Blake's Good and Evil at the Cross
Story★★★★In William Blake’s wonderful picture of the Crucifixion he represents Christ on the cross and behind the cross are the soldiers casting the dice to determine which of them shall have the seamless robe. Those gamblers behind the cross are in Blake’s treatment of them the perfect incarnation of evil, while Christ upon the cross is the incarnation of good. You cannot imagine the two reversed. You cannot imagine Christ gambling any more than you can imagine the gamblers dying for the salvation of the world.
Bring it to that test. It is the safest test I know in all other matters, the only way that quickly responds to our inquiry. Our moral arguments may easily deceive us, our casuistry is often quite misleading, but here is a test which quickly answers our question.
You want to act in such a way in every condition of life that you can say: “Christ would do this if He were in my position.” There is the simple law for us, the infallible law which keeps us in the right way, which takes us to the right goal; what Christ would do, what Christ would approve. That is the answer to the question: Is it right to gamble? Would Christ gamble?
No.
The point
A reflection on Blake's Crucifixion painting proposing that the supreme moral test is: 'Would Christ do this?' setting Christ as the ethical model.