Chapter XXIV: The Church in Modern Times (2)

The innumerable throng sweeps along the base of the Carpathian Mountains, threads the passes of the Tyrol, and winds its way through the gorges of the Alps and the Apennines. In Russia, wrapped in furs, they struggle through snow-drifts, and breast the gale, as they crowd to the Greek Church. On the sunny banks of the Mediterranean, in Italy, France, and Spain, through vineyards and orange-groves, cheered by the songs of birds and the bloom of flowers, nobles and peasants, princes and subjects, press along to the massive, moss-covered churches where their ancestors for centuries have worshipped according to the rites of the Catholic Church. In Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and through all the highways and byways of England, Scotland, and Wales, the inmates of lordly castles, and humble artisans from mines and manufactories, are moving onward to the churches where the religion of Jesus is inculcated in accordance with the simple rites of the Protestant faith.

And, if we cross the Atlantic, we witness the same sublime spectacle, extending from the icy regions north of the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic coast almost to the base of the Rocky Mountains, and again repeated upon the Pacific shores through the rapidly-populating plains of California and Oregon. Scarcely have the hardy settlers reared half a dozen log-huts ere the spire of the church rises, where the religion of Jesus is taught as the first essential to the prosperity of the growing village. And so through South America: through its conglomeration of States, where light is contending with darkness; through Chili, Peru, Bolivia, and along the majestic streams and wide-spreading savannas of the vast empire of Brazil,――the religion of Jesus of Nazareth, notwithstanding the imperfections which fallen humanity has attached to it, is potent above all other influences in enlightening the masses, and in moulding their manners and their minds. And now we begin faintly to hear, along the western coast of Africa and the southern shores of India, and upon many a green tropical island emerging from the Pacific, the tolling of the church-bell, indicating that that religion which has became dominant in Europe and America is destined to bring the whole world, from pole to pole, under its benignant sway.

And it is worthy of note that the most thoroughly Christian nations are the most enlightened, moral, and prosperous upon the globe. Where we do not find this religion, we meet effeminate Asiatics, stolid Chinamen, wandering Tartars, and Bedouins of the desert. They are the Christian nations who stand forth luminous in wealth, power, and intellect. These are the nations which seem now to hold the destinies of the globe in their hand; and it is the religion of Jesus which has crowned them with this wealth and influence.

And again: it is well to call attention to the fact, that every literary and scientific university in Christendom, where the ablest men in all intellectual culture do congregate, is mainly under the control of those who bow in cordial assent to Jesus of Nazareth as their Teacher and Lord.

The Universities of Cambridge and Oxford in England, of Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, of Harvard and Yale in the United States, declare through their learned professors, with almost one united voice, that the salvation of humanity can come only through the religion of Jesus the Christ. In France, Italy, Germany, Russia, in all the renowned, time-honored universities of Continental Europe, the name of Jesus is revered as above every name, and his teachings are regarded as the wisdom of God and the power of God. There is hardly a university of learning of any note, in Europe or America, where Jesus of Nazareth is not recognized as the Son of God, who came to seek and to save the lost.

The standard of what is called _goodness_ in this world greatly varies. “There is honor among thieves.” A gang of debauchees, gamblers, and inebriates, has its code of morals. The proudest oppressors who have ever crushed humanity beneath a merciless heel have usually some standard of right and wrong, so adroitly formed as to enable them to flatter themselves that they are to be numbered among the good men.

Socrates, unenlightened by revelation, simply through the teachings of his own honest mind, declares him only to be a good man who tries to make himself, and all whom he can influence, as perfect as possible. The definition which Jesus gives of goodness, even more comprehensive and beautiful, is, that a man should love his Father, God, with all his heart, and his brother, man, as himself. This is the only real goodness,――angelic goodness, divine goodness. Now, it may be safely said that you cannot find at the present time, or through all past ages, a truly good man, in either of the above definitions of the term, whose character has not been modelled by the principles laid down by Jesus of Nazareth.

Let the mind run along the list of great and good men, who, with loving hearts and pure lives and beneficent actions, have been the ornaments of humanity; men and women who have made their own homes happy, who have ever had an open hand to relieve the distressed, whose hearts have yearned over the wandering, and whose lips have entreated them to return to the paths of virtue; and where can you find one who has not manifested the spirit of Jesus, and drawn his main inspiration from the principles which he has inculcated?

