ied_; that his impassible
essence _had felt pain and anguish_; that his omniscience was _not
exempt from ignorance_; and that _the source of life and immortality
expired on Mount Calvary_.

These alarming consequences were affirmed with unblushing simplicity by
Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea, and one of the luminaries of the
Church. The son of a learned grammarian, he was skilled in all the
sciences of Greece; eloquence, erudition, and philosophy, conspicuous in
the volumes of Apollinaris, were humbly devoted to the service of
religion.

The worthy friend of Athanasius, the worthy antagonist of Julian, he
bravely wrestled with the Arians and polytheists, _and though he
affected the rigor of geometrical demonstration_, his commentaries
revealed the literal and allegorical sense of the Scriptures.

_A mystery_, which had long floated in the looseness of popular belief,
was defined by his perverse diligence in a technical form, _and he first
proclaimed the memorable words, "One incarnate nature of
Christ._"[138:1]

This was about A. D. 362, he being Bishop of Laodicea, in Syria, at that
time.[138:2]

The recent zeal against the errors of Apollinaris reduced the Catholics
to a seeming agreement with the _double-nature_ of Cerinthus. But
instead of a temporary and occasional alliance, they established, and
Christians _still embrace_, the substantial, indissoluble, and
everlasting _union of a perfect God with a perfect man_, of the second
person of the Trinity with a reasonable soul and human flesh. In the
beginning of the _fifth century_, the unity of the two natures was the
prevailing doctrine of the church.[138:3] From that time, until a
comparatively recent period, the cry was: "_May those who divide
Christ[138:4] be divided with the sword; may they be hewn in pieces,
may they be burned alive!_" These were actually the words of a
_Christian_ synod.[139:1] Is it any wonder that after this came the
_dark ages_? How appropriate is the name which has been applied to the
centuries which followed! _Dark_ indeed they were. Now and then,
however, a ray of light was seen, which gave evidence of the coming
_morn_, whose glorious light we now enjoy. But what a grand light is yet
to come from the noon-day sun, which must shed its glorious rays over
the whole earth, ere it sets.

FOOTNOTES:

[111:1] Matthew, i. 18-25.

[111:2] The Luke narrator tells the story in a different manner. His
account is more like that recorde