dediticii, that is, those who had submitted to the yoke of Rome without condition," the slaves, as they may be termed, of the great Roman family,-who could not contract legal marriages, were incapable of acquiring property, whose gains belonged to their masters, who themselves had the power of life and death over their slaves."2-P. 21.

"The class of gladiators, an institution purely Roman in its origin and to its end, presents the social condition of the slave in its saddest aspect. The very highest pitch of intellectual culture at Rome failed to perceive that the exhibitions of gladiators were an outrage on humanity. . . . They continued long after the reign of the first Christian Emperor; so late as the year A.D. 404 Honorius was solicited to suppress them, and his subsequent edict, which accompanied their final cessation, was brought about by an act of Christian heroism which merits a passing notice."-P. 22.

Tragedy, it has been well observed, had no existence as a part of Roman literature. There was too much tragedy in the shape of gross reality almost daily before the eye, to allow the natural sympathy that softens at another's woe to retain a spark of sensibility."-P. 21.

It was in dealing with this degraded class of slaves that the one peculiar characteristic of CHRIST's religion was exhibited, viz."that to the poor the Gospel was preached." Speaking generally, the aristocracy of Rome continued obstinate adherents of paganism to the last. It was among the slave population of the Empire that the Church had her earliest and most numerous triumphs.

This is evident from a careful examination of the Catacombs, and not the least interesting feature in these vast excavations, is "that among the Christian memorials represented in nearly all the Catacombs are figures of men bearing instruments of labour, often instruments for the purpose of excavation, and clad in the dress peculiar to the slave."

"Here, then, among this despised class of the population, the workmen in the Catacombs had provided for themselves and their brethren in the faith a secure retreat,-a retreat which became the established refuge of the Roman Church. The number of Christian labourers in the Catacombs was increased, and this garrison of the Church continually recruited from the ranks of those who were condemned, as was the practice at the time, to labour in the sand-pits as a

1 Dr. Lee considers three slaves to one free man a sufficiently low estimate. (P. 20.)

? Professor Blunt, in his History of the Christian Church, mentions a remarkable coincidence, as throwing light upon the respective treatment of slaves and freemen: S. Paul, as a Roman Citizen, was consigned to an honourable death by decapitation: S. Peter, as one of the "despectissima pars servientium," was given over to the ignominious execution of the cross. (P. 65.)

3 Dr. Lee alludes to the account given by Theodoret of Telemachus, who tried to separate the gladiators, and was stoned to death by the spectators for interrupting their savage sport.

Christian being dragged before the tribunal, or exposed to beas amphitheatre, we are apt to think of him as one of a scattered nity, few in number, and politically insignificant. But all t there existed, literally, beneath the surface of Roman society, a tion, unheeded, uncared for, thought of vaguely, vaguely spoke population strong-hearted, of quick impulses, nerved alike to to die, and in numbers, resolution, and physical force, sufficient caused their oppressors to quail before them. But the sword yet been enlisted in the cause of religion. Submissive in thes and caves of the earth' to the 'powers that be' for their Red sake, the early Christians lived and died, and here they found pulchre."-P. 28.

In most remarkable contrast to these outcasts of societ out the gigantic absolutism of the Roman Emperor. For hundred years no foreign king or potentate of any descript peared to break the universal calm which surrounded the th the Cæsars. "The Emperor's very title Imperator, mark as the sole representative of the military power, the stratocr it has been happily termed, of Rome." (p. 36.) The no every grade were under his immediate censorship; the classes were linked in a connection of absolute dependence, ruler who provided their daily food. His power was ubiquit that no one could attempt to escape his vengeance. you are," said Cicero to the exiled Marcellus, "remember th are equally within the power of the conqueror." "Ye rev Cæsar," wrote Tertullian, "with greater apprehension and fervid timidity than the Olympian Jove himself."2

"W

In spite of Dean Milman's disinclination to believe the fa Lee fully agrees with Ranke's assertion that "the worship p the genius of the Emperor was perhaps the only one comm the whole Empire. All idolatries clung round this, as to a mon prop."

