CHAPTER III.

THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS IN THE FAMILY.

§1. THEIR MARRIAGE RELATIONS.

THE primitive Christians observed with great care the rule of the apostle forbidding unequal marriages with unbelievers. Tertullian declares such marriages to be an offence inconsistent with the Christian profession, the punishment of which should be excommunication. Cyprian, Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome are almost equally severe against such marriages. They were also frequently the subject of censure by councils, under different penalties of suspension or excommunication.

But the marriage relation between believers was honoured as the means of mutual edification and happiness. "How intimate," exclaims Tertullian, "the union between believers! their hopes, their aspirations, their desires, all the same. They are one in faith and in the service of their Lord, as they are also in flesh and in heart. In mutual concord they read the Scriptures, and fast and pray together, aiding, sustaining each other by mutual instruction and encouragement. They go in company to the house of the Lord, they sit together at his table. In persecution and in want they bear their mutual burdens, and participate in each other's joys. They live together in mutual confidence and in the enjoyment of each other's society. In the freedom of mutual confidence, they administer to the sick, relieve the needy, distribute their alms, and each freely engages in all his religious duties without concealment from the other. Unitedly they offer their prayers to God and sing his praise, knowing no rivalry but in these acts of devotion. In such scenes of domestic bliss Christ rejoices and adds his peace. To two so united he grants his presence; and where he is no evil can abide."

Such scenes of domestic enjoyment were the result only of Christian union and fellowship, unknown to pagan families; neither could such purity, peace, and joy be expected to result from the union of believers with unbelievers. "Who that is yet a pagan

would accompany his wife from street to street in search of the brethren in the house of strangers and in the humblest abodes of the poor? Who, without jealousy, could allow her to frequent the Lord's supper, a mystery to him unknown, and an object of suspicion? Who would allow her to enter secretly into the prison to kiss the martyr's chains? Or where would a brother from a foreign city, or a stranger find entertainment? If any thing is to be given in charity, the granary, store, and cellar of the house are closed."3 "What," he exclaims in the same connection, "what shall her husband sing to her, or she to her husband? Would she wish to hear any thing from the theatre or the tavern? What mention is there of God, what invocation of Christ? Where is the nourishment for faith by repeating portions of Scripture in conversation? Where the refreshment of the spirit; where the Divine blessing?"

§ 2. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN.

THE tender solicitude of these early Christians for the religious instruction of their children is one of their most beautiful characteristics. They taught them even at the earliest dawn of intelligence, the sacred names of God and the Saviour. They sought to lead the infant minds of their children up to God, by familiar narratives from Scripture, of Joseph, of young Samuel, of Josiah, and of the holy child Jesus. The history of the patriarchs and prophets, apostles and holy men, whose lives are narrated in the sacred volume, were the nursery tales with which they sought to form the tender minds of their children. As the mind of the child expanded, the parents made it their sacred duty and delightful task daily to exercise him in the recital of select passages of Scripture relating to the doctrines and duties of religion. The Bible was the entertainment of the fireside. It was the first, the last, the only school-book almost, of the child; and sacred psalmody the only song with which his infant cry was hushed as he was lulled to rest on his mother's arm. The sacred song, and the rude melody of its music, were, from the earliest periods of Christian antiquity, an important means of impressing the infant heart with sentiments of piety, and of imbuing the susceptible minds of the young with the knowledge and the faith of the Scripture. Even in the earliest period of Christianity, there were those who, like our divine Watts in modern times, "condescended to lay aside the scholar, the phi

losopher, and the wit, to write little poems of devotion adapted to the wants and capacities of children."

The Christian fathers abundantly insist on the duty of giving daily instructions in the family. "Speak of divine things not only in the social circle, but in the family—the husband with the wife— the father with his child; and very frequently renew the subject. Let no man affirm that the child needs not to be addressed on these topics; for they must be discoursed of, not only sometimes, but at all times." "You must immediately begin to bring up your children in the nurture of the Divine word." "Leave to your children God for their inheritance, and you leave them an inestimable treasure. Be it our effort and our desire, then, not to leave to them an inheritance, but to leave them in the possession of personal piety. Preach the name and doctrine of Christ on all occasions. Let every master of a family know that this solemn duty rests upon him in regard to all his house." Constantine the Great, though he appointed men of the most approved piety to be the teachers of his children, was himself their instructor in the knowledge of divine things, to lead them to immortal blessedness.3 Origen was first and chiefly taught by his father the knowledge of divine things, and made familiar with the sacred Scriptures, before he was permitted to give attention to profane literature; and, notwithstanding his vast attainments in every branch of knowledge, he ever continued to make the Scriptures his chief study. Even in his earliest childhood, he was required to commit to memory and to repeat some portion of the sacred Scriptures.*

