The Progress., 1897-04-03

wroCe u wnv,e vu.uino auvuo O,i- u,ecA !
verb Philologists century after century |
have been measuring tho symmetry Of that |
language, laden with elegy ana ph'iipp1 PFC
drama and comedy, Odyssey" and III |
lad, f" but the grandest thing that Greek
Language ever accomplished was to give to
the world the benediction. the comfort, the
irradiation, the salvation, Of the gospel of
the Son of God. For that we arc debtors
to the Greeks.
And while speaking Of our pathological
obligation let me call your attention to
the fact that many Of the intellectual and
moral and theological leaders OF the ages
got much of their discipline and effective
ness from Greek literature 1t IS popular
to scott at the dead languages, but % per
cent of the worlds intellectually would
have been taken off II through learned In
stitutions our young men had not. under
competent professors, been drilled In Greek
masterpieces, Hesod' weeks and Days"
or the ollo9ium by Simonides Of the slain
In war, or Ptndar's 'Odes of Victory" or
"The Recollections OF Socrates" or The
Art of Words" by Corax. or Xenophon's
"Anabasis."
History ana the Greeks.
From the Greeks the world learned how
TO make history. Had there been no de-
rodotus and Thucydides there would have
been no Macaulay or Bancroft Had there
been no Sophooles in tragedy there would
have been no Shakespeare. Had there been
NO Homer there would have been no MIL
ton. The modernwits, who are now or
have been put on the divine mission Of
making the world laugh at the right time,
can b. traced back 70 Aristophanes. the
Athenian, and many OF the tooosaties that
arc now taken ~ now had their sugges-
tions s, 800 years ago in the d comedies
Of that master Of merriment. 0Recian
mythology has been tho richest lnine from
which orators and essayists have drawn
their illustrations and painters the themes
for their canvas, and, although now an e1-
work that nothing else could have 40
cosnplished. Boreas, representing tho
north wind: Sisyphus, rolling the stone
up the hill, only to have the Same thing to
do over again: Tnntalus, with fruits above
him that he could not reach; Achilles,
with his arrows; Icarus, with his waxen
wings, flying too near the sun; the Cen
taurs, half man and half beast; Orpheus,
with his Tyre; Atlas. with the world on
| his back-all these and more have helped
literature, from tho graduates speech on
| commencement day TO R0fus Cho0te's eu'
| loRium on Daniel Webster Mt Dartmouth.
Tragedy and comedy were born In the fes
tivals Of Dionysius at Athens. The lyric
and elegiac and epic poetry Of 0reeoe 600
years D9HOr0 OnrISt udS AtH oCi1oS~ AL SAe
Tennysona, LonRfellows and Bryants OF
1, 800 and / 900 years after Christ. There
| Ia not an effective pulpit or editorial chail
| or professors room or cultured parlor Oh
Intelligent farmhouse today IN America o.
Europe TINT could not appropriately en-
ploy Paul's ejaculation and say, II an
debtor to the Greeks"
The fnct Is this-Paul had got much o.
HIS oratorical power Of expression IRON
the Greeks. That he had studied their lit
eraturo wns evident when, standing In tn
| presence OF m audience Of Creek scholar
on Mars hill, which overlooks Athens, h
dared to quote from one OF their Owl
Greek pocta, either C1eanthus or Aratus
declaring, Gas certain also OF yeur oEl
poots have said, For we are also bis of
spring." And no made accurate quota
tion, Cleanthus, one OF the poets, hsvin|
written: FF FY,
Por wo thine offspring Ara. All things tina
croep a~ 80
! | Are but the echo OF the voice divine.
And Aratus, one Of their own poets, ha'
writton: t&hE FE& 81
Doth care rerpiexf Ii lowering danger might