year, and after their rule at home was over, went to make war in the
provinces; but of late this plan had been wearing our, and the great
general, Julius Caesar, who had conquered France, then called Gaul, and
had visited Britain, was making himself over-powerful. Pompey stood up
for the old laws, but Caesar was too strong for him, and at last hunted
him to Egypt, where he was murdered by the last of the Ptolemies. Julius
Caesar, who was one of the greatest warriors and most able men who ever
lived, managed Rome as he chose, and coming to Syria, confirmed Hyrcanus
in his rank, and finding him careless and indolent, made Antipas
procurator, or governor for the Romans; and thus Antipas and his son,
Herod, held all the real power in their hands, though still under the
Romans. Going back to Rome, Julius Caesar became so powerful, that it
was thought he would make himself king, and after four years, some of
the friends of the old laws killed him with their daggers in the Senate
House, B. C. 44. After this, there was great confusion; and while
Augustus Cæsar, the nephew of Julius, gained power in the west, Mark
Antony, another Roman general, came to Egypt to attend to the affairs of
the East. He was a selfish licentious man, who cared more for Cleopatra,
the beautiful sister of the last Ptolemy, and Queen of Egypt, than for
Rome or for his duty; and he took bribes from Herod to support his power
over the old prince, Hyrcanus, to whose daughter, Mariamne, Herod was
betrothed.
The son of the deposed Aristobulus, Antigonus by name, made friends with
the Parthians, the descendants of the old Persians, and bursting into
Judæa when the nation was unprepared, carried off poor old Hyrcanus as
a prisoner, and cut off his ears that such a blemish might prevent him
from ministering again as High Priest. Herod escaping, went to Rome,
where he represented his case so ably, that Augustus and Antony gave him
men and money that he might drive out Antigonus, and promised that he
should himself be king under them. The Roman army helped him to win back
the country; and as the caves in the hills were full of robbers, he
let down soldiers in boxes over the face of the precipices, and thus
contrived to destroy them all. After a siege of six months he took
Jerusalem, and Antigonus surrendered to the Romans, who kept him
prisoner for some time, and then, at Herod's entreaty, put him to death.
Herod thus became King of the Jews, B.C. 37. He married Mariamne, who
was very beautiful and amiable, and thus he hoped to please the Jews who
were attached to the old line; but as he was an Idumean, and therefore
could not be High Priest, he gave the holy office to her brother, until
becoming fearful of the young prince's just rights to the crown, he
caused his attendants to drown him while bathing, and afterwards
appointed High Priests, as he chose, from the chief priests of the
Sanhedrim. Indeed Herod lived in constant fear and hatred of every
Asmonean, and at last even turned against his own wife, Mariamne. He
caused her to be put to death, and then nearly broke his heart with
grief for her; and afterwards the same dread of the old royal stock led
him to kill the two sons she had left to him.
The seventy weeks of Daniel were drawing to a close, and everyone
expected that the long-promised Deliverer and King would appear. Some
flatterers said it was Herod himself, the blood-stained Edomite, and he
did all in his power to maintain the notion, by repairing the Temple
with great care and cost, making restorations there that were forty-six
years in progress, and spreading a golden vine over the front of the
Sanctuary.
There were others who said the one great King, whom even the heathen
expected, was coming to Rome. Augustus Cæsar had gained all the power;
he had beaten Antony and Cleopatra in a sea-fight, and following them
to Egypt, found that they had both killed themselves, Antony with his
sword, Cleopatra by the bite of an asp, in order to save themselves
from being made prisoners. Augustus was welcomed at Rome with a great
triumph, and was called Emperor, the name always given to a victorious
general; the Romans gave him all their offices of state, and he ruled
over all their great dominions without anyone to dispute his power, any
enemy to conquer at home or abroad. There was a great lull and hush all
over the world, for the time was come at last. But the King was neither
Herod in Judea, nor Augustus at Rome! Nay Herod, as a son of Edom, was
but proving that the Sceptre had departed from Judah; and the reign of
Augustus was a time when darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness
the people, for the Greeks and Romans had lost all the good that
had been left in them, and were given up to wicked cruelty and foul
self-indulgence; when one of their own heathen oracles was caused to
announce to Augustus that the greatest foe of the Roman power should be
a child born among the Hebrews.
