AN AGE IN NEED OF MORAL WARRIORS.

In the roman society before the introduction of monasticism by St. Athanasius, a large majority were paupers, living on public charity. The rich, were relatively few, squandered princely incomes in a single night, and exhausted their imaginations devising new and expensive forms and sensuous pleasure. The profligacy of nobles surpassed credibility. The frivolity of the social and political leaders of Rome, the insane thirst for lust and luxury, the absence of seriousness in the face of frightful, impending ruin, almost justifies the epigram of silvianus, “Rome was laughable when she died.” Pagan mythology and pagan philosophy were powerless to resist this downward tendency. Although Christianity was the state religion, it was itself in great danger of yielding to the decay that prevailed. They were too deeply affected by christianity to abandon it, but too little to be christians. Pure religious enthusiasm waned, ideals received a new form, and the dependence and responsibility of individuals become weaker. Even ordinary courage had everywhere declined and the pleasures of the senses controlled the heart of christian society. Many of the men who should have resisted this gross secularization of the church, who ought to have set their faces against the departure of the earlier christianity; these men, the clergy of the christian church, had deserted their post of duty and surrendered to the prevailing worldliness. Those times shares similarities with our time. This age, like those times, needs men of vigorous spirit, who dared to face the general decline, and cry out in strong tones against it. It needs moral warriors, with the old Roman courage and love of sacrifice; martyrs willing to rot in prison or shed their blood in the street, not effeminate men, toying with fancy table-covers and tiptoeing across a sprinkled road.