The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-12-05


whereas the doctrines of Christianity
were divinely inspired. Hence they
failed to appreciate the value of that
intellectual and spiritual light which
was shining brightly in India long
before the great illumination of
Greek philosophy commenced. And,
in their intercourse with the wise
Brahmans of India, they took po-
sition of hostility and condemnation
instead of fraternal sympathy. The
philosophical Hindus had reason to
be proud of the ancient systems of
thought which their fathers had
wrought out. And they have persis-
tently declined to receive the dog
matte teachings of the missionaries
whom they regard as inferior to
themselves. The trend of modern
thought in Christian countries has
justified their refusal. The result of
careful comparison of the religious
ideas of the Hindu sages and the early
Christian thinker is that there is a
strong similarity between them.
The Vedantic philosophy is, in
many respects, similar to the Pla-
tonic, and the Platonic lies at the
basis of the Alexandrian Christian
school. The primitive Christian
thinkers of the Eastern or Greek
church, from Justin Martyr to Ori-
gen, took a much more reasonable
view of the relations between Chris
tianity and the so-called heathen
philosophy, than the most of modern
Christian missionaries have done.
"Justin was a Greek of Palestine
(of the time Antoninus) who had ex-
plored all the philosophic systems
before reaching Christianity, and who
has himself related. in dialogue
after the manner of Plato, not with
out elegance, the different stages of
his mental progress. He does not
commit to the flames, as so many
others did, what he had reverenced.
Christianity is, in his eyes, new
philosophy, more certain, more useful
than the ancient, but he does not
abiure that which had preceded it.
Socrates said he, had been the in
carnation of the Logos, or divine rea-
son infused into humanity, for every
intelligence contains portion of it
Christ was another, more complete,
because he is absolutely truth. = =
All who have lived conformably to
reason are Christians. Such were,
among the Greeks, Socrates, Heraeli
tus and those who resemble them, as
of ourown time Musonius, and among
the barbarians, Abraham, Ananias,
Michael, Elijah and many others"
(Durny's Rome. v. l, p. 1897
Hippolytus, in describing the Brah
mans of India, attributes to them a
doctrine of God similar to that of the
Christians. "These," said he, affirm
that God is light, not such as one
sees, nor such as the sun and fire; but
to them the deity is discourse, not
that which finds expression in articu-
late sounds, but that of the know
ledge through which the secret mys
teries of nature are perceived by the
wise. And the light which they say
is their god, they assert that the
Brahmans only know on account of
their alone rejecting all vanity of
opinion which is the souls ultimate
covering"
Clemens, of Alexandria, asserts:
so then the barbarian and Hellenic
philosophy has torn off fragment of
eternal truth, not from the mythology
CT Dionysus, but from the theology of
the everything Logos." (,Strom, ], 49,
Even so late as St. Augustine we
find, in him, this remarkable state
ment of the universal character of the
Christian religion: "That, in our
time, is the Christian religion which
to know and follow is the most sure
and certain health, called according
to that name, but not according to
the thing itself of which it is the
name; for the thing itself which is
now called the Christian religion
really was known to the ancients,
nor was wanting at any time from
the beginning of the human race,
until the time when Christ came in
the flesh, from whence the true relig
ion which had previously existed be-
gan to be called Christian; and this.
in our day, is the Christian religion,
not as having been wanting in former
times, but as having in later times
received this name"
These extracts from Christian
writers of repute of the first four
centuries, which are but samples of
MANY that MIGHT he eyivau show