THE APOSTASY CONSIDERED.
By I. E. Kimball
WE should be uncharitable and in error were we to imagine there were no Christians in the Catholic Church of the second and third centuries. Doubtless scores and hundreds were discerned of God with unfeigned faith and fervent devotion to Christ. The primitive persecutions began with Nero, about A.D. 64, continuing under Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. The last two named were the best of Roman emperors; the first were among the worst. God's purposes are established in persecution. It may accomplish more than we can discern for the discrimination of light and purification of the church. Such an ordeal comes not causeless. Of the persecution (which was indeed terrible) which commenced in the apostles' days, Peter spake: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye4are partakers of Christ's sufferings. . . . If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, . . . but let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief. . . . Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. . . . Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." The fires of persecution are intended to burn away the chaff, that the gold and silver may remain; "wood, hay, and stubble" can alone be burned by the fire. And such chastening comes "that we should not be condemned with the world." Blessed is the church which the Lord chastens, even as the individual. It is to "purify, make white, and try." When the pagan persecutions came, multitudes renounced the faith and reviled Christ, but many were found firm as the rock; and upon such the church is built. "Then salvation blazed out before all men," as Eusebius affirms. Thousands were converted in the very midst of persecutions. The records coming to us of Perpetua, Felicitas, and Blandina are indeed affecting. They testified their faith valiantly. Many indeed do not seem to have had the right spirit, for their thoughts were darkly intermixed with heathen error; but then this last resort in the way of purification of the church redeemed the cause of Christianity, and for a time kept the harvest field of God comparatively fruitful. Pagan writers record how at the apprehension and incarceration of a Christian, at early dawn, old women, widows, and orphans would come even from far to comfort the prisoner, while men stayed with him all night, "eating a meal," doubtless the Lord's Supper. "It is beyond all belief," said they, "what exertions they would make when such evil befell one of their number." Such a purgation of the church was healthful and altogether necessary. Without it heresies and worldliness would have utterly overthrown her. We have already shown the progress of apostasy. So little is this defection of the early church realized that many will be loath to give credence to the facts positively established by the concurrent testimony of the Bible and history. What has been already said of the antenicene church but opens the way to a rehearsal of the utter subversion of the Catholic Church, for anything like an accurate description of the Nicene church and era, will reveal it abandoned to the devils and the belief of lies—the demonolatry of paganism in full possession of the church. Can we imagine that saint worship, prayers for the dead, etc., now coming in, were mere venial offenses, upon which the eye of Jehovah rested with indifference and complaisancy? Who cannot see that the many mediators which were sought amongst departed saints and martyrs, and the especial patronism of Mary, the mother of God, were effectually shutting out Christ from the church, and making naught of the Saviour's claim to be the "one mediator" between man and God? Was it with indifference that Jehovah beheld Christ set at naught, and mediation now intrusted to man, whom their fond hopes had advanced to heaven? or was it a matter of unconcern that the mass was now held to "release from the burden of sin," a repetition of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross? Thus Calvary was hidden, the True Sacrifice forgotten, and a thing of naught trusted in, in lieu thereof. How effectual was all this to utterly annul all the benefits and glory of Christ to the church! Was it a matter of no special moment that the church was transformed as a kingdom of this world, with her high functionaries exercising a lordly and ever increasing authority, whereas Christ had said, "So it shall not be among you," for "ye are all brethren," and "whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased"? Referring to the Pharisaical desires to be called "master" and "father," he commanded, "Call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for one is your Master, even Christ." It is most evident from this that we are to acknowledge no man as a spiritual father to us, for man is erring, and may deceive us. No man is to exercise spiritual mastery and control over us but the Man Christ Jesus. Howbeit, in the church of this period bishops and sovereigns began to be recognized as having God-given authority as intermediaries, to whom the soul should be prostrated and a childlike obedience tendered. At this time almost every ordinance was perverted, the Sabbath trodden underfoot by the many, and more and more the church looked to as authority, and personal responsibility to God lost sight of. Did this fatal step look trivial to Heaven? Was it, indeed, a matter of little moment that they should see, or seem to see, divinity itself in the sign of the cross, which they could discern in flower, fish, and fowl, in tree and ship, and the human body, and that they should trust in amulets and charms—all of which was a retention of heathenism? or that, losing sight of Christ's atonement, they should hold to the Platonic idea of a state of purification after death? Platonism and Christianity, both in doctrine and in their code of morals, were blended into one. Bishops, presbyters, and deacons, though taken in adultery, perjury, or theft, were not excommunicated. What shall we now say of such a church? The Scriptures were wrested in every conceivable way by trusted leaders; oblations were made for the dead, and a multitude of other errors hid the truth. Shall we be disposed to hold such things as of no especial concern?