ouncil of the Prince decided to send chosen men to make
their observations on each religion on the spot where it was professed;
and this public agreement explains in some degree the sudden and general
acceptance of Christianity which shortly after followed in Russia. It is
probable that not only the chiefs, but the common people also, were
expecting and ready for the change.

The Greek emperors did not fail to profit by this favorable opportunity,
and the patriarch himself in person celebrated the divine liturgy in the
Church of St. Sophia with the utmost possible magnificence before the
astonished ambassadors of Vladimir. The sublimity and splendor of the
service struck them; but we do not ascribe to the mere external
impression that softening of the hearts of these heathens, on which
depended the conversion of a whole nation. From the very earliest times
of the Church, extraordinary signs of God's power have constantly gone
hand-in-hand with that apparent weakness of man by which the Gospel was
preached; and so also the _Byzantine Chronicle_ relates of the Russian
ambassadors, "That during the Divine liturgy, at the time of carrying
the Holy Gifts in procession to the throne or altar and singing the
cherubic hymn, the eyes of their spirits were opened, and they saw, as
in an ecstasy, glittering youths who joined in singing the hymn of the
'Thrice Holy.'"

Being thus fully persuaded of the truth of the orthodox faith, they
returned to their own country already Christians in heart, and without
saying a word before the Prince in favor of the other religions, they
declared thus concerning the Greek: "When we stood in the temple we did
not know where we were, for there is nothing else like it upon earth:
there in truth God has his dwelling with men; and we can never forget
the beauty we saw there. No one who has once tasted sweets will
afterward take that which is bitter; nor can we now any longer abide in
heathenism."

Then the _boyars_ said to Vladimir: "If the religion of the Greeks had
not been good, your grandmother Olga, who was the wisest of women, would
not have embraced it."

The weight of the name of Olga decided her grandson, and he said no more
in answer than these words: "Where shall we be baptized?"

But Vladimir, led by a sense which had not yet been purged by Greece,
thought it best to follow the custom of his ancestors, who made warlike
descents upon Constantinople, and so win to himself, sword in han