MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

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was once a faith to be gloried in, but with many the proposition has been reversed, and their creed is, that man has become God. Some maintain the grossest materialism—that there is no spirit in man; some, admitting that they are the "offspring of God," refuse to call Him Father, and unfilially style Him Nature; and others deny the responsibility of man for his belief even to that God who presents him with evidence, and has conferred upon him powers by which he can sift it and come to a right conclusion. Are not "wise men after the flesh" dealing with the gospel as the Epicureans and Stoics dealt with Paul? A resurrection to the one and the other sect was impossible in theory, and undesirable in hope; for with them the soul itself was supposed to sink into unconsciousness at death, either by being dissolved or being absorbed into the great sum of existence. So it is that philosophic minds still refuse the revelation of Christ, or strip it of all that is distinctive and remedial, before they profess to receive it. For some it is too simple, and for others too mysterious; one class objects that it takes too little notice of man's present interests; and another, that its morality is too transcendental. Inspiration is pared down, and the authority of scripture is lowered by this party; and by that party the truths of scripture are thought to be good enough for the age which produced them, but deficient in breadth and adaptation for the enlightened nineteenth century. By such seekers after wisdom, the gospel is dismissed as quietly and effectually as was its great apostle from Mars-hill.

O that all this wildness and passion were stilled by the remembrance that He "hath appointed a day in which He

Q

will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained-whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead." Is Christ risen-ay or no? The controversy turns on thisIs it fact or fable? If His resurrection be a demonstrable reality, then surely His voice must be listened to, and His warnings pondered. His gospel has a claim which no other form of truth presents-it is God's immediate and authentic revelation. It can be superseded by no dialectics, and rung out by no poetical peal. The light of science is unable to eclipse it, the treasures of art equal not its "pearl of great price." Legislation dares not displace it, for it gives law to the conscience, and without it civilization is but a whited sepulchre. Freedom rests upon it as a solid basis, because its disciples are not to be the "servants of men;" and national progress, true prosperity-greatest happiness to all-are measured by its development. For it gives nobility to the meanest, and the best of the graces to the highest-presents every one with an aim worthy of his nature—sanctifies every pursuit as a calling on which he may "abide with God"-sends a cheering influence through all the relations of life-relieves the poor and needy-visits the "fatherless and widows in their affliction "-sets its brightest jewel in the crown, and guards the purity of the ermine-breathes a just and generous spirit into legislation-opens up a widening circle of spiritual brotherhood, and blends earth with heaven: realizing the Saviour's natal anthem-"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men." Such a religion can have no rival, and admits of no substitute.

XI.-PAUL AT CORINTH.

ACTS Xviii. 1-18. 1ST & 2ND EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS.

ON leaving Athens, Paul set out for Corinth—the capital of Achaia, and the "city of the two seas." It lay about forty-five miles west from Athens, on an isthmus with a seaport on each side-Lechæum, about a mile distant, on its western, and Cenchrea, about eight miles distant, on its eastern shore. It was a thriving entrepot for the commerce between northern and southern Greece, and it had been in other days a strong military post, the key of the Peloponnesus. The famous isthmus was about three miles and a-half in breadth at its narrowest point; and boats being sometimes conveyed across it from the Ionian to the Ægean sea, it resembled in this respect those necks of land in Scotland called Tarbet-from two words, meaning, "to draw the boat." Thus in 1203 the Norwegians sailed up Loch Long, dragged their boats over the isthmus of Tarbet, under two miles in breadth, and launching them upon Loch Lomond, slew and plundered the natives, who had taken refuge on its islands, and had never dreamed of such a stratagem. But the importance of Corinth as a military station had almost ceased when it passed under the Roman yoke. Its citadel, Acrocorinthus, two thousand feet high, rising as abruptly as the rock of Dumbarton, and not

unlike it, still remains a prominent feature in the land

scape

"Yet she stands,

A fortress formed to freedom's hands;

The whirlwind's wrath, the earthquake's shock,
Have left untouched her hoary rock,

The keystone of a land which still,

Though fallen, looks proudly on that hill;

The landmark to the double tide

That purpling rolls on either side,
As if their waters chafed to meet,

Yet pause and crouch beneath her feet."

Corinth was at this time the residence of the Roman proconsul, and Gallio, the brother of Seneca, held the office. In its best days it had been depraved in the extreme. Its obscene impurities had passed into a proverb, and from its very name a word was coined to denote wanton indulgence. The Isthmian games in its vicinity brought crowds of dissolute strangers to it, and a thousand priestesses or courtezans had been attached to the temple of Venus. The basest passions were consecrated in this city which has given to architecture its most florid order; and the tub in which Diogenes kennelled in the principal promenade, was a surly protest against surrounding pomp and luxury. Many changes had passed over it, but its immoral character was unaltered; it still delighted in show and pleasure. The consul Mummius had burned it, but Julius Cæsar rebuilt it, and peopled it as a Roman colony. The spoils of the city-the work of the potter and silversmith-were prized at Rome, as far surpassing anything that Italy could produce. If Athens was wholly given to idolatry, Corinth was wholly given to lust and

IDOLATRY AND DISSIPATION OF CORINTH. 245

revel, and one of the famous of its abandoned women had a splendid tomb in the outskirts. Nor had it been in reality less idolatrous than Athens. Neptune was the presiding deity of the maritime city; it had its sacred fountain, where Bellerophon had captured the winged steed Pegasus; temples and gods were abundant; chariots of Phaethon and the Sun, with statues of Apollo and Venus.

In this gay and dissipated city Paul took up his residence with Aquila and Priscilla, Jews who had recently been banished from Rome; and being " of the same craft, he wrought with them, for by their occupation they were tent-makers." It was the custom of the Jews to teach their children a trade, even though they should be destined to a professional life. Tents were in great demand in those days, for no one could travel without them, as indeed is still the case in eastern countries. The traveller must carry all accomodation along with him, as none can be had or found on the road. Paul's native province of Cilicia had a species of goats with long hair, out of which tent-cloth called cilicium was woven, and it was easy and natural for him to learn this occupation in his youth. This hair, or the cloth made of it, must have been a common article of commerce, so that Paul could exercise at Corinth the craft which he had been taught when a boy in Tarsus; and he wrought with his own hands, not only because he had claim as yet on no one-for we cannot say that his host and hostess were believers at this period-but because both here and at Thessalonica there were those who might impugn his motives, and reckon him as seeking and valuing a secular interest in his labours and his converts.