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STRUGGLES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIANS. 
 

STRUGGLES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIANS 
 
 FROM THE DATS OF 1 OUR SAVIOUR TO THE REIGN 
 OF CONSTANTINE. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 
 
 By REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON, D.B 
 
 BOSTON: 
 JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY 
 
 CLEVELAND, OHIO: 
 
 HENRY P. B. JEWETT. 
 
 1858. 
 
■\M> 
 
 £ 
 
 ^^\ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, 
 
 By JOHN P. JEWETT & CO., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of 
 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 LITHOTYPED BY C0WLES AND COMPANY, 
 17 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON. 
 
 Press of Allen & Farnham. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The circumstances that occasioned this 
 work furnish, perhaps, the best justification 
 of the design. The teacher of a class of 
 young persons, wishing to give a course of 
 instruction in the history of our religion, 
 found no text-book suited to the purpose. 
 These exercises were prepared in their order, 
 from such historical sources as were within 
 reach, and proved so satisfactory both to the 
 intelligence and the spiritual affections of the 
 pupils, as to suggest their publication. There 
 was thus furnished the advantage of a direct 
 object, at every step, and the test of practi- 
 cal use was immediately applied. The place 
 which the volume undertakes to fill was not 
 occupied before ; and the experiment of its 
 usefulness has been made. 
 
 The study of Church history hardly needs 
 
 (tit) 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 recommendation. If much that passes under 
 that name proves unattractive or unprofitable, 
 it must be from the unskilfulness of the 
 writer, or the dryness of the treatment, not 
 from the nature of the subject. To go back 
 to the earliest workings of the Christian Life 
 in the world; to enter into communion with 
 the primitive faith and zeal ; to hold up for 
 contemplation the grand characters of an- 
 cient believers; to witness their sublime pa- 
 tience and righteous sincerity ; to trace the 
 movement of God's own hand in the events 
 that shaped and extended his invincible 
 Church ; to watch the growth and change 
 of opinions ; to be warned by the corrup- 
 tions of truth, and the inroads of error ; all 
 this is surely a right and noble part of a true 
 Christian education. Place should clearly be 
 made for it in all wise and comprehensive 
 plans of religious reading and study, whether 
 in the Sunday School, or in the family. It 
 enlightens the scholar's mind, enlarges his 
 charity, furnishes him with the means of a 
 fairer judgment of doctrines, sects, and eccle- 
 
INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 siastical measures, and, if he will allow it, 
 enriches his heart with new inspirations of 
 that Spirit of all comfort and grace which 
 the Saviour promised to his disciples. 
 
 For the manner in which the work has 
 been executed, the reader or teacher is re- 
 ferred to its contents. With all thoughtful 
 persons, the style will not be less esteemed 
 for its simplicity and plainness. The object 
 has been to convey the current of the narra- 
 tive, in as little space, and with as much 
 fulness and clearness, as possible. The pe- 
 riod embraced extends from the scene at Pen- 
 tecost to the death of Constantine. 
 
 The undersigned has been requested to 
 introduce the volume to the public by a 
 preface, and does so with friendly wishes for 
 its success, and for the cause it seeks to pro- 
 mote. Having entire confidence in the fidel- 
 ity and competency of the authorship, he 
 believes it will be found free from any errors 
 of consequence, and that its statements are 
 sustained by standard historians. 
 
 F. D. H» 
 
The historical sources referred to in the 
 preceding introduction, from which the 
 present work is compiled and abridged, 
 are Milman, Priestley, Eliot, Kip, Nean- 
 der, Livermore, Conybeare and Howson, 
 Hale, and Josephus. To these and other 
 smaller works the writer is indebted for 
 information obtained upon the subject 
 of the following pages. r. w. b. 
 
 (vi) 
 
THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 
 
 The History of the Christian Church properly com- 
 menced with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on 
 the day of Pentecost, mentioned in the Book of Acts. 
 
 The work called the Acts of the Apostles portrays 
 some of the most important incidents connected with 
 the early Christian Church, from the moment of 
 Christ's ascension, until a short time before the great 
 Jewish war, a period of nearly thirty years. This 
 book is of great importance on many accounts; 
 while there are four Gospels to describe the advent 
 of the Messiah, there is only this authentic history 
 of the planting of the church during the first genera- 
 tion. Containing, as it does, the fulfilment of Christ's 
 promise of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon his 
 disciples and the reception of the Gentiles into the 
 Christian church, untrammelled by Jewish bondage, 
 nothing can exceed the value and interest of this won- 
 derful history. 
 
 The date of the work is fixed at about A.D. 64, 
 since the history comes down to the period of Paul's 
 imprisonment in Rome, yet does not relate his mar- 
 tyrdom, which is supposed to have occurred about 
 2 13 
 
14 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 two years afterwards, at that city, under the reign of 
 Nero. The place of its composition was probably 
 Greece or Rome. 
 
 Its author was Luke, the Evangelist, who wrote 
 this work as a second part to his Gospel, and was 
 himself immediately connected with some of the 
 events of his history. Acts, 16: 10, 11 ; 20: 21, 
 27, 28. This writer is the physician mentioned 
 by Paul — Col. 14: 14. The Acts are referred 
 to by most of the Christian Fathers. Augustine, in 
 A.D. 395, speaks of it as being the only history of 
 the apostles which has been received by the church, 
 all others having been rejected, as not to be relied 
 upon. He also adds that "Mark and Luke wrote 
 at a time when their writings might be approved, not 
 only by the church, but also by apostles still living." 
 Eusebius, of the fourth century, speaks of the " two 
 inspired books writen by Luke the physician, who 
 was connected with Paul, and familiarly acquainted 
 with the rest of the Apostles. Tins Gospel is a 
 record of events related to him by these apostles. 
 But his second work, the Acts of the apostles, he 
 composed, not from what he had heard from others, 
 but from what he had seen himself. " In A.D. 230, 
 Origen speaks of " Luke who wrote the Gospel and 
 the Acts." 
 
 Jerome, writing in A.D. 392, speaks of the second 
 work writen by Luke the physician, which contains 
 the history of the infancy of the church. 
 
 Constant allusions are thus made to it by the early 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 15 
 
 I 
 
 Fathers. In this work are exhibited to us the 
 obstacles which sprang up in the path of the first 
 preachers of Christianity, both from religion and 
 irreligion ; from prince and from people ; from super- 
 stition and from philosophy. 
 
 At the commencement of the book of Acts we find 
 an account of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the 
 assembled disciples. 
 
 " They were all filled with the Holy Ghost." This 
 was the founding of the church of Christ. 
 
 The chosen members of the infant church were 
 thus formed into one body essentially distinguished 
 from the world at large. The Heavenly Founder had 
 so ordered it, that representatives of all nations of the 
 earth should be assembled to witness its establishment. 
 The scene of this extraordinary incident must have 
 been some place of general resort. The time, the third 
 hour, nine in the morning, was that of public prayer 
 in the temple; multitudes, therefore, were thronging 
 all the avenues to the temple. In the popular esti- 
 mation, the claims of Jesus to the Messiahship were 
 altogether extinguished by his death. The few 
 influential persons who had been inclined to embrace 
 his cause, even during his lifetime had maintained 
 their unpopular opinions in secret. The ostensible 
 leaders were men of low birth, humble occupations, 
 deficient education, and — no unimportant objection in 
 the mind of the higher portion of the Jewish nation — 
 Galileans. Never indeed was a sect so completely 
 centred in the person of its founder. The intelligence 
 
16 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 that the religion of Jesus had appeared again, and that 
 those humble, ignorant, and despised Galileans were 
 making converts by thousands, in a most sudden man- 
 ner, must have caused great astonishment. Thus 
 invigorated with courage, and at once endowed with 
 commanding eloquence, these scattered followers of 
 Jesus burst upon the public attention. The whole 
 speech of Peter clashed with the strong prejudices of 
 those by whom he was surrounded, — asserting as he 
 did the Messiahship of his Master in a form as irrec- 
 oncilable with their own preconceived notions as with 
 those of the rest of the people. It reproached them 
 with their rejection of him and their barbarity towards 
 him, and placed him far above king David, the pride and 
 glory of the nation. The rite of baptism was at once 
 instituted, and three thousand converts immediately 
 formed themselves into a Christian community. 
 
 As the teachers of Christianity had to make their 
 permanent residence in Jerusalem, at a distance from 
 their homes, their wants rendered it necessary for 
 many of the converts to throw their property, or part 
 of it, into a common stock. The preaching and 
 miracles of the apostles, and the active zeal and 
 charity of the disciples, headed by the seventy who 
 had followed Christ at an early period of his ministry, 
 led to the daily increase of the church. 
 
 Such is the view we have of the Christian Church 
 at its commencement ; and thenceforward we see it 
 working out, step by step, the designs of Providence. 
 If it had been so ordained, Christianity might have 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 17 
 
 been established at once and permanently, by com- 
 pelling the events of the age to cooperate in the 
 work. But such was not the divine will. The Chris- 
 tian religion was endowed with light and strength, 
 that it might, having that light in itself, spread and 
 enlarge by the quickening of the divine energy with 
 which it was at first established. 
 
 The second recorded speech of the Apostle Peter 
 produced a powerful impression, and five thousand 
 converts were added. The Sanhedrim had up to this 
 period remained passive ; but on learning the effect 
 thus produced at the very gate of their temple, and 
 the miracle performed by Peter and John, this influ- 
 ential body deemed it necessary to interfere, and to 
 arrest, if possible, the rapid progress of the faith. 
 The second speech of the apostle was in a somewhat 
 calmer and more conciliating tone than the former. 
 It extenuated the ignorance of the people, and even 
 of the rulers, which had led them to reject Jesus, and 
 dwelt on the advantages of belief in him as the Mes- 
 siah. Such a speech seemed to demand the inter- 
 ference of the civil authorities. Peter and John were 
 accordingly seized, and kept for one night in prison. 
 This, however, was only productive of fresh manifes- 
 tations of the divine authority whereby they spoke ; 
 for the next day, on being set free, they returned 
 to their companions, another effusion of the Holy 
 Spirit was granted, and the power and zeal of the 
 disciples received a further accession of strength. 
 The converts thereupon made were as ready as their 
 2* 
 
18 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 predecessors to bestow their possessions on the com- 
 munity to which they had become united. 
 
 The superiority which Christianity was gaining 
 over the established Judaism, led the Sanhedrim, after 
 a short time, to make another effort to suppress it. 
 The apostles were again cast into prison. In the 
 morning they were sought for in vain ; they had again 
 taken up their station in the temple, although they 
 obeyed the citation of the Sanhedrim ; the language 
 of Peter was more bold and resolute than ever ; he 
 openly proclaimed, in the face of the astonished coun- 
 cil, the crucified Jesus to be the Prince and the 
 Saviour, and asserted the inspiration of himself and 
 his companions by the Spirit of God. In conformity 
 with the counsel of Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, 
 the rulers were induced to dismiss them, after inflict- 
 ing a slight punishment, and they immediately 
 resumed their duties. 
 
 The increased amount of property placed at the 
 disposal of the apostles, rendered it necessary that 
 proper persons should be appointed to superintend 
 the distribution of it ; accordingly, seven prudent men, 
 in whom all parties had the utmost confidence, were 
 chosen for that purpose. The success of Stephen, one 
 of the number so chosen, and the freedom with which he 
 argued against the errors of certain foreign Jews, led 
 to his arraignment for blasphemy before the tribunal 
 of the high-priest ; and his eloquent defence only 
 serving to increase the rage of the priesthood, he was 
 thrust out of the city and stoned to death. The 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 19 
 
 people soon found that even the priesthood was not 
 proof against the spreading apostacy, for many of 
 that order enrolled themselves among the disciples of 
 Christ. The martyrdom of Stephen proved that 
 Christian faith was stronger than the fear of death. 
 
 After the death of Stephen, Luke makes mention 
 that there was a great persecution against the church 
 at Jerusalem, and the Christians were scattered abroad 
 throughout Palestine, with the exception of the apos- 
 tles, who remained firm at their posts. This early 
 trial of the church was productive of important bene- 
 fits. Philip, one of the deacons, preached in Samaria 
 with great success. One remarkable conversion was 
 that of the Ethiopian officer who held the highest 
 station and influence with Candace, the queen of the 
 Ethiopians. The Jews had spread in great numbers 
 to that region ; and the return of a person of such 
 influence, a declared convert to the new religion, 
 could not but be productive of important results. 
 
 But by far the most important result of the death 
 of Stephen, was its connection with the conversion of 
 St. Paul. To extend Christianity in the enlightened 
 "West, where its most permanent conquests were to be 
 made, — to emancipate it from the fetters of Judaism, 
 a man was wanting of higher education and more 
 liberal accomplishments than were possessed by any 
 one of the twelve apostles. Such an instrument was 
 found in Saul of Tarsus. None of the other apostles 
 were miraculously converted to the faith ; there was 
 nothing, it would seem, in their situation, or personal 
 
20 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 characters, to render an extraordinary display of the 
 divine presence necessary to their conviction. They 
 were men of simple manners and ingenuous minds ; 
 poor, unlearned, and unambitious. Their reason had not 
 been blinded by sophistry ; they had little to do with 
 the rulers of their nation ; and the unprejudiced view 
 they took of Christ's actions, character, and discourse, 
 would satisfy them, without a particular miracle 
 wrought for their private conviction, that he was indeed 
 the Messiah. Saul was differently circumstanced ; was 
 of a different character ; and nothing less than some 
 occurrence of the most extraordinary and unprece- 
 dented character could have arrested so suddenly, and 
 diverted so completely from its settled purpose, a 
 mind of so much strength and intense prejudices. 
 This conversion, therefore, was miraculous, because it 
 was necessary that it should be so. Saul set forth 
 from Jerusalem, his mind imbued with the most vio- 
 lent animosity against these apostates from the faith 
 of his ancestors. He set forth thus manifestly invet- 
 erate in his prejudices, unshaken in his ardent attach- 
 ment to the religion of Moses, the immutability and 
 perpetuity of which he considered it treasonable and 
 impious to question, and with an austere and indig- 
 nant sense of duty. The solemnity of the circum- 
 stances which attended the event of his conversion, 
 was in the highest degree fitted to shadow forth the tri- 
 umphs by which it was to be followed. The ruling 
 Jews must have heard with amazement that this 
 zealous persecutor of the Christians had arrived at 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 21 
 
 i 
 
 Damascus blinded, humbled, and that his first step 
 had been to join himself to the party which he had 
 threatened to exterminate. The Christians were far 
 from forward in admitting to their confidence so dis- 
 tinguished a proselyte. At Damascus this prejudice 
 was softened through the influence of Ananias, a 
 Christian of renown, to whom his conversion had been 
 revealed by a vision. But the apostles at Jerusalem 
 were unwilling to believe in his sincerity even three 
 years after his conversion. Instead of assuming at 
 once, as his abilities and character might seem to jus- 
 tify, a distinguished place in the new community into 
 which he had been received — instead of being wel- 
 comed as the renegade from an opposite faction usu- 
 ally is by a weak and persecuted party, his early 
 course is lost in obscurity. He passed several years 
 in exile, from which he emerged by slow degrees, and 
 gradually rose to eminence. Part of the three years 
 which elapsed between the conversion of Paul and 
 his first visit to Jerusalem he passed in Arabia. At 
 the close of those three years Damascus was in the 
 power of Aretas, the Arabian King. The Jews 
 obtained sufficient influence with Aretas to carry into 
 effect their designs against the life of Paul. His 
 sudden apostacy from their cause, his extraordinary 
 powers, his ardent zeal, had greatly excited their 
 animosity, and Paul was with difficulty withdrawn 
 from their fury, by being let down from the walls of 
 the prison in which he was confined, in a basket, 
 
22 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 the gates being carefully guarded by the Arabian 
 governor. 
 
 Among the most distinguished of the first converts 
 was Barnabas, a native of Cyprus, whose command- 
 ing character and abilities gave him great influence. 
 When Paul, after his escape from Damascus, arrived 
 at Jerusalem, Barnabas alone espoused his cause, over- 
 came the timid suspicions of the apostles, and Paul 
 was admitted into the Christian community. As 
 peculiarly skilled in the Greek language, his exertions 
 to advance Christianity were particularly addressed 
 to those of the Jews with whom Greek was the spoken 
 tongue. But a new conspiracy again endangering his 
 life, he was carried away by his friends to Cassarea, 
 and thence proceeded to his native city of Tarsus. 
 
 About this time the fears of the Jews were awak- 
 ened in behalf of their own religious independence, 
 for the very existence of their religious worship was 
 threatened, Caligula having issued orders to place his 
 statue in the temple at Jerusalem. The mind of the 
 whole nation was engrossed by this appalling topic, 
 and to this fact may be attributed the temporary peace 
 enjoyed at this time by the Christian churches. This 
 peace was undisturbed for about three years. 
 
 When Herod Agrippa took possession of his heredi- 
 tary dominions, he made an effort to ingratiate him- 
 self with his subjects by the strictest profession of 
 Judaism, and by adopting vigorous means for the sup- 
 pression of Christianity. James, the brother of St. John, 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 23 
 
 was the first victim. He appears to have been sum- 
 marily put to death by the military mandate of the 
 king, without any process of the Jewish law. Peter 
 was cast into prison, perhaps with the intention of 
 putting him to death before the departure of Herod 
 from the capital. He was delivered from his bondage 
 by supernatural intervention. Acts 12 : 1-23. A 
 famine prevailed in Judea in the fourth year of Clau- 
 dius, the last of Herod Agrippa. As Barnabas and 
 Paul proceeded to Jerusalem on their charitable mis- 
 sion to bear the contributions of the Christians in 
 Antioch to their poorer brethren in Judea, they must 
 have arrived there during the height of the persecution. 
 The extraordinary circumstances of the escape of 
 Peter from prison so confounded the king, that for a 
 time the violence of the persecution was suspended, 
 and thus the lives of Paul and Barnabas were in less 
 danger. The death of Herod during the same year, 
 A.D. 44, delivered the Christians from their most 
 inveterate enemy. 
 
 The conversion of Saul preceded that of the first 
 Gentile convert, Cornelius, whose divinely authorized 
 admission into the church was the earliest intimation 
 the apostles received that the religion of Christ, with 
 all its benefits, was intended for mankind at large. 
 It was to St. Peter that the vision was granted, which 
 thus enlarged, to an unlimited extent, the boundaries 
 of the Christian Church ; an honor which we might 
 well suppose would have been vouchsafed to the 
 newly ordained apostle, whose office it so especially 
 
24 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 was to labor in the Gentile world. But Saul had not 
 yet sufficient authority in the church to justify the 
 selection of him as the instrument for making known 
 a doctrine so much in conflict with Jewish prejudices. 
 
 A most important change was wrought in the new 
 community, by this breaking down of the wall of par- 
 tition between Jews and Gentiles. "We do not find 
 that the apostles had entertained any idea of com- 
 municating to the Gentiles the blessings of the new 
 religion, until a direct and positive command was given 
 them to that end ; nor was it until the devout Cor- 
 nelius had presented to the mind of Peter the object 
 and meaning of his extraordinary vision, that he 
 exclaimed, " Of a truth I perceive that God is no 
 respecter of persons ; but in every nation he that 
 feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted 
 with him." 
 
 Previous to this period, Christianity had been 
 limited, national, exclusive in its character. It had 
 made rapid and extensive progress throughout the 
 Jewish world, but it was preached by Jews ; it was 
 addressed to Jews only. As a universal religion, 
 aspiring to the complete moral conquest of the world, 
 Christianity was destined to encounter three powerful 
 antagonists, — Judaism, Paganism, and Orientalism. 
 
 Until Christianity, it may be said without dispar- 
 agement, from a Jewish sect assumed the dignity of 
 an independent religion, even the external animosity 
 of Judaism had not reached its height. However 
 extraordinary the change wrought hi the minds of the 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 25 
 
 earlier apostles by the spirit of Christianity ; however 
 some of them, especially Peter and John, may have 
 extended their labors beyond the precincts of Pales- 
 tine, yet Paul appears to have exercised by far the 
 greatest influence, not merely in the conversion of the 
 Gentiles, but in emancipating the Christianity of the 
 Jewish converts from, the inveterate influence of their 
 old religion. The proselytes of the gate, that is, 
 those heathens who without acknowledging the claims 
 of the whole law to their obedience had embraced the 
 main principles of Judaism, more particularly the 
 unity of God, were at once admitted into the Chris- 
 tian community. Cornelius was, as it were, the 
 representative of his class. Still, the admission into 
 Christianity was through Judaism. 
 
 The new opening for the extension of Christianity, 
 after the conversion of Cornelius, directed the atten- 
 tion of Barnabas to Saul, who since his flight from 
 Jerusalem had remained in secure retirement at Tar- 
 sus. From thence he was summoned by Barnabas 
 to Antioch. Antioch, where the body of believers 
 assumed the name of Christians, became the head- 
 quarters of the foreign operations of Christianity. 
 
 Those foreign operations were at first confined to 
 the Jewish population which was scattered through- 
 out the whole of Syria and Asia Minor. 
 
 On the arrival of the apostles in a town which they 
 
 had not visited before, the first scene of their labors 
 
 was the synagogue. At the island of Cyprus Paul 
 
 and Barnabas found flourishing Jewish communities. 
 
 3 
 
26 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 The sensation occasioned by their arrival at Paphos, 
 a city on the western extremity of the island, aroused 
 the curiosity of the governor. The miraculous blind- 
 ness with which the famous magician of the city was 
 smitten, convinced him of the superior claims of 
 the apostles ; the beauty of the Christian doctrines 
 charmed him. Such a recognition of its power and 
 beauty by the Roman proconsul, could not but give 
 weight and popular character to the cause of Christi- 
 anity in Cyprus. From Cyprus they crossed to the 
 southern shore of Asia Minor, landed at Perga in 
 Pamphylia, and passed through the chief cities of 
 that region. At the first considerable city hi which 
 they appeared, Antioch in Pisidia, the opposition of 
 the Jews seemed to have been so general, and the 
 favorable disposition of their Gentile hearers so de- 
 cided, that the apostles avowedly disclaimed all farther 
 connection with the more violent party, and united 
 themselves to the Gentile believers ; but the Jews pos- 
 sessed so much influence, especially with some of the 
 women of rank, that they at last prevailed upon the 
 ruling authorities to expel the apostles from the city. 
 At Iconium, to which city they retired, the opposition 
 was still more violent ; the popular excitement was 
 so great that they were constrained to fly for their lives 
 into the barbarous district of Lycaonia. 
 
 It was not till it had extended beyond the borders 
 of Palestine, that Christianity came into direct colli- 
 sion with Paganism. At Lystra, in Lycaonia, the 
 apostles appear for the first time, in the centre, as it 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 27 
 
 were, of a Pagan population, and are brought into 
 immediate contact with the old idolatry, there still 
 maintaining a lively and commanding influence over 
 the popular mind. The exhibition of their wonderful 
 powers arouses the religious enthusiasm of the popu- 
 lace, which at once converts them into the Jove and 
 Mercury of their own temples. - It is with difficulty 
 that the apostles restrain the people from offering 
 sacrifice to them as gods ; and no sooner do they 
 succeed in convincing them that they are but men 
 like themselves, than those who would have been 
 worshippers join with the hostile Jews and become 
 persecutors. Paul, instead of being worshipped as a 
 god, was cast out of the city half dead. The apostles 
 proceeded to Derbe, and thence returned through the 
 same cities to Antioch, in Syria. 
 
 The ordination of elders to preside over the Chris- 
 tian community implies their secession from the 
 synagogues of their country. Acts, 14 : 23. 
 
