140  The  Teaching  of  Jesus

moral  world,  it  will  at  least  be  soon  enough  to
discuss  a  rival's  claims  when  he  appears  ;  as  yet
there  is  no  sign  of  him.  But  the  point  I  am
most  anxious  to  emphasize  just  now  is  not  simply
that  Jesus  has  put  before  us  an  ideal,  the  highest
of  its  kind  in  the  world,  but  that  there  is  nothing
of  any  kind  to  be  desired  before  it.  To  be  good
as  Christ  was  good,  here  in  very  truth  is  the
summum  bonum  of  life,  the  greatest  thing  in  the
world,  that  which,  before  all  other  things,  a  man
should  seek  to  make  his  own.  There  are  times,
perhaps,  in  the  lives  of  all  of  us  when  we  are
tempted  to  doubt  it — times  when  the  kingdoms
of  this  world,  the  kingdoms  of  wealth  and  power
and  knowledge  lie  stretched  at  our  feet,  and  the
whispering  fiend  at  our  elbow  bids  us  bow  and
enter  in.  But  once  again,  if  we  be  true  men,  the
moment  comes,

"  When  the  spirit's  true  endowments
Stand  out  plainly  from  its  false  ones,"

when  the  sacred,  saving  faith  in  righteousness
returns,  and  we  know  that  Christ  was  right,  that
for  ever  and  for  ever  it  is  true  that  better  than  to
be  rich,  or  to  be  clever,  or  to  be  famous,  is  it  to
be  true,  to  be  pure,  to  be  good.
