er and brighter star had arisen in the East. So accustomed are

the absorbing splendors of his nephew Augustus. In an obscure village of an obscure country in Asia Minor the young wife of a peas

above the obscure sphere into which he was born; never spoke from the vantage-ground of worldly elevation; simply moving among people of hi

ive force the world had ever known? That thrones, empires, principalities, and power

s; and to this end to accept the belief that Jesus Christ had come in fulfilment of the promise of a Saviour-who should be sent to this world clothed with divine au

summed it up in two sentences: expressing the duty of man to

est attributes and longings of the human soul, and under its sustaining influence frail women, men, and

he imprisoning walls and gives it to the winds to distribute. Precisely such method was used in disseminating Chr

Titus. The home of Christianity was effaced. At just the right moment the enclosin

The pure spiritual truth, unsullied as it came from the hand of its founder, was scattered broadcast, as the band of Christians dispersed throughout th

ro, under whom the Apostles Peter and Paul are said to have suffered martyrdom, had amused himself

ar in the lurid light of Roman history, still failed utterly to comprehend the significance of this spiritual kingdom established by Christ on earth. He it was

one Blandina it is said: "From morn till eve they put her to all manner of torture, marvelling that she still lived with her body pierced through and

eet compressed and dragged out to the utmost tension of the muscles-th

he beasts. As the beasts refused to touch her she was taken back to the dungeon to be reserved for another occasion, being brought out d

s, and every agony which could be thought of, she was wrapped in a network an

ng to say "I am a Chr

ure of those persecutions, or of the religion he was trying to exterminate. Some of the hours spent in writing in

ing light of Christianity. Neither contained anything which could nou

. The Roman paganism which was superimposed by the conquering race was the mere shell of a once vital religion. Educated men had long ceased to believe in the go

ere was no doubt rejoicing among the saints; but it was the beginning of the degeneracy of the religion of Christ. The faith of the hum

d Druidism would have been an impossibility. Christianity, even with its lustre dimmed, its purity tarnished, its simplicity overla

the extermination not of Christians, but of pagans, and of all who would depart from the religion of Christ as interpreted by Rome. It was a death-bed repentance for the

er the leadership of Attila, sweeping before them as they came Goths, Vandals, and other Teutonic races, as if with a predetermined purpose of forcing the uncivilized Teuton into the lap o

e apathy of despair, and led them to victory-and is rewarded by an immortality as "Saint Genevieve," the patron saint of Paris. I

the Franks in this great achievement, once the terror of the Gallic people, was now their deliverer. He had won the gratitude o