 In Jerusalem, from the multitude of synagogues 
 which belonged to the different races of foreign Jews, 
 another might arise, without exciting much notice 
 from the heathen population. To the Jew it as- 
 sumed the appearance of a dangerous and formidable 
 apostacy from the religion of his ancestors. The sub- 
 stitution of a purely religious for a national community, 
 to the Christianized Jew appeared, as it were, a kind 
 of treason against the religious majesty of their ances- 
 tors ; a conference became necessary between the 
 leaders of the Christian community to avert an inevi- 
 
28 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 table collision, which might be fatal to the progress of 
 the new religion. Paul and Barnabas proceeded as 
 delegates from the community at Antioch ; and what 
 is called the council of Jerusalem, a full assembly of 
 all the apostles and elders, with the whole church then 
 present in the metropolis, solemnly debated this great 
 question. 
 
 This, it appears, was the first occasion in which a 
 general meeting of the Christian community had been 
 summoned. The situation of affairs called for the 
 exercise of the soundest discretion, united with the 
 utmost moderation of temper. On one side a Phar- 
 isaic party had brought into Christianity a vigorous 
 and passionate attachment to the Mosaic institutes, in 
 their strictest and most minute provisions. On the 
 other hand, beyond the borders of Palestine, far the 
 greater number of converts had been formed from 
 that intermediate class which stood between Heathen- 
 ism and Judaism. 
 
 In the second, and more extensive journey of St. 
 Paul, having separated from Barnabas, he was accom- 
 panied by Timotheus and Silas, but of the Asiatic 
 part of this journey, though it led through some coun- 
 tries of remarkable interest in the history of Pagan- 
 ism, no particulars are recorded. He passed through 
 Phrygia, Galatia, and Mysia, but instead of continuing 
 his course towards the shore of the Black Sea to Bithy- 
 nia, admonished by a vision, he passed to Europe, and 
 at Neapolis, in Macedonia, landed the obscure and un- 
 regarded individual to whom Europe, in Christianity, 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 29 
 
 owes the great principle of her civilization, the pre- 
 dominant element in her superiority over the more 
 barbarous and unenlightened quarters of the globe. 
 At Philippi he first came into collision with those 
 interests which were concerned in the maintenance 
 of the popular religion. The proseucha, or oratory of 
 the Jews (the smaller place of worship, which they 
 always established when their community was not 
 sufficiently flourishing to maintain a synagogue), was 
 as usual by the water side. The river, as is always 
 the case in Greece, and in all southern countries, was 
 the resort of the women of the city, partly for house- 
 hold purposes, partly, perhaps, for bathing. Among 
 them was Lydia, whose residence was at Thyatira, 
 and who, from her trading in the costly purple dye, 
 may be supposed to have been a person of considera- 
 ble wealth and influence ; — having been so far en- 
 lightened by Judaism as to worship the One God, she 
 became an immediate convert to the Christianity of 
 St. Paul. 
 
 Paul's restoration of the female soothsayer from 
 her temporary derangement, thereby disqualifying her 
 for the sordid purposes of her employers, produced a 
 tumult throughout the city ; the interests of a power- 
 ful body were in jeopardy, for the trade of soothsay- 
 ing at this time was both common and lucrative. The 
 apostle and his attendants were seized, and arraigned 
 before the magistrates on the charge of introducing 
 an unlawful religion. They were scourged and cast 
 into prison. While their hymn was heard through* 
 
 a* 
 
30 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 the prison, a violent earthquake shook the whole 
 building ; the doors flew open, and the fetters, by 
 which probably they were chained to the walls, were 
 loosened. The affrighted jailer, who was responsible 
 for their safe keeping, believing that the prisoners had 
 escaped, was about to commit suicide. His hand was 
 arrested by the calm voice of Paul, and to his surprise 
 he found them remaining quietly in their cells. His 
 fears and his admiration wrought together ; and the 
 jailer of Philippi, with his whole family, embraced 
 the Christian faith. The magistrates, when they 
 found that Paul had the privilege of Roman citi- 
 zenship, were in their turn alarmed at their hasty 
 infringement of that sacred right, and releasing their 
 prisoners honorably, they were glad to prevail upon 
 them to depart peacefully from the city. 
 
 Thus, we have seen Christianity in collision with 
 Polytheism under two of its various forms. At Lys- 
 tra, as still the old poetic faith of a barbarous people, 
 insensible to the progress made elsewhere in the 
 human mind, and devoutly believing the wonders of 
 their native religion ; at Philippi, a provincial town 
 in a more cultivated part of Greece, but still at no 
 high state of intellectual advancement, as connected 
 with the vulgar arts of itinerant traders in popular 
 superstition. In Athens, Paganism had a totally dif- 
 ferent character ; inquiring, argumentative, skeptical ; 
 Polytheism in such forms as were best adapted to 
 the imagination of a highly polished people. 
 
 Passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, Paul 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 31 
 
 and his companions arrived at Thessalonica ; but in 
 this city, as well as in Berea, their chief intercourse 
 appears to have been with the Jews. The riot by 
 which they were expelled from Thessalonica, though 
 blindly kept up by the disorderly populace, was in- 
 stigated by Jason, the chief of the Jewish community. 
 Having left his companions, Timotheus and Silas, 
 at Berea, Paul arrived alone at Athens. At Athens, 
 the central point and capital of the Greek philosophy 
 and Heathen superstition, takes place the first public 
 and direct conflict between Christianity and Pagan- 
 ism. Up to this time there is no account of any one 
 of the apostles taking his station in the public street 
 or market place, and addressing the general multitude* 
 Their place of teaching had invariably been the 
 synagogue of their nation, or, as at Philippi, the 
 neighborhood of their customary place of worship. 
 Here, however, Paul does not confine himself to the 
 synagogue, or to the society of his countrymen and 
 their proselytes. He takes his stand in the public 
 market-place, which, in the reign of Augustus, had 
 began to be more frequented. In Athens, the appear- 
 ance of a new public teacher was welcomed as prom- 
 ising some fresh intellectual excitement. Though 
 the Athenians affected at first to treat Paul as an idle 
 " babbler, " and others supposed that he was about to 
 introduce some new religious worship, which might 
 endanger the supremacy of their own tutelar divinities, 
 he is conveyed, not without respect, to a still more 
 public and commodious place, from whence he may 
 
32 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 explain his doctrines to a numerous assembly, without 
 interruption. On the Areopagus the Christian leader 
 takes his stand, surrounded on every side with what- 
 ever was noble, beautiful, and intellectual in the older 
 world. It was in the midst of -so many conflicting 
 associations, that Paul stands forth to proclaim the 
 lowly yet authoritative religion of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 His audience comprised the representatives of the 
 two prevailing sects, — the Stoics and Epicureans, 
 with the populace, the worshippers of the established 
 religion. In his discourse, the heads of which are 
 related by St. Luke, he touches with singular felicity 
 on the peculiar opinions of each class among his hear- 
 ers. It is impossible not to examine with the utmost 
 interest the whole course of this first full and public 
 argument of Christianity against the Heathen religion 
 and philosophy — it being perhaps the most exten- 
 sively and permanently effective oration ever uttered 
 by man. The opening of the speech is calm, temper- 
 ate, conciliatory. The God whose attributes he came to 
 unfold rose far above the popular notion ; he could not 
 be confined in altar or temple, or represented by any 
 visible image. He was the universal father of man- 
 kind, even of the earth-born Athenians, who boasted 
 that they were of an older race than the other fami- 
 lies of man, and coeval with the world itself. 
 
 In the lofty and serene Deity, who disclaimed to 
 dwell in the earthly temple, and needed nothing from 
 the hand of man, the Epicurean might almost sup- 
 pose he heard the language of his own teacher. But 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS, 33 
 
 the next sentence, which asserted the Providence of 
 God as the active, creative energy — annihilated at 
 once the government of blind chance, to which Epi- 
 curus ascribed the origin and preservation of the uni- 
 verse. 
 
 This Divine Providence was far different also from 
 the stern and all-controlling necessity, the inexorable 
 fatalism of the Stoic. The lessons of humility and 
 conscious deficiency, the universal call to repentance, 
 which were taught hi the school of Christ, were utterly 
 opposed to the principles of the Stoic, and the senti- 
 ments of his philosophy. The great Christian doc- 
 trine of the resurrection closed the speech of Paul ; 
 a doctrine received with mockery, perhaps, by his 
 Epicurean hearers, with doubtful approval, proba- 
 bly, by the Stoic, with whose theory of the final de- 
 struction of the world by fire, and his tenet of future 
 retribution, it might appear in some degree to har- 
 monize. Some, however, became declared converts ; 
 among whom are particularly named Dionysius, a 
 man of sufficient distinction to be a member of the 
 famous court of the Areopagus, and a woman named 
 Damaris, probably of considerable rank and influence. 
 
 At Athens, all this free discussion on topics relating 
 to the religious and moral nature of man, and involv- 
 ing the authority of the existing religion, led to no 
 disturbance. Polytheism reigned there in its utmost 
 splendor ; the temples were maintained with the high- 
 est pomp, and the substitution of Christianity could be 
 effected only by a thorough and radical change in 
 
34 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 public sentiment. Every image, from the living 
 work of Phidias or Praxiteles to the rude and ,shape- 
 less Hermes or Terminus, must become an unmeaning 
 mass of wood or stone. With the Pagan, the whole 
 of his religious observances fell under the unsparing 
 proscription. In every city, town, or even village, 
 there was a contest to be maintained not merely 
 against the general system of Polytheism, but against 
 the local and tutelary deity of the place. Every 
 public spectacle, every procession, every civil or mili- 
 tary duty, was a religious ceremonial. Though later, 
 many of the usages of the heathen worship crept into 
 the more gorgeous and imposing ceremonial of tri- 
 umphant Christianity, though even many of the 
 vulgar superstitions incorporated themselves with the 
 sacred Christian Associations, all this reaction was 
 long subsequent to the permanent establishment of the 
 new religion. At first all was rigid and uncompro- 
 mising hostility ; doubts were entertained by the more 
 scrupulous whether meat exposed to public sale in the 
 market, but which might have formed part of a sacri- 
 fice, would not be dangerously polluting to a Christian. 
 The apostle, though anxious to correct this sensitive 
 scrupulousness, touches on the point with the utmost 
 caution and delicacy. 1 Cor. 10: 25-31. The 
 Jew's trembling apprehension of any thing approach- 
 ing to idolatry, the concentration of his heart's whole 
 devotion upon the One Almighty God, prepared him 
 for the reception of Christianity. But the whole life 
 of the heathen was pervaded by the spirit of Poly- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 35 
 
 theism. It met him in every quarter, in every act and 
 function of every day's business ; in the senate, which 
 commenced its deliberations with sacrifice ; in the 
 camp, the centre of which was a consecrated temple ; 
 his domestic hearth was guarded by the ancestral 
 gods of his family or tribe ; by land he travelled 
 under the protection of one tutelar divinity, by sea 
 of another ; the birth, the bridal, the funeral, had each 
 its presiding divinity ; the very commonest household 
 utensils were cast in mythological forms ; he could 
 scarcely drink without being reminded of making a 
 libation to the gods. Although Athens was the head- 
 quarters of Paganism, it was at the same time the 
 place where Paganism most clearly betrayed its ap- 
 proaching dissolution. 
 
 From Athens the apostle passes to Corinth. Cor- 
 inth was at that time the common emporium of the 
 eastern and western divisions of the Roman empire. 
 The basis of the population was Roman, of very 
 recent settlement. In no part of the Roman Empire 
 were both the inhabitants and the travellers through 
 the city so various and mingled ; nowhere, therefore, 
 would a new religion spread with so much rapidity, 
 and exercise so much influence, and at the same time 
 excite so little observation, as in this perpetual influx 
 and efflux of strangers. At Corinth, therefore, but 
 for the hostility of his countrymen, the Christian 
 apostle might, for even longer than the eighteen 
 months which he passed in that city, have pursued 
 his peaceful course. The open adoption of the new 
 
36 STRUGGLES OP THE 
 
 faith by one of the chiefs of the synagogue, re- 
 awakened the fierce animosity of the Jewish commu- 
 nity. The cause was contemptuously dismissed by 
 the proconsul of Achaia, as beneath the majesty of 
 the Roman tribunal. The affair was openly treated 
 as an unimportant sectarian dispute about the national 
 faith of the Jews. The mild and popular character 
 of Gallio, his connection with his brother Seneca, in 
 whose philosophic writings the morality of heathen- 
 ism had taken a higher tone than it ever assumed, 
 unless perhaps, subsequently, in the works of Marcus 
 Antoninus, excite regret that the religion of Christ 
 was not brought to his notice in a manner more likely 
 to enlist his attention. 
 
 The result of this trial was the peaceful establish- 
 ment of Christianity in Corinth, where, though secure 
 from the violence of the Jews, it was, however, con- 
 stantly exposed by its situation to the intrusion of 
 new comers, with different modifications of Christian 
 opinions. Thus eventful was the second journey of 
 Paul. In many of the most flourishing and populous 
 cities of Greece communities were formed, which 
 were continually enlarging their sphere. 
 
 The third journey, starting from the head-quarters of 
 Christianity, Antioch, led Paul again through the same 
 regions of Asia, Galatia, and Phrygia. But instead 
 of crossing over into Macedonia, he proceeded along 
 the west of Asia Minor to the important city of Eph- 
 esus. Ephesus at that time might be regarded as the 
 capital, the chief mercantile city of Asia Minor. Its 
 
PAUL AT EPHESUS. 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 37 
 
 celebrated temple was one of the most splendid models 
 of Grecian architecture ; the image of the goddess 
 retained the symbolic form of the old Eastern na- 
 ture-worship. It was one of the great schools of 
 magic. Paul resided in Ephesus two years, during 
 which the rapid extension of Christianity was accel- 
 erated by many wonderful cures. He preached at 
 first in the synagogue ; but this being productive of 
 much wrangling, he established an independent Chris- 
 tian church. He also preached in the neighboring 
 cities as well as at Ephesus ; and all the country of 
 Asia, properly so called, was thereby furnished with 
 an opportunity of becoming well acquainted with the 
 principles of the Christian religion. He wrought 
 many wonderful cures ; even when the handkerchiefs 
 and aprons of the sick were brought to him, they 
 were healed of their diseases, and some of the persons 
 relieved by him were demoniacs. 
 
 Some Jewish exorcists, seven sons of one Sceva, a 
 Jew, and chief of the priests, perceiving this, and 
 thinking there must be some powerful charm in the 
 invocation of the name of Jesus, repeated it over a 
 demoniac, saying, " We adjure thee by Jesus whom 
 Paul preaches." But the madman, not being restored 
 to his right mind, though understanding the words they 
 used, insulted them, and fell violently upon them, saying, 
 " Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye ? " 
 and they did not escape without wounds. This event 
 attracted much notice in the town and country. The 
 success of Paul and the failure of the exorcists added 
 4 
 
38 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 to his reputation, and were the means of gaining him 
 many converts. At the same time the inefficacy of . 
 all magical rites was so apparent, that great numbers 
 brought their books containing such secrets, and 
 burned them publicly ; and though they might have 
 been sold for fifty thousand pieces of silver (equal, prob- 
 ably, to eight hundred pounds), 'they chose to make 
 this sacrifice, rather than contribute to the spread of 
 such wicked and mischievous arts by the sale of them. 
 It was at this period that Paul wrote his First Epistle 
 to the Corinthians. The new faith made such rapid 
 progress, that those who were dependent upon the 
 heathen religion for their subsistence began to tremble. 
 A collision for the first time took place with the inter- 
 ests of that numerous class who were directly con- 
 nected with the support of the reigning Polytheism. 
 There was a common article of trade, a model or 
 shrine of silver representing the temple, which was 
 kept as a memorial, or, perhaps, as endowed with some 
 sacred and talismanic power. The sale of these arti- 
 cles was gradually falling off, when the artisans, at 
 the instigation of a certain Demetrius, raised a violent 
 popular tumult, and spread the exciting cry that the 
 worship of Diana was in danger. The whole city 
 rung with the shout, "Great is Diana of the Ephe- 
 sians." Two of Paul's companions were seized and 
 dragged into the public theatre, the- place where in 
 many cities the public business was transacted. He 
 was easer to address the multitude, but was restrained 
 by the prudence of his friends, among whom were 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 39 
 
 some of the most eminent men of the province. The 
 tumult was finally allayed ; but Paul seems to have 
 thought it prudent to withdraw from the excited city, 
 and to pursue his former line of travel into Macedo- 
 nia and Greece. 
 
 From Ephesus, accordingly, we trace his course 
 through Macedonia to Corinth, from which place he 
 wrote his Epistle to the Romans. The main object 
 of that celebrated epistle was to annul forever the 
 claim of the Mosaic law to a perpetual authority ; to 
 exhibit Christianity as a part of the providential de- 
 sign in the moral history of man, while Judaism was 
 but a temporary institution, unequal to the great end 
 of revealing the immortality of mankind, and alto- 
 gether repealed by the more wide and universal 
 system which comprehended in its beneficent purposes 
 the whole human race. 
 
 Paul's circuit through Macedonia, Greece, back to 
 Philippi, down the ^Egean to Miletus, by Coos, Rhodes, 
 Patara, to Tyre, and thence to Caesarea, brought him 
 again near to Jerusalem, where he had determined to 
 appear at the feast of Pentecost. Notwithstanding 
 the remonstrances of his friends and the prophetic 
 denunciation of his imprisonment by a certain Agabus, 
 he adhered to his resolution of confronting the whole 
 hostile nation at their great annual assembly. This 
 Agabus was the same who had foretold the famine in 
 the time of Claudius. In imitation of the ancient 
 prophets, who often expressed themselves by symbols, 
 he caused himself to be bound hand and foot with 
 
40 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 Paul's girdle, and declared that in the same manner 
 would the Jews of Jerusalem bind the owner of that 
 girdle, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. 
 Thereupon all the company earnestly entreated Paul 
 that he would not proceed to Jerusalem ; but with a 
 noble magnanimity he replied, that he was ready not 
 only to be bound but also to suffer death at Jerusalem 
 in the cause of Christ. After this they used no 
 further entreaties, but with the same resignation said, 
 " The will of God be done." Being joined by Mnason, 
 an old disciple belonging to Cyprus, and other Chris- 
 tians of Cassarea, they went together to Jerusalem 
 where their fellow Christians received them with joy. 
 Acts, 21 : 17. This was at Pentecost, A.D. 58, eight 
 years before the commencement of the famous Jewish 
 war. 
 
 The motive of Paul in visiting Jerusalem was, 
 probably, to allay the jealousy of his countrymen. He 
 complied with the advice of his friends, and instead 
 of appearing in the Temple as an ordinary worship- 
 per, that he might show his own personal reverence 
 for the usages of his ancestors, he united himself to 
 four persons who had taken upon them a vow, a delib- 
 erate acknowledgment not merely of respect for, but 
 of zeal beyond, the law. His person, however, was 
 too well known to the Asiatic Jews not to be recog- 
 nized ; a sudden outcry was raised against him ; he 
 was charged with having violated the sanctity of the 
 holy precincts by bringing Greeks into the holy tem- 
 ple. He was dragged out into the court of the Gen- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 41 
 
 tiles, the doors closed, and, but for the prompt inter- 
 ference of the Eoman guard, he would have fallen a 
 victim to the popular fury. The ease and purity of 
 style with which Paul addressed the Roman com- 
 mander in Greek, and the commanding serenity of his 
 demeanor, so far influenced Lysias in his favor, that 
 he was permitted by him to address the multitude. 
 Paul spoke the language of the country, and was lis- 
 tened to without interruption while giving an account 
 of his conversion to the new religion ; but when he 
 broached the dangerous subject of the admission of 
 the Gentiles to the privileges of Christianity, the 
 popular frenzy broke out again with such violence 
 as could scarcely be controlled by the Eoman military. 
 He was led away into the court of the fortress, and 
 the commander, who probably understood nothing of 
 his address, but only saw that instead of allaying it 
 increased the turbulence of the people, gave orders 
 that he should suffer the usual punishment of scourg- 
 ing with rods, in order that he might be forced to con- 
 fess the real origin of the disturbance. But this 
 proceeding was arrested by Paul's claiming the priv- 
 ilege of a Eoman citizen. The soldiers engaged in 
 scourging him recoiled in terror, and he was at once 
 released from punishment. The next morning he was 
 brought before the Sanhedrim, and there made a 
 solemn protestation of his innocence; but an angry 
 tumult was aroused, and the Eoman commander again 
 withdrew him into the citadel for safety ; but he was 
 not secure even there. A conspiracy was formed 
 4* 
 
42 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 against his life ; but the plot being discovered by his 
 nephew, he was sent under a strong guard to Caesarea, 
 the residence of the Roman provincial governor, the 
 dissolute and tyrannical Felix. 
 
 The defence of Paul against the charge of sedition, 
 of innovation, and the profanation of the Temple, was 
 successful with Felix, who was well acquainted with 
 the Jewish character, and by no means disposed to 
 gratify their passions and animosities. The charge 
 therefore was dismissed. Paul, though not set at 
 liberty, was allowed free intercourse with his Christian 
 brethren ; Felix himself even condescended to hear, 
 and heard not without emotion, the sublime moral 
 doctrines he taught, which were so much at variance 
 with his own unjust and adulterous life. 
 
 For the last two years of the administration of 
 Felix, Paul remained a prisoner, and Felix, at his 
 departure, being well aware that accusations were 
 lodged against himself by the representatives of the 
 Jewish nation, endeavored to propitiate them by leav- 
 ing Paul still in custody. Before the new governor, 
 Porcius Festus, a man of rigid justice, and less 
 acquainted with the Jewish character, their charges 
 were renewed with the utmost acrimony. Festus 
 proposed to remove the prisoner to Jerusalem, and try 
 him there ; but Paul persisted in his appeal to Caesar. 
 To this appeal from a Roman citizen the governor 
 could not refuse his assent. 
 
 Soon after this, Festus was visited by king Agrippa 
 the younger, who had succeeded his father. He 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 43 
 
 appeared in great pomp at Caesarea, with his sister 
 Bernice. To these guests the governor related the 
 case of his prisoner, which sc much excited the curi- 
 osity of Agrippa that he expressed a wish to hear 
 Paul himself. Festus consented the more willingly, 
 as, being obliged to send him to Rome, and of course 
 to give some account of him, he hoped that by means 
 of this audience he should be able to draw up a more 
 satisfactory account than he otherwise could. Paul, 
 on being brought forward, expressed much satisfaction 
 at having an opportunity of explaining his doctrine 
 before a Jewish prince, who was acquainted with those 
 prophecies to which he should have occasion to refer, 
 and proceeded to give an account of himself, and 
 especially of his miraculous conversion to Christianity. 
 Festus (who being a Heathen was not disposed to 
 give credence to accounts of miracles, and who prob- 
 ably entertained that contempt for the religion of the 
 Jews which was prevalent among persons of rank 
 who had never investigated its character) did not 
 hesitate to declare that Paul was certainly out of his 
 senses, and that much study had disordered his mind. 
 But Agrippa, who was a believer in miracles, could 
 not so readily deny the truth of his statements, and in 
 view of all the circumstances narrated was constrained 
 to acknowledge that he was almost persuaded to be a 
 Christian. To this, Paul with great presence of mind 
 and much earnestness replied, " I would to God that 
 not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were 
 both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these 
 
44 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 bonds." With this the conference closed ; and it was 
 admitted by them all that he might have been set at 
 liberty if he had not appealed to the emperor. He 
 was thereupon sent to Rome, under the custody of a 
 centurion named Julius, who treated him with great 
 kindness and civility, permitting him, when they came 
 to Sidon, to land and visit his friends. 
 
