Previous chapters have revealed these facts: 1. That the Jewish nation was set as a light to the world. This light was to shine by means of education, and the Jews were to be teachers of the nations. 2. The Jewish nation lost its position as leader in educational reform, and, consequently, in all other particulars, because it departed from the pure system of education delivered to the Fathers, and mingled with the heathen, especially with the Greeks and the Egyptians. In substantiation of this fact we have these words of Neander: “The Jews, completely imbued with the elements of Hellenic culture, _endeavored to find a mean between it and the religion of their fathers_, which they had no wish to renounce. To this end they availed themselves of the system most in vogue with those who, in Alexandria, busied themselves with religious matters—that of the _Platonic philosophy_, which had already acquired a mighty influence over their own intellectual life.... On the one hand, they firmly adhered to the religion of their fathers.... On the other hand, their minds were possessed by a philosophical culture at variance with these convictions. They were themselves not unconscious of the conflicting elements that filled their minds, and must have felt constrained to seek some artificial method of combining them into a harmonious whole. Thus they would be involuntarily driven to intercalate in _the old records of religion_, which for them possessed the highest authority, a _sense foreign to their true spirit_, supposing all the while that they were thereby really exalting their dignity as the source of all wisdom.”[67] 3. _This intercalation of Greek philosophy_ with the truth delivered to the Jewish nation brought the schools of the Hebrews to such a position that the Son of man, when receiving His education, avoided them altogether, and in His public teaching warned His people against the schools of the doctors, who for the Word of God taught the traditions of men. _This mingling of education then meant the crucifixion of Christ and the ruin of the Jewish nation._ 4. The early Christian church, composed of members called out from the Jewish schools and from the purely pagan doctrines, at first taught their children truths based upon the Scriptures; but before the close of the first century, the tendency to commingle Christian teachings and heathen philosophy was already noticeable. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, referring to this fact, said, “The _mystery of iniquity_ doth already work.” [Sidenote: Papal education sophistry] This tendency, seen in the days of Paul, grew into a habit; and as Christian youth prepared for gospel work by attending the schools at Alexandria and elsewhere, an entire change took place.