Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE STANDING-GROUND OF PHILOSOPHY I/Ihands to them. Thus it is that men justly loving thegods for their benefactions and cheir relationship areeager in every way to be with them and to conversewith them.Now i this first and immortal parent, this giver oflife and all good things, this common Father andSaviour and Guardian of men, is none other than allwho are of Greek lineage terra their ancestral Zeus,and he is represented by Phidias as watching overserene and peaceful Greece, so far as it was possiblefor mortal conception to imitate the divine and unattainablenature.This Father of gods and men is the architect andarranger of the whole universe, which he administersfor the general good of all. . He has impressed perfectorder and harmony on it from the beginning, so thatit had no infancy, no weakness. He maintains thatorder and harmony in it. The relation between himand the other gods is not defined further than thathe is called generally their father and leader. Arethey parts of him, or ministers? This question isleft unsolved. It seems as if it were unasked. Heis the sovereign reason, and they are immortal, andshare that reason, as men who are mortal share it,b :leg that the wh race o oclsd men form together " that wh h reason. 2Yet whi h iprem e God thi h jet of thuniverse, d so ex hibited th 1 h pomp c flanguage whic Dio can d. th notion c fcreation is absent. H dom is imp Pmatter, and the resul h finite variety of mmbined with purpose which the world presents, buth quest how m m th to be ( perated1 Orat. xii. pp. 205, 215. TO \oyiKov.