The Unconquerable!

Who that has seen Christianity and Paganism as they once were, would not have said,

that the caverns were destined to disappear, and that the mightier structure, raised in the air

and light, as the abode of pleasure and vice was destined, by it’s false brilliancy, by it’s apparent

power, by its pretended strength, by the courtiers who encircled it, to endure for ages?

Yet the Ceasars have departed. The Senate is crowned with laurels no more! There were the

soldiers with burnished armor; the priests, those oracles of the past and prophets of the future,

the proud and wealthy nobles, the slaves of the circus; the gladiators; the triumphal arches; the

colossal monuments; the obelisks, witness of so many ages, and the spoil of so many battles.

And beneath all these, lived an obscure and feeble sect, proclaiming a high morality in the

midst of general depravity, and having for their only power, prayer! For their only victory,

martyrdom!

What strength had they, what arms? Their word! What riches? Their faith! What power?

That of resignation and suffering! Had they legions? The legions of martyrs! Had they property!

That, of the tomb!

What they possessed was a force unconquerable; a weapon never blunted; riches that

cannot be lost; possessions that cannot be exhausted. The mysterious light without shadow and

which grows not dim; the living fire which quickens and is not quenched; the immortal soul of

nature; the acting spring of society; the air in which the soul is free! An unfailing faith bestowed

on them by Heaven, with the gift of miracles.

 The conquered, were conquerors. The proscribed, became might, the dead were givers

of life; and the weak, with hands/pierced by the nails of the cross, vanquished the savage

strength of Pagan Rome!