lethargy, and rise with renewed power, and every Christian parent, strong in the might of faith, with one arm around the Cross of Christ, and the other encircling his family, will take a noble stand before the world, and say to its mammon-worshippers and self-idolizers, "Serve whom ye will, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."

ARTICLE IV. THE HEATHEN WITNESSES OF THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY BEFORE 200 A. D.

NELSON, in his "Cause and Cure of Infidelity," devotes five chapters to the alleged "silence of heathen contemporary writers respecting the early history of Christianity.” The fact is noteworthy, chiefly as an indication, based on his well known practical observation among skeptical minds, that this insinuation of French infidels, confuted a century ago, still exerts an influence. The kindred fact that translations of Strauss' Life of Jesus are now having an extensive sale in this country, seemingly to appreciative and confiding readers, affords confirmatory evidence that Infidelity can live and thrive upon a very meagre diet.

The day has doubtless long since passed, when a candid reader of history will be led to doubt the authenticity of the earlier ecclesiastical records for want of confirmatory heathen testimony, and yet it may not be amiss for us to take a brief review of the period, and see how much notice they actually did receive from disinterested or hostile contemporary ob

servers.

Before proceeding to this, it may be proper to inquire how frequent and extended a recognition of Christians and their doings we may reasonably expect from their heathen cotemporaries. We should not look for a minute chronicler among their enemies. Even supposing the Church to have occupied a distinct and prominent place among the sects at the beginning of her history, we should expect her to fur

nish her own historian, while the extraneous notices of her would be either controversial, or of the nature of allusion and outline. Nor should we expect that these notices would accord to her all the prominence which she might justly claim. Perfect accuracy of information, or fairness of statement about opposing sects, has ever been a rare quality among literary men. The copious resources, and liberal culture, and Christianized candor of the present century, have not saved us from illustrations of the difficulty which very well informed men find in discerning the public prominence of persons or bodies outside of their own religious. circle.* When we add to this the remembrance, that under the influence of Pagan Rome the Christian faith, however prominent, was everywhere despised and hated as a "new and pernicious superstition," whose avowed tendency and purpose was the overthrow of all existing religions, and the extinction of idolatry, we should not be surprised to find both ignorance and "silence" respecting them on the part of the few writers which the Roman world at that day produced; writers, many of whom held official stations in the Roman Government, which was then at its zenith in pride and power, and closely identified in history and influence with the prevailing idolatry.

But the Christian Church did not occupy a prominent place in the outset of its history. The uninformed are often misled by this erroneous presumption. It is by our partiality to it, and by our historical resources, that it has been brought into the foreground of the picture of the first three centuries, while other events have held a more obscure position. A moment's reflection will show us that Christians and their doings were of but small comparative account in making up the history of the world under the Roman Emperors. At first they were but a mere handful, springing up in a remote province, a sect of a sect, so to speak, the

*A case in point has recently occurred in a New England city. The compiler of one of our school reading books, a gentleman of liberal culture and high reputation, had been apparently unable to find, with one or two exceptions, any literary selections suitable for his work outside the very limited, though really cultivated circle of his own religious denomi

nation.

*

petty disturbances of which seldom, if ever, excited attention in the imperial city. Even after they had increased in numbers, and extended very widely in various parts of the Empire, it was some time before they were generally distinguished from the various sects of Judaism. There is, therefore, but little reason to expect that a heathen historian, writing of his own time, and having no personal interest in Christians, should make very frequent allusion to them, or be very minute and accurate in his description. In a history of the New England Colonies from 1630 to 1649, written by John Winthrop, a Governor of that period, we find only very casual and indistinct allusions to Baptists as a sect, though this was a time of peculiar interest in their history, so much so that Uhden, in his "History of Congregationalists," devotes to them nearly the whole of the thirty pages which describe this period. Facts are mentioned, indeed, which belong to their history, relating to individuals, but only as they seem to have been forced into notice by their connection with civil government. Yet this was not the result of ignorance, nor of any effort at concealment. The prominent events of Baptist history transpired under his very eyes, and, on the other hand, fairness and impartiality are qualities ascribed by all parties to the work which he wrote.† Had both those circumstances been reversed, had the scene of their operations been for the most part remote, and his own mind blinded by prejudice, how easily could he have avoided the most distant allusion to them, or made such a one as would throw discredit upon their accounts of themselves.

