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Starting Out with Java: From Control Structures through Data Structures 3e (Gaddis and Muganda)
Chapter 6 A First Look at Classes

6.1 Multiple Choice Questions

1) One or more objects may be created from a(n):

A) field
B) class
C) method
D) instance
Answer: B

2) Class objects normally have ________ that perform useful operations on their data, but primitive
variables do not.
A) fields
B) instances
C) methods
D) relationships
Answer: C

3) In the cookie cutter metaphor, think of the ________ as a cookie cutter and ________ as the cookies.
A) object; classes
B) class; objects
C) class; fields
D) attribute; methods
Answer: B

4) Which of the following are classes from the Java API?

A) Scanner
B) Random
C) PrintWriter
D) All of the above
Answer: D

5) When you are working with a ________, you are using a storage location that holds a piece of data.
A) primitive variable
B) reference variable
C) numeric literal
D) binary number
Answer: A

6) What is stored by a reference variable?

A) A binary encoded decimal
B) A memory address
C) An object
D) A string
Answer: B

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Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
7) Most programming languages that are in use today are:
A) procedural
B) logic
C) object-oriented
D) functional
Answer: C

8) Java allows you to create objects of this class in the same way you would create primitive variables.
A) Random
B) String
C) PrintWriter
D) Scanner
Answer: B

9) A UML diagram does not contain:

A) the class name
B) the method names
C) the field names
D) object names
Answer: D

10) Data hiding, which means that critical data stored inside the object is protected from code outside the
object, is accomplished in Java by:
A) using the public access specifier on the class methods
B) using the private access specifier on the class methods
C) using the private access specifier on the class definition
D) using the private access specifier on the class fields
Answer: D

11) For the following code, which statement is NOT true?

public class Sphere

{
private double radius;
public double x;
private double y;
private double z;
}
A) x is available to code that is written outside the Circle class.
B) radius is not available to code written outside the Circle class.
C) radius, x, y, and z are called members of the Circle class.
D) z is available to code that is written outside the Circle class.
Answer: D

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Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
12) You should not define a class field that is dependent upon the values of other class fields:
A) in order to avoid having stale data
B) because it is redundant
C) because it should be defined in another class
D) in order to keep it current
Answer: A

13) What does the following UML diagram entry mean?

+ setHeight(h : double) : void

A) this is a public attribute named Height and is a double data type
B) this is a private method with no parameters and returns a double data type
C) this is a private attribute named Height and is a double data type
D) this is a public method with a parameter of data type double and does not return a value
Answer: D

14) Methods that operate on an object's fields are called:

A) instance variables
B) instance methods
C) public methods
D) private methods
Answer: B

15) The scope of a private instance field is:

A) the instance methods of the same class
B) inside the class, but not inside any method
C) inside the parentheses of a method header
D) the method in which they are defined
Answer: A

16) A constructor:
A) always accepts two arguments
B) has return type of void
C) has the same name as the class
D) always has an access specifier of private
Answer: C

17) Which of the following statements will create a reference, str, to the String, "Hello, World"?
A) String str = "Hello, World";
B) string str = "Hello, World";
C) String str = new "Hello, World";
D) str = "Hello, World";
Answer: A

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Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
18) Two or more methods in a class may have the same name as long as:
A) they have different return types
B) they have different parameter lists
C) they have different return types, but the same parameter list
D) you cannot have two methods with the same name
Answer: B

19) Given the following code, what will be the value of finalAmount when it is displayed?

public class Order

{
private int orderNum;
private double orderAmount;
private double orderDiscount;

public Order(int orderNumber, double orderAmt,

double orderDisc)
{
orderNum = orderNumber;
orderAmount = orderAmt;
orderDiscount = orderDisc;
}
public int getOrderAmount()
{
return orderAmount;
}
public int getOrderDisc()
{
return orderDisc;
}
}

public class CustomerOrder

{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
int ordNum = 1234;
double ordAmount = 580.00;
double discountPer = .1;
Order order;
double finalAmount = order.getOrderAmount() —
order.getOrderAmount() * order.getOrderDisc();
System.out.printf("Final order amount = $%,.2f\n",
finalAmount);
}
}
A) 528.00
B) 580.00
C) There is no value because the constructor has an error.
D) There is no value because the object order has not been created.
Answer: D

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Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
20) A class specifies the ________ and ________ that a particular type of object has.
A) relationships; methods
B) fields; object names
C) fields; methods
D) relationships; object names
Answer: C

21) This refers to the combining of data and code into a single object.
A) Data hiding
B) Abstraction
C) Object
D) Encapsulation
Answer: D

22) Another term for an object of a class is:

A) access specifier
B) instance
C) member
D) method
Answer: B

23) In your textbook the general layout of a UML diagram is a box that is divided into three sections. The
top section has the ________; the middle section holds ________; the bottom section holds ________.
A) class name; attributes or fields; methods
B) class name; object name; methods
C) object name; attributes or fields; methods
D) object name; methods; attributes or fields
Answer: A

24) For the following code, which statement is NOT true?

public class Circle

{
private double radius;
public double x;
private double y;
}
A) x is available to code that is written outside the Circle class.
B) radius is not available to code written outside the Circle class.
C) radius, x, and y are called members of the Circle class.
D) y is available to code that is written outside the Circle class.
Answer: D

25) It is common practice in object-oriented programming to make all of a class's:

A) methods private
B) fields private
C) fields public
D) fields and methods public
Answer: B

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Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
26) After the header, the body of the method appears inside a set of:
A) brackets, []
B) parentheses, ()
C) braces, {}
D) double quotes, ""
Answer: C

27) In UML diagrams, this symbol indicates that a member is private:

A) *
B) #
C) -
D) +
Answer: C

28) In UML diagrams, this symbol indicates that a member is public.

