g, amplifying, and adorning the plain description of it,
Christianity, as St. Paul truly says, "establishes the law,"[437] and in
the strength of the ampler power which she has thus supplied to fulfill
it, has accomplished the miracles, which we all see, of her history.

So long as we do not forget that both Hellenism and Hebraism are
profound and admirable manifestations of man's life, tendencies, and
powers, and that both of them aim at a like final result, we can hardly
insist too strongly on the divergence of line and of operation with
which they proceed. It is a divergence so great that it most truly, as
the prophet Zechariah says, "has raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy
sons, O Greece!"[438] The difference whether it is by doing or by
knowing that we set most store, and the practical consequences which
follow from this difference, leave their mark on all the history of our
race and of its development. Language may be abundantly quoted from both
Hellenism and Hebraism to make it seem that one follows the same current
as the other towards the same goal. They are, truly, borne towards the
same goal; but the currents which bear them are infinitely different. It
is true, Solomon will praise knowing: "Understanding is a well-spring of
life unto him that hath it."[439] And in the New Testament, again, Jesus
Christ is a "light,"[440] and "truth makes us free."[441] It is true,
Aristotle will undervalue knowing: "In what concerns virtue," says he,
"three things are necessary--knowledge, deliberate will, and
perseverance; but, whereas the two last are all-important, the first is
a matter of little importance."[442] It is true that with the same
impatience with which St. James enjoins a man to be not a forgetful
hearer, but a _doer of the work_,[443] Epictetus[444] exhorts us to _do_
what we have demonstrated to ourselves we ought to do; or he taunts us
with futility, for being armed at all points to prove that lying is
wrong, yet all the time continuing to lie. It is true, Plato, in words
which are almost the words of the New Testament or the Imitation, calls
life a learning to die.[445] But underneath the superficial agreement
the fundamental divergence still subsists. The understanding of Solomon
is "the walking in the way of the commandments"; this is "the way of
peace," and it is of this that blessedness comes. In the New Testament,
the truth which gives us the peace of God and makes us free, is the love
of Christ c