with dignity over the see of Smyrna. When the persecution under Aurelius commenced, it raged with extreme fury in Asia Minor. Polycarp concealed himself in a village, but two slaves, under the influence of a bribe, betrayed the place of his retirement. He exclaimed, The will of God be done.' He then ordered food to be prepared for the officers of justice, and requested time for prayer, in which he spent two hours. He was conducted on a day of great public concourse towards Smyrna. On his way he was met by Herod the Irenarch, and his father Nicetas, who with much respect took him into their own carriage. The Christians imagined they heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Polycarp, be firm.' On his refusal to salute the Emperor by the title of Lord, and to sacrifice to the heathen gods, he was thrust out of the carriage, and conducted to the stadium. The people shouted aloud that Polycarp had been taken. The Proconsul entreated him, in regard to his age, to disguise his name. He refused, and proclaimed aloud that he was Polycarp. Swear,' it was said, 'by the genius of Cæsar; retract and say, Away with the godless.' The godless was the term by which the Pagans, with the usual injustice of bigotry and ignorance, designated the Christians. The old man, with his eyes turned upwards, said, ' Away with the godless!' The Proconsul urged him further, 'Swear, and I release thee; blaspheme Christ.' Polycarp replied, "Eighty and six years have I served Christ, and He has never done me wrong; how can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?' The Proconsul threatened to expose

him to the wild beasts. It is well for me,' said Polycarp, to be speedily released from this life of misery.' The Proconsul threatened to burn him. I fear not

the fire that burns for a moment; thou knowest not that which burns for ever and ever.' The Jews and Heathens heaped up fuel for a pile; Polycarp in a prayer to God exclaimed, I thank Thee that Thou hast graciously thought me worthy of this day and this hour, that I may receive a portion in the number of thy martyrs, and drink of Christ's cup for the resurrection to eternal life, both of body and soul, in the incorruptibleness of the Holy Spirit, among whom may I be admitted this day.' The fire was kindled, but would not burn, and an executioner was at once sent to dispatch the aged martyr.

Such were the Christians in their days of trial.

We have in the memorable correspondence between Trajan and Pliny, a record of the treatment of the early Christians by a wise emperor and an enlightened governor.

It was about the 111th or 112th year of the Christian era that Pliny informed the Emperor that certain Christians had been denounced to him. He had spared no pains to ascertain the nature and acts of this new sect; he had not scrupled to put to the torture two maid servants who ministered at their worship, and attended their meals. But all his investigations only enabled him to report, that they had a custom of meeting before daylight, and singing a hymn to Christ, as to a god. They met again in the day and partook of food, but of a perfectly innocent kind. They had no

unlawful bond of union, but were under obligation to each other, not to commit theft, robbery, adultery, or fraud. They held it a point of duty to restore to the depositors any goods committed to their custody. Upon this information Pliny, acting upon some law to us unknown, or perhaps in accordance with the general maxims of the empire, required them to worship the bust of the Emperor, and to curse Christ. Those who did so were permitted to depart; those who refused were led away to execution.

Trajan approved what Pliny had done, but desired him not to search for persons who had adopted the new sect, which he seems, like his delegate, to consider as a harmless, though superstitious community, and above all not to encourage spies, which he says is a thing of the worst example, and not suitable to the spirit of the

age.

Hadrian in a similar spirit, but with more toleration, decreed that Christians should not be condemned, except upon full evidence, and according to the forms used in other criminal trials. Philip II. of Spain and Louis XIV. of France were not so merciful.

Here perhaps it may be well to remark, that the language of Paul's epistles, in which he orders obedience to the temporal power of the Cæsars, and declares that the powers that be are ordained of God, should be understood to have reference not to the occasional acts of tyranny and cruelty of Nero or Domitian, which extended to no great distance from Rome, but to the regular course of jurisprudence, and the legal tribunals of the vast Roman empire. We may read in the Old

Testament the abundant proofs of caprice, self-will, and 'inhumanity of the Eastern kings. In the book of Esther for instance, when the Jews were denounced, an edict went forth that all the Jews were to be killed. When the influence of Esther obtained the revocation of this bloody edict, it was ordered, not that the Jews should be let alone, but that they should be at liberty to kill their persecutors. In the same spirit was the order, under pain of death, to worship the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Far different and far better was the administration of justice under the laws and influence of Rome. A man accused was entitled to be heard, and to be brought before his accusers face to face. It was to this open trial and fair hearing of an accused person, that Paul desired respect to be paid; it was in accordance with this regular course of justice that Hadrian decreed that Christians should receive protection and safety.

It has often been repeated that the morality of the Gospel was not different from, or superior to, that taught by the best heathen philosophers, and that precepts to do unto others as we would wish others to do unto us, might be learnt from the doctrines of Zeno or Epicurus. But much depends on the trust placed in the teacher. Compare the authority of Seneca, rolling in wealth, living in the lap of luxury, and suspected not unjustly of being an accomplice in the murder of Agrippina, with the affection and reverence inspired by Christ, who, after a life of purity, without a house wherein to lay his head, was content to suffer death, calling to God, Not my will

but thine be done;' suffering ignominy for the sake of mankind, going to his God and to our God, with a humble submission to the dishonour of Golgotha,' in the faith that his commandments, honestly obeyed, would tend to the happiness of mankind, and open the gates of immortality. It was under this influence that the little congregation in Bithynia, sang hymns to Christ before daylight; it was in obedience to his commandments that they abstained from theft, from embezzlement, from adultery. It was under the powerful exhortations of St. John, of St. Paul, of Polycarp, and their followers, that the Christian community spread and grew throughout the Roman empire. Nor was this teaching uniformly or even generally persecuted. The writings of Justin Martyr and Tertullian, the apostolical letters of Clement of Rome to his colleague of Corinth; the invectives against pagan idolatry, and the proofs afforded of the Divine mission of Christ, were circulated throughout the empire. The glorious result is thus briefly but impressively related by Gibbon. Referring to the gradual decline and growing weakness of the Roman empire he writes, 'While that great body was invaded by open violence, or undermined by slow decay, a pure and humble religion slowly insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigour from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of the Capitol.'1

The great author who wrote these words has himself assigned the virtues of the first Christians as 1 Gibbon, chap. xv. vol. ii. p. 265.