hat makes glad the city
of our God. We gain immensely by considering the prophetical spirit of
Israel as a typical endowment, and the training of the Jews in the
household of God, and under His own immediate eye, as the key to the
right apprehension of the training of Greece and Rome. The unconscious
prophecies of heathendom pointed in their own way, as well as the
articulate divine prophecies of Israel, to the coming of Him who is
the Desire of all nations, and the true Light that lighteth every man
that cometh into the world. The wise men of Greece saw the sign of the
Son of Man in some such way as the Magi saw the star in the East. They
were, according to Hegel's beautiful comparison, "Memnons waiting for
the day." And not without deep significance did the female soothsayer
from the oracle of Dionysius, the prophet-god of the Macedonians, whom
Paul and Silas met when they first landed on European soil, greet them
with the words, "These men are the servants of the most high God,
which show unto us the way of salvation." In that wonderful confession
we recognise the last utterance of the oracle of Delphi and the Sibyl
of Cumae, as they were cast out by a higher and truer faith. Their
mission was accomplished and their shrine deserted when God's way was
known upon the earth, and His saving health among all nations.

"And now another Canaan yields
To thine all-conquering ark;
Fly from the 'old poetic fields,'
Ye Paynim shadows dark!
Immortal Greece, dear land of glorious lays,
Lo! here the unknown God of thine unconscious praise.

"The olive wreath, the ivied wand,
'The sword in myrtles drest,'
Each legend of the shadowy strand
Now wakes a vision blest;
As little children lisp, and tell of heaven,
So thoughts beyond their thoughts to those high bards were given."

CHAPTER IV

FOOTPRINTS IN ROME

In the fork where a cross-road called the Via Ardeatina branches off
from the Appian Way, is a little homely church with the strange name
of "Domine quo Vadis." It is associated with one of the most beautiful
legends of the early Christian Church touchingly told by St. Ambrose.
The Apostle Peter, fleeing from the persecution under Nero that arose
after the burning of Rome, came to this spot; and there he saw a
vision of the Saviour bearing His cross with His face steadfastly set
to go to the city. Filled with wonder and awe, the Apostle exclaimed,
"Domine quo Vadis