CHAPTER VIII.

THE CHURCHES OF CHRISTIANS.

WHEN the Redeemer had by his ministry and his death brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, the purposes for which sacred structures had been previously constructed were altogether changed. The altar was no longer raised for sacrifice; the great sacrifice of which all sacrifices had been the symbols having been offered. The Saviour had taken away the first, that he might establish the second.* Sacred edifices or temples, all amplifications of the altar, were also changed as to their uses and acquired another character: they were not required, as aforetime, for the reception of images and of idols; for the Gospel taught that God was a Spirit without parts or passions, and that they that worship him must worship him not under any created form, but by mental devotion in spirit and truth. Such being the true character of Christian devotion, it may be asked, what occasion could there be for churches? to what purposes could they serve? why need any be built? The answer is ready and certain.

x Heb. x. 9.

The religion of the Gospel is not solitary and recluse. It requires its votaries to practise public and social worship in open assembly as well as by private prayer in the closet. Such religious exercise serves to produce brotherly affection, which is the end and aim and very essence of Christianity; without which no man can be a Christian. St. Paul writes: "Let there be no divisions among you. Be ye perfectly joined in the same mind and in the same judgment. Forsake not the assembling yourselves together." Such are the precepts of the Gospel. The practice of the first converts to the faith, made on the first promulgation of the Gospel on the day of Pentecost, accorded with these precepts: "They continued daily with one accord in the temple:"z deeming their faith to be idle and unavailing unless they called the principle into act by a public profession made in a united assembly in the house of God. Such being the obligation to which every Christian is subject, it follows that a house appropriate to religious assemblage is an accommodation indispensably necessary to every body of Christians wherever they may be found. History relates that such houses were ever sought, and, whenever it might be possible, were procured for the purpose of religious assemblage. The demand was dutifully answered whenever the means were found.

The Christian converts at Jerusalem continued to assemble publicly in the temple for a considerable period after the day of Pentecost, although the rite of the Lord's Supper, not being a public sacrifice but a commemoration of the Redeemer, was performed from house to house. When however the rulers of the Jews proceeded to violent persecution, and it had become dangerous and even impossible to attend openly in the temple, then the assemblies for religious worship were held in private houses. These were therefore the first Christian churches. The same practice prevailed in the

cities of the Gentiles.

St. Paul writes to the Corinthians,

y 1 Cor. i. 10. Heb. x. 25.

z Acts ii. 46.

"The churches of Asia salute you: Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house." The church, exêλŋσιa, ecclesia, in this text signifies not a building evidently, but the society of Christians or chosen persons usually assembling at the house for the performance of religious duties. The word church in its primary signification signifies the House of the Lord, oikos Kupiakos, oikos kyriacos. Our language wants a word to designate properly an ecclesia, or Christian society.

Whenever an opportunity occurred, the Christians of the first centuries prepared or built churches, or rather, what may be termed Lord's Houses, for the purpose of religious assemblage; in which, it seems, they shewed great zeal, and were by no means sparing of cost. Such opportunities however were for a long time precarious and rare: till the reign of the emperor Alexander Severus in the former part of the third century, the Christians, according to the historian of the Decline of the Roman Empire,b had usually held their assemblies in private houses and sequestered places. "They were now (writes the historian) permitted to erect and consecrate public edifices for the purpose of religious worship; to purchase lands even at Rome itself for the use of the community; and to conduct the elections of their ecclesiastical ministers in so exemplary a manner as to deserve the respectful attention of the Gentiles." During such favourable intervals of persecution or restraint, the Christian churches often acquired a magnitude and grandeur which even shamed the temples of the unbelievers. Such efforts shew that the early Christians were perfectly assured that the honour of God is greatly promoted by the magnificence of his house. The struggle between idolatry and the Gospel was attended by various reverses of fortune, and the churches were often dilapidated and sometimes razed to the ground, but whenever the fury of persecution sank into repose the churches were

a 1 Cor. xvi. 19.

b Gibbon, chap. xvi. p. 448. 8vo.

again restored, and the Christian saw with exultation the glory of the Redeemer upheld by the splendour of the fabric of the church.

Early in the ensuing century the Christian faith which had long been making progress, and had won to itself many of the high officers of state, ascended the throne itself, and Constantine the Great declared himself a Christian, and made the religion of the Gospel the religion of the state. "Immediately the Christian temples of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Constantinople, &c. displayed the ostentatious piety of a monarch ambitious in his declining age to equal the perfect labours of antiquity. The form of the religious edifices built under his auspices was usually a simple quadrangular oblong, such as were the Grecian temples, though it might sometimes swell into the shape of a dome, and sometimes branch into the arms of a cross. The timbers were framed, for the most part, of cedars of Libanus; the roof was covered with tiles perhaps of gilt brass; the walls, the columns, the pavement, were encrusted with variegated marbles; the most precious ornaments of gold and silver, of silk and gems, were profusely dedicated to the service of the altar; and this specious magnificence was supported on the solid and perpetual basis of landed property." The historian shews that the annual revenues of some churches exceeded three thousand pounds sterling, and that donations to the amount of eighteen thousand pounds sterling, to be followed by farther requisitions, were directed by the emperor to be paid by the treasurer of the province of Carthage for the relief of the churches of Africa, Numidia, and Mauritania.

The church used by the Christians at Tyre had been destroyed during the persecution in the reign of Diocletian, but was rebuilt under Constantine. The structure is thus described. The entrance was by a large gate facing the

c Gibbon, chap. xx. p. 292. 8vo.

d Sacred Architecture, by Brown, p. 139.

west, in a tower so lofty that it was seen at a great distance. It opened into a spacious quadrangle, surrounded by four galleries supported by columns. Between the columns was trellis-work, which defended the persons who might be in the galleries from being seen from the court. In the midst of the court were fountains of water for ablution. At the end of the court rose the west front of the church, having three doors, of which the middlemost, much larger than the others, was brass, of folding valves exquisitely sculptured. This middle door led into the nave of the church, the side doors led to galleries within. This structure was spacious and lofty, and was supported on the exterior by columns much higher than those of the court. The interior was well lighted, and shone on every side. The ornaments were of valuable materials and of the best workmanship. The floor was of marble mosaic work, in beautiful compartments; the woodwork of the interior was of cedar. At the eastern end were thrones or elevated seats for the priests. One higher than the rest, and in the centre, was assigned to the Bishop. These were disposed in the form of a semicircle. The chancel or sanctuary at the upper end was separated from the laity in the body of the church by a trellis of woodwork of the most delicate sculpture. The nave was fitted up with benches regularly arranged for the people. Without were great halls, and other places fitted up for catechumens; the baptistery, and the school of instruction. These were connected with the church by passages and doors. The whole was surrounded by an outer wall, a barrier against profanation.

The resemblance borne by this church to the heathen temples is obvious. The division into nave and ailes, the galleries, were exactly the same. The tower over the entrance and the cloistered court within is still seen in most of the pagodas of Hindosthàn, and in the high massive structures that rise on each side of the entrances into most of the temples of Egypt. The chancel of the Christian church answers to the Egyptian