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of will which immediately calls the energies into action: as the volition to lift my hand, to throw a stone, or to examine a plant. An exertive volition is in its nature ictic; it ceases with the action which it calls forth.

If we attend more closely to our mental acts we perceive that we also make determinations to act which are abiding. They are what we call intentions, purposes, resolutions, and so distinguish them from choices or elective preferences. As determinations to act and not choices of objects, they are of the nature of volitions, and may be called immanent volitions; volitions would then be distinguished as exertive or executive, and immanent. The man who to-day chooses to-morrow's wages in preference to the pleasure of an excursion, in that very choice determines to work to-morrow and earn the wages. So soon as he has chosen the wages, he says, I am determined to work to-morrow. A choice always manifests itself in a purpose to act in accordance with the choice; and the action will begin immediately if the man sees that immediate action is required to attain the end. In the case of the laborer, he must wait till to-morrow before he can begin his work. But his determination to work remains. So when a man has chosen his profession, his determination to educate himself for it abides through the years of professional study, and his determination to practice it abides through life. This determination does not of itself strike so deep into the springs of action as a choice; for it is only a determination to do certain actions, while the choice is the preference or determination of the object of the action. Such a determination or resolution has a proverbial lack of tenacity; men "resolve, and reresolve, and die the same," because the resolution is only a determination to act. If it is dissociated from the choice which fixes the heart on the object, and if then appetite, desire or passion stirs and tempts to the contrary, the resolution gives way like a cotton thread in a flame. The choice, fixing the heart on the object and making the exertion spontaneous and joyous, has a power to resist and subdue the natural passions.

It may be objected that it is an over-refined analysis to distinguish this abiding determination to act, from the choice. It is true that the choice of the object of action ipso facto determines the direction of the action to the object chosen; and I do not wish to dispute about names. The point of practical importance is, that a determination to act, however abiding, if dissociated from the choice of the object, is not a determination of the will in its full significance. The former without the latter must be superficial and weak. Certainly the choice of God as the supreme object of service must always be distinguished from the various acts of service which I render to him and from my abiding purpose to render them; the choice of my neighbor as the object of

service equally with myself, must always be distinguishable from my acts of service to him and from my purpose to do those acts.

It has been objected that the distinction implies that the supreme choice of God and the immanent purpose to serve him may exist, while yet the actual service is put off to a future time. This is a misrepresentation. Choice spontaneously manifests itself in accordant volitional action. In all choices the purpose to act accordantly is immediate and continuous; but in a subordinate choice the actual exertion may be put off through lack of fit opportunity. In the supreme choice of God any particular act of service may be put off for the same reason; as a young man purposing to go to China as a missionary puts off his actual going till he gets through college and the professional school. But the actual exertion of all the energies in the service of God never needs be put off for such a reason, because a man is required to serve God in whatever he does. There needs be no delay in breaking off one's sins by righteousness; and if the imagined choice of God does not immediately manifest itself thus, it is proved to be not a real choice of God. I have already shown that a choice is not a mere preference of one thing to another, but it is the choice of an object to which the activity is to be directed. It is, therefore, of the essence of choice that it spontaneously expresses itself in an abiding determination to act in accordance with the choice and in accordant actual exertion of energy whenever there is fit opportunity.

IV. A volition is not a complete determination, but is the expression of a choice. The choice of the object of action is the fundamental determination, of which the volition is the manifestation and expression. If man has only volitional power or power to exert his energies and has no power of choosing the ends or objects of his action, then his only freedom is freedom to do as he pleases; but what he pleases is necessarily determined by the unreasoning impulse of feeling which at the time is the strongest. Much of the confusion in the discussion of the will has arisen from the error that a volition to do an action is the deepest and only determination.

It may be asked whether a choice may not be made between two actions or courses of action. Undoubtedly two proposed acts or courses of action may be compared as objects of thought, and one of them may be determined on by the will in preference to the other. But if we consider further we shall see that the determination of the action has been made in choosing an object of action. If I have determined to go to New York for the attainment of a chosen object, as the pleasure of seeing a friend or the money to be gained by transacting a business, I may then determine whether I will go on horseback, or by railroad, or by steamboat. If I choose to go on horseback, it will be for the plea

sure and health to be gained by it; if by steamboat, it may be for the coolness and pleasure of the sail, or, if in the night, for securing the gains of a day's business; if by rail, for the company of a friend or the saving made by greater expedition. So that the determination to act is still dependent on the choice of an object and is a manifestation or expression of the choice.

67. Ethical Application.

This is not the place for the discussion of ethics; but for the further elucidation of the doctrine of the will I will briefly notice some of its ethical applications.

I. The object of the supreme choice is always a person or persons to be trusted and served, not any thing, quality, power or condition to be acquired, possessed, used and enjoyed.

The objects or ends of action among which choice is possible lie in these two spheres. There are persons to be trusted or served; there are things, qualities, powers and conditions to be acquired, possessed, used and enjoyed.

In the sphere of objects to be acquired, that which ought to be chosen as the ultimate and highest end is well-being, or the good estimated by reason as having true worth; and all things, qualities, powers and conditions, which are the legitimate means or conditions of attaining the true and highest good, are rightly chosen as relative good.

