Papers on Indian Reform 
 
 the People of Ancient Ei 
 
 BECAME CHRISTIANS 
 
 THE FUTURE RELIGION OF IND.IA 
 
 It is shown that the ancestors of the Aryan Hindus and Europeans 
 once lived together speaking the same language, and worshipping the 
 same Heaven-Father ; that the gods of ancient Europe were like those 
 of Modern India; and that the change of religion which took place in 
 the former will happen in the latter. 
 
 FIRST EDITION, 3,000 COPIES 
 
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Papers on Indian Reform. 
 
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 HOW THE PEOPLE OE ANCIENT EUROPE 
 
 BECAME CHRISTIANS; 
 
 AND 
 
 THE FUTURE RELIGION OF INDIA. 
 
 “ The Sods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall 
 perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.” 
 
 The Bible. 
 
 V t tic 
 
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 FIRST EDITION, 3,000 COPIES. 
 
 MADRAS: 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN VERNACULAR EDUCATION SOCIETY. 
 
 18 9 1 . 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction ... ... 
 
 Common Origin of the Eastern and Western Aryans 
 
 A.NCIENT GREECE ... ... ... ... 
 
 Italy and the Romans 
 
 Religion of the Greeks and Romans ... 
 
 The First Christian Missionaries to Europe 
 Christianity at Rome ... ... ... 
 
 Causes of the Persecution of Christians ... 
 Accounts of Martyrs 
 
 Causes of the Spread of Christianity ... . 
 
 Constantine the First Christian Emperor 
 Attempts to Purify and Restore Heathenism 
 What Christianity has done for Europe 
 The Future Religion of India 
 
 Page 
 
 .. 6 
 .. 9 
 .. 14 
 .. 18 
 .. 22 
 .. 24 
 .. 26 
 .. 30 
 .. 32 
 .. 84 
 .. 38 
 .. 40 
 
HOW THE PEOPLE OF ANCIENT EUROPE BECAME CHRISTIANS, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE FUTURE RELIGION OF INDIA. 
 
 O 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 The Two Great Divisions of Hindus— Most of the people of 
 India may be divided into two great classes—the Aryans m the 
 north, and the Dravidians in the south. A comparison between some 
 common words will show that their languages are distinct : 
 
 English. 
 
 Hindi. 
 
 Bengali. 
 
 Tamil. 
 
 Telugu. 
 
 Man 
 
 manas 
 
 manusha 
 
 al 
 
 al. 
 
 Ear 
 
 kan 
 
 karna 
 
 kadu 
 
 chevi. 
 
 Mouth 
 
 miikh 
 
 mukh 
 
 vayi 
 
 noru. 
 
 Tooth 
 
 dant 
 
 danta 
 
 pal 
 
 palln. 
 
 Hand 
 
 hath 
 
 hat 
 
 kei 
 
 cheyi. 
 
 It is true that the Dravidian languages have borrowed many 
 words from the Sanskrit; but grammarians distinguish them by 
 different names. The three classes are 1. Tatsamas (the same as it) 
 (i e Sanskrit), words the same in Sanskrit and in the modern lan¬ 
 guages. 2. Tadhavas (of the nature of it), words derived from 
 Sanskrit, but considerably changed. 3. Desajas (country-born), not 
 derived from the Sanskrit. 
 
 The Dravidians came to India before the Aryan Hindus. In the 
 Vedas and later Hindu writings we can trace the course of the 
 latter from the time they entered the Punjab till they went, m 
 greater or less numbers, to other parts of India. 
 
 Though the whole human race are descended from the same first 
 parents, some nations lived near each other in early times, speak¬ 
 ing the same or kindred languages. . 
 
 Home of the Early Aryans. —The exact spot of this is not yet 
 known with certainty; but probably it was in Central Asia, about 
 the north of Persia. It was beyond the tropics, for years were 
 
 reckoned by winters. . 
 
 Early Aryan Migrations. -—As the Aryans increased in numbeis, 
 
 their original seat could not support them all, so, like some of 
 their descendants of the present time, they swarmed off, most 
 
2 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 going to the west, but others to the east. Max Muller gives the 
 following graphic picture of their movements : 
 
 “ Although the Brahmans of India belong to the same family, the 
 Aryan or Indo-European family, which civilized the whole of Europe, the 
 two great branches of that primitive race were kept asunder for centuries 
 after their first separation. The main stream of the Aryan nations has 
 always flowed towards the north-west. No historian can tell us by what 
 impulse those adventurous nomads were driven on through Asia towards 
 the isles and shores of Europe. The first start of this world-wide migra¬ 
 tion belongs to a period far beyond the reach of documentary history ; to 
 times when the soil of Europe had not been trodden by either Celts, 
 Germans, Slavonians, Romans, or Greeks. But whatever it was, the 
 impulse was as irresistible as the spell which, in our own times, sends 
 the Celtic tribes towards the prairies or the regions of gold across the 
 Atlantic. It requires a strong will, or a great amount of inertness, to be 
 able to withstand the impetus of such national, or rather ethnical move¬ 
 ments. Few will stay behind when all are going. But to let one’s 
 friends depart, and then to set out ourselves—to take a road which, lead 
 where it may, can never lead us to join those again who speak our langu¬ 
 age and worship our gods,—is a course which only men of strong individ¬ 
 uality and great self-dependence are capable of pursuing. It was 
 the course adopted by the southern branch of the Aryan family, the 
 Brahmanic Aryas of India and the Zoroastrians of Iran. 
 
 “ At the first dawn of traditional history we see these Aryan tribes 
 migrating across the snow of the Himalaya southward toward the 
 ‘ Seven Rivers’ (the Indus, the five rivers of the Punjab, and the 
 Sarasvati), and ever since India has been called their home. That 
 before that time they had been in more northern regions within the 
 same precincts with the ancestors of the Greeks, the Italians, Slavonians, 
 Germans, and Celts, is a fact as firmly established as that the Normans 
 of William the Conqueror were the Northmen of Scandinavia. 
 
 “There was a time when the ancestors of the Celts, the Germans, the 
 Slavonians, the Greeks, and Italians, the Persians, and Hindus, were 
 living together within the same fences, separate from the ancestors of 
 the Semitic and Turanian races. 
 
 “ It is more difficult to prove that the Hindu was the last to leave this 
 common home, that he saw his brothers all depart towards the setting 
 sun, and that then, turning towards the south and the east, he started 
 alone in search of a new world. But as in his language and in his 
 grammar he has preserved something of what seems peculiar to each of 
 the northern dialects singly, as he agrees with the Greek and the German 
 when the Greek and the German seem to differ from all the rest, and as 
 no other language has carried off so large a share of the common Aryan 
 heirloom—whether roots, grammar, words, myths, or legends—it is 
 natural to suppose that, though perhaps the eldest brother, the Hindu 
 was the last to leave the central home of the Aryan family. 
 
 “ The Aryan nations who pursued a north-westerly direction, stand 
 before us in history as the principal nations of north-western Asia and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 3 
 
 Europe. They have been the prominent actors in the great drama of 
 history, and have carried to their fullest growth all the elements of 
 active life with which our nature is endowed. They have perfected 
 society and morals, and we learn from their literature and works of art 
 the elements of science, the laws of art, and the principles of philosophy. 
 In continual struggle with each other and with Semitic and Turanian 
 races, these Aryan nations have become the rulers of history, and it 
 seems to be their mission to link all parts of the world together by the 
 chains of civilization, commerce, and religion. In a word, they represent 
 the Aryan man in his historical character. 
 
 “ But while most of the members of the Aryan family followed this 
 glorious path, the southern tribes were slowly migrating towards the 
 mountains which gird the north of India. After crossing the narrow passes 
 of the Hindukush or the Himalaya, they conquered or drove before them, 
 as it seems without much effort, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Trans- 
 Himalayan countries. They took for their guides the principal rivers of 
 Northern India, and were led by them to new homes in their beautiful 
 and fertile valleys. It seems as if the great mountains in the north had 
 afterwards closed for centuries their cyclopean gates against new immi¬ 
 grations, while at the same time, the waves of the Indian Ocean kept 
 watch over the southern borders of the peninsula. None of the great 
 conquerors of antiquity—Sesostris, Semiramis, Nebuchadnezzar, or Cyrus, 
 who waged a kind of half .romantic warfare over Asia, Africa, and Europe, 
 and whose names, traced in characters of blood, are still legible on the 
 threshold of history, disturbed the peaceful seats of these Aryan settlers. 
 Left to themselves in a world of their own, without a past, and without 
 a future before them, they had nothing but themselves to ponder on. 
 Struggles there must have been in India also. Old dynasties were 
 destroyed, whole families annihilated, and new empires founded. Yet 
 the inward life of the Hindu was not changed by these convulsions. His 
 mind was like the lotus leaf after a shower of rain has passed over it; 
 his character remained the same—passive, meditative, quiet, and full of 
 faith.”* 
 
 The Western Aryans.—As far as is yet known, the earliest inhabit¬ 
 ants of Europe were a small uncivilised race of men, somewhat 
 like the Esquimaux. Europe was then covered with forests, and 
 much colder than at present. These aborigines subsisted by hunt¬ 
 ing, fishing, and on wild fruits. Pieces of bone, with drawings on 
 them, have been found in caves—relics of their existence. 
 
 The Celts, or Gauls, found farthest west, were probably the first 
 Aryans who entered Europe. At one time they occupied a great 
 part of the continent. At a later period came the ancestors of the 
 Italians, Greeks, and Germans. The Slavonic nations, to which 
 the Russians belong, took a more northerly 7- course. 
 
 # History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature , pp. 11-16. 
 
4 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 Common Origin of the Eastern and Western Aryans. 
 
 Language is a clear proof of this. Max Muller says : 
 
 “ The evidence of language is irrefragable, and it is the only evidence 
 worth listening to with regard to ante-historical periods. It would have 
 been next to impossible to discover any traces of relationship between 
 the swarthy natives of India and their conquerors, whether Alexander 
 or Clive, but for the testimony borne by language. What other evidence 
 could have reached back to times when Greece was not peopled by 
 Greeks, nor India by Hindus ? Yet these are the times of which we are 
 speaking. What authority would have been strong enough to persuade 
 the Grecian army that their gods and their hero ancestors were the same 
 as those of King Porus, or to convince the English soldier that the .same 
 blood was running in his veins, and in the veins of the dark Bengalese ? 
 And yet there is not an English jury nowadays, which, after examining 
 the hoary documents of language, would reject the claim, of a common 
 descent and a legitimate relationship between Hindu, Greek, and Teuton. 
 Many words still live in India and in England, that have witnessed the 
 first separation of the northern and southern Aryans, and these are 
 witnesses not to be shaken by cross-examination. The terms for God, 
 for house, for father, mother, son, daughter, for dog and cow, for heart 
 and tears, for axe and tree, identical in all the Indo-European idioms, 
 are like the watchwords of soldiers. We challenge the seeming stranger, 
 and whether he answer with the lips of a Greek, a German, or an Indian, 
 we recognise him as one of ourselves. Though the historian may shake 
 his head, though the physiologist may doubt, and the poet scorn the idea, 
 all must yield before the facts furnished by language.” 
 
 Some illustrations will now be given of the correspondence in 
 language: 
 
 English. 
 
 Sanskrit. 
 
 Greek. 
 
 Latin. 
 
 Father 
 
 pitar 
 
 pater 
 
 pater. 
 
 Mother 
 
 matar 
 
 meter 
 
 mater. 
 
 Brother 
 
 bhratar 
 
 phratria (clan) 
 
 frater. 
 
 Sister 
 
 svasar 
 
 soror. 
 
 Daughter 
 
 duhitar 
 
 thugater 
 
 
 Widow 
 
 vidhava 
 
 
 vidua. 
 
 Father is derived from a root Pa, which means to protect, to 
 support. The father as one who begets was called in Sanskrit 
 ganitdr. In like manner mdtar is joined to Ganitar, Latin Genetrix. 
 The original meaning of duhitar was milk-maid. Milking the cattle 
 was one of the employments of the daughter. 
 
 If the custom of widow burning had existed at that early period, 
 there would have been no vidhavas , no husbandless women, because 
 they would all have followed their husbands into death. 
 
 * History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature , pp. 13, 14. 
 
COMMON ORIGIN OF THE EASTERN AND WESTERN ARYANS. 
 
 5 
 
 The numerals are a good test of resemblance in language : 
 
 English . 
 
 Sanskrit. 
 
 Greek. 
 
 Latin. 
 
 One 
 
 ekas 
 
 eis 
 
 unus. 
 
 Two 
 
 dvi 
 
 duo 
 
 duo. 
 
 Three 
 
 tisras (fem.) 
 
 treis 
 
 tres. 
 
 Fonr 
 
 chatvaras 
 
 tessares 
 
 quatuor. 
 
 Five 
 
 panchan 
 
 pente 
 
 quinque. 
 
 Six 
 
 shat 
 
 hex 
 
 sex. 
 
 Seven 
 
 saptan 
 
 hepta 
 
 septem. 
 
 Eight 
 
 ashtan 
 
 okto 
 
 octo. 
 
 Nine 
 
 navan 
 
 hennea 
 
 novem. 
 
 Ten 
 
 dasan 
 
 deka 
 
 decem. 
 
 Twenty 
 
 vimsati 
 
 eikosi 
 
 viginti 
 
 Hundred 
 
 shatim 
 
 liekaton 
 
 centum. 
 
 Thousand 
 
 sahasra 
 
 chilioi 
 
 mille. 
 
 The numerals agree as far as a hundred. Thousand had not 
 received expression at that early period; hence the names for 
 thousand differ. Sanskrit and Zend share the name for thousand 
 in common (Sanskrit sahasra, Zend hazanra) which shows that the 
 ancestors of the Brahmans and Parsis continued united for a time 
 after the Western Aryans had left. The Greeks and Romans each 
 formed independently their own name for thousand. 
 
 Mauy other illustrations might be given of the common origin of 
 the languages. 
 
 Sanskrit was not the original from which all the rest were 
 derived^ for Greek has, in several instances, a more primitive form 
 than Sanskrit. Esmes, we are, cannot be derived from the Sanskrit 
 smas, because smas has lost the radical a, which Greek has pre¬ 
 served, the root being as, to be, the termination mas, we. Nor 
 can Greek be fixed upon as the more primitive language from 
 which the others were derived, for not even Latin could be called 
 the daughter of Greek, the language of Rome having preserved 
 some forms more primitive than Greek ; for instance sunt instead 
 of enti. Here Greek has lost the radical as altogether; while the 
 Latin has at least, like Sanskrit, preserved the radical s in sunt 
 = santi. 
 
