Father, as sinners for whom Christ died, and as materials which could be made available to the building up of the kingdom and the temple of their God.

The epistle to Diognetus, written early in the second century, contains the following description of Christians: They are not distinguished from other men by their place of residence, their language or manners. Though they live in cities of the Greeks and barbarians, each where his lot is cast, and in clothing, food, and mode of life, follow the customs of their country, yet they are distinguished by a wonderful and universally astonishing walk and conversation. They dwell in their own native land, but as foreigners; they take part in every thing as citizens, they endure every thing as foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and their native country as a foreign land. They live in the flesh but not after the flesh. They dwell on the earth, but they live in heaven; they obey the existing laws, but by their life elevate themselves above the laws. They love all men, and are persecuted, misunderstood, and condemned by all. They are slain and made alive, they are poor and make many rich, they suffer want in every thing and possess abundance in every thing; they are cursed and they bless. In one word, what the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world. As the soul is diffused through all the members of the body, so the Christians are spread through all the cities of the world. The soul indeed dwells in the body, but it is not of the body; so Christians dwell in the world, but they are not of the world. The invisible soul is shut up in the visible body; and so men know Christians as inhabitants of the world, but their life is hid with Christ in God. The flesh hates and fights the soul, though the soul does no injury to the flesh, but only prevents its giving itself up to its lusts; so also the world hates Christians; they do it no harm, but only set themselves against its lusts. The soul loves its hating flesh, and so Christians love those by whom they are hated. The soul is shut up in the body, and yet it is that by which the body is held together, and Christians are held to their post in the world, and it is they who hold the world together. The immortal soul dwells in the mortal body, and Christians

Neander, K. G. I. 92.

dwell as strangers in the corruptible world, and await the unchangeable life in heaven. So important a part has God entrusted to them, which they dare not forsake."

In the year 251, a destructive pestilence visited the Roman empire, and was especially severe in northern Africa. The pagans at Carthage, through fear of infection, neglected the care of the sick; they even expelled them from their houses, and they died by heaps in the streets, and their dead bodies poisoned the air. Just before this the Christians had suffered a bloody persecution, and during the plague they were exposed to the fury of the populace, as if it were they who had drawn down the anger of the gods. Cyprian the bishop exhorted his congregation in this extremity to return good for evil. "If (said he) we do good to our brethren only, we do no more than publicans and pagans. As true Christians we must overcome evil with good; we must love our enemies as our Lord hath warned us, and pray for our persecutors. Since we are born of God, we must show ourselves worthy of our heavenly birth by imitating the goodness of our gracious Father." The congregation were not slow to follow the counsels of their bishop. The rich gave money and the poor their personal services; and soon the sick were nursed and the dead buried. (Neander, Denkw. I. 342, 3.)

At every meeting Christians offered fervent prayers that the unconverted pagans might be brought to participate in the happiness which true religion gives; and they contributed liberally for the support of the pagan poor.

By such principles and conduct they at length lived down the slanders so industriously propagated against them, that they were the enemies of their fellow-men; and their influence was like the leaven which gradually and silently changes the whole surrounding mass to its own substance.

II. What were the feelings and conduct of these Christians1. In the church?

The church was with them a scene of brotherly love, of spiritual edification, of deep devotion. The first business of their meetings was an interchange of the most affecting demonstrations of mutual love. The reading of the word of God, singing hymns of praise, and uttering fervent prayers, made up the usual routine of exercises. These were not empty forms. They were gushings of full and warm

hearts; the acts of worshippers who felt their God to be a Spirit, that must be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

Pliny, a heathen magistrate and a persecutor, after a laborious and minute investigation by order of the emperor, in the course of which he had put two female Christians to the torture to extort from them a full confession, gives the following account of their meetings. (Epist. x. 91.) "They are accustomed to meet on a certain day early, before it is light, and sing a hymn to Christ as God; they bind themselves by oath to abstain from every thing vicious, as theft, robbery, adultery, deception, dishonesty, etc. They separate and come together again to a common meal; and there is nothing blameworthy among them, except that they persevered in their meetings after the magistrates had prohibited them."

