respected of those theologians applied it to many persons simply on account of their not entertaining the approved theological ideas.1

3

Let us pass over, with a touch, the way in which some of those writers spoke of other thinkers, who did not agree with them. The touch is needed, in order that their spiritual position may be thoroughly understood, but we may yield to the natural shrinking from dwelling on this theme. For a Churchman to call one whom he believed to be intellectually in the wrong a vessel of perdition " 2 or an enemy of Christ, was a mild example of the vilifying in which some indulged. We cannot but judge that it was merciless hands into which the reputation of those poor 'heretics' fell. And we are driven to ask wonderingly, as we contemplate those 'Fathers' in general, where is their delicate kindness, where their tenderness for an erring brother, where their enthusiasm for the lost? Are these indeed the disciples of One who rebuked all haughtiness, and cared for those who were spoken evil of, even if they

1 Iren. Heresies, ii. 32, § 2, the heretic will "pass into the destruction of fire"; iii. 11, the Montanists have committed the 'îrremissible sin.' Augustine, Civ. Dei, xxi. 25.

2 Ambrose, Christian Faith, v. 19; cp. iii. 5 (38).

3 Athanasius, of persons among whom was the historian Eusebius (Epistle in defence of Nicene Formula, ii. 3). Worse examples in Tertullian, etc.

had many faults? Are these the successors of the impetuous, but warm-hearted Apostle to the Nations, who wrote even to such untrained persons as the early Christians at Corinth, so modestly, so respectfully, and so gently?

Let the cause be found partly in the savage condition of the world at the time, and partly in the absorbing power of the one mighty strife after moral living, in which those men were engaged. Nature at that time wore an aspect which was peculiarly trying for gentleness and forgiveness. Even in the days of the Apostle Paul himself, the hope expressed for the Christians was, "That ye may be blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life."1 It was little wonder that in the steeling of the soul to meet continued persecution, charity was neglected. And the Roman Empire presented to the religious sense clouds dense enough and unbroken enough to obscure for many a struggler the ever-caring countenance of God.

1 Phil. ii. 15.

CHAPTER IX.

THE WORKS IN THE FEEBLE LIGHT.

THE Christian people who lived at the time when the revelation in Jesus Christ had become succeeded by temporary darkness, accomplished, in the feeble light to which they had recourse, moral victories before which one can but be silent in admiration. And so influential have those victories been, that they not only justify a reverential attitude towards the age of the early Fathers, but demand a special chapter in any work that deals with the history of the gospelmessage.

It is not given to our weak and growing natures to make any other than a small achievement at one time. Hence it is not to be expected that large bodies of people will be found thinking greatly and acting greatly at once. Last chapter introduced us to the falling away of our race in the power of sacred thinking just after there had been vouchsafed to it an entrancing revelation. But the surprise and dis

appointment which such an event might otherwise cause, may well vanish if it turns out that at that very time our race was attaining to a colossal practical advance. And this was indeed the case. The Christian Church was giving practical effect to the Christian revelation itself. Thought was pausing that work might occupy the attention. There was no real interference with the fact that a new era had begun.

The period of early Christianity, indeed, while dark in regard to sacred knowledge, was a period in which human nature made an unparalleled spring into newness of practical life. Much, it is true, of what had shone forth in Jesus was neglected and forgotten. But one thing was noticed. This was Morality, or the bond and path between man and God. And, in consequence, a revolution in practical interests occurred. Man had discovered that another region, besides Nature, was given him to inhabit. All else receded before this discovery. Man scaled the barrier which was stretched around Nature, and rushed into the region which had hitherto been but little explored.

We may well, accordingly, venerate the early Christian ages. Morality is half of sublunary existence. And until we are acquainted with it, our true

selves are less than half alive. Little wonder, then, that when first it was brought into clear and general observation, and invaded by a band that shouted to others to follow them, the sacred in Nature and the sacred Rule above Nature were alike left behind, to be thought of at another time. This was a time of pioneering. It was rough, and involved strife and sacrifice; but it showed forth the strength and the aspiration which are resident in the human soul, and produced heroes.

Many men of reflection had known something of Morality before. Many other men had had impulsive premonitions of it, and we have seen how one nation had specially been roused to the perception of it. But it had never been discerned half so clearly, and the sense of the general multitude had never been so fully or so enthusiastically aroused to perceive it. The force which now produced the enthusiastic awakening was, par excellence, the revelation in our Lord Jesus itself. But the activity of perception was sustained by the circulation of the Hebrew Scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament together.1 And soon the thought of these became connected with the recognition of their Divine authority in literalness. Thus this is to be conceded 1 Tatian, Address to the Greeks, c. xxix.