 Hence all these dialects point to some more ancient language 
 that died in giving birth to the modern Aryan dialects. That 
 language was once a living language spoken in Asia by a small 
 tribe, may, originally by a small family living under one and the 
 same roof.* 
 
 Other points of resemblance between the Eastern and Western 
 Aryans will afterwards be noticed. 
 
 The Greeks and Romans were by far the most distinguished 
 Aryans in ancient times, accounts will therefore be confined to them. 
 
 * Abridged from Chips from a German Workshop , Vol. II. 
 
6 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 Ancient Greece. 
 
 Sir H. S. Maine says of the Greeks : 
 
 “ To one small people, covering, in its original seat, no more than a 
 hand’s breadth of territory, it was given to create the principle of pro¬ 
 gress, of movement onwards and not backwards or downwards, of de¬ 
 struction tending to construction.” 
 
 Country —Greece forms a small peninsula jutting into the Medi¬ 
 terranean Sea, about midway between Asia Minor on the east, 
 and Italy on the west. The shape is very irregular, the coasts 
 being indented by deep bays, and studded with small islands. The 
 interior contains lofty mountains, whose tops in winter are covered 
 with snow. Between the mountains, there are fertile plains and 
 valleys, watered by numerous streams. 
 
 Early History. —The Greeks themselves believed that their an¬ 
 cestors sprang out of the earth. The earliest inhabitants were mere 
 savages. They dwelt in wretched huts, and fed on acorns, a kind 
 of small nut. Their clothes were the skins of wild beasts. 
 
 An Aryan race, called the Pelasgi, settled in Greece at a very 
 early period. They were not so barbarous as the aborigines, as 
 they cultivated land, reared cattle, and carried on some trade with 
 the neighbouring countries. Their buildings, formed of large 
 rough stones, were so strong that some of them exist to the present 
 day. 
 
 The next tribe that spread over Greece was that of the Hellenes, 
 from whom the whole country was called, Hellas. The name Greece 
 was given to it by the Romans. Small bodies of colonists from 
 more civilised countries settled among the Hellenes, and brought 
 with them the rudiments of the arts and sciences. Cecrops, an 
 Egyptiau, is said to have founded Athens 1556 years before the 
 Christian era. He is supposed to have introduced the cultivation 
 of the olive, and of different kinds of grain. 
 
 Some years afterwards, Cadmus, it is said, came from Phoenicia, 
 on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, aud built Thebes. He 
 taught the Greeks the cultivation of the vine, the manufacture of 
 metals, and the use of the alphabet. The Greeks wrote at first alter¬ 
 nately from right to left and left to right, as furrows are made in 
 ploughing. 
 
 Greece then consisted of a number of small kingdoms, frequently 
 at war with one another. Twelve of them united themselves into 
 a confederacy, to keep them at peace with each other, and united 
 against foreign enemies. 
 
 The Trojan war was a celebrated event in Greek history. Troy 
 was a city on the Asiatic side of the narrow strait connecting the 
 Mediterranean aud the Sea of Marmora. Paris, the son of the Trojan 
 
ANCIENT GREECE. 
 
 7 
 
 king, stole away Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. All 
 the Greek kings combined to punish this offence. They sailed to 
 Troy in 1200 vessels, and took the city after a siege of ten years. 
 This event is supposed to have occurred about 1200 b. c. Homer, 
 the great epic poet of the Greeks, wrote a poem, entitled the Iliad , 
 on this siege. It may be called the Greek Mahabharata, but, like 
 it, it was greatly exaggerated. 
 
 The accounts of these early events in Greek history are un¬ 
 certain. 
 
 About a century after the Trojan war, the Greeks began to 
 colonize. Some crossed over to Asia Minor, and built cities, such as 
 Smyrna and Ephesus, which soon acquired wealth and fame. 
 Others settled in Italy and in the islands of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Chief Cities. —Sparta, in the south/ and Athens, in the east, were 
 the two most famous cities of ancient Greece. Sparta received a code 
 of laws from Lycurgus. He ordered that all the Spartans should 
 eat together at public tables, that the rich citizens might not 
 feast at home. Children were brought up at the public expense ; 
 but weak and deformed infants were exposed to perish. All money 
 was made of iron, which other nations would not accept. The 
 great aim was to make the Spartans brave in war. 
 
 The Athenians were very different from the Spartans. Milton 
 called Athens, their chief city, “the eye of Greece, the mother 
 of arts and eloquence.” The Athenians were noted for their love 
 of the beautiful. Their painters produced the finest pictures. 
 Those have all perished; but some of their statues are still the 
 admiration of the world. Their temples, built of white marble, 
 were magnificent buildings. 
 
 Learning- —In learning the Greeks far surpassed the other 
 nations of Europe. Homer, the greatest of the Greek poets, was 
 a wandering minstrel, who went about from place to place, recit¬ 
 ing his verses. The general opinion is that he lived about 900 b.c. 
 Demosthenes was the chief of the Greek orators. Herodotus, 
 called the ‘ Father of History/ was a great traveller. 
 
 The Greeks resembled the Hindus in their love of logic. Aris¬ 
 totle’s treatise on logic has been studied in Europe for more than 
 two thousand years, and has contributed much to form what is 
 conect in modern thinking. His syllogism has three members 
 while the Indian has five. 
 
 The Greeks were the only nation of ancient Europe that knew 
 anything of grammar, though they made much less advance in it 
 than the Hindus. It took them a long time to obtain complete 
 names for the parts of speech. Plato knew only of noun and verb. 
 The distinction of the numbers was first pointed out by Aristotle; 
 
 but the technical names for singular and plural date from a later 
 
 period. 
 
8 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 Philosophy .—The Greeks, like the Hindus, had several schools of 
 philosophy. Thales, born about 640 b.c., was regarded as the 
 greatest of the seven wise men of Greece. He was the first Greek 
 who predicted an eclipse of the sun, and who ascertained that the 
 solar year consisted of 365 days. The first learned men among the 
 Greeks called themselves sophists , or wise men; but Pythagoras, 
 one of the most distinguished of them, took the name of philosopher ,* 
 or lover of wisdom. He spent 22 years iu Egypt, then one of tue 
 most learned countries in the world, and he also travelled in the 
 East. He taught the doctrine of transmigration, and pretended 
 that he remembered having passed through several human existences 
 previous to his being Pythagoras. He believed the sun to be a 
 globe of fire, placed in the centre of the universe, and round it 
 revolved the planets, of which the earth is one. He was an excel¬ 
 lent geometrician. Euclid’s 47th proposition, Book I., is by Pytha¬ 
 goras. His great maxim was, “ Know thyself.” 
 
 Socrates was the wisest and best of the Greek philosophers. He 
 acknowledged the existence of one Supreme God, the Maker and 
 Governor of the world. This seemed like a new religion to those 
 who worshipped many gods ; and at last Socrates was accused of 
 corrupting the Athenian youth, and condemned to die by drinking 
 the juice of hemlock. Socrates received the cup of poison, and 
 drank it off without the smallest emotion, then gently reproving 
 his friends for their excessive grief, he lay down on a couch, and 
 in a few minutes expired. 
 
 Plato, the pupil of Socrates, discoursed with so much sweetness 
 and eloquence, that the Greeks called him the Divine. Young 
 men from various parts of the world came to hear his instructions, 
 which he delivered in a grove near Athens, called Academia. Dio¬ 
 genes, surnamed the Cynic, or the Dog, lived in a tub, and despised 
 all the comforts of life. At a feast given by Plato, Diogenes tram¬ 
 pled on the rich carpet, saying, “ I trample, on the pride of Plato.” 
 “ Yes,” said Plato, smiling, “ with greater pride of thine own.” 
 
 Aristotle was called by Plato the “ Soul of his School.” He was 
 also styled the f Reader’ on account of his industry. Philip entrust¬ 
 ed to Aristotle the education of his son Alexander. As Aristotle 
 walked while he taught, his scholars were called Peripatetics.t 
 
 Two of the principal sects, the Epicureans and Stoics, will be 
 described under another head. 
 
 The Hindus adopted from the Greeks the twelve signs of the 
 Zodiac, and Professor Bhandarkar says that 1500 years ago they 
 worshipped the Greek astronomers, in the words of Gargi, as, “Rishis.” 
 
 The religion of the Greeks will be described with that of the 
 Romans. 
 
 * From philos , a lover, soplios , wise. f From peri , about, pater , to walk. 
 
ITALY AND THE ROMANS. 
 
 9 
 
 Though the Greeks were refined in some respects, in others they 
 were backward. As among Hindus, married women were uneduca¬ 
 ted, confiued to remote parts of the house, and were permitted to 
 see no male visitors. Abroad, their faces were concealed by veils. 
 On the other hand, prostitutes were taught music and other 
 accomplishments. The common people were despised ; the great 
 majority were slaves, bought and sold like cattle. 
 
 Italy and the Romans. 
 
 Country. —Italy is a long narrow peninsula in the south of 
 Europe. It is bounded on the east by the Adriatic Gulf, and on 
 the west by the Mediterranean. A mountain chain, called the 
 Apennines, traverses the whole length of the peninsula. Italy is 
 famed for the beauty of its sky, and the balmy softness of its air. 
 
 Early Inhabitants. —The original inhabitants of Italy were a 
 number of rude tribes, comprehended under the general name of 
 the Oscans. At a very remote period, however, the Pelasgi, a 
 people sprung from the same stock as the Greeks, formed colonies 
 on both sides of the peninsula, and drove the first settlers into the 
 mountain districts of the interior. The Oscans were a fierce hardy 
 race, ignorant of letters, employed partly in tending their flocks 
 and herds, partly in war and plunder. The Pelasgi, who had made 
 some progress in civilization, cultivated the soil, and founded cities. 
 
 The most important people of ancient Italy, after the Oscans and 
 Pelasgians, were the Etruriaus. The origin of this singular race is 
 uncertain, but the most probable supposition is that they came from 
 Lydia in Asia Minor. They gradually made themselves masters of 
 the north-west of the peninsula, subduing several Oscan and Palasgic 
 tribes. The government was conducted by capital cities, each ruling 
 over its district and its subject towns. In each city there were two 
 orders—the priest-nobles, somewhat like the Brahmins of India, and 
 the common people, who were little better than slaves. The priest- 
 nobles of each city annually chose one of their own number to act 
 as chief magistrate, but all affairs were regulated by divination, or 
 omens from the entrails and the flight of birds, from lightning, and 
 the stars. When the priest-nobles pointed to the black sky, or to 
 the lightning which played about the hill-tops, as signs of what the 
 gods meant to do to Etruria, the people trembled; and when the 
 means of averting the evil were made known, they were eager to 
 obey. 
 
 The Etrurians were a great commercial people, and became very 
 wealthy. They drained lakes by tunnels, rendered swamps fertile, 
 and confined rivers within their channels. Beautiful vases and 
 statues still exist, showing their skill in the fine arts. 
 
 After the Etrurians had established themselves in Italy, some of 
 B 
 
10 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 the mountain tribes descended upon the Pelasgians of the plains, 
 and from a mixture of races, the Latins arose, to whom Rome traced 
 her immediate origin, and who were the authors of her language. 
 
 Home. —Rome stands on the river Tiber, about 16 miles from the 
 sea. Its origin is uncertain. The tradition is that it was founded 
 by Romulus, the captain of a large baud of robbers, 753 b. c. For 
 about 240 years it was governed by kings, the last of whom was 
 driven out (509 b. c.) on account of the wickedness of his family. 
 
 Rome was a Republic for several centuries, presided over by two 
 chief officers, called consuls, chosen every year. Julius Caesar, who 
 was murdered 44 B. c., was granted supreme power for life, with the 
 title of dictator. Augustus Caesar, about 31 b. c., was proclaimed 
 Emperor. 
 
 The reign of Augustus was peaceful. The great event for which 
 it is remarkable, is the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ at Bethlehem. 
 Augustus gave all his thoughts to the improvement of the laws, 
 the erection of splendid buildings, and the encouragement of 
 learned men. The Augustan age, as it is called, has been celebrat¬ 
 ed ever since as a time when learning, and poetry, and accomplish¬ 
 ments, were especially valued. Virgil and Horace were the two 
 most distinguished poets; Livy was a great historian. 
 
 In the time of Augustus, the Roman empire embraced all the 
 nations of Europe in the south and west, except a few northern 
 tribes who maintained their independence. It included England, 
 France, Spain, parts of Germany, all the States of Italy, Greece, 
 the country now occupied by Turkey in Europe, besides many other 
 nations. In Asia, it embraced all the kingdoms from Asia Minor 
 on the west, to India on the east. It included the whole northern 
 portion of Africa, which was all then known ; the interior being 
 inhabited only by scattered bands of negroes. 
 
 It seems wonderful that one country should govern so many 
 nations. This was done, however, by placing Roman governors 
 over these various kingdoms ; the governors being sustained by a 
 multitude of Roman soldiers. 
 
 During this period, the people of Rome had great skill in archi¬ 
 tecture, sculpture, painting, and many other arts. Nor was this all. 
 The Romans built many public works of great utility; they con¬ 
 structed roads paved with stone; they built durable bridges, and 
 made aqueducts for supplying the cities with water. So numerous 
 and so permanent were their vast works, that the remains of them 
 are still to be found in most of those countries over which the 
 Roman dominion was then established, though they were executed 
 nearly two thousand years ago. 
 
 Rome was then the greatest city in the world. The population 
 was probably about two millions. The various generals who con¬ 
 quered other countries robbed them of their choicest treasures, and 
 
ITALY AND THE ROMANS. 
 
 13 
 
 these were brought to Rome to decorate and enrich the capital. 
 There were beautiful statues from Greece, obelisks and columns from 
 Egypt, and a great variety of curious and costly manufactures from 
 Asia. Gold, silver, and precious stones, had been gathered from 
 every part of the earth. The city was embellished with temples, 
 many of them beautifully sculptured ; there were also theatres, am¬ 
 phitheatres, porticoes, public baths, triumphal arches, and aque¬ 
 ducts. Augustus boasted that he had found Rome of brick, and 
 left it of marble. In short, the city had that air of pomp and 
 maguificence which suited the capital of the greatest empire that 
 the world ever saw. 
 
 The Romans were almost continually engaged in wars. Their 
 military affairs, therefore, occupied the attention of the most 
 distinguished citizens. According to the Roman laws, every free¬ 
 born citizen was a soldier, and bound to serve in the army at any 
 period from the age of seventeen to that of forty-six. 
 
 Some of the soldiers were armed with light javelins, and others 
 with a heavier weapon of a similar description. All, however, 
 carried shields and short swords, which they wore on the right 
 
 side. They were dressed in a metal cuirass, with an under-cover¬ 
 ing of cloth, which was generally red, and hung loose to the knee. 
 Ou the head they wore brazen helmets, ornamented with flowing 
 tufts of horse hair. The uniform of the generals was an open scar¬ 
 let mantle. 
 
