1. it was developed on the western borders of asia, and was the completion or perfect development of the system of religion existing among the jews from a very early period. soon after abraham, the father and grand patriarch of the jews, had given his descendants the outlines of the system, they were led, by circumstances, to egypt, and remained there for many generations. when they left egypt, it was under the leadership of one of the greatest of the world’s great men, who had been heir apparent of the egyptian throne, and was consequently versed in all the mysterious wisdom of the priesthood of that country. that he became wiser than they is evident from the history of his contest with them before the king when endeavoring to gain his consent to the migration of his people from the country. instructed in all the celebrated “wisdom of the egyptians,” together with the reflections and additions of forty solitary years as a shepherd in arabia, he produced a remarkable system of mingled theology and legislation which has come down as a sacred record to our day.

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2. the jews were, nine hundred years afterwards, transported as a nation to babylon, remained there for more than two generations, and received such light as the babylonian priests and persian magi were able to give them. the conquest of asia by the greeks and the vicinity of judea to commercial tyre, furnished them all the aid these nations could give in the line of religious suggestion. a jew produced, in the early days of the roman empire, the simple, yet sublime teachings of christianity. it had the comprehensiveness and directness requisite to give it authority as a universal religion. in few, but plain and convincing words, it laid down the principles of human rights and of divine law. it defined the nature and stated the sanctions of virtue in the clearest terms; tore away every covering from vice and denounced without fear the favorite ambitions and follies of men. it seems almost incredible that such a system should have had its origin even among a people like the jews, and at the time when the roman empire represented the highest civilization of the world.

3. the jews, as a nation, however, rejected and bitterly persecuted it, and the romans, who were, on principle, extremely tolerant of all foreign religions, soon became extremely hostile. it was humble, unostentatious, very simple in all its forms, carefully refrained from all interference with established government, and presented many new and consoling truths, with great force. it would have seemed that it had only to speak to gain a hearing and take a leading place at once in the work of the future. the few unprejudiced among the great, and thousands of the poor and oppressed whom the cruel power of the romans had deprived of nationality, property and personal liberty, and many whose minds recoiled from the vices, crimes and skepticism of the age, heard and embraced it with joy. but it rebuked with most severity the ambitions, the injustice and the love of luxury that were most prevalent in that age and that were most distinctly roman. it was peculiarly severe against all other systems of religion,[111] and that formed the strongest barrier against its immediate spread over the pagan world at large. it was, therefore, persecuted with the greatest rigor for three hundred years.

4. but persecution called public attention to it and won it sympathy, and it continually spread beneath the surface of society. the brutal features of roman character were gradually softened; very gradually, indeed, for roman manners and morals were an augean stable which it was a more than herculean task to cleanse; but after a time, the gigantic crimes of a marius, a sylla, a nero, or domitian became impossible, and the horrors of the theatre, where gladiators killed each other and men were thrown to wild beasts for the amusement of the populace, became rare. atrocious crimes awakened a disgust that showed a different view and a new standard of judgment in the community. christianity created a purer moral atmosphere even in rome, and while it was persecuted with the utmost barbarity.

5. it is then no matter of surprise that christianity did not at once meet with general acceptance, and did not fully reconstruct roman society and manners. the marvel is that it could be produced at all by an age to whose whole spirit it was so absolutely contrary. it was the doctrine of peace proclaimed among nations who knew no occupation so glorious as war; whose institutions all rested on conquest; whose dominant race—admired as much as feared—was the very genius and embodiment of martial force arrayed against the independence of all nationalities by an organization the most complete. it proclaimed the rights of man and the equality of all classes and persons before the divine law, to a people who had plunged in a common ruin carthage and corinth, the republics of greece, and the absolute rulers of monarchical asia. it scorned equally gorgeous ceremonies of worship, the subtleties of an imperfect philosophy and pride of place and power.

it is not possible to imagine a greater contrast to all the modes of habit and thought prevalent in those times. the[112] most sensual of all races it exhorted to spirituality, to the most cruel and insolent it preached meekness and forbearance. it placed the slave to whom the recognized laws of war left no rights, beside the master who gloried in setting his foot on the neck of the prostrate; and recognized as equals the great and the small, the ignorant and the wise, the bond and the free.

we cannot be surprised that it did not obtain immediate currency, that it was everywhere scorned and cast out, that it aroused unheard of persecutions, and that it could only obtain, a triumph when the old roman inflexibility and fierceness had died out of its degenerate children, and the spirit of the ancient world was burned out in the hot fires of its own passions. character does not change in a day, and the ruling impulses of a race can be modified only by slow degrees. such is the supreme law which has ruled all history.

6. from all these causes christianity was slow in penetrating society and moulding institutions; but it spread so extensively that a clear sighted emperor at length found it politic to profess christianity in order to gain the support of so large and vigorous an element against his rivals in power. constantine was victorious and proceeded to make christianity the state religion. it had maintained its growth by its real superiority and ever after remained the most powerful and productive among the influences that aided the progress of mankind. it was actively aggressive and had made the barbarians who overthrew rome converts to the faith before the invasion, and thus broke the force and diminished the disastrous effects of that event. in after times, no sooner did a barbarian tribe appear and establish itself in any part of the old empire than christianity commenced the work of teaching and proselyting, which aided much in restoring order and repairing ruin. had christianity preserved its purity its usefulness and power would have been much greater.

7. but as it gained in numbers and in position it lost internal strength. both oriental and greek philosophy tainted its simple doctrines and introduced in various forms the hurtful[113] speculations so dear to the ancients; and when it became the court religion the simplicity of its ceremonies was gradually replaced by the pomp and splendor of pagan worship. constantine and his successors in the empire assumed the virtual headship of the church, called councils and packed them for political purposes, and pronounced for or against supposed heresies. the offices of the church became the rewards of ambition and gradually a hierarchy, or regular gradation, was established in the priesthood, and both faith and manners came to be strangely in contrast with their original simplicity. yet, christianity, aping the forms and infected with the superstitions of paganism, and become the tool of the aspiring, was still alive with a youthful vigor by which she eased the fall of the old civilization, and was abundant in valuable service for the civilization yet to be.