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.. meta::
   :PG.Id: 42895
   :PG.Title: Arius the Libyan
   :PG.Released: 2013-06-08
   :PG.Rights: Public Domain
   :PG.Producer: Al Haines
   :DC.Creator: Nathan Chapman Kouns
   :DC.Title: Arius the Libyan
   :DC.Language: en
   :DC.Created: 1914
   :coverpage: images/img-cover.jpg

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ARIUS THE LIBYAN
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      ARIUS
      THE LIBYAN

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      *A ROMANCE*
      *OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH*

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      BY
      NATHAN CHAPMAN KOUNS

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      NEW YORK AND LONDON
      D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
      1914 

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      COPYRIGHT BY
      D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
      1883.

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      Printed in the United States of America

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   CONTENTS.

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   BOOK I.

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   CHAPTER

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I.  `Locus in Quo`_
II.  `To Us a Child is Born: to Us a Son is Given`_
III.  `How Men lived in the Kingdom of Heaven`_
IV.  `Fine Training for a Christian Man`_
V.  `A Pagan Hermit, Old and Gray`_
VI.  `Flotson of the Middle Sea`_
VII.  `Theckla finds One God and heareth of Another`_
VIII.  `Who is Hapi?`_
IX.  `The Democracy of Faith`_
X.  `Faith and Philosophy`_
XI.  `"For the Work's Sake"`_
XII.  `The One Thing Needful`_
XIII.  `The Net Result of Law`_
XIV.  `The Blind Receive their Sight`_
XV.  `Love and Parting`_
XVI.  `Before the Temple of Serapis`_
XVII.  `Crucified unto the World`_

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   BOOK II.

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I.  `"His Most Catholic Majesty"`_
II.  `A Naval Question`_
III.  `The Politics of Religion`_
IV.  `The Prophecy of Gaius`_
V.  `A Born Ecclesiastic`_
VI.  `The One Great Battle of Christendom!`_
VII.  `The Subversion of the Primitive Church`_
VIII.  `The Abdication of Constantine`_
IX.  `"I have no Superior but Christ"`_
X.  `The Communion of the Saints`_
XI.  `One Jot that passed from the Law`_
XII.  `An Imperial Repentance`_
XIII.  `Well done, Good and Faithful Servant`_

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.. _`LOCUS IN QUO`:

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   ARIUS THE LIBYAN.

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   BOOK I.

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   CHAPTER I.

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   LOCUS IN QUO.

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A long time ago, Etearchus, King of Axus, in Crete,
married a second wife (as many better men have also
done), and she persuaded him to get rid of Phronime,
the pretty daughter of his former spouse.  Thereupon
Etearchus agreed with a merchant of Thera that he would
take Phronime away in his ship and let her down into
the sea.  The merchant, true to the letter of his bargain,
did let her down into the sea, but true also to that
natural tenderness toward a pretty woman which inspires the
breast of every man who is fit for anything in this world,
he quickly drew her up again by a rope which he had
fastened around her lissome waist for that purpose, and
conveyed her safely enough to Thera.

There Phronime met another man, Polymnestus by
name, a descendant of the ancient Minyæ, who also had a
keen eye for feminine beauty, and him she married.  By
this Polymnestus our Phronime gave birth to a
man-child, who grew up to be a terrible stammerer, and was
therefore called Battus.

And afterward, when Grinus, the Theran king, made
a pilgrimage to the oracle of Delphi to see whether the
oracle would tell him some remedy for a fearful drought
which then afflicted all the land of Thera, Battus the
Stammerer went along with him to see whether the same
sacred oracle would tell him some remedy by which to
cure himself of stuttering.  To both of these suppliants
the oracle made the same answer, and this answer was as
follows: "FOUND A CITY IN LIBYA!"  But they did
not know where Libya was, and were, therefore, very
low-spirited about finding any cure for the drought and for
the stammering; until it chanced that upon their homeward
voyage they fell in with an ancient fisherman, Corobius
by name, who had once been driven by storms upon the
African coast, and he undertook to pilot them to Libya.

And afterward, it was about 630 B.C., Battus the
Stutterer went with a colony to Libya, and founded there the
city of Cyrene, almost ten miles from the Mediterranean,
nearly two thousand feet above the level of the sea, with
the grand Barcan mountains rising between it and the great
desert of the same name.  From this colony afterward
sprang (Pentapolis, the Grecian five-cities) Cyrene, Bernice,
Arsinoë, Barca, and Apollonia.

Thus far testifieth Herodotus, the father of history,
who, if not always entirely trustworthy, is certainly no
greater liar than the rest of the tribe.

Battus became king of all Cyrenaica, and his descendants,
by the name of Battidæ, did rule that land, and
maintain the prosperity of Cyrene through eight generations,
until the Ptolemies of Egypt conquered the country,
and under their patronage Apollonia, the seaport, became
the chief city.

It would be a great error to suppose that because Cyrene
was on the northern coast of Africa, and near the vast and
arid Barcan Desert, it was therefore an unpleasant seat.  On
the contrary, it may well be doubted whether a more
delightful locality can be found on earth.  All Pentapolis is
remarkably healthful and pleasant, especially Cyrene and
its vicinity.  The lofty mountain-range slopes gently away
to the very sands of earth's middle sea, the waters of which
temper the heat of the climate, while the high mountains
lying farther inland ward off the hot blasts of the
desert.  In Cyrene, and between the city and the sea, a
luxuriant soil produces almost every fruit, flower, and
grain known to both tropical and temperate latitudes.  The
grand fountain of Apollo, which the Arabs of our age
call 'Ain Sahât, gushed up in the very midst of it.  The
mean temperature is 85° Fahr., and the variations thereof
are gradual and insignificant.

In the year 26 B.C., Apion, the last lineal descendant
of the Egyptian Ptolemies, bequeathed the city to the
Romans.

Cyrene, so happily situated, became noted, not only for
its prosperity and salubriousness, but for the intellectual
life and activity of its inhabitants.  It long possessed a
famous medical school; it gave to fame Callimachus, the
poet; Carneades, the founder of the new academy at
Athens; Aristippus, the disciple of Socrates; Eratosthenes,
the Polyhistor; and Synesius, one of the most elegant of
ancient Christian writers.

Not far from beautiful and prosperous Cyrene, on one
of those gentle declivities which were washed by the waters
of the Mediterranean, there was, in A.D. 265, a comfortable
stone farm-house, pleasantly located in the midst of a
considerable tract of cultivated lands.  The farm faced a
small bay and the limitless sea northwardly; southwardly
the high range of the Barcan mountains rolled grandly away,
their nearer slopes inclosing the farm between the highlands
and the bay, and imparting to the beautiful place a most
attractive sense of quiet and seclusion from the busy world.
The house was one story high, containing seven rooms, and
the ground plan of it was exactly the outline of a cross,
there being four rooms and a portico in the length thereof,
and three in its greatest width.

At this house, in the last-named year, was born a
man-child, whose fate it was to become one of the grandest,
purest, least understood, and most systematically misrepresented
characters in human history--Arius the Libyan, the
Heretic--whose fortunes, good and evil, whose experiences,
heterodox or orthodox, shall be followed in these pages
with genuine love and admiration, with profoundest pity
also, and yet with a sincere desire to deal justly with his
grand and beautiful memory, seeking to "nothing
extenuate nor set down aught in malice."





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.. _`TO US A CHILD IS BORN: TO US A SON IS GIVEN`:

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   CHAPTER II.


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   TO US A CHILD IS BORN: TO US A SON IS GIVEN.

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The family resident at the Libyan farm-house consisted
of only the swarthy Egyptian Ammonius; his young wife
Arete, who, although an Egyptian, had somehow acquired
a purely Greek name, a fact which indicated vast
influence that the great Grecian city of Alexandria had long
exerted over Egypt; and an old female domestic that had
belonged to Arete's mother during even her girlhood, and
was called Thopt, the abbreviation of some ancient Coptic
name, the letters of which still served to point out the fact
that in her infancy she had been dedicated to the service
of some one of the gods of the Nile.

The tropical sun was just rising along the Libyan
coasts, when old Thopt came into the apartment in which
sat Ammonius awaiting news of his wife, bearing in her
arms a creature that was swaddled up in such innumerable
bandages that it looked like a new and diminutive
mummy, and, presenting this pygmy to the father, the old
woman said: "It is a man-child, and a fine one!  But he
hath a forehead like a ram."

And Ammonius carefully but awkwardly took the parcel
into his own hands, and looked upon it with curious
emotion, whereupon the manikin began to cry so suddenly
and vigorously that Ammonius would have let it drop
upon the floor if old Thopt had not seized it just as the
lapse began.

"How fareth the little man's mother?" said he, "and
may I not go in to see her immediately?"

"She rallieth from her trial wonderfully," answered
old Thopt, "and even now inquireth after thee."

And the great, rough, swarthy man went into his wife's
room, and, bending over her, he kissed her with exceeding
tenderness: "May the Lord help thee, mother," he said,
"for thou art mother now, and doubly dear to me!"

"Bless thee, husband!" said Arete; "and remember
that thou hast promised me that, if the babe should prove
to be a boy, thou wouldst have him educated for the
ministry of Christ.  May the Lord raise him up for his own
glory!"

"Amen!" replied Ammonius, fervently.  "I did so promise
thee, Arete, and will so do if the Lord will.  Already
our pleasant farm is so famous for its excellent cattle, that
whereas I did call the house Baucalis because, when the
wind bloweth from the east, the water runneth through
the narrow entrance into the little bay, with a murmur like
the gurgling of wine from a bottle, the neighbors call the
place Boucalis because they say that no land in all Cyrenaica
produceth more or better cattle.  So, little mother, thou
need not fear but that with the cattle and with shipments
of corn to Alexandria, whence the merchants transport it
unto Puteoli and Rome far across the sea, we shall be able
to give thy boy all proper training to become a presbyter,
or even a bishop, if he liveth and showeth a godly disposition."

"And thou wilt never let the love of gain, nor of worldly
honors, grow upon thee until thou shalt repent thee of
this purpose, and so determine that it would be better for
the boy to betake himself to business affairs and acquire
wealth rather than to serve God wholly?"

"Nay, verily," cried Ammonius; "for the matter lieth
nearer to my heart than even thou knowest, Arete."

"For what reason, then, good husband?"

"I have often told thee, little mother, that I was a
boy in a temple on the Nile, dedicated to Amun, or
Ammon, as mine idolatrous name doth signify, and that at an
early age I fled therefrom and betook myself to the river
and to the sea, and did prosper so that I got first an interest
in a ship, and afterward the sole ownership thereof, and
made many long and prosperous voyages.  I have told
thee, also, in all details, how, on a voyage from Alexandria
unto Italy, the storm drove us upon a rocky island where
our destruction seemed imminent, until, while we all were
momently expecting death, a quiet and almost unnoticed
passenger, who had come from Antioch unto Alexandria and
was journeying with us to Puteoli, did pray for us to Jesus
Christ, and stilled the storm, and so saved the ship and all
our lives.  I have often told thee how this good Bishop of
Antioch did lead me into the knowledge and love of
Christ, and how I sold my ship and cargo, and gave one
half of my property to the Church, that other Egyptians
might be converted, and with the other moiety bought this
farm, having known the pleasant coasts of Cyrenaica for
many years; and then returned to Alexandria to bring
thee hither that we might as stewards of the Lord manage
this estate together.  But I did not tell thee that when
the bishop asked me whether I experienced any vocation
for the preaching of the word, and I did tell the holy man
that neither natural gifts nor education fitted me for that
sacred calling, I did then vow to the Lord that if any son
were given unto me I would teach him as far as I might be
able to do in the love and learning of the gospel, and
would send him unto Antioch to be more thoroughly
instructed.  So thou seest, dear little mother, that not only
thine and mine own inclinations, but also mine obligation
given unto God, bindeth me to bestow upon the boy all the
teaching I can give unto him, and to afford to him every
reasonable opportunity for greater learning.  And I pray
that he may escape the physical infirmity which, even
more than the lack of learning, hath kept me from the
public ministry of the word!"

"It is a strange and perplexing thing," laughed Arete,
"and yet amusing.  For all the Christians of our region rely
upon thy strong good sense and modest learning in every
private matter, whether of business or of religion; yet
it seemeth so pitiful that, if thou standest upon thy
feet to speak to any assembly, thou dost straightway
begin to jerk and wriggle like a serpent, and to hiss and
stammer so that thou canst not talk intelligibly, although
thou hast more brains and learning than many who are
eloquent."

"I long thought it to be my duty to try to overcome
these physical defects, but, if at any time my heart is
deeply moved, I can not talk, and it is useless to try it any
more.  We shall strive both by teaching and by prayer to
train the boy better."

"Dost thou not remember, Ammonius, that evening in
our boat upon the dear old Nile, what a distressful time
thou didst endure in thine attempt to ask me to become
thy wife?"  And the little woman laughed and laughed
until her eyes were full of happy tears.

"Yea," answered Ammonius, "nor indeed do I think
that I did ever ask thee at all.  I did, after many efforts,
get thee to say what words thou wouldst have a man use
who loved thee and wanted thee to be his wife, and all I
could do was to cry out, 'I say that to thee, Arete--I say
all that and more!' and in mine embarrassment verily I
could utter nothing else!"

"But," laughed the little woman, "afterward I did
make thee say the words over and over again, albeit I
might almost as soon have trained a parrot to repeat them."

"But I trust thou hast never regretted the trouble
thou didst take in teaching me how to court thee," said
Ammonius.

"Nay, verily," she answered, "but I think it was the
most amusing courtship that hath ever happened."

And, while husband and wife pleasantly conversed, old
Thopt brought the child back to his mother, and
announced that Christian women from other farms along the
coast had come to offer their congratulations and any
assistance that might be needed.  It was singular to observe
that while the adjacent country, from Apollonia to
Cyrene, and all around, was settled by Egyptians, Greeks,
Jews, and Romans, and while some women and girls of
all of these nationalities, during the next few days, made
visits of sympathy to the family at Baucalis, none came
except those who were known to each other to be Christians,
no matter what their nationality might be.  Practically the
faith of Jesus had broken down all ethnic, social, and
political barriers among those who professed it; and the
only class distinction which was recognized at all was
between those who were Christians and those who were not.
The persecution, which had begun seven years before under
the Emperor Valerian, had raged in Libya as fiercely as in
any portion of the Roman Empire, and, although intermittent
in its character, there had quite recently been cruelties
enough, extending in some instances to martyrdom, chiefly
at the instigation of Jewish and pagan priests, to render it
necessary for the Christians to conduct their religious rites
and social intercourse with a certain degree of secrecy, and
to preserve their ancient means of instantaneous recognition
in constant use, so that, when a Christian might meet
any one who was not familiarly known to him, an almost
imperceptible sign served as a challenge by which he was
instantly enabled to tell, without an inquiry or a spoken
word, whether the stranger might be a Christian or not.
Of course, if any one came who failed to recognize the
sign, another movement, almost as imperceptible, served to
warn all Christians present that there was one near them
who did not profess their faith; so that there was little
danger in their usual intercourse with each other or with
their pagan neighbors.

On the eighth day after the birth of the boy, a few
Christians assembled at the farm, and the services of a
presbyter of Cyrene were procured.  They first engaged
in singing and in prayer, and then a portion of the gospel
was read and the communion administered, after which
the child was baptized.  Preparatory to this ceremony
there was quite a discussion among them as to the name
by which the boy should be baptized, the young mother
being desirous to call him by the name of some of the holy
men who had suffered martyrdom for Jesus, or had
otherwise become especially dear and honored throughout the
Christian communities.  To this the fatal objection was
urged that such a selection of a name might arouse
evil-minded neighbors to the fact that there were Christians
among them, and so render the family unnecessarily and
perhaps dangerously obnoxious to the malice of any who
might ever harbor ill-will against them.  Ammonius
insisted upon calling the boy after the name of a Roman who
had been his partner in the old sea-faring days, and whom
he had highly esteemed, although he might be still a pagan
so far as Ammonius knew; and so the child was finally
christened "Arius."

"It is almost the Greek name of the god of war whom
the heathen worship," said the presbyter.

"He shall be a warrior," answered Ammonius--"a soldier
of Christ; and the military designation is not
inappropriate."

"It is almost the name for a ram!" said another.

"I desire him to become the leader of a flock," said
Ammonius, "and the name is well enough."

"It is almost the name of one of the signs of the
zodiac," said another.

"I pray that the boy's thoughts and hopes may be
fixed upon celestial things," said Ammonius, "and the
name is well enough."

"It almost signifies that he shall be most lean and
spare," said yet another.

"I would not desire him to look like a glutton or a
drunkard," said Ammonius, "and surely the name is well
enough."

"It may signify 'entreated' or 'supplicated,' or 'execrated,'
or 'accursed,'" said the presbyter, "and is certainly
a strange name."

"I would ever have him sought after by the good and
hated by the evil," answered Ammonius, "and I will not
change the name.  Let him be called Arius.  Besides," he
added, "what is in a name?  Mine own idolatrous name
signifieth 'dedicated to Am-un,' yet I hope ye take me to
be a Christian.  I call the farm Baucalis, from the murmur
of the waters on the garden shore, but ye call it Boucalis,
because it breedeth good cattle.  Arius!--what doth it
matter whether it meaneth this or that?  I know it for
the name of an honorable man and faithful friend, and, if
the boy become what I hope to see him, he shall make both
the name Baucalis and Arius loved and honored by the
faithful everywhere.  If he turneth out ill, a prouder name
might be disgraced by him; therefore let him be called
Arius."

And so the babe was christened.

"I perceive," said the presbyter, after the religious
services were ended and all of them partook of suitable
refreshments and engaged in conversation, "that thou
hast fixed thy heart upon having this child devoted unto
the service of our Lord.  It seemeth strange to me that,
having such a pious desire for him, thou that art learned
and intelligent hast never thyself sought to preach the
gospel of our Lord!"

"I might truly have rejoiced so to do," answered
Ammonius, "but that the python's influence prevented me."

"The python!" exclaimed the presbyter; "why, brother,
what can the serpent have to do with thee?"

"This," replied Ammonius.  "Some time before I
came into the world, at Alexandria, to which great city
strangers resort from the four quarters of the world even as
unto imperial Rome, there came certain priests out of
India to witness the ceremonies of a great festival in honor
of a new Apis, and in their train certain jugglers who
wrought various wonders, and carried with them immense
pythons which they had charmed and rendered harmless.
While my mother stood on the propylon of our house,
watching the vast procession, one of the pythons, that had
its tail entwined round the neck and body of an Indian
passing below, suddenly sprang up out of its coil erect, and
brandished its hideous head before my mother's face, so
that she fainted thereat with terror.  When I came into
the world she was horrified at being able to trace out in
the conformation of my head and face the similitude of
the cobra; and with many prayers and offerings she had
me early dedicated to Ammon, thinking that perchance
the idol might remove the peculiarity of my features
which made me loathsome in her sight by continually
recalling the fearful image of the python.  As I grew older,
this conformation largely faded out, but all my life,
whenever my feelings or passions are aroused, involuntary action
of the muscles runneth from the feet upward, and maketh
me to writhe like a serpent, and throweth a sibilant
sharpness into my voice, so that anything like public speaking is
well-nigh impossible to me; and I am compelled to master
all emotions and to preserve a perfect serenity of mind, in
order to avoid this serpentine appearance which is distressful
to some and fearful unto others, and am compelled to
speak in the slow, methodical manner thou hearest.  But
for this affliction, I would gladly have entered into the
public service of the Master.  God grant that my boy
inherit not this strange malady!  Pray thou for him."

"Yea, most gladly and earnestly will I," said the
presbyter.  "But repine thou not, my brother; for, although
thou preachest not publicly, thy godly walk and conversation
are a living sermon, which all who know thee must
ponder with delight and edification."

And afterward the presbyter departed, and all who
had attended the service went each one his own way, with
sincerest benedictions upon the little family of Baucalis,
and warmest sympathy with the earnest desire of the
parents that their babe might live and grow up to be a
minister of Christ.





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.. _`HOW MEN LIVED IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN`:

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   CHAPTER III.


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   HOW MEN LIVED IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

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Soon the ripple of excitement caused by the arrival of
the young Arius at the Baucalis farm passed away, and the
life of the dwellers there resumed its wonted quiet.
Ammonius, generally bareheaded and naked from the waist
up and from the knees down, as the custom of the country
was, his olive skin glistening with healthful perspiration,
pursued the various labors of the farm, and his wife
attended to the fruits and vegetables nigh the house; and
old Thopt prepared their food, and did the washing which
their simple style of living rendered necessary; and both
women devoted the hours not otherwise employed to the
manufacture of woolen, cotton, and linen goods for domestic
uses.  Neither Jewish, Greek, nor Roman women generally
adopted the luxurious manners and elegance of dress and
ornament common to noble or opulent Egyptians; and
those Egyptians who dwelt in the agricultural portions of
Cyrenaica, especially those who were Christians, followed
the simpler manners of the same classes among their
neighbors.  At the Baucalis farm everything about the
house was scrupulously clean and neat, manifestly
designed for comfort and convenience, nothing for ostentation.
In the business of the place, out-doors and in-doors,
there was never seen any of that driving spirit which
indicates a thirst for accumulation, but all duties were
prosecuted as if reasonable diligence were esteemed to be both
a duty and a pleasure.  At the end of a year's labor
Ammonius would have felt no concern at all if he had found
that he had not gained a single coin beyond the sum
requisite to pay taxes, but he would have experienced a
humiliating sense of shame and unworthiness if the
occupant of so fine a farm had failed to have enough and to
spare for every call of charity, for every reasonable claim
upon his hospitality, or for liberal contribution to every
work in which the Church was interested.  Corn, wheat, and
barley, variously prepared for table use, a large variety of
fruits both preserved and fresh, and many kinds of vegetables,
formed their chief food.  Fish of choice kinds, and in great
abundance, was in common use, and domestic fowls were
raised by all.  The consumption of flesh was not an
everyday thing with these simple and healthful people.  Twice,
or, at most, thrice a week neighbors would club together
and kill and part among themselves a kid or sheep.  Beef
was little used among them, and was raised for market
chiefly.  Swine's flesh they never used, and they wondered
at the Roman appetite for coarse, strong meat dishes.
The light, pleasant wine made everywhere along the coast
was in general use among them all.  The every-day dress
of both sexes was cotton cloth, a short kilt reaching from
the shoulder to the knee, and over this, when not actively
at work, a loose gown covering the person from neck to
ankle, and confined at the waist with a girdle or sash of
bright-colored cloth.  They had garments of finest wool
and linen for extraordinary occasions.

In this region the Christian communities were not
formally organized upon the communistic basis of the
primitive Church, because all of them were in a nearly
equally prosperous condition, and there were none among
them who were "poor" in the sense of requiring assistance.
The few that were in any way incapacitated for earning a
livelihood were related by ties of blood to one or more
families, able and always willing to afford them every needful
comfort and assistance.  But no Christian family was ever
known to refuse anything for which a needy person asked,
in money, clothing, food, or whatever they possessed; and
in this respect it made little difference what might be
the religion or nationality of the applicant.  To refuse to
give to one that asked would have seemed to any of these
Christians to be a wicked, almost sacrilegious, violation of
the very words of Jesus: "*Give to him that asketh, and
from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou
away.*"  They regarded all property of Christians as in the
ownership of the Church, and themselves only as stewards
intrusted with the management of this or that portion
thereof.  Hence every call of presbyter or bishop for
assistance to less fortunate communities, and every individual
application for aid, was gladly and promptly responded
to; and they regarded it as part of their profession of faith
to find some healthful occupation for every one that was
able and willing to do anything for the common good.  In
the cities of Cyrenaica were many Christians engaged in
multiform avocations, but even there the Christian
communities were so temperate and diligent that few among
them wanted anything; and the union of the faithful
furnished such a perfect safeguard against the ills of life that
they were not only able to care for those of their own
number who might be overtaken by any calamity, but
were always able and willing to afford assistance to foreign
communities less fortunately situated, when requested so
to do.  In short, all and far more than modern "poor-laws,"
Masonic, Odd-Fellows', and other eleemosynary
associations, marine, life, and fire companies, have been
enabled to do toward the amelioration of the condition
of the unfortunate, was far more perfectly accomplished
by these Christian communities, that recognized as a
matter of faith the principle of all human charity which
extends beyond mere alms-giving, *that the average
prosperity of the community should extend to each individual
thereof when overtaken by any misfortune*--a redeeming
principle which Jesus and his apostles taught in its most
perfect and effective form as the "communion of saints,"
the partnership or fellowship of the holy
([Greek: *koinônia ton hagiôn*]);
community of property and rights among all who
believe; a principle which good men have been vainly
seeking to restore in some form ever since the subversion
of Christianity, in the fourth century, by the agency of
numberless nugatory statutes and associations; a divine
truth which in its Christless forms of "communism,"
"socialism," and "Nihilism," now threatens the very
existence of law and order throughout Christendom; a system
perhaps impossible to any government which recognizes
the legality of private-property rights, and is therefore
committed to Mammon-worship.

But these Christians had learned a higher truth than any
known to human laws: they were the owners of nothing;
they were only stewards of their Lord's goods; the wealth
which they accumulated and held for the common good
was to them "true riches"; the wealth which any
individual held for himself and his own private aggrandizement
was the "mammon of unrighteousness."  Hence no
Christian could be in want while the community was
prosperous; no community could suffer while any other
communities accessible to them by land or sea had anything
to spare; and the faith of Christ made the general
prosperity of all Christians insure the individual prosperity of
each one; so that there were no "rich" and no "poor"
among them.

Plato's dreams of a perfect community ("Republic")
admitted human slavery--Jesus Christ taught the
freedom, equality, and fraternity of all men: Sir Thomas
More's "Utopia" abolished marriage, and proposed to
hold women in common--Jesus Christ elevated marriage
into a sacrament; denied man's right to "hold" woman
at all; proclaimed freedom and equality *for her* also,
repudiating the universal idea that she was a chattel, and
teaching that she is a soul endowed with the same rights,
duties, and responsibilities as are inherent in the soul of
man.  Modern reformers propose to "divide" out all
property, and limit individual acquisitions thereof; but
Jesus proposed to divide out nothing, and to limit
nothing; but, that all things should be accumulated, owned,
and used in common, as every one hath need, just as
air, and sunlight, and the boundless sea are common.  The
word "catholic" ([Greek: *kata holos*]) was unknown to Jesus and
the New Testament; the word "common" ([Greek: *koiyos*]) was
the key to all of his teachings, social, spiritual, and
political.

The only relation which these Christians sustained to
the "government" of Cyrenaica, or to that of Rome, was
to pay the taxes demanded of them; and they had no
concern as to who might be emperor or proconsul, except so
far as these rulers might be disposed to persecute the
Christians, or otherwise.  They paid taxes, to avoid giving
offense, even as Jesus himself had paid tribute, although
born under Roman rule, and not a "stranger," and not
liable to pay tribute; but they never acknowledged the
Roman authority in any other way.  It would have been
an ineffaceable stigma on the character of a Christian to
summon another Christian before a civil magistrate for any
cause; they would not "go to law before the heathen."  If
any differences arose between any, they left it to some
of the brethren to consider the matter and adjust it; and
they considered themselves bound to abide by the settlement
reached, by bonds of faith and love stronger than human
statutes can be made.  If any became careless of right and
duty, or actively wicked, his nearest friends remonstrated
with him, and, if he refused to abandon his sinful course,
the presbyters reproved him; and, if this proved ineffectual
in working out the needed reformation, they brought the
offender before the Church, and either succeeded in drawing
him back into the right way, or, if he proved incorrigible,
they simply refused henceforth to fellowship with him,
and held him as a publican and a sinner.  They never had
recourse to any temporal penalties to enforce the law of
Christian brotherhood; knowing that no one who refused
to be controlled without the use of force was a Christian,
they publicly disowned him, and that was the end of it.
For they had been taught from the beginning that the
essential difference between the kingdom of heaven and
every other kingdom established upon earth consisted in
the fact that human governments recognize private
property-rights in estates, rank, offices, prerogatives, and seek
to enforce these legal, fictitious rights by temporal
penalties, contrary to reason and justice; while Jesus
denounced all such private rights as Mammon-worship, and
all statutes enacted to enforce them as lies of the Scribes
and Pharisees; and never fixed, and never authorized his
apostles to fix, any temporal penalties whatever.  They
understood perfectly well that the necessary and
inevitable result of all law-and-order systems is to produce
a ruling class at the top of every political fabric to
whom all of its benefits inure, an oppressed or enslaved
people at the bottom upon whose weary shoulders rest
all of the burdens and the waste of life, and between
these extremes ecclesiasticisms and an army (always on
the side of the ruling classes and against the multitudes)
seeking to adjust their mutual legal rights and duties
by the agency of bayonets and prayer--a system of laws
creating fictitious rights, creating legal offenses by the
disregard of these pretended rights, and denouncing legal
penalties.  But they knew that Jesus died as much for
the children of Barabbas as for the offspring of Herod;
and that every statute, custom, or superstition which
attempts to make one of the babies "better" than the
others is a fraud on our common humanity and a
violation of the law of Christ.  For the kingdom of heaven
was organized upon the basis of community of rights and
property among all who believe, thereby removing all
inducements to commit such crimes as treason, larceny,
and fraud, which exist only by force of the statutes
creating and punishing them; for civilization itself is the
parent of all crime except murder or lust, which might
sometimes occur from the mere ebullition of brutal
passion and instinct in low and base natures.  Hence those
Christians, who "called nothing they possessed their own,"
regarding themselves as only stewards of the Lord's goods,
held by them for the common good of all believers, had
no use for the Roman government or any other, and
cared nothing for it except so far as taxes and persecutions,
imposed or omitted, might affect the temporal welfare
of individuals and of the communities of which they
were members.  They were citizens of a kingdom in but
not of the world, desiring to be at peace with all worldly
kingdoms.  They knew that Jesus proclaimed a good
news or gospel for the poor, the very foundation-stone
of which is the absolute equality, liberty, and fraternity
of man; and they learned from the same divine Teacher
that kings, lords, nobles, all personal and class
distinctions among men, are the mere creation of legal fiction,
sustained by unjust force, like slavery and piracy, and
do not exist in the nature of things or by the will of
God; and that these laws are everywhere only the utterances
of selfishness crystallized into the form of statutes,
customs, or decrees, government over the people being
nothing more nor less than an organized expression of
faith in the ancient lie that private property (in estates,
rank, or prerogatives) is the one thing sacred in human
life, and that laws and penalties are necessary to
maintain it; which faith is the idolatry of Mammon, the only
paganism that Jesus denounced by name, and declared to
be utterly antagonistic to the worship of God.  They
understood, therefore, that in place of attempting (as all
human legislators have ever done) to provide a more
perfect law-and-order system for the protection of private
rights, our Lord designed to abolish all private property,
and with it all the unjust laws and penalties by which
the worship of Mammon is maintained.  Hence, in place
of teaching to men a better slave-code than the world
had known before, Jesus taught freedom for all men.
In place of teaching a more effective art of war, he
proclaimed the gospel of peace, love, justice.  In place of
ordaining only more wise and just regulations for governing
the intercourse of men with their female chattels, he
elevated monogamic marriage into a holy sacrament, and
applied to man and wife alike the same divine law of
personal rights, duties, and responsibilities.  In place of
teaching better laws for the government of men by other
men as erring, sinful, and selfish as themselves, he taught
that all such laws and government are unnecessary to any
people who believe that there is something more sacred,
higher, and holier than private rights, and are willing by
faith to renounce all human, statutory advantages in order
to acquire divine truth.

So in beautiful Cyrenaica, while Greek and Roman,
Egyptian and Jew, concerned themselves about politics,
and struggled for offices, and toiled beyond measure for
useless gain, the Christian communities pursued the calm
and even tenor of their way, meeting on every Sabbath for
religious services and instruction; closing each week-day's
labor with a pleasant formula of evening prayer; training
up their sons and daughters to despise all the false
statutory and customary distinctions and vanities of
worldly life "after which the Gentiles seek"; teaching them
to seek knowledge, especially the knowledge peculiar to
their faith; to love all men, especially the brethren; and
to regard this earthly life as but the threshold of a
higher, holier, and more perfect state of being that lay only
a few brief, fleeting years away from every one of them.
And so, while the sun arose and set; while the harvests
were grown and garnered; while the pure and fadeless
sea lapsed along the fertile garden of the Baucalis farm,
and new lives came upon the stage of human action, and
older ones were gathered into the rest appointed for all
the living, peace and plenty, charity and love, purity and
truth, blessed the dwellers at the stone cottage by the sea-side.





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.. _`FINE TRAINING FOR A CHRISTIAN MAN`:

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   CHAPTER IV.


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   FINE TRAINING FOR A CHRISTIAN MAN!

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The boy Arius increased in stature, and learned, even
before he had learned the alphabet, to think that he
knew and loved the Lord.  For from the time that
he could talk, daily, after the little family had
completed their healthful tasks, they spent an hour in
repeating to him, and in teaching him to repeat after
them, some simple passage out of the New Testament,
so that the child had memorized a whole gospel before
he had learned to read the written text, and become
familiar with the general course of the Old Testament
Scriptures, particularly with the salient and beautiful
narratives wherewith the sacred word abounds.  After he
grew older his father taught him both to speak and write
the Latin and Hebrew equivalent of every word in the
Greek text; so that Arius acquired the three languages
together.  The father watched with intense and painful
anxiety to ascertain whether the singular affliction which
his mother's terror of the python had entailed upon
himself had been transmitted to his son, and rejoiced to
see that, while some unmistakable traces thereof appeared
in the boy's voice and manner, they were so slight as not
only not to be unpleasantly obtrusive, but were even
attractive, as perhaps every marked peculiarity, which is of
a graceful character, is attractive in a man.

At twelve years of age, Arius was an unusually tall and
slender lad, peculiar in the shape of his bold, shaggy head,
peculiar in the length and litheness of his shapely neck,
peculiar in the mesmeric luminosity of his dark and tender
eyes, and in the singular but incisive sweetness of his voice.
He spoke, wrote, and read Greek and Latin with fluency,
and was well informed in the Hebrew tongue; and yet he
was scarcely conscious of the fact that under his father's
wise and careful training he had been a student almost
from his infancy, so steadily, easily, and gradually, had he
progressed in the acquisition of knowledge.  The New
Testament written on parchments in the uncial text; the
"Pastor of Hermas," which, in those days, was thought to
be of almost apostolical authority; and copies of some of the
letters of Polycarp, Irenæus, and Clement, were almost the
only books which Ammonius owned, as the cost of a
library in those days was enormous.  From these they would
read a few verses at a time, and translate them into Latin
as they went along.  A presbyter at Cyrene loaned them
the Old Testament, from which the boy copied and
memorized such parts as his father directed him to learn, as
having the directest bearing upon the life and doctrine of
Jesus.  The boy did his full share of labor in all the
working of the farm, and took the bath daily in the little bay on
which it fronted (as in fact all the family were accustomed
to do), and at night father, mother, and son, read and
translated from the Scriptures; and occasionally the boy was
made to stand up and repeat by rote the Apostles' Creed,
the Paternoster, the Prayer of Agur, the son of Jakeh,
Paul's beautiful hymn in praise of Agape, or some other
favorite passage, sometimes in one language and sometimes
in another.  In these little recitations, as often as the boy's
feelings were enlisted, there came a peculiar and fascinating
sibilation into his voice; his hand, chiefly the right
hand, would move and wave with a strange, easy, vibrant
motion, almost as if it involuntarily strove to accentuate
the syllables of the sonorous text; his head would dart up
and lean slightly forward from the long and shapely neck,
like the crest of some splendid cobra, peering forward
toward the hearer, and his dark eyes dilated with a strange
mesmeric light; and altogether the lad had a very peculiar
and impressive appearance.  But these slight hereditary
traces of the python's influence were never unpleasantly
obtrusive, and the father did not think it to be necessary
to impose upon the son that life-long self-restraint and
self-consciousness which, in his own case, had been requisite to
guard himself against serpentine manifestations of
emotion.  But his own long and careful effort and study in
this respect qualified him to impart to the boy a
marvelously distinct and peculiar accentuation, which made
every word he uttered as clear and perfect as a pearl--as
distinct and resonant as trumpet-notes.

But while Ammonius was thus cautious and diligent in
training his son to acquire critical exactness in his
knowledge of the philology and history of the sacred text, he
was not the less anxious to imbue his mind with the very
spirit that distills upon the faithful heart out of the words
of uncorrupted truth.  This he strove to do by continually
spurring the boy's intelligence to seek for the real
significance of our Lord's life and teachings, the differences
between his philosophy and ethics and those of other
renowned moralists and teachers; the essential differences
between the kingdom which Jesus established in the world
and all worldly kingdoms; the great fact, indeed, that
Jesus taught not only the purest ethics in a few sweeping
principles which cover the whole range of human life and
experience, but taught also social and political truth
essential to the establishment and maintenance of human rights
and liberty.  Yet the man's instructions were not dogmatic;
they belonged to no sect or system of religion or of
philosophy; they consisted chiefly in exciting in the mind
of the youth an honest desire to know the truth, and of
questions and suggestions designed to aid him in discovering
it for himself.  The manner of instruction generally
pursued by Ammonius may be gathered from one or two
of their evening exercises, like the following.

The boy read this passage: "*Now when John had heard
in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come,
or do we look for another?  Jesus answered and said unto
them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear
and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are
raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them.
And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.*"

Then said Ammonius, "What lesson dost thou understand
to be taught in this place, Arius?"

"Obviously it teacheth," answered the boy, "that
John desired to know of Jesus whether he might be 'he
that should come,' that is, Christ.  In place of answering
the question directly, he pointed them to the miracles
which they saw him even then performing, as if he knew
that these wonderful works would be sufficient to satisfy
John of his divinity.  This and other passages seem also
to show that miracles are the only proper evidence that can
be offered that Jesus is the Christ."

"All that is on the surface," answered Ammonius,
"and is well enough.  But canst thou see nothing deeper
in the words?  Is there nothing strange in the answer
of Jesus that provoketh inquiry, or needeth comment?
Read the passage again, Arius, and see what else thou
canst find in it."

Then the lad reread the passage very carefully, and he
said: "The blind receive sight: a miracle; the lame
walk: a second miracle; the lepers are cleansed: a third
miracle; the deaf hear: a fourth miracle; the dead are
raised up: a fifth and greater miracle.  It seemeth strange
to me that our Lord should add, as if it were a greater
miracle than all the others, and the crowning proof of
his Messiahship, the fact that the poor have the gospel
preached unto them.  Is it a fact, father, that before the
coming of Jesus the gospel had never been preached unto
the poor?  Was the Jewish scripture only for the rich?"

Ammonius smiled, but answered: "The rolls of the
law, the Jewish scriptures, were read on the Sabbath-day
in every synagogue, and both the rich and the poor were
required to be present and hear it.  Perhaps the gospel
of which Jesus speaks was not in the Jewish scriptures, or
else was only taught in laws and prophecies which the
Jews had not correctly interpreted."

"But it could not have been our gospel," said Arius,
"for no part of the New Testament was then written.  I
wonder what this gospel was; and why it was good news
to the poor rather than to the rich; and why our Lord
said that whoever should not take offense at the gospel was
blessed.  Why should any one take offense at it?  Why
did they crucify him for proclaiming it?  Why did the
chief priests and rulers of the people so bitterly hate the
gospel?"

"If thou wilt follow up these questions and learn the
true answers thereto," said Ammonius, "thou wilt get
hold of a fine, large truth!"

"Wilt thou aid me therein?"

"Yea, so far as I am able to do so; and to that end I
ask thee if thou canst tell what reason is repeatedly given
in the gospels why the Pharisees 'were offended' at our
Lord's teachings; why they 'derided' him; in a word,
why they hated him and his gospel?"

"Yea!  The reason that is always given for their
hatred of Jesus is that they were 'covetous'?"

"Dost thou think that the fact that they were rich
and covetous could account for their rejection of their own
scriptures, which showed them the Messiah plainly, and
in which they all believed, unless the gospel which Jesus
taught in some way antagonized their legal right to their
property?"

"Nay, verily," said the boy.  "The gospel must have
interfered with their property, or the fact that they were
'covetous' would not be given as the reason for their
hatred of Jesus."

"Then let us examine what this gospel was that was
'good news to the poor.'  Dost thou remember any other
place in which the same words occur?"

"Yea," answered Arius.  "It is written in Luke:
'*And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up:
and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the
Sabbath-day, and stood up for to read.  And there was
delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias.  And
when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is
written, The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor: he hath sent
me to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the
captives; and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at
liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord.  And he closed the book, and gave it again to
the minister, and sat down.  And the eyes of all of them
that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.  And he
began to say unto them, This day is this scripture
fulfilled in your ears.*'"

"Now canst thou find the place in Isaiah referred to in
the text?"

"Yea," replied Arius; "it readeth as follows: '*The
spirit of the Lord God* is upon me; because he hath
anointed me to *preach good tidings*.'"

"Stop," said Ammonius; "thou seest that the 'gospel'
is the same thing which the prophet calleth 'good
tidings?'"

"Yea," answered the lad, "but whence cometh this
expression of 'the acceptable year of the Lord,' and what
signifieth it?"

"It cometh from the statute of the year of jubilee,
set forth at large in the book of Leviticus.  When thou
shalt examine this statute fully, thou shalt find that it is
emphatically a law against private property, providing that
debts expire every seventh year, and that all Israel was
prohibited from seeking to make gain every seventh year,
and from saving what they had already made.  Thou wilt
see that it was a statute restoring all real estate every
fiftieth year to the original possessors thereof, and providing
for the release of all prisoners, the manumission of all
slaves, the cessation of all oppressions--a year of joy to all
that were poor and afflicted.  Thou wilt see that Isaiah,
and other prophets also, foretold that this great and
acceptable year of jubilee was simply a type of the condition,
social and political, which should be established
permanently in the kingdom of heaven: and that our Lord
declared that this prophecy was fulfilled in himself.  Thou
wilt find, if thou shalt grasp this one truth in its fullness,
that the gospel which was good news to the poor was
simply the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Christ--the
permanent establishment of 'the acceptable year';
and that the Pharisees, who were rich and 'covetous,' hated
the gospel because it required all who believe to hold all
rights and property in common for the good of all; and
they preferred their own selfish aggrandizement to the
common good of all; and thou wilt see that the chief priests and
rulers of the people conspired together to crucify Jesus,
not because they ever doubted his divinity and Messiahship,
but because they worshiped Mammon more than God.
For the same reason, Rome, that welcomed every heathen
superstition under heaven, and built a Pantheon for all
the gods, persecuted the Christians from the very
beginning, because the gospel of our Lord is eternally
opposed to Mammon-worship, war, slavery, polygamy, and
the princes and powers of the earth--a kingdom in which
Christ only is king, and all men are brethren."

"And it must have been hard for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of heaven," said Arius, "only because he
had to consecrate all earthly possessions to the common
Church, and abdicate all human titles and prerogatives."

"Yea," said Ammonius, "that was the property-law
laid down by Jesus; and it was verily easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to
comply with the law.  But thou shouldst trace this truth
through all the laws of the Jews, through all the
prophecies and through all the parables of Christ; and thou
wilt then understand how the law was a schoolmaster
leading men to Jesus.  Thou wilt understand how it is
that in the Church all are free, equal, and fraternal, while
in all other kingdoms there are kings, princes, lords;
masters, and slaves; the rich and the poor; and universal
selfishness, pride, ambition, usury, extortion, licentiousness,
oppression, and wrong; and thou wilt more and more
love and worship our blessed Lord for establishing the only
system upon which true liberty and true religion ever will
be possible for the masses of mankind."

Then the bright, patient, hopeful student resolved that
he would never cease to read and to ponder upon the
fullness of the gospel until he had thoroughly explored all
the possible bearings of the divine, social, political, and
spiritual system of our Lord upon human life, and its
relations to all other kingdoms organized on earth.  The lad
had learned more than the meaning of an isolated text;
he had found a broad principle that rests at the very basis
of all profitable reading and interpretation of the sacred
word.

And in this sort of school he learned the wisdom of the
primitive Church.





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.. _`A PAGAN HERMIT, OLD AND GRAY`:

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   CHAPTER V.


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   A PAGAN HERMIT, OLD AND GRAY.

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At the age of sixteen, the lad Arius was very
thoroughly informed in knowledge of the kingdom of heaven
as that knowledge had been taught in the Church from
the very days of Jesus and the twelve.  In those days
the only written authorities relied upon by Christians
were the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles.  The
letters of Paul, especially those written against Judaism,
the epistles of Peter, of John, of Jude, of Hermas, Irenæus,
Polycarp, and others, were held in high esteem as the
deliberate utterances of wise and pious men; but even the
humblest Christian never hesitated to quote the gospels and the
Acts against any of them with whose opinions he was
dissatisfied.  The wilderness of creeds and dogmas which in
later times grew up out of these epistles was entirely
unknown to primitive Christianity; yet the perusal of them
was advantageous to the young man in many ways.  The
journeys of Paul aroused in his active mind a keen desire
to know more of the world, and of the religion, manners,
and customs of other nations; and the knowledge that
Ammonius had acquired of different lands and peoples, both
by his sea-faring observations and by such reading and
conversation as circumstances had rendered possible to him,
seemed to have been absorbed by his son in the long years
of constant and affectionate intercourse between them;
and this was no small stock of information, for the
Mediterranean was then in every sense the "middle" sea, the
highway of the world; and it was impossible for a shrewd,
intelligent ship-owner and sailor like Ammonius to
navigate its waters for years without being brought into
personal contact with men out of every nation under heaven.

In the same way the lad had almost unconsciously
acquired an intimate knowledge of the fauna and flora of
Cyrenaica, and in fact of Northern Libya, and could name
almost every plant, animal, bird, and insect in the vicinity
of Baucalis; so that even at this early age he had laid the
foundations of future acquisitions in every department of
knowledge that was in any way accessible unto him, and
had acquired a sturdy habit of independent thought and
examination about everything that came within the range
of his observation.

On Sabbath evenings (the word Sunday was then
unknown to the Christian world) he loved to wander along
the sea-shore, or through the wooded mountains that
everywhere around Baucalis rose up from the water's edge and
rolled away like gigantic and immovable billows high and
higher southwardly toward the great Barcan plateau.

On one bright afternoon he had wandered farther
westward than ever before, going far beyond the limits of the
land appurtenant to the farm.  He was weary with climbing
over the endless hills, and reclined to rest upon a
projecting rock beneath an ample shade of forest-trees, and
gazed away over the calm and brilliant expanse of the
peaceful Mediterranean.  But not long had he rested there
when his quick ear caught the sound of slow and measured
footfalls as some unseen person paced slowly back and
forth upon a diminutive plateau that stretched still
farther westwardly along the mountain-side.  The intervening
foliage hid the person from sight, and, the lad's curiosity
being aroused by the presence of a stranger in a spot so
secluded, he quietly went forward, and a few steps brought
him to the place where this little stretch of level ground
had been carefully denuded of trees and seemed to be
cultivated as a garden.  Then he saw a tall, gray-haired,
venerable-looking man, with downcast eyes, and slow, deliberate
step, coming in his direction along a narrow walk that led
directly through the cultivated land.  Almost at the same
instant the aged man perceived him also, but quietly
pursued his way, and, when he had come near, Arius respectfully
bowed and saluted him.  The ancient returned his
salutation, and added words which the boy did not understand,
but the lad said, in the Greek tongue, then in common
use throughout Cyrenaica: "I think thou speakest
the language of Egypt, which I do not comprehend.  If
thou wilt speak in Latin or in Greek, I can understand
thy wishes or thine orders."

The old man gazed at him in astonishment, but
answered in the Greek tongue: "Surely thou art an
Egyptian!--and in the course of a long life I have never met
with a son of Egypt that could not speak his mother-tongue
if he could speak at all!"

"Yea, sir," answered Arius, "I am altogether a son of
Egypt, although born on an adjacent farm, but my parents
would never use that language, and, while they carefully
instructed me in Greek and in Latin and in Hebrew, and
in the Aramean tongue of the Israelites now in use, they
would never permit me to learn an Egyptian word."

"Strange enough!" said the ancient.  "Dost thou
know any reason why thy parents thus forbade thee to
acquire the primitive and wonderful old speech of the land
of Kem?"

"Yea, sir," answered Arius.  "I have heard my father
say that in his childhood he was placed in a temple
and dedicated to Ammon, and that when he grew older he
liked neither the temple nor the god, and fled away to
follow another course of life; and I think that he believed
the language of the Nile region to possess some peculiar
power over every son of Egypt, and that to preserve me
from that influence, whatever it may be, he desired of me
that I would never seek to learn that speech--at least not
for many years to come."

"And thy father was wise," cried the ancient; "for, if
ever the powers of darkness gave any gift to man, it surely
was the strange language of the dwellers by the Nile.
Centuries before there were any such peoples as Greeks and
Romans, centuries before the Israelites became a nation,
so long ago that the universe seems growing old since
then, and the earth itself hath nodded out of the line on
which the mighty pyramid was built up to point to the
polar star, even then, boy, the language of Egypt was a
perfect instrument of thought, adapted with superhuman
cunning to the purposes of idolatry, with rhythms and
intonations in the utterance of it, that prick the sensuality
of human nature like a goad, and deaden conscience with
some mysterious, witch-like power which the intelligence
can no more resist than the charmed bird can escape the
python's fascination, and no more explain than it can
explain why the iron touched by the magic stone pointeth
for evermore unto the north.  It is the natural language
of sensualism and idolatry, and ought to be blotted out of
human speech.  I tell thee, lad, thy father was wise to
forbid thee from seeking to acquire that fearful tongue!"

"But thou art thyself an Egyptian," said Arius, "and
I suppose thou hast long used the wonderful language
which thou dost condemn."

"Yea," answered the ancient, "but the speech I use is
the hieratic form, invented by the priests for the very
purpose of keeping their souls free from the polluting
power of the popular forms of speech, to which a pure
thought or expression is well-nigh impossible.  But didst
thou come hither to seek me out," asked the ancient, "or
was thy coming accidental?  What is thy name?  Of
what religion art thou?  Why hast thou come to me?"

The old man spoke hurriedly and apparently with much
anxiety, and the boy could not conjecture the cause of his
manifest excitement, but after a moment's reflection upon
the bitter and strange denunciation of man's ancient
speech, and the subsequent things spoken by his
companion, he replied in singularly musical and persuasive
tones, the mesmeric light burning in his eyes, the bold,
peculiar head erect and slightly bending forward toward
him whom he addressed: "My name, sir, is Arius; my
coming hither is purely accidental, as I supposed this
mountain-side to be entirely uninhabited; my religion is
that of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!"

"Thou art a Christian," said the ancient, in tones of
great astonishment; "so young too, but clear, bold, and
settled in the new faith, as thy voice and manner
undoubtedly proclaim.  I am much pleased with thee, boy.  Come
thou with me, where I dwell alone, for I desire to speak
with thee more fully.  Wilt thou not come, Arius!"

"Willingly, sir, if the distance be not too great,"
replied the lad.

"It is very nigh," said the ancient; and then he turned
and followed the path west for, perhaps, fifty yards, and
then the path led southwardly for about the same distance,
and stopped at an abrupt and densely wooded elevation in
the side of the mountain.  Arius saw that a rough but
substantial stone wall formed the outside of a room that was for
the most part composed of a cavity under the rock; and
having passed through a door, on each side of which was a
long, narrow window admitting light into the apartment,
the ancient said: "Here is my dwelling, Arius; come
thou within."

The room was nearly twenty feet square: the floor was
smoothly covered with dry, white sand, procured perhaps
by pulverizing sand-rocks taken from the mountain; there
was a wooden table in the middle of the apartment, above
which a huge oil-lamp was suspended, and a smaller table
upon one side, upon which rested a complete service of
beautifully fashioned earthen plates, cups, pitchers, dishes,
and similar articles.  There were several large and
comfortable chairs made of huge reeds curiously interwoven,
and a couch constructed of the same material, and covered
deep but smoothly with lamb-skins, dressed with the wool
on.  Everything about the place indicated a rather coarse
but genuine comfort, even to the presence of several
beautiful goats that came with their kids to the door and gazed
in at the old man with confidence and affection, as if he
were a familiar and trustworthy friend.

"Be thou seated, my son," said the ancient, "and, if
thou wilt eat, I have here goat's milk, bread, and dried fish
and fruits in abundance."

"I am not an hungered," answered the lad, "but partake
of the bread and milk to honor thy hospitality," which
he did, and found both excellent.  "Thy very palatable
bread," he said, "is the same with that made at my home
by Thopt, and is, she saith, the same that priests at
Memphis always preferred to eat."

"Even so," replied the ancient, "and at Memphis for
many years, indeed, I did eat thereof, and learned there
the manner of the preparation of it."

And, when the lad had finished his slight repast, the old
man said: "Thou art a Christian, boy; in what, then, dost
thou believe?  Tell me briefly, what dost thou believe?"

Then the lad stood up as he had been accustomed to do
at home: the fine but peculiar head involuntarily erected
itself upon his long and shapely neck, and drooped a little
forward, a strange, scintillant light gleamed in his sweet,
dark eyes; his elevated and extended right hand waved
gently from side to side like the *bâton* of a music-master,
and his musical, penetrating voice rang out clearly and
incisively as he said: "I believe in God, the Father
Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, our
Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the
Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, dead, and
buried; the third day he rose from the dead, and ascended
into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the
Father Almighty, whence he shall come to judge the quick
and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Ghost, in the holy
common Church, in the forgiveness of sin, in the resurrection
of the dead, and in the life everlasting.  Amen!"

"So thou believest!" said the ancient.  "But why
dost thou say 'only-begotten' son?  Are not all men the
sons of God, even as the Greek poet saith, 'For we also are
his offspring?'"

"Yea!" answered Arius, "all men are his sons by
creation, and some of them by adoption--Jesus alone by
generation; he was 'begotten,' not made."

"True! true!" said the ancient; "so teach the
gospels, which I have here with me.  So thou believest!
When didst thou learn this faith, thou whole Egyptian;
and dost thou never doubt it?"

"I know not when I learned it," answered Arius; "I
was learning it from my mother when I lay helplessly upon
her breast; I was learning it from my father when he
dandled me upon his knees; every day and hour of my
life I have learned it more and more;" and then, involuntarily
rising upon his tiptoes, like a python standing upon
its tail, with his head erect and bending slightly forward,
and sparkling eyes agleam, he exclaimed, "and I was never
such an idiot as to doubt it at all."

Then, as if modestly conscious of some impropriety in
such demonstrative utterances in the presence of one so
aged and venerable, he sank lower upon his chair with an
ingenuous blush.

"O glorious certitude of youth and hope!" said the
ancient, mournfully.  "O bold, triumphant faith, fitting
its possessor for happy and jubilant exertion in the
accomplishment of all life's aims and purposes!  Thou wast
'never such an idiot as to doubt it!'  But I, that have seen
nigh fourscore years of misery, do doubt it much and
painfully.  I that have mastered all the arts, science, and
religion of ancient Egypt--a land that was wrinkled with
age centuries before the era of old Moses; I that know both
all that the priests of Kem ever taught the people, and
also the higher and more recondite forms of ignorance in
which the priests themselves believed--I verily know
nothing!  I can scarcely believe in anything save universal
spiritual darkness, for which no day-spring cometh, and
universal wretchedness, for which there is no cure.  O
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death?"

The bloodless hands were clasped upon the ancient's
aching breast, the noble gray head was bowed with
hopeless sorrow, the weary eyes seemed dim with long and
bitter anguish.  Arius gazed upon him with astonishment
and sympathy.  Then the grand gifts of every born
minister of Christ, the missionary's yearning to instruct, the
physician's longing for the power to heal and to strengthen,
moved in the boy's heart, and once more he sprang to
his feet, and with extended hand that quivered with
emotion like the python's tongue, and tearful, scintillant eyes,
and head bent forward from the long, lithe neck, and a
strange thrill in his vibrant musical voice, he cried: "Who
shall deliver thee?  Surely Jesus Christ, our Lord!  He
saveth even unto the uttermost all that come unto God by
him.  Believe and live!"

