have been ex hypothesi to a prevailing extent--composed of Christians,
Christianity had made at least equal progress in the ranks of civil
life. The one may be taken as the measure of the other; though we might
fairly suppose, both from the principles and habits of the Christians,
that they would be found in civil life in a larger ratio. The camp was
not precisely the place for them; the Gospel might find them there, it
rarely sent them. So that the question returns, How came it to pass
that the bulk of the armies which "conquered the empire for Christianity"
came to be Christians,--at least in name and profession?

"Ah!" you will say, "in name,--but they were strange Christians who
became soldiers." Very true; and it makes my argument the stronger. Mere
professors of a religious system only follow in the wake of its triumphs.
When those who do not care much for a system profess and embrace it,
depend upon it, it has largely triumphed. To suppose, therefore, that
Constantine conquered the empire for Christianity, while we admit that
the army was already Christian, is very like getting rid of the objection
in the way the Irishman proposed to get rid of some superfluous cart-loads
of earth. "Let us dig a hole," said he, "and put it in." It is much the
same here.

Constantine became a convert, perhaps from conviction, but certainly
rather late. Supposing him a political convert, as many have done, it
could only be because he saw that Christianity had done its work to
such an extent as to render it more probable that it would assist him
than that he could assist it. This induced him to take it under the wing
of his patronage. And on such a theory, what but such a conviction could
have justified him in the attempt for a moment? How could he be fool
enough to add to the difficulties of his position--a candidate for
empire--the stupendous difficulty of forcing upon his unwilling or
indifferent subjects a religion which by supposition they were any
thing but prepared to receive? If the prospects of Christianity had not
already decided the question for him, so far from receiving credit for
political sagacity, as he ever has done, he would deserve rather to be
considered an absolute idiot!

Again; is it not plain from history in general, and must we not infer
it from the nature of the case a priori, that Christianity must in some
fashion have conquered its millions before Constantine or any other
man was likely to attempt to c