he Christian church, which saved those precious
works of genius through the ravages of the migration of nations and the
darkness of the Middle Ages, and used them as material in the rearing of
the temple of modern civilization. The word of the great apostle of the
Gentiles was here fulfilled: 'All things are yours.' The ancient
classics, delivered from the daemoniacal possession of idolatry, have
come into the service of the only true and living God, once 'unknown' to
them, but now everywhere revealed, and are thus enabled to fulfil their
true mission as the preparatory tutors of youth for Christian learning
and culture. This is the noblest, the most worthy, and most complete
victory of Christianity, transforming the enemy into friend and ally.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] [Greek: Laboron], also [Greek: labouron]; derived, not from _labor_,
nor from [Greek: laphuron], i.e., _praeda_, nor from [Greek: labein], but
probably from a barbarian root, otherwise unknown, and introduced into
the Roman terminology, even before Constantine, by the Celtic or
Germanic recruits. Comp. Du Cange, Glossar., and Suicer, Thesaur. s.h.v.
The labarum, as described by Eusebius, who saw it himself (Vita Const.
i. 30), consisted of a long spear overlaid with gold, and a cross piece
of wood, from which hung a square flag of purple cloth, embroidered and
covered with precious stones. On the top of the shaft was a crown
composed of gold and precious stones, and containing the monogram of
Christ (see next note), and just under this crown was a likeness of the
emperor and his sons in gold. The emperor told Eusebius (I. ii. c. 7)
some incredible things about this labarum, _e.g._ that none of its
bearers was ever hurt by the darts of the enemy.

[B] X and P, the first two letters of the name of Christ,
so written upon one another as to make the form of the cross:
[Illustration] (_i.e._ Christos--Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end), and similar forms, of which Muenter (Sinnbilder der Alten
Christen, p. 36 sqq.) has collected from ancient coins, vessels, and
tombstones more than twenty. The monogram, as well as the sign of the
cross, was in use among the Christians long before Constantine, probably
as early as the Antonines and Hadrian. Yea, the standards and trophies
of victory generally had the appearance of a cross, as Minucius Felix,
Tertullian, Justin, and other apologists of the second century told the
heathens. According to Killen (Ancient Church,