Chapter I: Preface

History is often a dreary study except to a few experts; and yet the Christians of to-day naturally wish to know more about their predecessors in the old time before them. There is always much difficulty in separating what to them must be interesting from masses of detail which do not touch their sympathies.

From the time of Christ to the epoch of the Reformation there were no Dissenters--only traitors and heretics, who were deemed unworthy to live in the same world and to breathe the same air as Emperors, Popes, and Bishops. But the Christian temperament can be traced through all the centuries--whether the devout people of the period were martyrs or hermits, monks, nuns, or friars, pilgrims or crusaders, priests or warriors. The same aspirations, misgivings, trials, and difficulties existed then as now, though the trials and difficulties may now be less. The best people of to-day may be trusted to recognise a touch of their own kindred amid all the varieties of time and place and circumstance which make up the past.

I have here collected from many histories, annals, chronicles, and biographies, far and wide, some particulars of the interesting persons, episodes, and events from the Christian's point of view during the first fourteen centuries. The literature of so many ages is vast, and the things now deemed of most interest are overlaid with heavy material. But I have left out all the miracles--most of the wordy war of doctrines--most of the atrocities of persecutors and inquisitors. I have only culled a few flowers; I have only tried to snatch from oblivion a few brief memorials which may suggest wholesome thoughts and inquiries to modern Christians of every denomination.

C. J.

TABLE OF MATTERS.

CHAPTER I.

THE VIRGIN MARY, HOLY FAMILY, CHRIST, AND THE CRUCIFIXION.

Heathen Knowledge about the Virgin, 1; Simeon's Great Age, 2;
Portraits of the Virgin, 2; Marriage of Joseph and Virgin Mary, 3;
Massacre of Innocents, 4; Flight to Egypt, 5; Holy Family Leaving
Egypt, 6; Assumption of Virgin Mary, 7; Christ Learning Alphabet, 9;
Joseph and Jesus as Carpenters, 10; Christ's Baptism, 10; Portraits of
Christ, 11; King Agbarus, 12; Christ's Preaching, 13; Sentence on
Christ, 14; Christ Appearing to James, 14; Forms of Crosses, 15; The
Holy Cross, 15; Thieves at Crucifixion, 16; Soldier who Pierced the
Saviour's Side, 17; Legend of the Cross, 17; Stations of Cross, 18;
Crown of Thorns, 19; Apocryphal Gospels, 20; False Christs, 21;
Septuagint Bible, 21; English Versions of Bible, 22.

CHAPTER II.

THE DISCIPLES AND APOSTLES OF OUR LORD.

Death of the Apostles, 23; Apostles who were Married, 23; St. Matthew
and St. Mark, 24; St. Luke and St. Bartholomew, 25; St. Thomas and St.
Simeon, 26; St. Timothy and St. Barnabas, 27; St. Titus, St. Philip,
and St. Andrew, 28; James and John, 29; St. John the Apostle, 30; St.
John and his Partridge, 31; St. John's Last Days, 32; St. John and
Edward the Confessor, 33; St. James the Less, 33; St. James the Great,
34; St. Peter and St. Paul, 36; Deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, 37;
St. Peter when in Rome, 38; Churches of St. Peter and St. Paul at
Rome, 39; If St. Paul in Great Britain, 40; Judas Iscariot, 41.

CHAPTER III.

CHRIST'S CONTEMPORARIES--CLIMATE AND SCENERY OF PALESTINE.

Sages of Greece and Rome on Christian Prodigies, 42; Zacharias and
John the Baptist, 44; Pontius Pilate, 45; Herod the Great, 46; Mary
Magdalene, 47; St. Martha, 48; St. Veronica, 48; Hillel, 49;
Sanhedrim, 49; Working Man in Christ's Time, 50; Pharisaic Niceties,
50; Sieges of Jerusalem, 50; Antioch, 51; Palestine Explorations, 52;
Jordan to the Dead Sea, 53; Sea of Galilee, 53; Sources of Jordan, 54;
Waters of Merom, 55; Rivers of Damascus, 55; Populousness of Galilee,
56; Climate of Palestine, 57; Mount Hermon, 57; Lilies of the Field,
58; Wayside Fruits and Flowers, 58; The Birds, 59; Wild Beasts and
Animals, 60; Jerusalem, 60; Nazareth, 61; Capernaum, 62.