Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

* >vRECONSTRUCTING THE NATURALCOLUSG1the chooser, and gave him a betterhich he resigned. Moreover, Plato's ideal remaineddream, f whereas the Christian religious life is a realityThere have been no Platonic " Watchers " in a humrepublic, whilst there have been myriads of priests andreligious, who have followed to the end the Virgin Sonof the Virgin Mother.The Church then, as a society making individualman her unit of construction, in no case sacrificed thepart to the whole. In this she was in contradictionto the heathen State. And whereas that was instinctwith a despotic spirit, she breathed freedom to herchildren by this scrupulous regard to every individual,however weak, friendless, and forlorn. This was withinher own society. But now what was the effect of heroperation upon the heathen State into which she wascast ?The State, as we have seen, admitted no reserve onthe part of the individual to its sovereignty. He wasbound to obey the command of emperor, or senate, ordemos, in all things. It was Christ who set a limitto this authority in those words which have created anew political as well as a new moral world, " Renderto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to Godthe things which are God's." It was the Churchwhich during three hundred years of persecutioncarried those words into effect, and established thedomain of the human conscience, not to be infringedby emperor, by parliament, or by democracy.For let it be considered that liberty does not consistin the form of government but in the nature of thepower which the government exercises. The rule ofparliament or democracy may be as absolute as thatof an autocrat emperor, and in that case those who