If the view presented in this chapter of the ethical ideal of Christianity be correct, then the doctrine of an _Interims-ethik_ advocated by modern eschatologists must be pronounced unsatisfactory as a complete account of the teaching of Jesus.[56] The three features which stand out most clearly in the Ethics of Christ are, Absoluteness, Inwardness, and Universality. It is an ideal for man as man, for all time, and for all men. The personality of God represents the highest form of existence we know; and the love of God is the sublimest attribute we can conceive. But because God is our Father there is a kinship between the divine and the human; and no higher or grander vision of life is thinkable than to be like God--to share that which is most distinctive of the divine Fatherhood--His love of all mankind. Hence Godlikeness involves Brotherhood.[57] In the ideal of love--high as God, broad as the world--the other aspects of the chief good, the individual and the social, are harmonised. In Christian Ethics, the problem of philosophy how to unite the one and the many, egoism and altruism, has been practically solved. The individual realises his life only as he finds himself in others; and this he can only do as he finds himself in God. The first and last word of all morality and religion is summed up in Christ's twofold law of love: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.'[58] [1] Cf. Troeltsch, _Die Sociallehren d. Christl. Kirchen_, vol. i. p. 37, where the idea of self-worth and self-consecration is worked out. [2] Wernle, _Beginnings of Christianity_, vol. i. p. 76. [3] Wernle, _Beginnings of Christianity_, pp. 76 f. [4] John x. 10. [5] Luke xii. 15, 16. [6] Matt. v. [7] Matt. vi. 24. [8] 1 John ii. 15. [9] Luke x. 21; Matt. xi. 28-30; Mark viii. 35; John iii. 15, x. 28, xvii. 2. [10] John xvii. 3. [11] Rom. xii. 1. [12] Matt. xix. 17. [13] Luke xvii. 33; John xii. 25. [14] Bailey, _Festus_. [15] Browning. [16] Jones, _Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher_, p. 354. [17] Abt Vogler. [18] Cf. Balch, _Introd. to the Study of Christian Ethics_, p. 150. [19] Newman Smyth, _Christian Ethics_, p. 97. [20] Balch, _Introd. to the Study of Christian Ethics_, p. 150. [21] See Apocalypses of Baruch, Esdras, Enoch, and Pss. of Solomon, and also Daniel and Ezekiel. Cf. E. F. Scott, _The Kingdom and the Messiah_, for Apoc. literature. [22] J. Weiss, _Die Predigt Jesu vom Reiche Gottes_. Cf. also Wernle, _Die Anfaenge unsurer Religion_, who is not so pronounced. Bousset rejects this view, and Titius, in his _N. T. Doctrine of Blessedness_, regards the kingdom of God as a present good. See also Moffatt, _The Theology of the Gospels_.