Virtue

In creation man was uniquely inbreathed with an ability to communicate with God. After sin entered life we see God following this with the development of man's conscience. This when not followed produced guilty feelings.

If man followed his conscience he can develop to experience a “superadded” energy to be decent people who are friendly to ethics and law. This indwelling work of God’s Holy Spirit has nothing to do culture or religion.

Thus we can find heroic folks from any background as history reveals. This is that part of humans which briefly spring to life when they hear Truth including Truth about salvation. The universal place for a need for ethics in fact is a prove for divinity behind our creation.

Scholars divide the study of virtue into two branches: Moral Virtue and Theological Virtue.

The theological virtues are three, viz. faith, hope, and charity. When citizens cry out for justice even in impossible circumstances this evidences divinity in us universally. When citizens lament over the death of someone hopelessly addicted to some type of drug this evidences a universal need for temperance which leads to abstinence, which disposes to moderation in the use of food; sobriety, which inclines to moderation in the use of spirituous liquors; chastity, which regulates the appetite in regard to sexual pleasures; to chastity may be reduced modesty, which is concerned with acts subordinate to the act of reproduction.

To this virtue may be added fortitude leading humans to: Patience, which disposes us to bear present evils with equanimity; for as the brave man is one who represses those fears which make him shrink from meeting dangers which reason dictates he should encounter, so also the patient man is one who endures present evils in such a way as not to be inordinately cast down by them. Perseverance, the virtue which disposes to continuance in the accomplishment of good works in spite of the difficulties attendant upon them.

As a moral virtue it is not to be taken precisely for what is designated as final perseverance, that special gift of the predestined by which one is found in the state of grace at the moment of death. It is used here to designate that virtue which disposes one to continuance in any virtuous work whatsoever.

Ref: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15472a.htm 5/8/2008 6:07 PM. Bill Bennet's Book of Virtues.

Romans 1:17-27

Rom 1:17-27 For in it {the} righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS {man} SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of me n who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. (NAU)