Ancient and Modern Civilization
Story★★★★There is no more striking division between the civilization that once was, the civilization of Greece and Rome, and the civilization that now is, the civilization of England, of Europe, of this world, than this: the old was brilliant, but it was not kind; the new is at once brilliant and kind. There was little heart in Greece, which was the triumph of the unaided intellect. There is the heart today, though there be armaments too. Nothing is more striking than this fact, as I believe Dr.
Martineau has pointed out as only he can. You must not look for a hospital in ancient Greece, you must never think of a leper asylum or a home for the feeble and the poor. Perhaps they soared higher than we have yet done. No doubt they did.
They soared higher than we have yet done in the triumphs of the mind. They knew nothing at all about the achievements of the heart. Who has wrought the difference — I speak about the source and sanction of love? Who has wrought this advance, this achievement which marks out the new civilization as different from the old?
The answer that you would all give me is Jesus Christ. Since Christ we see the triumphs of love. Christ has come not to preach to the mind, but first to the conscience; it satisfies then the questioning intellect and it releases the imprisoned affections.
The world received His message gladly; the world responds to the love of Christ. Now is it indeed nineteen hundred years ago, and that message has power still with men because its source and sanction is in God ?
The point
Greece was brilliant but unkind; the modern world is brilliant AND kind—a change wrought by Christ.