obstacles and hindrances. These are bound up with the providential facilities of which we have spoken: they arise from the same quarters—Jewish, Greek, Roman—and at first sight they seem to counterbalance the help given. In the end, however, they will prove to have been largely blessings in disguise, furthering in one way or another the many-sided development of the Church’s life. Prominent among these hindrances is the relation in which the nascent Church found herself placed with regard to the