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THE LIGHT
THE SHADOWS:
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CHRISTIANITY THE lOEftL OjF OUR RACE.
A LECTURE,
DELIVBKED BEFORE THE
ON TUESDAY ETENlNa, DECEMBER 6, 1859.
BY
WILLIAM GARVIE.
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THE LIGHT AND THE SHACOWS.
"l.I
It was often said of old that the most distinctive feature
of humanity, in contrast with earth's other races, was — not
Reason, but — Religion. With some rare and unimportant
cases which occur exceptionally in its rigid application, there is,
notwithstanding; in tliis principle, a weight and a significance
historically manifest. The instinct of inferior life, despite its
narrowed and imperfect action, bears yet a faint relation to the
majesty of man's intelligence, much the same as the tremulous
grey streaks of early dawn bear to the golden flooding sun-
light of the day's meridian. Those exquisitely geometric
chambers which the wild bee frames, the marvellous structures
of tlic beaver by the waters of the West, evince a capacity of
design which almost seems an echo of reflective reason, ren-
dering at least less total the disparity between Intellect and
Instinct. But the awful grandeur of our moral nature has not
the faintest counterpart within the sphere of brute existence ;
while the tribes of earth and air, acting by an innate impulse,
like man may fashion dwellings, man alone uprears the altar and
the temple — to the human soul alone is it permitted to realize
in consciousness the vast idea of Divinity, the sublime necessity
of Worship ; while the mellow minstrelsy gushing in clear,
cheery chorus from the woodbirds in th* branches, all in the
sunnner mornings since earth's fair prime, was but the utter-
ance of that blind life which stirred within and overflowed in
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soTigj there was higlier aim and ineaning in tliu holcnir c-haunt
which roso with either twilight to tlie skies — cf^pccially in that
^a]m pristine happiness, or ever the grim hleak sorrows [of
the Fall dispelled the glories of the Golden Age — when man^
wearing the crown of stainless nature on his hrow, was the
primate also in its wide spontaneous worship, and uplif/ed at
dawn and cvenfull grand ascriptions to Creative pow er, ad-
hering thus to that religion of nature wdiich rounded in the
bliss of his immortality. For when he that was our earliest
ancestor walked innocent in Eden, fuliilling in his nature
the design of his creation, his Leing moved in one harmoni-
ous circle of fruition ; and, irresistibly impelled by its most
essential elements of action, the moral consciousness and
the sense of dependence on Omnipotence, his soul welled
daily up in blissful fulness to his Maker. The earth was
then a mighty temple, beautiful, pure, and holy with the
homage of the ci cature — from the blind material atoms that
obeyed the laws of the eternal source of all causation, lip lo
man the high priest, offering, in the shrines of Eden, for him-
self and the subordinate creation, the incense of their adora-
tion to Jehovah.
But that change we wot too well of passed with its train of
awful consequences upon the race :
" Eartli felt tlie woniid, and nature from lier seat
Sighing- through all lier works, gave signs of woe
Tliat all was lost."
In that disastrous hour which followed upon impious revolt,
the bond of beauteous innocence, tliat, like the golden chain
old poets dreamed of, linked earth to heaven's hai)piness,
gave way beneath the heavy weight of human guilt ami the
curse that like an avalanclie burst wrathfully on nature. The
rich celestial gloiy that till then illuminated Eden waned slowly
from the withering blossoms— leaving all things blank and
1
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drear with loss and anguished apprehension, for behold, on
its receding traces swept tl)e dread sin-shadow, darker than
eclipse, that overspread tlio Heavens ; and, when the pearly
gates above shut in the latest lingering ray, tliat crept down
upon the ruined world where man, the ni'ghtier ruin, wander-
1 horror-stricken in the darkness and the discord that broke
Rtorniily around him — as every raving element bewaihd the
misery of nature, in tluit, after countless aeons of progressive
stru'j;gles for deliverance from death and chanji-e — long ere
man arrived upon tlie scene — yet once more, shorn of beauty
and detiled with suffering, must her deatli-chllled bosom be a
prison and a sepulcln-e. Tlio chords of harmony were snap-
ped, and all the tones of nature sank in quivering vibrations
of discordant sorrow; and when the wonted liymn from all
tlie sounding spheres rolled grandly up in thundering diapason
to the throne of the Eternal, one jarring voice disturbed their
antliem — and yon far off* stars gazed down in wonderment
ujjon their younger sister at whose b.irth tliey sang as now
tog(Ulier, bl(Miding with the joyful sliout of seraphim that
thronged to lioar the Almlglity's blessing on his finislied
work — tlien fair, but now enshrouded in a gloomy sorrow
which the moon, following in her faltering path apart, grew
pale with witnessing.
The light of inmiortality departed with that Age of Gold;
and while wirliln the universe each night gave place to
morning, and sunlight streamed from heaven's dome as here-
tofore, a vast night, like t\m funeral pall of former joy, settled
on the moral world ; a night of blackness in the soul of fallen
hvnnankind, unbroken almost — broken only by the flickering
light of erring reason, and the solitary ray of promise which
gave earnest, as it gleamed across tlie wide abyss of sorrow, of
a days|)ring in the far off" future ; a night that deepened with
the flight of years, as the outcast race went wandering grave-
ward, marching, generation after generation, in the night,
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in the centuries on centuries of night. This ha/.o of niorul
gloom, and tlic swelling tide of sorrow that swept tuniiiltuously
throij;i:h the hearts of careworn mortals, almost wholly hlottcd
out the reminiscence of the happy past and the f^lory that had
been — obscuring the tnie aspect of their present state, just as
a heavy sea-mist, driving landward, veils tiic ocean and
enwraps the rocky shores, till every gvey eiag peers dark
and undefined through the shifting folds of the fug-eurtains.
They lost amid the darkness of such desolation the eternal
lustre of the Good and the True which formerly irradiated
the spiritual nature, making it thus a refltiction, perfe(!t in its
kind, of the Divine. Not that they were destitute of a
glimmering conception of what they had as well as what they
hud lost, fur though evil had defaecvl that glorious image, yet
was it so constituted that it could never lose its characteristic
features, but must constantly exist in the .-ityle of tlie original
design. They could not fail to discern that a glory had
departed from the earth, that change and imperfection spread
where higher things had been, and that humanity was
haunted by a blighting sense of happiness forfeited and guilt
incurred ; they heard it whispered by a boding voice within,
they felt it in the life-long yearnings that consumed their
hearts — the longings for a lost ideal, for a glance beyond
surrounding mysteries, beyond the shadows that separated
them from that pure light of immortality, and that knowledge
of the True, the Good, the Beautiful, which they felt to be so
essential to their happiness, and that to the perfection of their
being ; they read i' on the countenance of earth, scarred by
the dread malignity of evil, yet wearing traces of a ptiisive
beauty that the spoiler might not totally efface; in their
darkened souls sin-gusts stirred up passions which their evil
breath had first distempered, to struggle with each other
uncontrollably, and yet they felt that it ought not so to be—
for a something more than memory hinted at a perfection and
I
11 knowlctlgo iKjlonginj^-, jKnlia[>s, to some for<;otteri life,
anterior to tlioir present state, and bedlnmiei] liy the sorrows
and darknesses whieli flowed around them as tliey journeyed
on to the linknown. And then close (|uestioninf];s |»er[dexed
them respeeting tliis rnknown, this veil behind wliieh tlie
irreat life-current dided wave by wave. Was all beyond it
nothingness V Or did the streaui leap out into a world of light,
and mingle with great seas of rest, restored to all humanity
had lust and lonped for 't Like sere leaves drifted through
the forest paths by the north wind went the generations of
the sons of men ; yet yearly did the voice of south winds and
warm nuirmuriiig rain call up a budding life ; did any mighty
voice dispel the trance of death, and bid mortality welcome
to an innnortal home '; and if so, coidd not one voice conio
back through intervening shadows with tidings of that undis-
