plication of their numbers and influence, but by the bloody persecutions that were waged against them un- der successive Roman emperors. Owing to various causes there have come down to us but few details of the precise work that was done, or of the modes in ^vhich it was done. It is, however, but reasonable to suppose that apostolic measures and usages were, during the earlier parts of this period, quite in the ascendant. Eu- sebius says that " the followers of the apostles imitated their example in distributing their worldly goods among necessitous believers, and, quitting their own countrv, went forth into distant lands to propagate the Gos- pel." It was at the beginning of the 2d century that the younger Pliny, governor of Bithynia, after official investigation, made to the emperor Trajan his celebrated report concerning the customs and prevalence of the Christians. Said he, " Slany persons, of all ages, of ev- ery rank, and of both sexes, likewise are accused, and will be accused [of Christianity]. Nor has the conta- gion of this superstition pervaded cities only, but the villages and open country." The allegations of this persecutor of Christians, in respect to the numbers ac- cused of Christianity, are corroborated by various state- ments of Christians themselves. Justin ISIartyr, writing about one hundred and six years after the ascension, says, " There is not a nation, either of Greek or barba- rian, or of any other name, even of those who wander in tribes and live in tents, among Avhora prayers and tjianksgivings are not offered to the Father and Creator of the universe in the name of the crucified Jesus." TertuUian, in his Apology, written fifty years later, says, " Though of yesterday, we have filled every sphere of life: cities, castles, islands, towns ; the exchange, the very camps, the plebeian populace, the seats of judges, the imperial palace, and the forum." When it is re- membered that these results had been attained in the face of persecution, and in spite of tortures and martyr- dom, no other comment is needed upon the missionary diligence and devotedness of those who were the agents of such wide-spread and effective evangelization. In harmony with measures of this character was the trans- lation of the Scriptures into several important lan- guages, as the Latin, the Syriac, the Ethiopian, and the Egyptian. In the absence of statistics, which were then impossible, all attempts to estimate numbers must be chiefly based upon probabilities. Yet some have es- timated that the number of Christians at the end of the 2d century was not less than two millions, and increased during the 3d century to perhaps twice that number.
The opening of the 4th century, A.D. 313, witnessed the issue of Constantine's edict of toleration, an event which shows about as conclusively as figures could the continuous growth of Christian influence and numl)ers. That edict was proclaimed in immediate sequence of the viVa Martyrium, the Diocletian persecution — the tenth in the series of those fierce attacks upon the non-offend- ing and non-resisting followers of Christ, which success- ively proved that " the blood of the martjTS was the seed of the Church." As the edict referred to suppressed official persecution in all parts of the empire, it may be regarded as in itself an umningled blessing, a recogni- tion of an indefeasible right of humanity, and all that Christianity needed on the part of the world for further advancement and complete success. AYhen the way of the Lord had been thus prepared, through so much toU and suffering, it was to be expected that thencefon\ard the cause of Christian truth would be advanced with accumulated moral and spiritual power. It is, however, a sad, but, in the history of missions, a usually over- looked fact, that the very period at which so much had been gained, and from which so much was to be hoped in the legitimate extension of Christianity,-witnessed the development of agencies and influences that antag- onized the peculiar aims of the Gospel and marred its missionary character, sowing throughout the extended field of its influence the seeds of premature and almost fatal decav. The circumstance of these hifluences being
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more or less antagonistic to each other did not relieve 1 their evil effect, but rather increased their power, as mul- ! tiplied diseases sooner reduce the vital energies of the , human system. Had there been no previous depart- i ures from the true spirit of the Gospel, and had the ^ Christians of the 4th century been content to rely on spiritual agencies for the promotion of Christianity, the advantages which followed the professed conversion of Constantine might in all probability have tended to ex- tend and consolidate a pure t\-pe of Christianity. But, unhaiipily, insidious influences had alreadj- been initiat- ed, wliicli, in the sunshine of apparent prosperity, grew •with the rankness and rapidity of noxious weeds. Of these influences, allusion can only be made summarily to doctrinal errors, monasticism, and worldly conformity. It was not merely that Docctism, Ebionism, Gnosticism, Montanism, Arianism, and other heresies induced bitter j and i.rotracted controversies, thus dividing the Church with jiartisan strife, but they absorbed the thought and energies of thousands of professed Christian ministers, who ought to liave been exclusively engaged in preach- ing tlie Gospel. So when, in the 2d century, the doc- trine of a Christian priestliood began to be developed with an attempted imitation of the Jewish, the evil was not merely the diversion of ministerial talent from the one work of preaching and teaching in the name of Christ to a burdensome routine of ritual ceremonies, but a ilirect step towards conformity with certain pagan the- ories and practices which in later periods were put for- ward as elements of Christianity itself.