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CHAPTER XIV.

THE SYMPATHY OF ALL CHRISTIANS IN THE SUFFERINGS OF THE CONFESSORS.

WHILE Christians took a lively interest in all their brethren, this was especially the case in reference to the confessors. Contributions were sent from remote districts for the relief of those who were in prison or labouring in the mines; delegates also came to visit them. A generous emulation was excited in affording them relief both for body and mind. The prison soon became converted into a church, owing to the numbers who assembled there to assist the sufferers by their prayers; and the bishops, as we have already observed, were under the necessity of trying to moderate the ill-regulated zeal of their people. Tertullian composed a small treatise for the encouragement of the confessors who suffered at Carthage under Septimius Severus, which begins thus: "Besides the means of bodily nourishment which your mother the church, from her stores, and individual brethren from their private resources, send to you in prison, receive from me something which may serve for the sustentation of your souls; for it is not good that the flesh should be replenished while the spirit is famished. If what is weak be cared for, surely the stronger ought not to be neglected. Yet I own I am not one who is worthy to address you. Nevertheless the most accomplished fencers are not only encouraged by their teachers, but also are animated by the cheers of the people." He then proceeds: "Especially do not grieve the Holy Spirit, who has entered the prison with you. For if He had not entered with. you, you would not be here to-day. Hence, strive that He may abide with you here, and lead you hence to the Lord. The prison is also an abode of the Evil Spirit, where he assembles those who belong to him; but you are come to the prison for the very purpose of treading him underfoot in his own abode, which you have already done outside the prison. Might he not, therefore, say, Ye are in my kingdom; I will tempt you by low passions and dissensions. Let him flee your countenance, and retire to his own abyss, like a serpent

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rendered harmless by enchantment. Nor let him succeed so well in his kingdom as to involve you in strife, but may he find you fortified against his attacks by concord; for to maintain peace among yourselves is to make war on him. The prison is darkness," he says, "but ye are light; it has fetters, but ye are free in God's sight. . . . Compare life in the world and life in the prison, and see whether the spirit does not gain more in the prison than the flesh loses. But verily the flesh loses nothing that it absolutely needs, thanks to the care of the church and the love of the brethren; and over and above that, the spirit gains what is always useful for the faith. Thou seest no strange gods; thou dost not meet their images; thou partakest not of the festivals of the heathen by living among them; thou art not touched by the foul steam of their sacrifices; thou art not dinned by the shouts of the theatre, nor shocked by the cruelty and licentious passions of those who frequent it; thy eyes do not settle on the abodes of public voluptuousness. Thou art free from vexations and temptations, and even from persecution itself.

Discard the name of prison, and call it retirement. Though the body is shut up, and the flesh detained, yet all things are open to the spirit. Walk about in spirit, and do not imagine that you are among shady groves and long porticoes, but in the way that leads to God. The limbs feel not the pressure of the stocks when the soul is in heaven. The soul leads the whole man with it, and transports it whither it will. Where thy heart is, there will thy treasure be also."

We may here quote the beautiful exhortation of Cyprian to an African church in a time of impending persecution:*

* Neque enim sic nomen militiæ dedimus, ut pacem tantummodo cogitare et detrectare et recusare militiam debeamus, quando in ipsa militia primus ambulaverit Dominus humilitatis et tolerantiæ et passionis magister, ut quod fieri docuit prior faceret, et quod pati hortatur prior pro nobis ipse pateretur. . . . Nec quisquam, fratres dilectissimi, cum populum nostrum fugari conspexerit metu persecutionis et spargi conturbetur, quod collectam fraternitatem non videat, nec tractantes episcopos audiat. Simul tunc omnes esse non possunt, quibus occidere non licet, sed occidi necesse est. Ubicunque in illis diebus unusquisque fratrum fuerit a grege interim necessitate temporis corpore non spiritu separatus, non moveatur ad fugæ illius horrorem, nec recedens et latens deserti loci solitudine terreatur. Solus non est, cui Christus in fuga comes

CYPRIAN'S EXHORTATION TO THE PERSECUTED. 99

"Not in that sense have we joined the soldiers of the Lordthat we think of nothing but peace, and flee from conflict; since in the conflict the Lord has gone before us as the teacher of humility, patience, and suffering; since what he has taught us to accomplish he has himself accomplished; and what he exhorts us to suffer, he has first suffered for us. And let none of you, dear brethren, be disturbed when he sees our congregations dispersed by the fear of persecution ; let no one be disturbed because he does not see the brethren assembled, nor hear the bishop preach. Christians, who may not shed the blood of others, but must rather be ready to shed their own, cannot at such a time meet together. Wherever it happens in these days that a brother is separated from the church awhile by the necessities of the times, but not in spirit, wherever he may betake himself to flight, or wherever he may be concealed, let him not be alarmed at the solitude of the place. He is not alone who has Christ for a companion of his flight. He is not alone who, preserving the temple of God, is not without God wherever he may be. And if the fugitive in solitude, or on the mountains, falls into the hands of robbers, or is torn by a wild beast, or if he loses his life by hunger, thirst, or cold, or is drowned in a storm at sea, still Christ everywhere sees his soldier engaged in the conflict; and wherever death may meet him, the Lord will give him the reward which he has promised to those who sacrifice their lives for the honour of his name. And it is no small honour of martyrdom when a man dies not publicly and among many, since he dies for Christ's sake. It is enough that He is a witness of his martyrdom who tries and crowns the martyrs."

