349 
o. Ihe proof of this statement need not be a minute or toil- 
some one. The evidences upon which I have to rely are not 
hidden in the nooks and corners of history ; they are stamped in 
ineffaceable characters upon the broad outlines of the collective 
life of humanity Cast your eyes back upon the time when 
the doctrine of Christ was first preached on the earth,— when 
t le brutal and sensual Tiberius was on the throne of the 
Caesars ; when Imperial Rome too clearly displayed the seeds 
ot her impending decay; when Horace, his fever-fit of youthful 
enjoyment past, was regretting in his maturer years the loss 
ot those domestic virtues, that purity and integrity, that self- 
sacrificing bravery which had brought Rome to the pinnacle of 
greatness on which she then stood ; * when Juvenal viewed with 
such loathing the? iniquities of his day that he declared that 
should nature deny the poet’s power, indignation would supply 
mfn 1 1Gn at a loss hovv to shame his countrymen 
o decency, holds up before them in his despair the lialf- 
naked barbarians of Germany as a model of what Romans 
o ght to be Cast your eyes back upon that age of indeserib- 
< le depravity, and then accompany me in fancy to that upper 
chamber at Jerusalem, where “they that believed were of one 
cai t and of one soul, neither said any of them that ought of the 
things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things 
common. Fo low the fortunes of that little band as they 
entered upon the apparently hopeless task of regenerating ‘a 
" orld so steeped in vice and debasement, and you will find that 
y u are following a triumphant march— the march of Christ’s 
soldiers under the ever-victorious banner of His Cross. 
. It was a bold attempt; that has been confessed on all hands. 
dit^ nd r akei ", aSthe once famoils > but now unduly disere- 
i ted Christ! an apologist J reminds us, without any of those aids 
■"«“<»>•* “d power which on ell human principles 
were absolutely necessary for success. And it was opposed bv 
all those engines of authority which have usually been so sue- 
cessful m stamping out new beliefs. At first with a mixture 
t lenity and severity, afterwards with a rigour ever on the 
M Witl ! the ful1 weight of the Imperial power, 
l the Roman State endeavour to enforce the laws prohibiting 
three?. ? 06 ° ■ 8eCre , t &Ild forei S n corporations. Yet, in just 
St 68 V'T th ? ?’ St P romul S a tion of its doctrines, the 
Christian Church found herself triumphant over her enemies, 
* Horace, Odes, iii. 5, 6. 
f Juvenal, Satires, i. 
+ Pale 7- 
