Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

252 THE SECOND AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.adversaries, if they had not a great amount oftruth in them, would bring ridicule on his causerather than strengthen it. Tertullian besides wroteat the time of the general persecution set on footby Septimius Severus against the Christian Faith,which itself was a proof of what importance it hadassumed. We may perhaps put the first4twentyyears of the third century as the point at which,having passed through the period when it wasembraced by individuals with a several choice, itwas become the faith of families, and one steponly remained, that it should become the faith ofnations.16Let us consider a moment the mode of its in-crease. It was twofold. The plant of which aroot was fixed by the Apostles and their successorsin each of the cities of the empire grew, gatheringto itself in every place the better minds of heathenism,and exercising from the beginning amarked attraction upon the more religious 0 sex andupon the most down-trodden portion of society ;women were ever won to it by the purity whichits doctrines inculcated, slaves by its tender charity: it gave a moral emancipation to both. Ifwe possessed a continuous and detailed history ofthe Christian Faith in any one city, say Rome, orAlexandria, or Antioch, or Ephesus, or Carthage,or Corinth, for the first three centuries, what awonderful exhibition of spiritual power and mate-^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I^^H16 De Rossi, ArcJieoL Cristiana, 1866, p. 33, makes this estimate.