CHAPTER XVII

The Primitive Christ-Followers

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"Ubi sunt tres laici ibi est ecclesia."-TERTULLIAN.

F we would see how far remote was the religion of the primitive followers of Christ from that Christianity to which the ecclesiastical systems have brought it, we must go back to such records as exist respecting the Apostolic age and that which immediately followed it. The first point to be noticed is that it was entirely a community of laymen. The Apostles, some at least of whom continued to work at their respective trades as they moved about, did indeed institute local government in every centre by appointing officials who are variously described as elders, πρεσβυτέροι, and bishops or overseers, éπioкóπou, of whom there were several in each congregation. There is no trace of these officers having at first exercised any priestly functions, and (judging by Acts xx. 17 and 28) these titles referred to one and the same office. In the classification, in 1 Cor. xii. 28, of the offices in the Church, St. Paul mentions "first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers," no bishops, no elders, no priests. But, as we learn from Acts vi. there were business men appointed as deacons or

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ministers, Stákovou, who appear to have attended to the secular needs of the community, or to have been travelling companions to the Apostles. There were no cardinals or prelates, not even an archdeacon. If we pass on to the times immediately following that of the Apostles, the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, as Justin the Martyr and Saint Clement of Rome, we find the same simplicity. As there were no priests so also was there no sacramentalism. The supper of the Lord was still a common meal, eaten with no pretence of sacramental efficacy about it, any more than in the time of the Apostles. The Church of Christ was still a Church of the Resurrection. They had suffered too much from Judaising teachers to have any leanings toward Jewish presentations of the work of Christ. We find no

trace of any doctrine of atonement by blood, or of vicarious sacrifice; no hint of any altar service or ritual of reconciliation. The presence of the risen Christ, though spiritual in the hearts of His followers, was far too real to permit of any material representative. Mistaken piety had not yet invented the crucifix, nor had bigotry imposed any other creed than the simple avowal: "I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God."

Amongst the documents that attest these things there are five specially worthy of note: they are known to scholars as (1) The Epistle to Diognetus; (2) The Didache or Teaching of the Apostles; (3) The Epistles of Saint Ignatius; (4) The Epistle of Saint Clement of Rome to the Corinthians; and (5) The Letter of Pliny to the Emperor Trajan. There are other sources also, as, for example, the Diatessaron, the writings of Justin

the Martyr, and the evidence afforded by the inscriptions in the Catacombs of Rome.

The Epistle to Diognetus, of which versions in Greek and English are to be found in Bishop Lightfoot's "Apostolic Fathers" (Macmillan & Co., 1898), is probably of date A.D. 150. It is sometimes ascribed to Justin the Martyr; and Lightfoot identifies the Diognetus to whom it is addressed as not improbably the tutor of Marcus Aurelius. Lightfoot says of it: "The simplicity in the mode of stating theological truths, and the absence of all reference to the manifold heresies of later times, both point to a somewhat early date. Whenever it was written, it is one of the noblest and most impressive of early Christian apologetics in style and treatment." It is an earlier document than any of the Creeds, Institutes, Confessions or Articles in which Synods and Councils and Churches have sought to define beliefs; it is, therefore, of far more weight than any of the Creeds in showing what the first followers of Christ really held as their religion. It sets forth a conception of duty which has never been surpassed. It shows how far even at that age the teaching of Christ and His Apostles had gone toward the realisation of the Kingdom of Heaven amongst men, and exhibits that Kingdom as an actual growth within the social order, a leaven leavening the lump. In it there is found largehearted charity, complete absence of metaphysical quibbles, wide liberty of thought. Its fervour of spirit and buoyancy of hope reveal no tinge of the Middle-Age pessimism that ended in the narrow creeds of the Calvinists. It knows nothing of the heathenised ecclesiasticisms of the East or of the

West. In short, it presents a picture of a community actually living in this world a life of devotion to Christ, and actuated by a large-hearted striving toward that bearing of one another's burdens which fulfils the law of Christ. But the epistle must speak for itself.

THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS (abbreviated).

Since I see, most excellent Diognetus, that thou art exceedingly anxious to understand the religion of the Christians, and that thy inquiries respecting them are distinctly and carefully made, as to what God they trust and how they worship Him, that they disregard the world and despise death, and take no account of those who are regarded as gods by the Greeks, neither observe the superstitions of the Jews, and as to the nature of the affection which they entertain one to another, and of this new development or interest which has entered into men's lives now and not before I gladly welcome this zeal in thee.

Come then, clear thyself of all the prepossessions which occupy thy mind. See not only with thine eyes, but with thine intellect also, of what substance or of what form they chance to be whom ye call and regard as gods. Is not one of them stone, like that which we tread underfoot, and another bronze, no better than the vessels which are wrought for our use, and another wood, which has already become rotten, and another silver, which needs a man to guard it lest it be stolen, and another iron, which is corroded with rust, and another earthenware, not a whit more comely than that which is supplied for the most dishonourable service? Are not all these of perishable matter? Are they not wrought by iron and fire? Did not the sculptor make one, and the brass-founder another, and the silversmith another, and the potter another? Before they were moulded into this shape by the crafts of these several artificers, was it not possible for each one of them to have been changed in form and made to resemble these several utensils? Might

not the vessels which are now made out of the same material, if they met with the same artificers, be made like unto such as these? Could not these things which are now worshipped by you, by human hands again be made vessels like the rest? Are they not all deaf and blind, are they not soulless, senseless, motionless? Do they not all rot and decay? These things ye call gods, to these ye are slaves, these ye worship; and ye end by becoming altogether like unto them. Therefore ye hate the Christians, because they do not consider these to be gods. For do not ye yourselves, who now regard and worship them, much more despise them? Do ye not much rather mock and insult them, worshipping those that are of stone and earthenware unguarded, but shutting up those that are of silver and gold by night, and setting guards over them by day, to prevent their being stolen? And as for the honours which ye think to offer to them, if they are sensible of them, ye rather punish them thereby, whereas, if they are insensible, ye reproach them by propitiating them with the blood and fat of victims. Well, I could say much besides concerning the Christians not being enslaved to such gods as these but if any one should think what has been said insufficient, I hold it superfluous to say more.

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In the next place, I fancy that thou art chiefly anxious to hear about their not practising their religion in the same way as the Jews. The Jews then, so far as they abstain from the mode of worship described above, do well in claiming to reverence one God of the universe and to regard Him as Master; but so far as they offer Him this worship in methods similar to those already mentioned, they are altogether at fault. For whereas the Greeks, by offering these things to senseless and deaf images, make an exhibition of stupidity, the Jews considering that they are presenting them to God, as if He were in need of them, ought in all reason to count it folly and not religious worship. For He that made the heaven and the earth, and all things that are therein, and furnisheth us all with what we need, cannot Himself need any of these things which He Himself supplieth to them that imagine they are giving them to