gain her offensive against all her enemies, and became again
the Church militant as she was before Golgotha when the Lord led her in
person. This is the second Church, to which also we all belong.
Historically, this Church is the second, but organically and
dogmatically she is absolutely one with the first Church. Let us see now
what were.

THE EXTERNAL CONFLICTS OF THE MILITANT CHURCH

For the quantity and quality of the conflicts are the conditions of the
dramatic life of a person as well as of a society. Well, the Christian
Church had plenty of the most extraordinary conflicts, external and
internal. Among the gravest external conflicts I reckon her conflicts
with Patriotism and Imperialism.

The first Christians were persecuted most fiercely by the exclusive
Jewish patriots, as all good Christians always have been persecuted by
exclusive patriots. For it is an essential characteristic of a true
Christian not to be an exclusive patriot, exalting his own nation and
despising all others. Oppression and suffering are the best soil for a
too excited Patriotism. Such a soil was Israel in the time of Christ and
the first Church. All parties were united against Christ and His
followers upon national and patriotic grounds; the Pharisees, the
Scribes, the Sadducees and the ignorant people, believers and
sceptics--they all accused Christ of "perverting the nation." They
accused St Paul of the same crime. Yet St Paul it was who dealt with the
question of Jewish Patriotism very courageously and minutely.

Patriotism is a natural quality, but Christianity is supernatural.
Patriotism is a provincial truth, but Christianity is a pan-human truth.
Patriotism means love of one's country or one's generation, Christianity
means love of all countries and all generations. Christianity includes a
sound and true Patriotism, but excludes untrue and exaggerated
Patriotism as it excludes every untrue thought and feeling. Of course an
exalted Patriotism in a frame of hatred all around excludes the
Christian religion and is its most dangerous enemy. St Paul, who
remained a true patriot till the end of his life, thought, as we all
shall think, that Christianity never can damage the just cause of a
country, but, on the contrary, it gives to a patriotic cause a universal
nimbus and importance, putting it direct before the Eternal Judge, and
liberating it from small anxieties, little faith and unworthy actions.
He who is numbe