traversed the sands of Arabia. Ethiopia, and Persia, Armenia and Parthia were theatres of apostolic labour, were fertilized by the blood of apostolic men. The bones of St. Thomas found a resting-place in Judea. Thus, if we cast our eyes over the map of the world we see vast regions to the south and east of Judea. Through many of these had Christianity penetrated even before the end of the apostolic age; to the west and north—in them it had become naturalized. Doubtless, there was much difference between the positions occupied by the Christian congregations in the various countries which the Gospel had penetrated. In some places they were few and wide apart. In others they were numerous, and in some districts continuous. In Asia Minor, for example, and in Greece, many of the provinces were covered with Christian colonies. There is no reason for supposing that Persia or Arabia were similarly blessed. But the faith was growing apace, and the glad tidings of salvation were travelling in every direction, propelled by the breath of the Divinity. Everything leads us to believe that the propagation of Christianity was very rapid, and that the number who embraced the faith was very considerable, even before the end of the first century of the Christian era. We have many passages in the sacred writings which bear directly upon this subject; and the documents of profane history which remain to us, throw some light upon it in their casual allusion to the "hated" and "much dreaded” sect. The first conversions among the Jews are detailed in the "Acts of the Apostles." In reference to them, we have such passages as the following:-"They, therefore, that received the word were baptized; and there were added in that day about three thousand souls."1 "But many of them who had heard the word believed, and the number of men was made five thousand." 2 "And the word of the Lord increased, and the number of disciples was multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly." But the Scripture narration does not limit itself to enumerating the accessions to 3 1 Acts of the Apostles ii. 41. 2 iv. 4. 3 vi. 7. 7 4 995 Christianity in Jerusalem and among the Jews: it has many passing allusions to the magnitude of the successes in other quarters. Thus-" And they (Paul and Barnabas) taught a great multitude, so that at Antioch the disciples were first named Christians.” 1 "And the word of the Lord increased and multiplied." 2 "And a very great multitude [in Iconium] both of the Jews and Greeks, did believe." 3 "And when they had preached the Gospel in that city [Derbe,] and taught many." "And the churches were confirmed in faith, and increased in number daily.' "And some of them [in Thessalonica] believed, and were associated to Paul and Silas, and of those that served God, and of the Gentiles a great multitude.” 6 "And many of them [at Berea] believed." So numerous, indeed, were the defections from the ranks of Paganism, that the subject was made a cause of special thanksgiving on the part of the apostles, and it was a source of the most bitter acrimony among the enemies of God and His Church. Thus, when St. Paul went up to Jerusalem and narrated the successes of his ministry to the assembled "ancients," St. Luke says that, "They hearing it, glorified God, and said to him-Thou seest, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews that have believed." And when Demetrius, the silversmith, at Ephesus, endeavoured to excite the ire of his countrymen against the apostles and their doctrine, he appealed to the great wound inflicted by them upon Paganism as an established fact. "And you see and hear, that this Paul, by persuasion hath drawn a great multitude, not only of Ephesus, but almost of all Asia." 9 Gibbon, as I said before, endeavours to reduce the number of Christians to a mere handful scattered over Judea, Asia Minor, and Greece. It is needless to remark that he cannot be a believer in revelation who ventures to question a fact so clearly affirmed in the sacred writings, and so frequently and forcibly insisted upon. The converts were very numerous, according to St. Paul and St. Luke-" a great multitude,"-"three thousand,"-" five thousand," "many thousands." They were computed by "thousands," not only in Jerusalem, but in the cities of Asia Minor. The Pagans were cut to the heart at their everincreasing numbers. So far the inspired Scriptures: and in addition, as if to take every excuse out of the mouth of the unbeliever, we are enabled to trace in the other writings of the period, Pagan as well as Christian, evidences of the same, clear, strong, and incontestable. Pliny, the younger, writing from Bythinia to Trajan, not later than the end of the first century, on the persecutions to which Christians were exposed within his province, has the following passage, containing the groundwork of his appeal :-"The thing has appeared to me worthy of consideration, principally on account of the number of the accused. For the lives of many are endangered, of every age, and of both sexes. This superstition has infested, not only the cities, but the villages and the country parts; and it appears that we have the power to arrest its progress, and remove its effects. However this be, certain