covered land '! Sn like the " blind bat searchiiig air for light,"
they strove to solve the enigma of existence ; till, wearied with
tlieir unavailing toil, they looked out upon the universe, if
haply they might find among its labyrinthine mysteries a clue
to guide them up to Truth. And Nature met their troubled
gaze with an answering glance (.f sorrow and appeal ; on man,
wherever he might turn, she fixed an eye of suffering ; in tiio
wildest solitude he was confronted by " a presence that would
not be put by," a presence out of rock and stream that in his
spirit's ear muttered some secret, or perhaps besought him to
free creation from her bonds by some mode she strove to
make him understand — in vain, for all her tones were strange
as those of a forgotten language, and he co-..d only catch the
sorrow of her voice, could only feel that matter, like the
higher being, grieved for lost perfection, and struggled with
the pangs of ruin and decay. Her cry was on the shores ;
for there the melancholy main broke drearily — its billowy
swell now surging wildly up, now sweeping wasted back in
restless alternation, uttering to the wave-worn crags a hollow
ill
voice ..f mf);ining evermore— [i sad iiionotoiious rofinin tliiit
nwur tbe simm upon a tlumsMnd .shores. And as he Ictoked
with loiiojunr eyes ju;ros,s tlic waters for tlio " liolit that never
was on lan.l or sea," ho heard tlu; gnsfy win(i eonie trailing;
tiirough the forests, waking as it went tho hoari-e grim firs,
nnd blending the (k>ep angry shout of (.ak and eedar witli tlie
fitfid wailings of tlie willow. As when tho contre-wlu'(d of
some huge maeliine is broken, and on the instant all the
wondrous meehanisni rushes rattling into ruinous confusion
every link, and 'holt, and wheel grates harshly on its fellow,
in a mutual nuitilation — lound and round the giant ir(tn arms
whirl madly through tho air, meeting with destructive crash
in each successive revolution — till the mighty framework
suiks, a shattered, sha])<'less mass, even so within the onco
liariiionious universe it was evident that the circle t>f c(des'
tial perfection had l)cen rudely snapped, and thus her wide
departments clashed discordantly. Inanimate existence was
shaken to the centre with clement;d war, scathed and wasted
by the flame, the ll<H)d, earth(|uake, siroc, and tornado : while
an evil more malign vexed every living form; the solitudes
were startled with the roar of savage conflict and the death-
shriek ; ravine roamed tho desert, gaunt, and grim, and
gory ; nor did havoc dwell among the w'lstcs alone — but men
met men in vengeful battle-shock, and the clash of blood-
stained weapons, and the war-shout, an<l the tunudt of tlie car-
nage, rose ever and anon amid the shadows— for the oreat
hiN-siiADOw and that other suadow, Dkatii, grow deeper in
the universe, enwrapping life and nature closer with a shroud
of desolation. The whole creation groaned indeed and
travailed mightily in pain, crying in all tones of anguish,
fiom the thunder burst of riven matter to the " still sad music
of hamanity." Yet, as it cowered in gloom so cheerless, the
spirit heard a secret voice far down in tho depths of its
benighted nature keep whispering of a great First Cause,
]
wlioso power produced cxisfeneo r.nd wwoso vengoanco
wrought this woo : Honic omnipotent JJt'inj^ to be sought out
.ind appeased, that rest and happiness might return to the
race, — and, panting for full Ivnovvledgo, a cry went out from
every heart for light. And yet that darkness need not
liave been hopeless, for the light of an aneient revelation still
remained ; but from it they shrank with guilty trendding ; its
ray was far too searehing — far too distinctly it lit up tho
appalling aspect of their wrecking condition, bringing out
every mark of degradation in the ghastliest relief. And as
our eyesight, overpowered by the intense noon-beams is mock-
ed by many-colored spectra — little unreal images of the sun's
bright disk — so they, dazzled by the pure white light of
Trutl", and neith'^r able to endure its lustre nor to stay tho
ceaseless cravings of their nature, clamorous without it, were
drawn away to follow a thousand jihantoms, t^^T- '• eations of
distempered fancy — false illusions, whose s^-mulance to Truth
was all the falser from the closeness of the semblance. Like
" Hoosphoros," the star that rides van ward of tho dawfi,
that ancient revelation was the harbinger of Christianity ; and
those shade wy substitutes the mythic creeds, begotten of
"vain imaghiation," and by which the human heart was
"darkened."
The earliest form of heath(;ulsia seems to have been a
f1 ivish reverence fur the grmt material powers — especially such
as contributed to tho genial reproductive influence pervading
nature. Tlie most remai'kable of these was Fire. As inces-
i?ant in its action as a spirit, the ascending spire of flame
seemed ever to assort a heavenly origin ; like a divinity it
})urified and inflicted pain ; and, when its myriad burning
streams burst roaring from the crater or enwrapped the
crackling forest, earth knew no destroyer so resl.stless in its
fury, or more merciless, than fire. Almighty vengeance II
tlie ancient revelation of their Maker to the race was symbol-
4 j
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hd by - consuming fire :" reverting to the traditionary .tory
of tlie Fall they recalled the circumstance of that mysterious
«word of flame ^hich, grasped by guardian cherubim, de-
barred approach to Eden's portals-flashing with an an-ry
glare upon the tearful gaze of those homeless watchers that
lingered ni the wilderness beyond. Moreover, light seemed
interwoven with the fiery essence ; they beheld it radiant in
the stars, blazing in the redwinged thunderbolt, and glowinrr
with unmatched excess of splendour from the noonday sky ; and
when they saw how, day by day, the glorious sun arose, and
drove the night from heaven, and cheered the wan creation till
It smded ; how with the dappled dawn the flowers awoke in
beauty and the woodlands rang with melod;y ; how year hy
year he led the soft spring through the valleys, and with his
genial beams induced the earth to bless her children with
abundance ere grim winter should come shiverino- downward
from the snow-capped hills— what wonder that °they looked
once more upon the skies with hope, and reared in all tlie
«unny East the temples of the Sun-god ? By the lilied mar-
gin of Euphrates, among the roses in the Persian vales arose
the shrines of Eire; and while the hymns of Zoroaster floated
lip the mountain-slopes to greet the dawn that gathered orayly
round the peaks of Himalaya, tar off beyond the ni<rhdmiur
seas-where on the Egyptian sands the mighty shadow o"f
gigantic Memnon trailed behind the statue's base to screen its
dark shape from the sinking moon— knelt many a swarthy
worshipper within tlie hearing of the hoary Nile, that mur-
mured m his slumbrous flow ; while all-as silent as tlie
solemn sculptured face above them-gazed like it expectant
on the far horizon faintly streaked with growing twilight,
{slowly in the eastern arch of Heaven a pale light flowed in
upon the darkness, and a rosy flush upon the paleness ; more
brightly burnished grew the distant verge ; till all at once a
a burst of glittering radiance flashed out upon the lands, at
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once the streaming splendour poured its fullness on stupen-
dous IMemnon's brow ; and, in the moment, from the glory-
smitten lips brake mystic harmony — a full sonorous welcome to
the orient god, his sire Osiris : and catching up the cry, the
enraptured throng uttered all their heart in supplitmt shouts
and salutations, calling skyward to the Day-King, "Hail
Osiris ! Fuse Osiris ! Rise and shine, and scatter thou the
darkness of the night and of our sorrows ! With light and
beauty bless our eyes Osiris !" So cried they in tlieir joy to
see the sunlight fill the heavens— and all the while the orb was
heedless of their orisons, and the gloom of evil and of death
grew darker in their souls, even as the early mists crept closer
to the bosom of their ancient river.
On the Chaldean plains Fireworship assumed the aspect of
Astrology; and many a weary vigil did the hoary seeker after
wisdom spend gazing from the watch-towers along the walls
of sleeping Babylon up into the boundless empyrean thickly
strewn with stars. There before his eyes stretched cut the
midnight heaven— glittering with its clustered glories ordained
to show forth the Almighty's glory, and the grandeur of His
handiwork. Nightly for a lifetime did the seer ascend his
lonely post, and gaze upon that ample record in the firmament ;
and at dawning he went down sick at heart and groaning that
he could not read it. Day unto d;'y in his hearing uttered
speech, night unto night showed knowledge, and sent it
earthward like a falling star— and seeing it he knew it not.
