SALVIAN'S TESTIMONY by Elder I. E. Kimball

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 13, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 40.

SALVIAN'S TESTIMONY.

By Elder I. E. Kimball

BY ELDER I. E. KIMBALL.

THAT this was a pestilential era, and that the church became the cage of everything unclean, and the seat of the demon host, I have no scruple at all in asserting. The quotations I will now make from Salvian will show my assertions to be not a splenetic decision, but a necessary one, grounded upon facts, as, indeed, what I have already shown also proves. This testimony shows the product of the principles and doctrines taught by the Nicene divines, as shown in their children of the next generation. The healthful force of Christianity had all wasted away; the downward bias of sin soon plunged them headlong into temporal and spiritual ruin.

Salvian wrote about A.D. 440. His writings are authentic and reliable. Gennadius, who wrote a few years later, called him "a leader of bishops," Scaliger calls him a "most Christian writer." Cove mentions him with distinction.

I now wish to quote at length from Salvian's De Gubernatione, that the very life of the church immediately following the Nicene era may be laid bare,—the manner of life into which the church declined. He shows the divine government to be a sure fact, but that there was manifest token "of the divine displeasure, as provoked by the debauchery of the church itself." "Who is he that is not involved in the mire of fornication? And what can I say more? Severe and grievous is that which I am about to say. The very

church of God, which ought to be in every respect the pacifatrix with God, how is it other than an offense to God? Or, aside from a very few who shun evil, how is nearly every assembly of Christians other than a sink of debauchery? All the ecclesiastical people have been reduced to such a degradation of custom that, among the entire Christian people, not to be vicious is considered in a certain way a kind of sanctity. Why is the condition of barbarian nations better than our own? But you say Christians in these days are not called to suffer persecutions, princes themselves being Christians. True, but do Christians yield obedience to their Lord in those things which are of perpetual obligation? Who is it that patiently relinquishes his cloke? . . . Where are they who do not endeavor to make reprisals upon their adversaries? So far is it from being true that we resign with the cloke aught beside, if by any means we can, we snatch from others coat and cloke too."—Page 79.

As to smiting, who is there that, if he receives a blow, will not return many for one, and, far from offering the other cheek to the smiter, that he might so conquer, he cannot be satisfied in smiting merely, but must slay his adversary. . . . The Saviour has forbidden Christian men to swear; but you may find more who often perjure themselves than who swear not at all. He has said, Curse not. But of whom is not the speech of cursing? How can we wonder that God does not hearken to our prayers, seeing we listen not to his commands? Not merely do we neglect what is enjoined, but with our utmost endeavor we do the very contrary. God commands to love one another; we rend each other. He commands us all to impart our substance to the needy; we encroach upon each other's rights. God commands that the Christian should be pure, even as the eye; but who among us does not roll himself in the mire of fornication? You will find in the church scarcely one who is not either a drunkard, or a glutton, or an adulterer, or a frequenter of brothels, or a robber, or a manslayer,—and, what is worse than all, almost all these without limit. I put it now to the consciences of all Christian folks whether it be not so that you will barely find one who is not addicted to some of the vices and crimes I have mentioned, or, rather, who is it that is not guilty of all? Truly you will more easily find the man who is guilty of all than the one who is guilty of none. As to this none, my imputations perhaps may seem too serious. I will go farther. Sooner will you find those chargeable with every crime than any not chargeable with all; sooner those addicted to the greatest crimes than those guilty of the less. I mean to say more are living in the perpetration of the greater as well as the lighter vices than of the lighter ones alone. Into this shameless dissoluteness of manners is nearly the entire ecclesiastical mass so sunk that it has come to be regarded as a species of sanctity if one is a little less vicious than another. And so it is that the church, or, rather, the temples and altars of God, are by some held in less reverence than the most inferior courts and common magistrates' rooms.

The churches are outraged by indecencies and by the irreverence of those who rush thence, after the formal confession of their past sins, to the perpetration of more. You may well imagine what men have been thinking about at church, when you see them hurry off, some to plunder, some to get drunk, some to practice lewdness, some to rob on the highway. . . . What else but fraud and perjury is the course of life of all traders? What but iniquity that of those attached to halls and courts? What but false accusation that of officials? What but rapine that of all military? Do you say the behavior of these men is only answerable to their profession, nor is it to be wondered at if they be found to act in character? As if truly God willed any (in the way of their calling) to do or profess what is wicked. . . . If so, the greater portion of mankind would be excused on the plea of their profession. But you say the body of nobility is altogether free from these crimes. Far is this from being the fact. . . . For who is there, whether among the nobles or among the rich (and it is one of the miseries of these times that none is accounted so noble as he who has amassed the greatest wealth), who is there that shudders at crime? . . . Who is there, whether rich or noble, preserving innocency, holding back his hands from crimes of every kind? It were superfluous to speak of all crimes; would they were clear from the greatest. As to the less, I will say nothing, and especially as our great folks may think themselves privileged to indulge in small offenses. Let us see, then, whether any of this rank can plead exemption from one of these two capital crimes, murder and adultery. Who is there that, if his hand do not reek with human blood, is not soiled with foul impurities? And yet, although one of these burdens is enough to sink a man to perdition, hardly is there a rich man that is not chargeable with both. . . .

Wherefore, inasmuch as scarcely any one part of the Christian community, scarcely any one corner of the churches anywhere, is not full of offense, or not blotted with the stain of mortal sin, what room have we for flattering ourselves with an assumption of the Christian name?

If they had dropped that name altogether, and all professions of religion or truth, it would have been better for the world.

(Concluded next week.)