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Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

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212 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMtimes neither remote nor modern, and yet he is notrecognised by men for that true wisdom which hecultivated. Some have admired this or that action<strong>of</strong> his, but others, knowing that he conversed withthe Magi <strong>of</strong> Babylon, the Indian Brahmaris, and theEgyptian Gymnosophists, impute to him the practice<strong>of</strong> magic. This they did not do in the case <strong>of</strong> Empe-docles, or Pythagoras, or Democritus, nor again in thecase <strong>of</strong> Plato, much as he borrowed from Egyptianpriests, arraying it in his own artistic colours. Nordid men impute magic to Socrates or Anaxagoras onaccount <strong>of</strong> their foreknowledge. " I am then determined,"says Philostratus, " to give accurately the history<strong>of</strong> the man, and the sort <strong>of</strong> wisdom in virtue <strong>of</strong> whichhe reached to being considered not only as one led bya good genius but as divine." He was born in Tyana <strong>of</strong> Cappadocia, <strong>of</strong> an ancientfamily, aboriginally Greek, with considerable fortune.Of the manner <strong>of</strong> his birth no one should be ignorant.As his mother was near the time <strong>of</strong> her delivery, shewas warned in a dream to go ami gather flowers in ameadow. When she came there, while her maidenswere dispersed up and down amusing themselves withthe flowers, she fell asleep on the grass. <strong>The</strong>n a flock<strong>of</strong> swans, which was feeding in the meadow, formed achorus round her, and clapping their wings, as theircustom is, sung in unison, while all the time the airwas filled with a gentle zephyr. <strong>The</strong> singing <strong>of</strong> thebirds caused her to start out <strong>of</strong> sleep, and at thatmoment she was delivered <strong>of</strong> a son. <strong>The</strong> natives <strong>of</strong>the place affirm that at the instant <strong>of</strong> her delivery athunderbolt which seemed ready to fall on the groundrose al<strong>of</strong>t and suddenly disappeared. By this thegods prefigured, I think, the splendour <strong>of</strong> the child, his

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