Systematic Theology; a Compendium and Commonplace Volume 1

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... IV. The Historical Kestjlts Op The Propagation Of Scripture Doctrine. 1. The rapid progress of the gospel in the first centuries of our era shows its divine origin. A. That Paganism should have been in three centuries supplanted by Christianity, is an acknowledged wonder of history. The conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity was the most astonishing revolution of faith and worship ever known. Fifty years after the death of Christ, there were churches in all the principal cities of the Roman Empire. Nero (37-68) found (as Tacitus declares) an " ingens multitudo" of Christians to persecute. Pliny writes to Trajan (52-117) that they " pervaded not merely the cities but the villages and country places, so that the temples were nearly deserted." Tertulllan (160-230) writes: "We arc but of yesterday, and yet we hnve filled all your places, your cities, your islands, your castles, your towns, your council-houses, even your camps, your tribes, your senate, your forum. We have left you nothing but your temples." In the time of the emperor Valerian (253-268), the Christians constituted half the population of Rome. The conversion of the emperor Constantino (272-337) brought the whole empire, only 300 years after Jesus' death, under the acknowledged sway of the gospel. See McUvaine and Alexander, Evidences of Christianity. B. The wonder is the greater when we consider the obstacles to the progress of Christianity: (a) The scepticism of the cultivated classes; (b) the prejudice and hatred of the common people; and ( c ) the persecutions set on foot by government . (a) Missionaries even now find it difficult to get a hearing among the cultivated classes of the heathen. But the gospel appeared in the most enlightened age of antiquity--the...