Douglas Stones > Quotes

“How many, if they were once his enemies, become his disciples. By simply learning about them, they soon begin to hate what they once were and to profess what they once hated. And the number of these is so great that they attract your concern. The clamor is that the state is full of Christians - who are in the fields, in the villages, on the islands; lamentations arise, as if by some calamity, people of both sexes, of all ages and conditions, even the upper class, are converting to the profession of Christian faith.”
― Douglas Stones, Tertullian: Apology

“But someone argues: one thing is not good simply because the crowds convert to it, because how many are by their nature inclined to what is evil? How many turn to the ways of error?! That is true, no doubt. Yet a completely evil thing, not even those who are led to it dare defend it as good. Nature conceals all that is evil with a veil, whether of fear or shame. For instance, you see that criminals get anxious to hide themselves, avoid appearing in public, get trembling when they are hunted, deny their guilt when they are accused and, even when they are submitted to torture, they don't confess easily, they don't always confess; and when there is no doubt about their guilt, they regret what they did. In their confessions they admit to having been impelled by evil dispositions, they even blame either fate or the stars. They are unable to recognize that it came from them, because they themselves know that it is evil.”
― Douglas Stones, Tertullian: Apology

“Gentile cruelties will not harm Christians; on the contrary, 'the blood of Christians is like seed that sprouts'" ().”
― Douglas Stones, Tertullian: Apology