A) /
B) @
C) -
D) +
Answer: D

29) In a UML diagram to indicate the data type of a variable enter:

A) the variable name followed by the data type
B) the variable name followed by a colon and the data type
C) the class name followed by the variable name followed by the data type
D) the data type followed by the variable name
Answer: B

30) When an object is created, the attributes associated with the object are called:
A) instance fields
B) instance methods
C) fixed attributes
D) class instances
Answer: A

31) When an object is passed as an argument to a method, what is passed into the method's parameter
variable?
A) the class name
B) the object's memory address
C) the values for each field
D) the method names
Answer: B

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Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
32) A constructor is a method that:
A) returns an object of the class.
B) never receives any arguments.
C) with the name ClassName.constructor.
D) performs initialization or setup operations.
Answer: D

33) The scope of a public instance field is:

A) only the class in which it is defined
B) inside the class, but not inside any method
C) inside the parentheses of a method header
D) the instance methods and methods outside the class
Answer: D

34) Which of the following statements will create a reference, str, to the string, "Hello, world"?

(1) String str = new String("Hello, world");

(2) String str = "Hello, world";
A) 1
B) 2
C) 1 and 2
D) neither 1 or 2
Answer: C

35) Overloading means multiple methods in the same class:

A) have the same name, but different return types
B) have different names, but the same parameter list
C) have the same name, but different parameter lists
D) perform the same function
Answer: C

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Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
36) Given the following code, what will be the value of finalAmount when it is displayed?

public class Order

{
private int orderNum;
private double orderAmount;
private double orderDiscount;

public Order(int orderNumber, double orderAmt,

double orderDisc)
{
orderNum = orderNumber;
orderAmount = orderAmt;
orderDiscount = orderDisc;
}

public double finalOrderTotal()

{
return orderAmount - orderAmount *
orderDiscount;
}
}

public class CustomerOrder

{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Order order;
int orderNumber = 1234;
double orderAmt = 580.00;
double orderDisc = .1;
order = new Order(orderNumber, orderAmt, orderDisc);
double finalAmount = order.finalOrderTotal();
System.out.printf("Final order amount = $%,.2f\n",
finalAmount);
}
}
A) 528.00
B) 580.00
C) 522.00
D) There is no value because the object order has not been created.
Answer: C

37) A class's responsibilities include:

A) the things a class is responsible for doing
B) the things a class is responsible for knowing
C) both A and B
D) neither A nor B
Answer: C

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Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
38) Instance methods do not have this key word in their headers:
A) public
B) static
C) private
D) protected
Answer: B

39) Which of the following is NOT involved in finding the classes when developing an object-oriented
application?
A) Describe the problem domain.
B) Identify all the nouns.
C) Write the code.
D) Refine the list of nouns to include only those that are relevant to the problem.
Answer: C

40) This is a group of related classes.

A) archive
B) package
C) collection
D) attachment
Answer: B

41) Quite often you have to use this statement to make a group of classes available to a program.
A) import
B) use
C) link
D) assume
Answer: A

42) Look at the following statement.

import java.util.Scanner;

This is an example of
A) a wildcard import
B) an explicit import
C) unconditional import
D) conditional import
Answer: B

9
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
43) Look at the following statement.

import java.util.*;

This is an example of:

A) a wildcard import
B) an explicit import
C) unconditional import
D) conditional import
Answer: A

44) The following package is automatically imported into all Java programs.
A) java.java
B) java.default
C) java.util
D) java.lang
Answer: D

6.2 True/False Questions

1) An object can store data.

Answer: TRUE

2) A class in not an object, but a description of an object.

Answer: TRUE

3) An access specifier indicates how the class may be accessed.

Answer: TRUE

4) A method that stores a value in a class's field or in some other way changes the value of a field is
known as a mutator method.
Answer: TRUE

5) Instance methods should be declared static.

Answer: FALSE

6) A constructor is a method that is automatically called when an object is created.

Answer: TRUE

7) Shadowing is the term used to describe where the field name is hidden by the name of a local or
parameter variable.
Answer: TRUE

8) The public access specifier for a field indicates that the attribute may not be accessed by statements
outside the class.
Answer: FALSE

9) A method that gets a value from a class's field but does not change it is known as a mutator method.
Answer: FALSE
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Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
10) Instance methods do not have the key word static in their headers.
Answer: TRUE

11) The term "default constructor" is applied to the first constructor written by the author of a class.
Answer: FALSE

12) When a local variable in an instance method has the same name as an instance field, the instance field
hides the local variable.
Answer: FALSE

13) The term "no-arg constructor" is applied to any constructor that does not accept arguments.
Answer: TRUE

14) The java.lang package is automatically imported into all Java programs.
Answer: TRUE

