ers, and purifications, and atoning rites).... So many and yet
more great effects could I tell you of the phrensy which comes from the
gods."[967] Some have discerned in all this merely the food for a feeble
ridicule. They regard these sentiments as simply an evidence of the
power and prevalence of superstition clouding the loftiest intellects in
ancient times. By the more thoughtful and philosophic mind, however,
they will be accepted as an indication of the imperishable and universal
faith of humanity in a supernatural and supersensuous world, and in the
possibility of some communication between heaven and earth.[968] And
above all, it is a conclusive proof that Plato believed that the
knowledge of _salvation_--of a remedy for sin, a method of expiation for
sin, a means of deliverance from the power and punishment of sin, must
be revealed from Heaven.

[Footnote 966: [Greek: Mania], phrensy; _[Greek: pantis]_, a
prophet--one who utters oracles in a state of divine phrensy; _[Greek:
pantike]_, the prophetic art.]

[Footnote 967: "Phaedrus," Sec. 47-50 (Whewell's translation).]

[Footnote 968: "_Vetus opinio est_, jam usque ab heroicis ducta
temporibus, eaque et populi Romani et _omnium gentium_ firmata consensu,
versari quandem inter homines divinationem."--Cicero, "De Divin.," i.
I.]

Paul, then, found, even in that focus of Paganism, the city of Athens,
religious aspirations tending towards Jesus Christ. A true philosophic
method, notwithstanding its shortcomings and imperfections, concluded by
desiring and seeking "the Unknown God," by demanding him from all forms
of worship, from all schools of philosophy. The great work of
preparation in the heathen world consisted in the developing of the
_desire_ for salvation. It proved that God is the great want of every
human soul; that there is a profound affinity between conscience and the
living God; and that Tertullian was right when he wrote the "Testimonium
Animae naturaliter Christianae."[969] And when it was sufficiently
demonstrated that "the world by philosophy knew not God (as a Redeeming
God and Saviour), then it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to
save them that believe." This was all a dispensation of divine
providence, which was determined by, or "in, the wisdom of God."[970]

The history of the religions and philosophies of human origin thus
becomes to us a striking confirmation of the truth of Christianity. It
shows there is a wondrous harmony