the Book of Christianity—the Word made flesh, the gospel of Christ—is the only true moral science.PBE 138.1

    What, then, is the true human nature as it was and as it must be?—It is human nature partaking of the divine nature. It is the human and the divine joined in one divine-human Man. This is Christ, the model Man. He being God became man: being Divine became human: being the Word of God and God, “was made flesh, and dwelt among us, ... full of grace and truth,” “God manifest in the flesh,” “God with us.” And now human nature that is “far off” from God, is “made nigh by the blood of Christ.” “For He is our peace, who hath made both [God and man, the divine and the human] one, ... having abolished in His flesh the enmity ... for to make in Himself of twain [God and man] one new man, as making peace.” Ephesians 2:14, 15. And thus His divine power has given to all men “exceeding great and precious promises; that by these YE might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:4.PBE 139.1

    What character is the true character of this true man this man as he was and as he must be? What character can alone be becoming to him?—The divine character, of course: the divine character manifest in human nature. This is Christ; and this is the object of the gospel of Christ forever. Therefore “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: .... for therein is the righteousness [the character] of God revealed” Romans 1:16, 17. Thus the gospel is ever only “God manifest in the flesh,” “God with us,” and “Christ in you the hope of glory.”PBE 139.2

    What, then, is this character in itself? What is the certainty of knowledge of this character as the basis of moral science? Here it is: “I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.... And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness an truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and before whom no man is guiltless.” Exodus 33:19; 34:6, 7. “God is love.” 1 John 4:8 “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” Jeremiah 31:3.PBE 140.1

    And “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge [the science] of the glory [the character] of God in the fact of Jesus Christ.” And “we all, with open fact beholding as in a glass the glory [the character] of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory [from character to character], even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 4:6; 3:18.PBE 140.2

    Here is a character that is entirely worthy of the most devoted contemplation. Here is the very perfection of morals. Knowledge of this character is the truest moral science. And the diligent, earnest, prayerful study of this blessed transformation of the soul, through the faith of Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit of God, from evil to good, from wickedness to righteousness, from sin to holiness, from the human character to the divine character, from immorality to morality,—the study of this is the study of the true science of morals, and is the only true moral science.PBE 141.1

    In the realm of morals, which is character, since men have forgotten the true morality, and have become altogether immoral; since “they have all gone out of the way,” and have “together become unprofitable;” since “there is none that seeketh after God,”—unless God should abandon them utterly, it is essential that there should be set before men the true standard of character in such a way that they shall be drawn to the contemplation of it.PBE 141.2

    Yet though man had become altogether immoral, God could not abandon him; because He is “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Therefore He formulated for man a transcript of His own character in such a form as to be particularly adapted to the condition and needs of man altogether as he is.PBE 141.3

    This transcript of the character of God, this true standard of character, is formulated in the Law of God, the ten commandments. And while “the God of nature has written His existence in all His works,“ He has also “written His law in the heart of man.” And here is the Law of God:—PBE 142.1

    “I AM

    The Lord Thy God,

    which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out
    of the house of bondage.

    I.
    “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

    II.
    “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that
    is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
    earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy
    God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
    third and fourth generation of them that hate Me: and showing mercy unto
    thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.

    III.
    “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold
    him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.

    IV.
    “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six

    days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
    Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
    manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy
    gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them
    is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and
    hallowed it.

    V.
    “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the
    Lord thy God giveth thee.

    VI.
    “Thou shalt not kill.

    VII.
    “Thou shalt not commit adultery.

    VIII.
    “Thou shalt not steal.

    IX.
    “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

    X.
    “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife,
    nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is
    thy neighbor’s.”

    It was necessary for the Lord to present His law, the transcript of His character, in this form, just because of the essential immorality of mankind. For “the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” 1 Timothy 1:9,10.PBE 143.1

    As this is a description of man just as he is naturally, in the world, it is easy to see how perfectly adapted to his condition, how perfectly calculated to awaken him and draw him away from himself, is that law of universal and everlasting “Thou shalt not’s” absolutely prohibiting him from doing everything that is naturally in him to do. This reveals to man the true knowledge of himself; that he is altogether wrong, a complete sinner. At the same time there is pressing upon him that divinely-implanted enmity against Satan. the hatred of evil and desire for the good; with the fatal consciousness that of himself there is no possibility of attaining to the perfection of conduct demanded by that law and sanctioned by the soul’s desire. Thus the soul-conflict is deepened till in desperation he cries, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Then, in answer, “the Desire of all nations” comes, and presents Himself to him; and when accepted by him, delivers him from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.PBE 144.1

    So “the Law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: THAT as sin hath reigned unto death; EVEN so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:20, 21. And “What Law could not do, in so far our earthly nature weakened its action, God did, by sending His own Son, with a nature like our sinful nature, to atone for sin. He doomed sin in that earthly nature, so that the requirements of the Law might be satisfied in our lives, lived now in obedience, not to our earthly nature, but to the Spirit.” Romans 8:3, 4.PBE 145.1

    Accordingly, “we know that everything said in the Law is addressed to those who are under its authority, in order that every mouth may be closed, and the whole world become liable to the judgment of God. For no human being will stand right with God as the result of actions done in obedience to Law; for through Law there comes a clear conception of sin. But now, quite apart from Law, there stands revealed a righteousness [a character] which comes from God, and to which the law and the Prophets bear witness. It is a righteousness [a morality] which comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ, and is for all, without distinction, who believe in Him. For all have sinned [have become immoral], and all fall short of God’s glorious ideal, but, in His mercy, are being set right with Him through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus. For God placed Him before the world, to be, by His sacrifice of Himself, a means of reconciliation through faith in Him. God did this, in order to prove His righteousness [His morality], and because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins men had previously committed: God did this, I repeat, as a proof, at the present time, of His own righteousness, in order that He might be righteous [moral], and make those who have faith in Jesus stand right[moral] with Himself.” Romans 3:19-26.PBE 145.2

    This is the morally scientific way of human nature from what it is to what it must be. to be truly moral.PBE 146.1

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