it is, that the people begin again to frequent the temples, which were almost altogether deserted, to celebrate the solemn sacrifices, after a long interruption; and everywhere we see victims instead of a total lack of purchasers. Whence we may easily judge of the great number that will amend their ways, if room be given for repentance."1 Ignatius, the martyr, writing about the same time to the church of Ephesus, commences in terms of congratulation on the number of its faithful members. "I have received your great multitude in the person of Onesimus, your bishop, a man of inexpressible charity." Bardasanus, in his treatise on destiny, written half a century later, after speaking of the customs and manners of various classes, cries out in admiration-" But what shall I say of the Christians so numerous, and spread through so many nations, &c."3 It is unnecessary to enter 1 Plin. lib. 18, ep. 97. 2 Ignat. ep. ad Ephes. No. 1, p. 12, tom. 2. ed. Cot. 3 Euseb. præp. Evang. lib. vi. c. 8. further into this subject here, as the history of the three first centuries must in many ways indirectly chronicle the progress and victories of the Church; and the number of distinct congregations of Christians in the several provinces of the empire, to which we shall afterwards have to refer, the number of priests-four, and five, and six in a city,1 besides the bishop, and the magnitude of the persecutions raised by the Roman emperors, are facts which prove that the Christian community must have grown to mighty proportions at a very early period, while the long lists of those who suffered for the faith is an evidence of the magnitude of the body to which they in common belonged. At the time of the first diffusion of Christianity, all nations, with a solitary exception, and the various classes of society comprising them, were sunk in moral degradation. Within the Roman empire, the degrees of refinement and civilization differed very widely; stolid ignorance was often the characteristic of the artisan or peasant, while the "dicta" of abstruse philosophy were circulated at the banquets of the higher orders even from the lips of matrons and ladies; yet all were involved in the same maze of speculative ignorance of the immutable principles of virtue, and of practical forgetfulness of their duties as immortal beings. Or, as St. Paul briefly expresses it, "All had sinned and needed the grace of God."" All were in darkness, poets and philosophers, learned and unlearned, Greeks and Romans, freedmen and slaves. It must be interesting to inquire in what order they approached the light, whether the teachers of the people came first, or the higher classes, who might be supposed to influence the vulgar by their example; or, whether the untaught multitude approximated in the first instance to Christianity and drew on the learned in their train. From the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of St. Paul, we are able to satisfy, to some extent, our curiosity on this subject; for they furnish us occasionally with in 1 See Epistles of St. Ignatius. 8 2 formation as to the rank or employment of individuals whose conversion they relate. Thus, in the 15th chapter of the Acts, we are incidentally informed that "some of the sect of the Pharisees "1 embraced the faith; and St. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, gives us to understand, that "Erastus, the treasurer of the city" from which he wrote (Corinth), was one of the brethren; Zenas, to whom St. Paul refers in his epistle to Titus, 3 was a "lawyer;" and Luke was a "physician."4 Caius, the host of St. Paul, and Cloe, 5 and several others, in whose mansions the faithful assembled to hear the instructions of the apostles, and to join in public worship, belonged to the upper class of society. Philemon, to whom St. Paul directed a short epistle, was a rich man, as we must infer from his extensive charities, and his hospitality to "the saints." 6 Pudens, who is mentioned in the last chapter of the second epistle to Timothy, was a senator of Rome; and from the epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians, we learn, that some of the members of " Cæsar's household" had embraced the faith. Among the converts at Athens, was Dionysius, 9 the areopagite, that is to say, a member of the supreme council of the nation. In Cæsarea, Cornelius, 10 the centurion, that is, an officer of the Roman army, became a Christian. There was another class, that in these primitive times, came in large numbers into the Church, whose conversion ought to be a subject of considerable interest at the present day, from circumstances that have recently occurred in a neighbouring and sister country. The class to which I refer, is that of ladies of rank: a movement towards orthodoxy has within the last few years made good progress among the titled dames of Britain; and it is at the least remarkable that a movement, similar in many respects, took place among the Grecian ladies in the first century of the Christian era. Among several passages illustrating this subject, which occur in the "Acts of the Apostles," 1 Acts xv. 5. 2 Romans xvi. 23. 5 1 Cor. i. 11. 8 Philip iv. 22. 3 Epistle to Titus iii. 13. • Philem. i. 5, 7. 9 Acts xvii. 34. 10 x. 1. |