It is not, of course, for the first time in human history that such a period as this has come upon the world. Look back to the time when the sub-race preceding the Teutonic was at the zenith of its power, and see then how troubled were the minds of men. It was the time that was marked by the birth of Him who is known in western lands as the Christ—a period of swift transition like our own, of marked and sudden changes. And if to the people of that day you had said, as I am now saying to you: “You are in one of the great transition periods of the world’s history; the race that is dominant and imperial is really reaching its zenith, and after the zenith comes the slow descent, inevitable, sure”; if you had said to the people of the time that among them would come a mighty Teacher who should revolutionise the future world and change the very foundations of civilisation; who should change the type of religion for the foremost races of the world; who should lift up a different ethical code, and make that virtuous which before had been despised, and that which had been looked down upon the topmost crown of saintship—if to the people of that day you had spoken such words, they would have laughed at you as dreamer or threatened you as madman. For why should the world change on its appointed ways, and why should the feet of the world seek to tread new and untrodden paths? And yet there were many who felt a change was coming; yet there were prophets and seers who spoke of a coming kingdom and a coming Teacher, and changes which should alter the face of the world. Of little use to look back to those far-off times if you repeat in your own day the blindness of the people then; for surely in these two thousand years men should have learned something more of wisdom, their eyes should have gained something more of insight, and the signs of a closing age should be more palpable to them than in the days of their forerunners in the closing age of Rome.