There are now many men and women all over Christendom, of self-denying lives, active in every good word and work, sympathizing with the afflicted, helping the needy, praying for and trying to reclaim their brothers and sisters of the human family who are crowding the paths of sin; searching out the children of abandonment, destitution, and woe, from the depravity of the streets and from homes of wretchedness, that they may be clothed and educated and made holy,――there are thousands of such; and yet it would be difficult to find one, a single one, who does not recognize the religion of Jesus as the only moral power which can reclaim a lost world.

We have in the Bible the history of the world, and the biography of its leading individuals, from the dawn of creation until those modern days in which secular history takes up the record. Through all these ages not a single man can be found, who by the purity of his own life, by the beneficent influence of his example, and by his self-denying efforts to promote the happiness of others, has not developed the principles uttered by the lips of Jesus.

Indeed, there is an absolute, invincible necessity that every truly good man should embrace these principles, and diffuse them to the utmost of his power. The moment one awakes to the grandeur of his own being,――an immortal created in the image of God,――and begins to breathe the prayer, “O God! help me to resist every sin, and aid me to cherish every virtue,” he finds at once, that, infinitely above all other books, the Bible is the book to help him in this new and noble life. He finds that every duty which his conscience suggests that he ought to perform, the religion of Jesus urges upon him by motives of infinite weight. He finds that every allurement, every indulgence, which would retard his moral growth, the religion of Jesus urges him, by motives of infinite weight, to avoid.

All through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, there is one continual strain of urgency, enforced by every variety of argument, warning, and illustration, to aid a man to attain a celestial character.

Ought we to watch over our bodies, that by appetite and passion they be not defiled; over our thoughts, that impurity enter not the secret chambers of the soul; over our words, that we may ever speak as in the audience-chamber of God; over our minds, that we may store them with all valuable knowledge; over our hearts, that we may love God our Father, and man our brother; over our actions, that every deed may be such as God will approve? Then it is to Jesus of Nazareth we must look as our teacher, our guide, our helper.

The Bible is the book which the good mother gives her boy as he goes from home; and she knows full well, that if her boy will read that book daily, and make it the guide of his life, he will be safe for time and for eternity. Many a man has said years after a sainted mother has ascended to her crown, “It was the Bible which my mother gave me which rescued me from ruin.”

How noble is the character of the Christian wife and mother formed upon the model of Jesus the Christ! Many of our readers have seen the most beautiful exemplification of this in their own homes. You have seen your mother all-forgetful of herself in her generous devotion to others. You have seen her moving like an angel of light in the dark homes of poverty, and around beds of suffering and death, ever unmindful of her own ease if she could only heal broken hearts and soothe the cry of anguish. Such nobility the world will ever recognize, and love to honor.

Many such are found in the homes of our own land. Many a reader can say, “Such was my mother, God bless her!” You have seen her bending over the cradle, pale, gentle, loving as an angel; you have seen her placid and cheerful amidst all the annoyances and wasting cares of domestic life; you have seen her return home in the morning, after watching during the night with a sick neighbor, to toil all day long with fingers which never seem to tire, and with a gentle spirit which even your waywardness could never discompose.

And, when the village-bell tolled her funeral, you have seen every house emptied as rich and poor came together to weep over the departure of one who was the friend and benefactor of them all. Oh, how glorious must be the flight of such a spirit, ennobled by suffering, victor over death and the grave, to join the peerage of heaven, and to receive a coronet in the skies! Now, characters of this stamp――of imperial type, though found in lowly homes――are invariably formed upon the model which Jesus Christ has presented.

The men of true nobility who are found in almost every village of our land――men devoted to every thing that is good, opposed to every thing that is bad――are men who have deliberately enlisted in the service of Jesus Christ as his disciples, his imitators. They perseveringly struggle against all that is unworthy; they hunger and thirst for every celestial virtue; they battle against temptation in whatever form it may come; cultivate moral courage, that they may boldly advocate the cause of their Saviour, amidst opposition and derision if need be; and thus they are nerved to glorious achievements in triumphing over the allurements to sin, and in bringing themselves into entire subjection to their divine Master.