 His voyage strikingly depicts the precarious navi- 
 gation of the Mediterranean at that time. In Acts, 
 27 : 4, it is said, " we sailed under Cyprus ; " that 
 is, they probably sailed along the southern coast of 
 the island, and thus sheltered themselves from the 
 unfavorable winds. "The ancient navigators, igno- 
 rant of the mariner's compass and many other means 
 and resources now well understood and adopted, 
 were accustomed to creep along the shores, as much 
 as possible within sight of land. The wonderful dis- 
 coveries and improvements of later times have taught 
 that the open sea is the safest path for the mariner." 
 Luke and Aristarchus accompanied Paul. Touching 
 at Myra, a city of Lycia, they found there a ship from 
 Alexandria, bound to Italy, in which they embarked. 
 The immense population of Rome were supplied with 
 grain, in a great measure, from Egypt ; the fertility 
 of the Nile rendered that country the granary of the 
 empire. They encountered difficulty in passing the 
 island of Crete, and not long after were caught in a 
 tempestuous whirlwind ; the sailors lost all control 
 of the ship, and after passing the island of Clanda 
 they were obliged to cast the freight overboard. As 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 45 
 
 they had neither sun nor stars to guide them, they 
 abandoned all hope of being saved. Paul, however, 
 exhorted them to be of good cheer, telling them that 
 he had been told in a vision that their lives would 
 be preserved, although the ship would be lost ; and so 
 it proved; the crew and passengers with difficulty 
 reached the shore on the island of Melita, the ship 
 being stranded and dashed to pieces. 
 
 On this island they were received with hospitality, 
 and Paul performed some remarkable miracles. As he 
 had procured a bundle of sticks, and was laying them 
 on the fire, a viper, which had not been perceived 
 among them, feeling the heat, fastened on his hand ; 
 a circumstance which led the natives to imagine that 
 he was a murderer, who, though he had not perished 
 in the shipwreck, was now overtaken by divine 
 vengeance. But when he shook it off without receiv- 
 ing any harm, they changed their opinion and ex- 
 claimed that he was a god. Many sick persons were 
 brought to him and were miraculously healed. 
 
 Having wintered in Melita, Paul and his company 
 proceeded early in the spring, A.D. 61, towards Rome, 
 calling at Syracuse, Rhegium, and Puteoli, at which 
 last place Paul found some Christian brethren ; and 
 at Appii forum and the Three Taverns he was met by 
 some Christians from Rome, and was by them accom- 
 panied thither. 
 
 The apostle now surveys the strength and encoun- 
 ters the hostility of Paganism, from the metropolis 
 of the world. Arrived at the place of his destination,, 
 
46 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 he was delivered by the centurion to the custody of 
 a soldier, who was chained to him; but in other 
 respects he was at liberty, and thus he continued for 
 two whole years, occupying a house which he hired. 
 When he had been in Rome three days, he sent for 
 the chief men among the Jews, and gave them an 
 account of himself, and of the cause of his being sent 
 thither. A day was fixed for a public hearing, the 
 result of which was, that some of the Jews, as in 
 other places, became converts to Christianity, while 
 others remained obstinate in their unbelief. Paul 
 thereupon informed them that he should thenceforth 
 apply himself to preaching to the Gentiles. 
 
 We have no account of Paul's trial before the em- 
 peror ; but it may be collected from the epistles which 
 he wrote from Rome, that though his friends deserted 
 him upon that occasion, he was * enabled to deliver 
 himself with great boldness, and that many persons, 
 either from what he said on that occasion, or at other 
 times, became converts to Christianity, and among 
 them were some of the emperor's family. He was 
 probably reserved for a further healing, and after two 
 years he was set at liberty. 
 
 At Rome, Paul, having leisure to write as well as 
 to preach, wrote several valuable epistles, as that to 
 the Ephesians, a second to Timothy, to the Philip- 
 pians, to the Colossians, and to Philemon. He also 
 wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, a little before, or 
 soon after, his release. There is a peculiar dignity 
 and sublimity in these epistles written from Rome. 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 47 
 
 Paul probably felt that lie was near the close of his 
 life, and therefore he wrote with that energy with 
 which a man naturally accompanies his last admoni- 
 tions to those whom he loves. In the epistle to Tim- 
 othy, he urges him to come to him before winter; 
 which Timothy probably did, as in the other epistles 
 from Rome Timothy's name is joined with Paul's in 
 salutations from that place. The Christians at Phi- 
 lippi were probably wealthy, and they were propor- 
 tionately generous ; they contributed largely to the 
 apostle's support, when other churches were inattentive 
 to his wants. They had not been unmindful of his 
 situation now that he was a prisoner at Rome, but had 
 sent Epaphroditus, one of their body, with a liberal 
 contribution for his relief. This he gratefully ac- 
 knowledges in his epistle, the principal object of which, 
 as of many others, is to exhort those to whom he writes 
 to recommend their Christian profession by a suitable 
 life and conversation, and to resist the attempts of the 
 Judaizing teachers to sow divisions among them. The 
 manner in which he speaks of his own situation, and 
 the satisfaction he expresses in all that he had done 
 and suffered for the sake of the gospel, is equally for- 
 cible. He appears, when he wrote this epistle, to 
 have entertained the hope of being set at liberty ; but 
 as to himself, he says, it was a matter of indifference 
 whether he lived or died, provided his life or death 
 might be subservient, as he was confident either of 
 them would be, to the propagation of the gospel. 
 Philemon was a citizen of Colosse, whose slave 
 
48 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 Onesimus had run away from him, and probably 
 robbed him, but who coming to Rome while Paul was 
 there, and hearing him preach, not only became a con- 
 vert to Christianity, but made himself useful to the 
 apostle. Being, without doubt, convinced by the ar- 
 guments of the apostle, and the secret promptings of 
 his own conscience, that it was his duty to make repar- 
 ation for the wrong he had done in appropriating to 
 his own use the goods of his master, he was induced 
 to return to him ; and for the purpose of procuring for 
 him a more favorable reception than he might other- 
 wise meet with, Paul made him the bearer of the epis- 
 tle to Philemon. The epistle to the Hebrews was writ- 
 ten to show the superiority of the Christian dispensa- 
 tion over the Jewish, in a variety of respects ; asserting 
 that whatever there was that was much esteemed in the 
 institutions of Moses, there was something of the same 
 nature, and superior in kind, in the gospel of Christ. 
 
 From the researches of a recent writer upon the 
 Life and Writings of Paul, we gather the following 
 account of his subsequent history : — 
 
 " Clement, the disciple of St. Paul, mentioned in 
 Philippians, asserts that Paul previous to his martyr- 
 dom had taught throughout the whole Roman Empire 
 both in the East and in the West. We learn, there- 
 fore, that the trial of St. Paul before Nero resulted in 
 his acquittal, and that after regaining his liberty he 
 travelled first through Macedonia, visiting the Phil- 
 ippian church, and for the first time the church at 
 Colosse, Laodicea, and others in that region, and then 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 49 
 
 hastened on to Ephesus. Having accomplished the 
 object of his visit to Asia Minor, he was at length 
 enabled to undertake his long meditated journey to 
 Spain. There he remained about two years, estab- 
 lishing Christian churches along the Spanish coast, 
 and then returned to Ephesus. St. Paul's grief and 
 indignation were aroused on revisiting that city, at 
 beholding the commencement of those heresies which 
 convulsed the church in the succeeding century. 
 
 The city Nicopolis, in Epirus, which was chosen as 
 the last scene of the apostle's labors, before his final 
 imprisonment, is celebrated also as being founded by 
 Augustus, as a permanent memorial of the battle and 
 victory of Aetium, as it stood upon the site of the 
 camp occupied by his land forces. To people this 
 city, Augustus uprooted the neighboring mountaineers 
 from their native hills, forcing them by his arbitrary 
 compulsion from their healthy hills to this low and 
 swampy plain. 
 
 St. Paul was arrested at this place about midwinter, 
 and immediately sent to Eome. In this melancholy 
 journey he had but few friends to cheer him. Luke 
 remained faithful; he accompanied his master once 
 more over the winter sea, and shared the danger of 
 his imprisonment at Rome. This imprisonment was 
 evidently more severe than it had been live years 
 before. Now, he is not only chained, but treated as a 
 malefactor. His friends, indeed, are still suffered to 
 visit him in his confinement, but we hear nothing of 
 his preaching. It is dangerous to seek his prison; 
 5 
 
50 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 so perilous to show any public sympathy with him, 
 that no Christian ventures to stand by him in the 
 court of justice. Subsequent to his first imprison- 
 ment in Rome had occurred the immense conflagra- 
 tion which consumed about half the city, and which 
 was the act of Nero himself. But he, wishing to avert 
 the rage of the populace, had declared it the act of 
 the votaries of the new religion. Hence had ensued 
 that terrible imperial persecution which caused the 
 most cruel sufferings and death of a vast multitude of 
 Christians. One article of accusation against Paul 
 appears to have been the serious charge of having 
 instigated the Roman Christians to their supposed act 
 of incendiarism, before his last departure from the 
 capital. Probably, no long time elapsed after St. 
 Paul's arrival, before the hearing of his cause with 
 regard to this first charge came on, for on this occasion 
 he was not to be tried by the emperor in person. We 
 have an account of this trial from St. Paul's own pen. 
 He writes thus to Timothy, immediately after : " When 
 I was first heard in defence, no man stood by me, but 
 all forsook me. I pray that it be not laid to their 
 charge." 
 
 No advocate would venture to plead the apostle's 
 cause, no influential friend to appear as his supporter, 
 and deprecate, according to ancient usage, the severity 
 of the sentence. His earthly friends had forsaken 
 him, but his Heavenly Friend stood by him. He 
 spoke of Jesus, of his death and his resurrection, so 
 that all the Heathen multitude might hear ; for he 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 51 
 
 9 
 
 appears to have spoken before a crowded audience. 
 He successfully defended himself from the charge 
 brought against him of conspiracy with the incendiaries 
 of Rome. 
 
 He was delivered from the imminent peril, and 
 saved from an ignominious and painful death, from 
 which even the privilege of a Roman citizen might 
 not have exempted him, had he been convicted on 
 such a charge. He was now remanded to prison to 
 wait for the second stage of his trial. It seems that 
 he himself did not expect this to come on so soon as it 
 really did ; or, at any rate, he did not think the final 
 decision would be given till the following winter, 
 whereas it actually took place about midsummer. 
 The feelings with which he awaited the consumma- 
 tion, he has himself expressed in that sublime strain 
 of triumphant hope which is familiar to the memory of 
 every Christian, and which has nerved the hearts of 
 a thousand martyrs ; " I am ready to be offered and 
 the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought 
 the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept 
 the faith. Henceforth is laid up for me the crown of 
 righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, 
 shall give me in that day." Such were the blessed 
 and glorious hopes by which he was sustained. Yet, 
 even in these last hours, he clung to the fellowship of 
 early years ; the faithful companionship of Luke still 
 consoled him in the weary hours of constrained inac- 
 tivity, which, to a temper like his, must have made 
 the most painful part of his imprisonment. Luke was 
 
52 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 • 
 
 the only one of his habitual attendants who now 
 remained to minister to him ; his other companions, as 
 we have seen, had left him, probably before his arrival 
 at Eome. But one friend from Asia, Onesiphorus, 
 had diligently sought him out, and visited him in pri- 
 son, undeterred by fear of danger or shame. And 
 there were others, some of them high in station, who 
 came to receive from the chained malefactor blessings 
 infinitely greater than all the favors of the emperor 
 of the world. But, however he may have valued 
 these more recent friends, their society could not con- 
 sole him for the absence of one far dearer to him ; 
 he longed to see once more the face of Timothy, his 
 beloved son. 
 
 The disciple who had so long ministered to him 
 with filial affection, might still, he hoped, arrive in 
 time to receive his parting words, and be with him in 
 his dying hour. But Timothy was far distant, in Asia 
 Minor ; and although he wrote requesting him to come 
 with all speed to Rome, yet he felt that there was a 
 great probability that he might arrive too late. Lest 
 he should be prevented from giving him his last in- 
 structions face to face, he impresses upon him, with the 
 earnestness of a dying man, the various duties of his 
 ecclesiastical office, and especially that of opposing 
 the heresies which then threatened to destroy the 
 very essence of Christianity. 
 
 This was, probably the last epistle which was writ- 
 ten by the apostle Paul before his martyrdom.* 
 
 It is probable that Timothy reached Rome in time 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 53 
 
 to receive the parting commands of the dying apostle, 
 that he not only fearlessly obeyed his master's sum- 
 mons, but that he actually shared his chains, though 
 he escaped his fate; for in the Epistle to the He- 
 brews it is stated that Timothy had been liberated 
 from his imprisonment. Nero's death took place im- 
 mediately after that of St. Paul, which accounts for 
 the escape of Timothy. 
 
 We have no record of the final stage of the trial 
 of St. Paul, nor the precise nature .of the second 
 charge made against him. We only know that his 
 trial resulted in a sentence of capital punishment. 
 The privileges of Roman citizenship exempted St. 
 Paul from the ignominious death of lingering torture, 
 which had been lately inflicted on so many of his 
 brethren. He was to die by decapitation, and he was 
 led out to execution beyond the city walls ; as it was 
 the custom to send prisoners whose death might 
 attract too much notice in Pome, to some distance 
 from the city, under a military escort, for execution. 
 When that heroic soul was released from that feeble 
 body, weeping friends took up his corpse, and carried 
 it for burial to those subterranean labyrinths, where, 
 through many ages of oppression, the persecuted 
 Church found refuge for the living, and sepulchres for 
 the dead. Thus died the apostle, the prophet, and 
 the martyr ; thenceforth, among the noble army of 
 martyrs, among the glorious company of the apostles, 
 the name of Paul of Tarsus has stood preeminent. 
 
 The following remarks from a writer in a late 
 5* 
 
54 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 Review, present a just view of the importance of that 
 portion of the history of the early Christian Church 
 exhibited in the lifo and writings of St. Paul, and the 
 immense influence that the life of this wonderful man 
 exercised upon the world at that period : — 
 
 " The supreme agency of Paul in shaping the desti- 
 nies of early Christianity, is an agency which emerges 
 into ever clearer and more impressive relief, as criti- 
 cism demonstrates more and more the aspects and 
 movements of the apostolic time. What was the gospel 
 preached in the first ten years which succeeded the 
 birth of Christ? It was evidently and eminently a He- 
 brew gospel. Read the first chapters of the Acts of the 
 Apostles ; note the expositions given by Peter to the 
 Sanhedrim and to the people of Jerusalem, of Chris- 
 tianity, as he and his colleagues understood it. The 
 burden of his preaching is, that Christ is the son of Da- 
 vid, sprung from the royal stock of Israel, foretold by 
 their national prophets, and therefore entitled of right 
 to be their king ; that he would soon re-appear on the 
 earth for that purpose, and take possession of the 
 throne of his fathers ; that all who repented of their 
 sins, and were baptized in the name of 'Jesus Christ, 
 should be rescued from impending doom, and have 
 their place and part in the new kingdom, and that all 
 who would not receive him should be destroyed. ' Re- 
 pent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins 
 may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall 
 come from the presence of the Lord, whom the heav- 
 ens must receive until the times of restitution of 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 55 
 
 all things/ This was the first Christian gospel. It 
 was a national, Hebrew gospel. 
 
 "But the purpose of the Christian dispensation was 
 not to be accomplished in that way. Christianity meant 
 something more than the regeneration of the Jewish 
 people. A great step remained to be taken before 
 the gospel could fairly enter on its destined career. 
 It must first disengage itself from the narrow confine- 
 ment of Judaism, and go forth as a universal religion, 
 intended equally for all kindreds and nations. It 
 must be understood that in Christ there is neither 
 Jew, nor Greek, nor barbarian ; that all national limit- 
 ations and distinctions were merged and dissolved in 
 the Christian confession. ' One Lord, one faith, one 
 baptism ; ' that the promised kingdom was not for the 
 Jewish nation only, but for all mankind. So far as it 
 depended on the Galilean disciples, Christianity would 
 have remained a form of Judaism to this day. In 
 due season Providence sent a teacher competent to 
 unfold the gospel, to extend its mission, to divest it of 
 its nationality, and diffuse it through the world. That 
 teacher was Paul, a Jew by nation but not by birth, 
 a native of Asia Minor, and a Eoman citizen. He 
 was master of the Greek language, at that time the 
 language of the civilized world. He had imbibed the 
 better part of the culture of his time ; and that was 
 the most cultivated period of ancient history. He was 
 at once a thinker and an actor, a workingman and a phi- 
 losopher, a man of visions and a man of deeds. This 
 stranger becomes the chief interpreter of Christ to 
 
56 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 the nations. Henceforth he becomes the foremost 
 figure upon the stage in the Apostolic Church, and 
 occupies it almost to the exclusion of the other apos- 
 tles. Jerusalem with its doings, which before had 
 constituted the central interest, fades far into the back- 
 ground. The scene shifts and enlarges with every 
 act. Asia Minor, with its broad territories and popu- 
 lous cities, passes rapidly across the field of vision, 
 and finally, for the first time in Bible history, Europe, 
 still fresh and young, — wide-eyed nurse of letters 
 and arts, — becomes visible in the horizon, draws 
 rapidly nearer, and presently occupies the foreground 
 of the narrative. We have the apostle's own word, 
 that he did not after his conversion ' straightway 
 preach Christ in the synagogues;' that he i conferred 
 not with flesh and blood,' but went into Arabia, that 
 is, into the desert, in strict seclusion, there to meditate 
 and mature his convictions and his views. He would 
 not rashly take upon himself the work of an evangelist. 
 This gospel must be no second-hand doctrine. He 
 insists on his own original authority. ' Paul an 
 apostle, not by man nor of men, but by Jesus Christ 
 and God the Father.' His gospel was his own; 
 matured and perfected by independent thought, or 
 rather, as he claimed, received by direct and inde- 
 pendent communication with the mind of Christ. It 
 differed essentially in tone and spirit from the gospel 
 originally preached at Jerusalem, the gospel of the 
 Galileans. Its leading characteristics, as compared 
 with that, were liberty, universality, and spirituality ; 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 57 
 
 that is, emancipation from the ceremonial law, and the 
 spiritual unity of all men as one family in Christ, in- 
 stead of a political commonwealth of which Christ 
 was to be the visible head. 
 
 This, then, is the second gospel of the Christian 
 Church, and marks a new and important era in the 
 history of Christianity. It is not easy for us to esti- 
 mate the magnitude and the difficulty of the revolu- 
 tion accomplished by St. Paul, by which Christianity 
 passed from the tutelage of Judaism to freedom and 
 universality. The nearest approach we can make to 
 it in conception is, to suppose the mosque of Omar, in 
 modern Jerusalem, thrown open by the voluntary act 
 of the Moslem authorities to Jews and Christians ; 
 or, what is equally extravagant, to suppose the Roman 
 Catholic Church to give up her traditions, her infal- 
 libility, her keys, and to know no distinction henceforth 
 between Roman and Protestant ; or yet again, to sup- 
 pose an amendment of the Constitution of the United 
 States, by which women should partake of the elective 
 franchise, and be admitted to seats in the national con- 
 gress. Neither of these suppositions involves a greater 
 change, a wider departure from ancient custom, than 
 the passage from Judaism to the gospel preached by 
 Paul." 
 
 The earliest laborers in this mighty vineyard, one 
 by one passed away to their reward, many of them 
 receiving, at the fire and the stake, a quick release 
 from their labors. Peter the apostle, the Scripture 
 leaves at Antioch, probably about the year 50. After 
 
58 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 this he was employed in spreading the gospel princi- 
 pally among the Jews scattered through Pontus, Ga- 
 latia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. His two epis- 
 tles were directed to the Hebrew converts of these 
 countries. He was not so acceptable as Paul among 
 the Gentiles, though more so among his own coun- 
 trymen. It is supposed that he visited Rome about 
 the year 63. He suffered crucifixion under Nero, 
 with his head downward, because he felt himself un- 
 worthy to suffer in the same way in which his divine 
 master had suffered. Peter's wife had suffered mar- 
 tyrdom a little before himself. He saw her led to 
 death, and was enabled to rejoice in her steadfastness 
 to the Christian faith. Addressing her by name, he 
 exhorted her to be comforted by remembering the 
 Lord. 
 
 Of the apostle John a few valuable fragments re- 
 main, and only a few have been collected. He was 
 present at the council of Jerusalem, which was held 
 about the year 50, nor is it probable that he left the 
 land of Palestine before that time. Asia Minor was 
 the great field of his labors, particularly Ephesus, the 
 care of which church remained with him after the 
 death of the other apostles. This gentle and affec- 
 tionate Christian lived nearly a hundred years, and 
 was remarkable for the tenderness of his feelings and 
 love to all men. He was banished by Domitian, who 
 succceeded Nero, to the island of Patmos, where he 
 wrote the book of Revelation, or the Apocalypse. 
 After the death of Domitian he returned from Pat- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 59 
 
 mos, and governed the Asiatic churches. At the 
 request of the bishops he went to the neighboring 
 churches to ordain pastors and regulate the congrega- 
 tions. At one place upon his tour he met with a very- 
 interesting young man, whom he recommended to the 
 care of a particular pastor. The young man was 
 baptized, and for a while he lived like a Christian. 
 But after a time he grew idle, intemperate, and 
 dishonest, and at length became captain of a band of 
 robbers. Some time after, John had occasion to in- 
 quire of the pastor respecting this young man, and 
 heard of his apostacy, and that he dwelt in a moun- 
 tain opposite the church. The venerable apostle, full 
 of love to God and zeal for the souls of men, went to 
 the plain and exposed himself to be taken by the rob- 
 bers ; " Bring me," said he, " to your captain." The 
 latter, when he saw him coming, recognized the 
 apostle, and filled with shame fled. But the aged 
 disciple followed him, crying, "My son, why flyest 
 thou from thy father, unarmed and old ? Fear not ; 
 as yet there remaineth hope of salvation. Believe 
 me, Christ hath sent me." Hearing this, the young 
 man stood still, trembled, and wept bitterly. John 
 prayed and pleaded with him, and at last brought him 
 back to the society of Christians; nor did he leave 
 him until he found him fully restored to his former 
 standing. 
 
 There is another tradition related of this venerable 
 teacher. When he had become so aged as to be 
 unable to preach in public, his constantly repeated 
 
60 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 exhortation was, " Children, love one another ; " thus 
 intimating that the Christian religion universally 
 breathed tenderness, peace, and good will. 
 
 James the Greater was the first of the apostles who 
 suffered martyrdom. He was the son of Zebedee. 
 He fell a sacrifice to Herod Agrippa's desire to please 
 the Jews, who were so hostile to Christianity. Milner 
 the historian records of him the following anecdote: 
 " The man who had drawn him before the tribunal, 
 when he saw the readiness with which he submitted 
 to martyrdom, by one of those sudden conversions 
 not unfrequent amid the remarkable outpourings of 
 the Spirit, was himself turned to God, and confessed 
 Christ with cheerfulness. They were both led to exe- 
 cution, and on the way the accuser requested the apos- 
 tle's forgiveness, which he soon obtained. James turn- 
 ing to him answered, ' Peace be to thee,' and kissed 
 him ; and they were beheaded together." 
 
 The other James was the pastor of the church at 
 Jerusalem. He was preserved until a much later 
 period. His martyrdom took place about the year 
 62. His epistle was published a little before his 
 death. The name of Just was given him on ac- 
 count of his consistent life, his innocence and in- 
 tegrity. He humored the prejudices of the Jews, 
 submitted to many Jewish customs, and thus became 
 a much greater favorite than Paul. It is reported 
 that he was thrown by the Jews from the battlements 
 of the temple, and then dispatched with a fuller's 
 club, while on his knees, and in the act of praying for 
 his murderers. 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 61 
 
 Of Barnabas, the fellow-laborer of Paul, nothing is 
 known except what is recorded in Acts. "There" 
 says one, " we have an honorable encomium upon his 
 character, and a particular description of his joint 
 labors with Paul." 
 
 Luke was a physician, and resided at Antioch, the 
 capital of Syria. Whether he was a Jew or Gentile, 
 we do not know ; or whether he was converted through 
 the instrumentality of Paul's preaching at Antioch; 
 or whether he first met him at Troas. His notice of 
 himself as Paul's companion first began at Troas. 
 After that he is often spoken of as accompanying 
 him in various journeys; of course he was an eye- 
 witness of many events which he relates. He appears 
 to have retired into Greece, after Paul's first dismis- 
 sion by the Eoman emperor, and there to have writ- 
 ten the gospel which bears his name, and the Book of 
 Acts, about the year 63 or 64. 
 
