any of Christians has been gathering
from all directions to their place of worship; for it is the hour of
their stated assembly. The place of meeting itself does not rise very
clearly before our view. But at all events it is no gorgeous temple
like those by which it is surrounded; it has not even the pretensions
of the neighboring synagogue. It may be a large room in a private
house or the wareroom of some Christian merchant cleared for the
occasion.

132. Glance round the benches and look at the faces. You at once
discern one marked distinction among them: some have the peculiar
facial contour of the Jew, while the rest are Gentiles of various
nationalities; and the latter are the majority. But look closer still
and you notice another distinction: some wear the ring which denotes
that they are free, while others are slaves; and the latter
preponderate. Here and there among the Gentile members there is one
with the regular features of the born Greek, perhaps shaded with the
pale thoughtfulness of the philosopher or distinguished with the
self-confidence of wealth; but not many great, not many mighty, not
many noble are there; the majority belong to what in this pretentious
city would be reckoned the foolish, the weak, the base and despised
things of this world; they are slaves, whose ancestors did not breathe
the pellucid air of Greece but roamed in savage hordes on the banks of
the Danube or the Don.

133. But observe one thing besides on all the faces present--the
terrible traces of their past life. In a modern Christian congregation
one sees in the faces on every hand that peculiar cast of feature which
Christian nurture, inherited through many centuries, has produced; and
it is only here and there that a face may be seen in the lines of which
is written the tale of debauchery or crime. But in this Corinthian
congregation these awful hieroglyphics are everywhere. "Know ye not,"
Paul writes to them, "that the unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom
of God. And such were some of you." Look at that tall, sallow-faced
Greek: he has wallowed in the mire of Circe's swine-pens. Look at that
low-browed Scythian slave: he has been a pickpocket and a jail-bird.
Look at that thin-nosed, sharp-eyed Jew: he