SURROUNDINGS OF THE EARLY CHURCH.
THE first chapter of Romans affords a glimpse of the heathen world which enables us to understand something of what Christianity had to contend with in making converts, and also to comprehend to some extent the strength of the corrupting influences which surrounded the early church. The apostle not only gives a comprehensive view of the state of morals among the heathen, but he tells the steps by which they reached the depth of degradation which is there revealed. He first notices the fact that at one time the people did not know God. Verse 21. From the Mosaic record we learn the same thing. We know that in the years immediately following the creation and the flood, all the inhabitants of the earth had the knowledge of the true God. Adam and Noah—the two fathers of the race—served the Lord, and they would of course teach their children about him and his requirements. There could, therefore, be no excuse for the gross ignorance which afterward prevailed. Even had this oral teaching been wanting, there would have been no excuse for the abominable idolatry, and the ignorance of God, which characterized nearly all of the inhabitants of the earth, because nature itself reveals not only the existence, but also the power of God. In speaking of the heathen, Paul indicates the justice of God in pouring out his wrath upon them, "Because that which may be known of God is manifested in [to] them; for God hath showed it unto them." Rom. 1:19. The next verse tells how God revealed himself unto them. As we quote it, we transpose the clauses, to save the necessity of explanation by comment: "For from [i. e. since] the creation of the world, the invisible things of him [God], even his eternal power and Godhead, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; so that they [those who deny God] are without excuse." More than this, the same apostle tells us that God "left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Acts 14:17. The psalmist also tells us that "the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork." Ps. 19:1. So plainly does nature teach the existence of God, that he who even in his secret thought says, "There is no God," is justly called a fool. Ps. 14:1. Such an one may be said to be ignorant of the a b c of knowledge. Nevertheless it is a fact that the nations did forget God; and Rom. 1:22-32 is an accurate description of their condition in consequence. The truthfulness of this description is attested by the heathen themselves. They deified the most profligate men and women, and worshiped vice instead of virtue. Their gods were male and female, and mythology, i. e., the535history of the gods, is little else than a record of licentiousness. The Baal and Ashtoreth of the Canaanites were the Jupiter and Venus of the Romans and Greeks, and every heathen nation had gods corresponding to them. The temples erected to them were magnificent brothels, and their priestesses were prostitutes. Licentiousness was not simply allowed, but it was commanded as an act of religion. Among the Babylonians it is said that, "once at least in her life, every woman was obliged to prostitute herself in the temple of Bel."—American Cyclopedia, art. Babylon. Heathenism "had made lust into a religion, and the worship of its gods a school of vice, penetrating all classes of society." Let the reader first read Rom. 1:18-32, and then compare it with the quotations that follow. Professor Stuart, in his "Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans," says on the twenty-seventh verse of the first chapter:— "The evidences of the fact here stated by the apostle are too numerous and prominent among the heathen writers to need even a reference to them. Virgil himself, 'the chaste Virgil,' as he has been often called, has a Corydon amabat Alexin [Corydon loving Alexis], without seeming to feel the necessity of a blush for it. Such a fact sets the whole matter in the open day. That at Athens and Rome sodomy was a very common and habitual thing, needs no proof to one who has read the Greek and Latin classics, especially the amatory poets, to any considerable extent. Plutarch tells us that Solon practiced it; and Diogenes Laertius says the same of the stoic Zeno. Need we be surprised, then, if the same horrible vice was frequent in the more barbarous parts of Greece and the Roman Empire?" In the heathen worship there were "mysteries," to which only the initiated were admitted. These were celebrated in the inner temples, and it is doubtless of them that the apostle Paul speaks when he says: "For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret." Eph. 5:12. If the things recorded in the first chapter of Romans were done openly, what must have been the depth of the wickedness that was done in secret, and of which it is a shame even to speak? But let it be understood that the heathen themselves felt no shame for any of their practices. They gloried in them, as things which brought them nearer to the gods. The more licentious they were, the more nearly they resembled the gods which they worshiped. The worst abominations were done in secret, not out of a sense of shame, but to show that certain ones had advanced beyond the common people in matters of "religion." On this point, Professor Stuart, in commenting on Rom. 1:24, says:— "The imputation is, that in apostatizing from the true God, and betaking themselves to the worship of idols, they had at the same time been the devoted slaves of lust; which indeed seems here also, by implication, to be assigned as the reason or ground of their apostasy. Everyone knows, moreover, that among almost all the various forms of heathenism, impurity has been either a direct or indirect service in its pretended religious duties. Witness the shocking law among the Babylonians, that every woman should prostitute herself, at least once, before the shrine of their Venus. It is needless to say, that the worshippers of Venus in Greece and Rome practiced such rites; or that the mysteries of heathenism, of which Paul says 'it is a shame even to speak,' allowed a