LESSON XX.
THE GOSPEL.
"It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel."--_Gen_. iii.
15.
It was in the 4004th year of the world, the 30th of the empire of Caesar
Augustus, the 37th of the reign of Herod the Edomite, that Augustus,
wishing to know the number of his subjects, so as to regulate the taxes
paid by the conquered countries, to provide corn for the poorer Roman
citizens, sent out an edict that each person should enroll his name at
his native place, and there pay a piece of money. Thus the Divine Power
brought it to pass, that the Blessed Virgin, who was about to bring
forth a son, should travel with her betrothed husband to the home of
their fathers, Rachel's burial place, Bethlehem, the little city, whence
David had once been called away from the sheepfolds.
There the stable of the ox and ass received, the Master of Heaven and
earth, when His people considered Him not, and shut their doors when,
"Unto us a Child was born, unto us a Son was given." There, the
shepherds on the hills heard the angels sing their song of peace on
earth, good will to men; there, on the eighth day of His Life on earth,
that Child was circumcised, and received the Greek form of the Divine
name, Jehovah the Saviour, the same which had been borne before by the
Captain and by the Priest, who had led His people to their inheritance.
Thence the Desire of all nations was carried to His presentation in the
Temple. He was truly the first-born of all creation, but He was only
known to the aged Simeon and devout Anna, as the messenger of the
covenant, the Lord for whom they had waited. To Bethlehem came the
mysterious wise men from the east. They had been led by the star to
Jerusalem, and were there directed on by the scribes, learned in the
prophecies; but their inquiries had alarmed Herod's jealousy, and he
sent forth the savage order, that the babes of Bethlehem should all be
murdered, in hopes of cutting off the new-born King of the Jews; but
while the mothers wept for the children who should come again to them in
a better inheritance, the Holy One was safe in Egypt, whither Joseph had
carried Him, by the warning of God.
This massacre was well nigh the last of Herod's cruelties. He was
already in failing health, and after having killed his innocent sons
because of their Asmonean blood, he was obliged to put to death the son
of another of his wives for rebelling against him. A terrible disease
came on, and fearing that the Jews would rejoice at his death, he
declared they should have something to mourn for; and sending for all
the chief men to Jericho, where he lay sick, he shut them all up in the
circus, or place for Roman games, and made his sister promise that the
moment he expired, soldiers should be sent in to kill them all. In this
devil-like frame, Herod died, in the seventieth year of his age, and the
thirty-fourth of his reign, the first year of our Lord;[A] and his
sister at once released the captives. He had had nine wives, and many
children, of whom he had himself put three to death. Archelaus and Herod
Antipas were the sons of one mother, Herod Philip of another, and the
murdered son of Mariamne had left two children, named Herod Agrippa and
Herodias. Archelaus took the kingdom, but had not power to control
either the people or the army. Three thousand Jews were massacred by the
soldiers in the Temple, and Archelaus went to Rome to beg to be
confirmed on his throne, and assisted in keeping his people in order;
but his brother, Herod Antipas, was there already, begging for a share
in the kingdom, and the Jews sent after Archelaus, saying, "We will not
have this man to reign over us!" Augustus thereupon refused to give to
either the title of King, but split Palestine into four divisions called
tetrarchies, from _tetra_, the Greek word for four, giving to Archelaus
Judea, Samaria, and Idumea; to Antipas, Galilee; to Philip, Iturea, the
part beyond the Jordan; and to a Greek named Lysanias, Abilene, in the
north, near Mount Hermon. After this, Joseph returned from Egypt, but
avoided the dominions of the cruel Archelaus, by going to his former
abode in Galilee.
[Footnote A: From the Birth of our Lord, time is counted onwards, and
the years marked as A.D., Anno Domini, Year of the Lord.]
