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CHRISTIANITY 535 precious legacy in their hearts. The scene of the transfiguration, with its obscure symbolical import, had not passed from their memories. His dark sayings, enigmatically expressed be- fore the multitude, but confidentially explained to the disciples, respecting his decease and the glory that should follow his resurrection, were receiving a complete elucidation by a series of the most astonishing facts. Why were the de- jected and dispersed disciples now assembled together, buoyant with hope, and burning with fresh zeal? Had not something occurred to produce this change ? Could the scene of the Pentecost have opened if the resurrection had not intervened between that and the crucifixion ? Could the men, whose worldly fortunes and lives were hazarded by the assertion, have be- lieved and have persuaded even the Jews of Jerusalem to believe that Christ was risen, if nothing, absolutely nothing had been seen or known of him after his public execution? Christ had foretold his death and resurrec- tion. The disciples had seen him repeatedly after his resurrection. He had promised the effusion of the Holy Spirit. They had as- sembled and waited and prayed for it. The promise was fulfilled. The fulfilment was of the most remarkable kind. Its effects were of the most public nature. The train of circum- stances was such, the evidences were so over- whelming, that even those who crucified him were convinced, and added to the disciples. Such events, so remarkable, so undeniable, so public, in the very place where opposition must have had a perfect triumph, and the credit of the disciples must have been completely ruined, by the demonstration of the untruthfulness of their testimony, if Christ had not risen, were a fit preparation for the grand inauguration of Christianity as the religion of all mankind. We do not know exactly what that baptism of the Holy Ghost was, those peculiar operations of the Spirit, those diversities of gifts. But we do know that the expectations of the disciples to whom the promise had been made were more than realized ; that their faith was so confirmed as to give them great boldness and to put all their previous doubts to flight ; that during the lifetime of their Master they had never had such confidence in their cause, or such courage in maintaining it ; and that this enthusiastic ardor did not pass away as a transient day dream, but became the effective and enduring cause of the rapid spread of the new doctrines and of the manifestation of the rarest and most exalted virtues which for three centuries irradiated the world in the midst of the most appalling scenes of persecution. There is no other satisfactory explanation than the one above intimated of the spread of Christianity under the ministry of the apostles, dating from such a time as the period immediately following the crucifixion, and be- ginning at such a place as the very scene of the crucifixion, among those who were witnesses to it. The vigor of Christianity, as shown then and in all succeeding ages, its power as the great civilizer of the world, its vitality, which throws off the corruptions of centuries, and per- petually renews itself, its exalted character as the precursor of the mightiest achievements of the human intellect, its unrivalled potency in producing a sterling and substantial morality, its power to solace human griefs, all demand an origin more substantial than myths and sagas, more vital than the dreams of an enthusiast, or the superstitions of an ignorant, credulous populace. The early propagation of Chris- tianity rested "preeminently upon an extended group of the most astonishing, and yet the most incontrovertible facts. If the essential facts are not true, the doctrines founded upon them are not true ; and both these being abandoned, the splendid fabric of a historical Christianity, the most potent moral agency in the world, re- mains without an explanation. It would seem that, in an age so imbedded in false views of morals and religion, with a literature, philoso- phy, art, and government so alienated from the truth, and a life so given over to sensuality and gross immorality, there was need that a nas- cent Christianity should have a fresh, vital be- ginning ; that, wanting a history and the de- monstration of its moral tendencies from the trial of centuries, and all that accumulation of evidence which time has now given, it should be ushered in with a special divine energy, and be advanced by means of extraordinary gifts and aids. Gushing thus as from an overflowing fountain, the stream, which is now spread out into an expanded even volume, might, in its narrower compass, form a deep boiling current, as if rushing from a mighty cataract. As with the individual the first stage of a religious life may be accompanied with feelings intensely fervid, and with an enthusiasm and zeal which are then necessary to surmount great discour- agements and obstacles, so Christianity as a whole might properly have a concentration and intensity of power at the outset, for which the far wider though gentler influences of later ages are a sufficient compensation. If the prim- itive Christians had some aids and evidences which we have not, we have very many which they had not. It was not, however, merely the extraordinary gifts of the apostles and the extraordinary events connected with their ministry that caused the dissemination of the Christian faith. What arrested equal attention and produced equal effect was the character of the professors of the new religion. The purity of their lives, their strict integrity, their firm adherence to the loftiest principles of morality, their disregard of consequences when urged to violate their consciences or their religious vows, their patience under injuries, their forgiving spirit, their magnanimity, their love to each other and even to their enemies, and their benevolent, self-renouncing, and self-denying spirit, made it impossible for the ingenuous among the heathen to withhold their admira- tion. The Christian life,.in contrast with hea- thenism, was one standing miracle. Christian-