e life, no
prospect sufficient to redeem a man from the fear of death. It was
leather and prunella, that, from first to last. The man had to die and
go, melancholy, across the Styx. But Cicero was the first to tell his
brother Romans of an intelligible heaven. "Certum esse in caelo
definitum locum ubi beati aevo sempiterno fruantur." "There is certainly
a place in heaven where the blessed shall enjoy eternal life." And then
how nearly he had realized that doctrine which tells us that we should
do unto others as we would they should do unto us--the very pith and
marrow and inside meaning of Christ's teaching, by adapting which we
have become human, by neglecting which we revert to paganism. When we
look back upon the world without this law, we see nothing good in it, in
spite of individual greatness and national honor. But Cicero had found
it.--"That brotherhood between men, that agreement as to what may be
useful to all, and that general love for the human race!"[337] It is all
contained in these few words, but if anything be wanted to explain at
length our duty to our neighbors it will be found there on reference to
this passage. How different has been the world before that law was given
to us and since! Even the existence of that law, though it be not
obeyed, has softened the hearts of men.

If, as some think, it be the purport of Christ's religion to teach men
to live after a godlike fashion rather than to worship God after a
peculiar form, then may we be allowed to say that Cicero was almost a
Christian, even before the coming of Christ. If, as some think, an
eternity of improved existence for all is to be looked for by the
disciples of Christ, rather than a heaven of glory for the few and for
the many, a hell that never shall be mitigated, then had Cicero
anticipated much of Christ's doctrine. That he should have approached
the mystical portion of our religion it would of course be absurd to
suppose. But a belief in that mystical part is not essential for forming
the conduct of men. The divine birth, and the doctrine of the Trinity,
and the Lord's Supper, are not necessary to teach a man to live with his
brother men on terms of forbearance and brotherly love. You shall live
with a man from year's end to year's end, and shall not know his creed
unless he tell you, or that you see him performing the acts of his
worship; but you cannot live with him, and not know whether he live in
accordance with Christ's teaching. A