Archelaus grew so wicked, that in the year 12 A.D. an accusation against
him was sent to Rome by the Jews and Samaritans; and Augustus deposed
him, sending him into banishment to Vienne, in Gaul. His brothers did
not obtain his domain, but it was joined to the province of Syria, and
put under the charge of a Roman procurator or governor, who kept down
disturbances by the strong hand; but this made the Pharisees very
discontented, as they fancied it was against the Divine Law to pay
tribute to strangers. Augustus had been all his life busy in setting his
empire in order, and making laws for it. It stretched from the Atlantic
Ocean nearly to the river Euphrates, and bordered the Mediterranean Sea
on both sides, the Alps shutting it in to the north, and the deserts of
Africa to the south. The Roman citizens considered themselves the lords
of all this space; and though at first only the true-born Romans were
citizens, Augustus gave the honour to many persons of the subject
nations. It freed them from being taxed, gave them a right to vote
for magistrates, and saved them from being under the authority of the
governors of the provinces. Every educated person spoke Latin and
Greek, but the latter tongue was most used in the east, as the Romans
themselves learnt it as an accomplishment. Augustus died, A.D. 17,
leaving his power to his step-son, Tiberius, whom he had adopted as his
own son, and thus given him the name of Caesar. Tiberius had not
been kindly treated in his youth, and he was gloomy and harsh, and
exceedingly disliked by the Romans. Under him, Pontius Pilate was made
Procurator of Judea, and took up his abode in Caesarea, a city built by
Herod and him son Philip, on the coast, and named after the emperors.
Pilate set up shields with idolatrous inscriptions in Jerusalem; but the
Jews petitioned Tiberius, who ordered them to be removed, and there was
much hatred between the Procurator and the Jews. The thirty years of
silent bearing of the common lot of man were now nearly over; and six
months ere the Messiah began to make Himself known, His messenger, John,
the Desert Priest, began to prepare His way by preaching repentance in
the spirit and power of the great Elijah, and then baptizing in the
Jordan unto repentance. Such washing was the manner in which the Jews
accepted their proselytes, as they called the strangers who embraced the
Law. The great purpose of the Old Covenant was accomplished when John,
having made his followers feel all the weight of their sins against the
Commandments, pointed out Him whom he had already baptized, and said,
"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" A few
faithful Galileans followed and believed, and miracles began to testify
that here was indeed the Christ, the Prophet like to Moses, giving bread
to the hungry, eyes to the blind, feet to the lame. Decreasing as He
increased, John offended Herod Antipas by "boldly rebuking vice." This
Antipas had forsaken his own wife, the daughter of an Arabian king, and
had taken in her stead, his niece Herodias, the wife of his brother
Philip; and for bearing witness against this crime, John was thrown into
prison, and afterwards beheaded, to gratify the wicked woman and her
daughter, Salome. The Arab King avenged his daughter's wrongs by a war,
in which Antipas met with a great defeat.
Meanwhile, the Pharisees and Sadducees, their heads full of the
prophecies of greatness and deliverance, to which their minds gave a
temporal, not a spiritual meaning, grew more and more enraged at every
token that the lowly Nazarene was indeed the Saviour, the Hope of the
whole world. Each token of perfection, each saying too pure for them,
each undoubted miracle, only made them more furious, and for once they
made common cause together. The Passover came. Herod Antipas came to
Jerusalem to observe the feast, Pilate to keep the peace among the Jews;
and Jerusalem saw her King coming, meek, and riding on an ass, and amid
the Hosannas of the children, weeping at the vengeance that He foresaw
for the favoured city where He had been despised and rejected, and where
He was Himself about to become the true Passover, which should purchase
everlasting Redemption.
The traitor sold Him to the Sanhedrim, or council, in which the last
words of the prophecy through the Priesthood had declared that one man
must die for the people; and a band of Roman soldiers was obtained from
Pilate. Meanwhile, our blessed Lord instituted the new Passover, the
Communion by which all the faithful should be enabled to partake of the
great Sacrifice; then He went out to the garden, among the grey olives
which still stand beside the brook Kedron, and there, after His night of
Agony, He was betrayed by a kiss, and dragged before the High Priest,
under an accusation of blasphemy; but as the Sanhedrim had not power of
life and death, and such a charge would have mattered little to a Roman,
a political offence was invented to bring before Pilate. The procurator
perceived the innocence of the Holy One, but feared to befriend Him
because of the raging multitude; and after vainly trying to shift the
responsibility on Herod Antipas, he washed his hands, to show that it
was no affair of his own, and gave the Victim up to the murderers. They
chose the most shameful death of Roman slaves, that they might show
their hatred and contempt, unwitting that each act and each word had
been foretold and foreshown in their own Law and Prophets. For six hours
He hung on His Cross, while the sun was dark, and awe crept on the most
ignorant hearts. Then came the cry, "It is finished;" and the work was
done; the sinless Sacrifice had died; the price of Adam's sin was paid;
the veil of the Temple was rent in twain, to show that the way to the
true Mercy-Seat was opened. The rich man buried Him--the women watched;
and when the Sabbath was over, the Tomb was broken through, and the
First-fruits of them that slept arose, wondrously visited His followers
for forty days, gave them His last charges, and then ascended into
Heaven, carrying manhood to the bosom of the Father. Satan was for ever
conquered.
