CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF HISTORY..
(1) The Apostolic Church (A. D. 30-101). The visible Church consists of the organized be lievers in Christ and the followers of his life. In secular history the spiritual forces lie largely in the background, but in the life of the Church they have come out boldly into the foreground.
Christ immediately before his ascension com manded his disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they should be endued with power from on high. Without the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost there would have been no impulsive power in Christianity. The organization of the Church took place immediately after the remarkable scenes at Pentecost. Orders of ministers and lay mem bers were established for the preaching of the gos pel, the care of the needy, and the building up of the body of believers. The most simple arrange ments were made for government, as the believers were as yet but few and confined to a narrow ter ritory. The more elaborate polity was left for the future needs of the Church.
The practical life of the Christians was at once simple and beautiful. It was a type of all the es sential qualities which Christ had taught as re quisite for pure living and final salvation. Sim plicity of faith and intense brotherly love had their practical demonstration in the equal distribution of temporal possessions. The community of goods did not arise from a divine command, but was merely the natural effect of that broad charity which sprang from the love of Christ and the pos session of the Spirit. The real majesty of the early Church lay in its spontaneous quality. To crown all, there was a boundless fervor in com municating the gospel. The whole world seemed small. What the apostles had felt and known was now their sole passion. Both the apostle and the unlettered believer, each in his own best way, preached the new life in Christ, that all men might share its sacrifice here and its holy joy hereafter.
In the Acts of the Apostles we have the chief source of information concerning the fields of work of the different apostles. The Epistles of Paul and his associates supply missing links in that more formal history. To these may be added the somewhat vague statements of writers from the second century to the fourth, many of which rest on the oral traditions of the early Church.
Peter represented the Jewish type of Christi anity. He was slow to learn that Christianity was
designed for all men. He made an evangelistic tour through portions of Asia Minor. At the time of writing his first Epistle he was in Babylon, where there was a large Jewish population. He confined his labors principally to the East.
Paul towers far above all the apostles in the majesty of his character, the scope of his genius, the depth of his learning and the sublime quality of his labors. His call was to the Gentiles. He made three great missionary tours through Asia Minor and Southeastern Europe.
John represented the mediating element between Judaism and paganism. The scenes of his labor seem to have been, for the first twenty years after Pentecost, chiefly in Palestine; later in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates; then at Jerusalem, whence on the capture of that city by Titus he fled to Ephesus. His residence here was inter mitted by his exile to the island of Patmos. He died in Ephesus about A. D. 98, when about one hundred years old.
The labors of the other apostles were widely bestowed. James, the Elder, suffered martyrdom in Jerusalem about A.D. 44. James, our Lord's brother, preached in Jerusalem, and finally died there a martyr. It was believed that Philip labored in Phrygia; Simon ?.elutes, in Egypt and the neighboring African coast : Thomas, in India ; Andrew, in Scythia. Asia Minor, Thrace and Greece; Matthias, in Ethiopia ; Judas, called Leb bmus or Thaddeus, in Persia ; and Bartholomew, in Lycaonia, Armenia and India.
(2) The Patristic Church (A. D. When Christianity came forward with its strange claims upon the confidence of men there was but little in its exterior which could awaken sym pathy. The most despised land had produced it. Its Founder had suffered death on the shameful cross. Its first apostles were of humble origin, and, with the exception of Paul, not one had drunk at the classic fountains. That a new faith, with such multiform disadvantages, should vent ure upon such a hostile field, where the literature and traditions of many centuries held firm ground, seemed a hopeless task. But the heroism of the first preachers of Christianity was not disturbed by the number or strength of the enemy. The promise of their Founder was the basis of their faith. They wrought on and expected triumph over every foe.