M. Golden

“ In the history of all mankind there are three distinct stages of priesthood, and in its two former stages it had been a complete failure, in its present stage is falling so fast, and it is condemned, already, by all reasoning minds, that it is only a matter of time before the human race shall be free from these parasites. The priest, of the Jewish faith, failed because he was inhuman, the priest of the Greek idolatry failed, because he was a philosophical fraud; and the priest of the present time, shall fail, because he is the very opposing visible enemy of God's kingdom. ”

“ Indeed, as soon as we leave what is immediately before our eyes, and glance at the annals of the world, we behold so many manifestations of God, that we may adduce as a sixth proof of Providence the facts of history. The giving and transmission of a revelation, as the Mosaic and the Christian—the raising up of Prophets, Apostles and Defenders of the Faith—the ordination of particular events, such as the Reformation—the more remarkable deliverance noticed in the lives of those devoted to the good of the world, etc., all indicate the wise and benevolent care of God over the human family. ”

“ Alone as I was in my cabin I thought of Socrates, I thought of Confucius, of Buddha, and in fact I thought of the many ancient and modern leaders of great movements, and of new thoughts, my admiration is insistent to everything that is noble and pure in sentiment and praxis, but there is only one leader, whom my spirit admires the best and I worship him with love and devotion, the man who gave his life for me. ”

“ Yet, in view of the fact that the American reader is a greater admirer of quality rather than quantity, I must content myself by giving a brief account on the practical side of my personal experience as a Christian worker, among the rich and the poor, the high and the low classes and masses, in cities and towns, sunshine or clouds, rain or snow, by day or by night; I made myself servant unto all men, that I might by all means save some, and this I do for the Gospel's sake. ”

“ But a better day is approaching; and it is exhilarating to observe that Alison, the first British historian of the age, writes in the spirit which breathes in the historical books of the Bible, where the free actions of man are represented as inseparably connected with the agency of God. If we may judge of the future by the past, as the scroll of time unrolls, we, or our posterity, and some think glorified spirits in a yet higher degree, shall see more and more plainly the hand of God operating, till every knee shall bow. ”

“ But no want of will to exercise a Providence can exist, for God wills whatever is for the good of the universe, and for His own glory; to either of which a Providence is clearly indispensable. God therefore has resolved to exercise His power and knowledge so as to subserve the best ends with His creation. "He that denies Providence," says Charnock, "denies most of God's attributes; he denies at least the exercise of them; he denies his omniscience, which is the eye of Providence; mercy and justice, which are the arms of it; power, which is its life and motion ”

“ Greek history is the pride of all the civilized world, and in the opinion of a most distinguished sociologist, the United States is the Greece of this age, and he thinks that it is the irresistible law of gravitation and sympathy that the tide of emigration draws the Greeks from the ancient Greece into this new and glorious Greece. ”

“ It has been said, all misery comes to the human race mainly from two causes; firstly, through misconduct: and secondly, through misfortune: therefore; since there is the self-evident truth, in the axiom, that, when the cause is diagnosed, the remedy is near at hand, let us work unitedly to remove the cause of all misery, be it in the Greek people, or Jewish, or Gentiles, and by the light of the Gospel's truth, let us put forth all our efforts, while here on earth, in establishing happiness and good will to all men. ”

“ It is stranger that among philosophers of succeeding ages there has not been wisdom sufficient to discover, from the constitutional necessities of the human spirit, that demand for the instruction and aid of the Messiah which Socrates and Plato discovered, even in a comparatively dark age. And in the whole history of human mind there is not a more instructive chapter at once stranger and sad, interesting to our curiosity and mortifying to our pride, than the history of Platonic philosophy sinking into gnosticism, or in other words, of Greek philosophy merging in Oriental Mysticism ”

“ That this High Priest, while enjoying all the comforts and privileges belonging to his high office, together with its honors and gorgeous trappings, does not attach any over-weening importance to ecclesiastical dignity, neither does he consider a "comedown" the step he has taken, but he gives the simple, yet convincing reason that he just follows the process of evolution in Christianity, doing the will of his Master who promised to all mankind one Lord—one Faith—one Baptism. ”

