Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMof the finest races of men, enjoying the accumulatedfruits of learning and thought which many past ageshad laid up for them. Moreover, during the latterpart of this period, they dwelt in the midst of themost majestic material peace which the world has seen.This was the condition of outward things during thereigns C of Augustus, C J * Tiberius, * Cains, * and Claudius.ut when we look on the inward life of the soul,when we try to realise what such men as Julius Caosar,Cicero, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Livy, Ovid, thoughtconcerning those problems which most engage ourown minds, we find au utter uncertainty and a hopelessnesswhich moves us to the deepest commiseration.What expectation had the imperial spirit of Juliusformed concerning his own future when he enteredthe senate on those ides of March, to fall before thestatue of Pompey ? What did the great orator, whoin his unwilling moments of forced leisure ransackedthe treasures of Greek philosophy, anticipate for himselfwhen he stretched out his neck from his litter andfixed his eyes on his assassin ? What did the poetwho has embodied- in majestic verse the house of^Eneas, and the Capitol's immovable rock and theempire of the Roman Father, think of his own individualdestiny when he laid down his life at Par-thenope ? What did the haunter of the Sabine hills,the skilled painter of Roman society, look forwardto, when eleven lustres of his life were over, whenthe time of flowers and fugitive loves was past, andMaecenas left him with but half of his soul remaining ?What consolation, when banished from that scene ofbrilliant corruption which his verses paint with sofatal a skill, could Ovid find on his Scythian shore inany hope of his own spirit having power to replace