addition, they announced the approaching end of the world. That was a slur
on the optimism of State. A law was passed--_Non licet esse Christianos_.
None the less, they multiplied. The message that had been brought to Rome
was repeated throughout the Roman world. It crossed the frontiers. It
reached races of whom Rome had never heard. They came and peered at her.
Over the context of the message they drank hydromel to her fall.

The message, initially significant, dynamic at birth, developed under
multiplying hands into a force so disruptive that it shook the gods from
the skies, buried them beneath their ruined temples, and in derision
tossed after them their rites for shroud. In the convulsions a page of
history turned. The great book of paganism closed. Another opened. In it
was a new ideal of love.

Realization was not immediate. Entirely uncontemplated and equally
unforeseen, the ideal was an after-growth, a blossom among other ruins, a
flower that developed subtly with the Rosa mystica from higher shrines.

Meanwhile, the message persisted. Titularly an evangel, it meant good
news. The Christ had said to his disciples: "As ye go, preach, saying, The
Kingdom of God is at hand--for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have
gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come."

"All these things shall come upon this generation," were his subsequent
and explicit words. After the incident in the wilderness he declared: "The
time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand." Later he asserted:
"Verily I say unto you that there be some of them that stand by which
shall in no wise taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God come with
power."[23]

In repeating these tidings, the evangelists lived in a state of constant
expectation. Their watchword was "Maran atha"--the Lord cometh. In fancy
they saw themselves in immediate Edens, seated on immutable thrones.

The corner-stone of the early Church was based on that idea. When, later,
it was recognized as a misconception, the coming of the Kingdom of God was
interpreted as the establishment of the Christian creed.

Jesus had no intention of founding a new religion. He came to prepare men
not for life, but for death. He believed that the world was to end. Had he
not so believed, his condemnation of labor, his prohibition against
wealth, his injunction to forsake all things for his sake, his praise of
celibacy, his disregard of family ties, and his abasement