SECOND CENTURY, The, Sylvester Hassell The last one of the Apostles has passed away from the shores of time, and the Apostolic Age proper has therefore ended.
We now descend from the Primitive Apostolic Church, with all its inspiration, signs and wonders, to what may be called the church uninspired, guided by fallible teachers, who in expounding the Scriptures referred back to Christ and the Apostles for their authority, and who expected conquest by the silent and invisible working of God’s Spirit within men more than by miracles apparent to the natural eye.
“The hand of God has drawn a line of demarcation between the century of miracles and the succeeding ages, to impress us more deeply with the supernatural origin of Christianity, and the incomparable value of the New Testament. Notwithstanding the striking difference, the church of the second century is a legitimate continuation of that of the primitive age. While far inferior in originality, energy, and freshness, it is distinguished for conscientious fidelity in preserving and propagating the sacred writings and traditions of the Apostles, and for untiring zeal in imitating their holy lives amidst the greatest difficulties and dangers.”—Schaff.”
As admitted by all standard historians, there is an impenetrable gulf between the close of the New Testament and the beginning of uninspired church history. The Joseph Henry Allen, recent lecturer on church history at Harvard University, remarks: “Any bridge across this wide gulf must be built, so to speak ‘in the air.’ We can erect our two towers, but the cables will not meet.” Such is the uniform and destructive testimony of learning and candor against all claims to a material succession from the Apostles made by the Catholic and similar communions. Thus does the God of history direct the minds of candid inquirers beyond all mere human authority to the apostolic writings of the New Testament.
“Church history severed from the New Testament and from the Christ whom that Testament presents.” says the learned, eloquent and forcible writer, Mr. Wm. R. Williams, of New York, “is a very dismal swamp, a mere morass and pestilent jungle, where trees obstruct on every side the vision and show no pathway, where the foot sinks and the miasma ascends and the snake lurks, where a man learns to plunge forward into passive credulity or to start back into sheer skepticism and despair. But, with the Bible in hand and the eye fixed on Christ, the Lawgiver and Sovereign of the kingdom and the Leader of the sacramental host, order springs out of the tangled mass of seeming confusion.”
The persecutions of the second century were unabated, and formed a continuous commentary on the Savior’s words; “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves;” “I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword.” No merely human religion could have stood such a fire as did the religion of Christ during the first three centuries. It not only suffered, but expanded and became more diffused among the nations, and went directly on towards victory over Judaism and heathenism, without physical force, but by the moral power, patience and perseverance of its votaries, and the omnipotent work of the Holy Spirit, thereby proving to the world the divinity and indestructibility of its nature. (Hassell) (See also article on PLINY)