REFLECTIONS ON THE OF THE EARLY . TWO MEN COME TO A RESOLVE. WALLS HAVE EARS, PARTICULARLY SACRED WALLS.  
WHOEVER regards the early history of Christianity, will perceive how necessary to its triumph was that fierce spirit of zeal, which, fearing no danger, accepting no compromise, inspired its champions and sustained its . In a Church the genius of intolerance betrays its cause—in a weak and Church, the same genius mainly supports. It was necessary to scorn, to , to the of other men, in order to conquer the temptations which they presented—it was necessary to believe not only that the Gospel was the true faith, but the sole true faith that saved, in order to nerve the to the austerity of its , and to encourage him to the sacred and perilous of converting the Polytheist and the Heathen. The sectarian sternness which confined and heaven to a chosen few, which saw in other gods, and the penalties of hell in other religions—made the believer naturally anxious to convert all to whom he felt the ties of human affection; and the circle thus traced by to man was yet more widened by a desire for the glory of God. It was for the honour of the faith that the Christian boldly forced its tenets upon the scepticism of some, the of others, the contempt of the philosopher, the of the people—his very intolerance supplied him with his fittest instruments of success; and the soft Heathen began at last to imagine there must indeed be something holy in a zeal wholly foreign to his experience, which stopped at no obstacle, no danger, and even at the torture, or on the scaffold, referred a dispute far other than the calm differences of philosophy to the tribunal of an Eternal Judge. It was thus that the same which made the Churchman of the middle age a bigot without mercy, made the Christian of the early days a hero without fear.
 
Of these more , daring, and earnest natures, not the least was Olinthus. No sooner had Apaecides been received by the of baptism into the of the Church, than the Nazarene hastened to make him conscious of the impossibility to retain the office and robes of priesthood. He could not, it was evident, to worship God, and continue even outwardly to honour the idolatrous altars of the Fiend.
 
Nor was this all, the and impetuous mind of Olinthus in the power of Apaecides the means of to the people the mysteries of the oracular Isis. He thought Heaven had sent this instrument of his design in order to the eyes of the crowd, and prepare the way, perchance, for the of a whole city. He did not hesitate then to appeal to all the new-kindled enthusiasm of Apaecides, to arouse his courage, and to his zeal. They met, according to previous agreement, the evening after the baptism of Apaeci............