The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-03-09

Nent o. harmony. What they needed Was 70 be
Thnx , .. q 80 - a alienation from God:
G Snssr g,orIhed humanity 10 bring them hack to
0oo. Inc great lack In the Greek religion, and.
~rna ny ~. q sii sncient religions, was the alb
49, - mouve power Tor righteousness,a Cod
- LTD mo alone can give men power to conquer
-. 0reek art In its matches spleudor could
aep preserve The race from reiigious and moral
tended 70 purity 81 thought, sublime Ideals, led
% coarse aud sensu0us practices Al the arts
soos the place Of religion. rsiision dessnessted
And this, too, Il reminder to those In modern
oays who say that the worship Of the BEAUTIFUL
y the only true religion. Some there are who
refining music, more art galleries With beautiful
peinengs and noble sculptures. All this viii
&c 90, more 70 elevate mankind than the churches,
soans 1ieep men s.,I more from evil than can the
auxiliary to Christianity IL certainly culrivat-
ing, ana I would not decTy its advancement
Us s ssy. can take the psce OF
% ssuoy the history Of Greek art and see how it
r rn % give any l:sting moral and spiritual
power And, 4 II failed In Greek life when It
Iuse 20 a!mnse kuperhuman perfection, II must
certainly fail in modern days when ali that 10
pest IN the way Of beauty falls immeasurably be-
aoM the creek attainment.
tnoughf was the love Of the present life. The
uIee.s We're fond Of living beyond any other
PEOPLE. They fairly worshippcd life in the ab-
the question Of immortality. Socrates had =
sost OF an expectancy OF the 1uture. Plato per-
hnspa more clearly dreamed Of It. Aristotle, If
side. rericles, In HIS famous funeral Grafton.
paid high tribute to the glory Of the city the
Greeks loved 90 well, bu: had nothing Of con-
= TIE Ss sy gs ala
care to even think OF death. In fact. death, of
al things, was the most hateful Hence,
Greeks at the feast corresponds very closely to
this second trait OF the Greek character. TO the
representatives of . race that despised death
the and s q wsea al s
Il bringcth forth much fruit" Here death ID
depicted not as the Greeks undersood TIA de-
tessaSie thing-bnt q the natural and therefore
meant that BY dying to SELF, selflove, self-grati
ncstion In the joys and beauties of this world In
orucr 70 gain more time, more strength in doing
the truest life. II is Beautiful figure. supply E
Ing Just the truth that the Greeks failed to grasp
And then. n direct answer to the strong love
Tor lie, Christ says: "He that loveth his life
shall lose II, and he that hateth his life in this
world shall keep it unto life eternal" Now tho
Greeks whom Christ was addressing knew what
They knew that animal lusts had been installed
among the services of religion. They knew, a.
Strabo records, that most OF the revenues for the
we're derived from the foul hire OF prostituticn
In the temples, and they knew what was going
on ct Antioch. a. Gibbon himself describes. And
all the wickedness, the degradation Of q once
noble nation, they now knew from the words Of
Christ to have been the consequences of loving
the present life In aud for itself, withoufregard
TO an eternity ahead or God above.
And % In modern days wherever this Greek
spirit OF love for the world exists, and 1t exists
all around us, the words Of Jesus are again APP
plicable. Christ does not mean that this lie
itself IL bad or that the innocent Joys and recre
atoms OF life are to be rejected This is q very
beautiful world, and God would have us happy
here, but what Christ does mean ID this: That
we must not do ~ the Greeks did; put this life
first, make pleasure our God, and amusements
our religion. Above all he means that the
worlds spirit Of sin, everything that Is alien to
Gods spirit, must be hated In this sense we
must hate life by hating ali that is foreign to
the life Of God and cannot merit the love of
Christ. II we would see Jeses, SEQ Him AZ our
dearest friend, our brother, our Savior, we must
take Him at the words, ''If any man serve me,
let him follow me-"