“These things saith the First and the Last, which was dead, and is alive: I know thy works and tribulation and poverty (but thou art rich); and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life....He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”[175]
Upon the death of Decius, the senate, terrified by the destruction of the army and by the approach of the barbarians, again chose two emperors. Hostilianus was invested with the civil, and Gallus with the military command. Rome, Christianity-persecuting Rome, had already sunk so low, that Gallus was compelled to the ignominy of purchasing peace with the barbarians on the most degrading and revolting terms. They were permitted to retire unmolested with all their plunder and with all their captives, consisting of thousands of Romans, young men and beautiful women, to till the soil, andserve in the harems of the barbarian Goths. By the law of retribution, this was right. Rome had made slaves of all nations: it was just that Rome should drink of the cup of slavery herself.
Gallus, the military emperor, wished to reign alone: he therefore poisoned Hostilianus. There was a Roman army on the Danube. The soldiers there proclaimed their general, Æmilianus, emperor. Gallus marched to meet him; but his soldiers despised his weakness, and slew him and his son, and then joined the army of Æmilianus.
The Roman empire at this time, about the middle of the third century, consisted of a belt of territory about a thousand miles in breadth, encircling the Mediterranean Sea as a central lake. All beyond were unknown savage wilds. Throughout all this vast region, Paganism was assailing Christianity with the most malignant and deadly energies.
And yet the zeal of the Christians was such, that while some, yielding to the terrors which threatened them, denied Christ, many went gladly to martyrdom. No one could tell how soon his hour would come. The life of the Christian was in daily peril from the executioner or from the mob; and yet many of those Christians, inspired with supernatural zeal and courage, devoted themselves entirely to the open and earnest preaching of the gospel.
“I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves,” said Christ. They accepted the mission. In the thronged streets of the city, like Paul at Athens, while some gnashed their teeth with rage, and others heard them gladly, they proclaimed salvation through faith in an atoning Saviour. Two and two they penetrated the villages, and wandered through the sparsely-settled country, with the sublime and astounding doctrine, that God, in the person of Jesus Christ, had suffered upon the cross to make an atonement for sin; and that now all who wished to reach heaven were to acknowledge this Saviour, and live according to his teachings, at whatever hazard.
Thus, notwithstanding the persecutions, converts were multiplied. For every one who was slain, perhaps two rose totake his place. The persecutors themselves, like Saul of Tarsus, often became converts, and preached that faith which they had once endeavored to destroy. Even the unbelieving Gibbon, who seldom loses an opportunity to show his hostility to the religion of Jesus, admits that the zeal of the early Christians in preaching the gospel, their fortitude under the most dreadful sufferings, the purity of their morals, and their love for one another, were among the potent influences which enabled Christianity to triumph over the imperial power of the Cæsars and the malignity of the mob, to overthrow all the gorgeous altars of paganism, and to establish itself firmly upon the ruins of the most imposing system of idolatry the world has ever known.
CHAPTER XIV.
INVASION CIVIL WAR, AND UNRELENTING PERSECUTION.
Æmilianus and Valerian.—Barbaric Hordes.—Slavery and its Retribution.—Awful Fate of Valerian.—Ruin of the Roman Empire.—Zenobia and her Captivity.—The Slave Diocletian becomes Emperor.—His Reign, Abdication, Death.—Division of the Empire.—Terrible Persecution.—The Glory of Christianity.—Characteristics of the First Three Centuries.—Abasement of Rome.