| Monumental Christianity; or, The art and symbolism of the primitive church. CHAPTER II - 4 |
Page 5 of 5 If, then, the highest type of civilization at that time presented in the Roman world and in the Jewish people, was religion perverted on the one hand to political scheming, and intelligence on the other to swinish indulgences, while the masses of the people were wholly given up to ignorance and debasement, and not considered of any account, or as having any souls, none caring for them or showing them any consideration, how is it that in the Christian Catacombs we have evidence of a vastly different state of things? For here all ages, sexes, and conditions of life mingle their sacred dust in one common receptacle, just as they had met together during life to engage in common worship, and receive a common instruction, and partake of the common Agapa and Eucharist. All were alike brethren, and it was the best and truest democracy the world has ever known. Here the great princi- ple of election, and personal dignity, and fraternal equality, were cherished as of Divine and Apostolic origin and sanction. No distinctions of rich and poor, bond or free, appear, except as the graves of the martyrs are signalized. Bishops, Presby- ters, D -aeons. Readers, Exorcists, and Fossors, are mentioned as distinct orders and offices, because of their fidelity and constancy. In that early Christian society, there seems to have been a clear and distinct recognition of men as men, for their own sake, because they were all alike immortal beings, of priceless worth in God's sight, and all alike redeemed by the precious blood of His dear Son. Mere wealth, 46 Monumental Christianity, station, birth, or any other social distinction, were as nothing in comparison with brethren who had beeji made kings and priests of God, and whose elder brother was the Lord of life and glory, and who thus became the heirs of a heavenly king- dom. St. Peter's vision on the house top at Joppa was here realized for the first time in the world's history. None of human kind was here considered common or unclean. And here began the re-organization of society on a new basis, viz., on that of a common origin, a common redemption, and a common destiny. Castes and distinctions of human invention were done away, and. henceforth all were one in Christ. It is impossible to examine the inscriptions of the Lapidarian gallery, or to visit the Catacombs themselves, and witness the remaining evidences there of this common religious life, without being profoundly impressed with the difference between the Christian and the pagan estimate of man and his destiny. On one side of that long gallery may be seen the expressions of Christian peace and hope ; and on the other, the pagan records of fear and despair. It was not the Christian society that built the Coliseum or painted the '* Loves of the gods'' at Pompeii. It was not the Christian society that oppressed the poor, and suffered them to die in neglect, and threw their dead bodies out to rot in X\it puteculi^ or quarries ; nor did they expose little children to the elements, and birds of prey. The special care and patrimony of the Primitive Church were orphans, widows, the poor and for- saken. The common fund and the Agapce were the inviting heritage and comfort of all such, to aid them in life, and give them a decent burial after death. Whatever may be thought or said of the prevalent pagan scandals and calum- nies heaped on the early Christians — a subject for further consideration — it is cer- tain that no such impure representations occur on the walls of the Catacombs as we find at Herculaneum and Pompeii. Gnostic absurdities and impurities have occasionally been found in one of the cemeteries which is supposed to have been used by some of that sect; but the rest are pure and clean. We here contem- plate the fresh, joyous, and exuberant childhood of Christianity, where all is innocent, contented, and happy. From these tombs arose the new life of the world ; and the angel of God sits there to tell the doubting and desponding that the Christ of God and of humanity has risen and gone forth on the blessed errand of redemption, and life eternal in the heavens. The Christian society at Rome must have been founded on the teachings of Christ and His Apostles to have existed there at all, in the midst of such universal corruption of manners as prevailed, and its principles must have had some other than a merely human origin. Even Gibbon, while striving to explain away the supernatural rise and progress of Christianity, must still admit that the ties of faith and charity which bound the Primitive Church together on a basis of independence and equality. Structure of the Catacombs. 47 were no usual and ordinary ties;* and certainly they were not the ties which ever held Roman or any other pagan society together. For it was Christianity that in- vented the word Charity, and first put the thing which it signifies into practice. The love of perverted paganism was always erotic. The essence of paganism as it then existed, was sensuality ; spirituality is the essence of Christianity. The Church of the Catacombs has passed away into other developments, not always and everywhere the best ; but her religion remains attested by varied and abundant monumental evidence. ^DicHneand Fall, &c., ll. pp. 191-201. London, x854« 48 Monumental Christianity. |