11
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
influence through a long life. He is said to have been tall in stature,
thin in person, and abstemious, with a countenance by no means
attractive. He died at the advanced age of ninety-eight. In his later
period, Epicurus grew apprehensive of his perpetually growing fame,
and was jealous of his moral superiority.
Cleanthes, born b.c. 320, greatly modified the doctrines of the Stoical
school. He was originally a wrestler, and preserved through life much
of that hardy vigor of body which qualified him for the functions of a
gladiator. He was extremely poor, and whilst attending the school of
Zeno by day, he was compelled to work at night to earn a scanty
sustenance. It is related that his robust appearance, whilst
apparently an idler, excited municipal suspicion; and when he was
required to account for his mode of living, a gardener for whom he
drew water, and a woman for whom he ground flour, came forward
to attest his honest industry. He was not quick to invent, but was
indefatigable to explore what others had taught. Fifty-six volumes
are said to have been written by him, but none of them are now
extant.
Chrysippus, born in Cilicia, b.c. 280; and Posidonius, who died b.c.
135, were the chief links to extend this chain westward, and connect
it with that great Stoic who arose on the remotest border of the
Augustan age.
Lucius Annæus Seneca was born at Cordova, only eight years before
Christ. His father was an eminent writer on rhetoric, some of whose
productions are still extant. The son was delicate in health, but
nothing could repress his love of research. He first studied the
Peripatetic philosophy under Papirius Fabian, and afterwards, as far
as a master who professed to despise all learning could teach, he
learned the follies of the Cynics from Demetrius. By his father's
request, Seneca then entered upon public life, and became a pleader
at the bar. In this walk he so far distinguished himself as finally to
become a distinguished favorite in the court of Claudius. But in
consequence of some difficulty respecting Julia, the daughter of
Germanicus, he fell into disgrace, and was banished to the island of
Corsica. It is said that Agrippina, the mother of Nero, interceded in
his behalf, and Seneca was recalled. On returning to Rome, he first
became the tutor of Nero, and subsequently his minister. The
wretched pupil, in the exercise of imperial suspicion, as false
probably as it was murderous, caused his teacher and friend to be
destroyed. From the exhausted and emaciated state of his frame,
the death of Seneca is reported to have been a painful one. In the
presence of his wife and other friends, he opened the veins of his
arms and legs; and, as the process was too slow, he ordered a
draught of poison to be administered to him. Still lingering, he
desired to be laid in a warm bath, and as he entered, he sprinkled
the standers by, saying, "I offer this libation to Jupiter the deliverer."
His vital blood then gushed forth, and he speedily expired.
Epictetus, whose living influence extended towards the end of the
second century of the Christian era, was the great ornament of the
Stoic school during the reigns of Domitian and Hadrian. He was born
a slave, and was maimed in person, but obtained his manumission
by excellence of conduct, and proved himself one of the best
monitors of his age. Ten years later, the emperor Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus came forth the next in succession to this illustrious slave
among the ornaments of the Stoic school. The reign of this
victorious and philosophic monarch forms part of the happy period in
which the vast extent of the Roman empire has been characterized
as having "been governed by absolute power under the guidance of
virtue and wisdom." Antoninus early profited by the lessons of
severe wisdom, and honored them by an exemplary life. In his
palace he preserved the systematic regularity of a general, and in his
camp he composed a great part of those philosophical meditations
which have cast so much renown on his name. The lives of Cato and
Brutus also, the one more formal and severe, as of a person
evidently aiming to support a character, the other more genial and
free, like one who had really caught the spirit of the old republican
time, were molded strongly by the same creed. Both were true
utterances of Roman Stoicism, and have thrown a splendor around
the doctrine which it could never have obtained either from its first
teachers or from Seneca and the rhetoricians who perpetuated its
vitiating existence down to the lowest point of feebleness.
When Greek philosophy was introduced among the Romans,
Stoicism was the most popular, but the creed of Epicurus was
adopted by many distinguished men. The popular poem of Lucretius
was a captivating recommendation of the system to many; and other
writers, such as Horace and Atticus, Pliny the younger, and Lucian of
Samosata, are known to have been of this school.
Epicurus was born in the island of Samos, b.c. 341. When in his
thirty-second year, he first opened a school at Mitylene, where, and
at Lampsacus, he taught for five years. This was at the time when
sophists and sensualists were wanted at Rome, and they were
brought there as part of the spoils of the conqueror, to march, like
other slaves, in his triumph, and furnish an additional luxury. When
Rome had become politically dominant to the largest extent, she yet
remained in arts and letters the humble pupil of Greece. Augustan
literature, in all of its departments, was to a great degree borrowed
from the Greek, but with every kind of derivative process, from
servile translation to the most adroit adaptation. Lucretius, Catullus,
Horace, Virgil, Cicero, were all indebted to Greek models, as well as
Terence, Ovid, and Seneca, but each to a graduated extent. They all
borrowed according to their wants, each one transforming his
plunder with more or less originality, according to the powers of his
mind. Philosophy at Rome emitted many sparks of light, fragments
of moral truth, but left behind no symmetrical and consistent system
except that of Epicurus, a creed formed on a plain so low that no
declination could be made to appear. It has been remarked, that
while of the eight teachers in the Porch, from Zeno to Posidonius,
every one modified the doctrines of his predecessor; and while the
beautiful philosophy of Plato had degenerated into dishonorable
scepticism, the Epicurean system remained unchanged. This has
been accounted for on the ground just mentioned, and also with
reference to the power of that mental indolence which disposes the
mind to rest contented with views that are comprehensible without
reflection, and which are not inimical to the indulgence of lust. The
more thoughtful Romans were obliged to take what they could get,
and they adopted the late and degenerated systems of Greek
philosophy for two reasons: first, they had a natural affinity for
them, and secondly, they were incapable of appreciating the earlier
and better schools. The doctrine of Epicurus attracted a crowd of
partisans in the martial metropolis, in consequence of its
accommodating character, and the indulgence it afforded to the
most groveling desires. But very few of the Roman Epicureans
distinguished themselves as philosophers, and not one advanced a
step beyond the doctrines of his master.
Lucretius Carus, born b.c. 95, claims a place among philosophers as
well as poets. In his time, the Epicurean principles obtained the
greatest popularity, and that in no small degree through his own
splendid talents. Consistently with his frigid atheism, and proud
rejection of a superintending Providence, the perverted child of
genius, who had risen on the breath of popular favor to the
equestrian rank, died a wretched suicide when only forty-four years
old.
We should not forget that the Epicureans, the Stoics, the Academics,
