Christian belief, again, had presented itself as a great inspirer of
chastity. Chastity, in turn, realised in the whole scope of its
conditions, fortified that rehabilitation of peaceful labour, after
the mind, the pattern, of the workman of Galilee, which was another
of the natural instincts of the catholic church, as being indeed the
long-desired initiator of a religion of cheerfulness, as a true lover
of the industry--so to term it--the labour, the creation, of God.

And this severe yet genial assertion of the ideal of woman, of the
family, of industry, of man's work in life, so close to the truth of
nature, was also, in that charmed hour of the minor "Peace of the
church," realised as an influence tending to beauty, to the adornment
of life and the world. The sword in the world, the right eye plucked
out, the right hand cut off, the spirit of reproach which those
images express, and of which monasticism is the fulfilment, reflect
one side only of the nature of the divine missionary of the New
Testament. Opposed to, yet blent with, this ascetic or militant
character, is the function of the Good Shepherd, serene, blithe and
debonair, beyond the gentlest shepherd of Greek mythology; of a king
under whom the beatific vision is realised of a reign of peace--peace
of heart--among men. Such aspect of the divine character of Christ,
rightly understood, [115] is indeed the final consummation of that
bold and brilliant hopefulness in man's nature, which had sustained
him so far through his immense labours, his immense sorrows, and of
which pagan gaiety in the handling of life, is but a minor
achievement. Sometimes one, sometimes the other, of those two
contrasted aspects of its Founder, have, in different ages and under
the urgency of different human needs, been at work also in the
Christian Church. Certainly, in that brief "Peace of the church"
under the Antonines, the spirit of a pastoral security and happiness