RATIONAL LIFE 325 



the Cross, bear, each in its own way, testimony for 

 Christ, for which no adequate explanation can be 

 found on natural grounds. The devotion to Christ 

 is reasonable, only if He possessed the excellencies 

 attributed to Him. If such excellencies were not His, 

 why has His name not passed away; why has not 

 criticism been abandoned as needless ? 



From conflict of opinion as to the Christ of history, 

 we pass to results, to ask what witness Christianity 

 has borne for itself. A great system of belief, expressing 

 itself in vast organisations spread over the world, gives 

 large range to criticism, and, at the same time, becomes 

 more powerful in claiming a favourable verdict, as its 

 history is prolonged. The influence of Christ s teach 

 ing is widely felt, specially in many great centres of 

 modern civilisation, and from these it is radiating into 

 all lands. If we glance over the centuries which make 

 up the Christian era, testimony in its favour is seen in 

 endlessly varying form. It has been a powerful agent 

 in development of ethical and religious thought. 

 Take the earliest historic period, when its practical 

 power began to be felt throughout the Roman Empire : 

 A pure and humble religion gently insinuated itself 

 into the minds of men, grew up in silence and 

 obscurity, derived neiv vigour from opposition, and 

 finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on 

 the ruins of the Capitol. 1 Study the chequered history 

 of Christianity through mediaeval times, and all 

 through these centuries its power can be traced in the 

 upheaval of popular discontent against a sacerdotalism 

 wanting the credentials of purity and lowliness ; and 



1 Gibbon s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. ii. 

 chap. xv. p. 265. 



