i. Preparation of the Gentile world for Christ. — That Christ came into a world which God had slowly been preparing in the course of ages for His appearing was perceived by St. Paul and St. John, each from his own special point of view. St. Paul is thinking of Christ as the Redeemer from sin and its curse when he says that ' God sent forth his Son in the fulness of the time,' and again, that 'Christ died for the ungodly in due season' (Gal 4*, Ko 5^). St. John is thinking of Christ as the
Incarnate Word when lie says : ' There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man coming into the world' (I'* B.V ; cf. 6^^ tr. by Gwatkin : ' [The Bread] is ever coming down, and ever giving life unto the world'). This fascinat- ing subject also engaged the attention of many early Christian writers. Its interest has been heightened in our day by the fuller knowledge brought us by archaeological research and the study of comparative religion. Thus it is now more clearly seen that Christianity, as Pfleiderer said, came as ' the ripe fruit of ages of development in a soil that was already prepared' (Early Christian Conception of Christ, 1905, i>. 152).
(1) Philosophy. — The early Fathers often spoke of Greek philosophy as a TrpoTrapaaKevrj or TrpoTraideia for Christ. Plato, whose Timceus marks the trans- ition from the polytheism of early Greek ages to monotheistic belief, exercised a profound influence on religious thought and speculation during the two or three centuries preceding our Saviour's birth ; and his teaching was still a living force, although, when St. Paul visited Athens, 'its Acropolis was still as full of idols as it could hold ' (Ac 17'® [Gwatkin]). The Epicureans and Stoics who encountered the Apostle on that occasion (v,'^) represented the two chief Schools of the period ; and both Schools, the one by the gentle humanity of its teaching, the other by its moral earnestness, are justly regarded as having a place in the preparation for the Christian faith. The Stoic philosophy, with its watchwords 'Endure' and 'Refrain,' was that with which the Roman mind had most affinity ; and its great teacher Seneca (t A.D. 65) commended self-discipline and self-renunciation as the true healing of the dis- eases of the soul, with a passion approaching that of the Christian preacher (Dill, Roman Society, 298, 321 ; cf. Tertullian, de Anima, xx : 'Seneca sajpe noster : . . .').
(2) Religion. — 'The world,' says Dill, 'was in the throes of a religious revolution, and eagerly in quest of some fresh vision of the Divine' ; and he has traced in his great work the rise and progress of that 'moral and spiritual movement which was setting steadily, and wdth growing momentum, towards purer conceptions of God, of man's rela- tions to Him, and of the Life to come' [op. cit., pp. 82, 585). The old Roman religion, which from the Second Punic War had been falling into decay, was revived by Augustus as the formal religion of the State, but could not retard the progress of this movement. People sought satisfaction for their religious cravings and emotions in the rites and mj-steries of Eastern lands, which had little in common with old Roman religious sentiment ; especially in the worship of Mitlira, which, as recent investigation has shown, contained a moral element that made it a real help to a truer and purer life, till in the light of the higher and more effectual help to sanctification held out in Christ it too faded away and was forgotten.
(3) The Empire and socicd life. — The most signal illustration of the historical preparation of the Gentile world for Christ is seen in the vast extent and wonderful cohesion of the Roman Empire. Its political unity, though not of such a nature as to lead in any marked degree to the recognition of human brotherhood, yet materially helped the diffusion of the message of the Cross and the Resurrection which made men conscious of a new fellowship with each other. Communication be- tween the Imperial city and her officials at a dis- tance was easy and rapid : sandy wastes, trackless mountains, and broad rivers presenting no barriers which she had not been able to overcome. The subject peoples enjoyed under the Romans peace, prosperity, and freedom; and 'just and upright
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governors were the rule and not the exception ' (Dill, p. 3). The good treatment which St. Paul received from Roman officials has often been com- mented upon ; less frequently has it been noted that his missionary journeys were never impeded by militarj^ movements or interrupted by an out- break of hostilities in any part of the Empire.
As to the state of societj^ in Rome and the pro- vinces, attention has been so concentrated upon its darker side, that what there was in it of ' virtue and praise' (Ph 4^) has been unduly lost sight of. The lines of Arnold's well-known poem [Obcrmann Once More), in wluch he depicts the ennui, hardness, and impiety of the old Roman world (cf. Seneca, de Brcv. Vit. xvi. ' tarde ire horas queruntur . . . transilire diesvolunt'), are oftener quoted than those in which he also does justice to the sense of void and unslaked thirst which led it to the gospel whereby hope lived again. The intense indignation at cor- ruption and baseness that barbs the pen of a Juvenal or a Tacitus bears witness that in a con- sidei\able part of society a high standard of virtue still existed. Roman inscriptions, though they hold out no hope of a life beyond, testify to the aftectionate regard in which family life was held. Household slavery had its compensations : masters often treated their slaves as humble friends, and felt that they had a moral duty towards them apart from the legal conventions of Rome (for instances, see Dill, p. 181 f.). Many manumitted slaves rose to honourable positions in the service of the State [lb. p. 100). Still another kind of prejjaration for Christianity is found in the institution of the sodcditia or collegia, which were ' nurseries . . . of the gentle charities and brotherliness ' which ' the young Church ' was able to teach with greater effect and with more Divine sanctions (ib. p. 271). Enough has been said to indicate the moral re- sources that lay still undeveloped in Roman society, waiting to be changed into the spiritual wealth of the Kingdom of God (Is GO^- 'i RV).