The great commission

Front matter

THE

GREAT COMMISSION:

OR,

Preface

If the writer may be allowed to engage the attention of his readers for a moment before they enter on the perusal of the following pages, his only aim in so doing will be to facilitate that perusal.

Of course, his first object in preparing this Essay has been to comply with the requirements of the advertisement, which has, indirectly at least, occasioned its existence. His compliance with these, however, has not prevented him from aiming at a point higher still ; rather, it has formed the proper and natural ascent to it. That aim, he trusts, has imprinted its character, more or less visibly, on every portion of his work. He would briefly describe it as threefold — and endeavor to show that the church of Christ is aggressive and missionary in its very constitution and design : its "field is the world;" that it is to look on the whole of this field as one ; not regarding the claims of any particular portion as inimical to the interests of any other ; but viewing the divine command which obliges it to seek the salvation of any one individual, or the evangelization of any one country, as binding it to attempt the recovery of the whole world ; but that, in order to the accomplishment of this high design, more is necessary than mere ac-

8 PREFACE.

tivity; that the entire consecration of all its resources is, for obvious reasons, made indispensable to success.

With this view, he has attempted to fill up the following outline. In the First Part, consisting of three chapters, his object has been to state and explain the Scrigture theory of Christian instrumentality; to show, by a general examination of the Word of God, that this theory is there prescribed and made imperative ; and that the same divine authority predicts and promises its triumph in the conversion of the world. Thus, if the first chapter states the plan by which all the holy influences of the past should have been collected, multiplied, and combined, the Second exhibits and enforces the obligation of the present to that entire consecration which the plan supposes ; and the Third engages that such consecration shall certainly issue in the future and universal erection of the kingdom of Christ. Having thus, in the First Part, viewed the Missionary Enterprise, generally, in its relations to the Word of God, the writer has proceeded, in the Second Part, to exhibit the benefits arising from Christian Missions, with the view of still further illustrating and enforcing their claims. This he has done in four chapters ; the first of which contains an historical sketch of the diffusion of Christianity, and of the rise and progress of Modern Missions, with a statistical summary of their present state ; * the Second enumerates

* Perhaps the reader, unacquainted with the fact, ought to be informed that the " Evidence on the Aborigines," which is frequently appealed to in this part of the work, was given before a committee of the House of Commons, by the secretaries of the Church Missionary Society, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and London Missionary Society, and by other competent witnesses.

PREFACE. 9

the leading temporal and spiritual benefits accruing to the heathen from Missionary operations; the Third describes their reflex advantages, temporal and spiritual; and the Fourth shows that the History and Effects of the Missionary Enterprise illustrate every view of the theory of Christian influence contained in the First Part, and supply a powerful inducement to the increase of missionary zeal. The Third Part exhibits the various sources of encouragement — historical and political, moral, ecclesiastical, and evangelical — which urge and animate Christians to advance in their missionary career. In the Fourth Part, he has endeavored to show that every objection to their course becomes, when rightly considered, an argument to redouble their efforts. But the Fifth Part ascertains the existence of a great defect — of the want of that entireness of consecration to their missionary office which is indispensable to complete success, and points out the various requisites which such consecration includes, and would infallibly supply. "While the Sixth Part enforces the principal Motives which should induce their entire devotedness to the great objects of the Missionary Enterprise.

Such, indeed, is the surpassing grandeur of the object of Christian missions, as to render any thing like justice to its merits impossible. Yet the writer feels humbled that the present contribution should fall so far short, even of his own conception, of what such a work might and ought to be. He is proportionally delighted, therefore, that since it was submitted for competent adjudication, so many able works on missions should have issued from the press as

10 PREFACE.

to render specification difficult ; and especially that, besides having for its precursor the very seasonable and powerful production of the Rev. Dr. John Campbell, it should be accompanied, or speedily followed, by the publications of his well-known, able, and beloved friend, the Rev. R. W. Hamilton, of Leeds ; and of the Rev. John M'Farlane.

Evident as it is that a crisis in the Missionary Enterprise approaches — a crisis created partly by its successes abroad, and by its reflex operation in calling into existence other societies at home, which divide with it the contributions of the faithful — his earnest prayer to God is, that this Essay, in connection with those of his Christian brethren referred to, may be among the means employed to convert that crisis into a blessing — the commencement of a new era of missionary prosperity.