"So! so!" said the ancient, in tones of hopeless weariness.
"Believe and live!  Believe and live!  'He that
believeth on me shall never die!  He that believeth on me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live again.'  O new,
strange faith, hidden through all the dynasties like the
Nile's undiscoverable source, yet ever hinted at in the few
high, arid, half-intangible truths in which the priests of
Ra believed!  What if it be true?  What if the spiritual
dualism of the first cause, which the priests gradually
elaborated into the splendid pageantry and elegant mysticism of
Hesiri-Hes, and the offspring Horus, has at last become an
actual truth by the incarnation of the spiritual Son of the
one God that is necessarily a spiritual hermaphrodite?
Through the long centuries the priests secretly sneered at
the polytheisms which they taught to the people, and they
did believe in one God that was utterly unknown to the
masses of mankind, for whom they had neither name nor
symbol; and they conceived him to be a dual entity,
containing in himself the fullness of double spiritual
sexhood; and they stood in awe of some grand revelation
which they supposed would some time be made to mankind
when this one, almighty, hermaphrodite spirit should
'beget' with one side of his spiritual nature and 'conceive'
with the other, and incarnate its son in flesh, and save man
by assuming human nature.  This they saw foreshadowed
in Hesiri-Hes; this was the mystery which the priests
perceived in every Apis, the emblem of one 'hidden' like
the fountains of the Nile; for in the hieratic language
Hapi, which is 'hidden,' signifies both the sacred river and
the sacred bull; for this they prepared the mummy that a
body might be ready for the returning soul when 'the
hidden' should be revealed; this, the sacred scarabæi dimly
intimated, and this was the secret mystery that lurked
beneath the veil of Hes that 'no mortal hand hath lifted.'  Some
such glorious revelation must have flitted past Greek
Plato's vision, when he longed for a clearer statement of
the will of God to men, and prophesied the coming man.
This was the grand thought of Moses, the monotheist,
when in the same breath he denounced all forms of
polytheism, and yet designated the one God whom he
worshiped by a name which is the plural number of a
Hebrew noun"; and, as if he had forgotten the presence of
Arius altogether, who sat listening to this strange
monologue with silent wonder, the ancient continued the
unconscious utterance of his fervid meditations: "So hath it
been throughout the world with every ancientest form of
all original myths; for while Assyria and the Medo-Persians
and other comparatively modern nations, and
afterward the Greeks and Romans, borrowed only the lower,
vulgar forms which the Egyptians had fashioned for
popular use, in China Chang and Eng symbolized the original
conception of one dual God that afterward degenerated
into anthropomorphism; and in India Indra and Agni, a
primitive conception that antedates Brahma, Siva, and
Vishnu, by countless centuries, and is the burden of the
ancientest and uncorrupted Rig-Veda, bears unequivocal
testimony to the same primitive conception; and the
Buddhas taught that they were, perhaps believed themselves
to be, earthly manifestations of the spiritual self-conception
of one dual God: for polytheism was never the original
form of any primitive nation's faith, and every people
that began with paganism borrowed from some older
nation in which the original faith had already been degraded.
Strange! most strange!  Oh, if it could be proved!  If it
could only be proved that Jesus of Nazareth is, in very
truth, the incarnation of that which was to be 'begotten'
and 'conceived' of the one dual God, and born of a woman
into the world, how grandly would the fact vindicate the
primitive utterances of all human faith, and translate its
vague but splendid dreams into a glorious reality!  It must
be true!  Surely it must be true!  For among Egyptians,
Chinese, Indians, and Jews, this original faith preceded all
idolatries!"

Then, buried in profoundest meditation, the old man
ceased to speak.  But after a time he roused himself, and
looking upon the astonished youth he said: "And thou
believest all this! thou hast 'never been such an idiot
as to doubt it!'  Happy art thou, boy, if thou shalt
preserve unfalteringly and unquestioningly thy serene and
all-reliant faith."

But the lad's sturdy independence of thought asserted
itself, and he answered: "Nay, sir!  I have professed faith
in none of the things of which thou speakest.  I believe in
one God and in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, and in
the Holy Ghost.  I believe not in Hesiri-Hes, nor in Chang
and Eng, nor in Indra and Agni, nor in any gods which
Moses denounced as falsest idols.  Nor in Jupiter, nor
Venus, nor Mars, nor in any of the gods that came into
fashion with the heathen long since Moses died."

The ancient smiled approvingly, and replied: "Thou
art altogether in the right, my son.  Many of the gods
in which the nations believe were born long after the
records kept by the Egyptian priests began; but all were
born of the myths which Egyptian, Chinese, and Indian
priests wove about the grand, primitive conception of one
dual God.  The idolaters of other lands received in various
forms the mythologies which the priests wove about the
most ancient, simple faith, which was primarily the same
for all, only the children of Abraham refused to add
anything to the original conception, clinging obstinately to the
primitive monotheistic idea; and yet Moses designates the
one God by his name of *Adonai*, the plural number of a
Hebrew noun; and when the one God speaks of himself he
uses the words 'we,' 'our,' and 'us': *Let us make man
in our own image and likeness*.  Thou seest that it would
be contrary to reason that the original utterance of every
faith should be the affirmation of God that was one, and yet
more than one, unless the divine being is spiritually
hermaphrodite, having a double spiritual sexhood.  Thou
seest that, if this were not so, Moses could not have used
the plural number to designate one God.  Thou seest that,
if it were not so, the only act possible to God would have
been creation, not generation; and thy faith in 'the
only-begotten Son' must have been false; and the very
ancientest forms of faith would have been demonstrated to be
merely impossible falsehood--impossible, because there can
not be a falsehood which does not originate in and grow
out of a truth; for falsehood is a perversion or
misconception of the truth; for falsehood is not that which
hath no existence, but is the wrong statement or conception
of that which doth exist.  If it were not so, my son,
thy faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, would
be merest polytheism, for three are not one, nor is one
three; but the three may be one divine nature and family.
For the one God was always conceived of by the primary
faiths as a dual being, possessed of both elements of
spiritual sexhood perfectly; and 'begotten' is a proper
thing to say of one side of the dual God, and 'conceived'
is a proper thing to say of the other; and so thou mayst
believe, without any imputation of polytheism, in Christ,
as a being 'begotten,' not created; 'conceived,' not made.
Would that I knew that Jesus of Nazareth is he!"

"This learning is entirely new to me," said the lad.
"Perhaps it is higher than I am yet able to comprehend.
I believe in just precisely what the gospels say, no more,
no less; that Jesus is the Christ, only-begotten Son of God,
conceived of the Holy Ghost, before there was a creation,
and born of the Virgin into the world long after God by
him had made all things that are created.  But, with thy
profound knowledge of all these mysteries, how is it that
thou thyself dost not believe?  Who and what art thou,
thou ancient, learned, yet unhappy man, whom may our
Lord soon bless and save?"

"I love thee, boy, but I am old, and now too weary to
talk more with thee.  Wilt thou not come unto me again?
I desire to live in seclusion as I have done for years, and
beg of thee to speak of me to none; but come again
thyself whenever thou canst."

"I will return upon the seventh day hence," said
Arius, "and speak of thee to none except my father's
family, and thou wilt not be annoyed by them.  And so
fare-thee-well, sir, and may the peace of God come upon
thee!"

"Amen!" said the ancient, "and farewell!"





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.. _`FLOTSON OF THE MIDDLE SEA`:

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   CHAPTER VI.


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   FLOTSON OF THE MIDDLE SEA.

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In the evening of that day upon which Arius
encountered the strange old eremite upon the mountainside,
draggled skirts of clouds swept across the northern
horizon, and distant lightnings gleamed upon the waves.
During the night the storm came nearer and nearer, and
before sunrise the wind roared wildly over the Baucalis
farm, and the troubled sea broke in foam and thunder
for many a league along the coast.  All day the tempest
raged, but with nightfall the clouds broke away, although
the turbulent waves continued to roll and tumble on the
coast, and the angry waters gurgled through the narrow
entrance into the little bay upon which Baucalis fronted.
The dwellers at the farm watched the magnificent display
from their open windows, but saw no sign of any ship
belabored by the storm, and, after their usual religious
exercises, retired to rest, thankful that there seemed to be no
wreck along their coasts.  During the night the sea ran
down, and when Arius, early in the beautiful morning,
went to the garden's edge beside the water, there was only
a gentle swell perceivable upon the bosom of the deep, and
a faint murmur of the waters crowding into and out of the
narrow opening of the bay with a gurgling noise from
which the farm derived its name.  The lad pursued his
usual occupation, until his attention was caught by a sound
under the bank below him, as if some one gently and
regularly struck upon the rock; and the boy then stepped
forward, and, parting with his hands the fringe of shrub
and weeds that grew upon the verge of the land, he gazed
down into the waters of the bay, and at once discovered
that the unusual sounds were made by the striking of the
ends of some spars that composed a small raft against the
rock, with the rise and fall of every wave.  He also saw
that two long spars or fragments of a ship's mast had been
fastened across two others so as to form a small square
between them, and that a large bull's hide was securely
stretched over this square, leaving the four ends of the
timbers extending beyond it.  He also saw the outline
of a human form lying supinely upon the hide, and of a
smaller figure, with its head resting upon the other, both
covered over with a bright-hued woolen quilt.

The lad called loudly to his father, who was at work in
an adjacent field, but at a considerable distance from him,
and, as soon as he had caught his attention, Arius sprang
down the bank to ascertain whether the persons so quietly
lying upon the raft were still alive.  The ends of the
timbers projected far beyond the hide upon which they lay,
and the boy found himself in deep water almost at his first
step from the shore; but he had been accustomed to daily
baths in the bay from childhood, and without fear or
hesitation he boldly dashed in between the projecting timbers
toward the hide on which the bodies lay.  The noise he
made in calling Ammonius, and in dashing through the
water, roused up one of the sleepers on the raft, and she
slightly raised her head, and with her hand threw back
the woolen covering, and Arius saw the swarthy face of a
young Egyptian girl of twelve turned upon him with
wide-open, wondering eyes.  The other form was that of
a woman, but she neither spoke nor moved, and Arius
thought she must be dead.  But the girl did speak, and
the boy thought she used the Egyptian tongue, although
he could not understand her words.  Then he said,
"Maiden, canst thou speak in Greek."

A swift gleam of intelligence broke over the child's
wan face, and she joyfully answered: "Yea! for in Alexandria
Greek is the common speech of all, whether they be
Romans, Egyptians, or Jews!"

"Art thou wet?"

"Yea," she said, "soaked in salt water for I know not
how long; but I have slept soundly, and mamma has not
even yet waked up."

"If thou art so thoroughly wet already, a little more
water will not hurt thee; so put thine arms about my
neck, hold fast, and I will carry thee to land."

"But mother!" she cried; and then becoming frightened
that she did not awake, she kissed her passionately,
saying: "Mamma! mother! wake up!  We have drifted
to the shore!"

Then the poor lady murmured words that neither of
them could comprehend, but she made no attempt to
move, and seemed to be talking unconsciously.  Then
Arius took the girl's hand in his, saying gently: "My
father will soon be here, and together we can take thy
mother from the raft.  Come thou with me."

Then the girl raised herself up into a sitting posture,
and Arius, holding to the spar with one hand, with the
other drew her down into the sea beside him, saying:
"Now put up thine arms and hold on tightly; it is but
a few feet to the shore."

And the girl said, "I can swim as well as thou, but I
am weary and cold and hungry, and will put one hand on
thy shoulder."  And when she had done so the boy went
hand over hand along the spar, and drew himself and her
rapidly shoreward, until his feet rested firmly upon the
bottom, and then he caught the child up in his arms and
lifted her up to the dry ground.

By this time, Ammonius, coming with all speed, had
reached the bank above them, and at one swift, intelligent
glance comprehended the scene in all its pitiful details;
then he sprang down the bank beside them, and said unto
Arius, "Doth the woman yet live?"

"Yea, father, she was talking even now; but I scarcely
think she knew what things she said."

"Run thou unto the house swiftly, tell thy mother,
and bring hither a saw."

And the boy sprang up the bank instantly and ran
homeward.  Then Ammonius spoke kindly to the girl,
saying, "How farest thou, little maiden?"

And the child said: "I am well enough, but wet and
hungry.  But mamma is ill.  Please bring her to the land."

"Yea, maiden; soon will my son return with a saw,
wherewith I can saw off two of the timbers where they
cross the other two, and so draw the raft up close to the
land, and then lift thy mother gently and safely to the
shore.  Dost thou understand me, child?"

"Yea," she answered, "and I see that it is best to wait.
But I want my mother; she is sick indeed."

Very soon the agile youth returned, bringing the saw
with him, and Ammonius immediately swam out to the
bull's hide, and sawed away two of the timbers at the
intersection thereof, and quickly drew the raft close up
against the shore, and took up the quilt and cast it to Arius,
telling him to spread it out upon the ground, and in his
strong arms lifted up the unconscious woman and bore her
up the bank and gently laid her upon the quilt.  Soon
Arete and old Thopt joined them; and Arius and his
mother took each an end of the quilt upon which the
woman lay, and Ammonius gathered up the other two ends,
and they bore her gently but swiftly to the cottage; and
old Thopt took the girl's hand in hers and followed them
as quickly as her growing infirmities permitted.

Arete and old Thopt stripped the poor lady of her
elegant apparel that was soaked through with sea-water,
and rubbed her vigorously with woolen cloths, clothed her
with warm woolen gowns out of Arete's wardrobe, and
gave her hot tea made of such shrubs as were known to
their simple domestic pharmacy.  The sufferer manifestly
got much relief from this treatment, but it was only too
apparent that the terrible exposure to which she had been
subjected had taken hold upon the very roots of life in her
beautiful but delicate frame.  Her unconscious murmurs
were uttered in the Egyptian tongue, and, no sooner had
old Thopt heard it, than a strange excitement seized her,
and she answered the lady in the same strange speech,
crooning over her like a mother over a sick child, or more
like some affectionate animal licking its wounded young;
for the Egyptian speech evidently shows the syllabication
into articulate sounds of thoughts that were primarily
expressed in signs and grimaces--the translation of brute
means of communication into words; and its original
rudimentary form is as direct and unveiled in the
expression of passion and emotion as the actions of an animal
could be.

The maiden, Theckla, having been well rubbed, well
clad in dry garments, and well fed with hot soup and
viands, seemed almost free from any ill effects of her long
exposure upon the raft; and, being assured that her mother
was tenderly cared for, rapidly recovered her strength
and spirits.

The famous medical school at Cyrene educated many
men in all the learning of a profession which was then
in its infancy, and so thoroughly infested with charlatanism
that even the most eminent professors of the art of
healing commanded but small respect among intelligent
people; and the Christians especially had no faith in their
pretended ability to cure disease.  In ordinary cases they
trusted to careful nursing, and the curative power of
nature in people whose freedom from vice and whose simple,
healthful manner of life gave the patient every chance of
recovery, without the use of incantations, charms, and
poisons, which then constituted the chief resources of
professional pharmacy; and in desperate cases they anointed
the stricken one with oil, obtained the prayers of the
Church in his behalf, and calmly awaited the issue; having
neither any inordinate love of life nor any distressful fear
of death, and looking upon even a fatal issue of the illness
as a change that was often better than recovery--a happy
release from the cares and uncertainties of earthly life, that
was neither to be too rashly sought for nor too anxiously
avoided.  Hence the women at the farm themselves
assumed the care of their interesting patient, and gave her
constant and affectionate attention, but no drugs except
such simple remedies as were in common family use, of all
of which old Thopt had a very thorough knowledge.  The
old woman believed that sound and refreshing sleep is the
secret of health and longevity, and that no one would die so
long as this blessing was obtainable; and hence, in her
opinion, the poppy was a panacea.  The bark of certain species
of the willow she knew to be good against malarial fevers,
and this was her favorite remedy in every disease which
manifested a remittent or intermittent form.  She had no
hesitation in declaring that the lady would be ill a long
time, and that whether she would live or die must depend
upon the vital forces she had to draw upon; for old Thopt
had always remained at least a semi-pagan, and, if there
was any Christianity in her, it was inextricably tangled
up with the remnants of the old religion which she had
learned in her home upon the Nile.  She loved her mistress
passionately and devotedly, just as a faithful dog might
have loved, and she refused to accept the freedom offered
to her by Arete when, under the influence and instructions
of Ammonius, that lady had become a Christian; because
one of the fixed and immovable articles of her ancient
creed was that many Egyptians were created to be slaves,
and that she was one of them; so that it would have been
a measureless impiety for her to set up herself to be free.
If she had any hatred of the new religion, it grew out of
the fact that that faith undertook to abolish the relation
of mistress and slave between Arete and herself.  She had
not undressed and washed her patient without immediately
perceiving that she was one of that aristocratic class who
had come into the world to enjoy all of its advantages, and
to be waited upon by slaves, as was demonstrated to old
Thopt's satisfaction by the fineness of her kilt, girdle, and
gown, and by the delicate pink-color of her flesh beneath
it; and the old woman would as soon have thought of
organizing a rebellion against Anubis, the jackal-headed god
himself, as to have thought of withholding proper
reverence and care from the superior being who had been cast
upon her guardianship.  So that the Christian charity of
Arete and the inborn sense of duty and obligation which
generations of inherited servitude had made second nature
in old Thopt combined to secure faithful and untiring
care in behalf of the sick woman, and one or the other of
them was in attendance upon her day and night.

But as Ammonius had carried her from the raft to the
land, and on the way up to the house, he had heard her
utter unconsciously, in the Egyptian language, disjointed
sentences which caused him much anxiety; and, as soon
as her immediate wants had been attended to, he charged
the family that they were not in any way to apprise the
lady that she had fallen into the hands of Christians until
such time as he might deem it proper to instruct them
otherwise; but that they should be as diligent in their care
of her as if she had been the sister of them all.  Before the
close of the first day's watching beside her patient, Arete
found ample reason, in the lady's feverish revelations, for the
injunctions which her husband had given concerning her.
She talked almost incessantly: now of her home in
Alexandria; now of the rulers of Egypt; now of her husband
Amosis, and of her daughter; now of some special mission
which Amosis had undertaken at Rome; now of the fearful
tempest; now of a desperate struggle upon the raft between
her husband and some one else, in which both had fallen
into the sea together.  The substance of this disjointed
and feverish babbling left no doubt upon Arete's mind that
the lady's husband was in the service of the rulers of
Egypt, and high in the confidence of both the priests and
of the government; nor that he was a bitter adversary of
the Christians; nor that, when overtaken by the tempest,
he was on his journey to Rome, to obtain from the Emperor
larger authority to persecute the Christians, even to
extermination, in Egypt and throughout Northern Libya.
She gathered also that when the officer and his wife and
child had betaken themselves to the raft as their last hope
of safety, some one, seeing that all order and discipline were
lost, inflamed by a guilty passion for the beautiful woman,
had leaped upon the raft with them as it was leaving the
vessel's side, and that a desperate struggle had occurred
between the husband and the intruder, in which both had
fallen into the sea; and that the lady herself regarded the
very name of Christians with detestation and horror, and
fully sympathized with her husband's purpose to
persecute them; and she had expected him to reap great and
rapid advancement from his zeal against the churches.
And, although not unconscious of the element of danger
lurking in their intercourse with such a conscientious hater
of Christianity, Arete felt even larger compassion for her
beautiful patient's pagan darkness than for her physical
illness; but she fully realized the propriety of her husband's
caution upon the subject.

And so the weary days went by, and on the sixth morning
the fever broke, and left the poor lady with restored
consciousness, but physically as weak and helpless as an
infant.

During these days, Arius and Theckla had become fast
friends.  She was a beautiful child, but an Egyptian of the
aristocratic class.  Her hair, which was as black as jet,
curled profusely all around and over her shapely head in
luxuriant masses.  Her forehead was low and broad, the
face a perfect oval from the full temples to the point of the
plump, delicate, projecting chin, while the small, full-lipped
mouth was red as a cherry, the upper lip notably short and
voluptuous.  The black, arched, delicate eyebrows nearly
met at the root of the high, straight, delicately chiseled
nose, and the large, dark eyes, soft, black, and fathomless,
free alike from fire and languishment, were of a kind found
nowhere on earth except along the Nile--full, wide-open
eyes that seemed calm and untroubled as the sightless orbs
of any sphinx, yet full of mystery as is the old, old land
of Kem.  Arius soon discovered that the girl was
remarkably bright and quick, but that she could neither read nor
write, all the instruction she had ever received (and she
had been very carefully taught) having been communicated
by oral teaching.  Her native tongue was, of course,
that of Egypt, but she spoke Greek with fluency, and
Latin also, but with difficulty and hesitation.

On the evening of the day on which she had been
rescued from the waves, the boy and girl were playing and
chatting together in the shade before the cottage.  The
sun was just sinking beyond the distant mountain-range,
when the girl said, "Do you go at sunrise or at sunset?"

"Go whither?" said Arius.

"Why, to worship Mentu, or Atmu, of course!  Do
you not worship?"

"Worship whom?" asked Arius.

"Oh," she answered, "old Ea, or Ptah, or Hesiri-Hes,
or the other gods, any of them you prefer?"

"I do not worship any of them," said Arius.

"Perhaps, then," said Theckla, "thou art an atheist,
and hatest all of the gods; and that is very wrong.  For
papa says that the atheists are little better than the Christians
themselves, and that it is owing to their evil influence
that so many young people in Alexandria are growing up
to believe in nothing.  But, blessed be the gods, I have
been brought up in religion!"

"And which of the gods dost thou love and worship most?"

"I love none of them surely, but I fear and worship
Ptah, Ra, and Hesiri-Hes, the cross old things;
because mamma says that they are the most respectable; and
I fear them much, especially the terrible, implacable,
pitiless Ma-t."

"But do you not think," said Arius, "that you would
rather worship some loving, compassionate, and holy deity,
whom you could love, and obey because you loved him?"

"Oh, that would be funny, would it not?--for a girl
to fall in love with a god!  I never thought of such a
thing before, but I believe," she added, with an arch glance
at Arius, "that I would like a really nice handsome boy
better than any of the plebeian gods!"

"What dost thou mean, Theckla, by saying 'the plebeian
gods'?"

"Oh, I mean the new-fangled deities that have come
into fashion during the last two or three thousand years--the
cheap, low-priced divinities worshiped by the slaves
and by the mechanics, like Sebek, the crocodile-headed,
and all that contemptible crowd.  Mamma says that we--that
is, the nobility, you know--ought not to pay any
attention to any of them except the dreadful old gods, like
Ra, Ptah, Hesiri-Hes, and the other ancient divinities;
because our own family is older and more honorable than
any of them except the high, dreadful old fellows that
have lived forever.  Still, boy, thou hadst better worship
even the wretched Sebek than to be an atheist or a
Christian; for papa says so."

Then the boy's heart yearned to tell the beautiful
pagan of the God in whom he believed, but, remembering
his father's caution on that subject, he chose rather to
avoid further conversation of the kind, and started off
toward the bay to take his evening bath.

"Whither goest thou?" asked the little maiden.

"I am going to the bay to take a bath, as I do daily."

"That will be fine sport," she cried, "and I am going
with you!"

And Theckla sprang to her feet, and ran along beside
him.  The boy reached the water's edge, and, casting
aside the loose gown habitually worn about the farm, he
plunged into the bay and struck out from the shore, the
play of his limbs being almost unimpeded by the close-fitting
under-garment reaching from the neck to midway of
the thigh; and instantly the young girl, whom old Thopt
had arrayed in the short, sleeveless kilt and long gown
which the women usually wore, threw off her outside
gown and plunged in after him, exclaiming: "Oh, it
is nicer than Lake Mareotis!  But I have swum with
papa from the great Pharos to the Kibotos in the little
harbor of Eunostos!" and she swam after the boy as
gracefully as a mermaid.  Soon she caught up with him,
and, having placed her little hands upon his head, she
suddenly straightened out her arms with all her strength,
and raising herself up with a lithe and joyous spring
above him, with all her weight she plunged his head
down far beneath the surface, and swam laughingly away.
The boy came up instantly and pursued the fleeing
maiden, and as soon as he could catch up with her, which
was no easy task, he said, "Thou shalt go under too,
Theckla!" but she was so excellent a swimmer, and so
quick and active, that for a long time she baffled all his
efforts to get her head beneath the waves.  She laughed
and struggled, and defied him, and exulted greatly that
he was not able to give her such a ducking as she had
given him, until, at last, he wound his long arms around
her, pinioning both of hers, and, clasping her to his bosom,
stood straight up, and they sank together until his feet
touched the bottom, from which he sprang upward to the
surface.  Then the lad kissed her and released her, saying,
"Wilt thou dip me again, Theckla, or hast thou had
enough of it?"

But the girl clasped her hands above her head, threw
herself suddenly downward, and for a moment her little
feet flashed above the water as she dived, and instantly
afterward she clasped the boy's legs in her arms and
pulled him again beneath the surface, and rose above the
waves before he had recovered himself.  And so they
sported in the calm waters of the bay until the twilight
began to thicken over the valley, when they started for the
shore, and the girl swam beside him as lightly as a gull,
and, having thrown their long gowns around them, hand
in hand they walked back to the cottage.

Theckla's first inquiry was of her mother, and, finding
that she continued ill, she obstinately refused to leave her
after it grew dark, even for a moment, but stretched
herself out upon the couch beside her and slept until morning.

So it was every evening.  During the day-time Arius
was her favorite companion, but she seemed to have an
unconquerable aversion to darkness, and would not leave her
mother's side while it continued.  Ammonius told them
to let her have her own way, as terror of the dark hours
was part of the old religion in which she had been raised.





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.. _`THECKLA FINDS ONE GOD AND HEARETH OF ANOTHER`:

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   CHAPTER VII.


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   THECKLA FINDS ONE GOD AND HEARETH OF ANOTHER.

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So passed the days away, and Arius and Theckla
became as firmly bound to each other as if they had been
raised together all their little lives.  On the second day
after her coming, Arius had resumed his usual tasks in the
garden and in the fields; and when he came home at
noontide she seemed rejoiced to see him, and demanded with
playful imperiousness, "Where hast thou been all the
morning, Arius?"

"I have been at work in the garden," replied the boy.

"At work!" she exclaimed; "digging with thy
hands?  Why, thou art not a slave!"

And the boy answered, laughing merrily: "Nay, I call
no man master; I am as free as any Cæsar!"

"Why, then, dost thou work?  Verily, I thought that
none but slaves and mechanics ever labor."

"But thou dost greatly err.  It is true that some
Greeks, Romans, and Jews, suppose that none ought to
labor except those whom they call 'vile'; or rather they
call all who labor 'vile,' but I do not accept their
monstrous definitions, having been thoroughly taught that the
only man who is free is he who lives by his labor without
dependence upon relatives, or upon the offices which are
distributed by the favoritism of the dissolute and wicked
creatures whom they call emperors, Cæsars, proconsuls,
and such titles; and I am free-born, and will maintain
my liberty."

"Why, then, dost thou toil?"

"Because we need to toil in order to live comfortably
and independently, as we are not rich, and do not desire
to be so; but I never will be any man's servant.  And,
also, because it is noble and right to toil in some way, and
every one who is not idiotic, deformed, or afflicted, is
unfit to live unless he follows some honorable and useful
vocation."

"Thou art the very nicest boy I know," she said,
"but it seemeth so strange to me that thou shouldst labor
with thy hands, and shouldst talk as if thou didst
believe that it is good and not degrading to do so.  I never
heard such things.  But I will go with thee this
afternoon and see what thou doest."

"Thou mayst do so," said Arius, "and thou mayst
help me with my work if thou wilt."

But the little maiden held up her hands that looked
like delicate wax-work, and laughingly cried out, "Even
with these hands?"

"Yea," said the boy, merrily, "even with those, tender
and pretty as they are."

So after the midday meal, when Arius went back to
the patch of onions at which he was at work, Theckla
accompanied him, and stood awhile watching him as he
dug up the tubers.

"What is to be done with these?" she asked.

"They are to be gathered up into little heaps, and
carried hence to the house, and stored away until wanted."

"Why, I can pile them up for you," she cried, and
straightway she began to gather the onions up as fast as
the boy dug them, saying: "I wonder what mamma would
think if she knew I was learning to work?  But it is
good, and I will help thee every day."

"Thou shalt not weary thyself," said the boy, "and
thou shalt quit as soon as thou dost desire to do so."

But she would not stop, and continued at the task for
several hours, until it was completed, seeming to be
delighted with her newly discovered ability to be of use.

"What other work hast thou to do?"

"Nothing else, Theckla, except to take some salt to
the cattle in the pasture, beyond the field, and thou mayst
go into the house.  I will not be long absent."

"But I will not go to the house, Arius; I will go with
thee, and see the large-eyed beasts."

"Come on, then," said the boy, and, taking up the
bag of salt which he had brought from the barn, he led
the way along the shore of the little bay until they had
passed beyond the field, where they came upon the edge
of the pasture-land, and there Arius scattered the salt
along a great trough of wood, to which some of the cattle
had hurried up as soon as they saw the boy, and others
came one after another, until more than a score were
contentedly licking up the salt; and among them a fine
bull-calf that was peculiarly marked.  The kindly-treated herd
were tame and fearless, and, as soon as young Theckla
saw the bull, she gazed at him with the most intense
interest, and ran up to the animal, crying out, excitedly:
"Lo, the god! the god! the beautiful young Apis!"

"What dost thou mean now?" said Arius.

"Why, boy," she answered, joyously, "thou art
the most fortunate boy that ever lived.  Seest thou not
the god--the sacred bull--the beautiful young Apis?
Seest thou not the black-colored hide; the triangular
white spot upon his forehead; the hairs on his back
roughened out into the form of an eagle; the crescent
white spot upon his right side?  Oh, if he hath a knot
under his tongue in the shape of a scarabæus, the sacred
beetle of Ptah, he hath then all the marks that reveal the
bull to be a god!  Wilt thou not look under his tongue
and see?"

The boy gazed upon her with mingled pity, amusement,
and contempt.  He had read and heard of the worship
of idols and of beasts, but had never before witnessed
an actual exhibition of such idolatry.  "Why, Theckla,"
he answered, "the bull is no more a god than thou art a
cow.  I am amazed that so sensible a girl should be
capable of such folly as to think this beast a god."

"But he is an Apis, Arius, and the priests of the
temple at Memphis would give thee his weight in gold for
him.  They would come hither in a royal procession to
carry him hence; they would keep him for forty days at
Nilopolis, and for forty days at Memphis, and the noblest
of the women in the city would go in naked and worship
him; and he would be fed like a great king as long as he
lives, and when he dies he would become an Osor-hapi, a
great god, and would secure thy soul.  Surely the priests
must know that he is a great god, or they would not
build such grand temples in honor of Apis, and worship
him with such magnificent and costly ceremonies and
processions.  I verily fear that thou art an atheist, Arius,
but I have been raised up to be religious, and I know."

"Theckla," answered the boy, "I can take a goad in
my hand and drive this sort of a god whithersoever I will;
I can catch his tail in my hands and twist it until he shall
bellow with pain.  If thou wilt hold out to him an ear of
corn in thine hand, he will follow thee about like a dog;
and thou callest the beast a god!  Theckla, I am verily
ashamed of thy foolishness."

But the young girl looked gravely at her companion,
and said in tones of solemn warning and reproof: "Arius,
thou dost not believe in Ea, Ptah, Shu, Seb, Set, Mentu,
Atmu, nor in Hesiri-Hes; and thou dost laugh at the
sacred Hathors, and thou dost mock the bull-god Apis!--Boy,
dost thou believe in anything?  Or art thou an atheist?"

"Yea," cried Arius, laughing, "I believe thou art the
brightest and the prettiest little pagan in the world; and
some time I shall explain to thee what I believe, and
convince thee of the folly of thy polytheistic and idolatrous
notions.  But not now, for thy god and the other beasts with
him have salt enough, and we must return home."

They went back along the bay-shore, and the sun was
nigh the tops of the distant mountains; and Arius, walking
a little in advance of Theckla, heard a sudden plunge
into the water, and looking back he saw the little maiden
swimming boldly out into the bay, and immediately he
plunged in after her.  They swam, dived, raced, scuffled,
and sported in the pure and healthful element until
twilight began to gather over the lowlands, and then, hand in
hand, they wandered back to the cottage, Theckla going
immediately to her mother's apartment, whose side she
would not leave so long as the night lasted--a horror of
darkness being incident to the Egyptian religion, derived,
perhaps, from the grand midnight ceremonies of the
Memphian priests in which annually with torches and
processions, and weird and impressive wailings, they celebrated
the world-wide search of Isis for the dismembered body
of the consort whose mangled limbs the hatred of the evil
Seth had scattered about the earth.

Theckla wanted to tell her mother about the wonderful
young Apis, but old Thopt peremptorily enjoined silence
upon her, and forbade the sick lady to talk in her present
excessively debilitated condition.  For it was manifest
that her recovery was exceedingly doubtful, and that even
the slightest excitement or effort might be fatal to her.
She lay quietly enough, and while she recognized Theckla,
and seemed to understand the few Egyptian words spoken
to her by Arete and old Thopt, which were carefully
limited to repeating to her that she had been very ill, and
must remain entirely quiet, and neither talk nor even
think, she seemed almost to have forgotten the shipwreck
and the loss of her husband; and the two women who
watched her devotedly even doubted whether she knew that
she was away from home.  They looked forward with great
anxiety to the time when she might grow strong enough to
shake off this healthful lassitude of extreme exhaustion, and
realize her unhappy circumstances.  But the recent past
seemed to have been blotted out of her memory, and she
lay quiet and uncomplaining, apparently content with her
surroundings; and the anxious nurses carefully avoided
everything that could even by chance arouse her drowsy
intelligence, and renew the consciousness of grief that
seemed to slumber in her brain.

The Sabbath-day came round again, and, with the rising
of the sun, young Theckla bounded out of her mother's
room, calling aloud for Arius.  It was usual on the
Sabbath for the family at Baucalis to go to some house of a
Christian in the vicinity, where would be gathered together
a small assemblage of the faithful for religious services, or
to have the neighbors assemble at the farm for the same
purpose.  On this day, however, Arete and old Thopt
would be necessarily detained at home by the illness of the
Egyptian Hatasa; and Ammonius, who still thought it
prudent, both upon her account and upon his own, not
to inform her that she was enjoying the hospitality of a
family belonging to the hated sect that was everywhere
spoken against, and that was persecuted throughout Libya
even more bitterly than elsewhere in the Roman Empire,
ordered that Arius should take charge of Theckla for the
day, and determined himself to go to the assembly, in
order to consult certain of the brethren about his future
course in reference to his involuntary guests.  Arius then
informed his father about the singular recluse he had met
with upon the mountain on the preceding Sabbath, of his
promise to visit him upon that day, and asked his
permission to go, saying that he would take Theckla with him
if his father had no objection to suggest, and would invite
the singular and learned old man to visit them.  To this
Ammonius readily gave his consent, and Arius thereupon
told Theckla of the facts, and invited her to accompany
him, to which she enthusiastically assented.  The farm
vineyard produced a wine almost identical with the famous
Mareotic, which was praised from the mouth of the Nile
to Athens and to Rome.  It also produced figs, pomegranates,
apricots, peaches, oranges, citrons, lemons, limes, and
bananas, which the Christians commonly called the "fruits
of paradise," because in that latitude they were in season
the whole year through.  It also produced various melons,
among them a delicious watermelon, yellow on the inside,
lotus, and olives.  In their garden, also, grew the rose, the
jasmine, the lily, the oleander, chrysanthemums, geraniums,
dahlias, helianthus, and violets, and they could raise
almost every vegetable known to both tropical and
temperate zones.

Arius procured a basket, and enlisted the services of
old Thopt by telling her that he was about to visit an
ancient Egyptian hermit who dwelt alone upon the
mountain, and desired to take him a lot of good things to
comfort his loneliness; and that kind-hearted creature soon
had a few bottles of excellent wine, some bread-loaves of
finest flour, and quite an assortment of choice fruits, both
preserved and fresh, packed into the basket, the whole
crowned with a beautiful bouquet plucked by Theckla's
dainty fingers.  Arius, bearing his basket, and followed
by the agile girl, pursued his way along the little bay
until he had passed by it westwardly, and then began the
long but gradual ascent of the mountain, upon a small
plateau of which dwelt the aged eremite.  In less than two
hours they had reached the plateau in front of the hermitage,
and soon beheld the ancient seated near his own door,
his weary eyes gazing far away over the brilliant expanse
of the Mediterranean.  The approach of the two young
people caught his attention, and with a genial smile the
old man welcomed them.  Taking the girl's hand in his
own, he murmured: "She is a bright and lovely child,
and a true daughter of Kem" (the Black-land).  He spoke
in the Egyptian language, which he knew Arius did not
understand, but the girl answered in the same tongue:
"Yea, father, I am from To-mehit" (the North-land),
"and was born in Alexandria."

Then the ancient said with surprise: "How is it that
thou speakest Egyptian, when thy brother knoweth no word
of the strange old language?  Or *is* he thy brother?"

This he said in Greek, and Arius answered, "Nay,
she is not my sister, but is a guest in my father's house."

Then he succinctly narrated the story of the rescue of
Theckla and her mother from the raft.  The old man
listened with much interest to the boy's graphic recital;
and then, turning to Theckla, he said: "Child, art thou,
too, a Christian like thy friend Arius; or art thou still in
bondage to the false and fearful gods of Kem?"

Then the girl showed in her speaking face her loathing
and abhorrence for the very name of Christ, and turning
hastily to Arius she cried: "Art thou, then, a Christian?
Belongest thou to that accursed and criminal association?
Oh, say it is not so, or I will never, never love thee any
more!"

But the boy drew himself up proudly and answered:
"Yea, Theckla, I am a Christian, thank the boundless
mercy of God!  And, when thou shalt have learned what
it is to be a Christian, I trust that thou wilt follow Jesus
thyself, and love me and all other Christians more and
more.  For verily we are not such a people as thou hast
been taught to believe us to be, any more than our bull is
a god, as thou didst suppose."

"I do not very much believe in Apis," she said, "but
the common people do.  Ah!  Arius, I am so sorry to hear
this thing of thee!  Why, if my mother had known that
ye were Christians, she would sooner have died upon the
raft than have gone into thy father's house, or to have
suffered any one of you to touch her with your hands.
Oh, I am so vexed to find that thou art connected with such
a people!"

Then said Arius: "Thy mother is well cared for; and
thou must let her know nothing until she hath become
stronger; thou wouldst only distress her by informing her
of the fact of our being Christians, and it could do no good
to tell her."

Then the girl drew nigh to him with tearful eyes, and
crossed her little hands upon his shoulder, and leaned her
head against them, and, looking up into his eyes with
sorrow and tenderness, said: "Ye have been so good
and kind to both of us, that I can not help loving
all the people at thy home, and I do love thee, although
thou art a Christian; but it is a terrible thing;
for papa says that to be a Christian is worse than to be
an atheist."

These things all occurred in a moment, and the ancient,
seeing that it had not been the purpose of Arius to inform
the maiden concerning his religion, and that he himself
had unwittingly brought about the disclosure of the fact,
said unto them: "Come within and be seated, my children;
I desire to talk to both of you."

And, when they had gone within, Arius set his basket
upon the old man's table, saying: "I have brought unto
thee wine, bread, and fruits, as a token of my reverence for
thine age and learning.  I desire to be friendly with thee."

The old man seemed to be much touched by the boy's
speech and manner, and gently answered: "I thank thee,
truly, and far more for thy kind words than for any gifts.
Not often do the ancient enjoy the friendship of the young,
although nothing else on earth can be more pleasant unto
them."

"But the heart of a Christian needeth renewal," said
Arius, "if it be not always both young enough to
sympathize with the youngest, and old enough to sympathize
with even the very oldest.  The very core of our religion is
the *Agape*, a love which is not measured by age nor
accident, but goeth out freely to every one that needeth it."

The old man looked upon the boy with wonder, saying:
"That is beautiful, indeed; there is no such truth in any
other religion."

And the girl said, "That is good and strong, Arius,
although it be a Christian dogma."

Then the ancient said: "I desire that ye will listen to
me carefully for a moment, and thou especially, Theckla.
Children, I am nigh upon fourscore years of age.  My
name is Am-nem-hat.  In mine infancy I was placed in the
great temple at Thebes, and dedicated to the service of
Amen-Ba, Mut, and Kuhns, the Theban triad.  My family
was ancient and honorable in Egypt, and their influence
and wealth opened the way for me to all priestly honors
and learning.  I remained in that temple fifty years, during
twenty-five of which I was a priest, and I gradually
mastered all the wisdom, learning, and mysteries of the
priesthood, until my fellows determined that I should be
elevated to the highest rank in the sacerdotal service, and I
was ordained and inaugurated to be high-priest at Ombos,
where I continued for five-and-twenty years longer.  The
triad which throughout all Egypt is worshiped as
Hesiri-Hes, and Horus, we at Thebes worshiped as Amen-Ra,
Mut, and Kuhns, and at Ombos as Ptah-Pukht and Imhotep.
But, while during all these years I exercised the
functions and exhausted the learning of the priesthood, I
forever sought after Ma-t, the Goddess of Truth, she that in
her own hall, in the lower world, is called Two Truths, by
whom the dead are judged.--Dost thou know something of
the fearful Ma-t, young Theckla?"

"Yea," answered the girl, with a perceptible shudder,
"I know her well, and tremble at the dreadful thought of
her!  So wise! so hard and pitiless! so tearless, and yet
so just!  The terrible Ma-t, without mercy, incapable of
love, unmoved by hate, implacable, emotionless, the fearful
judge, the Truth!"

"Then listen to me, child!  I worshiped through all
these lonely years as a faithful, conscientious priest, and
memorized the book of the dead, and studied the mysteries
of medicine, of astronomy, and of mathematics, and
sought unceasingly to know the awful Ma-t!  Dost thou
think that I am one who ought to know whether any of the
gods of Kem are true or false?"

Then Theckla fell upon her knees before the ancient
priest, and lifting her little hands to him she cried: "Yea,
father, thou knowest!  Ancient, honorable, learned priest,
thou knowest!  Teach thou Arius to believe in the three
great gods, to seek the awful Ma-t, and to abandon the
pernicious Christian faith, for thou art wise! thou
knowest all the truth!"

"Listen then, Theckla.  Five years ago, driven by the
quenchless curiosity of an unsatisfied but earnest soul, I
caused to be brought before me one who preached to men
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, because I had heard that
these Christians were irreclaimable from the errors of their
superstition, and I desired to test the question whether they
could be persuaded to return unto the old religion.  I kept
him with me many days, while we discussed these things,
and then sent him from me unconvinced.  And afterward
I fled from the temple secretly, in an open boat, in which
I had placed my most valuable possessions, and floated
down the Nile.  Thence I wandered along the coast to
Alexandria, where, for a great sum, secretly I purchased all
the sacred writings of the Jews and Christians, and, after
many days more of wandering along the coast, I found
this spot and have since then dwelt here alone, still seeking
for the truth.  For--art thou listening to me, Theckla?--a
horror of great darkness had fallen upon my soul.  I know
that Amen-Ra, Mut, and Kuhns, are not true gods!  Apis
is nothing but a bull; Anubis is only a jackal; Sebek is a
crocodile and nothing more; and even the most ancient
gods, if there be any truth in them at all, are only the
visible emblems of some higher truth which the very priests
have forgotten, if, indeed, they ever knew it.  I have
hoped and half expected to find that this unknown truth,
this 'hidden' thing which is not Hapi, might be that
which the Christians promulgate; but this I do not know.
Nevertheless, my child, I tell thee that the gods of Kem
are no true gods; and I counsel thee to learn of Arius
that which he believeth!  For falsehood is not profitable;
and I realize that all my days have been consumed
in learning and in teaching only errors; and it is sad
and terrible."

Both of them heard the old man's confession with awe
and sympathy, and when, overcome by strong emotion, he
had ceased to speak, Theckla gave way to a passionate
burst of tears; but, as soon as she could regain her
self-control, she turned to the ancient and with strange
earnestness exclaimed, "O Father Am-nem-hat, high and
honorable priest, hast thou, too, become a Christian?"

"Nay," replied the old man solemnly, "I have only
learned the bitter lesson that the gods of Egypt are all
false: I have not found a true God yet, if any such
there be."

"Thou shalt yet find him," cried Arius, "to the joy
and consolation of thy spirit, and thine old age shall
be filled with the peace of God that passeth all
understanding; for he that seeketh findeth, and to him that
knocketh shall it be opened."

Then they were all silent for a time.  Then some of
the kids came up to the door, and Theckla, oppressed
with the sadness and solemnity of the last few minutes,
sprang up, crying out: "O the pretty, happy kids!  May
I go out and play with them?"

And the old man, with a pleasant smile, answered,
"Yea, my child, if thou wilt not leave the plateau."

And Theckla bounded out of the house, and was
soon engaged in a lively romp with the sportive young
goats.





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.. _`WHO IS HAPI?`:

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   CHAPTER VIII.


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   WHO IS HAPI?

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The absence of Theckla gave Arius the opportunity
he desired to call out from Am-nem-hat a fuller expression
of certain theological ideas suggested by the ancient
during their first conversation, the remembrance of which
had been the subject of frequent meditation ever since;
and the boy said: "Since I last saw thee, Father
Am-nem-hat, many circumstances have combined to prevent
me from giving to the things which I heard from thee
that careful consideration which I desired to bestow upon
them; yet I have pondered much upon those philosophic
views which thou didst utter concerning the dualism of
God.  I desire to hear more fully thereof; for although
I know that Christianity is, for the most part, a practical,
experimental thing, concerning the heart and the life
of a man rather than a philosophical or theological
system, concerning which Jesus himself had naught to say,
as if he preferred to leave dogmas and ceremonies to the
Scribes and Pharisees, so that it is possible for one to be
a genuine and faithful Christian with little knowledge of
philosophy or of science, yet it behooves the young
especially to seek for information concerning every question
that can arise out of the faith."

"Thou must understand," said Am-nem-hat, "that
I do not assume to be a teacher of thy religion.  Being
set free from the bondage of Egyptology, and left, as
it were, without any religion for the last five years, I
have given much time and study to Christianity, reading
the Scriptures, of course, by the light of all that I
have learned of other systems, and seeking only to
discover the truth.  There is one thing, which I had long
supposed to be true, which recent thought and investigation
seem to establish beyond any great room for doubt.
That thing is the fact that the old Egyptians believed
the human spirit to be of divine origin, engaged throughout
earthly life in a warfare between good and evil, and
that its final state was determined after death by a
solemn judgment rendered according to the deeds done in
the body.  This warfare continued through all the dynasties
alike until during the eighteenth dynasty, the priesthood,
fearing that the principle, or god of evil, was about
to triumph, got together and obtained a royal decree,
ratified by the sacerdotal order, to banish Seth (the evil
god) out of Egypt, and out of the religion of Kem; but
this action failed to have that salutary influence which
had been expected from it.  The fact itself was, perhaps,
the most singular one in Egyptian history; but our
sacred records leave no doubt that the royal and sacerdotal
authorities united in a solemn decree for the banishment
of Seth, in order to secure the future safety of the
human soul.  I have just as little doubt that originally they
believed in one supreme God, who was conceived of as
a dual being, combining in himself both the poles of
spiritual sex-hood perfectly, and giving birth to a third
divinity, by which the triad, that is constantly repeated
under different names, was made complete.  Hence I
declared to thee that nothing could save the Christian faith
from the imputation of polytheism except the assumption
that the God of the Christians, like the original
myth of all primitive faith, hath in himself a double
spiritual sex-hood, of which Christ is the Son, 'begotten,'
not created; 'conceived,' not made; divine, because as
the son of man is human, the Son of God must be
divine.  If this is not true, then the Christ of these
Scriptures, no matter how pure and exalted he may have been,
was either a created being, or else he was only a mere
appearance, a mere *simulacrum* of Deity, a pious fraud,
who merely *seemed* to live among men, and to die for
their justification, but did not do so in reality."

The old man paused at this point, but the boy,
keeping steadily in view the matter which had aroused his
own interest in the conversation, said, "But are there
any proofs of the divine dualism and trilogy of which
thou hast so confidently spoken?"

"I think so," said the ancient, "but the original idea
has been overlaid and hidden for countless centuries by the
myths and symbolisms and external ceremonies devised by
ancient priests to express them for the common people,
until the priests themselves perhaps only dimly perceived
the original truth, and regarded the symbolism itself as
true--a most bare and flagrant idolatry.  For when, at
some indefinite yet very remote period, religion became
blended with government and the priests sought rather to
control public affairs than to maintain a true worship,
the religious idea became so degraded that the sun, which
was originally only the symbol of a higher, unseen God,
was mistaken for a God itself, and worshiped as such;
and this degradation increased with ages, until finally any
one who could build a sculptured sarcophagus, and pay
for the embalming processes, ritualistic prayers,
incantations, charms, and ceremonies, was declared to be in
Hesiri justified.  According to the inscriptions on the
sepulchres, no rich man was damned, and respectability
on earth and salvation after death were dependent upon
money alone.  There was nothing to be done in the way
of restraining one's self from evil, nothing to be done in
the way of active benevolence.  The chief business of an
Egyptian's life was to acquire sufficient wealth to build
a costly tomb, and the most expensive event in a man's
experience was his funeral.  Hence the rich were all saved,
and the poor were mostly condemned, without regard to
personal character and action.  Yet all the while the most
pious and learned of the priests clearly perceived, even
through the mists of error, superstition, and selfishness,
which debased the ancient faith, the primitive truth that
God was one--a dual being that was to become a triad by
the generation of a Son."

"I think," said Arius, "that I comprehend the argument;
yet I desire to hear the proofs of this divine dualism
more explicitly stated."

"The proofs thereof, derived from the dualism in the
original faith of the most ancient races (as the Egyptian,
Indian, and Chinese), and from the fact that the
monotheist Manes, or Moses, called his one God by a name which
is the dual or plural number of a Hebrew noun, have
already been suggested to you.  But, in the ancient religion
of Egypt, this dualism pervaded the whole system everywhere.
There was even a dual name for everything--the one
common, the other sacred or hieratic.  The ancient name
of Egypt, 'Kem,' signified both the 'Black-land' and also
the 'black man' or people.  The local name, Mizraim, was
a dual word, signifying both upper and lower Egypt, in
which 'To-mehit' was the north-land, and 'To-res,' the
south-land, and the sacred name of the river, which the
Greeks call the Nile, was 'Hapi'; and the same word was
applied to Apis, the bull-god; and in both cases the word
was used to denote 'the hidden,' 'the concealed,' the source
of the Nile being believed to be undiscoverable, and the
being of whom Apis was originally the symbol being yet
'hidden,' 'unrevealed.'  No matter where, or by what
name, the one supreme, self-existent, self-productive
Creator of all things was worshiped, he was originally
worshiped as a dual entity, a double god, at once father and
mother of a third manifestation that was always a son.
Primarily Apis, 'the hidden,' 'the concealed,' simply
meant that this third person was yet unrevealed; but just
as Ra (the sun), originally the symbol of the one God,
became substituted for God himself, afterward Apis becomes
the real 'hidden' thing, of which he was primarily only a
symbol, and his spiritual form seems to have become
Horus.  Yet Ra is rarely associated with a female consort;
but, when he is so, it is always with a female Ra, and never
with an inferior being.  But, even after this idolatry
became established, the higher priests preserved the original
idea of a dual god, to be made a triad by the generation of
a son; and everywhere in Egypt, no matter by what local
names their gods were called, this trilogy was affirmed
in every temple.  The very essence of the ancient Egyptology,
therefore, is the idea of one dual god, that becomes
a trilogy by the generation of a son.  The same thing is
true of the most ancient form of the Indian and Chinese
polytheisms.  Thou must perceive, therefore, that in the
original faith of all the primitive nations, the divine being
is Father-mother, which is one dual God, and a son.  If,
therefore, the Christian religion presents the idea of a
spiritual dualism made a trilogy by the generation of a son,
it maintains the very idea of the Deity, which is the core
of all the primitive religions--Egyptian, Indian, Chinese,
and, I think, Jewish also."

"If thou art not weary," said Arius, "I would desire
much to hear thee declare how these views, which are
entirely new to me, agree with thy reading of our sacred
books."

"I will cheerfully state the result of my investigations,"
said the ancient, "again reminding thee that I read
them only as I have done the sacred books of every other
people known to me, and not as one having any especial
authority to declare the meaning thereof."

"I know perfectly well as to that," said the boy, "but
desire to know what thou hast found therein in reference
to this opinion of thine."

"I have found first, as I have already suggested, that
Moses, who was a monotheist, and a bitter enemy of all
polytheistic ideas, constantly uses the plural number of a
Hebrew noun to name the one God in whom he believed.
According to the prophetic portions of the Jewish
scriptures, I find that the Son of God was to be born of a
virgin, and the trilogy was to be manifested to man by the
incarnation of this son.  Now, in the sacred books of the
Christians, the four called Gospels, Christ is always called
the Son of God, and Jesus is called Christ.  Uniformly
that which stands in the same relation to God that was
attributed to the earthly manifestation of the divine nature
by all original faiths is the Christ; that which in the
Christian system occupies the same relation to the divine nature
which was borne by the feminine side of the dual God of
all the original faiths is called the Holy Ghost.  This
expression (Holy Ghost) occurs two hundred and twelve times
in the New Testament, and in every instance the words
are in the Greek neuter gender, which expresses nothing
as to sex.  The common declaration concerning Christ
is that he was 'begotten' of God: a man is begotten of
his father; he was 'conceived' of the Holy Ghost: a man
is conceived of his mother.  My interpretation, therefore,
must be that these scriptures teach us that the one God
is a divine dualism, a double spiritual Being, the
Father-Ghost, and that the Christian trilogy is completed by the
generation of a son of this Father-Ghost which is one
double God; and that as far as sex-hood can be predicated
of a spiritual nature, Christ, the Son, is a spirit begotten
and conceived of God his Father-Mother, by whom the
worlds were made, and who was afterward manifested in
the flesh by assuming human nature.  This is what thy
scriptures teach me: I know not whether it be true;
but it is a glorious statement of that which was the
original faith of all primitive peoples before mankind
lapsed into idolatry; for every high-priest in Egypt
assuredly knoweth that polytheism was not the first faith
of men."

"But," said Arius, "is not the Holy Ghost called 'he'
in the paragraph from John which readeth--'And I will
pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,
that HE may abide with you forever; the Spirit of truth;
whom the world can not receive, because it seeth HIM not,
neither knoweth HIM: but ye know HIM, for HE dwelleth
with you and shall be in you'; and in that passage which
readeth as follows: 'But the Comforter, the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, HE shall teach you
all things': and do not these readings conflict with your
idea that the name of the third person in the Christian
triad expresses nothing as to sex?"

"I think not so," answered the ancient, "because it is
evident that in these places the only thing that can be
meant by the 'Holy Ghost' and the 'Spirit of truth' is
the Paraclete, the Comforter; and while the Greek word
for comforter is a noun of the masculine gender, the words
'Holy Ghost' and 'Spirit of truth' still retain their
neuter form, although put in apposition with it; and the
pronouns 'he' and 'him' take their masculine form from
the word comforter, and not from the words Holy Ghost
and Spirit, which are always neuter, and express nothing
as to sex.  Besides this, I do not find anywhere in the
scriptures any characteristics which are essentially
masculine ascribed to the Holy Ghost, and I do find many which
are essentially feminine."

"Wilt thou state any other argument, if there be any,
that maintaineth this grand idea of a dual God that
becometh a triad by the generation of a son?"

