The life and work of St. Paul

JUDAISM AXD HEATHENISM. 187
language no whit severer than that of Seneca, who speaks of Rome as a
cesspool of iniquity; 1 or than that of Juvenal, who pictures her as a filthy
sewer, into which have flowed the abominable dregs of every Achaean and
Syrian stream. 8 Crushed under the ignominies
despotism
inflicted on her by the
of madmen and monsters 3
; corrupted by the pollutions of the
stage, and hardened by the cruelties of the amphitheatre; swarming with
parasites, impostors, prisoners, and the vilest slaves; without any serious
religion; without any public education; terrorised by insolent soldiers and
paiiperised mobs, the world's capital presents at this period a picture un-
paralleled for shame and misery in the annals of the world. But, reduced as
it was to torpor under the night-mare of an absolutism which it neither could
nor would shake off, the Roman world had sought its solace in superstition,
in sensuality, or in Stoicism. The superstition mainly consisted in the
adoption of cunning systems of priestcraft, impassioned rituals, horrible
expiations borrowed from the degrading mythologies of Egypt or from the
sensual religions of Galatia and 4
Phrygia. So rife were these, and so
dangerous to morality and order, that long before this age the Senate had
vainly attempted the suppression of the rites offered to Sabazius, to Isis, and
5
to Serapis. The jingling of sistra, and the cracked voices of beardless Galli,
were familiar in every Roman town. 8 The sensuality was probably more
shameful, and more shameless, than has ever been heard of in
history. And
amid this seething corruption, it was the few alone who retained the virtue
and simplicity of the old family life and worship. The Stoicism in which the
greater and more suffering spirits of the epoch a Cremutius Cordus, a
Thrasea Paetus, an Helvidius Prisons, an Annaeus Cornutus, a Musonins
Rufus, a Barea Soranus found refuge, was noble and heroic, but hard and
unnatural. He who would estimate the reaction of man's nobler instincts
against the profligacy of Pagan life he who would judge to what heights the
Spirit of God can aid those who unconsciously seek Him, and to what depths
the powers of evil can degrade their willing votaries must bridge over the
gulf which separates a Petronius and an Appuleins from the sweetness
and dignity of " minds naturally Christian," like those of an Epictetus and an
Aurelius. He who would further estimate the priceless services which
Christianity can still render even to souls the most naturally exalted, must
once more compare the chill, the sadness, the painful tension, the haughty
1 Cf. Sail. Cat. xxxvii. 5, "Hi Eomam sicut in sentinam confluxerunt."
3 Juv. iii. 62 ; Tac. Ann. xv. 44.
8 Cf. Tac. Ann. ii. 85; iv. 55, 56 ; Suet. Tib. 35; Ov. Fast. ii. 497, teq,
4 Such were the taurobolies and kriobolies hideous blood baths.
' Valerius Maximus (I. iii. 3) relates that when the Senate had ordered the demolition
of a Serapeum at Home (A.U.C. 535), no workman could be induced to obey the order,
and the Consul had himself to burst open the door with an axe (see, too, Liv. TTTJT,
818 ; Cic. De Legg. ii. 8 ; Dion. Halic. ii. 20 ; Dion Cass. xL 47 ; Tert. Apol. 6 ; Adv.
Nat. L 10, quoted by Kenan, Lea Apdtrea, p. 316, and for Isis worship, AppuL Metam.
xi.). 6 Firmicius Maternus, in the days of Constantino, did not think it worth while to
refute Greek and Eoman mythology (De Errore Profanae Rtlig.), but only the rites of
Isis, Mithras, Cybele, &o.