otherwise have upbraided him with publicly and by word of mouth, but which he could now meditate upon at his leisure. Ambrose, on this account, thought it best to avoid an interview with the emperor at Milan, on the ground of ill health, from which he was really suffering, and afterwards wrote him a letter. "If Ambrose admitted you to communion," he wrote to him, "you would thereby receive no forgiveness of your sins; but I should have had so much more to answer for, if no one told you that you ought to be first reconciled to God." After holding up to him the example of King David's repentance, he added: I have not written this in order to put you to shame, but that the example of such a king may urge you to put away the sin from your reign; and this you may do, if you humble your soul before God. For only by say, 66 tears and repentance can sin be removed. No angel nor archangel can blot out sin. And the Lord himself, who alone can I am with you,' when we have sinned, forgives our sins only when we approach him in penitence. I counsel, I entreat, I exhort you, because I am so pained that you, who were an example of extraordinary piety, who had shown favour to so many criminals, should feel no compunction at the death of so many innocent persons. Although you have been so successful in war, although you have also acquired glory in other affairs, yet piety must be always the crown of your works. The Evil Spirit envies the success you you had. Conquer him while you still possess the means of conquering him. have I have no cause to wish to be contumacious towards you, but I have cause to be afraid for you. I cannot venture to celebrate the Supper in your presence. Ought that which is not allowed when the blood of one innocent person has been shed, to be allowed when the blood of so many innocent has been shed? I cannot believe it. persons "Must it not be desirable for me to possess the emperor's favour, so that I should certainly act in accordance with your will, if the matter allow it?" Ambrose, in a funeral oration for this emperor, thus speaks of him: "I loved the man who preferred the who person told the strictest truth to the flatterer. He laid aside all his imperial insignia, he publicly bewailed in the church the sin into which he had fallen, being deceived by others. With MARTIN, BISHOP OF TOURS. 227 sighs and tears he implored the forgiveness of his sins. He was ashamed not as an emperor, but as private persons are ashamed who submit publicly to church penance, and henceforward there was no day of his life on which he did not lament his error." When, in the sixth century, the Emperor Justinian, by his despotic wilfulness, produced great disorder in the church, Facundus, bishop of Hermiane, in North Africa, boldly said, "If it pleased God now to raise up an Ambrose, another Theodosius would not be wanting." A man of similar stamp to Ambrose was his contemporary Martin, the excellent bishop of Tours. The usurper, Maximus, countenanced by unprincipled worthless bishops, had ordered the heretical teacher, Priscillian, to execution. Martin, to whom the emperor had given his word that he would not shed blood, came to Triers, where the imperial court was then held. The boldness of this good man alarmed them. He was told that he ought not to come, unless he brought peace; he answered, "I come with the peace of Christ;" and went into the city. He severely punished the unworthy bishops, and no entreaties, flatterers, or threats could prevail upon him to have communion with them; but when he heard that officers had been sent into Spain, in order to put down the rest of the Priscillians, and that fresh blood was likely to be shed, he hastened by night to the imperial palace, and declared himself ready to make concessions at once if the orders sent to Spain were withdrawn. Thus he saved many innocent lives. In these conflicts of Christian love the bishops of the seat of the eastern Roman empire, the patriarchs of Constantinople, particularly distinguished themselves. Placed as they were in the vicinity of a court full of corruption, and exposed to the artifices of vicious courtiers and worldly ecclesiastics, they often found themselves in a difficult and dangerous position, when they aimed at faithfully discharging the duties of their office in all its extent. Under such circumstances we see the Christian hero, John Chrysostom, from whom we have already quoted so many beautiful passages, combat all the corruptions of his age, full of the energy of faith and the glow of holy love; and the contrast thus pre sented to us, makes more conspicuous the power of the Divine. He was called to the bishopric of Constantinople through the powerful influence of Eutropius, who might be said to hold the reins of government, and was very much impressed by a sermon of Chrysostom's which he heard at Antioch. At first he stood high in his esteem, but when he frankly told him the truth, protected the unfortunate in contravention of his will, and remonstrated with him on account of his injustice, he fell under his displeasure. In opposition to Chrysostom, the protector of oppressed innocence and of the persecuted, he managed to limit the protective power of the church to those who had taken refuge at her altars. In vain Chrysostom pointed out to him, in private conversations, the reverses of fortune; in vain he warned him not to think himself secure in the possession of power. In vain he besought him not to trust the flatterers who only did homage to his good fortune, and would soon forsake him when that failed him; in vain he pointed out that, however disagreeable the language of truth might be to him, it should be regarded as his true friend. Afterwards, when his fall took place, he reminded the emperor of all this, and made use of what he had said as a warning to those in high stations; but he preached to the deaf. But in a short time Eutropius had to learn, by bitter experience, the truth of Chrysostom's predictions. At one stroke he was hurled from the summit of power to the greatest wretchedness. Forsaken by all his former friends, persecuted by his unmerciful enemies, threatened by infuriated soldiers, in the year 299 he sought safety for his life in an asylum which he would not have thought of in the times of his prosperity, and there found in the individual whom he had hated on account of his frankness his only protector. 