 Amusements. —Boxing, wrestling, throwing the quoit, and chariot 
 
12 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 races, were some of the amusements of the Romans ; but the 
 combats of wild beasts and of gladiators, men who fought for 
 public entertainment, took the lead of all others. 
 
 Circular buildings, called amphitheatres, were erected for the 
 shows of gladiators. Oue of them, called the Colosseum, com¬ 
 menced in the reign of Vespasian, is supposed to have been large 
 enough to contain upwards of eighty thousand persons. 
 
 The wild beasts were secured iu dens round the arena, or open 
 space in the centre, which was strongly fenced, and surrounded 
 by a wall, to guard the spectators against their attacks. A vast 
 number of wild beasts were made to destroy each other iu these 
 very cruel exhibitions. Eleven thousand are said to have been 
 slain during four mouths of triumph, in honor of a conquest over 
 the Dacians ; and five hundred lives were killed in a few days, on 
 another similar occasion. 
 
 The first public combats of gladiators took place at Rome about 
 250 B. C. They were exhibited at a funeral. From that period 
 they became frequent on such occasions, and afterwards, on days 
 of public festival, were considered a material part of the cere¬ 
 
 monies. Five hundred pairs of these wretched beings were some¬ 
 times led to the public games, to sacrifice each other for the 
 amusement of barbarous spectators. They were at first taken 
 from captives in war, or malefactors; afterwards from slaves train¬ 
 ed to the profession. They fought with various weapons, some in 
 complete armour, others with only a trident and a net, in which 
 they endeavoured to entangle their adversary, and thus slay him. 
 
 These combats, conducted with the most bloody and savage 
 spirit, are sufficient proofs of the degraded and brutalized condition 
 
ITALY AND THE ROMANS. 
 
 13 
 
 of the period in which they were tolerated. They were at last 
 prohibited by the Emperor Constantine, who embraced Chris¬ 
 tianity. 
 
 Wealth, not gained by industry, is generally a curse. In Rome 
 it resulted in the impoverishment of the masses, and the accumula¬ 
 tion of vast riches in the hands of a few, ending in boundless 
 luxury. Large estates were bought which were worked by slaves. 
 People who could no longer maintain themselves in the country 
 flocked to Rome, where there was a free distribution of grain. On 
 an appointed day of the month, each person enrolled received 5 
 bushels of wheat. In the time of Julius Caesar the number thus 
 supplied was 320,000. The thief and adulterer received the public 
 grain the same as any others. Like the indiscriminate almsgiving 
 of India, it simply encouraged idleness and vice. 
 
 Slaves. —More than half the population of Rome, consisted of 
 slaves. They were bought, sold, and branded just like cattle. 
 Sometimes 10,000 were sold in a single day. As porters, they 
 were chained in front of the gate like watch dogs in England ; at 
 night they were shut up like cattle in stalls. They were flogged 
 and crucified often on the least occasion. Sometimes they were 
 thrown as food into the fish-ponds. When old and diseased, they 
 were usually left to perish on an island in the Tiber. 
 
 Lower Free-born. —The lower free-born classes in Rome were 
 little above the slaves. They were, for the most part, beggars and 
 idlers. Despising a life of honest industry, they asked only for 
 bread and the games of the circus. They spent their mornings in 
 lounging about the public courts or in dancing attendance at the 
 levees of their patrons, for a share in whose gifts they daily 
 struggled. They spent their afternoons and evenings in gossiping 
 at the public baths, in listening to filthy plays at the theatre, or in 
 enjoying the bloody sports of the arena. At night they crept up 
 to their miserable lodging-places. 
 
 Extravagance of the Rich. —A few rolled in wealth. Their 
 houses were filled with the costliest marbles, carved ivories, chairs 
 and couches of ebony and pearl, ornaments of gold, vessels of 
 amber, &c. The wife of the emperor Nero led about a train of 
 she-asses that she might bathe in their milk ; the mules drawing 
 her carriage were shod with gold. A sum equal to a thousand 
 rupees was sometimes paid for a single fish; dishes were served of 
 the brains of peacocks and the tongues of nightingales. Pearls 
 were sometimes dissolved in wine to make it more costly. Ban¬ 
 quets were served by naked girls. To support such luxury, men 
 asked for the government of provinces for the sole purpose of 
 enriching themselves by extortion. Still, they were not happy. 
 
14 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 Religion of the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 The early Aryans, in their original home in Asia, spoke the 
 same language and worshipped the same supreme God under the 
 same name. Max Muller says : 
 
 “ If I were asked what I consider the most important discovery which 
 has been made during the nineteenth century with respect to the ancient 
 history of mankind, I should answer by the following short line : 
 
 Sanskrit DYAUS H-PITARrzGreek ZET2IIATHP (ZEUS PATER) 
 —Latin JUPITER=01d Norse TYR. 
 
 “ Think what this equation implies ! It implies not only that our own 
 ancestors and the ancestors of Homer and Cicero (the Greeks and Romans) 
 spoke the same language as the people of India—this is a discovery 
 which, however incredible it sounded at first, has long ceased to cause 
 any surprise—but it implies and proves that they all had once the same 
 faith, and worshipped for a time the same supreme Deity under exactly 
 the same name—a name which meant Heaven-Eather. 
 
 “ If we wish to realise to its fullest extent the unbroken continuity in 
 the language, in the thoughts and words of the principal Aryan nations, 
 let us look at the accents in the following list:— 
 
 
 Sanskrit. 
 
 Greek. 
 
 Nom. 
 
 Dyaus. 
 
 Zeu? 
 
 Gen. 
 
 Divas. 
 
 A to? 
 
 Loc. 
 
 Divi. 
 
 A fr/ 
 
 /Nil 
 
 Acc. 
 
 Divam. 
 
 Aia 
 
 Voc 
 
 Dyaus 
 
 Zed 
 
 tl Here we see that at the time when the Greeks had become such 
 thorough Greeks that they hardly knew of the existence of India, the 
 people at Athens laid the accent in the oblique cases of Zeus on exactly 
 the same syllable on which the Brahmans laid it at Benares, with this 
 difference only, that the Brahmans knew the reason why, while the 
 Athenians did not.” # 
 
 The same view is taken by Dr. John Muir. He says: 
 
 “ The mythology of the Veda does exhibit in some points a certain 
 similarity to that of Homer and Hesiod (Greek Poets), and the mutual 
 resemblance between the religious ideas of those ancient works is, upon 
 the whole, greater than that existing between the later Indian and the 
 Greek pantheons. I say upon the whole, the older Indian mythology 
 coincides more nearly with the Greek than the later Indian mythology 
 does. But, on the other hand, the later Indian system presents some 
 points of resemblance with the Greek which the Vedic system does not 
 exhibit. I allude to the fact that we find in the Indian epic poems and 
 Puranas a god of the sea, a god of war, and a goddess of love, who (the 
 last two, at least), are unknown to the oldest parts of the Veda, and yet 
 
 * Nineteenth Century , Oct. 1S85, pp. 626, 627. 
 
KELIGION OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 
 
 15 
 
 correspond in a general way to the Poseidon, the Ares, and the Aphrodite 
 of the Greeks.”* 
 
 Besides Jupiter, the names of several other gods corresponded. 
 Yaruna, is the Greek Ouranos ; TJshas is the Eos of the Greeks and 
 the Aurora of the Latins; Agui as the Ignis of the Latins. There 
 are other resemblances though not in name. The Titans, like the 
 Asurs, fight with the gods ; Durga and Juno, Krishna aud Apollo; 
 Kartikeya or Skauda and Mars; Yama and Pluto; Kuvera and 
 Plutus ; Yisvakarma and Yulcan ; Narada and Mercury ; Ganesa 
 and Janus ; have somewhat similar characters. In course of time, 
 however, differences arose. 
 
 The gods of the Greeks and Romans had generally different 
 names, and did not correspond in all respects; but they were often 
 looked upon as the same. 
 
 An account will now be given of some of them. 
 
 The most ancient of the Greek gods was Chaos, a word meaning 
 a shapeless mass. His wife was Darkness. From these parents 
 were born the Earth (Hindu, Prithivi) and other children. The 
 Earth had a son, Uranus, Heaven, whom she afterwards married. 
 They had a number of children of gigantic size, called Titans, whom 
 their father treated cruelly, shutting them up in caves. The mother 
 took the part of her children, and Saturn, the eldest, dethroned his 
 father. Saturn’s brothers agreed that he should reign on condition 
 that he did not rear any male children. 
 
 Saturn married his sister, called Cybele. His reign was called 
 the Golden Age, when the earth produced without labour food for 
 its inhabitants, and wars were unknown. To fulfil the promise 
 made to his brothers, Saturn devoured his male children as soon 
 as they were born. Cybele, grieved at this, when a son, called 
 Jupiter, was born, resolved to deceive her husband. She accord¬ 
 ingly dressed a large stone in the clothes of an infant, and gave it 
 to Saturn, who swallowed the stone and thought it had been his 
 child. Saturn was similarly deceived at the birth of two other 
 sons, Neptune and Pluto. What an idea of religion must people 
 have had who supposed that their chief god was a cannibal, 
 devouring his own sons, and such a fool as thrice to mistake a 
 stone for a child ! 
 
 When Cybele’s sons grew up, she presented them to their father, 
 who was so pleased with them, that he took them into favour. 
 
 The Titans made war upon Saturn for breaking his agreement. 
 At first they were completely successful; they took Saturn and his 
 wife prisoners, bound them with chains, and confined them in hell. 
 A few years afterwards, however, Jupiter overcame the Titans, set 
 
 * Sanskrit Texts, Yol. Y. pp. 2, 3. 
 
16 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 bis father and mother at liberty, and shut up the Titans in the 
 prison in which they had kept Saturn. 
 
 Saturn had heard that he should be deprived of his kingdom by 
 his eldest son. Afraid of this, he plotted to take away his life ; but 
 Jupiter, having found out the design, drove Saturn out of his king¬ 
 dom. Jupiter then took to himself the government of heaven and 
 earth, assigning the sea to Neptune, and hell to Pluto. Jupiter was 
 acknowledged the greatest of all the gods. He is styled by Homer, 
 
 “ father of gods and men.” 
 
 The giants, sons of the Barth, wished to avenge the death of 
 their relations the Titans. Some of them were said to have had 
 fifty heads and a hundred arms, with serpents instead of legs. 
 They were so powerful that they hurled rocks and heaped up 
 mountains to reach heaven. The gods, to avoid their fury, fled to 
 Egypt, where they concealed themselves in the form of animals. 
 Jupiter, however, with the assistance of his son Hercules, famous 
 for his strength, at last overcame the giants. 
 
 When Jupiter was securely seated on the throne of heaven, like 
 many an Indian raja, he gave himself up to sensual pleasure. He 
 married a number of wives, and is said to have assumed various 
 shapes to gratify his passions. He seduced Leda in the form of a 
 swan, and Europa in that of a white bull. Jupiter’s first wife was 
 Metis, celebrated for her wisdom. Afraid lest she should bring 
 forth a son cleverer than himself, Jupiter devoured her in the first 
 month of her pregnancy. Some time after, Jupiter felt a great 
 pain in his head, and ordered Yulcan to cleave it open. The god¬ 
 dess Minerva then sprang out fully armed. She was called Athena 
 by the Greeks, and was supposed to protect Athens. 
 
 Jupiter was usually represented as seated on a throne of ivory, 
 holding in his right hand a sceptre and thunderbolts in his left; an 
 eagle, with expanded wings, at his feet. 
 
 Juno was the sister and chief wife of Jupiter. Their marriage 
 was celebrated with great pomp, the gods, all mankind, and the 
 brutes attending. Juno thus became queen of the gods and mis¬ 
 tress of heaven and earth ; but on account of her husband’s frequent 
 adulteries she was hot happy. She was so provoked at last that 
 she left heaven, resolving to forsake Jupiter for ever. To recover 
 her, he spread a report that he was going to marry another wife, 
 which made her return. 
 
 As Parvati is said to have formed Ganesa from the scurf of her 
 body, Juno wished to have a son of her own without her husband. 
 She is said to have brought forth Yulcan by only smelling a certain 
 plant. 
 
 Juno hated Jupiter’s concubines and his children by them. On 
 account of her cruelty to Hercules, Jupiter suspended her from 
 heaven by a golden chain, tying a heavy anvil to her feet. Her 
 
RELIGION OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 
 
 17 
 
 son Vulcan relieved her, whicli made Jupiter so angry that he 
 kicked him down from heaven. He was nine days in falling, and 
 broke his leg, so that ever afterwards he was lame ! 
 
 Juno was represented as seated on a throne, holding a sceptre 
 in one hand and a distaff, for spinning thread, in the other. Her 
 car was drawn by peacocks. 
 
 Space does not permit the other gods to be described in detail. 
 Apollo was the sun-god ; his sister Diana, the moon goddess. Mer¬ 
 cury, the messeuger of the gods, was the protector of thieves. 
 
 The Greeks and Romans supposed that a river had to be crossed 
 after death, but it was far less dreadful than the Vaitarani of the 
 Hindus. There was a ferryman, called Charon, who took spirits 
 across in his boat on the payment of a small piece of money. It 
 was therefore the custom when a person died to place under his 
 tongue a small copper coin. Persons who had not been honoured 
 with a funeral, were not permitted to enter Charon’s boat without 
 previously wandering on the shore for a hundred years. 
 
 The Greeks are said to have had 30,000 gods and goddesses. 
 In Athens idols were so numerous, that it was said to be easier to 
 find a god than a man in the city. 
 
 The supposed gods of the Greeks and Romans behaved very 
 much like those of the Hindus. They quarrelled and fought with 
 each other, and were guilty of all kinds of crime. Men excused 
 their evil deeds by the example of Jupiter. “How could a mortal 
 have greater power than a god ?” The temple of Venus at Corinth 
 had a thousand prostitutes, like the devadasis of South India. 
 
 Nearly every city had its local deity to whom it looked for 
 protection, and whose supremacy it acknowledged. When the 
 Romans conquered a province or city, its gods were solemnly 
 invited to come and take their seat in Rome, where they would 
 receive due honour. 
 
