DELINEATION OF CHRISTIAN LIFE.

in the heavens

61

... God has assigned them so important

a post which it is not lawful for them to quit."

pray

66

Justin Martyr gives the following description of the lives of Christians: We who were once slaves of lust, now delight in purity of morals; we who once practised magical arts," (the various deceptions and tricks of a pretended magic then so common among the heathen,) "have consecrated ourselves to the good and uncreated God; we who once prized riches and possessions above all things, now contribute what we have to the common use, and distribute to every one who is in want; we who once hated and murdered one another, and on account of our differences would not have a common hearth with those who were not of the same tribe, now, since Christ has appeared, live in common with them, and for our enemies, and endeavour to persuade those who hate us unjustly, that living according to the admirable counsels of Christ, they may enjoy a good hope of obtaining the same blessings with ourselves from God the ruler of all." The great moral effects of Christianity required no splendid array of outward circumstances in order to make them evident, like the great effects of patriotism in antiquity, which yet was a sentiment confined with the limits of egoism.* Christian virtue, quiet and unpretending, going forth with fear and trembling, but under the form of a servant, having in its bosom the consciousness of the dignity of the divine relationship of the children of God, which raised it above all earthly glory-this virtue could find its place in the meanest cottage as well as in the palace, or more easily in the former, since there it met with less opposition from the deceptive glare of worldly grandeur; and in contrast to earthly poverty, the hidden glory beamed forth with greater brightness when lodged in a mean receptacle.

The slaves, also, among whom Christianity in early times made many converts, acquired the same exalted dignity of the children of God, and were acknowledged by their fellow Christians as brethren. They appeared in the public meet

* In all well ordered polities, if we may judge from the experience of past ages, the attachment of men to their country is in danger of becoming an absorbing principle, inducing not merely a forgetfulness of private interests, but of the immutable claims of humanity and justice."-Robert Hall, Works, i. 372. [TR.]

ings with all the rest as equal before the Lord; they partook like others of communion with the Lord in the holy supper, as members of the one body of Christ, in which no distinction could exist between the slave and the freeman, but the members of which were all one in Christ Jesus. No one refused to give them the kiss of brotherhood at the holy rite, as to all the rest; at the common love-feasts they took their place among the other believers. But Christianity guarded against injuriously confounding spiritual and bodily freedom; it allowed the slave, in the consciousness of his blessed fellowship with Christ, to be satisfied with his lot, and to fulfil his calling with love, so that he obeyed not man but God, and hence as a slave he was no longer a slave. Christianity always operated outwards from within: it effected no violent revolutions, like the self-will which follows not God's ways with patient resignation, but wishes to effect those changes at once by an arm of flesh which can only succeed under God's guidance in gradual development. But when Christianity had penetrated deeper on all sides into the life of humanity, a relation must necessarily fall of itself which is opposed to the Christian universal philanthropy, and to the ideas spread by Christianity respecting the equal destiny and dignity of all men as created in the image of God, and called to rule over nature. Thus Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, writes respecting slaves to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna: "Despise not slaves and bondwomen; but they must not be puffed up, but let them serve more zealously for the glory of God, that they may obtain from God a better freedom. Let them not desire to be made free from the common fund, that they may not be found the slaves of [earthly] desire."

As heart-communion with God and their Redeemer was the essential necessity of Christians, as they were penetrated by the consciousness that left to their own weak and sinful nature they could do nothing without God, so they found their daily nourishment and strength, their help in all dangers, their consolation under all sufferings, in PRAYER, which will be the subject of the following chapter.

PRAYER.

63

CHAPTER VIII.

PRAYER.

TERTULLIAN exhorts to prayer in the following words:* "Under the arms of prayer let us guard the standard of our general. Praying, let us await the trumpet of the angel. All the angels pray. Every creature prays." (So he explains the morning notes of the birds.) "The Lord himself prayed." He speaks in the following manner of the characteristics of Christian prayer: "What has not God granted to prayer offered up in spirit and in truth, for such prayer he has required?.... The prayer of the old covenant delivered from flames, and wild beasts, and hunger, and yet had not received its form from Christ. But how much more efficacious is prayer now! It does not place the angel of the dew in the midst of the flames (Dan. iii. 28), nor shut the mouths of lions (Dan. vi.), nor bring the dinner of rustics to the hungry (2 Kings iv.). The grace now vouchsafed to men does not take away the sense of suffering, but it arms with endurance men who are suffering, feeling, and grieving; by its power it increases grace, that faith may know what it may expect from the Lord, being conscious what it suffers for the name of God. Formerly prayer brought down plagues, routed hostile armies, prevented beneficial rains. But now the prayer of righteousness averts the divine wrath, keeps watch for enemies, and supplicates for persecutors.