Justin Martyr gives the following more particular description. (Apol. 22, 98.) "When we meet we sing praise to the Creator of the universe through his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. On Sunday we all assemble in one place, both those who live in the city and they who dwell in the country, and the writings of the Apostles and Prophets are read so long as the time permits. When the reader stops, the president of the meeting makes an address, in which he instructs the people and exhorts them to follow the glorious things which they have heard read from the Scriptures. Then we all stand up together and pray. After prayer, bread, wine, and water are brought in. The president of the meeting again prays according to his ability, and gives thanks, to which the people respond Amen. After this the bread, wine, and water are distributed to those present; and the deacons carry portions to such as are necessarily detained from the meeting. Those who are able and willing, contribute what they please in money, which is given to the president of the meeting; and it is appropriated to the support of widows and orphans, the sick, the poor, and whomever is necessitous."

The following is the account of Tertullian. (Apol. c. 39.) "We are accustomed to assemble, that we may with our united strength move God by our prayers. We come together also to hear the holy Scriptures read, to receive exhortations according to circumstances, and to learn. We nourish our piety with the words of holy Writ, we encourage

each other in hope, we plant unwavering faith, and teach the people godly discipline and a good life. We there also have warnings, reproofs, and such discipline as God ordains.” They met always on Sundays, generally also on Saturdays, and frequently on Wednesdays and Fridays. Of the nature of their devotions the following account is given by Cyprian. "When we pray, our whole heart must be intent on our prayer. Our heart must be shut to the adversary and open only to God; for the adversary will often creep in and strive, by his deceptions, to turn our prayer away from God, so that we may have one thing in our mouth and another in our heart. But we must with upright purpose pray to the Lord, not with the sound of our voice merely, but with our soul and our sense. Christ teaches us to say our Father, not my Father. Our prayer must be comprehensive. We pray not for individuals only, but for the whole church, since we, being one church, are all but one body. God wills that each one should pray for all, as he, being one, bore the sins of all." (Compare Arnold's K. § I.)

2. In the business of life.

As we have already seen, Christians mingled in the ordinary business of life; they were engaged in the various occupations and trades of the people around them; and in all the forms of business they were intimately associated with their heathen neighbors. But they were careful, not only to preserve a scrupulous honesty in all their dealings, they would immediately abandon trade or profession, however lucrative it might be, or however necessary to the support of their families, if it were seen that the occupation was in any respect an immoral one, or that it encouraged their heathen neighbors in the practice of sin, or was in any way inconsistent with the precepts of Christianity. In an age when all the forms and business of society were so closely connected with pagan idolatry, when so many arts and trades centered in the idol worship, and lived on the vices of men, vast multitudes of Christians must have been thrown out of employment and reduced to extreme poverty, by the conscientious abandonment of trades, the only ones which they could practise, and on which their livelihood depended. They must find some other mode of living, or consent even to pauperism, rather than violate the precepts of the religion they professed. The church undertook the support of such

men and their families, rather than let them continue in a doubtful calling; and they were willing to be poor and live like paupers, rather than neglect the slightest admonitions of conscience. On this point Tertullian gives ample directions.* If those are converted who were makers of idols, they must pursue some other branch of their trade, repair houses, plaster walls, line cisterns, coat columns. He who can carve a Mercury can put together a chest of drawers; there are few temples to be built, but many houses; few Mercuries to be gilded, but many sandals and slippers. If schoolmasters, they must even relinquish their calling rather than teach the adventures of the heathen gods, consecrate the first payment of each scholar to Minerva, or keep holidays in honor of Flora. If cattle merchants, they are to buy for the shambles but not for the altar. If hucksters, they are at least not to deal in incense.

In an African church a stage actor was converted to Christianity, and having no other means of living, he instructed boys for the stage. Cyprian (Epist. 61,) wrote that this must not be tolerated. "If he is poor and needy, let him come among the rest who are supported by the church, and let him be content with a poorer and more innocent maintenance. But he must not imagine that he deserves wages for ceasing from sin, for in this he is doing service not to us but to himself. Seek, then, by all means in your power, to turn him from this bad and disgraceful life, to the way of innocence and hope of eternal life; and that he be content with a more sparing, but yet a more wholesome diet, which the church will provide for him. And if your church is not able to do this, send him to us, and we will provide him with necessary food and clothing; that he may not teach others who are out of the church destructive things, but may himself within the church learn the things which pertain to salvation."

3. In the intercourse and recreations of society.

All dissipating amusements were strictly prohibited, and the Christian was exhorted on all occasions to demean himself with a gravity and sobriety becoming a soldier of Jesus Christ and a priest of the most high God. From most of the

See review of Milman's Gibbon in the London Quarterly for October, 1838.