still greater latitude of indulgence. Nor is it necessary to describe the obscene and bloody rites practiced in Hindostan, in the South Sea and the Sandwich Islands, and generally among the heathen. Polytheism and idolatry have nearly always been a religion of obscenity and blood." Summing up the evidence against them, Paul says that they were "filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." Rom. 1:29-31. And to crown all, he adds that they not only did these things, but had pleasure in those who did them. Nothing could exceed such depravity. As Professor Stuart says:— "It is often the case, that wicked men, whose consciences have been enlightened, speak reproachfully of others who practice such vices as they themselves indulge in. Few profligate parents, for example, are willing that their children should sustain the same character with themselves. But when we find, as in some cases we may do, such parents encouraging and applauding their children in acts of wickedness, we justly consider it as evidence of the very highest kind of depravity." "It is of such depravity as this that the apostle accuses the heathen. And justly; for even their philosophers and the best educated among them, stood chargeable with such an accusation. For example; both the Epicureans and the Stoics allowed and defended sodomy and incest, numbering these horrid crimes among things indifferent."—Comment on Rom. 1:32. This was the state of morals, not alone of the lower, uneducated classes, but of the philosophers,—those who instructed the youth in "virtue." That the apostle uses the term, "without understanding," with respect to the morals, and not the intellect, will be readily seen from the following quotations:— "Truth was but of small account among many, even of the best heathens; for they taught that on many occasions, a lie was to be preferred to the truth itself! To which we may add, that the unlimited gratification of their sensual appetites, and the commission of unnatural crimes, was common even among the most distinguished teachers of philosophy, and was practiced even by Socrates himself." Horne's Introduction, vol. 1, chap. 1. In confirmation of the statement that the philosophers encouraged lying, Dr. Whitby collected many maxims of the most eminent heathen sages, from which Dr. Horne quotes the following:— "A lie is better than a hurtful truth."—Menander.
"Good is better than truth."—Proclus.
"When telling a lie will be profitable, let it be told."—Darius, in Herodotus, lib. iii, c. 62.
"He may lie, who knows how to do it, in a suitable time."—Plato.
"There is nothing decorous in truth, but when it is profitable; yea, sometimes truth is hurtful, and lying is profitable to men."—Maximus Tyrius. Mosheim says of the time just preceding the introduction of Christianity:— "The lives of men of every class, from the highest to the lowest, were consumed in the practice of the most abominable and flagitious vices; even crimes, the horrible turpitude of which was such that it would be defiling the ear of decency but to name them, were openly perpetrated with the greatest impurity."—Historical Commentaries, vol. 1, chap. 1, sec. 21, of Introduction. But while the people were abominably licentious they were no worse than their religion taught them to be. The following from Dr. Schaff will serve to give the reader some idea of the nature of their religion and of the character of the gods which they worshiped:— "How could there be any proper conception and abhorrence of the sin of licentiousness and adultery, if the very gods, a Jupiter, a Mars, and a Venus, were believed to be guilty of those crimes? Modesty forbids the mention of a still more odious vice, which even depraved nature abhors, which yet was freely discussed and praised by ancient poets and philosophers, practiced with neither punishment nor dishonor, and likewise divinely sanctioned by the lewdness of Jupiter with Ganymede."—History of the Church, vol. 1, sec. 91. It was from this state of degradation that the gospel essayed to lift men; from people addicted to such practices, the early Christian churches were formed. When we consider this, instead of wondering at the heresies that crept into the church, and the disorderly conduct that was sometimes tolerated even in the apostolic churches (see 1 Cor. 5:1, 2), we are amazed at the heights of piety to which many attained. The fact that even among that corrupt mass thousands were found who would give, not only their property, but themselves also for the advancement of the cause of truth and holiness, is a wonderful monument to the regenerating power of Christianity. But great changes are not made instantaneously. Even though men are converted, they need instruction, since they are then but babes in the truth; and this fact shows that old habits of thought and practice cannot at once be entirely forgotten. We do not mean to intimate that the converted man has any license to sin, or any excuse for it; but pardon for sins is not sanctification; the one who has been pardoned is not perfect, but is to "go on to perfection;" and he still needs an advocate with the Father, that his imperfections may still be pardoned and overcome. Now men are always tempted on the side of their natural inclinations; if the converted man gives way to temptation, it will be his old sins that he will commit; and when, as is too often the case, a man joins the church without having been thoroughly converted, of course the old habits will continue unchanged. Let the student of church history remember this, and at the same time bear in mind what has been quoted concerning the moral condition of the people among whom the gospel gained its victories, and it will throw light on many phases of professed Christianity. It will also prevent him from attaching too much importance to the precepts and practices of even the foremost of those in the Christian church who had been brought up in heathenism. He will always compare every act or saying of those men with the Bible, to see to what extent their early training was allowed to bias their course.