Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-05-12
EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY.

D., rector of Christ Church, Fifth ave
nue., delivered the eighth lecture Of bis
course on Church History, his subject
being ''The Philosophy Of Egypt" He
said: Christianity was preached early in
all the great cities OF the Roman En-
pire. 1t was founded in the great city
Of Alexandria, as tradition uniformly
says, by st. Mark, and in the second
century Of the Christian era this church
seems to have been large and flourish
ing. There were certain advantages in
the social and political life Of Alexan-
drla calculated to make ii grow there.
The city was founded some three CEN
turtles before the coming of our Lord, by
Alexander the Great whose particular
favOTitism toward the Jews had induced
large number TO settle there, To whom
he gave the same privileges as to the
M~aced0nians. The city was made up
Of three distinct races, Asiatic, African
and European; the three continents had
met in Alexandria as essential parts of
its population, and il was planted at the
mouth of the Nile in a position which
was sure to become the largest mercaIl-
tile city of the world. 1t concentrated
within itself the trade of all these three
continents, and within its spacious
walls you might meet men from all the
lands then known, and from all the
tribes of mankind The Indian, the
Syrian, the Roman, the Macedonian,
the savage and the civilized, all met
there in that busy mart of commerce.
Besides being a commercial and manu-
featuring city, it was also a literary city.
1t became, after the depression Of Ath-
ems, the real university town Of the RO-
man Empire. Its enormous libraries,
/ founded hrr rhG Dfnlarufaa nn1 r-.u.I11
and added to in succeeding reigns; its
museum, to which were attached pro
fessors and teachers, had collected to the
city students, inquirers, men of intel
lectual activity from all parts of the
world, and every facility was given them
for the study of every department Of
knowledge known to nan
ALEXANDRIA
had at that time a light and airy popu-
latiOn, and yet one that was wealthy,
active and industrious. At the very
foundation of the city almost, composed
as it was Of so many different races,
each bringing their religion with them,
it was thought by those who governed,
that it was essential, If these people
were to be unified, if the various con
fiicting elements were TO live together
as good citizens and good neighbOrs,
that they must agree to disagree. The
Jew believed in God, unseen, invisible;
the Greek brought with him his Olym-
pic deities, while the Egyptian held 10
all the brute gods of the Nile; and here
were elements of discOrd, of hate, of re-
IgiOus war, perhaps, so some solvent
must be found, and that was found by
PtOlemy. Leater in Scraps, the pan
theistic deity, the god who in his single
self represented the nature and attTi-
butes of all gods. He was whatever
you might choose to think him. This
god was set up in the temple as the god
of Alexandria, the one protecting deity, /
invented for a class of men who had
agreed to disagree, to Danish all reli-
giOus differences and live as good neigh
bOrs together, each agreeing to allow
the other to think as he pleased. Scraps
was the symbol of the religious thought
of the city, and suggests the shape
which that philosophy took which after
ward appeared there in opposition to
Christianity. For in a commercial
tOwn-we know here in New York as
well as they did in AleXandria-the
main thing is TO make money, not es-
pecially to think right about God, or to
have right views of worship. To be
SuIEf Willie LElt III ClAUEEh II Inlay tOLllE /
occasionally to our minds that that is
rather an important thing, but when we
get down town we do not think Of il at
all. The business of everybody down
there is to get all the money they can,
to carry on busi6ess as prOsperOusly as
possible, to make the commerce of the
city spread far and wide. That is our
notion, and, of course, to have any very
earnest religious feeling would interrupt
business relations and be very detri-
mental to the commercial interests of
New York. Thus they knew that in
Alexandria as well as you know it now,
and the consequence was the first thing
to be done was to get a god on which
everybody could unae; it swept over
the Greek, the Egyptian, and even the
Jew. The commercial power of a great
city is enormous, ard each agreed to
abolish his wnfaith, end accept Scraps
as his god. But now, il the
FOURTH CENTURY
of the great city's existence, when the
population numbers about two millions,
in this enormous, wealthy city there APP
pears one day an unknown man, preach
ing an unheard-Of story that God has
come to earth; and he established a re-
ligiOn which by its very nature is in
tolerant, which declares war against all
differences which has aclear-cut, definite
faith and creed, and says this is true and
all the rest are false-Jupiter, Apollo,
Mercury, Scraps, Osiris, Apis, are all
together. There is one God and 5
one Lord Jesus Christ, and there is no [
other name given among men whereby
they a be saved, and this man plants {
that faith there and gathers a Christian I
church, distinct from Jews andidolaters, {
which grows and spreads till it has a
clergy and bishops, and m to be a 9
power in Alexandria. Now, what are
you going to do with this? Well, first r
If all, you are not going to let it inter- q
with the making of money in the q
City OF Alexandria, not if you can help v
t. But you could not meet this with
he nonsense of Scraps; you could not s,
make them call Scraps Christ and o
him. Christianity fired the in S
elect, and must be met in the realm, a
rot of superstition, but of thought, and n
S the Greek philosophy had been met is
nd swept away by it, there must be ii
ONE modification of that philosophy, n
ONE new development of it to resist this D
inroad. So Alexandria invented Il
be universal solvent of a philosophy as
had before invented the universal sol
ent of an idol. They called it Alexan-
rian PlatOnism, % changed that Plato
10uld not have known il; modified,
expanded, altogether different from the e.
doctrine taught in the works of AZ
S great teacher. Its central idea was 10
nat all religions are true, all PHILOSOPHERS 10
re true, Jesus Christ was one of the ".
est men that ever lived. If 1 give you hl
A It'll BOSTON -
ere do not be surprised, for the Alex sy
.drian dialect of the third century and nj
ne Boston dialect of the nineteenth are Ell
cry much alike. Jesus Christ was an pc
dmlrable man, IN Of the greatest tn
that ever lived. He taught a til
-ue philosophy; so also did Socrates. bJ
he Bible is all true, and is an admira- to
lie book, splendid philosophy, but you 70
arrow-minded Christians do not see w
ut a part of the great whole. The sa- fly
books of the Egyptians are true, HI
20, and the Koran would have been re
had it been written also. In short, or
hristianity is but our modification Of by
he great, broad, all-embracing religion Sc
hich takes in all religions. You III
hristians nave one conception of il, in
nd express it by one set of words and Sc
hrases, and the Egyptians had another nj
inception of it, which they express by to
set of words and phrases, and th
le Greeks another; but you all mean to
lie same thing; you believe that you Sc
right, and other men have as much hU
.asOn for believing tina thew ara RIGHT. nj