It has been said, however, and to a certain extent accepted, that the first efforts of Christianity were sorely hindered by the followers of the great Greek philosophers. In this there is a certain amount of truth, for the Neo-Platonic school did indeed enter into an alliance with the few remaining worshippers of the Pagan gods which forced them into an attitude of opposition to Christianity. But this was at a date some time after the compact with Constantine, and consequently later than that within the scope of this book. Nor is it likely that at an earlier date philosophy and Christianity appealed to the same class of minds, and that they thus entered into serious competition with each other. As the late Dr Hatch has said, “the earliest forms of Christianity were not only outside the sphere of Greek philosophy, but they also appealed on the one hand, mainly to the classes which philosophy did not reach, and on the other hand, to a standard which philosophy did not recognize[17].” Faith, not reason, was the quality that the Apostles and their immediate successors sought in their hearers, and Celsus was probably not far wrong when he said that the rule of admission into the infant Church was “Let no educated man enter, no wise man, no prudent man, for such things we deem evil; but whoever is ignorant, whoever is unintelligent, whoever is simple, let him come and be welcome[18].” To this state of mind the password of the early Christian communities, _Maran atha_, is a sufficient key. The confident expectation of the nearness of the Parusia or Second Advent for the primitive Christian overwhelmed all other considerations. “The Lord is at hand and His reward” was the one fact that he wished to keep before him. What need to trouble about the Highest Good or the hundred other questions that vexed the souls of the philosophers?