Westward empire

by Elias Lyman Magoon

God never abandons his dependent creatures, but affords them light according to their destinies here below. Even amidst the darkest idolatry true adoration was presented by Job in Arabia, Melchisedec in Syria, and the Queen of Sheba in Æthiopia or India. Orpheus, the Thracian, older than Homer, living more than sixteen centuries before Christ, taught many things to be admired respecting God, the word, and the creation of the world. Justin Martyr, in his first apology to the Roman senate, says, "Socrates was accused for the same crime as that of which we are accused, namely, of asserting that there is but one God." Irenæus says that Plato had sounder views of religion than the heretics of his own day whom he was refuting. The conformity of his doctrine to some features of the Hebrew scriptures is well known. Augustin says, that if Plato could return to the world, he would doubtless become a Christian, as most of the Platonicians of his time did.

But something more was needed than the aspirations of patriots, or the sacred suggestions of philosophers, and the world's greatest want was met in the divine lessons imparted through the elect people of God. Out of the Abrahamic tribe of faith Moses formed the Jewish nation. Natural stubbornness and the lingering superstitions contracted from the sacerdotal caste of Egypt, necessitated the ritual and ceremonial regulations by which they were first encompassed. Moreover, inspired prophets, called from the humblest ranks of the people, counteracted the hierarchical and regal tendencies of the more aristocratic classes, and by degrees elevated all to the conception and adoption of comparative republicanism in church and state. Disciplined by successive revelations, and decimated by death, they gradually became competent to enjoy unmixed truth and liberty governed by law. The rule of conscience which the father of the faithful had made the distinctive law of his particular household, Moses extended throughout the legislation of the first religious nation; it only remained, in due time, for the humanly realized God to divinize man by extending this celestial influence and control over all mankind. It was necessary that the gross fetichism of the East should be entirely eradicated from the race destined to plant true religion on earth; and so the wandering tribes sojourned in the wilderness until the generation, contaminated by actual contact and intercourse in Egypt, were all dead. Then prophets more enlightened and progressive arose, who occupied an intermediate position between the material dispensation of Moses and the pure spirituality of Christ. External forms are more and more discarded in the later portions of their writings; and their views of the old dispensation become increasingly independent of those who lived near its origin. In the Messianic system toward which they gladly advance, is evidently expected a clearer light and less cumbrous service. The Hebraic dispensation was provisional, and appointed to generate what was necessary for all men; but it was neither designed nor adapted to continue longer than to do a preparatory work, since it was circumscribed to a small portion of the human family, and was unfitted for extension throughout the world. It ended as soon as the ideas coined in the die prepared by Jehovah were thrown into the hands of Japhet, whose mission it was to transfer them into all historic languages, and give them a free circulation co-extensive with the commerce of the globe.

The fountain of faith was enlarged in Shem simultaneously with the immense development of admiration in Japhet. Both were equally aside from Egypt, and its reminiscences of Ham. The Hebrews were an alphabetic people, and never used a hieroglyphic, but despised symbolism in all its forms. They were the depository of that pure and sublime monotheism, which has been the special glory of the Shemitic races from the earliest time to the present day. The Indo-Germanic races, to which the Persians were allied closely in antiquity, and of which the Greeks were the purest exponent, borrowed temple-worship from over the sea, like every other element of artistic decoration, and perfected it. So far as the Jews possessed art, they appropriated it from the banks of the Euphrates, perhaps, but never from the Nile. In their best days, and under the auspices of two mighty kings, father and son, they were incapable of erecting a suitable religious edifice without foreign aid. Had it not been for his fortunate alliance with Hiram of Tyre, it is probable that Solomon would never have seen executed the temple which so greatly enhanced his fame. That was of Tyrian art, fashioned after Phœnician types, and foretokened how, still further west, the splendor of Shem, and taste of Japhet, would yet more closely commingle, and be mutually benefitted in the joint works of faith and love.

