One cannot fail to be struck with the marvellous insight into the holiest truths revealed in these lines. A candid mind must acknowledge with thankfulness how graciously GOD was training the mind of man for the reception of the mystery of godliness unfolded in the Gospel. This fact St Paul acknowledged. He told the Athenians that he was come to bring them further intelligence of a Being, whom they, as the words of some of their poets proved, acknowledged as the Lord and Father of all; whom they were desirous of knowing more fully. Yet if we read the writings of the Stoics we cannot but be saddened by the reflection that such views of God were exceptional; that such desires to know more of him were evanescent, if they existed at all in the minds of some. These feelings were the work of some inner power, not the result of their system of philosophy. The theory of the universe which this system taught was one that did not bow down the human soul in humble obedience and in abasement before the Almighty; but rather caused a sense of pride and self-dependence at variance with this feeling. Hence we meet with such expressions as we find urged against the sect by Plutarch[17], who informs us that Chrysippus said that “the sage is not less useful to Zeus than Zeus is to the sage.” Similarly, how often are there recurring in various forms such a sentiment as we find, for instance, in Marcus Antoninus[18], ὅτι ὁ ἑκάστου νοῦς Θεὸς, καὶ ἐκεῖθεν ἐρρύηκε. While this was a cause of pride, it was also one of sadness. Each man felt, in a great measure, left to himself. He was an atom broken off from a vast whole, and would, bye and bye, be restored to his former union. But he did not feel in this life that there was an intimate personal loving union with a wise and holy being, who was his personal friend and father.