within and from without; their power is terrible, their hatred implacable. The Church of Christ, on her part, has no army to repulse their assaults, no sword to oppose their rude violence. Had not the arm of God protected her, she would long since have been overcome by the force and fraud of her enemies (32, 36, 38, 39, 42, 43, 47,48).
7. [1]The Christian Church appears still more glorious, if we consider the benefits and blessings which she has at all times conferred on mankind. It was she that subdued the brutality of the barbarians, that abolished slavery and human sacrifices, and promoted public and domestic happiness. It was she that founded charitable institutions and innumerable hospitals for the reception of the sick and distressed; it was she that amended the existing laws or made new ones; it was she that taught concord and charity, and diffused learning and true enlightenment (30, 38, 41, 45, 46). She can truly be called the Tree of Life which God has planted, that all men should peacefully rest under its shade, and refresh themselves with its fruit. Never has a nation abandoned this Tree of Life without plunging itself into religious confusion and misery. We know very well what has become of the nations in Asia and Africa who were formerly so happy, and what fruit the anti-Christian Freethinkers have produced in Europe (39, 47, 48). If 'the tree is to be known by its fruits' (Matt. vii. 16), every one must see that the Christian Faith, which diffuses nothing but happiness and blessings, is the most valuable gift of God; that, on the contrary, infidelity, which produces but misery and vexation, can only proceed from the spirit of evil.
- ↑ What fruits did the Christian faith produce for mankind? What, on the contrary, were the fruits which heresy and infidelity brought forth? What conclusion must we draw from these different fruits?