Cheshunt College, Feb. 12, 1842.

Contents

PAGE.

Part I

THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE VIEWED GENERALLY IN ITS RELATION TO THE WORD OF GOD.

Chapter I

THE SCRIPTURE THEORY OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD STATED AND EXPLAINED.

I. Mutual dependence and influence the law of the universe. II. Its perversion by sin. III. Its restoration by Christ. IV. The plan of its operation in the Christian church for the recovery of the world. 1. How it begins with the individual convert — 2. Proceeds through him to the formation of a particular church — 3. Leads to the formation of other churches, and unites the whole in one body — 4. The Spirit preceding and pervading it to give it effect

V. In this organization, every thing becomes an element of influence, congenial with the cross, and subordinate to it.

Knowledge — Speech — Relationships — Property — Self-denial — Compassion — Perseverance in Christian activity — Prayer— -Union 37—74

Chapter II

THIS THEORY ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED FROM THE PRECEPTS AND EXAMPLES OF THE WORD OF GOD.

1. From the paternal character of the antediluvian economy — 2. The migratory character of the Abrahamic — 3. The national and stationary character of the Mosaic — 4. The life and character of Christ — 5. The agency of the Holy Spirit — 6. The commands of Christ, direct or implied — 7. The first missionary — 8. The first missionary church — 9. The tenor of the epistles — 10. Forms part of a universal plan, which includes the agency of angels — 11. And which devolves and accumulates all the moral influences of the church from age to age 75-114

Chapter III. Illustrated And Enforced From Prophecy

1. Does prophecy afford any glimpses of the ultimate results of such instrumentality? — 2. Will the final triumph of Christianity be in any way indebted to such agency? — 3. Circumstances which now render this inquiry peculiarly important — 4. Millenarianism (as popularly understood) unfriendly to missionary activity.

I. Millenarian doctrine at variance with some of the leading principles of divine

truth — 1. With the fact that divine commands imply the promise of aid and success — 2. With the sincerity of the divine character — 3. With the divine benignity — 4. With the ordinary and wise reserve of Scripture — 5. And is derogatory to the dispensation of the Spirit. ,

II. Not warranted by prophecy. III. The enlargement of the church resulting

from Christian activity. IV. This view corroborated by every part of the Word of God by which its correctness can be fairly tested. V. The whole harmonized with the foregoing parts, and applied 114—147

Chapter I. The History Of Christian Missions

I. The state of the church has varied in proportion as it has heen faithful or otherwise to its missionary design. II. Progress of Christianity through the successive ages of the Christian era — 1. Sixteenth century, or reformation within the church — 2. Seventeenth century, or period of missionary preparation and promise — 3. Eighteenth century, or period of missionary association — 4. Nineteenth century, or period of missionary enterprise.

Ill Events which may be regarded as dividing the brief history of modern missions into epochs. IV. Statistical summary 148 — 162

Section I. Temporal Benefits

What it has done in this respect for the various nations of Christendom — 1. Some islands owe their discovery to it — 2. Wandering tribes localized — 3. Taught useful arts and trades — 4. Languages reduced to a written form — 5. Education given — 6. Laws and government instituted — 7. Morality promoted — 8. Checked depopulation and prevented extinction — 9. Mediated between hostile tribes, and prevented sanguinary conflicts — 10. Retrieved their slandered mental character — 11. Protected the oppressed, liberated the enslaved — 12. Various evils blotted out — 13. Elevating effect on the character and social rank of woman j general views of temporal benefits j benefits unascertained greater still r . 162—183

Section II. Religious Benefits

1. Abolished idolatry— 2. Imparted Christian instruction — 3. Alleviated moral miseries — 4. Instrumentally converted and saved many — 5. Bibles; ordinances; churches — 6. Accessions to the church above 184—190

Chapter III. The Reflex Benefits Of Christian Missions

SECTION I.

TEMPORAL ADVANTAGES.

These afford a fine illustration of the remunerative influence of benevolence — 1. Rendered great service to literature and science — 2. Corrected and enlarged our views of the character and condition of man — 3. Vindicated our own character in the eyes of the heathen — 4. Preserved European life — 5. Benefited our commerce — 6. And shipping 191 — 199

SECTION II.

