1 known and memorable passage, had spoken of his ideal commonwealth as but an unrealisable pattern laid up in heaven. Without doubt many at the time of Christ were eagerly desiring some revelation of certainty with regard to the mysteries and problems which hedge round man's earthly life; some more potent force to mould man's character for good; some more binding cement for human society. The promises and gifts of Christianity would often be best appreciated by those who had been disciplined by failure to know their own need. If Greece had taught men to think great thoughts, to appreciate beauty, to see visions, Rome supplied practical genius. Her vocation was to rule, to organise, to unify, to Preparation make visions possible by perseverance, energy, of Rome. severity. Hers was the first great empire in history in which the spectacle was seen of vast numbers of different races and languages brought under one central rule, organised and defended, not merely in the interests of the ruler, but for the common good, and, on the whole, with a view to the promotion of peace and justice. At the time of the foundation of the Christian Church, the Roman Emperor ruled over all the countries surrounding the Mediterranean. The northern boundaries were the The Empire. line of the Rhine, and the Danube, and the Euxine or Black Sea: the southern, the long stretch of the African deserts. The western limit was the Atlantic; the eastern the upper Euphrates and the Arabian desert. The different provinces of this Empire were ruled by imperial officials; the older and more settled ones by proconsuls, ex-magistrates of Rome, nominally appointed by the Senate; the others by legates or procurators directly appointed by the Emperor and supported by his soldiers. But all alike looked to the Emperor. for their instructions and authority. These But even more important perhaps than these concentrated lines of government were the actual Roman roads. highways connected every part of the Empire with The roads. the capital; and there was a remarkable system of posts and means of travel. Consequently the civilised world was knit together in common intercourse and trade to a degree impossible before, and after the fall of the Roman Empire, never realised again till the nineteenth century brought the railway, the steamship, and the telegraph. Travelling was swift and easy; and every one travelled. Books were common and cheap. New ideas spread quickly. This wonderful organisation supplied involuntarily just the setting that was needed for the origin of the Christian Church. The first teachers and missionaries advanced easily along the Roman highways. They established themselves quickly in the great Roman centres of trade and civilisation. The sacred books were readily copied and passed from hand to hand, and from one country to another. Moreover, Rome herself supplied a stimulus and an inspiration to the early teachers of the Church. The spectacle of her Influence of unity of law, and to a large extent of language and Roman ideas. religion, helped to the realisation of the fundamental ideal of Christianity, one Church and one faith, in which all nations and classes might equally find their share. At the same time the dignity and privileges of the Roman 'citizen' illustrated the Christian teaching of the value of the individual soul and the dignity of the Christian, whatever his station, who had been admitted by Baptism into the privilege of the Church. We find that the first strongholds of the expanding Church were just in those places where Roman government and Greek culture had most combined; at places like Antioch, Ephesus, and Corinth. The Jewish synagogues gave, indeed, the first opportunities as a rule for teaching; but very soon a wider field was touched, where much more success was won. It is indeed one of the most interesting aspects of the New Testament, to study the influence of Roman organisation on the course of Christian events; as, for example, in S. Paul's use of his position as a Roman citizen, his appeal to Caesar, the influence won by him and other apostolic labourers among centurions, soldiers, and officials, the ease with which his letters were taken from place to place, and the remarkable way in which Christian envoys and workers found their way between places as far distant as Colossae, Ephesus, Troas, Corinth, Rome. Nor can we fail to notice the growth in S. Paul's own mind of the conception of the Church, as his work developed and the field of his labours grew wider. The idea of the essential unity of the Church was not indeed imported from without; it is found even in Judaism, and it is inherent in the teaching of Christ and the first instructions of the Apostles. The Church was from the first preached as a body with many members, and one head, Christ. But the idea of the Church as one society, of which every separate congregation or church was but the local embodiment, certainly becomes more prominent in those epistles which were written from Rome (Eph., Phil., and Col.). Thus in many ways the providence of God was vindicated; and S. Paul's expression as to the fulness of the time,' in which the Incarnation took place, was justified at once. The title on the cross of Christ, in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, the three great languages of learning, government, and religion, was an involuntary prophecy. Christianity was rooted in Judaism; it appealed to the lofty aspirations of human desire, and the pathetic depths of human need, as the Greek mind had realised them; and it found the machinery and ideals of the Roman Empire in harmony with its own methods, an instrument fitted to its purpose. QUESTIONS. 1. What were the leading and permanent features of Jewish religion? 2. What changes are to be noted in (1) the political conditions and (2) the thought of the Jews, during the later period of their history before Christ? 3. What was the position of the Jews in the Roman Empire? 4. What was the condition of Greek religion at the time of Christ? 5. Describe concisely the extent and constitution of the Roman Empire. 6. What features of the Roman Empire proved most advantageous to the spread of the Christian Church? SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER STUDY. All the above questions might form a starting-point for study. Among a multitude of authorities, the following may be suggested: Lux Mundi: Essay on The Preparation in History for Christ. Döllinger. The Gentile and the Jew. Duchesne. Early History of the Christian Church. Ramsay. S. Paul, Traveller and Roman Citizen. The Church in the Roman Empire. Articles on the Diaspora and The Religion of Greece in The Gospel of Life. Introduction to the Study of the Gospels. Pater. Marius the Epicurean. CHAPTER II. THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD The Acts. THE Christian Church was founded on the Day of Pentecost, probably in the year 29 A.D. For its progress during the first thirty years the Acts of the Apostles is almost the sole authority, though there are of course a number of incidental allusions to the course of history in the epistles. The authenticity and general accuracy of the Acts are now established beyond reasonable doubt. But it is clearly a selected history, arranged with considerable art and literary power, to illustrate especially the careers of the two chief Apostles, S. Peter, who is the principal figure in chapters i.-xii., and S. Paul, with whose imprisonment at Rome, A.D. 58-60, the book somewhat abruptly concludes. Possibly the author had in view a third book to complete his trilogy. After the Acts there is no extant history of the Church till the great work of Eusebius Pamphili, Bishop of Caesarea, in ten books, completed about A.D. 323. Eusebius The History was not only a man of wide learning and sound of Eusebius. judgment; he had unique opportunities for collecting information, owing to his friendship with the Emperor Constantine. He certainly had access to some authorities now no longer extant, and he gathered together traditions which otherwise would have been lost. For example, Eusebius had before him the Memoirs of Hegesippus (Eus. ii. 23, etc.), a Christian Hebrew of Palestine who visited Corinth, and lived for some time at Rome. These Memoirs, in five books, were written probably before the year 189 (the end of the Roman episcopate of Eleutherus, the last Bishop of Rome he mentions). They seem to have been a collection of personal reminiscences, and traditions gleaned from Jewish and other sources, arranged cn no particular system. Eusebius also had the Chronicon of |