RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE STATE. 37 despotism. In a time when the inclination of self-interest to evade the laws in secret was combined with the timorousness of a slavish spirit, the Christians set the example of the conscientious observance of the laws for God's sake, and of unbending mental freedom, which, as it only obeyed the rulers of the world as placed in their office by God, so no power on earth could force to obey when anything was required that contradicted the divine laws. As to the first point, Tertullian could attest that what the State lost by the decrease of idolatry in the revenues of the temples, was amply compensated by the conscientious exactness with which the Christians paid the taxes and customs. As to the second point, since they only obeyed God in obeying men, nothing could induce them to obey men rather than God, which is the true freedom of those who wish to be only the servants of God. Nothing could prevail upon them to pay an honour to the emperors, which the idolatrous flattery of the heathen had invented, to swear by the genius of Cæsar, to sacrifice or scatter incense to their images, or to take a part in the noisy, extravagant, and often unseemly public demonstrations of joy and diversions in honour of the emperors on their birthdays or anniversaries of their accession to the throne. On this account it was complained, without considering the reasons of their conduct, that the Christians violated the reverence due to the emperors, and they were called enemies of the State and of the emperor. We," says Tertullian, vindicating the Christians from this charge, we pray for the emperor's welfare to the eternal, true, and living God, whom even the emperors themselves would rather have propitious to them than all the rest. They know who has given them dominion; they know, as men, who has given them life. They feel that he is God alone, in whose power alone they stand, to whom they are second, after whom they are first, before all gods. And why not, since they are above all men? They reflect how far the powers of their empire extend, and thus they understand God; they acknowledge that they prevail through Him, against whom they cannot prevail. To Him we Christians look up with outspread, because innocent, hands; with bare heads, because we are not ashamed; finally, without a prompter, because we pray from the heart. We pray always for all emperors that they may have a long 66 66 life, a secure government, a safe home, valiant armies, a faithful senate, a righteous people, a world at peace, and all that man or emperor can wish for. These things I cannot ask of any other being than of Him from whom I know I shall obtain them, since it is He who alone supplies them, and it is I to whom the obtaining of them is due-I, his servant, who reverence Him alone, who surrender my life for his law, who offer Him a rich and larger victim which He himself has commanded, the prayer proceeding from a chaste body, an innocent soul, from the Holy Spirit; not a mere grain of incense of the value of an as, leaves of an Arabian tree, not two drops of wine, nor the blood of a diseased beast that longs to die, and after all these foul things, an impure conscience; so that I marvel when the victims are examined before you by the most wicked priests why the hearts of the beasts rather than of the sacrificers themselves are examined." And afterwards he says, I will call the emperor lord, but only when I am not compelled to call him lord instead of God. Otherwise I am free before him; for I have only one Lord, the almighty and eternal God—the same who is his Lord also. He who is the father of his country, how can he be its lord ?" 66 But though Christians were agreed in the principle to obey men only for God's sake, and to obey God rather than man, yet varieties of opinion arose in the application of this principle. Here a question of importance relative to Christian morals was raised, which even in later times has been often agitated, and is still. Christianity, since it is designed to be the salt and leaven for all human things, must certainly enter into all human relations, and yet it must oppose everything that is sinful in them, agreeably to our Lord's declaration, "I am not come to send peace, but a sword." But the point to be determined is, where is the line to be drawn between being at " peace with all men as much as lieth in us," and wielding the sword against the world defiled with sin, both which are duties belonging to the Christian calling. There is danger of failure on either hand; either by a false accommodation to the world, or by a false opposition against it. To avoid falling into one or other of these errors must have been extremely difficult in that age. All the civil and domestic relations, and all customs, were penetrated by the ancient RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE STATE. 39 popular religion; but this connection had been long forgotten in many forms of life, so that only learned antiquaries were aware of it. And now the question arose, How can what belongs to civil, social and domestic life, in the prevailing institutions and customs, be separated from its reference to to the heathenish element? What is there in itself indifferent, with which the Christian ought to comply in discharging his duty as a citizen, or for the preservation of civil order and tranquillity? These questions were answered in different ways by a sterner and a milder party, and on both sides the due mean was sometimes overstepped. As the first glowing zeal of the new converts would readily carry them away into a violent opposition to the world, so a too violent opposition against everything which appeared in any way connected with heathenism might easily be excited at this time in earnest dispositions. Even in those who