Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/339

 *portant to the history of the propagation of the gospel, nor why John could have lived so long at Ephesus, and yet have effected so little, that when Paul came to the same place, the very name of Christ was new there. But such stories are not worth refuting, standing as they do, self-convicted falsehoods. Others however, are more reasonable, and date this journey in the year of the destruction of Jerusalem, supposing that Ephesus was the first place of refuge to which the apostle went. But this conjecture is totally destitute of all ancient authority, and is inconsistent with the very reasonable supposition adopted above,—that he, in the flight from Jerusalem, first journeyed eastward, following the general current of the fugitives, towards the Euphrates. Where there is such a total want of all data, any fixed decision is out of the question; but it is very reasonable to suppose that John's final departure from the east did not take place till some years after this date; probably not until the reign of Domitian. (A. D. 81 or 82.) He had lived in Babylon therefore, till he had seen most of his brethren and friends pass away from his eyes. The venerable Peter had sunk into the grave, and had been followed by the rest of the apostolic band, until the youngest apostle, now grown old, found himself standing alone in the midst of a new generation, like one of the solitary columns of desolate Babylon, among the low dwelling places of its refugee inhabitants. But among the hourly crumbling heaps of that ruined city, and the fast-darkening regions of that half-savage dominion, there was each year less and less around him, on which his precious labor could be advantageously expended. Christianity never seizes readily on the energies of a broken or degenerating people, nor does it flourish where the influences of civilization are losing their hold. Its exalted and exalting genius rather takes the spirits that are already on the wing for an upward course, and rises with them, giving new energy to the ascending movement. It may exert its elevating influence too, on the yet wild spirit of the uncivilized, and give, in the new conceptions of a pure faith and a high destiny, the first impulse to the advance of man towards refinement, in knowledge, and art, and freedom; but its very existence among them is dependent on this forward and upward movement,—and the beginning of its mortal decay dates from the cessation of the developments of the intellectual and physical resources of the race on which it operates. Among the subjects of the Parthian empire, this downward movement was already fully decided; and they were fast losing