 Mark was sister's son to Barnabas, the son of Mary, 
 a pious woman of Jerusalem. He was probably 
 brought up in Christianity from early life. "We are 
 told that Mark was one of those who were offended 
 at the words of Christ, recorded in the sixth chapter 
 of John, and then forsook him ; but was afterwards 
 recovered by means of Peter. After our Lord's 
 ascension, Mark for a time attended his uncle Barna- 
 bas with Paul, but afterwards left them, and returned 
 to Jerusalem. Paul appears to have been displeased 
 with him about this time, but probably his character 
 improved, for he subsequently speaks of him as hav- 
 6 
 
62 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 ing been profitable to him in the ministry; for he 
 seems to have been with him in his imprisonment in 
 62. It is uncertain when he came into Egypt, though 
 it is generally conceded that he founded the church 
 in Alexandria, and that he was buried there. 
 
 The North of Africa was, at this time, a highly 
 civilized region. In all its principal places the Chris- 
 tian faith was well planted. After the destruction 
 of the Jewish nation had almost ruined the city of 
 Jerusalem, the splendid city of Alexandria, the capital 
 of Egypt, became for a long period a central point of 
 importance to the Christian Church. It was, next to 
 Rome, the largest city in the world, and the commerce 
 of the East and of the Mediterranean made it the 
 largest commercial city. But it was particularly 
 distinguished as a university city, for the great ad- 
 vantages which it offered to the learned, and the 
 inducements it held out to scholars. Teachers and 
 scholars nocked thither from Rome, from Greece, and 
 indeed from all parts of the world. There was no 
 place where so many nations were represented among 
 the people. The commerce of the place increased 
 the facilities of access to it, and created the wealth 
 which endowed its museums and libraries. It was 
 in those days such as Paris is in these, although with- 
 out any political influence or any political interests. 
 People of leisure congregated there to be amused; 
 others to trade ; and others to study. It was at this 
 celebrated city that Mark probably wrote his gospel. 
 The style of this gospel is so simple, it avoids specu- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 63 
 
 lation so entirely, dealing wholly in narrative, that 
 the suggestion has been made that it was prepared 
 for young people particularly. It is certain that it 
 contains all the narratives of Jesus's dealing with 
 children, and that this can be said of no one of the 
 other gospels. The school of St. Mark was known 
 as the Catechetical School, or the school for those who 
 were advancing from the elements of Christian faith ; 
 as we should say, the school of the catechized. After 
 St. Mark's death it was continued by a number of 
 distinguished Christian teachers, and thus hearers and 
 teachers gradually came to regard Alexandria as a 
 centre of Christian learning. 
 
 St. Thomas preached in the same portion of the 
 world as St. Peter. Not only the Medes and Per- 
 sians, but the warlike Parthians, and the rude Bactri- 
 ans, heard from his lips the gospel ; and so he wan- 
 dered on until he came to India — to those shores 
 too distant even to have seen the eagles of Imperial 
 Eome. An early writer tells us, that at first he 
 shrank from visiting that land on account of the 
 rudeness of its people, till a vision bade him go on, 
 for it was his Lord's work ; and success crowned his 
 efforts. For ages the church he founded lived on, 
 cut off from the rest of the Christian world, and ut- 
 terly unknown. At length, in the sixteenth century, 
 the Portuguese visited the court of Malabar, and 
 found to their surprise a Christian nation, with more 
 than a hundred churches. "These churches," said 
 they, " belong to the Pope." — " Who is the Pope ? " 
 
64 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 replied the natives; "We never heard of him." They 
 refused to subscribe to the tenets of the Church of 
 Rome, or to adopt her form of service. The Inqui- 
 sition was thereupon established at Goa ; persecution 
 invaded these tranquil chinches, and some of their 
 clergy were seized and sentenced to death as heretics. 
 At a synod over which the Roman archbishop Me- 
 nezes presided, they were accused of the following 
 practices and opinions : That they had allowed mar- 
 riage ; that they acknowledged but two sacraments, 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; and that they neither 
 invoked saints, nor worshipped images, nor believed in 
 Purgatory. These heretical opinions they were re- 
 quired to abjure. The churches on the sea-coast were 
 thus compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of the 
 Pope, but they refused to pray in Latin and insisted 
 on retaining their own language and liturgy. " This 
 point," they said, "they would only give up with 
 their lives." The Pope, therefore, compromised with 
 them, and they retain their Syriac language, and have 
 a Syriac college to this day. These are called the 
 Syro-Roman Churches, and are principally situated 
 on the sea-coast. The churches in the interior, how- 
 ever, would not yield to Rome. They hid their books, 
 proclaimed eternal war against the Inquisition, and 
 fled to the mountains, where they sought the protec- 
 tion of the native princes, who had always been proud 
 of their alliance. Thus two centuries more passed 
 by, during which time no information was received 
 of these Christians in the interior, until the very 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 65 
 
 fact of their existence began to be doubted. At 
 length, in 1806, they were again discovered by Dr. 
 Buchanan, in his missionary travels. He found them 
 as they were described by the Portuguese, preserving 
 their purity and faith in the seclusion of the wilder- 
 ness. It was, too, a wide-spread church. " I have 
 now ascertained," writes Buchanan, " that there are 
 upwards of two hundred thousand Christians in the 
 south of India, besides the Syrians, who speak the 
 Malabar language." Such are " the Christians of 
 St. Thomas ; " and thus deeply did he plant the faith 
 amopg these crowded millions. To this day it exists, 
 and they who claim him as their spiritual father still 
 preserve traditions of his ministry, and point to the 
 place of his martyrdom an<J grave. 
 
 Nathaniel, who is sometimes called Bartholomew, 
 departed to the eastern shore of the Red Sea, where 
 many of his countrymen, after desolation had swept 
 over the city of their fathers, took refuge in the quiet 
 region of Arabia Felix. There, secluded from the 
 world, and enjoying all that nature in her richest 
 prodigality could pour around them, they might learn 
 to forget the sorrows which had overwhelmed their 
 land. There, too, those who had adopted the new 
 faith, could live in the public profession of their creed 
 unmolested by the narrow bigotry of their countrymen 
 who still clung to the ancient covenant. Thus the 
 wild Arabian tribes which had never bowed to mortal 
 man, were taught by this apostle to take upon them 
 the yoke of the humble Galilean. From thence he 
 6* 
 
66 STRUGGLES OP THE 
 
 went into Lycaonia, whose people, St. Chrysostom tells 
 us, he instructed and trained up in the Christian dis- 
 cipline. At last he travelled on to Armenia the 
 great, and there this "Israelite in whom was no 
 guile " closed his earthly wanderings. 
 
 To St. Philip was committed the task of founding 
 the Church among the Phrygians ; a duty most 
 difficult to perform, because there, through all the 
 days of their Paganism, the religious emotions, when 
 not entirely dormant, seem to have exhibited them- 
 selves in the wildest excitement. 
 
 Egypt, as has been stated, received the gospel from 
 St. Mark. The north of Africa claims St. Simon as 
 its apostle, and nowhere does the new religion seem to 
 have taken deeper root or been more deeply riveted 
 in the minds of the people. The religion of ancient 
 Carthage had perished with the city, and the inhabi- 
 tants had no sympathy with the dreamy mysticism of 
 the East ; every thing about them was earnest and 
 practical. They seized with eagerness on the grand 
 truths of Christianity ; there was something in its 
 lofty revelations which accorded well with the genius 
 of those" high-wrought spirits of the tropics ; and in 
 every page they wrote, and in every conflict in which 
 they engaged for their faith, we seem to trace the 
 influence of their burning climate. The land now so 
 thinly peopled was then crowded with teeming mil- 
 lions ; and thousands of churches arose, where, in our 
 day, the Moslem's prayers are sounding morning and 
 evening. The conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 67 
 
 by Philip the deacon, carried the influence of Chris- 
 tianity to the court of Candace, Queen of Meroe. 
 Tradition tells us that her treasurer, on his return, 
 unfolded to her riches greater than those of this world 
 which she had committed to his care ; and then, by 
 her permission, he propagated the faith throughout 
 Ethiopia, until meeting with St. Matthew, the apostle, 
 by their joint endeavors idolatry was expelled from 
 the country. Thus, even in the first age, many a 
 wild and mysterious land had its apostle, who be- 
 queathed to it the remembrance of his spiritual tri- 
 umphs and his cruel death. 
 
 It is difficult to realize the severe contest which 
 Christianity waged with Judaism, with barbarism, and 
 with that beautiful classical mythology which was 
 nowhere so powerful as under the protection of Pagan 
 Rome. 
 
 We should become acquainted with those peculiar 
 features of Judaism which so enlisted all the feelings 
 and prejudices of its followers, and rendered them so 
 deaf to every argument brought against it. One of 
 these was the exclusive nature of its rites. The Jews 
 felt that they occupied a peculiar position in the world ; 
 that God had selected them to be the special guar- 
 dians of his truth ; and that whenever they wandered 
 from it, retribution followed in their steps. With the 
 Jew alone the Divine Unity was the very ground- 
 work of his creed, and a truth distinctly recognized 
 by every class, from the learned Rabbi in the courts 
 of the sanctuary, to the humblest vine dresser on the 
 
68 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 hills of Hebron. Alone among all the nations of the 
 earth, their temple held no " graven image." They 
 were withdrawn from the rest of their fellow beings 
 by isolating themselves amidst a multitude of rites and 
 ceremonies. And how much there was to enlist the 
 attachment of the worshippers. Solemn as were the 
 sanctions of their faith, there was much in its festivals 
 which was joyous, and calculated to brighten the chain 
 of brotherhood which linked together their distant 
 tribes. See them in the autumn when, the vintage 
 over, the feast of Tabernacles called them to rejoice ! 
 When the gardens and fields had begun to assume 
 the sear and yellow hue of the declining year, the 
 palm, the fir, the myrtle, and the pomegranate were 
 compelled to yield their more durable foliage ; and 
 when the evening star appeared in heaven above the 
 western sea, every family, after the customary ablu- 
 tions, left its dwelling to occupy its tabernacle, thus 
 commemorating the years their fathers dwelt in tents 
 during their passage through the wilderness. The 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem beheld at once thousands of 
 lamps sparkling on the Mount of Olives, in the vale 
 of Kedron, and on the roofs of the houses in their 
 city. The gentle breeze which stirred the leaves of 
 their bowers, brought on its wings the sounds of fes- 
 tivity and mutual congratulations, as they echoed on 
 every side amidst the music of the harp and cymbal. 
 It was a season of universal rejoicing ; and each year, 
 as the sacred festival came round, renewed the scene 
 witnessed at its first celebration after the captivity. 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 69 
 
 Still more striking was the yearly gathering of 
 the people at Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover. 
 To the hill of God they turned with gladness as this 
 solemn festival draw nigh. It was not the simultane- 
 ous moving of the population of a single country, — 
 not even the gathered worshippers from each district 
 and village of Palestine, — but the confluence of 
 countless multitudes of pilgrims from every quarter 
 of the world ; for the dispersed Jews had planted 
 their law in its remotest extremities, and all its pro- 
 selytes, at least once in their lives, presented them- 
 selves to pay their homage at that temple which was 
 to them the only earthly shrine of their faith. As 
 the feast drew nigh, the highways which led to the 
 Holy City were filled as by one living torrent ; and 
 Josephus, from the number of paschal lambs sacrificed 
 on one of those solemn occasions, lias estimated the 
 .pilgrims and residents at Jerusalem at nearly three 
 millions. 
 
 The rolling onward of countless and gathering 
 masses of population to some of the temples in 
 India , the caravans from all quarters of the Eastern 
 World which assemble at Mecca during the Holy 
 Season, do not surpass, perhaps scarcely equal, the 
 sudden, simultaneous confluence towards the capital 
 of Judea at the time of the Passover. It was indeed 
 a magnificent spectacle, well calculated to awaken 
 in the breast of the Jew every feeling of national 
 pride, both for his country and his faith. 
 
70 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 The sun is rising over Hebron, its earliest beams 
 lighting up the lofty palm-trees at the gates, when 
 every family is in motion, for the procession is about 
 to set forth to Jerusalem. The priests and elders* 
 head the train; the people follow, interspersed with 
 their camels and beasts of burden ; while the Le- 
 vites, with their instruments of music, are distributed 
 among the multitude. At length the signal is given, 
 and as they set forth together they raise the Psalm, 
 " I was glad when they said unto me, We will go 
 into the house of the Lord ! " etc. It rises like " the 
 noise of many waters," for a soul-felt exultation ani- 
 mates the voices of old and young. It was on such 
 occasions only that the true sublimity and beauty of 
 the Jewish poetry could be felt, when the harp and viol 
 were heard, the tabret, the cymbal, and the stringed 
 instruments mingled with the voices of the living 
 multitude. They were a people indeed who im- 
 bibed a love of music with the air they breathed, 
 and whose very climate seemed to dispose them to 
 harmony. The glorious anthems, too, which they 
 chanted — anthems which taught as much as they 
 elevated — were those composed by their warrior 
 king. 
 
 At every town and village to which the procession 
 came, it was received with shouts of joy. With the 
 proverbial hospitality of the East, before the door 
 of every house tables were standing, with dates, and 
 honey, and bread, to refresh th° pilgrims. At the 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 71 
 
 junction of the roads, in the fields, and at the en- 
 trance of each town, new crowds were waiting to 
 join themselves to the long procession. 
 
 And thus the pilgrims from Hebron journeyed on, 
 their trains sometimes covering both the ascent and 
 descent of the hill, spreading over the plain, and 
 winding like a wreath around the hill beyond. At 
 length, descending a lofty elevation, whose sides were 
 covered with vines, they beheld before them in the 
 valley the Pools of Solomon. Then they halted, 
 and the following Psalm was sung ; " How lovely 
 are thy tabernacles, Lord of Hosts," etc. Here 
 they remained during the heat of midday, beneath 
 the shade of the double rows of pahns, which had 
 been planted around the pools, and as they drank the 
 refreshing draught of the cool rock-water, they blessed 
 the memory of the king. 
 
 From the pools of Solomon they took their way 
 through the hills to Bethlehem, continual accessions 
 swelling their number, until it amounted to thou- 
 sands. Beautiful, indeed, was the view from the 
 rocky ridge on which stands the city of David. The 
 amphitheatre which stretches around embraces the 
 region about Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the plain of 
 the valley of Kephaim. The Kedron flows through 
 its fields, fruitful as the garden of the Lord, and all 
 are thickly set with olive and fig trees, with vines 
 and f corn. All who could, went through Bethlehem 
 on their way to the feast at Jerusalem. And here, 
 in his birth-place, the warrior-bard was commem- 
 
72 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 orated in the Psalm, " Lord, remember David," 
 etc. A short distance only now separated them 
 from Jerusalem, and as their eager haste increased 
 at every step, their impatience found utterance in 
 the Psalm, " Great is the Lord, and greatly to be 
 praised, in the city of our God, even upon His Holy 
 Hill." 
 
 Expectation had now reached its height. It was 
 too great even to allow its expression in words, but 
 all were silently watching for the first sight of Jeru- 
 salem. A faint murmur spread from rank to rank as 
 they were pressing eagerly forward. All at once the 
 foremost exclaimed — " Jerusalem ! " And through 
 the valley of Rephaim resounded the shout — " Jeru- 
 salem ! Jerusalem ! " All rushed onward to the brow 
 of the hill ;' every hand was raised to bless the place 
 of Zion's solemnities, and from every heart and tongue 
 uprose the anthem : " Jerusalem, thou city built on 
 high ! We wish thee peace ! " 
 
 Then rose the Holy City, and above it the daz- 
 zling glory of that temple which once covered the 
 heights of the Mount of Vision. Its walls of purest 
 marble cast a gleam through the valley. Court 
 above court it circled round the mount like a suc- 
 cession of diadems, its alabaster porticoes, its por- 
 phyry pillars, and richly sculptured walls, and above 
 all, that shrine which contained the holy of holies, 
 the very palace of the King of kings. Built of the 
 most precious marbles, it glittered in the light, and 
 as the setting sun sank beneath the western hills, his 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 73 
 
 rays flashed back from the pinnacles of gold and 
 burnished plates which cased its roof. It was the 
 hour of the evening sacrifice ; the trumpet had 
 already sounded, and slowly the smoke of the sacri- 
 fice rose up to heaven, till, spreading out above, it 
 seemed like some gigantic palm in the clearness of 
 that Eastern sky. A few moments and the as- 
 sembled multitudes had recovered from their surprise, 
 when they thus paid their salutation to the temple 
 and its priests : " Bless ye the Lord, all ye servants 
 of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the 
 Lord." 
 
 But above all, the solemnities of the temple itself 
 were those which most appealed to every feeling of 
 reverence in the Jew. The Israelite entered through 
 the beautiful gate, and before him were the different 
 courts, separated by porphyry pillars, and the many 
 stately buildings for the priests and officers of the 
 temple. Every material employed was costly and 
 rare. Gold and the finest marble glittered on every 
 side. He turned, and behind him, through the open 
 colonnades, beheld the rich landscape which, like an 
 amphitheatre, stretched around the Holy City. There, 
 on the one side, was Bethlehem, with its lovely 
 slopes, covered with vineyards and orange-groves, 
 and on the other, the green sides of the Mount of 
 Olives ; and the eye wandered on, till in the dis- 
 tance it saw the mountains of Gilgal, which over- 
 looked the rich valley of the Jordan. 
 
 But in the tabernacle itself the Israelite realized 
 7 
 
74 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 that he stood in the presence of God. The altar was 
 the throne, and every thing around displayed the 
 rich pomp and beautiful ornaments which deck the 
 court of an earthly monarch ; the embroidered tap- 
 estry, the fine linen, the golden-branched lights, 
 the transparent curtains, and the fuming incense. 
 There were the dedicated loaves on the table of 
 gold ; the vases holding " the strong wine to be 
 poured unto the Lord," and the -flesh, ever renewed 
 on the sacrificial altar. It seemed to be for the 
 banquet of a monarch, yet it was ever inviolable, 
 forever renewed, yet forever untouched. The veil 
 which was never to be lifted ; the cherubims spread- 
 ing their mystical wings ; the propitiatory, where 
 the cloud of glory hung over " the Holy of Holies," 
 every object around re-awakened in the mind of the 
 Israelite the recollection that the palace of his 
 sovereign was the temple of his God. How nu- 
 merous, too, the attendants in this court, who served 
 before the throne, and performed that ritual whose 
 grandeur has never been surpassed. The Levites 
 ministered by turns, in four and twenty courses of a 
 thousand each. Four thousand more performed the 
 lower offices, while four thousand singers with their 
 musical instruments supplied that rich harmony which 
 ever floated out from the hill of Zion's solemnities, 
 and, borne on the wings of the wind over the Holy 
 City, was a ceaseless invitation to its people to come 
 up and worship. And with what reverence did the 
 Jews regard him who stood at the head of this conse- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 75 
 
 crated band, the High Priest, when on solemn fes- 
 tivals he came forth in the gorgeous robes which 
 God himself had prescribed ! 
 
 Such was the gorgeous and impressive ceremonial 
 of the Jewish Temple. And should all this give 
 way to the simple and severe worship of the Christ- 
 ian Church? Every where and at all hours, was 
 their law, or some symbol of their law, kept in their 
 sight. It was variously worn on their persons ; it 
 was nailed to the door-posts of their habitations ; 
 it formed their daily occupations in the morning, the 
 noon, and the evening sacrifice. Their great fes- 
 tivals were connected with the productions of every 
 season. The Passover could not be kept till their 
 flocks furnished the paschal lamb ; the Pentecost 
 till the wheat had ripened, for the fresh loaves of 
 propitiation; and the thick boughs and branches 
 could not cover their tabernacles till they had gath- 
 ered in their vineyards and their olive-grounds. The 
 Israelites were reminded of their religious festivals 
 by the living commemorations of nature. 
 
 We can easily, therefore, imagine how entirely 
 the Jew must have changed his nature when all this 
 was renounced, and he turned from the countless 
 associations of his former life to begin a new ex- 
 istence. 
 
 There was one consideration which, more than any 
 other, tended to array the Jews against the reception 
 of Jesus of Nazareth. We refer to the preconceived 
 notions of the Messiah which they had adopted. 
 
76 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 They were too earthly and sensual to conceive of 
 that mysterious Being as only a spiritual reformer. 
 In the gorgeous visions of Isaiah " he was arrrayed 
 before them as a mighty conqueror, travelling in the 
 greatness of his strength, treading down his enemies 
 in his anger, and trampling them in his fury, — their 
 blood sprinkled upon his garments, and staining all 
 his raiment." And this harmonized too well with that 
 brooding hope of vengeance on their oppressors 
 which slumbered in the heart of every Jew, and 
 quickened into life his religious fanaticism, to render 
 them able to think of their deliverer in any more 
 peaceful character. Every thing about the great de- 
 liverer was national and exclusive. The Holy City 
 was to be the centre of his government, and there he 
 was to reassemble all the scattered descendants of the 
 tribes and expel their barbarous and foreign rulers. 
 Christianity proclaimed that Judaism was intended 
 only for the childhood of the human race ; but now 
 " the fullness of time" had come, and its mission was 
 fulfilled. With the Pharisee, the new faith poured 
 contempt upon his boasted learning, and swept away 
 the long list of traditions which ages had been 
 hoarding up. The lawyers, the interpreters of the 
 sacred books, were filled with dismay, while they 
 listened to one who assumed authority over the di- 
 vinely inspired attributes of their ancient lawgiver, 
 while the Sadducee felt that the very existence of 
 his sect depended on the defeat of Christianity. To 
 allay that passionate jealousy with which the people 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 77 
 
 looked upon the ceremonial law, was smiting to the 
 ground that majestic fabric which ages had been 
 rearing into symmetry and beauty; and with it, of 
 course, fell the power and influence of its teachers. 
 
 And to whom were they to yield the sceptre of 
 their power ? Who were to fill the lofty seats they 
 were called to abandon ? A peasant of Galilee, with 
 his disciples, fishermen and tax-gatherers. Can we 
 wonder, then, that every feeling and passion was 
 aroused to action ? That habit, and pride, and in- 
 terest, all united to awaken their animosity against 
 the rising faith ? Christianity utterly set at defiance 
 all the grades and honors of earthly life. In the 
 awards of the coming world, the despised and down- 
 trodden Helot might inherit a brighter crown than 
 that assigned to the master of imperial Rome. This 
 faith was equally adapted to every country and clime. 
 It was to spread its cheering rays over the snows 
 of the North, and hold its cup of blessing to the 
 panting savage beneath the tropics. Nothing could 
 be conceived more utterly opposed to the narrow 
 spirit of Jewish prejudices. It was a long time, in- 
 deed, before the apostles themselves could learn to 
 look beyond the barriers which education had built 
 up around them. They were continually startled by 
 our Lord's revelations ; wavering and fluctuating in 
 their faith, and attempting in vain to reconcile his 
 declarations with their own deeply seated erroneous 
 views. We see in every action their exclusive Jew- 
 ish feelings. 
 
 7* 
 
78 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 The Pagan as well as the Jew recognized the 
 utter overthrow of his own long cherished faith in 
 the triumph of Christianity. We cannot read the 
 writers of that day without realizing that the whole 
 life of the Heathen was directed and regulated by the 
 spirit of Polytheism. He could not escape from its 
 all-pervading influence. All the grave affairs of state 
 were ushered in by its ceremonial. The Senate, 
 whose meetings were always held in a temple or 
 consecrated place, commenced its deliberations with 
 a sacrifice, and each Senator, before he entered on 
 business, dropped some wine or frankincense on the 
 altar. The gods were appealed to as the arbiters of 
 battle, and in the centre of the camp was always 
 erected a consecrated shrine. When the Heathen 
 traveled on the land he was under the protection of 
 one divinity, and on the sea, of another. When he 
 entered his home he passed at once into the protection 
 of his household divinities and the ancestral gods of 
 his family, or tribe, which presided over his domestic 
 hearth. To the influence of these capricious deities 
 they referred the drought and the mildew which 
 blighted their fields, the murrain which swept away 
 their cattle, and the swarms of locusts which in an 
 hour destroyed the hopes of the husbandman. In every 
 field and garden were found their statues ; their shrines 
 were erected by every fountain and in every grove. 
 
