Rapid Spread of Christianity.--And such things told in after years. One of the marvels of history is the rapid spread of Christianity in the days of the Apostles, who, unlettered as most of them were, and in the midst of the fiercest persecution, planted the Gospel standard in all the principal cities of the Roman Empire. From Jerusalem, the tidings of "Christ and him crucified" radiated to Britain on the west, to India on the east, to Scythia on the north, and to Ethiopia on the south--all within the short space of fifty years. [10] Many Nations Sprinkled.--How could such things be, if Divine Providence had not prepared the way by sending the blood and genius of Israel into all nations, prior to pouring out upon those nations the Spirit of the Gospel and the Gathering? Others before Abraham had shown their faith by their works; but this does not disprove his claim to the title--"Father of the Faithful." Nor does it prove that the blood of faith, wherever found, is not his blood. The Moabite maiden Ruth, ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth; the Roman centurion, whose faith caused even the Savior to marvel; Cornelius and the Woman of Canaan--these were not of Israel, by recognized earthly descent; yet their spirits were well worthy of such a lineage, and in their veins was the believing blood with which God has "sprinkled many nations." Footnotes 1. Deut. 28:64. 2. I Kings 14:15. 3. Hos. 7:8. 4. Amos 7:11; 9:9. 5. Joshua 4:1-9. 6. Jer. 31:8; D. and C. 110:11; 133:26. 7. See Article Five. 8. Mark the features of the American Indian. Are they not Jewish? Quite as strikingly so, as that many of his traditions and customs are Israelitish. Who than the savage Lamanite, better understands the Mosaic law of retaliation--"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?" Nor cares he to whom the eye or the tooth belongs, whether to the person who injured him, or to one of the latter's tribe or nation. He is too much of an Israelite to object to proxies and substitutes. 9. Matt. 23:37, 38. 10. Dean Farrar, in his "Life and Work of St. Paul," contributes this luminous passage as explanatory of the rapid spread of Christianity: