It is not possible to imagine a greater contrast to all the modes of habit and thought prevalent in those times. The most sensual of all races it exhorted to spirituality, to the most cruel and insolent it preached meekness and forbearance. It placed the slave to whom the recognized laws of war left no rights, beside the master who gloried in setting his foot on the neck of the prostrate; and recognized as equals the great and the small, the ignorant and the wise, the bond and the free. We cannot be surprised that it did not obtain immediate currency, that it was everywhere scorned and cast out, that it aroused unheard of persecutions, and that it could only obtain, a triumph when the old Roman inflexibility and fierceness had died out of its degenerate children, and the spirit of the ancient world was burned out in the hot fires of its own passions. Character does not change in a day, and the ruling impulses of a race can be modified only by slow degrees. Such is the supreme law which has ruled all history. 6. From all these causes Christianity was slow in penetrating society and moulding institutions; but it spread so extensively that a clear sighted emperor at length found it politic to profess Christianity in order to gain the support of so large and vigorous an element against his rivals in power. Constantine was victorious and proceeded to make Christianity the state religion. It had maintained its growth by its real superiority and ever after remained the most powerful and productive among the influences that aided the progress of mankind. It was actively aggressive and had made the barbarians who overthrew Rome converts to the faith before the invasion, and thus broke the force and diminished the disastrous effects of that event. In after times, no sooner did a barbarian tribe appear and establish itself in any part of the old empire than Christianity commenced the work of teaching and proselyting, which aided much in restoring order and repairing ruin. Had Christianity preserved its purity its usefulness and power would have been much greater.