 To the spirit of poetry which pervaded ancient 
 Heathenism we may attribute its wide-spread influ- 
 ence. To its votaries, Naiads were sporting in every 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 79 
 
 fountain, and the voices of the Dryads were heard 
 in the echoes of the woods. When the leaves 
 trembled on the branches, as the winds swept by ? 
 they were shaken by the Invisible God ; and with 
 hesitating step they entered the silent grotto, or trod 
 the aisles of the dark forest, because these were 
 especially the homes of the deities. When the blos- 
 som delighted them with its fragrance, Aurora had 
 nourished it with her tears, and Zephyr expanded it 
 with her breath. The rich clustering grapes were 
 the gift of Bacchus ; and for the bending harvest 
 and the golden fruits of autumn they were indebted to 
 the benignity of Ceres and Pomona. The very lights 
 of heaven were but the radiance of the gods. In 
 the revolutions of the sun they saw the path of 
 Phoebus, as, seated in his car of fire, and borne along 
 by immortal steeds, he daily circled round the world, 
 and poured light and joy over the universe. The 
 sea, too, had its rulers. In its coral palaces, Thetis 
 and her nymphs held their mysterious revels ; while 
 through the blue waters the long-haired Triton floated 
 in his car of pearl, and guided some favored bark 
 away from the whirlpool or the rock. Thus, over 
 the whole face of the land brooded the spirit of Pa- 
 ganism ; and to the believers in this ancient creed it 
 was not only a matter of poetic imagination, but of" 
 actual faith. Can we wonder then that the Heathen 
 shrank from Christianity when it called him to give 
 up those graceful superstitions which were never* 
 silent, which were so entwined with the actions of* 
 
80 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 his life as to become a part of life itself? To him, 
 the sublime faith of the Nazarene was not only 
 cheerless, but impious, because it swept away the 
 countless deities whose altars filled the earth. 
 
 He but little comprehends the true spirit of Pa- 
 ganism who scornfully looks upon it as an array of 
 gross and unmeaning superstitions. Still less does 
 he understand the magnitude of that contest which 
 Christianity was obliged to wage with it. False as 
 the ancient mythology was, it supplied a longing 
 which the heart of man must ever feel for something 
 higher than earth affords on which to repose. And 
 this faith, perhaps by the very dimness with which it 
 portrayed another world, incited to cheerfulness and 
 pleasure in the present life. There was no bright 
 picture of the reward hereafter, and, therefore, hemmed 
 in by darkening shadows which the eye could not 
 penetrate, they clung to this existence, and endeav- 
 ored to crowd into its narrow limits all the enjoy- 
 ments of which life is susceptible. Life to them was 
 precious as a season of enjoyment, and they made 
 the most of it. The teeming earth was to them 
 only a place in which to trade and barter for a 
 few years ; its paths were worn by the footsteps 
 of those who had gone before; the heavens above 
 addressed no lesson to their hearts ; and all was "of 
 the earth earthly." They felt that when they had 
 trodden for a time the same dull round, they too 
 must go, they knew not whither. Is it strange, then, 
 that they grasped at the cup of pleasure which was 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 81 
 
 within their reach and with no elevating hopes in the 
 future sank to that degradation which characterized 
 the Corinthians whose maxim was, " Let us eat and 
 drink ; for to-morrow we die." Life beyond the grave 
 had hitherto been a thing hoped for, but not assured. 
 Unsanctioned by any divine authority, that hope 
 never sank into the hearts of the people, nor became 
 a principle of action. But Christianity unveiled to 
 them an existence " unmeasured by the flight of 
 years." It taught them that this life is but the germ 
 of another, and that not until that other has dawned 
 upon us will all things have their fullness and com- 
 pletion. It revealed a pure and unsensual heaven 
 for the just, and seizing on the actions of this present 
 existence, gave them dignity by linking them to the 
 next, and showing that even there they had their 
 influence. Thus it converted speculation into cer- 
 tainty, and proved that the soul did not yearn in vain, 
 when visions of an immortality flitted before it. 
 
 Until the reign of Nero the Roman emperors had 
 done nothing that was hostile to Christianity, hav- 
 ing probably regarded the Christians as a sect of 
 the Jews, with whose customs merely they were well 
 acquainted, and whom they had always tolerated in 
 all the provinces of the empire. But the enmity 
 which the Jews manifested towards them, made it 
 apparent, after a while, that they were a distinct 
 body of men. The proselytes made by the Jews 
 were few compared with those that were made by 
 the Christians ; those converts were so numerous, 
 
82 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 that it began to be apprehended by the Roman 
 authorities that there might be some danger of the 
 discontinuance of the rites of the Heathen religion, 
 upon the observance of which it was imagined the 
 welfare of the state depended. 
 
 It was during the year following Paul's first im- 
 prisonment in Rome, and after he had left that city, 
 that the fatal fire occurred which enveloped in ruin 
 all the ancient grancFeur of the Eternal City. About 
 A. D. 64, the emperor Nero wantonly set fire to 
 the city of Rome, and taking advantage of the pop- 
 ular prejudice against the Christians he caused the 
 report to be circulated that it was done by them ; 
 and although no credit was given to the accusation, 
 yet, under that pretence, he practised upon them, with 
 the concurrence of the people, the most shocking 
 barbarities. They were imprisoned and tortured. 
 Some were crucified, and others were impaled, being 
 held in an upright position by stakes thrust through 
 their jaws; some were thrown to the wild beasts. 
 Great numbers of them were wrapped in garments 
 dipped in pitch, and other combustibles, fastened to 
 posts, and set on fire, that they might give light 
 to the city, and so expired in most excruciating agony. 
 Nero is said to have illuminated his own gardens in 
 this shocking manner, and by this light to have 
 amused himself in driving his chariot. In this perse- 
 cution the tender sex was not spared, and notwith- 
 standing the general odium existing against the Christ- 
 ians, these cruelties excited the compassion of many, 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 83 
 
 who could not but perceive that these sacrifices were 
 made to gratify the cruelty and caprice of one man. 
 
 Nero had been declared Emperor at the age of 
 seventeen. A boy of fine abilities, grandson of an 
 emperor and son of an ambitious mother, he had 
 received the best education which could be had at 
 Rome. His mother was the beautiful Agrippina. 
 When he began his reign his principal ministers 
 were Seneca and Burrhus; the first the most dis- 
 tinguished philosopher, and the other the best soldier 
 of the time. Under their care the empire flourished, 
 and it was thought that Nero would be the most hu- 
 mane and generous prince ever known. So little can 
 we predict of the future of a boy of seventeen. 
 Seneca, his tutor, did not dare, and his mother did not 
 care, to restrict him in the indulgence of his appe- 
 tites or passions, and to the unlimited gratification 
 of appetite and passion he surrendered himself. So 
 utterly abandoned to vice and licentiousness in every 
 form did he become, that in four or five years, just 
 about the time Paul arrived in Italy, the prosperous 
 period of Nero's reign was at an end, and Rome began 
 to realize that her chief ruler was a cowardly, licenti- 
 ous, cruel drunkard, whose vices were hurrying him to 
 insanity, and who was employing the power intrusted 
 to him in compassing the overthrow of those by 
 whose help he had attained it. 
 
 At the beautiful watering place of Baiae was the 
 summer residence of the emperor. In the spring of 
 A.D. 60, being then at Baiae, he sent to his mother 
 
84 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 an invitation to visit him, that they might effect a 
 reconciliation ; for there had been a bitter and grow- 
 ing jealousy between him and his beautiful but 
 wicked mother. Agrippina gladly accepted the invi- 
 tation, and came to Baiae to celebrate with him the 
 feasts of Minerva, which occupied part of the last 
 half of March. She came by water. Nero met her 
 affectionately at the shore, took her by the hand and 
 embraced her, and walked with her to the villa, 
 where she was to take a barge on the lake of Baiae 
 for the palace where she was to stay. There she and 
 her son passed the afternoon in conversation. At 
 last be bade her adieu, with more warmth than 
 seemed quite natural at a parting which was to be 
 of a few hours duration only. Whether his object in 
 so doing was to keep up the delusion in her mind that 
 this was indeed a reconciliation, or whether his heart 
 melted at the thought of the crime he was about to 
 perpetrate, is uncertain. The barge in which she 
 was to embark, adorned with great pomp as for an 
 empress, had been carefully arranged, so that at a 
 signal given the roof of the cabin should fall upon 
 and crush all who were within. By this plan the 
 Inhuman monster intended to effect the murder of 
 his mother, without subjecting himself to the suspi- 
 cion of being her murderer. Upon the lake there 
 would be few witnesses, and the occurrence would 
 be placed to the account of shipwreck, or accident. 
 Of course he did not take passage himself on the 
 fated vessel ; but, after bidding her an affectionate 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 85 
 
 farewell, he retired to his own palace to await the 
 result. 
 
 The night was clear, and the stars bright. Agrip- 
 pina lay on her couch in her cabin, talking cheerfully 
 with her attendants of her son's regret for what had 
 passed, and the renewal of their friendship, when of a 
 sudden the deck above them fell in. It was heavily 
 laden with lead, and crushed to death the officer to 
 whom she was talking; but so lodged on the high 
 sides of her own couch, which were stronger than 
 they were intended to be, that she escaped. Acerro- 
 nia, her lady in waiting, escaped also. The sailors 
 cried out that the barge was sinking. The women 
 both plunged into the water, seeing or suspecting that 
 death awaited them upon the vessel. The men around 
 sprang forward, ready to do their master's bidding in 
 a less clumsy and more certain manner ; but Acer- 
 ronia, this faithful friend of the empress, with a wo- 
 man's will and a woman's devotedness, drew on her 
 own head the blows and stabs of the murderers, by 
 crying aloud, as if drowning, " Save me, — I am 
 Nero's mother." Uttering those words t she was 
 killed, while the Empress in safer silence, buoyed up 
 by fragments of the wreck, floated to the shore. 
 
 Nero, thwarted in his secret attempt upon the life 
 of his mother, the next day after her escape sent a 
 guard of soldiers to her palace ; and there, where she 
 was deserted even by her last attendant, without pre- 
 tence of secrecy, she was put to death. Thus perished 
 the daughter and mother of a Caesar. 
 8 
 
86 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 Fearing sedition in the army after his commission 
 of such a crime, Nero wrote to the Senate, declaring 
 that he had ordered that Agrippina should be killed 
 only when he had arrested an assassin whom she sent 
 to murder him. The Senate was merely a tool in his 
 hands, and thanks were voted to the gods for his 
 success. An annual festival was appointed in honor 
 of his murder of his mother ; and it was ordered that 
 her birthday should always be regarded as an un- 
 lucky day, in which no business of state should be 
 entered upon. Nero received intelligence of this 
 decree, which somewhat quieted his fears. The peo- 
 ple came out in their organized bodies as electors to 
 meet him ; the senate joined in the procession, ar- 
 rayed in the dresses worn on occasions of a festival ; 
 bands of women and children were arrange in the 
 order of sex and age, and seats raised on each side 
 above the way by which he came, that they might 
 witness his triumphal entrance. Thus proudly, the 
 ruler of an enslaved people, he went as a triumph- 
 ant conqueror to the capital, and rendered thanks, 
 and then plunged into every species of wickedness, 
 from which, until that time, respect for his mother 
 had in some slight degree restrained him. 
 
 Seneca, who was minister of state at this period, 
 must not be overlooked. As Nero concentrated all 
 the power of the time, so Seneca was the embodi- 
 ment of its learning. He had introduced Nero into 
 power, had restrained his madness when he could, 
 and with his colleague had conducted the general 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 87 
 
 administration of the Empire with the greatest honor, 
 while the boy was wearing out his life in dissipation 
 in the palace. Seneca dared say more to Nero, to 
 venture more with him, than did any other man of 
 those around him. Yet Seneca's system was a cow- 
 ardly system, although it was the best of Roman 
 morality. All that Seneca's boldness dared was to 
 seduce the tyrant into the exercise of the least inju- 
 rious of tyrannies. From the plunder of a province 
 he diverted his attention with the carnage of the 
 circus ; from the ruin of the empire, with the ruin of 
 a noble family. He could only warn him from vice 
 for selfish reasons. He had not, what Paul had, 
 motives to offer. He could not tell him what God 
 made him for, what God wished of him, nor like the 
 Christian Paul declare that the empire of God was 
 all around him, close at. hand, to which he the tyrant, 
 Seneca the philosopher, and Paul the prisoner were 
 alike subjects. 
 
 Neither had Seneca power to arrest the first pub- 
 lic persecution of the Christians which Nero ordered 
 after the conflagration of the city of Rome. They 
 were dragged before magistrates, as Jesus had proph- 
 esied they would be, and were called upon to renounce 
 their faith. In most instances they stood firm. They 
 suffered death, and death in extreme torture, rather 
 than deny their Redeemer. From their testimony, 
 given with so much courage, the cause of Christianity 
 has gained more than in any other way ; and there- 
 fore it has become a proverb, that " the blood of the 
 
88 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 martyrs is the seed of the Church." The death of 
 Nero, and the destruction of Jerusalem, put a stop to 
 the persecution of the Christians. Three or four 
 years was probably the extent of this persecution, as 
 in A.D. 68 this tyrant was called to account for all 
 his horrid barbarities. 
 
 The awful sufferings that were endured in Jerusa- 
 lem, the city without whose gates our Saviour was 
 crucified, are probably without a parallel in the his- 
 tory of nations. Although a narration of the de- 
 struction of this celebrated city may not be considered 
 as coming legitimately within the scope of a history of 
 the struggles of the early Christians, yet, as it forms 
 so important a part of the history of this period, a 
 clear understanding of its wonderful overthrow, and 
 of the causes which led to it, cannot but prove in- 
 teresting and useful. 
 
 About one hundred and sixty years before Christ, 
 the Jews, being then greasy oppressed by the kings 
 of Syria, sent a message to the Romans, for their 
 assistance. A treaty for mutual aid and defence was 
 made, and was continued for a long time. At length, 
 some sixty years before Christ, two of the Jews, 
 Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, became involved in a con- 
 test as to which of them was entitled to the sover- 
 eignty, and finally agreed to submit the question to 
 the decision of the Roman general, Pompey, who 
 was then near Judea. But afterwards, Aristobulus 
 withdrew from that agreement, and went on to pre- 
 pare for war. Pompey, thereupon, to bring him to 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 89 
 
 submission, marched his forces to Jerusalem, and 
 took the city after a siege of three months. The 
 Romans exacted the payment of a large tribute, per- 
 mitted Hyrcanus to remain as the principal ruler, 
 and carried Aristobulus prisoner to Rome. 
 
 Thus things continued, with some slight changes, 
 till forty years before Christ, when Herod the Great 
 was made king of the Jews ; though he was in some 
 degree subject to the Romans, and accountable to 
 them for the manner in which he administered the 
 government. But although then made king, it was 
 nearly three years before he brought the whole coun- 
 try under his sway, which he finally accomplished by 
 taking Jerusalem, which was again overrun by a con- 
 quering army. Herod was succeeded by his son 
 Archelaus. He reigned about ten years, and was a 
 very cruel and oppressive ruler ; so much so that the 
 Jews sent messengers to Rome to complain of him, 
 and accuse him before the Emperor Augustus. He 
 could not defend himself from those accusations, and 
 was condemned, and banished to France. At the 
 same time, Publius Sulpitius Quirinius, the one who 
 is called Cyrenius by Luke, was sent to organize the 
 kingdom into a Roman province. Thus it remained 
 under the control of different Procurators, or Gov- 
 ernors, of whom Pilate, Felix, and Festus are men- 
 tioned by name in the New Testament, until about 
 A.D. 66. At this time Gestius Florus was governor, 
 and conducted himself in such a manner that the 
 Jews finally rebelled, and then commenced the Jew- 
 8* 
 
90 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 ish War, which terminated in the capture and de- 
 struction of Jerusalem by the Romans. 
 
 In that destruction is seen a very striking fulfil- 
 ment of the prophecies of the Bible. In the twenty- 
 eighth chapter of Deuteronomy we find prophecies 
 relating to this period, on the rebellion of the Jews 
 against their governor. Florus Cestius Gallus, who 
 was a ruler and general in Syria, came with an army 
 to quiet the country by his presence. He came first 
 to Ptolemais, a city on the Mediterranean sea. From 
 that place he overran the country of Galilee, and 
 then went to Caesarea, which is also on the Mediter- 
 ranean, about thirty-five miles north of Joppa, and 
 fifty-five from Jerusalem. Thus conquering as he 
 advanced, he finally came to Jerusalem, and pitched 
 his camp on the hill called Scopus. On the fourth 
 day he came into the northern part of the city, that 
 which is called Bezetha, and soon after passing also 
 the second wall, laid siege to the third wall, which ran 
 between Zion and Akron. Here he continued for a 
 number of days, and it was supposed he was about to 
 take the city, when he suddenly withdrew his forces 
 and entirely left Jerusalem. Josephus, the Jewish 
 historian, uses the following language in reference 
 to the event : " It then happened that Cestius was 
 not conscious, either how the beseiged despaired 
 of success, nor how courageous the people were 
 for him ; and so he recalled his soldiers from the 
 place, and by despairing of any expectation of taking 
 it, without having received any disgrace, he retired 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 91 
 
 from the city, without any reason in the world." 
 Thus was the way provided for the fulfilment of 
 prophecy. 
 
 In the twenty-first chapter of Luke, twentieth and 
 twenty-first verses, we read : " And when ye shall 
 see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that 
 the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which 
 are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them 
 which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not 
 them which are in the countries enter thereinto." 
 Also in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, fif- 
 teenth and sixteenth verses: "When ye therefore 
 shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by 
 Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso 
 readeth let him understand, then let those which be 
 in Judea flee into the mountains." By the abomin- 
 ation of desolation was meant something connected 
 with the Roman armies. The Roman banners were 
 objects of worship to the Roman soldiers, for they 
 contained representations of their gods and generals ; 
 they were, therefore, held in abomination by the Jews, 
 for they abhorred every thing that savored of idolatry. 
 Cestius had reached the third wall of the city, there- 
 fore those abhorred, abominated standards, which 
 foretold the threatened desolation of their city, were 
 now waving in triumph, but a little way from the 
 holy temple gates. 
 
 It was now almost forty years since Christ had left 
 the earth, and in that time his followers had greatly 
 increased in number, and many thousands of them 
 
92 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 were residents in Jerusalem. To save them from the 
 sufferings which awaited the inhabitants of the devoted 
 city he had uttered the prediction and warning above 
 cited. They had faith, and trusted in Christ's word, 
 and when the army drew near the city they began 
 to make preparations for taking their final leave. 
 Then it was that Pie who holds the hearts of all men 
 in his hand, exerted such an influence on the mind of 
 Cestius as led him to withdraw his formidable legions, 
 and thus the way was left open for the Christians to 
 escape ; and they did so by withdrawing to the coun- 
 try far beyond the limits of Judea. 
 
 Another warning uttered by Christ in connection 
 with the predicted destruction of Jerusalem was this : 
 " Let not them that are in the countries enter there- 
 into." It is a fact, that when the Roman forces began 
 finally to overrun the land, many of the Jews with- 
 drew into Jerusalem, hoping that they should there 
 be safe ; but the disciples of Christ, remembering his 
 word, did not follow their example, and thereby 
 escaped the calamity which befell them. 
 
 Cestius, after he left the country, sent ambassadors 
 to Nero, who was then emperor, informing him of his 
 ill success. Nero immediately determined to send 
 Vespasian, an old and experienced general, with in- 
 structions to bring the whole country under entire 
 subjection. Vespasian thereupon came, as Cestius had 
 before him, to Ptolemais, where Titus, his son, soon 
 met him, with a great part of the Roman forces which 
 had been at Alexandria in Egypt. From Ptolemais 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 93 
 
 they marched into Galilee, in the northern part of 
 Palestine. This was soon subdued, city by city, place 
 by place, though the Jews made most determined and 
 vigorous opposition to their advance ; and Vespasian 
 had almost reached Jerusalem, when he heard of the 
 disturbances and revolution which had taken place at 
 Home. He was immediately proclaimed emperor by 
 the Romans who were in Judea and in Egypt, and 
 thereupon hastened to Rome, in order to secure 
 firmly the power which had been thus conferred ; 
 but before he departed he appointed governors and 
 officers in the different places which had been cap- 
 tured, and appointed Titus general of all the Roman 
 forces, and directed him to lay siege to Jerusalem. 
 
 Before the approach of Titus the Jews had been 
 far from taking any advantage of the absence of their 
 enemies. On the contrary, they had been doing 
 themselves infinite mischief by their divisions, so that 
 at his approach there were three hostile factions in 
 the city. The interior part of the temple was held by 
 Eleazer, whose partisans were not numerous, but they 
 were the best fortified. John was in the outer part 
 of the temple, and Simon, the son of Gioras, com- 
 manded in the town at large. This Simon had been 
 ravaging the country, and had been let into the city 
 by the people to oppose John, whose followers were 
 guilty of the greatest excesses. The Passover was 
 approaching, and great numbers of Jews and proselytes 
 had come from Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and foreign 
 countries, to attend the feast. Eleazer therefore 
 
94 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 opened the gates of the inner court, and permitted all 
 those who wished to enter and offer their sacrifices, 
 and worship God according to their customs. . The 
 followers of John under this pretence entered the 
 temple, and Eleazer and many of his party were 
 slain ; others of them joined their countrymen under 
 John, whose armed followers now amounted to over 
 eight thousand men, while those of Simon, who held 
 the city, were ten thousand, besides five thousand 
 Idumeans. These parties, however, although* so hos- 
 tile to each other, always united against the Romans. 
 
 Titus brought with him four legions of soldiers, 
 besides auxiliary troops. Those legions, containing 
 probably about five thousand men each, together with 
 his twenty cohorts of allies, making about ten thousand 
 more, and his eight troops of horsemen, amounting to 
 nearly a thousand, made up an army thirty-five or 
 forty thousand strong. Having approached Jerusalem 
 he ordered his soldiers to encamp ; some on the Mount 
 of Olives, and the rest on the hill Scopus. 
 
 In a poem called the " Fall of Jerusalem," we find 
 a beautiful expression of the feelings with which Titus 
 may be imagined to have looked for the first time on 
 the beautiful city which he was ordered to destroy: — 
 
 " — It must be! 
 And yet it moves me, Eomans ! it confounds 
 The counsel of my firm philosophy, 
 That ruin's merciless ploughshare must pass o'er, 
 And barren salt be sowed on yon proud city. 
 As on our olive-crowned hill we stand, 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 95 
 
 Where Kedron at our feet its scanty waters 
 
 Distils from stone to stone with gentle motion, 
 
 As through a valley sacred to sweet peace. 
 
 How boldly doth it front us ! how majestically i 
 
 Like a luxurious vineyard, the hill side 
 
 Is hung with marble fabrics, line o'er line, 
 
 Terrace o'er terrace, nearer still, and nearer 
 
 To the blue heavens. Here bright and sumptuous palaces,, 
 
 With cool and verdant gardens interspersed ; 
 
 Here towers of war, that frown in massy strength, 
 
 White over all hangs the rich purple eve, 
 
 As conscious of its being her last farewell 
 
 Of light and glory to that faded city. 
 
 And, as our clouds of battle dust and smoke 
 
 Are melted into air, behold the temple, 
 
 In undisturbed and lone serenity, 
 
 Finding itself a solemn sanctuary 
 
 In the profound of heaven ! It stands before us 
 
 A mount of snow, fretted with golden pinnacles ! 
 