Every sparkler in yon wandering train, silent though it seem-
ed, uttered forth a glorious voice, a voice all night as loud as
when it thunders, and all a choir of voices pealing in illimitable
(space — " there being no speech nor language where their voice
is not heard, their line is gone out through the earth, and
their words to the end of the world." Yet like those great
voices which, according to Mahometan fable, go bellow-
ing through the universe unheard by men, those starry tone:?
fi
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that .sliouteJ " Behold tho Trao ! lo hero fair witness of the
Good, the Beautiful," failed to pierce the clouded, undiscerning
sense of those shepherd seers ; to tliem tho sweet influence
of I'leiades was inscrutable, silent to them was j\razzaroth in
its season, and all voiceless Arcturus and his sons ; without a
sound, it seemed to them, that bright celestial army marched
across the azure fields, looking coldly down upon the solitary
earth, the star of graves. For this thing had the shadows done
—the great Sin-shadow and that Other— they had chilled and
weakened reason and obscured the spirit's vision, so that eter-
nal truth was something incomprehensible to men— neither to
be known or acknowledged by their blinded eyes. Thus these
ancient sages, hungering in tlieir hearts for higher knowledge,
turned, through time, their eyes away from that eternal ocean
sown with shining worlds; and, fixing them on cabalistic
parchment, " changed the truth of God into a lie ;" toiling
all their evil span of years in vain, and going down into the
vast Unknown, with not a star of hope to guide them in the
gloom.
The most ancient of the superstitions, Fireworship was
purer awhile in its details than many of the systems into which
it eventually branclied. At first it was simply symbolical,
and preserved cori-eetly in its allegories many features of
primeval llevelation. The eternal infinity and omnipresence
of a Divine nature was represented by the endless, boundless
light ; night, and storm, and winter— in contrast with light
and heat— gave vivid illustration of the intervention of "^an
evil principle whose dark malignity found a theatre for its
opposition to the Eternal in this our portion of Creation—
which, as was also taught, should be the scene of the last
great struggle when a Deliverer, an incarnation of the Divine,
should appear and overwhelm forever the dark troubler of
the universe. But even truths like these, as we have seen,
wore overlaid by error and unholiness : and in the growing
18
degeneracy of the race were wholly misconceived. Tho
struggle between light and darkness, between good and evil,
afforded grounds in Persian mythology for Dualism — a be-
lief in the eternally independent and antagonistic existence of
two rival powers, Ormuzt, the source of light and joy, and
Ahriman, the evil soul of darkness ; to both of which, accord-
ingly, homage and propitiation were enjoined by the sacred
writings of the Magi. The doctrine of human accountability
became the pretext for yet darker rites ; and the votaries
who reared high places: on the sandy flats of Shinar, or
erected altars on the Syrian hills — that from such eminence
they might the sooner greet the rising beams of Baal, the
lord of light — frequented lonely valleys and dark groves of
horror, where the voice of human victims went forth in
shrieking, and their blood gushed hissing on the altar-fires of
Moloch. The tribes that wandered, time after time, north and
west from the shores of the Levant, bore with them the fearful
fiery ritual of their fathers' creed, by which their natural de-
pravity was developed more and more. Bel's mystic fire, that
burned for ages in the palace-fanes of Babylon and Nineveh,
was kindled in his name b(^ide the Northern Sea. The ven-
turous Phoenician mariners that moored their tempest-beaten
barks beside the misty crags of Cornwall or the thickly-wooded
shores of Wales, found in Britain of the Druids shrines and
rites akin to those they left behind them in their distant
homes : echo'3S of their orient hymns stirred the dark oak
branches, and went far resounding through the forest aisles ;
grove and heath were grim with holocausts, and a foul fierce
mystery, eminently Asiatic in its aspect, brooded like a
shadow on the cromlechs of Stonehenge. The heights of our
Fatherland, where the genius of Liberty now sits enthroned,
glowed with Bcal-fires in those dim soul-fettering days ; and
the merry makaigs which still linger in the land — those rustic
greetings whicli the May receives— owe, most of them, their
2
14
origin to heathen ceremonial, when praise was wont to bo
n>ade for gladness that the spring was eon,e; when t el„
god's retmn froo, out the South was eelebr ted wUh en L-
«asm from the daisj-sprinkled slopes of Kent and De nto
swollen w.th the thaws of Spring, and eatehing glimpL of the
Zn r ^7'\ '"' "T'^ »' '"« •-«'-. "hunde'Td u „
pean for ite freedom and for the birth of balmy summer days
known Druidism ; but the Chaldee lore was rehearsed benelth
he misletoe and the bards recited, in darksome penetrar ,t
doctrmes of the soul's immortality and transmigrations as
al^ the agency of an Ahnighty essence, which, disused
mamtely through nature, was the centre and the sum of ali
e..stenee. ThU affectation of myste^ i„ the higher lints of
worsh,p was un.versal, and arose fh>m the neelsity fdt by
he pnesthoods, and the more powerful classes-with whirt
these were dmost invariably identified-of holding '«
masses m check by such appeals to their s«perstitious°awe
And further, humanity was surrounded by so Lany mysteries
that a D.vme mterposition was acknowledged to be necZ
s^rj m solvmg the vast problem : to avow, alrdingly otZ
system that m it, no such provision had been madelr'th en'
largement o human knowledge would, its wily teachers knew
bo fatal to xte progress; to offer any satisfactory solution from
the.r own ignorance was on the other hand impossible soS
their sole resource lay in concealing their moral and inTplI
utal destitution behind the veil ol solS^Zy-lZ
which few might pass, and those chiefly of tl/highi orde J
whose interest ,t was to keep tight the trammels on the pub e
mmd, which was directed to content itself with the outwa d
observances of idolatry and the secondary manifestat on fo'
vinity m aU natural phenomena. In that materialistic spiri
arising f>.m this selfish tendency to stop short at sccoXy
TOnt to bo
n the sun-
ith enthu-
Devon to
g torrent,
SOS of the
•ed out a
MOr days,
creed un-
1 beneath
ralia, tho
tions, as
diffused
Q of all
points of
\ felt by
b which
ing ^^e
us awe.
ysteries
neces-
, of any
the en-
I knew,
n from
so that
itellec-
a veil
orders
pubiio
tward
of Di-
spirit,
ndary
i
15
causes, the Pagan world drifted into Pantheism — a system
which in every ago has formed a common standing ground for
various opinions, even for such so apparently opposed as
those of the Atheist and Polytheist. It was fascinating to tho
first from the facility it afforded in evading the insoluble pro-
blems which hemmed in the reason ; while the latter found in
it full scope for the morbid propensity of his terror-goaded
mind, which led him to pay an abject and indiscriminate
deference to all forms and powers of nature, if haply he might
stumble, as it were, upon their hidden source. Materialistic
Pantheism most affected Egypt, where the sublime ideas of life
immortal and incarnate deity gradually lost their high signifi-
cance in a grossly servile adoration of all the phenomena of
Being, even to the meanest. Acting in its idealistic phase,
i. sapped the early lofty spiritualism of India : a grand
religious structure which, rising on the truths revived from
the pristine revelation in the venerable pages of the Shasters
and the Vedas, was magnificent with the spoils of ancient
science, and enriched by the abstract speculations of the
remarkable Hindoo mind. Infected by the subtle poison of a
misapplied philosophy, and influenced by the sensuous spirit
of the times, Hindoo Theology became encumbered early with
Mythology. They had at first the grand conception of a
Divine Triad proceeding from a self-exiotent Unity. Brahm,
they taught, was the eternal One — existing without power,
intellection, or moral attributes; and since no direct act
could be performed by a being so devoid of all eflficiency,
three divine emanations from his essence respectively contrived
and ruled the universe : Brahma, the Creator, Seeva, the
Destroyer, Vishnu or, perhaps more strictly, Ishnu, (the man
with us,) the Deliverer whose successive incarnations were for
the restraint of overflooding evil, and the ushering in of more
regenerated epochs. The attributes and actions of these
thi'ec were in tho pantheistic spirit personified as then" de-
%
I
16
»eo„dante until Gods wore numbered by uullions, or rather
waT tin T'^'r ^■"' " ""«='=-'■>' ^''-g ' V
iT!;.fl Tm T "^ "" ""'•^^tramed in,agi„ation, so did
efleet the weakness and eorruption of tto and all to
Inteltt '. T! '° "" ''•°''"' -^"S'- -^-tradlctory
to Intellect, and loathsome to Morality
Thus throughout the world the murky pestilenee of super-
st..on was more and more diffused; and though in every
be „t- f. v'™ t "^ "'""™' ""'' S-» the presonee eham-
bor ot the Eternal, ever baser and more sottish grew thl
™-deeper deeper, deeper, did they sink into lo!limo
of their depravity. The creeds and systems that arose "n
Shinar and Ormu.. and Memphis, spreading, wiA varied
alteration, eastward to the haleyon waters o the Ind an
Arehii^lago and westward to the seas that boom amon" t "
eefloes on the rugged shores of Thule-or even further tm
the Sun standing by their euriously earven altars, whereon
shot from Zendayistic fanes within the shadow of the Himalaya
-all the Idolatries, m short, of all the nations, had but L
vo ved them more fatally in the darkness of the Siunow , in
OTi E«. In the moral world, as in aneient Egypt, there was
darkness that might be felt; and yet as in thel rL Xtln
and there was a heaven-born light, so was there a gre°af et"
tral ight amid the moral darkness, and that, as then n the
dwelbngs of the Israelites. This light, in early days' £
d ed at the souree of truth, and kept alive in aline of Patri-
arehs had been brought within the reaeh of those mighty c"
naanitish races who sat within the shadows; and bein; tlienee
witMrawn th.t these, departing from its remembrane:, IT.Z
multiply iniquities until their eup was full, it shed it lustre
i
iBV
so (lid
17
from the tents of Ja.^,oh upon the hosotted Paganif?m that
reiojned around the Pyramids, till its mission of warning there
had been accomplished, when it was recalled ; and shining in
the centre of the chosen people, was renewed at Sinai, and
finally established in the land of promise — there to beam a
star of hope unto the nations "until Shiloh come." Sepa-
rated from all the other races, the Jewish nation basked in
tlie clear calm light of a Theocracy which secured to them
that lofty spiritual appreciation of the Divine, and that specia-
lity of Providence so fully evidenced in their character and
history. The humblest Hebrew lad that tended the bleating
flocks on the breezy slopes of Hermon — the simple maiden
gleaning in the harvest fields of Bethlehem — had a pure con-
ception of the Good and Truejso elevated that the colossal
intellect of Plato has achieved immortality in soaring to
such level ; but which a Tacitus, with all his intellectual
pride, could never comprehend.
