On the first preaching of the Gospel, the Lord greatly increased the nation of them that are Israelites indeed.
In following ages the Lord still continued to increase them; hence the remarkable words of an ancient apologist for Christianity (Tertullian), who openly told the heathen “that this despised sect had filled their cities and provinces, their councils and camps, the palace and the senate house, and what not,--that such was their multitude that should they have withdrawn themselves into some remote part of the world, the empire would have been depopulated and left in dismal solitude and silence.” (R. Macculloch.)