"There is another," said the ancient, "which is
conclusive to my mind that the doctrine of thy scriptures is
as I have stated it.  In Genesis it is written that God said,
'Let *us* make man in our own image'; and, also, it is
written, 'Male and female created he them.'  It seemeth
to me that this 'image' and 'likeness' hath a deeper
signification than the mere similitude of man's character to
that of God can convey.  God is a spirit, according to these
scriptures, and no resemblance can be imagined between
human beings and him in regard to physical constitution.
So far as the characters constituted the 'image and
likeness,' the books show that it would include only the first
man on one side, and God the Father on the other.  But
the words are generic: 'us' and 'our' the triad, on one
side, and 'man' (that is 'male and female,' the human
race) on the other, and I suppose the 'image and likeness'
spoken of is one found in the essential nature of man, in
his constitution and relations.  For as in heaven, so in
earth; in both, the trilogy includes Father, Mother, Son:
trinity is family; and the essential point of the image and
likeness between the human and the divine subsists in the
fact that human nature necessarily exists as a triad--father,
mother, son; just as the divine nature must do.
This seemeth to me to be the only ground from which it is
possible to predicate divinity of Jesus Christ without
involving the whole Christian system in the mazes of
polytheism; for if he be divine otherwise than in this fact of
generation, there must be more than one God.  In strict
accordance with this view, I have observed that in those
nations which are ignorant of this feminine aspect of the
dual god, wives are degraded--are mere chattels, mere
slaves; in others, that (like Egypt) recognize the divine
feminine nature, but hold that she is inferior to the
masculine element of this dualism, wives are tolerated, are
not shut up in seclusion, are not mere slaves and
chattels; while among the Christians alone who hold the
absolute equality of Father and Spirit, womanhood is
glorified and made honorable; and Jesus himself elevated
marriage almost, if not altogether, into a religious
sacrament."

"The views you present seem very like the truth," said
the boy, musingly, "and they are certainly grand enough
to be true.  But they are entirely new to me, and I shall
not fail to give them such study and meditation as my
sense of the magnitude of the subject involved may
demand.  I have never heard any discussion upon the nature
of the relation of the three persons of our Christian trilogy."

"I think," said the ancient, "thou wilt find that it is
a mere mistake to suppose that there are three, for the
sacred books teach me that there are only two, the
Father-Ghost, or double God, but one only; and the Son of this
one God.  The perfectest flowers in nature are hermaphrodites."

"But wilt thou inform me whether any perfect, self-producing
creature, possessed of animal life, hath ever been
discovered?"

"Never," answered the ancient.  "The partial realization
of such a condition, the rare approximations thereto,
which have been curiously noted by Egyptian priests for
centuries and myriads of years, have been universally
regarded as a deformity, and not as a perfection.  Yet the
priesthood say that the fact was perfectly realized,
according to Moses, in the case of the first man; for the
first woman was not created as the man was, but proceeded
out of him; and the account given by Moses afterward
means just that.  I could say many things upon this
matter indeed, but for the fact that the oath of secrecy, taken
at every step of his progress in the sacerdotal life by every
Egyptian priest, was vast and solemn; intended to cover
his whole future life, and secure his silence under every
possible mutation of his own fortune.  The sphinxes, with
wide-open eyes and sealed lips, and faces that are
inscrutable and calm, revealing nothing that might show a trace
of any passion, emotion, thought, or purpose, and yet full
of intelligence and power, are the perfect symbol of the
Egyptian priesthood; and I know not just how far these
obligations are binding upon me."

"I will not question thee," said Arius, "but will
endeavor to profit by whatever thou mayst be at liberty to
declare."

"Thou mayst some day find use for the fact that was
well known to the priesthood, who were the repository of
all knowledge in the land of Kem, that in the embryonic
or total life, both in animals and in man, there is
absolutely no distinction of sex.  Up to a short period prior to
its birth, it is impossible to determine whether the
offspring will be male or female--from which fact it seems
to follow that sex is not a primary or essential function of
animal existence, but dependent upon conditions during
gestation which centuries of investigation have failed to
disclose.  Dost thou remember how bitterly the sacred
books of the Israelites, from Moses down, denounce Baal,
and Ashtaroth, and the star-god Remphan, and all the
secret rites of the national religions of all other people
except their own, the Egyptians included?  Hast thou
observed that many of the ceremonies which other nations
practiced as part of religion are denounced by Moses as
crimes punishable with death?  Hast thou observed that
throughout the Jewish scriptures, and especially throughout
the Pentateuch, there are bitter and vindictive laws
and customs devised for the express purpose of segregating
the Israelites from all other peoples, for building up, as it
were, a wall of partition between them and all other
nations--and this, notwithstanding the fact that it would
have been natural and right for Moses and his people, if
they believed themselves to be in possession of the truth,
to seek to impart that truth to others, and so procure the
universal acceptance thereof?  Hast thou marked the fact
that the missionary spirit, which was the glory of every
other religion, so as to create continual wars undertaken
for the sole purpose of forcing other peoples to adopt the
religion of the conqueror, was constantly repressed by the
Jewish laws and branded as a crime?  And hast thou
ever reflected upon the real signification of these facts?"

"Yea," answered Arius, "and I have been taught that
God, by Moses, so commanded the Jews in order to preserve
the peculiar people from being seduced into following
after strange gods, and adopting the idolatries which
were everywhere believed in.  For the idolatries thou hast
named, and every false religion which had for its symbol
a moon, a cow, a cock, or any symbol intended to indicate
the fecundity of Nature, was only the worship of that very
mystery of sex of which thou hast spoken such strange
things, the deification of lasciviousness, the apotheosis of
sensualism."

"They finally became so, indeed," said Am-nem-hat,
sadly, "when the original truth became thoroughly
corrupted; but it was not so in the beginning.  For if thou
wilt keep in mind the fact that the original faith of every
primitive nation held the true God to be a dualism that
was to become a triad by the generation of a Son; if thou
wilt remember that this Son was also held to be Hapi, 'the
hidden,' 'the concealed,' 'the unrevealed,' even as unto
this day the high-priest of every temple in Egypt will
declare unto thee; and, considering these things, thou wilt
not surely say that the grand roll of Egyptian priests,
stretching back for more than thirty centuries of recorded
history from this age of ours, were all mere sensualists.
On the contrary, thou wilt see in these singular rites and
ceremonies, even in their present degraded form, the signs
and symbols of a deathless longing in the hearts of that
grand, pure, holy race of sacred priests, and of a search
prosecuted over land and sea, through heaven, and earth,
and hell, during all the fruitless and slow-gliding
centuries, by every art, science, and resource known to men--a
longing and a search after Hapi, 'the hidden one,' 'the
concealed Son,' 'the unrevealed Saviour,' for whom the
whole creation groaneth--a sublime spectacle, sad and grand
enough to move a god to pity!  For while the crowd see
only a splendid pageant in that annual festival in which,
with torches and with magnificent display, the priests and
the whole population at Memphis wander over the city,
the river, and the lake, seeking in earth, and fire, and
water, for the dismembered body of the dual god, thou
wilt find among them aged, pure, sad, learned men, who
see in the same grand spectacle the perpetual memorial of
their world-old search for Hapi, 'the concealed'; and, if
thou couldst gaze into their shut, silent, sorrowful hearts,
thou wouldst see all the faculties of soul and spirit
exhaling in a yearning prayer that he might come! and at the
gate of every temple thou wouldst find the priestly symbol,
the Sphinx, the sleepless watcher, cut out of imperishable
stone, 'gazing right on with calm, eternal eyes,' till
Hapi come!--for such is the true signification of
Hesiri-Hes, whom the Greeks call Osiris-Isis!  And even in the
later and more degraded worship of the bull-god Apis,
while the common crowd see only the apotheosis of sensualism,
as thou hast called it, in the fact that, when a new
Apis is discovered, devout women at Memphis, during
forty days, expose themselves stripped naked to the gaze
of the sacred brute, the sad-faced priests realize that the
endless and unavailing search to discover Hapi, 'the
concealed,' had sometimes been prosecuted by unlawful means,
against which Moses, in the Jewish scriptures, denounced
the penalty of death.  And the period of forty days was
purposely chosen in order to cover by a few days, in both
directions, a lunation of the moon; for the worship of the
moon-god universally connected the lunations of that
planet with the sexhood of women.  But thou wouldst
greatly err if thou shouldst believe that in its original,
undegraded form, this worship was sensualism; for it
began with some new effort to wring out of the mystery of
sex the secret of Hapi, 'the concealed'; and was glorified
by the fact that it was part and parcel of the weary,
world-old search after him!  Oh, will he ever come?"

Then the boy sprang to his feet, to the very tips of
his toes, his right hand vibrating, his head erected and
bent forward, his dark eyes gleaming with mesmeric light,
his whole form and face glowing with passionate and
quivering emotion, and he cried aloud: "Thou art pious
and aged and learned!  Thou teachest me much!  But I
will also teach thee something!  As surely as thou livest,
Hapi, the Hidden, whom thou callest the desire of all
nations, hath already come in the flesh, and his name is
Jesus Christ."

"Perhaps so, perhaps so," said the ancient, mournfully.
"But the priests of Kem, during the past three
thousand years, often imagined that they had found him,
and as often met with bitter disappointment.  The Sphinx
still watches with unwinking gaze for the solution of the
mighty problem, and the old are difficult to convince."

But at that moment Theckla burst in upon them,
flushed and weary with her romping with the goats,
crying out, "O sacred Hapi, I am so hungry and so tired!"
Then the old man spread out a linen cloth upon the table,
and, at his desire, Arius and Theckla placed thereon the
table-ware and the dainties taken from the basket which
the boy had brought, while he took from a little spring
nigh his hermitage a jar of cool, refreshing goat's milk:
and they three did feast right joyously.





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.. _`THE DEMOCRACY OF FAITH`:

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   CHAPTER IX.


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   THE DEMOCRACY OF FAITH.

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It was indeed a singular thing to hear, the usual
conversation of those young people about religious questions
upon which the greatest minds of subsequent ages have
spent their force without exhausting them; but it should
be remembered that everything like exact science was
then in its infancy: all that was actually known of
medicine, chemistry, geology, geometry, geography, botany,
and even of mathematics, could be very quickly learned;
and around this narrow limit of ascertained truth spread
a boundless wilderness of vagrant speculation, in which
the seeker after learning might wander a whole lifetime
without ever being able to add one single valuable fact
to the stock of knowledge; so that religion, whether
Christianity or paganism, was universally regarded as the
one thing that might most profitably be learned and
known; and education, even from infancy, consisted in
acquiring the knowledge of it: and this education was
among the heathen chiefly objective, handling the visible,
tangible symbols of a superstition which possessed only
the most meager elements of subjective truth and power,
except, perhaps, for the higher priests who had been
initiated into mysteries unknown to the common people;
while among the Christians the process was almost
reversed.  Christianity had no objective life, except in the
person of Jesus Christ; and the subjective power which
it possessed upon both intellect and consciousness had no
assignable limits, inasmuch as it seemed to make the
martyrs almost insensible to physical pain, and yet could
produce a moral sensitiveness so acute that to be conscious
of willful deception might work the death of the body,
as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira when they lied
to Peter about the consecration of their property to holy
uses.  This education among the Egyptians, especially
among females of the higher classes, was chiefly oral, but
among the Christians the young were taught both orally
and by the written text.

One of the strangest and yet most logical results of
the Christian teachings and practice (and one which has
been, for very sufficient reasons, ignored by the theologians)
was to develop a radical and uncompromising spirit
of democracy throughout the Christian communities or
churches.  The early Christians uniformly held that they,
as Christians, belonged to a kingdom which was in, but
not of, the world--a kingdom for which no earthly
potentate had right or power to legislate; and this living
faith loosened the bond of allegiance and dissolved the
sense of obligation as to all human authority, and was
the negation of the lawfulness of temporal government
over the subjects of the kingdom for which they
recognized no king but Christ.  While, for the sake of peace,
they were willing to render unto Cæsar the things which
are Cæsar's, by paying taxes to that government under
which they lived, and by even yielding ready obedience
to all laws and customs which did not come in conflict
with the higher law of the kingdom, the rights of
conscience, they universally regarded these laws as extraneous
to their own organization, foreign statutes, imposed
upon them from without; and, being solicitous to render
unto God the things which are God's, they steadily
abstained from any participation in the affairs of
government, and quietly assumed the right to judge for
themselves whether any law, regulation, or custom, prescribed
by the sovereign power, or other human authority, was or
was not such as they might conscientiously obey.  And,
while they would no more have thought of holding office
under pagan rulers or of participating in their legislation
and government than they would have thought of accepting
the priesthood of a heathen temple and participating
in its idolatrous worship, they obeyed all laws alike,
except such as conflicted with conscience, and these they
refused to obey in the very face of persecutions, torture,
and death.  But this fearless assertion of the rights of
conscience necessarily involved the right to sit in
judgment upon all human laws and the powers that ordained
them, and to determine for themselves whether the law
was lawful.  That helpless spirit of blind obedience to
the decrees of despotic governments which characterized
the pagan peoples was, therefore, impossible to the
Christians.  In the very teeth of universally established law
and custom, they steadily refused to bear arms, to own
slaves, to seek any legal redress in civil courts, to follow
the law of their domicile in regard to the ownership of
property or the succession to estates of the deceased, just
as they refused to sacrifice to the gods, or to call any
man master.  Under the same lofty conception of the
rights of conscience, in lands where women were bought
and sold like cattle, they refused to practice polygamy;
and in lands where female chastity was unknown and
plural wives and concubines were esteemed to be the
insignia of honor and influence, they clave fast to that
monogamic marriage which Jesus had elevated into a holy
sacrament; and while throughout the world women were
regarded as slaves, as domestic chattels, or, at the very
best, as an inferior race and a necessary evil, so that the
birth of a female child was looked upon as a household
calamity, the Christian faith that the Holy Ghost
conceived Christ before he was born of a virgin and
manifested in the flesh, glorified and exalted the dignity of
womanhood and maternity, and created the idea of
personal responsibility, rights, and duties for both sexes
alike.  The logical tendency of Christianity was, therefore,
to originate the idea of personal liberty for all men,
unknown to the world before; to repudiate the heathen
doctrine of the divine character and right of kings; to sit
in judgment upon their laws, and to intelligently obey, or
refuse to obey, them; in a word, to cultivate and exercise,
as a matter of religious faith, that spirit of personal
independence, both of action and of thought, which we
in later times denominate democracy, the concrete form
of which was the election of deacons, presbyters, and
bishops by the people unto whom they ministered.

But this habit of independent thought did not tend as
in later times in the direction of ecclesiastical schisms;
because, if any one embraced a doctrinal error, either it
was maintained by him as an individual opinion; or if a
mistaken zeal led him to proclaim it publicly, and seek
thereby to bind the consciences of other Christians, the
matter soon came to the knowledge of the churches, and,
when the Church assembled to consider the alleged error,
the Holy Paraclete directed the counsels of the assembled
bishops and presbyters, so that their deliverances were
infallibly correct, and were universally accepted as final.
So that, during the first three centuries, no heresy could
survive the condemnation of a Christian council, and no
learning, zeal, and genius could give to heresy such vitality
and power as to seriously threaten the peace of the Church.
Even Peter could not force the observance of the rite of
circumcision upon the free Christian communities; and
the heresies of Menander, Cerinthus, Nicolaus,
Valentinius, Marcion, Tatianus, Blastus, Montanus, Artimon,
and others, perished almost as soon as they had been
condemned.

It was perfectly natural, therefore, that while both
Arius and Theckla were almost children in many respects,
they should both be far advanced in religious learning,
each of them in harmony with one of the separate systems
under which they had been reared; and that they should
be, in many attitudes of thought and feeling, a pleasing
enigma to each other.  The girl, although brimful of
bright and pleasing fancies, had all her life been
accustomed to accept as truth whatever was taught to her as
such, and the very basis of her training had been implicit
and unquestioning obedience to authority without reason,
so that she had never, perhaps, attempted to exercise an
independent thought, judgment, or inquiry about any
question of religious, political, or social life, her existence
having been passed in strict and unconscious conformity
to rigid Egyptian customs, into the molds and forms of
which she had been fashioned from her infancy.  The
illness of her mother, which left her to the freedom of
thought, expression, and action, characteristic of every
Christian household, was a new and intoxicating experience
to the girl; and, whatever else it might be possible for her
to become, it was manifestly impossible that she could ever
again resiliate into the moral and social mummyism of
ordinary Egyptian female life.  The bondage of Egypt
was broken.

But the boy, fixed and immovable in his faith in the
few salient and all-important doctrines covered by the
Apostles' Creed, as that creed was taught during the first
three centuries, as to everything else, had been freed by
his training from the shackles of authority, and so
unconsciously enjoyed and exercised "the liberty of the
gospel" in which he had been reared by questioning,
investigating, trying every phenomenon--social, religious,
and political--that came within the range of his
observation and experience.

Am-nem-hat imagined that in these two youthful but
well-instructed young people he beheld the living incarnation
of the opposing civilizations under which they had
been reared; and it was a pathetic and beautiful thing
to see with what eager intentness he noted almost every
inflection of their voices, every expression of their
countenances, almost every peculiar turn and change of their
thoughts, while he encouraged them to talk, hardly caring
what might be the subject of their conversation.

At the beginning of their little feast the ancient said:
"Arius, if ye Christians have any custom of thank-offering,
prayer, or libations, before ye partake of food, I would
desire to have thee perform or repeat it now."

Then answered Arius: "We make no libation or offering,
nor are we restricted to any set formula for returning
thanks to God; but generally we repeat the
[Greek: *Patèr hemon*]."

"Wilt thou do so now?"

Then the boy said, "Yea, gladly"; and, while they
watched him narrowly, he solemnly said: "Our Father,
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name: thy kingdom
come: thy will be done on earth as in heaven.  Give
us daily our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we
forgive debtors: and let us not be led into trial, but
deliver us from trouble: for thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the truth, forever."

Then said Am-nem-hat, "Theckla, what form of worship
hast thou been taught to observe before partaking of
thy daily food?"

And the girl said: "On solemn occasions, our fathers
make libations; but it is not according to Egyptian
customs, or religion, for a female to meddle with any sacred
rite, beyond her own private devotions, as thou, O priest,
must assuredly know."

"Dost thou know the reason, Theckla, that woman is
thus excluded, not only from participation in the sacred
rites, but from every place that is inconsistent with the
idea that she must of necessity be either a slave or a
domestic pet, having right to existence only as the
appanage of a man upon whom she is dependent as slave,
wife, or daughter?"

"Nay," she answered; "but I have been so taught,
and, therefore, it must be right and proper."

"I will tell thee, Theckla, for it is verily a thing which
every female ought to know.  The reason of it is that the
original idea of God was that of a dual being, equally
divine and glorious in both aspects of his double nature.
But nearly all nations, as they sank deeper and deeper
into idolatry, degraded the feminine conception of this
dualism, and some of them utterly lost it.  In Egypt
they have held Hes to be consort of Hesiri, and, although
inferior to him, yet entitled to great honor.  Hence the
Egyptian women have never been shut up, kept in
seclusion and ignorance, and esteemed only as slaves or as
chattels, as is universally the case among nations that have
entirely fallen away from the divine truth.  But I tell thee,
Theckla, that the religion of the Christians alone maintains
the absolute equality of the Godhead, by maintaining the
Holy Ghost, the Mother of Nature, to be consubstantial
with the Father, and hence it alone elevates woman to
her true position, and endows her with responsibility,
respect and honor, rights and duties; so that, although
all men on earth should reject and curse the Christ, every
woman, who is true to herself and to her sex, should cleave
unto him in spite of pain and even death itself.  Do thou
remember these things, Theckla; and, when thou shalt see
with what respect, honor, and love the Christian husband
treateth his wife and daughters, remember thou that the
vast difference between them and other men, in that
regard, ariseth not out of any difference in the nature or
disposition of the individuals, but out of the difference
in their religion only; for that faith regardeth women as
persons, not as things.  Forget not these truths, Theckla! for,
whether it be true or false, Christianity alone hath ever
done justice to womanhood, wifehood, maternity; and the
woman who does not love and follow Jesus betrayeth
herself and her sex."

"Surely thou, also, art a Christian!" said the young girl.

"Nay," answered Am-nem-hat; "I say not that to
thee!  For I can not understand what it is to be a Christian.
But, having carefully studied this religion as I have
done all others known among mankind, I do solemnly
assure thee that it is the only one on earth that is fair
and just to chaste and intelligent women.  For it teacheth
that the equal, consubstantial Holy Spirit conceived a
Saviour that was virgin-born; and it so serveth to redeem all
womanhood from centuries of contempt and degradation;
for no man who hath an intelligent faith in Christianity
can ever regard woman as the mere instrument of his
pleasure, or as the mere slave of his will, but as a friend,
helpmate, and companion, worthy of love, honor, and
respect; so that, whether it be true or false, every woman
should cleave thereto, because it is for her, at least,
temporal salvation.  For Christianity differeth as radically
from all other religions in regard to the esteem in which
it holdeth women as it does in regard to slavery and
to the poor.  And while the rich and the great may hate
this system because it would deprive them of the social
and political precedence which every other religion
maintaineth for them, the slaves, the poor, and the women
should never forget that Jesus Christ is the truest friend
they ever had on earth."

Then said Arius, "Father Am-nem-hat, why art not
thou a Christian, having views of our religion that are so
wise and just?"

And the old man answered: "That thing, my son, I
can not tell thee, nor can I comprehend it for myself.  I
can not understand what is the precise attitude of mine
own spirit toward Christianity.  Canst thou instruct me?"

"Nay, verily," said Arius.  "In my heart I yearn for
the power to say something that might open thine eyes
unto the light; but my small knowledge and experience
serve not to enable me to understand how it is possible
that one so aged and so wise, so well instructed in our
Lord's own teachings, can fail to be a Christian.  But
my father was an idolater in his youth, and he is learned
in our religion.  If thou wilt go home with us, thou shalt
be received with honor and affection, and he, perhaps, can
give thee aid.  Wilt thou not go?"

"I thank thee much," said Am-nem-hat.  "But the
way is long, and the mountain steep, for one so old as I.
And besides, it seemeth to me that, if human knowledge
and patient thought could extort any final truth out of the
mute lips of Nature, even I could have made her speak!"

"But," said the boy, "the tree of knowledge is not
that of life.  Even the most ignorant and depraved find
peace in believing, and I have met with none so wise as
thou.  If thou wilt come to us, I will bring hither on
to-morrow a she-ass, gentle and sure of foot, which my
mother is accustomed to ride, and will walk beside thee
to our home, if only thou wilt come."

"Yea," cried Theckla, "thou must surely come!  For
I will tell my mother that I have met the high-priest of
Ombos, and she will long much to see thee."

Then Am-nem-hat, as if overpowered by their persuasions,
replied: "Ye are both so kind to an old and lonely
man that I can not resist your entreaties, and will even
do as ye desire; for ye know not what pleasure the old
may derive from the polite and hearty attentions of the
young."

Then the two young people bade the old man a kind
farewell, and, with the light heart of youth and health,
took their way homeward down the mountain.  And
when they had come to the edge of the pasture-land
they met with some of the cattle, and among them was
the young bull-calf whose peculiar markings had so
excited the wonder and superstition of Theckla; and Arius
cried out laughingly: "Lo, Theckla! there is thy god,
and thou shalt ride home upon the back of the beast."

And he cut a long withe and fastened it upon the
horns of the bull, and led up the gentle beast, and,
seizing the young girl in his arms, he lifted her astride
of the fat, round calf, and led him along.  And, when
Arius mocked and ridiculed the young Apis, the girl
joined in his merriment, and he was glad to see that she
was fast losing all superstitious reverence for the brute,
and for all the other pagan deities; for her growing
contempt for Apis necessarily struck at her reverence for the
whole system, of which a bull with a black hide, a
triangular white spot on his forehead, a spread-eagle in the
hairs of his back, a crescent white spot upon his side,
and a knob like a scarabæus under his tongue, was so
important a part.

When they had reached that part of the pasture
which was nearest to the house, Theckla sprang from
the animal's back, and, with some lingering doubt of
his divinity still troubling her mind, she said: "Arius,
I really wonder whether the Apis hath a knob under his
tongue in the shape of a scarabæus?  Wilt thou not look
into his mouth?"

"I know not that," said the boy; "but, if he hath
not a rather odd-looking spot under his tongue, he is
the only bull-calf I ever saw that hath it not; and I
suppose it would be easy to irritate and inflame this
spot until it would look like a natural knob about as
large as a good, lively beetle."

"I had never thought it might be possible for the
priests to so deceive any one," said Theckla.

"Perhaps they did not do so," answered the boy;
"but they may have been deceived by the cunning of
those who had such beasts and desired to sell them."

Theckla sighed, but her reverence for Apis and for
all of his mysteries was utterly gone forever.





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.. _`FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY`:

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   CHAPTER X.


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   FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY.

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During the time that Arius and Theckla had been
absent at the hermitage of Am-nem-hat, a great change
had occurred in the condition of the Egyptian lady,
Hatasa, at the Baucalis cottage.  Early in the morning
she had fallen into a profound slumber, but before noon
she had awakened suddenly, and in a moment afterward
the whole house was filled with her bitter wailing.  All
at once the terrible sense of loss had overwhelmed her
mind with impassioned force, and in heart-broken tones
she repeated the name of her husband over and over
again, and momently called aloud for "Theckla, darling
Theckla!  Where is my daughter, my only child?"

Then with great tenderness Arete told her that
Theckla was well and happy, and would soon return with her
own son, with whom she had gone to visit a near
neighbor.  The poor woman's grief seemed hopeless and
unendurable.  At one moment she would yearningly lament
the loss of her husband, and at the next reproach the
gods of Egypt with his destruction, and then, perhaps,
pray to them in tones of hopeless supplication.  "O Ra
and Thoth!" she cried, "ye murderous, heartless gods, that
have so cruelly bereft me, have pity upon Amosis, whom
ye have snatched away to the under-world!  O merciless
and fearful Ma-t, that hast never had compassion
upon any mortal, thou terrible Two Truths in thy dark
halls sitting, unmoved by sorrow or pain, in the gloom of
mournful Amenti, soften once thy stony heart, that thou
mayst feel the sharpness of our earthly woe, so that thou
judge not mine Amosis until I have builded his sarcophagus.
O thou Hesiri-Hes! that cometh nearer to our
human life than other dreadful deities, restore my
husband's body to the land, that with due honors and
uncounted cost I yet may have his mummy-rites prepared
to smooth his pathway through the under-world!"  Then,
seeming to realize the uselessness of any prayer in the
absence of the ceremonies of a funeral, she moaned in
hopeless grief: "O terrible! to be cut off in youth, with
no sarcophagus builded, and no mummy-cloth--cast off
alone and friendless, into the darkness of Amenti!  O
fearful fate! to be called up for judgment, like a pauper,
before the merciless, unsparing Ma-t!"

And so she would cry, as loudly as her feebleness
permitted, until exhausted nature enforced silence upon her
wailing lips.

"She calleth upon the ancient, fearful gods of Kem,"
said old Thopt, in a half-terrified whisper to Arete.

"She is without God and without hope in the world,"
whispered Arete.  "May the compassionate Lord pity her
and bring unto her the consolations of his grace!"

"My heart weeps for her," whispered old Thopt; "for
the Egyptians are not as the Christians are.  They have a
shuddering horror of death, and it is to them the sum
of all possible wretchedness."

And so the weary hours passed slowly, and, at last,
came Theckla and Arius home; and the girl, bounding
into her mother's room, cast her arms about her and
kissed her passionately.  And when the mother broke out
into renewed wailings, the daughter said: "Nay, mother,
why dost thou lament so bitterly?  Surely thou art much
better now, and father will soon return to comfort thee.
Cheer up thyself with the hope of speedily returning health
and strength."

"Alas! alas! thy father will return no more!--no
more!  Ah, nevermore!"

Then with startled, wondering eyes, the young girl
gazed into her mother's face, crying out: "What
meanest thou?  He hath always come back from every
absence joyously; why sayst thou 'No more--ah, never,
more,' so sorrowfully?  Surely he must again return to us!"

Then it seemed apparent enough that these Egyptians
had such an awful terror of death, and the girl
had been so carefully guarded against all knowledge
thereof, that she could scarcely realize what thing was
meant thereby; for the Egyptians said nothing of
"death," but only, "He hath gone hence," or "He is
the Hesiri justified."

"He is dead, poor child!" moaned the mother, "swallowed
up forever by the cruel, unrelenting sea!  Thou
wilt see his face, and hear his voice, and spring to meet
his fond caress no more," she wailed--"no more!"

"Is he, then, the Hesiri justified?" she asked, a
nameless wonder and terror taking hold upon her soul.

"Oh, thou wilt break all my heart!" she answered.
"He hath died without a sarcophagus and the mummy-cloth.
How shall he, then, dare to meet the dreadful
Ma-t in the dark hall wherein she sitteth as the Two
Truths, judge of all the dead?"

Then the full desolation of her father's awful fate,
and of her own mighty loss, for the first time swept her
young heart with terrible distinctness, and, sinking down
beside her mother, the girl blended her broken-hearted
wailings with the woman's bitter cries.

"Leave them together," said Arete, and she and old
Thopt quietly withdrew.  And she informed Ammonius
of the sorrowful condition of their guests, and, with her
dark eyes full of sympathetic tears, she said, "It is a
harrowing grief, and I was so young when I became a
Christian, and view death so differently from them, that
I know not how to offer consolation for such sorrow."

"Thou shalt leave them alone for the present,"
answered Ammonius.  "The Egyptians have no consolation
except those which their erroneous faith buildeth
upon the sarcophagus and the mummy-rites--all external
consolations--of which, in such a case as this, they
are deprived.  Let them alone.  Perhaps the Lord will
show us some way to aid them, or their violent grief
will wear out itself in lamentations.  All thou canst do
is but to wait and hope."

The long night passed wearily away.  Arete and old
Thopt divided the watches thereof between them, as
they had done ever since Hatasa came to Baucalis, to
see that she wanted no attention which kindness could
supply; but neither of them knew how to utter soothing
words unto a grief that seemed so hopeless; for the
religion of Egypt contained no word of comfort for such
grief, and the beautiful idolaters were ignorant of that
of Jesus.  All that mother and daughter knew of religious
faith kept forcing back upon their broken hearts
the dreadful conviction that the soul's condition after
death depended upon the building of a sarcophagus and
the preparation of the mummy, in accordance with the
rites prescribed in "The Book of the Dead"; and in
such a case as this no mummy-rites could be paid
unless the corpse could be recovered; and, although the
sarcophagus might be builded, they did not know but
that the father and husband whom they loved might be
judged by the awful goddess Ma-t before this work could
be completed; and none of the exceptions made by their
religion in favor of those who fell in battle for the
rulers of Egypt, or who perished by shipwreck, applied
to the case of Amosis, for he had lost his life in a
private quarrel after the shipwreck had happened.  Their
hopeless sorrow was pitiful, indeed; but the young girl
fell back upon a final truth when she kept repeating to
her mother, over and over again, her own convictions in
such words as these: "Thou knowest that he was a good
and upright man, doing only what he did believe to be
right and just, and surely the greatest God of all, by
whatever name he may be known, will be most merciful
to him without a sarcophagus or the mummy-rites."
And so the young idolater, not knowing the law, but
doing by nature the things which are written in the law,
became a law unto herself, and the unknown God, whom
she did ignorantly worship to that extent which was
commensurate with her faith, revealed himself unto her; and
even from this unreasoning hope they both drew
something of comfort.  And during the night Theckla
informed her mother of her visit to the old eremite
Am-nem-hat, and of his having been priest at Thebes and
high-priest at Ombos; and how ancient, wise, and good
he seemed to be; and that he had promised to come to
the cottage on the following day, and expressed the hope
that out of his vast stores of wisdom he might be able
to bring forth some truth that would yield them surer
consolation; and this also somewhat comforted that
bitterly smitten pair.

And early the next morning Arius went to the abode
of Am-nem-hat, leading the she-ass on which his mother
was accustomed to ride, and, having got the ancient
comfortably seated upon the jennet, he led her down the
mountain and unto the cottage of Baucalis safely, where
all were awaiting the arrival of the priest to whose visit
Hatasa looked forward with vague but earnest hope.  And,
when the old man had come, Ammonius, with great
respect and tenderness, assisted him to dismount, and led
him unto the house.  And, having most kindly received
him, they told him of the sorrowful woman, and how
anxiously she had anticipated his coming, and he said, "Let
me go unto her at once."

And, when he had entered her chamber, he stood in the
middle of the floor, and, with his raised and extended
arms crossed at the wrists in likeness of a cross (for the
cross is ages older than Jesus), he looked upon Hatasa,
saying: "Whatever God is greater than Ra, whatever God is
wiser than Ptah, and whatever God is more merciful than
Hesiri-Hes, and more just than Ma-t, by whatsoever name
the great God of all ought to be known among men, I
invoke him to bless and comfort thee, O daughter of affliction.
May that truest and highest God lift up the light of
his face upon thee and give thee peace!"

Then, sitting down beside her couch, he took her hand
in his, saying kindly, "Daughter, what is thy name?"

"Hatasa," answered she.

"Art thou of Alexandria?"

"Yea," she said.  "But my family were of Thebes,
where lived and died my father Ahmad, and my
grandfather, Butau, and many generations more."

"Butau, of Thebes!" said the old man.  "Hast thou,
then, never heard of Am-nem-hat, priest at Thebes,
high-priest at Ombos?"

"Surely so," she answered.  "For the same wise and
holy priest was the brother of my grandfather Butau, the
great general, and I have often heard my parents speak of
the sacred priest with reverence and pride."

"I am that Am-nem-hat, and thou hast found a kinsman
in whom thou mayst implicitly confide."

Then seized she his hand, and, kissing it, she cried, "I
do rejoice thereat, and welcome thee as kinsman, and as
sacred priest most pious and most wise."

Then she poured out to him the burden of her heart,
and asked him if there was any hope, her husband having
builded no sarcophagus, and having had no mummy-rites.
And the old man answered mournfully, "Daughter, as an
Alexandrian, thou shouldst know the vast temple of Serapis
which standeth before the magnificent street, two hundred
feet wide, in Rhacotis, the western and Egyptian quarter
of the city--the grand and beautiful temple which
containeth the statue of the god that was brought thither out
of Pontus?"

"Yea, father," answered she, "from childhood I have
known the holy temple well."

"And didst thou also know the wise and pious Raph-nath,
high-priest of that temple, who died there some
fifteen years ago?"

"Yea, verily, I remember him quite well."

"He and I were boys, at Thebes, in the great temple
together.  All his lifetime we were friends.  When he felt
that his physical powers were failing, and that the end of
his long and holy life was fast approaching, he sent unto
me to come to him and spend his last days with him; and
so it happened that I was at Alexandria when the ancient
high-priest died.  We did talk much and often of our long
religious lives; much, of our learned ignorance; much, of
the destiny of the human soul; much, of the truth.  When
I did ask of him whether he had any special request to
make concerning his own funeral rites, he answered me in
some such words as these: 'Nay, my brother.  Let the
obsequies be simply conducted, but in accordance with the
rites and ceremonies prescribed for a priest's funeral by
'The Book of the Dead.'  For although both thou and I be
well aware that the sarcophagus is naught, and the
mummy naught, and that no rites nor ceremonies which men
can devise in any way concern the soul after death, yet,
because the law and order system of Kem hath been for so
many centuries built up on these vain things, I desire that
the usual forms be all observed at mine own funeral.
Although surely no high-priest of Egypt ought to think that
it can make any difference to the soul how, or when, or by
what means, a man may depart this life, or whether any
funeral rites are paid or not; for thou knowest that the
true purpose of religion is to control the living, and that
the dead are far beyond the reach of human agencies.'

"'On what, then, dependeth thy soul's condition in the
other world?' I said.

"'Surely,' he said, 'upon nothing that any priest can
do or leave undone, but upon whether the man hath done
his duties well according to the best of his faith and
knowledge.'

"And afterward, and almost in the hour of his dissolution,
I said unto him again, 'Brother, how farest thou?'  And
he answered me, saying: 'The light of life within me
burneth low and flickereth.  It will soon go out.  But I
fare well and peacefully.'

"'And thou hast no fear of awful Ma-t, my brother,
and of the silent hall wherein the Two Truths judge the
dead?'

"And smilingly he answered me: 'Nay, Brother
Am-nem-hat.  No man attaineth to the high-priesthood in
Egypt without having learned that the things of which
thou speakest are for the people--not for the higher
priests--part of the system which we administer, not final
truths for us.  For I know, as thou also knowest, that
above and beyond the grand Egyptian triads, there must
be some supreme God over all whom we ignorantly
worship; who is patient because he is eternal, and merciful
because he is all-wise; and having all these years discharged,
as faithfully as human frailties might permit, every duty
that came under my hand, I look away above the gods of
Kem, and trust myself unshrinkingly in the hands of the
unknown God, in whom we both believe.'  And, almost in
the same moment, the old man quietly departed.--Daughter,
for thee and for thy great sorrow there is no consolation
in the religion of Egypt.  All of the consolation I
can offer is to tell thee plainly that the things which the
high-priest Raph-nath declared unto me upon his bed of
death are true; and, as the sum of all my learning and
priestly life, I say unto thee that thou canst do nothing
else for thyself, nor for thy husband, nor for any human
soul, except to cast thyself and him upon the mercy of the
unknown God, hoping and believing that all is for the best."

The old man's voice was tremulous, and his grand, pure
face was full of compassion as he uttered these words in
tones of inexpressible and uncomplaining sadness, and with
impressive earnestness.

"And this is all?" she cried--"all that the old religion
of Kem, stripped of its outward, ornate forms and
ceremonies, has to offer to the broken-hearted?"

"Yea," answered Am-nem-hat.  "This is all, indeed.
And it is little; and the prevailing sadness of all wise
men grows out of this; yet the heart that loves and trusts
may find that even this is enough to reconcile it to the
grand and pitiless course of nature.  So saith the
philosopher Seneca: 'We shall adore all that ignoble crowd of
gods which ancient superstition hath gathered together in
a long course of years, only so as to remember that their
worship is rather in accordance with custom than with
reality or truth.'  And again he saith, 'The God is near
you, is with you, is within you'; and again, 'There is no
good man without God.'

"And Epictetus also saith: 'If you remember always
that, in all you do in soul or body, God stands by as a
witness, in all your prayers and your actions you will not err,
and you shall have God dwelling within you.' And he
saith: 'Great is the struggle, divine the need; it is for
kingdom, for freedom, for tranquillity, for peace.  Think
on God; call upon him, thy champion and aid, as sailors
invoke the great twin brothers in the storm.  And, indeed,
what storm is greater than that which ariseth out of
powerful semblances (appearances of evil), that drive reason out
of its course?  What, indeed, but semblance is a storm
itself?  Come, now, therefore, remove this fear of death, and
bring as many thunders and lightnings as thou wilt, and
thou shalt soon perceive how great tranquillity and calm are
in that reason which is the ruling faculty of the soul.'  And
he saith further: 'Thou must be absolutely resigned to
the will of God.  Thou must conquer every passion,
abrogate every desire.'  And one greater, sadder, diviner than
them all, even Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic Emperor,
declareth: 'Surely life and death, honor and dishonor, pain
and pleasure, all things happen equally to bad men and
good, being things that make us neither better nor worse,
therefore are they neither good nor evil.'  And he saith of
every man: 'Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the
voyage; thou hast come to shore; get out.  If, indeed, unto
another life, there is even there no want of gods; but if
unto a state devoid of sensation, thou wilt cease to be held
of pains and pleasures.'  And he saith: 'Then pass thou
through the short space of time conformably to Nature, and
end the journey in content, just as the olive falls off when
it is ripe, blessing Nature that produced it, and thanking
the tree on which it grew; ... accepting all that happens,
and all that is allotted, and finally waiting for death with
a cheerful mind.'  And so I say unto thee: No man can
do more for thee, for thy husband, or for any human
soul, than to fall back upon the mercy of an unknown
God, and seek for peace in the grand hope that all is for
the best."

"I can not live on that," she murmured.  "O my husband,
all my heart yearns after thee, and it will break
within me unless I can find some clearer, higher assurance
of the mercy of Egypt's gods for thee, or of this dim and
terrible unknown whom Am-nem-hat declares to be in
truth the only one.  I can not live in this void
uncertainty and darkness!  O Amosis, my husband!  O ye
cruel gods!"

"These good people among whom I find thee," said
Am-nem-hat, "are followers of the new God, Jesus Christ,
a sect that is everywhere spoken against.  I have, however,
a very favorable opinion of Jesus and of his religion, and I
take it for granted that thou dost not know the truth
concerning them.  Perhaps they could teach unto thee some
consolation for thy sorrow."

"The hated Christians!" she cried out, bitterly.  "Why,
when my lord Amosis lost his life, he was even then upon
his way to Rome to obtain from the Emperor power and
authority to extirpate the impious and terrible association
from Egypt.  If they had known this fact, perhaps I had
been already reconciled, or at least silenced, by the icy hand
of death."

"Nay, nay, mother," cried Theckla.  "That is but an
unjust thing, for they knew from the first, and from thine
own unconscious talk, that father desired to destroy them
all; and the lad Arius, their son, charged me that I should
not tell thee until thou wert stronger; for that it might
distress thee, and could do no good.  He is a true-hearted
boy, and I think a wise one also."

"And they have treated their known enemy with more
than sisterly care and kindness," said Hatasa.  "Surely it
is most strange!"

But Am-nem-hat said: "I have seen the Christians
tortured, decapitated, burned at the stake, and have heard
them even with their last breath pray to their God to
forgive those who punished them with such torments.  It is a
new and most strange religion, and possibly it might do
thee good.  No gods of Kem can aid thee in thy sorrow."

"I wish that I could see the boy," she said.

And Theckla sprang up quickly, saying, "I will bring
him unto thee."

And thereupon she went forth of the room and sought
Arius until she found him; and she said, "Arius, my
mother desireth much to speak with thee concerning thy
religion."

And the boy said, "I go unto her gladly, and may the
Lord direct me what to say unto her!"

And when the boy had come into that room where she
was, Am-nem-hat said: "I have discovered that Hatasa is
the granddaughter of my brother, and she seemeth very
dear to me, that am childless.  Thou knowest the great
sorrow for which I have been able to offer no consolation,
except to bid her cast herself upon the mercy of the
unknown God in some way, and seek for him if by chance
she might find him, and obtain mercy.  For neither faith
nor philosophy, as I have learned them, goeth one single
step beyond where this dim, uncertain light guideth the
soul, and we must therewith be content."

"But," moaned the stricken woman, "this chill and
shadowy uncertainty will drive me mad.  My soul yearneth
after my loving, noble husband.--O boy, if thou knowest
anything that bringest comfort in the very face of pitiless
Death, speak thou to me, and speak thou truthfully; for I
am sore afflicted and without hope!  *How*, when all the
gods of Egypt fail me--how can I trust the mercy of a
strange and unknown God?"

Then the God-ordained minister stood up before them,
and with that strange, continuous, rhythmic motion of the
hand, with his fine head erect and bending toward her
from the long and shapely neck, his luminous eyes agleam
with strange mesmeric light, his voice sibilant, tremulous,
incisive, began to preach his first little sermon in a way
that grace and training made natural unto him: "Trouble
not thine heart, O woman, with any thought about the
gods of Egypt, for I tell thee that the unknown God to
whom all men turn in time of sorest trial and sorrow, even
as Am-nem-hat hath declared unto thee, is no more
unknown, but is one God over all, blessed for evermore, and
hath revealed himself unto men through his Son, our Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who loved us, and hath borne all
of our sins upon himself, that we by faith in him may so
be free; for, to them who believe in Jesus, life and
immortality are brought to light in the gospel, and for them
death hath no sting, the grave no victory.--What name do
ye Egyptians give unto the burial-place of your dead?"

The boy paused, and looked upon her, demanding an
answer with his eyes.

"We call it sarcophagus," she replied.

"Yea," he continued, "sarcophagus!  The devourer
of human flesh!  But we Christians call it cemeterion--a
sleeping-ground; because we know that Jesus arose from
the dead for our justification, and know that all they who
sleep in death shall rise again; for so our Lord hath taught
us.  Thou complainest that the light of nature is dim and
chill, and giveth thee no certain guide nor hope!  Thou
meanest that the course of nature is stern, pitiless,
implacable; teaching only that one must submit to the
inevitable without hope; a forced resignation in which there is
no comfort; an iron stoicism which teaches us to endure
pain bravely but furnisheth no compensation for sorrow;
the obedience of a slave who knows that it is impossible to
resist and foolish to attempt it; not the faith and love of a
child that obeys because he loves, and bears chastisement
meekly because he knows that infinite wisdom and exhaustless
love inflict it for his good.  O woman, listen what
the divine Son of God, who took our nature upon himself
and was in all things touched with the feelings of our
infirmities, saith unto thee: 'Come unto me, thou weary and
heavy-laden, and I will give thee rest.  Like as a father
pitieth his children, the tender mercy of our God is over
thee.  He that believeth on me shall never die, for life and
immortality are brought to light in the gospel, which is the
power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation for
every one that believeth.'  For Jesus loveth thee; he died
to save thee and to give thee peace; and his blood can
cleanse thee from all sin, so that thou mayst be justified
by faith, and find peace in believing, and in all times
of tribulation and distress thou mayst find Jesus a present
help and saviour.  O woman, sorely smitten! which one
of the gods of Kem hath died to redeem thy soul?"

"None," she answered--"none!"

"Which one of them cleanseth thee from sin, and
giveth thee a sure, unfailing promise of eternal life,
thereby releasing thee from the fear of death that keepeth
mankind in bondage, teaching that death is but a change
through which the conscious spirit passeth into larger life?"

"None! not one," she answered.  "I have never heard
such glorious promises from any priest."

"But to make these glorious promises steadfast, abiding,
true, the Son of God took upon himself our nature;
became a man for our justification, and offered up himself
a divine and perfect sacrifice for us, to make atonement for
our sins; and having submitted himself to be crucified by
Pontius Pilate, the third day he arose from the dead,
whereby we know that we also shall rise.  Seek thou for
Christ by faith, for in him are joy and peace.  In him are
hope for all bereavement, consolation for all grief.  He
loveth thee.  He so loved thee as to die for thee!  Come
thou to him, and thou shalt learn how kind, and
compassionate, and merciful a loving God can be!  For all that
hath happened unto thee is not the cruel, blind, relentless
infliction of merciless fate, working through nature; nor
is it the vengeance of an angry God upon thee and thy
husband; but is only the wise chastisement of thy
Father, God, whereby he seeketh to wean thee away from the
love of this vain and transitory life, and to draw thy spirit
upward to himself, and to the glory of the world to come.
Oh, if thou wilt believe in Christ, thou shalt find before his
mercy-seat a refuge from every stormy wind that blows,
and peace that passeth all understanding, that floweth as a
river, that teacheth thee that these light afflictions, which
are but for a moment, shall work out for thee a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory in that bright world
to which we haste.  Seek thou for Christ, and thou shalt
know how good, and pure, and holy an exercise even thy
human sorrow and yearning may become."

Then said the woman: "It is all very beautiful and
comforting, and I would know more of it.  But tell me
where I may find a temple in which these things are
taught, and a priest that knoweth them."

Then answered Arius: "We have no temple here; and
Jesus is our only priest.  But there are bishops and
presbyters who preach the gospel, when the Christians assemble
together.  And in every Christian family there are daily
religious exercises."

"Dost thou have such worship here in thy father's
house?"

"Assuredly! on the evening of every day."

"And at what place?"

"In any place that may be most convenient.  In thine
own apartment, if thou wilt."





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.. _`"FOR THE WORK'S SAKE"`:

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   CHAPTER XI.


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   "FOR THE WORK'S SAKE."

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That night, at the request of Hatasa, the whole family
assembled in her room, and she insisted upon having them
engage in their usual religious exercises, to which she
listened with profoundest attention, and with a certain
amazement; for it was hard for her to grasp at once the
idea that God might be worshiped without a temple, a
priest, and a sacrifice; but the fact furnished its own best
explanation.  And the sorrowful woman soon found herself
following with a new, strange sort of interest the reading
of the gospel, and the earnest, extemporaneous, sympathetic
prayer of Ammonius, in which he pleaded with God not
to suffer his dear and sorrowful guests, nor the aged and
righteous priest, who had so long sought for the truth, to
depart from his abode without having learned by blessed
experience how freely Jesus can forgive, and what light
and peace his gospel can afford to all who believe thereon.

After the conclusion of these exercises, Am-nem-hat
saith to Ammonius, "There are some things connected
with thy simple and beautiful religion about which I would
question thee when thou shalt have leisure and inclination
to answer me."

Then said Ammonius: "Whenever thou wilt!  Even
now, if thou wilt go with me into another room, where our
conversation may not weary the others."

"Nay," cried Hatasa.  "Go not hence, I beg; for I
eagerly desire to hear such conversation."

Then said Am-nem-hat: "I know the Jewish scriptures,
and also the new books which the Christians have
written; but I desire thee to tell me plainly what the
evidence is of the fact, upon which thou dost continually
insist, that Jesus of Nazareth, whom Pilate crucified, is the
Christ."

"The evidence is primarily historical and prophetic,"
said Ammonius, "based chiefly upon the Jewish laws and
prophecies concerning him that were written centuries
before the advent of our Lord, and that do testify of him."

"Yea," answered Am-nem-hat, "but these proofs only
go to establish the coming of a Divine Man, in whom not
only Plato and Socrates, who knew nothing of the Jews,
but the Egyptians also, and many more, believed.  I speak
not of proofs that Messiah was to come, but of the proof
that Jesus, whom Pilate crucified, was he."

"The evidences upon this point are twofold,"
answered Ammonius.  "One line of proof which is the most
satisfying, and which in fact amounts to positive
knowledge, is the personal consciousness of the believer,
experimental religion, whereby he knoweth that faith, the
conviction of sin, the justification of the believer, and all of
the phenomena which must necessarily attend the faith,
are true.  But this highest, most satisfactory, most scientific
form of evidence is of course inaccessible to one that
believeth not, except by the testimony of those who have
personal experience of the truth.  The other line of
evidence is founded on the fact that the prophecies foretold
for centuries just what Messiah should do and suffer when
he might come, and we know that Jesus did and
suffered just those things--many of them not possible to be
done without the Divinity--as healing of the sick, unstopping
the deaf ears, cleansing the lepers, restoring sight to
the blind, raising the dead, and preaching good tidings
to the poor; all of which things Jesus customarily did, all
of which things his followers have done from that day to
this; whereby we know that he is Christ indeed."

"Dost thou mean to assert that the Christians yet work
miracles?" asked Am-nem-hat.

"Assuredly," replied Ammonius.  "Jesus not only
did the miracles himself, but did solemnly promise that,
wherever his disciples should continue to obey him in all
things, they should be able, by faith in his name, to do
thaumaturgical works even unto the end of time; and
they have certainly done so ever since."

"Dost thou really believe that thou hast seen a miracle
with thine own eyes?"

"Yea, verily," said Ammonius, "and many of them."

The ancient paused a long time, and seemed lost in
profoundest meditation.  At length he answered in a tone of
inexpressible sadness and weariness: "I was in the
temple service at Thebes for nearly half a century, and much of
the time a priest.  At Ombos I was high-priest for
five-and-twenty years, and until some five years ago.  I have seen
some wonders, indeed, which the people called miracles.
but alas! alas!  I know just how those things were done!
The sun rises and sets, and no man hindereth it!  The
Nile overfloweth its banks, and refresheth all the land of
Kem, and shrinketh back in his accustomed channel; the
stars in heaven pursue their bright and tranquil way, and
seed-time cometh, and the harvest; and life and death.
All nature moves on in obedience to fixed, changeless,
universal laws, which have been from the beginning; and I
find myself unable to believe that these laws were ever
violated, or suspended, in order to furnish evidences of
any religion, or for any purpose whatever; although, no
doubt, good men may believe that such things have occurred."

"And as to that," said Ammonius, "beyond any question
thou art right.  He hath but a poor conception of our
God who thinketh that, in creating a world wherein he
intended miracles to occur, he did not know enough to
provide natural laws by which these phenomena might come
to pass without violating or suspending the established
order.  But, if I could know that it violates or suspends any
law of nature to raise the dead, I would not believe such a
fact, although I have seen it done.  But why dost thou
suppose that the anastasis of the dead is contrary to
natural law?  Our Lord hath never said so; on the contrary,
he came to fulfill, not to violate, the law.  Surely thou
canst not declare that any miracle violates or suspends, or
is without law, unless thou canst first truthfully declare
that all laws are known to thee, and that among them
there is none by which the dead might be raised up.  But
although thou art wise and learned, thou knowest that
Nature withholdeth many secrets yet from thee.  Thou
knowest that no man hath mastered all her laws; and even those
which we know may be weak, and mean, and narrow,
compared with those of which we are profoundly ignorant.
But we Christians teach that God is not the author of
confusion, but of order; that all laws of nature, physical,
mental, spiritual, are but the expression of his will, which
must be harmonious throughout, and can not be
self-contradictory; and that just as he hath made some law by
which water seeks a level, and by which heavy bodies tend
toward the center of the world, and by which oil and water,
that repel each other by nature, will unite with an alkali
to make a new creature, just so he hath established laws
by which the miracles are done; so that the anastasis of
the dead, or any other miracle, must be as purely and
truly a natural phenomenon as is the rising of the sun,
or the falling of the dew--not so common, perhaps,
because these phenomena involve powers and faculties
of the human soul that do not act always and
automatically as do the laws of physical nature; so neither
does one sleep, or talk, or think always, but only when
he wills to do so."

"That is a new, strange view of thaumaturgy!  Thou
sayst 'the miracles are under law'; perhaps, then, other
men besides the Christians might be able to perform
them."

"I know not to what extent it might be possible for
other men to exercise the power of faith which is an
essential condition in the working of miracles.  I
suppose they might do wonderful things, that would bear
about the same relation to our Christian miracles that
their various religions bear to our holy Christianity.
And I suppose that the witchcraft and demonology
denounced by Moses were the results of the exercise of
faith in false gods.  But a Christian miracle, depending
upon faith in Christ as a primary condition for the
exercise of thaumaturgical power, must remain impossible
to all who possess not that faith.  Thou hast read the
Gospels, and thou knowest the Lord hath said, 'If ye
had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto
this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into
the midst of the sea, and it should obey you.'  But he
also said, 'Without me ye can do nothing.'"

"I infer," said Am-nem-hat, "that thou thinkest
faith to be the law of miracles; thou thinkest that this
faith is itself a force in nature sufficient for the
accomplishment of physical results; and that they who
sincerely believe may, by means of this force, even raise
up the dead.  Why, then, are not all the dead raised up?"

"Thou hast stated the law rather too broadly,"
answered Ammonius.  "The faith that worketh miracles
must be applied under proper conditions to be of any
avail.  Water, oil, and alkali do not always produce
soap, but only when the proper conditions are observed.
So I suppose that no man could be raised up from the
dead against his will; and, while there be many
Christians that have sought for martyrdom, there be but few
that were willing to be raised again, and fewer still that
ever requested the brethren to pray for their anastasis,
because they preferred to depart, and to be with the
Lord, which is far better."

"I do remember," said Am-nem-hat, "that many
years ago, when Decius was Emperor of Rome, a bitter
persecution raged against the Christians at Alexandria.
I saw Julian, and Macar, and Epimachus, and Alexander
burned at the stake; and truly many seemed to seek
for martyrdom rather than to shun it, a fact which we
attributed to a certain incorrigible and hopeless
wickedness in them, and not, as thou dost, to their assurance
of obtaining a better life.  I suppose, indeed, that such
men as those would not have desired to be restored to
a life which they seemed anxious to lose; and it
seemeth reasonable enough that, even if it had been possible
to do so, they should not have been recalled against
their will.  Wilt thou not state more fully yet the
conditions upon which thou thinkest this thaumaturgy may
be exercised?"

"Faith in Jesus is the primary condition," said
Ammonius, "but there are also others.  Once a man came
unto our Lord and besought him to heal his son, saying
that the disciples had been unable to do so.  Our Lord
did heal him with a word.  Afterward the disciples
inquired of him why it was that they had failed in doing
the same work, and he said unto them that it was
because of their unbelief.  Now thou must perceive that
it was not because of their want of faith in him, for
they were then following him; so that it must have
been because of their unbelief in their own power and
authority to do the work in his name.  It seemeth,
therefore, that faith on the part of the thaumaturgist in
his own power to accomplish the miracle in the Lord's
name is one of the conditions of thaumaturgy."

