was it known that the followers of Christ shrunk from the path of duty,
though it were evidently the path of death? When and in what age have
those been wanting who should bear witness to the truth, and seal it
with their blood? There have been those who in time of persecution have
fallen away--but for one apostate there have been a thousand martyrs. We
have been, I may rather affirm, too prodigal of life--too lavish of our
blood. There has been, in former ages, not only a willingness, a
readiness to die for Christ, but an eagerness. Christians have not
waited to be searched for and found by the ministers of Roman power;
they have thrust themselves forward; they have gone up of their own
accord to the tribunal and proclaimed their faith, and invited the death
at which nature trembles and revolts. But shall we blame this divine
ardor? this more than human contempt of suffering and death? this
burning zeal for the great cause of our Master? Let us rather honor and
revere it as a temper truly divine and of more than mortal force. But
let us be just to all. While we honor the courage and self-sacrificing
love of so many, let us not require that all should be such, nor cast
suspicion upon those who--loving Christ not less in their hearts--shrink
from the sufferings in which others glory. Ye need not, Christian men
and women, yourselves rush to the tribunal of Varus, ere you can feel
that you are Christ's indeed. It is not needful that to be a Christian
you must also be a martyr. Ye need not, ye ought not, impatiently seek
for the rack and the cross. It is enough if, when sought and found and
arraigned, you be found faithful; if then you deny not nor renounce your
Lord, but glory in your name, and with your dying breath shout it forth
as that for which you gladly encounter torture and death. Go not forth
then seeking the martyr's crown! Wait till you are called. God knoweth,
and he alone, whom he would have to glorify him by that death which is
so much more to be coveted than life. Leave all in the hand of
Providence. You that are not chosen, fear not that, though later, the
gates of Heaven shall not be thrown open for you. Many are the paths
that lead to those gates. Besides, shall all rush upon certain death?
Were all martyrs, where then were the seed of the church? They who live,
and by their life, consecrate to holiness and God, show that they are
his, do no less for their Master and his cause than do they who die for
that cause. Nay, 'tis easier to die well than to live well. The cross
which we bear through a long life of faithful service, is a heavier one
than that which we bear as we go up our Calvary. Leave all then,
Christian men and women, in the hands of God. Seek not death nor life.
Shun not life nor death. Say each, "Here, Lord, is thy servant, do with
him as shall seem to thee good."
'And now, Christians, how shall we receive the edict of Aurelian? It
silences our preachers, it closes our churches. What now is the duty of
the Christians of Rome?'
Soon as this question was proposed by Probus, many voices from various
parts of the room gave in their judgments. At first, the opinions
expressed differed on many points: but as the discussion was prolonged
the difference grew less and less, till unanimity seemed to be attained.
It was agreed at length, that it was right to conform to the edict so
far as this: 'That they would not preach openly in the streets nor
elsewhere; they would, at first, and scrupulously, conform to the edict
in its letter and spirit--until they had seen what could be done by
appeals both to the Emperor and the senate; but, maintaining at the same
time, that if their appeals were vain, if their churches were not
restored to them with liberty to assemble in them as formerly and for
the same purposes--then they would take the freedom that was not
granted, and use it as before, and abide by the issue; no power of man
should close their mouths as ambassadors of God, as followers of Christ
and through him reformers of the world; they would speak--they would
preach and pray, though death were the immediate reward.'
In this determination I heartily agreed as both moderate and yet firm;
as showing respect for the powers that are over us, and at the same time
asserting our own rights, and declaring our purpose to stand by them.
But so thought not all. For no sooner was the opinion of the assembly
declared than Macer broke forth:
'I have heard,' said he, 'the judgment which has been pronounced. But I
like it not--I agree not to it. Shall the minister of Christ, the
ambassador of God, a messenger from Heaven to earth, hold his peace at
the behest of a man, though he be an emperor, or of ten thousand men,
were all emperors? Not though every Christian in Rome subscribed to this
judgment, not though every Christian in the world assented to it, would
I. Is Christ to receive laws of Aurelian? Is the cause of God and truth
to be postponed to that of the empire? and posterity to die of hunger
because we refuse to till the earth? We are God's spiritual
husbandmen--the heart of Rome is our field of labor--it is already the
eleventh hour--the last days are at hand--and shall we forbear our toil?
shall we withdraw our hand from the plough? shall we cease to proclaim
the glad tidings of salvation because the doors of our churches are
closed? Not so, Christians, by the blessing of God, shall it be with me.
While the streets of Rome and her door-stones will serve me for church
and pulpit, and while my tongue is left unwrenched from my mouth, will I
not cease to declare Jesus Christ and him crucified! Think you Aurelian
will abate his wrath or change his purposes of death, for all your
humble sueing? that cringing and fawning will turn aside the messengers
of death? Believe it not. Ye know not Aurelian. More would ye gain with
him, did the faith of the peace-loving Jesus allow it, if ye went forth
in battle array and disputed this great question in the streets of Rome
sword in hand! More would ye gain now, if ye sent a word of
defiance--denying his right to interpose between God and his
people--between Christ and his church--and daring him to do his worst,
than by this tame surrender of your rights--this almost base denial of
your Master. No sooner shall tomorrow's sun have risen, than on the very
steps of the capitol will I preach Christ, and hurl the damnation of God
upon this bloody Emperor and his bloody people.'
'O, Macer, Macer! cease, cease!' cried a woman's voice from the crowd.
'You know not what you say! Already have your harsh words put new
bitterness into Aurelian's heart. Forbear, as you love Christ and us.'
'Woman--' replied Macer, 'for such your voice declares you to be--I do
love both Christ and you, and it is because I love you that I aim to set
aside this faithless judgment of the Roman Christians. But when I say I
love you and the believers in Rome, I mean your souls, not your bodies.
I love not your safety, nor your peace, nor your outward comforts; your
houses, nor your wealth, nor your children, nor your lives, nor anything
that is yours which the eye can see or the hands handle. I love your
souls, and, beside them, nothing. And while it is them I love, and for
them am bound in the spirit as a minister of Christ, I may not hold my
peace, nor hide myself, for that there is a lion in the path! As a
soldier of the cross I will never flee. Though at the last day I hear no
other word of praise from Him the judge--and no other shall I hear, for
my Pagan sins weigh me down--down--help, Lord! or I perish!--' Macer's
voice here took the tone of deepest agony; he seemed for a time wholly
lost, standing still, with outstretched arms and uplifted eye. After a
long pause he suddenly resumed. 'What did I say?--It was this: though I
hear no other word of praise from my judge as I stand at his
judgment-seat, I trust I shall hear this, that I did not flee nor hide
myself, that I was no coward, but a bold and fearless soldier of the
cross, ready at any time and at all times to suffer for the souls of my
brethren.'
'Think not, Macer,' said Probus, 'that we shrink at the prospect of
danger. But we would be not only bold and unshrinking, but wise and
prudent. There is more than one virtue goes to make the Christian man.
We think it right and wise first to appeal to the Emperor's love of
justice. We think it might redound greatly to our advantage if we could
obtain a public hearing before Aurelian, so that from one of our own
side he, with all the nobility of Rome, might hear the truth in Christ,
and then judge whether to believe so was hurtful to the state, or
deserving of torture and death.'
'As well, Probus,' replied Macer, 'might you preach the faith of Christ
in the ear of the adder! to the very stones of the highways! Aurelian
turn from a settled purpose! ha! ha! you have not served, Probus, under
him in Gaul and Asia as others have. Never did the arguments of his
legions and his great officers on the other side, serve but to intrench
him the more impregnably in his own. He knows not what the word change
means. But were this possible, and of good hope, it shows not that plain
and straight path to which my spirit points, and which therefore I must
travel. Is it right to hearken to man rather than God? That to me is
the only question. Shall Aurelian silence the ambassador of God and
Christ? Shall man wrestle and dispute it with the Almighty? God, or
Aurelian, which shall it be? To me, Christians, it would be a crime of
deeper dye than the errors of my Pagan youth, did I chain my tongue,
were it but for an hour, at the command of Aurelian. I have a light
within, and it is that I must obey. I reason not--I weigh not
probabilities--I balance not argument against argument--I feel! and that
I take to be the instinct of God--the inspiration of his holy
Spirit--and as I feel so am I bound to act.'
