I.]

Defects of olden Civilizations.

33

great capital Ninevah unsurpassed in magnificence. The Babylonian wave of Empire absorbed all the acquired strength of Assyria, inherited its provinces and rose to greater glory. All the wealth of the Babylonian Empire, and its civilization, became a part of the Persian wave of splendour, which drew from still wider sources a still greater opulence, and grew to vaster grandeur. The keen life of the Greek, in the brief time of the supremacy of the Macedonian Empire, infused a rich element into the conquered world; and in her fall, transmitted her enterprise and intellectual superiority as a heritage to her Roman conquerors. The vast organization and iron strength of the Roman Empire had, at the time of Christ, brought the. accumulation of all the preceding millenniums into one vast civilization, which was the culmination of the progress of the preceding ages, and the climax of triumph for human intellect and political power.

The intellectual greatness of those ages is the marvel of to-day; so far as human genius goes, in philosophy, poetry, sculpture, oratory, statesmanship, they are still unsurpassed. In magnificence and luxury they are unapproachable.

But I dare not linger. Let me point out one or two facts. (1) All of these nations rose from a state of partial barbarism, in which were many virtues arising from lack of opportunity for vice, or the earlier impetus of a young religion, and as a natural consequence this virtue, with physical strength, gave them military heroism and manly courage. So they conquered, and grew wealthy and refined and civilized; and in proportion as their civilization and refinement grew, so vanished their virtue, their heroism, their courage, until they became unspeakably immoral, completely effeminate and an easy prey to the next conqueror. These new conquerors were barbaric, heroic, enterprising, until they in course of time, along with ever rising intellectual and physical civilization, sank into still deeper

34

No Moral force, no true ideal.

[LECT. moral degradation and pitiable effeminacy, becoming an easy prey to the next healthy barbarian, with a new religion to replace or add to the old one that had become effete. And so it went on in ceaseless rounds, each empire rising higher in refinement, philosophy and civilization than the preceding, but as a result of that civilization, sinking to still lower depths of moral rottenness, until the rude barbarians of Europe shattered into fragments the vast Roman Empire, the heir of all that had preceded, the culmination and the finis of that style of civilization, revealing at once its power and its signal failure. (2) Another thing worthy of notice is that when these empires began to decay, nothing could impede the downward tendency. Advancing thought had undermined the religious faith; old forms and ceremonies had no longer a moral power; philosophers sought in vain to formulate ethics, and prescribe for the peoples' malady, but the incurable leprosy went There was absolutely no morally regenerative force; and for want of that, moral death brought political ruin, which in every case was inevitable. (3) Another fact is that in all these civilizations there was an ideal and a unity of purpose, but the ideal was too low, too narrow, and under none of them, though abundantly realized, could the complete man be evolved. Take for instance the Greek type, in some respects the most attractive of all. Its type is human, its ideal the physically and mentally developed man, combined in a democracy where all shall be equal and the state supreme. A type which naturally resulted in the Athenians poisoning Socrates, because he taught their children to be more virtuous than their fathers, and banishing Aristides because he had earned the title of "the just," thus imperiling the uniformity of the state. And just as defective the brutal heroism of the Roman type with its gladiatorial shows, its exposure of infants, and general disregard for human

on.

life.

I.J

Christ gives a new Civilization.

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And what was it that put a stop to this long series of revolutions from barbaric strength to civilized weakness and pitiable collapse? Why did not the barbarians who conquered Rome adopt Roman civilization, as conquering Rome had adopted that of conquered Greece, and so on down the long story of the past? Why, because the world had turned over a new leaf, and instead of borrowing from Rome, modern civilization owes its radical difference, humanly speaking, to a despised and feeble people, the Jews, and its perennial vitality, its universally admired and elevating ideal to a village carpenter-crucified when little more than a lad.

V.

CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATON.

And now let us try to discern the cardinal facts and causes of the new civilization of Europe. Those of you who have read Guizot's History of European Civilization will remember his masterly delineation of the three great forces contending with each other at the downfall of the Roman Empire, and for ages afterwards. These were, (1) the shattered wrecks of Roman Civilization, which were more an impelling memory of the magnificence of monarchy and of law than anything tangible; (2) the Christian church, which had grown up from a mere handful of poor Christians in the first century, to a vast imperial hierarchy, a great political power; and (3) the Barbarian element of individual freedom and brutal coarseness and cruelty. I am not prepared to say that the fact of the church, having at that terrible time considerable political power, was an unmixed evil. Of course the wielding of direct political power by the Church is alien to the spirit of Christianity, its province being to trans

36

Conflict of Elements.

[LECT.

form and elevate the individual, and through the unit elevate the whole; yet those ferocious half-savages, whose blood flows in the veins of many of us here, needed a stronger check than kind words, and that check they found in the political power of the church which had survived the overthrow of the imperial throne.

You will of course understand, from what I have already said, that I do not look upon the Christian church of that time, or of any time, when she directly mixes herself with politics, as synonymous with Christianity. The Christian church was a combination of men who had certain political aims in view, and used as instruments the name, the history, the accumulated social influence, some of the doctrines, the promises and threatenings of Christianity, as a means to obtain political sway. Thus the church became one of the struggling factors in a new civilization, with some grand divine elements behind her, which she often prostituted, so that she was frequently a hindrance rather than a help to the spread of Christianity and Christian influence.

There were then these three elements, monarchical tendencies inherited from the Roman empire, the politico-ecclesiastical tendencies of the church, and the wild brutal democracy of the conquering Barbarians. These three elements struggled together, none ever having the upper hand so completely as to destroy the others; none ever so weak as not to influence the others; each one modifying the others, repelling, advancing, clashing, uniting, exploding, fusing, imparting, increasing; and the struggle goes on to-day, but on different lines, on higher principles, and with less destruction; and will go on until all hearts are fused into one brotherhood around our ideal Christ Jesus.

To the quiet contemplative mind, such a series of perpetual conflict would seem to be evil and only evil; and yet that series

I.]

Produced development of new Powers.

37

of war and combat has given birth to a civilization which is vastly superior to all the civilization that preceded it in type, in character, and in power, and in promise for the future. I must condense a vast amount of facts into a very few sentences now, to show the salient points of this new civilization, and the potent cause which makes it differ so completely from every other type. Let us recall the three great facts respecting the former civilizations. (1) It was seen that as civilization and refinement and philosophy advanced, religion died; and immorality, political effeminacy, weakness, collapse, resulted. On the other hand as modern civilization advances, pure and noble religion lives on; while superstitious trappings fall away, immorality is more and more branded with shame and driven into sewers; along with comfort and peace, there is ever an increase of military strength; and along with this increase of military strength, there is a commensurate decrease of military vices. Old civilizations gradually made men unfit for war; modern civilization puts in new energy, and when needed, pours out from farm-house, and manufactory, and commercial offices, and mechanics' shops, deluges of men who need only a little training to`make them as steady of nerve, as indomitable, as the most famed veterans of a heroic age. This was seen in the late American war, and can be seen in any war that England or Germany wages. The old civilizations fell before barbarian power; in presence of modern civilization all barbarisms droop, are powerless, their day seems to be done, they must become civilized or die. The old civilizations, when warlike, aimed at conquest; not so the new. Though the war energy is there, it is turned into an impulse to further the products of peace, and the death of barbarisms is more like the melting of snow under the warmth of the sunshine of spring.

(2) We saw also that the empires of pre-Christian times, their civilization being only a superficial shell of refinement