 The very sun, as though he worshipped there, 
 
 Lingers upon the gilded cedar roofs ; 
 
 And down the long and branching porticos,' 
 
 On every flowing sculptured capital, 
 
 Glitters the homage of his parting beams. 
 
 By Hercules ! the signt might almost win 
 
 The offended majesty of Kome to mercy." 
 
 Jerusalem was built upon two hills opposite to each, 
 other, and divided by a valley, on the entrance of 
 which the houses terminated. One of these hills, on 
 which the upper city was built, was much higher than 
 the other, and was named by King David the Cita- 
 del. The other hill, called Acra, on which was built 
 the lower city, was in the shape of a crescent. The: 
 
96 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 valley which separated these two hills had the singular 
 name of the Valley of the Cheesemongers, and ex- 
 tended as far as Siloam, a fountain celebrated for the 
 abundance and the sweetness of its waters. The two 
 hills on which the city was built were fortified by 
 three walls on every side, except on the sides where 
 the precipices led into the valley, which being impass- 
 able were guarded only by one wall. Of the three 
 walls which guarded the city, the most ancient one 
 was begun by King David and finished by Solomon, 
 and surrounded that part of the city in which the 
 temple stood. The second wall surrounded the 
 northern part of the city. The third wall was built 
 by King Agrippa to guard the new part of the town; 
 and after passing the sepulchral caverns it joined 
 the old wall at the valley of Cedron. This new part 
 of the city was called Bezetha. The towers upon 
 these walls were of an amazing height, and were as 
 solid as the walls themselves. They contained rooms, 
 and cisterns for rain water, the ascent to which was 
 by a very broad staircase ; and each wall had a great 
 number of these towers. Three of the towers in the 
 old wall were built by Herod the Great, in honor of 
 his friend, his brother, and his wife. These towers 
 were of white marble ; and each block was of an 
 immense size, so that when finished they had the 
 appearance of one solid stone cut into the shape of 
 stairs. 
 
 Within the wall on which these towers stood Herod 
 had built himself a palace of a very curious construe- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 97 
 
 tion. The wall and towers formed a part of the 
 palace, and each tower contained a hundred bed- 
 chambers, which were ornamented with a variety of 
 precious stones, collected from all parts of the world, 
 and intended for the use of his guests. The vessels 
 in those chambers were of gold and silver, and the 
 chambers themselves were surrounded with porticoes, 
 supported by pillars of different marbles. Between 
 the towers were groves of trees, with long walks 
 through them, and cisterns and canals of water, with 
 brazen statues, out of which the water ran. Herod's 
 celebrated dove-cotes for tame pigeons were here. 
 This magnificent palace »was burnt and nearly 
 destroyed, not by their enemies, the Romans, but by 
 the quarrelsome Jews themselves. 
 
 The temple erected by King Solomon was situ- 
 ated upon a hill. The plain on the top of this hill 
 was not originally of sufficient area, but Solomon 
 levelled it and threw up banks until it became a large 
 plain. The Jews had built a wall from the bottom of 
 the hill around three sides of the temple. They then 
 surrounded the upper courts, and afterwards the lower 
 ones, with cloisters. These cloisters were double, and 
 the pillars which supported them were of one block of 
 solid white marble, and the roofs adorned with cedar, 
 curiously carved. 
 
 The temple stood on Mount Moriah ; and as the 
 
 principal entrance was on the east, it looked out over 
 
 the Valley of Jehoshaphat and up the Mount of 
 
 Olives. The outer wall, which surnroded all the 
 
 9 
 
98 STRUGGLES OP THE 
 
 temple buildings, was twenty-five cubits in height; 
 and as a cubit is generally estimated as being equal 
 to a foot and a half, the wall was nearly forty feet in 
 height. Upon entering this outer wall at either gate 
 was an open space called the " Court of the Gentiles ; " 
 it was so called because the Gentiles were allowed to 
 come thus near and no nearer to the temple itself. 
 This court was in measure five hundred cubits, or 
 above an eighth of a mile on each side, being, it is 
 said, just square in form. It was from this outer 
 court and its buildings that our Saviour drove the 
 money-changers, and those that sold cattle and sheep 
 and doves, telling them that they had made it a " den 
 of thieves." 
 
 Beneath the rich buildings built upon the columns, 
 and extending above the tops of the walls, was a wide, 
 open portico, or porch, which extended around the 
 entire circuit of the court. The porch on the east 
 was called Solomon's Porch; and is the place into 
 which the people ran, " greatly wondering," when 
 Peter and John, in the name of Jesus Christ of Naz- 
 areth, cured the man who had been lame from his 
 birth. 
 
 On entering the temple the visitor passed the first 
 cloisters to the second court of the teiriple which is 
 said to have been three cubits in height. This wall, 
 though low, was elegant ; upon it were placed pillars, 
 on which was written the law of the temple, that no 
 foreigner should go within that sanctuary; this second 
 court was called the sanctuary, and was ascended by 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 99 
 
 fourteen steps. Beyond the steps was a piece of level 
 ground, and then another flight of steps which led to 
 the second court. This court was one hundred and 
 thirty-five cubits in measure in each direction, and was 
 called the " Court of the Women ; " it was so called 
 because women were not permitted to go any further, 
 or ascend the next flight of steps. The Court of the 
 Women was encircled by a wall about twenty-five 
 cubits in height. It was surrounded by columns and 
 porches, or porticoes, in the same style as the outer 
 court. In the four corners of it were smaller courts, 
 or rooms, for purposes connected with the temple 
 services. On the north si4e there were eight gates ; 
 on each of the others four, excepting the last, on^which 
 there were but two. Nine of these gates were covered 
 on each side with gold and silver ; and one was made 
 of Corinthian brass. * The one called the " Beautiful 
 Gate " was very rich in its ornaments of silver and 
 gold, and is supposed to have been the gate at which 
 the lame beggar was laid. 
 
 The stairs beyond the Court of the Women led to 
 a space extending on three sides of the Temple, on 
 the outside of a row of columns. This was called 
 the "Court of Israel," or, the "Court of the Men," 
 and was the limit to which the people of the Jewish 
 nation were allowed to advance. This court was 
 eleven cubits in width. Here those who wished were 
 permitted to remain while the priests were performing 
 their various duties in offering sacrifices and attending 
 to the service of the temple. 
 
100 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 On the inside of this court, probably between or 
 near the row of columns, ran a low stone balustrade 
 or wall, one cubit in height. Within this was the 
 " Court of the Priests," which extended on all sides 
 of the temple. In this court stood the Holy House 
 itself. 
 
 At the head of another flight of steps stood the 
 porch of the temple. This porch was one hundred 
 cubits in length, and one hundred and twenty cubits 
 in height ; the parts projecting beyond the rest were 
 sometimes called the wings of the temple. Before 
 the door was a vail of the same size as the door. It 
 was a Babylonian curtain, and embroidered with blue 
 and scarlet, and gold, and fine linen. The scarlet 
 color represented fire ; the linen, or flax, the earth ; 
 blue, the air, and purple the sea. 
 
 The first part of the temple entered was called the 
 "Holy Place," and contained the candlestick, the table 
 of show-bread and the altar of incense. The seven 
 lights which were in the candlestick signified the 
 seven planets; and the twelve loaves on the table 
 of show-bread the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The 
 most interior part of the temple was called the " Holy 
 of Holies ; " no one was permitted to enter it except 
 the High Priest, who entered it once a year, on the 
 great day of Atonement. 
 
 The outside of the temple was covered with plates 
 of gold, brilliant and dazzling ; its top was covered 
 with spikes. In front of it stood the altar, of a square 
 form, with the corners projecting like horns ; and the 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 101 
 
 passage to it was up a slightly inclined plane. The 
 temple was guarded by the tower of Antonia, which 
 joined the cloisters, and was built by Herod, and in 
 which a Roman legion was stationed. 
 
 After all things were in readiness for the siege, 
 Titus removed his camp still nearer to the city, and 
 ordered high mounds to be raised before the walls. 
 On the top of these mounds were placed the different 
 machines, or engines, which were used for throwing 
 stones, darts, and arrows, and sometimes fire, into the 
 city. The machine called a battering ram, which was 
 used against the wall, was a long beam of timber, 
 fitted with a head of iron, resembling in form some- 
 what the head of a ram. This was hung by a rope 
 on a cross-beam between two posts which were fixed 
 in the ground near to the wall to be attacked. It was 
 drawn back by a large number of men, and then 
 allowed to swing freely forward ; the iron head thus 
 driven against the wall gradually loosened the stones 
 and drove them from their place. The stones thrown 
 by the engines constructed for that purpose were 
 large, and being white, and very bright, the watchmen 
 on the walls could see when they were coming, and 
 cried aloud in their own language, "The Son cometh;" 
 thus warned of danger, those who were exposed to it 
 found no difficulty in avoiding it by changing their 
 position. To obviate this the Romans resorted to 
 the practice of blackening the stones, thereby render- 
 ing them invisible until very near the object at which 
 they were thrown. 
 9* 
 
102 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 On the fifteenth day of the siege the Romans 
 obtained possession of the first wall. The factions in 
 the city laid aside their disputes, and their hatred, and 
 united their forces. They ran round the walls with 
 torches which they threw against the engines, while 
 the bolder of them jumped down upon the hurdles 
 that covered the machines and pulled them asunder. 
 Titus now pushed forward his attack upon the second 
 wall, which yielded on the fifth day after he had taken 
 the first. A breach being effected, he entered with a 
 thousand of his troops, and strove to induce the people 
 to surrender ; for he knew that the common people 
 were willing to yield possession of the city to him, 
 and were prevented from so doing only by the mad 
 and stubborn zealots who held out against him. But 
 while he was thus treating with the more quietly 
 disposed, he was suddenly attacked by the armed 
 forces, and eventually driven outside the wall. He 
 immediately renewed his assaults, however, and after 
 a hard contest, on the fourth day, he regained posses- 
 sion of the wall and entirely demolished it. 
 
 Many of the Jews at this period in the siege en- 
 deavored to escape from the city and join the Romans. 
 But Simon and John held possession of the gates and 
 slew all who came near them. They also rushed into 
 the private houses and tormented those whom they 
 found within, in order to make them confess that they 
 had food concealed ; so that the people were compelled 
 to eat their corn unground, lest the sound of the 
 grinding should attract attention, and thereby lead to 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 103 
 
 detection and probable death. To such extent did 
 famine prevail, that many sold all they had for one 
 measure, which is little more than a peck, of wheat, or 
 barley ; but often, before they had eaten it they were 
 discovered by the soldiers, and if they made any re- 
 sistance to being deprived of their last morsel were 
 at once murdered. 
 
 Titus, although he deeply compassionated the suffer- 
 ing people, went on with the siege. He had now 
 raised up four large banks. The one against the 
 tower of Antonia was destroyed by John, who from 
 within had undermined the space of ground upon 
 which the bank was built, and supported the ground 
 above with beams laid across one another. He then 
 caused a quantity of materials to be brought and cov- 
 ered them with pitch and bitumen, and then set them 
 on fire. As the fire consumed the cross beams that 
 supported the Roman works, the bank fell in with a 
 tremendous crash. Smoke and dust arose in thick 
 clouds, followed in a short time by a clear flame, 
 which spread a sudden terror through the Roman 
 legions. 
 
 Two days after this Simon made an attempt to 
 destroy the other banks, for the Romans had placed 
 their engines upon them, and had already begun to 
 destroy the wall. He sent out two or three Jews, 
 headed by a man named Chagiras, provided with 
 torches, for the purpose of setting fire to the engines. 
 These men broke through the Roman soldiers and did 
 not stop until they had attained their Gbject; nor 
 
104 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 would they retire until they saw the flames actually 
 ascending. Thereupon the Romans issuing from 
 their camps, and the Jews from the walls, met and 
 fought hand to hand. In vain did the Romans at- 
 tempt to drag the engines out of the fire. The Jews 
 caught hold of the battering ram, although the iron 
 was red hot; and the Romans, surrounded by the 
 flames and unable to save the engines, were glad to 
 retreat to their camp. 
 
 Titus now called a council of war. Some of the 
 boldest of the chiefs advised that the whole army 
 should attack Jerusalem at once; while the more 
 cautious were in favor, at first, of raising banks. 
 But Titus proposed that a wall should be built around 
 the whole city, which would either drive the citizens 
 to despair by cutting off all means of escape, or would 
 reduce them more completely by famine. The prop- 
 osition was acquiesced in by his officers, and the work 
 was thereupon commenced. The wall was about five 
 miles in length and strengthened by thirteen build- 
 ings for garrisons ; and although the statement may 
 seem incredible, the whole was completed in the brief 
 space of three days. 
 
 All chance for escape was now cut off, and famine 
 commenced its terrible ravages. The upper rooms of 
 nearly every house were filled with dying women and 
 children, while the lanes of the city were strewed with 
 the bodies of the aged. The young men wandered 
 about the market-places like shadows and fell down 
 dead in the streets. Few were buried ; for the sick 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 105 
 
 were not strong enough to perform that office for their 
 deceased friends ; and those who still were healthy 
 were deterred from the undertaking by the considera- 
 tion of its immensity. No lamentations were heard, 
 for those who saw others die knew that they must 
 soon follow. Titus seeing the ditch full of dead 
 bodies, was so much affected by it, that it is said he 
 lifted up his hands to heaven, and called God to wit- 
 ness that this was not his work. Numbers were 
 carried out at the gates to be buried at the public 
 expense. A deserter informed Titus that six hundred 
 thousand had been carried out at the gates, and that 
 being unable to carry them all out, they had filled 
 whole houses with them, and shut them up. On the 
 seventeenth of July, Titus took the citadel of Antonia, 
 and consequently approached the temple : and at that 
 time the daily sacrifice was discontinued for want of 
 victims. 
 
 The citadel of Antonia is the " castle " referred to 
 in the account given in the twenty-first chapter of 
 Acts of the seizure of Paul by a Jewish mob ; the 
 " chief captain of the band " was the commander of 
 the Roman garrison which was stationed there ; and 
 the " stairs " on which Paul stood when he " beckoned 
 with his hand " and addressed the people, were the 
 stairs leading from the porticos of the court to the 
 fortress. 
 
 The citadel being taken, the Romans rushed to the 
 temple, where they were met at the entrance by the 
 Jews, and a terrible conflict took place. Darts and 
 
106 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 spears were thrown away; drawing their swords each 
 fell upon the other, hand to hand. The impetuous 
 zeal of the Jews was more than a match for Roman 
 skill. The conflict continued for several hours, the 
 Jews constantly pouring from the city to defend their 
 temple, until the Romans were compelled to give way 
 and rest content with the conquest of the tower of 
 Antonia. 
 
 Titus now gave orders that his soldiers should dig 
 up the foundations of the tower of Antonia, and open a 
 passage for the residue of his army to come up. He 
 then sent for Josephus, and desired him to address 
 his countrymen, and offer terms of peace to John if 
 he would but spare the temple. But all his appeals 
 and efforts were fruitless ; and Titus finding himself 
 obliged to continue the siege, gave orders that his 
 army should attack the guards of the temple about 
 the ninth hour of the night. He himself put on his 
 armor and prepared to accompany them; but they 
 all united in the entreaty that he would not, assert- 
 ing that they should fight better if they knew that 
 his eyes were upon them, and that he himself was 
 safe ; thereupon he stationed himself on a high place 
 in the tower of Antonia, from which he could over- 
 look all their movements. 
 
 The Jews now sought to entrap the Romans. As 
 has been before stated, above the colonades which 
 surrounded the court were buildings of great richness 
 and extent, which, in the history given of the siege, 
 are called "cloisters." These cloisters were built 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 107 
 
 within the walls, but extended above them. The 
 Jews filled a part of the western cloister with com- 
 bustible materials and then retired. The Romans 
 seeing this, many of them took ladders, and ascend- 
 ing them entered the cloister ; but when it was filled 
 with soldiers the Jews set fire to it. The Eomans 
 were seized with consternation when they found 
 themselves surrounded by the flames; some threw 
 themselves down backwards into the city, some fell 
 among their enemies, and many jumped down to their 
 own companions breaking their limbs in the fall. 
 Titus, who was witnessing the whole occurrence, 
 called aloud to their companions and fellow soldiers 
 to rescue them ; but in vain were all their efforts. All 
 who remained were burned to death, with the excep- 
 tion of a young man whose name was Longus ; he 
 escaped from the flames, and the Jews offered him 
 his life if he would come down ; but his brother, 
 Cornelius, entreated him not to do so, for the honor 
 of the Romans and for his own glory. Thereupon 
 Longus drew his sword and slew himself. The clois- 
 ter as far as John's tower was entirely consumed, and 
 the next day the Eomans burned the northern cloister. 
 All this while vast numbers were perishing in the 
 city by famine. Wherever food was to be found, re- 
 lations, friends and neighbors were fighting for pos- 
 session of it ; until the condition of the entire popu- 
 lation became such that even their enemies were 
 moved with compassion for them. The following 
 «are the words of Josephus: — "Their hunger was 
 
108 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 so intolerable, that it obliged them to chew every 
 thing, while they gathered such things as the most 
 sordid animals would not touch, and endured to eat 
 them ; nor did they at length abstain from girdles 
 and shoes, and the very leather that belonged to their 
 shields they pulled off and gnawed, while the very 
 wisps of hay became food for some. A certain wo- 
 man named Mary had been living to the east of the 
 Jordan, in a village named Bethezob. She was dis- 
 tinguished both for her family and her wealth, but on 
 account of the state of the country had come up to 
 Jerusalem just before the siege, and there remained. 
 The merciless and seditious men who had possession 
 of the city knew of her wealth, and were continu- 
 ally plundering her house, though, for some reason, 
 they spared her life. They had reduced her to the 
 lowest depth of suffering and want, until, under the in- 
 fluence of the awful madness brought on by starva- 
 tion and despair, seizing her little son hanging at her 
 bosom, she exclaimed, " thou miserable infant ! for 
 whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, 
 and this sedition ? Come, be thou my food ! and be 
 thou a fury to these seditious murderers, and a by- 
 word to the world, which is all that is wanting to com- 
 plete the calamities of us Jews!" Incredible as it may 
 appear, having uttered these passionate exclamations, 
 she slew him, and immediately roasted him, and eat- 
 ing one half of the body concealed the remainder. 
 But the infuriated and half-starved robbers coming hi 
 and perceiving that she had just taken food, com- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 109 
 
 manded her at once to bring forth what she had, or 
 they would without delay take her life. Thereupon,, 
 bringing forward the remains, she exclaimed, " This 
 is mine own son, and what has been done is my own 
 doing. Come, eat of this food, for I have eaten of 
 it myself. Do not pretend to be more tender than a 
 woman, or more compassionate than a mother." 
 
 In this terrible occurrence was found the fulfil- 
 ment of the prediction of Moses, as recorded in the 
 twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, from the 
 fifty-third to the fifty-seventh verse: "And thou 
 shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy 
 sons and thy daughters, which the Lord thy God- 
 hath given thee, in the siege and in the straitness 
 wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee ; so that 
 the man that is tender among you and very deli- 
 cate, his eyes shall be evil towards his brother, and 
 towards the wife of his bosom, and towards the rem- 
 nant of his children, which he shall leave ; so that 
 he shall not give to any of them of the flesh of his 
 children whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing 
 left them in the siege and in the straitness wherewith 
 thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.. 
 The tender and delicate woman among you, which 
 would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon 
 the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye 
 shall be evil towards the husband of her bosom, and 
 towards her children, for she shall eat them for want; 
 of all things, secretly, in the siege and straitness 
 
 
110 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy 
 gates." 
 
 Titus now gave orders that the battering rams 
 should be brought into action against the walls of the 
 outer court. To this the Jews made furious opposi- 
 tion, and another bloody conflict took place upon and 
 around the walls. The Roman soldiers, despairing 
 of success by means of their engines, at last brought 
 their ladders for the purpose of climbing up to the 
 cloisters. The Jews made no effort to interrupt their 
 progress; but when they had reached the summit, 
 fell upon them, and thrusting them down backwards, 
 committed most fearful havoc among them. Titus, 
 witnessing the dreadful slaughter of his men, and 
 perceiving that it was in vain to think of saving the 
 court, gave immediate orders that the gates should 
 be set on fire. The silver with which the gates were 
 covered being soon heated, the flames readily com- 
 municated with the wood within, from whence they 
 spread rapidly, and caught hold of the cloisters. The 
 Jews, beholding the fire suddenly surrounding them, 
 were lost in astonishment, and unable to decide as 
 to what measures should be adopted they neither 
 thought of defending themselves nor of extinguish- 
 ing the fire, but stood looking on in silent despair. 
 The fire continued for two days, and consumed the 
 greater part of the cloisters which surrounded the 
 holy house, or inner part of the temple. 
 
 On the third day after, Titus held a meeting of the 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. Ill 
 
 generals of his army, with whom he consulted as to 
 the expediency and necessity of setting fire to the 
 holy house. His own opinion was that the people 
 should be destroyed and not their buildings ; that no 
 effort should be spared to save so beautiful a speci- 
 men of architecture as the temple, which would be an 
 ornament to the Roman Empire. Several of the 
 commanders coincided with him, and he accordingly 
 dispatched some chosen troops to make their way 
 through the ruins of the cloisters, and extinguish the 
 fire. The Jews, thereupon, took courage, and boldly 
 attacked the soldiers who were guarding the outer 
 court of the temple. Titus, stationed on the tower 
 of Antonia, perceiving that these guards were not 
 strong enough to defend themselves, sent a troop of 
 chosen horsemen to their aid, with whom the Jews 
 continued to fight valiantly, until overpowered by 
 numbers they were compelled to retreat into the 
 inner court of the temple, in which they shut them- 
 selves up. Notwithstanding the desire of Titus to 
 save the temple, Providence had otherwise decreed ; 
 the fall of Jerusalem and her beautiful temple had 
 been predicted ages before, and the time for the ful- 
 filment of the prediction had arrived. Our Saviour 
 too had told his disciples when they were showing 
 him the buildings of the temple, that the day was 
 coming in which there should not be left one stone 
 upon another that should not be cast down. 
 
 The Jews who had shut themselves up in the 
 inner temple, came out and attacked the soldiers 
 
112 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 who had been sent to quench the fire. The Romans, 
 however, put them to flight, and even followed them 
 into the holy house. One of the soldiers, without 
 waiting for orders, perhaps regardless of what he 
 was doing, snatched up some of the materials that 
 were on fire, and being lifted up by another soldier 
 set fire to a golden window, through which there was 
 a passage to the rooms that were around the holy 
 house. As the flames ascended the Jews raised a 
 cry of lamentation and ran to stay its progress, re- 
 gardless of their lives in their zeal to save the 
 consecrated place of worship, for which they had 
 already perilled and suffered so much. A messenger 
 hastened with the intelligence to Titus, who was 
 reposing in his tent after the fatigue of the last battle. 
 He arose in great haste and ran to the spot, followed 
 by his commanders and the residue of the soldiers. 
 In vain were all his efforts to stay the progress of the 
 flames. He called to the soldiers with a loud voice, 
 and held up his right hand by way of signal; but 
 they would not, or did not see or hear. They 
 crowded into the temple, many of them trampled 
 on by others ; while many fell among the ruins of 
 the cloisters which were still hot and smoking, and 
 were destroyed in the same miserable way as those 
 whom they had conquered. 
 
 Titus, finding that his voice commanded no atten- 
 tion, and that the flames were spreading with great 
 rapidity, hastened with his commanders and entered 
 the temple. The inner part of it was not yet con- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 113 
 
 sumed, and he still hoped that it might be saved. He 
 there endeavored to persuade the soldiers to cease 
 firing the building, and gave orders to the centurion 
 Liberatus to beat those who would not do so ; but their 
 respect for their general was not so great as their ha- 
 tred of the Jews. The hope of plunder, too, led them 
 on; for seeing the doors and walls glittering with 
 gold, they imagined that the place must be filled 
 with it. 
 