While colonization bore the Pelasgic into Italy, and there transmuted the ancient Shemitic tongue by a mixture of the Etruscan, and other dialects of that central peninsula, into the Latin, another matchless source of improvement was laid up in ancient literature. The sepulchre of human hope seemed to grow dark, but a lamp burned therein, which was yet to kindle a bright flame on purer altars. Fugitives from the smoldering ruins of Grecian glory, transported their gods through the flames, to establish a new worship in more favored climes. In the cause of mankind, apparent defeat has ever been positive victory; and all its triumphs have achieved increased benefits for all. When the hour is darkest, and the air most chill, then expect the first dawn on the edge of a sky that shall pour increased light upon all nations; the first lifting of a trumpet that with louder peals shall break up the sleep of the great tomb of destiny.

The translation of the Scriptures into Greek was begun about B.C. 285. The statement received in the time of Josephus was, that Ptolemy Philadelphus, desiring to possess a copy for his celebrated library at Alexandria, sent Aristeas and Andreas, two persons of rank, on a formal mission to Eleazer, the Jewish High Priest, for the purpose. It is perfectly natural that a rich and cultivated sovereign should have wished to possess, even as a literary curiosity, the book of the laws, history, and poetry of a nation, lying in his vicinity. But great numbers of Jews were within his own borders, and they must have constantly appealed to their law in their governmental transactions, which appeals could not be answered but by reference to an authority recognized by both parties. Hence, the Pentateuch alone was translated in the first instance; but the other books followed, at long intervals, and in other reigns. The important fact is, that the Septuagint was received as an authority nearly, if not quite, equal to the original, from the first, and could be read by the Jew in the synagogue, or the Christian in the church. Then note how striking was the epoch of this translation. It was exactly between the completion of the Jewish Canon by the prophecies of Malachi, and the long series of Jewish desolations which began with the Epiphanes. It was late enough to contain the entire body of old revelation vouchsafed to Shem, and sufficiently early to prepare the way for that more glorious unfolding of the divine purpose which it was reserved for the Japhetic race to execute.

Then followed the other appropriate preparatives for the coming of our Lord; the rebuilding of that temple which was thus to be more honored than by the Glory from heaven; the visions and predictions of those who looked for the great coming, day and night watching in the temple; the solemn and startling denunciations of the Baptist; the visible presence of the Eternal in the flesh; His mission; His power over nature, the human heart, and the Evil Spirit; His death for human sin; His rising again for human justification; His visible ascent to the throne of Heaven; the overwhelming miracles by which fortitude, knowledge, faith, and the power of communicating them all, were inspired into the peasants of Galilee; form an unspeakable display of light and wisdom, an illustration of Providence, which, through all the clouds of time and things, still fixes the eye on that spot above, where the Sun of the Spirit shall break forth at last, and the full aspect of the heavens be shown to man. Thus it was that the old religion put on a newer and more perfect form. The seed planted in the day of Abraham was at first shut up, but in the day of Judah began to grow, and shot majestically above the earth in the day of Christ. The primal faith, which long lay buried in weakness, was raised in power, and the mortal body of the patriarchal dispensation put on immortal glory.

