240 TO THE LIONS WITH THE CHRISTIANS. 



flood was ascribed to the anger of the offended gods. 

 And then arose imperial edicts, popular commotions, 

 and the terrible street-cry of Christiani ad Leones ! 



But the persecutions thus provoked were fitful and 

 brief, and served only to fan the flame. For to those 

 who believed in heaven — not as men now believe, with 

 a slight tincture of, perhaps, unconscious doubt, but as 

 men believe in things which they see and hear and feel 

 and know — death was merely a surgical operation, 

 with the absolute certainty of consequent release from 

 pain, and of entrance into unutterable bliss. The 

 Christians, therefore, encountered it with joy ; and the 

 sight of their cheerful countenances as they were being 

 led to execution induced many to inquire what this 

 belief might be which could thus rob death of its 

 dreadfulness and its despair. 



But the great moralists and thinkers of the Empire 

 looked coldly down upon this new religion. In their 

 pure and noble writings they either allude to Chris- 

 tianity with scorn) or do not allude to it at all. This 

 circumstance has occasioned much surprise : it can, 

 however, be easily explained. The success of Chris- 

 tianity among the people, and its want of success 

 among the philosophers, were due to the same cause 

 — the superstition of the Christian teachers. 



Among the missionaries of the present day there 

 are many men who, in earnestness and self-devotion, 

 are not inferior to those of the Apostolic times. Yet 

 they almost invariably fail : they are too enlightened 

 for their congregations. With respect to their own 

 religion, indeed, that charge cannot be justly brought 

 against them. Set them talking on the forbidden 

 apple, Noah's ark, the sun standing still to facilitate 

 murder, the donkey preaching to its master, the whale 



