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earthly good-that poverty in itself is not praiseworthy, but only the renunciation of the earthly by the heart. When the enthusiasts of the Montanist sect, of whom we have spoken above, wished to prescribe regular fasts at certain times, many protested against them, and said that it was accordant with evangelical freedom that no positive law should be laid down on such points-that here every one is free to act according to his own necessities, circumstances, and inclination. They appealed to Isaiah lviii. 5, 6, &c., " that not fasts but works of righteousness were well-pleasing to God." (Matt. xv. 11; 1 Tim. iv. 1, &c.; 1 Cor. viii. 8.)

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In the bloody persecution which befel the Church at Lyons in the year 177, a person named Alcibiades, who had hitherto lived as an ascetic, having stedfastly adhered to his Christian profession, was put in close confinement. Here he continued his former abstemious diet, living on bread and water, and probably not tasting the food which the Christians sent to their brethren in prison. But one of his fellow-prisoners, Attalus, told him that he was moved by the Divine Spirit to charge him with acting wrong in not enjoying God's gifts, and thereby being a stumbling-block to others. The ascetic and revered confessor, instead of feeling his spiritual vanity wounded, gave an example of the renunciation of self-will, a thing far nobler and more difficult than all outward asceticism. He now eat indifferently of whatever was set before him, and gave God thanks for these gifts also.

CHAPTER XI.

THE PRACTICAL BROTHERLY LOVE OF CHRISTIANS.

As our Lord declared brotherly-love to be the special mark by which mankind would recognise his disciples, so we find it strikingly manifested among the first Christians, who employed the term brother, as a common appellation of each other. Of this mutual affection the kiss of charity testified which was practised at the celebration of the supper every Sunday, and at those love-feasts (the agapa), which were held in the primitive age, when Christians of all classes, for

getting the differences of station, property, and education, met together, and the rich partook with the poor. On these occasions Christians assembled as if forming one family. As the Lord sanctified the meals which he partook of with his disciples, by his presence and communion, so likewise these feasts, kept in brotherly love, were sanctified by the presence of the Lord and spiritual communion with him; everything earthly became transformed into the heavenly; the ultimate object of all Christian association was here prefigured. Let us listen to Tertullian's description of such a love-feast at the end of the second century, "No one sits down at the table," he says, "till prayer has been offered to God. We eat as much as hunger requires; we drink no more than is consistent with sobriety; we satisfy our appetites as those who recollect that the night is to be spent in devotion; we converse as men who bear in mind that God hears them. After the persons present have washed their hands, lights are brought in, and every one is required to sing before all to the praise of God, either something taken from Holy Writ, or what his own heart has suggested; this shows how he has drunk. The feast concludes with prayer."

Christians also regarded themselves as standing in this brotherly relation to one another under all the circumstances of life; the temporal and spiritual wants of every individual were cared for by the Church. A Christian coming from distant parts, on his arrival in a foreign town, sought out the assembly of Christians, and found there spiritual and bodily refreshment. But partly because this brotherly love was abused by impostors, the Christian churches adopted a precautionary measure to receive no stranger who did not bring with him a regular testimonial (epistola formata) from the bishop of the church to which he belonged.

This cordial brotherly love of the Christians struck the heathen with astonishment; and people whose suspicions went no further than temporal ends, regarded it with a jealous eye. See," they said, "how the Christians love one another, and are ready to die for one another." Tertullian,* in noticing

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* Sed ejusmodi vel maxime dilectionis operatio notam nobis incerit penes quosdam. Vide, inquirent, ut invicem se diligant; ipsi enim invicem oderunt; et ut pro alterutro mori sint parati; ipsi enim ad occidendum alterutrum paratiores erunt. Sed et quod fratrum appellatione

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"We are

the surprise of the heathen on this subject, says, even your brethren by right of our common mother; the same human nature, although, like unnatural brethren, ye deny us the common human nature. But with how greater right must they call and consider themselves brethren who acknowledge God as their Father, who have received the same spirit of sanctification, and have been raised from the same abyss of ignorance to an admiration of the same light of truth. We who are of one heart and one soul, cannot have the least hesitation to have earthly goods in common."

