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 mysteries of penance, humility, and mortification, was not likely to please the proud and licentious pagans, who found in their abominable mythology (i.e., fabulous history of their gods), not only an excuse, but even a justification, for all their vices. The rich and the great looked with disdain upon the poor fishermen; the witty and the learned derided them; and the mighty rulers of the earth, as even pagan writers testify, took all possible pains to destroy them with fire and sword. During three centuries, persecution and martyrdom were the common lot of the Christians. Nevertheless, the doctrine of the poor fishermen, as we have seen, triumphed over all its enemies, and thus proved to be the Doctrine of God (29-35). It spread so rapidly that, soon after the death of the Apostles, St. Justin ventured to affirm before the whole world: ' There is no people, neither among the Barbarians, nor among the Greeks, nor in any other known nation, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered up to the Father and Creator of the Universe in the name of Christ Crucified.' Who else but the Almighty could have performed such an inexplicable wonder? St. Augustine, the celebrated Father of the Church, makes a striking observation upon this: 'If the miracles,' he says, 'wrought by the Apostles could be denied, this would be the greatest miracle: that the world believed without miracles.'

6. But the Christian Church is not only founded on miracles; her duration itself is a continual and perpetual miracle. Kingdoms and empires, in spite of their power, perish in the course of time; the Kingdom of Christ alone, outlasts them all, and is constantly increasing. If it decreases in one part of the world, it spreads so much the more in another (45). From the time of its foundation, it has been assailed by innumerable enemies from