Material grandeur of crag and cataract has its sublimity; but there is something in moral excellence which far surpasses, in all the elements of the sublime, any combinations of ocean, earth, or sky. When a man towers above his fellow-men in self-denial, in devotion to the welfare of others, in the endeavor to extend virtue, piety, and happiness, a spectacle is presented upon which angels gaze with admiration. When we reflect upon what we may become in social loveliness, in majesty of virtue, in dignity of character, we can hardly wonder that even the Son of God should be willing to die upon the cross to save such a one from the ruin of sin. Here below, in the midst of all man’s frailties and wickedness, we catch glimpses of the angel dignity from which he has fallen, and to which he may again soar.

The wreck is to be repaired; the ruin is to be rebuilt. What a glorious creation will man become, when, redeemed, regenerated, created anew in Christ Jesus, he emerges from the fall in more than the majesty of his original grandeur, no longer but a “little lower” than the angels, but on an equality with the loftiest spirits who bow before God’s throne!

And, oh! it is so sad――the saddest sight of earth――to see one who is created of a noble nature, with glowing intellect and gushing affections, formed to move like an angel of light amidst sorrowing humanity, to cheer the heart-stricken, to strengthen the tempted, to support the weak, to win and save the lost,――it is, indeed, a sad sight to see such a one, all unmindful of his lofty lineage and glorious inheritance, casting every thing that is noble away, and living miserably for self and sin! Earth is full of such melancholy wrecks, as of archangels ruined. All material ruins, all mouldering turrets, and towers of baronial castles,――Melrose, Drachenfels, Heidelberg,――before such moral wrecks, pale into insignificance.

There is a ship in a foreign port. The rude sailors from the forecastle have gone on shore to the drinking-saloon and the dancing-hall to spend the night in revelry and sin. But one has remained behind. With the moral courage of a martyr, he has braved the insults and ridicule of his companions. And now it is midnight. He is kneeling beside his berth in prayer. There is a half-closed book by his side. Does any one doubt what that book is? Is there any other book but the Bible which can inspire him with such moral courage as this? It is from its pages that he has learned that it is better “to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”[219]

Far away upon the lonely prairie, there was a settler in his solitary log-cabin. From his humble door-sill, nought was to be seen in the wide expanse of many leagues but the prairie’s undulating ocean of grass and flowers, broken here and there with a clump of trees, emerging as an island from the silent sea. In that vast solitude there was a Christian family, impoverished by misfortune, struggling to rear for themselves a new home: it consisted of a father, mother, and nine children. Death came. The mother, who had ever been an angel of light in her home, was stricken down by death. There were no neighbors to help; there was no Christian minister near to offer the supports of the gospel. Sadly the father dug the grave; sadly, with the aid of his weeping children, he bore the sacred remains to their burial; sadly, silently, with a broken heart, he filled up the grave, which entombed all his earthly hopes and joys.

The evening sun was just sinking beneath the distant horizon of the prairie: that Christian father, in his desolated cabin, crushed with grief, had assembled, as had ever been his wont, his little household around him, to seek the blessing of God. They were all bowed together upon their knees. The angels hovering over them could hear the sobs of the children and the moaning prayer of the father.

Upon the table there was one book,――one open book, from which the husband and father had been reading. Can any one doubt what that book was? It was opened at the consoling passage,――

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”[220]

What words of comfort to the mourner! O precious Bible! thou instructor of the ignorant, guide of the erring, consoler of the afflicted, supporter of the dying; thou unfailing friend of all the weary and the heart-crushed; thou only hope of humanity,――thou art indeed God’s best gift to our fallen race.

In the natural world there is infinite variety,――room for the gratification of every diversity of taste. Here rise the craggy mountains, with their eternal glaciers,――their pinnacles, thunder-riven, storm-torn, piercing the skies; there sleeps the placid lake, embowered in groves, fringed with blooming meadows, and upon whose bosom float the graceful many-colored waterfowl undisturbed: here extends the limitless prairie, an ocean of land, embroidered with flowers whose hues Solomon, arrayed in all his glory, could not outvie; there Sahara’s boundless sands in dreary desolation glisten in the sun; and there the Dismal Swamp, which even the foot of the moccasoned Indian cannot penetrate, frowns in eternal gloom,――all subserving some good end, all ministering to the glory of God and the good of his children.