The corresponding preparation, which was attained through secular power, is equally worthy of special regard. When Christianity was to be given to the world, the Roman empire had received that form of government which most fully combined enterprise with solidity; the daring energy of a Republic, with the comprehensive ambition of a monarchy. Like all the great leaders of mankind, the genius of the Cæsars might stand for the representative of the empire. The unequaled union of the bold, the sagacious, and the indomitable, rendered that wonderful series of instruments superlatively adapted to cast up a highway, and gather out the stones from the path of human progress. When the shadow of the Roman eagle stretched over all nations, and the mandate of the emperor touched the extreme points of civilization, the final use of martial force was subordinate to that divine religion which was destined to spread speedily from Caucasus to Mauritania, and from the rising to the setting sun. The mighty empire was not to perish as it fell, but to cast off its pagan wretchedness, and become invested with the unsullied robe, and starry diadem, of a loftier sovereignty. The Babylonish, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires, which successively constituted civilization, formed the central channel of life to the earth; they were the spine, whence issued sensation and motion to the general frame, the meridian, to which all the lines of the chart of human progress must be referred. These four had exercised an unceasing influence on Judah, as invaders, or sovereigns, up to the time when retributive justice opened the way for the immediate incarnation of infinite Love. The capture of Jerusalem by Titus, was the beginning of the consummation. A false Messiah was proclaimed to a people already morally ruined, and the frenzied insurrection under Barchochebas, A.D. 132, closed the existence of Judah. Hadrian completed the terrible work. He built a theatre with the stones of the Temple, dedicated a temple to Jupiter on the spot where the altar of God had stood, placed the image of a swine on the city gates, and thenceforth excluded the Jews from their beloved metropolis. At that moment the church chose their chief presbyter from the Gentiles, instead of the race of Abraham, as was the custom before, and thus the bridge between Judaism and Christianity was forever broken down.

But the Roman empire was now, in turn, to perish. One of the high ends for which it was permitted, had been fulfilled in the extirpation of Judah, and its own final use was the diffusion of a diviner system. The tokens of coming doom multiplied from the hour the arch of Titus was completed. Leviathan still dashed the political ocean into foam, but the ebb was inevitably come, and he must soon be laid dry upon the shore. Let us briefly review the facts.