 The deification of the emperors showed the progressive degrada¬ 
 tion of the religion of Rome. Divine honours began to be rendered 
 to Julius Caesar during his lifetime. After his death, sacrifices 
 were offered to him upon the altar. He was made a god, and 
 went by the name of Divine Julius. In course of time, the worship 
 of the Emperors eclipsed all other worships. Multitudes of altars 
 and temples rose in their honour in all parts of the Roman world. 
 The basest tyrants were enthroned as objects of religious worship. 
 Divine houours were voted to the dead infant of Nero, four months 
 old. Foreign rites were introduced into Rome from all parts. 
 Priests of the goddess Cybele, howling and with dishevelled hair, 
 went through the streets, lashing themselves to blood with thongs, 
 and striking their cymbals, offering for a hundred eggs to ward off 
 the diseases of autumn. Priests of the Egyptian Isis were also 
 there, in long linen robes, with the dog-mask before their faces, and 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 their rattle in tlieir hands. All sorts of jugglers, necromancers, 
 soothsayers, and astrologers were there. Even the lowest form 
 of heathenism,—fetichism appeared. The emperor Nero, having 
 become tired of the goddess Astarte, no longer worshipped any 
 deity, but only an amulet, or charm, which had been given him. 
 
 Atheism and the grossest superstition flourished side by side. 
 Men who boasted of being atheists trembled in secret at the 
 mysterious power of magical spells, aud read the future in the 
 palpitating entrails of a murdered child. About the future, the 
 feeling was that of despair. 
 
 Such was the condition of ancient Rome when it was first visited 
 by Christian Missionaries from Asia. It was hard to say which 
 was the more abandoned, the multitude who still adored divinities, 
 the patrons of every vice, or the scholars who laughed at supersti¬ 
 tion, and perpetrated crimes worthy of a Mars or Jupiter. 
 
 The south of Britain had recently been conquered by the 
 Romans, and was held in subjection by camps studded over the 
 country. Amid the forests to the north and east of the Danube 
 there dwelt rude tribes which had defied the Roman arms, and 
 were destined, 500 years later, to pour fresh blood into the decay¬ 
 ing empire. 
 
 Parthia was then a powerful state, extending from the Euphrates 
 to the Indus. Buddhism was the dominant religion in India, al¬ 
 though Brahmanism had many followers. In China, as at present, 
 the worship of ancestors was the prevailing superstition. 
 
 The First Christian Missionaries to Europe. 
 
 According to the promise made thousands of years before, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, was born for man’s 
 salvation nearly 19 centuries ago. After going about for a time, 
 teaching and performing wonderful works, He died on the cross. 
 On the third day He rose from the dead, and after remaining for 
 a few weeks with His disciples, ascended to heaven. His last 
 charge to His chosen followers was, “ Go and teach all nations.’’ 
 This command was gradually obeyed. At the commencement. 
 Western Asia received most labour, and there the number of 
 converts was greatest. 
 
 The first Christian Missionary to Europe was a Jew, called Paul, 
 formerly a bitter persecutor of the Christians ; but, after his bap¬ 
 tism, a most zealous preacher. About the year 53 a. d., Paul, 
 looking across the Hellespont, first saw the blue summits of the 
 European mountains. He had a vision of a man who prayed, say- 
 iug, “ Come over into Macedonia and help us.” That figure 
 represented Europe, and its cry for help Europe’s need of Christ. 
 
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES TO EUROPE. 
 
 19 
 
 Paul, with three companions, set sail for Macedonia, where they 
 landed in two days. 
 
 Paul at Athens. —Space does not permit Paul’s journeys to be 
 described; but a short account may be given of his address at 
 Athens, at that time the most famous city in the world, for its 
 philosophers, orators, painters, and sculptors. 
 
 Athens is situated in the south of Europe, about three miles from 
 the sea. The city stands on a plain, but there are four small hills, 
 all of which formed part of the city. One of the hills, called the 
 Acropolis, or citadel, is a square craggy rock on which stood tho 
 
 THE PARTHENON. 
 
 Parthenon, the famous temple of Athena, the goddess supposed to 
 watch over the city. It was built of white marble : the image of 
 the goddess, celebrated for its size and beauty, was made of ivory 
 and gold, 26 cubits in height. She was represented with a shield in 
 the one hand, and an image of victory in the other. Not far from 
 the Acropolis is another rock,-called Mars’ Hill, where important 
 cases were tried by judges. The plain below was covered with 
 houses, temples, and other public buildings; statues everywhere 
 met the eye. 
 
 Athens was noted for its idlers. Both the people of the city and 
 the strangers who came to it, spent their time in nothing else but 
 either to tell or to hear some new thing. The chief place of resort 
 was the market-place, a square, surrounded with temples and 
 shady porticos. Near it were some famous schools of philosophy. 
 
20 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 ATHENA OR MINERVA. 
 
 Paul was alone in Athens. He went through the city from 
 street to street, looking at every thing. His chief attention was 
 taken up with the numerous temples and images. His spirit was 
 stirred within him when he saw that the city was wholly given to 
 idolatry. He felt sad that men should forget their great Creator, 
 and give the honour due to Him to the work of their own hands. 
 
 Paul went first to the few Jews who were in the city, and 
 reasoned with them in their synagogue or church; but his chief* 
 work was in the market-place, where he went every day to speak 
 with any who were willing to hear what he had to say. Among 
 those whom he met were two classes of Athenian philosophers from 
 the schools near at hand. 
 
 One class, called Epicureans, took their name from Epicurus, 
 who lived more than 300 years before Paul visited Athens. He 
 taught that the world was not made by a Creator, but by particles 
 of matter coming together by chance, and that pleasure is the chief 
 good. Epicurus himself was much better than his followers, whose 
 motto, in later times, may be said to have been, “ Let us eat and 
 drink, for to-morrow we die.” 
 
 The Stoics were the other class. They got their name from stoa , 
 a porch, in which Zeno, their founder, first taught. Virtue was 
 held to be the highest good, and they pretended to be indifferent 
 alike to pleasure and pain. Many of them, however, where 
 hypocrites, indulging in vice; while some were tempted to suicide. 
 
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES TO EUROPE. 
 
 21 
 
 Paul did not talk with the philosophers about the questions 
 which they were fond of discussing, but about Jesus and the resur¬ 
 rection from the dead. The feeling excited was a certain amount 
 of curiosity, mixed with contempt. Paul seemed to them “ a setter 
 forth of strange gods,” a mere seed-pecker, one who picks up 
 scraps of knowledge which he does not understand. As far as 
 they could make out, Paul appeared to be preaching a new religion. 
 As it was difficult to hear in the crowd, they proposed to go to 
 Mars' Hill, close at hand. 
 
 They went up from the market-place by some steps, to the top 
 of the rock, where there was a level spot, encircled by a stone 
 bench. Some of Paul's hearers sat; others stood around him. The 
 blue sky was above his head; in front was the Acropolis, crowned 
 with temples. Stretching out his hand, Paul spoke as follows :— 
 
 “ Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are somewhat 
 religions. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your wor¬ 
 ship, i found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown god. 
 What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this set I forth unto you. The 
 God that made the world and all things therein, He, being Lord of 
 heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; neither 
 is served by men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He 
 Himself giveth to all life and breath and all things ; and He made of one 
 every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, having 
 determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; 
 that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after Him and find 
 Him, though He is not far from any one of us : for in Him we live and 
 move and have our being : as certain even of your own poets have said, 
 for we are also His offspring. Being then the offspring of God, we 
 ought not to think that the God-head is like unto gold, or silver, or 
 stone, graven by art and device of man. The times of ignorance there¬ 
 fore God overlooked ; but now He commandeth men that they should 
 all everywhere repent: inasmuch as He hath appointed a day in the 
 which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He 
 hath ordained ; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that 
 He hath raised Him from the dead.” 
 
 A few short explanations may be given of the address. 
 
 Like the greatest of the Greek orators, Paul began with “Ye 
 men of Athens/’ He acknowledged that they were very religious. 
 The Athenians confessed by the inscription on the altar that there 
 was a God whom they did not know. He was the God whom Paul 
 preached. Pointing, perhaps, to the splendid Parthenon, .Paul 
 taught that God dwells not in temples made with hands, He is the 
 great Creator of all things, find does not need anything from us. 
 
 The Athenians claimed to have sprung from the earth; Paul 
 taught, on the contrary, that all men were equally made by God. 
 He has given them power to find Him, though they have but dimly 
 
22 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 groped after Him in the darkness. In support of what he said, 
 Paul made a well-kuown quotation from a Greek poet, “ For we are 
 also His offspring.” 
 
 The Athenians were proud of the beautiful statues of their gods ; 
 but Paul declared that the Godhead is not like to gold, silver or 
 stone, formed into images. 
 
 After teaching the “ Fatherhood of God” and the “ Brotherhood 
 of Man,” Paul said that the times of ignorance God had overlooked ; 
 but that now He commanded all men everywhere to repent. He 
 also spoke of a coming judgment, of which God had given a pledge 
 by raising from the dead, the ordained judge, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. He, before whom we must stand at the last day, now 
 invites us to come to Him as our Saviour. 
 
 When Paul spoke of the resurrection, some, probably the Epicure¬ 
 ans, broke into open mocking*, while others, probably the Stoics, 
 with a show of politeness, said, “ We will hear thee concerning 
 this yet again.” 
 
 Still, some believed and were baptized. Among them was 
 Dionysius, one of the judges of the court of Areopagus, a woman 
 named Damaris, and others with them. It must have been a great 
 trial to take this bold step in a city wholly given to idolatry. But 
 they sought the truth, and were not content simply to walk accord¬ 
 ing to custom. 
 
 Although Paul never again visited Athens, a Christian church 
 was established which afterwards produced some eminent men. 
 The temple of Athena was converted into a place of worship for tho 
 one true God, and on Mars’ Hill there now stands a church, called 
 after Dionysius. 
 
 Paul next went to Corinth, on the isthmus joining the southern 
 peniusnla of Greece with the mainland. It was a great commercial 
 city, but so notorious for its licentiousness that it passed into a 
 proverb. Paul remained there a year aud a half, and many became 
 Christians. Two of Paul’s longest epistles, or letters, in the New 
 Testament, are addressed to the Corinthian church. 
 
 Christianity at Home. 
 
 When Pompey, the Roman General, took Jerusalem 63 b. c., 
 he carried away captives to Rome a number of Jews. They increas¬ 
 ed in number, and had a part of the city allotted to them. Some 
 of them went to Jerusalem to attend the Jewish feasts. When the 
 Apostle Peter preached to a great multitude shortly after the Lord 
 Jesus Christ went up to heaven, among those who heard him were 
 “ strangers of Rome.” Either these or some of the Christians driven 
 from Jerusalem may have founded the Church at Rome. It includ¬ 
 ed converts both from among the Jews and Romans. Among 
 
CHRISTIANITY AT ROME. 
 
 23 
 
 them afterwards tlieTe were some of “ Cassatts household,” or 
 connected with the Emperor. 
 
 The longest epistle of Paul was written from Corinth, 58 a. d., to 
 the Christians of Rome. About three years later, Paul was brought 
 as a prisoner to Italy. When the Christians at Rome heard that he 
 had landed, some of them came to meet him. They saw a little grey¬ 
 headed old man, a chained prisoner; but they received him as an 
 ambassador of Jesus Christ. Paul “ thanked God and took courage/’ 
 
 At Rome Paul was allowed to live by himself in his own hired 
 house, in charge of a soldier to whom he was chained. He first 
 sought to make known the gospel to the Jews at Rome, some of 
 whom believed, and some believed not. Afterwards he laboured 
 among the Romans, no one forbidding him. 
 
 Paul spent about two years in Rome, after which he was set free. 
 The numbers of Christians must have increased rapidly, judging 
 from the persecution of them which took place the following year. 
 
 Persecutions of Nero and Martyrdom of Paul. —Nero, the Roman 
 Emperor, was one of the greatest monsters of cruelty the world 
 ever saw. His father and mother were notorious for their wicked¬ 
 ness. The education of Nero was intrusted to two slaves, one a 
 barber, the other a dancer. Nero was a child of exquisite beauty, 
 and the pride of his mother, Agrippina, who wished him to become 
 Emperor. Agrippina persuaded her uncle, the Emperor Claudius, 
 to marry her as his sixth wife. She poisoned her husband, and 
 
 NERO. 
 
 Nero became Emperor. Britannicus, the son of Claudius, and 
 rightful heir to the throne, was afterwards poisoned. Nero married, 
 as his second wife, Poppaea, a very beautiful woman, wife of one of 
 his friends, but very wicked. She gained a complete influence 
 over him, and instigated him to some of his worst crimes, including 
 the murder of his mother. Poppaea herself, not loug after, died 
 
24 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 from a kick given to her by Nero when she was far gone in 
 pregnancy. 
 
 A terrible fire broke out in Rome which raged for several days, 
 and laid about three-fourths of the city in ruins. A report was 
 spread that it had been caused by Nero, who, during the conflagra¬ 
 tion, dressed as an actor, was said to have declaimed over it a poem 
 on the burning of Troy. The belief that Nero had set fire to the 
 world's capital for his own pleasure, excited a strong feeling 
 against him. To remove it, he falsely charged the Christians with 
 the crime. 
 
 The more cruelly Christians were treated, the more guilty would 
 they be made to appear. New modes of execution were invented 
 to torture them. Some were sewn up in the skins of wild beasts 
 and torn to pieces by dogs. Women were bound to raging bulls 
 and dragged to death. In the evening, the people were invited to 
 a display in Nero's garden. All around huge torches were blazing 
 to dispel the darkness. They were Christians, who, covered with 
 tow and coated with pitch and then bound to stakes of wood, were 
 lighted and burned as torches. Nero drove about, dressed as a 
 charioteer, and the people shouted with delight. Afterwards, how¬ 
 ever, sympathy was awakened for the Christians, who were thought 
 to be destroyed, not for the public good, but to glut the cruelty of 
 one man. 
 
 Paul was afterwards brought back to Rome as a prisoner on a new 
 charge. When he appeared before Nero, no man stood by him. 
 It was dangerous for any one to help a Christian in those evil times. 
 Paul expected to be put to death ; but he looked forward to it with 
 peace and joy. He wrote : “ I am now ready to be offered, and the 
 time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I 
 have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there 
 is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the 
 righteous judge shall give me on that day; and not to me only, but 
 unto all them also that love His appearing." 
 
 When an old man, of about 70 years of age, Paul was led out 
 beyond the gates of Rome to die. Luke, his faithful friend, was 
 no doubt with him, and would cheer his weary march to the place 
 of execution. Above all, the Lord Jesus Christ would be with him, 
 so that when the axe was raised to sever his head from his body, 
 he could triumphantly exclaim, “ 0 Death, where is thy sting ? O 
 Grave where is thy victory ? Thanks be to God who giveth us the 
 victory through Jesus Christ." Eighteen centuries have since 
 passed away, and Paul is enjoying unspeakable happiness in Heaven. 
 
 Causes of the Persecution of Christians. 
 