It was felt to be useless to reason with this impetuous and self-willed
man. He must be left to work out his own path through the surrounding
perils, and bear whatever evil his violent rashness might draw upon his
head. Yet his are those extreme and violent opinions and feelings which
are so apt to carry away the multitude, and it was easy to see that a
large proportion of the assembly went with him. Another occasion was
given for their expression.
When it had been determined that the edicts should be observed so far as
to refrain from all public preaching and all assembling together, till
the Emperor had been first appealed to, it then became a question in
what manner he should be approached, and by whom, in behalf of the whole
body. And no sooner had Macer ceased, than the same voice which had
first brought those charges against Probus was again heard--the voice as
I have since learned of a friend of Felix, and an exorcist.
'If it be now determined,' said the voice, 'that we appeal to the
clemency of the Emperor in order to avert from our heads the evil that
seems to be more than threatened, let it be done by some one who in his
faith may nay represent the great body of Christ's followers. Whether
the Emperor shall feel well inclined toward us or not, will it not
greatly depend upon the manner in which the truth in Christ shall be set
forth, and whether by means of the principles and doctrines that shall
be shown to belong to it and constitute it, it shall be judged by him to
be of hurtful or beneficial tendency? Now it is well known to all how
variously Christ is received and interpreted in Rome. As received by
some, his gospel is one thing; as received by others, it is another and
quite a different thing. Who can doubt that our prospect of a favorable
hearing with Aurelian will be an encouraging one in the proportion that
he shall perceive our opinions to agree with those which have already
been advanced in the schools of philosophy--especially in that of the
divine Plato. This agreement and almost identity has, ever since the
time of Justin, been pointed out and learnedly defended. They who
perceive this agreement, and rest in it as their faith, now constitute
the greater part of the Christian world. Let him then who is to bespeak
for us the Emperor's good-will be, as in good sooth he ought to be, of
these opinions. As to the declaration that has been made that one is as
much a Christian as another, whatever the difference of faith may be, I
cannot receive it; and he who made the declaration, I doubt would scarce
abide by it, since as I learn he is a worshipper and follower of that
false-hearted interloper Novatian. The puritans least of all are apt to
regard with favor those who hold not with them. Let Felix then, who, if
any now living in Rome may stand forward as a specimen of what Christ's
religion is in both its doctrine and its life--let Felix plead our cause
with Aurelian.'
The same difference of feeling and opinion manifested itself as before.
Many voices immediately cried out, 'Yes, yes, Felix, let Felix speak for
us.' While others from every part of the room were heard shouting out,
'Probus, Probus, let Probus be our advocate!'
At length the confusion subsided as a single voice made itself heard
above the others and caught their attention, saying,
'If Felix, O Christians, as has just been affirmed, represents the
opinions which are now most popular in the Christian world, at least
here in Rome, Probus represents those which are more ancient--' He was
instantly interrupted.
'How long ago,' cried another, 'lived Paul of Samosata?'
'When died the heretic Sabellius?' added still another.
'Or Praxeas?' said a third, 'or Theodotos? or Artemon?'
'These,' replied the first, soon as he could find room for
utterance--'these are indeed not of the earliest age, but they from whom
they learned their faith are of that age, namely, the apostles and the
great master of all.'
'Heresy,' cried out one who had spoken before, 'always dates from the
oldest; it never has less age nor authority than that of Christ.'
'Christians! Christians!' Macer's stentorian voice was now heard
towering above the tumult, 'what is it ye would have? What are these
distinctions about which ye dispute? What have they to do with the
matter now in hand? How would one doctrine or the other in such matters
weigh with Aurelian more than straws or feathers? But if these are stark
naught, and less than naught, there are other questions pertinent to the
time, nay, which the time forces upon us, and about which we should be
well agreed. A new age of persecution has arisen, and the church is
about to be sifted, and the wheat separated from the chaff--the first to
be gathered into the garners of God, the last to be burnt up in fire
unquenchable. Now is it to be proved who are Christ's, and who are
not--who will follow him bearing their cross to some new Calvary, and
who, saving their lives, shall yet lose them. Who knows not the evil
that, in the time of Decius, yes, and before and since too, fell upon
the church from the so easy reception and restoration of those who, in
an hour of weakness and fear, denied their master and his faith, and
bowed the knee to the gods of Rome? Here is the danger against which we
are to guard; from this quarter--not from any other of vain jargon
concerning natures, essences, and modes of being--are we to look for
those fatal inroads to be made upon the purity of the gospel, that
cannot but draw along with them corruption and ruin. Of what stuff will
the church then be made, when they who are its ministers, deacons and
bishops, shall be such as, when danger showed itself, relapsed into
idolatry, and, soon as the clouds had drifted by, and the winds blew
soft, came forth again into the calm sunshine, renounced their idolatry,
and again professing Christ, were received to the arms of the church,
and even to the communion of the body and blood of our Lord?
