But let us look at some of the difficulties in the way of Christianity. In the first place, heathenism was the official religion of the empire. In the fullest sense of the word, Rome had a state religion, idolatrous practices of which were in the most intricate way woven into the web of everyday life. Every public or state transaction was at the same time a religious act, and had a fixed ritual or form, which in the eyes of all Christians must appear idolatrous. The Romans were in one sense of the word very religious. By every act they remembered their gods and offered a sacrifice, however small. With buying, selling, visiting, marrying, going to law, making a will, with births and deaths, with everything, in fact, there was connected some rite that would prevent Christians from participation. As citizens and neighbors, the Christians could perform neither their civil nor their social duties. It was this that so enraged the heathen, for it seemed to them that such conduct of the Christians could have but one result― the offended gods would send punishment on the whole land. The Christians were "atheists," because they despised the gods. And all public misfortunes, such as the failure of the crops, drouth, floods, pests, storms, earthquakes, and the like, were laid at their door; for all these were expressions of the anger of the gods. Hence persecutions were the necessary consequence.

Again, the Romans were hostile to Eastern religions. They tolerated them, indeed, in the East,

but forbade their spread in the West. Judaism was the only exception. But Christianity was an Eastern religion. So long as it was regarded as a Jewish sect, it was tolerated; but when it became independent of Judaism and was seen to be making converts for itself and in its own name, it was in that very moment proscribed, and to be a Christian was in the eyes of the law to be a criminal.

Christianity met a powerful enemy in the new and universal religion that had just been invented. This was Emperor worship. In the days of the republic, the Romans had deified their city. According to Roman modes of thought, everything of value had a "genius" that presided over it. So temples were erected and sacrifices offered to the genius of Rome. When Augustus became Emperor, the same process of reasoning led them to deify him. To his Genius also temples were built, altars set up, sacrifices appointed, and a ritual fixed. His statues were everywhere, and to refuse to sacrifice before one of them was to be guilty of high treason, which was of course punishable with death. Christians were every day brought into contact with this practice, and as they had to refuse, persecution was the necessary result. This soon came to be the test in all trials of Christians. They were placed before a statue of the Emperor, and if they sacrificed they were set free; but if they refused, they were at once condemned to death.

Polytheism required only a ritual, not morals.

The dignity and glory of the gods consisted not in their moral character, and they made no moral demands of their worshipers. If the morals of the gods themselves would not bear close inspection, it was not to be expected that they would trouble themselves about the conduct of their worshipers. Worship did not imply any bond of moral union between the god and his worshiper. So it was customary to go to the temple of a god, to sacrifice, and to be initiated into his mysteries, and that was the end of it. The god could expect nothing more from his worshiper, and if he had anything to give, the worshiper had done all in his power to obtain it. Further connection between the two was not necessary. It naturally follows that there could be no bond of union, no "fellowship" among the worshipers; they were not gathered into congregations and bound together and to their god by bonds of love.

The worship of one god did not exclude that of others. On the contrary, if it was good to sacrifice to one god, it was twice as good to sacrifice to two. If one wished to be perfectly sure, one had to sacrifice to as many gods as possible. It was like taking out an insurance policy in many companies. And so, like Pausanias, the greatest religious tramp of the world, the people went from one temple to another, offering this external service, while their lives were uninfluenced. That the true God is jealous of the affections of his worshipers, that there must be a lasting union between Him and

them, that they should be one with Him in will, love, and character, all this was foreign to their thoughts. And so there was great danger that the heathen would regard Jesus as another god to be added to their list, and would look on baptism and the Lord's Supper as the mysteries into which they must be initiated, and that that was all that could be required of them; that they would not understand that they had been made sons of God and brethren one of another, and that these new relations required a new manner of life. It was this that made it necessary for the author of the Hebrews to write, "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is (Heb. x. 25).

Further, it was an age of uncertainty and doubt in religion, and hence superstitious. The people listened to any one who claimed to be a messenger from the gods. That led to quackery in religion. There were false priests and prophets everywhere, making money by imposing on the credulity of the people by their tricks and deceptions. Christianity was sure to be abused and corrupted in the same way, for it offered a fine field for the operations of quacks and impostors, whose sole aim was gain and self glory.1

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1 Cf. Simon Magus, Acts viii.; Elymas, Acts xiii.; strolling Jews," Acts xix.; The Didache, ch. xi.-xiii.; Lucian, Peregrinus Proteus.

CHAPTER II.

THE EXPANSION OF JUDAISM.1

FROM another quarter, the world received a preparation without which the great and rapid success of Christianity would have been impossible. Of all ancient religions, Judaism as represented by the Prophets was incomparably the best. No other religion had such a conception of God, his lofty and upright character, his majesty, his compassion, his fatherly love for men, his mercy, and at the same time, of the high demands for holy living which He made on all who would be his people and enjoy his protection. But this high conception of God was confined to one little people, inhabiting a small province and having little communication with the rest of the world. More than that, their foreign intercourse was so restricted by the many levitical rules and regulations that their religious influence on other nations was practically nothing. Everywhere else there was polytheism, varying in grade from its finest and noblest forms to the crassest, most degraded, and degrading. What advantage was it to the world that the Jews

1 See also Schürer's work, The History of the Jews in the Time of Christ.