St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-02-28
RISE OF CHRISTIANITY
The Establishment of the Church in
the Roman Empire a Miracle
Of the Moral Order.
CBy Rev. T. }. Leonard.)

He preached during three years a
doctrine unheard of in the world VI
to that time He was condemned to
death for His doctrine and He was
crucified between two thieves. Pre-
viously He had associated with Him
self twelve disciples, whom He des-
tined to preach His Gospel through
out the Roman Empire and the
whole world. They were ordinary
men, without learning, eloquence,
wealth or power, and so timid that
they abandoned their Master to es-
cape His sad fate while He was in
the hands of His enemies. But after
His death these same timid, aye,
cOwardly fishermen, without social
influence, without authority or
temporal resources, from the shores
of the Sea of Galilee, determine to
submit the human race to the doc
trine Of their crucided Master, and
to prove to the satisfaction of hui
man reason that He is all that
He claimed TO be-the only Son of
God-and therefore Of the nature of
God as we'll as of the nature of man;
with a human soul, intellect and
Will; great, loving, human heart,
and a divine person with equal
power and perfection as God His
Father. They preach that He as the
Son of God, created the universe
and governs it; that He was always
God, equal to the Eternal Father,
but became man by the power of
the Holy Spirit in the womb of the
Virgin Mother, without having any
man for His father; and that He is
to be adored, loved, obeyed and wor-
shipped as God, Creator and end of
man-frst principle and term of the
human race.
Surely the enterprise is fraught
with difficulties and impediments so
great as to be insurmountable to
human means were they inexhaust-
ible and without limit. If twelve
ignorant, poor, laboring men accom-
plish this work, the work will be
an accomplished fact. but a fact be-
yond the power of men with their
resources to accomplish, for it in
wolves the change, the total CONVEX
sion of the free will, the independ-
ent and determined will not of
few people, but of millions of human
beings, from the maxims, tradi-
tons and loves which Influenced
their conduct, their mutual relations
and their morals from time immem-
orial; their conversion to severe,
rigid and absolute moral laws which
condemn the passions which dom
mate their lives; their conversion to
a hatred of all they had loved and to
love of all they had hated. A fact
of this character is a fact of history
and finds it's place in the order Of
events, but the cause that brought
1t about is not human nor in the
natural order. The efficient cause
is God, Who enlightens minds and
sways human wills and graciously
inclines them to accept facts, truths,
mysteries authenticated as divine by
His own testimony; the testimony of
miracles in the physical order; in
Simultaneous cures of chronic mala- !
dies by act of will, by a mere word /
or by simple touch-aye, by the very
shadow of a man of God; by mir |
acles in the moral order; successes !
gained and progress made. Every /
miracle is a divine fact In the |
natural order the effect falls under
our senses and is accepted by them
as their proper object, but the cause
is outside and beyond the order of
nature. God alone effects, performs
miracle. He may employ men, as
He has done as His instruments, but
He is Himself the efficient cause.
Did these twelve poor laboring men
succeed in transforming society from
Pagan to Christian society? His
tory has recorded their success. The l.
overthrow of Paganism in the Ro-
man Empire by these men and their
associates is a fact impossible to n
contradict Scarcely have they be-
gun to labor when Peter. their pres
ident, who had thrice publicly de- Il
MED that he was associated with
Jesus through fear of the enemies
of Jesus, in two discOurses made to
the people i'm the public square of
the capital city of his nation, con
verts eight thousand souls-re-
moulds eight thousand minds, melts (;
to salutary tears of repentance and
reformation eight thousand hearts.
The civil magistrates, the authori-
ties. seize these new teachers of j
things altogether new and cast
them into prison. They are ar
raigned before the magistracy. =
commanded to cease
proclaiming the Gospel OF Jesus !
Christ. their Master: to stop pro-
claiming the things they have seen I,
with their ewes. heard with their =
ears and touched with their hands:
to stop preaching the resurrection of \,
Jesus from the dead according to (
the ancient prophecies and according (
to His own promise to meet them in (
Galilee after He was cruelty scourg- Is
ed. spat upon. bufeted. crucified and i
buried during three days And as
they persist i'm obeying God rather {
than man. they answer the magis- {
trates: 1--WE cannot obey men rath- ,
ar than God; we must obey con- t
science duty. God; we witness what ]
we know" They are scourged. and II
instead of being remanded to prison {
they are forbidden to preach in the 7
name Of their crucifed Master and I
I
In reDly to this prohibition to {
preach Jesus crucified and risen t
rom the dead on the third day. they Z
iivide the civilized world between c
hem and hasten everywhere to q
1wino IL undaw tho ruwn r,;Td --1 .