RELIGIOUS BENEFITS.

Broke up the prevailing monotony of the religious community — 2. Enlivened the piety of Christians, and increased their happiness — 3. Produced denominational emulation among them — 4. Led to the formation of other institutions — 5. Taught us that the cause of religion, abroad and at home, is one — 6. Greatly enlarged our Christian views — 7. Promoted sympathetic union of Christians — 8. Increased pecuniary liberality — 9. Awakened and cherished a spirit of prayer — 10. Produced noble specimens of Christian character — 11. Shown us the practicability of the missionary enterprise, and impressed us with our individual obligation to espouse it — 12. Disarmed infidelity of its principal weapon — 13. Promoted biblical study — increased the evidences of Christianity—and deepened our confidence in the divinity of its character and the certainty of its triumphs — 14. Been the means of converting many of our countrymen abroad and at home — 15. And, in various ways, eminently glorified God » 200—221

Chapter IV

ARGUMENT DERIVED FROM THE EENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS FOR THE INCREASED ACTIVITY OF THE CHURCH.

I. Our missionary success fully proportioned to our efforts. II. Advantages have flowed from them which nothing else could have conferred. III. The history of modern missions illustrates every part of the theory of Christian, influence. IV. Supplies a powerful motive to the increase of our missionary zeal. 221— 235

Part III. Encouragements Of Christians To Prosecute The Missionary Enterprise

I. Encouragement from the history of Christianity. U. Encouragement from the political aspect of the world. III. Encouragement from the moral state of the world. IV. Encouragement from the state of the Protestant churches. V. Encouragement from the word of God.

Connection with the preceding parts, and application of the whole ..... 236 — 271

Part IV. Objections To The Missionary Enterprise

I. The missionary enterprise unnecessary — the heathen safe. II. The missionary enterprise impracticable. III. Civilization should precede Christianity. IV. We have " heathen enough at home." V. We have not the necessary funds. VI. Of no avail, till Christians are united. VII. Of no avail, till the "personal reign" of Christ. VIII. The time is not yet come — "must not take God's work out of his hands," &c. &c.

Reflections 272—301

Part V

THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, AS A MISSION- ARY SOCIETY, EXAMINED.

Found to consist, generally, in the want of entire devotedness to its office — 1. More particularly in deep humility — 2. In the due appreciation of the spiritual nature of its office — 3. A clear conception and vivid conviction of the missionary constitution of the Christian church— 4. Missionary information should be more widely circulated, and more seriously pondered — 5. A greater depth of personal piety — 6. Holy wisdom to mark and improve the movements of Providence — 7. Greater devotedness to the missionary object among ministers at home — 8. Christian union — 9. Greater pecuniary liberality — 10. Missionary laymen — 11. Energy and zeal — 12. Prayer

The whole applied to the enforcement of entire consecration 302 — 347

Part VI. Motives To Enforce Entire Devotedness To The Missionary Enterprise

1. To retrieve, if possible, the evil effects of past neglect — 2. As the only alternative of partial hostility against Christ, at present — 3. The state of the heathen requires it — 4. The remarkable manner in which Providence is calling for it — 5. Some have thus devoted themselves — 6. It is only a devoted church that is prepared to turn the characteristics of the age, change and transition, to a scriptural account — 7. We are likely to impart our character to the future — 8. Nothing done for Christ is lost — 9. All things belong to him — 10. The claim of redemption — 11. The relative object of redemption — 12. It would complete the honor of the gospel — 13 Our regard for the glory of God requires it — 14. And it would be the completion of human happiness.

Conclusion 348—393

Introduction

It is mentioned by Andrew Fuller, that he had thought of preparing a new system of theology, in which the atonement of Christ should be made the central truth, and all the other doctrines of religion be interwoven into the treatise in their relations to the great fact of man's redemption. Blending as his mind did such clearness and such force, we might have well expected that any work it should have produced upon this plan would have been of great value. It is one of the excellences which distinguish the present essay on Missions, that its eloquent author has commenced the discussion of his theme at this same point ; viewed our world, as the field of missionary toil, through the atmosphere of Gethsemane and Calvary ; and labored, as the apostles in their day also did, to set before the church " the love of Christ," not only as the motive of effort, but as the model of all our plans and sacrifices. A more unreserved surrender by Christians of their faculties, their substance, and their influence, into the hands of Him who bought them with his own blood, — a life of closer communion with our Lord, and of more entire conformity to his image, — is the great deficiency of the church, in our times. Were it attained, a thousand errors would disappear, without further controversy ; the efforts of the church would be at once infinitely augmented, even without the addition of one convert to the ranks of her present laborers ; and her power over the world would become alike incalculable and irresistible.