"That also seemeth to be a reasonable and proper
condition," answered Am-nem-hat.  "But are there yet
others?"

"It is written that he did not many wonderful works
at Capernaum because of their unbelief.  He often said
to those who asked his aid, 'Be it unto thee according
to thy faith.'  And from these facts it seems to follow
that faith on the part of him for, or upon, whom the
work was to be done, and on the part of those among
whom it was to be done, was also one of the conditions
upon which the exercise of thaumaturgical power depended."

"But," objected Am-nem-hat, "if he was in truth
divine, why should he pay any attention to the
unbelieving or to the unwilling?  Why did he not do the
miracles in defiance of them all, as well as if they had
been faithful and willing?"

"Because," answered Ammonius, "our Lord teacheth
and requireth only a willing obedience and faith.
Not God himself will force the human will; for that
which is of compulsion hath no morality.  It is of
necessity, therefore, neither holy nor unholy.  A necessary
holiness is a contradiction in terms.  God's use of
sovereignty hath been to make man free.  Besides, faith
itself is the law of miracles; to have wrought miracles
where no faith was, would have been to violate the very
law by which he worked, and so to have degraded miracles
to the plane of an arbitrary and sporadic exhibition of
divine power, instead of leaving them as they are, the
highest result of the very highest form of universal law."

"That seemeth reasonable enough," rejoined
Am-nem-hat, "and in accordance with my conception of the
character of a holy and perfect God.  But as I perceive
thou clearly comprehendest the Christian system, upon
which I have bestowed much thought almost in vain,
suffer me to put one other case to thee which seemeth
to me to be inexplicable upon any principles which thou
hast stated as constituent elements of the law of
miracles, if thou art not yet weary of my questions."

"Nay," said Ammonius, "I am not weary.  Thou
mayst ask many things, indeed, which I know not, and
can not answer; but, so far as I can give thee any aid,
it affordeth me pleasure to answer thee as intelligently
as I can."

"The matter is this," said Am-nem-hat.  "It is
recorded in thy sacred books that when the apostles were
going about Jerusalem, imparting the Paraclete by the
laying on of their hands, and working divers miracles,
one Simon, a magician, came unto them and offered
money unto them if they would communicate unto him
the same power, so that he also might become a
thaumaturgist.  But one of them, named Peter, did bitterly
rebuke him, saying, 'Thy money perish with thee!'  Now,
the apostles had faith; the people who saw them
doing all these wonderful works had faith, and were
baptized by Philip.  Simon Magus himself had faith as much
as any one of them, and, when Peter rebuked him, with
fear and trembling he besought Peter, saying, 'Pray ye
to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye
have spoken come upon me.'  Now, here seem to have
been all of the conditions of faith and willingness in
Simon of which thou hast spoken, and yet Peter manifestly
regarded the desire of Simon as a sort of sacrilege.
Why was this so?"

"Why," said Ammonius, "Peter declared that his
thought that the gift of God may be purchased with
money was evil; and that his heart was not right in the
sight of God, and that he should repent of his wickedness,
and that his very thought showed that he was still
in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity."

"That is very true," answered Am-nem-hat, "but his
tender of money to the apostles only proves his
appreciation of the value of the power which he desired to
purchase.  Peter saith not that Simon was a bad man, but
that this particular thing was wicked; why was it so in
him, and not in them?"

"Because," replied Ammonius, "it is manifest from
the whole record that Simon desired to purchase this power
for himself, and to use it for his own purposes."

"Certainly so," persisted Am-nem-hat, "but in what
respect was it sacrilegious for him to desire to use the
power for his own purposes, any more than it would
have been to use his brain, or his hand, for his own
advancement; or his learning, or skill, for the acquisition
and cultivation of which he had, perhaps, expended
money?"

"The answer to thy question," replied Ammonius,
"involves some consideration of the very genius of
Christianity as a system of divine truth.  If, as thou seemest
to suppose, the religion of our Lord had been only a
system of spiritual truth, it might be difficult to deny
that the apostles were selfish, and that Simon was very
badly treated.  But this is not at all true.  Thou
knowest that the legislation of Moses was for the Israelites
only; that of Egypt for the land and people of Kem
only; that of other lands and ages for certain peoples
only.  But thou canst not have read the scriptures so
carefully without learning the fact that Jesus died for
all men, and that his truth is designed for all mankind.
Thou seest, therefore, that, if Simon Magus could have
obtained this power to exercise it for his own
purposes, he would have made it the agency by which to
gain limitless authority and wealth unto himself, and
oppress the poor.  Thou seest also that, if any nation
or government could exercise thaumaturgical powers, that
nation or government would soon become the ruler and
the tyrant of the world.  Thou seest that, if any church
that is in any way connected with, or bound unto, an
earthly government, could exercise this power, ecclesiasticism
would quickly make mankind its slaves: for manifestly
no people could long resist a government that had
thaumaturgical power wherewith to enforce obedience to its
laws.  Thou seest also that if the faith that is effective for
miracles could be exercised for any purposes except the
edification of the Church and the good of all men, the faith
itself might have become a nameless and unappealable
tyranny.  Nay, if it were ever possible to exercise such power
except under such conditions as necessarily and absolutely
to preclude the use of it for any private purposes, thou
seest that sooner or later, under the influence of inborn
selfishness, the thaumaturgists would have made war upon
each other, and, in place of seeing nations contending
with sword, and bow, and spear, we would have seen
them hurling against each other all of the destructive
forces of nature, and only chaos and utter ruin could
have ended the superhuman strife.  It was therefore
ordained that the thaumaturgic faith can not be
exercised except under conditions which necessarily exclude
the use of it for private purposes, and insure its exercise
for the good of the common Church only."

"Canst thou specify by what means this restricted use
of the power hath been enforced?  For it seemeth to
me that, if it exists, it must be beyond control."

"In order to exclude all worldly ambitions and selfishness
from the kingdom which he established in the world,
our Lord ordained that his Church should be a community
in which all men are free and equal--brethren only.  Hence
he ordained, as the fundamental law of the kingdom, that
all private rights of property (including estates, rank,
offices, prerogatives) should be forever abolished in his
Church, and that Christians should hold them all in
common.  Hence, the kingdom of heaven is an absolute
democracy, social and political, based upon faith in Christ,
and community of rights and property among all who
believe.  Of this community the apostles themselves were the
divinely appointed type.  They used thaumaturgy for the
common good only, and not for personal aggrandizement.
The common treasure was put into a bag, and, as if to
show the divine scorn of wealth and of all human
distinctions that grow out of it, the bag was intrusted to
Judas, the only base one of the twelve.  It was easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, because
the law of that kingdom imperatively required the
consecration of all that he had to the common good.  But,
under the power of a living faith, many complied with
this law, and the Church prospered.  Thus did the
bishops that were ordained by the apostles, as Linus at Rome,
Polycarp at Smyrna, Evodius at Antioch, and others also.
Thus did Paulinus, Cyprian, Hilary, and others.  Such
has been the law and practice of the common Church
even unto this day.  For the primary law of the
kingdom of heaven demandeth the consecration of all
property, and the abdication of all worldly honors, offices,
and authority.  And Simon Magus desired not part or
lot in this kingdom, but his own advantage only.  And
thou must perceive that thaumaturgical power exercised
by such a church must necessarily be for the common
good of all, and not for any personal, political, or
sectarian purposes; and the faith that worketh wonders
must therefore be impossible to any human association
except to the church organized upon the foundation
which Jesus himself laid, even the communion of the
holy; for the liberty, fraternity, and equality, which
constitute the socialism and politics of the kingdom, can
not exist upon any other foundation.  And, of course,
thaumaturgic power will vanish even out of the Church
if the day shall ever come in which those who believe
shall abandon the communal organization of the kingdom
of heaven, and establish human statutes as the law
thereof."

"I think," said Am-nem-hat, "that thy words remove
many of the difficulties which have beset my study of thy
sacred books.  For I now perceive that the parables of
Jesus--a species of literary composition unknown,
perhaps impossible, to other men--which I supposed to
refer to some spiritual, mystical doctrines, were in fact
spoken concerning his Church, or kingdom, in this world."

"Assuredly so," replied Ammonius.  "And thou hast
done well to characterize the parable as 'a species of
literary composition unknown and impossible to other men';
for no other man hath written a parable, nor do I suppose
that any man ever will do so.  For he spake as never man
spake: he spake in parables; without a parable he spake
not.  The history, the poem, the fable, the allegory, may
be used by other teachers also; but the parable is the
language of Jesus alone; and no man can handle it but himself."

"I can now understand that strange parable of 'the
unjust steward,'" said Am-nem-hat, "although, when I
first read the words, 'I say unto you, make to yourselves
friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when
ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations,'
I did even suppose that Jesus represented eternal life to
be a vendible thing, and that his religion, like every other,
assured the rich that they could purchase salvation with
money--although this seemed to be antagonistic to the
general current of his teachings."

"Verily," replied Ammonius, "the words of Jesus
would convey no other meaning, if, indeed, the
fundamental law of the Church had not excluded therefrom all
the private wealth, honors, and authority after which the
Gentiles seek.  But, if thou wilt consider that the unjust
steward is any believer that useth his means, pecuniary,
intellectual, physical, for his own aggrandizement, and
not for the common good; that the Lord of that steward
is Jesus; that unrighteous mammon is wealth held by
private ownership, and that the true riches is wealth held
by common title for the good of all--thou canst then
understand how, even upon ceasing to be steward (the end of
life), one may make amends for past selfishness and
mammon-worship, by giving up his property to the common
Church.  Thou canst understand how it is just that those
who come in even at the eleventh hour to work in his
vine-yard shall have an equal reward with those who entered
early and bore the heat and burden of the day.  Thou wilt
see that it is true that those who gave up houses and lands
for his sake and the gospel's reaped manifold more 'now
in this present life' by gaining a communal title in the
property of all other believers--an increase which our Lord
expressly promises as to all the interests and relationships
of life, except as to the wife; for, while, if one leave
houses, lands, father, mother, brother, sister, or children,
for the gospel's sake, the severed interests and relationships
are replaced a hundred-fold by his admission into the
kingdom of heaven, monogamic marriage was and is the
law of the Church.  And thou canst thus give a practical
and beautiful meaning to all that our Lord hath said and
done; thou wilt see that the social and political system
of the gospel is the only kingdom that can ever banish
crime, hatred, and selfishness out of human life, and so
regenerate the world; thou wilt see that the Scribes and
Pharisees persecuted our Lord because his kingdom
excluded war, slavery, private-property rights, estates, rank,
offices, prerogatives--of all which things they were
'covetous'--just as the Romans and all other established
governments persecute the Christians, even unto this day, for
the same reasons.  For Christ desireth the brotherhood of
men; the liberty and equality of men; and that the
average talents, energy, and prosperity of all may insure the
common weal; and not that some shall be emperors, lords,
and masters, whereby it cometh to pass that many must be
slaves; not that some be inordinately rich, and others
distressfully poor."

"I will read the gospels and the Acts again in the
light of thine instructions," said Am-nem-hat.  "But,
verily, many passages thereof already come crowding into
my mind that bear new and potent meanings; for I perceive
clearly enough that Christianity is not only a system
of spiritual truth, but also of social and political truth,
that is founded upon the faith, and from that basis
assaulteth selfishness in its strong citadel of private rights
by elevating the common good into a higher thing than
private aggrandizement, and separating the people of his
kingdom from all personal honors, prerogatives, and
wealth, after which the Gentiles seek."

"Thou wilt perceive this all the more clearly," said
Ammonius, "if thou wilt reread the gospels with this
thought in thy mind; for thou wilt at once perceive that
many passages, which in any other view would seem
strongly tainted with fanaticism, or rhapsody, or
demagoguery, are precisely the things which Jesus ought to
have said if his kingdom was, indeed, a social and political
democracy founded upon faith and community of rights
and property.  For the Jews, who supposed that our Lord
would overturn the Roman authority and establish a great
Israelitish nation instead thereof, were not any more in
error than are those who falsely suppose that he would
establish no kingdom at all, and that he taught only spiritual
truth, as do the Therapeutæ."

"I am familiar with the work of Philo 'On a Contemplative
Life, or the Devout,'" answered Am-nem-hat, "in
which he giveth a full and succinct account of the
Therapeutæ; but, indeed, I had supposed that he therein
intended to describe the first heralds of the gospel, and the
practices handed down from the apostles."

"Beyond doubt the Therapeutæ were Christians,"
continued Ammonius, "but they separated themselves from
the apostolical churches in order to lead a more devout
life, and they gradually exalted all their conceptions of
spiritual truth until they began to despise all temporal
surroundings; and in this they departed from the teaching
of our Lord: for there is no teacher of men more free
from asceticism or stoicism than is Jesus.  He was ever
busied about and interested in the common, every-day
life of common men; he was touched with the feeling of
our infirmity in all things; sympathized in all the joys
and sorrows of those about him, their trials and triumphs,
seeking to lead them, not out of the world, but into a
way of life wherein every pure and wholesome feeling,
affection, and faculty of the human heart might find full
development, exercise, and satisfaction.  The vast difference,
indeed, between Jesus and the philosophers subsists in the
fact that, while they were ever painfully seeking for rules
and actions by which the select and favored few might
attain a perfect human life, he ordained a simple, perfect
system by which to bring the higher, purer life within the
reach of all men, especially the poor."

In such conversations the time passed quickly; and it
was strange to note with what deep interest the sorrowful
Hatasa, and also Theckla and Arius, listened to every
word, and strove to catch the full signification of every
phrase; while Arete heard it patiently, as one might listen
to an oft-told but still pleasant story, and old Thopt, as if
she knew little and cared less about the whole matter,
being satisfied that whatever Ammonius and his wife
might do must be right and true.





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.. _`THE ONE THING NEEDFUL`:

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   CHAPTER XII.


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   THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

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On the same day began Arius to teach Theckla letters;
for, although the girl had been remarkably well instructed
for an Egyptian maiden, all of her tuition had been oral.
But, in accordance with her strong wish to learn how to
read and write, the boy began at once with the three
alphabets, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and in a single day
she learned all of the letters, and the relative power of
each, and in a very short time she could make all of the
characters with a sharp point of *keil* upon a leaf of
papyrus.  Then, as leisure served, he would take a single word,
as, for example, "spirit," and would pronounce and spell
it in the three languages (*nishema, pneuma, animus*), and
she would repeat the three names for the same thing after
him, and spell them, and write them down, over and over
again, until she had become thoroughly familiar with
the letters, the sound, and the form of the written word.
The acquisition of a few words every day soon gave her
command of a considerable vocabulary in each tongue, and
she rapidly learned to associate the words with all familiar
objects, and to call them by the right name in either
tongue.  Then he would select some short passage,
generally from the sacred writings, and during the day she
would write it over and over again, in each of the
languages, while he was absent upon the various duties which
pertained to his part of the farm-labor.  The girl was
continually learning; and it was pleasant to see how soon she
began, of her own accord, to select and translate into the
different tongues any passage which pleased her.  This
process of education continued, as we shall hereafter see,
during the years which she spent at Baucalis, and finally
Theckla became very familiar with the three languages in
which the scriptures were then written.

On the next evening after that described in the last
chapter, all the dwellers at the cottage assembled again in
Hatasa's room, by her request, to hold the usual evening
service; for the lady had seldom quitted her bed, and she
remained deplorably weak, suffering with continual pain
in her lungs, the result, perhaps, of her great exposure
during the storm, and of the terrible depression of spirits
that succeeded it.  All through the pagan world, the only
known refuge from hopeless sorrow was suicide, and the
idea of self-destruction was ever present to her.  Perhaps
her maternal affection for Theckla alone deterred her from
putting an end to her life; for it was not regarded by the
heathen as cowardly, criminal, or even immoral, to seek
that refuge from misfortune.  Cato did it; Seneca
approved of it; Epictetus, Aurelius, and all the great lights
of pagan antiquity regarded self-immolation as a matter of
choice, and often as an act of wisdom.  But, from the
moment in which Hatasa had been informed that the kind
friends who surrounded her were Christians, she felt a
desire to know more of them, and of their peculiar religion,
strong enough to give her a new interest in life; and
she had requested Ammonius to have the service in her
room, and told him that, although she was too weak to take
any part in their conversation about Christianity, she
desired to hear himself and Am-nem-hat discuss any topic
pertaining thereto in which they were interested.  So,
after the usual exercises of reading and prayer, the whole
family remained together.  The ancient remarked to
Ammonius that during the day he had pondered much upon
the things spoken of in their former conversation, and
suggested, as a difficulty in the way of the acceptance of
Christianity, something like the following: "I can understand
how a kind and merciful God might lay down certain rules
of action, and require obedience to his laws, under
whatever penalties he might choose to impose; but it seemeth
to me that to require one *to believe*, as the sole condition
of justification, is arbitrary and unjust.  Suppose that one
hath some natural bent of mind, or hath been reared and
educated in some such way that it is hard, perhaps
impossible, for him to believe; yet thy books say: 'Believe and
live; he that believeth not is condemned already.'  Is not
this an arbitrary demand for faith; and doth it not do
violence to that very autonomy of the will which thou sayest
Jesus himself always respected and venerated?"

"Thou dost somewhat mistake the matter," said
Ammonius.  "The Lord does not demand our faith; he
simply stateth an actual fact, which is, that the believer is
justified by faith, and that he who does not believe is
condemned already."

"I hardly understand what thou sayest: 'he simply
stateth an actual fact.'"

"I think thou wilt find that there is no arbitrary
demand in it.  Our Lord gave no command only
because he had power and authority to do so; but he
knew what was in man, and gave only such commands
as his divine wisdom perceived to be necessary for the
welfare of mankind.  As to the necessity of faith upon
which he insists, the case is thus: All men upon earth
are under the conviction of sin, and all alike are forever
seeking for some escape from the bonds of this
conviction.  Thou wilt perceive that this conviction hath no
reference to any specific, sinful act; for, perhaps, the
best and purest men have always been those who felt it
most keenly.  It is a consciousness of alienation between
the human and the divine.  It is a natural, intuitive
perception, in the heart of every man, that he is not as
good as he ought to be, less perfect than he might be.
The universal desire to get rid of this conviction of sin
hath filled the world with false and ineffectual religions
from the very dawn of time; for all men, in every age
and clime, have sought for some form of penance or
of sacrifice, some means in faith or work, by which to
make atonement and secure reconciliation, and thereby
shake off this conviction of sin.  Hast thou ever heard
of any kindred, tribe, or tongue (or even of any
individual), that professed to be perfect, sinless, needing no
sacrifice, no atonement for sin--that is, for a consciously
sinful condition independent of all specific acts of
transgression?"

"Nay," answered Am-nem-hat; "for thou art clearly
right in that.  All men do by nature bewail their
sinful state.  Humanity standeth forever like the lepers
in Israel, with uplifted hand, crying aloud to heaven
and earth, 'Unclean! unclean!'  It is a conviction upon
which philosophy hath no power.  It cometh some time
into every human heart, resistless as the precession of
the equinoxes, spontaneous as the flowing of the
Nile--a natural thing, which a man can no more control than
he can reach forth his puny hand and unloose the bands
of Orion, or bind the sweet influence of Pleiades, or
guide Arcturus and his suns.  All literature, all
monuments, all ages, and all men, testify unto this terrible
truth."

"Now the work of Jesus," said Ammonius, "was
not to burden this sick and sorrowful nature with any
arbitrary law of faith, but was to provide a way by
which this universal conviction of sin might be atoned
for--a perfect righteousness and sacrifice available by
faith for our justification; to wit, that God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself.  And faith is
made the condition, because no other condition could be
available for all men alike, whether great or small, rich
or poor, learned or ignorant; and Jesus died for all!
Thou must see that this faith, instead of being, as thou
didst suppose, an arbitrary condition or command, is
simply the enabling act, instituted by divine wisdom and
compassion, by means whereof we may be able to attain
unto reconciliation with God.  And without this faith
we could never be justified by holy life and works alone,
because it is a law of our nature that, just as we become
better and purer beings, our conception of the degree of
fitness required of us necessarily becomes higher, so that
it is impossible for us to get any nearer to it; so that
without faith the best men are as much under conviction
of sin as the worst; so that without faith it is impossible
for us to be consciously justified, because our nature
requires a perfect righteousness; and this perfect
righteousness and sacrifice must be human, that we may be
able to trust its love and willingness to aid us, and must
be divine, that we may have faith in its power to save.
Hast thou ever heard of any name given under heaven,
or among men, which supplies these natural and necessary
conditions for our conscious justification and
reconciliation with God, and with our own hearts also,
except the name of Jesus Christ?  If thou hast, please
utter it."

"Verily," answered Am-nem-hat, "there is none.
No religion of which I have heard professeth to know any."

The old man seemed lost in profoundest meditation,
and there was silence in the room, until Theckla said:
"Father Am-nem-hat, do thou bid Arius repeat what
things he said to me of this matter of faith when he
was teaching the alphabets to me this morning.  I think
it was much plainer than thy learned discoursing with
Ammonius."

"Yea," said Am-nem-hat, "I beg that Arius will
do so, for I much desire to hear thereof."

The boy blushed vividly at being so called upon in
the presence of his elders, but, at a sign from his father,
he stood up before them, saying: "I did not suppose
the talk of persons so young could interest those who
are so much older and wiser, but, as ye desire to hear
it, I can almost repeat it.  As Theckla and I were
running over the alphabets, in order to get the sound of
the letters and the form of the characters, she came upon
the letter 'A' a second time, and she cried out: 'Oh,
I know that one; it is Latin A, Greek Alpha, Hebrew
Aleph.'  And I said unto her, 'Theckla, how knowest
thou that the characters stand for these sounds?' and
she answered, 'Thou didst tell me so, and I did
believe thee, boy, and that is how I know it.'  Then said
I: 'Theckla, thou learnest the alphabet by faith only.
If thou wert naturally constituted so that thou couldst
not believe, thou couldst never learn anything not
tangible to thy senses.  If thou wert by nature even
indifferent between faith and non-faith, thy progress in the
acquisition of knowledge would be slow and painful.
Thou shouldst therefore learn, from the learning of these
alphabets, that faith is the first, most inevitable act of
intelligence.  Thou shouldst learn that belief precedes
knowledge always, that Faith is the elder sister and
leadeth Knowledge by the hand, and that without
antecedent faith it is impossible to learn and to know
anything except what is palpable to the senses; just as it
would be impossible for thee to learn these alphabets
without faith.'  And thereupon Theckla did pinch mine
ear, and laugh at me, saying, 'That all seemeth to be
true and plain enough, thou odd boy, but why art thou
preaching at me now?'  And I did answer: 'Because,
thou dear sister, some time thy faith may be demanded
for another alphabet than this, even the alphabet of
spiritual life; and, when that day shall come, I would have
thee remember that just as all human knowledge is
builded upon the basis of faith only, so it should not
seem a hard thing unto thee that God hath fashioned
thy nature so that thou must be incapable of learning
even the alphabet of everlasting life except upon the
very same condition of faith only.  Faith precedeth all
knowledge; believe and obey, and finally thou shalt
know.'  I think this was about what was spoken
between us concerning faith."

"And it is most wise, beautiful, and instructive talk,"
said Am-nem-hat, "and serveth to complete the powerful
utterances of thy father upon the same lofty and
interesting subject.  I do thank thee for repeating it."

Then spake Hatasa, saying to Ammonius, "Suppose
that one hath died without having known the truth
concerning Jesus, and without having exercised this faith,
is there no hope for such a one?"

The trembling voice in which she spoke, and the look
of timid, doubtful entreaty which accompanied these
words, touched every heart, and made them all feel that
by "such a one" the poor lady meant her young and
gallant husband Amosis, whose memory seemed ever in
her heart.

Ammonius answered: "I do not know whether I
could make thee understand fully the views which we
Christians entertain about such a case as thou hast
suggested, but we believe that there is hope for such a
man.  The great apostle Paul was Saul of Tarsus, and
for a long time he did persecute the Christians because
they were Christians, yet he declareth himself that he
acted in all good conscience before God, believing that
it was his duty to do so, and he afterward became the
great apostle and a glorious martyr.  I doubt not that
there are among those who now persecute the Christians
some good and just men, that would follow Jesus unto
death if they could know him as he is.  The conviction
of sin, we know, hath no reference to any specific
transgression, nor hath the forgiveness of sin.  Whether
an act be a sin or not dependeth largely upon the intent
with which it is done.  Now, when the heathen, who
know not Jesus nor his divine truth, do yet live just and
righteous lives according to the best light and knowledge
they possess, and die without the consolation of the
faith, the benefit of the atonement accrueth to them in
some way, we know not precisely how far, nor to what
effect; to all such, indeed, and especially to such as have
some living Christian relative or friend that taketh upon
himself the rite of baptism for the dead; for, if they have
not the law, they are not judged by the law, but by their
works and righteousness under the law which they have."

"How is that?" said Hatasa, with breathless interest.
"Thou sayest a living Christian may be baptized for the
dead?"

"Assuredly," answered Ammonius.  "The apostles
so taught, and the Church hath always so practiced.  If
any Christian hath a relative that died without
knowledge of Jesus, and such Christian doth believe that the
deceased was a just and righteous person according to
the measure of light given unto him, and was such that
he would have followed our Lord if he had known
sufficiently of him, such Christian may receive baptism for
the deceased, and the dead shall reap benefit of this
vicarious faith and obedience, how and to what extent
hath never been clearly revealed unto us."

"There is hope in that!" cried Hatasa.  "There is
consolation in that.  Thy Lord must have been full of
human love and pity to make provision not only for his
friends, but for those good and just men, also, who have
ignorantly been his enemies."

"Yea, verily," answered Ammonius.  "He loveth all
men; his mercy endureth forever; his loving-kindness
is stronger than height, or depth, or life, or death, or
any other creature, as thou mayest assuredly know for
thyself if thou wilt believe on him."

Then Am-nem-hat said: "There is much in this religion
that taketh fast hold upon both the heart and the
mind; for it verily seemeth that Jesus seeketh not to
impose a system upon man that is in any respect
external to man, but rather that he seeketh to show unto
man such spiritual food as is most divinely suitable to
satisfy that hunger of the soul wherefrom the whole
world suffereth already; and he seemeth to propose
nothing as matter of faith which was not already a
conscious want and need of nature: so that his teachings
ought to be accepted as at least the highest utterance
of philosophy if even not as divinely true."

"Thy profound criticism of the spirit of our religion
striketh very nearly to the heart of the whole matter,"
said Ammonius.  "For the world yearned after God
whom it knew not, and Jesus plainly declareth that
unknown God whom men ignorantly worship.  The world
groaned and sorrowed under the blind conviction of sin,
and, wherever men acquired a local habitation and a name
on earth, there they had their holy places also; and in
some way--often in a crude and ignorant way, often in
a gross and sensual way, often in a heathenish and cruel
way--they sought, by sacred rites of penitence and
sacrifice, to atone for their wrong deeds done; but the wrongs
continually repeated themselves, and the unavailing
religions left the world's heart like a troubled sea that can
not rest.  But Jesus saith the sin for which ye suffer is
not a wrong thing done at all; these wicked deeds of
yours are not sin, but are the outcroppings of the sin
that lieth back of all your deeds.  Can a bitter fountain
send forth sweet waters?  Doth an evil tree bear good
fruits?  Do ye gather figs from thistles?  Cease now
your world-old and unavailing efforts to regenerate the
heart by the vain expiation of your wicked deeds.
Purify the fountain, that the waters thereof may be sweet.
Make the tree good, and its fruits shall be good also.
For sin is non-conformity to the will of God, and your
evil deeds are only the evidences of your enmity against
him.  So, when the blind yearnings of the world's heart
after peace had made sacrifices, not only of every beast
and creeping thing upon the earth, but of men also, he
saith: 'All these things ye do in vain, for your
righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, or
ye shall likewise perish.  I am the Light, the Truth,
the Way--the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of
the world--a perfect righteousness and sacrifice once for
all offered for the sin of men.  Believe in me, and ye
shall be saved; all other sacrifices are in vain.'  So every
yearning want of the heart is met and satisfied in Christ.
All other religions under heaven condemn actions which
they suppose to be wicked, and prescribe certain forms
of expiation for such as they suppose to be expiable; but
Jesus proposes to pardon, not so much the sinful act
as the sinner, the sinful nature out of which the act
ariseth, and to regenerate this nature so that it will hate
what it believes to be wicked, and love what it believes
to be holy.  For Christ atoneth for all sin, and the act
of faith is to personally appropriate the benefit thereof
to each one for himself."

"True," said Am-nem-hat, "and I undertake to assert
that no other religion in the world hath so represented sin
to be want of conformity to the will of God, rather than an
evil deed; and in this whole matter of sin and the
forgiveness thereof, thy religion differeth from paganism more
radically than even in the doctrine of one God it differeth
from polytheism."

And in this and such like conversation the evening
wore away until bed-time came, and they separated for
the night.  The family at Baucalis did not speak or think
of these matters as of mere abstract theories of truth, or of
philosophy, but as actual, living verities.  The Christians
felt their religion to be the only real life.  They regarded
all earthly pursuits, passions, and pleasures, as mere
incidents of existence, and religion as the one controlling
and all-important thing.  Their pleasant home was to
them a merely temporary station on the highway whereby
they were journeying to a better land; the flesh was
only a tabernacle which the spirit must soon forsake;
all that pertained to it was for a brief season only; the
real life was only begun during their occupancy of this
earthly tenement; Christian faith was to them the one
thing real and permanent, and earthly existence was of
little consequence except as it might stand related to
eternal interests.  Hence there was a freshness, a vigor,
a sense of reality and earnestness, in their way of
thinking and speaking of such things, that demonstrated their
religion to be no beautiful, speculative philosophy, but
a hard, experimental, and all-controlling fact.  And so
every night during that week the dwellers at Baucalis
assembled in Hatasa's room, and passed long hours in
the discussion of all the salient points of Christianity in
a friendly, careful way, as if, indeed, they had a mutual
interest in ascertaining the truth, especially concerning
all those ideas upon which the antagonism between
Christianity and paganism most plainly appeared.  To set down
all the various conversations in which they engaged would
indeed be to write a treatise upon primitive Christianity, a
work in which, perhaps, no interest would be felt in an age
in which that system no longer exists upon earth, and is
utterly unknown to all except a few self-poised, fearless,
unpopular antiquarians, who have been eccentric and
independent enough to exhume that ancient religion from
out the accumulated *débris* of fifteen centuries of
ecclesiastical "progress" which flourisheth over its ruins even
as the vine ripens and the roses bloom over the wreck
of buried Pompeii.  Yet we can not resist the inclination
that moveth us to write out our notes of one other
evening's conversation that happened between this
Christian family and their pagan guests.





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.. _`THE NET RESULT OF LAW`:

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   CHAPTER XIII.


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   THE NET RESULT OF LAW.

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On the next evening, after the conclusion of their
usual daily services, the ancient Am-nem-hat began the
conversation which occupied their attention during that
meeting by saying to Ammonius: "Thou didst observe
that the future state of just and good men who died
without any sufficient knowledge of Christianity to lead
them to embrace that faith 'hath never been clearly
revealed unto us.'  Is it not true also that the future state
of all men hath been left almost entirely unrevealed?  I
ask thee this, because I have found myself altogether
unable, from my readings of the sacred books, to locate
heaven, either anywhere in this world or in any other
sun or star.  And either I have utterly failed to
comprehend some of the things which I have carefully read, or
else the scriptures leave this future state in a very misty,
uncertain, indefinite condition.  Wilt thou inform me
how this matter may really stand?"

"Thy reading is in no respect at fault," replied
Ammonius.  "Our Lord hath left the future life altogether
unrevealed, not only in respect to the locality thereof, but
also in every other respect.  Types and figures are used in
reference thereto, whereby we know that it shall be eternal
and blest; but, beyond this general assurance of exalted
happiness and unfailing duration, we are not informed.
To each Christian soul it will undoubtedly be the best
that is possible for him: the place, the development,
the environments thereof, and all else that belongeth
thereto, are unrevealed."

"I know not whether it would have been more pleasing
to have some definite knowledge of that future life;
that is, I can not tell whether the system of religion would
or would not appear unto me to have been more perfect if
all had been revealed by it, or whether it is wiser and
perhaps even more pleasing to have left it thus vague and
undefined, with a general assurance of its beatitude," said
Am-nem-hat, "yet I could wish that something tangible
and satisfying were revealed in reference thereto.  Why,
thinkest thou, was it not more fully revealed?"

"I know not," answered Ammonius, "but I feel certain
that it was purposely left as a thing to be held by
faith, and not in knowledge.  Either it may have been
because it hath not yet entered into the heart of man to
conceive what that life may be, so that human speech
could not convey any adequate knowledge thereof; or,
if it were possible to do so, the overpowering glory and
splendor thereof, if definitely grasped and understood,
and already realized, might render us impatient of this
mundane existence, and too indifferent to all the duties
and obligations thereof.  I think, indeed, that those very
Therapeutæ, of whom Philo speaketh, were to be censured
for an unwarranted attempt to realize, in this present
world, a spiritual life which our Lord expressly reserved
for the future; an effort, indeed, necessarily impossible
to succeed, and perhaps injurious both to these anchorites
and to other men also.  For the purpose of the gospel is
not only to justify and save all who believe and obey it,
but the declared purpose of our Lord is to regenerate
mankind by the agency of his own kingdom; and surely it
tendeth not to the accomplishment of this purpose to
have Christians withdraw themselves permanently beyond
the reach of common life and experience; so that it is
manifestly an error to suppose that, because they have
the assurance of a superlatively better life beyond,
Christians should for that reason despise the life that now
is.  And, in accordance with this view, thou wilt find
that the Church forbiddeth any man to go out of the
world (by suicide) as the heathen commonly do; forbiddeth
any man to seek for martyrdom, as many had done;
and forbiddeth any man to flee from that place in which he
was converted into the mountains and the deserts: because
the kingdom of our Lord must exist in the world--not out
of it--for the regeneration thereof."

"But he saith himself," suggested Am-nem-hat, "'My
kingdom is not of this world.'"

"Verily," replied Ammonius.  "And his kingdom is
not 'of' the world, but is 'in' the world.  Not surely a
kingdom founded upon the social, religious, and political
laws and customs of the world, like other kingdoms; but,
not the less, a kingdom for men living in the world, and
founded on its own social, religious, and political
economies.  And this temporal, earthly kingdom, established
by our Lord in the world, is the very essence of the
gospel, the most important part of the truth which he
revealed to men."

"That is new to me," answered Am-nem-hat, "for
I had supposed that the religious idea chiefly handleth
the affairs of man with reference to the future life, and
that his temporal condition is the affair of government,
unto which he is kept in subjection by the sense of
duty and obligation which religion supplieth."

"And thou art manifestly in the right as to all governments
that exist or ever have existed among men, except
only the kingdom of heaven.  How many governments
have existed in Egypt?"

"I know not that," answered the ancient.  "Our
records cover thirty full dynasties before the second
Persian invasion, which occurred seven centuries ago, but
each of these dynasties represents more than one Pharaoh,
and several of them a great many; for government is not
a permanent thing, and some form of revolution ever
lieth in wait for it, as a tiger in a jungle watcheth a
man to spring upon and strangle him."

"And how many governments have existed among
other peoples and nations during the thousands of years
covered by the records of thy land of Kem?"

"I know not that," said Am-nem-hat; "they are
unknown and innumerable."

"Therefore," answered Ammonius, "each one of them
must have contained, in its very constitution and
nature, the seeds of its own dissolution; and, so far at
least in human history, the science of government hath
learned no secret by which to secure permanency for
itself."

"The inference thou hast drawn seemeth to follow
necessarily and undeniably from the known facts."

"And what hath been the net result of the science
of government among all the peoples and nations of whom
thou hast ever heard?"

"Misery!"

"Yea!--But state the net result of government in
political or in philosophical terms!"

"State it for thyself; I desire to learn of thee."

"Hath not the net result of human government everywhere,
in all climes and ages and among all men, been
only to produce, or develop, a ruling class at the top of
every social and political system, unto whom all the
blessings of the government and civilization are given by law;
an oppressed or enslaved people at the bottom, upon whose
weary shoulders rest all of the burdens and the waste
of life; and between these two extremes, some religious
system and some armed force, seeking to adjust the
correlative legal rights and duties of the high and the low,
the rich and the poor, the class that ruleth and the
class that is ruled over, by the agency of religion, so
long as the religious sentiment serveth to keep the people
in bondage, and by sword and spear when superstition
faileth?  Add to this result the fact that women are
everywhere slaves, or chattels, legally lower and more
debased than their husbands and fathers, no matter what
position the men may occupy; and have we not plainly
stated, in this terrible formula, the net result of the
science of human government to which it infallibly
leadeth, and from which it hath never escaped?  If thy large
learning hath ever taught thee the name and location of
any nation or people of whom this is not true, wilt thou
now declare it?"

"I can not name such a government or people,"
answered Am-nem-hat.  "For history is but a dreary
record of unceasing strife--among the fortunate for
precedence and power, and among the poor for existence;
and during the struggle it hath evermore happened that
the women have been trampled into the filth and mud.
I know not the reason thereof, but the fact is fearfully
true."

"Doth it then seem to thee that to have ordained some
system by which this net result of the science of
government may be avoided; some truth by which war and
slavery that have cursed the life and labor of every
people under heaven, may be abolished; some social and
political organization by which the false and cruel
distinctions maintained by accidents of fortune, birth, rank,
or by even genius and extraordinary abilities, between
the rich and the poor, the great and the small, the feeble
and the wise, may be utterly removed; and by which
womanhood, wifehood, maternity, shall be redeemed from
slavery and elevated to such a place that men can no more
degrade them without consciously degrading themselves
also; some divine and human law of brotherhood among
men by which the race shall attain to liberty, equality,
and fraternity--dost thou think that to devise and
establish such a system is a work worthy of a God?"

"Yea, verily! most worthy of a God; perhaps
impossible even unto him."

"This very system hath our Lord ordained; it is the
kingdom of heaven upon earth; it is the common Church
of Jesus Christ whereby the regeneration of mankind must
be secured."

There was a long silence after this, during which all
seemed to be pondering on what Ammonius had said,
and it was finally broken by Arius, who spoke as follows:
"I do not get all of thy meaning.  Why is it true that
all human governments of necessity result in the slavery
of the many to the few, and in their own ultimate
destruction?  Why can not wise and good men organize
some form of government that may secure both permanency
for itself and the prosperity of the people also?"

"Yea, tell us that," said Am-nem-hat, "and also
inform us by what means Jesus designeth to avoid in his
kingdom the net result which seemeth necessarily to
overtake all human governments sooner or later?"

"The same considerations," said Ammonius, "may
furnish an answer to both questions.  But first let me
ask of thy great learning, Am-nem-hat, whether any man
hath proposed, or even conceived, of some form of human
government which hath never yet been tried among mankind?"

"I think not," said the ancient.  "Both Plato and
Aristotle have indulged in the attempt to define all the
possible forms that government might assume; but, even
in the political dream which Plato calleth 'The Republic,'
he faileth to specify any form or machinery of
government which hath not been repeatedly tried and found
to fail; only the results he dreams of are imaginary; the
government he devised hath been vainly experimented
upon by others."

"The Greek philosopher erred in his delineation of an
ideal government both by omitting therefrom the power of
faith as the controlling principle thereof, and by denying
the sanctity of monogamic marriage.  His 'Republic' is,
therefore, nugatory, for liberty can not exist in any
community at all unless it exists for all alike; and polygamy
denies the liberty of half the human race by enslaving
women.  But thou truly sayest that every possible form
of government hath been tried among men, and that all
of them alike have failed to secure either permanency
for themselves or the welfare of the people.  Thou must
see, therefore, that the universal failure of government
dependeth not upon the form of it, nor upon the age,
or clime, or nation in which it existeth; nor upon the
religion, language, laws, nor customs of the people; for
all forms of it have failed alike, in all ages, among all
peoples, under all imaginable religions, languages,
customs, and laws.  Seemeth this conclusion to be just and
true?"

"Yea," answered Am-nem-hat, "I can see no escape
therefrom whatever."

"Then it surely followeth," said Ammonius, "that
whatever may be the cause of this universal failure of
government, it existeth in all of them alike, and worketh
the destruction and failure of them all, independently
of the form, religion, laws, customs, or other things in
regard to which they differ one from another; for the
cause of this failure must be common to all of them.
Seemeth this conclusion a valid one to thee?"

"Verily," said the ancient.  "The cause must be one
common to all governments, or else we might find
somewhere a government in which this cause did not exist
and operate; and so find a government that possesseth
permanency and secureth the welfare of the people.  But
there hath never been, and is not, such a government on
earth.  The cause of failure must be common unto all."

"Wilt thou draw from out the store-house of thine
erudition, and show unto us one law or custom that is
common to all human governments?  For in that one
thing, whatever it may be, we shall assuredly find the
sole cause of the failure of governments, and of all the
tyranny, injustice, oppression, and wretchedness, that
maketh human life a burden to the masses of mankind."

"Thou must state the law or custom that is common
to all governments alike, for thyself," said Am-nem-hat,
"for they differ almost inconceivably in form, religion,
language, laws, and customs; and I recall none which is
common to every human government."

"All human governments," said Ammonius, "have
one thing in common: they agree in one pernicious law
and custom which is the cause of failure in them all;
for all human governments alike maintain the legal right
of individuals to acquire, hold, and transmit private
property-rights in estates, offices, prerogatives; even in women
and in slaves.  This is the idolatry of mammon, of which
all nations are guilty, the only idolatry which Jesus ever
denounced by name, the only one that opposeth his
kingdom with a potent logic based upon selfishness.  Many
are learning to hate this idolatry in respect of the royal
offices: even the debased Romans scorn the name of
'king,' and call their master 'imperator,' the commander
of the army; some tribes hate it in its application to
men, and own no slaves; the Scythians and some other
nations deny the right of property in women, and take
but one wife.  Jesus Christ denies the right of private
property, not only in women, slaves, offices, and
prerogatives, but in houses, lands, and everything else.  Hence
the property-law of his kingdom imperatively demandeth
the transfer of all that the believer hath unto the
common Church; this sacrifice is hard to make if one
hath great possessions, and, therefore, it is hard for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  No rich
man doeth this except under the power of a dominant
faith which teacheth him that the thing which is
best for all believers is best for him; and that the
common good is better than self-aggrandizement.  No sane
man doubteth that the political economy of Jesus would
bless the world, if men would adopt it; but not many
great, not many wise, not many rich, not many noble,
come into the kingdom, because selfishness revolts at the
sacrifice of real or imaginary advantages, secured to them
by mammon-worship.  It is emphatically the gospel, the
glad tidings, for the poor, and it is a regeneration that
beginneth at the bottom, not at the top, of every social
system.  All human governments are founded upon the
idolatrous faith that private rights of property are the
sacredest thing in human life, and that government over
the people is necessary to protect it.  Jesus denieth this
faith: he saith that liberty is better than wealth, equality
better than rank, fraternity better than power.  He,
therefore, in his kingdom, abolisheth private rights of property
in order to reach something that is infinitely higher and
better for all men; and he summeth up human life,
laws, governments, all that pertaineth to man's social
condition, in one short sentence which containeth in
itself the ultimate truth of all social and political
economy and wisdom: 'Ye can not serve God and
Mammon.'  And the Pharisees hated Jesus only because they
were 'covetous'; and the Romans and other nations
persecute us even unto death because they know that
the triumph of the kingdom of heaven is the overthrow
of all government over the people; and they love power,
and wealth, and rank."

"How wouldst thou punish crime if all human governments
were thus abolished?" asked the ancient.

"There would then be no crime to punish," answered
Ammonius.  "For human statutes, growing up out of the
idolatry of private rights of property, both create and
punish crimes.  There could be neither treason nor war in
the absence of government; and all other crimes, which
in some shape are the out-put of the idolatry of mammon,
would cease with the false social and political systems
which generate and nourish them.  Crimes are, and for
nearly three centuries have been, utterly unknown among
the Christian communities."

"What, then, standeth in the way of the triumph of
the kingdom of heaven?"

"Naught except the selfishness of men intrenched
behind the strong rampart of private property-rights--the
one thing against which our Lord hath declared undying
and uncompromising enmity."

The old man sat in silence for a long time, and his
grave and noble face showed the traces of many conflicting
emotions.  Finally he said: "Thy son did once ask
me why I am not a Christian, and I could not answer him,
nor do I know.  But Arius thought that thou mightst
understand better than either he, or I, the exact attitude
in which my soul standeth toward Christ and his
religion.  Canst thou tell me what the trouble is?"

"Then," said Ammonius unto him, "thou mayst
believe that Jesus is the Christ; thou mayst believe
that his religion is divinely true and perfect, best for
thee and for mankind; thou mayst believe that he is
ready and willing to accept and save every one that
cometh unto him by faith; thou mayst believe that he
will so accept and save thee whenever thou wilt come
unto him thus; thou mayst believe and purpose that
thou wilt come--but all this maketh no man a Christian!
The thing which maketh thee a Christian is the
voluntary surrender of thine own will to the will of
Jesus; to abrogate all in his favor; to accept his will
as thine only law.  And this he saith thou canst do if
thou wilt; no man on earth, no angel in heaven, can
do this thing for thee, nor force thee to do it for
thyself; nor can any enginery of earth or hell prevent thee
from doing this thing if thou wilt.  It is a matter between
thee and thy Lord only; and thou and he must transact it.
But if, freely and voluntarily, with a full purpose of heart
and mind to obey Christ only, thou makest this grand
surrender of thyself to him, the light, and peace, and
blessedness which he imparteth to those who truly love
him shall be thine own forever.  Wilt thou have this
man Christ Jesus to reign over thee?"

Then a glorious beauty shone from the old man's countenance,
and his eyes grew bright with happy tears, and he
exclaimed joyously: "I make this surrender now; the
light breaketh in even upon my soul; it is as plain as
the noonday sun: 'Glory be to God in the highest,
and on earth peace; good-will to men!'  The truth for
which all my life long I have so vainly sought cometh
unto me as to a little child.  And it is pure, satisfying,
beautiful!  'Praise the Lord, O my soul!'"

"'Except ye be converted, and become as little children,
ye can in no wise enter into the kingdom!'" said
Ammonius.

"And all men, great and small, wise and ignorant,
young and old, meet upon an exact equality before our
Lord," said the boy Arius; "for God is no respecter
of persons."





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.. _`THE BLIND RECEIVE THEIR SIGHT`:

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   CHAPTER XIV.


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   THE BLIND RECEIVE THEIR SIGHT.

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The next day was the Sabbath again, and Christian
families from the region round about Baucalis, to the
number of some four hundred, assembled at the cottage
for religious services.  Some of them came on foot, some
on horseback, and some of them in boats along the coast.
Am-nem-hat informed the presbyter, who came to preach
for them, of his desire, and that of Hatasa and her
daughter, to be received into the kingdom of heaven.  He also
informed him that, at his cottage in the neighborhood,
he had a considerable sum in gold and silver, which he
desired to give to the Church, or in some other way
consecrate to holy uses; and that the Egyptian ladies had
property in Alexandria, all of which, or such portion as
he might advise, they wished to use in the same way.
The presbyter informed them that such a desire was
natural and commendable in every one that sought to be a
Christian; but that for the time being they must remain
as stewards of their own estates, because the Christians
of that region were all prosperous and needed nothing,
and there was no application for aid from other
communities.  He further told them that, as soon as it might
be considered safe for them to do so, the Christians of the
vicinage purposed to erect a church for the accommodation
of the numerous brethren around about, and that
whenever they might enter upon this work the opportunity
would be given to them to aid therein; and that,
if any calamity should overtake another Christian
community, in any part of the world, whereby they might
be brought to need assistance, he would inform them
of it as soon as the bishops communicated such facts to
him; but that at that time there was no way in which
the money could be used.

Early in the morning Arius and his father had set
up some poles in holes in the ground already made to
receive them, and had stretched strong cords from them
unto the eaves of the cottage, and had unrolled and
fastened thereon a canopy made of wide cotton cloth,
which formed a shelter from the sunshine; and, while
some of the congregation sat within the house, the greater
part of them found places on the outside under the
awning.  Hatasa had her couch drawn up beside the open
window, from which she could see and hear all that
might be done.  Theckla was here, there, and everywhere,
making friends with nearly all the girls and boys
that attended, and especially with one little fellow of
twelve years of age who was stone-blind.  In the course
of her sympathetic talk with this lad he informed her
that his parents had brought him there to have the
Church pray that his sight might be restored to him.

"How long hast thou been thus blind?" asked Theckla.

"I do not know," said the boy.  "I remember that
I could once see, and the world was beautiful to me, and
the people, and many things.  But it has been so long
since then!"

"Dost thou believe that their prayers can cure thy
blindness?"

"Assuredly," said he, "whenever the Lord will."

"Why, then, hast thou not sought the prayers of the
Church before this time, if so thou believest?"

"My parents wished not to have the miracle wrought
on me until they thought me to be old enough both to
understand how great an affliction loss of sight is and
to remember the means whereby I regained it--if, indeed,
the Lord will at this time grant our request."

"And thou surely wilt love Jesus much if he shall
hear thee, wilt thou not?"

"Yea, will I!  Indeed, I love him now with all my
soul; but if he restoreth my sight unto me I could work
for him far more when I am older; and chiefly for that
reason do I pray for his mercy in this matter."

"And I shall pray for thee, also," said Theckla.

And she told Hatasa and Am-nem-hat about the boy,
and they looked amazed thereat, but said nothing.

By nine o'clock in the morning all had assembled
whom they expected; and, having set a watch on the
only practicable road that led down from the mountains
to Baucalis, to give them timely notice of the approach
of any whose coming might endanger them, the exercises
of the day were inaugurated with singing and prayer
and the reading of the gospel.  There were a wonderful
simplicity and directness, both in songs and prayers.  If
Jesus Christ, the Saviour, Friend, and King, through
whom their worship was addressed to God, had been
visibly present regarding the manner of their devotions,
the whole service could not have been more earnest,
simple, and direct.  If, indeed, he was not present, they
thought and felt otherwise; and the sense of his presence
was as real and actual unto them as if, on raising their
eyes, they could have looked him in the face; and this
unquestioning faith gave a strange sense of life and
vividness to all of the exercises, the progress of which
Am-nem-hat, Hatasa, and Theckla watched with joy and
eagerness.

The presbyter preached with great simplicity and
earnestness, describing the love of Jesus and the triumphs
of the faith, and in the peroration his address swelled
into a glorious pæan of victory as he declared the
steadfastness and faithfulness of certain Christians who had
recently suffered martyrdom in other places, telling them
that no man could foresee how soon some of them also
might be called upon to tread the glorious path by which
their brethren had been perfected in the Lord, and transferred
to eternal felicity.  But, looking into the flashing
eyes and rapt faces turned upon him from every side,
he deemed it prudent to give them solemn warning that
the crown of martyrdom was not to be officiously sought
after, any more than it was to be avoided by unfaithfulness;
but that they must be alike ready to live unto
Christ, or to die for him, as the providence of God might
determine to be best for each of them.

Then he said that if there were any present who had
not before publicly professed their faith in Christ, and
desired to do so, the Church would then witness their
good confession; and thereupon Am-nem-hat and Theckla
both stepped forward and gave their hands to the
presbyter.  The presbyter then briefly stated to the people
the facts which he had learned in regard to the past life
and experience of the ancient, and the recital thereof at
once rendered the old man an object of respect and
affection to all of them.  Their interest was enlisted by the
exceptional fact that an aged and learned pagan priest
had found the Saviour precious to his soul.  Then
Ammonius sent forward Arius and bade him relate to the
assembly the story of the shipwreck of Hatasa and
Theckla, and of their desire to become Christians; and the boy
narrated the circumstances so vividly, and with such
unconscious force and eloquence, that they twain also were
welcomed into the hearts of all those Christians, and the
sense of strangeness and restraint that naturally affects
the mind at our first meeting with those whom we have
not seen before was at once dissolved by the influence of
fraternal interest and affection.

Am-nem-hat having signified his desire to be baptized
by immersion, they all repaired to the shore of the little
bay, where, with appropriate ceremony, that sacred rite
was administered.  But, owing to the debilitated condition
of Hatasa, she and Theckla received the same sacred rite,
after suitable explanations, by having the water sprinkled
upon them at the house.

Many of those who were present, and especially those
who had come in boats, brought prepared food with them,
and soon this was distributed over clean cloths spread out
under the trees, and all of them did eat together with
gladness, as if it had been one large and loving
family--Arete and old Thopt being diligent to supply from their
own stores everything that was needed or had been forgotten.

Then in the afternoon the congregation was again
assembled, and they engaged in singing and prayer.  The
presbyter informed the people that a blind boy had come,
with his parents, to ask the prayers of the Church that
God would restore his sight, explaining the reason why
they had not sooner done so, very much as the boy had
stated to Theckla, and saying that they should first
partake of the holy communion, and afterward pray for the
lad's recovery.  Then this rite was administered; and all
of them engaged in prayer, the presbyter leading and the
people making occasional responses.  And even while they
were so engaged the lad sprang to his feet, and, throwing
his arms about his mother's neck, he cried aloud: "O
mother, I see!  I see!--Brethren, thank God for me, for
my sight is perfectly restored!"

And the presbyter changed the form of his words from
supplication into praise and thanksgiving; and, when he
had finished, many pressed forward to congratulate the
lad upon his miraculous cure; and afterward, when they
went away, he went also, seeing as well as other boys.

Then later in the evening, having first agreed upon the
place of their next meeting, the congregation received a
benediction at the mouth of the presbyter and quietly
dispersed.  But almost every head of a family first came unto
Am-nem-hat and unto Hatasa and Theckla, and urged
them with great kindness to come unto their homes and
abide with them as long as might be convenient.

But, before the presbyter departed, Hatasa requested
that he come unto her, and of him she asked concerning
the baptism for the dead; and having diligently
inquired of her concerning the character and manner of life
of her husband, and having heard her firm declaration of
her belief that he was one who ever sought to do that
which he thought to be just, right, and true, so that if
he had sufficiently learned of Jesus he would have been
a Christian, the presbyter administered to her the baptism
for the dead, from which the poor lady derived a strange
and unmeasurable satisfaction and peace.

But Hatasa did not recover any strength, and the next
day she was weaker than ever, and the next, and so on
from day to day.  She requested them to hold services in
her room every evening, and seemed gladly to engage with
them in prayer.  But she said that she had no power to
will or to wish that she might continue to live.  She
dreaded the pain and weariness of a lingering convalescence,
and she said that the only earthly care that had
troubled her was concern for her daughter's welfare, and
that she would never separate her from her newly discovered
but precious Christian friendships, and did not wish
her to go among their pagan kindred.  She informed
Ammonius that there was much property in Alexandria that
now belonged to Theckla, and asked him what disposition
should be made of it.  Ammonius at first said: "Let it
go.  Theckla shall lack for nothing; and riches are a
snare to the young."  But, upon considering that the
estate would go to the pagan kindred, and never to the
Church, unless the legal right of the girl thereto was
asserted, he sent unto Cyrene for a proper officer, who came
and took the depositions of Hatasa, Arius, Thopt, and
Theckla, as to the shipwreck of Amosis and his family,
and as to the identity and parentage of the maiden, to
be laid before the orphans' court at Alexandria.  She also
made a written request that Theckla's relative Am-nem-hat
should be appointed guardian of the maiden's person
and estate, with her friend Ammonius to succeed him if
the aged man should die during Theckla's minority.  And,
having accomplished these things in due and proper form,
she began to fail more rapidly, and about midnight sank
peacefully into rest, almost her last request being that she
might be buried in the "sleeping-ground" of the Christians
of that vicinity.

And, when Theckla saw that she was dead, the wild
sorrow of her heart broke out in almost the very same
words that her mother had used upon the death of
Amosis, and she cried: "No more! no more!  Ah, never
more!"

But Ammonius said unto her, "Come hither,
daughter!"  And, when she had come, he laid his hand upon
her head and he asked, "Art thou a Christian?"

