9.  In the course of the first century of the Christian era churches were established in the principal cities of the empire, but more especially in Asia Minor; and the progress of Christianity, which had been at first disregarded, began to attract the notice of the ruling powers.  Too indolent to investigate the claims of Christianity, and by no means pleased with a system which condemned their vices, the Roman rulers viewed the rapid progress of the new religion with undisguised alarm.  The union of the sacerdotal and magisterial character in the Roman policy, added personal interest to the motives that urged them to crush this rising sect; and the relentless Ne’ro at length kindled the torch of persecution. 10.  But “the blood of the martyrs proved the seed of the Church;” the constancy with which they supported the most inhuman tortures, their devotion and firm reliance on their God in the moments of mortal agony, increased the number of converts to a religion which could work such a moral miracle.  Persecution also united the Christians more closely together, and when the reign of terror ended with the death of Nero, it was found that Christianity had derived additional strength from the means taken to insure its destruction.

11.  The successive persecutions inflicted by the policy or the bigotry of the following emperors had precisely the same results; and at length the Christians had acquired such strength, that their aid, as a body, became a matter of importance in contests for the empire.

12.  The mild administration of Constantino, while he was only prefect of Gaul, the protection which he afforded to the Christians, and the favour that he showed to their religion, induced them to aid him with all their might in his struggle for the throne.  Brought thus into contact with the professors of the new doctrine, Constantine was induced to examine the foundations of its high claims—­perfect conviction was the result, and on his accession to the imperial purple, the Christian church was legally established. 13.  During the reign of the apostate Julian, Christianity was discouraged, but not persecuted; his premature death, however, removed the last impediment to its final triumph, which was consummated in the reign of the great Theodo’sius. 14.  Under that emperor the last vestiges of the pagan worship were destroyed, its idols overthrown, its altars demolished, and its temples closed.  The world had become ripe for such a revolution, as the temples had been long before almost universally abandoned.

15.  Since that period Christianity has prevailed in Europe, and formed the great bond of the social happiness and the great source of the intellectual eminence enjoyed in that quarter of the globe.  Let us hope that the exertions now made to diffuse its blessings over the benighted portions of the earth will prove successful, and that “peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety” will prevail from pole to pole.