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Solus non est, qui templum Dei servans, ubicunque fuerit, sine Deo non est. Et si fugientem in solitudine ac montibus latro oppresserit, fera invaserit, fames aut sitis aut frigus afflixerit, vel per maria præcipiti navigatione properantem tempestas ac procella submerserit, spectat militem suum Christus ubicunque pugnantem, et persecutiones causa pro nominis sui honore morienti præmium reddit quod daturum se in resurrectione promisit. Nec minor est martyrii gloria non publice et inter multos perisse, cum pereundi causa sit propter Christum perire. Sufficit ad testimonium martyrii sui testis ille, qui probat martyres et coronat.-Cypr. Ep. 56 ad Theberatanos.

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CHAPTER XV.

OCCUPATIONS PERMITTED OR FORBIDDEN AMONG

CHRISTIANS.

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It is evident from the passages already quoted from Ter.. tullian's Apology, that all those employments or trades which involved nothing immoral or contradictory to the principles of Christianity were carried on by Christians. The rule given by the Apostle Paul was applicable here: Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called." (1 Cor. vii. 20.) Christianity would only impart fresh fidelity in his calling. It would now be carried on in a new spirit and with a new disposition, as a trust from God-as something devoted and serviceable to the kingdom of God.

Thus every calling not in itself immoral (although by the manner in which it was commonly carried on it might be immoral) might be sanctified by Christianity-that which had hitherto been the abode of Satan might be transformed and exalted into a temple of God. Among the ancients nothing was in worse repute than that of a caupo or innkeeper; so that a word derived from it (cauponari) became a proverbial expression to designate dishonourable adulteration. But the innkeeper Theodotus, at Ancyra, in Galatia, who died as a martyr in the Diocletian persecution, showed how even such a trade might be made use of for the service of Christianity. His tavern became in that persecution a place of refuge for all persecuted Christians, where they received the means of support, and where the communion was celebrated with bread and wine at his expense. The biographer of this person compares this tavern to Noah's ark, on account of its being a safe rendezvous for all true Christians in this persecution.

But when any one abused that expression of the Apostle Paul by attaching to it a laxer meaning, in order to justify the carrying on of an occupation that was inconsistent with the principles of Christianity, Tertullian indignantly replied: According to such an interpretation (in which no regard is paid to proper definition and limitation), we might all remain in sin; for there is no one among us who is not to

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IDOL-MAKING AND ASTROLOGY FORBIDDEN.

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be regarded as a sinner; and Jesus Christ came on no other account than to deliver sinners." Whoever before his conversion to Christianity followed an occupation that pandered to vice, or was founded on deceit, or was in any way connected with heathen idolatry, was obliged to renounce the same before baptism. The church into which he entered then assisted him to begin a new occupation. Such trades were forbidden to Christians as that of a maker of idols. To the excuse sometimes made that making idols and worshipping them was not the same thing, Tertullian answered: "Verily thou dost worship them, who makest them that they may be worshipped. And thou worshippest them not with the spirit of any worthless savour of sacrifice, but with thine own; nor at the cost of the life of a beast, but of thy own life. To these thou offerest up thy mind; to these thou makest libations of thy sweat; in homage to these thou kindlest the light of the understanding." Moreover, it was considered unlawful to exercise the profession of an astrologer, a juggler, or a magician, which latter was at that time a very fruitful source of gain. Such was the effect of the publication of the gospel by the Apostle Paul at Ephesus, the ancient seat of such deceitful and curious arts, that those who practised them confessed their sins, and sacrificed to the gospel what had hitherto been so highly esteemed by them, and had been productive of such gain. It must have been well known among the heathen that Christianity counterworked these arts of darkness, since that famous Goët in Pontus, Alexander, whose life was written by Lucian, placed the Christians and the Epicureans in the same list as enemies of his juggleries, and would never practise his art in their presence. Then there were stage-players (histriones), whose profession, as it then existed, appeared inconsistent with Christian seriousness and demeanour, and with the strictness of Christian morals. When in an African church a stage-player who had embraced Christianity continued to support himself as heretofore by training boys for the theatre, Cyprian declared that this ought not to be allowed, and added: "If such a person alleges poverty or necessity, he may be provided for among the rest whom the church supports, provided he will be content with a more moderate but more innocent maintenance. But he must not believe that he merits support on this account, because he has