Christians, the great Novatian is he to whom we owe what purity the
church yet retains, and it is in allegiance to him--'
'The great Novatian!' exclaimed a priest of the Roman church, 'great
only in his infamy! Himself an apostate once, he sought afterwards,
having been received himself back again to the church upon his
repentance, to bury his shame under a show of zeal against such as were
guilty of the same offence. His own weakness or sin, instead of teaching
him compassion, served but to harden his heart. Is this the man to whose
principles we are to pledge ourselves? Were his principles sound in
themselves, we could hardly take them from such a source. But they are
false. They are in the face of the spirit and letter of the gospel. What
is the character of the religion of Christ, if it be not mercy? Yet this
great Novatian, to those who like Peter have fallen--Peter whom his
master received and forgave--denies all mercy! and for one offence,
however penitence may wring the soul, cuts them off forever like a
rotten branch from the body of Christ! Is this the teacher whose
follower should appeal for us to the Roman Emperor?'
'I seek not,' Macer began to say, 'to defend the bishop of Rome--'
'Bishop!' cried the other, 'bishop! who ever heard that Novatian was
bishop of Rome? But who has not heard that that wicked and ambitious man
through envy of Cornelius, and resolved to supplant him, caused himself
to be ordained bishop by a few of that order, weak and corrupt men,
whom he bribed to the bad work, but who, corrupt as they were, and
bribed as they were, it was first needful to make drunk before
conscience would allow them by such act eternally to disgrace themselves
and the church--'
'Lies and slanders all,' cried Macer and others with him, in the same
breath and with their utmost voice. The greatest confusion prevailed. A
thousand contradictory cries were heard. In the midst of the uproar the
name of Macer was proclaimed by many as that of one who would best
assert and defend the Christian cause before Aurelian. But these were
soon overborne and silenced by a greater number, who now again called
upon Probus to fill that office.
Probus seemed not sorry that, his name being thus tumultuously called
out, he had it again in his power to speak to the assembly. Making a
sign accordingly that he would be heard, he said,
'That he coveted not the honorable office of appealing for them to the
Emperor of Rome. It would confer more happiness a thousand fold,
Christians, if I could by any words of mine put harmony and peace into
your hearts, than if I might even convert a Roman emperor. What a scene
of confusion and discord is this, at such an hour, when, if ever, our
hearts should be drawn closer together by this exposure to a common
calamity. Why is it that when at home, or moving abroad in the business
of life, your conversation so well becomes your name and faith, drawing
upon you even the commendation of your Pagan foes, you no sooner
assemble together, as now, than division and quarrel ensue, in such
measure, as among our Heathen opponents is never seen? Why is it,
Christians, that when you are so ready to die for Christ, you will not
live at peace for him? Honor you not him more by showing that you are of
his spirit, that for his name's sake you are willing to bear patiently
whatever reproach may be laid upon you, than you do even by suffering
and dying for him? The questions you have here agitated are not for this
hour and place. What now does it signify whether one be a follower of
Paul, of Origen, of Sabellius, or Novatian, when we are each and all so
shortly to be called upon to confess our allegiance to neither of
these--but to a greater, even Jesus, the master and head of us all! And
what has our preference for some of the doctrines of either of these to
do with our higher love of Christ and his truth? By such preference is
our superior and supreme regard for Jesus and his word vitiated or
invalidated? Nay, what is it we then do when we embrace the peculiar
doctrine of some great or good man, who has gone before, but embrace
that which in a peculiar sense we regard as the doctrine of Christ? We
receive the peculiar doctrine of Paul, or Justin, or Origen, not because
it is theirs, but because we think they have shown it to be eminently
the doctrine of Christ. In binding upon us then the dogmas of any
teacher, we ought not to be treated other than as those who, in doing
so, are seeking to do the highest honor, not to such teacher, but to
Christ. I am charged as a disciple of the bishop of Antioch, and the
honored Felix as a disciple of Plato. If I honor Paul of Samosata,
Christians, for any of his truth, it is because I deem him to have
discerned clearly the truth as it is in Jesus. My faith is not in him,