The writings of the early Christians are filled with expressions of the deepest solicitude for the piety of their children. The mother of Augustine bewailed the early impiety of her son "with tears and sighs more bitter and abundant than those of a mother for the death of her child; for she looked upon him as already dead in spirit. But the Lord finally heard her prayer, and refused not her tears, for she gave herself wholly unto prayer." When bewailing his hardened impiety to a Christian friend, he said to her, "Go in peace; it is impossible that a child of so many tearsshould be lost."5

"Children," says Jerome, "are a trust committed to us of the Lord, and, therefore, to be trained up with the greatest care. The nearer they are allied to us in the flesh, the more impressive is our responsibility." Polycarp, the venerable disciple of John, earnestly exhorts parents to bring up their children in the know-

ledge and fear of God. These brief examples may indicate the pious care of these Christians for the religious education and the conversion of their children. Their great desire and constant endeavour was to train up their children in the fear of God, to conduct their education at home, to withdraw them as much as possible from temptation, and to make them so happy in their own quiet homes that they should neither desire the noisy amusements of the world nor subject themselves to its temptations. The children found their happiness in their parents, and the parents in their children. Such families were the nurseries of pure, consistent, efficient churches; such Christians were the lights of the world, which could not be hid; the salt of the earth, which never lost its

savour.

§ 3. THE DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES OF THE FAMILY.

THESE early Christians were examples of devout piety in their families. There, at the domestic altar, they fed the sacred flame of devotion, which burned in their bosom with a triumphant, deathless flame. There they formed and maintained the spirit of a pure, deep, and earnest piety. Every master of a family fulfilled, within the walls of his own house, the office of private pastor, keeping up in it a regular course of reading, prayer, and private instruction to all the members of his household. Thus, every private house was, in the words of Chrysostom, a church to itself.

The influence of pious mothers was also particularly remarkable over their children. Gregory of Nazianzen ascribed his conversion to the piety of his mother, Nonna. His brother Cæsarius, by the same means, was enabled to maintain an exemplary life of piety in the court of the emperor. Their sister Gorgonia also religiously walked in the steps of her mother, and was instrumental in the conversion of her husband and training her children and her nephews in the ways of piety. Theodoret ascribed his conversion, under God, to his pious mother; and Basil the Great, to his grandmother: Emmilia to his sister Macrina. Augustin and Chrysostom, also the greatest lights of the ancient church, were indebted to their pious mothers for those instructions that brought them to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

The several members of a Christian family were accustomed to rise very early in the morning and address their thoughts to God by silent ejaculations, by calling to mind familiar passages of Scrip

ture, and by secret prayer. Clement of Alexandria, A. D. 188, was accustomed, whenever he awoke, to call to mind the words of Christ; and often anticipated the dawning of the day in these devout exercises. "One must arise," says Basil the Great, "before the twilight of the morning, to greet with prayer the coming day." "Let the sun at his rising find us with the word of God in hand." "Let the day begin with prayer." "Soon as the day returns, and before leaving his chamber, the Christian should address his prayer to his Saviour; and, before résuming his daily labour, begin. the work of righteousness." "Let the child be accustomed, early in the morning, to offer prayer and praise to God: and at evening again, when the day is past and gone, let him end his labour by bringing his evening offering to the Lord."

After their private devotions, the family met for united prayer, which was uniformly accompanied with the reading of the Scriptures. The recital of such doctrinal and practical sentiments as might best fortify them against the prevailing scandals and heresies of the times, constituted also, as it would seem, part of their devotional exercises. In the family, as in all their devotions, the primitive Christians delighted to sing their sacred songs.

At the table they reverently sought the blessing of God. Several of these examples of prayer before meals are given at length in the fathers. Here also they rehearsed some portions of Scripture and sang praise to God; a custom which Clement of Alexandria. and Chrysostom earnestly recommend. The meal being ended, they concluded with prayer, giving thanks for the blessings received, and supplicating a continuance of the Divine mercy. "As the body requires daily sustenance," says Chrysostom, "so the soul needs to be refreshed with spiritual food, that it may be strengthened for its warfare against the flesh."

The day was closed by devotions, renewed in much the same. manner as in the morning. Such was the pious care with which these Christians ordered their households in the fear of the Lord. Chrysostom made it the first duty of the master of the house "to seek so to speak and so to act that the spiritual good of the whole household might be promoted; and of the mistress of the family, while she oversees her domestic affairs, especially to see that all act in the fear of God and with reference to the kingdom of heaven."5

There is extant a representation of one of these sacred scenes of domestic worship in the families of the primitive Christians; a