The Hebrew records are emblazoned with many a story of
deliverance and triumph, accomplished for his chosen people
by Jehovah ; and while they abode by their allegiance to their
heavenly king the nation's growth and progress were rapid
and remarkable. Then Judah's bowmen braved the onset
of Philistia's spears, and rolled the battle backward to the
gates of Gath ; they held the robber Edomite at bay among
his rocky mountain passes; and when the mailed invader
dared dispute the sacred soil, many a wounded fugitive plash-
ed across the fords of Jordan with tidings of disaster, to
awake the voice of lamentation in the homes beyond the hills
of Moab. Neither conquerors nor merchants in the full
sense of such terms, and wanting much that seems essential
to a nation's greatness, their monarchy reached the zenith of
a splendour under Solomon that no time has seen surpassed.
The wealth and luxuries of distant countries flowed imo the
land ; the voice of gladness and festival was yearlong in her
If
I
f
J
'f
18
borders ; the gorgeous ritual of their worship was worthy of
.to sacred grandeur. Their majestie tomplo, rearing up i,«
pillared beauty and its fretted pinnaeles, massive with the
strength of eedars, riehly decorated with the highest reach of
lynan art, sumptuous with the gold of Ophir, the treasure
and the fragrant products of Araby the Ulest, had a refulgence
yet more dazzling in the awful Shekinah-the burning sL of
the presence of the Holiest for the reeeiAn of His people's
adoration. The Levite laid the saerifieo upon the altar when
the rising day began to brighten towards Hebron, while his
brethren raised the ohaunt of praise; wreaths of incense
met the falling dews, and the quiet grovo-lmng terraces of
Olivet gave echo to the evening psalm ; while ever at appoint-
cd seasons the multitudes of Israel hasted in glorious proccs-
sion-with the grave, sweet melody of voioeful anthems, of
tmibrels, harps, and viols, and at intervals the loud, long
flounsh of the trumpct,_to the Queea-likc Jerusalem where
With resplendent ceremonial, they paid their vows, and mak^
ing, through the high priest, atonement for iniquity, renewed
their remembrance of that mighty promise which pointed to a
commg renovation of the race, and a complete deliverance
from the dommation of evU.
Yet they wandered again and again from that pure
ight mto the daikness of the evil shadow: preferring as
tune sped on, the polluting rites of Baalim, and the revels
of Astarte, to the noble majesty of Eternal Truth, Beauty
and Goodness. Judgment followed judgment, yet they clung
with perverse mfatuation to the Syrian idols, seeking guilty
groves, to listen to the tale of wounded Tammuz, and do
homage to the queen of heaven. Dark, fierce clouds of woe
swept trailmg through the land, and the oracles of Heaven
uttered m their ear denunciations of their impious outbreaks!
and threatcnings of imminent, terrific ruin. The voices of
the seers-animated by prophetic fire-poured forth, in .awful
»
ifc
worthy of
ig lip ita
with the
reach of
treasure
ifulgcnco
ig sign of
people's
tar when
vhile his
incense
•races oi^
appoint-
procos-
leras, of
iJ, long
I where,
id mak-
'enewed
ted to a
veranco
it pure
ring as
revels
Jeauty,
7 clung
guilty
nd (Jo
)f woe
feaven
Teaks,
ees of
awful
19
and impassioned imagery, warnings of the coming crash
of tempestuous cal^tniity ; from one came, in inspired
strains of epic, unapproachable sublimity, the burden of
the Valley of Vision ; from another burst the eloquent
appeal to the wanderers, and the heathen whom they joined
in worship of the host of heaven, to '' seek after him that
maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of
death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night,
and calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out
upon the face of the earth ;" and from all wild lamentation
for the waning of the Light, and the ruin that should burst
on Judah's cities, and sweep joy and gl /"-oss from the vales
of Palestine. The people, notwithstanding, held their down-
ward way — until the ruthless oppressor came up against the
land, trampling down their power, and bearing off the miser-
able population that survived the fury of the sword into
mournful exile, to toil for strangers, or to wander by the
alien's river and weep for far off Jordan, and Zion's vanished
glories, till their hearts were breaking.
During the years of his captivity, the prophecy of the
Messiah lost its primal meaning in the mind of tine vindictive
Jew : his nationality, at all times narrow, was now fiercely
exclusive ; and instead of looking for that Light which should
overpower the Shadow, and unveil the True, the Good, the
Beautiful to redeemed humanity, he madly pined for a war-
rior prince wlio should break the Gentile yoke, and, with gar-
ments rolled in blood, take fearful vengeance on the oppressor
— unfurling the triumphant banner of the House of David
by the glare in Edom of flame-ravaged cities ; and, amid the
wailing of the stricken nations, leading up the victor hosts of
Israel to Zion's gates, with harp and trumpet all, and shout-
ing like the sea — till the tumultuous swell of exultation should
go onward in the land, and rouse in Lebanon a responsive
crash of echoes, rolling like the sullen summer thunder
through his craggy precipices.
#i
■
20
It was when tl,o Rplrltunlistie I.lcf,! of humanity wis
!<%. 1- \ "^ Academic groves of Greece
creel from tho venerable gloom of the LVyntian and Pho,.n;
- superstitions, yet di,. hi. sunny, o.,ufJte im Lli n "
Mly shape them f^m thoir native rudeness, and so shed fuU
plondour round the whole, that his mythoK^y seenlr the
new creafon than what in fact it was. a g.her e^ ft
«^dea made upon the topmost reach of thtse elder st^ul
hu, nt the r "T "r "' '""* ''''''"^ '""'«<' down
than 1 1 . u'V^' '""''" ^"''^ '» '"'hoover more surely
than tho rest had done the precise nuture of tho soul'f
t 7' f I" "!'"" ""' """'"y- 0"' "f 'he old, old time
the pl„mt,ve burden of a mournful song comes down to us a
2 t:l7r ''" : ^""'"^ -^ -- "-- despair " rose'in
AuLn . "^''•'"'"'"g ■" "'« gW Plonteousness of
m,l „T :i 7,f '"'''*'' ""^•''"S ™ "'« Larvest-yellowed
uph^^ds they followed on the fa-ling corn, turned waywar^
t nem m bimd melancholy to renew among the vine's rino
tlSret;:^:^"--^ Cecro,s who wandered to
" Commodious place for every God •
Promptly received as prodigally brought*
i^rom the surrourding countries, at the choice
t'l all adventurers."