The writer of these remarks would not assume to himself the task, to which he feels himself so unequal, of discussing afresh any of the topics so ably handled in the present work, to which he has consented, at the request of the American publishers, to furnish an Introduction. But it will be observed by an attentive reader, that there are questions regarding the missionary enterprise, which the author did not consider as falling within the limits of the plan he had prescribed for himself, symmetrical and comprehensive as that plan is. To some of these he alludes, as " questions of surpassing interest," and as being topics " which are likely, at no distant time, to force themselves on our attention in a mariner for which previous consideration, and devout inquiry of God, can alone prepare us." * He speaks of them as clothed " with growing interest ; " and although, from various causes, it might be inexpedient that the work he has so ably prepared should enter formally into the examination of these topics, they are some of them practical questions, which are each day pressing themselves with added momentum and greater weight on the attention of the churches. The past history of the Christian church may aid us in part to obtain the solution of some of these problems ; for the annals of the world and the church are but the book of " Providence teaching by examples." And if, with regard to others, a satisfactory decision seems more remote, yet there are contingencies, in which even conjectures may not be without their value.

When Napoleon, with his staff, was crossing an arm of the Red Sea, and the waters were found to be rising, while the shades of night were gathering around them, and the French general saw himself menaced with the fate of Pharaoh, he displayed his preeminent sagacity by the orders which he gave. Checking his own horse, and remaining stationary, he ordered each of his attendants to ride onward to the several points in that circle of which he was the centre. He who found the water becoming shoal, was to call on all the rest to turn and follow him. Yet it is sufficiently evident, that in thus effecting an escape to the shore, all were instrumental, — they who found themselves swimming, in the deeper waters, as well as he who happened to turn his horse's head towards the land. In the discovery of the true and safe path in some moral enterprise, the process pursued by the investigator must often be an exhaustive one. He must consider and review all the possible forms that may be suggested, in order to acquaint himself with their relative merits and defects. And in carrying forward to its triumphant accomplishment the present missionary enterprise of the church, occasions will be found, when a calm estimate of all the doubts and difficulties which seem to hide the path of duty will be doubly beneficial. Such examination will call out the wisdom and exercise the prudence of the church ; and drive her also, under the deepening sense of her own ignorance and insufficiency, to that mercy-seat which she has never sought in vain.

And in tl^e discussion of such questions, the Christians of our own country have a peculiar and hereditary interest. America was long to the Christians of Europe the field of missionary effort. Columbus, its discoverer, was strongly actuated by the prophecies he was wont so intently to study, and by the hopes he cherished of extending here the kingdom of Christ. In the mind of his patron, the Queen of Spain, the conversion of the heathen to Christianity was an object " paramount to all the rest." * And Protestantism vied with Romanism in endeavors to establish on our shores Christian colonies. The brave and devout Coligny, while heading the Protestants of France, labored to plant the faith in either portion of our continent, in Brazil to the south, as in Florida to the north, although in each case in vain.

* Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. ii. 496.