And she answered, "Yea, I love the Lord."

Then he saith: "That is well, my child.  But, if thou
art a Christian, use not the vain and despairing lamentation
of the heathen.  Thou shouldst not think nor feel
as they do when they cry out in their bitterness, 'No
more.'  Thy mother leaveth thee not forever, child.  She
hath only gone before thee by a little space at most, and
thou shalt go unto her again.  So the Lord whom thou
lovest doth solemnly promise thee, and thou must never
distrust his promise or his love."

"But I loved my mother!  I must weep for her."

"Yea, daughter, weep as much as thou wilt.  That is
but natural and proper.  So perhaps thou wouldst weep
if she had gone to Alexandria, leaving thee behind; yet
thou wouldst take comfort in the hope that she would
come to thee again.  So now she hath gone to Jesus, and
is safe with him, and thou must take comfort in the hope,
nay, in the very certainty, that, while she returneth not,
perhaps, unto thee, thou shalt soon go unto her.  And
thou, being a Christian girl, shalt not vex thy heart with
the hopeless sorrow that the heathen feel."

And the girl was comforted indeed, and her pleasant
faith aided the buoyancy of health and youth in helping
her to weary down the sorrow that followed the loss of her
young, beautiful, and beloved mother; because the power
of that faith brought the world's Consoler very near, and
Death to her was shorn of his greatest terrors.

It was agreed among them that Theckla and Am-nem-hat
should reside permanently at the cottage.  The old
man and Arius soon brought all of his possessions from the
hermitage, even to his favorite goats; and, some of the
neighbors assisting them, they built another room of stone,
into which the ancient's manuscripts, his furniture, and his
accumulation of coin, were all safely stowed away.  And,
all things having been thus satisfactorily arranged, the old
man was conveyed in the boat around to Apollonia, and
thence he took shipping unto Alexandria, where he
produced before the orphans' court the depositions and
other papers committed unto him by Hatasa; and, as
guardian of Theckla, leased the houses which she owned in
the city, and received and brought back to Baucalis with
him some elegant personal effects that had belonged to
Hatasa; her relatives consenting thereto without much
opposition, and stipulating only that, if the girl should
die, they were to be immediately informed of the fact;
and that, if she should live, she was to come to the city as
soon as she became of age.  They were all pagans, and
the old priest would have gone almost any length to avoid
placing his young and beautiful Christian ward within the
range of their influence.  And, having transacted all things
necessary, in a very few days the old man returned gladly
to Baucalis--a place to which his heart seemed bound by
stronger and more beautiful associations than had ever
come into his long and lonely life elsewhere on earth, not
even excepting Thebes and Ombos, nor his own quiet
hermitage upon the mountain-side.

And the aged priest at once installed himself as the
tutor of Theckla; and he taught to Arius, also, such
science and literature as then were known unto the wisest
men of Egypt; but some things he continued to learn
from the boy himself.

And so the next four years glided quietly away, during
which the routine of their peaceful lives pursued its usual
course; and in their flight Arius became a tall and graceful
youth of twenty; Theckla grew into a blooming and
exquisitely beautiful woman of sixteen; for in the ardent
Libyan latitudes the girls grow quickly into womanhood.
These years made small changes in Ammonius and Arete;
they told lightly upon the venerable Am-nem-hat, whose
pure and quiet life had been favorable to longevity and to
the preservation of his faculties unimpaired even unto an
extreme old age; and Thopt herself bore the flight of
time quite well, becoming almost imperceptibly more fixed
and rigid in all her actions and opinions, and more and
more impressed with the idea that Christianity was an
excellent and beautiful thing for wise and perfect people
like those among whom her lot was cast, and might even
have suited her if it had not sought to abolish the
relation of mistress and slave between herself and Arete,
"contrary to nature and to common sense," she said; but
that old grudge she could never entirely get over.





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.. _`LOVE AND PARTING`:

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   CHAPTER XV.


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   LOVE AND PARTING.

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During these four years a great change had occurred
in the heart and in the person of beautiful young Theckla.
There came a gradually developing fullness and roundness
over her whole form; the sharp, angular lines of childhood
faded away in the softer curves of maturity; a deeper
color bloomed upon her peachy cheeks; a sweeter, more
unfathomable light burned in her dark, soft eyes; the
delicate pink hue under the skin, which in all Egyptians
of the higher classes, whose complexions are untanned by
a hard life and constant exposure, proves the ancient race
of the land of Kem to be consanguineous with the Aryan
rather than with the Nigritian family of man, became
more clearly and deliciously defined; and a sort of
intangible self-consciousness grew up within her heart which
intuitively led her to keep her hands off the boy companion
whom she loved as a brother, and, without understanding
why she did so, she ceased to romp and tumble around
with him as she had been accustomed to do during the
first year of her residence at Baucalis.  In place of casting
aside her gown and plunging into the waters of the bay
with him, when she went to bathe, she went alone, or
with Arete.  Yet there was not the slightest tendency to
prudishness in this gradual withdrawal of that tactual
familiarity with Arius which had characterized her first
intercourse with him; but, without ever having been talked
to or lectured at on the subject, her chaste, pure soul
instinctively drew from the very spirit of the gospel lessons
fine boundaries of feeling that made her unconsciously
observe even the most delicate bounds of maiden modesty.
But this retiring somewhat within herself--this ceasing
from the outward, demonstrative signs of trust and
affection--was physical only: for the boy and girl grew daily
nearer and dearer to each other; grew daily more trustful
and confidential with each other; and daily became more
and more identified in interest, thought, and feeling.
They talked not of love any more than an affectionate
brother and sister would have done, but the affection that
united them to each other seeped down dew-like to the
very roots of life in both.  Ever his care and watchfulness
for her grew more tender and respectful, and ever the smile
with which she acknowledged his constant little attentions
grew more bright and trustful; and, from this basis
of evenly developing physical, intellectual, and spiritual
progress and perfectness in both of them, their souls
leaned unto each other, and mingled in an affection as
chaste, strong, and intimate as human nature knows,
growing together day by day, and attuning themselves to
perfect concord in all the utterances and aspirations of
their beautiful and happy lives--a human love that was
impossible to pagan civilization, and is almost impossible
to ours, but that flourished in its almost divine sweetness
and beauty in the primitive Christian communities, side
by side with thaumaturgy and the graces of that
spiritual life which hath almost become a dream unto the
world rather than a blessed reality.

So those four years passed fleetly and pleasantly away,
and Arius was now a very tall but graceful youth of
twenty, and Theckla was an exquisitely beautiful woman
of sixteen, when Ammonius told his son that the time had
come at which he desired him to go to Antioch in Syria,
and pursue his studies with the Bishop Lucanius, for four
or five years, preparatory to his ordination as a presbyter--if,
indeed, his heart was still set on preferring to be a
teacher and a preacher of the gospel to all other
vocations; whereupon the young man at once answered that no
earthly inducement could lead him to abandon the
ministry, for which he had always considered himself set
apart; and immediately the family began to make
preparations for the young man's departure.

On the evening before Arius left Baucalis, he and
Theckla wandered along the shores of the little bay, until
they happened to come unto the spot at which she had
been rescued from the raft, and the girl said: "Even there
thou didst bring me unto the shore, Arius.  It seemeth to
me to have been ages and ages ago; and yet the time hath
passed so pleasantly!"

"Yea," said Arius, "yet it is only four years since
then, and, after to-morrow, it may be as long a time
before I see the dear old farm again, or thee.  Theckla, wilt
thou forget thy friend and our happy life at Baucalis, and
all the things which made us blessed here so long?"

"Nay," she said.  "Life opens wide before us both,
Arius, as we stand here upon its threshold--wide as the
sea out yonder, and unknown.  But Baucalis will always
be the dearest place on earth to me."

"Theckla," said the young man, taking one of the girl's
hands in his, "I love thee truly and tenderly.  When I
shall have finished the course of study at Antioch, I desire
to come for thee and claim thee for my wife.  Dost thou
love me, Theckla, so that thou couldst be happy as my wife?"

And the girl laid her head against his shoulder, and,
raising her dewy eyes to his, she said, "If thou so lovest
me, Arius, I would be the happiest woman in the world
to be thy wife."

Then the young man kissed her tenderly, and said:
"Theckla, let this be a covenant between thee and me
before the Lord, that when I shall have finished the
studies required at Antioch, I will come for thee, and
thou shalt be my wife."

And she answered: "Yea, Arius!  Let this be our
covenant."

That was all of it--quiet, simple, truthful; based upon
the very highest mutual love, respect, and trust; but no
grand ceremonial that human pride ever imagined, or
human lips pronounced, could have any more thoroughly
bound and consecrated them unto each other for life and
death than did that simple, heart-felt covenant.  For in
those days, and in the Christian communities, marriage
was not of compulsion, or of trade, convenience, ambition,
but of free, intelligent choice; and among those people
the equally shameful blasphemies of adultery and divorce
were utterly unknown.

So, upon the next morning, after a tender leave-taking
all around, in which even old Thopt commended him to
the guardianship of God, Arius, accompanied by his father,
loaded his boxes into their little boat, and they made their
way unto Apollonia, at which port they took shipping for
Alexandria, whence immediately they went in another ship
unto the sea-port for Antioch, and thence to the ancient
city wherein they "were first called Christians."

Ammonius recalled to the mind of the Bishop Lucanius
the fearful storm in which they two had met more
than twenty years before, which interview had been the
medium of the Lord's mercy unto him; and was most
gladly and affectionately welcomed.  Ammonius informed
the bishop that, having been precluded from the public
ministrations of the word by his own physical infirmities,
he had made a vow to dedicate the first son that might be
born unto him to the service of God, and had, therefore,
brought unto him his only child, a lad not altogether
ignorant of the gospel nor of letters, whose heart was set
upon doing the Lord's work, to profit by his experience
and instructions.  And the lad pleased the bishop greatly;
and, after some conversation, Arius was admitted into the
school, or class of young men whom the bishop taught, as
a deacon in the church immediately under the charge of
Lucanius; for the bishops of those days were not lords or
princes, but were presbyters, who had their own congregations,
and who, from zeal and learning, age and experience,
were intrusted also with an advisory superintendence of
some other presbyters and churches, and especially with
the training of young deacons for the ministry.

And the next day Ammonius resumed his homeward
journey, and in due time reached Baucalis without
accident or delay.

On the very same evening that Arius and Theckla had
plighted their troth unto each other, the young man took
the girl by the hand, and, having led her unto his parents,
told them of the new relationship established between
them, and Ammonius and Arete gladly accepted the
maiden Theckla as their daughter; and she abode with
them for two years longer, constantly aiding in all
household duties, and likewise pursuing such studies as
Am-nem-hat advised; and especially practicing the art of
writing upon papyrus, and upon parchment, and upon
vellum, until she had satisfied herself that vellum was
altogether the best material for a certain purpose which
she had in view, and that her own handwriting had
acquired sufficient precision and neatness for her
contemplated task; and then she announced her purpose of
removing to the city of Alexandria, and occupying one of
her own houses there, if only Am-nem-hat would go with
her and make his home at her abode.  This purpose she
mentioned to the whole family one evening after their
usual religious services, whereupon Arete said: "Why
wouldst thou leave us, daughter?  Art thou not happy at
Baucalis?"

"Yea," replied Theckla.  "Thy home hath been a
haven of rest and happiness to me, and I could be happier
here than elsewhere in the world; but in two years more
our Arius, of whom the bishop writeth such loving things,
will be a presbyter; and I go hence unto Alexandria
because, before the time expires, I wish to make with mine
own hand a perfect copy of the scriptures for our young
presbyter, and also wish to build a church for him, that
when he leaveth the bishop he may have a church and a
congregation, and a perfect copy of the sacred word ready
for him; and thou knowest that at Alexandria I may even
find original manuscripts of both gospels and epistles from
which to transcribe my copy.  What less than this, indeed,
wouldst thou have me do for our most dear young presbyter?"

And they all, seeing that she had made a matter of
conscience of these two purposes, ceased to oppose her
design; and not long afterward she and Am-nem-hat were
taken in their little boat unto Apollonia, by Ammonius;
and thence they went by ship to Alexandria; and, after a
speedy and pleasant voyage, they cast anchor in the little
harbor of Eunostos; and thence removed straightway
unto one of the nine dwellings which she owned in Rhacotis,
the Egyptian quarter of the city.  Here, with the aid
of six years' accumulated rents from her handsome estate,
the young girl quickly furnished her home in the most
comfortable manner, and had a room carefully furnished
for Am-nem-hat, and another in which the manuscripts
were to be kept, and in which they might prosecute their
studies; for the aged grand-uncle and the young maiden
had almost come to sustain to each other the relation of
dear companions and fellow-students rather than that of
teacher and pupil.  Very soon, also, with the aid of the
old man, who possessed a critical knowledge of such
matters, she procured a large quantity of the finest vellum,
and began her self-appointed task of transcribing the
scriptures for Arius.  And afterward she sold (through her
guardian) five of the nine houses which she owned, for a
large sum, and having carefully selected a plot of ground
suitable for the purpose, she bought it, taking the title
thereto in the name of certain persons whom she knew to
be Christians, upon a secret trust for the common Church,
and after many consultations with Am-nem-hat, and with
the bishop and with other friends, she began the work of
building a beautiful and substantial church; and, with the
making of her careful and accurate copies of the
scriptures and the building of the church, both she and
Am-nem-hat found themselves constantly employed.  For,
although at that time there was no open and public persecution
of the Christians, it had not long ceased, and none
knew at what moment the caprice of their pagan rulers,
stimulated by the hatred of Jewish and pagan priests,
might blaze out into a general and merciless war against
them; so that their meetings were quietly held, and the
erection of churches was carried on without show or
publicity; and generally, indeed, parts of the buildings were
used as a school for the children of Christians; and many
a church was saved from destruction by the fitful and
uncertain hate of the populace and priests, by being taken for
a school rather than a church.  And there were few who
desired to be known as Christians, except to persons of like
faith, though none hesitated to declare this faith at any
peril, when called in question about it.

The city of Alexandria, which was founded by Alexander
the Great, about 322 B.C., was, at the date of our
story, one of the most populous, wealthy, and intellectual
cities in the world.  Situated twelve miles west of the
Canopic mouth of the Nile, its walls were washed on the
south by the placid waters of Lake Mareotis, and on the
north by the Mediterranean Sea; and it was the seat and
center of a vast industry and an almost unequaled
commerce.  The streets were straight and parallel, and the
city was divided into four quarters by two magnificent
highways, each two hundred feet wide, crossing each other
at right angles, and built up on each side with splendid
houses, temples, and public buildings of every kind.  A
vast necropolis lay west of the city, on the east a mighty
hippodrome.  In the northeastern part was the Regis
Judæorum, or Jewish quarter, wherein the Israelites abode,
but their business extended not only through the great
city, but throughout the world.  The western part was
called Rhacotis, the Egyptian quarter, and contained,
besides its vast Libyan population and magnificent
residences, the great temple of Serapis, and the sacred statue
of the god that had been brought thither out of Pontus.
But Bruchium, the royal or Greek quarter, was the most
splendid portion of the city, containing the palace of the
Ptolemies, on Lochias, a peninsula stretching eastwardly,
the library and museum, the Cæsarium, or temple of the
Cæsars, and the Dicasterium, or court of justice, and other
buildings that bore witness to the knowledge of Dinocrates
the architect, who rebuilt the temple of Diana at Ephesus.
About a mile from the mainland was the little island
of Pharos, on which was a light-house over four hundred
feet in height, that was begun by Ptolemy Soter, 300 B.C.,
and finished by Philadelphus, his successor.  An artificial
mole called Hepta Stadium, nearly a mile in length,
connected the island with the mainland, and between this mole
and Lochias was the great harbor, while on the other side
of it was a smaller harbor, called Eunostos (safe return), in
which was an artificial basin known as Kibotos (the chest),
which was filled from and connected with Lake Mareotis
by a canal, another arm of which stretched eastward to the
mouth of the Nile.  Throughout this vast metropolis, in
every quarter thereof, undistinguished by dress,
nationality, language, or manners, of almost every race under
heaven, engaged in every avocation except official business
or military services, unknown except to their co-religionists,
dwelt the countless members of the Christian Church,
forming numerous communities, or congregations, that,
without any public visible organization, were yet bound
together by bonds of faith and love stronger than any
Roman statutes, or any ties of nature, or any ligaments of
interest or of ambition.  Of course, in so vast a population,
an aged man and a young girl would be as indistinguishable
to all, except their own small circle of friends
and acquaintances, as any particular leaf in the forest, or as
any wave at sea; and in such a city, the selfishness of the
crowd, the hurry and confusion of business or of pleasure,
formed a sort of refuge for the Christians; so that, long
before the period of which we write, almost the first
circumstance which called any public attention to their
numbers was the fact that, under their influence, the
pagan temples were less crowded, and the pagan offerings
less rich and free, than had been usual in times past; and,
when the fated Israelites had been accused of proselyting
the people from the worship of the gods, they defended
themselves against the angry priests by declaring that not
they, but the Christians, converted men of all nations from
the old superstitions, and led them to abandon the temples
and forsake the gods.

Soon after their settlement in Alexandria, Am-nem-hat
had informed the relatives of Theckla of the young girl's
arrival, and they had courteously called to see her, and had
invited her to their own homes, and had showed every
disposition to receive the beautiful young heiress with
favor and affection.  But they were all heathens, and her
association with them was necessarily limited to formal and
distant intercourse; as every visit to the great temple of
Serapis, every public occasion, or a birth, a marriage, or
a funeral among them, might force her either to
countenance their pagan rites and ceremonies, or to attract
unto herself an unpleasant and perhaps dangerous
attention by refusing to do so.  Hence she preferred to
maintain only a ceremonious acquaintance with her kindred,
and to find her real friendships among the Christians, with
many of whom she soon came to be upon terms of social
and personal intimacy and confidence.

Among the relatives whom she was almost compelled
occasionally to meet, and to receive at her own house, was
her cousin Harroun, the son of her mother's sister, who
also was a pagan.  The young man was of perfect physical
organization, like so many of the Egyptian upper class, as
beautiful as an untamed leopard, of quick, bright, sparkling
intelligence, instinct with passion and appetite, and a
general favorite among the aristocratic youth of Egyptian
society in the city.  One of Theckla's greatest misfortunes
and annoyances she found in the fact that this elegant
youth conceived a violent passion for her at first sight, and
seemed resolved to push his claims to the heart and hand
of the young maiden without delay.  As soon, however, as
Theckla perceived any intimation of his feelings in regard
to herself, she quietly arranged to receive him thereafter
only in the library, and took care to see that Grand-uncle
Am-nem-hat should be present, so that the young man
never got an opportunity to see her alone.  And to
prevent the constant repetition of his invitations to her to
visit the theatre, the hippodrome, and other places of
amusement, she told him kindly that it was useless to
offer such courtesies, for, that while it was unpleasant to
refuse them, she could not and would not accept them
from him nor from any one else, having no inclination to
mingle in such throngs, and no need of any amusements
except those which she was accustomed to find in literary
pursuits.  Harroun, who had been raised under a system
in which courtship and marriage were, to a large extent,
matters of convenience, and in which a chaste girl was
not supposed to be possessed of any will, but was to be
disposed of as her relations might deem to be proper and
advantageous, thought that he had never seen so shy a
maiden; but, in spite of her seeming unconsciousness and
manifest indifference, he ceased not to visit her, claiming
the privilege of a near relation in that particular, and
ceased not to show his admiration for her by looks which
were almost loathsome to her pure young soul.  For the
youth, like every other pagan, was mostly a brute, a very
beautiful and elegant animal, truly, but not the less an
animal; a very intellectual and gifted brute, but not the
less brutal; and his sensuous admiration was offensive to
the girl.  The lofty and pure affection to which she and
Arius gave the name of love would have been utterly
incomprehensible to him as to every heathen.  That to
which they gave the name of love sprang as directly out of
sensuous admiration and preference as does the passion
of the lower animals; and while she did not comprehend
why his advances were so repulsive to herself, she began to
feel his preference as a sort of persecution, and avoided
him as much as possible.  Yet, as far as a pagan is capable
of love at all, he loved her, and the very fact that he found
her favor hard to win rendered successful pursuit of her
all the more desirable.  To him it seemed a strange and
unprecedented thing that a girl so young, so beautiful,
and so wealthy, should voluntarily renounce all the social
advantages of the aristocratic circle in which her family
moved, and spend her time in seemingly unending studies,
with little or no companionship save that of the grave and
taciturn old man who was never absent from the room
while he was there; and Harroun gradually learned to
regard his unfailing presence in the light of a personal
injury to himself, so that he soon harbored a bitter prejudice
against the ancient, that lacked very little of growing
into actual hatred.  But there was nothing tangible about
which to make a quarrel, except the fact that he could
never see Theckla alone, and, as this seemed to be her
own choice, exercised in her own house, there was nothing
for him to do except to submit to it; but his aversion to
the quiet and dignified old man increased in intensity from
month to month.  Finally, he told her in Am-nem-hat's
presence that he had been called away by the public service
in which he was engaged, beyond the cataracts of the Nile,
and would be absent for several months; and that he
desired to have some private conversation with her before
he departed from Alexandria.  The young girl looked
somewhat disconcerted by this request, but she
immediately arose, and said unto him, "Let us pass into the
adjoining room, cousin, and I will hear thee."

He followed her gladly, and no sooner had the door
closed behind them than he came close up to her and
began a most vehement protestation of his love.  As soon
as there was the slightest pause in the passionate and
rapid torrent of his speech, she said, gravely and calmly:
"Cousin, hear me for a moment.  I have carefully avoided
any such declaration as thou hast begun to make, and
beseech thee to leave it unspoken.  It is useless to say
such things to me, and can only occasion mutual and
unavailing regrets.  Thou art my cousin, and, I trust,
my friend.  There never can be anything else between
us, and it is folly to think otherwise.  Here let it rest,
and let us return to the library, and forget this foolish
episode."

"There is no folly about it!" cried the young man,
passionately.  "We are both young and wealthy, and in
every way suitable companions.  It is very natural and
right.  I am neither an idiot nor a child, and I love thee,
Theckla, and will not be put aside in any such fashion.
Why dost thou continually avoid me?  Why hast thou for
months contrived so that I can not speak to thee except
in the presence of strangers, or of that old mummy whom
thou keepest at thy side forever?  Why dost thou deny
thyself all the pleasures and associations natural to thine
age and social rank?  Why spendest thou all thy time in
dreary readings, unsuited to thy youth and circumstances,
for the amusement of that selfish old fossil there, who
never leaveth thee for a day nor an hour?  All this
must and shall be changed?"

Then the girl drew herself up straight, and, fixing her
dark eyes full upon him, said in calm and measured tones,
"If I give thee a good reason for having avoided thee,
and for having endeavored to escape any such useless
and unpleasant conversation as this one, will that suffice
thee?"

"Yea! if, indeed, the reason be a good one."

"The reason, then, is this," she answered: "I do not
love thee; I do not desire thy love; strange and incredible
as it may seem to thee, I do not even admire thee in
any way whatever, and thy profession of affection is
irksome to me, and the more irksome the more thou dost
insist upon my hearing thereof."

"But thou wilt learn to love me, Theckla," he cried
out vehemently, "and thou shalt give me some reasonable
opportunity to win thy regard!  Ah, I understand it
perfectly.  It is the fault of that old grand-uncle, who ought
to have been 'the Osiris Justified' half a century ago.
He hath prejudiced thy heart against me, because he
desireth thee to consume thy youth and brightness in
ministering unto his desolate and selfish old age.  But I swear
by all the gods that, as soon as I return home, I will have
thy nearer kindred take thee away from him, so that thou
shalt take thy proper place among the maidens of thine
own age and rank, and learn some more reasonable way
of life, and some better views of duty and of happiness
than his selfish and exacting age can teach thee!  I
see that thou art now blinded by this old man's
influence, and resolved against the course of reason and
of nature; so for the present, fare thee well, Theckla,
but remember that I love thee, and that thou shalt yet
be mine own."

Then the young man, trembling with rage and disappointment,
fled from the house, and for many months the
young girl saw no more of him.

Meanwhile, the building of the church was quietly but
diligently prosecuted; and, with the most elaborate and
conscientious patience, Theckla labored to make an
accurate copy of the scriptures, and, through the bishop
and other Christian friends, she obtained the use of more
than one original epistle from which to transcribe the text.
Some months before the date arrived at which Arius was
to be ordained, the diligent young girl had the satisfaction
of witnessing the completion of the edifice, a splendid and
substantial structure, which the bishop dedicated to God
by the name of "Baucalis," given unto it at Theckla's
request; and a number of Christians who had learned all
about the young girl's history, and why and for whom
the church had been builded, organized themselves into a
community, and customarily held service of singing and
prayer therein.  And they prepared also a letter, signed by
all of them, in which they informed Arius that they had
agreed in requesting him to come and be their presbyter,
as soon as he might be ordained; and that, although they
knew him not in the flesh, they were ready to receive him
with open hearts, first for Theckla's sake, and afterward,
they hoped and believed, even for his own.  About the
same time, also, the young girl completed the copy of the
sacred writings which she had made for Arius; and this
labor of love, and of care and patience, included the Old
Testament, the New Testament, the Pastor of Hennas,
and the Epistles of Clement to the Corinthians, together
with some letters written by Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna,
all copied in the uncial Greek text, with minutest care
and accuracy.  And she had a box made of cedar of
Lebanon, with silver hinges and fastenings, to contain the
precious parchments, and a silver plate thereon, upon
which was engraved the name "Arius"; and, having
finished both the church and the writings, she prepared a
letter unto him, and put her letter, and that which the
Church had written unto him, and the scriptures, into the
cedar box, and laid them away safely, awaiting an
opportunity to send them to him against the time of his
ordination, for the Christians of those days sent no letters or
parcels which might show that they were Christians,
except by the hands of those whom they knew to be of the
same faith.

And this was Theckla's letter to Arius:

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"DEARLY BELOVED: Seeing that thou hast devoted
thy life unto the service of our blessed Lord, I did
meditate much how I also might be able to accomplish some
good in his holy name, and likewise gratify thee.  I have
accordingly, during the past two years, caused to be
builded here a beautiful church, which hath recently been
dedicated by the name of 'Baucalis,' in memory of our
dear old home; and thou wilt learn, from the letter sent
herewith, that our little community desireth thee to be
our presbyter.  Also, as a token of the great love
wherewith thy Theckla loveth thee, she hath written with her
own hand a most careful copy of the sacred scriptures,
and of some other manuscripts which thou esteemest
highly, and sendeth the same unto thee, with the love
of thy THECKLA."

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And a short time before the days set for the ordination
of Arius, and of other young men who were deacons studying
with the bishop at Antioch, the Bishop of Alexandria
went unto the ancient city to be present upon that
occasion, and by him Theckla sent unto Arius the box
containing the scriptures and letters; and, having so done,
the young girl waited the coming of the youthful
presbyter, with her heart full of love, and peace, and
happiness.





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.. _`BEFORE THE TEMPLE OF SERAPIS`:

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   CHAPTER XVI.


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   BEFORE THE TEMPLE OF SERAPIS.

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And while Theckla thus awaited, with gladdest anticipations
and almost trembling joy, for the consummation
of her own happiness, Harroun returned to Alexandria,
and immediately began manoeuvring to have the young
girl taken to the house of his mother, or to some other
relative, where she would be thrown into association with
those of her own age and rank, and removed beyond the
influence of old Am-nem-hat.  And immediately
thereafter his mother came unto Theckla, and urged her, by
every argument and inducement which she deemed most
suitable to influence a young and beautiful girl, to
abandon the strange seclusion in which she had lived so long,
and come to her home, and take her proper place among
the best and gayest young people of the city--a society to
which she belonged by birth, and which she was so well
fitted to adorn.  Theckla kindly but persistently refused
every such invitation, pleading her orphaned condition,
her love of solitude and literature, and her strong aversion
to the gay and beautiful but voluptuous life led by the
golden youth of Alexandria.

"But Theckla, darling," said her aunt, "if thou dost
not at least occasionally repair to the great temple of
Serapis, where all the youth and fashion of the city are
often seen, the world will learn to regard thee as an
atheist; and I assure thee, dear, that there is hardly
anything more injurious to a young girl's prospects than a
reputation for singularity or eccentricity in any respect.
The world takes it for granted that there must be
something radically wrong about every young girl that is in
any respect different from others of her own age and rank,
or that affects to feel, and think, and act differently from
them.  Thou must ever sacrifice thine own inclinations to
conform thyself to that which is considered the proper
thing."

"Why, aunt," said Theckla, laughing, "thy talk of
what 'the world' will say and do amuses and amazes me.
Not one out of ten thousand of the people of Alexandria
knoweth or careth for me.  'The world,' it seems to me,
is thyself, and Cousin Harroun, and, perhaps, not a half
score besides my relatives; and, while I meddle not with
their pursuits, it seemeth to me that it would be easy
enough for them to avoid distressing themselves on my
account."

"But thy manner of life exciteth unfavorable comment.
Thou dost refuse to go into society, and scornest
all the amusements, pleasures, and pursuits proper to thine
age, and family, and wealth.  Believe me, dear Theckla,
that no young girl can affect such eccentricities without
being visited by the condemnation of society.  Thou must
leave this ascetic and unnatural life, and live conformably
to nature and to custom."

"I suppose," said Theckla, laughing again, "that
'society,' like 'the world,' signifieth that very small and
exclusive circle of rich and aristocratic people to which my
noble kindred belong.  But surely I can determine what
manner of life suiteth mine own feelings, inclinations, and
desires as well as any of them might do.  And concerning
these matters, I will even judge for myself, not seeking in
any way to influence their actions or opinions, but abiding
steadfastly by mine own."

"Horrible!  O Hes!" cried her aunt.  "To think that
mine own niece, my sister's child, at the age of eighteen,
should be unmaidenly enough to hold any inclinations,
desires, or opinions except those which are framed for her
by the custom of the class to which she belongeth!  Why,
Theckla, a young girl hath no more business to entertain
or handle such things as 'opinions' than she has to
handle sword or spear.  It is bold, vicious, unmaidenly!
Never--never--never utter such an atrocious and
barbarous sentiment again!  If I did not know thee to be
chaste, and pure, and maidenly, such abominable utterances
would make me fear that thou art on the road to ruin!"

"I am aware," said Theckla, "that the Egyptians
regard all females, young girls especially, as things; but I
consider myself as a person, not as a thing at all.  Nature
hath granted unto me certain rights, privileges, powers of
mind and body, and hath devolved upon me certain duties
and responsibilities.  Thou seest, therefore, that I am
unfitted for association with young ladies who are merely
things, not persons.  Thou seest that such an association
might be dangerous to them; and might interfere with
their 'prospects' by rendering them averse to being reared
up, to be selected by some 'eligible' youth, or by some
rich and influential old man, as a horse or a dog is selected,
and then disposed of as any other domestic animal is
provided for.  And thou must assuredly perceive that it
would be most unwise of thee to expose these pretty,
proper, feminine 'things' to the dangerous influences of
an association with a girl who hath the hardihood to
believe that she is a person, and the boldness to declare that
she hath 'opinions,' convictions of duty and of right
which she will not sacrifice even to the terrible fear of
'the world' nor of 'society.'  It is best, therefore, even
to suffer me to live as I desire to do, neither interfering
with my relatives in their way of life, nor suffering them
to prescribe my own."

The good lady's fastidious notions of "propriety"
were fearfully shocked by the young girl's independent
character and utterances; and she determined in her own
heart to do whatever she could to prevent her son from
continuing his pursuit of a girl whose alliance with him
would have been so advantageous in every way if she had
not been spoiled by such absurd and dangerous opinions.

But the young man Harroun had his opinions also,
one of which was that he was almost irresistible; and
another, that the "opinions" of any young girl were merely
moral or social megrims, which any man of common
sense and passable appearance ought to know how to cure
or alleviate; and he, therefore, did not admit the
possibility of giving up Theckla voluntarily, or of being
ultimately rejected by her, although he dreaded Am-nem-hat's
influence over her, and began to hate the old man with
great intensity; for he supposed that the declaration of
personal independence on the part of Theckla, whereby
his mother had been shocked, and even frightened, was
simply the repetition of sentiments inculcated by the
learned and ancient man, the force and effect of which
Theckla did not even comprehend.  He dreamed not that
these very principles of thought and of action might be
the legitimate outgrowth of a new religion which had,
with undying energy and power, laid hold upon the very
roots of her whole nature, so that no change therein was
henceforth at all possible, except in the direction of larger
life and development.  Accordingly, notwithstanding his
mother's unfavorable report, both upon his own
prospects of successful courtship, and also upon the bold,
self-centered, fearless character of the maiden herself, he
resolved to visit her as usual, and to prosecute his suit
with diligence.  He called immediately upon her, and
finding that neither Theckla nor Am-nem-hat was at
home, with the freedom allowed by his kinship to the
maiden, he passed on into the library, intending to tarry
there until her return.  While he lingered there
impatiently, his eye caught sight of a roll of parchment
which had been thoughtlessly left lying in the great
armchair usually occupied by Am-nem-hat, and, to amuse
himself until Theckla's return, he picked up the book and
glanced at the title thereof.  That title was, "The Gospel
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, written by His
Servant John."

Harroun started visibly as he read the words; and then
a baleful light came into his beautiful dark eyes, and a
sinister smile, that made his handsome face look malevolent
and cruel, passed over his bright young face.  He knew
that it was a very grave offense against the law to read or
to possess such books, yet, impelled by curiosity, he read
a page or two thereof, beginning with the words: "In the
beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and
the Logos was God"; and ending with the words, "And
I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God"; but,
remembering that he was violating the law by reading this
writing, he turned it over in his hand, and upon the back
thereof read this inscription: "Am-nem-hat of Ombos."

"So! so!" murmured the young man.  "The old
and meddlesome idiot hath fallen into the accursed and
criminal superstition of the Christians! and from his
manner of life is, perhaps, one of the Therapeutæ, as they
style their most crazy ascetics, who seldom appear in the
cities, or leave the deserts and the mountains.  The book
itself, as far as I have read, seemeth to have been
borrowed from the Neo-Platonists, and is harmless enough,
surely.  But it is a crime to own or read any magical
book of the Christians, and this book is Am-nem-hat's!
I think I see a way to rid myself of the pestilent old
dotard!  Ah! a Christian!  A renegade high-priest of
Ombos!  Manifestly a corrupter of youth!  Perhaps sent
hither by his accursed associates to seduce the wealthy
orphan into the same illegal and abominable association
and plunder her of her property.  I think I see my way
clear before me!"

The young man carefully concealed the manuscript in
his clothing, and, leaving word that he had called to see
his cousin, but could not longer await her coming, he
went straightway from the house unto the temple of
Serapis, and requested an interview with the high-priest.  And
having been introduced into the audience-chamber of the
high-priest, whom he greeted with the profoundest
obeisance, as if addressing some superior being, he saith unto
him, "I desire to know of thee whether the laws now
allow the profession of the iniquitous and atheistic
Christian faith in this city, or in any part of Egypt?"

And the high-priest answered: "No.  The law is still
in force which requires the destruction of their magical
books, and of their churches, and the punishment of all
who refuse to sacrifice unto the gods.  But our magistrates
and people have become careless and indifferent to these
wise and salutary laws which are for the good of religion,
and for the preservation of the government, so that the
law is not enforced, and even here in Alexandria this
illegal and criminal association possess houses in which they
secretly celebrate their infamous rites and ceremonies."

"Canst not thou cause the law to be enforced if an
extreme case of such crime should be brought to thy notice?"

"Recently a better feeling hath been manifested in
many localities," replied the high-priest.  "Tyrannis,
bishop of a church in Tyre, Zenobius, of Sidon, Silvanus, at
Emisa, have but lately paid with their lives for the crime
of Christianity, having been cast unto the wild beasts,
and so destroyed.  Another Silvanus, bishop of the
churches about Gaza, and thirty-nine others with him,
have been beheaded.  Even here in Egypt, Peleus and
Nilus have been committed to the flames, and Pamphilus
at Cæsarea.  Thou canst remember that even in Alexandria,
Peter the bishop, and Faustus, Dius, and Ammonius,
have been put to death, and in other parts of Egypt,
Phileus, Pochumius, Hesychius, and Theodorus, have been
in various ways destroyed.  But a false sentiment of
humanity protects these criminals; for it hath become a
common saying in the city that the superstition is a
harmless one, and that the Christians are the most honest,
faithful, and diligent servants, tradesmen, mechanics, and
agents, that one can employ; and those who cherish this
fatal leniency for the accursed sect, themselves neglect the
temple services, and gradually drift off into atheism.  So
that there is a great indifference on the subject of
enforcing the law against these criminals; yet I doubt not that,
if an extreme case should occur, the people might be
easily roused up to seize the malefactors, and the magistrates
would hardly dare to resist any forcible expression
of the popular will.  Of what case dost thou speak as an
'extreme' one?"

Then said Harroun: "There is a man in the city who
hath embraced this accursed superstition, and who owneth
and readeth the books of the sect contrary to the law.
He was for many years a priest of our religion, and was
even a high-priest at Ombos.  He hath by some sort of
necromancy, perhaps by means of his magical books,
infatuated and attached unto himself a young Egyptian
maiden, an orphan girl, belonging to our own ancient and
honorable family, mine own cousin, and he keepeth her
shut up in her own house, separated from her kindred,
and deprived of all the pleasures and advantages that
naturally belong to a noble and wealthy maid of Alexandria.
Some years ago he procured himself to be appointed her
guardian, and he hath sold five houses that belonged to
her, and hath given no account thereof, except to produce
the young girl's receipt therefor, in which she saith the
sale was made at her request, that she had received the
price thereof from him, and had used the same for pious
purposes."

"Why did not her relatives interfere to prevent the
alienation of her estate?"

"Her father was shipwrecked and lost, and we supposed
that the 'pious purposes' signified the use of the
money to build his sarcophagus and propitiate the gods,
with which, of course, no one would interfere; but this, I
lately discover, hath never been done, and we suppose that
the man of whom I speak hath persuaded her to use the
money for the purpose of building some temple or burial-place
for the use of the abominable Christian association."

"Who is this man?" said the high-priest.

"His name is Am-nem-hat."

"Am-nem-hat!" said the high-priest, in amazement,
"I know of the man: he was high-priest at Ombos,
and, after a long life devoted to the service of the gods,
he left his temple secretly to become an eremite--a
great, and learned, and pious man!  Surely there must
be some mistake!"

"There is no mistake about what I have told you,"
said Harroun, "for he left the temple to become a
Christian, and, from his manner of life, I think is one
of the fearful sect called Therapeutæ."

"Hast thou any proof that he hath become a Christian?"

The youth drew forth from his clothing the Gospel
written by John, saying: "Here is one of the magical
books of the Christians which no reasonable man
understandeth.  I found this in Am-nem-hat's own chair, in
his room, and on the back thereof is the indorsement,
'Am-nem-hat of Ombos.'  He will not deny that he is a
Christian if charged with that crime.  For they never
deny it when they are guilty thereof."

"This is an extreme case," said the high-priest.
"Besides the corruption of youth and the plundering of
this young girl of which thou speakest, it is an
enormous sacrilege for a priest to abandon his religion, but
infinitely worse when he leaveth religion and adopteth
the accursed and inhuman Christian superstition.  Leave
that book with me and go thy way, but fail not to point
out the house when the proper time shall come."

The young man took out his purse, and placed a
liberal sum upon the table, saying: "This is for proper
prayers and offerings for thy success; but remember that
the deluded young girl, my cousin Theckla, must not be
in any way molested."

"Assuredly," answered the high-priest, "her near
kinship to thine own ancient, honorable, and devout
family will be her protection, and I promise thee to reclaim
her from the delusion which the witchcraft of this
renegade priest hath brought upon her.  As for this man
who hath so dishonored the ancient religion of the land
of Kem, and who might by reason of his former lofty
character seduce much people from allegiance to the
gods, this man shall surely die."

Then for a few days there was a great running to
and fro among the pagan priests throughout the city,
and especially among those who were connected with the
great temple of Serapis.  Great processions were had, at
different places, in honor of various gods, the people
were vehemently exhorted to greater diligence in their
worship, and the Christians were vehemently denounced,
so that there was an uproar throughout Rhacotis, and
crowds of people rioting through the streets, accompanied
by squads of soldiers, and seeking for the dwellings of
those who were suspected of being Christians.  And, in
the language of the historian of those times: "A certain
prophet and poet, inauspicious to the city, whoever he
was, excited the mass of the heathen against us, stirring
them up to their native superstition.  Stimulated by
him, and taking full liberty of exercising any kind of
wickedness, they considered this the only piety and the
worship of their demons--viz., to slay us.  First, then,
seizing a certain aged man named Mitra, they called
upon him to utter impious expressions, and, as he did
not obey, they beat his body with clubs, and pricked his
face and eyes; after which they led him away to the
suburbs, where they stoned him.  Next they led a woman
called Quinta, who was a believer, to the temple of an
idol, and attempted to force her to worship; but, when
she turned away in disgust, they tied her by the feet and
dragged her through the whole city, and over the rough
stones of the paved streets, dashing her against the
millstones, and scourging her at the same time, until they
brought her to the same place, when they stoned her.
Then, with one accord, they all rushed upon the houses
of the pious, and whomsoever of their neighbors they
knew, they drove thither in all haste, and despoiled and
plundered them, setting apart the more valuable articles
for themselves, but the more common and wooden furniture
threw about and burned in the roads, presenting a
sight like a city taken by the enemy.  But the brethren
retired and gave way, and, like those to whom Paul bears
witness, they also regarded the plunder of their goods
with joy."

And, on the third evening of this rioting against the
Christians, a crowd of people, with soldiers, assembled
about the vast temple of Serapis, and the high-priest
harangued them against the Christians, and especially
against Am-nem-hat, whom he called the renegade of
Ombos, a seducer of youth, and a plunderer of orphans;
and, the house having been pointed out unto them,
the mob surged thitherward, yelling and shouting, and
calling upon their idols for vengeance against the
Christians, and chiefly against Am-nem-hat, the renegade of
Ombos.  And they struck with violence upon the door,
insomuch that the domestics were frightened, and the
old man himself opened the door and said unto them,
"What seek ye?"

And they yelled out: "We seek Am-nem-hat, the
traitor to the gods!  Am-nem-hat, the renegade high-priest
of Ombos!"

And, as soon as their clamor somewhat ceased, he said,
"I am Am-nem-hat of Ombos."

And when they saw the man's great age, and his calm
and dignified deportment, they were somewhat abashed,
and they cried out, "It is reported that thou hast
forsaken the ancient gods of the Nile, and that thou hast
fallen away into the atheism of the Christians."

Then the old man stood up straight and glorious
before them, and he said: "Children, for fifty years I was
in the great temple of Thebes, and was long time a priest.
Twenty-and-five years I was high-priest at Ombos, always
seeking for the truth.  Then I discovered that the
Christians alone know and worship the one true God, and I am
with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, a Christian!
Children, seek ye the same divine truth; the same glorious
forgiveness, faith and light; the same redeeming love."

And he would truly have borne further testimony for
Jesus, but from the outskirts of the crowd the high-priest
shouted: "Away with this blasphemer!  To the stake
with the old renegade!"  And the mob echoed the cry,
shouting out vehemently: "Away with the atheist!  To
the stake with the ancient traitor!"  And one of them
standing near knocked down the old man with his pike;
and, as many of them sprang forward to seize him, Theckla
darted out of the door to his side, and with blazing
eyes and extended hands she cried: "O cowards! brutes!
The disgrace of Egypt, to strike down an old man like
that!  Stand back!"

And the men seemed abashed at the words and manner of
the beautiful young girl, and stood irresolute until the
high-priest called out, "Perhaps thou, also, art a Christian?"

And she said: "Yea! thank God, I am!"

Then all the more they shouted: "To the stake with
the old atheist!  The corrupter of our youth!"

And they forcibly pushed the maiden aside, and
they lifted up Am-nem-hat, and set him upon his feet,
and the soldiers haled him away to the vacant space
in front of the great temple of Serapis, where were set
up iron columns to which the wealthy visitors thereto
were wont to hitch the horses that drew their chariots.
And they chained the old man fast to one of these,
and soon they built a great pyre round him out of the
furniture of which they plundered Theckla's house, and
other houses of Christians on that street.  And they did
set fire unto the pile, and by the first flames thereof
Theckla beheld the calm and shining face of the beloved
ancient gazing peacefully upon the mob.  Then they
lighted it in other places, and the girl went near to the
edge of the fire, and she cried aloud: "Be thou of good
cheer, O father Am-nem-hat!  Thy Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ be with thee now!"

"Yea, daughter Theckla," answered the old man.
"But go thou hence!  The Lord is all-sufficient unto me!
Go thou in peace!"

Then Theckla fell upon her knees before them all and
prayed aloud, saying: "O Jesus, Son of God, have mercy
upon him!  Comfort, sustain, and strengthen him, and
receive him into glory!"

And, while she prayed, the fire grew fiercer, and spread
all over the dry, combustible furniture of which the pyre
was build ed.  And, while she was praying, a strong
centurion came unto her, bearing some incense in his hand,
and he said: "Thou invokest the accursed Galilean for
him, and seekest by thy strong magic to harden him
against the flame!  Take thou of this incense, girl, and
cast it into the fire to Jupiter, cursing the malefactor
Christ, or thou shalt quickly follow the old renegade!"

Then she only prayed the more; and the man called
another to him, and they seized the young girl, and,
swinging her back and forth between them, so cast her
through the circle of fire unto Am-nem-hat.  And she
arose and stood up beside him, and threw her arms about
the old man's neck, and did kiss him lovingly, and leaned
her head upon the old man's breast, and smiled upon
him radiantly.  And the idolaters being the more enraged,
because they twain seemed to scorn the flames, piled yet
other furniture and wood against them, until the greatness
thereof hid them from view; and with a last farewell,
commending themselves and Arius unto God, they breathed
the cruel flames, and so died.  But the pagans continued
to pile on fuel until they were utterly consumed; and the
high-priest, coming near, cast into the flame the
manuscript of the Gospel of John, saying, "The law requireth
all books of the Christians to be burned"; and the crowd
pillaged the house, and found yet other sacred writings,
which they brought and cast into the flames; and there
were destroyed the original Epistles of John, which
Theckla had copied for Arius.

Now when the centurion and the soldier seized upon
Theckla to cast her into the fire, a young man ran
forward from the outskirts of the crowd, shouting in terror
and in agony, "Not her! centurion, not her!"

But the act was sudden, and before he could reach
them, and before they heard his cries, it was done, and
the girl was leaning on the breast of Am-nem-hat.  And
the youth fainted, and, with a wail of anguish, fell
heavily upon his face along the ground.  And the high-priest,
seeing from his apparel that he was a man of rank,
leaped forward, and raised up his head, and, looking upon
his face, he saw that it was Harroun.





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.. _`CRUCIFIED UNTO THE WORLD`:

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   CHAPTER XVII.


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   CRUCIFIED UNTO THE WORLD.

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Arius having been joyfully ordained to be a
presbyter, and being uninformed of the martyrdom of
Am-nem-hat and of Theckla, with gladness of heart and
bright anticipations of coming happiness reached the city
of Alexandria, and went first of all, as his duty was, to
Peter, the bishop, whose return from Antioch had briefly
preceded his own arrival.  And, after the usual
salutations had passed between them, the bishop, looking
tenderly upon him, said: "Son, thou hast been ordained
a presbyter, and hast been consecrated to the Master's
service, and the Bishop Lucanius highly extolleth
thy fitness for the holy office.  But thou art young, my
son, and the Lord hath laid a heavy cross upon thee.
Hast thou received any recent news from our unfortunate
city of Alexandria?"

"The last news I received was borne by thee when
thou didst come unto Antioch bringing a letter from my
betrothed, and that from the community, and the casket
containing the perfect and beautiful copies of the sacred
writings which Theckla wrote with her own hand for
me.  Why dost thou ask so seriously?"

"I did only precede thee by three days, my son; but
upon my arrival heard the news of a sudden outbreak of
persecution in which many of the pious were perfected,
and their goods despoiled, the recital whereof will pierce
thy heart.  Thine old friend Am-nem-hat did bravely
testify for Jesus even in the midst of the flame by which
he was made perfect."

"I loved him much," said Arius, "and his long life
hath ended gloriously!"  Then a ghastly pallor came over
the young man's cheek and lip, and he could only
murmur, "And Theckla, bishop?"

"Son," said the bishop, tenderly, "thy beautiful
Theckla was also a perfect witness for our Lord at the
same time and place with the ancient Am-nem-hat."  Then
bowed the youth his head upon his hands, and
writhings as of some mortal agony swept over him.

"Son," said old Peter, tearfully, "canst thou not say,
'He doeth all things well, and blessed be his name'?"

"Not yet! not yet!" sobbed out the broken-hearted
man; "but give unto me the key of the church Baucalis!"

And the bishop called a young deacon unto him, and
bade him take the key and guide the youthful presbyter
unto that church.  And in silence the sorely-smitten man
followed his guide until they had reached the door of
the beautiful church; then said Arius unto him: "Thou
mayst return.  Farewell!"

And Arius opened the door and passed within, and
locked the door behind him.  And it was twilight; and
the full moon shed a soft and mellow light through the
vast area of the sacred room; and, not far off, the gentle
waves of the sea gleamed in the golden sheen, and lapsed
away along the quiet coast.

Back and forth, along the great aisle, with slow and
heavy footsteps--back and forth, until the long night
waned away, and the muffled tread of the sufferer seemed
to become regular, unceasing, continuous, as part of the
very course of nature itself--all night long, back and
forth, wrestling sorely with his sudden, mighty grief, the
young man trod the desolate aisle, and his bosom heaved
with anguish, but not a single word escaped his
compressed, ashy lips.  The first faint light of dawn mottled
the eastern sky; then the glad sunlight streamed far out
along the peaceful sea, and the freshness of the morning
laughed from earth and heaven.  Then went he slowly
unto a window opening unto the east, and the sun was
rising gloriously, and then the man raised up his right
hand reverently, and, gazing away into the glowing
heavens, with trembling lips and broken heart, he murmured:
"Yea!  He doeth all things well; and blessed be his name!"

But the first great sorrow of his life had fallen upon
him; that which ages a man in a single day; that which
breaketh off and casteth far from him all the brightness
and freshness of his youth forever, and setteth him
henceforth face to face with the hard and bitter realities
of life, making all of the beautiful past only a dim and
blessed memory of happiness, the light and sweetness
whereof his lip shall taste no more on earth.

The youth was a man now; tried in the furnace of
affliction; exercised by grief; strengthened and hardened
and chastened by the bitter cup of woe.

Quietly he departed from the church; with calm,
unfaltering tread he went back unto the bishop; and
then unwaveringly he asked for, and unflinchingly heard,
the pathetic details of the martyrdom.  And the
kind-hearted old man said unto him: "Son, thou triest thy
heart too bitterly.  If thou desirest to be alone, I can
give thee a room unto thyself, and thou canst abide
quietly with me until thou shalt feel better able to assume
thy pastoral charge."

"I thank thee much, bishop, for thou art very kind.
But God forbid that private grief should ever keep me
from a sacred task!  I will even preach to my people in
the Baucalis church this morning.  For I know"--and
then the right hand momently began its rhythmic
movement, the mesmeric light gleamed in his somber eyes, the
strong, bold head sprang forward upon the lithe, serpentine
neck, and, with a light, plaintive hiss in every tone
that cut through the hearer's heart, he continued--"for
I know that Theckla would even have it so if she could
counsel me."

The good old bishop sprang toward and embraced
him, crying out: "My son! my son!  Thou art of the
splendid stuff of which God maketh martyrs!  May he
console and comfort thee, and feed thee with the bread of
everlasting life!"

For the bishop saw in his haggard countenance the
ineffaceable traces of his mighty struggle with that
night-long agony; he saw the grandeur and beauty of the
imperious will that wearied down the complainings of an
aching heart; and the clear, resolute soul that fixed its
eye upon the path of Christian duty, not to be swerved
therefrom by any earthly agency, and ready to immolate
even its sacred hours of grief for the sake of other
souls.

Henceforth the fair forms of youth, and love, and
hope, would pass him by upon life's lonely pilgrimage
almost unrecognized--strangers to him except for some
far-off, heart-broken memories.  Henceforth upon his
chastened hearing the voices of honor and ambition would
fall unheeded as the sounding brass or the tinkling
cymbal!  Only when the stern, cold face of Duty might meet
his gaze, henceforth, his spirit would look up and say:
"I know thee.  Welcome here!"  Only when the shrinking
forms of human sorrow, and pain, and wretchedness,
should henceforth claim his sympathy, his soul would
reach forth ministering hands and say: "Ye are old
friends of mine!  I welcome you!"

And he did preach in the Baucalis church, that very
morning, a sermon which was never forgotten by those
who heard it.  "The love of Christ constraineth us," he
exclaimed; then in words that leaped, and flashed, and
glinted, ringing distinct as bell-notes, yet all flowing in a
strong, even, jubilant current unto a definite purpose, he
set before them the loftiest form and manner in which
love hath ever showed its power and beauty, in the best
stories of pagan mythology and history, in high and
glorious examples from the Old and New Testament, and from
church history, all brought out like pictures before the
mind, and above them all he glorified and magnified that
love divine of Jesus; then how we are bound, constrained
thereby; unto what end; and, finally, that the necessary
result of this bondage to Christ is absolute freedom as to
all other authority upon earth, higher than any natural
courage or Stoic philosophy could confer.  But there was
not even the remotest reference to his private sorrow.  All
of them had known Theckla, and the covenant between
her and Arius, and the building of the church for him,
and the transcribing of the scriptures for him by her
hand; and all of their hearts had yearned after him in
sympathizing sorrow; but not one word of self even
inadvertently found utterance in his clear, cold, steel-like
exegesis of the truth, or in the copious, affluent stream
of exhortation and comfort.  He had come to minister
unto them, not to be ministered unto by them; he had
come to help them bear all things, with clear eyes to see,
with open heart to feel and share, with strong, resolute,
uncomplaining spirit to bear all of their sorrows and trials;
his own to be sealed up in his own soul, buried out of
human sight forever.  He took all hearts by storm:
instinctively they felt that this young man was thoroughly
furnished unto every good work; they could rely upon
him, they could trust him under all circumstances, in any
emergency.  An old Christian in the congregation, who
had been a Roman officer for many years before his
conversion, and had faced every form of death upon the
battlefield, whispered to the friend next to him: "What a
splendid commander he would have made!  He is the bravest
man I ever saw, for, if there had been a streak of weakness,
or cowardice, or selfishness in his nature, he could not have
buried his own grief out of sight, and put his whole heart
into his work as he hath done."

It was so through all the services of that first day.
Quiet, grave, courteous, he discharged every duty of his
position without the slightest reference to his own feelings
or trials.  For, during that night of awful sorrow, he had
fully settled all his earthly life.  Henceforth the church at
Baucalis was to be his home; the community that might
worship there, his family; he was, henceforth, to have no
griefs, ambitions, trials of his own; no hopes, no fears;
he was to bear the burdens of others; to love, guide,
counsel, and strengthen the souls intrusted to his care; to
do a minister's work, that is, a spiritual servant's work,
so long as life might last, and to wait patiently,
uncomplainingly, without disquietude or bitterness of spirit, if
possible with gladness, until the end might come.  Such
was the destiny he had mapped out for himself during that
night of bitter anguish in the beautiful church; such was
the destiny that upon the next morning, with grand,
simple, unselfish faith and courage, he arose to meet.

The thoroughness of this profound self-abnegation was
exhibited on the night succeeding that first day's labors,
when, in the solitude of his own apartment, he took from
out its cedar casket the beautiful manuscript which
Theckla's hand had lovingly prepared for him, and made
an indorsement thereon, in the Arabic tongue, that it had
been transcribed by Theckla, a noble Egyptian lady, who
also was a martyr in Alexandria.  But he did not write
that it was transcribed for him; his name nowhere
appears on any part of the manuscript; there is not a word
or sign that can by any possibility connect his name or
fate with hers.  Arius seemed to him to have been slain
and buried long ago; only God's presbyter survived the
ruin of his life, and stood up in the place of Arius, calm,
strong, fearless, unselfish, and devout.