h
n^wmm
21
So that a llttlo further on, lut yot within tho twilight of tho
legondary past, wo find tho " licroic song of anciont days "
celebrating the deeds and glory of tho immortals who in well-
ordered concert ruled tho universe, and, circling round ma-
jestic Zeus, held high state upon Olympus. These divinities
were known through nature. Zeus, tho cloud-compeller,
rode rumbling on tho thunder-glooms; Apollo was the
sun-god, with his shafts of light ; while Vulcan glowed among
tho nether fires; Ocean even, the earth-shaker, was tho
homo of !i billowy deity, from whoso deep-sea halls went
many a wierd immortal to danco among the shore-fretted
foam, or wind the sounding blast from wreathed shells
away upon the rolling blue. Tho hills too had their hab-
itants, the woodlands, and the streams; every sunny slope
of olden Greece was crowned with marble fanes, with sacred
shades of olive and of myrtle ; altars to the water-nymphs —
the Naiads — stood among the lilies at the placid fount of
every river ; and when straying in the forest glades where
the light came quivering through in checkered glef.ms, the
wanderer trod with holy awe such spots where mighty Pan —
the spirit of the wilds — might but a little space before have
lain and charmed the listening fauns and dryads with his
melodious reed, till interrupted by tho coming tread of mor-
tiil feet among the rustling leaves. Not a green leaf stirred,
not a foam-bubble danced, that did not suggest to the charm-
ed Greek that in each and all
*' Some shape of beauty moved away the pall
From his dark Bphit."
This imag'iiative religion — luxurious in its sensuous though
subtle perception of the Beautiful — pervaded all tho life of
the Greek people. It was the motive in their games, their
arts, their literature — in all of which they sought to look on
their Ideal face to face. And in tho development of the
I
f b
If w
i
■
33
other dopartmont of our mtcllcct, the reasoning power .1,.
ino iruo, tho Good, as inherent in the j^.tomal " Toll.'n
w.. p^„„e «tep«of thou«„C' .ho .igU, Ju^l who i: f
for a l„ft,cr range of purer knowledge than the realms of sen o
solution of hfe's twofold problem-what wa^ contidl.orv
in ho human, and unexplained in the Divine Tt!
ancient pantheism rangin./ from F^n. »„ T j- ,
out from the doetrinfrf r^Zn J ,'"' ''°''- """"S
cause of all oxistenee^aLila lit 1 ! •", """^-"'^
the form of water. ^ "^'""'^ '^^'""'° i°
-ari"fdeSe'''" r"'^ ''"''"'' ^^'"'■"' "■« ^^'K--
1
23
sivo, and have followed Rpcll-bound in his awful path acres
tlio vast immonsity of thought, t'l!! tilled with solemn awo,
and woaried with dtjlight. It rouses up tho life about ono'a
huurt to think of this
" Gray flpirit yearning in tlesiro
To follow knowlcdjjo like a sinking star,
Beyond tlio utmost bounds of human thought"
— to watch him wandering apart upon untrodden heights of
speculation under tho darK shadows ; climbing higher, and still
higher ; moving on and onward through the profound Un-
known that stretched endlessly around ; till he reached the last
attainable limit of hid consciousness, and standing, as it were
upon that verge, descried afar the Light and Darkness
bordering each otiier with a roseate ^'rii'^e of dawn. Forced
to pause upon the threshold of this higher knowledge ho
dwelt bes'.Jo it, eagerly wishing for power to cross the
intervening chasm and journey to tho halls of light : and
seeking to dispel tho night-cloud overhanging human know-
ledge by tho lamp of his philosophy, through which the
finer instincts of his spirit beamed in clear reasonings and
wondrous allegories, enkindled by the glimpses ho had caught
of Tnith and Goodaess immutable and Divine. Yet his
solitary ray could not overcome the Shadows, but was over-
come of them ; and after his era — despite the bright influence
of the Stagyrite — philosophy burned dimmer gradually ;
flickering feebly in the Schools of Scepticism, in the chilling
porticoes of Stoicism, and in the corrupt haunts of wallowing
Epicureanism.
Such were the chief stinggles of tho ancient race to pierce
beyond the darkness into the light of Heaven ; and such, after
centuries of agonizing effort, was their melancholy issue.
The night is at its darkest when tae day is born ; and the
darkness of the moral and intellectual world was deepening
m
il
1 -m
24
thicker as tho coming hour of light drew nearer hand De-
generation was plainly written on the features of the systems
of antiquity whose aim at first had been elevation of humanity
to perfection-to a glad and glorious communion with the
i)ivme. Every portion of man's nature had vented itself for
this end-m vain. The energies of sense-the simply animal
principle-had sought development in the stupendous schemes
of earlier days, when "there were giants on the earth • "
when they reared with unremitting toil the towers of Belus
and the Pyramids, and wrought misshapen sculptures in the
caves of Elephanta; when the swords of Nimrod, Sesostris
and a kindred host of conquerors flashed victoriously throurrh'
out great empires which it was their pride to sway as force-
fully as they had won them. Yet their ancient civilizations
were disappearing. Egypt had been early smitten, never
agam to recover her national independence, or to stand
straight in the fierce presence of the foreign spoilers. The
royal magnificence of Babylon and Nineveh was wholly
blotted out; and, in their stead, huge grass-grown mouldering
mounds were cumbering the marshes nenr the rivers The
splendid Macedonian empire, measured by the bannered
march of royal Alexander, crumbled with the crumbling of
he hero s dust ; the free swords of Greece were broken fon.
before ; and Rome alone of all the nations sat at this time in
the splendor of unrivalled power, crushing with colossal
strength the native liberties of all who fell ivithin her reach
Her veteran cohorts stirred with songs of victcry the moss-
hung branches m the far Sarmatian forests ; beoeath her ban-
ner on the British heights, the sentinel paced, hearkening to the
t Imnder of indignant seas ; the haughty eagles of her legions
Ins^^^e of Augustus' sway, the queenly city dreamed only of
endless prosperity and donunion. This calm look of strength
however, was more seeming than substantial. Rome in
25
fact, despite her wide-spread territorial sway and lavish
opulence, had outlived her grandest days. From her prim-
itive republican simplicity the change was for the worse to
the luxurious glitter and the trailing purples of the empire.
The lusty hardy summer of her growth was past ; and the
borrowed Asiatic splendour which she wore was but the hec-
tic flush which hints too surely at decline ; or as the variegat-
ed richness of our forests when the Indian summer dyes the
maple leaves with gorgeous hues — so mournfully beautiful
because they bode decay. In the listless enervation of the
imperial days were sown the fatal seeds of dissolution ; and it
was early felt that the later Roman, more refined than his
stern ancestors, the Bruti and the Scipios, had lost the noble
spirit of the " brave days of old ;" so that while the courtly
bard could attune his lyre to strains of flattery, and sing in
Caesar's hearing
" Custocle rerum Caesare non furor
Civilis aut vis exigit otiuin
Non ira quje procudit enses
Et miseros inimicut urbes "
— he was yet compelled, in graver moments, to give wild
expression to his sorrow for the doom so plainly heralded
by angry thunderspots rising in the political horizon —
" Altera jam teritur bellis civilibus ajtas
Suis et ipsa viribus Roma ruit," &c. —
and to utter the hope that yearned within him for the reno-
vation of the earth in that golden age expected now so
eagerly in every land — for the night was darkest now. The
mythic fancies of the Heathen had deceived them. They
had callf^d upon the Gods to give them light, repining in the
chilling darkness, and dying with the cry " No light !" The
fabled davs of the intercourse on earth between Gods and men
they never realized ; and while clinging to the promise, liow-
3
^mm^w^W^fWm
(ii
26
Hi,
h 11 »
ever obscured, of an incarnate Deliverer, they sought further
to raise the human to the Divine. They deified the mighty
and the wise of earth in hopes that thus they should succeed
in supplying the lost link between themselves and the Divine.
From Western Asia they sent Zoroaster to represent the race
in *^he " land of the hereafter," and from the East Confucius.
From Egypt went Thoth, Menu, and Osiris ; Perseus, The-
c eus, Cadmus, and Alcides, from the hills of Greece ; and
Odin from the Northland. These and a host of others
departed with Divine honors ; but never more did they re-
turn — Prometheus like — with heavenly fire and light to bless
the race. A Phidias might carve the marble till he shrank
with awe to see the Thunderer's frowning brows beneath
his chisel ; and an Apelles bring out upon his canvas the
foam-born goddess in such beauty that his spirit thrilled and
he stayed hi:s brush for fear of sacrilege ; and yet the human
heart, out-poured in moaning at the statue's base, met no re-
sponsive sympathy in the cold, stony eyes of the idol. The
Delphian and Memphian oracles, ambiguous from the first,
were now faltering into silence ; and such higher mysteries as
those of Eleusis were fallen into disrepute — having, from their
jealous exclusiveness, no hold upon the heart of humanity.