and other sects, subsequent to the time of Alexander, are not to be
spoken of as the Greek schools. They belong to a later and generally
different age, in which little of philosophic worth was produced, and
still less remains. Of Epicurus three letters are preserved by
Diogenes Laertius; of Zeno, nothing; of Cleanthes, a single hymn to
Jupiter; of the Academics, or New Platonists, a few traditions only.
The device on an old Roman coin, of Julius Cæsar bearing a book in
one hand and a sword in the other, represents the genius of many a
distinguished citizen of the Republic. Of such was Varro, for he was a
soldier, and at the same time the most erudite of his countrymen. He
was born at Rieti, near the celebrated cascade of Terni, in Italy.
Cæsar appreciated the extensive learning of Varro, and entrusted to
him the formation of the great public library. He was a man of
ponderous information and unwearied industry, but without a spark
of literary taste or philosophical genius. No Roman author wrote so
much as he did, and, excepting Pliny, no one probably read so
much; yet, notwithstanding all his learning and diligence, he has left
nothing that is possessed of either superficial polish or substantial
worth.
Not so Marcus Tullius Cicero. He was born b.c. 107, and in the realm
of philosophy, as in eloquence, was the noblest Roman of them all.
Like most young men of good family, he was instructed by Greek
preceptors, and early occupied himself with ancient philosophy,
directing his attention principally to the Academic and Stoic systems.
Plato, Aristotle, and Epicurus engrossed his esteem by turns, as he
was an eclectic in taste, and confined himself to no particular school.
But his philosophical works, wrought upon the model of Plato, are
the most valuable collection of interesting discussions on the
grandest themes. In the era of Cicero, scepticism and dogmatism
distracted the schools and destroyed the life of philosophy. As Sir
James Mackintosh has said, "The Sceptics could only perplex, and
confute, and destroy. Their occupation was gone as soon as they
succeeded. They had nothing to substitute for what they overthrew;
and they rendered their own art of no further use. They were no
more than venomous animals, who stung their victims to death, but
also breathed their last into the wound."
Cicero speculated after a mode which admitted of great freedom to
his genius, controlled by no particular sect, but was at heart most
interested in the severest principles, and became almost a Stoic.
Doubtless that was the noblest school then extant, the most
harmonious with the spirit of Rome, and which preserved her
greatest citizens amid the dissoluteness and ferocity of her imperial
career. The ennobling influence exerted by that system was
exemplified while it exalted the slave of one of Nero's courtiers to
become an efficient moral teacher, and breathed equity and mercy
into the ordinary concerns of every man. Especially was it honored
by the examples of Marcius Portius Cato, and of Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus, who did much to keep alive a loftier regard for virtue and
truth throughout all time.
The historians of philosophy have often admired the memorable
scenes in which Cæsar mastered a nobility of which Lucullus and
Hortensius, Sulpicius and Catullus, Pompey and Cicero, Brutus and
Cato, were members. From the time of Scipio, they had sought the
Greek philosophy as an amusement or an ornament. The influence
of the degenerate Grecian systems was exerted upon all the leading
spirits of Rome during five centuries, from Carneades to Constantine.
Cassius was an Epicurean, and so was the adroit time-server Atticus,
the courtier of each fortunate tyrant of the hour, who could embrace
Cicero in all the apparent frankness of true friendship, and then
abandon him to kiss the hand of Anthony, imbrued in his blood.
Marcus Brutus represented the nobler school of Plato; and if in a
fearful crisis he trampled on all venerable precedents of justice to
guard the sacred principle itself, it was the result of a direful
necessity which he could neither avoid nor resist.
Krug, in his history of philosophy, admits only two divisions, those of
ancient and modern. He assumes as the line of demarcation, the
decline of government, manners, arts, and sciences, during the first
five centuries of the Christian era. In the above rapid review, we
have already passed the culminating point in pagan philosophy at
Rome, in the age of Augustus and Cicero. When Alexander had
annihilated the republican liberty of Greece, he opened the way for
an active commerce between the East and the West, which greatly
contributed to enlarge the sphere of the new type of dialectic
science. From Periclean excellence, a progressive decline became
observable in the spirit of philosophy, which was continuously
directed to humbler objects, of a more pedantic character, in
commentaries, and compilations without end. Thus Alexandria, from
the time of the Ptolemies, became the point of departure whence all
the remnants of ancient wisdom emigrated to the opening wilds of
the West. Every thing was wisely arranged with this intent. Indian
sages came there to meditate, and perceived the connection
between their faith and the old Egyptian mysteries. The Persian, who
had before waged war against those mysteries, at length declared
his belief in the conflict of good and evil powers. Thither came a
powerful colony of Jews, and not only built a temple in Egypt, but at
the command of an Egyptian monarch the Jewish scriptures were
translated into Greek. The same country where speculation began
was destined to accumulate at the most favorable point the latest
productions, amalgamated into a form exactly fitted to prospective
uses, and then, through other agencies as wonderfully prepared be
transmitted to the corresponding field. From Moses to Christ, every
intellectual stream was made to be tributary to that central river;
and from Christ to Constantine, the direction and destination are
identical still. When Egypt became a Roman province, proof was
given that there was something stronger in the world than Greek
subtilty, and which in turn could be equally well subordinate to the
ultimate good of mankind. Three Greeks, masters of the Peripatetic,
Academic, and Stoic doctrines, were sent as hostages of war to
Rome, at the same time that Lucullus and Sylla were enriching the
Capitol with conquered libraries. The latter, after the capture of
Athens, b.c. 84, sent thither the collection of Apellicon, which was
particularly rich in the works of Aristotle. It is worthy of special note
that then and there the works of the great founder of later systems
were first published. But simultaneously with the era when Greece
had lost her political existence, and Rome her republican
constitution, the spirit of ancient research was exhausted, and a new
philosophy arose from the decay of effete systems. A fresh
dogmatical system was established by the New Platonists on a
broader basis, in order to prop up the ancient religion, and to
oppose a barrier to the rapid progress of the new, but which ended
in the wildest metaphysical dreams. In the mean time, Christian
teachers, who at first rejected and condemned Greek philosophy,
ended by adopting it, in part at least, thus intending to complete and
fortify their religious system. This work of fundamental preparation
continued until the disunion of the eastern and western empires
opened the way for the erection of that grand and romantic
superstructure for which the world was by the above
instrumentalities prepared.
It was well observed by Justin Martyr, "Those persons before the
Christian era, who endeavored by the strength of human
understanding to investigate and ascertain the nature of things,
were brought into the courts of justice as impious and over-curious."