 The first persecution of Christians by Nero was simply to 
 support a false charge. Afterwards several of the emperors 
 
CAUSES OF THE PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 25 
 
 persecuted the Christians for other reasons which will now be 
 explained. 
 
 When the Queen of England, in 1858, assumed the direct 
 Government of India, she issued a proclamation that “None be in 
 any wise favoured, none molested or disquieted by reason of their 
 religious faith or observances.” Religious toleration has been 
 recognised as the duty of the State only in very modern times; in 
 some countries it is yet unknown. It was formerly thought that a 
 king had a right to compel the people to worship his god. Nebu¬ 
 chadnezzar, king of Babylon (600 b. c.), issued a proclamation 
 that any one who did not worship the golden image he had set up 
 should “ the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery 
 furnace.” The name of Maecenas is now proverbial as a patron of 
 learning, yet he gave the following advice to the Roman Emperor 
 Augustus : “ Always and everywhere worship the gods according 
 to the rites of your country, and compel others to the same 
 worship. Pursue with your hatred and punishments those who 
 introduce foreign religions,” Under Muhammadan rule it was 
 death for a Mussulman to become a Christian. 
 
 The one universal religion throughout the Roman empire was the 
 worship of the emperor as a god. The people generally were 
 quite willing to add one more deity to the numbers they already 
 worshipped. But it was different with the Christians. “To 
 prove your obedience to the emperor,” said a Roman governor to 
 Achatius, “ sacrifice with us to his honour.” Upon this Achatius, 
 explained, “ I pray to God for my emperor, but a sacrifice neither 
 should he require nor we pay. Who may offer divine honours to a 
 man ?” Upon this declaration he was sentenced to death. This 
 one transaction is typical of all. 
 
 Some disliked Christianity because it interfered with their gains. 
 There were many persons engaged in image-making, in providing 
 sacrifices, and as priests in the temples. With the spread of 
 Christianity, the demand for idols decreased, and there were fewer 
 offerings at the shrines. 
 
 It was thought that the prosperity of a country depended upon 
 the worship of its gods. Christians had no images and did not 
 offer sacrifices; so they were regarded as atheists, men without any 
 religion. Earthquakes, famine aud pestilence were looked upon as 
 calamities sent by the offended deities for the neglect of their 
 worship. The execution of the Christians was supposed to be the 
 best means of propitiating them. The cry was immediately raised, 
 “ The Christians to the lions!” The same idea prevails, more 
 or less, in India. In Tinnevelly numbers have become Christians. 
 If there is an outbreak of cholera, it is attributed to the anger 
 of the demons at no longer being worshipped. 
 
 The most horrible reports were spread about the Christians. 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 They were said at their meetings to be guilty of the practices 
 of the Vamacharis in India, as well as to kill and eat little chil¬ 
 dren. Even the best of the Romans regarded Christianity as a 
 “ hateful superstition,” and its followers were styled “ enemies 
 of the human race.” When Paul first came to Rome, the Jews 
 told him that “ everywhere this sect is spoken against.” 
 
 Pliny the younger, an amiable and upright Roman, was appoint¬ 
 ed governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor. He found the Christians 
 very numerous, and felt doubtful how to deal with them. To gain 
 more accurate information, he put two Christian women to the 
 torture. In a letter to the emperor Trajan, he thus summed up 
 what he learned: “ They met on a stated day before day-break, 
 addressed a form of prayer to Christ, as to a divinity, binding them¬ 
 selves by a solemn oath, not for any wicked purpose, but never to 
 commit fraud, theft, or adultery, never to break their word, or 
 deny a trust when called on to deliver it up; after which it was 
 their custom to separate, and then re-assemble, and to eat together 
 a harmless meal.” 
 
 Any persons brought before Pliny accused of being Christians 
 who persevered in their belief, he ordered to be immediately 
 punished. “ For,” said he, a I was persuaded that whatever the 
 nature of their opinions might be, a contumacious and inflexible 
 obstinacy certainly deserves correction.” 
 
 Trajan, in his reply, approved of what Pliny had done. He did 
 not wish Christians to be officiously sought out; but if they were 
 brought before Pliny and did not deny Christ, they were to be 
 punished. 
 
 Accounts of Martyrs. 
 
 A martyr , from the Greek word martyr , a witness, is one who 
 by his death bears witness to the truth ; or one who suffers death 
 rather than give up his religious opinions. An account will now 
 be given of some of the early Christian martyrs. The first was 
 Stephen, whose death is described in the New Testament. 
 
 Ignatius, —Ignatius had known'St. John, and was made bishop 
 of Antioch, 30 years before the Apostle’s death. Antioch, in 
 Syria, was the place where the disciples of Christ were first called 
 Christians. In the year 107 A. D., the emperor Trajan came to 
 Antioch. He ordered everybody to worship the heathen gods, 
 and threatened death to those who should refuse". The Christians 
 could not do this, and Ignatius was brought before the emperor. 
 When Ignatius confessed that he was a Christian, the sentence 
 was passed on him that he should be bound and taken to Rome, 
 there to be devoured by wild beasts, and to serve for a spectacle 
 to the people. When he heard his sentence of death, he cried out 
 
ACCOUNTS OF MARTYRS. 
 
 27 
 
 in great joy, et I thank Thee, 0 Lord, that Thou hast given me a 
 perfect love for Thee, and that Thou hast permitted me to be 
 bound with chains like Paul Thine apostle." When he had said 
 this, he himself put on his chains. Having prayed with his people, 
 he then gave himself up to the soldiers who were to take him to 
 Rome. 
 
 It was a long and toilsome journey over land and sea to an aged 
 man like Ignatius. The soldiers in charge of him also treated 
 him very cruelly. He compared them to leopards. “ From Syria 
 unto Rome,” he said, “ I fight with beasts, by land and sea, by 
 night and day; enchained of ten leopards, which are the band of 
 soldiers, who by kindness are made harsher." 
 
 At Smyrna he had the joy of seeing his dear friend Polycarp. 
 Long years before, when both were young, they used to sit at the 
 feet of St. John. How would their hearts burn as they talked 
 together of those days ! The churches throughout Asia Minor sent 
 messengers to Smyrna to comfort Ignatius with their sympathy, 
 and to receive his parting words of counsel. He wrote several 
 letters to them which are still preserved. Polycarp said, “ Would 
 to God that I too might be found worthy to suffer for this cause." 
 To which Ignatius replied, ‘ Doubt not, brother, that thy time will 
 come, but for the present the church hath need of thee. Stand fast 
 like an anvil that is beaten.” 
 
 Ignatius wrote a letter to some Christians at Rome, that they 
 might not try to prevent his being killed. “ Suffer me,” he said, 
 “ to be food for wild beasts. I am as wheat for God's service ; let 
 me be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure 
 bread of Christ." When he arrived at Rome the people had been 
 expecting his coming, and were impatient for his death. Whilst 
 they were in the theatre they heard he had come, and cried out, 
 11 l'he Christian to the lions !" The soldiers hurried him in, and 
 while the lions were being’ let loose he spoke to the people, telling 
 them why he was ready to die, “ I shall go to Him," he said, 
 “ whom my soul desires. He is the bread of life. I am His; my 
 soul desires Him ; I despise your torments." While he was 
 speaking, two fierce lions rushed upon him, and in a few moments 
 had devoured all of him but a few bones. 
 
 Female Martyrs. —Women in ancient Europe occupied much the 
 same position that they now do in India. In Greece, little pains 
 was taken with their education. Before their marriage, they were 
 kept in seclusion and under watch. After their marriage, they 
 managed their households; but they had their own apartments 
 separate from their husbands and seldom left their dwellings. In 
 Rome, the wife had a higher position in the household. The 
 Romans boasted that for the first five centuries of their history, 
 there was no instance of divorce. Still, at Rome, as in India, a 
 
28 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 woman could never he independent. As a daughter, she was 
 subject to her father; as a wife she came under the control of her 
 husband, who had a qualified power oyer her life for even petty 
 offences. Divorces, under the Roman Empire, were everyday 
 occurrences. Women made use of them even more than men. A 
 woman is mentioned who had eight husbands in five years. Nero’s 
 tutor wrote, “ There are high-born ladies who count their years by 
 their husbands.” 
 
 An immediate effect of Christianity was a great improvement in 
 the position of woman ; she was no longer the slave or plaything of 
 man, but his counsellor and friend. Her natural meekness and 
 tenderness were now combined with firmness and energy. She 
 was found showing an earnest appreciation of the highest spiritual 
 truth, and supporting by her sympathy those who had to bear the 
 brunt of the fierce contest with evil. More than that, women 
 shared in the greatest of all earthly privileges, the offering up of 
 their lives for their Saviour and Lord. An ancient Christian 
 writer, speakiug of the patient endurance of torment and death by 
 the early Christians, says, “ The very women were as courageous 
 as the men ; many of whom, undergoing the same conflicts, reaped 
 the same reward of constancy and virtue.” A heathen orator 
 exclaimed, “ 0 gods of Greece, what women there are among those 
 Christians !” 
 
 Boy Martyrs. —It was in Africa that little Hilarian was martyred. 
 This brave boy had seen his father, his two brothers, and his 
 sister tortured before his eyes. The proconsul tried to save him. 
 “ Was it your father,” he said, u or your brothers who took you ?” 
 — i. e.j to the Christian assembly. The child answered, u I am a 
 Christian ; at my own desire and of my own free-will I joined in 
 the service with my father and my brethren.” In his kind inten¬ 
 tion the judge endeavoured to frighten the boy with threats. “ I 
 will cut off your long hair,” he said, “ and your nose, and your 
 ears, and then turn you out.” The brave little fellow answered, 
 “ You can do just what you like, for I am a Christian.” Much 
 against his inclination the proconsul was compelled to pronounce 
 sentence. On hearing it Hilarian cried aloud, (t Thanks be to 
 God.” 
 
 In the first ages of the Church of Christ a believer was carried 
 forth to die as a martyr in the city of Antioch. “ Ask any little 
 child,” said he, “ whether it were better to worship one God, the 
 maker of heaven and earth, and one Saviour, who is able to save 
 us, or to worship the many false gods whom the heathen serve.” 
 
 Now, it was so that a Christian mother had come to the spot, 
 holding in her hand a little son of about nine or ten years old, 
 named Cyril. The heathen judge no sooner heard the martyr’s 
 
ACCOUNTS OF MARTYRS. 
 
 29 
 
 words than his eye rested on the child, and he desired the question 
 to be put to him. 
 
 The question was asked; and, to the surprise of those who heard 
 it, the boy replied, “ God is one, and Jesus Christ is one with the 
 Father.” 
 
 The judge was filled with rage, “ Oh, base Christian !” he cried, 
 t( thou hast taught that child to answer thus.” Then, turning to 
 the boy, he said, more mildly, “ Tell me, child, how did you learn 
 this faith ?” 
 
 The boy looked lovingly in his mother’s face, and replied, “ It 
 was God’s grace that taught it to my dear mother ; and she taught 
 it to me.” 
 
 “ Let us see now what the love of Christ can do for you,” cried 
 the cruel judge ; and at a sign from him, the officers, who stood 
 ready with their wooden rods, after the fashion of the Romans, 
 instantly seized the boy. Gladly would the mother have saved 
 her timid dove, even at the expense of her own life; but she could 
 not do so : yet did she whisper to him to trust in the love of Christ, 
 and to speak the truth. 
 
 “ What can the love of Christ do for him now ?” asked the judge. 
 “ It enables him to endure what his Master endured for him, and 
 for us all,” was the reply. 
 
 And again they smote the child. 
 
 “ What can the love of Christ do for him now ?” And tears fell 
 even from heathen eyes as that mother, as much tortured as her 
 son, answered, “ It teaches him to forgive his persecutors.” 
 
 The boy watched his mother’s eyes as they rose up to heaven for 
 him; and when his tormentors asked whether he would not now 
 acknowledge the gods they served, and deny Christ, he still cried. 
 “ No ! there is no other God but One, and Jesus Christ, is the 
 Redeemer of the world. He loved me, and I love Him for His 
 love.” 
 
 The poor boy now fainted between the repeated strokes, and 
 they cast the bruised body into the mother’s arms, crying, “ See 
 what the love of your Christ can do for him now.” 
 
 As the mother pressed her child gently to her own crushed heart, 
 she answered, “ That love will take him from the wrath of man to 
 the peace of heaven. 
 
 “ Mother,” cried the dying boy, “ give me a drop of water from 
 our cool well upon my tongue.” 
 
 The mother said, “ Already, dearest, hast thou tasted of the well 
 that springeth up to everlasting life—the grace which Christ gives 
 to His little one—thou hast spoken the truth in love ; arise now, 
 for thy Saviour calleth for thee. May He grant thy poor mother 
 grace to follow in thy bright path !” 
 
 The little martyr faintly raised his eyes, and said again, (c There 
 
30 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 is but one God, and one Saviour, Jesus Christ, whom He has 
 sent;” aud so saying, gave up his life. 
 
 Causes of the Spread of Christianity. 
 
 Notwithstanding fierce persecutions, Christianity gradually 
 spread throughout the Roman empire. Some who had embraced 
 Christianity gave way under the trial, but many stood firm, and 
 their deaths, so far from checking the progress of the Gospel, had 
 an opposite effect. Hence the saying arose that “ The blood of 
 the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” 
 
 For some time, converts were mostly limited to the cities. There 
 are two English words which show this. The worshippers of false 
 gods are called heathen or pagans. Heathen comes from heath , the 
 open country; pagan, from pagus , a village. Both words at first 
 simply meant country people. 
 
 Within about two centuries, the Gospel had made its way even 
 beyond the limits of the empire. There were Christians in Scot¬ 
 land, among the tribes to the north of the Danube, in Persia, 
 Arabia, and India. 
 
 The following are some of the causes which led to the spread of 
 Christianity. 
 
 1. The Superiority of its Teaching. —“ Truth conquers.” Error 
 may withstand it for a time, but it prevails in the end. The doc¬ 
 trine of one true God, holy, just and good, was immeasurably 
 higher than the polytheism which prevailed, with a rabble of sup¬ 
 posed deities, guilty of every vice. Instead of a feeling of despair 
 about the future, Christianity revealed a glorious immortality. The 
 new religion was felt to meet all the spiritual wants of man. 
 
 2. The Influence of the Lord Jesus Christ. —The accounts of Him 
 given in the Gospels showed how completely He answered to one 
 of His titles, “The Desire of all Nations.” He was at once the 
 highest pattern of virtue and the strongest incentive to its practice. 
 His felt presence enabled His true followers to remain steadfast 
 under the severest torture. 
 
