Now if all that 'Muscular Christianity' means is that, then the
expression is altogether unnecessary; for we have had the thing for
three centuries--and defective likewise, for it is not a merely
muscular, but a human Christianity which the Bible taught our
forefathers, and which our forefathers have handed down to us.

But there is another meaning sometimes attached to this flippant
expression, 'Muscular Christianity,' which is utterly immoral and
intolerable. There are those who say, and there have been of late
those who have written books to shew, that provided a young man is
sufficiently brave, frank, and gallant, he is more or less absolved
from the common duties of morality and self-restraint.

That physical prowess is a substitute for virtue is certainly no new
doctrine. It is the doctrine of every red man on the American
prairies, of every African chief who ornaments his hut with human
skulls. It was the doctrine of our heathen forefathers, when they
came hither slaying, plundering, burning, tossing babes on their
spear-points. But I am sorry that it should be the doctrine of any
one calling himself a gentleman, much more a Christian.

It is certainly not the doctrine of the Catechism, which bids us
renounce the flesh, and live by the help of God's Spirit a new life
of duty to God and to our neighbour.

It is certainly not the doctrine of the New Testament. Whatsoever
St. Paul meant by bidding his disciples crucify the flesh, with its
affections and lusts, he did not mean thereby that they were to
deify the flesh, as the heathen round them did in their profligate
mysteries and in their gladiatorial exhibitions.

Neither, though the Old Testament may seem to put more value on
physical prowess than does the New Testament, is it the doctrine of
the Old Testament, as I purpose to show you from the life and
history of David.

Nothing, nothing, can be a substitute for purity and virtue. Man
will always try to find substitutes for it. He will try to find a
substitute in superstition, in forms and ceremonies, in voluntary
humility and worship of angels, in using vain repetitions, and
fancying that he will be heard for his much speaking; he will try to
find a substitute in intellect, and the worship of intellect, and
art, and poetry; or he will try to find it, as in the present case,
in the worship of his own animal powers, which God meant to be his
servants and not his masters. But let no man lay that fl