the sovereign; and in not a few cities they constituted a most influential section of the population.  The wife of Diocletian, and his daughter Valeria, are said to have been Christians.  The gospel had now passed over the boundaries of the empire, and had made conquests among savages, some of whom had, perhaps, scarcely ever heard of the majesty of Rome.  But it did not establish its dominion unopposed, and, in tracing its annals, we must not neglect to notice the history of its persecutions.

CHAPTER II.

THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE CHURCH.

The persecutions of the early Church form an important and deeply interesting portion of its history.  When its Great Author died on the accursed tree, Christianity was baptized in blood; and for several centuries its annals consist largely of details of proscription and of suffering.  God might have introduced the gospel amongst men amidst the shouts of applauding nations, but “He doeth all things well;” and He doubtless saw that the way in which its reign was actually inaugurated, was better fitted to exhibit His glory, and to attest its excellence.  Multitudes, who might otherwise have trifled with the great salvation, were led to think of it more seriously, when they saw that it prompted its professors to encounter such tremendous sacrifices.  As the heathen bystanders gazed on the martyrdom of a husband and a master, and as they observed the unflinching fortitude with which he endured his anguish, they often became deeply pensive.  They would exclaim—­“The man has children, we believe—­a wife he has, unquestionably—­and yet he is not unnerved by these ties of kindred:  he is not turned from his purpose by these claims of affection.  We must look into the affair—­we must get at the bottom of it.  Be it what it may, it can be no trifle which makes one ready to suffer and willing to die for it.” [284:1] The effects produced on spectators by the heroism of the Christians cannot have escaped the notice of the heathen magistrates.  The Church herself was well aware of the credit she derived from these displays of the constancy of her children; and hence, in an address to the persecutors which appeared about the beginning of the third century, the ardent writer boldly invites them to proceed with the work of butchery.  “Go on,” says he tauntingly, “ye good governors, so much better in the eyes of the people if ye sacrifice the Christians to them—­rack, torture, condemn, grind us to powder—­our numbers increase in proportion as you mow us down.  The blood of Christians is their harvest seed—­that very obstinacy with which you upbraid us, is a teacher.  For who is not incited by the contemplation of it to inquire what there is in the core of the matter? and who, that has inquired, does not join us? and who, that joins us, does not long to suffer?” [285:1]