WE have already touched upon the state of heathendom, or, as we might .more correctly speak, of the world at large, excepting Judaism, at the time of the birth of the Church of God. However, our readers will not be unprofitably occupied by reading a few more pages on this subject, since a moral principle is laid bare by so doing, which is not without its value in the presence of the teaching of the unbelieving philosophers of our own times.
The pagan world had its religion—it also had its philosophers, and these men saw much in the religion around them, which they knew to be false and morally evil, yet they were unable to offer any better way to men. So far as the latter part of the statement is concerned, it is precisely the same with their class in our own day; the skeptical scientists believe nothing, and give people nothing to believe, unless their revived pagan schemes and imaginations respecting evolution and the past are their creed for mankind-anyway, they know nothing and affirm nothing concerning the future.
The Scriptures devote a place to the philosopher and scientist, so we do wisely in considering him for a moment. Let us first collect a few testimonies to the estimation in which these heathen thinkers held their deities: "All that ignoble crowd of gods which the superstition of ages has collected we will adore," said Seneca, "in such a way as to remember that its worship belongs rather to usage than to reality. The wise man will unite in all these observances as commanded by the laws, not as pleasing to the gods." This tribute to State religion is very suggestive. Its morality is apparent-worship as the State orders, but believe not what you worship. Such wisdom was profitable for this life.
And what did his philosophy effect for Seneca's soul? Let us hear him speak. "Seest thou you steep height? Thence is the descent to freedom. Seest thou yon sea, yon river, yon well? Freedom sits there in the depths. Seest thou yon low, withered tree? There freedom hangs. Seest thou thy neck, thy throat, thy heart? They are ways of escape from bondage?" “The aim of all philosophy is to despise life."
Hereafter to the heathen was a kind of purgatory, or an elevation to the company of the “ignoble crowd of gods"; but when men gave vent to their inner feelings respecting it they spoke the language of misery or despair. Pliny says, “What folly it is to renew life after death I Where shall created beings find rest, if you suppose that shades in hell and souls in heaven continue to have any feeling? You rob us of man's greatest good-death. Let us rather find in the tranquility which preceded our existence, the pledge of the repose which is to follow it." All that philosophy could suggest was a sigh for annihilation.
However, associated with this non-belief, this learned atheism, was the strongest superstition. It is related of Cæsar, who openly professed in the senate, "Beyond this life there is no place for joy or trouble," that he never stepped into a carriage without uttering some magical formula in order to preserve him from accident. Nero, who is said to have had merely one little idol for his devotion, nevertheless initiated elaborate ceremonies to appease the god whose temple had been struck by lightning, and treated an amulet he wore as a sacred charm.
Superstition lives in the human breast, whether a man be a philosopher or ignorant, and as the religion of pagan Rome consisted chiefly in ceremonies, we can understand how the ceremonial that constituted its religion, and the superstition which was its consequence, lived on, though faith in the subject of the ceremony, or in the thing dreaded, was dead. States, like churches, can decree and enforce ceremonial and its observances, and nations may revere ceremonial, though faith be utterly extinct. This is a great danger, to which multitudes in our own day are exposed in Christendom. Religion and ceremonial are pursued, but apart from faith in God's word and personal connection with Christ.
What we are in ourselves as sinful beings, and the hopeless task of changing ourselves were of necessity gloomy considerations for the pagan philosophers. Celsus, whose ridicule of Christianity had a great influence for about one hundred years, thus speaks on this subject, " It is manifest to everyone that those who are disposed by nature to vice, and are accustomed to it, cannot be transformed by punishment, much less by mercy; for to transform nature is a matter of extreme difficulty." Now, as we know, the Christian faith teaches that God implants a new nature within His children, the old nature is not transformed, indeed we are bidden reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin (Rom. 6:22God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Romans 6:2)). But “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)), and with such a fact existing, the Christian is bidden live a new life. For example, the thief is to become an honest worker and a giver. “Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." (Eph. 4:2828Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. (Ephesians 4:28).) The secret of the power is the finger of God, of which heathen philosophy and present-day philosophy are alike ignorant. Neither can philosophy deny the reality of the changed life, and this apparent fact the pagans were constrained to acknowledge, though scorning the men whose lives were so changed. Celsus thus ridicules the confessors of Christ; they were "woolen-manufacturers, shoe-makers and curriers, the most uneducated and boorish men who were zealous advocates of this new religion." Our readers will remember with the more interest that in the catacombs of which we spoke on the last occasion, we had gracious testimony to the power and the love of Christ from "woolen manufacturers and shoemakers."
