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polygamists, slaveholders and warriors. Abraham 

 treated Hagar and Ishmael with inhumanity. Jacob, 

 with his mother's aid, deceived Isaac, and received 

 thereby a blessing which extended to the whole Jewish 

 nation. David, a man whom Paul tells us the Lord 

 found to be after his own heart, slew the messenger who 

 brought tidings of the death of Saul, and committed 

 other acts which would stain the reputation of a Chris- 

 tian beyond redemption. It is scarcely necessary to 

 turn to- other nations if this be true of the chosen men 

 of a chosen people. History indeed presents us with 

 no people prior to, or contemporary with, the Jews who 

 were not morally their inferiors. 



If we turn to more modern periods, an examination 

 of the morality of Greece and Rome reveals a curious 

 intermixture of lower and higher moral conditions. 

 While each of these nations produced excellent moral- 

 ists, the influence of their teachings was not sufficient 

 to elevate the masses above what would now be regarded 

 as a very low standard. The popularity of those scenes 

 of cruelty, the gladiatorial shows and the combats with 

 wild beasts, sufficiently attests this. The Roman virtue 

 of patriotism, while productive of many noble deeds, is 

 in itself far from being a disinterested one, but partakes 

 rather of the nature of partisanship and selfishness. If 

 the Greeks were superior to the Romans in humanity, 

 they were apparently their inferiors in the social virtues, 

 and were much below the standard of Christian nations 

 in both respects. 



Ancient history points to a state of chronic war, in 

 which the social relations were in confusion, and the 

 development of the useful arts was almost impossible. 

 Savage races, which continue to this day in a similar 