 Titus was soon compelled to abandon all hope, for 
 as he was coming out to address the people the flames 
 burst out from the interior of the holy house itself, 
 and it was soon burned to the ground. 
 
 While the temple was burning, a mournful tragedy 
 was being enacted throughout Jerusalem. The Ro- 
 man legions, with a terrific shout, devoted themselves 
 to the work of slaughter and plunder. Old men, 
 children, priests, and women were put to death with- 
 out distinction. Those who were already nearly 
 speechless with famine, when they saw the holy 
 house on fire, spent their last breath in groans. The 
 surrounding mountains echoed with lamentations. 
 The Romans deeming it now useless to spare any 
 part of the temple, set fire to the cloisters which re- 
 mained, and to the treasury which contained the riches 
 of the Jewish nation ; money, garments, and precious 
 goods being all deposited in it. The outer part of the 
 temple too, in which a great number of men, women, 
 and children had taken refuge, was fired before Titus 
 had decided what should be done with them ; and the 
 10* 
 
114 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 poor wretches were either burned in the cloisters or 
 threw themselves headlong down the precipice. 
 
 This gathering was occasioned by a false prophet, 
 who had made a public proclamation in the city that 
 very day, that " God commanded them to get into the 
 temple, where they should be delivered in a miracu- 
 lous manner." The miserable people were easily 
 deluded to their ruin by these false ones, who seemed 
 to spring up only to add to their misery, while at 
 the same time they disregarded signs which many 
 declared had appeared to warn them of their danger. 
 Christ himself had foretold that false prophets should 
 arise at this time. He says : " Many false prophets 
 shall arise and deceive many"; and again: "Take 
 heed that no man deceive you ; for many shall come 
 in my name, saying I am Christ ; and shall deceive 
 many." Josephus informs us that four years before 
 the war commenced, a man who came up to Jerusa- 
 lem at the Feast of Tabernacles began suddenly to 
 cry aloud, " A voice from the East, a voice from the 
 West, a voice from the four winds, a voice against 
 Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the 
 bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this 
 unholy people." He was taken before the public offi- 
 cers and severely scourged, but at each stroke of the 
 lash he only exclaimed, "Wo, wo to Jerusalem!" 
 This conduct he continued for years, until one day as 
 he was going around upon the wall he exclaimed, 
 " Wo, wo to the city, and to the people, and to the 
 holy house ! " and then added, " Wo, wo to myself 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 115 
 
 also ! " when he was struck dead by a stone from one 
 of the Roman engines. But all these signs and warn- 
 ings the deluded people rejected, or interpreted as 
 being in their own favor; they perished in their awful 
 blindness. 
 
 The Romans now collected their ensigns and placed 
 them at the eastern gate of the temple, where they 
 worshipped according to their own religion, and hailed 
 the conqueror Titus. Simon and John, and their party, 
 having taken possession of the royal palace, for some 
 time resisted the Romans, who had full possession of 
 all the lower city. To the taking of the upper city 
 Titus now turned Ins attention. It was built on so 
 steep a hill that it was necessary to raise banks from 
 which to attack it; and it was with difficulty that 
 wood could be obtained to build them. In about a 
 fortnight, however, the Romans were able to bring 
 their engines to bear upon the walls ; and the Jews 
 despairing of defending themselves, fled, some to the 
 citadel, and some to the caves and subterranean vaults. 
 Some few remained to resist the Romans ; but they 
 were dejected and weak, and were easily overcome. 
 The Romans having become masters of the walls, 
 placed their ensigns upon the towers, shouting for joy, 
 though they could scarcely believe they had gained so 
 easy a victory. The silence throughout the city sur- 
 prised them; but when they entered the lanes and 
 houses, and found whole families who had perished by 
 famine, their surprise was turned to horror. 
 
 When Titus himself entered this city, he was struck 
 
116 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 with admiration at sight of the fine buildings, and 
 particularly the towers, which the Jews had so madly 
 deserted. He felt convinced that if they had exerted 
 their usual strength he never should have been able 
 to capture those strong places, and acknowledged to 
 his friends his belief that a Superior Power had 
 assisted him. As he entered within the wall which 
 surrounded Mount Zion, he is said to have exclaimed, 
 " We have had supernatural aid in this war ! for what 
 could the hands of man, or any machines do towards 
 overthrowing these towers ! " Josephus states that 
 the number of Jews made captives was ninety-seven 
 thousand, while those that perished during the siege 
 were eleven hundred thousand. Thus ended the 
 siege of Jerusalem. 
 
 There is no record of any cruelties exercised 
 against Christians from the death of Nero till the 
 latter end of the reign of Domitian, a period of about 
 thirty years, in which it cannot be doubted but that 
 Christianity continued to spread in all the. provinces 
 of the empire, as well as in other parts of the world. 
 Vespasian attempted nothing against the Christians. 
 Domitian, however, who in the latter part of his reign 
 very much resembled Nero, imitated him also in his 
 persecution of the Christians, though he does not 
 appear to have carried it on with the same violence ; 
 and he seems to have been led to it by his jealousy 
 and dislike of the Jews. 
 
 The prophecies concerning a king, or a conqueror, 
 to arise in the East, probably continued to cause 
 some alarm, so that the emperor was not quite easy 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 117 
 
 about them. Domitian, hearing that some relations 
 of Jesus were living, gave orders that they should be 
 executed, and two grandsons of the Apostle Judas 
 who is called the brother of Jesus being sent to him, 
 he inquired of them concerning their estates and 
 property, and also, what were their opinions concern- 
 ing Christ and his kingdom. They showed him their 
 hands' callous with labor, and proved that they main- 
 tained themselves by hard work ; they then expressed 
 their views of Christ's kingdom, that it was to be a 
 spiritual and not an earthly one. Domitian was so 
 well satisfied with these answers, that he not only 
 dismissed them, but put a stop to the persecution, 
 which was not resumed until the time of Trajan. 
 
 In this persecution the apostle John was banished 
 to the isle of Patmos, in the iEgean Sea, and there he 
 had the vision which is recorded in the Book of Reve- 
 lation. On the cessation of this persecution, he 
 returned to Ephesus, and visited the churches in that 
 neighborhood and the vicinity. He is said to have 
 died in the succeeding reign. 
 
 Domitian was succeeded by Nerva, a man of an 
 excellent disposition, the reverse of his predecessor. 
 He forbade the persecution of any persons either for 
 Judaism or for Christianity. He was succeeded by 
 Trajan, whose reign is memorable as the beginning 
 of a period of more than fifty years, which has been 
 called u The happiest period of the world's history." 
 Trajan, a general of the Roman army, was called to 
 the throne when he was about fifty years old, from 
 
118 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 an active life with the army in Germany. The real 
 joy with which the people received him was apparent 
 from the manner of their welcome. " The roofs of 
 the houses/' says one of his time, "were crowded; 
 you could not see any place strong enough to bear a 
 man on which one did not stand ; every street was 
 thronged, and only a narrow path left for the passage 
 of the new emperor." " He came on foot, distin- 
 guished only by his height and grace. So different 
 was he from other emperors, who were used to enter 
 Rome, not merely in chariots drawn by white horses, 
 but even on the shoulders of men." Trajan was 
 eager to show that he did not belong to the same class 
 of emperors as Nero and Caligula, two men who 
 will never be forgotten, as warnings against licen- 
 tiousness and cruelty. He received the title of The 
 Best (Optimus), and deserved it as well as any of the 
 early emperors. When he and his wife, after his 
 inauguration at the capitol, went to the palace, she 
 turned and said to the people, " I hope I may go from 
 this place with the same feeling towards you with 
 which I come in." She made good her hope by the 
 gentleness of her life, and Trajan made good* the 
 promises with which he came to the throne. 
 
 There is a story of the emperor's kindness to a 
 mother who had lost her son, which is thus told by 
 the poet Dante. Dante had entered that circle of 
 purgatory where spirits were atoning for the sin 
 of pride. He found that on one side, as their steps 
 moved upwards, was cut in pure, white marble, such 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 119 
 
 sculpture as not even Nature herself would have 
 scorned. And these groups all imaged some scene 
 that had been enacted on earth, in which the virtue 
 of humility had been displayed. " Here was por- 
 trayed the sublime glory of that great Roman prince, 
 the Emperor Trajan. Here a widow stood at his 
 horse's head showing her grief by her tears. Behind 
 him the ground was trampled and crowded by cava- 
 liers, and eagles of gold moved in the wind. Among 
 all these the miserable woman seemed to say, ' Sire, 
 give me vengeance for my son, who is dead, and for 
 whom I grieve.' He replied to her, ' Wait until I 
 shall return.' Then she said, 'My lord,' as one whom 
 grief renders impatient, 'and if you never return?' 
 To which he answered, ' Whoever fills my place shall 
 render you justice.' But the woman was not satis- 
 fied, and touches his conscience by saying, * What will 
 it avail you, the justice that another works, if you for- 
 get that you should do yourself.' At this he yielded. 
 * Console yourself,' he said, ' since I ought indeed 
 to fulfil my duty, ere I move from here. Jus- 
 tice wills it, and pity retains me.' " It is said that 
 Trajan found the slayer of the widow's son to be his 
 own son. He offered him to the widow, asking her 
 to receive him in place of him who was dead, and 
 she was satisfied. 
 
 Such kindness of disposition was joined in Trajan 
 with great skill in government, so that the Roman 
 people owed to his reign new roads, cities, and new 
 arrangements of law of the greatest value to them. 
 
120 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 In the early part of this reign the Christians did 
 not suffer from persecution. At this period in the 
 Roman Empire, Christianity was giving a twilight 
 even to those who did not acknowledge it as the 
 truth, or did not even know its name. All over the 
 Roman world were Christians ; many more than 
 when Paul met Nero at Rome. The children whom 
 Paul knew were now old men. Their children were 
 active Christian men and women. Wherever they 
 were, were gentleness, truth, and firmness. Thus, 
 many a man who did not know what it was to be 
 religious, was made a better man by the better life 
 around him. 
 
 But Trajan was intent upon restoring the bounds 
 of the empire, and, being very superstitious, imagined, 
 as the Heathens in general did, that this end could 
 not be gained without the re-establishment of the 
 ancient religion, under which the Roman Empire 
 had been formed and flourished ; and Christianity 
 had by this time gained so much ground, that the 
 festivals and sacrifices of the Heathen worship began 
 to be so much neglected, especially in Asia Minor, 
 and the eastern provinces of the empire, as to be- 
 come the subject of great and general complaint. 
 
 The younger Pliny, the particular favorite of Tra- 
 jan, and governor of Bithynia, was one, among others, 
 who carried into execution the orders of the emperor, 
 to restore the ancient religion. But so great was the 
 number of persons whose lives were forfeited by this 
 edict, that he was at a loss how to proceed, and there- 
 
EARLY OHRISTIANS. 121 
 
 fore applied to the emperor for further instructions. 
 The letter which he wrote on this occasion is extant, 
 and is highly favorable to the Christians of that age. 
 The emperor in his reply ordered that the Christians 
 should not be sought out ; but, persisting in his meas- 
 ures, he ordered that if any were regularly con- 
 victed of being Christians and did not retract by 
 performing some act of worship to the gods, they 
 should be punished. The first martyr of note in this 
 persecution was Simeon, the son of Cleopas the 
 bishop of Jerusalem, who succeeded the Apostle 
 James. He had lived to the age of more than a 
 hundred years, and was one of the remaining few 
 who had seen Jesus face to face. Some cruel in- 
 formers, making false use of the Christian belief in 
 the kingdom of heaven, dragged this old man before 
 a magistrate. " For many days, tried by the most 
 severe tortures, he constantly preserved his faith in 
 Christ, so that the magistrate himself, and all who 
 were present, greatly wondered in what way a man 
 one hundred and twenty years old could bear such 
 torture. At length, he was, by sentence, affixed to 
 the cross." Another distinguished martyr was Igna- 
 tius, the second bishop of Antioch. He had heard 
 St. Peter preach there, and knew St. John. He was 
 so aged that it was said of him that he was the child 
 whom Jesus took in his arms when he taught his dis- 
 ciples who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 
 Ignatius was taken before the emperor himself, when 
 he was on his expedition against the Parthians, and 
 11 
 
122 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 was by him sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts 
 at Rome. By a long voyage he was carried to Rome, 
 that his death might be an amusement to the people 
 at the shows in the amphitheatre. Having liberty to 
 write, he expressed his sentiments in several letters ad- 
 dressed to particular churches, which with many inter- 
 polations are still extant. Every such cruelty as this 
 but served to attract attention to the Christian faith. 
 A scene like Ignatius's martyrdom was transacted 
 in the presence of perhaps fifty thousand persons. 
 They asked, they could not but ask, what Christians 
 were. It is said that the manner in which Ignatius 
 bore his sufferings moved Trajan's heart, when he 
 heard of it, far away in the East, and that afterwards 
 he was milder than ever toward the Christians. 
 
 His successor, Adrian, checked, as far as he could, 
 the entering of complaints against them. He died in 
 A.D. 138; and up to this time no trace is discov- 
 ered of any doctrine or practice besides those which 
 were derived from the apostles themselves, except- 
 ing that of the Gnostics, which was Christianity con- 
 taminated with the principles of the oriental phi- 
 losophy. In the whole of this period the sole object 
 of worship in all Christian churches was no other 
 than the one true God, the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The religious rites of Christians of this early pe- 
 riod were few and simple. Their public worship 
 was probably like that of the Jews, to which they had 
 been accustomed in their synagogues, where the 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 123 
 
 Scriptures were always read, and prayers offered, 
 and where exhortations were occasionally given, 
 and the portions of Scripture which were read in 
 course were sometimes expounded. To these was 
 added the administration of baptism. In general, it 
 was, no doubt, performed by the immersion of the 
 body in water, that being an easy and a pleasant cus- 
 tom in hot climates, and the dress was such as to be 
 very eastly put off and on. The baths also furnished 
 conveniences for this ceremony in most places. In 
 whatever the rite of baptism consisted, it was ad- 
 ministered upon the simple profession of repentance, 
 and faith in Christ. Judging from the instances 
 of baptism occasionally mentioned in the Acts of 
 the Apostles, the persons who baptized did not think 
 themselves obliged to make use of the form men- 
 tioned by Matthew, "In the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; " although 
 nothing was originally intended by that besides bap- 
 tism into a religion which came from God, which was 
 published by Christ and confirmed by gifts of the 
 Holy Spirit, or miracles. 
 
 The persons who possessed the highest authority 
 in the Church were the elders, a title which had 
 been borne by the rulers of the Jewish synagogues ; 
 and the same persons were indifferently called bishops, 
 or overseers ; having the general inspection of the 
 concerns of the Church according to their several 
 qualifications; some in public teaching, others in 
 keeping up order and discipline, others probably 
 
124 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 visiting the sick, and others instructing the young, 
 eic. Afterwards, the title bishop was appropriated 
 to one of these elders, while the rest retained the ap- 
 pellation of presbyters, which in a later period was 
 changed into priests. But in all the early ages the 
 bishop had no power but as one of the body of elders, 
 and what he derived from his personal influence ; and 
 he had no office beyond his own church. Another 
 order of persons in the primitive church was that of 
 deacons ; a rank subordinate to that of elders. The 
 deacons were generally young men, whose business 
 it was to attend to the secular affairs of the society, 
 under the direction of the elders. Women, and par- 
 ticularly widows who were poor were employed in 
 certain offices in the church, probably in attending 
 the sick, assisting strangers, etc., for which they were 
 allowed a certain stipend. Such was the custom 
 until a pretty late period in the history of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 In the period next following it could no longer 
 be said, as hitherto it might have been, that there 
 were few men of learning among the Christians. 
 Philosophers, as well as other persons of learning, 
 gave attention to the evidences of Christianity and 
 became converts. 
 
 Antoninus Pius, who succeeded Adrian, and reigned 
 twenty-three years, was one of the best of emperors, 
 and was distinguished for his justice and humanity. 
 He was far from persecuting the Christians, though 
 they were persecuted in his reign, especially in the 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 125 
 
 beginning of it, by some governors of provinces. On 
 this account Justin Martyr presented to Antoninus an 
 apology for Christianity, which is still extant, and 
 appears to have been well received ; for the emperor 
 issued an edict in favor of the Christians, and accord- 
 ingly we have no account of any particular martyr- 
 doms till the following reign of Marcus Aurelius ; who, 
 though an excellent emperor in other respects, was 
 nevertheless a bigoted Heathen. 
 
 In the nineteenth year of the reign of Antoninus 
 Pius, A.D. 156, appeared the sect of Montanus. He 
 was a native of Phrygia. Being excommunicated by 
 other churches, he and his converts held assemblies 
 of their own but cherished the Christian belief. They 
 were distinguished by greater austerity of manners, 
 observed various rules of fasting, highly commended 
 celibacy, etc. They pretended to the gift of proph- 
 ecy, and when attacked by violent convulsions, as 
 they were, or assumed to be, they gave utterance to 
 language which their hearers believed to be inspired. 
 
 That persons of the mental character of Montanus 
 should mistake the natural emotions of their own 
 minds for divine impulses, is not at all extraordinary. 
 We find even at this day how unwilling men of good 
 sense in other respects are to surrender the idea of 
 supernatural assistance, or of invisible miracles, such 
 as are unsusceptible of proof. When they see men 
 make great exertions, either in doing or suffering,, 
 they are apt to imagine that they have the aid of a; 
 11* 
 
126 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 power higher than their own. They are even apt to 
 think so with respect to themselves. This low esti- 
 mate of the strength of the human mind, and the 
 belief in the necessity of foreign aid to produce any 
 thing great or good, is the foundation of all that en- 
 thusiasm, which in all ages, and to this very day, has 
 been the disgrace of Christianity. It was in fact the 
 same ignorance of the powers of nature, and the idea 
 of the perpetual interference of superior powers in 
 all the affairs of men, which laid the foundation of the 
 whole system of Paganism. Hence the belief in the 
 influence of the sun, moon, and stars in human affairs, 
 and that the dead intermeddled with the concerns of 
 the living ; and hence all the strange rites and cere- 
 monies which have ever been regarded as the medi- 
 um through which the favor of those imaginary pow- 
 ers could be obtained. This sect spread chiefly in 
 Asia Minor, where it arose. Its two most distin- 
 guished disciples were two women of fortune, Pris- 
 cilla and Maximilla. Tertullian embraced it in 
 Africa. We find no mention of it after the fifth 
 century. 
 
 In the beginning of the reign of Marcus Aurelius 
 many calamities befel the empire. The Tiber over- 
 flowed and did great damage in the city. After this 
 followed a famine. The Parthians declared war 
 against the Romans, and defeated their armies. Au- 
 relius thereupon determined to maintain the religion 
 of his ancestors, as a necessary means, in his estima- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 127 
 
 tion without doubt, of preserving the empire and 
 providing for the stability of it. He issued rigorous 
 edicts against the Christians. 
 
 Sixty years of almost uninterrupted peace since 
 the beginning of the second century had opened a 
 wide field for the free development of Christianity. 
 It had spread into every quarter of the Roman do- 
 minions. The western provinces, Gaul and Africa, 
 rivalled the East in the number if not in the opulence 
 of their Christian congregations. Christians were to 
 be found in the court, in the camp, in the commercial 
 market ; they discharged all the duties, and did not 
 decline any of the offices of society. They did not 
 altogether shun the forum, or abandon all interest in 
 the administration of government. In issuing an 
 edict against the Christians, Aurelius may have 
 imagined that he was consulting the public good by 
 conciliating the alienated favor of the gods. But the 
 superiority of the Christians to all the terrors of death 
 appears at once to have astonished and mortified the 
 Stoic pride of the emperor. 
 
 The persecution raged with the greatest violence in 
 Asia Minor. The fame of the aged Polycarp, bishop 
 of Smyrna, who suffered at this time, has obscured 
 that of the other victims. Of these victims the names 
 of only two have survived ; one who manfully en- 
 dured, the other who timidly apostatized in the hour 
 of trial. The former, Germanicus, was forced to 
 descend into the arena, where he fought gallantly, 
 until the merciful proconsul entreated him to consider 
 
128 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 Ms life and preserve it by offering sacrifice. In an- 
 swer to the entreaty he only aroused to more vigorous 
 action the wild beast, and in an instant obtained his 
 immortality. The latter, Quintus, a Phrygian, had 
 boastfully stimulated his brother Christians to throw 
 themselves in the way of the persecution. He des- 
 cended in haste into the arena ; the first sight of the 
 wild beasts so overcame his hollow courage that he 
 consented to sacrifice, and his life was spared. Poly- 
 carp was the most distinguished Christian of the East ; 
 he had heard the apostle John ; and he had long pre- 
 sided over the see of Smyrna. Having retired into a 
 neighboring village, his place of concealment was be- 
 trayed by two slaves, whose confession had been 
 extorted by torture. He exclaimed, " The will of 
 God be done ; " and ordering food to be prepared for 
 the officers of justice, he requested time for prayer, 
 in which he spent two hours. He was then placed 
 upon an ass, and on a day of great public concourse 
 conducted towards the town. On the way, Herod the 
 Irenarch and his father Nicetus took him into their 
 chariot, with the view of persuading him to sacrifice ; 
 but on his refusal, they thrust him out so rudely that 
 his leg was bruised. Recovering himself he pro- 
 ceeded to the stadium with great cheerfulness, and 
 being brought before the proconsul and urged by him 
 to revile Christ, he answered, " Eighty and six years 
 have I served Christ, and he has never done me an 
 injury ; how can I blaspheme my king and my Sav- 
 iour ? " Being told that he would be thrown to the 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 129 
 
 wild beasts, and appearing indifferent to it, he was 
 then threatened with fire ; to which he answered, 
 " You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour ; 
 thou knowest not that which burns forever and ever." 
 The Jews and Heathens, for the former were in great 
 numbers, and especially infuriated against the Chris- 
 tians, replied with an overwhelming shout, " This is 
 the teacher of all Asia ; the overthrower of our gods ; 
 who has prevented so many from sacrifice and the 
 adoration of the gods." When they were about to 
 nail him to the stake, he said, " Let me be as I am. 
 He that enables me to bear the fire will also enable 
 me to remain unmoved within the pile, without your 
 fastening me with nails." As he did not die so soon 
 as was anticipated, at the request of the people he was 
 dispatched with a sword. 
 
 It was under Marcus Aurelius that Justin, the 
 author of two celebrated apologies, suffered martyr- 
 dom, and thence acquired the title of Martyr, to dis- 
 tinguish him from other persons of the same name. 
 
 But the most shocking scene of barbarous perse- 
 cution in this or any other reign, was exhibited at 
 Lyons and Vienna, in Gaul. 
 
 The golden days of the Roman Empire had already 
 begun to darken, and closed forever with the reign 
 of Marcus the philosopher. The empire of the world 
 became the prize of bold adventure, or the precarious 
 gift of a lawless soldiery. During little more than a 
 century, from the accession of Commodus to that of 
 Dioclesian, more than twenty emperors flitted like 
 
130 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 shadows along the tragic scene of the imperial palace. 
 A long line of military adventurers, often strangers 
 to the name, to the race, to the language of Rome, 
 Africans and Syrians, Arabs and Thracians, seized 
 the quickly shifting sceptre of the world. Commo- 
 dus was a gladiator on the throne ; he had neither the 
 understanding nor the bigotry of his father, and did not 
 interest himself in the affairs of the Christians, any 
 more than in those of the empire in general. In con- 
 sequence of this the Christian Church in general had 
 peace, and increased greatly, and many persons of 
 rank and fortune united with it. At Rome there was 
 one celebrated Christian who suffered martyrdom, and 
 there may have been others of whom we have no 
 account, in other parts of the empire. Apollonius, a 
 Roman senator, a man of letters, was accused by his 
 own slave and condemned to death. Commodus 
 reigned thirteen years, and was succeeded by Severus 
 who reigned eighteen. 
 