" It was easier," we are told, " to find a god than a man in
Athens ; " but men's hearts mistrusted that the Eternal One
was not yet found ; and often did the votary turn dispirited
from the soulless Pantheon — whose beauty mortal hands had
given — and lay his offering by the altar dedicated to the " Un-
known God." Then amid the heartless, sullen apathy that fol-
lowed on the failure of systems, men heard more distinctly the
great undercurrent of the promise of incarnation and deliver-
ance which was hidden amid the moral gloom and the massive
lumber of mythology — even as I have heard, in the solemn
stillness of the forest, a stream go gurgling underground —
dashing blindly, with many a trip and tumble, over sunless
1^
f I ,,LisilsA^£<3; A)
■^fiiMmmm^^mwm^
jilt further
he mighty
Id succeed
le Divine.
t the race
Jonfucius.
seus, The-
sece ; and
of others
I they re-
lit to bless
he shrank
s beneath
anvas the
irilled and
)e human
met no re-
ilol. The
L the first,
ysteries as
from their
humanity.
L a man in
ernal One
dispirited
hands had
the " Un-
jj that fol-
tinctly the
id deliver-
le massive
be solemn
rground —
er sunless
27
stones, to leap out into the light. Inspired, therefore, with
new hope, a murmur of expectation ran throughout the lands
that an era of renovation was about to dawn upon t*^e world.
The Hebrew, as the glitter of the "Roman spears upon Moriah
dazzled his weeping eyes, muttered, amid suppressed maledic-
tions, a prayer for him whose chariot seemed to linger, to
arise speedily and scatter yon accursed cohorts who de-
filed, with overweening pomp and bloodstained steel, the
beautiful courts of the temple : the Heathen, on the other
hand, more vague in their ideas, looked chiefly for some Divi-
nity who, like ancient Saturn, should descend to earth and
lead back the peaceful innocence and tranquil glory of the
Golden Age — when the gods would come shining again in the
likeness of man, and love and justice with white hands should
sway from sea to sea. It was dark, the night was wearing
late. " What of the night " — men cried, *' Watchmen, what
of the night V" — and after a space a voice came out of
Shinar, from the venerable sages who pored upon the heavens,
saying, '^Arouse, oh earth, tliy light is come, thy King is
born — we have seen His star in the East ! " — and afterwards
the doors of heaven opened, and a glittering throng swept
grandly down so near to ear^-h that the groves of Bethlehem,
steeped in quiet moonlight, echoed to that glorious anthem —
" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good
will to men !"
Yes, THE LIGHT was risen I there was morning in the world I
Over the hills of Palestine Christianity poured its conquering
rays into the evil shadow, uttering the Glory of God and
Love to human-kind — those golden keys which unlocked the
doors of darkness and let in the new, clear light : higher did
it climb in the world's horizon ; and behold, the shadows fled
before it, and many an evil phantom, many a brooding terror,
begotten in those centuries of night, and oppressing poor,
forlorn humanity like a night-mare, spread their foul goblin
\'r'
M
m^:
28
wines and disappeared before the widening day. The mar-
vellous changes which followed the inauguration of the new-
born faith are pourtrayed with marked distinctness on the pages
of history ; and wondrous tales of portents attending the advent
of Emmanuel teem in the traditions of the early Church and
the contemporaneous writings of the Heathen. One of the
most remarkable of these may be cited here from Plutarch a
Paean writer, rather to shew the striking coincidence m the
tendency of Heathen and Christian thought at such a time,
than to place muoh stress upon the intrinsic merits of the
legend itself, which relates to an event occurring about the time
of°the Redeemer's resurrection, and, as some suppose, connect-
ed with it. lu the hazy twilight-according to the legend—
when the glowing flush of sunset had etupurpled all the waters
interlaced among the Ionian isles, a solitary bark ky with
laechig sails and idle prow, becalmed upon the deep Her
n^in °rs-all weary of the oar-were gazing at the shadow
of the shores besid. which their vessel lingered as if spell-
bound, and wondering what kept the loitering wind so long
fro i following them upon the seas, when, suddenly, rustling
wings were heard aloft; a voice among the shrouds thenhailc.l
the steersman who, like the rest, stood awestruck, listening
with dumb, white lips, as thrice in tones of terrible commaiid
he was enjoined, when sailing past a certain spot, to slack his
vessel's course, and call over to the shores, "Great 1 an is
dead ' " The speaking ceased, the wind came up and failed
the sorely sighing sails ; and pressing forward-heavily at first,
then faster with the rising gale-the vessel held right on her
way With beating heart the pilot saw the spot the unearthly
voice had mentioned looming gradually up athwart the dis-
tant boundary of sky and sea : and many an anxious look
the seamen cast to windward-for they had resolved, if the
breeze held fresh, to sail past unheeding, nor perform the
wierd commanl unless bccal.ied. But. as they drifted nearer
2»
tliithcr, tho SiiUs flapped backward, and drooped motionle>^s,--
the prow paused dripping in subsiding foam-tl.o sol
wind left the seas-and, hushed in tran<iuil calm, the great
deep slumbeted-widely placid-saye where here and there
a .entle ripple bent in wavering lines the shadows of t.ie
.nars, or brightened as it glanced upon the rising moon, it
was then that, stepping to the bulwarks and looking out upon
the hushed expanse, the pilot called aloud "•-;»» P"""^
dead " Iramediatelj, as the words rang through the still-
ness, a sigh-from out the very heart of horror as .t were-
surged upward from the deptlis, the air was stirred wifli
rushin-r wings, and the tumult of innumerable voices tha
"iupthecry, "Great Pun is dead r '-that repeated it
with shriek, and roar, and shout,-that bellowed it on every
side m aether was rent with mad reiteration. High above
the wind that eame up wailing, and the hoarse resoundmgsj
the affrighted surges, swept that tempestuous burs of soriow
to the meaning shores-when cry on cry awoke the s araed
hills to multitudinous reverberations ; till all voices of blast
and wave and precipice swelled tho deep dire crash o lamcn.
"tion. " Great Pai is dead :" Ever and anon brake for h
the ellmonr-waxing fainter as it wen. tow.rd the ..ars o
died away among the far off mountain lakes, whose guh.ng
; veletslere sobbing in low syllables of --'« '"ya-
wing reeds, "is dead-is dead-is dead!" Yes-D...D
r eft Pan the mythic centre and embodiment of universal
!: y in "h'erring though beautiful mythologies of former
fneswas gone.-Old things had passed away, behold all
Chad Lome new. The glory was departed from the
Delphic and Olympic shrines-" their oraeles were dumb -
am nid the cheerless twilight of decay, the shadows were
S'.alrin. round the portals of the idol fanes, tor lleason s
chw carried forth to meet the Crucified-who. travelling
l: te^catness of his strength, brought life and mmortality
to li'^lit within the world.
I
|H
30
Humanity had gotten its Tdeal ; a higher than it dreamed of
-higher than any Avatar promised to the devotee kncehng
by the lotus-beds of Ganges ; higher yet than that gleam
of crhTW from the Eternal which made great Plato s spii it
,bine-like Moses' face-with looking on it ; higher even than
the Hebrew hoped for in his spiritual degeneration, ihat
ideal was Christianity, as represented in the Divine life of its
Eternal Founder, and continued by him through all ages to
His redeemed Church, by which the dark world is l.ghteneu.
Within the limits of the present sketch, of necessity so
imperfect, little but a general allusion can be made to the
ceaseless progress of the Christian system as it went for h
conquering and to conquer. Brought into conflict as deadly
as any between the True and False must be, it triumphed
sianally in each successive shock, and emerged from tribula-
tion-as the moon from clouds, higher on its upward path
than when it entered. It abashed the philosophic pride ot
Greece ; it scorned the proffered place in the Roman Pan-
theon ; it sought to reign supreme in the human heart and
held it base to share with the Olympian Deities the sacrificial
offerincrs of the Pontifex Maximus ; and the opposition of that
ancient Heathenism to it.-even in the subtle form of later
Platonism-was as helpless as " the dreamy struggles ot
the stars with light." .
