it a conscious lie? Was it a mistake? Was it an

exaggeration?

Now, our idea is as follows :-What do we suppose the early Christians to have been called? By what names were they known among themselves and among others? Christians? Not at all. When it is said 'The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch,' we are satisfied that the meaning is not this name, now general, was first used at Antioch; but that whereas, we followers of Christ generally call one another, and are called by a particular name X, in Antioch that name was not used; but from the very beginning they were called by another name, viz., Christians. At all events, since this name Christian was confessedly used at Antioch before it was used anywhere else, there must have been another name elsewhere for the same people. What was that name? It was' The Brethren,' [oi ådeλpoì;] and at times, by way of variety, to prevent the awkwardness of too* monotonously repeating the same word, perhaps it was 'The Faithful,' [oi nivoi.] The name Christians traveled, we are convinced, not immediately among themselves, but slowly among their enemies. It was a name of reproach, and the meaning was'We Pagans are all worshipers of gods, such as they are; but this sect worships a man, and that man a malefactor.' For, though Christ should pro

* See preceding chapter.

perly have been known by his name, which was Jesus, yet, because his crime, in the opinion of the Jews, lay in the office he had assumed-in having made himself the Christos, the anointed of God, therefore it happened that he was published among the Roman world by that name: his offence, his 'titulus' on the cross, (the king, or the anointed,) was made his Roman name. Accordingly Tacitus, speaking of some insurgents in Judea, says-that 'they mutinied under the excitement of Christ, (not Jesus,) their original ringleader,' (impulsore Chresto.) And no doubt it had become a scoffing name, until the Christians disarmed the scoff of its sting by assuming it themselves, as was done in the case of 'the Beggars' in the Netherlands, and the Methodists' in England.

Το

"Well: meantime what name did the Christians bear in their very birth-place? Were they called 'The Brethren' there? No. And why not? Simply because it had become too dangerous a name. be bold, to affront all reasonable danger, was their instinct and their duty, but not to tempt utter extinction or utter reduction to imbecility. We read amiss if we imagine that the fiery persecution which raged against Christ, had burned itself out in the act of the crucifixion. It slept, indeed, for a brief interval, but that was from necessity; for the small flock of scattered sheep easily secreted themselves. No sooner did they multiply a little, no sooner did

their meetings again proclaim their 'whereabouts,' than the snake found them out, again raised its spiry crest among them, and again crushed them for a time. The martyrdom of St. Stephen showed that no jesting was intended. It was determined that examples should be made. It was resolved that this revolt against the Temple (the Law and the Prophets) must be put down. The next event quickened this agency seven-fold. A great servant of the persecution, in the very agony of the storm which he was himself guiding and pointing, working the very artillery of Jerusalem upon some scent which his blood-hounds had found in Syria, suddenly in one hour passed over to the enemy. What of that? Did that startle the persecution? Probably it did failure from within was what they had not looked for. But the fear which it bred was sister to the wrath of hell. The snake turned round, but not for flight it turned to fasten upon the revolter. St. Paul's authority as a leader in the Jewish councils availed him nothing after this. Orders were undoubtedly expedited from Jerusalem to Damascus, as soon as messengers could be interchanged, for his assassination. And assassinated he would have been, had he been twenty St. Pauls, but for his secret evasion and his flight to Arabia. Idumea, probably a sort of Ireland to Judea, was the country to which he fled, where again he might have been found out, but his capture would have cost a

negotiation; and in all likelihood he lay unknown among crowds. Nor did he venture to show his face again in Jerusalem for some years; and then again not till a term of fourteen years, half a generation, during which many of the burning zealots, and of those who could have challenged him personally as the great apostate, must have gone to their last sleep.

"During the whole of this novitiate for Christianity, and in fact throughout the whole Epichristian era, there was a brooding danger over the name and prospects of Christianity. To hold up a hand, to put forth a head in the blinding storm, was to perish. It was to solicit and tempt destruction. That could not be right. Those who were answerable for the great interest confided to them, if in their own persons they might have braved the anger of the times, were not at liberty to do so on this account that it would have stopped effectually the expansion of the Church. Martyrdom and persecution formed the atmosphere in which it throve; but not the frost of death. What, then, did the fathers of the Church do? You read that, during a part of this Epichristian age, 'the churches had peace.' True, they had so. But do you know how they had it? Do you guess what they did?

"It was this: they said to each other-If we are to stand such consuming fires as we have seen, one year will finish us all. And then what will become

of the succession that we are to leave behind us? We must hide ourselves effectually. And this can be done only by symbolizing. Any lesser disguise our persecutors will penetrate. But this, by its very nature, will baffle them, and yet provide fully for the nursing of an infant Church. They proceeded, therefore, thus: Let there be darkness'-was the first word of command: 'let us muffle ourselves in thick clouds, which no human eye can penetrate. And toward this purpose let us immediately take a symbolic name. And, because any name that expresses or implies a secret fraternity—a fraternity bound together by any hidden tie or purpose-will instantly be challenged for the Christian brotherhood under a new mask, instantly the bloody Sanhedrim will get to their old practices-torturing our weaker members, (as afterward the cruel Pliny selected for torture the poor frail women-servants of the brethren,) and the wolf will be raging among our folds in three months-therefore two things are requisite; one, that this name which we assume should be such as to disarm suspicion, [in this they acted on the instinct of those birds which artfully construct signs and appearances to draw away the fowler from their young ones;] the other, that in case, after all, some suspicion should arise and the enemy again break in, there must be three or four barriers to storm before he can get to the stronghold in the centre.'