but in Jesus. And if Felix honor Plato or Plotinus, it is but because
in them he beholds some clearer unfolding--clearer than elsewhere--of
the truth in Christ. Are not we then, and all who do the same thing, to
be esteemed as those who honor Christ? not deny nor forsake him. And as
we all hold in especial reverence some one or another of a former age,
through whom as a second master we receive the doctrines of the gospel,
ought we not all to love and honor one another, seeing that in the same
way we all love and honor Christ? Let love, Christians, mutual honor and
love, be the badge of our discipleship, as it was in the first age of
the church. Soon, very soon, will you be called to bear testimony to the
cause you have espoused, and perhaps seal it with your blood. Be not
less ready to show your love to those around you by the promptness with
which you lend your sympathy, or counsel, or aid, as this new flood of
adversity flows in upon them. But why do I exhort you? The thousand acts
of kindness, of charity, of brotherly love, which flow outwards from you
in a perpetual stream toward Heathen not less than Christian, and have
drawn upon you the admiration even of the Pagan world, is sufficient
assurance that your hearts will not be cold when the necessities of this
heavier time shall lay upon you their claims. It is only in the public
assembly, and in the ardor of debate, that love seems cold and dead.
Forget then, now and tomorrow, that you are followers of any other than
Christ. Forget that you call yourselves after one teacher or another,
and remember only that you are brethren, members of one family, of the
same household of faith, owning one master, worshipping one and the same
God and Father of us all. And now, Christians, if you would rather that
Felix should defend you before Aurelian, I would also. There is none
among us who loves Christ more or better than he, or would more readily
lay down his life for his sake.'
Felix however joined with all the others--for all now, after these few
words of Probus, seemed of one opinion--in desiring that Probus should
appear for the Christians before the Emperor; which he then consented to
do. Harmony was once more restored. The differences of opinion, which
separated them, seemed to be forgotten, and they mingled as friends and
fellow-laborers in the great cause of truth. They who had been harshest
in the debate--which was at much greater length, and conducted with much
more vehemence than as I have described it--were among the most forward
to meet with urbanity those who were in faith the most distantly removed
from them. A long and friendly interview then took place, in which each
communed with each, and by words of faith or affection helped to supply
the strength which all needed for the approaching conflict. One saw no
longer and heard no longer the enthusiastic disputant more bent upon
victory than truth, and heedless of the wounds he gave to the heart,
provided he convinced the head or silenced the tongue, but instead,
those who now appeared no other than a company of neighbors and friends
engaged in the promotion of some common object of overwhelming interest.
When in this manner and for a considerable space of time a fit offering
had been laid upon the altar of love, the whole assembly again joined
together in acts of prayer, and again lifted up their voices in song of
praise. This duty being performed, we separated and sought the streets.
The storm which had begun in violence, had increased, and it was with
difficulty that beset by darkness, wind, and rain, I succeeded without
injury in finding my way to the Coelian.
Julia was waiting for me with anxious impatience.
After relating to her the events of the evening, she said,
'How strange, Lucius, the conduct of such men at such a time! How could
Christians, with the Christian's faith in their hearts, so lose the
possession of themselves--and so violate all that they profess as
followers of Jesus! I confess, if this be the manner in which
Christianity is intended to operate upon the character, I am as yet
wholly ignorant of it, and desire ever to remain so. But it is not
possible that they are right. Nay, they seem in some sort to have
acknowledged themselves to have been in the wrong by the last acts of
the meeting. This brings to my mind what Paul has often told me of the
Christians of the same kind, at which I was then amazed, but had
forgotten. I do not comprehend it. I have read and studied the character
and the teachings of Jesus, and it seems to me I have arrived at some
true understanding--for surely there is little difficulty in doing
so--of what he himself was, and of what he wished his followers to be.
Would he have recognized his likeness in those of whom you have now told
me?'