But with the Messiah came more auspicious days, when on all sides
schools arose whose ruling character was religious, and whose
processes were no longer abstraction, but inspiration and
illumination. Philo, born some years before Christ, and Numerius,
two centuries after, both leaders of Jewish cabals; and the leading
Gnostics, Simon Magus, Menander the Samaritan, and Corinthus, of
the first century, as well as Saturninus, Basilides, Carpocrates, and
Valentinus, of the second, all had an important preparatory work to
perform. Plotinus and Porphyry, too, wrought a good work in their
day. And when the apostate Julian, as the incarnated school of
Alexandria, became the hero of mysticism, and ascended the throne
of Rome, it was that thus he might more manifestly extinguish the
lingering brilliancy of the East, and occasion a fairer unfolding in the
West. With him and Proclus, sensualism and idealism ended, and
Greek philosophy expired in giving birth to that new civilization
which dates from the sixth century.
Modern scholars have searched through the voluminous
commentators upon Aristotle, which the learned eclecticism of the
third, fourth, and fifth centuries of our era produced, some of them
still only existing in manuscript, but have found but little worthy of
preservation. The time had come when one could no longer hear
Plato, in his own silvery tongue, delivering that allegory which
compares the human soul to a chariot with winged horses and
driver, and which resolves its purest thoughts into reminiscences of a
brighter life and nobler companionship. During the martial sway of
imperial Rome, the beautiful philosophic fabric which the Greeks had
fashioned, like the web of Penelope, was mutilated, defaced, and
nearly destroyed.
The Romans were more arbitrary in their ideas than the Greeks, and
much less inventive; they were neither as acute to demonstrate, nor
as methodical to arrange the elements and results of knowledge.
The literary medium of their theories was as declamatory as their
notions were loose, and both their political and moral habits tended
to obscure their dim conceptions of moral truth. The only redeeming
quality amongst them, was national vigor, displayed mainly in warlike
pursuits. From the first, the citizens of the Republic seem to have
anticipated the attainment of universal empire, and they put forth
endeavors commensurate with the presentiment they felt with
regard to their destiny. Though unworthy to claim supremacy of
esteem for any mental or philosophical enterprise of their own, it
should be said to their credit, that they entertained a more vivid and
enduring belief in the dignity and predetermined necessity of human
advancement than was common to the Greeks. But national
excellence in the realms of refined art and thought, was not to be
expected while they assigned these pursuits chiefly to slaves. Virgil
made one of his a poet; and Horace himself, like several inferior
authors, was the son of a freedman. Leading philosophers and
coarsest buffoons, the preceptor who taught, and the physician who
healed, the architect who built, and the undertaker who buried, were
all vassals. It has been said by the most valid authority, that not an
avocation, connected with agriculture, manufactures, or education,
can be named, but it was the patrimony of slaves.
Providence is to be honored by a grateful recognition of the part
Rome performed in human advancement. Perpetual peace is the
hypothesis of absolute immobility. But as progress is necessitated on
the part of imperfect creatures in their perpetual approach towards
perfection, war will be certain sometimes, and may always be
profitable. War is the bloody exchange of ideas, shocks incident to
the car of improvement. The truth which was victorious and absolute
yesterday, becomes relatively false to-day, and will need to be
conquered by a greater and more enduring truth to-morrow. That, in
turn, will have to retreat before some superior good, and thus only
can consummate excellence be attained. Great leaders, whether
martial or mental, are but embodied ideas, actuating and
transforming the ages; and every thing about them, even their
death, is but a phenomenon of universal life. Platea and Salamis,
Arbela and Pharsalia, were the great steps of democracy toward
universal mastership. Victory always remains with the new spirit;
and freedom, like truth, never can become old; they are in God, and
thereby the final battle and widest conquest must eventually be
secured. Not one great campaign was ever lost to humanity, nor
ever will be. Every historical nation has had specific seed given it to
sow, from the harvest of which succeeding nations have derived
strength to cultivate a rougher, but richer, field. The scenery changes
with each act performed, but the plot goes steadily on. God is
making the tour of the world, and every new phase of civilization is
an additional proof of a divinely identical plan.
The first great element of humanity which received a full
development was beauty, the nearest in space, and most like in
character, to Eden. The next was force, that which was most
requisite to take up and carry forward the materials of after growth,
and this was unfolded in a position the most central and adapted to
its comprehensive design. The third element was science; the
discriminating, purifying, enlarging, and consolidating power
destined to bear the precious aggregation of lapsed cycles upon the
immense stage whereon should be unfolded an amelioration the
most complete, through the richest benefits both human and divine.
It was not possible for these to have a simultaneous development,
but were vouchsafed in their proper order, that they might best
insure the highest result. An epoch is the period required by a given
principle for its matured growth, and will be displaced by its
successor through some form of revolution. When the commission
assigned a timely idea is performed, it will be superseded because
the advent of its superior has come; but the antiquated ever wars
against the necessity of removal, and sees not that progressive
destiny has rendered it obsolete. Hence the need of constraint,
sometimes through arguments, and sometimes through arms. But in
every instance, the successor adds completeness to what went
before, and all the diversity of epochs and arms conduce to but one
and the same end. Wait the rising of the next curtain, if you would
better understand the wisdom of the transpiring plot. If one asks
why this or that nation came into the world, answer by noting what
there was to do, what idea to represent, and what means to be
employed. We have seen what Greece existed for, and there is no
more mystery as to the mission of Rome. We give an explanation of
her wars, but have no apology to offer in their behalf.
The evening of Greek philosophy threw a few beautiful rays over the
dark and tempestuous domain of the Augustan age. Its early lessons
taught the Roman generals to appreciate the mental treasures which
lay upon the track of their remote campaigns, and mitigated the
savageness of war with the amenities of moral excellence. The
classical tour of Æmilius, and the more refined pursuits of Africanus,
were greatly superior to the coarseness of the earlier Anitius and the
ignorant Mummius. Still more enlightened was the age and its
heroes, when Sylla enjoyed at Athens the refined conversation of
Atticus, his political opponent, and bore about with him the
inestimable writings of Aristotle. At the brief epoch of culmination,
Cæsar, from the remotest provinces, corresponded with Cicero on
philosophical topics; and Pompey, when he had accepted the
submission of both the East and the West, lowered his fasces in
reverence of the wisdom of Posidosius.
Cato deprecated the introduction of Greek philosophy into his
country, because he foresaw that in learning to dispute upon all
things, the Romans would end by believing in nothing. The result