“ The history of Greece shall remain until the end of time, and as the peoples of the world grow intelligently and intellectually more enlightened they will come to the appreciation of the fact that the Greek people has contributed more material in paving the way to the spiritual freedom and the individual liberty of the world than any other nation on the face of the earth, and that the Greek spirit is still living and ruling in principle in the very heart of the civilized world. ”

“ One argument in proof of Providence is analogous to one mode of proving a creation. If we cannot account for the existence of the world without supposing its coming into existence, or beginning to be; no more can we account for the world continuing to exist, without supposing it to be preserved; for it is as evidently absurd to suppose any creature prolonging as producing its own being. A second proof of Providence results from the admitted fact of creation. Whoever has made any piece of mechanism, therefore takes pains to preserve it. ”

“ The name of Adamantios Korais will never die from the memory of every patriot Greek, and yet his sincere opinion that "the Greek nation shall never be great again, unless regenerated in Christ," had little effect upon the hearts of the people, or rather upon the hearts of the leaders of the people.
Great nations have failed, and in every case it was the government's corruption and neglect of duty that caused the sufferings and failures, of which the political history is too abounding and too accessible to be quoted. ”

“ There is the Tamalpais Hotel, a real palace, where the guests can rest and from the verandas or the windows of their own rooms observe the animating sights on the left hand side the snow-covered top-heads of the mountains and following to the right look down upon the valleys and behold the myriads of orange and lemon and all the fruit-bearing trees blooming all the year around and decorated like brides in their wedding procession, not only for a few moments, till the law ties the knot, but forever as long as the life-giving climate of beautiful California lasts and time shall be no more. ”

“ For the first time in the ecclesiastical history of the Greek Kingdom, a Metropolite abdicated from his throne, rejected by his closest friends, helpless under the anathema of the people, above whom he was called to be the spiritual leader, his life imperilled by the injured public sentiment, Procopios, left a real wreck cast by the shore, as a warning sign of those dangers to which every public man is exposed, when corrupted by higher favours and neglects his duties to the people who entrusted him with responsibilities of national importance. ”

“ The obligation of either to the soul would destroy its free agency. God has made man intelligent, and thereby adapted his nature to a rule which he understands. Man has a will and a conscience; but he must understand the rule in order to will obedience, and he must believe the sanction by which the law is maintained before he can feel the obligation upon his conscience. A law, therefore, adapted to man's nature, must be addressed to the understanding, sanctioned by suitable authority, and enforced by adequate penalties. ”

“ But, alas! regretful as it may be, yet it is only the simple truth, that it is only the minority that are real happy, while the vast majority of men and women and children in this world are just a mass of suffering humanity, and if the investigations of religious societies, sociologists, and psychologists, are true, the cause of all misery in this world is misconduct or misfortune, which in one word is, sin, that brings misery. ”

“ The Greek, though born and raised among the most beautiful vineyards that made the historical and famous Nectar for the Gods, yet when he leaves his home to go abroad, he takes his last glass of intoxicant, till he settles himself, in a new adopted motherland, and makes a comfortable home for the queen of his heart, because home life is the ideal of every Greek and he is a model as head of the family, in his moderate means trying to raise children to his generation and give them the best he can afford. Hopeful, that some Socrates or Demosthenes might develop out of his offspring. ”

“ It is not the dogma nor the doctrines or the profession that will make it possible for all right thinking minds to unite efforts in building a universal religion, sufficient to satisfy the intellectual want of every people and of every time. Attempts, all-powerful, such as Papism and Mohammedanism, failed in their egotistic purposes to enforce upon the world an exotic structure. Neither the fires of Torquemadas, nor the sword of Islam could deter the bravery of civilization. ”

“ That was six years ago and every word I said it came out of [Pg 44] my mouth as a prayer of my heart in all my sincerity. Today I do thank God for it is a reality. Turkey is free! But she is like a child; she needs the guidance of a strong hand to guide her in the path of righteousness and love to God and bring her to Christ who is the only one to give Liberty and Freedom "For whom He made free, is free indeed." Turkey has accomplished the greatest part of her own salvation, yea, she has done more than many of the so-called Christian empires expected her to do. ”

