Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-08-27
NEW SERIES. NO. BIZ

VI sne Sonsuiunabe Deggar. A 10
man who respected himself neye,
act his foot in this abject quarter
1t was q kind of suburb abandoned
to despised classes and unhealthy
occupations. The poor
wretches lived TRANQUILITY enough in
this forgotten corner, among bales
Of merchandise, low taverns, and
tide night repairs of the litter car
riers (Syrians) Iwho made this their
headquarters. On the day
when, under the reign of CIaudius,
some Jew imbued with the new be-
lief touched the shore of the EMS
porium,' no man in Rome knew
that the founder of new empire, a
second Romulns, was sleeping on
straw at the Port" ttf =
Puteoli, the ante>chamber of
Rome, is described in more fanciful
phraseology:
ut was the place where Jews and
Syrians coming to Rome frequently
landed. That strange soil under
mined by fire, those Phlegraan
fields, that Solfatara those cavans
full Of boiling vapor, which seemed
the ventilators of he'll those sui
phurous waters, and their myths of
giants and demons buried in burn
ing recesses, places of torment; the
baths, which to Jews, austere and
detesting all exposure Of the naked
person, seemed the height ofabomi-
nation-struck forcibly the lively
Imagination of the new corners, and
have left profound traces in the
apocalyptic compositions of that
age"
OF the great cities of the Roman
East, Ephesus, Alexandra, Antioch,
Corinth, the hotbeds, as he truly
says, of early Christianity, NJ Res
nan observes that
We may form an idea of them
by comparison with the lar ger Lee
vantine cities of the present day.
What strikes the traveller when he
explores these labyrinths of close
bazaars, of narrow and dirty lanes,
Of temporary constructions to
which no notion of durability is
attached, is the complete absence of
dignity, of political and even mu-
nicipal spirit. In these human ant
heaps meanness and good instincts,
idleness and activity, rudeness and
civihty, meet US side be side; eV-
erything is to be found there except
that which constitutes an old local
aristocracy-I mean honorable re-
collections cultivated in common.
Together with all this, much of
gossip, chattering, levity, almost
everybody knowing his neighbor
and occupied with his neighbours
concerns; the idle curiosity of friv-
olous people, eager to feed on the
most trifing novelty; a great
readiness to follow the fashion,
with total incapacity to lead
it. Christianity was fruit Of that kind
of fermentation which is generated in
an atmosphere such IS this; whore man,
disengaged from the prejudices of birth
and race, places himself more easily at
the point of view taken by that philoso-
ply which We call cosmopOlite and I
humanitarian, than can be done by the
peasant, the burgess, the noble citizen or
fnrr1aI lorI ILL., -. =
days, like all new ideas, Christianity
blossomed in what we are accustomed to
call the corruption Of large cities. This
corruption, in truth, is often only fuller
and freer life, a more vivid awakening
OF the innermost forces of humanity
"The Apostles" he says elsewhere,
"resembled much more q number of So
cialist workmen, carrying about their
ideas from tavern to tavern, than the
missionaries of modern times" who are
so commonly compared to them.
Wherever Paul made any stay he esS
tablished himself, and took up his trade
Of tent maker (tapisser, upholsterer)
His external life resembled that of an
artisan who makes the tour of Europe,
and disseminates as he travels the ideas
with which he is penetrated" He points
out the sort of false light, as regards
the ordinary reader, which is thrown
on the state of society around them
by the narratives Of travellers of this
class; men whose eyes are exclusively
fixed en- the little communities which
they visit. Thus.
benjamin of Tudela arrives at the
end Of the world without seeing any
thing but Jews; Ibu Batuta, anything
but Mussulmans; and to st. Paul, a small
body Of new converts and a somewhat
larger number of obstinate Jews seem to
fill the world; he never speaks this is
an exaggeration of that immense major
ity, the Pagans, who had no knowledge
of the faith. Sects are subject
to these optical illusions; for them moth
ing exists beyond themselves.
A country was deemed evangelical,
when the name Of Jesus had been pro-
nounced in it, and perhaps ten persons
converted. A church often did not COM
prise more than twelve or burteen ad-
herents. Perhaps all those converted
by st. Paul in Asia Minor, Macedonia
and Greece did. not much exceed hous
and. This smallneas of numbers, with
its attendant spirit Of narrow spiritual
family, was precisely that which consti>
tuted the indestructible force Of these
churches, and made them so many preg>
nant seeds for the future"