THE ADVENTURES OF PAUL AND THE APOSTLES; AND The Most Interesting Events in the Progress of Christianity, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT, AUTHOR OF “THE MOTHER AT HOME,” “LIFE OF NAPOLEON,” “LIFE OF FREDERIC THE GREAT,” ETC. * * * * * BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 55 CORNHILL. PHILADELPHIA: QUAKER-CITY PUBLISHING-HOUSE. SAN FRANCISCO: A. L. BANCROFT & CO. DETROIT, MICH.: R. D. S. TYLER. 1872. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, By B. B. RUSSELL, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. _Boston_: _Stereotyped and Printed by Rand, Avery, & Co._ TO THE MEMBERS OF The Second Congregational Church and Society IN FAIR HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, This Volume IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THEIR FRIEND AND PASTOR, JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. PREFACE. THE author of this volume has for many years, at intervals, been engaged in its preparation. It has long seemed to him very desirable that a brief, comprehensive, and readable narrative of the origin of Christianity, and of its struggles and triumphs, should be prepared, adapted to the masses of the people. There are many ecclesiastical histories written by men of genius and erudition. They are, however, read by few, excepting professional theologians. The writer is not aware that there is any popular history of the extraordinary events involved in the progress of Christianity which can lure the attention of men, even of Christians, whose minds are engrossed by the agitations of busy life. And yet there is no theme more full of sublime, exciting, and instructive interest. All the heroism which the annals of chivalry record pale into insignificance in presence of the heroism with which the battles of the cross have been fought, and with which Christians, in devotion to the interests of humanity, have met, undaunted, the most terrible doom. The task is so difficult wisely to select and to compress within a few hundred pages the momentous events connected with Christianity during nearly nineteen centuries, that more than once the writer has been tempted to lay aside his pen in despair. Should this book fail to accomplish the purpose which he prayerfully seeks to attain, he hopes that some one else may be incited to make the attempt who will be more successful.