The great central event in all history is the death of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. The centuries circle round the cross. Hundreds of
stately figures—some in dazzling lustre, some in deepest gloom—crowd
upon our gaze, as the story of the world unrolls before us; but
infinitely nobler than the grandest of these is the pale form of Jesus,
hanging on the rough and reddened wood at Calvary—dead, but victorious
even in dying—stronger in that marble sleep than the mightiest of the
world’s living actors, or than all the marshalled hosts of sin and
death. Not the greatest sight only, but the strangest ever seen; for
there, at the foot of the cross, lie Death, slain with his own dart,
and Hell vanquished at his very gate.
All that have ever lived—all living now—all who shall come after us,
till time shall be no more, must feel the power of the cross. To those
who look upon their dying Lord with loving trust, it brings life and
joy, but death and woe to all who proudly reject that great salvation,
or pass it unheeding by.
The details of that stupendous history—his lowly, yet royal birth—his
pure, stainless life—his path of mystery and miracle—his wondrous
works, and still more wondrous words—his agony—his cross—his glorious
resurrection and ascension—all form a theme too sacred to be placed
here with a record of mere common time, or blended with the dark, sad
tale of human follies and crimes. Rather let us read it as they tell it
who were themselves “eye-witnesses of his majesty”—who traced the very
footsteps, and heard the very voice, and beheld the very living face of
incarnate love. And remember, as you read, that history is false to her
noblest trust if she fails to teach that it is the power of the cross
of Christ which alone preserves the world from hopeless corruption, and
redeems from utter vanity the whole life of man on earth.
Wildly, and blindly, and very far, have the nations often drifted from
the right course—there seemed to be no star in heaven, and no lamp on
earth; but through every change an unseen omnipotent hand was guiding
all things for the best: soul after soul was drawn by love’s mighty
attraction to the cross; light arose out of darkness; a new life
breathed over the world; and the wilderness, where Satan seemed alone
to dwell, blossomed anew into the garden of God.[F]
* * * * *
After Christ—the apostles. “On the fifteenth day after his death,
beginning in Jerusalem, the very furnace of persecution, they first
set up their banner in the midst of those who had been first in the
crucifixion of Jesus, and were all elate with the triumphs of that
tragedy. But what ensued? _Three thousand souls_ were that day added
to the infant Church. In a few days the number was increased to _five
thousand_, and in the space of about a year and a half, though the
gospel was preached only in Jerusalem and its vicinity, ‘multitudes
both of men and women,’ and ‘a great company of the priests, were
obedient to the faith.’ Now, the converts being driven, by a fierce
persecution, from Jerusalem, ‘went everywhere preaching the Word;’ and
in less than three years churches were gathered ‘throughout all Judea,
Galilee, and Samaria, and were multiplied.’ About two years after this,
or seven from the beginning of the work, the gospel was first preached
to the Gentiles; and such was the success, that before thirty years had
elapsed from the death of Christ, it spread throughout Judea, Galilee,
and Samaria; through almost all the numerous districts of the lesser
Asia; through Greece and the islands of the Ægean Sea, the seacoast
of Africa, and even into Italy and Rome. The number of converts in
the several cities respectively, is described by the expressions, ‘_a
great number_,’ ‘_great multitudes_,’ ‘_much people_.’ Jerusalem, the
chief seat of Jewish rancor, continued the metropolis of the gospel,
having in it _many tens of thousands of believers_. These accounts are
taken from the book of the Acts of the Apostles; but as this book is
almost confined to the labors of Paul and his immediate companions,
saying very little of the other apostles, it is very certain that the
view we have given of the propagation of the gospel, during the first
thirty years, is very incomplete. In the thirtieth year after the
beginning of the work, the terrible persecution under Nero kindled its
fires; then Christians had become so numerous at Rome, that, by the
testimony of Tacitus, ‘_a great multitude_’ were seized. In forty
years more, as we are told in a celebrated letter from Pliny, the Roman
governor of Pontus and Bythinia, Christianity had long subsisted in
these provinces, though so remote from Judea. ‘Many of all ages, and
of every rank, of both sexes likewise,’ were accused to Pliny of being
Christians. What he calls ‘the contagion of this superstition’ (thus
forcibly describing the irresistible and rapid spread of Christianity),
had ‘seized not cities only, but the less towns also, and the open
country,’ so that the heathen temples ‘were almost forsaken,’ few
victims were purchased for sacrifice, and ‘a long intermission of the
sacred solemnities had taken place.’ Justin Martyr, who wrote about
thirty years after Pliny, and one hundred after the gospel was first
preached to the Gentiles, thus describes the extent of Christianity
in his time: ‘There is not a nation, either Greek or barbarian, or of
any other name, even of those who wander in tribes and live in tents,
among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and
Creator of the Universe by the name of the crucified Jesus.’ Clemens
Alexandrinus, a few years after, thus writes: ‘The philosophers were
confined to Greece, and to their particular retainers; but the doctrine
of the Master of Christianity did not remain in Judea, but is spread
throughout the whole world, in every nation, and village, and city,
converting both whole houses and separate individuals, having already
brought over to the truth not a few of the philosophers themselves. If
the Greek philosophy be prohibited, it immediately vanishes; whereas,
from the first preaching of our doctrine, kings and tyrants, governors
and presidents, with their whole train and with the populace on their
side, have endeavored, with their whole might, to exterminate it;
yet doth it flourish more and more.’... In connection with the moral
power and vast extent of this work, it should be considered, that
among those who were brought to the obedience of Christ were men of
all classes, from the most obscure and ignorant to the most elevated
and learned. In the New Testament we read of an eminent counselor,
and of a chief ruler, and of a great company of priests, and of two
centurions of the Roman army, and of a proconsul of Cyprus, and of a
member of the Areopagus at Athens, and even of certain of the household
of the Emperor Nero, as having been converted to the faith. Many of
the converts were highly esteemed for talents and attainments. Such
was Justin Martyr, who, while a heathen, was conversant with all the
schools of philosophy. Such was Pantænus, who, before his conversion
was a philosopher of the school of the Stoics, and whose instructions
in human learning at Alexandria, after he became a Christian, were
much frequented by students of various characters. Such also was
Origen, whose reputation for learning was so great that not only
Christians, but philosophers, flocked to his lectures upon mathematics
and philosophy, as well as on the Scriptures. Even the noted Porphyry
did not refrain from a high eulogium upon the learning of Origen.
