intervening centuries between ancient Rome and ourselves, and in spite of
many wars and repeated onslaughts of barbarism, Roman governmental law
still influences and guides our conduct, and this influence is even yet
extending to other lands and other peoples. We are also indebted to Rome
for many practical skills and for important engineering knowledge, which
was saved and passed on to Western Europe through the medium of the monks.
On the other side of the picture, the recent great World War, with all its
awful destruction of life and property, and injury to the orderly progress
of civilization, may be traced directly to the Roman idea of world empire
and the sway of one imperial government, imposing its rule and its culture
on the rest of mankind.

Into this Roman Empire, united and made one by Roman arms and government,
came the first of the modern forces in the ancient world--that of
Christianity--the third great foundation element in our western
civilization. Embracing in its early development many Greek philosophical
ideas, building securely on the Roman governmental organization, and with
its new message for a decaying world, Christianity forms the connecting
link between the ancient and modern civilizations. Taking the conception
of one God which the Jewish tribes of the East had developed, Christianity
changed and expanded this in such a way as to make it a dominant idea in
the world. Exalting the teachings of the fatherhood of God, the
brotherhood of man, the future life, and the need for preparation for a
hereafter, Christianity introduced a new type of religion and offered a
new hope to the poor and oppressed of the ancient world. In so doing a new
ethical force of first importance was added to the effective energies of
mankind, and a basis for the education of all was laid, for the first
time, in the history of the world.

Christianity came at just the right time not only to impart new energy and