LESSON XXI.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH.
"Ten men shall take hold, out of all language of all nations, even shall
take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with
you, for we have heard that God is with you."--_Zech._ viii. 23.
By the coming of Him who had been so long promised, in His human Body,
and the completion of His sacrifice, all the objects of the old
ceremonial Law were fulfilled; the shadows passed away and substance
took their place, so that the comers thereunto might be made perfect.
Instead of being admitted to the covenant by circumcision, which was
only a type of putting away the uncleanness of the flesh, the believers
were washed from sin in the now fully revealed Name of the Holy Trinity,
in the Fountain of Christ's Blood, open for all sin and uncleanness, and
the penitent had a right to be constantly purified in the living
cleansing streams of grace and pardon. The one great Passover had been
offered, to redeem the chosen from the slavery of Satan, and the highway
was opened for the ransomed to pass over with songs of joy, keeping the
Resurrection Day instead of the Sabbath. Means had been given of their
constantly partaking of that Passover, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world; and thus tasting of the Eternal Sacrifice, in
right of which they prayed to the Father, to whom they were united as
members of His Son. The one great Day of Atonement was over, and the
true High Priest had entered for ever into the Holy Place, opening a way
where all might follow to the Mercy Seat, there offering His own
Sacrifice, and presenting their prayers. And even in Heaven, He still
was the Shepherd of the little flock, to whom it was His good pleasure
to give the Kingdom; feeding them, appointing under shepherds, and
guarding them gently from His Throne above. The sealed Book of type and
prophecy was open and clear at His touch; and the Old Testament found
full explanation and fulfilment in the New; and now it, remained to make
known the good tidings, and gather in all nations, Jew and Gentile
alike, to the Lord's Flock, the Church or House of the Lord, as it was
called.
One hundred and twenty believers in their risen Lord awaited together
the coming of the promised Comforter, who should abide with them for
ever, to guide them into all truth, and to enable them to proclaim the
accomplishment of all the promises. The eleven Apostles, who, as their
name[1] implied, had been sent forth by their Lord, added to their
number Matthias, in the place of the traitor Judas, laying hands on him
in order to carry on the Gift that the Saviour had breathed upon them.
Besides these, there were the seventy whom our Lord had sent out in
pairs, and whose order was afterwards called the elders, presbyters, or
priests.
They were all gathered in the upper room to keep the Feast of Weeks, in
memory of the giving the Law, when He came upon them Who could enable
that Law to be kept, bringing the Divine Presence, which is the
pervading Life of the whole Body. His coming was marked by such open
signs, as to draw the attention of all the pilgrim Jews, who had come
from their distant homes to keep the feast. St. Peter expounded to them
that the time of fulfilment was come, and that Jesus, crucified and
risen, was their Salvation. 3,000 at once accepted the New Covenant, and
were baptized; and thus, on the day of Pentecost, A.D. 33, the Church of
Christ sprang into full life. Many of the converts sold their goods, and
brought the price to the Apostles, all living on one common stock, and
giving bounteous alms; but the new converts of Greek education, found
their poor less well provided than the native Jews, and to supply them,
seven deacons, or ministers, were set apart as the serving order of the
ministry. Foremost of these was Stephen, who, about two years after the
Ascension, bore the first witness through death to the doctrine which he
taught,
[Footnote 1: Apostle--one sent] being stoned by the people in a sudden
fit of fury, at his showing how the whole course of their history was
but a preparation for Him whom they had crucified.