 3. The Lives of the Early Christians. —Jesus Christ said that 
 brotherly-love was a special mark by which His true disciples would 
 be known. This was strikingly shown in early times. “ Brother,” 
 “ Sister,” were the terms in which the Christians addressed each 
 other. At their love feasts Christians of all classes, rich and poor, 
 met together as forming one family. The heathen were astonished 
 at this, “ See,” they said, how the Christians love one another, 
 and are ready to die for one another. 
 
 At every weekly service of the Christians collections were made 
 for the poor, the sick, and those who on account of their faith 
 were imprisoned or sentenced to work in the mines. Money was 
 
CAUSES OF THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 31 
 
 also raised to ransom Cliristians sold as slaves. The kindness 
 of Christians was not confined to themselves; hut extended to the 
 lowest and most degraded. 
 
 In 254 A. D. a desolating pestilence raged throughout a great 
 part of the Roman empire, especially in Northern Africa. The 
 heathen at Carthage did not venture to attend the sick for fear of 
 infection ; persons attacked were thrown out into the streets half 
 dead. Corpses were left lying in heaps, threatening a general 
 plague. 
 
 A short time before, the Christians had suffered a bloody perse¬ 
 cution, and even this pestilence brought new attacks upon them, 
 because the heathen thought that their gods had sent it or as 
 a punishment for some giving up their worship. Cyprian, the 
 bishop of Carthage, called together the Christians, and told them 
 that they must overcome evil by good. The Christians, divided 
 the work among themselves according to their various situations 
 and abilities. Some gave money, others their personal labour, and 
 in a short time the dead received burial, and Carthage was rescued 
 from the danger of a general pestilence. 
 
 Although caste did not exist in ancient Europe, “race antago¬ 
 nism” was powerful. Over this Christianity triumphed. Greek and 
 Jew, Barbarian and Scythian, boud and free, were made ‘ one in 
 Christ/ Justin Martyr an early convert who afterwards suffered 
 death for being a Christian, says : 
 
 “We who hated and killed one another, and permitted not those of 
 another nation to live with ns under the same roof, on account of the 
 differences of their customs from ours, now, since the appearing of Christ, 
 live at the same table, and pray for our enemies, and endeavour to turn 
 the hearts of those who unjustly hate us.”* 
 
 4. The sincerity of the early Christians proved by their Martyr¬ 
 dom .—For centuries, many of the ancient philosophers knew per¬ 
 fectly that there were no such beings as Jupiter or Juno; but their 
 opinions had no effect upon the popular idolatry, for they them¬ 
 selves outwardly conformed to it. Christians laid down their lives 
 rather than worship images, and idolatry soon came to an end. 
 
 In India there are educated Hindus acting like the ancient 
 philosophers. They bow down to the idols which inwardly they 
 despise. The excuse is, that they do so merely to please their 
 ignorant relations. Some of them, perhaps, conceal the heart of 
 an atheist under the robe of an idolater ; but by any one ac¬ 
 knowledging a Creator, it ought to oe felt to be a great a sin to 
 give the worship due to Him to a senseless block. It is also act¬ 
 ing a hvpocritical part, which must be condemned by every honest 
 man. Such are perpetuating the reign of superstition, involving 
 
 * Apology, Chap. 17. 
 
32 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 both their dearest friends aud their fellow-countrymen in its 
 evils. 
 
 How different from educated Hindus were the Christian martyrs ! 
 The former are unwilling to face the slightest opposition on the 
 part of the ignorant supporters of idolatry ; the latter endured the 
 most fiery trials rather than yield to what they considered wrong. 
 The sufferings of the early martyrs were soon over, an eternity of 
 happiness was before them, and they were a blessing to untold gene¬ 
 rations. Whether did they or the educated conformers to idolatry 
 act the wiser part ? 
 
 Lecky, the English historian, mentions the following as some of 
 the causes which contributed to the spread of Christianity: 
 
 “ In the midst of this movement, Christianity gained its ascendency, 
 and we can be at no loss to discover the cause of its triumph. No other 
 religion under such circumstances, had ever combined so many distinct 
 elements of power and attraction. Unlike the Jewish religion, it was 
 bound by no local ties, and was equally adapted for every nation and for 
 every class. Unlike stoicism, it appealed iu the strongest manner to 
 the affections, and offered all the charm of a sympathetic worship. Un¬ 
 like the Egyptian religions, it united with its distinctive teaching a pure 
 and noble system of ethics, and proved itself capable of realising it in 
 action. It proclaimed, amid a vast movement of social and national 
 amalgamation, the universal brotherhood of man. To the world that had 
 grown very weary gazing on the cold passionless grandeur which Cato 
 realised and which Lucan sung, it presented an ideal of compassion and 
 love—an ideal destined for centuries to draw around it all that was 
 greatest, as well as all that was noblest upon earth—a Teacher who could 
 weep by the sepulchre of His friend, who was touched with the feeling 
 of our infirmities.” 
 
 “No other religion ever combined so many forms of attraction as 
 Christianity, both from its intrinsic excellence, and from its manifest 
 adaptation to the special wants of the times. One great cause of its 
 success was that it produced more heroic actions and formed more upright 
 men than any other creed.” 
 
 “ Christianity had transformed the characters of multitudes, vivified 
 the cold heart by a new enthusiasm, redeemed, regenerated, and emanci¬ 
 pated the most depraved of mankind. Noble lives, crowned by heroic 
 deaths, were the best arguments of the infant Church. Justin Martyr tells 
 ' us that it was the brave deaths of the Christians that converted him,”* 
 
 Constantine, the first Christian Emperor. 
 
 In course of time the Homan Empire was divided into two or 
 more parts, with an emperor for each. Constantius, who ruled 
 Western Europe, died in England, 306 a.d , in the city now called 
 York. On his death he was succeeded bv his son Constantine. His 
 
 # History of European Morals. Vol. I. pp. 412, 419, 441- 
 
CONSTANTINE THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPEROR. 
 
 33 
 
 father was a friend of tlie Christians, and his mother, Helena, was, 
 we may hope, a true Christian. 
 
 Constantine was soon involved in a war with Maxentins, a ciuel 
 and wicked man who ruled over Italy and Northern Africa. Max- 
 entius, had got ready a large number of soldiers to invade a part of 
 the dominions of Constantine. Upon this Constantine led his aitny 
 into Italy, and twice defeated Maxentius. A third battle was 
 fought near Rome, aud Maxentius was drowned, with many of Ins 
 soldiers, in attempting to swim his horse across the river liber. 
 
 At the time of his war with Maxentius, Constantine was not a 
 Christian. Only a little while before he had offered sacrifices to 
 one of the heathen gods ; and when he began this war he thought 
 about asking one of the gods to be his protector and give him^ suc¬ 
 cess, but he could not make up his mind which god to ask. llien 
 he thought of the God of the Christians, whom his father Constan- 
 tius reverenced. Whilst in this perplexity, as he was marching 
 one day, at the head of his army, he thought he saw in the sky a 
 brilliant light in the shape of a cross, and on it were these words: 
 (< By this conquer.” Constantine had a standard made in the 
 form of a cross. On the top of the cross was a crown, with the 
 initial letters of the name of Christ upon it, and from it hung a 
 silken veil. Constautine professed to win his victories through the 
 power of the God of the Christians. The forces of Maxentius were 
 thrice as numerous as his own. 
 
 In 312 A. d. Constantine, emperor of the West, and Licinius, 
 emperor of the East, had a meetiug at Milan. An edict was pub¬ 
 lished the following year removing all disabilities from Christians. 
 It gave absolute liberty in religion not only to Christianity, but to 
 every form of faith. (i We have long seen,” it says, (e that wo 
 have no business to refuse freedom of religion, and that to the 
 judgment and desire of each individual man must be left the 
 power of seeing to matters of belief, according to the man’s own 
 free will. Forced religion is no religion.” As already remarked, 
 it is only of late years that the principle of religious liberty has 
 been admitted even in some enlightened countries. While Con¬ 
 stantine was taking more and more the side of Christianity, rivalry, 
 to him made Licinius the firm friend of heathenism. Churches 
 were closed; the property of some Christians was taken from 
 them; others were sent to the mines; some were even put to 
 death. Constantine in vain interceded for the Christians. At last 
 it came to an open conflict of religions. 
 
 Licinius, before beginning the campaign, assembled his nobles 
 and generals in a sacred grove. After the sacrifices had been 
 offered, he pointed to the statues of the gods as those that had 
 come down from their forefathers, and accused Constantine of 
 worshipping a foreign god. The result of the war would show 
 
 E 
 
34 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 which, was true. He said, “ If the stranger god whom we now 
 laugh at, prove victorious, we too must recognise and honour him, 
 and bid a long farewell to those for whom we burn tapers in vain. 
 But if our own gods conquer, as is nowise doubtful, then, after 
 this victory, we will prosecute the war against the impious.” On 
 the other hand, Constantine carried into the field the banner of the 
 cross, and in more than one fierce and bloody battle he and his 
 army believed that they owed their victory to its influence. Lici- 
 nius was completely vanquished, and Constantine remained sole lord 
 of the reunited empire. 
 
 The heathen now crowded by multitudes into the Church, and 
 the temples of the ancient gods were deserted. Constantine openly 
 confessed his belief in the true God, and erected a number of 
 splendid churches. But he disavowed any intention of suppressing 
 heathenism by force. “ Let everyone do what his soul desires.” 
 Christians had peace and rest all the days of Constantine’s life. 
 
 Attempts to Purify and Restore Heathenism. 
 
 Efforts of Philosophers. —It has been shown that Christianity 
 
 met with strong opposition both from the Roman Government and 
 the ignorant populace. The more ancient philosophers, for the 
 most part, laughed at the polytheism which prevailed, though they 
 often outwardly conformed to idolatry. When Christianity was 
 first proclaimed, they treated it with contempt. “ What will this 
 babbler say ?” was asked of Paul. Many of the philosophers led 
 immoral lives. In spite of their airy speculations, Christianity con¬ 
 demned their vicious habits equally with those of the common 
 people. A few became converts, but the majority remained hostile 
 
 to the new religion. . . . 
 
 Some of the philosophers tried to check the progress of Christi¬ 
 anity by purifying the popular heathenism, and copying some of 
 the features of Christianity. The immoral stories about Jupiter 
 and other gods were treated as allegories, and spiritual meanings 
 were given to disgraceful rites. Animal sacrifices were condemn¬ 
 ed. Christians had been scoffed at on account of “ their practice 
 of instructing artisans and old women in religious matters.” Now 
 the heathen priests were urged to teach the people. 
 
 The Greeks and Romans had no sacred books. In imitation of 
 the Christian Bible, Porphyry, one of the leading opponents of 
 Christianity, made a collection of heathen oracles, in the preface 
 to which he says : 
 
 Those will best recognize the usefulness of this collection who, in 
 their longing for truth have prayed that they might enjoy a vision of the 
 gods, in order that they might find rest from their doubts in teachings 
 which emanated from trustworthy authority.” 
 
ATTEMPTS TO PURIFY AND RESTORE HEATHENISM. 35 
 
 A sect of philosophers arose, called Neoplatonists or New 
 Platonists, from neos , new. They mixed some of the doctrines of 
 the ancient Platonists with other principles drawn from various 
 sources, and particularly from the East. Dr. Murray Mitchell says 
 that “ Plotinus, Porphyry, and others, who were by far the most 
 determined opponents of the Gospel, were well acquainted with 
 Indian philosophy in general, and the Saukhya, Yoga, and 
 Vedanta systems in particular.”* 
 
 There was a man, named Apollonius, who went about pretending 
 to be a magician, and who asserted that he had seen visions. 
 After his death a fanciful history was written of him to rival the 
 life of Christ. His mother, it is said, bore him to the god Proteus; 
 swans sang sweet lullabies over the cradle of the new-born child; 
 miracles were related of him, often very similar to Christ’s miracles. 
 Lastly he disappeared, when a voice was heard, “ Leave the earth 
 and ascend to heaven !” 
 
 “ All the Christian conceptions,” says Ulhorn, c( expiations purifi¬ 
 cation from sin, regeneration—were now to be met with among the 
 heathen, and the goal of their mysteries was redemption, that is, a 
 heathen redemption.” 
 
 The heathen now believed that they possessed, and, that in a 
 much purer form, the excellencies which Christianity was conceded 
 to contain, without its defects. 
 
 Julian’s Attempt. —The foregoing efforts were made by private 
 individuals : an account will now be given of a similar attempt on 
 the part of a Roman Emperor. 
 
 Constantine bequeathed the empire to his three sons. Constan- 
 tius, one of them, signalised his accession by the slaughter of the 
 next heirs to the throne. Only two escaped, one of whom, Julian, 
 a child six years old, was hidden in a church. The emperor, how¬ 
 ever, regarded him with distrust, and in his fourteenth year he was 
 banished and closely guarded. The object of suspicion, he learned 
 to conceal his thoughts, and cultivated a hypocrisy which after¬ 
 wards became the worst feature of his character. After a time he 
 seemed less dangerous, and was allowed more liberty. He went to 
 Nicomedia to study philosophy. The chief teachers there were 
 enthusiastic adherents of the ancient heathenism, whose statues, 
 and symbols and fables they spiritualised and explained away till, 
 instead of teaching every thing that was vile, they came to mean 
 every thing that was noble, beautiful, and poetic. Julian was also 
 filled with awe by the magic arts, the practice of which was a 
 favourite pursuit in these circles. 
 
 Julian had outwardly showed himself a zealous Christian, and 
 even went so far as to enter the lowest grade of clerical orders. At 
 
 * Ancient Paganism and Christianity. Bombay Ed. p. 27. 
 
36 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 Nicomedia, lie renounced Christianity, the taint of baptism being 
 washed off with the warm blood of a slaughtered bull, sprinkled on 
 his head. He was initiated into heathenism in the temple ot' 
 Artemis, amid pretended apparitions of demons and spirits of the 
 departed. Still, his change of creed was not outwardly professed. 
 Indeed, he seemed a more earnest Christian than ever, observing 
 saints’ days, reading the Scriptures in public, and appearing like a 
 monk. 
 
 Meanwhile the empire was beset by foes in different quarters. 
 Constantius resolved to call Julian to his assistance. The Germans, 
 then wild tribes, had overrun part of Gaul, now called France. 
 Julian received the title of Caesar, and was invested with the 
 supreme command of the troops in Gaul. By a series of victorious 
 battles, he drove the Germans back over the Rhine. Deified by 
 his soldiers, he was also held in high honour by the inhabitants of 
 the province. The suspicions of Constantius were aroused, and to 
 prevent Julian from becoming too powerful, he ordered the best 
 legions to be recalled from Gaul. The legions refused to march. 
 The soldiers seized Julian, raised him on a shield, and saluted him 
 as Julian Augustus, the emperor. Julian tried to propitiate Con¬ 
 stantius, but when the attempt proved fruitless, he assumed the 
 rank of Emperor, and advanced at the head of his army. Con¬ 
 stantius died in 361 a. d., and Julian was universally recognised 
 
 as Emperor. 
 