 In the first part of the reign of Severus the Chris- 
 tians continued to be unmolested ; but from the tenth 
 year of Severus to his death the persecution was 
 general and violent. Many Christians suffered in 
 Africa during this reign, particularly in Alexandria, 
 and in Egypt in general. At this time Leonidas 
 the father of the famous Origen was beheaded. Dur- 
 ing this persecution Tertullian stood forth as the 
 apologist of Christianity ; and the tenor of his apology 
 is illustrative of its altered position. It is not in the 
 tone of tranquil expostulation against the barbarity 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 131 
 
 of persecuting blameless and unoffending men ; every 
 sentence breathes scorn, defiance, menace, and heaps 
 contempt upon the gods of Paganism. 
 
 Of all the histories of martyrdom, no one abounds 
 in such exquisite touches of nature as that of Per- 
 petua and Felicitas, two African females. Perpetua 
 was a widow of about twenty-two years of age, of a 
 good family, and well educated, who had a father and 
 mother living, two brothers, and one child. Her 
 father visited her in prison, and holding his child in 
 his arms besought her to have compassion upon him; 
 he threw himself upon the ground, tore his beard, 
 and did and said every thing that could have a ten- 
 dency to move her ; but all without effect. The day 
 before the exhibition they united in a love-feast with 
 their Christian friends who were permitted to visit 
 them, in the presence of many strangers whom curi- 
 osity had brought to the place. On the day of 
 exhibition they went from the prison with erect 
 and cheerful countenances, and as they entered the 
 amphitheatre Perpetua advanced singing hymns. 
 Perpetua and Felicitas were first inclosed in nets, to 
 be gored by a furious wild cow. But the sight of 
 two delicate women thus exposed struck the specta- 
 tors with horror, and they were recalled by acclama- 
 tion, and clad in loose robes. Perpetua was first 
 tossed by the beast and thrown upon the ground. 
 Rising as soon as she was able, and seeing Felicitas 
 fainting and mortally wounded, she gave her her 
 hand and assisted her to rise^ and having kissed 
 
132 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 each other, they resigned themselves to the hand of 
 the executioner, who soon dispatched them with a 
 sword. 
 
 Caracalla, the son of Severus, who reigned six 
 years, from A.D. 211 to A.D. 217, was a monster of 
 wickedness and cruelty, but he spared the Christians, 
 as also did Heliogabalus, a man of a similar charac- 
 ter. Some governors of provinces, however, perse- 
 cuted them at this time. The reign of Alexander 
 Severus, from A.D. 222 to A.D. 235, was peculiarly 
 favorable to the Christians, in consequence of his 
 mother, Mammaea, an excellent woman, openly pro- 
 tecting them. Hearing of the fame of the celebrated 
 Origen, she sent for him while she was at Antioch, 
 and retained him with her for some time. Maximin, 
 a man of savage manners, who succeeded Alexander, 
 was an enemy of the Christians. But the persecu- 
 tion did not extend to all the provinces of the empire. 
 His reign did not exceed three years. There seems 
 to have been no persecution of the Christians during 
 the reign of Gordian, from A.D. 236 to A.D. 244, or 
 in that of Philip, from A.D. 244 to A.D. 249. 
 
 The persecution under Decius was almost the first 
 measure of a reign which commenced in successful 
 rebellion, and ended, after two years, in fatal defeat ; 
 A.D. 249-251. The Christians were now a re- 
 cognized body in the state, and Christian churches were 
 established in different parts of the empire. Origen 
 was exposed to cruel torments but escaped with his 
 life. This distinguished Christian, when hardly eigh 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 133 
 
 teen years of age, undertook the charge of the school 
 established by St. Mark at Alexandria. Young as 
 he was when he undertook this charge, he was so reso- 
 lute a worker that he was known by the name of 
 Adamant. He was one of the most laborious stu- 
 dents of whom we have any account. Although far 
 advanced in life at the time of his persecution, he 
 exhibited an example of that fortitude which he had 
 so early in life recommended to others. He was sub- 
 jected to various kinds of torture, care being taken 
 that they should not absolutely deprive him of life. 
 That he survived this persecution is certain, but by 
 what means we are not informed. He wrote several 
 letters afterwards to all those who were suffering, and 
 died in the beginning of the following year at the age 
 of seventy. 
 
 In the third year of the following reign, that of 
 Valerian, A.D. 257, edicts were issued against the 
 Christians, and the dignity of one of its victims con- 
 ferred a melancholy celebrity upon this persecution. 
 
 The most distinguished prelate at this time in 
 Western Christendom was Cyprian, bishop of Car- 
 thage. He was advanced in life when he embraced 
 the doctrines of Christianity; but he entered on his 
 new career with ail the ardor and freshness of youth. 
 His wealth was devoted to charitable uses. The first 
 rumor of persecution designated the bishop of Car- 
 thage for its victim. " Cyprian to the lions ! " was 
 the loud and unanimous outcry of infuriated pagan- 
 ism. He at first withdrew from the storm to some 
 12 
 
134 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 quiet retreat from which lie wrote animating and con- 
 solatory letters to his brethren. His letters describe 
 the relentless barbarity with which the Christians 
 were treated. Not long after, an opportunity was 
 afforded him of exhibiting the beautiful spirit of 
 Christian forgiveness of injury to the* people of the 
 city which had thirsted for his blood. A plague was 
 prevailing throughout the whole Roman world, ex- 
 hibiting its most fearful scourges in the streets of 
 Carthage. It spread from house to house, especially 
 among those of the lower order, with awful rapidity. 
 The streets were strewn with the bodies of the dead 
 and dying, who vainly appealed to the laws of nature 
 and humanity for that assistance of which those who 
 passed them by might soon stand in need. Cyprian 
 returning to Carthage exhorted the Christians to 
 manifest the sincerity of their belief in the doctrines 
 of their Master, not by confining their acts of kind- 
 liness to their own brotherhood, but by extending 
 them indiscriminately to their enemies. The city 
 was divided into districts ; offices were assigned to 
 all the Christians ; the rich lavished their wealth, the 
 poor their personal exertions ; and men, perhaps just 
 emerged from prison, were seen exposing their lives 
 to a more honorable martyrdom, if possible ; as be- 
 fore the voluntary victims of Christian faith, so now 
 of Christian charity ; but the Heathen portion of the 
 people, instead of being subdued by their acts of kind- 
 ness, persisted in attributing the terrible scourge to 
 the impiety of the Christians, which they regarded 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 135 
 
 as having provoked the gods. Cyprian was sum- 
 moned before the proconsul and ordered to offer 
 sacrifice. He refused with tranquil determination. 
 He was treated while in custody with respect and 
 even delicacy. The intelligence of his apprehension 
 drew together the whole city ; the Heathen, eager to 
 behold the spectacle of his martyrdom ; the Christians, 
 to watch in their affectionate zeal the doors of his 
 prison. His examination was brief, and he was sen- 
 tenced to expiate his crime with his blood. He was 
 carried into a neighboring field and beheaded, main- 
 taining his serene composure to the last. 
 
 In the following reign, that of the luxurious and 
 versatile Gallienus, peace was restored to the Church. 
 The bishops resumed their public functions ; the build- 
 ings were restored, and their property, which had been 
 confiscated by the State, returned to the rightful own- 
 ers. The last transient collision of Christianity with 
 the government, before its final conflict under Diocle- 
 sian, took place, or was at least threatened, under the 
 administration of the great Aurelian, A.D. 271-275. 
 No hostile measures were taken against it in the early 
 part of his reign, as he was occupied with warlike 
 campaigns in every part of the world. Sanguinary 
 edicts were issued towards the close of his life, though 
 his death prevented their general promulgation. 
 
 The final contest between paganism and Christianity 
 drew near. Almost three hundred years had elapsed 
 since Christ had lived and preached in a small village 
 in Palestine ; and now, having gained so powerful an 
 
136 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 ascendancy over the civilized world, the Gospel was 
 to undergo its last and most trying ordeal before it 
 should assume the reins of empire and become the 
 established religion of the Roman world. The last 
 fifty years, with the exception of the short interval of 
 menaced, probably, of actual persecution during the 
 reign of Aurelian, had passed in peace and security. 
 The Christians had become not merely a public but 
 an imposing and influential body ; their churches had 
 arisen in most of the cities of the empire, and their 
 number was constantly on the increase. The Chris- 
 tians no longer declined or refused to aspire to the 
 honors of the State. They filled offices of distinction, 
 and even of supreme authority, in the provinces and 
 in the army ; they were exempted, either by tacit 
 connivance or direct indulgence, from the accustomed 
 sacrifices. 
 
 Among the more immediate attendants on the Em- 
 peror, two or three openly professed the Christian 
 faith. Prisca the wife, and Valeria the daughter of 
 Dioclesian and the wife of Galerius, who afterwards 
 succeeded Dioclesian, were suspected, if not avowed 
 converts to Christianity. In Paganism itself, a silent 
 change had been creeping on. From Christianity 
 the new philosophic Paganism had adopted the doc- 
 trine of the unity of the Deity, and scrupled not to 
 degrade all the gods of the other world into subor- 
 dinate ministers or spirits. 
 
 In A.D. 303, Dioclesian, instigated by his son-in- 
 law Galerius issued the fatal edict that all who re- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 137 
 
 fused to sacrifice should be burned alive. All public 
 assemblies for the purposes of worship were prohibited. 
 The Christians were degraded from all rank and of- 
 fice, and their property confiscated. The females of 
 the imperial family were constrained to pollute them- 
 selves with sacrifice. Letters were dispatched re- 
 quiring the cooperation of the western Emperors, 
 Maximian the associate of Dioclesian, and the Csesar 
 Constantius, in the suppression of the hostile faith. 
 Constantius commanded the demolition of their 
 churches, but abstained from all violence against the 
 persons of the Christians. The fiercer temper of 
 Maximian readily acceded to the demand. Edict 
 followed edict, each surpassing its predecessor in bar- 
 barity; many were executed, many drowned, and many 
 burned alive ; bishops and citizens were crowded 
 into prisons intended only for the basest malefactors. 
 In A.D. 304, Dioclesian abdicated the throne, leaving 
 Galerius, the most implacable enemy of Christianity, 
 master of the East, and the persecution was continued 
 with unmitigated severity. But in no part of the 
 world did Christianity show any signs of decay; it 
 was far too deeply rooted in the minds of men. Its 
 believers met in secret as their public worship was 
 suspended. Its most signal and unexpected triumph, 
 however, was over the author of the persecution. 
 
 In the eighteenth year of his reign, Galerius lay 
 expiring of a most loathsome malady ; the disease of 
 Herod the Great, of Galerius, and of Philip the Sec- 
 ond of Spain, was the same. The agonies he endured 
 12* . 
 
138 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 would have more than satisfied the revengeful spirit 
 of the most unchristian enemy. From his dying bed 
 he issued an edict, apologizing for his past severities 
 to the Christians, admitting to the fullest extent the 
 total failure of the measures he had adopted for the 
 suppression of Christianity, and permitting the free 
 and public exercise of the Christian religion. Its 
 close was still more remarkable ; it contained an 
 earnest request to the Christians to intercede for the 
 suffering Emperor in their supplications to their God. 
 The whole Roman world was thus made the witness 
 of the public and humiliating acknowledgment of the 
 dying Emperor. The prison doors were thrown open ; 
 the mines rendered up their condemned laborers ; 
 everywhere long trains of Christians were seen hast- 
 ening to the ruins of their churches. The public 
 roads, the streets and market-places of the towns, 
 were crowded with long processions, singing psalms 
 of thanksgiving for their deliverance. 
 
 But the East, the great scene of persecution, was 
 not yet restored to prosperity or peace. On the death 
 of Galerius, Maximian seized on the government of 
 the whole of Asia. He placed himself at the head of 
 the Pagan interest in the East, and endeavored to re- 
 organize the Pagan religion in all its original pomp. 
 The first overt act of hostility was a prohibition to 
 the Christians to meet in their cemeteries, where prob- 
 ably their enthusiasm was wrought to the utmost 
 height by the sacred thoughts associated with the 
 graves of their martyrs. But the policy of Maxim- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 139 
 
 ian, in general, confined itself to vexatious and harass- 
 ing oppression, and to punishments which were pro- 
 ductive of pain and wretchedness, but not of death. 
 
 Peace and prosperity, however, by no means fol- 
 lowed the oppression of the Christians ; notwithstand- 
 ing the restoration of the Polytheistic ceremonial in 
 more than ordinary pomp, every species of calamity, 
 tyranny, war, pestilence and famine, was visited upon 
 the Asiatic provinces. Large Villages were entirely 
 depopulated ; many opulent families were reduced to 
 beggary; and many occupying respectable stations 
 sold their children as slaves. The rapacity of the 
 Emperor aggravated the general misery. The grana- 
 ries of individuals were seized, their flocks and herds 
 driven away, to be offered in unavailing sacrifice to 
 the gods. The scanty and unwholesome food left 
 produced its usual effect, a pestilential malady. The 
 Christians alone were active in efforts to allay the 
 miseries of which they were the common victims. 
 They distributed bread; they visited the infected 
 houses ; they attended the living and buried the dead. 
 The myriads who perished and were perishing in a 
 state of absolute desertion, could not but acknowledge 
 that Christianity was stronger than love of kindred. 
 Maximian took the alarm, and endeavored, too late, 
 to retrace his steps. He issued an edict, in which he 
 avowed the plain principles of toleration. He com- 
 manded the suspension of all violent measures, and 
 recommended that mild and persuasive means alone 
 should be employed to win back the apostates to the 
 
140 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 religion of their forefathers. The Christians, having 
 been once deluded by a show of mercy, feared to re- 
 construct their fallen edifices, or to renew their public 
 assemblies ; and awaited, in trembling expectation, 
 the issue of the approaching contest with Licinius. 
 With Maximin expired the last hope of Paganism to 
 maintain itself by the authority of the government. 
 But half the world still remained disunited from the 
 dominion of Constantine and of Christianity. The 
 first war with Licinius was terminated by a new par- 
 tition of the empire. The favor shown by Constan- 
 tine to his Christian subjects seems to have thrown 
 Licinius upon the opposite interest. When the crisis 
 approached which was to decide the fate of the whole 
 empire, as Constantine had adopted every means of 
 securing the cordial support of the Christians, Licin- 
 ius repelled the allegiance of his Christian subjects by 
 disfavor, by mistrust, by expulsion from offices of 
 honor, and by open persecution. The Christians fled 
 again into the country, and concealed themselves in 
 the woods and caves. There was a wide spread 
 apprehension that a new and general persecution was 
 about to break out, when the Emperor of the West 
 moved forward to rescue the whole of mankind from 
 the tyranny of one man. The battle of Hadrianople, 
 and the naval victory of Crispus, decided the fate of 
 the world, and the establishment of Christianity as the 
 religion of the empire. The defeat of Licinius re- 
 united the whole Roman world under the sceptre of 
 Constantine, A. D. 323. 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 141 
 
 The successful conqueror, Constantine, was the son 
 of Constantius, Emperor of Britain, Gaul, and Spain, 
 upon whom a short time previous to his death the 
 title of Augustus was conferred. At the age of 
 twenty-nine Constantine succeeded his father, and 
 thus became Emperor of the West, having power 
 over all those parts of Europe now known as Great 
 Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland* 
 Spain, and Portugal; to these he soon after added 
 Italy and Africa. 
 
 In his progress towards Italy an event occurred, 
 according to tradition, which is supposed by many to 
 have exercised a controlling influence over his future 
 course. He was then a Heathen, although favoring 
 the Christians from motives of interest. The tra- 
 dition runs, that while marching with his army, a 
 luminous cross appeared in the sky, placed above the 
 sun, just after it had attained its meridian, and bear- 
 ing the following inscription in Greek : " By this, 
 conquer." The sign was interpreted as being the 
 token of Christ's victory over death. The Christians 
 affirmed that their Deity had thus made himself 
 known. Constantine, although far from being con- 
 vinced, was persuaded to consult the Christian Scrip- 
 tures. He caused a banner to be prepared, sur- 
 mounted by a golden crown, on which were inscribed 
 mystic letters, significant of the name of Christ. To 
 this he gave the name of Labarum. This standard 
 was henceforth borne at the head of the imperial 
 
142 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 armies, and the name of the meek and peaceful 
 Jesus became the soldier's war-cry. 
 
 But the desire of embracing Ihe true faith was 
 wholly subordinate with Constantine to that of ad- 
 vancing his own power. The cooperation of the 
 Christians was desirable ; he was therefore willing 
 to pay deference to their religion. He issued edicts 
 full of unlimited toleration, and the day on which the 
 Christians were wont to assemble was declared sacred. 
 But this order for the observance of the Christian 
 Sabbath was by no means a recognition of the sanctity 
 of the day as a Christian institution ; it was the 
 " Sun's Day" that was to be observed with rever- 
 ence; the courts were to be closed, and all towns- 
 people and tradesmen were to cease from labor. 
 The Christians were permitted to worship undis- 
 turbed by the sounds of clamor and toil in the 
 thoroughfares; and the worshipper of the Sun could 
 acquiesce without scruple in the observance of the 
 first day of the week as a sacred day. A few years 
 later Constantine's triumph over his colleague Licin- 
 ius placed him in the position of leader of the 
 Christians ; and so far as the advocacy of their faith 
 held out to him the promise of success and aggran- 
 dizement, he was its willing advocate ; but ever in 
 the Laba'rum there appeared, above the cross, the 
 images of the emperor and his family, to whom the 
 Heathen part of his army might pay their homage 
 of veneration. 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 143 
 
 Having at length assured himself that by adopting 
 Christianity as his religion he should obtain acces- 
 sion of power as a sovereign, he professed himself 
 converted. He not merely enforced by his edict the 
 restoration of the churches and estates of the Chris- 
 tians, but enabled them by the gift of a large sum 
 of money to rebuild their ruined edifices. Many of 
 the churches of Rome claim him for their founder. 
 
 Constantine has been called the first Christian em- 
 peror ; but the acts of cruelty which he perpetrated 
 in the midst of his own family prove that he was very 
 far from being a Christian. The murder of his wife, 
 son, and nephew, in a fit of criminal and precipitate 
 weakness, struck with horror the whole Roman world. 
 , The populace of Rome compared his reign to that of 
 Nero ; and so universal was the odium against him that 
 Rome became hateful to him. On the shores of the 
 Bosphorus, upon the seven hills at Byzantium, he de- 
 termined to found a rival Rome. No expense was 
 spared to build a city worthy to be the seat of the 
 empire. Every district, every city of the imperial 
 realms, was laid under contribution and rifled of its 
 riches, its artisans and its artists, for the benefit of the 
 new capital. The imperial palace arose, in its dimen- 
 sions and magnificence equal to that of the older city ; 
 the mansions erected for the patricians 'evinced the 
 greatest skill and elegance ; markets, fountains, aque- 
 ducts, theatres and forums, were built for the mass of 
 the people, and the new city was called Constantino- 
 ple, in honor of its founder. 
 
144 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 Although Constantine openly countenanced the 
 Christian religion, he nevertheless collected images 
 of the pagan deities, and caused them to be set up, 
 mingled with other works of art, in all the public 
 places in the new city. On a pillar of porphyry, on 
 the seven hills, he placed an image designed to be em- 
 blematic of the sun, of Christ, and of himself. The 
 pillar rose to the height of one hundred and twenty 
 feet. The colossal figure on its summit was that of 
 Apollo, but the head of Constantine was substituted 
 for that of the god. The sceptre in one hand, and the 
 globe in the other, were emblematic of universal em- 
 pire. Around the head, instead of rays, were fixed, 
 it is said, the nails of the true cross. Thus Constantine 
 was represented as maintaining the impartial dignity 
 of emperor of the world, presiding with serene indif- 
 ference over the various nations and religious sects 
 which peopled his dominions. 
 
 Notwithstanding the many obstacles in the way of 
 its development, Christianity was still going forward ; 
 and even during the reign of Constantine its trium- 
 phant progress tended to efface or to obscure the lin- 
 gering vestiges of the ancient religion. 
 
 Although Constantine's ambition was gratified by 
 the success of his undertakings, he was haunted by 
 the remembrance of the crimes which he had perpe- 
 trated in the imperial household. In the deep agony 
 of remorse he earnestly inquired of the ministers of 
 the ancient religions whether his soul could be puri- 
 fied from the blood of a son ; but they were compelled 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 145 
 
 to acknowledge that they knew of no relief. He then 
 turned to the Christians, who endeavored to explain 
 to the unhappy man the mercy of their God to the 
 truly penitent. From that time he proclaimed him- 
 self the worshipper of the Christian's God, although 
 he refused the sacred rite of baptism until towards the 
 close of his life. In recognition of his guilt and his 
 deep grief for the murder of his son, he erected a 
 golden statue, with the simple but emphatic inscrip- 
 tion, " To my unfortunate son." 
 
 The founding of Constantinople marks one of the 
 great periods of change in the annals of the world. 
 The removal of the seat of empire from Rome was 
 favorable to the progress of Christianity. Up to that 
 time there had been but little interference with the 
 freedom of pagan worship. But by the gradual erec- 
 tion of large churches in many of the Eastern cities, 
 Christianity began to assume an outward form and dig- 
 nity commensurate with its character. Its attitude in 
 relation to paganism was still however that of fair com- 
 petition rather than of hostile invasion. It was content 
 to behold the silent courts of the pagan fanes untrod- 
 den, save by a few casual worshippers — altars with- 
 out victims — thin wreaths of smoke only where the 
 air was once laden with clouds rising from reeking 
 hecatombs, and to hear the priesthood murmuring in 
 bitter envy at the throngs which passed by the port- 
 icos of their temples towards the Christian church. 
 
 Soon after Constantine began to favor the Chris- 
 13 
 
146 STRUGGLES OF THE 
 
 tians, Helena, the cherished parent of the Emperor, 
 appears to have embraced their faith. After the ter- 
 rible execution of her grand-son, whose death she 
 bitterly lamented, the Empress Mother, then nearly 
 eighty years of age, started on a pilgrimage to Pales- 
 tine, already the Holy Land of the Christians. Her 
 route was marked with charity and devotion. Splen- 
 did churches were raised by her over the place of 
 Christ's birth, at Bethlehem, that of his burial, near 
 Calvary, and that of his ascension, on the Mount of 
 Olives. To receive the cross which Helena believed 
 herself to have found in the sepulchre of the Saviour, 
 Constantine ordered the erection of a magnificent 
 Basilica, called at first the Church of the Resurrection, 
 afterward that of the Holy Sepulchre, on the spot 
 where the miraculous discovery had been made. 
 
 In the last year but one of his reign, Constantine 
 apportioned his realms amongst his three sons and twc 
 nephews, all of whom were elevated to the rank of 
 Caesar. In the year following, feeling conscious that 
 he was drawing near to the close of life, he sent for 
 the bishops, that he might receive baptism from Chris- 
 tian hands. He laid aside the imperial purple to put 
 on the white robe of the baptized, and in that white 
 dress, a few hours after, he died. He was buried in 
 the porch of the church dedicated to the Apostles. 
 
 Christians and pagans equally honored the memory 
 °>f Constantine. His heathen subjects enrolled him 
 amongst their deities ; at a later period the first Chris- 
 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 147 
 
 tian Emperor was worshipped as a saint by part of 
 the Christian Church. 
 
 Three hundred and twenty-three years had elapsed 
 since Christ made his religion known to mankind; and 
 although its progress had been apparently slow, still, 
 looking back upon the impediments in its pathway, 
 the obstacles it had surmounted, its steady advance 
 seems little less than miraculous. It had ceased to 
 exist as a separate community ; it had ascended the 
 imperial throne; and in studying the history *of that 
 period, a change can be perceived in the condition of 
 mankind, which can be attributed only to the direct 
 authority or indirect influence of Christianity.