oomer of tbe earth, called Jiidea> a petty tributary proTuioe of the vast empire of Bonie. — ^Its first doctrme was eminently calculated to call forth the euzuity of the natural heart. Christ crucified was to the Jews a stuBibling*bIock, and to the Greeks foolishness. — ^Its first moYements brought down on its Mends persecution from all quarters. Pharisees and Sadducees, Jews and Gentiles, ignorant idolatears and self-conceited philoso* phersy all agreed in hating and opposing Christianity. It was a seet everywhere spoken against. — ^These are no empty assertioiis. They are simple historical facts, which no one oan deny. If ever there was religion which was a little grain of seed at its beginniag, that religion was the GospdL
But the progress of the Gospel, after the seed was once cast into the earth, was great, steady and continuous. The grain of mustard seed ''grew and waxed a great tree.'' In spite of persecution, opposition, and violence, Chrisiianity gradually spread and iucreased. Year after year its adherents became more numerous. Year after year idolatry witiiered.away before it. City after city, and oountry after country, received the new faitL Church aftier church was formed in almost every quarter of ilie earth then known. Preacher after preacher rose up, and missicmary after missionary came forward to fill the place of those who died. Homan emperors and heathen philosophers, sometimes by force and sometimes by argument, tried in vain to check the progress of Christianity. They might as well have tried to stop the tide from flowing, or the sun bom rising. In a few hun- dred years, the religion of the despised I^azarene, — ^the