This last supposition will serve to illustrate the relations of Christians to Pagan writers of the first two centuries,the former scattered abroad in distant provinces, hated and despised the latter the courted attachés of government, and life-long disciples of a State Religion. No extended.

*The New England Theocracy, a History of the Congregationalists of New England. By H. F. Uhden. Translated from the Second German Edition by H. C. Conant; pp. 303. Boston. 1859.

Indeed, it was a private journal designed for personal use, and not published until many years after his death.

nor very accurate statements can be expected from persons who had neither the opportunity nor the disposition for careful observation, especially when the prejudices of their readers, as well as of their immediate friends, admonished them not to make too much account of this despised sect. At the same time we claim that they did make such allusions to the followers of Christ, both in number and tenor, as the circumstances would lead us to expect, and as substantially confirm the Christian histories of the same period. Let us examine these allusions. In doing this we shall omit such as are only suppositions, or of doubtful application, and confine ourselves to those which are generally allowed to be definite and genuine.

The first allusion to Christians, which is worthy of notice, is found in the Annals of Tacitus, which were written about the year 100 A. D. The author, Caius Cornelius Tacitus, was at this time over forty years of age, had been Prætor and Consul of Rome, besides filling other posts of honor. The Annals were the last of his works, which were preserved, and extended from the reign of Tiberius (14 a. d.) to the death of Nero (68 A. D.) In describing the reign of Nero, he comes to the terrible fire at Rome, which occurred in the tenth year of Nero, and the 64th A. D. After giving an account of this fire, and of the orders given for rebuilding the city, and the methods used to appease the gods, he goes on to say: "But not human help, nor the liberality of the Emperor, nor the propitiatory offerings to the gods, diminished the infamy which he incurred, because of his agency in causing the city to be set on fire. Therefore, to suppress this rumor, Nero caused others to be accused, and inflicted most excessive punishments upon those whom, hated for their crimes, the common people called Christians. The founder of this name was Christus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was subjected to the ignominious death penalty [supplicio] by the Procurator, Pontius Pilate. Checked for the present, this pernicious superstition again broke out, not only over Judea, the origin of this evil, but through the city even; whither flow together from all quarters all atrocious and shameful things, and are encouraged." (Paris

ed., 1819, vol. ii., lib. xv., § xliv., p. 469.) He then goes on to describe the cruel nature of the tortures to which they were subjected, calling them multitudo ingens, "a vast multitude," and saying that they were condemned not so much for burning the city, as for their hatred of mankind." Here are distinct allusions to the death of Christ, its time and manner, the position he held as leader of those bearing his name, the origin of Christianity in Judea, and its wide and rapid spread through that and other countries, so that even at Rome it had a great number of adherents. They come naturally into the course of the narrative, and their authenticity has never been disputed.

Within two or three years of the date of this testimony, we find another and more explicit one from a different quarter. In the north of Asia Minor, on the borders of the Black Sea, lies the province of Bithynia, whither, fifty years before, Paul, in his second missionary tour, "assayed to go, but the Spirit suffered him not." Over this province, in 103 A. D., was placed as Governor, Caius Plinius Cæcilius Secundus, or, Pliny the Younger, a personal friend of Tacitus, and not far from the same age. He was a man of liberal education, and fond of literary pursuits. While in Bithynia, where he spent nearly two years, he wrote frequent letters to the Emperor Trajan on various matters of business and friendship. These letters, as well as many of the answers to them, he afterwards collected and published. One of them reads as follows: "It is customary, my lord, for me to refer to you all matters concerning which I have any doubt. For who can better direct my uncertainty, or instruct my ignorance. I have never been present at any examinations of Christians. So that I know not what or how much it is customary either to punish or to inquire into their conduct. Nor have I been a little doubtful whether there should be any distinction on account of age, or whether you are pleased to have the tender in no way distinguished from the more robust; whether pardon should be awarded to repentance, or whether to him who has been a Christian at all, it shall be of no avail that he has ceased to be one; whether the name itself, even if it is without ac