Ethics and Religion.

Professor Palmer delivered the fourth of the William Belden Noble lectures last night in Brooks House. The special subject was "Ethics and Religion." Professor Palmer began by showing that in religion we have a field far more closely allied to ethics than either Law or the Fine Arts. There are, of course, certain lines of difference between them; but the first aim should be to establish their similarity.

In the first place, goodness and holiness are recognized as practically synonymous by all great thinkers, irrespective of sect or creed. Not Christ alone, but such philosophers as Spinoza have spoken of love as the supreme quality in man, and the thought has been repeated by those of later times. Now, this is quite as true in ethics as in religion; and certain religious postulates are essential to completeness in the purely ethical field.

Coming to more definite points of resemblance, we see that duty, however simple, is a religious act; for a failure to perform it involves the suffering of innocent persons. Again, duty is universal; that is, in following it we conform to a universal law, and any omission of it must be regarded as a sin. Here the similarity to religion and its laws is too clear to demand explanation. Finally, duty is always authoritative. It is the call of the whole world upon the individual, and for this reason it can never be avoided without some resulting misfortune. This call of duty issues from God.