our country, are unknown, we are not to suppose that the friends of truth have no cross to bear, no battle to fight. They may be sure that while error remains, bigotry, intolerance and exclusiveness will continue to be exhibited, and that misrepresentation, reproach and calumny will, in too many instances, be resorted to. Let the man of liberal mind be faithful to his God, to Christ, to himself, to his soul's progress in knowledge, faith and holiness. While he would preserve independence of thought, let him cultivate meekness, self-denial and charity. And while he finds reason to be grateful that the fiery trials that attended the primitive Christians are no more, let him arm himself with a true moral courage against the secret, or open enemies of the simplicity of the gospel. And if he is misrepresented, or traduced, let him account himself honored and happy to "be reproached for the name of Christ."

E. T.

ART. XVIII.

The Conflicts of Christianity.

The Early Conflicts of Christianity. By the Rev. Wm. Ingraham Kipp, D. D. 1850. pp. 288.

By grouping together, with considerable artistic skill, on one canvass, whatever has been contributed for a vivid and gorgeous picture of Judaism, or Paganism, Dr. Kipp has given the material exhibition of these giant institutions, and shown how they presented a seemingly impregnable barrier to the advance of "the simplicity of Christ." Christianity is seen standing towards them much as a feeble band of pilgrims have stood before a massive pile of palace and towers, to gain entrance where they are despised and hated, and to receive hospitality by a winning song which touches the chords of sympathy that make the world akin. Whatever can add to the pictorial effect

of his purpose is easily drawn in by our author, and we see pictured whatever was adapted in "the shows of things" to appeal to the intellect or lead captive the senses. He seems to have had a mind to see what Saul saw in his various travels, and to describe whatever might have appealed to the apostle as a man of education and refine

ment.

It is better to be introduced to a book, as to a man, without expectations; and had this been our case, in respect to this work, we might have formed a more impartial, and perhaps more favorable, opinion of its worth. Every man's religion has a good deal to do with his views of things, and how can a reader who loves simplicity be moved by pictures from one who only can get at life through a form? A soul touched with the life of Christturned in upon itself with that introversion which begins every remarkable change in a man's character, instead of being attracted by the gorgeous externals in which error entrenches itself, turns sick at beholding them, and would dash them to atoms, as Hezekiah did the brazen serpent when he gave it a name of contempt. It was not to muse on splendid edifices, to see the elaborations of exquisite art, to behold the fascinations of the festival and the shows, that Paul trod the streets of Athens. His spirit was stirred, not by these, but by seeing the city wholly given to idolatry. A solitary being as he was, bearing alone the seed of immortal plenty, he showed no evidence of being appalled by the entrenchments of philosophy and poetry, wedded to superstition and sin. He went to the synagogue; there he met Judaism. Then with devout persons he disputed, and in the market-place daily with them that met him, whether Stoic or Epicurean, wit, casuist, or scholar, and there he found "Philosophy." A babbler, cried many, a retailer of scraps of wisdom or folly, caught here and there, as he may have journeyed; but they found he was possessed of a new spirit, was armed with new weapons, and declared a new conflict for the mighty in this world's wisdom. What we want to feel is, that when Paul was led to the proud eminence and permitted to speak his full word, the greatness and majesty of truth in his soul made all the grandeur of outward state as nothing. A few simple truths well uttered, and the mighty

forces of Christianity were presented in open conflict with the theories of philosophy.

How little do we know the resources of a great truth, till it is brought into conflict with minds of various orders stimulated by bigotry or prejudice, by the force of educational circumstances or love of argumentation, to oppose it. Controversies in church and state show truth and error in various lights; they open to us what ingenuity can summon to its aid in a bad cause, and how much selfish interest has to do with ability to apprehend right reason and common sense. All the examples of stern resistance to truth are not confined to the annals of the church; for science has its martyrs, as well as religion, and has been forced to say, "If God waited three thousand years for an observer, I may be content to wait a century for a reader." Doubtless there are good reasons for man's unwillingness to receive new truths, and for his fighting against his benefactor; for if slowness were not the law of progress, the world would be teeming with new theories far beyond the affluence with which ingenious speculation now bestows them. It is well that every truth is thoroughly challenged, its features seen and marked, and the countersign demanded to be given with clear and distinct utterance. "Thy speech betrayeth thee!" is the fact evidenced by the history of every speculation ever offered to man for renovating society and redeeming from sin. Doing is the most proper way of saying. When doctrine is put into action, when principle is applied to things, it utters itself to all minds; the lightning comes out of the cloud to purify the air or to blast and lay waste. A visible body is thus given them. They are no longer phantoms. We see what the doctrine, the principle, is, good or evil; whether the gods have descended, or demons arisen. What has been, may be, in the action of mind against mind; and if the warrior studies the battles which have shaken the earth and crimsoned acres with human blood, that he may bring the art of master geniuses to bear on the difficulties which may encompass him, shall not the moral warrior, the "good soldier of Jesus Christ," be equally wise, or give reason for the repetition of the reproach of old, "The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light."