And this great manuscript, which was the offering of
Theckla's love unto him, hath survived the lapse of ages,
bearing yet upon its priceless pages the indorsement of
Arius.  It is known throughout Christendom as the
"CODEX ALEXANDRINUS"--"A" of the British Museum,
although some later writings have been blended therewith,
and some of the manuscripts prepared by Theckla have
been lost.





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.. _`"HIS MOST CATHOLIC MAJESTY"`:

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   BOOK II.

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   CHAPTER I.

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   "HIS MOST CATHOLIC MAJESTY."

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The historians, secular and ecclesiastic, have alike
failed to do justice to the vast abilities of Constantine
the Great.  Those who have questioned his superiority
to all other Roman emperors (if, indeed, not to all other
men) have united in ascribing to accident, to the mere
drifting of events, facts which were really the forecastings
of profoundest statesmanship, guided by a political
sagacity that pierced through to the very core of the whole
social and religious life of the vast empire over which
he ruled, almost untroubled by the influences of human
passions, fears, and faith.  On the other hand, those
who have felt constrained to give even the slightest
credence to his alleged profession of faith in Christ have
attributed to religious zeal, enthusiasm, or fears, the most
salient actions of a life that was, from beginning to end,
dominated only by the lust for dominion, incapable of
any creed but atheism, and absolutely content with the
negation of the existence of any Being greater than
himself.  To those who take a more rational view of his
magnificent but criminal career, and who, looking
behind the mask of reverence for paganism which he cast
aside at precisely the politic moment, in order to assume
a false pretense of reverence for Christianity, discern
the cool, deliberate atheist, who was ready to profess any
creed and foster any superstition that might best serve
to smooth the road to absolute power, and make
mankind his slaves: to them the astute politician, the
successful warrior, the consummate ruler of men, assumes
such colossal proportions that, compared with him,
Alexander, Cæsar, and Napoleon, seem to sink into the lower
grade of butchers and stabbers, only half-taught in the
science of government, of which Constantine alone was
master.  For it is no more certain that he despised and
pitied paganism while he was solemnly offering sacrifices
to Jupiter, and winning the admiration and love of the
Roman world for his imperial piety, than it is certain
that he pitied and despised the Church of Christ, even
while he was manipulating the faith into a sure and
reliable support of the empire; in both courses he only
played with the world, giving men any religious toy which
the greater part might prefer to have, in exchange for the
liberty of which he robbed them so plausibly and
successfully that they scarcely perceived his theft, and
enthusiastically caressed the royal thief.

The Christians of that age died at the stake, or by
the sword, or by wild beasts, rather than to cast a pinch
of incense into the sacred fires and say, "Proh Jupiter!"  The
pagans would have plunged into civil war, and would
have endured or inflicted any pain, rather than
acknowledge any feeling for Christ except hatred, loathing, and
contempt.  But Constantine both adopted the cross as a
military standard, and also observed the heathen rites
with customary ostentation and solemnity; having
absolutely no conscientious scruples for or against any
religion; regarding both the old and the new faiths as
things proper enough for common men, but altogether
indifferent to him; and using both alike as mere
instruments convenient for the advancement of his own
political purposes.

After he had defeated Maxentius at the Milvian
Bridge, he caused his own statue to be erected at Rome;
and, while the general design and execution of the work
were unexceptionable to his pagan subjects, the image bore
in its hand the symbol of the cross, which, until that
day, had been esteemed to be a badge of crime and
infamy, as disgraceful to any Roman as the lewd Priapi
of the gardens could have been to the Christians; and
the thanksgiving which he offered to commemorate his
victory was couched in such enigmatical terms that in
applying it to Mars or Jupiter, the pagan did no more
violence to the text than the Christian would do in
ascribing it to Christ and God.  So, when, to please the
Christians, he decreed the solemn observance of Sunday, he
inspired the pagans with confidence and respect, by
calling the sacred day *Dies Solis* (the Day of the Sun), a
formula of heathendom with which they had been
familiar all their lives.

Utterly devoid of faith in anything else except himself
and his own destiny, unyielding in that ambition to
exercise dominion which nerved him for the doubtful war
against Maxentius, he regarded both mankind and religion
with pity and contempt, and sought to rule men for their
good and his own glory, by means of any faith which they
might prefer; and hence, as Christianity became more
known and popular, he identified himself with it more and
more, only in order to foster an agency which seemed to be
available in the work of consolidating the warring factions
of the empire and securing the permanency of his throne.
But the gospel of love and peace over which he extended
the imperial protection did not deter him from
exterminating the whole race of Maxentius after he had
defeated him in battle; nor from the deliberate and politic
murder of Maximin, who was the father of Fausta his
wife, and who had been the benefactor of his father
Constantius; nor from the destruction of his wife herself,
nor of his sons; nor from the assassination of the
Emperor Licinius and his son, the offspring of his sister
Constantia--crimes so infamous and unnecessary that the first
spark of real animosity against the gods of Rome that
ever flashed across the serene and boundless depths of his
almost superhuman intelligence gleamed for a moment
past his consummate and life-long duplicity when the
pagan priests refused all expiation for such crimes; and be
turned away more decidedly to a religion which promises
pardon for every sin: not that he cared anything for the
sacred rites of either church; but because he was the first
Roman ruler to attach any definite meaning to the words
"public opinion," and he desired to maintain the confidence
of his people, and also to secure the full benefit of
those crimes which he committed to place his own
authority beyond the reach of accident.

So thoroughly indifferent to all sense of religion was
this greatest of the rulers of mankind that dissimulation
was an easy task which involved no conscientious scruples
of any kind; and was so gracefully and perfectly enacted
that even Eusebius, the father of ecclesiastical history,
himself no ordinary man, was for a long time very
thoroughly deceived into believing that the atheistic emperor
was God's vicegerent for the establishment of the Christian
Church on earth.  "Constantine, therefore, in the very
commencement" (says Eusebius), "being proclaimed
supreme emperor and Augustus by the soldiers, and much
longer before this by the universal sovereign, God--Constantine,
the protector of the good, combining his hatred of
wickedness with the love of goodness, went forth with his
son Crispus, the most benevolent Cæsar, to extend a caring
arm to all them that were perishing.  Both, therefore, the
father and the son, having, as it were, God the Universal
King and his Son, our Saviour, as their leader and aid,
drawing up the army on all sides against the enemies of
God, bore away an easy victory."  "With choirs and
hymns," says Eusebius, "in the cities and villages, at the
same time they celebrated and extolled first of all God the
Universal King, because they were thus taught; then they
also celebrated the praises of the pious emperor, and with
him all his divinely-favored children," including Crispus
Cæsar whom he caused to be murdered afterward.

Only the lone and incorruptible seer of Patmos, John
the Divine, foresaw the mighty pagan in his real character,
and depicted him in words of scathing denunciation and
rebuke which the prostituted Church then failed to
understand when the things were transacted before her eyes--a
prophetic and apocalyptic view of Constantine and
Constantinople which becomes of easier interpretation as the
centuries glide away, revealing more and more clearly what
things John foretold, that were to follow upon the
subversion of Christianity by the most potent human enemy that
Jesus ever had, and locating the seat of Antichrist upon
seven hills above the sea to which the commerce of the
world resorted--a description inapplicable to any capital
on earth except the city of Constantinople.

The tentative effort made by Constantine in 312 and
313, when he had used the influence of the Christians
against Maxentius, had proved entirely successful, and the
great ruler at once began to make inquiries to ascertain
to what extent the same faith might prevail throughout
the Empire of the East, and how far he might depend
upon its aid in subverting the sovereign power of
Licinius, who then reigned over the Eastern Empire.  For,
upon the death of Diocletian, Constantius and Galerius
had parted the empire between themselves in accordance
with the emperor's will, dividing both the provinces
and the legions, which was the first division of Roman
sovereignty.  Constantine succeeded his father
Constantius, and, by the overthrow of Maxentius, had become
master of all of the Western Empire, although north
of the Mediterranean Licinius ruled Pannonia, Dalmatia,
Dacia, Greece, and Thrace; and, having overthrown
Maximian, ruled the East, including Asia Minor, Syria, and
Egypt.

But it was always Constantine's set purpose to restore
the unity of the empire, and to concentrate the whole
imperial authority in his own hand--a purpose of which
he never for one moment lost sight, and which is the
explanation of his whole magnificent career.  The present
difficulty in the way was the fact that he had permitted,
perhaps solicited, Licinius to sign with him the Decree
of Milan, which gave peace to the Church; and this
celebrated document had been issued in both their names,
by their joint authority, and had been so published
throughout the empire.  In addition to this was the fact
that the Christians universally regarded the defeat of
Maximian and the triumph of Licinius as providential,
for the former had persecuted the Church, and the latter
had protected it in conjunction with Constantine.  The
public actions of Maximian gave countenance to this
opinion: for, while he had great faith in the heathen
gods and priests, and had resorted to magic in order to
conduct the war with Licinius triumphantly, after he had
been defeated in battle "he slew many of his priests as
jugglers and impostors, and as the destroyers of his own
safety, since by their oracles he had been induced to
undertake the disastrous war.  Moreover, having heard that
Constantine and Licinius were both Christians, he
supposed that their success was the result of their religion,
and himself immediately issued a decree providing safety
for the Christians whom less than a year before he had
ordered to be persecuted, by decrees engraved on brazen
tablets; he gave them liberty to rebuild their churches,
and commanded that all of their property which had
been seized and sold under the former decrees should be
restored to them.  Shortly afterward he miserably died,
and Licinius ruled alone."

Licinius was a firm believer in Christianity, and his
faith and the decrees of Maximian alike confirmed both
himself and his subjects in the opinion that he was under
the divine protection.

Constantine was not long in perceiving the greatest
political error, perhaps the only one, committed by him, the
affixing of the signature of Licinius to the Decree of
Milan; but, at the time it was done, human foresight could
hardly have anticipated such a wholesale abandonment of
paganism, and such an ardent and enthusiastic adoption
of Constantine's new ecclesiasticism, on the part of the
people, as did actually occur.  To have left the name of
Licinius out of the decree would have fostered any
ambitious views which that emperor might have entertained,
by enabling him to set up himself as the especial guardian
of the heathen religion, and so concentrating in his own
hands all the resources of the pagan world.  Constantine
was compelled, therefore, either to divide the influence of
the Christians with Licinius, or else to array himself and
Christianity on the one side, against Licinius and
paganism on the other; and he was too wise a ruler not to
perceive that such a civil and religious war would be
disastrous to both rulers, if not the ultimate ruin of the
empire; and, not knowing the vast numerical strength of
the Christians, he chose the former alternative.  But no
sooner had he succeeded in getting all power in the
North and West concentrated firmly in his owe hands,
than he began to seek for means whereby to undermine
the power of his rival, and so carry into effect
his life-long purpose--the reuniting of the divided
empire, and the concentration of all power in his own
hands.

The Christians of the Eastern Empire maintained the
primitive religion, and persevered in their original
opposition to bearing arms in war, and to slavery, and to
private-property rights, and so added nothing to the military power
of Licinius, except their constantly increasing communal
wealth.  Licinius simply left the Church at peace, and was
not consummate politician enough to use its vast resources
in aid of his government, as Constantine had done, by
inducing the Christians to abandon the primitive
organization of the Church and become Roman subjects in
everything except the mere article of faith.  When Ulfilas, the
Goth, converted his barbarous countrymen, and transformed
the fierce and warlike tribes into peaceful and settled
peoples among whom war, slavery, polygamy, and private
property, were unknown, and among whom no king was
recognized but Christ, Constantine declared war against
them, and pursued them with fire and sword until they
were forced to adopt Roman laws and customs, and agreed
by treaty to supply a permanent force of forty thousand
young men to the imperial army; and, after that, he
caused Ulfilas himself to be ordained a bishop, and sent
him back to his own people to teach the imperial religion
instead of Christianity.  But this profound and atheistic
policy was too deep for the Emperor Licinius; and
Constantine knew well that, according to the primitive
Christianity, a whole Christian province would not furnish a
single recruit to his rival's legions, since no Christian
would bear arms.

Eusebius of Cæsarea, who had prepared the way for
Constantine to become the head of the Church in the
Western Empire, was the emperor's chosen friend and
constant counselor, and the ruler of Rome never
forgot that the bishop had, first of all men, invited his
attention to the fact that the despised and persecuted
Christians constituted already a body of men so numerous,
so virtuous, and so prosperous, as to hold the balance of
power between any factions which might divide the Roman
people just as soon as the legal disabilities which both
concealed their numbers and fettered their influence might be
removed by imperial favor.

Under the advice of Eusebius, the emperor, in his own
name, sent to Anulinus, Proconsul of Africa, a decree most
favorable to the Christians throughout that region; he
also made presents of large sums of money to the bishops
of Africa, Numidia, and Mauritania, who had been
plundered in the persecutions of Maximian; he also sent a
decree ordaining that all church prelates be freed from
obligation to discharge any public, military, or political duties
and offices; also, he made a decree commanding a certain
council to be held concerning the affairs of Cæcilianus,
Bishop of Carthage, and sent to Miltiades, Bishop of Rome,
copies of the charges against Cæcilianus; also, a decree
addressed to Chrestus, Bishop of Syracuse, commanding that
a council of many bishops, both of Africa and of Gaul,
should assemble at the city of Arles, in order to consider
and determine certain questions which were disputed
among the faithful.

In short, counseled by Eusebius, who never doubted
the ultimate overthrow of idolatry, and the ultimate
triumph of whatever ecclesiastical system might be
established in place of the Christian communities,
Constantine zealously strove in every way to identify himself
and his government with the new religion, and to hold
himself out as the head of the Church, as well as of the
state.  At the same time he steadily pursued a secret
policy of winning to himself the affection and confidence
of the Christian subjects of the Emperor Licinius, by the
use of agents whom he kept in his own service, in the
household of every bishop of the Eastern Church.  This
zeal in the service of the established ecclesiasticism soon
met with the great reward which Eusebius had promised
to the emperor; for, throughout the length and breadth
of the churches it began to be commonly declared that
"Constantine was the divinely-appointed protector of the
Christians"; that "God was the friend and vigilant
protector of Constantine"; and that "no man could be
his equal, and no man could stand against him."  Licinius
soon perceived the influence of these machinations,
and saw that, even in his own dominions, the
Christians, and especially the prelates, offered up more
prayers for Constantine than for himself--"so that he
did not suppose," saith Eusebius, "that they offered
prayers for him at all, but persuaded himself that they
did all things, and propitiated the Deity, only for the
divinely-favored Emperor Constantine."

This treasonable sentiment, of course, aroused the
resentment of the jealous Licinius, and more and more
developed that estrangement between him and the Christians
for which Constantine secretly but zealously labored; and
Licinius sought revenge by fomenting every disaffection
which manifested itself against the rule of Constantine in
Africa.  But the bishops were as perfect a police force as
modern times have ever succeeded in organizing, and
kept Rome fully advised of every movement inaugurated
by the enemies of the "most Christian emperor."  And
Eusebius saith, concerning Licinius, that "when he saw
that his secret preparations by no means succeeded
according to his wish, *as God detected every artifice and
villainy to his favorite prince*, no longer able to conceal
himself, Licinius commenced an open war.  And in thus
determining war against Constantine, he now *proceeded
to array himself against the Supreme God whom he knew
Constantine to worship*.  Afterward he began imperceptibly
to assail those pious subjects under him who had
never at any time troubled his government.  This too,
he did, violently urged on by the innate propensity of his
malice, that overclouded and darkened his understanding.
He did not, therefore, bear in mind *those that had
persecuted the Christians before him*, nor those *whose
destroyer and punisher he himself had been appointed*, for
their wickedness.  But, departing from sound reason, and,
as one might say, seized with insanity, he had determined
*to wage war against God himself*, the protector and aid
of Constantine, *in place of the one whom He assisted*.
And first, indeed, he *drove away all the Christians from
his house*, the wretch thus divesting himself of those
prayers to God for his safety which they were taught to
offer up for all men.  After this he ordered the soldiers
in the cities to be cashiered and stripped of military
honors unless they chose to sacrifice to demons."

Constantine having craftily succeeded in embroiling
Licinius with the Church, watched with secret joy, until
the enemy whom he wished to destroy followed up this
lustration of his army and navy, which was designed to
drive out the Christian spies of Constantine, with more
strenuous measures; and, in the language of Eusebius,
"at last proceeded to such an extent of madness *as to
attack the bishops*, now indeed regarding them as the
servants of the Supreme God, *but hostile to his measures*."  And
as the angry tyrant adopted extreme remedies for
this ecclesiastical treason, "razing the churches to the
ground"; "subjecting the bishops to the same punishment
as the worst criminals"; "cutting the bodies of
some into small pieces and feeding them out to fishes in
the sea"; and "destroying others by various modes of
torture and death"--"the whole Christian world regarded
him with horror and detestation, and looked to
Constantine for deliverance."

So that the error which the emperor had committed,
in soliciting Licinius to affix his signature to the Decree
of Milan, was not only fully compensated by his consummate
skill and artifice, but the Church prayed earth and
Heaven for the destruction of Licinius.  Licinius, irritated
more and more by the wide-spread disaffection of his
subjects, espoused the cause of Bassianus, who had married
Anastasia, the sister of Constantine, and urged him into
rebellion in order to gain larger power; and, Bassianus
having been defeated and dethroned, Licinius refused to
deliver up the partisans of the fallen Cæsar who had
taken refuge in his dominions; and upon this pretext
Constantine declared war against him; and in two
battles, one at Cibalis in Pannonia, and the other upon the
plains of Mardia in Thrace, he defeated Licinius, and so
crippled him that he was compelled to make peace, with
the loss of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Macedonia, and
Greece, which provinces were added to the dominions of
Constantine, and extended his empire to the extremity of
Peloponnesus, leaving Licinius Emperor of Thrace, Asia
Minor, Syria, and Egypt.

This war happened in the year 315, and the ambition
of Constantine was temporarily sated, so that he then
refrained from pushing to extremities the defeated but still
powerful Licinius until he might have time and
opportunity to alienate the affection and confidence of his
subjects in Asia as thoroughly as he had done in Europe.
And, besides this, he wanted time in order to subjugate
the Goths whom Ulfilas had converted, subvert the
Christian communities organized among them on the primitive
foundation, and force them to adopt the ecclesiastical
system which he had established at Rome, in order to
make the Gothic nation an available factor in any future
war in which he might engage.  But in a few years
afterward, having successfully waged war against the Goths,
and having seen the influence of Licinius greatly
impaired by the persecutions of the Church in Syria and
Egypt which he had encouraged and, perhaps,
instigated, as well as by that secret diplomacy of which
Constantine was master, the Roman emperor deemed that the
time had come to destroy Licinius, and restore the unity
of the empire, and consolidate all power in his own hands,
especially as the great age and unpopular vices of
Licinius seemed to presage an easy victory.  He accordingly
(and without any pretext whatever on this occasion)
declared war against the Illyrian emperor; and in the great
battle of Adrianople, and in the siege of Byzantium, and
in the decisive action of Chrysopolis, in all of which he
engaged Licinius with inferior numbers, his vast military
genius asserted itself, so that by continuous defeats he
reduced the Emperor of the East to the necessity of making
an unconditional surrender.  Constantia, the wife of
Licinius, was the sister of Constantine, and, at her request
and entreaties, the conqueror temporarily spared the life
of his fallen rival, and banished him to Thessalonica,
where he was soon afterward assassinated in some
mysterious manner, it being to this day uncertain whether
he perished by the order of the senate, by a tumult of
the soldiers, or by the machinations of Constantine.  But
it is certain that the "first Christian emperor" regarded
the fact that a man might stand in the way of his
ambition, or possibly compromise his safety, as a sufficient
reason for putting him to death, even if the unlucky
person happened to be his own son.

"Thus the mighty and victorious Constantine," saith
Eusebius, "adorned with every virtue of religion, with his
most pious son, Crispus Cæsar, resembling in all things
his father, recovered the East as his own, and thus
restored the Roman Empire to its ancient state of one united
body; extending their peaceful sway around the world,
from the rising sun to the opposite regions, to the north
and the south, even to the borders of the declining day."

But this greatest statesman, politician, and ruler--this
absolute, untroubled, and self-confident atheist--had only
"the godliness that is profitable for the life that now
is"; for this "Christian" had never been baptized
(knowing that an emperor can not be a Christian); and he
afterward murdered in cold blood, without provocation, "his
most pious son, Crispus Cæsar, resembling in all things his
father"; his own wife Fausta, and the youthful Licinius,
son of his sister Constantia; just as he systematically
assassinated every one whom his calm, merciless, wise policy
thought to be possibly inimical to his own safety.  But
he realized the life-long ambition of his soul, the
restoration of the unity of the Roman Empire under his own
authority; and did it by the aid of the Christian Church,
which he bribed, corrupted, and secularized, until it
acknowledged him to be king instead of Jesus Christ.

These historical details, however, anticipate our
narrative of Arius the Libyan, to which we must now return.





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.. _`A NAVAL QUESTION`:

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   CHAPTER II.


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   A NAVAL QUESTION.

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After the overthrow of the Christian communities
which Ulfilas had founded among the Goths, Constantine
called Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, unto himself, and
began to make diligent inquiries concerning the churches
of Syria and of Egypt; and, having obtained all of the
information current among the bishops, he entered into
conversation with Eusebius, apparently for the purpose
of still further satisfying himself upon certain points
involved in his investigations.

"Thou sayest," said Constantine, "that, in spite of
the persecution in which many bishops and private
persons have suffered martyrdom, the Church constantly
increases in numbers and influence."

"Yea," replied Eusebius, "but not so rapidly as in
thine own dominions; for in most places their services are
secretly conducted because of the heathen; yet the truth
triumphs everywhere, and the churches prosper wonderfully.
The cruel wrongs done unto the faithful excite the
interest and compassion of all fair-minded men, and there
are always many who seek for fuller information concerning
our holy religion, and there are always some at hand
ready to impart it."

"I would that it were possible for me at this time to
occupy the same relation to the Eastern Church that so
happily obtains in the Empire of the West.  But that
seems to be impossible while the Emperor Licinius reigns
over those realms."

"Thou art as much beloved by the Christians of the
East as by those of Europe or of Africa; and they look
unto thee for deliverance, and hopefully await thy coming."

"But Europe and Africa are under mine own hand,
and Asia is not; the Church of the East is beyond the
reach of my protection."

"Stretch forth thine arm of power, thou favorite of
the supreme God, and take it unto thyself.  Thou alone
art fitted to be emperor, and Asia, as part of the Roman
Empire, is rightfully thine own."

Then Constantine gave way to one of those fits of sudden,
silent meditation which were not unusual to him, and
continued to gaze upon his bishop long and earnestly.
At last he said: "The Emperor Licinius is a brave
and skillful commander, trained all his life in the
discipline of the Roman army.  He not only hath yet a
solid foothold upon European soil, but he could call
into action out of populous Asia double as many
soldiers as the Western Empire could put into the field,
including the hardy Goths, whom I have added to the
military force of Rome.  He is no merely titular
emperor, but is a consummate warrior, a wise ruler, an able
and valiant man, as he hath already proved against both
Maximian and myself."

"Thou and God art greater still!" said the bishop,
solemnly.

"That might be so upon the land," murmured Constantine,
absently, "for many of my legions are veterans,
who have followed me through seventeen campaigns
without defeat, and the Goths are brave and hardy.  But the
old emperor's vast superiority is on the sea.  For, since
Rome ceased to be the seat of empire, the naval
establishments of Misenum and Ravenna have been greatly
neglected, and the maritime cities of Greece no longer furnish
those formidable fleets which made the republic of Athens
so famous.  But the Emperor Licinius can draw from
Egypt and the adjacent coasts of Africa, from the ports
of Phoenicia and the Isle of Cyprus, and from Bithynia,
Ionia, and Caria, a fleet to which the rest of mankind
could offer no effective opposition; so that, if I should be
successful on land, the emperor's naval superiority would
enable him to carry an offensive war into every sea-coast of
Hispania, Gaul, and Italy, cut off all my supplies, and
force me to retreat even in the face of victory.  It will not
do!" he cried, passionately and despondingly--"it will
not do! and it requires years to prepare a navy!  There
must be some other way--some other way!"

What dark and secret thought slumbered in the
capacious deeps of that calm, unwavering spirit to which
expediency was ever a sufficient justification for any crime
that might advance political designs, no man can ever
know; but Eusebius at once perceived that the thing
which he supposed to have been a suggestion of his own--a
temptation held out by him to the emperor and ventured
upon because his zeal for the persecuted Christians of the
Eastern Church made him earnestly desire that Constantine
should conquer and protect those regions--had in
truth long been a subject of profoundest meditation in the
emperor's soul; a most dangerous ambition, which he had
considered in every possible aspect of it.  Neither of these
able men spoke for some time.  Then the emperor said,
musingly: "Would that it were possible for me at this
time to occupy the same relation to the Eastern Churches
that so happily obtains in the Empire of the West!  But
there must be some other way--some other way!"

Eusebius perceived from the repetition of these words
that they in some way contained the particular matter
concerning which Constantine desired him to speak; and he
shuddered at the unwelcome thought of what might
possibly be required at the hand of some bishop of the Church
by the implacable and unscrupulous emperor; but, not
fully comprehending the drift of the royal mind, he
answered: "It would be easy to attach the bishops and their
congregations unto thyself as thou didst those of Africa,
by secret aid to the churches, and by kind messages unto
those who have experienced the tyrant's cruelty; for
already all Christians regard thee as divinely raised up for
their succor, and they are comforted by the hope that,
when thou dost rule the world, the gospel shall be as free
in the East as it is in the West."

"But that is a mere sentiment," answered Constantine.
"The Christians are not soldiers; in the East they refuse
to bear arms, or to recognize an earthly ruler.  Surely
thou dost remember how difficult it was to bring them
over to any active support of mine empire even in the
West."

"Yea, verily!  But thou mayst gradually assume
direction of the Church there as thou hast done here: by
largesses to the bishops; by calling councils in thine own
name to settle clerical differences; and by training them,
as thou hast done here, to regard thee alone as the real
source of both ecclesiastical and political authority; and so
by degrees control them as thou wilt."

"I have meditated over all of that," said Constantine,
"and the great difficulty in the way of its accomplishment
grows out of the fact that any attempt to interfere in the
trial of charges against bishops or presbyters, whether upon
accusations of personal misconduct, or of erroneous
doctrine, within the dominions of the Emperor Licinius,
would be regarded by him, and by his subjects, as an
unwarrantable interference in matters which do not concern
the Empire of the West; and such a course would only
inflame and consolidate those whom I prefer to divide in
sentiment."

"But," said Eusebius, "if the question in dispute
should be one, not between the members of some
particular community, or locality, but between almost the
whole body of the Christians in the Western Empire on
the one hand, and almost the whole body of the Eastern
Church upon the other, could there be any impropriety
in calling a council of the whole Church, East and West,
to consider and determine it?"

"No," said Constantine.  "If there were only such
a question, the way would be laid open at least for a
beginning.  But how couldst thou ever create such a question?"

"The question, or rather the questions (for there are
two of them), are already created--the East upon one
side of both, and the West upon the other."

"What are these questions?"

"One is a great dispute concerning the proper time
for the celebration of Easter; and the other a most
subtile controversy concerning the nature of Godhead
and the relation of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; a
dispute in which Hosius of Cordova leads many bishops
and presbyters upon one side, and Arius the Libyan as
many upon the other."

"Arius the Libyan!" cried Constantine, with
sudden wrath.  "The Libyan serpent!  The ram of
Baucalis! a presbyter of Alexandria!  By thundering Jove, I
will yet crush that hard, stubborn, fearless nature, for
he hath been more in my way than even the Emperor
Licinius himself!  Curse the man! curse him!"

Eusebius gazed upon the emperor in mute astonishment.
He knew that Constantine possessed an almost
supernatural knowledge of all political movements and
persons, even in the remotest corner of the empire over
which he reigned, but he had never even dreamed that
the mighty emperor had heard so much as the name of
the gaunt, unsocial, self-denying, and inflexible presbyter
of the Baucalis church at Alexandria, in the dominions
of Licinius.

"Knowest thou the man?" he asked with unconcealed
astonishment.

Constantine had already regained his usual calmness,
and in placid tones replied: "I have never seen Arius,
but have constantly and often heard of his dangerous
and revolutionary teachings, and of his rugged,
implacable, unyielding character.  He hateth me without any
cause, except that I am emperor, and scorneth every
favor I was inclined to show him.  I even tendered unto
him the bishopric of Alexandria, which Alexander now
holds, but he refused to accept it, for no other reason
than that he supposed his advancement to that high
place to have been procured by the influence of mine
agents in that city."

"I regret that he is not thy friend," answered
Eusebius; "but wilt thou instruct me how a presbyter could
teach dangerous and revolutionary doctrines?  Perhaps
such teachings might furnish matter for which the
Church might suspend him from the office of presbyter,
and silence his utterances."

"I do not think so," answered Constantine.  "He
teaches that a Christian can not be an emperor, nor bear
arms in war; and that to take sides in a struggle
between any earthly governments is to betray the Christ.
He teaches that no Christian can hold slaves, own
private property, or recognize Roman and Egyptian laws
and customs in reference to marriage and divorce.  In a
word, he still rigidly adheres to that primitive Christianity,
the prevalence of which would soon render all government
over the people unnecessary if not impossible,
and which, as thou knowest, it was so difficult for us to
guide to right and reasonable action even in Rome and
in other parts of the West.  But his primitive and
fearless teachings have reduced to the ghostly form of a
mere sentiment all the active aid I had expected to
obtain from the Christians of Syria and of Egypt.  The
fleet, the mighty fleet, which putteth all my coasts at
the mercy of Licinius, ought to have been mine own,
and would have been but for that Libyan serpent who
paralyzed the arms of willing Christians by his accursed
teachings."

"But," said Eusebius, solemnly, "these teachings were
the very doctrines of our Lord, and Arius hath proclaimed
nothing but the truths of the gospel, and for three
hundred years no Christian man hath owned a slave or
claimed private title to property, or lifted up a weapon
even in defense of the faith for which he does not
hesitate to die."  And the bishop's fine face darkened, and
his heart twitched as if some transient gleam of lightning
had revealed before him a bottomless pit that opened
down to perdition; and for a moment he half-way felt that
he had lost his own soul by juggling with the empire in
the name of Jesus and for the glory of the Church.

While he stood in painful meditation, the emperor
continued: "Yea! doubtless this was the primitive system;
and, thoroughly permeated with its new and radical
principles, Arius seeketh to enforce them.  The African ram,
bold, self-confident, aggressive! the Libyan serpent, agile,
beautiful, tameless, and dangerous! scorning all earthly
ambitions as trifles unworthy of the consideration of an
immortal spirit; despising pain, and toil, and peril;
almost courting martyrdom; immovable by threats of
vengeance, or by hope of reward; alike inaccessible to
flattery and to fear--but for that one man I would hold
the East in my hand to-day!  For the fleet was largely
manned and officered by Christians, and all things were
arranged to deliver up the ships to me, when this fierce,
invincible, immovable presbyter poured out the angry
torrent of his eloquence and learning, urging the
Christians to obey all laws of the government under which
they lived that were not contrary to conscience, and
denouncing those who might engage on either side in favor
of an earthly ruler as traitors to Christ and his
kingdom.  Their courage shriveled up before his fierce
denunciation, as if it had been smitten by the wrath of
God, and all the carefully prepared plans for getting
possession of more than half the fleet of Licinius, and
especially of the great galleys with three banks of oars, faded
away before the breath of this one irreconcilable and
immovable man.  Then the attention of the Emperor
Licinius having been called to the matter, he made a
lustration of his army and navy, and dishonorably dismissed
therefrom every man who refused to offer sacrifice to the
gods; and also from his civil service, and from his
palaces.  And since that day there hath been no man in
the service of Licinius that is a Christian.  But the
emperor sent to Arius a parchment giving to him legal
authority to preach the gospel publicly in his city of
Alexandria, because his gospel had saved the fleet; and the
stern, uncompromising presbyter sent it back with a message
that his authority to preach was from God, not from man."

"For what reason did Arius so bitterly take sides
against thee, the favorite of God, the protector of the
Church?"

"It would be unjust," said Constantine, "to say that
he ever did so.  He did not; but his powerful influence
in holding the Christians of Egypt and of Syria to
strictest neutrality was the most injurious policy he could
have pursued against me; but he would have pursued
the same course against any other ruler in the world."

Eusebius was the fast friend of Arius, whom he
admired and loved beyond all living men (for Pamphilus
had already suffered martyrdom); and the great
ecclesiastic, rejoicing at the praises bestowed upon his friend
by the greatest ruler of men, strove to call out yet more
of his opinion, and accordingly said unto him, "Couldst
thou not, then, attack the moral character of Arius, and
call a council to condemn him for some irregularity, and
so get rid of him?"

"Nay," answered the emperor, "the man is proof
against all earthly temptations.  When all arrangements
had been made to confer upon him the see of Alexandria,
he calmly but positively refused to accept the office,
saying he would live and die presbyter of the Baucalis
church.  Gifts of money sent unto him anonymously he
poured into the common treasury of the Church
uncounted, and, in the midst of opulence, lived the life of
an anchorite.  Seven hundred of the noblest women of
Alexandria are his communicants, and constant watchfulness
never detected him in the slightest impropriety with
any of them.  In the pestilence which decimated and
terrified the great city, by day and night he ministered
unto the afflicted, when even parents abandoned their
children and children their parents, and the ties of blood
were disregarded, until the people believed him to be
invested with a charmed life that was invulnerable to
poniard, poison, or pestilence.  He is the purest and the
strongest soul on earth," said the emperor, with
undisguised admiration, "but he hath barred my way unto
the conquest of the East!"

Eusebius glowed with pleasure as he listened to the
language in which the emperor depicted the character of
Arius, and replied: "Only the truly great are able to do
justice to those whom they have strong reason to dislike,
but thou hast painted the grand and lonely soul of the
Libyan even as it is.  He hath been purified by sorrow.
He is all for Christ, and earthly hopes, fears and
ambitions no more can move his chaste and lofty spirit."

"But," said Constantine, sternly, "however admirable
the presbyter may be, I will not forget that he hath
robbed me of the fleet!  He hath barred my way unto
the conquest of the East."

Then said Eusebius: "If the fleet of Licinius could
be by some means neutralized; if that valiant tyrant
could, perhaps, be induced to keep his fleet out of the
war altogether, and leave the fate of the empire to be
decided by the armies of the East and of the West--would
that content thee?"

The handsome face of Constantine glowed with a wonderful
light of hope and pleasure as he answered, eagerly;
"Yea, thou most wise and infallible bishop!  If thou
canst accomplish this thing, soon shall the churches of
the East enjoy the imperial protection as fully as do those
of the Western Empire; and, freed from the persecutions
of Licinius and of the pagan priests, the Church shall
triumph over all the world.  But I have told thee that
no more able warrior lives than the emperor; he will
never forego the use of his right arm of power: thou
canst not neutralize his navy."

The greatest of ecclesiastics gazed with affectionate
admiration upon the greatest of emperors, and calmly
answered: "I am a man of peace, and know nothing of
the conduct of a war.  But I do know something of the
human heart, and of the secret springs that govern the
actions of men.  When I did visit thee in Gaul, before
the war with Maxentius, thou didst tell me that I could
not cast a javelin, nor smite with a sword, nor draw out
a legion in battle order, but that I knew all Italy, and
showed thee how to conquer Rome.  Verily I know not
how to sail a ship, yet I will endeavor diligently to keep
the tyrant's navy far off from thy coasts.  If I should
fail, thou wilt quickly know the unwelcome truth; and
if I succeed thou shalt learn it immediately."

"Thou hast always succeeded," answered Constantine;
"no promise made by thee hath failed.  Thou hast never
once disappointed thine emperor and friend."

"For the present," said Eusebius, "I do greatly desire
of thee an indefinite leave of absence, but I trust not
a protracted one, in order that I may pay a visit to my
beloved brother Eusebius, the Bishop of Nicomedia."

For an instant the face of Constantine was clouded.
"Within the dominions of Licinius?" he softly
murmured, but in a moment he answered: "Thou hast leave
to go!  But tell me, bishop, why thou goest unto
Nicomedia.  What canst thou do there except to expose thy
dear and valuable head to the fury of the emperor?"

"I go thither," said Eusebius, with a light and
musical laugh, "seeking to prepare a problem over which the
historians and warriors of all future ages shall puzzle
their weary brains in vain.  The question which will be,
I trust, a riddle unto them, is briefly this: Why was it
that, in the second war with the most Christian Emperor
Constantine, the brave and competent commander Licinius,
possessing so vast a superiority at sea, utterly failed
to carry an offensive war into the very center of his
rival's dominions, and, having moored his fleet safely in
some secure strait or bay, left the issue of the war to be
decided by the land-forces alone, in the conduct of which
the most glorious Emperor Constantine was known to be
invincible?"

Then Constantine sprang from his seat, and with eager,
glowing face he embraced the bishop and kissed him,
saying: "Canst thou, indeed, do this thing for me?  If
thou canst, thou art stronger than ten legions, and
deservest a reward equal to their pay!"

"Thou knowest well," said Eusebius, kindly but with
inexpressible dignity, "that I have served thee faithfully
without reward, because I love thee, Augustus, and love
the Church of Christ, and know assuredly that thine own
triumph will secure the triumph of the faith!"

"Thou speakest nothing but the truth, bishop,"
replied Constantine, his fine face lighting up with strong
emotions, "and I have loved and honored thee in my
heart accordingly.  Thou knowest that, whenever thou
needest me, I am all thine own.  But how can this
miracle that shall neutralize the emperor's maritime
ascendency be wrought?"

"I think," answered Eusebius, gravely and sadly,
"that miracles have recently ceased throughout the world,
so that even the Church of Christ hath to depend upon
only human agencies, which thou knowest was not
formerly the case.  It is well known, however, that the old
Emperor Licinius doth not doubt the truth and divinity
of our holy religion, although he hateth the Christians
because he hath been persuaded that they offer up more
prayers for thee than for himself.  Now, it hath seemed
probable to me that if an authentic Christian prophecy
could be privately circulated through the imperial palace
of Nicomedia to the purport that the Eastern Empire
would be overthrown whenever it might send a hostile
fleet to ravage the coasts of Europe, his fear and hatred
of the Christians would influence him to retain his fleet
at home in order to forestall the prophecy.  Of course,
the common sense of the matter would be, as thou hast
said, for him to use his vast naval strength to desolate
thy coasts in Greece, Italy, Africa, Hispania, and Gaul;
but, perhaps, he may not do so.  The matter is not very
clearly wrought out in my mind, but gradually takes
shape as I consider it, and I desire to see my brother,
Eusebius of Nicomedia, a wise and prudent man, to
converse with him concerning it."

"Thou art a great and wonderful bishop," said
Constantine.  "Go thou, and may God prosper thee!  Keep
me well informed of thy movements, and of all events that
happen.  Thou shalt have orders for all supplies,
attendance, and money, which thou canst possibly need for thy
purposes.  If thou fall into any trouble at Nicomedia, or
elsewhere, have sure means of informing me, for I would
risk the sovereignty of the world to deliver thee, thou
incomparable friend and bishop.  When wilt thou depart?"

"Within a few days, at most," said Eusebius.  "And
thou shalt do nothing except to grant me leave of
absence.  We bishops can further each other upon our
journeys quite well, and I wish to go secretly and
without attracting notice."

"When thou hast leisure," said Constantine, "come
unto me again, and come prepared to unravel these
questions concerning the celebration of Easter, and
concerning the Godhead, to the very last threads of them; for
I earnestly desire to be perfectly informed therein."





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.. _`THE POLITICS OF RELIGION`:

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   CHAPTER III.


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   THE POLITICS OF RELIGION.

.. vspace:: 2

A day or two afterward, Eusebius again sought
audience of the emperor, and in a long interview, during
which Constantine, with his own hand, kept copious and
accurate memoranda of the conversation, the bishop
carefully explained the nature of the church controversy
respecting the observance of Easter, and also the nature
of the abstract and peculiar ideas involved in the
dispute concerning the Deity; and in the whole interview
the emperor manifested the perfect thoroughness with
which his calm, grand intelligence was accustomed to go
to the very bottom of every matter which once secured
his interest, grasping all possible aspects and relationships
of the subject--the evidence upon which alleged
facts might be founded, the authority upon which each
opinion might rest--so that at the close of the long and
studious interview he was as well informed upon the
subjects discussed as were the most learned ecclesiastics
of his generation.

"I perceive," he said to Eusebius, "that thou art an
advocate of the opinion of Arius the Libyan, concerning
what Hosius calleth the Holy Trinity?"

"Yea!" answered the bishop; "for neither do the
Gospels teach me, nor can the aid of reason enable me
to understand that three are one any more than that
one is three; nor can I evade the fact that 'Father'
and 'Son' are terms which of necessity imply that the
Father antedates the Son; nor can I believe that God
the Father lived in our flesh and died upon the cross.
So that, whenever the 'Arian heresy,' as they call it,
shall be heard before a general council, I shall be
numbered among the heterodox, if it is indeed possible that
any council shall ever condemn the grand Libyan's
doctrines!"

"I regret much," replied the emperor, "that thy conscience
leadeth thee in that direction, although the fact
must never become a cause of difference between thee
and me.  For, while I would yield cheerful acquiescence
to thy superior learning about all merely religious
questions, I perceive already that the political aspects of this
controversy will make it politic for me to maintain the
opinions of Hosius and his party."

"What possible political significance can exist in such
an abstract dispute about matters of theological faith and
doctrine?"

Constantine laughed pleasantly, and answered: "Of
course, a pious and learned bishop would sooner perceive
the minutest ramifications of the theological roots of any
question than to grasp its most palpable political
outgrowth.  I will tell thee, bishop, but the communication is
for thee alone.  As to the paschal controversy, it is a mere
matter of sentiment or feeling between those who do not
wish to follow the Jews in fixing the time of its observance,
and desire to have some period assigned by the Christian
authority, on the one hand; and, on the other, those who are
unwilling to depart from the practice of three centuries for
any reason--but these differences can be easily reconciled.
But, as to this other controversy, it is of an essentially
different kind.  Thy statement of it revealed to me the
salient fact that the doctrine of Arius is that of the
Eastern Church, the doctrine of Hosius that of the Western;
and a geographical line might almost be run through the
faith upon this question--Arius and his party upon one
side, Hosius and his upon the other--and along the line
itself many who are not the partisans of either opinion.
Thou seest, therefore, that it is really a question between
two empires, and, whenever it shall be determined, a proper
regard for the prestige of mine own empire requires me to
see that the decision shall be in favor of the Western
Church.  Dost thou now perceive one plainest and least
important point of its political bearings?"

"Yea, verily," answered Eusebius.  "But it had not
occurred to me before!"

"After the matter shall have been accomplished," said
Constantine, "many others shall also see it, but not just
yet; for it is the business of him who is fit to rule not
only to see, but to foresee, whatever may concern his
empire!"

"Thou alone hast seen it yet," replied the bishop.
"But what other political significance can the controversy
possibly possess?"

"Ah! bishop," said the emperor, "it is the great question
of our age.  It involves in itself the whole field of
controversy between the old civilizations and the new;
between paganism and Christianity; between Jesus Christ
and the rulers of mankind.  The doctrines of Arius are the
utterances of that primitive Christianity which proclaimed
the fraternity of all men, condemned war, slavery, and
private-property rights.  It maintaineth Jesus as the king
of a kingdom established in the world; a real and actual
government among the Christian communities, which may
yield obedience to laws that do not fetter conscience, but
does not acknowledge allegiance to any human emperor or
king.  Its universal prevalence would speedily render all
government over the people ridiculous and unnecessary;
for Christ would be the only king, and all men brethren,
free and equal, as was the case in Moasia, under the
apostolical Ulfilas, until I was constrained to send an army
thither and force the Goths to give up their communal
organization, and adopt the Roman laws and customs.
The system of Arius, primitive Christianity, dear bishop,
would leave no room for Constantine on earth.  But the
doctrine of Hosius, by elevating Jesus to actual Godhead,
leaveth his earthly career a mere manifestation, or
appearance, of the divine in human flesh; and, since the God
hath returned to his former ineffable condition, it leaveth
his kingdom to be only a pure and lofty spiritual
phantasm--and leaves mankind for Constantine to govern.
Thou seest that there can be no rivalry between the
Christianity of Hosius and the sovereigns of this world, while
the faith of Arius would soon subvert all human governments,
and dethrone every prince on earth.  Beyond any
question, the emperors, from Nero to my own times, sought
only to preserve the empire by persecuting the Christians,
and properly described Christianity as 'a baleful and
malignant superstition,' 'a criminal association,' 'a new
society that departed from the laws and ceremonies of our
fathers, inventing a new government for itself inconsistent
with the imperial laws and rights.'  They understood that
Roman sovereignty could not maintain itself against a
rapidly increasing association that proposed to abolish war,
slavery, private rights of property, offices, rank, and
prerogative; and they tried to stamp it out of existence.
These emperors strove to defend the empire by exterminating
the Christians; if they had been greater men, they
would have adopted the new religion, pruned it of all
doctrines that might menace the imperial authority,
translating Jesus to the highest heaven, and taking for
themselves his place upon the earth--as I have done.  I am,
therefore, the champion of the Holy Trinity, as Hosius
hath defined it; and at the right time Arius must be
condemned as a heretic.  For I will no more suffer him to
build up the churches of the East upon this basis of primitive
Christianity than I would suffer Ulfilas to accomplish
a similar purpose among the Gothic tribes.  Dost thou
now perceive the political significancy of this Arian heresy,
my dear bishop?"

But Eusebius stood before the emperor pale and trembling,
the cold perspiration standing in great drops upon
his pallid brow.  For a moment an awful mist of horror
enveloped his struggling soul.  Had he, then, made a
terrible mistake in using his own large abilities and influence
to place the persecuted saints under the protection of the
grand and humane emperor?  Had he betrayed the Church
of Christ, and lost his own soul, in bringing about that
union of ecclesiastical and imperial authority which
made the kingdom of heaven an appanage of the Roman
emperor, and had secured safety, peace, and glory, for
the Christians by giving to Constantine the place that
should belong only to Jesus Christ?  Had he indeed been
overreached and manipulated by this most able of
mankind for his own political purposes, even while he thought
himself to be using Constantine for the glory of God and
for the edification of the Church?  Sick, doubtful,
terrified, he faintly answered: "But the things which thou
sayest the doctrines of Arius would accomplish are
precisely the triumph which our Lord did promise to the
Church, and which he pledged his divinity to achieve!
Surely Arius must be right!  War, slavery, and
mammon-worship, must be banished out of the world!  Mankind
must become brethren in the Lord!  The Church must
triumph, and Christ must be the only king!"

"Not in my time!" said Constantine, with the calmness
and firmness of mature and deliberate conviction;
"not while I live!  The empire shall be mine own.  I
will yield my right to no man, human or divine!  Let the
Church grow and prepare for future triumph over earthly
sovereignty when the scepter shall be held by some more
weak and nerveless hand than mine.  I will govern while
I live, both church and state, in spite of gods or demons!"

The bishop made no answer.  A terrible error into
which he had gone with glad heart and exuberant hope
seemed palpably revealed to him.  He was utterly cowed
and humbled.  With a crushing sense of self-abasement,
shame, mortification, repentance, almost crime, he realized
the fact that, compared with that colossal man, who amused
himself by playing with the loftiest emotions of the human
soul as he did with his ever-victorious legions--a man who,
under his calm, grand bearing, concealed a devil of
ambition that was ready to mock at all that men hold sacred,
and even to hurl his phalanx against Christ himself--he
felt like a child, a pygmy.

With ashy lips he murmured: "Almost thou hast
defied the Son of God!  Beware!"

Then, with a singular smile that had in its beauty and
light something of lofty mournfulness, the emperor
answered: "And if I should do so, dear bishop, what then?
Jesus hath no power against me except through thaumaturgy,
and thou dost know that thaumaturgy faded out
when the Church abandoned that communal system upon
which Arius insisteth yet so manfully.  I have made my
choice, and will abide the issue, bishop.  Thou knowest
that I never was baptized.  I might have been a Christian,
but I preferred to reign over the Roman Empire; and I
will reign until the end."

Ah! for him, then, with all the glad assurance born of
utter ignorance that such a being could exist among
mankind, the bishop had carefully freighted "the old ship
Zion" with the godless furniture of Roman law and custom,
its statutes of slavery, its laws and usages of war and
conquest, its idolatrous system of private-property rights,
titles, prerogatives, political and social class distinctions
between those whom God made to be brethren, out of
which idolatry the sorrow of the world had grown, from
all of which Jesus had died to ransom a fallen race.  He
had unwittingly launched the freighted ship upon the
troubled sea of earthly politics.  Thinking that he would
win the Roman Empire for the Church, he had betrayed
and sold the cause of Christ to Constantine.  Thinking
that he guided and controlled the emperor, he had labored
with all diligence to make himself the master's slave.  He
knew it now only too well--he knew that Constantine
had always known it; and, appalled by the vast resources
of that greatest of mankind, crushed by the sense of his
amazing genius, he seemed unto himself to grow small,
contemptible, and weak.

And the ship of the Church?  Would she go down
forever in the troubled waters, amid the stormy strife for
worldly gains and power?  Or would she yet, somehow,
sometime, somewhere, outride the tempests, and in some
unknown and distant clime reach into a safe haven?
"Not in my time," said Constantine; "not while I
live!"  When, then?

These bitter meditations were broken by the calm,
sweet voice of Constantine: "Bishop, thou must perceive
for thyself that the radical polity of the primitive
Christianity to which Arius cleaves unswervingly, and which
Ulfilas founded among the Goths so firmly that I had to
send the legions thither to uproot it, was somewhat fanatical,
or at least premature, and not suited to the every-day
life of selfish and wicked men.  Thou must perceive, also,
with equal clearness, that the splendid ecclesiasticism
which I have established throughout the Western Empire
in place of the primitive religion is vastly better for
mankind than any system ever before attempted, and that it
should be speedily extended over all the East.  What
future, grander developments await the Church, no mortal
can foretell.  For the present, I desire of thee to seek
means whereby to fan the flame of this Arian controversy:
it must not die out until it can be summoned before an
imperial council, and receive formal condemnation at the
mouths of all the bishops called into a synod by the
Emperor of the west!"

"And if, when the council shall have been convened,
its members shall sustain Arius, what then?"

"A religious war, perhaps," answered Constantine,
"or a return unto the pagan gods; both dreadful alternatives,
which the Church and the empire should regard with
equal horror.  But the council will never so decide.  I
answer for its action; only keep thou the flame of
controversy burning until the proper hour arrives!"

"I will contrive means that shall not fail to do so,"
answered Eusebius, and, bowing low, at a sign from the
emperor he withdrew, overwhelmed with the perception
of that calm, relentless, almost superhuman sagacity which
Constantine had permitted him to see.

"Yea!" murmured Eusebius, "I will fan this flame
of controversy!  It shall blaze throughout the Church!
And it may even happen that Constantine, although the
greatest of the human race, is not a match for God.  Who
knows?  Thaumaturgy may be restored to the Church, or,
even if, as Constantine asserteth, the kingdom of our Lord
was prematurely established, the spiritual truth of the
gospel will sometime educate mankind up to the ultimate
reception of its socialism and politics.  And to this end it
shall be my task before I die to organize within the bosom
of the Church sacred brotherhoods, bound by holy ties of
chastity, obedience, and poverty, to keep alive forever the
memory of that communal system upon which Christ
founded his kingdom.  At all events, there is no possibility
of going backward now; and more than ever do I desire
to see Constantine obtain the sovereignty of the East.
And now for Nicomedia!"

That very day the bishop set out upon his dangerous
mission, to concert measures by which to neutralize the
naval power of the Emperor Licinius.





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.. _`THE PROPHECY OF GAIUS`:

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   CHAPTER IV.


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   THE PROPHECY OF GAIUS.

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Proceeding, therefore, with all diligence, not very
many days afterward, the Bishop of Cæsarea arrived at
Nicomedia, and straightway, by the use of certain secret
means of communication which were well known to all
Christians, he found, and took up his abode with Eusebius
of that city; and they together discussed at great length
what means might be used to neutralize the naval power
of the tyrant Licinius.

Eusebius of Cæsarea had been absent for many
months, and Constantine had begun to grow impatient
at his long delay, during which he had received no
tidings from the bishop personally, and had heard
nothing concerning him, except that he was quietly residing
in the city with the other Eusebius.  And the emperor,
who valued his bishop highly, and enjoyed his companionship
more than that of any other man, began to fear
that the revelation of his own real character and
purposes, which he had made at their last memorable interview,
had alienated his friend forever, and thereby deprived
himself of the services which he deemed to be almost
invaluable.  It gave him unmingled pleasure, therefore, to
receive upon a certain day a written message that
"Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, sent by his brother Eusebius
Pamphilus, craves audience of the emperor."  Constantine
eagerly ordered that he be admitted, and, having
dismissed all others, he gave the bishop a very cordial
greeting, and then said, with greatest interest and solicitude:
"Tell me first of all of thy brother, my friend the Bishop
of Cæsarea!  Where now is the holy and able man?  Is
he well?  What doeth he?"

The bishop was somewhat lacking in the courtly elegance
that characterized his brother, but still had a certain
ease born of good sense and honesty of purpose, and he
answered in a straightforward and intelligent way that
pleased Constantine, and enabled him instantly to "take
the measure of the man," and value him at once at his full
worth, a thing he was not always able to do with the other
Eusebius.

"The bishop, my brother, fared well when I last saw
him.  We parted at Nicomedia--he to go unto Alexandria,
'upon the emperor's business,' he said; I to come hither
by his desire.  He sendeth love and reverence unto thee,
'the greatest of mankind,' as he saith; and hath sent me
hither because he thought that the things which I am
requested to tell thee ought not to be committed to
writing, nor intrusted to any ordinary messenger.  Whenever
thou desirest to hear it, I will briefly narrate what hath
happened at Nicomedia."

"I am alone with thee, bishop, to hear thy report.
Proceed with thy narrative at once.  But first be thou
seated, and partake of such refreshments as thou wilt."

"Nay," answered the bishop, "I need naught except
thine own attention."

"Then sit thou there, and count upon an eager listener."

"The business upon which thy bishop came unto me
having been carefully unfolded by him, the delay therein
was caused by the necessity of sending far beyond Antioch
for a fitting person to accomplish that upon which we had
agreed as necessary for thy service; but it hath been done.
The great fleet of the Emperor Licinius hath been so far
neutralized that not a ship thereof will cross the sea to
molest thy coasts if there should be war.  On that thou
mayst implicitly rely."

"Tell me the means by which this most important
work hath been accomplished; and spare thou no details
of the business: my only wish now is to hear thee fully!"

"It happened more than a year ago," said the bishop,
"that I received letters from a presbyter at Chalcis, far
beyond Antioch in Syria, concerning a most singular youth
of that village, who was an epileptic--a devout Christian,
but of strange fancies and of extraordinary appearance.
This lad, the presbyter informed me, during the paroxysms
of his disease seemed to be possessed by some sort of a
spirit of divination, and the Church there had vainly
attempted to exorcise the spirit; for thaumaturgy hath
recently been lost.  But the presbyter himself had little faith
in his prophetic powers, because he had discovered that it
was possible, by strongly impressing the mind of the youth,
before the paroxysms came upon him, with some peculiar
and striking thought, to anticipate the subject, and often
even the very words, of his supposed prophetic ravings.
Now, when the bishop unfolded to me what he desired to
attempt for thy service, I at once thought of this Syrian
youth, and judged that he might be advantageously used
therein.  The sending of a messenger to Chalcis for him
wrought some delay, and, when the messenger reached that
place, the youth had gone elsewhere; and it was a work
of time to discover him, and might, indeed, have been
impossible, but for a certain notoriety bestowed upon him by
the strange misfortune under which he labored.  And, after
we had received the youth at Nicomedia, it was a work of
time, and care, and patience, to secure his entire
confidence, and train him properly for the business we had
undertaken.  Do I state the matter too minutely for thy
patience?"

