understanding of the truth, and was fashioned into the fear of the Lord, through the mercy of the Lord Himself, he put his trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and asked of Jason that he might receive the mark of baptism.” Epiphanius is another celebrated Hebrew Christian of that epoch. He was born, according to Cave, of Jewish parents in the year A.D. 320 at Besanduse, a village of Palestine. Sozomen says that he was under the most excellent monks. It is certain that he was still a youth when he went to Egypt, and came in contact with the Gnostics, who had almost won him over to their party. He, however, withdrew in time and returned to Palestine, where he studied under Hilorion and Hysicus, the fathers of the monks of that country. He was attracted to the monastery by a certain monk, Lucius, who lived a holy life. Others say that one Cleobius converted him. E. himself became a monk, and founded a monastery in his own village, of which he was the prior. At that time monastic life was still in its virgin purity and free from the plague of later times. In 367 he was elected Bishop of Salamis, and afterwards he was called to Constantia or Fomaguste, the metropolis of Cyprus, where he acquired great reputation by his piety and writing. In 382 he was sent with imperial letters to Rome in order to assist in settling the claims of Paulinus to the see of Antioch. In 391 a contest between him and John, Bishop of Jerusalem, broke out. E. accused John of holding the errors of Origen, and ordained Paulinus, a brother of Jerome, deacon and priest in a monastery of Palestine which belonged to his jurisdiction. Both parties referred the dispute to Theophilus, of Alexandria. The latter favoured John, and persecuted Epiphanius' monks. E., on the other hand, called a council together in 401 at Cyprus, which excommunicated the other party, and wrote to St. Chrysostom to do the same. C. refused to do so, and Epiphanius came to Constantinople himself, and ventured to denounce publicly in the Church of the Apostles all the adherents of Origen. He would scarcely speak to Chrysostom, and was so exasperated that when the Empress Eudoxia asked him to pray for the young prince Theodosius, who was then dangerously ill, he replied that the prince would not die if she would avoid to hold conversations with the defenders of Origen. The empress was surprised at this presumptuous answer, and sent him word that if God should think proper to take away her son she would resignedly submit, but it was not in his power to raise the prince from the dead, as he had but lately suffered his archdeacon to die. In his farewell to Chrysostom he said, "I hope you will not die a bishop," who replied, "I hope you will never return to your own country." Both hopes or prophecies were realized. Another version from which the above probably took its rise is that he said to the accompanying bishops, when he was about to embark in a ship which was to take him home, "I leave to you this profligate city with its palace and theatre." He died at sea (430). I mention the above particulars in Epiphanius' life for the purpose of showing that, although he wielded a vast influence in the Church, whose zealous orthodox champion he was, yet he neglected to carry on the controversy with his own brethren according to the flesh. He had neither leisure nor a sufficiently charitable temper to qualify him to be a useful missionary to the Jews, whom he constantly stigmatized as heretics. This is perhaps his best apology, and may also vindicate other Hebrew Christian fathers of those ordeal trying days. Apart from his temper, Epiphanius was a good, sincerely pious, and learned man. Though Scaliger says that he knew nothing of Greek and Hebrew, yet he admits that "there is a treasure of antiquities in him;"" and Dupin, another adverse critic, admits that he possessed much erudition. Jerome called him a TevтáyλTOS-a man of five tongues-for he was versed in Hebrew, Syriac, Egyptian, Greek, and Latin. Mar Dedaile styles him a good and holy man, but little conversant in the arts of rhetoric and grammar, as appears from his writings. His works are (1) Пaváρiov or Kiẞáτwv, i. e. an apothecary containing medicines against all heresies—a refutation of Paganism, Manichæism, Sabbellianism, and Arianism. (2) Anchorat, or exposition of the faith. (3) A tract on weights and measures, and another on numbers of the Bible. (4) Tract on the twelve costly stones which were worn by the high priest. (5) Life of the Prophets. (6) A letter to John of Jerusalem. (7) A letter to Diodorus of Torsus, and nine Sermons. Some of his works are .still in high repute among scholars. Tradition says that his body was brought to Benevent, a town in Italy. Some German towns 9 See, in addition to above authorities, Bellarmin. His fête day was kept in claim to possess some relics of him. the Greek Church very early on the 12th of May, in the Latin Church only from the beginning of the 8th century. Hillel III., a descendant of Gamaliel, and son of Judah II.; according to others, the second, though living nominally under the pale of the synagogue, may also be classed among the celebrated Hebrew Christians of that period. He was one of the teachers of the Gemara, and prince of the captivity. He invented the cycle of ninety years, to reconcile the course of the sun with that of the moon by making seven intercalations, and changed the Jewish era, which used to be reckoned from the time of Alexander the Great's visit to Jerusalem, to the epoch of the Creation, which he fixed in A.D. 3760. It may have been done in order to refute the Christians in