Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

392 TIIK FOliMATlON OF CHRISTENDOMbeing made by one Creator, children of one Fatherand so bound together by the bond of brotherhoodand entitled and no less bound to mutual love, wasunknown to Greek and Roman antiquity, and first developeditself in the time of the Roman Empire. Andlet us add for greater precision that it did not develcitself until after our Lord had died upon the CrosWhen we consider the facts which the author justcited sums up with so much clearness, we canncdoubt that the doctrine of man's brotherhood under acommon Father was simply of Christian origin.MoreoverI wish to remark further that the view of humanfraternity, so far as it does appear in non-ChristianGreek and Roman authors after the Sacrifice of Christ,not merely never became general, but was not identicalwith the Christian doctrine either in its ground or inits character. It was the special boast of the Stoicsto claim to be citizens of one commonwealth, the greatworld-commonwealth of gods . and men. Plutarchascribes this renowned doctrine to the founder ofStoicism, and Cicero records it as belonging to theStoics. It rested upon that supposed joint and exclusivepossession of reason by gods and men which madethem both " the reasonable race." In its first conception,then, it was an implicit denial of creatureship onthe part of man. This denial was fully held and maintainedby the chief extollers of the Stoic commonwealthof gods and men who flourished after our Lord'scoming, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Thebrotherhood which these magnified was therefore notfellow-creatureship, and had none of the tendernesswhich fellow-creatureship inspires towards those whomit embraces, none of its veneration for God the Creatoras its origin. And moreover it was severed from any