We

need to study the many aspects of human nature, the many phases which bigotry and candor can wear, the transformations of an error, and the transmigrations of a truth. How multiplied have been the conflicts to which Christianity has thus been exposed! The greatness of its triumphs, the divinity of its claims, the applications of its truths, the union possible between great principles and small duties, the essential necessity of clearly defined opinions as the basis of intelligent action, and how virtue passes into holiness when allied to a supreme regard for God, and is illuminated by his presence, can be slightly estimated only by acquaintance with its early conflicts and triumphs. "Christianity a failure," was never the thought of a soul thus enlightened. A timid confidence in its efficiency gives place to fixed conviction of its almightiness; and as new trials for Christianity come, as new social evils are developed or created, as new forces of learning are brought into the field to question the right of the gospel to have the world as its field, and Satan transforms himself into an angel of light to marshall the hosts of skepticism, the "full assurance of faith " counts it all joy to fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trial of faith worketh patience, and that patience should have its perfect work. To tremble at any time and under any circumstances for Christianity, is an acknowledgement either that the conquests of Christianity are not known, or, if known, but slightly appreciated. We may use the word Judaism, or Paganism, and it shall be to us but slightly significant of those massive fortresses of strength, those insidious windings of prejudice, those attractions of habit and custom, those bewildering fashions of thought and speculation, which became, insensibly, a portion of the very being and seemed but the action of native impulse. But when we give due significance to the name, and see a few of the humblest men, with a few simple truths, going forth to change the spirit and fashion of the whole that stands present to our vision, we enter upon the view of a mighty work whose success may well keep fear from the soul that believes it has the truth. It was not by a fierce onset that at once tore down synagogue and temple, that Christianity made its way in the world. Not by saying the worst things that could be said, and thus showing the

258

The Conflicts of Christianity.

[July

worst imaginings, did the Christians become victors. But the greatest works were wrought, as the new life of the springtime operates, assimilating into forms of beauty the elements left by the past, and merging into the essence of a new growth the deadness of things that once had a beauty. "The singular felicity," says Milman, "the skill and dexterity, if we so speak, with which Christianity, at first, wound its way through these conflicting elements, combining what was pure and lofty in each, in some instances unavoidably speaking their language, and simplifying, harmonizing, and modifying each to its own peculiar system, increases our admiration of its unrivalled wisdom, its deep insight into the universal nature of man, and its pre-acquaintance, as it were, with the countless diversities of human character prevailing at the time of its propagation. But, unless the same profound wisdom had watched over its inviolable preservation, which presided over its origin, unless it had been constantly administered with the same superiority to the common passions, and interests, and speculative curiosity of man, a reaction of the several systems over which it prevailed was inevitable." We have too little regard to this Divine superintendence. We do too much declaim respecting Christianity as though it were left to its own native force and impulse, and we have substituted in the dialect of what we call "faith," developement for Providence. But it is, after all, God who "worketh in us to will and to do;" to use our freedom for Him. He may work by us as blind instruments of his power, and doubtless does so work; but where we see man's will mighty in doing, and behold this and that giant spirit leading the Christian forces in the conflict with some Goliath of error, we should not lose sight of the fact, that God is working within the man who thus wills and is doing. "God wills it!" was a rallying cry that animated hosts to arm for the battle, and the red right arm of war was made bare for an awful work; but, in a milder strife, that voice in the soul has given an undying courage to use "weapons not carnal," and prove them "mighty, through God, to the pulling down ofstrong holds;" for the warfare was not "after the flesh," but for "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and