The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1880-06-17


compassion; hepreached selfdenial,
purity and righteousness, love OF
God and pity for men; he suffered
all the evils of poverty, hunger, and
pain, and persecution, and died a
mendicant, under tree by the way.
side. Thus wearing his crown of
thorns, he has become part OF the
thought, not only of millions upon
millions of India, but of the race of
man, wherever his name may be
heard; for though his teachings are
imperfect, and are now corrupted,
| he lived and he died for the welfare
of mortals. .st..- -.......
The stories of the lives of the
leaders of men, in the early period
of the worlds life, all teach the
same grand, sad lesson. In every
cline, in every country, they rise up
before us like the "Ghosts of Ban
qno's hne" at the table Of Macbeth
(, in sorrowful, succession, each with
bleeding brSss crowned and hands
burnt by sthe crimsoii sceptre.
There were Hoses and the Maca-
bees; there were Greek heroes and
Latin Consuls, who devoted them
selves to the Internal Gods, in order
that the Republic might take no
wrong; there were Socrates and
Aristedes; there were Dncii and
Fabbii; there were Leonidas and
Horatius Coaacles, and Mutius Sea
evola and Regulus; there were Scip-
10, and hannibal, and Marius and
hosts of men whose names yet send
q thrill through our hearts and
make us glad that they once lived
and walked upon the earth as we dc
now. They are 4 part OF the
thought of the race, and help now to
build up higher manhood. Ever,
schoolboy is nobler when he read,
how these lived and how they died
And so as the years glided by ;
wider and more complex civilization
created higher and higher plane
of universal culture, which demand
ell that the worlds Immortal Is shout
be more diversely gifted, and tha
they should be more perfectly an'
variouslv developed. The simpl
warrior, or the ascetic. or the states
man no longer filed the measure
of greatness. Then came the da'
of more spiritual leaders. European
civilization, so complex and so ricI
in its diversity, can be traced def
nitely back to the conflict of peo
: pies which divided the medieva
world into the Eastern and Wester
= Empires.
After the Empire of the world ha
: been removed to Constantinople, tn
= civilization of Europe started aires
t the two septrate lines. The grea
e city of Micklegrath, the "town O
e towns" of the Northern legends sa
e a Queen on the Bosphorus for tie
e centuries 1t inherited and retaine
= the great Roman traditions of eel
d tralization, of scientific jurispru
n dence, of elaborate and systemati
d administration. 1t worked upon a
a unbroken experience of government
on. un. oxen habits of -organizatio
e as familiar to 1t as they were impo
e sible to the nations Of the Yves
Y For what did the tribal peoples I
x Germany know or comprehend
:, organized power? 1t had indeed tt
n n vices of uncultivation; much in
e was degenerate, hypocritical, effet
is corrupt, degraded. But in it rule
Is a succession Of men most various
8. character and fortune, many vel
!, bad and incapable, but among the
:, ~ large proportion who were of tt
II stamp and force of those who SAL
,s States. Justinian, born of SlavOr
ID ian peasants, near Sardinia, was OF
ID of the best of the Eastern Empol
- ors; his reign, so great and so ur
happy, was marked by magnificel
of works, the administrative organiza
20 ton of the Empire, the great buil'
l. ings at Constantinople, and the la
4 and grandest codification of the R.
3 man laws. He was served by tv
a of the best generals the world hs
n, ever seen, Betsarious and Narse
l. The two saved Rome from destruc
Il, tion under Totilla Belisario.
N begged for aims at the gates of tt
y city he had saved from rapine an
Of sack. 1t has become a proven
"a give an obolus to Belisarious III
g great religions of the ancients, tt
Of stole and Epicurean had goyerne
ct the character Of men. The highe
G. virtue known to the stole was patti
s. otism, and its adherents gave I'll
$, noblest examples of this civic virtu
"a The Epicurean taught only indiffe
u ence to all emotions except wh'
ID was pleasant Christianity has ne
st er taught patriotism until in mo-
of ern days, because it taught indiffe
ence to earthly things and centert
IN the thought upon a world to com
th Especially in the early periods
q. the church, the crusades, chivall
- - and the Feudal system, gradual
~ introduced different ideas and me
Of and more became patriots. Tole
ance was a slow growth; from t.
pt time of the edicts of Nicomedia al
,e Milan, in the 4th century, until t
40 18th century, this finest quality
J. human intellect was but slowly d
10 veloped.
of Nearly all the greatest intellectu
e. achievements Of the last three cent
" ries have been preceded and preps
f. ed by growth of skepticism. I
Id historic scepticism.which Vica Bea
rs fort, Voltaire in the last centul
r applied to ancient history, lies
v. the root of all the great efforts
reconstruct the history Of mankin
hel The splendid discoveries of ply
ne cal science would have been impt
or sible but for the scientific skepticis
IS. of the school of Bacon, which dis
IS. pated the old theories of the un
nm verse and led men to demand a /
he verify of proof altogether unknoy
es to the ancients.. The philosopf
it skepticism Of Hume and Kant h
We given the greatest modern inpul
es to metaphysics and ethics.
cd / do not intend to speak OF t
rs examples of our Lord aud Apostl
,o- or of the tremendous influence of
on Christian religion upon the civil;
Is. .tion of the world. 1t was the mt
sh enormous wersthat the world b
Of ever been subjected to. As a phil
he ophy, as a religion, as a ruler
of mems souls and .softener of me