It may help to convey some notion of the character and quality of
many early Christians—of their learning and their labors—to notice
the Christian _writers_ who flourished in these ages. Saint Jerome’s
catalogue contains one hundred and twenty writers previous to the year
360 from the death of Christ. The catalogue is thus introduced: ‘Let
those who say the Church has had no philosophers, nor eloquent and
learned men, observe who and what they were who founded, established,
and adorned it.’ Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, written
about sixty-three years after the gospel began to be preached to the
Gentiles, expressly states that in the provinces of Pontus and Bythinia
many of all ranks were accused to him of the crime of being Christians.
We have now prepared the several facts that constitute the materials
of our argument. Here is an unquestionable historical event: the rapid
and extensive spread of Christianity over the whole Roman empire in
less than seventy years from the outset of its preaching. Has anything
else of a like kind been known in the world? Did the learning and
popularity of the ancient philosophers, powerfully aided by the favor
of the great and the peculiar character of the age, accomplish anything
in the least resembling the success of the apostles? It is a notorious
fact that only one of them ‘ever dared to attack the base religion
of the nation, and substitute better representations of God in its
stead, although its absurdity was apparent to many of them. An attempt
of this kind having cost the bold Socrates his life, no others had
resolution enough to offer such a sacrifice for the general good. To
excuse their timidity in this respect, and give it the appearance of
profound wisdom, they called to their aid the general principle that
it is imprudent and injurious to let people see the whole truth at
once; that it is not only necessary to spare sacred prejudices, but, in
particular circumstances, an act of benevolence to deceive the great
mass of the people. This was the unanimous opinion of almost all the
ancient philosophical schools.’ No further proof is needed that such
men were incapable of effecting anything approximating to the great
moral revolution produced in the world by the power of the gospel.
How different the apostles! boldly attacking all vice, superstition,
and error, at all hazards, in all places, not counting their lives
dear unto them so that they might ‘testify the gospel of the grace
of God.’ But where else shall we turn for a parallel to the work we
have described? What efforts, independently of the gospel, were ever
successful in the moral regeneration of whole communities of the
superstitious and licentious?” (McIlvaine’s Evid., Lect. IX.) This
excellent writer adds, in a note: “The early advocates of Christianity,
in controversy with the heathen of Greece and Rome, were accustomed
to dwell with great stress upon the argument from its propagation.
Chrysostom, of the fourth century, writes: ‘The apostles of Christ
were twelve; and they gained the whole world.’ ‘Zeno, Plato, Socrates,
and many others, endeavored to introduce a new course of life, but
in vain; whereas Jesus Christ not only taught, but settled, a new
polity, or way of living, all over the world.’ ‘The doctrines and
writings of fishermen, who were beaten and driven from society, and
always lived in the midst of dangers, have been readily embraced by
learned and unlearned, bondmen and free, kings and soldiers, Greeks and
barbarians.’ ‘Though kings and tyrants and people strove to extinguish
the spark of faith, such a flame of true religion arose as filled the
whole world. If you go to India and Scythia, and the utmost ends of the
earth, you will everywhere find the doctrine of Christ enlightening
the souls of men.’ Augustine, of the same century, speaking of the
heathen philosophers, says: ‘If they were to live again, and should see
the churches crowded, the temples forsaken, and men called from the
love of temporal, fleeting things, to the hope of eternal life and the
possession of spiritual and heavenly blessings, and readily embracing
them, provided they were really such as they are said to have been,
perhaps they would say, ”These are things which we did not dare to say
to the people; we rather gave way to their custom than endeavored to
draw them over to our best thoughts and apprehensions.“’”
“After the death of Jesus Christ, twelve poor fishermen and mechanics
undertook to teach and convert the world. Their success was prodigious.
All the Christians rushed to martyrdom, all the people to baptism: the
history of these early times was a continual prodigy.”—_Rousseau._
Now what explanation can be given of this impressive fact,—the rapid
conquest of Christianity over ancient religions, priests, magistrates,
and all the passions and prejudices of the people? There is but one
explanation: the spirit of God influenced the hearts which he had made
to embrace his truth. To establish Christianity on the earth, he was
pleased to exert a power which, to the same extent, future ages have
not witnessed. Christianity in her strength, with so many earthly
advantages in her favor, accomplishes far less than Christianity in her
infancy, with every worldly influence against her. “There is reason
to think that there were more Jews converted by the apostles in one
day, than have since been won over in the last thousand years.” (Jacob
Bryant, 1792.) Compare the results of modern missionary efforts (which,
indeed, have accomplished enough to stimulate to greater exertions)
with the fruits of the preaching of the Apostle to the Gentiles! When
more energy, more prayer, and greater faith shall be devoted to the
conversion of the world—both Jews and Gentiles—we may confidently look
to the Lord of the harvest for more abundant fruit.[G]
[_February 18._]