“ An objection to proofs of Providence, derived from the order of the universe, is thought to spring from the seeming disorders to which we cannot shut our eyes. Much is said of plagues and earthquakes, of drought, flood, frost and famine, with a thousand [Pg 85] more natural evils. But it deserves consideration whether, if there were no Providence, these anomalies would not be the rule instead of the exception; whether they do not feelingly persuade us that that curse of nature is upheld by a power above nature, and without which it would fall to nothing ”

“ The whole experience of the world has confirmed the fact, beyond the possibility of scepticism, that men cannot discover and establish a perfect rule of human duty. Whatever may be said of the many excellent maxims expressed by different individuals in different ages and nations, yet it is true that no system of duty to God and man, in any wise consistent with enlightened reason, has ever been established by human wisdom, and sustained by human sanctions ”

“ But, it may be supposed that each man has, within [Pg 72] himself, sufficient light from reason, and sufficient admonition from conscience, to guide himself, as an individual, in the path of truth and happiness. A single fact will correct such a supposition. Conscience, the great arbiter of the merit and demerit of human conduct, has little intuitive sense of right, and is not guided entirely by reason, but is governed in a great measure by what men believe. Indeed, faith is the legitimate regulator of the conscience. ”

“ We have been taught, that His purpose is to glorify Himself through human agency, and we know that all the great movements in history were originated in an insignificant way by insignificant persons at the beginning. Who could say, at the time, when the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and there she drew out of the water an ark with a child in it, that that child would be the chosen one of God to deliver his people from the Egyptian bondage? ”

“ There are good and bad priests, as far as their personal character is concerned, as there are good and bad professional Christians, I have met in my Christian experience. But I will say, in the authority of the word of God, that the man who diligently searcheth the Scriptures and sincerely read his Bible and still he insists in holding his sacerdotal office and call himself a priest, he is deceived or he is deceiving. ”

“ There is a cheering prospect about this people, for whose salvation I have devoted my life, that when Christ enters into the heart of a Greek, there is very little hope left for the devil to induce him to be a backslider. A truly converted Greek soul is worthy of all the joy that the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. ”

“ All the characteristics of a civil war were enacted in the streets of Athens when Queen Olga attempted to enforce upon the Greek people a new inferior language in their Bibles, and in their holy mass—a language, which the Greek people considered as a means to confound their historical and religious customs and habits and subdue them into a Russian spiritual dependency. Against the attempt there was the very best element of the Greek scholars. ”

“ The law which drives them to the act is as necessitating as the law which causes the smoke to rise upwards. Nothing in the universe of God, animate or inanimate, is left without the government of appropriate law, unless that thing being the noblest creature of God: the human spirit. ”

“ A better feeling, however, regarding labor and laborers, is beginning to prevail: these motions, which breathe the very spirit of slavery whence they are borrowed, are in a word dishonored, while they are gradually losing their hold on the heart, and their influence on the life. Individuals arising from time to time from the lowest levels of social life to take, occupy, and adorn its loftiest posts, have irresistibly shown that there is no depression in society which the favors of God may not reach. ”

“ Sunday morning the 16th of May, 1903, the very handsome S. S. Germania, cast anchor in the docks of Brooklyn. Indeed, there is no particular significance in a steamship arriving in the harbor of Brooklyn and New York, for they come by hundreds from all parts of the world, every day in the week and many of them every Sunday of the year. It is for the diligent observer that there are more lessons to be drawn from a day passed along the Brooklyn bridge than there are in the most exclusive circles of the 400. ”

“ The Metropolitan Throne of Athens is the highest and most exalted position that a mortal Greek could approach, and it is, in fact, the next to the King's Throne, most influential occupation, and more powerful, even than the Royal Throne, because, the Metropolite of Athens is the spiritual leader of all Greeks. ”

“ It is an imperfection in human potentates that they need vicegerents; let us not then attribute such a weakness to God, fancying him altogether such a one as ourselves. Again, it is to this day doubtful whether the microscope does not display the divine perfections as illustriously as the telescope; there is therefore no reason to deny a providence over animalcula which we admit over the constellated heavens. What is it that we dare call insignificant? ”