66 As a great multitude of persons, of all ranks, were drawn together by this extraordinary spectacle, Chrysostom delivered a discourse on the text, All things are vanity." After making use of the example then presented to them, in order to impress them with the truth of the words, he added: "These words ought to be inscribed on the walls, on your clothes, on the market, on the doors, on the gateways, and, above all, in the conscience of every one of you; we ought CHRYSOSTOM'S APPEALS AGAINST INJUSTICE. 66 229 always to meditate upon them, since the deceitfulness of worldly things-mere profession and hypocrisy-have the appearance of truth to the multitude." He endeavoured to inspire his auditory with sympathy for him who had merited his misfortune by such evil conduct. Do not think," he said, "of the injustice suffered; we are servants of the Crucified, who said, 'Forgive them, for they know not what they do.' How can you afterwards partake," he said, of the Holy Supper, and utter those words of the Lord's Prayer, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,' if you long for the punishment of your debtors? Let no one, therefore, give himself up to anger, but rather let us pray a gracious God, that he would grant him still a respite of his life, and rescue him from impending death, that he may try to make reparation for his injustice; and let us unite in beseeching the benevolent emperor, that he would extend his clemency to this man." To protect the unfortunate, Chrysostom afterwards exposed himself to great danger. He was dragged along by the infuriated soldiers, and in reference to this treatment he said to his people, "It is no disgrace to me, for there is no disgrace but sin; and if the whole world hold thee in disgrace, but thou dost not disgrace thyself, thou art not really disgraced." Chrysostom had afterwards to sustain with the Empress Eudosia conflicts similar to those with Eutropius, when he appealed to her conscience, and vigorously withstood her injustice towards those whom she sacrificed to the machinations of her favourites. He often incurred her displeasure, and often became the object of her vindictive feelings. But her conscience, ill at ease, again prompted her to be reconciled to him; but at last her animosity became unappeasable, and a distinguished prelate, full of worldly desires and passions, Theophilus of Alexandria, whose enmity Chrysostom had roused by the succour he afforded to the persecuted monks, served as the instrument of her vengeance. Zeal for orthodoxy was used as a pretext. Banished to a remote wild region, Chrysostom showed in adversity true Christian magnanimity, founded on faith, love, and humility, -a light that shone more brightly in proportion as attempts were made to obscure it. In harmony with the noble expression he used in reference to the soldiery, that no one could be really disgraced who did not disgrace himself, he composed a treatise amidst his sufferings, to console his friends who suffered with him, and to show that no one could really injure him who did not injure himself. CHAPTER V. THE GENERAL CHRISTIAN CALLING AND DIGNITY. ALTHOUGH the consciousness of the general Christian priesthood was much obscured by the causes already adverted to, yet it was too closely connected with the essence of Christianity to be entirely suppressed, and reactions of the original sentiment were continually taking place. As we have already had occasion to adduce many expressions of the fathers who opposed the corruptions of their times, and who sought to revive a sense of the dignity and elevation of the Christian calling, and the common duties founded upon it, we would take this subject into special consideration. he is "We find," says Augustin, "a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, who discharges the functions of an earthly calling; he wears the purple mantle; he is a magistrate, a proconsul, or an emperor; occupied about the concerns of an earthly kingdom, but he has his heart above, if he is a Christian, a believer, a man of piety, if he despises that which he now possesses, and hopes for that which as yet he does not possess. We must, therefore, not despair of the citizens of heaven if we see them transacting earthly business in an earthly state; and on the other hand, we must not congratulate all men as happy whom we see occupied with heavenly concerns, since sometimes the sons of perdition sat in Moses' seat, of whom it is said: 'All whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works; for they say and do not.' The former class, amidst earthly concerns, lift up their hearts to heaven; the latter, while uttering the words of heaven, drag down their hearts to earth." Elsewhere he "Let every says: |