Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

LECTUEEXXIITHE CHURCH RECONSTRUCTING THE NATURAL ORDERBY THE SUPERNATURALVIN that intellectual battle of three hundred yearswhich we have been narrating in so many precedinglectures, all the power of civilisation from Claudius toConstantine stood on the side of the heathen philosophy.It started in possession of the cultured mind,it was favoured both by the prepossessions of thehigher classes and by the wishes and policy of thegovernment. It was not merely free from all interference,but munificently endowed. In all the worthiermembers of the philosophic profession it broughthonour as well as means V of living to be a philosopher.It flattered in the highest degree the national feelingof the Grecian part of the empire, which comprehendedgenerally the men of letters, inasmuch as it was themost glorious heirloom of the Greek mind. The verynames of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle touchedtheir remotest descendant with a halo of renown. Itwas favoured no less by the political feeling andinstincts of the Romans, who viewing philosophy inits alliance with the established religion consideredit to be supporting their empire, which from Eomulusand Numa downwards had been associated with theirworship. On the other hand its opponent startedfrom the deep opprobrium of Golgotha, to the Jews astumbling-block and to the Greeks folly ; its standard-371