This title might lead one to expect a history of the rise of Christianity to the opening of the second century or possibly covering the first three centuries, but actually the book is a collection of essays and addresses on topics connected with the history of Christianity. These essays, written by the renown Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Catholic University at Washington, D.C., do not give a connected account of the events of early Church history, but many valuable insights. Among the subjects treated are St. Paul, Teacher of the Nations; Slavery and Free Labor in Pagan Rome, The Origin of Christmas, Women in the Early Christian Communities, etc. Considered not as a narrative, but as a series of historical discourses , the volume is interesting from its fluency and eloquence and abundance of fact and incident.