will not have failed to observe that there was not in them all one element of Christian virtue, in the true sense of the word. He had no love for the truth. He could lie when convenience required it; he had no simple desire for the right; violence would be inflicted, if the order had been given to do so. No notions of spirituality or holiness, meekness or humility, would have stopped him in half his career, and charity for the bodies and souls of men was the last thing he thought to exemplify. He was always unchaste, often drunk, and sometimes mad. Yet this was the Greek ideal, beyond which poetry could not soar, and devotion could not pray. If this was the highest, what must the lowest have been? I will not further detain you by reference to the mythology itself, but conclude with two or three observations which I think do not unnaturally suggest themselves. First, then, let us learn the great importance that is attached, or that should be attached, to the principles of our faith. There are many who affect to speak with absolute indifference of all religions, as though they were reduced to one element, "Jehovah, Jove, or Lord," representing the same religion. One hardly knows which most to admire, the dullness that can conceive, or the perverseness that can maintain it. We have given you the beautiful side, so far at least as we could, of the Greek mythology, and I ask you if there be no difference betwixt that and Christianity? Let the blind look, and they may see; let the poorest and most unlettered contemplate, and they must be convinced. But, secondly, let us learn the futility of human reason in the matter of religion without the aid of revelation. Many philosophers say they want no revelation. I only reply by referring them to the Greeks. I say, that in all secular respects, in all intellectual respects, they were the greatest people this world ever saw. In comparison of them, Europeans are dull and clumsy; except in physical science, mechanical skill, and the single item of tragedy, we do not pretend to equal them. Their language was the most copious, the most perfect, the most versatile, in the world. Whatever is known of Egypt, Babylon, and the whole world, anterior to the Christian era, excepting the Jewish Scriptures and the holy religion we believe and profess, has been embalmed in their records. In every respect they stood on the pinnacle of human fame. They gave us Plato and the philosophers, Homer and the poets, Demosthenes and eloquence, Herodotus and history, Plutarch and biography, Phidias and sculpture, Apelles and painting, Leonidas and heroism, Alexander and conquest; and we can not compete or compare with them for a moment; and if they in their wisdom knew not God, who will pretend that it is in the power of reason, without the aid of revelation, to find him out? Lastly, let us remember, that to whomsoever much is given, of him much will also be required. You have the knowledge of the one living and true God, selfexistent, almighty, boundless, changeless, and eternal. You know that he is spotless and pure, infallibly true, inflexibly just. You know that he is unbounded in his kindness-delighting to save, ready to forgive. He is your preserver on whom you depend, your benefactor to whom you are indebted, your governor under whom you live, your judge before whom you must stand, and through the cross of Christ presents himself before you as your redeemer, whom you may love, and serve, and trust, at all times and with all your power. He is revealed to us as the true God, entering into our sorrows, taking our nature, accomplishing our redemption, the Spirit that dwells in us, the Lord who is our comfort, our guide, our guard, and our stay in time of trouble. Yes, this is our God, and we will exalt him. This is our God, and we will praise him. Yes, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the God whom we adore, we will bless him while we have life; we will praise him when we die. May mercy grant us eternal years to understand him better, and praise him more! |