Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

48 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMtutor and minister of Nero, whether he conferred withSt. Paul, as he might most easily and naturally havedone, or not, spoke as no Greek or Ixoman ever spokebefore him, of mercy, brotherly kindness, humanity toslaves, and compassion with the weak and suffering.He has a moral standard not only immeasurably abovehis own practice, but equally above the moral standardof such men as Aristotle and Plato, far exceeding himin genius. If we go OH another fifty years, Epic-tetus and Plutarch seem to belong to quite a differentworld from that in which Cicero lived and moved, andMarcus Aurelius is no less distant from Julius Crcsaror Augustus. As we advance the contrast deepens.Philostratus and Plotiuus are far from being productionsof the Christian Faith which they opposed, buttheir works are a powerful testimony to what thatFaith was doing in the world. The ideal characterwhich the one tries to exhibit, and the philosophywhich the other attempts to restore, show the divineexample which had flashed on the mind of the onewithout converting him, and the conception of divinethings which the other had witnessed, admired, andendeavoured to convert to the behoof of heathenwisdom. Before the end of the third century, everythoughtful heathen mind had undergone a revolution.Porphyrius teems with Christian sentiments whicl istud his invectives against Christianity. Thus theperiod which ends with the conversion of Constantinehas, besides its other wonderful attractions, a pecialinterest as the battlefield between the heathen philosophyand the Christian Church. It is true that thebattle continued afterwards, and an emperor evenbecame its champion out of the very family of theimperial convert, but the contest was practically de-