Christ has conferred on prayer all power for good. Therefore it knows nothing unless to call back the souls of the departed from the way of death itself, to renovate the

* Oratio murus est fidei, arma et tela nostra adversus hominem, qui nos undique observat. Itaque nunquam inermes incedamus. Die stationis, nocte vigilia meminerimus. Sub armis orationis signum nostri imperatoris custodiamus, tubam angeli exspectemus orantes. Orant etiam angeli omnes. Orat omnis creatura. Orant pecudes et feræ et genua Sed et aves nunc exsurgentes eriguntur ad coelum, et alarum crucem pro manibus extendunt, et dicunt aliquid, quod oratio videatur. Quid ergo amplius de officio orationis? Etiam ipse Dominus oravit, cui sit honor et virtus in sæcula sæculorum.-Tertull, de Orat. $24.

declinant....

weak, to heal the sick, to free from the power of evil spirits, to loosen the bonds of the innocent. It washes away sins, repels temptations, extinguishes persecutions, consoles the feeble-minded, delights the magnanimous, guides travellers, stills the waves, nourishes the poor, controls the rich, raises the fallen, props the falling, and preserves the standing. Prayer is the bulwark of faith; our arms and weapons against the adversary who waylays us on every side. Therefore let us never go about unarmed."

Origen asserts the advantage and the power of prayer against certain proud theosophists, who despised prayer as a mark of weakness, since they were unwilling to feel weak in themselves (a sentiment that belongs to the very essence of the Christian disposition), in order to be strong in the Lord. Against such persons he says: "How much would each among us have to recount of the efficacy of prayer, if only he were thankfully to recall God's mercies. Souls which have been long unfruitful, becoming conscious of their death, and fructified by the Holy Spirit through persevering prayer, have given forth words of salvation full of the intuitions of truth. How many enemies have been driven back, when thousands in the service of the Evil One came into the field against us, and threatened to annihilate our faith. But our confidence was in those words, Some put their trust in chariots and in horses, but we will think on the name of the Lord our God' (Psa. xx. 7); for verily, a horse is a vain thing for safety.' How many have been exposed to temptations more burning than flame, and yet came out of them unhurt, without even the smell of the hostile flame having passed upon them! And what shall I further say? How often has it happened that those who were exposed to wild beasts, to evil spirits, and to cruel men, have muzzled them by prayers, so that they have not been able to touch with their teeth us who were the members of Christ. We know, also, that many who have been deserters from the statutes of God, and were just swallowed up by death, have been saved from destruction by repentance, and God has again wiped away the tears from their eyes.' Cyprian says: If He prayed who was without sin, how much more ought we to pray who are sinners? The Lord prayed not for himself; he prayed for our sins."

6

66

In general, according to a custom that already prevailed among the Jews, nine, twelve, and three o'clock were regarded by Christians as special times of prayer, though not to be observed in a manner inconsistent with Christian freedom; "for respecting the hours of prayer," says Tertullian,* "nothing is prescribed, excepting that we should pray at all times and in every place." Moreover, Christians began the day with prayer, and with prayer they closed it. Cyprian says, "We must pray early in the morning, in order that by our morning prayer the Lord's resurrection may be celebrated; and when the sun and the daylight depart from us, and we pray that the light may again dawn upon us, so we pray for the return of Christ, who will grant us the grace of everlasting light." They prayed before they took food, or bathed; for, as Tertullian says, "The refreshing and nourishing of the soul should precede the refreshing and nourishing of the body; the heavenly should go before the earthly." When a Christian from a foreign land, after being hospitably entertained as a brother, was about to take leave, he was dismissed with prayer; for it was a common expression among them in reference to such guests, "In thy brother thou hast seen thy Lord." They prepared for all social deliberations by prayer. On all important occasions which awakened general sympathy, such as impending persecutions, or when an individual whose life was of value for the whole church was in danger of death, it was customary to hold meetings for social prayer, and examples are recorded of special answers to prayer in such cases. Often," says Irenæus, "when the whole church in one place has called upon God with fasting on account of some pressing necessity, life has been restored to the dead, and he has been granted prayer of Christians."

to the

་

66

The Christian church, as we have already remarked, was very far from wishing to confine prayer, in a carnal Jewish sense, to certain times, as if a peculiar sanctity was attached to them. They regarded prayer as the breathing of the innermost Christian life, drawing down the enlivening Spirit from above. By prayer the whole life of a Christian was sanctified, and his whole life was to be one continual prayer, * De temporibus orationis nihil omnino præscriptum est, nisi plane omni in tempore et loco orare.—Tertull. de Orat. § 18.

F