CHRIST AND ZENO.*

Morning, October 17th, 1875.

"Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him."-ACTS xvii. 18.

I HAVE pointed out to you † that Christianity has the largest affinities, and may be found in the most widely differing conditions, circumstances, and characters of men, and that whensoever it is preached as though it had a special meaning, either to the poor or to the rich, to the learned or to the unlearned, to humble fishermen or to the courtly man of Arimathea, its chiefest glory is taken from it. If anybody supposes that it would be a fair picture of Christianity to draw none but beggars and fishermen, he commits about as vulgar an error as

* Zeno, the founder of the Stoic philosophy, appears to have flourished in the first half of the third century, B.C. "The Authentic Gospel," Sermon 7.

those who draw around Christ only such men as Joseph of Arimathea.

Christianity is infinitely larger and wider than that. It belongs to all mankind. To the old it speaks of comfort; to the weary it speaks of a rest close by; to the troubled it tells of the eternal peace. To women it has a voice of relationship, because it speaks of self-sacrifice; for it is woman's necessity to be self-sacrificing, if it be not her glory. And it teaches that wealth is god-like, because of its power of giving. To the poor it teaches godly endurance. To the soldier it speaks of keeping ever before him the grand things of patriotism. To John Baptist it speaks of a way which he is to make clear for the coming higher law. To the artist it tells of a mission ever to make plain to men the value of their eyes, to make clear to them the beauty of the Lord, as seen in His works. To the physician it speaks of a mission to teach men the laws relating to health, that so, because never forsaking its conditions, they may learn to rejoice in existence. Wheresoever there is any lawful pursuit of man, Christianity comes with its gracious guidance and constant gift.

We have also considered what it is that constitutes goodness, the possession of which helps a

man in the doing of any work which his hand findeth to do. Socrates was sneered at once for saying that men who did wise things should be wise, and they who did just things should be just. And though some of you may smile at this at first, yet it is nevertheless true. You may do a wise thing without knowing it to be wise, do it without intending it to be wise, and may never deviate into wisdom. Therefore, a man need not necessarily have wisdom in order to do a wise thing, nor love justice in order to do a just thing. It is the charitable spirit of a man, which, flowing into his work, constitutes it a work of piety and of love. Wheresoever large love is, all things are lawful, though all things may not be expedient.

And all vessels can hold charity, from the golden ones which stand nigh to the altar, to those that are used for its cleansing. All things can be done in charity. You may play with a little child, and your whole face may beam with charity; or you may govern a kingdom, and you may do it with love. All forms and creeds that are not the out

come of charity, have religion of Jesus Christ.

nothing to do with the

They are for the chapel,

the vestry, for deacons, and small things of that kind, but the large religion of Jesus Christ receives

all men, has its laws and obligations for all men, calls for all men. It has its "noble army of martyrs," and its true "saints." It includes the priest and the physician, the man of science, and also the hewer of wood and the drawer of water, he who built the house as well as he who lifted up the stones and he who prepared them for use. For it is by virtue of that which, flowing into our actions, makes them to be holy actions, that which is before all conditions, even charity, that we are Christians. There is no house so small that charity may not fill, no lot so` mean that it cannot brighten, and no lot so splendid that it cannot make more lustrous.

Christianity is the spirit of liberty, because it is the spirit of charity. It resists the characterization that is marked arbitrarily upon things, and refuses to say that all men are made bad because of one man's fall. Love is that which, flowing into a man's action, constitutes that action to be pure, a holy service of God.

Now, contrasts and comparisons are often admirable methods of learning to understand things. For few men are so accurate as to see the whole beauty of a thing at once, and fair things are often made to look fairer by foul ones being placed near them. So some further peculiarities of this religion

H

come out in contrast. And perhaps there is no man, standing by the ideal Christian, who can so well set this forth, by his likeness and by his unlikeness, as the Stoic.

With the history of the Stoics I will not trouble you, nor will I trouble you about dates. Dates are admirable things in their way, as nails for fastening pictures on; or when you tell a story, they serve as pegs to mark its place in history. Suffice it for you to remember that perhaps the noblest production of those early times was the Stoic. Strong, frigid, grand, the nearest approach to the Christian, perhaps, of any, and yet, because so near, so amazingly far. Though of course the early days of Stoicism were its palmy days, I will not trouble you with the names of its founders, or the history of their doings. Suffice it to know that the morality of the Stoic was based upon pride.

The attitude of the Stoic was that of a man who had disciplined himself, and made himself strong, who could look upon the passing crowd around him as a man looks upon the flies of autumn, admitting that they sting, but who would rather die than show that they have any power to disturb his soul. The Stoic's morality being based upon pride, he tramples upon pain, and though he feels it