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026 - 25 Christian Life and Usages · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part one, chapter twenty five of Short History of the
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  Speaker 1: Christian Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain, Chapter twenty five, Christian life and Usages.
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  Speaker 1: The charitable spirit of the Church in the Apostolic time
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  Speaker 1: took larger form in the Patristic period. There was no
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  Speaker 1: need of Christians in one place which did not awaken
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  Speaker 1: sympathy everywhere. When Cyprians saw that the Numidian Christians could
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  Speaker 1: not pay the required ransom of their captive brethren, he
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  Speaker 1: took a large collection in Carthage for that purpose and
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  Speaker 1: sent it to them with a letter full of fraternal expressions.
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  Speaker 1: Dionysius of Corinth lauded the Roman society as the helper
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  Speaker 1: of Christians, without distinction from its very origin. Dionysius of Alexandria,
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  Speaker 1: in a letter to Stephen, Bishop of Rome, paid the
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  Speaker 1: same tribute. Basil of Cappadocia wrote a letter of thanks
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  Speaker 1: to Rome for money sent him to redeem captive Christians
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  Speaker 1: from their barbarous foes. Demetrius drew a striking picture of
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  Speaker 1: the sacrifice of Christians during the pestilence in Alexandria. Gifts
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  Speaker 1: for the support of the Church were made at each service.
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  Speaker 1: Often these consisted in wares or produce of the soil.
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  Speaker 1: According to the pursuits of the people. In the East,
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  Speaker 1: a fixed sum or the tithes was held to be
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  Speaker 1: the proper standard of annual beneficence, but in the West
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  Speaker 1: there was no rule. The great teachers opposed any defined measure,
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  Speaker 1: saying that the Lord required all that could be spared.
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  Speaker 1: A careful record the matricula was preserved of all the
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  Speaker 1: details of the benefactions. The incentives to knowledge were very great.
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  Speaker 1: The transition from Paganism to Christianity was a thorough revolution.
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  Speaker 1: The field of Christian knowledge was a new world. In
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  Speaker 1: the schools, cat critical exercises prevailed. The secular sciences were
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  Speaker 1: subordinated to religion. Christianity did not build up its great libraries,
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  Speaker 1: but the books written by the leading Christian thinkers were
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  Speaker 1: already read with profound interest. Each church was the center
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  Speaker 1: of knowledge. Copies of the scriptures were expensive, but were multiplied,
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  Speaker 1: and each church possessed several copies, together with expository and
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  Speaker 1: other works. All these were for the benefit of the
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  Speaker 1: congregation in the intervals of service and during the week,
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  Speaker 1: there was a special room for the use of books,
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  Speaker 1: which was called the frontisterion or thinking shop. One of
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  Speaker 1: the first impulses of the new Christian, who was possessed
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  Speaker 1: of means, was to employ copyists and have the entire
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  Speaker 1: scriptures transcribed for loaning or presenting to other churches or
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  Speaker 1: private circles. Even during the time of persecution, so many
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  Speaker 1: copies of the scriptures had found their way into private
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  Speaker 1: hands that the pagan wrath was aroused. During the Diocletian persecution, especially,
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  Speaker 1: their possessors were ordered to deliver up vast numbers of them.
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  Speaker 1: Even the pagan enemies. Secured copies for the works of Celsus, Periphery, Heracles,
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  Speaker 1: and others, give abundant proof that the authors must have
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  Speaker 1: had a personal inspection of some portions of the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: The domestic life was in direct contrast with everything pagan.
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  Speaker 1: There were therefore no reminders of the old idolatry. The
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  Speaker 1: typical Greek and Roman houses had been profusely adorned with figures, busts,
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  Speaker 1: and monograms of favorite divinities, but even this was a
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  Speaker 1: decline from the early Roman austerity. For nearly two centuries
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  Speaker 1: after the founding of Rome, no citizen had so far
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  Speaker 1: accommodated himself to the superstition of Greece or Egypt as
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  Speaker 1: to erect a statute to any deity. But the times
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  Speaker 1: brought sad changes. The excavations in Pompeii and the many
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  Speaker 1: memorials of art from the Roman ruins show how thoroughly
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  Speaker 1: the later art was superseded by a gross idolatry. The
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  Speaker 1: Christian's first impulse was to put away all such things.
