Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

244 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMknit together by one thought, which is that of a greatreligious and moral reformer and restorer. Apolloniusis described as animated by such a zeal. All hisactions are to illustrate and effect the purification andrevival of the old religion. He is the bearer andestablisher of this movement, which in his person as aGreek by blood, and down to the very niceties of hisAttic diction, springs as it were out of the heart ofthe old belief, and appeals to all its customs. Asparts of this one conception we may enumerate thefollowing points.I. His birth was miraculous. His mother whenexpecting his birth has an apparition of the Egyptiangod Proteus, who in reply to her question whom shewould bear, tells her, " Thou shalt bring forth me."And this god is described as taking all shapes, asknowing and foreknowing all things. In this perhapshe is an image of that unity in multiplicity of worshipwhich the conduct of Apollonius was to show, and ofthe wisdom ascribed to him, one and yet multiform,grasping all sacred rites, yet caught in none of them,because consisting of the doctrine which is the essenceof them all. Proteus is the immutable substanceunder the ever-changing shape, which is the one thingApollonius worships.2. Accordingly the knowledge of the divinity isfrom his youth forward the one knowledge to whichthe mind of Apollonius is given up. Having tried allthe schools of Greek wisdom-in which it is to beobserved that he discovers no incompatibility with eachother-he finds the complete truth in that of Pythagoras.He devotes himself for five years to the lawof silence, and then visits the Indian sages, to verifyand compare his wisdom with theirs. Eeturning