In like manner it is a misinterpretation of the teaching of Jesus to represent asceticism as the last word of Christian Ethics. Renunciation and unworldliness are undoubtedly frequently commended in the New Testament, but they are urged not as ends in themselves but as means to a fuller self-realisation. Such was not the habitual temper and tone of Jesus in His relations to the world, nor was the ultimate purpose of His mission to create a type of manhood whose perfection lay in withdrawal from the interests and obligations of life. 'To single out a teaching of non-resistance as the core of the Gospels, to retreat from social obligations in the name of one who gladly shared them and was called a friend of wine-bibbers and publicans--all this, however heroic it may be, is not only an impracticable discipleship but a historical perversion. It mistakes the occasionalism of the Gospels for universalism.'[1] Finally, there are many details of modern social well-being with which the New Testament does not deal, questions of present-day ethics and economics which cannot be decided by a direct reference to chapter and {247} verse, either of the Gospels or Epistles. The problems of life shift with the shifting years, but the nature of life remains unchanged, and responds to the life and the spirit of Him who was, and remains down the ages, the Light of men. The individual virtues of humility, purity of heart, and self-sacrifice are not evanescent, but are now and always the pillars of Christian Ethics; while the great principles of human solidarity, of brotherhood and equality in Christ, of freedom, of love, and service; the New Testament teachings concerning the family, the State, and the kingdom of God; our Lord's precepts with regard to the sacredness of the body and the soul, the duty of work, the stewardship of wealth, and the accountability to God for life with its variety of gifts and tasks--contain the germ and potency of all personal and social transformation and renewal. [1] Prof. Peabody, _Harvard Theological Review_, May 1913. {248} BIBLIOGRAPHY A.--GENERAL WORKS ON ETHICS I. ENGLISH WORKS 1. _Early Idealism and Intuitionalism_. Hobbes, 1650; Mandeville, 1714; Cudworth, 1688; Cumberland, 1672; Sam. Clarke, 1704; Shaftesbury, 1713; Butler, 1729; Hutchison, 1756; Adam Smith, 1759; R. Price, 1757; Thom. Reid, 1793; Dugald Stewart, 1793; W. Whewell, 1848; H. Calderwood, _Handbook of Mor. Phil._, 1872; Martineau, _Types of Ethical Theory_, 1886; Laurie, _Ethics_, 1885; N. Porter, _Elements of Moral Science_, 1885. 2. _Utilitarianism_.