The brave front which the philosopher assumes in the presence of the realities of death, and his own misgivings as to what comes after death, is well put in the story attributed to the Clement of the apostolic age. This story relates of this Christian Father that torturing questions as to the beginning and the end of the world, and of himself, filled his mind even from childhood. He sought aid from the schools of the philosophers. Some said the soul was immortal, others that it was not; some taught annihilation, others a sort of purgatory. Then he set himself to try spiritualism. He proposed to procure the aid of a magician, who for a large sum of money would raise a spirit, and Clement meant to obtain information about the state after death from this spirit. Very cautious were his plans; he was not willing to trust himself to the words of the spirit, he would get at the spirit's real mind by “his look, his appearance." “Uncertain words," said he, “cannot overthrow what I experience by actual eyesight." So far his philosophy had gained him wise caution. However, his friends seemed frightened at both the arts of the magician and the sight of the spirits, so that the plan was not carried out.
Be this story true or not, there lies within it, without doubt, truth relating to the uncertainty and distress of mind of the pagan philosopher. From Justin Martyr, once a follower of this wisdom, by which the world knew not God (1 Cor. 1:2121For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21)), we have this testimony: "I found first in Christianity the only certain and salutary philosophy Christ is the glorious Rock from which the living water flows into the hearts of those who through Him love the Father."
Here, by way of parenthesis, we may observe that some of the fathers of the early Church, who had been so deeply under the influence of pagan philosophy, seem to have brought some taints of it into the Christianity of their times, and thus we may trace various doctrines and practices now prevailing in the Church to pagan sources. We refer to such palpable pagan conceptions as the doctrine of purgatory, and the ceremonial attached to the observance of days, and the homage rendered to relics.
As pagan Rome allowed and venerated the deities of the pagan lands it had conquered, and tolerated to the Jew his religion, there was a strange liberality prevailing at the time of early Christianity ; but the Christian religion had " neither temple, altar, nor priest "—it belonged to no particular nation, though it was professed by men of all nations. For Christianity pagan Rome had no place, "Your associations are contrary to the law," said Celsus, connecting thus his philosophy with the popular feeling and the authority of the empire.
Though Rome allowed men, with greater or less liberty, to worship their various gods, it demanded of all the payment of the tribute of divine honor to the emperor, and the penalty of transgression was death. It was in vain for the Christian to say, "By whom is the emperor more loved than by Christians? We supplicate for him unceasingly a long life, a just government of his peoples, a peaceful reign, prosperity for the army and the whole world." The answer was, “To prove your obedience, sacrifice with us to his honour." This the Christian could not do. “I pray to God for my emperor, but a sacrifice neither he should require nor we pay. Who may offer divine honour to a man?" said Achatius, the martyr, and died for his words.
The philosophers, though ridiculing their “ignoble crowd of gods," saw the propriety of obeying the law of their land, and of saving their lives by worshipping the gods they ridiculed, but they saw not their own moral baseness in their wisdom. As an example of this moral baseness we take Seneca's address upon the death of the Emperor Claudius, extolling him as a god. According to custom, the Emperor was transferred to the gods at his death, the appointed witnesses declaring on oath they had seen his soul ascend to heaven! However, this same Seneca, who had extolled the deceased, shortly after published a satire on the event, termed “The translation of Claudius into the society of the pumpkins!" Well, indeed, does the scripture say of these reasoners, “We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things." (Rom. 2:22But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. (Romans 2:2).)
We especially enjoin upon our younger Christian readers, the duty of observing the moral principles of present day infidelity and philosophy in the Church of God, for there is a strong moral resemblance existing between the philosophers of pagan Rome and these of our own day. Men's minds become captivated by philosophy, but the simplest person should have honesty enough to see through moral crookedness.
The pagans could not comprehend the truth the Christians circulated. “What absurdities," said one, “do these Christians invent of the God whom they can neither show nor see! They recount that He is everywhere present; that He knows and judges the actions of men, their words, and even their secret thoughts." The Christians to them were atheists or fools. Thus a picture was circulated of a figure with the ears of an ass, clothed with a toga, holding a book in its hands, and with these words inscribed beneath, “The God of the Christians." Now we know that the preaching of Christ crucified was “to the Greeks foolishness," and that by the foolishness of that preaching it has pleased God to save them that believe. (1 Cor. 1:18-2518For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 22For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:18‑25).) The Christians spoke of a judgment to come, Rome was termed the “eternal city," therefore Christians were regarded as haters of the government. The Christians were denounced as despising the temples and abhorring the gods; they were generally unintelligible to the wisdom of their day, it was said of them they neither feared death nor dreaded that which is after death, while their desire for the salvation of the heathen was regarded as madness. Philosophy could not understand Christianity.