Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-01-31

A"N N"h SVAOuo thAu6 w DS Luo bOH
OF great man.
Pagan Society and Christian
NOcIety.
Philadelphia American.
Mr.. Charles LOring Brace, in hi.
new book, "Gesta Ohrista," under.
takes to exhibit the influence Of
Christianity in the various fields oil
humane and philanthropic effort. He
passes in review the grand achieve
ments of Christian charity, wrought
10 behalf of the poor, the suffering
aud the dependent classes, showing
how benefcently the Transforming
power of Ohrist's presence has been
carried into the most cherries and
hopeless regions of human life. He
thus presents the evidences of the
truth and the power Of the Christian
faith in a shape which challenges ex-
animation on the part ol every lover
of his kind.
We are not surprised that this true
tale is met by a certain amount Of
criticism, and that exceptions are
taken to his reading of causes and
effects. 1t is said that Mr.. Brace
ascribes to the influence of Christian
ity what might be asoribed with much
more truth to the progress of modern
civilization,-that this passion for
help is found among those who have
ceased to regard Christ as in any sense
their master, and that in lives such as
that of John Stuart Mill are to be
found humanity and self.sacrifce
sundered from any theological root.
This criticism must shift itself to
other lines before it can make good
its objections to Mr.. Braces historical
argument. 1t must take the world
into which the Christian influence
was born, and prove the existence of
these good things in it, either in germ
or already in fruition; aud it must
show that the fruits We ascribe to that
influence were capable Of develop
ment out of those germs. This it will
find a very difficult task, and even
more difficult to satisfy those who are
most familiar with the moral condi.
tion Of Roman paganism. Rome had
indeed the elements Of SO much Of mod
ern civilization as can be sundered from
the Christian root. 1t had attained a
wonderful jural development. 1t had
appropriated the artistic, scientific
and philosophical culture of Greece
1t had all the reGnements of lie
which grow out of abundant wealth
aud ABUNDANT leisure. Fine manners,
luxurious living, elevation above pop
ulsr prejudices and antiquated super
stition, lofty estimate of the pro-
prieties, and an absolute detachment
from theological convictions, were
found in the cultured classes Of every
great city Of that age, as Of our own.
But purity, mercy, charity, self
denial, were not found. Human
sacrifices were still offered to gods 10
whom men had ceised to believe;
human victims smoked by hundreds
on the sltars, which the Epiourean.
Augustus, raised alter the battle OF
Actinm, and this dark stain ruus its
course through nearly the whole tex
tuge oil republican and imperial story.
Myriads of white men-men ofculture
and re6nemens, Often,-were held in
a slavery more inhumal than the black
race has ever known they we're herded
in kennels to which no humane man
would send his dog; for slight oHenses,
they were nailed to the crucifixes,
which must have formed a part OF
every landscape in Italy. Delicate
women sat 70 see msa hutoheged for
holiday sport, and watched wild beasts
tearing their human and brute victim
from limb to limb. Mothers and
fathers exposed their new born girls
to death, to avoid the inconvenience
Of a large family, and had the fullest
sanction Of publ, opinion for their
act, the relatives OF the real or pre-
tended criminal shared his fate, aud,
if unmarried girls were found among
them, they we're violated by the public
executioneF, in order to satisfy a
scruple about inAictiHg the death pen.
atty on virgipg. The marriage tie was
formed aud dissolved with frivolous
levity, and sage philosophers lent their
wives to their friends. Those cham>
bers OF the MuseO BOrbonico, which
are closed to women and to minors,
show what was the moral level in
Pompeii as regards purity.
Into this world of refinement, Of
cruelty and OF corruption, game the
pgesspoe 0f the man who set the little
child in the midst and told men to
become such as 1t, and who touched
on the lives Of sinners and harlots to
lift them by the inspiration of
his own purity to the l9Vsi Of
hQCe GaA eldeagog. Down the ages
comes his influence, as a deepening
aud broadening stream, for the saliva,
tiOn OF a world which riqes With every
generation to a trNer appreciation OF
bis character. There has been no
greater proof Of his power, as Mr..
Brace observes, than its surviving the
distorted and exaggerated representa-
tions made Of bic teaaSiug aud his
character by those who profess to
speak for him. They even have been
alleged as justification of acts as dark
and cruel as those of the pagan world.
In cur modern world 70 ons escapes
tbjs, ipsseaeS, tis Sb 'petyadinSs as
aEe neht ana AZ AZ. 40 man escapes it,
uOt even our -pagaus, who look
back with longing to the moral license
and aesthetic self indulgence Of the
world which persisted beneath the fire.
OF his feet. Still less have they
escaped who have shown in their live
anything of the moral earnestness o
the new dispensation, who have hateC
intolerance with Voltaire, detesteC
tyranny with Paine, abhOrred lies Will
Clifford and yearned for human regen
Grafton with Mill. These may choos,
TO have their intellectual window,
open to the north only, and away from
the rays Of this sun. But his rehecte,
aud refracted light reaches them, not
withstapding, to make them other an,
better than they would be without il
II is not to live in rooms that face tn
sunless north only; but even there tn
sunlight finds you and is helpful :
health and spirits,
wild EaOPic 0r the IiacISwOOd.
TERRITORIAL Enterprise.