Evening star., 1928-02-12
From Christ to Constantine.

From this height the story falls, ana
imperfect men take up the thread where
IL dropped from the Masters hands
We Rave the picture Of Peter and James
carrying the glad tidings OF the king
dom TO the cities of Judea; of John
the Apostle preaching a thousand
sermons with always the same text
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy
seif"--and then losing himself. on
Patmos in maze Of senile visions: of
Paul burning with ambition and en-
ergr. heap!ng his complicated theology
upon the helpless Christ. and preach
ing the resurrected God at Antioch and
Ephesus, at Athens and Corinth. and
tack upon the Eternal City which was
to result In the conversion of Rome to
Cnristianity. and OF Christianity TO
Rome Through his influence circum-
cision was no longer required OF
proselytes to the new faith; Christianity
ceased to be "a Jewish heresy," and be-
came a religion for all the world.
The poor and downtroddHn of the
land accepted 1t gladly, for 1t brought
them the hope of an earthly triumph
vita the early return of Christ. and OF
an everlasting triumph In heaven as a
reward for their faith and charity here.
The Greeks had held that slaves had no
souls. and they had closed the temples
TO them; but this marvellous religion
Offered to all men a spiritual-and in
near prospect uaterial-equality. and
attributed To the lowiiest OF the low
soul ax precious and immortal as that
OF the lordliest emperor. Some were
converted less by hope than by fear:
the stern Christians announced. with
q - <nf sIf ra nt f-Hn
that those who refused the gospel would
burn forever In hell. and be gnawed by
tngatiabled worms: 10 men OF certain
wisdom, until the prosecutions came. 1t
seemed safer 10 believe. 1t was the
doctrine OF another life, In which the
cruel rich would be punished and the
faithful poor would be rewarded with
every happiness. that won an enslaved
and weary world 10 the name OF Christ.
Rome fell before the successors OF
the apostles because II had never pos
sessed real religion. a system OF cos
mic belief sanctioning morals and IN
spring hope Until Caesar came the
people OF Rome and Italy had been con-
tent with an Intellectual mythology that
aped the pantheon OF the Greeks. per
Sonifying every function and every
force and paraileling the Hellenic del
ties god for god Zeus was here Jupiter,
Hera was Juno. Athcne was Minerva,
Hermes was Mercury. HephaiSt0s was
Vulcan, Uemeter was Ceres, Aphrodite
MAS Venus and Ares was Mars There
WAS no moral aspect or value In this
religion except as II shared In the pre-
vaiiing worship VI the ancestral dead.
II man periodically paid the tribute
Of prayer and ritual 20 tnese gods and
10 the household genii who hovefed
over him In daily guardianship IL wan
enough. No eternal heaven Of blias
would reward him for terrestrial virtue,
nor any he'll punish him hereafter for
injustice here. All men would descend
after death, into the bowels OF the earth
/ and live there In darkness Indefinitely
but this fadeA would not be place 0f
punishment, good and bad alike wouId
find there their eternal fate. II WAR
religion of thousand gods and not
a single saint
by The time of Lncreiins this system