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  Speaker 1: He lost no time in blotting out every trace of
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  Speaker 1: the obedient Mercury, the majestic Apollo, the generous series, and
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  Speaker 1: even the omnipotent Jove from doorway, court and hall. But
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  Speaker 1: he was not satisfied with this severe absence of all symbolism.
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  Speaker 1: Even the more cautious Christian writers encouraged a safe and
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  Speaker 1: proper counterpart to the polytheistic symbolism of their pagan adversaries.
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  Speaker 1: Clement of Alexandria urged the use of Christian symbols on
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  Speaker 1: seal rings and named as proper figures the dove as
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  Speaker 1: an image of the Holy Ghost, the fish with reference
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  Speaker 1: to the call of Zebd these sons to be fishers
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  Speaker 1: of men, the ship as an emblem of the advancing Church,
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  Speaker 1: the lear as a type of Christian joy, and the
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  Speaker 1: acre as an expression of hope. The crucifix was never used.
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  Speaker 1: Every great teacher was an industrious correspondent. Paul had set
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  Speaker 1: the example, and it was diligently followed by his successors.
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  Speaker 1: In evangelization, epistolary writings had long been a favorite Roman fashion. Cicero, Seneca, Pliny,
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  Speaker 1: and many other authors chose the form of the letter
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  Speaker 1: to an individual in order to inform the public of
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  Speaker 1: their views on many special subjects. The fathers of the
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  Speaker 1: Church chose, therefore a means of information which they found
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  Speaker 1: in use already, both from apostolic and pagan example, the
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  Speaker 1: letters of polycarp and Origin and the eighty six Warm
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  Speaker 1: and Nervous Epistles of Cyprian were only a small part
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  Speaker 1: of the epistol benefaction of those times to the later church.
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  Speaker 1: A number of the apologists addressed their works to Roman emperors.
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  Speaker 1: The Christians were largely represented among the commercial and laboring classes,
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  Speaker 1: and often changed their abodes. They followed the lines of commerce,
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  Speaker 1: as in the United States. Many Christian people from the
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  Speaker 1: Atlantic Sea board have gone into the far western regions
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  Speaker 1: and taken with them their religious spirit. And built churches.
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  Speaker 1: So in the third and fourth centuries, the Christians observed
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  Speaker 1: the new openings of business and planted Christian societies in
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  Speaker 1: the places where they settled. Between the old and new societies,
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  Speaker 1: a frequent correspondence was maintained. Christians who went upon a
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  Speaker 1: journey for any purpose were often the bearers of letters
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  Speaker 1: to be delivered on the way or on reaching the
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  Speaker 1: place of destination. When these letters arrived, being on a
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  Speaker 1: durable fabric, either papyrus or parchment, they became the permanent
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  Speaker 1: possessions of the society or the individual receiving them. The
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  Speaker 1: synatical letters, which were written after each session of the
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  Speaker 1: provincial Synod to similar bodies in other provinces, will convey
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  Speaker 1: some idea of the extent to which official relationship was carried.
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  Speaker 1: When action was taken on a schism or on any
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  Speaker 1: special subject, the utmost promptness was employed to communicate the
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  Speaker 1: fact far and wide, while a bishop, on being chosen
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  Speaker 1: to the office, was equally prompt in sending notifications of
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  Speaker 1: his election to his colleagues in every part of Christendom.
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  Speaker 1: The most distant parts of the Church were brought into
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  Speaker 1: close relationship also by personal visitation the fathers were busy travelers.
