Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE GOSPEL OF PHILOSOPHIC HEATHENISM257of Christ so far as His example of a public teacherextends. Further, the peculiarity of the imitation liesin this, that while the supposed Apollonius is to bemade at least equal to Christ in wisdom, wonderworkingpower, piety, and goodwill to all men, he isto be all this on a heathen basis, by the kindred, thatis, which his soul possesses to the divinity. He is tocall forth in a high degree the power which belongsto every human soul. He is wise, wonder-working,pious, benevolent towards other men, yet all men maybe such as he is, for he is only the representative ofhumanity. He is a man-god, but in no exclusivesense. Thus the outward similarity of the man-godreveals an intense inward antagonism to the God-man. ^^Philostratus then is far removed from the position ofTrajan a hundred years before condemning Christianityas a State offence. He is no less removed from thescoffing derision of Christ by Celsus, and the mockingspirit of Lucian, to which his piety is in the strongestcontrast. In his whole conception of Apollonius wesee the greatest proof of the force with which theChristian Church was acting on the world. It was aconquest of that Church that one outside of it shouldseek to give to a heathen personage a character anddetailed life which should be to heathenism what thecharacter and life of Christ are to Christians. Thedegree of the resemblance measures the force withwhich the character of Christ was influencing menwho were not Christians. A heathen ideal is producedwhich but for the life and actions of Christwould never have been conceived. But heathenismdoes not therefore abdicate its own right of existence.It is said of the Emperor Alexander Severns, whoreigned just at the time that this bock was published,VOL. III. R