Studies in the Gospels: Luke the Gospel for the Greeks [pp. 448-475]

1875.1 STUDIES IN THE GOSPELS. 451
before it can be known how he could be reached and influenced
by the presentation of the Gospel.
Every great race shows some part of man's nature in unusual
development. In the old Jewish race, the spiritual side, or that
part of man which links him to God, was the predominant element. The Jew belonged to the race of Shem, which has
never done what is considered the world's great intellectual
work, but which has, nevertheless, made all the grandest ventures out into the domain of the infinite, and, as a result, has
given mankind those three systems of Theism which contain
the highest expression of the human soul from its spiritual and
heavenly side. In the old Roman race, the will, or that part
of man which pushes to action and enables him to control and
mold nature and mankind, was the predominant element. His
herculean tasks and his universal empire furnish the highest
expression of the human soul, as the repository of the energy
for shaping the world to law and order. In the old Greek
race the humanity, or that part of man which links him to man,
was the predominant element; the humanity, especially, as embracing intellect, taste, and feeling. He belonged to that
family of Japheth which has done all the world's great intellectual work-given it all those grand secular literatures which
contain the highest expression of the human soul from its human and earthly side.
The Greek was thus, in a peculiar sense, the representative of
mankind. In his view of the universe, man was exalted above
all other beings. Through all the ages, in literature and art,
in statecraft and gymnastics, he was working toward his one
great idea of the perfect man. In his ideal, intellect and taste
held the supreme place. His aim was not beauty merely, but
human beauty; not man simply, but thinking, reasoning manwith his intellect full-summed, furthest-reaching, most gracefully working. He accordingly bequeathed to the world the
grandest models of beauty and of thought that the unaided
human mind has ever produced. Counting the great poets of
all lands and ages on the fingers of the right hand, Homer is
of the number. Plato and Aristotle have contended until the
present day for the place of authority in philosophy. Demosthenes has never yet been placed second on the roll of eloquence.