The Gods of all nations, all the glory and power of ancient
civilization, had been centred on the seven hills to confront
the new creed, and every effort was put foith for its extinc-
tion. Its noble army of martyrs in their dying added to its
life -To the lions with the Christians," was the cry in
every amphitheatre ;-natheless the christian gladiator stood
unmoved on the arena, looking homeward above the sea ot
relentless faces that begirt him, to the circle of calm blue sky
crownin<^ the uncovered building. His voice was missed among
m
81
Vis bretiten that "'f V^"'„'|'L'^iiustrioLTxamplc, ma..y
heaven; »»d- 6-^'=; f'^r^ T «*, till tbe Trutl. pre-
another heart beat bolder for ttoij. ^ ,_ „„1 rt,e
.ailed-tm the altar fires f ^J ^ "^Cstantine resounded -
voiee of Christian t"umpl J"^^^^^ ^^^^^ „,,h-
tho empire. And «hen that omp^e le ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^
Ihen tie foundaf.ns "^ — jj^lof rnde. resistless
a,e fountain, of the ^^t^^l^^^.^^^.X^o^ the tur-
barbarism swept a^ay the former ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ,(,
Wd of nations, clashmg ^; ^^ ;,„e our metaphor,
traees in the tossmg ^^fZuoi Christianity beamed un-
^hieh agitated ^^''^'y-fl'^^t, and scattered a glad sh.m-
dimmed upon the troubled wate^B, an ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^
Bering fla^h of glory f« and nea^ ^^^.^^ ^^^^^
Huns, Goths, Vand Is, and t^ ^^^^ ^.^,^^ ^^^^.i^j
themselves eoncinered bj tue ^^ ^^^ Seandiaavmn
over the darkness "^««>^'*^ .»\^, „„Ue Northern heart
shores ; it ^ohe up a "-^ ^e J ^^^^^^ ,,, fl„,ers
with sueh rapidity as the ^"^^^'l } %te dawn-glory of
Z the foot-prints of departing y'" '. „f Thor. and
Balder the Beautiful, J>e—-»j;;^J^^ ,,, ..,,,,te
all the wild grandeur of ^»"^^" J „f Tlevelation they
Christ- in the ^t-nemg - Xfutnre ^^^^^^^^ „„
found promise of ^ ""f I^X'/ ^^Gods." In ^-king to
hoyond the lurid "Twihght of the ^ ^^^ t„,„ fo^eed
aeLunt for eon.uests so -n-Jafc « ^^^_ ^^.^^ ,,^ „,.
to eulogize when labourmg '» ^ J^ ° J ^j Christianity are
,ons he assigns for the unr.vaUed^ .f ^^ ^^^^ ^ ,„^,.,„
palpably -^^cient, some of ttem ^^^^^^^
ereed might be proud to uv^^ ^^.^^^^^ ^^^ ^h-
Christianlty, however, did not pr ^^^^^^^.^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^
out oeeasional "ton^'™- |* y her on the beaeh. it
waves sweep baek ^^J^^ ^L^ as when Mah me ,
too had its seasons of seernm^
Ammm
82
and his Caliphs led the desert spears resistlessly against the
cross ; when their proselytizing steel flashed terribly through-
out the East, and Saracen swarms made their war-cry the
creed of millions conquered in their long, victorious ride as
far as the Atl untie. Another ebbing-time was in the dark
ages, when worldly luxury and selfishness spread enervation
through the Church, and chilled the heart of civilization.
The Hght of Truth came through the Evil shadow in diatem-
tempered hues, as the white light changed in passing through
the stained cathedral windows of those mediaeval days. Art
forgot its mission, and ministered to superstition ; science lay
in prison with a Galileo, and waited in timid silence for the
morning wind to waft away the mists of error. Lawless par-
tizan violence harrassed communities: EcclesiLsticism by
turns was either inactive or encroaching, as the humour of
successive pontiffs varied— some parading in pompous, endless
ceremonial, sauntering through years of heedless ease, or
brooding on wild, ambitious schemes of empire. In this state
was the°Church, averse to progress, drowsed with supersti-
ious incense, and narrowing to unworthy aims— when she
was startled from her fatal lethargy by the hammering knock
of Luther nailing up his theses— the first standard of the
Reformation— on the Cathedral doors of Wittenberg. That
knock electrified all Europe, and roused a deep, strong cur-
rent of Reform, civil and religious, which is rolling still.
A'^ain the even tenor of advancement to -a full Ideal was
hampered in these last centuries, by the implacable hostility
of Atheism and the frenzy of Revolution ; and, in addition
to these spiritual and social obstacles, the more subtle Kitel-
lectual.pride of still later days. But these are merely the
ebbing oi Christianity's advancing billows, which recede but
to ro5 in huger volume further up the sands of Time.
And what is its position now ? It stands at present— espe-
ally in those lands in which it has been evolved from the
le
38
eumbroas crudities of earlier ^'^'^y'-'J;^ jf J'^" y't laiu-
.rae. the Oooa, tUo BeauU« ^« ^ J^
cd or over can attain. "^ wf ™ ^ ^ ,tiU around it,
ference, the black wings of ^^:> ^^^^^l^,, Christianity
but they serve by contrast to ■» f-'^/^^"^ „,,i ideal-
i„ its social aspeet-as an -'- ^^^^^^^^ „,,,as. F-odom
gains by coming in contact w.th tl« alser^ ^^.^__^^
Ld Imiovement are «« Jjf ^^ :" a finer light in
,re its hand-maids ; »'"''»S '^^^^iXe .ight of manhood, and
,g,,... It 1- asserted th;d.- .
proclaims freedom '"'te s^^^ ^„„,„,ood; it has gwen
nised the proper socm «f •=';/' ^^^,4 , barrier to moral
expansion to the -t^l"; "1 ^^se ground of its Ideal,
J,,s ; and, raising >»an to the vantag g ^^^^^ ^^ ^ , .^^^^^
it points through the gl«""'^J i„„,ortaV-and having
e.ltcnce-ahappmessennobh.gand ^^.^^, ^^
done this can it meet a nval tn a y =^ ^^^^^s and
cross not con,ue,.d » t e couil^t « th th ^^J ^^^^^ ^^^^^^
systems, powerful though Jy J- .^^,.g„,,, ,ays
Uuperishable traces '''"'' ^^ „e,,iess land which, under
stream over to the nattonsfrom that pec ^^^^_^^^^
Us fostering guidance, '?-';-;f J up eminent in such im-
to Athens in her palmiest days, ■'"^^ /j^^^,,, ^igh majesty.
pregnable, colossal strength as ma ^^ ^^^^ ^
11 dimly beside *e/»Jt;t su erlr 'in those ne.
name of BN«t,..n. Has ^ J^' ;^, J ^,„ to seek "i Not
realms which its o.vtong power cna ^^^^^^^^^^ ;
,o_-for Polynesia's g-- ; /*t ,be torrid wilds of
a common degenera.7 "f'^f; '^^ -..on in the polar seas.
