Preaching the Gospel

one time I read a sermon that spoke about  a book and in this book was described a  character named Marius the Epicurean.  He was a philosopher.  And in this Book written in the first century; written concerning the first century A.D.  This Marius the Epicurean philosopher is seated high up the Roman coliseum, and he is watching gladiatorial combats in the arena.  As you know, the arena of the coliseum was covered with sand so that when the gladiators slew each other and the blood poured out, they could rake away the sand or rake over the sand and bring in fresh sand, and then the bloody combats could continue.  As Marius the Epicurean philosopher sits there in the height of the Roman coliseum watching those bloody combats.  He turns to his companion and he says, “What is needed is the heart that would make it impossible to look upon such blood-thirsty combat, and the future would belong to the power that could create such a heart.”  Following the course of history,  it was the preaching of the gospel that closed for ever that coliseum.  It was the preaching of the gospel that for ever did away with those bloody gladiatorial confrontations.  It was the preaching of the gospel that for ever did away with the execution by crucifixion of a malefactor.  It was the preaching of the gospel that for ever did away with human slavery.  It was the preaching of the gospel that for ever did away with the exposing of children.  It was the preaching of the gospel that elevated and raised womanhood and family life.  It was the preaching of the gospel that brought ministries to the poor, to the suffering.  There was not a hospital in the entire Roman Empire.  There was not an orphan’s home in all of the history of the Greco-Roman people.  It was the compassionate love—it was the caring heart of the Christian witness that elevated the world into another sphere, another life, another devotion.