Here we observe, in this speech, monotheism came in contact with polytheism, and the two forms of human religion met,—that which makes man the child of God, and that which made the gods the children of men.
The result we know. The cry was heard on the sandy shore of Eurotas and in green Cythnus.—“Great Pan is dead.” The Greek humanities, noble and beautiful as they were, faded away before the advancing steps of the Jewish peasant, who had dared to call God his Father and man his brother. The parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan were stronger than Homer’s divine song and Pindar’s lofty hymns. This was the religion for man. And so it happened as Jesus had said: “My sheep hear my voice and follow me.” Those who felt in their hearts that Jesus was their true leader followed him.
The gods of Greece, being purely human, were so far related to Christianity. That, too, is a human religion; a religion which makes it its object to unfold man, and to cause all to come to the stature of perfect men. Christianity also showed them God in the form of man; God dwelling on the earth; God manifest in the flesh. It also taught that the world was full of God, and that all places and persons were instinct with a secret divinity. Schiller (as translated by Coleridge) declares that LOVE was the source of these Greek creations:—
“’Tis
not merely
The human being’s pride
that peoples space
With life and mystical predominance,
Since likewise for the stricken
heart of Love
This visible nature, and this
common world
Is all too narrow; yea, a
deeper import
Lurks in the legend told my
infant years
That lies upon that truth,
we live to learn.
For fable is Love’s
world, his home, his birthplace;
Delightedly dwells he ’mong
fays and talismans,
And spirits, and delightedly
believes
Divinities, being himself
divine.
The intelligible forms of
ancient poets,
The fair humanities of Old
Religion,