So in the Bible, God’s Word, we find that which is adapted to every variety of taste, every condition of mind, every gradation of intellect and of culture. One page conducts you back to the pastoral simplicity of the world’s infancy: you wander with the patriarchs as they pitch their tents and tend their flocks beneath the sunny skies of the Orient. Another page moves your soul with the sublime denunciations of the prophets, before which denunciations monarchs trembled, and empires crumbled to ruin. You turn the leaf; and the majestic dynasties of the long-buried ages pass before you in sombre procession, with all their vicissitudes of pomp and of death, of revelry and of wailing. You open to another chapter; and your soul is soothed with the penitential sweetness of the Psalms of David, whose pensive strains bring solace to your soul in its hours of deepest sadness. Again your spirit is ennobled by the precepts of Jesus, who spake as never man spake; and your whole being is inspired by the magnificent revelations of life and immortality brought to light in the gospel.

Here is food alike for all,――for the peasant, for the philosopher, for the dairyman’s untutored daughter, and for the profoundest philosopher who ever honored humanity by his intellectual achievements. Indeed, Christianity carries its own evidence. “If any man will do his will,” says Jesus, “he shall know of the doctrine.”[221] And again: “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.”[222]

It is true that any child can ask questions which no philosopher can answer. The infidel, be he never so weak in mind and shallow in attainments, can easily present difficulties which no philosopher can solve. The infidel is almost invariably a self-conceited man of “little learning.” To him the remark of Lord Bacon is applicable: “A little learning tendeth to unbelief; but more bringeth us back to religion.”

And what is this religion of Jesus, which is ever winning in such increasing numbers the homage of human hearts? What are those principles which have undermined and overthrown the proudest systems of ancient idolatry, and which seem to be now commanding the assent of every honest mind?

There is one God, existing as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He is the common Father of us all; and therefore we are bound to love and worship him. All men are brothers, of whatever race, color, or condition: as kind brothers, they should seek to promote each other’s welfare. All men have been and are sinners: they should therefore repent, implore forgiveness, and abandon every thing which an enlightened conscience teaches to be wrong. The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, assumed human nature, and, by his sufferings and death, made atonement for sin. Salvation is now freely offered to all who will accept that Saviour, and honestly and perseveringly endeavor to return to a holy life. God’s desire to save his rebellious children is so strong, that not only has he given his Son to die for us, but he has sent the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, on a special embassage to plead with us, that we may return to him. All who yield to these strivings of the Spirit, and, with penitence and faith, try to live as the Son of God by example and precept has taught us, will be received to heaven, and made eternally happy there, as if they had never sinned. All those who refuse and continue in rebellion will be forever excluded from heaven, and will be imprisoned with the Devil and his angels, where their wickedness will make them ever wretched, but where they can no longer mar the happiness of those who love and serve God.

Now, these are the fundamental principles of Christianity, as avowed in the creeds and confessions of the overwhelming majority of Christians, of all languages and every name, through all the centuries. How simple and how grand are these principles! It must be manifest to every candid mind, that in their acceptance is to be found the only hope of our lost world. It is manifest that each individual can here only hope for any permanent happiness in this life or in that which is to come. In this wilderness of time, in the midst of the storms with which we are driven and shattered here, there can be no repose for the soul but in the well-founded conviction that peace is made with God through penitence for sin, and the cordial acceptance of salvation through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

One fact is certain,――no man will deny it,――there have been hundreds and thousands, who, on a dying-bed, have mourned most bitterly, with anguish more dreadful than words can describe, that they have not lived in accordance with the teachings of Christianity. In that dread hour, gloom impenetrable has settled down upon the soul as the dying sinner has exclaimed, “The harvest is past; the summer is ended; and we are not saved.”[223]

Another fact is equally certain: there never was an individual, who, on a dying-bed, regretted that he had repented of sin, accepted Jesus as an atoning Saviour, confessed him before men, and that he had endeavored to live the life of the Christian. There cannot be found, in the history of the world, one single such case. On the contrary, there are millions――more than can be numbered――who have found, in the hour of death, that faith in Jesus has dispelled all gloom from the dying-chamber, and has inspired the departing soul with the most triumphant and rapturous joy. It is the Christian alone who can say with Paul, when upon the pillow of death,――

“I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”[224]

Footnotes.

1 – Luke i. 5–38.

2 – Isa. vii. 14.

3 – Mic. v. 2.

4 – Mark i. 15.

