Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

POWER OF THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY 331and before that process had set in; as they existed inall the portions of the human family, which had nowrun out into tribes and nations. All these things arelegitimately contained at least in germ in that accountwhich we have cited of Noah, as he emerged from theark and set foot upon the earth. If we reflect uponthem, we shall find that the union of the religiousworship with the civil society was a common goodbestowed by God on all the descendants of Noah.It was not a development of human civilisation; nota work of human craft; but the signet of divine careand providence stamped upon the forehead of the race,and guarded by every device with which reverencefor a primeval institution and the natural feelings offamily affection could surround it.The depth of the fall and the multiplicity of thecorruption which we are afterwards to witness oughtnot to blind us to the tenderness of the divine providencein bestowing this original good on the race.In order to assure its continuance, God surrounded itwith every care compatible with man's free will. Thebeneficent action of civil society depended on themaintenance and purity of God's worship in His unapproachableunity.If we look upon the nations of the world as presentedto us when history first opens on them, wefind that all of them were * communities in which thecivil power and the religious worship are in closealliance. Nay, this alliance is one of the " unwrittenlaws," more powerful and influential than any positiveenactment of which the date can be given ; for theselaws are the life of the community, the blood whichruns in its veins. Assyria and Egypt, Medea andPersia, Hellenic tribes, first monarchies and then