hus, in
virtue of union with him, can man become a sharer of his victory. There
is no limit to the sovereignty of Christ in heaven and earth and hell.
Wherever the creation has gone before, the issues of the incarnation
must follow after. See, too, what he has done among us, and judge if his
works are not the works of sovereign power and goodness. The old fear of
death is gone. Our children tread it underfoot, our women mock at it.
Even the barbarians have laid aside their warfare and their murders, and
live at his bidding a new life of peace and purity. Heathenism is
fallen, the wisdom of the world is turned to folly, the oracles are
dumb, the demons are confounded. The gods of all the nations are giving
place to the one true God of mankind. The works of Christ are more in
number than the sea, his victories are countless as the waves, his
presence is brighter than the sunlight. 'He was made man that we might
be made God.'[2]

[Footnote 1: Gen. ii. 17, LXX.]

[Footnote 2: Ath. _De Inc._ 44: [Greek: autos gar enenthropesen hina
hemeis theopoiethomen]. Bold as this phrase is, it is not too bold a
paraphrase of Heb. ii. 5-18.]

[Sidenote: Its significance.]

The great persecution had been raging but a few years back, and the
changes which had passed since then were enough to stir the enthusiasm
of the dullest Christian. These splendid paragraphs are the song of
victory over the defeat of the Pharaohs of heathenism and the
deliverance of the churches from the house of bondage. 'Sing ye to the
Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.' There is something in them
higher than the fierce exultation of Lactantius over the sufferings of
the dying persecutors, though that too is impressive. 'The Lord hath
heard our prayers. The men who strove with God lie low; the men who
overthrew his churches have themselves fallen with a mightier overthrow;
the men who tortured the righteous have surrendered their guilty spirits
under the blows of Heaven and in tortures well deserved though long
delayed--yet delayed only that posterity might learn the full terrors of
God's vengeance on his enemies.' There is none of this fierce joy in
Athanasius, though he too had seen the horrors of the persecution, and
some of his early teachers had perished in it. His eyes are fixed on the
world-wide victory of the Eternal Word, and he never lowers them to
resent the evil wrought by men of yesterday. Therefore neither lapse of
time nor multiplicity of tri