"Nay," said Constantine; "it is wonderfully interesting.
Thou need have no fear that thy narrative will weary
me: I do desire to hear thee fully."

"We found by frequent experiments," continued Eusebius,
"that the paroxysms of the youth's disease were not
strictly periodical, but that any sudden, strong emotion
was liable to bring on an attack.  We found that when we
had made him memorize certain words beforehand, he was
liable, on the increment of his disease, to repeat just those
words in a sort of chanting tone, the melody and manner
of which were very impressive, even when the words
themselves were unmeaning.  We found that he was ready to
do or suffer anything if persuaded that it would be for the
good of the Church.  We kept the youth in safe retreat,
carefully secluded, so that he might remain entirely
unknown in Nicomedia.  We then constantly assured him
that God was able to accomplish his own designs by using
even the most humble agencies, and that no man had the
right to look upon himself as a being too insignificant to
work for the glory of his Creator; and that even he,
although sorely afflicted, by zeal and faithfulness might be
able some time to perform a great service to the persecuted
Church.  He eagerly inquired how that might be, and was
manifestly ready to seek for martyrdom if that had been
the duty enjoined upon him.  But we carefully impressed
upon him that all that was required of him was to memorize
and constantly repeat a certain form of words that we
dictated to him; to meditate upon them day and night;
to suffer nothing else to occupy his thoughts; and to wait
in faith and hope the result of this discipline.  We
instructed him that, if any one should ask him about the
words he might utter when the fit was on him, to say
nothing, except that he was moved so to speak; if any
should ask him whom he knew in Nicomedia, he was to
answer, 'Eusebius the bishop'; and that in answer to
every question put to him he should tell the exact truth.
We soon found that, whenever he suffered under a
paroxysm of his malady, he would fall to the ground and
presently repeat in that sad, wailing chant that seemed to be
natural to him, the very words which we had dictated to
him, and no others."

"What words were these?" asked Constantine.

"The words," replied Eusebius, "were as follows:
'Joy to the land of Syria!  Joy to the holy ones of Egypt! for
their deliverer cometh!  When the great ships shall
cross the middle sea, the tyrant's power shall fail, and a
holy emperor shall add the East unto his Western Empire!
Joy to Syria and to Egypt, when the great ships shall cross
the middle sea!'

"Having experimented with the lad until it seemed to
be morally certain that, under the influence of a
paroxysm of his disease, he would chant these words only, we
directed him to go daily to the gate which opened into the
grounds surrounding the imperial palace at Nicomedia,
until he might see the Emperor Licinius about to come
forth, and that then he should boldly force his way
through the gates, at any hazard, without offering
salutations or explanation to any one.  This the youth
promised faithfully to do; and it happened that, the first time
he went thither, he saw one whom he supposed to be the
emperor, coming forth accompanied by a throng of
attendants, and he rushed forward so impetuously that the
emperor was compelled to give place to him; and then a
soldier knocked down the poor lad with the pole of his
pike.  Licinius stopped to ascertain the meaning of an
intrusion so bold and unusual, and the pain of the blow and
the excitement of the situation brought upon the youth
one of his strange attacks, and while he lay writhing and
twisting about upon the paving-stones, in a loud, weird
voice, whose unearthly melody filled all the place, he
chanted the words that had been taught to him: 'Joy to
the land of Syria!  Joy to the holy ones of Egypt! for
their deliverer cometh!  When the great ships shall cross
the middle sea, the tyrant's power shall fail, and a holy
emperor shall add the East unto his Western Empire!  Joy
to Syria and to Egypt, when the great ships shall cross the
middle sea!'  Then a centurion sprang forward, and
would have slain the youth with his sword, but Licinius
waved him off, and stood looking upon the singular lad
with interest and wonder.  And the youth flopped up off
of the ground like a fish, and fell back heavily, and almost
immediately resumed his wild, sweet chanting of the
self-same words; and a profound silence obtained until his song
was ended.  And very soon that paroxysm passed off, and
the lad arose, and looked about him, as if he knew not
where he was nor how he came to be there."

Constantine laughed a low, joyous, almost boyish laugh,
exclaiming: "A superb performance, indeed!  A masterly
thing!  But continue thy most welcome narrative!"

"Then the Emperor Licinius, whose features are
bronzed, and hard, and cruel, looked steadily upon the
abashed young man, saying in a stern, imperious voice,
'Who art thou?'

"And the lad answered, 'I am Gaius, a poor youth
of Chalcis in Syria!'

"'Knowest thou to whom thou art speaking?'

"'Nay, verily,' answered Gaius, 'but I suppose thee to
be the emperor!'

"'What is thy business in Nicomedia?'

"'I have no business anywhere,' said the lad.  'I am
diseased, an invalid, an epileptic, and am incapacitated
for business.  Verily I came unto Nicomedia hoping to be
cured of this fearful malady.'

"'What brought thee unto our palace-gates?'

"'I came hither to look upon the emperor, having
never seen so great a man; but some cowardly brute did
strike me down with a pike!'

"'Why didst thou chant such things as thou hast done
even in mine own presence?'

"'What things did I chant?  I know not, for the
hard blow brought upon me an attack of the epilepsy, and
while it continueth I know not what I say, but speak only
as I am moved to speak!'

"'What, then, moveth thee to chant at all?'

"'I know not, nor do I even know that I have done
so, unless some one who hath heard me informeth me
thereof!'

"'Whom knowest thou in my city of Nicomedia?'

"'None save the Bishop Eusebius!'

"'Art thou, then, a Christian?'

"'Yea!  Thanks to the boundless mercy of our Lord!'

"Then said the emperor: 'Let immediate search be
made for this Eusebius, and let him be straightway
brought before me.  Keep ye this boy in strictest prison,
but use him kindly; for it may be that he hath a demon!'

"I did not choose to be found upon that day, although
the city was sifted well for that purpose.  And upon the
next day, Licinius caused the lad Gaius to be brought
before him, and he spoke kindly unto him, saying: 'Thou
art a strange and interesting youth, and I desire to take
thee into my service, and to attach thee unto myself, and
to care for thee well.  Hast thou memory good enough to
keep in thy mind for me a catalogue of more than three
hundred ships?'

"'I know not,' said the lad.  'At school I learned
rapidly and retained well all that I acquired; but I fear
that the malady wherewith I am afflicted hath injured both
mind and body.'

"'Let me test thy memory somewhat to ascertain thy
capacity for the service I would have thee render.  Canst
thou name the stations and distances upon the road from
Chalcis unto Antioch, and thence unto the sea?'

"And the boy gave the whole itinerary correctly.
And the emperor asked of him a great many questions
with exceeding affability, and finally said unto him:
'Thou hast a fine, retentive memory, and I will make a
man of thee.  See, now, how much thou canst remember of
the song which thou didst twice chant on yesterday!'

"But the lad said: 'I know not the words at all, and
know not that I did chant at all.  All that occurreth when
the fit is upon me is blankness and darkness, so that I know
nothing, and suffer not, and if fire were put upon me, I
would not feel any pain so long as the paroxysm continueth!'

"Then the emperor gave way to wrath, and shouted
furiously: 'Thou liest, villain!  Thou seekest to deceive
me!  Repeat thy chant instantly, or I will put thee to
torture to extract the truth!'

"Then the boy grew very pale, and trembled, but he
only answered: 'Thou demandest of me that which is
impossible!  I do not know the words, and can not repeat
them, though thou shouldst slay me!'

"Then cried out the emperor, 'Bring thumb-screws
hither, and torment this wretch!'

"Then one put upon his thumb that cruel screw, and
twisted hard upon it, and the boy shrieked with pain.
Then the fit came upon him, and he fell headlong upon
the floor, and the torturer removed the screw.  And
immediately the boy began, in a clear, sweet voice that filled
the great hall with music, to chant the same words again:
'Joy to the land of Syria!  Joy to the holy ones of
Egypt!'--and the emperor sprang forward, and with the
point of a dagger he tore up a finger-nail of the boy,
watching his face intently; but the lad's countenance
changed not, and he continued his chant evenly and
serenely.  And the emperor commanded that fire be brought
to him in a brazier, and he laid a coal thereof upon the
boy's naked breast, and blew upon it until the burned flesh
smelled all about, but the boy showed no consciousness of
pain, and continued to chant sweetly until his song was
ended.  And for a short space the lad lay as one dead, and
then a strong convulsion contorted his limbs, and lifted
him from the floor, and violently cast him down again;
and then once more he chanted the same words, and the
emperor listened and watched him with fear and wonder.
And when the attack had passed away, Licinius said: 'Let
this boy be guarded carefully, but let him be treated with
the greatest kindness; for surely, beyond any doubt, he
hath a demon!'

"And the lictors with great astonishment and fear led
the boy away.

"And having been fully informed of all these things
on the same night, by a Christian whom we had allowed
to sacrifice and so retain his place in the palace, for the
good of the Church, upon the next morning went I up to
the gates and boldly demanded admission, declaring to the
centurion on duty who I was, and that I had been
informed that the emperor was seeking me throughout the
city; and speedily they brought me into the presence of
Licinius, and he said, 'Art thou Eusebius, the Bishop of
Nicomedia?'

"'Yea, I am he!'

"'And like all of thy treasonable sect, that lurk within
my city of Nicomedia, thou art still offering up prayers for
the Emperor Constantine?'

"'Yea, doubtless!'

"'And thou dost not pray for me, nor propitiate God
for me, thine own lawful emperor, at all?'

"'Yea, daily I pray God for thee that he would soften
thy flinty heart, and turn thee from the devices of
wickedness unto the wisdom of the just!'

"'But thou prayest not for my prosperity, and for the
glory and perpetuity of mine empire?'

"'Nay, verily.  I have no faith to pray for the
triumph of the cruel and of the wicked!'

"Then said he, 'Dost thou know the boy Gaius of
Chalcis?'

"'Yea!  He was with me at my house until the third
day past, but he hath disappeared, and I am anxious
concerning him.'

"'Is there anything peculiar about the boy?'

"'He hath a peculiar and terrible malady called epilepsy!'

"And then attentively regarding me with his hard and
searching eyes, he said, 'Doth the boy prophesy?'

"'When he hath a paroxysm of his disease he customarily
chanteth strange things which some esteem to be
prophecies; but whether his sayings be truly prophetic or
not I can not inform thee.'

"'Perhaps thou dost remember the words of some of
his pretended prophecies?'

"'Yea, verily!  For since he hath been with me he
hath hardly ever chanted anything but a certain song
which I have heard him repeat very often when the
disease taketh him.'

"'Repeat thou those words!'

"Then with a certain show of exultation I chanted the
same words that Gaius had uttered, and, when I had
finished, Licinius cried out fiercely, 'Thou dost believe,
indeed, that the words of Gaius are a sure prophecy, and
thou dost rejoice at my threatened overthrow!'

"I looked smilingly upon the emperor, but made no
answer; and thereupon he fell into a great rage and said
unto me, grimly enough: 'Thou art a tall man, bishop!
Verily, I think thou art fully a head too tall, and this day
I will reduce thee to a more proper stature by cutting off
thy head'; and when he saw that I was unterrified by this
threat, he added, 'And the boy's head also!'

"Then gazing fixedly upon him, I did say: 'Surely
thou mayst do so, for thou art a blood-soaked, merciless
tyrant enough for any crime.  But this deed would make
thee contemptible; for it would prove that thou art not
only a tyrant, but also a fool!'

"Then turning almost livid with suppressed wrath,
he cried out, 'What dost thou mean, thou insolent?'

"'I mean that some years ago when the bold and
eloquent preaching of the brave and righteous presbyter,
Arius the Libyan, did operate to save for thee a large part
of thy fleet, thou didst order that he should never be
molested in the public discharge of the duties of his sacred
office; wherefore, even the Christians, who knew thee to
be a bloody tyrant, and a desecrator of the sacrament of
marriage by an infamous law, and a violator of all the
sanctities and decencies of life, still did give thee credit
for intelligence.  But if now thou shalt murder those who,
even unintentionally, have given thee warning in time to
save thy whole navy, all men will regard thee as an idiot.'

"'How save my whole navy?'

"'By keeping the ships thereof upon thine own side
of the Mediterranean; for the words are, "*when* the great
ships shall cross the middle sea," and perhaps it may
signify not until *then*?'

"'By Jupiter Stator,' he answered, vehemently, 'I
think that thou art right!  And that accursed "when"
shall never happen.  For this honest saying of thine,
thou mayst go hence free, and take the lad Gaius with
thee!'

"And thereupon I withdrew; but I am certainly advised
that his purpose holds good never to send his fleet
across the Mediterranean."

"How dost thou know that?" asked Constantine, eagerly.

"We waited many weeks," replied Eusebius, "to obtain
some reliable indications of his purposes; but the
Emperor Licinius is a great commander, and men drilled in
military services talk cautiously even when drunk, as he
frequently is, so that we got nothing.  Finally, a centurion
came one night to mine abode, which I had caused to be
publicly known, and with great courtesy informed me
that the emperor had sent him to bring me into his
presence.  Having dismissed all others, as if the matter were
most secret, he said: 'I know ye Christian bishops love
not me, and that ye offer prayers for Constantine; yet I do
not think that thou wouldst lie to me.  I therefore tell
thee that, since thou wert last before me, I sent an embassy
secretly unto the oracle at Delphi, with many costly gifts,
asking of the oracle what success I would have if I should
send my navy against the Western Empire; and I desire
thee to read and to construe the answer of the god.'  Then
he gave unto me a parchment on which was written,
'When the navy of the Emperor Licinius shall pass over
the sea to war with the Emperor Constantine, his empire
shall be overthrown.'  I read the oracle, and laughed.
Then said I unto him: 'Like all of the pretended oracles
of the heathen, it is simply an evasion.  Of course, if
two great emperors engage in war, one of them must be
overthrown.  This oracle saith not which of them.  If
the Western Empire be defeated, the priests will say,
"We foretold that."  But if the Eastern Empire shall
be subverted, they will just as truly say, "We foretold
that."'

"'Art thou certain that the language bears one
construction as naturally and grammatically as it does the
other?'

"'Assuredly so!  The Latin infinitive mood with the
accusative case possesses a wonderful facility for such a
construction as may signify either one thing or the
other.'

"Then he gave way to sudden wrath, and cried aloud:
'Curses on the lying, cheating oracles by which so many
mighty men have been lured into destruction!'  And,
fixing his eyes upon me, he continued, 'Was there any
such ambiguity in what thy boy Gaius chanted?'

"'Nay, verily,' I answered.  'He said, "A holy
emperor shall add the East unto his Western Empire."  Thou
canst not add the East unto anything, although
thou mightest add something to the East; but canst add
nothing to the Western Empire, which is not thine own,
and thou art not a "holy emperor!"'

"'It is only a cursed trick of the oracle to lure me
on to ruin!' he exclaimed.  'The Emperor Constantine
hath bribed the god to influence me so that he may
invade and overthrow mine empire while my fleet is far
away.  I will keep mine own coasts safe with wooden
walls henceforth, and not a ship shall cross the middle sea.'

"Then he said unto me: 'Thou seem'st an honest and
fair-minded man, and henceforth thou may'st practice thy
religion publicly in my city of Nicomedia without fear
or molestation.  So fare thee well.'

"I think that this completeth my account, except I
should add that from the very beginning of this matter
the Emperor Licinius hath zealously endeavored to keep
it all profoundly secret, so that it is known to very few."

Then said Constantine unto the bishop: "What didst
thou mean by saying to the emperor, 'The Christians
who knew thee to be a bloody tyrant, and the desecrator
of the sacrament of marriage by an infamous law'?
What law was that?"

And Eusebius answered: "He hath revived the former
law of Maximin, that 'no woman of rank should marry
without the emperor's consent,' and for the same
infamous purpose, *ut ipse in omnibus nuptiis proegustator
esset*; and this licentiousness hath done more to set the
Church against the emperor than even the murder of
the bishops."

"How strange," said Constantine, "that men should
think themselves fit to govern an empire who can not even
govern their own brutal passions!"

Then the great emperor indulged in long-continued
laughter, not loud nor vociferous, but quiet, hearty,
joyous, and exultant.  But, soon resuming his usual
equanimity, he said unto the bishop: "Thou art the most
welcome messenger that hath ever come unto me since
thy brother of Cæsarea did first visit me in Gaul before
the overthrow of Maxentius.  Tell me what great favor
worthy of Rome's emperor I can do for thee."

Then Eusebius, with glowing countenance, bent low,
and seizing the emperor's hand he kissed it fervently,
exclaiming, "Stretch forth thy mighty hand, Augustus,
and free the persecuted churches of the East!"

Constantine was deeply moved, and answered: "It
shall be done, bishop!  Trust me, it shall be done!  But
I have given order for thy fitting entertainment, and
while thou shalt rest and refresh thyself, think of some
personal favor I can do for thee."

Eusebius bowed gravely and withdrew.

The emperor was alone, seated, buried in profoundest
meditation.  For a long time he was silent, and then his
deep thought found utterance in murmured words: "A
wonderful faith, truly, that can bind the heart and
intellect of even able men like the Eusebii in absolute
slavery to an idea, so that Christ and the Church are
first in all their thoughts and purposes; and ease,
comfort, wealth, and power, and even life and death, are
trifling things compared therewith!  If any God exists,
these Christians surely have discovered him in Jesus.
But I am sufficient for myself, and need no Deity."

Then he was silent again for some time longer.  But
suddenly he gave way to jubilant merriment, murmuring
amid his laughter: "It was a superb farce, that prophecy
of Gaius!  Better than the *Legio Fulminea*.
Better even than the Labarum!  Surely the fine, Grecian
hand of my Eusebius hath only acquired a more delicate
touch with his advancing years!"  And the great
emperor continued to laugh merrily.

But neither pain nor pleasure ever interfered with
the grand game of empire; and before midnight orders
had been framed and issued by which the veteran legions
of Hispania, Gaul, and Germany were to be gradually
replaced by more recent levies; by which the brave and
hardy Goths were put upon the most rigid military
discipline; and by which all the chosen troops, upon whose
skill and valor the unconquerable leader would be willing
to stake the sovereignty of the world, were slowly
concentrated to the eastward of Milan by a quiet, steady,
unostentatious military movement that consumed months
in its accomplishment and scarcely excited the suspicions
of even the vigilant and intelligent agents of the
Emperor Licinius.





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.. _`A BORN ECCLESIASTIC`:

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   CHAPTER V.


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   A BORN ECCLESIASTIC.

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In the year A.D. 319, Alexander, the old and pious
Bishop of Alexandria, having become imbued with that
Trinitarianism which began to assume a sort of doctrinal
prominence in the Western Church even from the time
when Constantine had defeated Maxentius and had so
become Emperor of Rome, publicly proclaimed this dogma
wherever he went.  During that year, upon one of his
episcopal visits, he preached in the Baucalis church a
sermon which gave great offense to Arius the Libyan,
who was presbyter thereof, and to many of the vast and
opulent congregation.  Upon the following Sabbath the
presbyter had delivered an elaborate discourse, in the
course of which he inveighed with great force and
earnestness against some "expounders of new doctrines who
had grown too learned in the philosophy of the world,
and too much in love with the political and legal
religion which had been established in place of Christianity
in the Western Empire to remain satisfied with the
simple, unquestionable statement of the Gospels that Jesus
Christ was the Son of God; and had gone about to
trouble the faith and harass the consciences of believers
by novel and dangerous speculations concerning the nature
of Deity that were not taught in the Scriptures and were
unknown to three centuries of Christian faith and
practice."  And, although Arius mentioned not the venerable
bishop by name, no one doubted for whom his fierce
rebuke was intended, and understood perfectly well what
doctrinal deliverances he condemned as "the philosophy
of the world," as "the political and legal religion which
had been established in the Western Empire," and as
"not taught in the Scriptures," and as "unknown to
three centuries of Christian faith and practice."  To this
sermon the bishop subsequently replied in language of
even greater vehemence; and before very long there was
a continuous controversy going on between them, in
which numerous Christians engaged on both sides, until
it spread throughout the churches and grew into heated
and sometimes acrimonious disputations.  Nearly all the
Romans in Alexandria took part with the bishop, and
urged him earnestly in the prosecution of the
controversy, while the native Christians, for the most part,
clave unto Arius; and the word "foreigner," which
before that time was never applied by one Christian to
another (for they were all brethren), quickly crept into
common use.

The superior learning, zeal, and influence of the
presbyter greatly outweighed the personal and episcopal power
of the bishop, and a vast majority of the Alexandrian
clergy and laity sustained the views of Arius as the only
true doctrine of the Scriptures, as approved by the ancient
and constant teachings of the Church; and the controversy
might have sunk into oblivion but for the "foreign"
element, many of whom really seemed to make it their chief
vocation to proclaim the great truth of "the Holy
Trinity," and to utter eloquent panegyrics upon the character
of Constantine the Emperor of Rome.  Under these influences
each party steadily maintained its own opinions, and
the matter remained in this condition until Eusebius of
Cæsarea, having parted from the other Eusebius at
Nicomedia, had journeyed unto Alexandria to redeem his
promise made to the emperor that the flame of controversy
should be kept burning until a general council could be
convoked to determine it.  Eusebius very soon comprehended
the situation, and speedily reached the conclusion
that even his superior official station and the support of the
"foreigners" would not enable the bishop long to maintain
himself against the vast power and influence of the
presbyter without efficient aid.  That, he thought, could
not be effectively rendered except by some man of rare
abilities, who might combine in himself all the
characteristics of a courtier as well as of a priest, for the
"foreign element" was already largely secularized; and
he very anxiously looked about him for some man fit to
be intrusted with the task of upholding the hands of the
venerable Alexander.

Of course our Eusebius had duly renewed his ancient
friendship for Arius, whom he loved and honored above
all living men, and they had many interesting conversations
upon the condition and prospects of the Church,
and upon the present duties of the faithful pastor.
Eusebius skillfully argued in favor of accommodating
priestly action to the exigencies of social and political
surroundings.  Arius would hear of no compromise upon
any point of either faith or practice.  "Pontius Pilate,"
he vehemently exclaimed, "was the prince of compromisers
when he washed his hands of 'the innocent blood,'
and delivered up our Lord to be crucified!  His successors
are in all things worthy of him, seeking both to win
the world by their actions and to save their souls by the
profession of a faith which they do not practice!  How
fare ye bishops under the reign of Antichrist--ye that
dwell where Satan's seat is?"

"The Church hath prospered beyond all expectation.
The bishops almost rank with princes; the presbyters are
blessed with exceeding comfort and honor, and throughout
the Western Empire the people crowd into the
churches faster than they can be built."

Then the grim old presbyter's hand waved to and
fro, and his grand, shaggy head darted forward upon the
long, lean neck, and the sad eyes gleamed with strange,
mesmeric light, and his voice hissed with sibilant
sharpness as he exclaimed: "Yea, my brother!  And I have
heard that your prince-bishops own slaves and nourish
concubines; and that 'the brethren' hold estates and
offices, and fleece their brethren by the crime of usury;
and that the only difference between Romans who are
Christians and those who are not subsists in the fact
that one class of them patronizes the imperial churches
and professes faith in Christ, and the other does not
degrade itself and dishonor religion by any such shams and
farces!  Are these things so?"

Eusebius winced at this fierce and bitter thrust, but
answered: "Some abuses have crept in among us, in
consequence of our wonderful prosperity, which were
unknown to the severity and simplicity of an earlier age;
but we have many saintly bishops, presbyters, and
people; and the evils of which thou speakest belong not to
the Church, but to the frailty of individuals."

"Thou art verily mistaken, brother!  Or what dost
thou expect from a statutory religion, from an
established church of which Constantine is king instead of
Christ?  I tell thee plainly that a church which
imperial authority hath legalized along with legalized war,
slavery, and mammon-worship, is not only no church of
Christ, but is that Antichrist of which John in the
Apocalypse doth speak.  And it shall grow continually
worse and worse."

"I doubt not," answered Eusebius, "that it would
have been better to have preserved primitive Christianity;
but the emperor is so powerful, and ecclesiasticism
hath become insensibly so firmly established, that it is
impossible now to turn back to the original system,
perhaps dangerous to attempt it."

"Yea, dangerous," said Arius, bitterly.  "For
already he hath persecuted the saints, having waged a
cruel war against the Goths to overthrow the church
which Ulfilas planted among them, and force them to
adopt the Roman laws and legal religion.  I look
forward every year to see this man of sin build a new
capital, upon seven hills, above the sea, that John's
description of him may be made complete.  Thou must
follow thine own counsel, brother.  As for me, in life,
in death, I am fixed in unflinching opposition to any
name of blasphemy that may be used to designate a
legal religion that sanctions war, slavery, and
mammon-worship."

Many such conversations occurred between the bishop
and Arius; but Eusebius found that the stern old man
was incapable of compromise, and despised all expediency.

"Yea," he would say, "I have been told that ye
Western Christians already believe that charity consisteth
of alms-giving, instead of love to the brethren! ...

"Ye foolishly dream of converting the world," he
cried, "by means of a church founded upon Roman
laws, whose faith is a mere intellectual assent and
conviction!  But ye will find that instead of securing
liberty, fraternity, equality, ye have only added the bond
of conscience to bind the burdens more tightly upon the
shoulders of mankind, and furnished the new Pharisees
with new power to oppress the poor....

"Yea, verily," he said, "ye know that faith in Christ
and community of property constituted the liberty of the
gospel wherewith Jesus sought to make man free!  But
ye have imported into the very bosom of the Church all
of the tyrannies, injustices, class-distinctions, and wrongs
which constitute mammon-worship and the sorrow of the
world; and there is no difference between your system
and the old religions except that ye have substituted the
name of Christ for that of Jupiter and Mars in juggling
with the rights of man."

And when Eusebius endeavored to arouse in the stern
old man some considerations of personal prudence, by
intimating the probability that Constantine might some day
rule the East also, the lone and immovable man sternly
answered:

"Yea, he will obtain the East!  For he alone of all
men hath never failed in diplomacy; hath never
abandoned a purpose; hath never lost a battle, and never
will!  He hath sold his soul for earthly glory, and Satan
will pay to him his price."

But although Eusebius loved to commune with the
stern old man, whose stainless integrity of character he
could love and honor, but scarcely imitate, he never
forgot the object of his journey to Alexandria, and was
constantly on the lookout for some one to whom he could
assign the task of aiding the ancient Alexander in his
controversy with the great and fearless presbyter.  At
last he fell in with a youth who was an archdeacon in
the bishop's church, and who, although very young, was
possessed of such remarkable genius and learning, and of
such pre-eminent personal advantages, as at once to
attract and astonish him, and seemed to render him the
fittest person to engage.  He sedulously cultivated the
young man's friendship, and admired him more and more
as he learned more of his character and abilities.  Finally,
he cordially invited the youth to make with him a visit
to Constantine, and having with much difficulty obtained
the consent of the aged Alexander, who loved the bright
and accomplished youth with exceeding tenderness, they
twain departed for Milan.  When the long and tedious
journey had been safely accomplished, Eusebius promptly
waited upon the emperor, who received him with fraternal
cordiality.

"Ah, thou vagabond friend," he cried, "thou runaway
bishop, whom I had almost given up for lost, give
some good account of thyself, or thou shalt never again
have leave of absence, even for a day."

"I have indeed delayed my return beyond all
expectation," said the bishop; "but I suppose that my
brother of Nicomedia hath imparted all needful information
of thy lost shepherd up to the time at which I set
out for Alexandria."

"Yea, verily," answered Constantine.  "And his
narrative was most perspicuous and entertaining, and
eloquent enough to draw my veteran legions from the
remotest quarters of the empire; and even now they are
slowly but steadily concentrating eastwardly, and they
have a certain Oriental bearing in their movements which
would please thee mightily if only thou wert soldier
enough to perceive it."

Both of the great men indulged in a laugh at this
pleasant sally of the emperor, who continued: "Ah! my
beloved bishop, it was indeed most delicate and superb
work!  Thou must henceforth insert into all the copies
of the Apocrypha 'The Prophecy of Gaius of Chalcis,'
but not during the lifetime of the Emperor Licinius,
else he would decapitate mankind to reach thy single
head!"

And again the emperor laughed like a boy, and the
bishop joined in his merriment.

"How hast thou fared in Egypt, bishop?  And what
good tidings hast thou brought me thence?"

"I have explored the position of the controversy
between the Bishop Alexander and Arius as thoroughly as
possible.  I find that Alexander, who begins greatly to
feel his advanced years, is no match for the learned,
eloquent, and powerful presbyter, and that unless he
receive active, intelligent support, the controversy in Egypt
and Syria will ultimately die out for want of opposition
to Arius.  The aged bishop hath been raised too much
under the influence of the mighty causes which molded
the character of Arius himself, to be a fit antagonist for
him; and younger blood, warm with the new age of
Constantine rather than with that of primitive Christianity,
is imperatively required.  Thine agents at Alexandria
have been zealous and faithful, but a remarkable man is
needed at that place; less than genius will accomplish
nothing."

"Such men are rare enough," responded the emperor;
"but surely thou must have discovered at least one."

"I was much troubled to find a fit agent for such a
work, and finally would not decide to fix upon the man
of mine own choice without first having given thee an
opportunity to see and determine for thyself; and,
therefore, I brought him hither with me."

"Who is the man?"

"He is a youth, but little more than twenty years
of age, but, like many of the nameless orphans whom the
Church hath raised, he is very thoroughly educated,
especially in the Scriptures.  He hath natural genius for
the ministry and for politics.  When he was a child,
the Bishop Alexander saw him one day baptizing other
children in the bay in sport; but the old bishop was so
charmed with the solemn grace and dignity with which
the child performed the sacred rite, that he declared the
ceremony valid and took the children into his own church,
and hath raised and educated this boy with loving care
and patience.  He is now an archdeacon of the bishop's
congregation.  Thou must not despise his youth, for in
Alexandria, which is perhaps the most intellectual city
of the world, it is commonly believed that this youth is
the most eloquent, the most intelligent, and the most
beautiful of the sons of men.  But I would have thee
judge for thyself.  If he please thee, I advise that thou
keep with thee the most wise and learned Hosius, and
through him instruct the young archdeacon thoroughly.
I decline to meddle any further in the business, for I
am both the friend of Arius and a stout believer in his
doctrine, and when the time comes will be upon his side."

"What is the name of this youthful paragon," said
Constantine, "who hath so mightily bewitched thee?"

"At Alexandria they commonly call him the Christian
Apollo; but his name is Athanasius."

"Wilt thou bring him unto me?"

The bishop quietly withdrew, and soon returned and
introduced to the emperor a youth as perfect as an
artist's dream of beauty.  He was one of the most perfect
specimens of Egyptian manhood.  Small of stature,
seeming to one of the emperor's magnificent proportions to
be almost a dwarf, the expression of his face was of
angelic beauty.  There was a hardly perceptible stoop in his
figure which gave him an appearance of native humility;
a hooked nose, clearly chiseled; a small, rosy mouth;
a short, silky beard spreading away into luxuriant whiskers;
light, soft auburn hair; large, bright, serene eyes of
womanly tenderness and purity; and limbs and features
delicately but exquisitely fashioned--all combined to
confer an irresistible charm upon his person and manners.
Eusebius at once withdrew, leaving Constantine alone
with the bright and beautiful boy.  The splendid youth,
with a movement free alike from shame and from audacity,
but full of matchless ease and grace, darted forward,
sank lightly down upon one knee, grasped one of the
emperor's hands and kissed it--an act of homage never
exacted, and seldom looked for, from any Christian--and
lifting his soft, luminous eyes toward the emperor's face,
said in tones as liquid and mellow as perfect flute-notes:
"I thank thee, Augustus, that thy kindness satisfieth
one great longing of my heart; for I have desired above
all things to look upon thy face."

The emperor was charmed with the youth's exquisite
manner and wonderful beauty, and gently raising him
replied: "I give thee back thy thanks, lad, for surely
thou art far better worth the seeing than am I.  But
why didst thou kneel to me?  Most Christians make it a
matter of conscience to kneel to none but God only, and
I have respected their scruples."

"I crave pardon if mine obeisance hath been offensive
unto thee," the mellifluous voice replied; "for I
did but offer to thee the homage which my heart hath
taught me to be due from raw but hopeful youth to
mature and glorious manhood; from one of the very
humblest of the people unto the wisest and greatest ruler
of mankind; from a young but sincere and earnest
Christian to the magnificent protector of the Church!"

Constantine laid his hand caressingly upon the young
man's glorious head, and, laughing lightly, answered:
"If thy tongue so drippeth honey, lad, the bees will
settle in thy mouth and some time, may be, sting thee.
Art thou so pleasant to all sorts of men?"

"Why not?" responded the melodious voice.  "I
could love all that are good, pity all that are evil,
forgive their injuries, despise their hate, and die, I think,
to do them service if that could benefit mankind."

"Boy," said Constantine, gravely but pleasantly, "thou
hast uttered the profoundest secret of all true
statesmanship!  Who taught thee that?"

"I think my teacher hath been Jesus Christ.  But I
knew not that this sentiment was statesmanship, for I
have learned it as religion."

"Only a few of the most gifted of mankind," replied
Constantine, "have been wise enough to perceive that true
religion and true statesmanship are twins that can never
be torn apart without fatal injuries to both of them."

"And, therefore," said Athanasius, "it follows that
the wisest emperor must also be the best; and hence the
people of the Western Empire should count themselves
the most fortunate of mankind."

"If thou dost so believe concerning the Empire of
the West," said Constantine, "perhaps thou wouldst not
decline to enter the service of its emperor in thine own
country.  Art thou bound by ties of love or of allegiance
to the great Emperor Licinius?"

"Nay," replied Athanasius, "I am bound by no
human allegiance other than to obey all laws in force
in the government under which I live that conflict not
with conscience.  Nor have I been taught to regard one
earthly sovereign as better than another, except as the
policy of the human ruler may affect the Church
favorably or unfavorably.  Nor could any temporal advantages
induce me to abandon the ministry of the Church in
which I hold the humble place of an archdeacon, for I
would choose even a menial service in the temple of God
rather than the most exalted position outside of it."

"Then," said Constantine, briefly, "thou dost decline
to enter into my service?"

"Nay," answered Athanasius.  "Thou hast thyself declared
that true religion and true statesmanship coincide
throughout; and I have been taught to regard thee as
both the greatest ruler of mankind and as the strong,
unwavering defender of the faith; so that in place of
declining any services thou mayst require at my hands, I am
ready to give my life for thee; only I can not abandon the
ministry, to which conscience, inclination, and training
have consecrated me; and verily a Christian emperor
hath need of faithful ministers as much as of faithful
generals."

The eyes of Constantine sparkled with pleasure as he
answered: "Thou meanest, then, that thou wouldst
labor as zealously for the glory of mine empire within
the pale of the Church as my civil officers do in the
affairs of government, or as my generals do in the
military campaigns?"

"Yea, verily!" said Athanasius; "and if it were not
presumptuous in a boy to express an opinion in the
presence of one so wise and great, I would not hesitate
to declare that the victories which thou shalt gain in
aiding the Church shall be less costly, less bloody, and
more permanent, than any which thine invincible arms
can ever gain by the sword; for thou shalt win not only
provinces, but hearts!"

"Boy," cried Constantine, "thy cunning speech unveileth
the secret dream of every ruler that nature hath
fitted for dominion.  For he that swayeth the scepter of
empire only to acquire larger means for the gratification
of his own lust for wealth, ostentation, luxury, and pride,
is but a tyrant, however wise and strong he may be.
The born ruler lives for his people, and, as thou hast
said, can not satisfy his grand ambition unless he shall
conquer hearts as well as provinces."

"Thy thought is worthy of thy greatness," replied
Athanasius, "and showeth me that the welfare of the
Church and of the emperor must be identical in every
true and proper government, so that priest and soldier
both may labor for its glory."

"Wilt thou define, as thou dost understand it, a true
and proper government?"

"A true and proper government, as I conceive it
to be, is the just and wise administration of all civil,
military, and ecclesiastical authority by one supreme
ruler."

The splendid face of Constantine grew bright with
pleasure as he heard this concise and luminous reply;
but desiring still further to draw out the young man's
views, to which his use of the word "ecclesiastical"
(entirely new to the emperor) gave a particular value,
he answered as follows: "And which dost thou think to
be of supreme authority, the civil, military, or
ecclesiastical power?"

"Neither of them separately," replied Athanasius.
"But only the ruler, that standeth in the place of God,
should be supreme.  It would be gross tyranny for the
military authority to dominate the civil administration;
it would be gross impertinence for the ecclesiastical
authority to direct the armies of the empire; it would
be confusion for either of them to interfere with the
domain of another.  Each should operate in its appropriate
sphere, and the ruler whom God hath given should direct
the movements of them all.  For he standeth in the
place of God."

"Yet," muttered Constantine to himself, "the heretic
Arius saith that it is a blasphemy for any man to seek
to stand in that high place, which belongeth unto Christ
alone!"  But unto Athanasius he presently made answer:
"Thou hast wisdom far beyond thine age; but in regard
to these things thou dost not agree well with the
opinions of the most wise and learned presbyter, Arius the
Libyan!"

Athanasius remained silent for some moments, looking
up into the face of the tall emperor, who was watching
his beautiful countenance with interest and curiosity, and
a strange, almost indefinable expression lighted his sparkling
features.  The red lips parted and very slightly curled,
but not with scorn or dislike.  He had the very same
expression, perhaps, that the face of some beautiful young
girl might wear if a grandmother, whom she loved and
revered, should begin to lecture her upon the observance
of some propriety which the world had outgrown since
the ancient dame had been a maiden of her own age.
At last he said: "Nay, verily.  The presbyter Arius
surpasseth all living men in personal holiness; but his
holiness is stern, ascetic, forbidding.  He surpasseth all
men in learning; but his learning laboreth to blight and
destroy all the rare flowers of sentiment wherewith art,
science, and philosophy seek to adorn and beautify the
faith.  He is the most earnestly Christian of all men;
but his religion is hard, exacting, exclusive, and refuseth
to blend with the performance of the duties of faith the
light and human tenderness that endeareth piety unto
the hearts of common men.  He saith that the kingdom
of heaven is the only government that our Lord
established upon earth; that the Christian hath need of no
other; and that to own allegiance to an earthly
sovereign, or blend his laws with our religion, is to betray
the Christ.  He belongeth to a past age and to a
vanishing system, and while he is one of the ablest, purest,
most admirable Christians in the world, he is not, and
never will be, an ecclesiastic.  He hath been reared up
in an age of miracles and martyrdoms, and can not
comprehend the world as it is, nor the Church as it must be
and is fast becoming."

Constantine regarded the gifted youth with wonder
and delight, and listened with joy and amazement while
the fresh and silvery tongue struck out, in forms of
speech as clear and beautiful as the last coins issued
from the royal mint, thoughts which he had himself long
cherished and acted upon, but had never been able to
conceive so perspicuously as the young archdeacon
uttered them.  The emperor then said, "Thou adoptest
the opinions of the most learned and pious Bishop Alexander
rather than those of the primitive, inflexible, and
turbulent presbyter, dost thou not?"

"Only to a limited extent," answered the musical
voice of Athanasius.  "For our venerable bishop himself
is ancient, and agreeth in many things with the
presbyter.  Truly, the great advantage that Arius hath over
him consisteth in the fact that they have attended the
same councils and witnessed the same events together,
and the presbyter doth continually affirm this thing or
that, and sayeth unto the bishop: 'Thou, also, wast then
present; is it true, or not, as I have stated it?'  And
the bishop answereth, 'That thing I deny not, for it is
true.'  And then, as the report of the thunder followeth
the lightning's flash, the fierce presbyter's conclusion
striketh and overwhelmeth him.  Thou canst scarcely
understand how all this may be, unless thou hast seen
men and women burned at the stake thyself, and hast
heard their testimony, sifting through the flames, that
they obeyed Jesus Christ, the only rightful King, whence
they were called *martyrs*, that is, *witnesses*; but both
Alexander and Arius have beheld such things, and the
influence thereof abideth with them forever."

Then answered Constantine: "I thank God this day
that I have seen no such events, and that no man under
mine own government, or under that of my father, the
most holy Emperor Constantius, hath ever seen them.
But whence, then, hast thou learned thy views of the
relation that ought to subsist between the Church and
the emperor?"

"Chiefly from mine own thoughts, which many circumstances
have provoked to activity, especially the efforts
I have made to aid our venerable bishop.  Long ago, in
one of our social gatherings, when Arius did press the
bishop fiercely upon the point that Christians must have
naught to do with any government except the kingdom
of heaven, which Jesus ordained for them, I arose and
asked permission to put a question, which being granted,
I said, 'If Tiberius Cæsar had been a Christian, would
not our Lord have rejoiced to see him rule the world?'  And
for some time the fierce man was silent."

"And what answer did he ever make?" asked Constantine.

"He said at last: 'And if the little foxes that
destroy the vines could have asked foolish questions in
Greek, would Moses have pronounced the animals
unclean?'  And I said: 'But the foxes never speak in
Greek; it is contrary to the law of nature.'  And he
said to me: 'Neither can an emperor be a Christian;
it is contrary to the law of Christ, which ordaineth
equality, liberty, and fraternity for all believers.'  And
those of his party thought the answer to be sufficient.
But, notwithstanding, I did follow the leading of mine
own thoughts, and many things grew out of it."

"Let not thy thoughts change their course," replied
Constantine; "for thou art altogether right.  Thou
shalt be my friend: remember that thou art young, and
that the pious Alexander groweth very old; so that, in
the course of nature, thou mayst live to see the
episcopal throne at Alexandria vacant; or if they have no
throne there yet, one shall some day be established.  But
thou hast charmed me into the neglect of other duties.
Go, now, and come again on to-morrow at the same hour."

Then the beautiful boy again glided forward, lightly
kneeled and kissed the emperor's hand, and smilingly
withdrew.

And for many months afterward Constantine kept the
young man Athanasius with him, and also Hosius, the
venerable and learned Bishop of Cordova; and daily
the youth passed some hours in conversation with the
emperor or with the bishop, or with both of them
together; so that when he returned to Alexandria his bright
and wonderful intelligence was enlarged and enlightened
by the foremost thoughts concerning things both royal
and ecclesiastical that any men of that age could teach
him.  And the youth bore with him a most kind and
affectionate letter written to the ancient Bishop
Alexander by Constantine's own hand, and also a beautiful
communion service of silver for his church.  And
Athanasius said unto Constantine almost at the moment of
his departure, "Shall I deliver unto Arius for thee any
message?"

And Constantine laughingly answered: "If the presbyter
inquire of thee, thou mayst inform him that the
emperor said of him, 'There are no birds in last year's
nests.'"

But Arius the presbyter never asked Athanasius
anything about the emperor.  Even when the stern old man
was told that Athanasius had been to Milan, and had for
months abode in the emperor's palace, he only said: "The
stature and Roman strength which enableth Constantine
to cope with German, Briton, and Gaul, is fitly joined
to the subtilty, beauty, and intelligence by which
Athanasius typifieth the countless centuries of Egyptian
civilization; and the two, like Herod and Caiaphas, combine
against our Lord."

From the date of the return of Athanasius, men
perceived that the Bishop Alexander became more open and
explicit in his definitions of the Holy Trinity, more
pointed in his opposition to the teachings of Arius, more
eloquent in his praises of any pious emperor whom God
might raise up to free the Christians of the East and
identify his government with the Church.  And Arius,
having publicly taught that the unity of the Godhead
consisted in the divine nature of Father, Spirit, and
Son, and not in any blasphemous and impossible
conception of the identity of them, or of their union in
one person, just as the human family consisteth of
father, mother, and son; and having gone so far as to
write in a little metrical book of doctrine that "God
was, when Christ was not"; that "God was not always
Father"; and that the words "Father" and "Son,"
"begotten" and "conceived," necessarily implied the
"priority" of him that begat, and of her that conceived--was
by the Bishop Alexander ordered to suspend the
exercises of his functions as presbyter of the Baucalis
church.  And, thereupon, the Libyan called his
congregation together and said unto them: "Brethren,
Alexander the bishop hath issued an order to suspend me
from the performance of my duties as presbyter because
I do not believe, and have refused to teach, his
impossible, novel, Western, unscriptural philosophy concerning
that which he calleth 'the Holy Trinity,' a phrase not
found in Scripture.  Ye know that the title to the
Baucalis church was placed by the martyr Theckla, who
caused it to be erected, in certain trustees of the common
Church, not in the bishop, for in those days the bishops
owned nothing.  Ye know that the original members of
this community (many of whom still live) called me to
be the presbyter, and that I have discharged the duties of
that place as faithfully as I was able to do by the space
of nearly thirty years.  None but the trustees have
authority or right to close the church against me or my
community; and I am well advised by diligent searching of
the Scriptures, and by the Christian practices of three
centuries, that no bishop hath any authority to suspend
a presbyter, and that the order made by Brother
Alexander in that behalf is puerile and void.  I purpose,
therefore, to continue the usual ministrations of divine
service, and all my pastoral work among you, until the
Church shall bid me to abstain; and ye who may desire
so to do, can continue to attend."

The trustees of the Baucalis church promptly refused
to close its doors upon Arius, and his entire congregation
remained steadfastly devoted to him; and Bishop
Alexander and those who followed him denounced the Libyan
as a "heretic," and began to pray for the coming of
Constantine; and wherever the influence of the Roman
Empire was dominant, the "Arian heresy" was condemned;
and the flame of controversy grew fiercer and
fiercer, and spread throughout Christendom.





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.. _`THE ONE GREAT BATTLE OF CHRISTENDOM!`:

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   CHAPTER VI.


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   THE ONE GREAT BATTLE OF CHRISTENDOM!

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During the progress of these affairs, Constantine had
thoroughly satisfied himself, by the reports of his secret
political agents in Nicomedia and elsewhere, that the
assurances which the Eusebii had given to him that Licinius
would not in any event move his fleet away from the coasts
of Asia were entirely trustworthy.  The overthrow of the
Gothic church, which had been founded and edified by
Ulfilas, had been followed by a treaty of peace with that
splendid people, whereby they had bound themselves to
furnish, whenever the service of the emperor required it,
forty thousand young men for the imperial army; these
legions had long ago been supplied, armed, and thoroughly
exercised, and constituted in themselves a magnificent
army.  The emperor had been triumphant everywhere.
"Confiding in the superiority of his genius and military
power," saith the historian Gibbon, "he determined,
without any previous injury, to exert them for the
destruction of Licinius, whose advanced age and unpopular vices
seemed to promise an easy conquest.  But the old
emperor, awakened by the approaching danger, deceived the
expectations of his friends as well as enemies.  Calling
forth that spirit and those abilities by which he had
deserved the friendship of Galerius and the imperial purple,
he prepared himself for the contest, collected the forces
of the East, and soon filled the plains of Hadrianople with
his troops, and the straits of the Hellespont with his fleet.
The army consisted of one hundred and fifty thousand
foot and fifteen thousand horse.  The fleet was composed
of three hundred and fifty galleys of three ranks of oars....
The troops of Constantine were ordered to rendezvous
at Thessalonica.  They numbered above one hundred and
twenty thousand horse and foot.  Their emperor was
satisfied with their martial appearance, and his army
contained more soldiers, though fewer men, than that of his
eastern competitor.  The legions of Constantine were
levied in the warlike provinces of Europe; action had
confirmed their discipline; victory had elevated their
hopes, and there were among them a great number of
veterans, who, after seventeen glorious campaigns under the
same leader, prepared themselves to deserve honorable
dismissal by a last effort of their valor.  But the naval
preparations of Constantine were in every respect much
inferior to those of Licinius.  The maritime cities of Greece
sent their respective quotas of men and ships to the
celebrated harbor of Piræus, and their united forces consisted
of no more than two hundred small vessels....  *It is
only surprising* that the Eastern emperor, *who possessed so
great a superiority at sea*, should have neglected this
opportunity of carrying an offensive war into the center of
his rival's dominions.  Instead of embracing such an
active resolution, *which might have changed the whole face
of the war*, the prudent Licinius expected the approach
of his rival in a camp near Hadrianople, which he fortified
with an anxious care that betrayed his apprehensions of the
event.  Constantine directed his march from Thessalonica
toward that part of Thrace, till he found himself stopped
by the broad and rapid stream of the Hebrus, and discovered
the numerous army of Licinius, which filled the steep
ascent of the hill, from the river to the city of
Hadrianople.  Many days were spent in doubtful skirmishes;
but at length the obstacles of the passage and of the attack
were removed by the intrepid conduct of Constantine....
The valor and danger of Constantine are attested by a
slight wound which he received in the thigh; but ... the
victory was obtained no less by the conduct of the
general than by the courage of the hero; for a body of five
thousand archers marched round to occupy a thick wood
in the rear of the enemy, whose attention was distracted by
the building of the bridge; and Licinius, perplexed by so
many artful evolutions, was reluctantly drawn from his
advantageous post to combat on equal terms in the plain.
The contest was no longer equal.  His confused multitude
of new levies was easily vanquished by the veterans of the
West.  Thirty-four thousand men are reported to have
been slain.  The fortified camp of Licinius was taken by
assault the evening of the battle; the greater part of the
fugitives, who had retired to the mountains, surrendered
themselves the next day to the discretion of the conqueror;
and his rival, who could no longer keep the field,
confined himself within the walls of Byzantium.  The siege
of Byzantium, which was immediately undertaken by
Constantine, was attended with great labor and uncertainty.  In
the late civil war, the fortifications of that place, so justly
considered as the key of Europe and Asia, had been
repaired and strengthened; and *as long as Licinius remained
master of the sea*, the garrison was much less exposed to
the danger of famine than the army of the besiegers.  The
naval commanders of Constantine were summoned to his
camp, and received his positive orders to force the passage
of the Hellespont, *as the fleet of Licinius, instead of
seeking and destroying their feeble enemy, continued inactive
in those narrow straits, where its superiority of numbers
was of little use or advantage*.  Crispus, the emperor's
eldest son, was intrusted with the execution of this daring
enterprise, which he performed with so much courage and
success that he deserved the esteem, and most probably
excited the jealousy, of his father.  The engagement
lasted two days; and in the evening of the first, the
contending fleets, after considerable mutual loss, retired to
their respective harbors in Europe and Asia.  The second
day, about noon, a strong south wind sprang up, which
carried the vessels of Crispus against the enemy, and as
this casual opportunity was improved by his skillful
intrepidity, he soon obtained a complete victory.  For the
current always sets out of the Hellespont, and, when it is
assisted by a north wind, no vessel can attempt the
passage, but a south wind renders the force thereof almost
imperceptible.  One hundred and thirty vessels were
destroyed, five thousand men were slain, and Amandus, the
admiral of the fleet, escaped with the utmost difficulty to
the shores of Chalcedon.  As soon as the Hellespont was
open, a plentiful convoy of provisions flowed into the
camp of Constantine, who had already advanced the
operations of the siege.  He constructed artificial mounds of
earth of equal height with the ramparts of Byzantium.
The lofty towers which were erected on that foundation
galled the besieged with large stones and darts from the
military engines, and the battering-rams had shaken the
walls in several places.  If Licinius persisted much longer
in the defense, he exposed himself to be involved in the
ruin of the place.  Before he was surrounded, he
prudently removed his person and his treasures to Chalcedon,
in Asia....  Such were the resources and such the abilities
of Licinius, that, after so many successive defeats, he
collected in Bithynia a new army of fifty or sixty thousand
men, while the activity of Constantine was employed in
the siege of Byzantium.  The vigilant emperor did not,
however, neglect the last struggles of his antagonist.  A
considerable part of his victorious army was transported
over the Bosporus in small vessels, and the decisive
engagement was fought soon after their landing on the
heights of Chrysopolis, now called Scutari.  The troops
of Licinius, though they were lately raised, ill armed, and
worse disciplined, made head against the conquerors with
fruitless but desperate valor, till a total defeat, and a
slaughter of five-and-twenty thousand men, irretrievably
determined the fate of their leader.  He retired to
Nicomedia, rather with the view of gaining some time for
negotiation, than with the hope of any effectual defense.
Constantia, his wife, the sister of Constantine, interceded
with her brother in favor of her husband, and obtained
from his policy, rather than from his compassion, a solemn
promise, confirmed by an oath, that, after the resignation
of the purple, Licinius should be permitted to pass the
remainder of his life in peace and affluence....  By this
victory of Constantine the Roman world was again united
under one emperor, thirty-seven years after Diocletian had
divided his power and provinces with his associate
Maximian....  The foundation of Constantinople, and the
*legal establishment* of the Christian religion, were the
immediate and memorable consequences of this revolution."

If the victory had been otherwise, the face of history
might have been entirely changed: the Christian
communities might have been permitted to maintain their
original communal organization, at least in the Eastern
Church, and Christ might still have had a kingdom
upon earth.  If Licinius had employed his naval
superiority in offensive war, instead of keeping it cooped up
under the shores of Asia, "in those narrow straits where
its superiority of numbers was of little use or
advantage," the probabilities are that he might have
maintained his power at least in the East; but the Eusebii
had "neutralized" the mighty fleet by that which
Constantine denominated "the prophecy of Gaius of
Chalcis," and Christianity was subverted everywhere, and the
"legal establishment" of Constantine usurped its place.

Almost immediately Constantine proceeded to mark
out the boundaries of the city--Constantinople--which
prescient John had seen from rocky Patmos; and he
traced the boundaries thereof, going on foot with a spear
in his hand, and declared that in so doing he was
acting in obedience to the directions of God; and when
those who were with him remonstrated against his tracing
so vast a space for a city, the emperor replied: "I
shall advance till He, the invisible guide who marches
before me, thinks proper to stop."  And so he laid off
the boundaries of the city upon seven great hills, which
included the ancient site of Byzantium, and soon began
to lay the foundations, and to plan and to build the
palaces, theatres, circus, amphitheatre, and churches of
Constantinople.

About the same time the emperor became greatly
interested in the preparation of new copies of the
Scriptures, and especially of the epistles of John; and he
had learned clerks and skillful writers constantly
employed in making copies in the new, running Greek
text, which was lately come into use, and was more easy
and beautiful than the uncial letters of an earlier age;
and he distributed them to the bishops throughout the
Roman Empire.  And next he sent letters to all of
the bishops, requesting them to meet in a solemn
council of the whole Christian Church, at the city of Nicea,
upon a designated day, in order to discuss and settle the
disputed questions by which the world was agitated.
And in conformity with this royal request, or order, in
the year 325 was assembled the most remarkable body
of men that the exigencies of political or religious life
hath ever convened together in the history of the world;
for it was the first oecumenical council ever called in
Christendom, those which had preceded it having been
assembled by the Christian bishops, of their own accord,
and not by the authority of a prince or emperor, whose
power was said to rule the habitable earth
([Greek: *Oikouméne*]).

The letter which Constantine addressed to the bishops
was as follows: "That there is nothing more honorable
in my sight than religion is, I believe, manifest to every
man.  Now, because the Synod of Bishops at Ancyra,
of Galatia, consented formerly that it should be so, it
hath now seemed unto us, on many accounts, that it
would be well for it to be assembled at Nice, a city of
Bithynia; because the bishops of Italy, and of the rest
of the countries of Europe, are coming, and because of
the excellent temperature of the air, and because I shall
be at hand as a spectator and participator of what is
done.  Wherefore I signify to you, my beloved brethren,
that ye, all of you, promptly assemble at the city I
spoke of, that is Nice.  Let every one of you, therefore,
diligently inquire into that which is profitable, in
order that, as I before said, without any delay, we may
speedily come to be a present spectator of those things
which are done by the same.  God keep you, my
beloved brethren!"

