e
severe and inhuman code of his master Novatian.'

'But how far removed, Lucius, is all this from the spirit of the
religion of Jesus! Allowing all the force of the apologies you may
offer, is it not a singular state for the minds and tempers of those to
have arrived at, who profess before the world to have formed themselves
after the doctrine, and, what is more, after the character of Christ? I
cannot understand the process by which it has been done, nor how it is
that, without bringing upon themselves public shame and reproach, such
men can stand forth and proclaim themselves not only Christians, but
Christian leaders and ministers.'

'I can understand it, I confess, quite as little. But I cannot doubt
that as Christianity outgrows its infancy, especially when the great
body of those who profess it shall have been formed by it from their
youth, and shall not be composed, as now, of those who have been brought
over from the opposite and uncongenial regions of Paganism, with much of
their former character still adhering to them, Christians will then be
what they ought to be who make the life and character of Jesus their
standard. Nothing is learned so slowly by mankind as those lessons which
enforce mutual love and respect, in which the gospels so abound. We must
allow not only years, but hundreds of years, for these lessons to be
imprinted upon the general heart of men, and to be seen in all their
character and intercourse. But when a few hundred years shall have
elapsed, and that is a long allowance for this education to be perfected
in, I can conceive that the times of the primitive peace and love shall
be more than restored, and that such reproaches as to-night were heard
lavished upon one and another will be deemed as little compatible with a
Christian profession as would be violence and war. All violence and
wrong must cease, as this religion is received, and the ancient
superstitions and idolatries die out.'

'What a privilege, to be born and live,' said Julia, 'in those fast
approaching years, when Christianity shall alone be received as the
religion of this large empire, when Paganism shall have become extinct
in Rome war and slavery shall cease, and all our people shall be
actuated by the same great principles of faith and virtue that governed
both Christ and his apostles! A few centuries will witness more and
better than we now dream of.'

So we pleased ourselves with visions of future peace and happines