Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
oppositions of our enemies, is this, that if it be in the providence of
God that they cannot be avoided, we have cause to bless him that their
issue is good rather than evil; that they serve as tests by which the
genuine is tried and proved; that they give the best and highest
testimony to the world that man can give, of his sincerity; that they
serve to bind together into one compact and invincible phalanx the
disciples of our common master, however in many things they may divide
and separate. But, were it not better, if we could attain an equal good
without the suffering?'
'I believe that to be impossible,' said Macer. 'Since Jesus began his
ministry, persecution has been the rod that has been laid upon the
church without sparing, and the fruit has been abundant. Without it,
like these foolish children, we might run riot in all iniquity.'
'I do not say that the rod has not been needed,' answered Probus, 'nor
that good has not ensued; but only, that it would be better, wiser, and
happier, to reach the same good without the rod; just as it is better
when your children, without chastisement, fulfil your wishes and perform
their tasks. We hope and trust that our children will grow up to such
virtue, that they will no longer need the discipline of suffering to
make them better. Ought we not to look and pray for a period to arrive
in the history of the church, when men shall no longer need to be lashed
and driven, but shall of themselves discern what is best and cleave to
it?'
'That might indeed be better,' replied the other; 'but the time is not
come for it yet. The church I say is corrupt, and it cries out for
another purging. Christians are already lording it over one another. The
bishop of Rome sets himself up, as a lord, over subjects. A Roman Caesar
walks it not more proudly. What with his robes of state, and his seat of
gold, and his golden rod, and his altar set out with vessels of gold and
silver, and his long train of menials and subordinates, poor simple
Macer, who learned of Christ, as he hopes, is at a loss to discern the
follower of the lowly Jesus, but takes Felix, the Christian servant, for
some Fronto of a Heathen temple! Were the power mine, as the will is,
never would I stay for Aurelian, but my own arm should sweep from the
places they pollute the worst enemies of the Saviour. Did Jesus die that
Felix might flaunt his peacock's feathers in the face of Rome?'
'We cannot hope, Macer,' answered Probus, 'to grow up to perfection at
once. I see and bewail the errors at which you point as well as you. But
if, to remove them, we bring down the heavy arm of Rome upon our
heads--the remedy may prove worse than the disease.'
'No. That could not be! Let those who with open eyes abuse the gifts of
God, perish! If this faith cannot be maintained undefiled by Heathen
additions, let it perish!'
'But God dealeth not so with us,' continued Probus; 'he beareth long and
patiently. We are not destroyed because in the first years of our life
we do not rise to all virtue, but are spared to fourscore. Ought we not
to manifest a like patience and forbearance? By waiting patiently we
shall see our faults, and one by one correct them. There is still some
reason and discernment left among us. We are not all fools and blind.
And the faults which we correct ourselves, by our own action, and the
conviction of our own minds acting freely and voluntarily, will be more
truly corrected, than if we are but frightened away from them for a time
by the terrors of the Roman sword. I think, Macer, and so thinks Piso,
that, far from seeking to inflame the common mind, and so drawing upon
us the evils which are now with reason apprehended, we should rather aim
to ward them off.'
'Never!' cried Macer with utmost indignation. 'Shall the soldier of the
cross shrink--'
'No, Macer, he need not shrink. Let him stand armed in panoply complete;
prompt to serve, willing to die; but let him not wantonly provoke an
enemy who may not only destroy him, that were a little thing, but, in
the fury of the onset, thousands with him, and, perhaps, with them the
very faith for which they die! The Christian is not guiltless
who--though it be in the cause of Christ--rushes upon unnecessary death.
You, Macer, are not only a Christian and soldier of Jesus Christ, but a
man, who, having received life from the Creator, have no right wantonly
to throw it away. You are a husband, and you are bound to live for your
wife;--these are your children, and you are bound to live for them.'
'He,' said Macer, solemnly, 'who hateth not father and mother and wife
and children and brethren and sister, yea and his own life also, cannot
be my disciple.'
'Yes,' replied Probus, 'that is true; we are to be ready and willing to
suffer for Christ and truth; but not to seek it. He who seeks martyrdom
is no martyr. Selfish passions have then mingled their impure current
with that of love to God, and the sacrifice is not without spot and
blemish. Jesus did not so; nor his first followers. When the Lord was
persecuted in one city, he staid not there to inflame it more and more;
he fled to another. Paul and Peter and Barnabas stood ever for their
rights; they suffered not wrong willingly. When the ark of truth is
intrusted to few hands, they must bear it forward boldly, but with care,
else are they at a blow cut off, and the ark with its precious burden
borne away and lost--or miracles alone can rescue it. But when the time
comes that no prudence or care will avail, then they may not refuse the
issue, but must show that life is nothing in comparison of truth and
God.'
