s
for its sake; and that which is false, and injurious as false, should
triumph. It is enough for them, they say, to be fully persuaded; to
know, and possess, the truth. They can never relinquish it; they will
rather die. But, whether Christianity die with them or not, they cannot
tell--that they leave to God. They do not believe that it
will--prophecy, and the present condition of the world, notwithstanding
a present overhanging cloud, give them confidence in the ultimate
extension and power of their faith. At any rate it shall receive no
injury at their hands. They have professed it during twenty years of
prosperity, and have boasted of it before the world--they shall profess
it with the same boldness, and the same grateful attachment, now that
adversity approaches. They are fixed--calm--unmoved. Except for a deeper
tone of earnestness and feeling when you converse with them, and a cast
of sadness upon the countenance, you would discern no alteration in
their conduct or manner.

I might rather say that, in a very large proportion, there are
observable the signs of uncommon and almost unnatural exhilaration. They
even greet the coming of trouble as that which shall put their faith to
the test, shall give a new testimony of the readiness of Christians to
suffer, and, like the former persecution, give it a new impulse
forwards. They seek occasions of controversy and conversation with the
Pagans at public places, at their labor, and in the streets. The
preachers assume a bolder, louder tone, and declaim with ten times more
vehemence than ever against the enormities and abominations of the
popular religions. Often at the market-places, and at the corners of the
streets, are those to be seen, not authorized preachers perhaps, but
believers and overflowing with zeal, who, at the risk of whatever
popular fury and violence, hold forth the truth in Christ, and denounce
the reigning idolatries and superstitions.

At the head of these is Macer; at their head, both as respects the
natural vigor of his understanding, and the perfect honesty and
integrity of his mind, and his dauntless courage. Every day, and all the
day, is he to be found in the streets of Rome, sometimes in one quarter,
sometimes in another, gathering an audience of the passengers or idlers,
as it may be, and sounding in their ears the truths of the new religion.
That he, and others of the same character, deserve in all they do the
approbation of the Christian b