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  Speaker 1: Many parts of the East were even safer then for
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  Speaker 1: the stranger than they are today. The Christians followed classic
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  Speaker 1: exams iemples. The Greek and Roman authors had been in
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  Speaker 1: the habit of visiting places which they described. Homer certainly
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  Speaker 1: saw the troad for the Iliadbare's internal evidence of a
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  Speaker 1: personal examination. Herodotus journeyed in many lands, now among the
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  Speaker 1: priests of the Upper Nile, and now in Asia Minor,
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  Speaker 1: endeavoring to verify the country by contact with the people
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  Speaker 1: and their land. Salust visited Africa in order to be
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  Speaker 1: faithful in his picture of Jugurtha. Jerome lingered long in
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  Speaker 1: Palestine in order to make sure work in his exegetical studies. Papius,
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  Speaker 1: Bishop of Hiropolis, conceived the happy thought of visiting Palestine
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  Speaker 1: and trying to find among the most aged people of
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  Speaker 1: different countries, some who had seen our Lord in the flesh.
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  Speaker 1: For said he, I did not think that I could
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  Speaker 1: get so much aid from the books as from the
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  Speaker 1: words of those living and remaining. Out of this tour
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  Speaker 1: grew his explanation on the discourses of our Lord Polycarp
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  Speaker 1: in his extreme age, or about eighty one fifty eight
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  Speaker 1: visited Rome to come to an understanding with the bishop
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  Speaker 1: and Asceestus concerning the baptism of heretics and the observance
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  Speaker 1: of Easter. Irenaeus labored in Asia Minor, Gaul and Rome.
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  Speaker 1: From the journey of Hegesippius from the East to Rome
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  Speaker 1: came many interesting facts concerning early church history. Among these
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  Speaker 1: was the finding of Manetho's catalog of the kings of Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: In those days we regard the journey of Aerat as
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  Speaker 1: an undertaking of remarkable difficulty, but Julius made it in
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  Speaker 1: the interest of sacred science and identified it as the
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  Speaker 1: mountain on which the Ark had rested. He also visited
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  Speaker 1: the Dead Sea and located the site of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  Speaker 1: Clement of Alexandria was a diligent traveler over three continents.
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  Speaker 1: Origin appears to have visited every part of the Christian world,
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  Speaker 1: including far off Persia. Rufinus studied the monastic life by
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  Speaker 1: personal observation among the monks of the Nitrian desert. Jerome
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  Speaker 1: was an ideal traveler in the interest of sacred learning.
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  Speaker 1: He located himself in Palestine in order to learn the
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  Speaker 1: idiomatic construction of the Biblical text from contact with the people.
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  Speaker 1: He employed as a special teacher in Hebrew, a Jew
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  Speaker 1: who instructed him by night lest the Christians might learn
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  Speaker 1: of it and take offense. He even visited Silicia in
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  Speaker 1: order to learn the deep force and subtle meaning of
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  Speaker 1: Paul's epistles. It need not occasion surprise that with such
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  Speaker 1: pains Jerome should easily stand at the head of the
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  Speaker 1: Latin Church, and that to his patient and thorough scholarship,
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  Speaker 1: the world should be indebted for the Vulgate version. This
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  Speaker 1: is the beautiful justification which he gave for this sojourn
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  Speaker 1: in Palestine. Quote as the history of the Greeks is
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  Speaker 1: better understood by him who has seen Athens and Virgil's
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  Speaker 1: Third Book, by him who has sailed from the Troad
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  Speaker 1: to Sicily, and from there to the mouth of the Tiber,
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  Speaker 1: so do the holy scriptures become clearer to him who
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  Speaker 1: has seen Judea with his own eyes, and has made
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  Speaker 1: himself acquainted with the recollections of the old cities and
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  Speaker 1: the names of the places, whether they are the same
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  Speaker 1: or have been changed. Therefore, I had it in heart
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  Speaker 1: to undertake this work in connection with the most learned Jews,
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  Speaker 1: so that I have wandered through the country from which
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  Speaker 1: all the churches of Christ take their tone. End quote
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  Speaker 1: end of Chapter twenty five.