But the object of the supreme choice can never be in the sphere of objects to be acquired, possessed, used and enjoyed. For the further question arises for whom is the object acquired, for myself or for another? Thus beyond all objects that are acquired and used, there is always and necessarily a higher and supreme object-the person for whom the objects, that may be possessed, used and enjoyed, are to be acquired. Therefore the object of a supreme choice, whether morally right or wrong, must always be a person or persons to be trusted or served, not any thing, quality or condition to be acquired, possessed, used and enjoyed.

This is evident, also, because a person is essentially by virtue of his personality in himself an end of action, a being to be trusted and served, never an object to be acquired, possessed and used. So our Lord teaches that the sum total of all worldly values is not equal to the worth of a man. He has a dignity beyond all price. A person bv virtue of his personality has rights. Something is due to him from other persons; they owe him duty. The object of the supreme choice to which the whole activity is to be consecrated cannot be anything which is a means to an end; it must be that which is an end in itself and unconditionally. A person only is thus an end. A person, there

fore, must be the object of the supreme choice, whether that choice be morally right or wrong.

Hence the true good itself is not the object of a right supreme choice. For the true good is nothing real except as the good of a person; and the choice of it is impossible except as it is chosen for some person.

II. The object of a right supreme choice is God in his relation to all personal beings in the universal moral system. Or, it is God and all rational beings in their real relations in the unity of the universal rational and moral system.

Here it may be objected that the right supreme choice must be the consent of the will to the reason; the acceptance by the will of the truths, laws, ideals and ends of Reason as regulative of the whole activity; and that the wrong supreme choice must be the refusal by the will of this consent. This accords with Kant's ethics, that the right moral character consists in reverence for law, in the doing of duty. It is true that the right supreme choice carries in it the consent of the will to the law; that so far as action is distinctively moral it involves the recognition of law, obligation and duty; and that the right character involves the fixed purpose of the will to do all duty. This, however, is only a partial and incomplete description of a right moral character. For, in the first place, it is only a resolution to perform actions. It thus remains no more than an immanent volition. It has not in it that which alone is the real determination, the choice of the object of action. And, besides this, the will cannot consent to the formal principle of the law otherwise than in the act of love to God and man which the real principle of the law requires. And, further, the universe is not abstract, but concrete; it is a universe of being. All knowledge, thought and causal energy are attributes of being and terminate on being as their object. But the objection makes the supreme act of will which determines the whole course of action and the whole moral character and destiny of the man, terminate in abstract ideas of law and duty. Virtue thus defined lacks reality.

We must, then, look beyond this to the realm of personal beings to find the object of the right supreme choice. The Absolute Reason is God. In him all truth, law, ideals and good are eternal. The object of the right supreme choice, which determines man's moral character in the whole course of his activity, is God. He is chosen as the supreme object of trust and service.

God, however, does not exist alone, but in relation to the universe in which he is expressing the archetypal thoughts of eternal Reason and progressively realizing the ideals and ends of his wisdom and love. The natural universe exists in the unity of a Cosmos by its relation to God. Personal beings exist in the unity of a moral system having common

relations to each other and to God. They have a common constitution as rational and free. Knowledge, truth, rational and moral principles, ideals of perfection, worth and well-being as estimated by reason, are the same to them all under the one universal law of God. If, then, I choose God as the supreme object of trust and service, I choose him in his real relations to the universe; I consent to the truths, laws, ideals and ends of the supreme reason; I devote my energies to realize as a worker with God all the ends of his wisdom and love in the realm of personality, and so to advance his kingdom of righteousness and peace. In choosing God as the supreme object of trust and service, I choose all rational beings within the sphere of my knowledge and influence as equally with myself objects of trust and service in the moral system in which we are all united. And in that choice my will consents to the truths, laws, ideals and ends which are eternal in the divine Reason and are the constitution of the system of things in which we all exist and act. So Christ declares the object of human service to be God as supreme and our neighbor (every one within our influence) as ourselves.

In a wrong supreme choice, a man chooses himself alone, and thus refuses God, his neighbor and himself in their relations in the moral system, as the supreme object of trust and service.

I have spoken of trust and service. These constitute the entire activity of man so far as persons are the object of it. Trust is the activity expressing man's consciousness of dependence and accords with the reality that man is finite and dependent. Service is the activity expressing man's consciousness of freedom and power, and accords with the reality that man is endowed with freedom and power, and so is a sort of subcreative center of intelligence and energy.

III. The love which is required in the law of God is a free choice. of the will.

We are embarrassed by the fact that love in popular language is used with different meanings. We use the word indiscriminately to denote natural appetites or desires or affections, and the moral character required in the law of God. We say indiscriminately a man loves an apple, he loves intoxicating liquors, he loves money, he loves his children, he loves his neighbor and he loves God. It is evident that the love required in the law cannot be the same with love in all the different meanings which it has in popular use. It is necessary to discriminate and to ascertain what is the distinctive meaning of the love required in the law.

Evidently, for the very reason that love is commanded by law, it cannot be a natural appetite, desire or affection, nor even a rational sensibility. For these are constitutional impulses and are only in

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