A ruined civilization.
Palestine is now a land of ruins, and the prophecy before us predicted that condition. But there is more behind. Houses broken down, altars overthrown, streets grass grown, inhabited places made desolate,—these are the outward and visible signs of a decayed and broken civilization. The destruction of the civilization is the real disaster. This happened in Israel when wild beasts came out from the forests and prowled over the once safe and populous country; and it happened in another form in Europe when the hardy barbarians poured over the plains of Italy, and destroyed, not only buildings, but also the whole fabric of ancient society, and so ushered in the gloom and disorder which took possession of the early part of the Middle Ages.
I. CIVILIZATION MAY BE RUINED. It is more tenacious of life than physical existence. Cities may be overthrown, and yet civilization may outlive the shock. Rome, burnt in the days of Nero, rose again in greater splendour; the fire of London swept away wretched tenements and prepared for a nobler city; the great conflagrations of Chicago was followed by the building of a new city in the smouldering ashes. But a widespread desolation affects the sources of intellectual life and the means of social intercourse. Roads are neglected, bridges are broken down, lonely districts are infested with robbers and rendered unsafe for travel; there is neither time nor energy for mental culture. Christian civilization has been lost on the north coast of Africa, where Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine were once shining lights; it has almost vanished from the site of the seven Churches of Asia. Modern Egypt is far below the Egypt of the Pharaohs in civilization: the fellaheen of today build mud hovels; their ancestors forty centuries ago constructed the great Hall of Columns at Karnak—one of the wonders of the world. The ancient civilization of Mexico had entirely vanished before the discovery of South America by the importers of a new Roman Catholic civilization.
II. THE RUIN OF CIVILIZATION IS UNSPEAKABLY DREADFUL. Frightful physical sufferings often accompany it, and gross moral outrages are then rife and go unchecked and unpunished. The refined and delicately nurtured people are put to the most exquisite torture of mind, if not of body. The hideous experiences of the Indian mutiny may give us some idea as to what this means. When such violent methods are not pursued, and a slow decay takes the place of a sudden destruction, the chronic and ever-deepening misery of the more cultivated people must be heart-rending. But apart from the question of suffering, the very act of throwing back the car of progress for some centuries involves a disastrous loss to the world. The Christian civilization that has grown out of the experience of ages and slowly ripened through generations of culture is the most precious heritage we have received from our forefathers. Let us guard and treasure it as a sacred trust.
III. NEVERTHELESS SUCH A RUIN OF CIVILIZATION MAY BECOME A MORAL NECESSITY. While outwardly brilliant, society may be inwardly corrupt. This was the case with the old heathen nations and to a frightful extent. Civilized wickedness means elaborate and inventive wickedness, which bears fruits of evil ten times worse than any that grow on the wild tree of untutored barbarism. This was evidently the case in the histories of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Beneath the glitter of a splendid civilization, and in spite of the high cultivation of art and philosophy, the human character was rotting to death. Something like this was approached by Israel. The very religion was corrupted. Then it was best that the altars should be overthrown, the cities destroyed, and the people scattered. There is no more horrible wickedness in the present day than that of those dwellers in centres of culture who have abandoned themselves to vice. When civilization has become effete, it is a hotbed of moral disease, and it is best for the health of society that it should be broken up and destroyed utterly. We cannot put new wine in old bottles.