The Puritan Fathers of New England were more successful, and the world is yet wondering at the rapid development each new generation is making of the influence those Christians exercised. Some of the strongest and noblest minds of Europe looked intently to our country as the scene of missions. Such were Cromwell, and Boyle, and Berkeley, in England. Such was Fenelon, one of whose youthful schemes it was, to become himself a missionary in Canada, then a French province.* Amongst ourselves, too, God raised up missionaries, at a time when the Protestants of Europe were comparatively inactive in this work. Our Eliot, our May hews, and our Brainerd, labored long and devoutly. The memoirs of the latter, especially, served to excite the zeal and to mould the character of William Carey and of Hemy Martyn, two of the most honored names among the modern missionaries of Great Britain. And in our OAvn times, the Great Head of the church has given to the Christians of this land, among those whose work is now ended, and those who yet toil in the mission field, some names not likely to be forgotten as long as the earthly church has a history and a being. As the children of a soil which the Christians of Europe thus sought to evangelize ; as the descendants of those who labored when the Protestants of the Old World were comparatively inefficient ; as the compatriots of those who have left their bones in Asia, in Africa, and in the islands of the sea, taking possession thus for Christ and his church of the countries of the heathen, — American Christians have an undeniable interest in the examination of every scheme and every question that bear directly or indirectly on the great duty of evangelizing the world. They are thus repaying the debt they owe to the Christians of other nations ; asserting anew the principles of their forefathers long since gathered to their rest, and guarding also the memory of their brethren who have more recently fallen in the missionary field. In the discussion, too, of some of these questions, the Christians of this country have stores of experience that are peculiarly their own, and that are not equally accessible to their fellow-Christians in Europe. We need but name the power of the voluntary principle, as seen amongst us in the support of religion and its institutions ; and the exemption of our churches alike from the oppressions of the state, as dissenters, and from its patronage, as an establishment, — evils felt by our brethren in the foreign as well as in the home field.

1. A question of great moment, that has within the last few years perplexed the missionary bodies both of the Old and New World, is that of the mode in which funds may be secured, adequate to the support of the missions which the providence of God has cast upon them. And these missions need not only to be sustained, but the wants of the heathen and the commands of the gospel join with the invitations of Divine Providence to require that they should be widely extended. This was a difficulty which the earlier friends of modern missions scarce anticipated as one that could by any possibility

* Bausset, Hist, de Fenelon.

occur. Such, at least, was the sentiment of Fuller. In a letter of advice to a friend, who had commenced a society for the evangeliza ■ tion of Ireland, he recurs to his own experience in the work of propagating the gospel in India. " Be more anxious to do the work than to get money. If the work be done, and modestly and faithfully reported, money will come. We have never had occasion to ask for money, but once . . . The first contributions at your meeting were much beyond £13 2s. 6d., with which we commenced. Money was one of the least of our concerns ; we never doubted, that if, by the good hand of our God upon us, we could do the work, the friends of Christ would support us." * Yet, within a short time, we have seen schools disbanded, the cries of missionaries for assistants in their labor disregarded, and our Missionary Boards compelled, by the dread of bankruptcy at home, when the loud summons of Providence called them to enter upon the widening and whitening fields ripe for the harvest, to meet the call with the complaint, that an exhausted treasury left them no means for enlarging, scarce even of sustaining, their present endeavors. Various modes have indeed been attempted, and not without some measure of success, to remedy this distressing state of affairs. Among the most promising are, perhaps, the appeals made through Sabbath schools to the younger members of the church. The Wesleyans of England, and the London Missionary Society, have both received large and efficient aid from these sources.

Under the auspices of the latter body have been lately prepared a series of missionary works for the use of children. The method has the advantage of not only creating in the minds of the young habits of liberality likely to grow with their growth, but of also training up many to become themselves missionaries, dedicated with " the dew of their youth " upon them to the service of Christ among the far heathen. Amid all the worldliness of which the church must yet complain, it is yet a truth, equally gratifying and indisputable, that the standard of liberality in the Christians of the age is rising. Though, yet, far beneath the measure of the primitive disciples, it is certainly much in advance of what was seen but a few years since. Even the very deficiencies, of which the various evangelical bodies of our time complain, in the funds required for their missions, grow in part out of the rapid development and increase those missions have experienced. Some have proposed to keep down the expenditures of the church in the mission work, until a time of higher devotedness on the part of Christians shall have arrived. This course seems indefensible, whether we look to human nature or to Scripture. The souls of men are not likely to be stirred to support adequately a work, even in its present state, unless it gives signs of continued advancement. And continued advancement in the work of evangelization inevitably brings an increase of expenditure. Success is necessary to sympathy and support, and success itself involves growing liabilities and widening efforts. Such re-

Letter of Fuller to Ivimey, dated Kettering, April 22, 1814.

