Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMChrysostomus represent very sufficiently all the phasesof the Greek mind of their time. In one we have theStoic, in another the Platonist, in the third the popularsemi-philosopher and lecturer, who combined the Stoicdoctrine of reason with the Platonic view of the divineunity. All profess a strong belief in the divine providence,and are never weary of extolling the wisdom ofits rule. Again, all three are thoroughly penetratedwith the doctrine of the universal brotherhood of men.d draw as a conclusion from it the reciurucal dutf kindness and friendship. They are not so muchitizeus of Rome as preachers of a human race.But now, turning from these varieties of the Greekmind, let us compare them with four distinguishedwriters and an emperor, who were all Latins and justof the same time. How do thev stand in reference toTacitus, the younger Pliny, Suetonius, Juvenal, andTrajan ? Tacitus is neither a Stoic nor a Platonicrnonotheist: he seems to accept the gods of hiscountry, to acknowledge their power and their inter-ference in the affairs of men, yet he is full of painfuldoubts as to the fact of a divine providence. The lotof men is dark to him altogether. He would fainhope that at least the more deserving have someexistence after death. He may be said to acknowledgeo and defend the Olympian"/ y assembly "/ as part i ofthe Roman constitution. He is indefinitely nearer toCicero's world than his Greek contemporaries. Forphilosophy altogether he had somewhat of the oldRoman scorn. Thus he quotes his friend and father-in-law Agricola as saving »/ of himself that in early Vyouth he would have pursued the study of philosophymore keenly than a Roman and a senator should, butfor his mother's prudent tempering of that burning