Such was the growth of the Church in the first ten or twelve years. Then Antioch became a fresh starting-point, and within the next twenty years, under the efforts of S. Paul and S. Barnabas and others, the glad tidings spread from Antioch to Cyprus, and from Cyprus to the coasts of Asia Minor (Acts xiii, xiv). Then after extending through many provinces of Asia, the Gospel tree spread forth its branches to Macedonia (Acts xvi. 11); and from Macedonia to the ancient cities of Greece (Acts xvii, xviii); and from Greece to Italy and Rome, the capital of the world. With this Parable of "The Mustard Seed," we may connect that of "The Seed growing secretly" (S. Mark iv. 26, 27), and we may think how little the rulers of the old world imagined, that there was a power at work amongst them, which would change the moral character of the whole Empire. The Church of Christ was extending her influence secretly and unnoticed, or noticed only to be despised by the ruling classes. Yet within three hundred years the faith of Christ became the professed religion of the Roman Empire. But the spread of the Church of Christ was not merely an outward extension in the number of professed members. The Parable of "The Leaven" had set forth the power which "The Kingdom of Heaven" would exercise over the hearts of men. And of this also we may find examples in almost every chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. See the leaven working in the first members of the Church, who lived together in such love and unity that "they had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need" (Acts ii. 44, iv. 32). Think of the devoted lives led by the Apostles, "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame" (Acts v. 41) for their Lord's sake. Other instances may be seen in Stephen praying for his murderers (Acts vii. 60); in the character of Barnabas, "a good man full of the Holy Ghost and of faith" (Acts xi. 24); in the Elders, who were ordained by S. Paul in the different cities which he visited, and who handed on the knowledge they had gained to their more ignorant fellow-countrymen, "feeding the Church of God" (Acts xiv. 23, xx. 28); in the case of Aquila and Priscilla instructing Apollos (Acts xviii. 26); in the Ephesian converts burning their books (Acts xix. 19); in Lydia taking care of S. Paul at Philippi (Acts xvi. 15); and in the love shown to him afterwards by the Philippians in general, his "dearly beloved and longed for," his "joy and crown" (Phil. i. 3-8, iv. 1-10). Other signs of the leaven working in the hearts of the faithful may be gathered from a variety of expressions in the different Epistles, pointing to the changed lives of the members of the Church (1 Cor. vi. 11); whilst the Apostles were continually urging their converts to let the leaven work more freely upon them, and become more apparent in the holiness of their lives, in the putting off "the old man," and in the putting on