Africa and the dreary «stes wmc 1 .^^ ^^„„
China, cramped by ^l-"-'''^' J^.^S wonder has she
the threshold of invention : wit g^^^_ ^„^
i "«i
1
^'
r
34
Christianity Europe has deciphered Nature's context, and lit
successive lamps of Science to search still farther, so that a
Guttenburg has, with more than wizard skill, su.uu.oned from
the printing press a gigantic power to mould the wliole desti-
nies of mankind; a Newton, "sailing in strange seas ot
thourrht alone "-the first human soul who followed the Lter-
nal in those paths-has interpreted, as one inspu-ed the true
harmony of the spheres ; and a shining phalanx of tlie sons o
thouMit and enterprise have curbed the elements and tramed
them to man's service-and, by giving almost an intelligence
to matter, and a growing perfection to its energies, are fast re-
deeming nature from her helpless prostration under blighting
Evil. Christianity is triumphant in Divine Philosophy ; and
its enemies who frequent such schools as those of German
Pantheism and Rationalism feel more and more bewddered
by the intellectual maze wherein they stray ,-the cry from the
dying lips of the great German Master is also theirs, " More
A-ain, Mohammedanism, once the fierce rival of our taith,
lies faint and crippled on the confines of civdization. ihe
crescent moon of Islamism that, gleaming on the ^ green
banners of the Faithful, carried terror through contments,
draws surely to its setting. Once it shone triumphant from
the mountain-passes of Cabul, where the jeweled minarets
Ghizni, -the Celestial bride," flashed out like a vision
of enchantment-to the sunny borders of Castile, where the
Moor rolled back the serried bands of Christian Spam, and
lorded it in Alhambra's gorgeous halls. That pageantry has
passed away. The ancient Paynim fire-so brilliant once when
Saladin and his scimitars braved the heavy onset of the Latin
lances, and matched the red-cross chivalry-has long since
burnt out; and the Moslem now sees other masters of the
realms once subject to the Caliphate ; sitting in a contracted
emp ire which was won, and ruled, and therefore ruined by steel
. 35
_eU-,o. »,.a ,w>e. ae.o..a jy;^- :t;:rSit
vevish reaction, of oppross.on »■"! ^ "» . „,, . ,,ev bul-
Wost coutinunUy increase .m l^^rff J,,o fcek, to pro«-
^avks, while they protect, -» F«"- ^.^ c.uvchcs in Con-
trate him in .rremea.Ue ru n. Ur t ^^^^
^^^^^^--^^'^'^'!'^:,'S1'^ action bom of
he watches many »«« f"™'' "\ , f fl,,„ri.l.in.', when the
Christianity striking deep ""'/"J J" whui the daugh-
tbrone of Solyman is tottermg ^^'l^fl ^,, ,Uves of
,ers of Islam f^'^^^X »f '>>» ^^'-' ''»^
sensual despotism, the So^eWgn j champions to
poured beyond the f-pho^s a ^ an^ ^
lattle for the r.ght ; and the Wy p,,i,,„„,,opy,
actuated by Ohristiamtys n>o^ >t J^^.
has in nis sight moved, bke a » ^^ ,,o„,a„hood
mounded warriors, assertmg the noble ^ ^^ ,^ „„a
_the right to sympathize and so to ode ^^^.^_,^^ ^.,^^ ;„
hlessing, and assistance ^ 'W ^\;, , ao they all
sullen apathy »"^, ^^^''^^^^^ • '^„,erable mythic fancies of
Brahmanism, Budlnsm, tte imiun - ^^^^ y^^^_^^^^^ ^^ ^^^
earth's dark places, all wait the • ^,^^ ^.^;^g
angeW anthen. on the nigt, o^^^ - ^^^„ fo,,, .f
of domri-thousands, sittmg ^ha Ue ^^ ^.^^ ^,^.^,,
corrupt worship, start to their fe t^tW^J ^^ ^^^ .^
come over the seas, callmg «" f^'^^^^^.f^he cruel mu.
the highest." Thew ^T^^^l^^ ^ V.^^^ -^
derous wrong which "- ^' i^'\,„,,phcre of Greek and
Wood. Tor even J" *''". Sliest affections were shrivelled
BomanphilosophytheheartsHKst _^^^ ,,,„,,
with the frost of evd. Men eou ^ ^,^^„g,,
their passion for ^^-- f^J^ I, „„e word to denote
was to them an enemy-they ua Vilosophcr his
both. The priest fenced m us f A ^P.^^ ^^ p^,,^,,
dogmas, with dark mystery ; and wm
l#
Jimmm
86
anlty is ''Ho, everyone." their cry was, Frocul Oproculeste
profani I Under Stoic teachings men moved through a barren
existence in joyless circles, running counter each to each, like
ripples on a rainy sea ; and even the Epicurean, by no moans
over precise, could suy " I hate and scout the vulgar
throng." The terms Philanthropy and Public benevolence,
in their Christian acceptation, are absent from their language ; .
their heathenism cannot show, like Cln-istianity, a Howard
and a Wilberforce ; there are no remains in ruined Thebes,
or Sparta, or Pompeii, of hospitals, asylums, and those
humane institutions which abound in countries blessed with
Gospel liMit. Ask the Hindoo of his belief, and he points
to the c^r of Juggernaut, the Suttee, and the weapon of
the Thug ; the African, hugging his n.onstrous fetis^i, points
to piles of grinning skulls.^and the bright Pacific Seas gird
haunts of violence and wiles. To such as these the cross
comes with its arms spread wide as east and west-proclaini-
incr peace and good will— and coming it prcvals. if its path
is°crossed by Evil— if the phantasms of error, gigantic with
the growth of centuries, are gathering all their force to
grapple with the advancing power of Truth, their efforts are
but the convulsive agonies which precede the powerlessness of
death. The winds of Liberty are abroad upon the earth, a
stir of life runs throbbing .hrough the moral wastes. There
is ever a roar and a crash in the vocs and the vales of
the Noith, when Winter, who keeps the land in swoon,
evanishes before the fair-faced Spring; the prolonged thunder
of icefields rending, many a mile.-the deafening echoes m the
hills when avalanches, like armies in the battle burst, dash
headlong downward, -must precede the surging music of
the free flashing waves and the breezy murmurs of the open-
in- leaves. So the wide resounding roar of roused liumamty
in^'either hemisphere betokens surely that a heavenly energy
is awakened. From continent to contintnt the Light sweeps.
rev
de(
pel
pr
th
th
w
n
t«
f
II-
ii
deep cUing unto deep, ""=»/';; ^f „.„,ii „„d religious op-
j^/dlng «tmgglo -tl. the -k^e» ^^.^^^ ^^ ,„
L».ion ..Hch hung. ^'■",7s\,aow»,-but higher yet m
^bore ahove the honzon »- '" ^^'^ ,,„,, „„ .tor.n clouds,
the heaven the Cro., »";;\;''^„„ttantlnc ; and. UUe hun.
„here it onee .hone ou '» ^;„^,,,„ ,, This The V.e-
„„„ read '>'« r%"ily^e ^-k ''■''> "''"^'' ""'
t !" What though t e sky ^.^^^^^ ^„„
foreboding, we can see that hop ot ^ ^^^^^ ^^^
lough-even as the voyager on the ^^^^_ ^^ ^^^
deep"!, canopied wa^ n;J^ J l^ ^.Ld his sUent
day-brealc east of ''« f ^ „ ^„„ v,,y„„d stream along
peaks, sees rays of the ri„en ^^^ ,„j„ ^^
I, fissures in the -- 7;^^^' ,„y, ihe Wood-Wdt
darkness to announc he «J ° / ^uh tre«.U.ng
thrones of despotism totter, ^"f ' ™ „f ^.rilmtion, in charac-
„„ their palaee.walls,^vhe.;^»^^^, ^,„aer the Vn^ «
ters of fire, «'Ues M.^"'=-2Tn,perfection of their souVs Ideal
the Shadow, men pme a ^« ™V^ ^,,,en the Red sea
_there is a void, they "• l'^« ,,,^ ^,, the sea returned
,,t,rs when they parted •">]^^ ";';„,a-and when a hlgh-
to his strength when the — M^ ^,^ ,,„u eou«
er morn shall dawn, the e»rrent » ^„ ^^^^^ ^ ,^,
a™n into the long '^«'7 '";„ „„^ ; but vainly shall -t
horning the darkness strug^sev^n-^^; ^^ ^.^,_^ .^^ ,,
struggle; for, ^^f '"£';, mLeh rosistlessly from sh^^^
shadows, great Chr^ttamty >>l« ^,^,^^^„ i„ ,t huma-
to shore ; and naticn,s now hemghted ^._^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^,,
„itVs Ideal, and shall ^f^^^^^ ,„j the wisdom of the
Beautiful, the treasure f the bo
True. Then shall Truth
. 88
"Rule the spacious world from clime to clime,
Her hand-maid arts shall every wild explore,
Trace every wave, and culture every shore.
Where barbarous hordes on Scythian mountains roam,
Trath, Mercy, Frecf^om, yet shall tind a home ;
"Where'er degraded nature bleeds and pines.
From Guinea's coast to Siber's dreary mines.
Truth shall pervade the unfathomcd darkness there,
And hght the dreadful features of despair ! "
Farther shall the tliseomfitecl Shadows flee away : farther,
farther, and still farther shall the Light pursue them : till,
spreading their dark vans of horror, they shall flee from under
our heaven ; and as the waters cover the sea, Truth's efful-
gence shall pour in upon the planet ; and humanity delivered
into light eternal shall realize its full Ideal ; a celestial splen-
dour, brighter than the light of countless suns, shall rise on
the new earth ; shall rise but never set, and night shall be
NO MORE !
r