The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-30
The GareeIs RELIGION.

We quote the following from new work
by the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone,
entitled "Juventus Mundi, the Gods and
Men of the Heroic Age just published in
London:-
During twelve or fourteen hundred years.
it was the religion of the most thoughtful, the
most fruitful, the most energetic portions of
the human family. 1t yielded to Christianity
alone; and to the Chnrch it yielded with re-
luctance, summoning up strength in its ex-
treme old age, and only giving way after an
intellectual as well as a civil battle, obstinate
ly fought and lasting for generations. For
the greater part of a century after the fall OF
Constantinople. in the chief centres of
Christian civilization in many respects degen-
Grated, and an ecclesiastical power too little
faithful to its trust Greek letters and Greek
thought once again asserted their strength
over the most cultivated minds of Italy, in
manner which testified to the force, and to
the magic charm, with which they were i'm
perishably endowed. Even within what
may be called our own time, the Olympian
religion has exercised n fascination alto
gether extraordinary over the mind of
Goethe, who must be regarded as standing
in the first rankN of the great minds
of the latest centuries. The Olympian reh-
gion, however, owes perhaps as large share
of its triumphs to its depraved accommoda-
ment so durable, potent, and elastic must
certainly have had a purpose to serve. Let
us consider for n moment what 1t may have
been. We have seen how closely, and in how
many ways, it bound humanity and deity to-
gether As regarded matter of duty and vir-
tue, not to speak of that highest form of vir-
tue which is called holiness, this union was
effected mainly 10y lowering the divine ele-
ment. But as regarded all other functions of
our nature, outside the domain of the life to
God-ward, all those functions which are
summed up in what Saint Paul calls the flesh
and the mind, the psychic and the bodily life,
the tendency of the system was to exalt the
human element, by proposing model of
beauty, strength, and wisdom, in all their
combinations, so elevated, that the effort to
attain them required continual upward
strain. 1t made divinity attainable; and thus
it effectually directed the thought and aim of
man
"Along the line ofsllmitless DESIRES"
Such a scheme of religion, though failing
grossly in the government of the passions, and
in upholding the standard of moral duties,
tended powerfully to produce a lofty self
respect, and a large, free, and varied concep-
ton of humanity. 1t incorporated itself in
schemes of notable discipline for mind and
body, indeed, of a lifelong education; and
marked results (to omit many other great
nesses) in a philosophy, literature, and art
which remain to this day unrivalled or unsuu-
passed. The sacred fire, indeed, that was to
touch the mind and heart of man from above
was in preparation elsewhere. Within the
shelter of the hills that stand about Jeru-
salem, the great Archetype of the spiritual
excellence and publication of man was
to be produced and matured. But body,
as it were, was to be made ready for
this angelic soul. And as when some splendid
edifice is to be reared, it's diversified materials
are brought from this quarter and from that,
according as nature and man favor their pro-
duction, so did the wisdom of God, with slow
but ever sure device, cause to ripen, amidst
the several races best adapted for the work,
the several component parts of the noble
fabric of Christian manhood and Christian
civilization. The kings of Tharsis and of
the isles shall give presents: the kings of
Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts. Every
worker was, with or without his knowledge
and his will, to contribute to the work. And
among them an appropriate part was thus
assigned both to the Greek people and to what
have termed the Olympian religion"