5 – Mark i. 22.

6 – Luke iv. 32.

7 – Life of Christ by William Hanna, D.D., p. 198.

8 – Luke iv. 40.

9 – Jesus of Nazareth. p. 178.

10 – Luke vi. 12.

11 – Matt. x. 2–4.

12 – Luke vii. 12–16.

13 – Matt. xi. 20–30.

14 – Mark v. 18–20.

15 – Matt. ix. 35.

16 – No commentator has given a satisfactory explanation of the
meaning, in this connection, of these last words.

17 – So called from their want of wealth, rank, learning, and
whatever the world calls _great_.

18 – John vi. 25–71.

19 – Mark vii. 35.

20 – Mark viii. 26.

21 – Matthew expresses the same idea by the words, “Till they
see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” This wonderful
expansion of the kingdom of Christ was indeed witnessed on
the day of Pentecost, and in many subsequent scenes.

22 – Matt. xvii. 20, 21.

23 – Matt. xviii. 2–4; Mark ix. 31, 33–36.

24 – Matt. xviii. 6–9; Mark ix. 44–50.

25 – John vii. 34.

26 – John viii. 2–7.

27 – John viii. 13–18.

28 – John x. 25–31.

29 – The Author of the resurrection, and the Giver of eternal
life.

30 – Luke ix. 51.

31 – Luke ix. 58.

32 – Luke x. 30–37.

33 – Luke xi. 2–4.

34 – Luke xiv. 9–25.

35 – Luke xiv. 1–24.

36 – Luke xvi. 1–31.

37 – Luke xvii. 24–30.

38 – Luke xii. 5–8.

39 – Luke xviii. 11–14.

40 – Matt. xix. 3–12.

41 – Matt. xix. 29.

42 – Mark x. 33, 34.

43 – Matt. xx. 26–28; Mark x. 43–45.

44 – Matt. xxvi. 10–13.

45 – John xii. 12, 13.

46 – Matt. xxi. 8, 9.

47 – Luke xix. 41–43.

48 – Matt. xxi. 28–42.

49 – Matt. xxi. 24–30; Mark xii. 18–25; Luke xx. 27–36.

50 – Luke xx. 37, 38.

51 – Matt. xxii. 32.

52 – Luke xxi. 3, 4.

53 – Luke xii. 42, 43.

54 – John xii. 44–50.

55 – See Matt. xxiii. 13–37.

56 – Mark xiii. 9–13.

57 – Matt. xxiv. 30–34.

58 – The Life of Christ, by Rev. William B. Hanna, D.D., LL.D.,
p. 567.

59 – Matt. xxv. 31–46.

60 – John xiii. 18–21.

61 – John xiii. 28, 29.

62 – Converted,――when thou art _turned_ to me, after having
forsaken me.

63 – By “works” is here probably meant _all that the apostles
did_ to make an impression upon mankind.

64 – “Ye shall continue to see me by faith.”

65 – John xvi. 1–23.

66 – John xvii.

67 – Luke xxii. 43, 44.

68 – “Cruel hands disrobed the still uncomplaining sufferer.
Brawny arms wielded upon his naked back the fearful
scourge, whose thongs of leather, loaded with sharp metal,
cut at every stroke their bloody furrow in the quivering
flesh. This torture, beneath which many a strong man had
given up his life, could not extort from the steadfast
heart of Jesus a single groan.”――_Life of Jesus of
Nazareth by Lyman Abbott_, p. 469.

69 – This probably refers to Caiaphas, the high priest, as
representing the Jewish authorities.

70 – Luke xxiii. 13–16.

71 – This last phrase was a proverbial expression. A “green
tree” represented the righteous; the “dry tree” the wicked,
fit only to be burned.

72 – Matt. xxvii. 64.

73 – Matt. xxviii. 5, 6.

74 – This was a kind message to Peter, who had so recently
denied his Lord. It assured him of his forgiveness.

75 – The word translated “_fools_” does not imply reproach, as
the word does with us. It means that they were thoughtless,
not attending to the evidence that Jesus was to die and
rise again.

76 – Luke xxiv. 17–31.

77 – See Luke xxiv. 34, and 1 Cor. xv. 5.

78 – Doubts, suspicions.

