The same may be said of the Catacombs of Rome, with their simple and unstudied testimony to the faith of the early Christian martyrs, so strangely contrasting with the sad records of the pagan world, so that, as has well been said, “if you cross the Appian Way, from the Columbaria to the Catacombs, and place side by side the heathen and the Christian epitaphs, you may read, in those authentic registers, how, without Christ, death meant despair; with Christ, peace.”
Think again of the recovery of MSS. I need name but one, the Codex Sinaiticus, found seemingly by a lucky accident, but one which has enabled New Testament scholars to establish the truest readings of the Gospels and the Epistles. Nor is the discovery of an authentic copy of that ancient treatise which goes by the name of the “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” without its influence on Christian archæology. It confirms what the examination of the ancient liturgies of ancient altars and altar vessels—a distinct branch of your science—teaches us, the testimony of a Pliny and a Justin as to what primitive Christian worship really was; it assures the Churchman of the nineteenth century that in all essentials of faith and worship he is one with the Church of the first century, the Church of the Apostles, the Church of Pentecost, the Church of Christ from the beginning.
But you are British archæologists; if it pleases you to visit my native county of York, you will doubtless direct your steps to Goodmanham, or Godmundenham, as its ancient name betokened—the Protection of the Gods. There in that little East Riding village archæology verified the identity of the font in which Paulinus baptized the heathen priest Coifi, with a trough out of which for years farmers had fed their swine. What a commentary on the spread of Christianity, and the need of Christianity, so early as the seventh century in the northern parts of our island is the beautiful story told by the Venerable Bede.[73] “The present life of man,” said the aged counsellor Coifi to his sovereign, “O king, seems to me in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like the swift flight of the sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within is safe from the wintry storm, but after a short space of fair weather he immediately vanishes out of your sight into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before or what is to follow we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, the new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.” In contempt of his former superstition, the king and his counsellors assenting, we are told, the arch-priest mounted the royal war-horse, armed himself with a spear, things otherwise unlawful, and profaned the temple by casting at the idol his spear; and then both king and counsellor were baptized and professed the faith of Christ.[74]
Authorities have been divided as to the diffusion of Christianity in Britain, and as to the independence of the ancient British Church. Archæology, on the other hand, by its identification of sacred sites by the nomenclature of native saints, by the designation of parishes and churches, has done much to settle these questions. The science of archæology has discovered Christian symbols, traced British bishops to far-distant Councils;[75] as at Carleon, and Bangor, and elsewhere, it has unfolded the records of a community acting under its own prelates and arch-prelates, enjoying its own native customs, adhering to its own independent rites.
Archæology is, in its widest sense, no mere question of curious antiquities, it is a confirmation of historic and religious truth. It aids the devout in the inquiry after the old ways in which the saints of God have trod. It is a teaching and a walking in that good way in which patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, found rest to their souls. To the Jews of Jeremiah’s days God promised rest from their enemies in their own land of promise, rest in the assured favour of Jehovah. To us Christ promises rest, rest from disquieting doubts and fears, rest in the sense of sins forgiven, rest in communion and union with God and Christ, in the mystical fellowship of His Body, the Church, rest hereafter in our heavenly home.
Brethren, the appeal of Christ is to the individual heart, the witness to the Saviour is in the testimony of conscience, the heart and life, the presence of His Spirit within the soul. May I beg you, then, to ask for the old paths of repentance and faith, for the good way that leadeth to life, to walk therein; to consecrate your researches to the highest and noblest of purposes, the furtherance of truth and the glory of God; and so, to use again the words of the prophet in the text, “ye shall find rest for your souls.”
Johnson and Garrick.
A JEU D’ESPRIT[76] BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
PART II.