verified the foreboding. Though repeatedly banished from the
metropolis, the degenerate philosophers triumphed over the
resistance of laws, the wisdom of the senate, and the destinies of
the eternal city. A few dreamers, armed with scepticism,
accomplished what the world's entire force was unable to achieve;
they conquered with opinions the superb Republic which had
subjugated earth with arms, thus adding another fact confirmatory
of the general truth, that all the empires which history has
recognized as established by time and prudence, sophists have
overthrown. When a false maxim becomes a ruling principle in
popular opinion, the logic of nations, mightier than cannon, bears a
fearful force for evil, as otherwise it is the most powerful agent of
good. An individual may be made to recoil before conclusions,
communities never. A fatal charm more potent than the horror of
self-destruction entices them, and even in perishing they obey a
general law, the inflexible rectitude of which can never be
exhausted, whether applied to error or truth, and by virtue of which
the upright are preserved until their goodness has been most widely
and enduringly diffused. As every doctrine is composed necessarily
of truth or error, usually a mixture of both, there is an influence for
good or evil wrought upon the minds wherein it is received. But
while falsehood may in some ages and places so accumulate as to
work ruin to a degree, the mightier truth is in reserve which in due
time will readjust the balance, and augment the good. False religion
presided over the cradle of ancient nations, and false philosophy
attended them to the tomb; nevertheless, each succeeding birth and
death was a fresh ascent toward fairer realms and brighter hopes.
The civilization of Rome was exceedingly imperfect. Much expense
was employed to entertain the populace, but there was little virtue in
their instruction. From all quarters of the known world crowds
gathered in their theatres; literature and art flourished after a
fashion, and extreme courtesy for a while added attractions to an
effeminate and voluptuous philosophy. The people yielded to the
blandishments so congenial to gross tastes, and their history
celebrates a period of happiness such as Romans could enjoy, that
characteristic felicity which began under the Triumvirate, and with
Nero found a fitting end.
Greece developed individuality of the finest type, and Rome created
a social compact on the grandest scale; but it was reserved for a yet
further step in westward civilization to blend these two elements,
personal independence and social loyalty, under the auspices of
liberty governed by law. Neither the Greeks nor Romans had a
separate term for institution, that truest exponent of modern society.
But this grand conservative and redeeming power in due time
appeared, when there arose, amidst the ruins of exhausted
imperialism, a society both young and ardent, united in a firm and
fruitful faith, inwardly gifted with preternatural power, and endowed
with an unlimited capacity for external expansion. This was
Christianity, the blessed philosophy of God on earth. The necessity of
replying to heathen adversaries, and the desire of defining and
enforcing the Christian doctrines, gradually led to the formation of a
species of philosophy peculiar to Christianity, and which successively
assumed different aspects, with respect to its principles and object.
The spirit of Grecian philosophy thus transferred into the writings of
the early fathers, in after times proved the material germ of original
speculations. Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian,
Arnobius, and Lactantius, first employed philosophy as an auxiliary
to assist in winning over the more cultivated classes to the Christian
religion. Subsequently it was turned to the refutation of heresies,
and lastly applied to the elucidation and formal statement of the
prevailing creed.
Most distinguished of his age was Aurelius Augustinus, born a.d. 354,
at Tagaste in Africa. After having studied the scholastic philosophy,
and became an ardent disciple of the Manicheans, he was converted
to the orthodox faith under the preaching of Ambrose, at Milan, a.d.
387, and eighteen years after was made bishop of Hippo. The
religious philosophy of this great writer became the pivot of
dogmatical science in the West, and has swayed the destinies of
millions of minds from the time Justinian closed the classic schools,
and the Gothic king Theodoric put Boethius, the last of the ancient
philosophers, to death. Augustin, who ended the Augustan age of
philosophy, while yet far from the great centre of the succeeding
age, now sleeps at Pavia, in the very bosom of its domain. Such is
the grand truth of universal history; all living greatness, and even
the remains of the dead, move only toward the West.
 CHAPTER V.
RELIGION.
The radical imperfection of paganism in the Periclean age consisted
in the fact that all the sublime attributes of intellect but served to
ennoble man in his present being. The strength of the moral
affections, the perfection of beauty, the love of truth, and all that
which for the Christian is to survive the grave and be immortally
augmented when separate from earth, to them had little or no
object beyond this life. To direct and enjoy the present was his chief
concern, and in his view the universe was created only to this end.
The god of day pursued his ceaseless round to cheer his waking toil,
and the chaste queen of night watched over his repose. The
universal Jove came down from Olympus to inspire him; Minerva
protected him with her awful shield of wisdom; the graceful goddess
of Love placed her shrine in his heart; and super-human beings,
captivated with his superior charms, sought on earth a loveliness not
to be found in heaven. Even the fates were subordinate to his
welfare, and all existences centred round his destiny; so that, were
he destroyed, all things would dissolve like an empty pageant, and
heaven, earth, and hell, with all their denizens, would cease to be.
In the Augustan age the condition of paganism was still worse.
When Rome rose, and steadily advanced to the attainment of
universal empire, the religions of all the separate states subjugated
were intimately interwoven with her political law, and that was
concentrated in the metropolis, whither the religions, like all other
spoils, were compelled to follow. Rent from their native soil, these
religions, like so many automatons, were doubly senseless and
impotent. The worship of Isis had a meaning in Egypt, it being a
reverence for the powers of nature; in Rome it became an idolatry
which signified only a sign and evidence of the victorious eagle of
the city. The more beautiful and significant myths of Greece were
equally perverted or stupidly ignored. Mythologies the most diverse
and conflicting were brought together only to contend with and
neutralize each other. There was but one power left that seemed
real, the emperor. Temples were erected to his honor, oaths were
taken in his name, sacrifices were offered before him, and his
statues alone offered an asylum. There was no state religion, but
power and religion were identical. Man sacrificing to man sank to the
lowest degradation of spiritual vassalage. Inspiring sentiment and
religious fervor were extinguished, leaving nothing more attractive or
exalting on national shrines than the deification of power, the
apotheosis of might. But when Rome had destroyed the various
nationalities of the world, there was yet a susceptibility in the human
heart which she could not annihilate—something through which men
might hold communion with each other—a bond beyond the mere
relation of a citizen to his state. The auspicious hour had come, in
the midst of utter desolation, when humanity began deeply to feel
this, and it was the first dawn of a glorious day. Christianity arose