'Probus,' said Macer, 'I like not your timid counsels. 'Tis not by such
that Christ's cause shall ever advance, or that period ever come when
he, the long-looked and waited for, shall descend, and the millenial
reign begin. Life is nothing to me and less than nothing. I hold it as
dirt and dross. And if by throwing it away I can add such a commentary
to my preaching as shall strike a single Pagan heart, I shall not have
died in vain; and if the blood that shall flow from these veins, may
serve but as a purge, to carry off the foul humors that now fester and
rage in the body of the church, thrice happy shall I be to see it flow.
And for these--let them be as the women and children of other times, and
hold not back when their master calls. Arria! do thou set before thee
St. Blandina, and if the Lord let thee be as her, thou wilt have cause
to bless his name.'
'Never, Macer, would I shrink from any trial to which the Lord in his
wisdom might call me--that you know. But has not Probus uttered a truth,
when he says, that we are not innocent, and never glorious, when we
seek death? that he who seeks martyrdom is no martyr? Listen, Macer, to
the wisdom of Probus and the noble Piso. Did you not promise that you
would patiently hear them?'
'Woman--I have heard them--their words are naught, stark naught, or
worse. Where would have been the blessed gospel at this hour, had it
been committed to such counsels? Even under Nero would it have died for
want of those who were willing to die for it. I am a soldier of the
cross, whose very vocation it is to fight and die. And if I may but die,
blessed Jesus, for thee! then may I hope that thou wilt deal mercifully
with thy servant at thy judgment-seat. I hear thy voice ever sounding in
my ear, reproving me for my cowardice. Have patience with me, and I will
give thee all. And if labor, and torture, and death, would but cancel
sin!--But alas! even they may not suffice.'
'Then, dear father,' said one of his daughters who had drawn near and
seated herself at his knee, while the others had gathered round, 'then
will we add ourselves to the sacrifice.'
'Would you?' said Macer--in an absent, musing way--as if some other
thought were occupying him.
Thinking that his love of his children, evidently a very strong
affection in him, might be made to act as a restraint, I said, 'that I
feared he greatly exposed his little family to unnecessary danger.
Already had his dwelling been once assailed, and the people were now
ripe for any violence. This group of little ones can ill encounter a
rude and furious mob.'
'They can die, can they not?' said Macer. 'Is that difficult, or
impossible? If the Lord need them, they are his. I can ask no happier
lot for them than that by death they may glorify God. And what is it to
die so, more than in another way? Let them die in their beds, and whom
do they benefit? They die then to themselves, and no one is the gainer;
let them die by the sword of Varus, or by the stones of the populace,
and then they become themselves stones in the foundation of that temple
of God, of which Jesus is the chief corner-stone, and they are glorious
forever. What say you, Cicer, will you die for Christ?'
The little fellow hid his head in his father's bosom at this sudden
appeal, but soon drew it out and said,
'I would rather die for you, father.'
'Ah!' said Macer, 'how am I punished in my children! Cicer, would you
not die for Christ?'
'I would die for him if you wish it.'
'Macer,' said Probus, 'do you not see how God has bound you and this
family into one? and he surely requires you not to separate yourself,
their natural protector, from them forever; still less, to involve them
in all the sufferings which, taking the course you do, may come upon
them at any hour.'
'Probus! their death would give me more pleasure than their life, dying
for Christ. I love them now and here, fondly as ever parent loved his
children,--but what is now, and here? Nothing. The suffering of an hour
or of a moment joins us together again, where suffering shall be no
more, and death no more. To-morrow! yes, to-morrow! would I that the
wrath of these idol-worshippers might be turned against us. Rome must be
roused; she sleeps the sleep of death; and the church sleeps it too;
both need that they who are for the Lord should stand forth, and, not
waiting to be attacked, themselves assail the enemy, who need but to be
assailed with the zeal and courage of men, who were once to be found in
the church, to be driven at all points.'
'But, father,' said the daughter who had spoken before, 'other
Christians think not so. They believe for the most part, as I hear, with
Probus and Piso, that on no account should we provoke the gentiles, or
give them cause of complaint against us; they think that to do so would
greatly harm us; that our duty is to go on the even tenor of our way,
worshipping God after our own doctrine, and in our own manner, and
claiming and exercising all our rights as citizens, but abstaining from
every act that might rouse their anger, or needlessly irritate
them--irritated, necessarily, almost beyond bearing, by the wide and
increasing prosperity of our faith, and the daily falling away of the
temple worshippers. Would it be right, dearest father, to do that which
others approved not, and the effect of which might be, not only to draw
down evil upon your and our heads, but upon thousands of others? We
cannot separate ourselves from our brethren; if one suffer all will
suffer--'
'AElia, my daughter, there is a judge within the breast, whom I am bound
to obey rather than any other counsellor, either man or woman. I cannot
believe, because another believes, a certain truth. Neither can I act in
a certain way because others hold it their duty to act so. I must obey
the inward voice, and no other. If I abandon this, I am lost--I am on
the desert without sun, moon or stars to guide me. All the powers of
the earth could not bribe nor drag me from that which I hold to be the
true order of conduct for me; shown by the finger of God to be such.'
'But, father,' continued the daughter, pursuing her object, 'are we not