trenchment is, above all, indefensible, if we look to the Book we are commending to the heathen. Legible on the last — the outermost fold of Matthew's Gospel, where hangs the very seal of the minister's commission, stands the precept, " Go ye into all the world" Would the church obliterate or conceal that irksome commandment? In doing so, she must also erase the promise that accompanies it — " Lo, lam with you always, even unto the end of the world" She cannot abridge her task without renouncing her helper, and foregoing the promised presence of her Lord. Ruinous, indeed, would that economy be, which should bar out the Redeemer from his own church, as too exacting and expensive a guest. The church has abundant resources, and it needs but a higher grade of piety, and a juster sense of duty, to reach them. Systematic contributions on the part of all, of every age and of every condition, would give the funds needed, and funds so given would be abundantly blessed. Might not a literal return to the primitive rule of laying by on each Sabbath day, as God hath prospered us, largely swell the missionary revenues of the church ? Frequent and small gains, in their aggregate, always exceed large sums obtained at longer intervals. The poorest might give without inconvenience, in weekly payments, a sum which in its yearly amount they would never think of contributing. The sacredness of the Sabbath, and its softening and elevating associations, might tend also to make the richer Christian more liberal than he would be if solicited amid the cares and hardening influences of the week.

And, again, the principle of giving as God has prospered seems to imply a grateful acknowledgment thus to be made of mercies received since the past Sabbath, the rearing, week by week, of a new Ebenezer along the pathway of life. It is but too evident that feelings of thankfulness, like all other passive impressions, are easily effaced, and can only with difficulty be preserved in their original freshness. A deliverance received, an unexpected accession of property, the recovery from the verge of the grave of a beloved child, — are all blessings likely to be more justly appreciated and more liberally acknowledged, in the devout meditations of the Sabbath immediately succeeding the bestowment of the benefit, than when we come at the year's end to review them as they are seen faintly and afar through the mists of distance. Were the periods of Christian liberality thus made more frequent, on the part of the opulent especially, large sums, again, that now go to swell the capital of an estate, and as such are never to be touched by the hand of almsgiving, would be kept, where they belong, in the place of profits, gained by the blessing of Providence, and which it would be felt are to be liberally dispensed at the command of the Father in heaven who gave them. And we doubt not that the church is yet to witness the pouring of entire fortunes into her treasury, upon the return of that primitive spirit, which of old laid the price of houses and lands at the apostle's feet.

2. A question yet remaining in some obscurity, though the course of events has thrown increasing light upon it, is, that of the best form of missionary labor. The error once so prevalent, that civilization must precede conversion, is now weli nigh exploded. Once it seemed so certain a truth, that the acute mind of Warburton adduced it as a reason, why Protestant missions had been comparatively inefficient, that they had overlooked the absolute necessity of civilization to prepare the way for the gospel.* But, in the work of commending the word of God to a heathen people, what proportion of the labor should be given to schools, what to translations, and the care of the press, and what to preaching, seems a more difficult inquiry. Reason, Scripture, and experience, all seem to require that the living preacher should be the chief and foremost instrumentality upon which the church should rely ; while there are circumstances and seasons that may require the church to make large efforts and expenditures 'for the instruction of the young through schools, and to supply a nation of readers with Christian books ; as, in yet other situations, much attention may be justly given to the instruction of a nation, emerging from barbarism, in the use of the plough, and the shuttle, and the various arts that go to adorn and enrich the Christian home. But whatever may be urged in commendation of other modes of presenting the gospel, the preaching of the word has an honor that is put upon no other instrumentality ; in its having been the form of our Lord's own labors while on the earth, and in its selection by him, as the means which he commanded the church to employ, and which, in his promises, he specifically bound himself to bless. It was in its use that Christianity won its earliest and most glorious victories. Ere yet a single book of the New Testament had been written, it was by the use of preaching that the apostles had already, as their enemies alleged, < ; filled all Jerusalem with their doctrine." Philosophy had her lectures, given in the grove, or the garden, or the porch, to her select auditors, « fit and few," and given only for pay. She had never dreamed of bringing down the loftiest truths to an indiscriminate audience, and that without fee or reward. But by what the wise of this world deemed eminently " the foolishness of preaching" the new religion overturned their power and scattered their dreams. The church of the first century was not comparatively a church of writers, and hence the remains of primitive antiquity are scanty in amount, and often breathe a rude simplicity ; but, though the writings of the new sect were few, the devout and fearless preacher was every where, and hence it was that one of the Fathers spoke soon of the Christian church as being found every