{ 126} 19. What special crimes were charged to the Christians in the reign of Diocletian?
20. What can you say of the zeal of the Christians? (Note 4 and 5).
21. What effect did these persecutions have on the church?
22. What event put a stop to the pagan persecutions?
23. Relate the circumstances which led to Constantine becoming emperor of Rome.
24. What effect did his accession to the throne have upon the Christian church?
25. By what circumstance is Constantine said to have been converted to the Christian religion?
26. What evidences exist against the probability of this story?
27. What good service did the father of Constantine do the Christians in the Diocletian persecution?
28. What are the several motives assigned for Constantine's friendliness to the Christian church?
29. What can you say of the emperor's treatment of the Christians?
30. What considerations very likely influenced converts when Constantine extended his patronage to the church?
31. What was the character of Constantine?
1. The Accusations of the Pagans.--The simplicity of the Christian religion was made a reproach to the church of Christ by the pagan priests. The saints were accused of atheism, an accusation which found support in the fact that the primitive church had no temples, no incense, no sacrifice, no incantations, pomp or ceremony in its worship. "The Christians have no temples, therefore they have no gods," was an argument sufficiently convincing to the heathen. It was but natural, perhaps, that the Christians should seek to cast off this reproach; but the desire to do so led to the introduction of many ceremonies quite at variance with the religion of Jesus Christ, and eventually subverted it altogether.
2. Outward Ordinances of the Christian Religion.--The outward ordinances of the gospel consisted of baptism, the laying on of hands for the imparting of the Holy Ghost, and the Lord's Supper. The laying on of hands was also employed in ordaining men to the Priesthood and in administering to the sick. In the latter case it was accompanied by anointing with oil.
3. While it does not appear that there was any specific law commanding or regulating fasts, the ancient saints occasionally joined abstinence from their food with their prayers, and especially when engaged in great undertakings. But the frequency of his fasts and the time of their continuance were left to each man's judgment.