The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-08-06


The GREEK CnuRcn The annals OF
mau offer few more varied, more magri.
cent, or more touching records than that
of the Eastern Church and from its dim
yet hallowed origin. through its long
career OF worldly triumph and of spiritual
JOY, OF bitter overthrows and OF swift de.
clue, Of fresh revivas and Unprecedented
strehght until to-day it rules over half
Europe aud threatens the surjugatOn OF
Asia from the Indus to the China seas. a
SURPRISING interest has ever followed the
only Christian body that can claim a
visible descent from the companions Of its
founder A cloud of doubt, of fable, or
conjecture, rests upon the preteusons OF
the Church OF Rome ; the legend of ST.
Peter relies upon no contemporary proof.
and belongs to the domain of faith rather
than of history; nor does any Protestant
communion profess to trace its origin
through an unbroken line of presbyters
aud bishops to the apostolic age. But
the Oriental Church seems possessed of a
well-authentcated genealogy. Its langu.
age is still that in which the Gospels were
written aud Polycarp and Ignatius preach.
ed; Its melodious ritual reaches back to
the days Of Constantine and Athanasius ;
its great patrarchates, that sprang up in
the veritablc homes of the Apostles, are
yet family delneated in the feeble church.
es Of Alexandria, Jerusalem. and Con.
stantinope; along the fair shores ofSyria
and Asia Minor the shattered ruins of
the Christian Church have outliyed the
fallen shrines of Antioch or Ephcsus and
from the city OF Constantine, the capital
OF the Christian world, has flowed a
regular apostolic accession, whose rnom-
bers still minister to devout congregation,
from the kremln to Solovetsky.
Scholar as well as theologian will find
much IN the annals of the Greek Church
to touch his sympathy and startle hi,
curiosity. The genius of Attic civiiza.
tion seems often revived in its teachings
the humane and liberal spirit of philoso-
piers and poets, the gentler impulses OF
Plato or Socrates, are renewed, together
with their names, through all those bar.
oarous races that were educated from the
brilliant schools Of Copstantinople. While
the Latin Church, under its illiterate
popes, inculcated persecution, and grew
into a fierce and aggressive political
despotlsm' the Greeks, looking even to
the teachings Of Nice and of Constantine.
have preserved humane liberation. As
If in tender recollection Of their high in.
tellectua ancestry, the monks Of Mount
Athos and the priests of the Kremlin
have painted on the walls Of their cathed.
rails the venerable faces Of Homer, Pytha.
goras' or Plato, and admit to the catalogue
OF the just the sages and heroes who pre-.
pared the path Of Christianity. In
Moscow or Novgorod the Mohammeian.
the Lutheran, and the Roman Catholic
are permitted to enjoy their faith and
their religious rites undisturbed No St.
Bartholomew's, no dragonnades, no rag.
ing lnqulsition, no hecatombs of martyrs
no strange and cunning tortures, such a,
those devised by the keen invention OF
Jesuits and Romish priests. have ever de.
filed the venerable ministry that trace.
ITS origin to Ephesus aud St. John.
Along that hot but uxuriant shor,
reaching from the falls of the Nile TO the
lower borders of the Euxine, still fertile
at that momentous period in the richest
productions of nature and art, the land OF
Homer and Herodotus, Scopas and Parr.
haslus, OF stately architecture aud pcrpet
ual song, the Eastern Church. at the
opening OF the Council of Nice aud the
triumph OF Coustan.ie, had fixed its i'm
mutable foundations. IT, mighty bishop
rlcs-seats of learning "a well as Of abund
aut faith-seened the corner-stones O
Chris tianity, Alexandra, Antioch, anC
the seven churches were nourishing witt
such outward vigor as to overshadow tn,
feeble Church Of Rome and the mission
AIRY stations of the barbarous West
Rome, in fact, had long remained Greek
congregation. Its bishops employed tn,
Greek language in their writings or ex
hortatlons; its presbyter, Anicetus, ad
mitted the superior authority of Polycarp
its members were obscure, uncultivatcd
aud humhled by frequent prosecutions
But in the great cities of the East Chris
tianity already had invested itself will
material and intellectual splendor. A
the famous schools of Alexandria tn
keen faculties Of the hereto Arius, am
the resolute genius Of his young opponen
Athanasius, had been prepared for tina
vigorous contest that was to divide Chris
teudom. In all the Syrian cities Chris
tianity became the religion of the intel
lectual classes. Learning and philosoph,
were blended with faith; the Faster
bishops were voumnoIs writers, poets
orators, even nJveists while all alon!
the sacred shore stately churches gre,
up above the ruins Of the pagan temples
Nile was lined with monasteries an,
cathedrals, the cliffs Of the Grecau coas
! we're converted into pious stronghold.
the abode of cultivated eremites; tn
soft music and the gay professions of tn
elassia craad MARA hnrromal 80 a.Ia.s.