their arguments about the time of the coming of the Messiah, for the Jewish tradition was that 4000 years from the Creation must pass before the Messiah would come. He published a correct edition of the Hebrew text of the Bible, which bore his name, and remained until the 16th century. He also translated the Gospel of St. John, St. Matthew, and the Acts of the Apostles; and probably while engaged in this work he became convinced of the truth of Christianity. Origen knew him, and Epiphanius says that he embraced Christianity before his death (Hæres. c. 30). The report runs as follows:-"Eusebeius, of Verceil, went to see Joseph, of Scythopolis, who told him that Hillel, on his deathbed, sent for Cuteo, the Bishop of Tiberias, on the pretext that he wanted medicine from him. When the bishop came, the servants were sent out, and he baptized him in the year A.D. 310. Hillel left a sum of money for distribution among poor priests. A witness of this baptism was Joseph, one of Hillel's friends or physicians, who also, after many inward struggles, became a Christian, and received an appointment as tutor in the court of Constantine, where he exercised his influence mainly for building of churches, and for the general improvement of the condition of the people in Palestine. Joseph was made Count of Tiberias, where he built a Christian church on the site of a heathen temple. While rejecting the fabulous story quoted by Milman, "that the Jews enchanted the lime which was to be used for mortar, and it would not burn until he dispelled the enchantment by making the sign of the cross upon holy water," and rejecting also the assertion of a French writer, that he healed demoniacs with miraculous power, we may accept the report for certain that he was a holy man, and had much to contend with his unbelieving brethren. He was persecuted by them, scourged, thrown into the river Cydnus in Cilicia, from which he was rescued by Christians. He was a great opponent of the Arian heresy, and gave refuge to Eusebius, of Verceil, when an exile in Scythopolis. He first found and published the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, written by the Apostle's own hand. Another distinguished Hebrew Christian, by name of Joseph, was a physician to Bishop Basilius the Great. When his patron was dangerously ill, Joseph, finding that he could do no more for him to save his life, was so affected that he shed tears. But the bishop comforted him, and assured him that Jesus the Messiah can send a remedy when physicians give up all hope. And so it was; shortly after he recovered. This steadfast and simple faith made such an impression upon Joseph, that he and his family embraced the religion of the Gospel (see Dr. Kalkar's History of Missions, and in reference to Hillel in addition to the above authorities, Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, and Basnage's History of the Jews, p. 654, Rotterdam Ed., 1706). I cannot conclude these short biographical sketches without remarking that the Hebrew Christians of the patristic period were burning and shining lights, and though that period cannot be characterized by very loud controversy with the Jews, it is far better to win followers to Christ by following His example (Isa. xlii. 2), than by using the noisy and violent method of the succeeding age, of which, however, I shall give a sketch next time. (To be continued.) 1 Milman's Hist. of the Jews, vol. iii. c. 30. SOME FACTS AND FICTIONS RESPECTING THE SULTANS. THE following extract from a work' which has been published upwards of a quarter of a century, and has now been out of print for upwards of a score of years, may not prove uninteresting to our readers at this present time. "We are no more disgusted with such blasphemous assumptions on the part of haughty sultans, as the following: "King of kings, and lord of lords, ruler of the East and West, and of all parts of the world, prince of the holy and chaste city of Jerusalem, shining with the brightness of God, thrice happy lord of the refulgent Mecca, tamer of infidels, and scourger of the unbelieving race of Christian vassals, lord of the White and Black Seas, the most mighty and invincible Sultan, who has the power from God to rule all people with a bridle, and to break open the gates and bars of all cities and strong places, into whose almighty hands are delivered all the ends of the world-none excepted.' Abdoul Megid is quite satisfied to style himself 'ruler of the White and Black Seas' alone. He does not attempt either to tame or scourge the infidel and unbelieving race of Christians; and is, moreover, in daily apprehension of a sound flogging from that bear of a Christian, Nicolas; and if it were not for infidel France and the unbelieving race of English Christians, the poor Sultan would be a great deal tamer even than he is at present. All sorts of churches are multiplied. Islamism may be renounced with impunity, and Christians even admitted into mosques. There is one thing only wanting, according to Mohammedan creed, to the final downfall and annihilation of the Moslem faith in the Ottoman empire. It is the introduction of bells into the mosques, of which there was some talk; the present Sultan being so anxious to introduce all the European customs and manners, that he actually made the preposterous proposition, a Mullah declared, of calling down upon his empire the perdition which was once the lot of the Grecian empire, and all through bells, according to a prophecy, which is the following: "The time shall come when earthquakes shall confound, 3 "A Pilgrimage to the Land of my Fathers," vol. ii. pp. 111-116. |