Tradition assigns to Numa, a Sabine, the establishment of the laws and regulations of the Roman polity, both civil and religious; but in the absence of authentic records, it is difficult to say how far the statements respecting this regal law-giver are to be relied upon. The spirit of the Roman religion was originally quite different from that of the Grecian. The former was plastically flexible, the latter sacerdotally immutable. After the bloody proscriptions and civil wars of preceding centuries, Octavius, under the name of Augustus, appeared as the restorer of general peace, and was the first absolute monarch of the Roman world. His long and comparatively tranquil reign was a brilliant period of national history. Under the supremacy of the Augustan age, innumerable divinities, from Syria, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, Africa, Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Britain, received Roman forms and personifications; but in all instances, wherever traces of grandeur or beauty appeared, they attested that which had been pillaged and transferred from ancient Greece. The distinguishing character and leading principle of the Roman state, from the earliest to the latest period of its history, was political idolatry in its most frightful shape, the greatest aberration of paganism. The spoils of all nations were made to flow into the "Eternal City," and the known world wore her chains. The Orontes and the Ganges, the Nile and the Thames, were tributary to the Tiber. The invincible legions held every province in awe, gold and silver were as profuse as iron, and to be a Roman citizen was the ambition of a life. The Capitol, from its rocky height looked serenely down on a thousand temples, sacrificial processions went daily forth, and numberless victims bled at the altars of Neptune and Mars. The Pontifex ascended with supreme dominion to the loftiest shrine; while beneath, the Pantheon, and the temple of Apollo of the Palatine, and of Diana of the Janiculum, and the glorious house of Victory, were redolent with Sabæan incense. All worldly wisdom, wealth, and art, waited on the mistress of the world. Popularly considered, the ancestral deities of Rome had invested her children with such glory, that they lived in their worship, throve by their favor, and as long as they served them they were invincible. The pagan religion had a powerful control over unreflecting devotees. Its temples, priests, mysteries, sacrifices, and magnificent processions, which called to their aid the varied attractions of sculpture, painting, and music, awakened a variety of entrancing emotions, and conspired to work the most effective delusion. Moreover, the more enlightened took especial pains to cherish the prejudice that, to the deep popular respect for the gods of the Republic, the unexampled success of the national arms was to be attributed. The piety of Romulus and of Numa was believed to have laid the foundations of their greatness. To use their own language, "It was by exercising religious discipline in the camp, and by fortifying the city with sacred rites, with vestal virgins, and the various degrees of a numerous priesthood, that they had stretched their dominion beyond the paths of the sun and the limits of the ocean." So strongly were the Romans attached to their religion, that Æmilius Paulus, in his consulship, ordered the temples of Isis and Serapis, gods not legally recognized, to be destroyed, and, observing the religious fear which checked the people, he himself seized an axe, and struck the first blow against the portals of the sacred edifice. On several occasions the senate exerted its power to prevent religious innovations. Augustus directed his state-policy and energy to the restoring of the ancient laws, and the maintenance of the primitive belief. The effort was, however, too late; the impossibility of success in such an endeavor lay in the fact that old things were passing away, and all was soon to become new. The emperor strove to effect the closest union of divine worship with the state; but when a Nero was clothed with the highest priestly dignity, when a Divus Tiberius, or a Divus Caligula received divine honors after death, surely redemption, rather than restoration, was what the world most required. Roman society was rapidly decaying through excessive vice and the outrageous inequality of conditions. The palaces of the rich were more like luxurious cities, while the middle class had totally disappeared, and the great mass of the population was composed of slaves. Immense speculations were made upon human beings. Atticus, the friend of Cicero, had slaves taught and trained, to sell at a higher price. Many citizens possessed from ten to twenty thousand vassals. They were decimated by famine, sufferings, and in gladiatorial combats; yet they formed about three-fourths of the whole population. Increasing fear was manifested in the murder of Pontius; in the cold-blooded destruction of all prisoners of distinction at the close of every triumph; in the ruin of Carthage; in the proscriptions and massacres of Marius and Sylla, and of the successive triumvirates; and in those of Tiberius, Nero, and their wretched successors. The greatness of Rome was exclusively heathen, until men mightier than the Cæsars trod her soil. The adherents of the old pagan creed might truly say, that when the altars of Victory ceased to smoke on the Capitol, she herself ceased to wait on the imperial eagles; the existence of Rome seemed bound up in the worship of the gods to whom the Tarquins had bowed, and under whose auspices Camillus and Scipio had marched forth to conquest. It is long since Æneas found Evander and Pallas celebrating on the supreme mount those services of religion for which Rome has always been noted, and through which she became so great. But the preparatory work which her sword has performed over dominions so immense, has come to an end; and before she can unfold the infinitely sublimer influence which is destined for her to employ, she has herself to bend before the Cross. All things of earth seemed about to perish. The antique civilization was drawing to a close, and creeds, manners, science, letters, sank to the lowest degradation, and chaos the most dismal was imminent.

It was then that the last of the prophets found an echo in the first of the Evangelists, and the new revelation began where the old ended. The words which Isaiah originally recorded, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight," and which announced the mission of all natural forces ruled by a divine purpose, were repeated by Malachi at the close of the Hebrew scriptures, and constituted the first command of the precursor of the true Messiah. These words were written B.C. 420, at the time when philosophy was enlightening the Greeks with moral wisdom, and Rome was advancing toward the grandeur of her republican greatness; and were resounding in the accents of a living tongue when Darius and Alexander met at Arbela, B.C. 331, and the East fell into the embrace of the West. While these and such like potsherds were contending with each other from first to last, the splendor and omnipotence of the Deity were revealed to the prophet Elias, as he journeyed forty days toward the holy mountain, and divinely illuminated his mortal eyes. There came a great and mighty wind, which made havoc of trees and rocks, but God was not in the wind. There came afterward a violent earthquake with fire, but he was in neither the earthquake nor in the fire. Then there arose the soft breath and gentle movement of tender air; in this was the immediate presence of God, and in awe and reverence the prophet veiled his face. Such was the origin and nature of Christianity, compared with the crash and cruelty of war it came to supersede. In the lifetime of Augustus, Christ was born; under Tiberius, the foundation of the Christian religion was laid; and during the reign of Nero the authentic record of that infinite mercy brightened the first fair page of Roman history.