[1]. This should be understood, so far as the Elders of the Church are concerned to refer only to ordinary cases of delivering announced lectures or discourses. But in the course of an Elder's ministry, when preaching the Gospel, he should respond to the promptings of the Spirit in his ministry, even to violating the rule here laid down by Mr. Pittenger.
LESSON XVI.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
ANCIENT CONCEPTIONS OF GOD.—(Continued.)
ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
VIII. Beliefs of the Greeks and of the Romans. 1. The Origin of the Greeks and Romans. 2. Mythology of the Greeks and Romans. 3. Classification of the Greek and Roman Deities. | Myers' "General History," Chs. x, xii, xxiv-xxvi. Burder's "Hist. of All Religions," p. 527 et seq. "Myths and Myth-Makers" (John Fiske); "Mythology of All Nations," Ch. i, et seq. "The World's Worship" (Dobbins), Chs. viii and ix. The notes of this lesson. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, 'To the Unknown God'; whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." (Acts xvii:22, 23.)
NOTES.
1. The Greeks: "The ancient people whom we call Greeks, called themselves Hellenes and their land Hellas. But this term 'Hellas' as used by the ancient Greeks embraced much more than modern Greece. 'Wherever were Hellenes there was Hellas.' Thus the name included not only Greece proper and the islands of the adjoining seas, but also the Hellenic cities in Asia Minor, in Southern Italy, and in Sicily, besides many other Greek settlements scattered up and down the Mediterranean and along the shores of the Hellespont and the Euxine. Yet Greece proper was the real home-land of the Hellenes, and the actual center of Greek life and culture. (Myers' General History, p. 71).
"The historic inhabitants of Greece were called by the Romans Greeks; but * * * * * * they called themselves Hellenes, from their fabled ancestor Hellen (King in Phthia in Thessaly). They were divided into four families or tribes—the Achaeans, the Ionians, the Dorians, and the Aeolians. The primitive inhabitants of Greece are supposed to have been the descendants of Javan, the son of Japhet (son of Noah), and hence Greece was called by the Hebrews, 'Javan.'" (Anderson's General History, p. 34.)
2. The Romans: "There were in early times three chief races in Italy—the Italians, the Etruscans, and the Greeks. The Italians, a branch of the Aryan family, embraced many tribes (Latin, Umbrians, Sabines, Samnites, etc.), that occupied nearly all Central, and a considerable part of Southern Italy. Their life was for the most part that of shepherds and farmers.