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| Mary, Mother, meek and mild-Blessed was she in her Child. |
Human actions, besides being intelligent and free, have in virtue of these qualities a further one. They have a moral character, i.e. a relation to a transcendent moral law; and they are good or bad accordingly. The mere fact that it pleases us to do a thing, that it proceeds from our intelligence and free-will, does not make it morally good. Neither does the command of the civil law, or the common custom of mankind, or the immediate utility of an act, or its pleasantness, or the fact of our being under a certain compulsion, make our actions good. They are good if they forward the chief purpose of man's existence, and bad if they are adverse to it. That purpose is the conformity of our lives to the ideal of human perfection as it is in the mind of God; and this ideal is made known to us by our reason, our conscience, and the revelation of God in His word and in Jesus Christ. God Himself is the rule of human morality. There are three factors in our actions which determine their conformity to their supreme standard; viz., their natural object and tendency, man's intention in performing them, and their accompanying circumstances. Some acts are good in all these respects; others are deficient in one or the other point, and are bad accordingly. Let your actions be perfect in all respects, and conformed to justice towards God and man. Let them not be guided by any considerations of selfish utility or human respect, but only by high principle of duty towards God and to your Christian character.
