The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-04-14


Hellenizcd communities. and second in the
Latin conquests Of the West. As regards the
old Crock communities. IL is doubtless true that
they were oven less homoge neous at this date
in point Of political Conference. ethnic sonu-
mcnt and ethical doctrine than they had
once been, and that tho Roman power
had done nothing to cxtenuatc the Diff
cuitcs arising from civil and moral divisions.
unless the gradual dcbasomont Of Greek intel
lects to q common level mny DO doemcd step
in that direction. Had 1T Paul appeared ut
Athens after the final collapse OF the Pureian in
vnsions. when that city had acquired something
like n READ hogomony in HELMS and had then
succeeded in converting It's inhabitants 10 the
worship of his Unknown God 1t might have
been oaey TO oxtend the new religion over all
those Ionic lands at least which ack nowletlgcd
the Mhcnian sway. But at tho time when the
Apostle preached on Mare Hill. there lie no rea-
son TO think. although the whole city OF
Athcnd should have accepted his teaching
and made OF the Parthenon Christian temple.
that the country outside Of Attca would have
been nfucS moved 10y the example. The reiicy
OF home had left "a avery town and village in
Helas lust such u quantum OF self govcfnmcnt
as would discourage concerted action and in
sure Isolation. ThcrQ was no political OF 30
rial centre which being occupied might becomea
focus OF propaganda over q wide circuit. Cor
inths authority was limited within its wills
Sparta was village never mentioned In tho
New Testament; Athens itself had kept only
the prestige OF her philosophical schools. but
could scarcely boast OF municipal control
reaching AS far as the PirGus. With the
Achgan league. the last attempt at partial
union. had long before miscarried. and thus it
happened that every conquest OF the evange-
liafa veil ba do Of oil Ind a.,
be won pieccmeal that the cross had literally
TO be planted. not once for all in some great
capital but In every burg and every hamlet.
Nor were the conditions more suspicious In
that larger Greece. which included. beside the
widespread colonies OF an earlier date. the Hell
lenizcd dominions Of Alexandor's successors.
1t is true that Antioch and Alexandria were
majestic cities. preGminent commercial marts.
seats first OF imperial and later Of vcc-regal
government. thus combining all the outward
features Of metropolis. II was natural that
the Christian teachers should prosecute their
labors in these places with peculiar assiduity.
but the measure OF success which they quite
speedily attained lent only local impetus TO
the new movement, for each Of these cities
was. in fact. head without Il trunk. an exotic
which struck no root in the surrounding soil.
From the foundation OF Antioch to its capture
by the Saracens. Hellenic manners. customs.
religion. language. prevailed with its walls. but
sovcry little beyond them that rs late as Chrysos-
toms time the country folk OF the Immediate
neighborhood spoke only the Syriac dialect. n
source. il seems. Of constant embarrassment
whom at Easter tide they came to Antioch
to take part in the religious festival.
In all the provinces which the Ro-
mans gained from the Seleucidn. the
native speech. manners. worship. were equally
persistent. Along the seacoast the phpnician
type stu kept footing; In the interior the
Hebrew race was pure; In the north. around
Damascus and all along the upper Tigris and
Euphrates. AramTan nations preserved their
identity intact; while that primitive infusion OF
tribes which had received the Chaldaic
name in lower Mesopotamia was relatively
free from later admiXture. How little
Greek civilization had penetrated the most
considerable cities OF Armenia is attestod by the
fact that the Christian writings transcribed al
Nisibis and Odessa were, in the Syrian tongue.
Instead Of a w"l-organized and thoroughly
amagamated empire. sensitive to the social or
moral impulse Of its capital. the Romans inner
ted from the masters of seleucia and Antioch n
loose congeries OF states alien in blood and
sympathy. mutually strange and repellant in
language and cult
In tho kingdom wrested from the Ptolemics. the
range Of Hellenic influence was still more mar
rowly circumscrbed. At all epochs. indeed. prior
to their remarkable acceptance OF Christianity.
the Egyptians had seemed tsnaciously welded
to their native supcrstltons. but II il a mistake
to suppose that any effort was made by the
Macedonian dynasty to modify their customs.
On the contrary. the pressure eXerted by Per
~ia upon the religious tenets and ritunl of the
Nile valley was removed 10y the Ptol-
emes, who began their administration
by restoring 10 the Egyptian priest
hood n great part OF their former privileges.
Tho Roman Emperors continued His policy.
and it is certainly significant that all tho build
ings erected throughout the country under
them or their predecessors arc distinctly
Egyptian in style and surroundings. Thus.
when the Christian missionaries began 10
preach. Egypt, bcynnd the walls Of Alexandria.
Was still the mysterious, Interchangeable land
which Cambyses had racked in vain.
aud We are left to explain on other
grounds than an imaginary Hellenic innitration
the surprising circumstance that two centuries
later the immutahlo Egyptians are suddenly
found transformed from stcadfast worshippers
Of Osiris into faithful servants OF Christ. Those
writer's who conceive that tho new religion
spread naturally in the Nile land because it
found a cohcenial soil wherever the Roman
power had spread its sway do not sufficiently
reflect on these details. 1t was not the Romans
ar the Greeks who welcomed Christianity 10
Egypt. but the Egyptians themselves. Of the old
still eXtant in the Copts. the people until that
time stubbornly attached to its traditional wor-
ship. and little prepared. il would seem. for the
Christian faith. Indeed. we would not gainsay
thy author OF thi. volume that our notions OF
logic are somewhat shocked By the idea OF
peacefully replacing in a couple OF centuries
tho solemn and hoary superstition OF the
Pharaohs. enshrined In monument and temple
and commented by its august. or mystic, or
lccntous rites 10 all the passions OF mainly
the austere alteration of the Nazarene and the
humble simplicity Of his gospel.
What evidence Of homogenety 10 we find In
other parts OF the Roman world On the Afri-
can coast, one Greek oasis presents itself In
Cyrenaica. but eastward Of the so-called Pen
lapois, II We eNc"rt considerable numbers Of
Carthaginians still dwelling in cities and har-
bors, the Moors or Berbers formed. as thoy still
'orm the bulk of the population. How slightly
the latter element had been assimilatcd was
proved al the time Of the Nandalic invasion Of
the fifth century, os we'll as by lis face absorb
ton in the later Moslem torrent. Yctthis rude on
shoot of the Semitic stem, 50 impcrmenble tOthe