Sing to the Lord! Oh, let us shout his praise!
More lofty pæans let our masters raise.
Midst clouds of golden light, a pathway clear,
With soaring soul, these martyred saints have trod
To Him, the only true Almighty God!
Earth’s tumults wild and pagan darkness drear,
To bonds of peace and songs of joy give way:
Behold! we bring you light—one everlasting day!
Sing to the Lord! No more shall frantic Sibyl’s yell,
Watchful Augurs, or those of magic spell,
No, not Isis, nor yet Apollo’s throne,
No, nor even Death, with Lethean bands,
Shall longer bind the soul; before us stands
Him of the Cross of Calvary:—His groan
Of death burst forth from its eternal womb,
While angel spirits shout, and open wide the tomb!
Sing to the Lord! The Temple’s veil is rent!
From Moab’s plains, the Slave, an outcast, sent
From this cold world shall, soaring, fly to heaven,
From depths of Darkness, Night, and Orcus dread.
Each spirit woke at the Eternal’s tread
On the head of Death! a promise given
To all Earth’s houseless, homeless, and forlorn,
Before the Ages were—or His Eldest Son was born!
Sing to the Lord! Lo! while God’s rebels rave,
He plunges down, and renovates the slave—
Vengeance and love at once bestowed on man.
See! crushed is Baal’s, proud Moloch’s temple falls;
Shout to the Lord! No more shall blood-stained walls,
Nor mountain grove, nor all the gods of Ham,
Dispel a Saviour’s love! Correction’s rod
Hath won the world,—for Heaven and Thee, O God!
It is one of the providences of Jehovah, that the very wretched forget
their wrath, and the broken in spirit their violence. And it may be well
for those who examine moral conduct by the evidences of the providences
of God, to notice how wrath conduces to wretchedness, and violence to a
breaking down of the spirit.
Olybius was by no means prepared to adopt the humiliating doctrines of
the new faith; but he perceived it to be well adapted to the condition
of those in the extremely low walks of life. By it the slave was taught
to become “the freeman of the Lord,” and the wretched, destitute, and
miserable, to become “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” These
doctrines, and the whole system, being founded upon the pillars of
Humility, Faith, Hope, and Charity, were an arrangement to make the most
humble as happy as the most exalted; as to happiness and hopes of
heaven, it made all men equal; nor is it surprising that the low classes
more readily become its converts.
Olybius may have seen some beautiful features in this system; but his
philosophy forbid his faith. He calmly decided that it was a
superstition too low to combat—worthy only of contempt. But he perceived
that the blood of a hundred made a thousand Christians, and was
convinced the only remedy was to improve and elevate the mind,—to imbue
it with deep religious feeling and principle, a reverence and veneration
for the gods.
He deeply felt the wound inflicted by the presence of Vopiscus, and
would gladly have proved to the emperor that change of government,
either as to ruler or its general system, could not affect the condition
of this new doctrine. But he had no knowledge of the Christian’s God,
nor of his attributes as a distinct Being; and hence, although he may be
regarded as a most deadly enemy, yet, since the providences of Jehovah,
through the mild light of the gospel, begin to develop themselves to the
human understanding, we may deem his report to the emperor, on the
Christian superstition, to be ONE OF ITS MOST UNDYING PANEGYRICS; as an
extract from which, we may well imagine, he wrote thus:—
_Olybius to the Emperor Probus._
* * * “Great reforms on moral subjects do not occur, except under the
influence of religious principle. Political revolutions and changes of
policy and administration do indeed occur from other causes, and secure
the ends which are desired. But, on subjects pertaining to right and
wrong; on those questions where the rights of an inferior and
down-trodden class are concerned, we can look for little advance, except
from the operation of religious principle.
“Unless the inferior classes have power to assert their rights by arms,
those rights will be conceded only by the operations of conscience and
the principles of religion. There is no great wrong in any community
which we can hope to rectify by new considerations of policy, or by a
mere revolution. The relations of _Christianity_ are not reached by
political revolutions, or by changes of policy or administration.
