HEATHENISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



159 



state, of things and the kingdoms of this world ; 

 the hope of a future resurrection of the body 

 — how could this faith and these expectations 

 appear to any cultivated Greek, at first sight, 

 as anything but extreme folly, the offspring of 

 fanatical phantasy, or as downright imposture ? 

 Add to this the peculiarities of Christian life and 

 manners ; the way in which the party held to- 

 gether, which to an outsider conveyed the im- 

 pression of a secret society, a conspiracy against 

 the established order ; the anxious care with 

 which all contact with the heathen world was 

 avoided, which could but lead to entire with- 

 drawal from all non-Christian society ; the aver- 

 sion to military service and public offices ; the 

 principle that Christians should settle their dis- 

 agreements among themselves, and not go to law 

 before heathen courts ; the refusal to take part 

 in public festivals and rejoicings, and in the sac- 

 rifices for the empire and emperor : add to this 

 the contempt which an educated Greek or dis- 

 tinguished Roman was sure to feel for a society 

 which was for a long time mainly recruited from 

 the people, in which artisans, slaves, and freed- 

 men, associated on a footing of equality and fra- 

 ternity with the few of the upper classes who 

 entered it, in which, to say the least, no value 

 was placed on the artistic adornments of life, 

 scientific, aesthetic, or social culture, the deeds 

 of the warrior, or the fame of the savant — when 

 we realize all this, we cannot wonder that the 

 friends of Hellenic art, the pupils of the Attic 

 philosophy, the sons and heroes of imperious 

 Rome, could not take to a religion which pre- 

 sented itself in a form so repugnant and incom- 

 prehensible. 



In reality, this religion was not without 

 numerous and profound relations to the mental 

 tendencies, the modes of thought, and the needs 

 of the age. Indeed, Christianity was a product 

 of the age, a result of the spiritual forces by 

 which it was actuated. Neither did the condi- 

 tions of its rise and progress lie exclusively in 

 Judaism. It was not until Judaism had come 

 into wide and permanent contact with Hellenic 

 culture, and had been fertilized by it in many 

 ways, that Christianity could be developed from 

 it. As the world-wide empires of Alexander and 

 the Romans prepared the way for the religion of 

 the world by an entire revolution in political 

 circumstances, so was its most essential inward 

 condition contained in that doctrine which, 

 chiefly through the influence of the Stoic philos- 

 ophers, had for centuries attained wide circula- 

 tion the doctrine that all men form one great 



commonwealth, that they have equal rights and 

 duties, that they are only separated from each 

 other by their moral conduct, that they are all 

 subject to the same natural and moral laws. 

 The high moral demands of Christianity were in 

 unison with what had been taught by the most 

 eminent of the sages of old. 



As Paul placed value on faith alone, so did 

 the Stoics on moral sentiments, virtue, and wis- 

 dom ; if the former could not paint in colors too 

 glaring the universal depravity of mankind, we 

 find similar descriptions among his Roman con- 

 temporaries, and especially by the Stoic Seneca ; 

 if the Christians divide all mankind into the re- 

 generate and unregenerate, the Stoics class them 

 not less strictly as wise men and fools ; if the 

 Christians look beyond this world to the glories 

 of heaven, the Stoics rejoice no less in the " birth- 

 day of eternity," which even they call the day of 

 death, in deliverance from the bondage of the 

 flesh, the entrance on " the great eternal peace." 



Many other points might be mentioned in 

 which Christianity met the deepest needs of the 

 time, had an affinity with its best aims, and with 

 movements which had long been widely spread ; 

 and it might have been expected that among 

 those who, like it, recognized the moral deprav- 

 ity of the age, and sought to correct it with an 

 earnestness and devotedness which we cannot 

 but admire, it would have been justly estimated. 

 But it was not so. The Christians, in their esti- 

 mate of the Greek and Roman character, were 

 unable to throw off the assumptions of their 

 supernatural dogmatics, and their Jewish preju- 

 dices against heathenism ; and neither could the 

 Greeks and Romans rise above the pride of 

 culture which forbade them to place the Syrian 

 barbarians, among whom the new religion had 

 arisen, on an equality with the revered sages of 

 their own people ; or to perceive, beneath its 

 strange traditions, a deeper truth, having an 

 affinity with their own philosophical convictions, 

 and worthy of their serious consideration. If 

 the Christian sect was hated by the mass of the 

 heathen population, by the cultured portion it 

 was despised, and centuries elapsed before con- 

 tempt and hatred gave way to a more just and 

 worthy conception. 



To the heathen nations, the Christians were 

 in the first place atheists ; for in every age this 

 name has been given to those who did not agree 

 with the prevailing conceptions of the Deity ; not 

 only when they denied his existence, but when 

 they sought to instill a more just and worthy idea 

 of God. " Down with the atheists ! " this was 



