we may well believe that as much misery might have been suffered by the Britons if they had been left to themselves. It was

some benefit to them that the Romans, either by example or by compulsion, set them to various labours, which called off their thoughts from war. As soon as the country was sufficiently settled, the building of cities, with their temples, palaces, and baths, and the formation of roads over a rough uncultivated country, must have set thousands of men at work in felling wood, digging clay, quarrying stones, and the other necessary labours of civilized men. But a much higher advantage than this encouragement to industry was, by God's good providence, intended for Britain by the arrival of the Romans. At the time when our Lord and Saviour ascended up into heaven, and told his Apostles to make disciples of all nations, Britain was known as one of the heathen nations; and such was the eagerness among the first Christians to tell the glad tidings of a Saviour through the whole earth, that

though travelling was much more difficult then than it is now, it has been supposed that Britain was visited by missionaries very soon after this last command of the Saviour had been given. preached the gospel in England. In the next chapter you will read what is known on this subject.

It is uncertain who first

The poet Cowper has this passage on the advantages of the Roman conquest:

"His victory was like that of orient light,
When the Sun's shafts disperse the gloom of night.
Thy language at this distant moment shows
How much the country to the conqueror owes;
Expressive, energetic, and refined,

It sparkles with the gems he left behind;
He brought thy land a blessing when he came,
He found thee savage and he left thee tame;
Taught thee to clothe thy pink'd and painted hide,
And grace thy figure with a soldier's pride;
He sowed the seeds of order where he went,
Improved thee far beyond his own intent;
And, while he ruled thee by the sword alone,
Made thee at last a warrior like his own.
Religion, if in heavenly truths attired,
Needs only to be seen, to be admired;

But thine, as dark as witcheries of the night,
Was formed to harden hearts and shock the sight.
The Druids struck the well-hung harps they bore
With fingers deeply dy'd in human gore;

And while the victim slowly bled to death,

Upon the rolling chords rung out his dying breath."

CHAPTER VI.

TO

UNCERTAINTY AS TO WHO WERE THE FIRST MISSIONARIES BRITAIN. ROME IS STILL HEATHEN.-ALBAN, THE MARTYR.-ROME RECEIVES THE GOSPEL.-BRITISH BISHOPS ATTEND COUNCILS.-ERRORS.

It is quite uncertain who first preached the gospel in Britain. Some missionaries are supposed to have come very soon after the Saviour's Ascension. It is thought that they may have joined the Roman armies, who at that time crossed the British Channel. If so, how different the message that these travelling companies brought! The Roman soldier came to kill and overthrow; the Christian, to speak of "peace on earth, and good-will towards men. We should gladly know the names of the first British missionaries, but it cannot be. Some writers have supposed that St. Paul, St. James, or other of the Apostles, came to our shores; others, that Joseph of Arimathea, or the disciples

of Polycarp, were the founders of Christianity in Britain, these are mere guesses; but it is a well-known fact that the gospel was preached in Britain, while Rome was still a heathen city. And as Christianity at that time was a despised religion, and the difficulties of travelling were very great, and nothing of worldly honour or wealth was to be got by teaching the gospel, we may be quite sure that whoever brought the glad tidings of a Saviour first to Britain, were brave and self-denying men, full of the love of God, which love they showed forth in the way He had commanded, by loving their fellow-creatures.

These first Christians saw in the British "barbarians" and the Roman heathens brethren. One Everlasting Father loved them all. One Saviour had died to redeem all men every where out of the power of Satan, and to make all men one in Him, — this their hearts burned to tell; that He who had died was alive; and by them called all men to live the life of new men in Him. Most likely