But in the meanwhile, why were our forefathers—­heathens though they were, and sinners in many things, being truly children of wrath, fierce, bloodthirsty, revengeful, without the grace of Christ, which is Love and Charity—­nevertheless a people prepared for the Lord?  How was it true of them that to him that hath shall be given?

I will tell you.  There is an old book, written in Latin by a heathen gentleman of Rome, who lived in St. Paul’s time, and wrote this book about twenty years after St. Paul’s death.  It is a little book; but it is a very precious one:  and I think it is a great mercy of God that, while so many famous old books have been lost, this little book should have been preserved:  for this Roman gentleman had travelled among our forefathers; and when he returned he wrote this book to shame his countrymen at Rome.  In it he calls us ‘Germans;’ but that was the Roman fashion.  By Germans they meant not only the people who now live in Germany, but the English and the Danes, and the Swedes, and the Franks, who afterwards conquered France.  In fact he meant our own forefathers.  And he said to the Romans,—­

’Look at these wild Germans.  You despise them because they go half-naked, and cannot read or write, and live in mud cottages; while you go in silk and gold, and have all sorts of learning, and live in great cities, palaces, and temples, in worldly pomp and glory.  But I tell you,’ he said, ’that these wild Germans are better men than you; for, while you are living in sin, in cheating and falsehood, in covetousness, adultery, murder, and every horrible iniquity, they are honest, chaste, truthful; they honour their fathers and mothers; they are obedient and loyal to their kings and their laws; they shew hospitality to strangers; they do not commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, covet their neighbours’ goods.  And therefore,’ this Roman felt (and really it seems as if a spirit of prophecy from God had come on him), ’something great and glorious will come out of these wild Germans, while the Romans will rot away and perish in their sins.’  That was true enough.  We see it true at this day.

For what happened?  That great Roman empire, Babylon the great, as St. John calls it in the Revelations, perished miserably and horribly by its own sins; while our forefathers rose and conquered it all, and live and thrive till this day.  But it is curious that they never throve really, though they made great conquests, and did many wonderful deeds, till they became Christians:  but as soon as they became Christians, they began to thrive at once, and settled down, and became that great family of nations, and kingdom of God, which we call Christendom; England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and the other countries of Christian Europe; which God has so prospered for his Son Jesus Christ’s sake, in spite of many sins and shortcomings, with wealth and numbers, skill, and learning, and strength, that now the empire of the whole world depends upon these few small Christian nations, which in our Lord’s time were only tribes of heathen savages:  so that here again our Lord’s great parable was fulfilled.