which they result. If a man believe that he can be saved through grace given to him by the Church, or through the redemption, it is natural that he should think that his efforts to live a righteous life are unnecessary—the more so when he is told that even the hope that his efforts will make him better is a sin. Consequently a man who believes that there are means of salvation other than personal effort[1] cannot strive with the same energy and seriousness as the man who knows no other means. And not striving with perfect seriousness and knowing of other means besides personal effort, a man will inevitably neglect that unalterable order of succession for the attainment of the virtues necessary to a righteous life. And this has happened with the majority of those who profess Christianity.
III
The doctrine that personal effort is not necessary for the attainment by man of spiritual perfection, but that there are other means for its acquirement, is the cause of the relaxation of effort after a righteous life, and of the neglect of the consecutiveness indispensable to such a life.
The great mass of mankind, accepting Christianity only externally, took advantage of the substitution of Christianity for paganism to free themselves from the demands of the heathen virtues,—no longer necessary for a Christian,—and to free themselves from all conflict with their animal nature.
The same thing happens with those that cease to believe in the teaching of the Church. They are like the before-mentioned believers, only they put forward—instead of grace bestowed by the Church or through redemption—some imaginary good work, approved of by the majority of men, such as the service of science,
- ↑ As for instance by "indulgences" among the Roman Catholics.—Author's Note.
