The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire Part 20

Persecution tempted the thought of what "that day" would mean for the persecutor. But it was a real concern of the Christian himself. "I myself, utterly sinful, not yet escaped from temptation, but still in the midst of the devil's engines,--I do my diligence to follow after righteousness that I may prevail so far as at least to come near it, fearing the judgment that is to come."[73] Immortality and righteousness--the two thoughts go together, and both depend upon Jesus Christ. He is emphatically called "our Hope"--a favourite phrase with Ignatius.[74]

[Sidenote: Martyrdom and happiness]

Some strong hope was needed--some "anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast."[75] Death lay in wait for the Christian at every turn, never certain, always probable. The daemons whom he had renounced took their revenge in exciting his neighbours against him.[76] The whim of a mob[77] or the cruelty of a governor[78] might bring him face to face with death in no man knew what horrible form. One writer spoke of "the burning that came for trial,"[79] and the phrase was not exclusively a metaphor. {165} "Away with the atheists--where is Polycarp?" was a sudden shout at Smyrna--the mob already excited with sight of "the right n.o.ble Germanicus fighting the wild beasts in a signal way." The old man was sought and found--with the words "G.o.d's will be done" upon his lips. He was pressed to curse Christ. "Eighty-six years I have been his slave," he said, "and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"[80] The suddenness of these attacks, and the cruelty, were enough to unnerve anyone who was not "built upon the foundation." Nero's treatment of the Christians waked distaste in Rome itself. But it was the martyrdoms that made the church.

Stephen's death captured Paul. "I delighted in Plato's teachings,"

says Justin, "and I heard Christians abused, but I saw they were fearless in the face of death and all the other things men count fearful."[81] Tertullian and others with him emphasize that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church." It was the death of Jesus over again--the last word that carried conviction with it.

With "the sentence of death in themselves" the early Christians faced the world, and astonished it by more than their "stubbornness." They were the most essentially happy people of the day--Jesus was their hope, their sufficiency was of G.o.d, their names were written in heaven, they were full of love for all men--they had "become little children,"

as Jesus put it, glad and natural. Jesus had brought them into a new world of possibilities. A conduct that ancient moralists dared not ask, the character of Jesus suggested, and the love of Jesus made actual. "I can do all things," said Paul, "in him that strengtheneth me." They looked to a.s.sured victory over evil and they achieved it.

"This is the victory that _has_ overcome the world--our faith." Very soon a new note is heard in their words. Stoicism was never "essentially musical"; Epictetus announces a hymn to Zeus,[82] but he never starts the tune. Over and over again there is a sound of singing in Paul--as in the eighth chapter of the _Romans_, and the thirteenth of _First Corinthians_,[83] and it repeats itself. "Children of joy"

is Barnabas' name for his friends.[84] {166} "Doing the will of Christ we shall find rest," wrote the unknown author of "Second Clement."[85]

"Praising we plough; and singing we sail," wrote the greater Clement.[86] "Candidates for angelhood, even here we learn the strain hereafter to be raised to G.o.d, the function of our future glory," said Tertullian.[87] "Clothe thyself in gladness, that always has grace with G.o.d and is welcome to him--and revel in it. For every glad man does what is good, and thinks what is good.... The holy spirit is a glad spirit ... yes, they shall all live to G.o.d, who put away sadness from themselves and clothe themselves in all gladness." So said the angel to Hermas,[88] and he was right. The holy spirit was a glad spirit, and gladness--joy in the holy spirit--was the secret of Christian morality. Nothing could well be more gay and happy than Clement's _Protrepticus_. Augustine was attracted to the church because he saw it _non dissolute hilaris_. Such happiness in men is never without a personal centre, and the church made no secret that this centre was "Jesus Christ, whom you have not seen, but you love him; whom yet you see not, but you believe in him and rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified."[89]

Chapter V Footnotes:

[1] See Burkitt's _Early Eastern Christianity_.

[2] See Justin, _Apology_, i, 14, a vivid pa.s.sage on the change of character that has been wrought in men by the Gospel. Cf. Tert. _ad Scap._ 2, _nec aliunde noscibiles quam de emendatione vitiorum pristinorum_.

[3] Ephesians iv, 4.

[4] 1 Peter ii, 7.

[5] Tertullian, _ad Nationes_, i, 8, _Plane, tertium genus dicimur ...

verum recogitate ne quos tertium genus dicitis principem loc.u.m obtineant, siquidem non ulla gens non Christiana_.

[6] Cf. Jeremiah x.x.xi, 31--a favourite pa.s.sage with Christian apologists.

[7] Professor Percy Gardner (_Growth of Christianity_, p. 49) ill.u.s.trates this by comparison of earlier and later stages in Christian Art. On some early Christian sarcophagi Jesus is represented with markedly Jewish features; soon however he is idealized into a type of the highest humanity.

[8] Tatian, 42.

[9] _Id._ 35.

[10] Tatian, 29. Cf. the account Theophilus gives of the influence upon him of the study of the prophets, i, 14.

[11] 26.

[12] 25.

[13] 35.

[14] Ignatius, _Magn._ 11; _Trall_, 9, 10; _Smyrn._ 1, 2, 3, 12.

[15] Ignatius, _Eph._ 15, _logon Iesoi kektemenos alethos dynatai ka tes hesychias autou akoueis_.

[16] Tatian, 16, 17. Cf. Plutarch (cited on p. 107) on malignant daemons. See Tertullian, _Apol._ 22; Justin, _Apol._ ii. 5; Clem. Alex.

_Protr._ 3, 41, on the works of daemons.

[17] Tatian, 7, 8.

[18] See Tertullian, _de Idol._ 9, on the surprising case of a Christian who wished to pursue his calling of astrologer--a claim Tertullian naturally will not allow.

[19] Tatian, 9.

[20] The so-called second letter of Clement of Rome, c. 3.

[21] Clem. Alex. _Protr._ 3.

[22] 1 Cor. vi, etc.

[23] Justin, _Dial. c. Tryph._ 30.

[24] Tatian, 33; Justin, _Apol._ ii, 10. It may be noted that Justin quotes the famous pa.s.sage in the Timaeus (28 C) not quite correctly.

Such pa.s.sages "familiar in his mouth as household words" are very rarely given with verbal accuracy. Tertullian, _Apol._ 46, and Clement, _Strom._ v, 78, 92, also quote this pa.s.sage.

[25] _Apol._ 46. Compare Theophilus, i, 2; "If you say 'Show me your G.o.d,' I would say to you, 'Show me your man and I will show you my G.o.d,' or show me the eyes of your soul seeing, and the ears of your heart hearing."

[26] _ad Diogn._ 8, 1.

[27] Clem. R. 29, 1, _tn epieike ka eusplagchnon patera hemon_.

[28] Clem. Alex. _Protr._ 116.

[29] Clem. Alex. _Protr._ 25, _emphytos archaia koinonia_.

[30] Clem. Alex. _Protr._ 91, citing _Iliad_, 2, 315 (Cowper).

[31] 2 Cor. i, 22; v, 5.

[32] Cf. Tatian, 15.

[33] Barnabas, 4, 8.

[34] Ign. _Eph._ 6, 2.

[35] II. Clem. 1, 3-7 (abridged a little).

[36] Clem. R. 7, 4.

[37] Clem. R. 16, 17.

[38] Ign. _Eph._ 10, 3.

[39] Cf. Socr. _e.h._ iii, 17, 4, the Antiochenes mocked the Emperor Julian, _euripistoi gar oi anthropoi eis hubreis_.

[40] II. Clem. 14, 2.