The record-union., 1898-03-21
ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS.
CHRISTIAN WORLD THRILLED
WITH THE DISCOVERIES.
Christian Literature OF the First
Three Centuries Brought
to Light.


Three Centuries Brought
to Light.
Discovery OF catacomb inscriptions
b. Wilpert.
LIE Blant's discoveries in Roman AT
RIGA and Gaul
. inscriptions unearthed by Huebne:.
Antiquities dug Up on the Dalmatian
Coast
Ramsays explorations in Asia Minor
Bryennio's discoveries in the Jeru-
salem monastery Of Constantinople.
Finding Of the gospel OF Peter by the
French archaeological mission.
Recovery Of Tatian's Diatessaron OF
Harmony OF the -Four Gospels
Professor Harris discovery on Mount
Sinai
Papyrus dug up 1T Benehsa.
This is Dre-eminently the day of the
archaeologist.
The tape line and the space are COM
mentators par excellence There l.
an ancient tradition that the sitting
statue OF Memmon at Thebes emits u
musical sound when struck by the
rays of the rising sun. The sun CT
this century has touched every ancient
statue, temple and rubbish heap, and
they are singing an anthem The
Christian scholar believes it is an an
them TO the praise Of our God and l.
the integrity Of His word.
A perfect passion for archaeological
research possesses this age.
1t is a part of the development of the
historical and critical spirit. Within
the last quarter Of a century the Pal
estine Exploration Society and the
Egyptian Exploration Society have,
come into being, wonderfully stimulat-
ing archaeological research. In the
vast field of Christian archaeology rich
have been the results. Important doe
uments and notable inscriptions have
been discovered, and much light has
been thrown upon Christian art ana
symbolism Contributions have been
made by group of notable men. First
must be mentioned the late Common
datore De ROssi, whose monumental
works, Roma Sotteranea" and IN
scriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae,
have been the basis of all following
work in this direction. By his side
must be mentioned, among the Ital-
ians, such men as Garucci and Gre1
gorutti Among the French Roller
and LIE Blant stand easily first. Ger
many gives a notable list of eminent
names-Piper, Kraus, Schultze. Nillo-
laus, Mueller, Huebner, Wilpert and
others. in England w. NJ Ramsay
takes the lead. The English speaking
world is also under lasting debt to an
American scholar, the late Dr. Charles
w. Bennett of the Garrett Biblical n
stitute, for producing the best book in
English on the subject-his Christian
Archaeology"
Lately great interest has been
aroused in the entire subject and many
young scholars have come to the front
The first congress of Christian archaeo-
logists was held in 1894 at Spalato in
Dalmatia. on the site of Diocletian's
palace. Such men as kraus and VIII
pert among Catholic scholars, and
Mueller and Schultze among the Pro-
testants. were the leaders. The next
congress assemblies at Ravenna III
1898. The result of such conference
OF Christian archaelogists is to insure
q scientific study Of all the early
Christian monuments and to stimulate
research in this direction. It goes
without saying that the work within
the past twenty-five years has done
much to shed light upon some vexed
problems in the life of the early
church, and also to increase the mass
of evidence to. the genuineness and au-
thenticity of the New Testament
Scriptures. The Christian world has
now and then been profoundly stirred
by the bringing to light of some docu-
ment or monument and the rapid prep
aratiOn of the material for publication
has soon given to the church the his
tory of the find. Thus with increasing
interest the attention of the Christian
scholars is directed toward the early
Christian centuries.
AS the excavations in Egypt have
the history of the land of the Pha-
raohs as the finds in Assyria anG
BabylOna have made Old Testament
life and literature move vivid as the
spade of Schlieman and Curtius have
rescued much of Grecian- literature
from the region Of myth, so the re-
searches into early Christian art have
removed many misconceptions. pushed
back the date of early Christian litera-
ture and enabled us to reconstruct to
a large extent the worship and policy
of the church. We have been enabled
also to correct much of the erroneous
chronology of the early centuries The
study of the inscriptions, both classical
and Christian, has cast unexpected
light upon the Patristic writing. In