Turning to literature, we find in Horace a gay epicureanism, which always says:  “Enjoy this life, for it will be soon over, and after death there is nothing left for us.”  Virgil tells us that those are happy who know the causes of things, and so escape the terrors of Acheron.  The serious Tacitus, a man always in earnest, a penetrating mind, is by Bunsen called “the last Roman prophet, but a prophet of death and judgment.  He saw that Rome hastened to ruin, and that Caesarism was an unmixed evil, but an evil not to be remedied."[308] He declares that the gods had to mingle in Roman affairs as protectors; they now appeared only for vengeance.[309] Tacitus in one passage speaks of human freedom as superior to fate,[310] but in another expresses his uncertainty on the whole question.[311] Equally uncertain was he concerning the future life, though inclined to believe that the soul is not extinguished with the body.[312]

But the tone of the sepulchral monuments of that period is not so hopeful.  Here are some which are quoted by Doellinger,[313] from Muratori and Fabretti:  “Reader, enjoy thy life; for, after death, there is neither laughter nor play, nor any kind of enjoyment.”  “Friend, I advise thee to mix a goblet of wine and drink, crowning thy head with flowers.  Earth and fire consume all that remains at death.”  “Pilgrim, stop and listen.  In Hades is no boat and no Charon; no Eacus and no Cerberus.  Once dead, we are all alike.”  Another says:  “Hold all a mockery, reader; nothing is our own.”

* * * * *

So ended the Roman religion; in superstition among the ignorant, in unbelief among the wise.  It was time that something should come to renew hope.  This was the gift which the Gospel brought to the Romans,—­hope for time, hope beyond time.  This was the prayer for the Romans of the Apostle Paul:  “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost."[314] A remarkable fact, that a Jewish writer should exhort Romans to hope and courage!

Sec. 5.  Relation of the Roman Religion to Christianity.

The idea of Rome is law, that of Christianity is love.  In Roman worship law took the form of iron rules; in Roman theology it appeared as a stern fate; in both as a slavery.  Christianity came as freedom, in a worship free from forms, in a view of God which left freedom to man.  Christianity came to the Roman world, not as a new theory, but as a new life.  As, during the early spring, the power of the returning sun penetrates the soil, silently touching the springs of life; so Christianity during two hundred years moved silently in the heart of Roman society, creating a new faith, hope, and love.  And as, at last, in the spring the grass shoots, the buds open, the leaves appear, the flowers bloom; so, at last, Christianity, long working in silence and shadow, suddenly became apparent, and showed that it had been transforming the whole tone and temper of Roman civilization.