fell into this error, we cannot refuse our homage to their noble-minded zeal and deep Christian earnestness; we feel attracted by their elevation of soul, their warmth of heart. Thus Tertullian, a representative of the sterner tendency, said to those who seemed to him to make too lax an application of Christ's words, Give to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's:" "The Lord required that the tribute-money should be shown him, and asked concerning the image whose it was: and when told that it was Cæsar's, he said,Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's;' that is, Render to Cæsar the image of Cæsar which is on the coin, and to God the image of God which is in man; so that unto Cæsar thou givest money, unto God thou givest thyself; for if all things are Cæsar's, what will be left for God?" Here we may quote the beautiful words of Clement of Alexandria : "The purified, righteous man has become a coin of the Lord, and has the impress of his king stamped upon him." As Tertullian believed that he saw something heathenish in the practice of illuminating the houses on occasion of the feasts in honour of the emperors, he said to those Christians who without scruple fell into the general custom: "Let those, therefore, who have no light, light their lamps daily. Thou art a light of the world, and a tree that ever flourisheth. If thou hast renounced the temples, make not thy own gate a temple." 66 Under the imperial government, all secret combinations or societies were regarded with suspicion, as it was feared that they had political objects in view. Now the intimate cordial union, the brotherly love and sympathy among Christians in all parts, could not escape observation. But the Roman magistracy and their political agents could form no conception of that bond of invisible communion which held their hearts together. They suspected worldly objects, and causes of combination. "No sooner do Christians meet," it was said, "than they recognize one another by certain signs, as members of a secret confederation for concealed objects, and are united to one another like brethren. At their love-feasts (agapa), they pledge themselves by awful oaths and symbolic rites." Tertullian, in reply to this imputation, says* (Apology, ch. 38), "We who are indifferent to glory and fame have no need of secret combinations; nothing is more foreign to our taste than politics; we know only one commonwealth for all mankind, that is, the world.” While some persons imputed secret political designs to the Christians, others on the other hand complained of their retired, joyless, gloomy manner of life, and their apathy about public affairs. They were struck with the conduct of Christians in standing aloof from all public, noisy diversions; it was remarked that they were never to be seen at the theatres and gladiatorial shows; they prayed and fasted, and conversed more about the life to come than the present. Thus they came to be looked upon as useless creatures in social life, men who shunned the broad daylight, dumb when they appeared in public, but loquacious enough when they met one another in private. Certainly the contrariety of Christianity when it first appeared to the existing world was in many points so absolute, that many persons, as we have already remarked, might be impelled to a rigid withdrawal from those forms of worldly life to which Christianity could well adapt itself. But nothing excepting the genuine Christian stand-point could enable a person to distinguish between the true and the false on this question. From the stand-point of heathen worldliness, * At enim nobis ab omni gloria et dignitate ardore frigentibus nulla est necessitas cœtus, nec ulla magis res aliena quam publica. Unam omnium rempublicam agnoscemus mundum.-Tertull. Apol. 38. RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO CIVIL SOCIETY. 41 Christianity itself must have appeared as an erroneous opposition to the world, as an outrageous, repulsive tendency in assuming the supervision of human life; in short, as a religious extravagance. Christians of the stricter class, when they kept aloof from those diversions which were inconsistent with Christian principles and habits, were told that "such gratifications for the eye and ear could not injure the religion of the heart. God would not be offended by those indulgences which men might enjoy in the right time and place without detriment to religion. They were the gifts of God which furnished mankind with these pleasures." (See Tertullian's treatise De Spectaculis.) But Tertullian says, in vindication of the Christians, in answer to the reproach cast upon them for rendering life useless by their contempt of the world: "We are said to be unprofitable in the common concerns of life. How can this be said of men who live with you, have the same food, dress and furniture, the same wants of daily life? For we are not Brachmans, nor the gymnosophists of India, dwelling in the woods, and exiles from life. We remember our obligations to God our Lord and Creator; we reject no enjoyment of his works: certainly we refrain from using them immoderately or wrongfully. Wherefore we live with you in this world, not without a forum, not without shambles; not without your baths, taverns, shops, inns, markets, and other places of traffic. We voyage, moreover, with you, serve in your armies, labour in your fields, and trade with you."—Apol. ch. 42. CHAPTER IV. THE VIEW TAKEN BY CHRISTIANS OF THEIR CALLING. As the whole life of the Christian, from the beginning to the end, is a conflict with the world and the powers of darkness, a conflict within and without, the kingdom of God in this world must appear as militant, and must make its way by conflict; so that often, in Holy Writ, the calling of the Christian is compared to that of the military life, and the |