ho feel the sorrows of others
as keenly as though they were their own. And this gift, my brethren, is,
next to faith, the Christian grace which of all others best pleases our
Heavenly Master.

"I see it in my mind's eye! The ruined edifice of the Serapeum, the
masterpiece of Bryaxis laid in fragments in the dust, and thousands of
wailing heathen! As the Jews wept and hung their harps on the trees by
the waters of Babylon when they remembered Zion, so do I see the heathen
weep as they think of the perished splendor. They themselves, indeed,
ruined and desecrated the glory they bewail; and when something higher
and purer took its place they hardened their hearts, and, instead of
leaving the dead to bury their dead and throwing themselves hopefully
into the new life, they refused to be parted from the putrefying corpse.
They were fools, but their folly was fidelity; and if we can win them
over to our holy faith they will be faithful unto death, as they have
been to their old gods, clinging to Jesus and earning the crown of life.
'There will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth than
over ninety and nine that need no repentance,'--that you have heard; and
whichever among you loves the Saviour can procure him a great joy if he
guides only one of these weeping heathen into the Kingdom of Heaven.

"But perhaps you will ask: Is not the sorrow of the heathen a vain
thing? What is it after all that they bewail? To understand that, try to
picture to yourselves what it is that they think they are losing. Verily
it is not a small matter, and it includes many things for which we and
all mankind owe them a debt of gratitude. We call ourselves Christians
and are proud of the name; but we also call ourselves Hellenes, and are
proud of that name too. It was under the protection of the old gods,
whose fall is about to be consummated, that the Greeks achieved
marvellous deeds, nurturing the gifts of the intellect which the
Almighty bestowed on their race, like faithful gardeners, and making
them bring forth marvellous fruit. In the realm of thought the Greek
is sovereign of the nations, and he has given to perishable matter a
perfection of form which has elevated and vivified it to immortality.
Nothing more beautiful has ever been imagined or executed, before or
since, or by any other people, than was produced by Greece in its prime.
But perhaps you will ask, why did not the Redeemer come down among our
fathers in those glo