and called upon men as moral beings, to the humblest of whom its
founder lowered himself. The apsis of the basilica contained an
Augusteum, where the statues of the Cæsars were divinely
worshiped; but these were to be exchanged for holier symbols and a
higher truth.
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.
Of all ancient literatures, the Roman was most insensible to past
beauty, and future progress. The only voice among them, which
chimed with the continuous prophets and evangelists of advancing
humanity was the vague aspiration of Virgil, expressed in his Eclogue
to Pollio. Therein, the blessings of peace are celebrated, and the
prospects of a yet better age are foreshadowed. Notwithstanding the
power of prejudice and imperialism, the better instincts of
enlightened man in every age have anticipated a still fairer golden
age, and prepared for its advent. When the great orient from on
high rose over the wilderness of Roman life, the Gentiles, with
prompt gratitude hailed from the East its long-desired beams. At that
time earth afforded nothing better for the soul to feed upon than the
mere dross of religion, which remains in the crucible of a godless
reason, after the evaporation of all spirit and life. Something positive
and inspiring was needed in palpable manifestation, and the
blessedness of Heaven came into the great middle path of humanity
to roll on the ages in brightening splendors. Says Bunsen, "Judaism
died of having given birth to Him who proclaimed the Spirit of the
Law. Hellenism met Christianity by its innate consciousness of the
incarnation, and then died; surviving only by eternal thought and
imperishable art. Romanism taught young Christianity to regulate the
spirit in its application to the concerns of human society; when, after
it became powerful, it taught a religious corporation to resist a
despotic and corrupt court, and to civilize barbarians."
Jesus came to do his work of salvation, not as a mighty one, nor as
a High Priest, or even as a Jew; he does it simply as the "Son of
Man," an inestimable blessing for all mankind. The material temple
was therefore doomed to be destroyed, never to be rebuilt; for
thenceforth the temple of God is man. This union, which the great
Mediator declared to be the essence of true religion, will be carried
on by that Spirit of God which was in Jesus, and which by his being
One with the Father, made him the very mirror and eternal thought
of divine love. As Jesus, in his progressive life and work glorified the
Father, so believing humanity, in the progressiveness of the truth on
earth will glorify God in heaven. As it was up to the point where
universal history culminated in the advent of Christ, so doubtless will
it continue to be. Nations may perish by the judgment of God, and
new nations take their place; but the truth and righteousness of God
will become increasingly manifest, until all divine purposes are
realized, and the whole world is blessed.
The Romans were distinguished by their keen enjoyment of carnal
pleasures, and their excess in every form of physical and mental
indulgence. Never were a people mightier in strength or more
lawless in action. From the time when Brutus first stained his name
with the blood of assassination, to the darker period when Nero
rioted in the most brutal vices, never were a people more colossal in
moral guilt as well as in martial dominion. The profusion and luxury
of a Roman life were commensurate with their capacity for gross
excitement and the means of gratifying it, both of which were
boundless. All that earth could furnish they commanded, but even
this was insufficient to feed the flames of their lust, and, through
grovelling debasement, they sank to the brink of extinction. The
fitting symbol of their volcanic character and condition was Vesuvius
when, b.c. 73, Spartacus, a fugitive slave, at the head of a hoard of
gladiators and fellow-vassals in revolt, encamped on the summit,
where they were blockaded in the midst of impending flames. The
fearful unsatisfied desire to soar into infinity common to every
human breast, in them took no nobler form than that powerful
instinct of patriotism which burned in a few heroes and patriots.
Regulus, who, with eyes cast down, tore himself from his kindred,
quitted Rome, and hurried to the country of his enemies;—Decius,
who, devoting himself to the infernal gods, invoked their vengeance
upon his head, and rushed into the arms of death, seemed rather
demigods than men. But, compared with the glowing cheerfulness of
Leonidas, they were barbarians, since the law they fulfilled was
without love. Even those who died at Thermopylæ can scarcely be
regarded to have been actuated by true patriotism; but in fulfilling a
national vow as they fell, there was something sublimer manifested
than Rome ever knew, when the Spartan leader dictated that lofty
inscription on the mountain-monument, "Stranger, tell at
Lacedæmon, that we died here in obedience to her sacred laws."
Having attained an almost boundless power over the earth, the
Romans neglected the traditional deities of their forefathers, and set
themselves up as gods. The Egyptians deified brutes; the Greeks,
ideas; and the Romans, men. The religion of the latter, or bond
which kept the tumultuous aggregation of conquered nations moving
sympathetically round one centre, was glory and luxury; hence, the
monuments which the Romans have handed down to us as the true
chronicles of their times, are least of all religious, such as the
Coliseum, the Baths, Theatres, and Triumphal Arches. At the darkest
and most oppressive hour appeared Jesus, and a religion was
preached which gave to monotheism, until then a national worship
of the Hebrews, a cosmopolitic character. All men were invited to
become Christians by the apostles of that great founder of this faith,
who had abstained not only from touching upon politics in general,
but from any question which does not directly belong to religion and
morality, or is not nearly allied with either. Nothing was permitted to
be an obstacle in the way of his religion being received at once in all
climes and by all classes of mankind. The spiritual value of the
individual was immeasurably raised, and Jehovah was proclaimed to
be the God of all men, high or low, distant or near, and before whom
all are equal. A territory was made known beyond the state; and
every man, slave or citizen, was shown to be a moral agent, bound
under the highest law to fulfill his duties and receive his reward
according to his deeds. Religion was no longer the apotheosis of
might, but the discharge of duty and the worship of love.
By its own unaided wisdom, the ancient world could never
comprehend the mystery of creation. The Mosaic writings were early
rendered into Greek, and many critics, probably, before Longinus,
felt and admired their sublimity; but they knew not what to make of
these remarkable novelties, and the best of the Greeks and Romans
never wrote as if they were at home in them. Nor could it well be
otherwise, since their notions respecting the origin of man, as well
as concerning the purpose of all knowledge, were so absurd. The
grosser element of the human being, earth, occupied the chief
consideration, while the spark of divinity in man was viewed as a
theft from heaven, and the reward of successful knavery. Still less
could they comprehend the mystery of redemption. Their
consciousness with respect to God was thoroughly disorganized, and
through thousands of years they oscillated between the lower and
higher life in perpetual restlessness. They dwelt perpetually between
atonement and thanksgiving, without one true and distinct
comprehension of either. The smoke of sacrifice ascended from
innumerable oblations perpetually renewed, but the effective
sacrifice was never found, and the benighted worshiper still felt
himself alienated from God. The heart of humanity bore an enigma