At every weekly service of the Christians in some places, at every monthly meeting in other places, collections were made to which every member contributed according to his ability for the relief of the poor, the sick, the infirm through age, widows, and strangers who on account of their faith were imprisoned or sentenced to work in the mines. In many extraordinary cases the bishops made special collections for these objects in their congregations. Individual churches not merely cared for the wants of their own members, but the richer churches of the capital cities, such as Rome, sent pecuniary aid to those who were suffering for the faith, even to the remotest parts. And when the poor churches of the provincial towns were not in a condition to give sufficient relief to their suffering brethren from their own resources, they sought the help of the church in the larger cities. About the middle of the third century, it happened that in Numidia, in North Africa, several Christian men and women were taken captive by their barbarian neighbours. The Numidian churches not being able to raise the sum required for their ransom, applied to the metropolis, Carthage. The bishop of this city, Cyprian, in a short time collected from the clergy and laity a sum exceeding four thousand dollars, and remitted it to the bishops of those churches, with an epistle in which

censemur non alias opinor infamant, quam quod apud ipsas omne sanguines nomen de affectione simulatum est. Fratres autem etiam vestri sumus, jure naturæ matris unius, etsi vos parum homines, quia mali fratres. At quanto dignius fratres et dicuntur et habentur, qui unum Patrem Deum agnoverunt, qui unum spiritum biberunt sanctitatis, qui de uno utero ignorantiæ ejusdem ad unam lucem expaverunt veritatis. Itaque qui animo, animaque miscemur, nihil de rei communicatione dubitamus.-Tertull. Apol. § 39.

he says, "We cannot regard the imprisonment of our brethren but as our own, nor their sufferings but as ours, since we are united with them in one body, and not only love, but a peculiar religious interest must impel and confirm us in procuring the freedom of brethren who are members of our body. For the apostle says, 'Know ye not, that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?' (1 Cor. iii. 16); therefore if love were not sufficient to impel us to help our brethren, we ought to reflect that the temples of God are in captivity, and these temples of God must not remain in it any longer through our delay; we must with all our might seek by our obedience to gain the approbation of Christ our judge, our Lord and God. For the Apostle Paul says, 'As many of you as are baptized have put on Christ:' therefore in our captive brethren we must see that Christ who has rescued us from the danger of captivity, who has redeemed us from the danger of death. We must feel ourselves compelled to free them from the hands of barbarians who has freed us from Satan's grasp, and who now dwells and abides in us; we must with a small sum of money ransom Him who has ransomed us by his cross and blood, and who has permitted this misfortune to happen, in order to prove our faith, whether every one of us will do for others what he would have wished for himself, had he fallen into the hands of barbarians." He adds, "We wish, indeed, that nothing like this may happen in future; but yet should any thing of the kind occur again to try the love of our hearts, and to test our faith, do not delay to inform us of it by another epistle; since you may be satisfied that our whole church prays to God that it may not happen again, but if it should occur, that they will help you cheerfully and abundantly."

CHAPTER XII.

GENERAL PHILANTHROPY OF CHRISTIANS.

ALTHOUGH the heathen frequently charged the Christians with misanthropy, because they would not imitate the conduct of the world, and sometimes because they showed some

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semblance of it by a too rude but easily explicable opposition to the world, arising from the state of the development of the Christian life at that period, yet the principle of the universal love of mankind and of enemies was always expressed by the Christian church. The love of enemies especially was not regarded as a single moral precept of Christianity, but was a necessary result of the total Christian faith and consciousness, of faith in the Redeemer, who died for his enemies, and of a love that expelled everything selfish. Whenever they met for worship Christians prayed for the conversion of all men, that all men might attain salvation by the reception and faithful following of the doctrine of Christ. Also the heathen poor received rich gifts from the Christian church. When a narrow-hearted patriotism, which often was only a more refined and diffused selfishness, had suppressed among the ancients the general feelings of humanity, and many noble persons among the Romans helped to furnish those cruel spectacles of a bloodthirsty people-the gladiatorial shows the voice of the Christian church was from the first raised against them with the greatest abhorrence. Whoever frequented those spectacles was excluded from the communion of the church.

In the year 254 a desolating epidemic raged throughout a great part of the Roman empire, and especially in Northern Africa. The heathen at Carthage did not venture to attend the sick for fear of infection; the infected were thrown out into the streets, half dead. Corpses were left lying in heaps, and threatened a general plague, by tainting the atmosphere. A short time before, the Christians had suffered a bloody persecution; and even this desolating epidemic occasioned new attacks upon them, as if the gods in their wrath had made such judgments depend on their enemies, the Christians. But Cyprian knew that it became Christians, by well-doing, to heap the burning coals of shame on the heads of their enemies. He assembled his church, and said to them, "If we merely show kindness to our own people, we do no more than publicans and heathens; as genuine Christians we must overcome evil by good, love our enemies as our Lord exhorts us, and pray for our persecutors. Since we are born of God, we must show ourselves worthy of our origin by imitating our Father's goodness."