Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE FIRST AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.183their national god. But the Christians had nosuch justification in Roman eyes for their exclusiveworship. They were not a nation nor a provinceof the empire ; they had not, therefore, thattitle for their worship which constituted the charterof toleration to all besides, * including: JLJULvJi VA V^JL.LAC^ the UjLJ-V^ Jew \_>who worshipped the same God. For * the Chris-tians worshipped Him, not as their ancestral God,but as the Father of that Son who had takenhuman flesh, and become the Saviour of men.Their worship of the one true God was not onlyexclusive, but in and through the fact of theIncarnation claimed the homage of all men to it.It knew of no bond of brotherhood but in Himwho had deigned to call men His brethren. Thusits special character and preeminent glory were thecause of its persecution, and from the moment thatit came before the notice of the Roman governornot as a Jewish sect but as a distinct belief, it wasconsidered as not a lawful religion. Thus too itwas that the selfsame point which kindled Jewishhatred entailed Roman persecution. The Christianfaith was a mortal offence to the Jew becauseit extended what had been his special privileges to"all the Gentiles. He abhorred the substitution ofthe Person of the God-manfor the race of Abrahamafter the flesh ; as the Roman at once despisedand hated a worship which not only adheredto one God, but dethroned from his political supremacythe capitoline Jupiter, and whose title rested