When three centuries were gone, the Roman Empire accepted Christianity. One day, in the senate-house, they voted down Jupiter, and voted up Christ. That was a great step! But was it, really? The churches had rest; persecution ceased; pagan temples became Christian temples; all up and down the Mediterranean, from Asia to Western Europe, Christian hymns and prayers and ordinances were celebrated. Pagan Rome, the most powerful empire on the earth, became Christian Rome. Let us not be deceived. There was much that was good in this change; but there was much that was evil also. The pure and divine religion that glows in the breasts of martyrs could not be transferred by an imperial decree into the hearts of pagans. If paganism was christianized, Christianity was paganized. It was inevitable that the introduction of this vast mass of ignorance and superstition should corrupt both the faith and the practice of the church. To say the least, it was doubtful whether the nominal christianization of Rome was more a blessing than a curse. Certain it is that the Christian faith, henceforth on the throne of the world, was hindered rather than helped by political power. There was within the mass the same pure, holy faith and experience that had characterized the martyr ages; but the mass itself, called Christian, was pagan still. It is no marvel that for ten centuries the ingrafted superstition poisoned and corrupted the pure truth. But the included truth continued to leaven the lump despite the powerful corrupting forces. The triumphant Christianity was a prevailing false Christianity, but the ark of a pure faith notwithstanding,—Bishop Foster.
It would have been well if Bishop Foster had proceeded a little further, and made the application of his excellent remarks concerning the ingrafting of pagan ideas and superstitions into the Christian system. The two great doctrines of paganism which have been baptized as Christian and overshadow all others, are the immortality of the soul, and Sunday-keeping.