79 – The meaning of this passage is supposed to be, that, in
founding the Church, the apostles should be taught by the
Holy Ghost on what terms and to what characters God would
extend forgiveness of sin.

80 – John xx. 30.

81 – Matt. xxviii. 17–20.

82 – About a hundred and thirty-two yards.

83 – The third time to the disciples collectively.

84 – More than these other apostles. Peter had professed, before
his fall, superior attachment.

85 – John xxi. 2–23.

86 – Luke xxiv. 44–49.

87 – Acts ii. 38.

88 – Acts iv. 12.

89 – Acts iv. 19, 20.

90 – Acts v. 15, 16.

91 – Acts v. 29–32.

92 – Acts vii. 51–53.

93 – Acts vii. 57–60.

94 – Acts xxvi. 10.

95 – Acts xxvi. 11.

96 – Acts viii. 3.

97 – Acts ix. 1, 2.

98 – Acts xxii. 6–12. In the account which Luke gives of this
event (Acts ix. 1–6), some incidents are recorded which
Saul omits.

99 – Acts ix. 16.

100 – Acts xxvi. 19, 20.

101 – Acts ix. 22.

102 – Gal. i. 17, 18.

103 – Acts ix. 26.

104 – Acts iv. 36.

105 – Gal. i. 18.

106 – Acts xxii. 18–21.

107 – Saron was the well-inhabited plain which extended from
Lydda to Joppa (Acts ix. 36).

108 – Acts x. 20.

109 – All that have lived and died, or shall live when the
archangel’s trump shall sound, will stand before the
judgment-seat of Jesus Christ.

110 – Acts x. 34, 43.

111 – Acts x. 45, 46.

112 – Acts xi. 21.

113 – Acts xi. 24.

114 – Acts xii. 6–17.

115 – Josephus, Ant. xix. 8–12.

116 – Acts xiii. 16–41.

117 – Acts xiii. 45.

118 – Isa. xlix. 6.

119 – Acts xiv. 21–23.

120 – About ten years before.

121 – Acts xv. 7–11.

122 – Acts xv. 22–29.

123 – Gal. ii. 11–16.

124 – 2 Pet. iii. 15.

125 – Acts xv. 36.

126 – 2 Tim. i. 5.

127 – Phil. ii. 22.

128 – Acts xvi. 5.

129 – Acts xvi. 14, 15.

130 – Acts xviii. 2.

131 – “How often,” says Cicero, “has the exclamation, ‘_I am
a Roman citizen!_’ brought aid and safety, even among
barbarians in the remotest parts of the earth!”――_Cicero_,
Verr. v. 57.

132 – 1 Thess. iv. 13–17.

133 – 2 Thess. ii. 1–4.

134 – Acts i. 11.

135 – 2 Pet. iii. 1–13.

136 – Acts xvii. 5–7.

137 – Acts xvii. 11, 12.

138 – Paradise Regained.

139 – Acts xvii. 18.

140 – _Too superstitious._――The meaning of the words thus
translated would be better conveyed to us by the phrase,
“More than others, ye reverence the deities.”

141 – Acts xvii. 22–31.

142 – 1 Cor. i. 14.

143 – Acts xviii. 18.

144 – Probably the Pentecost.

145 – Acts xviii. 23

146 – Acts xviii. 28.

147 – Acts xix. 10.

148 – Acts xix. 25–27.

149 –The original image of Diana was supposed to be a gift from
heaven.

150 – Matters beyond the jurisdiction of the courts.

151 – Acts xix. 35–40.

152 – See John xx. 26, and 1 Cor. xvi. 2.

153 – Acts xx. 18–38.

154 – Acts xi. 28.

155 – Acts xxi. 11.

156 – Life, Times, and Travels of St. Paul, Conybeare and Howson,
vol. ii. p. 235.

157 – Acts xxi. 28.

158 – A name of reproach which the Jews gave the Christians.

159 – Acts xxiv. 2–8.

160 – Acts xxiv. 26.

161 – Acts xxv. 10, 11.

162 – Acts xxv. 14–21. Augustus and Cæsar were the titles adopted
by the Roman emperors.

163 – Acts xxv. 24–27.

164 – Acts xxvii. 21–26.

165 – Acts xxviii. 7–10.

166 – The hope which the Jews cherished of the coming of the
Messiah.

167 – Works of Tacitus, Oxford translation, p. 423.