 Julian regarded himself as called by a divine voice to the great 
 work of restoring heathenism. He was convinced that as soon as 
 free scope was given to it, it would overcome Christianity. A. 
 temple was built in the palace, and there Julian offered a daily 
 sacrifice. Often he might be seen serving at the sacrifice himself, 
 carrying the wood, and plunging the knife into the victim with his 
 own hand. Everywhere he revived the ancient worship, which 
 had fallen into neglect. Here a closed temple was re-opened, 
 there a ruined shrine restored, images of the gods were set up 
 again, and forgotten festivals were again celebrated. All the 
 higher officers who were Christians were removed or dismissed, 
 and all Christians were rejected from the service of the Court. 
 
 The heathenism of Julian was one purified by poetic feeling. 
 But there was little or nothing of this to be found actually existing. 
 His heathen friends were courtiers who agreed with him without 
 inward conviction ; empty rhetoricians, who sought only the glory 
 of saying fine things; men wholly indiffereut and destitute of 
 religion. Julian saw that if heathenism was to revive, it must 
 receive new life within. 
 
 Strangely enough Julian felt compelled to borrow from Chris¬ 
 tianity the ways and means for such a reformation. The heathen 
 priests, like the Christian, were to instruct the people, and exhort 
 
ATTEMPTS TO PURIFY AND RESTORE HEATHENISM. 
 
 37 
 
 them to holy living. The heathen, like the Christians, were to 
 care for the poor. 
 
 Other measures were adopted to weaken Christianity. An 
 imperial edict forbade the Christians to act as teachers of the 
 national literature, the ancient classics. To the complainants he 
 answered : “ Keep you ignorance ; eloquence is ours. Your doc¬ 
 trine has only one word : Believe !” 
 
 Julian journeyed to Antioch in Syria to make preparations for 
 the great campaign he purposed to make against the Persians. 
 There he found a famous temple of Apollo in ruins. It was restored 
 with the greatest splendour. Julian went there to offer a sacrifice 
 to the god. He expected to find a multitude of worshippers, but 
 no one even brought oil for a lamp or incense to burn in honour of 
 the deity. Only an old man appeared to sacrifice a goose. In many 
 places the heathen gathered, and plundered, and killed the 
 Christians. Julian everywhere took the side of the heathen. 
 “ What does it matter \ 33 said he, “ is it then a crime if one Creek 
 kills ten Galileans V 3 Such words from the Emperor were the 
 signal for fresh persecutions; and Julian permitted it to be so. 
 Julian himself became more and more restless, he hurried from 
 temple to temple, brought sacrifice after sacrifice; he knelt for 
 hours before his gods, and covered their statues with kisses. 
 
 Finally, his immense preparations for the campaign were finish¬ 
 ed. The heathen set all their hopes upon it. If the Emperor 
 returned victorious, then the victory of Heathenism was assured. 
 The Christians were silent. When the rhetorician Libanius scorn¬ 
 fully asked a Christian priest, “ What is your Carpenter’s Son 
 doing now V 3 the other replied, “ He is making a coffin for your 
 Emperor.” Julian, too, felt gloomy forebodings. His ever- 
 increasing superstitiousness sought for signs, and saw signs in 
 every thing. Now various deformities in the sacrificial victims 
 filled his soul with anxiety, or his horse shied, or he discovered 
 some other evil omen. 
 
 Julian determined to imitate Alexander the Great. His legions 
 advanced victoriously eastward as far as the Tigris. To exclude 
 all thoughts of retreat, he burned his fleet upon that river. His 
 army had to march over hot sandy .plains, while the Persian light 
 horse retreated farther and farther. With a heavy heart, Julian 
 was forced to retrace his steps. One day the Persian battle-cry 
 was heard : Julian was surrounded by enemies. He put himself at 
 the head of his legions, and gained a complete victory. Scarcely 
 had he laid aside his armour, when again came an attack from 
 another quarter. Without putting on his armour Julian hastened 
 to the scene of battle. In advance of all the rest, he charged the 
 enemy. A spear struck the Emperor in the thigh. With a loud 
 cry he sank to the ground. Carried to his tent, he lived a few 
 
38 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 hours longer, and died in the night, June 26th, 363 A. d. Tradi¬ 
 tion says that the cry with which Julian fell was, 0 Galilean, 
 thou hast conquered !" Whether this was the case or not, it is 
 certain that the cause of Heathenism was last for ever. 
 
 Many centuries elapsed before Europe became even nominally 
 Christian. The Roman empire was devastated by inroads of bar¬ 
 barian tribes, and the pure religion tanght by Jesus Christ was so 
 corrupted that it lost largely its power. The reformation of Chris¬ 
 tianity under Luther and others gave it a new impulse ) but even 
 yet vast numbers are Christians only in name. Though there is a 
 gradual improvement, progress is slow. Man's “heart is deceitful 
 above all things and desperately wicked." A holy religion is 
 naturally distasteful to it. 
 
 What Christianity has done for Europe. - 
 
 The following are some of the effects of Christianity : 
 
 An increased sense of the value of human life has led to the 
 
 following results : # . 
 
 1. Human sacrifices have been abolished .—These occasionally 
 
 took place among the nations of antiquity, even the most enlight- 
 
 ened. , 
 
 2. Infanticide has been prohibited.—Among the Greeks and 
 
 Romans, if parents did not choose to bring up their children, they 
 could, without punishment, expose them to perish, just like the 
 Rajputs in India under Native rule. The first day of a child might 
 be its last, devoured before its close by dogs and jackals. 
 
 3. Gladiatorial fights have been stopped.— Men no longer slaugh¬ 
 ter one another for the amusement of spectators. 
 
 4. The Atrocities of War have been lessened. —In ancient times 
 prisoners were generally put to death or sold as captives. Either 
 practice is now,unknown among Christian nations. Although in the 
 recent war between France and Germany, France was the aggres¬ 
 sor, French wounded soldiers were received into German hospitals, 
 and tended as if they were Germans. If all men were true Chris¬ 
 tians, wars would cease. 
 
 Another great effect of Christianity has been to teach the 
 “ Brotherhood of Man." The following are some of its conse¬ 
 quences : . 
 
 5. Slavery has been abolished. —About half the population or 
 the Roman empire consisted of slaves. Christians were called 
 “ brothers of the slave." It was a common act of charity among 
 them to ransom slaves. There is now not a single slave through¬ 
 out Europe except in Turkey. 
 
 6. Hospitals and Asylums for the Poor have been established .—- 
 The Jains of India have hospitals for aged dogs, sick bullocks, &c.. 
 
WHAT CHRISTIANITY HAS DONE FOR EUROPE. 
 
 39 
 
 to secure merit to themselves ; but, as a rule, those for human 
 beings are the result of Christianity, and they abound most where 
 its influence is most felt. 
 
 7. Education has spread among all classes. —The Greek and 
 Roman philosophers thought that education should be confined to 
 a few. A great Roman poet, who lived during the reign of 
 Augustus, said, “ I hate the common people, the ignoble crowd.” 
 Education is now considered the birthright of every human being. 
 
 The elevation of women under Christianity, has had a great 
 influence upon the world : 
 
 8. Polygamy and Divorce, except for adultery, have been pro¬ 
 hibited. —The wonderful difference in family life between Christi¬ 
 ans and Muhammadans, shows the vast importance of this step. 
 
 9. Female Education has been promoted. —This was almost 
 unknown in India until it was commenced by Christian mission¬ 
 aries. In Christian countries, girls attend schools like boys. 
 
 10. Women mix in society, raising its tone, and taking part in 
 benevolent effort. —The presence of women renders men guarded in 
 their speech and behaviour. Noble Christian women have given 
 themselves to nursing the sick and visiting the homes of the poor. 
 
 Two other effects may be mentioned, influencing all classes : 
 
 11. A higher Moral Tone has been diffused. —There is a great 
 deal of wrong-doing in nominally Christian well as in heathen 
 countries; but the difference is that it is much more severely 
 condemned in the former than in the latter. To call a man a liar 
 is a great insult in England; in India, among the masses, it is a 
 mere nothing. Not long ago a rising English statesman, con¬ 
 sidered to be guilty of immorality, had to retire from public life. 
 There are prostitutes in England, but there are also earnest efforts 
 to reclaim them. Who ever heard of such in a heathen country ? 
 A very immoral man may be a most devout Hindu, but he cannot 
 claim to be a Christian. 
 
 12. Nobler views of Religion have been disseminated. —The 
 difference between the God of the Bible and the gods of heathenism 
 is as great as between light and darkness. “ As is the god; so is 
 the worshipper.” In a heathen temple there is no moral or 
 religious teaching ; in a Christian Church, all present are urged to 
 live holy lives and to seek to benefit those around them. 
 
 The people of India are apt to look upon all Europeans as 
 Christians ; but Jesus Christ recognises as His followers only those 
 who obey His commands. To many He will say at the last day : 
 (( I never knew you ; depart, ye workers of iniquity.” Were it not 
 for this, Christian countries would display a far higher character 
 than at present. 
 
40 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 The Future Religion of India. 
 
 It is a trite saying tliat “ History repeats itself.” Christianity 
 is now seeking to become the religion of India, as it sought, 18 
 centuries ago, to become the religion of Europe. The circum¬ 
 stances are very much alike, and so will Be the final result. 
 
 It has been shown that the ancestors of the Eastern and Western 
 Aryans once lived together, speaking the same language, and 
 worshipping the same gods. Even after the latter went to Europe, 
 they agreed in many things. They had their schools of philosophy 
 like the Hindus ; their gods were said to have behaved much in the 
 same way as those of India, and were worshipped with similar 
 rites. 
 
 It is remarkable in how many respects India, at present, resem¬ 
 bles Europe when the Gospel was first brought to its shores. 
 
 A single Government, like the Roman Empire, prevented 
 national wars which would have rendered impossible the free and 
 frequent passage of missionaries from country to country. The 
 world-wide feeling thus awakened was some preparation for the 
 universal spiritual kingdom which was sought to be established. 
 The Roman highways were travelled by Christian preachers, and 
 an Alexandrian ship, bound to Rome with corn, afforded a passage 
 to the Apostle Paul. The Greek tongue was known, more or less, 
 in all the countries washed by the Mediterranean. 
 
 The Roman Emperors had no wish to promote the spread of 
 Christianity. Till the time of Constantine, they rather exerted 
 their power to check its progress. The British Government, 
 without intending it, is similarly preparing the way for the Gospel 
 in India. Formerly the country was divided into numerous states, 
 frequently at war with one another, preventing free communi¬ 
 cation. Now all can travel, without hindrance, from the Hima¬ 
 layas to Cape Comorin. Roads, railways and steam-vessels afford 
 facilities for moving about, never possessed before. The English 
 language is tending’ powerfully to weld together educated men of 
 different nationalities. India is the great seat of caste, which splits 
 up its races into small sections, regarding each other with mutual 
 jealousy. Ideas of the “ Brotherhood of Man” are gradually being 
 diffused, hastening on the time when all shall be one body in 
 Christ. 
 
 Attempts to reform Hinduism. —An account has been given of 
 the attempts of philosophers and the Emperor Julian to reform the 
 heathenism of their time by copying some of the features of Christi¬ 
 anity. Similar efforts are now being made by some in India to 
 frame a new Hinduism, which will bear the fierce light of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
THE FUTURE RELIGION OF INDIA. 
 
 41 
 
 A few years ago Sir Madliava Row made the following proposal : 
 
 “ It seems clear that, in the interests of humanity some religion is 
 better than no religion whatever. Again, the progress of English 
 education and culture in India has a disintegrating effect on the ancient 
 religion of the country. The prospect of any other religion taking the 
 place of that which is threatened with gradual collapse is dim and 
 distant. In those circumstances, it is natural and honourable for some 
 Native patriots to think of a judicious revival or repair of Hinduism. 
 For their consideration I would submit the following few points :— 
 
 (a) The revived or repaired or reinvigorated religion should suit the 
 present times. 
 
 ( b ) It should carry with it only the essentials of the Hindu religion. 
 
 (c) The highest moral principles derived from the Shastras should be 
 maintained on the authority of the Shastras. 
 
 (d) What is superstitious, unreasonable, needless, or mischievous, 
 should be judiciously discarded. 
 
 (e) Wisdom and the elasticity of the Shastras quite admit of these 
 things being done without any vital injury to Hinduism. 
 
 (/) In short, a sort of eclectic religion should be evolved out of the 
 Shastras, deriving authority and support from the Shastras, and thus 
 commending to popular belief and respect. 
 
 ( g ) All thoughtful Natives should be invited to give their co-opera¬ 
 tion. 
 
 (h) European well-wishers might give their sympathy and, at least, 
 observe a benevolent neutrality. 
 
 An influential Native paper, after quoting the above remarks : 
 
 “ Our views on religion for Hindus are identical with those summarised 
 above, and we can declare that the above exactly represent our own 
 principles and articles from the commencement.” 
 
 The Indian Messenger thus comments upon the proposal: 
 
 “ The observations of Sir Madhava Row, open up a number of 
 questions. In the first place, is it at all possible to maintain the 
 authority of the Shastras intact, after having discarded portions of them 
 as unreasonable ? For the very same Shastras that teach us those higher 
 principles of morality of which Sir Madhava speaks, also teach many 
 of the absurdities that he calls upon the educated Hindus to discard. 
 Even now where is the authority of the Shastras felt most ? It is in the 
 minds of the ignorant masses, who regard them as infallible. Remove 
 this element of infallibility and you more than half neutralize their 
 authority and influence. To give to our reason the pruning and sifting 
 work is to set it above the Shastras as a judge. This is asking men to 
 take their stand upon reason and conscience. There is no doubt that we 
 would even then appeal to the wise sayings of the Shastras for confirma¬ 
 tion of our views, and we should do it by all means, but what we urge is 
 that their power to regulate our beliefs and actions will be gone. This 
 consideration leads us to the very difficult question—who will supply 
 that power ?—whence will that regulating influence come ? Motives of 
 
 F 
 
42 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 prudence and expediency are too inefficient to supply a moral power able 
 to mould the lives of large masses of men. The second and equally 
 difficult question is—what power or influence is there that will give 
 consistency and coherence to that eclectic system ? How will that new 
 culture grow up, which, whilst discarding everything superstitious and 
 unreasonable, will yet effectively assimilate everything good that is to be 
 found in the tendencies of modern times ?” 
 
