Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

LECTUREXXITUE RESPECTIVE 1'OWEIl OF THE GKKKK PIIlLOSOl'llY ANDTHE CHRISTIAN CIH RCII TO CONSTRUCT A SOCIETY" Who then and what is this Christ, who has tilled the whole worldwith His teaching ? . . . When and in whom of men that have been bornhas the teaching prevailed everywhere from end to end of the earth oneand the same, so that His worship found itself wings to traverse theworld ? "St. Athanasius on the assumption of human nature by the Word, andon His appearance to us in a body. Written about A.D. 318, sect. 48, 49.IN a former lecture, I traced from the time of Thalesto the accession of the Emperor Claudius the effectof philosophy in the way of forming a society whichshould be ruled by its doctrine. I had occasion toremark its utter impotence to unite together belief,morality, and worship, and by such union to satisfythe needs of the human heart and conscience in theindividual, or to construct a commonwealth. Havingnow in the last h've lectures dwelt upon the teachingof philosophy as it concerned the most important problemsof human life, and deduced the logical issue ofthat teaching as set forth in the Neoplatonic system, itremains briefly to consider the power which philosophyshowed to organise society during this same period,Torn Claudius to Constantino. As to doctrine, I havespoken successively of Seneca, Musonius, Epictetus,and Marcus Aurelius, who give us the spirit of theNeostoic school for the first one hundred and forty »'326