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Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

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316 THE THIRD AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.herent in the manner <strong>of</strong> its rise. It had to remainone society in spite <strong>of</strong> the isolation and.self-government <strong>of</strong> its local portions. It possessedin each place but a feeble minority <strong>of</strong> memberscompared with the mass <strong>of</strong> unbelievers. Againstits assimilating power was ranged the force <strong>of</strong>national feelings which underlay the Roman authoritythroughout the whole empire. It had todeal entirely by moral means with the full libert<strong>of</strong> error to which its adherents were exposed.Lastly, it had to do all this amid the continualstrain <strong>of</strong> threatened or actual persecution, a statewhich at its best was one <strong>of</strong> insecurity, and whichany local trouble, the ill-will <strong>of</strong> a mob, the greedor ambition, or fear <strong>of</strong> provincial rulers, not tospeak <strong>of</strong> the imperial state-policy, might turn intothe pressure <strong>of</strong> severe suffering.In the face <strong>of</strong> such difficulties, if the ChristianChurch continued one in its doctrine, organisation,and manner <strong>of</strong> life, such unity was assuredly thepro<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong> a divine power residing * it.I shall now proceed to show by the testimony<strong>of</strong> eye-witnesses that such unity was its distinguishingcharacteristic."Now there was not a race or a reliion in allthis Roman empire, endless as the races and religionscomprehended in it were, out <strong>of</strong> which individualswere not drawn into the bosom <strong>of</strong> the onegreat Christian society; and yet within this therewas a perfect union <strong>of</strong> all hearts and minds in the

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