Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

6 THU FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMappeared to Philo a ruler, not a despot ; one whosepower was based on law and wielded temperately forthe ood of the whole mass of nations over whomthority was placed in his single hands in order thatry part of so vast and composite an empire mighteno tranquillity, live in amity, and develop its albut boundless resources. That such was the effectduring the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, Philodeclares with a profusion of statement, which, as wehave cited him, has been somewhat curtailed. Asone of the subject races, and as one whose moralcharacter and judgment stand far higher than that ofTacitus, how can his testimony to what he saw of thebenefits which during all his life he, and his people,and all the other peoples had enjoyed from the imperialpower, be rejected ? If in estimating the work ofAugustus we compare it tacitly in our minds withlimited monarchy, as developed in Christian nationsunder the slow education of principles growing intothe fibre of the individual and the community, we areguilty not merely of an anachronism, but of a greatinjustice. The Grajco-Roman world being what itwas, could anything better than the rule devised byAugustus have been set up in order to pacify, tame,and educate it ?It may then be said that no previous time hadshown anything like the prosperous tranquillity of thetwo generations following the battle of Actium. Norwas it a prosperity merely material, but arising fromwise laws, fairly administered.1 Not only order reigned,but justice ; and peace flowed from both. As to self-government indeed, the nations subject to the emperordid not possess A that of which thev *r had shown them-evvo/Jiia in Philo.