Page:The Power of the Spirit.djvu/88



Rh Christianity agrees with the best ancient thought in the importance attached to the fundamental great qualities; but it adds something else. It even recognizes through S. Paul the existence of important gifts of enthusiasm; though these gifts, as we have seen, it prizes only in proportion to their social utility. But it declares further that, in addition to being like Aristides or Marcus Aurelius, a good Christian must also have the grace of an intense and burning charity.

Now we are in constant danger of supposing that love, with its kindred attributes, is something that can be put in the place of the 'pagan' virtues. To use another question-begging and untrue epithet, we think of it as 'feminine', in contradistinction to the masculine gifts; and, regarding the two as mutually exclusive, we have come to think of the feminine quality as peculiarly the gift of the Spirit. A man is accounted religious for being affectionate rather than forcible; and, in reaction partly against the harshness of Puritanism, we tolerate an inordinate amount of imbecility in our tender little saints, and prefer what is amiable to what is admirable. The favourite images in popular hagiology abroad display their hearts, or carry bouquets; and the air is heavy with the scent of their lilies. In all this, popular Christianity has drifted behind Muhammedanism, which with all its faults has seldom ceased to be virile.