The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1876-05-24
CENTRAL pRESBYT RIAN

gathered men into communities the Greek stlmu-
lated the intellectual life, and refined the manners
of those thus gathered. The Roman conquered,
consolidated, and converted the world into vast
auditorium then the Greek came with bis IAN
guage, flexible, copious, musical, and so adapted
to the highest forms of abstract thought and the
delicate shades of varying emotion, as to be the 1t
test OF all tongues for expressing the ideas OF the
ology. Had the New Testament been written IN
Hebrew it never would have been circulated
through Europe-the field for the greatest and
most enduring triumphs of Christianity. Had 1t
been written in Latin it would not have become
familiar to the oriental nations but in Gods Prov
idence, if universal language was not made ready
for its utterances, there was at least one which the
largest number of civilized men all over the world
could read and speak.
But it was so ordered that each of these three
languages was made the vehicle for the dissemina
ton of Christianity either orally or in the sacred
Scriptures or in the writings of the Fathers. The
providential connection between the Jewish and
the two Gentle peoples of whom have spoken, is
strikipgy Swallowed forth by one incident recorded
it on the cross, an inscription in the three civil
ICED languages of the ancient world, of which, as
Farrar says, "at least one was certain to be known
by every man In that assembled multitude, =" in the
official Latin, the current Greek and the vernacur
Aramaic, indicating the conf lence of the powers
which were henceforth to rule the world. And
when Rome, the conqueror of the other two, was
itself overcome by Northern barbarian hordes, and
the great Empire which had been consolidated by
force was shattered into Fragments though the out.
ward FRAMEWORK OF its institutions persisted, what
ever was good in their spirit survived, because
Christianity had absorbed aud assimated it, and
transmitted it to after-times as the heritage of
coming generations.
s. We 6ud another Illustration of the text in the
easy REPUTATION of the skcptcal cavi that many of
the teachings Of Christ so far from being original
are to be found in the writings of the Buddhist,
Brahmin, and Talmud Doctors often expressed
too, in phraseology similar to His own. But such
critics forget that He had other methods of demon.
strating his divinity than by startling the minds of
men with truths never heard before. He never
appealed to His originality as proof that He was
Teacher sent from God. Neither was it the chief
end of His mission to widen the intellectual domain
of the world. He was pre-eminenty teacher of
spiritual truths, and in order to give them uniyer
sal currency what was more natural than that He
should select those which we're fundamental and
automatic, and therefore common to all the ethical
systems of antiquity, as so many golden grains
E. Al ybar NJ how bol 1o,r
having purified them from dross and fused them
together, stamp them with His own image, and
make them current coin forever? Or, to change
the figure, what more becoming than that He
should collect all the scattered rays which had par.
italy illumined the nations and condense them in
nent of heaven to kindle and guide the souls of
men through Unreasonable time? And even
though He clothed these truths with familiar
phraseolcgy, what kindly wisdom prompted this,
for thus He took advantage of mems associations
and sympathies-so soothing and softening as strains
of remembered music-to win their hearts regard
for the lessons of Divine Philosophy.
Thus we see how men and communities alike,
with purpose, or uuconsciousy, are aborers in the
Lords vineyard. and how they transmit to those
who come after them the fruits of their tolls, so
that the Church is ever becoming richer by the &C.
cumulated treasures of all the past The moral
maxims of the old heather sages; the fragmentary
truths which adhere to ancient religions the patri
archal nearness to God which did not cease when
Enoch was translated, and Abraham was gathered
to his fathers, and Jacob assembled the golden lad
DER the merging of the Tabernacle into the Tenn
pie, and the divine meaning of all the types and
ceremonies of the old dispensation when interpre-
ted in the person and work of Christ all these il.
lustrate the great law of the life of the Church,
viz: its perpetuation through the labors of ear
nest workers; and demonstrate the indebtedness
Of each generation to all its predecessors
g. This progress is not always constant. There
are eras of decenson and detection from the truth
but when the revival and the return comes, is not
by the revelation of new truths, but by the recog-
milton of the DID, aud by the confession and cordial
reception of the faith once delivered to the saints
This is impressvely illustrated by the Reformation
of the sixteenth century. Whence originated the
doctrine of justification by faith, that article of
standing or falling Church? Not in the writings of
Luther, though he published it, preached it, tri-
amphed in it; not in the works of Augustine,
though they were so saturated with it as to pre-.
serve the Church in its own time and through the
Middle Ages from the blight of Pelagianism and
benumbing torpor of scholasticism not in the
EpStles of Paul, even though they glowed with &C.
estial radiance in the discussion of that theme but
in the ancient prophecy Of Habakkuk, the first
preacher of the doctrine, The just shall live by
faith )" and he only gave verbal proclamation to
what had already been asserted in the lives of Da
vid and Abraham. Such was the fountain from
which issued the stream which widened into the
river which made glad the City of God in the days
Of Apostles, Fathers, and Reformers.
II But when our Lord reminded His disciples
how 81 other men labored" we may detect another
tone and emphasis in His words These labors
we're not only the expression Of activity, but often
times of suffering also. They labored, but at the
cost of what selfdenals aud prosecutions
l. Even in the realms of abstract thought there
s something pathetic in the record of the mental
hroes and travail the doubts, perplexities, and
struggles of the worlds great thinkers They
wrought while others rested, they watched while
'therS slept, they trimmed the midnight and the
morning lamp, and while the oil consumed, the
therial spirit of the worker was exhausted as
yell
Go into any of the great libraries of the world |
hat Of the British Museum, the Bodleian, the
Imperale of Paris, the royal libraries
f Munich, Berlin, Copenhagen, and St. Peters
urg, and see how large proportion of these is
opposed of works on the noblest of the sciences.
hat of the mind and what is more striking still,
emember that the works of the authors who have
lade contributions to the history of mental phil
sophy of themselves constitute a library. and you