tian writing, the letter to Diognetus, concerning Christians-but they do not live after the flesh. They tarry upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the existing laws, but by their lives they are placed above the laws. They love every one, and are persecuted by every one. If they are reviled they bless, if they are treated arrogantly they show respect. Though they do that which is right, they are punished as evil-doers, and rejoice in punishment as an assistance in life.' The martyrs, however, became, by means of their stedfastness, the most impressive preachers of Christianity, and their blood the seed of the Church.' (14) Boys and maidens,' says Lactantius, 'conquer their tormentors by their silence.' (15) And it also happened that some converted even their executioner. It was no fanaticism, but the bright reflection of that new life which they received from the Spirit of Christ, which enabled them to encounter death with quiet and peaceful sober-mindedness, without a thought, too, of obtaining glory from men ; for in the eyes of the world their confession of faith was a disgrace, and many died whose very names were known to God alone.

All these means contributed, and could not but contribute, to the success of Christianity, which certainly would not have conquered the world without them. But these means were the means of God and of His Spirit.

It was not so easy a matter, as it may perhaps appear to us, to conquer heathenism; for the heathen

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religion had so intertwined itself with the public social and intellectual life of the people, that it seemed impossible so to separate them as to uproot the one and to leave the other standing. He who was an enemy to the faith of his forefathers, seemed also to be an enemy of the state, and of culture in general. (16) National life was founded on religion, and had grown with it; the departments of religion and politics were indissolubly united. All national acts were at the same time religious acts; all public affairs partook of a religious character. Christians were regarded as the enemies of the state, and even patriotism seemed to demand enmity to Christianity, which was viewed as of all things most perilous to the nation. All the earlier apologists had to defend Christianity against these reproaches. And this was the case also with culture in general. Art and science, and all mental cultivation, had developed themselves in connection with religion. To seek to promote Christianity was to threaten the annihilation of the intellectual produce of ages. Christianity was looked upon as synonymous with barbarism. Its first apologists were repeatedly obliged to repel this imputation. (17) Even at the present time, we may obtain a lively impression of the state of affairs in those days. We have, for example, only to descend into the subterranen vaults or sepulchres in which the Christians met to celebrate their rites, and then to compare with them one of those charming Grecian temples in which the people offered their sacrifices, or one of those magnificent

amphitheatres in which they assembled at joyful spectacles, or perhaps even at the bloody conflicts of Christian martyrs with wild beasts, to perceive and feel how great a moral force was needed to gain the mastery over the mighty power of heathen religion. and heathen life.

And Christianity did gain the mastery; yet far from annihilating, it preserved, purified, received into itself, and united with its very being, the cultivation of the ancient world and transmitted it to posterity. After having taken possession of the Roman world, it laid the German world, which now began to occupy the stage of history, at the feet of Jesus; made its people the instruments of transmitting its doctrines to futurity, and developed in them a new intellectual life. Many a shock had the Church to encounter in its course, fightings within and foes without, the false religion of Mohammed, and the wild hordes of Huns and Mongols. But it stood all these perils and attacks, and was only the more firmly rooted in the minds of men, the more firmly planted in the midst of all human interests. A band of men, indeed, appeared in this country, towards the close of the last century, who strove and hoped to put an end to the religion of Jesus Christ; and a storm also soon arose in France which threatened the extinction of the Christian Church. But the storm blew over, and the Church stood fast; while the faith of Christ did but acquire fresh strength and gladness from the troubles it endured, and from the terrible commotions of the

S

times. Nor are our
own times any less times of
conflict; and the great cause which is now being con-
tested in the intellectual arena is nothing else than
the supremacy of Christianity. But its advocates, far
from being discouraged, are combining aggressions on
the enemy abroad with defensive operations at home.
No age has for many centuries been so pre-eminently
an age of missionary exertion among the heathen
as the present; and slow as may be the progress
actually made, still it is progress, and all are firmly
persuaded that the cause of Christ must yet triumph
among all nations; that the words of the apostle,
that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, must
yet be fulfilled; that the poet's saying shall yet be
realized-

'The struggle shall not cease
Till vict'ry crown His cause;
Till each remotest nation

Is subject to His laws.'

The progress of Christianity in history has been a triumphant one. But the progress of Christianity is When we say Christianity, we

that of Jesus Christ.
do in effect say Jesus Christ, for everything depends
upon Him. And what Christianity means, is to bow
before Christ, and honour Him as the only and
everlasting Saviour of us all. Christianity, however,
is not merely a power possessing external sovereignty,
but a power exercising an inward and spiritual
authority. Not merely the external religions of
the various nations, but the entire intellectual life of

mankind, has been conquered and renewed thereby. With Christianity a new era dawned upon the human mind, and the whole moral and social life of our

race.

Christianity introduced the era of humanity. (18) Not before its advent did men look upon themselves as members of one great family. Not before were the rights of human personality acknowledged. What have been termed the rights of man, are the fruit of Christianity. It made no changes in the external arrangements of society; it left laws and privileges, manners and conditions, customs and ranks, as it found them; but it introduced a new spirit into all these relations of life. It did not even externally abolish slavery; but it taught all to recognise in the slave a man, a Christian brother, and thus inwardly shattered this objectionable institution. It raised the condition of women from a degraded to a most honourable and influential one. It made love, which, as Montesquieu says, at the time of its introduction, still bore only a form which cannot be named, (19) the noblest and tenderest power of mental and spiritual life. It withdrew children, whom the heathen world had felt no scruple at destroying either before or after birth, because they were regarded as property which its possessors were fully justified in disposing of at their pleasure, from the arbitrary power of their parents, and placed them under the Saviour's protection by declaring them to be, by baptism, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. It