"The religions of the world transplanted from their native Rome, had lost all their significancy;-the contact too of the v mythologies was necessarily followed by their mutual hostility a struction. Their contradictions could not be reconciled. The p spirit of each alone remained; and in each case was attracted, as an irresistible impulse, to that one self-dependent power which filled the world."-P. 38.

"The various forms of religion united in paying worship; te were raised and altars dedicated to the Emperor. Men swore 1 "The Emperor Maximian condemned all the Christian soldiers to hard some to dig stones, others sand."-P. 28.

2 Apol. c. xxviii. p. 37.

3 History of the Popes, b. 1, ch. 1, Austin's translation, vol. I. p. 7. 4 One cannot remember Eusebius' assertion, that when S. Peter spoke of " lon," he meant "Rome," without recurring to the common opinion that th ship of the King of Babylon was one of the forms of idolatry in that city.

...

name, they celebrated festivals in his honour; his statues afforded sanctuary. Neither the tragical fate of several of the emperors, nor their short tenure of power, at all affected the belief in their divinity. The united reigns of Nero's three successors amounted to no more than eighteen months and twenty days. But the reverses ascribed to the deities of the natural religion, had prepared the minds of the Romans for such incongruities ;-their faith in the divinity of the Emperor could not be shaken by events, which were merely parallel to the tragedies and revolutions of the mythological Olympus. The veneration paid to each successive Cæsar even increased in intensity."-P. 39.

What was the treatment which Christianity and its faithful professors received from this all absorbing human power? To speak briefly, the first attitude that the supreme power assumed was one of complete indifference. The Emperor of the world could, as he thought, afford to despise a system which took its rise from beneath, whose Founder died the death of a slave, whose teachers neither could resist nor attempted to resist his sovereign authority.

The next period was that of persecution, when the body of Christians had become too important in point of numbers to be altogether ignored and their constancy under sufferings as well as their numerical strength began to tell upon the sacrifices and worship of paganism. When, however, their influence proceeded to ascend upwards in the scale of society, and they assumed an important position, and made up an essential element in the state,2 the treatment which Christians and their religion received at the hand of the Emperor appears, according to Dr. Lee's view, to have been actuated very much by the religious persuasion of the Emperor of the time being. "If he were a pagan, like Elagabalus or Alexander Severus, he would either with the former endeavour to effect a point of reunion for the worship of Samaritans, Jews, and Christians, or with the latter place in his chapel as objects of worship, Abraham the ancestor of the Jewish race, CHRIST the Author of Christianity, as well as Orpheus the founder of the Grecian mysteries, and Apollonius of Tyana, the teacher of Indian and Egyptian wisdom;" or else throw his influence into "that system of syncretism, combining certain principles of the Christian faith with the purer and more philosophical elements of the existing paganism, which is called the Alexandrine Neo Platonism."-P. 48.

If on the other hand, the Emperor embraced or favoured Christianity, this attitude towards that religion no doubt was changed; but it came very short of that patronage and support which is ge

1 Professor Blunt takes substantially the same view as Dr. Lee. "Up to the time of Nero no movement from high quarters is recorded against Christianity."History of Christian Church, p. 139.

2 "Under Alexander Severus symptoms of toleration began to show themselves, which mark clearly enough, that the Christians had now assumed a higher social position, and had won for themselves a respectful consideration to which they had hitherto been strangers."-Blunt's History of the Christian Church, p. 309.

nerally associated with their names. give his view in his own masterly style:

Here we must let Dr. Lee

"It is a kind of popular belief to date the final triumph of Christianity from the accession of Constantine. The condition of the Church from this period, if contrasted with her cruel sufferings under his immediate predecessors, renders, it is true, such a belief not unnatural. But the unbending facts of history sometimes reverse the verdict of a courtier's panegyric, and here too, we are compelled to ask how far 'the first Christian Emperor' merits the glory so commonly ascribed to him." "The claims of Constantine to the very name of Christian are something more than problematical. I do not argue from the slight influence of the Christian religion upon his actions; nor do I build anything upon that record of domestic crime which renders the family of the first Christian Emperor,' a second family of the Atridæ ; human nature is ever presenting inconsistencies too startling to render such reasoning legitimate. But one may fairly appeal to the evidence of facts. The original adoption of the Christian cause by Constantine appears to me simply to prove, and to prove nothing more than this, -that Christianity had now attained an influence over the world which rendered it a political power. The wide diffusion of the principles of the new religion among that class which in modern times we significantly term the people,' could not have escaped the eye of the practised statesman. It seems to be a fact well attested, that Maxentius had endeavoured to revive the spirit of Paganism in his own favour before the decisive battle on the Milvian Bridge. To enlist, therefore, the antagonism of the Christians on his side, appears from the subsequent history of Constantine to have been motive sufficient to determine him as to the part he should take in this struggle, and the wellknown incident of the vision of the cross, with the suggested motto, By this conquer,' seen as he marched to the victory that gave him the sovereignty of the world, well symbolizes the political reasons which unquestionably influenced his mind. After he had attained the supreme power, although he did not sacrifice to Jupiter-in general the first act of a victorious Emperor, he attended the sacred games, he restored the pagan temples at Rome, and assumed among his imperial titles that of Pontifex Maximus. Scarcely had Constantine expired when the Senate enrolled him among the gods."-Pp. 40-42.

The reigns of Constantine and his successors were professedly a season of equal toleration for both religions. The celebrated edict of Milan went no farther than to recognise Christianity as one of the legal forms, by which the Divinity may be worshipped. The respectful language in which Constantine still spoke in his public edicts of the established paganism has been noticed by writers on this subject. We there read merely the terms, " vetus consuetudo," "templorum solemnia," "consuetudinis gentilitiæ," (p. 44,) without a word that can be construed into an opinion derogatory to heathen worship.

It is impossible to help contrasting these Lectures with those of

Mr. Stanley, which so recently preceded them. The latter might have been written without consulting any work beyond Mosheim, and Bunyan, and Gibbon, together with some Travels in the Holy Land. These of Professor Lee show a minute acquaintance with all contemporary literature, sacred and profane.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

Correspondence of R. E. H. Gregson, Esq. London: Longman and Co.

In this work we have the picture of a luxurious literary man living, what used to be called, a life of " elegant retirement," and devoting himself to no more serious labour than that of an extensive letter-writing. Talents he had of no mean order; a refined and contemplative mind, relieved by a considerable fund of humour, and an earnest belief in the Christian Faith; but one thing was lacking to him, he had not comprehended the necessity of submitting his intellect and "private judgment" to the Church, of which we conclude he was a member, and, therefore, his Christianity was passive not active; and an existence, which seems to have been outwardly blameless in the ordinary acceptation of the term, was saddened by the consciousness of an aching void, which the Church-theory of union with CHRIST, in and through the Sacraments, could alone have filled. His most useful work on earth appears to be contained, according to these volumes, in the shape of various very clever letters written to deists and infidels, which may render this work exceeding valuable to the young men of the present day. As a whole it will be found full of interest and originality.

The Love of our Lord Jesus Christ in the work of our Redemption: Four Plain Meditative Sermons on some of the Scripture Proofs. By the Rev. JAMES DOUGLAS, Incumbent of S. Mary's, Kirriemuir. Brown and Co., Aberdeen: Lendrum, Edinburgh: Masters, London. THESE sermons, which in fact form one continuous meditation on the Life and Death of our adorable LORD, are very far indeed above the common average. They treat respectively of the Incarnation, the Passion, the Passion and Cross, and the benefits of the Passion and Death of CHRIST; but the one theme which fills them all with an ardour and depth of feeling which cannot fail to stir the heart, is that of which the title speaks, the Love of JESUS-JESUS leaving the glory which He had with the FATHER to dwell in this sorrowful world, a weeping, helpless child, enduring the untold anguish of Gethsemane for every individual sin of every individual man-JESUS forsaken on the Cross by the Just and Holy GOD as the representative of lost humanity, and now for ever living at the right hand of GOD to make per