In the year 37, Pilate was recalled to Rome to answer the many charges
against him. He was sentenced to banishment in Gaul, and there suffered
so much from remorse, that he killed himself. At the time of his
deposition, the Cæsar, Tiberius, was dying, hated by all, and leaving
his empire to his nephew, Caligula, who had been a youth of great
promise; but he lost his senses in a fever, and did all sorts of strange
wild things--made his horse a consul, tried to make him eat gilded oats,
and once, at a wild beast show, turned the lions in on the spectators.
Shortly before his illness, Herod Agrippa, the son of Herod the Great's
murdered son, Aristobulus, while driving in a chariot with him, had said
how glad everyone would be to see him reigning. The charioteer reported
the speech, and Tiberius punished it by keeping Herod in prison, chained
to a soldier; but to make up for his sufferings, Caligula no sooner
became emperor than he set him free, gave him a crown, made him King of
Trachonitis and Abilene, and presented him with a gold chain of the same
weight as the fetters which he had worn in prison. This chain Herod hung
up in the Temple, for he was a zealous Jew, although such a friend
of heathen princes, and he seems to have been greatly puffed up with
admiration of his own good management. His sister Herodias, envious
of his crown, persuaded her husband, Herod Antipas, to go and sue for
another at Rome; but all he gained by his journey was an inquiry into
his conduct, which ended in his being exiled to Gaul, and his domain
being given to Herod Agrippa. In A.D. 41, the miserable madman Caligula,
was killed, but Herod Agrippa continued in high favour with the next
emperor, the moody Claudius, and under him the Jews had again the power
of giving sentence of death. They used it to persecute the disciples;
and this led to many leaving Jerusalem, and carrying the knowledge of
the faith to more distant parts. Saul, or Paul, a Benjamite, born at
Tarsus, in Asia Minor, a place where the inhabitants were reckoned
as Roman citizens, was learned in Greek philosophy, and deeply versed
in the Jewish doctrines: he was a zealous Pharisee, and a vehement
persecutor, till he was called by the Lord Himself from Heaven, and told
that his special mission should be to the Gentiles; and about the same
time, it was revealed to St. Peter in a vision, that the hedge of the
ceremonial Law was taken down, and no distinction should henceforth be
made between the nations, who had been all alike cleansed by the Blood
of Redemption. The Roman soldier, Cornelius, was the first-fruits of
a mighty harvest; and the Greeks and Romans in general, gave far more
ready audience to the Apostles, than did the Jews.
The hatred of the Jews moved Herod Agrippa to put to death James the son
of Zebedee, the first Apostle to drink of his Master's Cup; and he would
likewise have slain Peter, had not the Angel delivered that Saint out of
prison, in answer to the prayers of the Church. The pride of Herod
had come to a height. He celebrated games at Cæsarea in honour of the
emperor, and in the midst came forth in a robe of cloth of silver, to
give audience to an embassy from Tyre and Zidon. At his speech, the
people shouted, "It is the voice of a god, not the voice of a man!" But
while Herod listened and took the glory to himself, he felt a deadly
stroke, which made him cry, "Your god is dying!" and in five days he
was dead. His son, Agrippa, was too young to take the government, and a
Roman procurator was appointed.
About this time the Apostles departed on their several missions. It is
said that ere doing so, they agreed on the Creed or watchword of the
Church; but it was not written down till more than three hundred years
later, lest the heathen should learn it and blaspheme it. Wherever they
went they ordained elders and deacons, and in most cities they left one
to whom they had conveyed their own apostolic powers. These were not
called Apostles, as that name was kept for those sent by our Lord in
person, but sometimes angels or messengers, and usually bishops, or
overlookers of the shepherds. St. James, the cousin of our Lord,
remained as Apostle of Jerusalem, while his brothers, Sts. Simon and
Jude, went into Mesopotamia, St. Andrew to Arabia, his brother, St.
Peter, to the dispersed Jews; St. John and St. Philip to Asia Minor,
Sts. Thomas and Bartholomew to India, Sts. Matthew and Matthias to
Ethiopia, but not till the former had written his Gospel, which
several of the Apostles carried with them, and which has been found in
possession of the most ancient Churches by them converted.