Paul," that there are not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble : But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible, hath God chosen, and things that are not, that he might bring to nought things that are." (1 COR. c. i. v. 26-28.) Such then my friends, were the men who undertook to proclaim to the world the saving doctrine of the crucified Jesus, "to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Gentiles foolishness." They were of the lowest class of the people, poor, illiterate, simple, incapable of deceit, and far from receiving any external succour or support. They were thwarted on the contrary by every species of opposition. Calumny, ridicule, sophistry, violence, whatever the most insidious artifice could suggest, malice could invent, or cruelty inflict, was employed against them. Scarcely had the Christian religion been announced to the world, when the inhabitants of nations arose as one man to accomplish its destruction. In their zeal to extirpate an institution so adverse to all their prejudices and inclinations, they seemed to have divested themselves of their natural feelings, and to have forgotten that they were men. Punishments hitherto unheard of, were inflicted by them on teachers and on proselytes. They assumed a form of atrocity, at the description only of which,

human nature stands aghast. Every instrument of torture which the most barbarous policy could devise, was resorted to, for the purpose of subduing the stubborn resolution of such daring innovators. To enter into particulars would shock the least delicate humanity. Such ferocity, though attested by undoubted evidence, appears almost incredible. No age, no sex, no condition, was spared. Destruction was indiscriminately let loose on all who assumed the name of Christian. Not a voice was raised in their defence; not a tear was shed to compassionate their woes. Hearts, which even the deserved fate of suffering malefactors could move to pity, remained callous to every impression, from the cruel and unjust treatment of peaceful and virtuous Christians. Every sentiment of social, or even human, sympathy was stifled in their regard. Their blood was demanded with clamorous importunity. It flowed in copious streams, whilst the most indecent shouts of savage joy accompanied its effusion. So implacable and ferocious was their fury, that, not content with the inhuman punishments inflicted on them when living, they sometimes vented their wanton and barbarous rage on their remains, after death. Assailed by so formidable a league of foes, and destitute of every visible protection and support, what prospect of success, by any human means, could a few ignorant men, of low birth, poor, despised, and defenceless, be induced to entertain.

Nations which

Great, nevertheless, brilliant and unparallelled was their success. They propagated their doctrine with the most astonishing rapidity, and vast multitudes, not only in Judea, but in almost every country of the known world, were, in a short time, persuaded to embrace it. And the crucified Jesus, "to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles, foolishness," appeared evidently in the event to be, as St. Paul sublimely expresses it, "the power of God, and the wisdom of God." had never known the Roman yoke, were found to yield a voluntary submission to the laws of the Gospel; and already did the kingdom of Christ, even in its infancy, spread beyond the extensive dominion of the Cæsars. In vain were the most vigorous and artful efforts exerted to destroy it. Firm and impregnable, it resisted triumphantly every attack. The heroic patience of the suffering Apostles was superior to the fury of their enraged enemies. They exulted in torments, which they deemed to be ennobled by the glorious cause in which they were sustained. "They rejoiced," says St. Luke," that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." (AcTs c. v. v. 41.) All the implements of cruelty employed by their adversaries to overcome their fortitude, were, in their eyes, the instruments of their triumphs; and considering death as the termination of their afflictions, and the end of all their labors, they hailed it as the happiest event which could befall them. But the accomplishment of their

vast design was not thus to be frustrated. The work which they had left unfinished, their surviving disciples continued to carry on. Like them, they were reviled, persecuted, tormented; and, like them, they endured with unshaken constancy the most violent attempts of their adversaries. Against that divine panoply, the armour of faith, all the hermles darts of the most wicked one fell innocuous to the ground. Nor threats could intimidate them, nor dangers appal them, nor promises seduce them, nor obstacles discourage them. No, nor could all the terrific apparatus of ingenious atrocity in any degree affect the unalterable purposes of their determined souls. Through labors and difficulties, through tribulations and distress, through persecutions and torments, they pursued undaunted their successful career; and even death itself, that fatal principle of destruction to all human societies, was to the Christian community a source of increase. For the blood of the martyrs, to use the well known expression of Tertullian, was the seed of the Church.

The shades of idolatry disappeared rapidly before the progressive light of the Gospel. Then, as the prophet Isaiah had foretold, "arising and enlightened, did the new Jerusalem lift up her eyes round about, and see the Gentiles walking in her light, and the kings in the brightness of her rising. Then did she behold multitudes gathered together, and coming to her; her sons coming from afar, and her daughters rising up at her

side; then did she see and abound, and her heart wondered and was enlarged, when the multitude of the sea was converted to her, when the strength of the Gentiles came to her." (ISAIAH c.lx. v. 3, 4,5.) The deserted temple, the prostrate idol, the failing sacrifice, the silent oracle, all at length bore testimony to the reluctant flight of error, and to the triumphant cause of truth. Three centuries of persecution and of blood were closed by the conversion of the world to Christianity,--and when, at a somewhat later period, the most astonishing revolutions took place, when swarms of Northern barbarians, issuing forth from their Scandinavian hives, overran the Roman empire, and levelled at length to the ground that mighty colossus, which comprised within its enormous stride so large a portion of the globe; when, out of its ruins arose other states, which experienced in their turns the common lot of all human things ;-in a word, when the most violent convulsions shook to their foundations the perishable establishments of men, and laid them in the dust,-thy immortal fabric, O thy Church Divine Jesus! the stupendous work of thine impenetrable wisdom, unaffected by the general wreck of falling empires and states, remained firm and immoveable. Still unimpaired does it continue to rear majestic its venerable front; and though all the powers of darkness should conspire, with the malice of their earthly agents, to accomplish its destruction, superior to their united efforts,