 A Bengali novelist has tried to whitewash Krishna, holding him 
 up as the embodiment of all virtue. A correspondent of The 
 Hindu styles him, the “ holiest teacher that ever trod the earth.” 
 A Calcutta paper had an article entitled, “ Symbolical Durga 
 Worship.” 
 
 The two most notable attempts in modern India to found eclectic 
 systems are the “New Dispensation” of Keshub Chunder Sen and 
 that of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. The satisfaction of the 
 Neoplatonists with the creed which they framed has been men¬ 
 tioned ; the feeling is shared by their recent imitators. 
 
 “ The following is a translation of a passage from Keshub’s 
 Bengali discourse wherein he proclaimed the advent of the New 
 Dispensation. He says, < Hear, O ye earth, the child (New 
 Dispensation) after lying in the womb of the Brahmo Samaj as its 
 mother, is born to-day after much travail/ ”* 
 
 Keshub’s figure is adopted, and his vain boasting imitated by the 
 Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. The following are some extracts from the 
 Indian Messenger from an editorial headed, “ The Blessed Cbild.” 
 
 “ In God’s own good time, a child was born of this marriage—a strong, 
 healthy, and well-developed child, full of great promise for the future. 
 Saints from heaven came with their choicest gifts to bless the Sacred 
 Child. Buddha and Muhammad, Nanak and Chaitanya, Sadi and Hafiz, 
 Parker and Channing, the old Rishis and prophets of India and Judea, as 
 well as godly spirits of more modern times, contributed the most valuable 
 things from their stores. 
 
 “ Look at the Brahmo Samaj (for the child we have spoken of is no 
 .other.) 
 
 “ It is a Child of God, born of the Divine Spirit, and upheld by the 
 Divine Hand. Its birth is not at all a less momentous event in the 
 spiritual history of the human race than that of Jesus or Buddha. 
 
 “We repeat that the birth of the Brahmo Samaj is no less momentous 
 an event than that of Jesus or Buddha—yea a grander event in one sense 
 inasmuch as all the previous dispensations of Providence find their 
 consummation in it....The Brahmo Samaj is the Church of the Living 
 God, the direct manifestation of the Divine Spirit in modern times, a 
 living witness of the living truth that God speaks and acts and reveals 
 Himself in all ages and that the faithful in all ages hear and see Him.” 
 January 22, 1888. 
 
 * The Liberal, April 1, 1888. 
 
THE FUTURE RELIGION OF INDIA. 
 
 43 
 
 The <e New Dispensation” did not prove a “ Blessed Child , > and 
 the second claimant to the title may similarly disappoint the expec¬ 
 tations of its parents. # 
 
 The experience of 18 centuries shows that a Theistic Church, 
 which rejects some of the vital doctrines of Christianity, may main¬ 
 tain an existence as a small struggling sect; but will never com¬ 
 mand general acceptance. Its doctrines are vague ; man is to be 
 his own saviour; his future is uncertain. 
 
 A National Religion. —A desire is expressed by some educated 
 Hindus for a National religion. It is thought degrading to India 
 to have any other religion than her own. 
 
 There is no national geography, astronomy, chemistry, geometry, 
 &c. Science is one all the world over. It is the same with religion. 
 If each couutry had its own God there might be different religions ; 
 but all enlightened men are now agreed that there is only one God, 
 the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of theUniverse. The Brother¬ 
 hood of Man is similarly acknowledged : 
 
 “ Children, we are all 
 Of one great Father, in whatever clime, 
 
 His providence hath cast the seed of life : 
 
 All tongues, all colours.” 
 
 Since God is one and all men are alike His children, it is reason¬ 
 able to suppose that He has given only one religion. A national 
 religion shows that it is not the true religion. 
 
 The most enlightened countries in Europe and America 
 accepted a religion first made known to them by Asiatics, and did 
 not reject it from false patriotism, saying “ We must have national 
 religions.” 
 
 An Indian poet says : “ Disease born with you will destroy you : 
 the medicine which is in the lofty mountain not born with you, will 
 expel the disorder.” 
 
 Of all false patriotism that is the worst which seeks by sophistry 
 to defend erroneous beliefs because they are national. It promotes 
 hypocrisy and disregard of truth among its advocates, while it is a 
 grievous wrong to their ignorant countrymen, tending to^perpetuate 
 the reign of superstition. 
 
 The Future Religion of India. —A distinguished French Oriental¬ 
 ist says that as India has already adopted the science and arts of 
 Christian nations, so she will one day spontaneously embrace their 
 faith. 
 
 India has adopted the science of Christian nations. No educated 
 Hindu now believes in Mount Meru, in seas of ghi, wine, &c., or 
 that eclipses are caused by asurs seeking to seize the sun and 
 moon. The arts of Christian nations have also been accepted. 
 Railways, the use of the electric telegraph, photographs, weaving 
 
44 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROI’E. 
 
 by steam power, &c. have been introduced, and are freely employ¬ 
 ed. The Indian would be looked upon as an idiot who urged his 
 countrymen to stick to the “ national” conveyances of palanquins 
 and bullock carts, and not travel by the “ foreign” invention of 
 railways. 
 
 Christianity is influencing and elevating Indian public opinion. 
 For many centuries some Hiudu temples had the most indecent 
 sculptures, prostitutes took a prominent part in their religious 
 services, without a voice being raised against them. The Penal 
 Code punishes people who sell or expose obscene books, pictures, or 
 statues ; but permits such things in the name of religion. Some 
 educated Hindus, through the spread of Christian light, are begin¬ 
 ning to protest against such abominations. A woman, according 
 to Hinduism, is denied religious instruction, and taught that she 
 has simply to consider her husband as her God. Under Christian 
 influence, female education is spreading, and the just rights of 
 women, long denied, are beginning to be acknowledged, though not 
 yet conceded. 
 
 The Brotherhood of Man, diametrically opposed to the caste sys¬ 
 tem, is gradually commending itself, for its truth, justice and ten¬ 
 dency to promote the general happiness. There is now a greater 
 desire than ever before to seek the common good, instead of sel¬ 
 fishly consulting one’s own ease and comfort. 
 
 Already Indian Christians number about two millions, and they 
 are increasing every year. One of the most eloquent speakers at 
 the National Congresses is a Bengali Christian. 
 
 English and American atheists, like Colonel Olcott, Madame 
 Blavatsky’s “ domestic imbecile,” seek to give Hindus the impres¬ 
 sion that Christianity is decaying in the west. Hindus have facts 
 before their eyes proving the very reverse. 
 
 In 1851 there were 222 Protestant Mission Stations in India; in 
 1861, 319 ; in 1871, 423; in 1881, 569. Every foreign Missionary 
 sent out to this country, on an average, involves as much additional 
 outlay to the home funds for Native agents as his own salary. 
 From Europe, there are English, Germans, Swiss, Danes, Swedes 
 and Norwegians. From America, there are Missionaries from the 
 United States and Canada. The Homan Catholic Missions have 
 Irishmen, French, Italians, Portuguese, and other nationalities. 
 Every aged Hindu knows that Missionaries are now far more nu¬ 
 merous than they were when he was young. 
 
 Missionaries are not sent to India alone, but to every other ac¬ 
 cessible part of the earth ; from Greenland to Terra Del Fuego, 
 from Japan, the empire of the Rising Sun, to the Red Men of the 
 Far West. 
 
THE FUTURE RELIGION OF INDIA. 
 
 45 
 
 A message was lately sent to Colonel Ingersoll : 
 
 “ Dear Colonel, Ten years ago you made the following prediction :— 
 ‘ Ten .years from this time two theatres will be built for one church.’ 
 The time is up. The Methodists are now building four churches every 
 day—one every six hours. Please venture upon another prediction for 
 the year.” 
 
 The above refers only to one body of Christians. In the United 
 States 17 new churches, on an average, are built every day. 
 
 Rogers has the following remarks about the alleged decay of 
 Christianity : 
 
 “ Never did infidelity choose a more F luckless moment for uttering its 
 prediction, that poor Christianity is about to die ; never was there a 
 moment when its disciples could more confidently repeat the invocation 
 of the sublimest genius that ever consecrated itself to sacred song, when, 
 celebrating the events of his time, he i snatched up an ungarnished pre¬ 
 sent of thank-offering’ before he took his ‘ harp, and sang his elaborate 
 song to generations : ‘ come forth, from thy royal chambers, 0 prince of 
 all the kings of the earth ; put on the visible robes of thy imperial majes¬ 
 ty ; take up that unlimited sceptre which thy Almighty Father hath be¬ 
 queathed thee ; for now the voice of thy bride calls thee, and all crea¬ 
 tures sigh to be renewed !’” p. 161. 
 
 The reader is referred to Testimonies of Great Men to the Bible 
 and Christianity ,* showing the opinion entertained of them by some 
 of the most distinguished statesmen and scientists of the day. 
 
 Christianity is the religion of the richest, the most civilized, the 
 best educated, and most progressive nations of the earth. As 
 Gladstone says, Christianity rules the world.” The great inven¬ 
 tions which have done so much to ipromote human well-being, as 
 the steam-engine, railways, the electric telegraph, originated among 
 Christian nations. Hindu, Buddhist, and Muhammadan govern¬ 
 ments are despotic, their rulers stand above law^ their kingdoms are 
 regarded at their private property ; without trial they can take 
 away the lives of their subjects. Christian nations have represen¬ 
 tative Governments, and law stands above kings and rulers. 
 
 The idea of progress is derived from Christianity. Among 
 Hindus, the rule is. to follow the ancients. Instead of things be¬ 
 coming better, this is regarded as the Kali Yug, when they are to 
 grow worse and worse. China has had a stationary semi-civiliza¬ 
 tion ror 2,000 years. Muhammadans are governed by the Koran 
 any deviation from which is regarded as impiety. The English 
 before they embraced Christianity, were little better than savages, 
 without a written language. What a difference now ! 
 
 Christian Nations are the only ones which are making’ persistent 
 and systematic efforts to relieve the human race from the evils 
 
 as, as. Post free, 2 as. 
 
 * Sold by Mr. A. T. Scott, Tract Depot, Madri 
 
4 (> 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN ANCIENT EUROPE. 
 
 under which it has groaned for thousand of years,—from war, 
 slavery, crime, disease and ignorance. War has not ceased 
 among them, but its ferocity has been softened, and a desire for 
 peace is spreading. Arbitration is now resorted to in many cases. 
 Efforts will be continued 
 
 “ Till tlie war drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furl’d 
 In the Parliament of men, the Federation of the world.” 
 
 Slavery is sought to be abolished everywhere. Reformatory 
 schools have been established for young criminals ; trades are taught 
 in jails to enable prisoners to earn an honest livelihood. Dispen¬ 
 saries and hospitals have been opened; societies, like Lady 
 Dufferin’s, have been formed to afford medical relief to women. 
 Education is considered the birthright of every human being; 
 all the states which profess Christianity are seeking, more or less, 
 to humanize, reform, and elevate mankind. 
 
 Christianity is the only religion which is making vigorous efforts 
 to promote its spread over the whole world. The last charge of its 
 founder was, “ Go and make disciples of all nations.” Zealously 
 carried out for a time, this command was afterwards neglected, 
 and it is only in recent times that it has been obeyed, and hitherto 
 very imperfectly. Still, there are thousands of Christian Mission¬ 
 aries scattered over the world. There is scarcely a town in India 
 which does not contain at least a Mission School. 
 
 The Bible says, “ The gods that have not made the heavens 
 and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth and from under 
 these heavens.” It also contains many prophecies regarding the 
 spread of Christianity. It was foretold of Jesus Christ, “ His name 
 shall endure for ever; men shall be blessed in Him, and all nations 
 shall call Him blessed Cl His dominion is an everlasting dominion 
 which shall not pass away ;” “ The isles shall wait for His law, and 
 
 in His name shall the nations trust.” These prophecies we see 
 being fulfilled before our eyes. 
 
 The change of religion which took place in Europe, in spite of 
 the strongest opposition of the Roman Government, will also happen 
 in India. The temples of Vishnu and Siva will yet be as deserted 
 as those of Jupiter and Minerva in Europe. The Eastern and Wes¬ 
 tern Aryans will kneel at the same footstool, and offer the same 
 grand old prayer, beginning, “ Our Father which art in heaven.” 
 When this change will take place, we do not know. It took three 
 centuries to overthrow heathenism in ancient Europe, and it may 
 take as long in modern India. Light, however, is gradually spread¬ 
 ing, and an Indian Luther may yet arise to bring about a rapid 
 reformation. 
 
 The motto of the Lansdowne family is, “ By courage, not Words,” 
 This is what is wanted on the part of Indiau reformers, 
 
THE FUTURE RELIGION OF INDIA. 
 
 47 
 
 The future triumphs of Christianity will not be confined to India. 
 As Dr. Murray Mitchell says : 
 
 “She aims at universal sway. Amid the pine forests of the North and 
 the palm groves of the East—on the American prairie, and in the coral 
 islets that begem the bosom of the Pacific, she is still aggressive—still 
 victorious. But her triumph is not the triumph of race, or caste, or nation • 
 she seeks to make the human race one family, and to link man to man 
 by linking all to God. She seeks to make the heart of Earth beat in 
 unison with the heart of Heaven. And she believes that the truth of 
 Heaven is pledged that these things shall not be sought in vain. Even 
 now every Christian heart beats high with hope that we are on the 
 eve of some glorious consummation. Or, as it has been expressed by that 
 poet whose spirit was so deeply Christian—the poet Cowper: * 
 
 “ The groans of Nature in this nether world, 
 
 Which Heaven has heard for ages, have an end, 
 
 Foretold by prophets and by poets sung, 
 
 The time of rest, the promised Sabbath comes . . 
 
 One song employs all nations and all cry, 
 
 ‘ Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain for us !’ 
 
 The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks 
 Shout to each other, and the mountain tops 
 From distant mountains catch the flying joy, 
 
 Till, nation after nation taught the strain, 
 
 Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round.” 
 
 . A T fc °P en '°g ° f * he Great Indlan and Colonial Exhibition 
 m London in 1886, there were assembled representatives from 
 India and from all parts of the empire. It was presided over by 
 the Queen in person. Lord Northbrook who was present says : 
 
 “ When that ceremony concluded with the magnificent < Halleluiah 
 Chorus perhaps the finest effort of the genius of man applied to music 
 —there was something to my mind still finer than the music • i- w-n tbl 
 words of the music of that chorus-' Hallelujah (praise the’Lo“rd) • for 
 the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ; the kingdoms of this world are 
 become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall refon 
 for ever and ever, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords ; Hallelujah !’ ” ° 
 
 * Ancient Paganism and Christianity , p. 30, Bombay Ed. ~ 
 
 PRINTED AT THE S. P. C. K. PRESS, 
 
 vepery, madras. 1891 . 
 
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