112 



KEV. J. B. WHITING, M.A., ON 



the Preparation for Christianity that these experiments should 

 be made. Their failure, even when illuminated by Aristotle 

 and Plato, served to prove the necessity for the Gospel of 

 Jesus Christ. The lessons of Plato could not avert the decay 

 of the ancient Greeks, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 

 introduced by Marsden into New Zealand, regenerated the 

 cannibal Maoris. 



But I turn from all this to draw attention to another 

 point. It was not only necessary that a definite centre in the 

 midst of a prepared people should be ready for the birth of the 

 Church ; it was indispensable that there should be a suitable 

 cradle for its first development. Judea and the Jews supplied 

 the first, Asia Minor and its races supplied the second. In both 

 cases the statement of the Prophet is illustrated, " This people 

 have I formed for Myself : they shall show forth My 

 praise." 



The recent researches of Professor Kamsay in Asia Minor help 

 us to realise the long preparation of a cradle for infant 

 Christianity. Original wanderers from the family home 

 penetrate into Asia Minor, work the silver-mines which God 

 had placed there, and found the Hittite Empire. 



That empire must be removed out of the way, just as the 

 Assyrian and Egyptian powers faded away when their purpose 

 had been served. Asia Minor must eventually include within 

 its borders the necessary elements to give scope to the labours 

 of the first great Apostle of the Gentiles. 



The growth of the Hittite Empire was finally checked by 

 the arms of Assyria and Egypt ; but its existence was broken 

 up by unknown marauders from the west and the north. 



From the south-east of Europe the Phryges enter it B.C. 900. 

 Overrunning a large portion of it, they amalgamate with its 

 original barbarians, and form the Phrygian people. They are 

 driven southward by the Kimmerians, a Teutonic tribe, who 

 crossed the Black Sea from the Crimea about 600 B.C. 



Meanwhile Greece and Koine had been founded just before 

 Isaiah began to prophesy. In Greece was developed art and 

 culture and the language which was to be the vehicle for 

 stereotyping the story of the coming Christ. The' situation of 

 Greece exactly fitted it for its particular office. But the 

 conditions necessary for this unfitted it for empire. The riches 

 of Asia Minor and the trend of political affairs in the East 

 attracted the attention of the Persians. Their armies reached 

 the Hellespont, and awakened the energies of Alexander the 

 Great. Into Alexander's mind, God, Who ruleth in heaven 