168 – Histoire du Christianisme, par l’Abbé Fleury. The
abbé gives all the authorities upon which he bases
his narrative.

169 – Luke xxi. 20–24.

170 – Matt. xxiv. 15–22.

171 – L’Abbé Fleury, p. 101.

172 – Luke vi. 31.

173 – 1 John v. 10.

174 – 2 Thess. ii. 11.

175 – Rev. ii. 8–10.

176 – Acts xvii. 26.

177 – Matt. vii. 12.

178 – Mark xii. 31.

179 – Isa. xiv. 9–12.

180 – Histoire du Christianisme, par l’Abbé Fleury.

181 – Histoire du Christianisme, par l’Abbé Fleury, t. i.
p. 432.

182 – Eusebius, Vit. 11, c. 34.

183 – Histoire du Christianisme, par l’Abbé Fleury, t. i.
p. 480.

184 – Encyclopædia Americana.

185 – Matt. xii. 30.

186 – Histoire du Christianisme, par l’Abbé Fleury, livre
quinzième, s. liii.

187 – Theod. iv. c. 2, 3.

188 – Histoire du Christianisme, par l’Abbé Fleury, t. i.
p. 639.

189 – Gibbon, after a careful calculation, estimates the number
of inhabitants at a million two hundred thousand.

190 – Gibbon.

191 – Gibbon.

192 – Gibbon, chap. xxxii.

193 – Rom. viii. 28.

194 – Vol. iv. p. 84.

195 – Vol. v. p. 8.

196 – Encyclopædia Americana.

197 – Encyclopædia Americana.

198 – Koran, iii. 40.

199 – John xv. 26.

200 – Price, vol. i. p. 13.

201 – Rev. xx. 2, 3.

202 – Eighteen Christian Centuries, p. 269.

203 – Eighteen Christian Centuries, Rev. James White, p. 131.

204 – Eighteen Christian Centuries.

205 – Empire of Austria, by John S. C. Abbott.

206 – The History of the Protestants in France, by G. de Félice,
p. 58.

207 – Encyclopædia Americana.

208 – The History of the Protestants of France.

209 – Encyclopædia Americana.

210 – Encyclopædia Americana.

211 – Encyclopædia Americana.

212 – The History of France, M. Guizot, vol. i. p. 530.

213 – Histoire de l’Édit de Nantes, t. iv. p. 479.

214 – History of the Protestants in France, by Prof. G.
de Félice.

215 – Rev. vii. 15–17.

216 – New American Encyclopædia.

217 – According to the same authority, there are, in the
United States, Baptist church-members, of the various
divisions of that body,――Calvinist, Freewill, Seventh-day,
Campbellite, and Winnebrunarians,――amounting to 1,795,406.
The Presbyterians number 615,776; the Congregationalists
report 300,362; and the Episcopalians, 176,685.
The Catholics, counting all nominal Catholics as
church-members, irrespective of moral character, number
between three and five millions.

218 – New American Encyclopædia.

219 – Heb. xi. 25.

220 – John xiv. 1–3.

221 – John vii. 17.

222 – John v. 10.

223 – Jer. viii. 20.

224 – 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.

Transcriber’s Notes.

The following corrections have been made in the text:

Page 59:
Sentence starting: Then, apparently apprehensive that....
– duplicated word removed ‘a’
(John was not “a reed shaken)

Page 237:
Sentence starting: It was in the arena of this....
– ‘martrydom’ replaced with ‘martyrdom’
(and won the crown of martyrdom.)

Page 318:
Sentence starting: The city of Nice, one....
– ‘Bythinia’ replaced with ‘Bithynia’
(the principal cities of Bithynia,)

Page 347:
Sentence starting: IN reference to the death....
– ‘JN’ replaced with ‘IN’
(IN reference to the death)

Page 424:
Sentence starting: Hoping by menaces or bribes....
– ‘Protestanism’ replaced with ‘Protestantism’
(the voice of Protestantism,)

Page 438:
Sentence starting: Upon his return to....
– ‘Wittenburg’ replaced with ‘Wittenberg’
(return to Wittenberg,)

Page 471:
Sentence starting: Without compassion for their age,...
– ‘but’ replaced with ‘butt’
(and the butt of their muskets.)

End of Project Gutenberg's The History of Christianity, by John S. C. Abbott