“Political revolutions occur in a higher region, and the condition of
the _Christian_ is no more affected by a mere change of government, than
that of the vapours of a low, marshy vale is affected by the tempest and
storm in the higher regions of the air. The storm sweeps along the
Apennines, the lightnings play, and the thunders utter their voice, but
the malaria of the Campagna is unaffected, and the pestilence breathes
desolation there still. So it is with Christianity. Political
revolutions occur in higher places, but the malaria of _Christianity_
remains settled down on the low plains of life, and not even the surface
of the pestilential vapour is agitated by all the storms and tempests of
political changes; it remains the same deadly, pervading pestilence
still. Under all the forms of despotism; in the government of
aristocracy, or an oligarchy; under the administration of a pure
democracy, or the forms of a republican government; and in all the
changes from one to the other, _Christianity_ remains still the same.
Whether the _prince_ is hurled from the throne, or rides into power on
the tempest of revolution, the down-trodden Christian is the same
still:—and it makes no difference to him whether the _prince_ wears a
crown, or appears in a plain, republican garb,—'whether Cæsar is on the
throne, or slain in the senate-house.'”
In these imputed sentiments of Olybius, the indications of the will of
Jehovah, in establishing and protecting the _institutions_ of
_Christianity_, by his providences towards it, is vividly portrayed to
the Christian eye. Jehovah would not suffer “the gates of hell to
prevail against it.” Of the very materials intended by its enemies for
its destruction, he made them build its throne.
The scene, by which we have introduced this imaginary report of Olybius
to the emperor, has been merely to remove from the mind any bias tending
to a partial conception of the indications of the will of God, as
evinced by his providences therein described, that we may more readily
discover the fact, that, instead of showing Christianity to be worthy
only of contempt, Olybius did pronounce its eulogium.
Change the words _Christian_ and _Christianity_ into _slave_ and
_slavery_; _prince_ into _master_, and it then is what Mr. Barnes did
say, and has said, (pages 25, 26, 27,) word for word, about the
institution of slavery; and, as if desirous to portray the providences
of God towards it down to the present time, continuously says. See pages
27 and 28—
“Slavery among the Romans remained substantially the same under the
Tarquins, the consuls, and the Cæsars; when the tribunes gained the
ascendency, and when the patricians crushed them to the earth. It lived
in Europe when the northern hordes poured down on the Roman Empire; and
when the caliphs set up the standard of Islam in the Peninsula. It lived
in all the revolutions of the Middle Ages,—alike, when spiritual
despotism swayed its sceptre over the nations, and when they began to
emerge into freedom. In the British realms, it has lived in the time of
the Stuarts, under the Protectorate, and for a long time under the
administration of the house of Hanover. With some temporary
interruptions, it lived in the provinces of France through the
revolution. It lived through our own glorious Revolution; and the
struggles which gave liberty to millions of the Anglo-Saxon race did not
loosen one rivet from the fetters of an African, nor was there a slave
who was any nearer to the enjoyment of freedom after the surrender of
Yorktown, than when Patrick Henry taught the notes of liberty to echo
along the hills and vales of Virginia. So in all changes of political
administration in our own land, the condition of the slave remains
unaffected. Alike whether the Federalists or Republicans have the rule;
whether the star of the Whig or the Democrat is in the ascendant; the
condition of the slave is still the same. The pæans of victory, when the
hero of New Orleans was raised to the presidential chair, or when the
hero of Tippecanoe was inaugurated, conveyed no * * * intimation of a
change to the slave; nor had he any more hope, nor was his condition any
more affected, when the one gave place to his successor, or the other
was borne to the grave. And so it is now. In all the fierce contests for
rule in the land; in the questions about changes in the administration,
there are nearly three millions of our fellow-beings, who have no
interest in these contests and questions, and whose condition will be
affected no more, whatever the result may be, than the vapour that lies
in the valley is by the changes from sunshine to storm on the summits of
the Alps or the Andes.”
This may be all true, but what is the indication of God’s will, as
taught by these, his providences towards it? “And now I say unto you
refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counsel or this
work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot
overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.” _Acts_
v. 38, 39.
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