which time and sense could never solve. Bunsen well states the facts
as follows: "Christ put an end to this unhappy discord by the free
and loving surrender of his own will to that of the Father; an act of
life and death, in which Christ and the whole Christian Church
throughout the world with Him, recognize the self-sacrifice of the
Deity himself, and which philosophy (in other words, reason
awakened to consciousness,) demands as an eternal act of God.
Through this act of eternal love, the act of the Incarnate God, as
many as believed in it, became recipients of the new spirit, of a new,
divine, inward power. The inward consciousness of the eternal
redeeming love of God (that is faith) imparted the capacity of feeling
at one with God in spite of sin; for it gave men the power of
severing sin, as an evil hostile element, from their real self, and
therefore of freeing their life from that selfishness, which is the root
of all evil in it. A free devotion to God and our brethren in thankful
love now became possible—a devotion for God's sake, arising from a
feeling of gratitude toward Him who first loved us. In the language
of historical revelation this idea is thus expressed. The great
atonement or sin-offering of mankind was consummated by Christ,
by means of his personal sacrifice: the great thank-offering of
mankind became possible through Christ, by means of the Spirit."
Thus, cotemporaneously with Augustus transpired that central event
of all history. The free personal sacrifice of Christ offered once for
all, gloriously realizing all that of which the whole Levitical
priesthood and sacrifice was nothing but a shadow and a type. Man
had already tenanted the earth thousands of years, when that child
was born whose mission was to produce effects so incalculably great
that even yet probably men are but seeing the beginning of them.
As soon as the way was sufficiently prepared, Christ came to abolish
the law by fulfilling it. He rendered manifest those sacred forms
which a bigoted understanding had as yet failed to understand. From
the bosom of a contracted people, the Son of Man arose to proclaim
the Universal Father—that God who, as the most intelligent of
Christians declared to the Athenians, "hath made of one blood all
nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." For this
sublime doctrine the moment had at length arrived; a race of men
existed who were ready to receive its announcement and appreciate
its worth. Says Eusebius, "Like a sunbeam it streamed over the face
of the earth." Mankind had now received something better than
Greek or Roman cultivation, which is nothing but the varnish of
civilization. The doctrines of Christ subdue and save humanity by
making authority a thing inviolable, by making obedience a thing
holy, and by making self-renouncement and charity things divine.
Under the force of law, a Curtius or a Codrus could die for the
salvation of his country, and a Regulus for the superstition of his
oath; but the Christian martyrs made the like sacrifice for
conscience, and the baptism of their blood, falling under the Cross,
was the primary seed of earth's richest harvest. In the hands of
Providence new wine is never put into old bottles. The leaven of
Christianity for a season seemed lost in the lump of human sin;
nevertheless, it was doing its great work with resistless power. Its
first progress was marked by blood and flame, only to be more
widely seen and longer remembered. The ashes of meek heroes
sowed the earth with Cadmean germs, powerful in growth and
prolific of good. All adverse winds were let loose, but they only blew
the fires of divine illumination into a loftier and wider splendor.
During the first three hundred years after the promulgation of
Christianity, it was assailed by the learned, ridiculed by the sarcastic,
opposed by the mighty, and on all sides persecuted and oppressed.
Yet the church grew and prospered. The disciples of Christ had other
lessons to learn and other duties to perform than the schools of
human wisdom could inculcate, but this did not prevent the
existence of many learned Christians. The great Origen was
surpassed by none of his cotemporaries among the Greeks; and
Minucius Felix, Tertullian, and Lactantius stood first in Latin ranks. It
was a time when injured rights and insulted virtue demanded the
most exalted oratory, and the early fathers were not wanting in its
divinest use. Chrysostom, for example, warmed his century like a
sun. In good time certain men of the most despised nation came up
to the great city of power and pride. They were regarded as the
scum and offscouring of the lowest ranks, and their religious rites
were declared to be impious. Their God had been crucified under the
Procurator of Judea, and his body had been stolen from a hidden
grave. But the new doctrines continued to spread, although the
magistrates resisted them, and more than ten times the Augusti
raised their swords against the "execrable superstition." The altars of
the great gods were deserted, their temples decayed, their images
were dethroned, and in their stead, in their very place often, rose
the edifices of those who adored the Nazarene, and scorned the
ancient deities of the Quirites. Thenceforth Rome ceased to be
invincible. The East was encroached upon, and the West fell under
the flood of hostile barbarians. The sceptre was removed to another
city, and the huge universal empire was dissolved. Rome was
humbled to the lowest degree, and bowed her neck to her captors.
The adaptation of the primitive apostles to their respective missions
is worthy of especial attention. Peter was the rock of the church,
representing its firmness to endure rather than its aggressive force.
He was the teacher of order, as John was the disciple of love, and
Paul the great champion of spiritual freedom and doctrinal faith. At
Joppa was vouchsafed to Peter the vision that rebuked his Jewish
prejudice, and which at Cæsarea prompted this key-holder of the
heavenly kingdom before Cornelius the Italian, to unfold doors to an
empire which soon threw Rome into the shade, and hung the
fragrant amaranths of peace above the bloody trophies of war. It is
probable that he was carried to the imperial city to suffer
martyrdom; but that this apostle was teaching there when the
Epistle to the Romans was written it is impossible to believe. To
prove that fact, or even to admit that he was a teacher there after
his brother apostle's writings were received, is to annihilate the
assumption that Peter was the founder of the Roman church. He
doubtless planted Christianity in oriental Babylon, but a mightier
head and heart were employed to distribute the same inestimable
treasure in the West. The spheres of the two great leaders were
unlike, but in life and death their aims and rewards were one.
The zealous Pharisee who so long and learnedly sat at the feet of
Gamaliel, and whose soul, so like a sea of glass mingled with fire,
was thoroughly imbued with heavenly power on the plains of
Damascus, was the predestined hero of liberty and truth to the
progressive races. Asiatic by birth, but European in mental structure,
his faculties were the best on earth for the work to which they were
made subservient, when at Philippi his hand kindled the torch of
salvation on the eastern edge of Europe, which thenceforth was to
burn through all tempests, and with constantly increasing
brightness, westward round the globe. Like the great law-giver of
the old dispensation, this pioneer of the new was master of all the
learning of the Egyptians, and when the completed accomplishments
of Greece were superadded under the transforming power of divine
grace, the mighty aggregate was thrown upon the great deep, and
commerce became a grand instrument of civilization. With the pagan
signal of Castor and Pollux floating at mast-head, and the wealth of
Africa stowed in the hold, this son of Asia bore a message to central