Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY.465that philosophic thought had terminated. Andhere we find the chief cause of its powerlessnessto improve and purify the mythology which itattacked, and much more to affect the lives andconduct of those who professed its tenets. Forthe old mythology J Oi/ had at least a strong o consciousnessof personality in its gods. In Homer himselfthe original tradition, of which his religion was acorruption, still spoke of the father of gods andmen as the ruler and judge of the world. In theheathen mind generally such a conception stillexisted ; nor is it too much to say that the commonpeople among the Greeks and Eomans werenearer to the truth of one personal God than thephilosopher ; and the philosopher himself when helistened at any moment of danger and anxietyto the promptings " of the soul naturally Christian"within him, than when he indulged in hisesoteric problems.the conception of personality in Godrules the conception of personality in miroughout the Greek philosophy the former wasweak and imperfect, until in the Stoic system itvanished, so the latter. The physical theory ofthe Greek overmastered and excluded the conceptionof freewill in his mind, first as to God andthen as to man. As evil existed throughout O theworld, for which he had no better solution thanto place its seat in that matter which was co-tent with the divine reason, and which thatn. HH