The reasons assigned by the emperor for calling the
Council of Nicea were first and chiefly that "the Synod
of Ancyra" (which had been called by the bishops
without the interference of any secular authority) "had
formerly consented" to meet in a general council at
Nice, and that "the bishops of Italy and of Europe
would be there," and that "the air of the place was of
an excellent temperature," and that their coming into
Bithynia would afford the emperor an opportunity to be
"a spectator of their proceedings."  There was no
intimation given that the emperor desired to preside over
their council, or to control its action, or to force its
deliberations to assume any political significance
whatever, or to compel it to take such action as must
inevitably result in the subversion of the Christian polity
and the establishment of an entirely different church
system.  The letter was based first upon the consent
given by the Council of Ancyra and then upon matters
of expediency, and in no respect did it question the
absolute right of the bishops to meet where they might
please, and to deliberate without the intermeddling of
secular authority.  So, at least, it seemed to all the
bishops of the Eastern Church, except a small number
who had been, to a greater or less degree, leavened by
the leaven of ecclesiasticism.  On the face of it the letter
was as full a recognition of the freedom of the bishops,
and as full a recognition of the Christian polity which
had for three centuries held all property in common, as
was the celebrated Edict of Milan, in which Constantine
and Licinius had united in commanding the officers of
the Roman world to restore the property of Christians
as *communal* property, the language of that edict being
as follows: "All of which will be necessary to be
delivered up *to the body of the Christians* without delay.
And since the Christians themselves are known to have
had not only those places where they were accustomed
to meet, but other places also, *belonging not to
individuals among them*, but to the *right of the whole body* of
Christians, you will also command all these, by virtue
of the law before mentioned, without any hesitation, to
be restored to the same Christians, *that is to their body*,
and to *each conventicle separately*."

But already the bishops of the Western Empire, with
Hosius and Eusebius at their head, had come to
understand that while Constantine cared little about any
matter of faith, he had determined to utterly destroy
the Christian polity, especially in regard to communism
and the refusal of Christians to bear arms.  The regulations
by which their journeys were governed prescribed
that they should come at the emperor's expense, and
that "each bishop should be accompanied by a retinue
of two presbyters and three slaves."

At and near the appointed time there were bishops
and presbyters assembled from the four quarters of the
world--from Persia and from Gaul, from Scythia and
from Africa.  There were many who were the victims
of pagan persecutions, and still bore in their own
persons the marks of the tortures to which they had been
subjected.  This one had lost an eye, gouged out by the
torturer's sword or pincers; that one had the sinews of
his leg seared with hot iron to keep him from escaping
from the mines, to which he had been condemned for
the crime of being a Christian; and the other had had
the flesh scraped off his ribs by the instruments of
torture.  Of the whole number present, it was believed that
only the eleven who came from the remotest East had
escaped mutilation in some ghastly form.

Arius, although not a bishop, was there by the express
order of Constantine, who could always sleep upon
his vengeance, but never could forget nor forego it.
The place of the assembly's sessions was a great hall in
the imperial palace of Nicea.  The bishops and presbyters,
assembled upon the emperor's order, traveling at
his expense, to the immediate vicinity of Nicomedia,
then the imperial residence, into a royal palace, and fed
by his bounty, were from the very first the creatures of
Constantine, so far as complete control of the political
significancy of religion could make them so.

The emperor had only two great purposes to accomplish
in patronizing the Church and engineering the
council: one of which was to make the Eastern Church
as willingly and thoroughly dependent upon the imperial
authority as he had already practically made that of the
West, and to render it as much a bulwark of his government;
the other was to render this condition of things,
in appearance at least, the spontaneous and inspired action
of a free conclave of bishops.

As for the theological verity of their doctrines or
practice, the royal atheist cared not a denarius.  His
object was to make the Church as much a part of the
imperial power as a legion might be, its bishops as much
his agents and servants as the military officers; and to
uproot and cast out the only essential features of
Christianity which tended to segregate the Christians into a
separate and distinct body in the empire, by subverting
"the kingdom of heaven" with its communistic
organization, that excluded war, slavery, and
mammon-worship from the communities of the faithful, so that
no man should feel that because he was a Christian he
was therefore more free, or less a subject of the
empire!  This he proposed to do by inducing the council
to define the faith and prescribe temporal penalties for
heresy, which were to be enforced by the emperor's
authority, just as were the judgments of the magistrates
against violators of the criminal laws: the action of the
council was to make an offense against the Church a
crime against the imperial law.  Subject to the
accomplishment of these purposes, he really desired that they
might reach conclusions as nearly unanimous as possible;
for he was as anxious to avoid the creating of parties
and classes in the Church as he was to avoid sowing
discord among his other subjects.

Upon the assembling of the council, Eusebius of Cæsarea,
"in metrical prose, if not in actual verses, recited
an address to the emperor, and then a hymn of thanksgiving
to the Almighty for the victory over Licinius."  Thereupon
Constantine addressed the council in the Latin
language, which his dragoman immediately interpreted
into Greek, as follows: "It has, my friends, been the
object of my highest wishes to enjoy your sacred company,
and, having obtained this, I confess my thankfulness to
the King of all that, in addition to all my other blessings,
he has granted to me this greatest of all--I mean, to
receive you all assembled together, and to see one, common,
harmonious opinion of all.  Let, then, no envious enemy
injure our happiness, and, after the destruction of the
impious power of the tyrants by the might of God our
Saviour, let not the spirit of evil overwhelm the divine
law with blasphemies: for to me far worse than any war
or battle is the civil war of the Church of God--yea, far
more fearful than the wars which have waged without.
As, then, by the assent and co-operation of a higher
power, I have gained my victories over my enemies, I
thought that nothing remained but to give God thanks,
and to rejoice with those who have been delivered by me.
But since I learned of your divisions, contrary to all
expectation, I gave the report my first consideration; and,
praying that this also might be healed through my
assistance, I called you all together without delay.  I rejoice
at the mere sight of your assembly: but the moment that
I shall consider the chief fulfillment of my prayers will be
when I see you all joined together in heart and soul,
and determining on one peaceful harmony for all, which
it should well become you, who are consecrated to God, to
preach to others.  Do not, then, delay, my friends; do
not delay, ministers of God, and good servants of our
common Lord and Saviour, to remove all grounds of
difference, and to wind up, by laws of peace, every link of
controversy.  Thus will you have done what is most
pleasing to the God who is over all, and you will render the
greatest boon to me your fellow-servant."

"The council was now formally opened, and the emperor
gave permission to the presidents of the assembly to
commence their proceedings"; and the Bishops of Alexandria,
Cordova, Antioch, and Cæsarea, were chosen to preside
over their deliberations: of whom Hosius, Alexander,
and Eusebius, were politicians thoroughly imbued with the
ecclesiastical spirit and purposes of the emperor, although
the last-named bishop was the warm personal friend of
Arius, and a follower of his theological tenets.  Constantine
himself assumed the functions of a bishop, and participated
in all their debates, "directing all his energies to that one
point which he himself described as his aim--a unanimity
of decision" as to all merely theological disputes.  For,
even before the council had met, innumerable complaints
of one bishop against another had been placed in his
hands; so that he was satisfied that one great design he
had in view was already accomplished: for this fact
showed that already they regarded him as the ultimate
judge--the real source of all authority in the Church
(instead of Christ), as truly as he was in the state.  All of
these complaints, therefore, he publicly burned in their
presence, with a solemn oath that he had not read any of
them, and he said, "It is the command of Christ that
he who desires to be himself forgiven, must first forgive
his brother."

But the very strongest proof that the emperor was
lying, was the fact that he made oath to his statement; and
perhaps there was not a thing named in any of the
complaints, that could give him a hold upon any bishop, that
was not carefully preserved.

The first matter which came before this august
assembly was the question whether the Christian passover
("Easter") should be celebrated on the same day with the
Jewish (the fourteenth day of the month Nisan), or on the
following Sunday.  And the bitter feeling of many of the
Christians that "the celebration of it on the same day
that was kept by the wicked race that put the Saviour to
death was an impious absurdity," on one side, and the
reverence on the other side for a custom which had come
down from the apostles, gave rise to a long controversy
on the subject; but it was finally "determined
by common consent" that the ancient custom should
be set aside, and the more recent Christian practice established.

During these proceedings, Arius the Libyan took no
part whatever in the discussions or business of the
council, but sat as a quiet and attentive spectator of their
deliberations.  Many of them, knowing his great erudition
and holy character, consulted him privately, and he fully
gave them the benefit of his learning and opinions.  Arius
was now sixty years of age, and was greatly changed from
the bright and happy youth whom we knew at Baucalis;
greatly changed even from the broken-hearted but
ever-diligent, earnest, and eloquent presbyter of the earlier
years of his ministry at Alexandria.  "He is tall and
thin, apparently unable to support his stature; he has an
odd way of contorting and twisting himself, which his
enemies compare to the wrigglings of a snake.  He would
be handsome, but for the emaciation and deadly pallor of
his face, and a downcast look imparted by a weakness of
eye-sight.  At times his veins throb and swell, and his
limbs tremble, as if suffering from some violent internal
complaint, the same, perhaps, that will terminate one day
in his sudden and frightful death.  There is a wild look
about him, that is at first sight startling.  His dress and
demeanor are those of a rigid ascetic.  He wears a long
coat with short sleeves, such as the monks wore to indicate
that their hands were not made for injury, and a scarf
of only half size, such as was the mark of an austere life;
and his hair hangs in tangled masses about his head.  He
is usually silent, but at times breaks out into fierce
excitement, such as will give the impression of madness.
Yet with all this there is a sweetness in his voice, and a
winning, earnest manner, which fascinate those who come
across him.  Among the religious ladies of Alexandria he
is said to have had from the first a following of not less
than seven hundred.  This strange, captivating, moon-struck
giant is the heretic Arius, or, as his adversaries
call him, the madman of Ares, or Mars": and the description
given here of him is not that of a partisan of his own,
but of a Trinitarian ecclesiastic.

Many sittings of the council passed, day after day, in
which the paschal controversy, the Melitian schism, and
other matters of a theological character, were discussed
and determined, but the heretic remained utterly silent.
He was ever ready to give aid, advice, counsel, and furnish
references to authorities, to those who applied to him, but
not once did he open his lips to speak to the assembly.
But the purpose of Constantine to crush him wavered
not, and the emperor had one rare quality--he knew how
to wait.

One evening, after the close of the council's daily
session, the ancient Bishop Alexander, accompanied by his
young Archdeacon Athanasius, was proceeding toward his
lodgings, when Marcellus, the Bishop of Ancyra, accosted
him: "Hail, bishop!  From what thou didst tell me of
his fierce, aggressive nature, I am astonished to find that
the Libyan madman continueth so quiet.  How is it that
thou hast called him vehement, fierce, eloquent, and
controversial?"

"He hath some secret end in view," replied the
bishop, "and I can not fathom his purposes.  But on
to-morrow, Athanasius, who speaketh for me in the council,
shall provoke him to some reply, and thou mayst then
judge of his quiet disposition for thyself."

"Good enough," said Marcellus.  "No man can pick
a quarrel with an oyster that keepeth its shell closed."





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.. _`THE SUBVERSION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH`:

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   CHAPTER VII.


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   THE SUBVERSION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.

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On the next meeting of the council, Hosius, Bishop of
Cordova, offered a resolution that the Church should make
a decree requiring all the married clergy to separate from
their wives and lead lives of celibacy.  Some objected to
this, on the ground that the practice of the Church had
never prohibited the marriage of clergymen of any rank;
others insisted on adopting the rule, because clerical
marriages, besides other inconveniences, would tend to make
the office of bishop an hereditary one, and so elevate
improper persons to that sacred place.  But the chief
opposition "came from a most unexpected quarter.  From
among the Egyptian bishops stepped out into the midst,
looking out of his one remaining eye, and halting on
his paralyzed leg, the old hermit-confessor, Paphnutius.
With a roar of indignation rather than a speech, he broke
into the debate: 'Lay not this heavy yoke on the clergy.
Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled.  By
exaggerated strictness you will do the Church more harm
than good.  All can not bear such an ascetic rule.  The
wives themselves will suffer from it.  Marriage itself is
continence.  It is enough for a man to keep from
marriage after he has been ordained, according to the ancient
custom, but do not separate him from the wife whom once
for all he married when he was a layman!'

"His speech produced a profound impression.  His
own austere life and unblemished celibacy gave force to
every word he uttered."

The resolution, or proposition, was voted down, but
the discussion of it gave Athanasius the opportunity he
wanted.  Having arisen with that almost irresistible grace
and suavity which distinguished him, the beautiful young
man, in a light, musical, mocking tone, that must have
been terribly irritating to a grave and reverend presbyter
like Arius, spoke as follows: "I greatly marvel, brethren,
that we have not enjoyed the benefit of that princely
readiness and strength in debate for which the very
learned presbyter Arius hath so great reputation, upon
this important question.  Surely a minister who is reputed
to have at his beck and call, day or night, rain or shine,
more than seven hundred virgins and widows in our good
city of Alexandria, ought to be able, from his own
experience, to give us wise counsel concerning the celibacy of
the clergy.  I hope that he will do so."

The brilliant, smiling youth resumed his seat, and
every eye was turned upon the Libyan, but he neither
rose nor answered.  The grand, shaggy head bent slightly
forward, and a momentary gleam shone in the somber
eyes; while a peculiar shiver passed over his whole frame,
the python's idiopathic legacy, and a weary sigh exhaled
through the ashy lips; but he took not even the slightest
notice of Athanasius, nor of his flippant speech.  It was
manifest that all of them expected him to say something,
knowing the readiness and splendor of his oratory, but
he was utterly silent; and this silence, following the young
archdeacon's sally against him, seemed to indicate an
unpleasant state of feeling--or what did it indicate?

"He could browbeat his bishop in Alexandria," whispered
a bishop to Eusebius of Nicomedia, "but he quaileth
in the presence of the emperor."

But Eusebius answered: "He quaileth not for any
man; but he answereth not, because to do so might be to
recognize this assembly *as a council of the Church*, and
that he hath not yet done by speech or act."

Then the headstrong and violent Marcellus, Bishop of
Ancyra, cried out in fierce, defiant tones: "Hearest thou
not the friendly utterances of Athanasius, who speaketh
for Alexander, thy bishop? or dost thou carry thyself so
high as to treat with contempt thy learned and venerable
bishop, thou iron-hearted heretic, that thou answerest
nothing?"

The Libyan turned his head slightly, and, fixing his
sad eyes upon Marcellus, gazed upon him steadily, quietly,
compassionately, but did not utter a word; and
immediately there was a clamor throughout the assembly, some
condemning the intemperate words and manner of the
Bishop of Ancyra, and some the seeming insolence of
Arius.  Then the Emperor Constantine arose, and
forthwith the clamor subsided, and the emperor said: "I have
often and earnestly desired that peace and Christian
charity might characterize our deliberations.  The remarks
and the manner of the Bishop of Ancyra are hasty and
uncalled for; but the obstinate silence of the presbyter
indicateth a proud and scornful mind--for it is known
to all that the young archdeacon speaketh for the holy
Bishop Alexander because of his age and feebleness; and
if thou dost decline to notice the brilliant Athanasius
because of his youth, thou must not despise thy venerable
superior who speaketh through him.  I command thee,
therefore, to answer as if Alexander himself had addressed
thee."

The emperor sat down, and a murmur of admiration
and applause ran through the entire assembly.  Then the
mighty heretic arose, and in his sweet, incisive,
penetrating voice, answered: "By command of Augustus, the
emperor, whose legal subject I have become by the defeat
and death of the late Emperor Licinius, I arise to declare
that if any one supposeth I did fail to notice the remarks
of the young, learned, and eloquent archdeacon, because
of any feeling of scorn for his youth, or for his office, or
because of any uncharity toward him, or any one else in
this assembly, he doeth me much injustice.  This, it
seemeth to me, is well proved by the fact, which ye all do know,
that during the weeks that ye have been assembled, I have
taken no part in any discussion, ecclesiastical or political,
in which ye have engaged.  Because I am not an officer
of the Roman government, civil, military, or judicial, and
have not thought it to be consistent with the position and
duties of a presbyter of the Church of Jesus Christ to
assume the right to take part in the business of a royal
council, seeing that my life hath been devoted to religious
affairs which belong to our Lord, and not to civil,
military, or judicial functions which pertain unto the emperor,
I supposed that it would be as indecent and presumptuous
for me to meddle with the business of the empire, by
virtue of my office, as it would be for a Roman judge, or
centurion, to intrude into my church and preach the
gospel by virtue of his judicial or military rank.  If it had
been otherwise, I might have had something to say when
I perceived that the royal authority offered a gross insult
to Christ and to his Church by making *Elia Capitolina*,
the ancient Jerusalem, the oldest and most honored see in
Christendom, secondary to new Nicomedia, in order to
accommodate ecclesiastical departments to the other
political divisions of the empire; nor would I speak at all
except at the command of the emperor."

Having thus spoken, Arius took his seat.  The words
opened up plainly and unmistakably the vast difference
that separated the Christianity of the first three centuries
from the imperial Church of Constantine: the allegiance
that belonged to Jesus alone was in process of being
transferred to the emperor.  It was to extirpate this very
freedom of conscience, this very liberty of the gospel that
acknowledged no master but Christ, that Constantine had
convened the council; and although he had known that
the question must come up, and must be met, and
although he had been for years, and especially since the
summoning of the bishops, using every artifice, argument,
and influence, and urging his ablest agents, to be prepared
for it when it might come, he and his partisans had
determined that it should be raised out of proceedings to be
instituted against Arius upon charges of heresy; but the
wonderful adroitness with which the great presbyter had
changed the face of the whole matter, and had actually
put both the emperor and his council on the defensive,
took Constantine utterly by surprise, and for a moment he
lost even his marvelous self-control, and cried out in a
voice of thunder, "Then why art thou here?"

And Arius, with scintillant eyes, but in placid,
melodious tones, responded: "I came hither upon the written
order of the emperor, as I supposed it to be the duty of
a law-abiding subject to do; but certainly not as an officer
of the Roman government, entitled to participate in royal
businesses."

This calm and dignified reply still more clearly revealed
to all the assembly the fact that their enthusiastic love for
Constantine had too much blinded their eyes to the
undeniable truth that the council was oecumenical, not
apostolical--the affair of the emperor, not of the Christ.  This
reply was not ostensibly connected with any heretical
teachings of Arius, or of any one else, and raised no
question of orthodoxy at all; it struck at the very tap-roots of
the whole movement.  "Whose council is this?" was the
question that each involuntarily asked himself, and it was
manifest that the simple, unobjectionable words of the
Libyan produced a profound impression upon many hearts
that began to consider whether the fact that the council
was royal did not imply in itself the fact that it was not
Christian, but was really treasonable toward Christ; and in
the midst of the solemn silence caused by such anxious
meditation, the virulent and incautious Bishop of Ancyra
cried out: "Who art thou that censurest the victorious
and holy emperor, and condemnest the oecumenical
council of the Church with thy sly, serpentine wriggle and
speech?  Art thou not Arius the heretic?  Arius the
defamer of the Son of God? thou bold scorner of the Holy
Trinity! thou cunning madman!"

But Arius only looked upon the furious bishop with
a sad and pitying smile.

Then Constantine cried out: "Answer thou the bishop!"

Then, still quietly and pleasantly, with a peculiar,
mesmeric light in his somber eyes, and strange, thrilling
sibilation in his penetrating voice, Arius arose and
said: "By the command of Augustus I answer that I
have not censured the emperor, nor condemned the
council.  As to my being a heretic, I only reply that,
if this thing be true, it is no concern of the emperor's,
who hath never been ordained to be the keeper of my
conscience.  It is an affair entirely between the
Master--Christ--and his servant Arius.  For ye all do know
that there is no Roman law prescribing what we must
believe or disbelieve, since the persecutors lost power to
enforce obedience to their laws prescribing faith in false
gods, by the infliction of tortures and death, against
those who for conscience' sake refused to obey.  But
ye know that neither Jesus nor his apostles ever
denounced, nor authorized any human being to denounce,
a temporal penalty for heresy; for the Church only
prescribes that ye should refuse to fellowship the obdurate
heretic, or disobedient person; and I trust you far enough
to believe that if any pagan emperor, or any human
authority, should enact laws requiring you to believe, or to
do, anything contrary to good conscience, ye would be
faithful Christians enough to refuse obedience to such
laws, as our fathers from the beginning have gloriously
done.  For this is a matter between each man and his God
only; not between him and the government which
exercises dominion over him.  This the Church hath held from
the beginning; and when the heathen laws did prescribe
that ye who are here assembled should do and believe
things contrary to Christ and to conscience, ye did refuse,
so that every bishop here, except those eleven who come
from the remotest East, hath endured tortures rather than
obey the human laws.  If, therefore, I be a heretic, as
brother Marcellus of Ancyra ignorantly supposeth, what
have the empire or its laws to do with that?  Why speak
ye of orthodoxy, or of heterodoxy, in a great royal,
political assembly like this; unless, perhaps, some of ye are
willing to believe that the great and powerful emperor is
also a god, having charge of your faith and conscience,
as well as of your political condition; so that what the
law of Constantine shall prescribe as right to be believed
and done shall be your rule of faith and practice, and
not what our Lord Christ hath prescribed?  For me, a
poor presbyter of the Christian Church, to assume the
right to deliberate upon and prescribe laws for the
empire would be gross impudence and arrogance; for any
human authority to usurp the right to make laws
controlling the faith of Christ's Church, would be as gross
a sacrilege.  Was Constantine crucified for you?  Or
were ye baptized into his name?  And do ye hope for
salvation by faith in and obedience to him?  I was
not.  I have come, therefore, hither in obedience to the
imperial mandate, and have spoken by the emperor's
command.  As to the empire, I have no authority and
no desire to make laws for it; as to my Christian faith,
no man nor angel hath right or power to meddle therewith,
or to prescribe laws for it.  It is a thing between
my soul and its Saviour, whom I have served all my
life long in spite of imperial laws, and whom I will
continue to serve, no matter what laws may be enacted.
Brethren, will ye do likewise? or will ye now deny the
Christ?"

For an instant the old man raised his tall form
upright, the shaggy head sprang forward upon the long,
peculiar neck, and the somber, sad eyes rested upon
almost every face.  Then quietly he resumed his seat.

Athanasius, Hosius, Constantine, and others, saw at
the same instant that against the impregnable position
taken by Arius no assault could prosper.  They knew
that constant and almost imperceptible steps had been
necessary for years to seduce any large section of the
Western Church from that very position, and that the
church which Ulfilas had planted among the Goths had
only been driven therefrom by the merciless use of fire
and sword.  They knew well that the line of demarkation
between all earthly kingdoms and the kingdom of
Christ in the world was clearly and unmistakably drawn,
consisting not alone in faith and sentiment, but in a
social and political policy which had been for three
centuries the glory of Christianity, and had been so
fearfully illustrated by recent persecutions under Licinius in
the East, that the council could not be deluded in
reference thereto; and they were seeking with anxious
solicitude to find some way to avoid further discussion
upon the matter, which might arouse an interest in it
that would dissolve the council upon the point which
the Libyan urged, that the Church could not meet in
oecumenical council at the order of an emperor, and
make decrees to be forced by imperial law, without
forsaking Christ.  Long before the bold presbyter had
ceased to speak, the emperor had determined in his own
mind that it was necessary to gain time for consultation
and for concerted action, and especially necessary to stop
the discussion of this dangerous question as to the right
of a royal council to legislate for the Church of Christ--the
tendency of which was obviously to separate the
Church from imperialism altogether, rather than to
accomplish his determined purpose of blending the Church
with imperial law and make himself head of both.  As
soon, therefore, as the heretic sat down, at a sign from
the emperor, Alexander and Hosius adjourned the
council until the following day.





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.. _`THE ABDICATION OF CONSTANTINE`:

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   CHAPTER VIII.


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   THE ABDICATION OF CONSTANTINE.

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There is little doubt but upon that night so many
of the council favored the views of the Libyan, that if
a vote had been taken upon the point urged by him,
the council would have resolved that its own organization
was contrary to Christ; was an effort thoughtlessly
made to put Constantine in place of Jesus at the head
of the Church, and would have dissolved itself, until
summoned to convene by the agreement of the bishops only.
Almost the whole night was spent in anxious consultation
between those bishops who were ready to maintain the
freedom of the Church at any hazard, and the great
heresiarch, whom they instinctively recognized as leader of
the struggle in favor of religious liberty, as to the most
available path of escape from the dangerous and unchristian
position into which they had been led by their zeal
and love for the emperor who protected the Church from
persecution.  Arius told them plainly that if the Church
of Christ was to be governed by an oecumenical or royal
council, its independence was gone; and in place of being
the "kingdom of heaven" upon earth, which our Lord
had organized, the Church must become a human
institution--part of the empire of Constantine, or of any other
prince or power to whom its members might be subject;
its faith and policy dictated by Roman law, not by the
word of God; its doctrines dependent upon the mutations
of government, not upon the teachings of Jesus: a thing
by which the cause of Christ is verily betrayed.  There
were none in the council who did not perceive this truth,
although there were some who were for Constantine, even
against Jesus himself.

During nearly the whole night, also, Hosius, Athanasius,
Eustatius, Marcellus, Constantine, and others, were
engaged in eager consultation, but seemed unable to find
any solution of the difficulty.  And the next morning
Athanasius reported to the emperor that the more they
had considered the matter, the more difficult and dangerous
it had appeared; and that the only way to avoid serious
risk of dissolving the council was to avoid all discussion
upon its right to sit for the Church, and to let Arius alone
as long as he might appear disposed to remain quiet.
Many hearts were burdened with anxiety, and Eusebius of
Cæsarea was especially oppressed with deep concern.

"And if the council when assembled shall sustain the
views of Arius," he had once asked Constantine, "what
then?" and the emperor had answered, "A religious
war, perhaps, or a return to paganism!"

But to Athanasius and others who urged the necessity
of temporizing with Arius, and avoiding all discussion of
the vital points which the heretic lost no opportunity of
forcing upon them, Constantine finally said: "I will
make no compromise with the Libyan; it is necessary to
crush that serpent's head, and I will do it!  He hath
certainly evinced marvelous skill, intelligence, and daring, in
forcing an issue upon us which we do not desire to
determine; he would have made a magnificent general; but
I will ruin him to-day.  Rest ye all in peace."

And when the council assembled, all of them filled
with anxiety as to what might occur, and many of them
determined, even at the risk of martyrdom, not to take
any further part in the deliberations of an imperial
conclave such as they clearly perceived that one to be, the
emperor arose first of all, and, with wonderful grace and
ease, addressed them as follows: "Ye know my love for
all of you, my friends, and my zeal for the cause of Christ.
But some among you have taken offense, and have even
doubted the propriety or binding force of your own
decrees upon the conscience of Christians, because it hath
appeared to you that the emperor hath assumed authority
over you in regard to matters of faith.  This is surely a
grave mistake.  To correct this false and injurious
impression, I here commit to your presiding bishops my
ring, my sword, and my scepter; and unto you I give
power this day over mine empire, to do in it whatever you
think fit for the promotion of religion and for the
advantage of the faithful.  Ye are the law-makers of the Church
of Christ, and not him whom God hath made Emperor of
Rome.  Proceed with your sacred business in your own time
and way.  If ye shall deem it to be necessary to remove
even the most intangible objection of the cavilers to do so,
ye can dissolve the council, return to your homes, and let
the bishops reassemble when and where ye will.  But if,
being already assembled at some expense of time and
trouble, ye deem it more expedient now to constitute
yourselves into a church council, do so in your own time and
manner.  Farewell!"

And, having so spoken, the emperor bowed gracefully
to the admiring assembly and withdrew.  But almost
immediately Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, proposed, and without
a dissenting voice the council voted, that a deputation
of bishops be appointed to inform the emperor that the
Church had met in council, and to request him to return
and bestow upon them the benefit of his great wisdom and
Christian zeal, in aid of their deliberations; and smilingly
the emperor returned.

The action of the emperor was just that of the pre-eminently
greatest politician; and Arius, then first fully
realizing the vast intellectual resources of the most
consummate statesman whom the world has seen, murmured
unto himself, "Again is Christ betrayed into the hands
of wicked men!"  And thenceforward calmly, almost
indifferently, he looked forward to what he supposed to be
his own impending doom; for he well knew that Constantine
spared no human life that, even by chance, might
seem to stand in the way of his self-aggrandizement: and
if his marvelous sagacity could conceive and execute such
an act as he had just accomplished, what was there of
which he could be incapable?

Then the bishop Hosius of Cordova said: "Brethren,
it is manifest that the technical objections which found
place in the consciences of some among us, based upon the
seeming authority of our most glorious and Christian
emperor over us, have been thoroughly eradicated by his own
most wise, pious, and unsolicited condescension, and that
we sit now as an absolutely independent body for the
consideration of the business and doctrines of the Church of
Christ, as much as if we had come of our own motion
originally from the ends of the earth, without the generous
and Christian liberality of our royal friend and protector.
Let us, therefore, proceed with our deliberations to secure
the prosperity of the Church of our blessed Lord!"

In this sentiment all concurred; and even the dullest
among them immediately perceived that the crafty act of
Constantine had cut out from under the great heretic the
only sure foundation upon which he might have builded,
and had left him at the mercy of the emperor.

For many days the great council proceeded with its
business, and sometimes their differences gave rise to
excited and earnest debate, in which the easy, marvelous,
persuasive eloquence and irresistible manners of Athanasius
raised the brilliant youth to the highest place in the
opinions of all; in which the magnificent Spaniard Hosius
fully maintained the almost apostolic reverence that had
long been given to his great age, vast erudition, and grand
character; and in which both the Eusebii added to their
former wide-spread reputation for learning, piety, and
influence.  Many other names, before that time almost
unknown beyond the local limits of their own churches
and bishoprics, became celebrated throughout Christendom
for various excellences or for striking characteristics.
Only the sad-eyed and seemingly broken-hearted presbyter
Arius appeared to be indifferent to the course of business,
and silent during the discussion of questions upon which
all knew he might have brought to bear an unequaled mass
of erudition, illumined by the strong light of genius, if he
had cared to do so.

Gradually, little by little, no one knew how, the
conviction spread throughout the great assembly that the man
Arius was doomed, and that there was no possibility of
escape for him; and day by day they were awaiting the
institution of proceedings against him which would be the
beginning of the end anticipated.  None knew whence
this weird impression arose, and few ever spoke of it:
for no man that ever ruled on earth knew better how to
create or how to guide for his own purposes that
intangible, remorseless, and murderous influence to which in
later times we have applied the expression "public
opinion" than did the wonderful Emperor Constantine, ages
before other statesmen recognized even the existence of
such a force.  And through the more gifted agents, lay
and clerical, who were devoted to him heart and soul, the
impression that the Libyan must be condemned grew
imperceptibly but unceasingly stronger.  Without knowing
why, the enemies of the great presbyter became daily more
self-confident and aggressive; without knowing why, the
lukewarm and undecided souls that form a considerable
segment of every large assembly, insensibly withdrew
themselves from his support, and drifted more and more
into the sentiment of his foes; and, without knowing why,
the few, strong, brave, earnest men, who decidedly clung
to his opinions and unswervingly loved the man, began to
concentrate their forces and husband their resources for
some desperate and decisive struggle which they
instinctively felt to be approaching.

The Libyan himself had long regarded his fate as
decisively settled.  He had interpreted the Apocalypse as
referring to Constantine, and did not doubt either the
temporary overthrow of Christianity by the emperor, or
the fact that he would be involved in its ruin.  He looked
without fear, perhaps more with a feeling of curiosity
than anything else, for signs which might enable him to
form a conjecture as to how long the kingdom of heaven
might be banished out of the world: its ultimate restoration
and final triumph over human governments he never
doubted; but he would hardly have turned his hand, or
raised his head, to avoid the death which he supposed
Constantine had determined to bring upon him.  "If,"
he said unto his intimate friends, "the emperor's council
carry out his wishes, I desire ye all to remember, in the
future, that no Christian council hath, or hath ever
attempted, to exercise authority to put any man to death for
heresy.  The only punishments the Church hath ever
imposed stop with the refusal to fellowship an unbeliever
or a wrong-doer.  If Constantine condemn me, remember
that he is not a bishop, hath never even been baptized, and
hath no authority to decide upon what is or what is not
heretical; and the Roman law hath never, so far at least,
attempted to define what a Christian may lawfully believe.
Ye see, therefore, that the fact of my destruction illustrateth
well the character of the council, and showeth that
even the magnificent spectacle of his resignation which he
so well enacted can not convert Constantine's meeting into
a council of the Christian Church.  And I suppose that
this will more plainly appear as the matter proceedeth
further."

Then answered the Bishop of Nicomedia, saying:
"Brother, if thou must perish for the cause of Christ, I
perish also with thee.  I am an Arian, and shall claim
the right to die with thee if any murder shall be done."

"And I also!" said Eusebius of Cæsarea.  "And I
also!" said Maris of Chalcedon; and Theognis of Nicea;
and Menophantes of Ephesus; and a score of other
bishops, each in his turn pressing the old presbyter's hand.
Then said the presbyter: "If your resolution hold, either
the policy and craft of Constantine will deny us a death
so glorious, or our martyrdom will of itself reinstate the
kingdom of heaven in spite of the emperor.  Let us
rejoice, then, in hope of the triumph of the truth!"

And having thus quietly but unflinchingly made a
covenant that, if the matter should be prosecuted to
extremities against Arius, they would share his fate, and
thereby furnish to the whole body of Christians throughout
the world a most terrible and unanswerable protest
against the council and the emperor, these devoted men
calmly awaited the beginning of the struggle which they
knew to be steadily approaching, although they were
unable to determine from what quarter it would come.





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.. _`"I HAVE NO SUPERIOR BUT CHRIST"`:

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   CHAPTER IX.


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   "I HAVE NO SUPERIOR BUT CHRIST."

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When the council met one morning, Athanasius
produced and laughingly read a song, or hymn, which had
been written and set to music by the Libyan, for the use
of uneducated Christians at Alexandria, in order to enable
them to memorize and keep in mind the doctrines of
Christianity as he had understood them.  This song was
part of a little book entitled "Thalia," or "Songs of Joy,"
which the presbyter had written for sailors and others
who had no certain means of attending regular religious
services, and in it occurred the following expressions:
"God was not always Father; once he was not Father;
afterward he became Father; and his only-begotten is
Jesus Christ our Lord."

And thereupon Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, moved the
council to declare that this sentiment was heretical; and
that the man who wrote it should be expelled from the
Church of Christ; and Arius and his friends perceived
that the struggle for the destruction of the presbyter had
begun.  For a while the council-hall was filled with
clamorous and bitter denunciations of Arius: "The
heretic!"  "The atheist!"  "The defamer of Christ!"  "The
polytheist!"  "The pagan!"  "The Libyan serpent!"  "The
ram of Baucalis!" and almost every other term of
reproach which the vocabulary of ecclesiasticism could
furnish, were shouted throughout the hall by the partisans
of Constantine.  Finally, the clamor seemed to wear itself
out, and, order having been partially restored, Potammon
of Hierapolis, a confessor whom the pagans had left blind
and lame, straightened up himself and with great
awkwardness and earnestness cried out: "Brethren, I was
reared up in Central Africa, and know nothing of
philosophy, but do try to serve the Lord, and to avoid all
heresy and false doctrine.  I have often sung this song, not
knowing it was heresy, with my people!  What is there
wrong about the song, then?  Do any of you deny that
Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God? or that he
is our Lord and Saviour? or will some of you now
pretend to believe that the Son is older than the Father?
What is wrong about the song?"

To the same effect spoke many of the friends of Arius;
and Maris of Chalcedon said: "The Gospels uniformly
call Jesus Christ the only-begotten Son of the Father, and
I have never believed it necessary or proper to go any
further than the simple, direct scriptural statement."

Finally, Eusebius of Nicomedia obtained a hearing, and,
speaking calmly and soothingly, he said: "Brethren, the
song which ye have heard read seems to be merely a
metrical composition formed to aid the memory of those who
were unable to read and write, and those who had no copy
of the Scriptures, in keeping in mind certain scriptural
phrases and doctrines; and I could not be led to suspect
a great and pious presbyter of heresy upon such a cause as
that.  Let us proceed, then, decently and in order; and
if ye would know truly what Arius hath taught as
religion, call upon him to declare what he hath so taught.
This seemeth to me to be the only fair and honorable
course, worthy of a Christian assembly, if any one think
there is cause to suppose that he hath taught anything
contrary to Scripture."

This reasonable counsel at once prevailed with the
greater number, and by a large vote they requested Arius
to declare his teachings.  Thereupon the old heretic arose,
and in his strange, peculiar, fascinating tone and manner,
spoke as follows: "Brethren, I have never taught
anything concerning our Lord as religion, except that which
is expressly laid down in the Scriptures; to wit, that Jesus
is the only-begotten Son of God, the Saviour of the world.
I do not know anything, and have never taught as articles
of faith necessary to be believed, anything except what is
thus expressly and definitively stated in the Gospels.  Of
course, like every man who thinks at all, I have meditated
often and earnestly about the philosophy of the facts
stated, and have formed in my own mind certain speculations
in relation thereto which are satisfactory to mine
own understanding, and I have not hesitated to declare
these opinions in all proper times and places; but I have
never said, at any time or place, that these merely
philosophical speculations upon the nature of Deity were
binding upon any man's conscience, or that they should be
taught and believed as the rule of any man's faith and
practice; because they have not been revealed or declared
as such by the word of God.  If any man allege that I
have done otherwise, let him make the charge in writing
and produce the proof, as was the custom at every Christian
council in such cases that hath ever been held upon the
motion of the bishops authorized to call a council, as at
Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, in Pontus, Gaul, Mesopotamia,
and Ephesus."

The presbyter said no more, but quietly resumed his
seat, and the calm, grave, and reasonable manner in which
he had met and disposed of the vociferations which had
assailed him, in the opinion of nearly all, left no course to
be pursued with decency except to present written charges
against him, and offer proofs thereof.  But such a course
did not by any means suit the purposes of those who were
resolved upon his ruin; and Athanasius, who at all times
was able to command a respectful hearing at the hands
of the assembly, without seeming to notice the challenge
thrown down by the Libyan, said in his own winning
and seemingly respectful way: "Hast thou not publicly
and customarily, in thy Baucalis church, in Alexandria,
preached things that were contrary to the views of the
Bishop Alexander--contrary to his interpretation of the
Scriptures, for which he did order that thou be suspended
from thy ministry; and didst not thou pertinaciously
refuse to obey his episcopal order, and obstinately persevere
in proclaiming thine abominable heresies?  Wilt thou now
deny this?"

Then with an effort to preserve his self-control that
sent a strange shiver creeping over his gaunt and mighty
frame, the presbyter made answer: "It appeareth, brethren,
that this gifted youth hath been taught to believe that
it is heresy to differ in opinion with the learned and pious
brother, Alexander!  It is very true that I and my brother
Alexander have somewhat differed in opinion, but I am
not advised that he hath any more authority to dictate my
opinions than have I to dictate his; and I am very certain
that, wherein the bishop hath differed with me, he is in
error."

But Constantine cried out, "Answer thou whether
thou hast preached in spite of the order of suspension
made against thee by thy superior!"

And the old heretic arose again, and answered: "I
had supposed that the answer already made would be
sufficient for any bishop, but being commanded by an
unbaptized emperor to answer yet further, I have to say that
I have no 'superior' but Christ; as for the order of
brother Alexander 'suspending' me from the exercise of
the functions of a presbyter, all the clergy here assembled
well know that it is void.  The day hath not yet come
when any one brother in the Church can 'suspend' another.
I suppose that, under the legal religion which is to
replace the gospel of Christ, a bishop will have some such
authority over a presbyter as a legionary hath over a
centurion, or a centurion over a soldier; but we have not
quite reached that condition!  As to the differences of
opinion between myself and the brother Alexander and
others, I will simply state that our good city of Alexandria
hath a population marvelously intellectual, and greatly
addicted to the study of philosophy.  Hence it hath
happened that many of the brethren, and some even of the
bishops and presbyters, have added, unconsciously perhaps,
to their faith in the facts set forth in the Gospels certain
philosophical notions intended for the explanation of these
facts, which notions they have derived from many
teachers--chiefly from the great heathen Plato, and from his
followers, the neo-Platonists, and from the school of Philo
the Egyptian.  The learned and pious Bishop Alexander
derived from some such source (I know not what) certain
philosophical views which seemed to deny utterly the
separate existence of the Son of God; and which savored
strongly of the heresy of Sabellius that had been
condemned by more than one Christian council, and which
did tend directly to the subversion of the primitive
Christian communities, and to the overthrow of 'the kingdom
of heaven' which Jesus did ordain, and to the substitution
therefor of some such ecclesiastical system as I am told
the emperor hath established in the Western Empire, in
which the emperor, not Christ, is head of the Church, and
in which the law prescribes what a man may believe or not
believe (just as the pagan laws have always done), instead
of the Scriptures.  So long as brother Alexander held
these erroneous opinions privately, I meddled not with
them; but when he afterward saw proper to come and
preach these heresies to mine own congregation, I
guarded my community against this pernicious philosophy;
for the Gospels and the Acts furnish the only authority
concerning Christ and faith in him; and not the opinions
of Sabellius, Alexander, Hosius, or Constantine.  As
for mine own philosophical opinions concerning Deity,
I never learned them of Plato, nor of Philo, nor of
Sabellius, but of the most wise and pious Am-nem-hat, who
was for many years high-priest of the pagan temple at
Ombos, holding there the same position which the
Emperor Constantine as Pontifex Maximus hath so long
held at Rome; but Am-nem-hat was afterward a glorious
Christian, and a holy martyr, at our city of Alexandria,
as many of you know.  But no man hath ever heard
me claim that these philosophical opinions constituted
any rule of faith or practice, or were binding upon any
man's conscience; although I doubt not that the
theological opinions of a most ancient and learned Egyptian
high-priest are entitled to as much respect as those of
the flamen of Jupiter, at Rome, who is now the Emperor
Constantine."

And again the old heretic resumed his seat, having
created a strong impression in his favor in the minds of all
who were not committed to the task of destroying him,
although many of them trembled for his safety on hearing
his bold and ingenious assault upon the emperor.  But
Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, sprang to his feet, and in
loud and threatening tones cried out: "O thou most
insolent and abusive heretic, darest thou to call the most
Christian emperor a pagan?"

But Maris, Bishop of Chalcedon, stretched forth his
hand and answered: "The presbyter Arius hath said that
the great emperor is yet unbaptized, and that he is, by the
law of the Roman Empire, Pontifex Maximus, and flamen
of Jupiter!  I understand that all this is true; and, if it be
not true, no man will more rejoice than I would to hear
the emperor now declare that he hath been baptized into
the faith of Christ, and that he is no longer high-priest of
pagan Rome."

The bishop sat down, and every eye was at once turned
upon Constantine.  But the emperor neither spake nor
moved; and almost immediately his partisans began to
cry out that Arius should declare to the council what were
those philosophical opinions to which he referred, which
thing they did to cover up the failure of the emperor to
respond to Maris the bishop; and the friends of the
Libyan joined in the same cry, because they did believe that
the philosophy of Arius would be found to be correct, and
not heretical.  And thereupon, being pressed upon all
sides at once, the presbyter again arose and spoke in the
following manner: "I suppose, brethren, that there hath
never been any difficulty in the mind of any Christian as
to the simple declarations of the gospel concerning our
Lord; and that the faith of all Christians in the divinity
of our common Saviour is founded upon the gospel narrative.
The difficulties arise only when the mind passes on
beyond the plain teachings of the gospel, and attempts to
comprehend how these things may be, and to formulate
for itself some creed upon the nature of the Deity.  In
this regard there have been maintained three great
philosophical opinions, as ye do know, which may be very
briefly stated as follows:

"1. That the Son of God must be a dependent and
spontaneous being, created from nothing by the will of
the Father, by whom also all things were made.

"2. That the Son possessed all of the inherent,
incommunicable perfections which religion and philosophy
appropriate to the supreme God.  So that there are in the
Godhead three distinct and infinite minds or substances,
three co-equal and co-eternal beings, composing the divine
essence, three independent Deities as to whom an effort is
made to preserve the unity of the first cause by assuming
the perpetual concord of their administration, the essential
agreement of their will; and this I understand to be the
philosophy of Hosius, Alexander, the emperor, and others
for whom Athanasius is spokesman.

"3. Three beings who, by the self-derived necessity of
their existence, possess divine attributes in perfect degree,
who are eternal in duration, infinite in space, intimately
present to each other and to the universe; and are yet one
and the same being, manifesting himself in different forms,
and considered in different aspects: so that the Trinity
becomes a trinity of names and abstract manifestations
existing only in the mind; they are not persons at all, but
only attributes.

"This is the heresy of Sabellius, which Christian
councils have condemned.  It differeth from Athanasius in
degree, but not, I think, in kind.

"Not one of these three opinions satisfieth my mind
and heart.  The martyr Am-nem-hat taught me when I was
a boy that the original faith, which long ages ago preceded
the polytheism of Egypt, Assyria, India, China, Greece,
Rome, and all other heathen nations, uniformly represented
the one God to be a dual, spiritual Being, and that
the Divine nature must be a Triad, or Trinity, completed
by the birth of a son of this double-natured spiritual God.
In the gospels I read that Christ is 'the only-begotten
Son of God': a Father begets.  He was 'conceived' of the
Holy Ghost: a Mother conceives.  He was 'born' of a
virgin, and for our salvation did live among men.  The
same holy martyr called my attention to the fact, which I
have since carefully verified, that while the Scriptures in
no place apply the word 'mother' to the Holy Ghost, the
words 'Holy Ghost' are used in them two hundred and
twelve times, and were uniformly in the Greek neuter
gender, which affirmeth nothing as to sex.  He also showed
me that Moses called the one God by a name which is the
plural number of a Hebrew noun.  It hath, therefore,
appeared to me to be true that, as far as anything
concerning Deity can be expressed in human language, the
sacred use of the words 'Father,' 'Son,' 'Holy Ghost,'
'begotten,' 'conceived,' were intended to convey to our
minds the idea that in some spiritual sense of sexhood the
nature of Deity is that in the likeness and image whereof
man was created; and signify a divine family, so far as
earthly things can typify spiritual truth.  Hence, as I did
set forth in my letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia, and to
Alexander of Alexandria, as the Church knoweth, I have
always taught that the Son is not unoriginate, nor part of
the unoriginate, nor made of things previously existing;
but that by the will and purpose of God he was in being
before time, perfectly divine, the only-begotten; that
before his generation he was not; that we believe in
one God alone without birth, alone everlasting, alone
unoriginate.  We believe that God gave birth to the
only-begotten Son, before eternal periods, making the divine
family a Triad, through whom he made these periods and
all else that was made; that he gave birth to the Son, not
in semblance, not in idea, but in truth giving unto him
a real existence; and we have refused to profess faith
in the teachings of Bishop Alexander, that 'as God is
eternal, so is his Son'; 'where the Father, there the
Son'; 'the Son is present in God without birth';
'ever-begotten'; 'an Eternal God, an Eternal Son'; 'the Son
is your God himself.'

"But I have never taught this philosophy as an article
of faith, binding upon the conscience of believers; and
have required of them to profess faith in nothing except
what the gospels declare."

The philosophy of Arius struck many as a novel thing.
To some of them it seemed to be a rational and beautiful
solution of problems which they had pondered long and
regarded as insoluble, and had abandoned in despair.
To none of them did it seem to be at all tainted with
heresy.

But Athanasius had a definite end in view, which
closed his ears to any statement the presbyter might make,
although he waited courteously until Arius had concluded
his remarks, and then exclaimed, "Hast thou not taught
that the Son of God was created out of things not existing?"

"Never," said Arius.  "Thou knowest I have taught
that he was not 'created' at all, but 'begotten';
'conceived,' not made."

"Hast thou not taught that there was a time when
the Son was not?"

"Nay, verily!  The word 'time' is thine own, not
mine.  But I have said 'God was, when he was not.'  I
have said that 'before he was begotten he was not.'  Else
how could God beget him?  But this was in the
beginning, before 'time' was."

"Hast thou not taught that the Father was superior
to the Son, and the Son inferior to the Father?"

"Nay, verily!  I can not conceive of the words 'superior'
and 'inferior' as applicable to the divine nature,
or family, any more than I can conceive of thy word
'time' as applied to the divine existence.  If thou
canst do so, O Athanasius, thou or thy friends, and
furnish a definition of the Trinity that does not deny the
separate existence of the Son; nor imply identity of
person in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; or which does not
set up three distinct, co-equal Gods, or which does not
degrade the Son to the condition of a created Being,
made, not begotten, except the definition which I quoted
from the philosophy of Am-nem-hat the martyr, and have
adopted as mine own, announce thou now, or when thou
wilt, such a definition of the Trinity, and, if I can at
all comprehend it, I will follow thee to death, if need
be, in defense thereof: for lo! these many years have I
sought for such a definition and found it not, except in
Am-nem-hat's profound aphorism that the true and only
idea of Trinity subsisteth in family--Father, Mother, Son:
the Father-Ghost, and Christ!"

Then answered Athanasius: "Verily I would not dare
to utter a formula of faith upon so high a theme in any
hasty or inconsiderate manner.  So for the present let
that question rest, and I doubt not that the learned
bishops who defend the deity of Christ will soon frame out
of the Scriptures a definition of the Catholic faith which
shall both satisfy all orthodox souls and bring thine own
God-dishonoring heresies to light."

"If it come out of the Scriptures, friend Athanasius,
they must omit therefrom thy newly-coined word 'Catholic,'
for that word is not scriptural, nor is the idea which
thou signifiest by it therein.  The Scriptures speak not
of the 'Catholic' Church at all, but of 'the common
church,' 'the common faith,' 'the common salvation,'
'the common hope,' 'the common Saviour'; and thou
well knowest that 'common' pertaineth only to the
common or communal organization of Christ's kingdom.  Yet,
perhaps, it is natural that one so young, so beautiful, so
gifted as thou art, should prefer the imperial and
aristocratic designation which hath been recently adopted in
the Western Empire, and despise the plebeian, scriptural
name 'common' or 'communal.' For two Christians
might both belong to thy 'Catholic' Church, while one
of them might be a prince and the other a pauper; but
the two Christians who belong to the primitive
'common' church must be brethren, equal, free, fraternal;
and the difference, friend Athanasius, between 'common'
([Greek: *koínos*]) and
'catholic' ([Greek: *kata holos*]) is just the difference
between the Christian Church and that of Constantine.
I know not what the martyrs would have said of it, nor
what the steadfast confessors here present may think of
it; but I prefer the ancient, scriptural term 'common,'
'communal,' 'communistic' church of which Jesus Christ
only is King, and in which all men are brethren, to the
new 'Catholic' establishment which has come in with our
unbaptized emperor."

There was not a confessor present but what would
have applauded these bold and truthful sentiments, the
force of which we can at this day with difficulty realize;
but Constantine bit his lip to restrain a terrible oath,
and his face darkened ominously as he glared upon the
audacious presbyter.  Hosius, Marcellus, Alexander, and
others of the same party, seemed to have been stricken
dumb by the clear, incisive, fearless, and uncompromising
declarations of Arius.  Only Athanasius seemed to
preserve his marvelous self-possession, and laughed
musically, while, in order to distract attention from the
dangerous question which the old heretic seemed determined
to bring up at every possible turn of the discussion, he
cried aloud: "But hast thou not commonly taught that
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three, and not one
God, and thereby made thy heresy assume the complexion
of polytheism?  Hast thou not done that?"

"I have taught," answered Arius, "and I think that
the Scriptures teach, that the three are not one person,
but three persons; and that the Trinity is one family, in
likeness whereof man was created.  Eve, the first mother,
was not created out of things not existing, but she
proceeded out of the first man's side; not above him, not
below him--equal with him, bone of his bone, flesh of his
flesh; and the first human son was born of them.  This
to my mind in some way typifies the divine family, except
that the idea of creation applies not to it.  This I have
stated as mine own conception of the matter, not as an
article of faith.  If thou knowest any better idea, state it
plainly, I pray thee: I am not yet too old to learn."

Then said Athanasius, triumphantly, "I supposed,
indeed, that God would presently lay bare thy heresy; for
thou dost deny the express words of Scripture that these
three are one; and thus thou art convicted!"

Once more the dangerous light gleamed in the old
man's somber eyes, and that nervous twitching, which his
enemies likened to the wriggling of a serpent, passed over
him; but he controlled himself wonderfully, and calmly
enough inquired: "What scripture, then?  Wilt thou
read it; or tell us in what place it may be found?"

Then said Athanasius: "I read from the first letter
of John as follows: '*For there are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost:
and these three are one.  And there are three that bear
witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and
these three agree in one.*'  How, then, sayest thou that the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost are not one, in the
very teeth of the Scriptures, O thou subtle heretic?"

The reading of this scripture produced a profound
sensation in the council.  Many turned to their copy of
John's letter to read the words for themselves, the greater
number using the new and beautiful manuscripts which
the munificent liberality of the emperor had caused to be
transcribed and distributed among the bishops some time
before; but many also had ancient copies written in the
uncial text.  But Arius said unto Athanasius, "Wilt thou
give to me thy book?"

And Athanasius sent it to him by one of the pages in
attendance.  The grim old presbyter received the parchment,
and looked at it, and handled it, and turned it over
and over in his hands with a strange, sarcastic smile, and
then said in that peculiar, sibilant tone which cut and
tingled like a serpent's hiss: "I perceive, brethren, that
this beautiful manuscript is one of those copies which hath
been supplied to many bishops and presbyters by the zeal
and benevolence of our most Christian, but unbaptized,
emperor; and the book is beautifully written in the new,
running Greek text which hath lately come into use.  I
have but one objection to it, brethren; and the objection
is, that the words '*in heaven, the Father, the Word, and
the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.  And there are
three that bear witness in earth*'--these words were never
written by John, but by some one else; they have been
added to the text within the last ten years!"  And then
the tall form reared itself to the full height of its gigantic
stature; the long, thin right hand swayed to and fro with
a strange rhythmic motion, the huge, rough, noble head
seemed to start forward upon the long, bony neck, as a
cobra thrusts it forward; the strange, mesmeric light
burned in the somber eyes, and, fastening his gaze full
upon the emperor, he cried out in tones that rang through
every corner and crevice of the vast hall, shrill, incisive,
penetrating: "These words are forgeries--every one of
them!  What John wrote was this: '*For there are three
that bear record, the spirit, the water, and the blood: and
these three agree in one.*'"

The effect was electrical.  Many trembled for the bold
and eloquent man whose words and manner seemed to
charge upon the emperor himself the guilt of sacrilege in
forging the sacred writings; although, perhaps, none
doubted that the words were forged.  But Athanasius
gazed upon him haughtily, and demanded: "Who art
thou, madman, that dost so boldly assail the genuineness
of a scripture that suiteth not with thy notorious heresy?
How knowest thou that the words were never written by John?"

The presbyter's fierce excitement had almost immediately
faded away, and he quietly answered: "Brethren, I
know that the words are forgeries, because the rank
Sabellianism which they teach is contrary to John's spirit, and
would better suit the views of certain persons who desire
to confound the Son with the Father in order to abolish
the sovereignty of Christ over his earthly kingdom by
placing some one else in his rightful place.  Secondly,
because ye can not find the words in any copy written
in the uncial text, before the recent, running Greek text
came into common use.  Ye have many uncial copies
here: see whether any of them contain the words.
Thirdly, because, more than thirty years ago, the learned
martyr Am-nem-hat, in our city of Alexandria, had in
his possession the original letter of John"; and, with
tremulous and mournful cadence that brought tears into
the eyes of all who knew his history, he continued:
"Am-nem-hat abode in the house of his great-grand-niece,
the holy, the beautiful, the martyred Theckla.
This blessed virgin did carefully copy the letter upon
vellum, and sent it to Antioch as a gift even unto me,
by the hands of Bishop Peter."  Taking the book from
a cedar box on the seat beside him, he continued:
"Here is the copy of John's letter, written by the hand
of one martyr, under the supervision of another, and
delivered by a third martyr unto me, that am ready to
follow them upon the glorious way whenever God so will!
Search and see whether ye can find these forged words in
this thrice-sacred book!"

A moment of profound silence followed.  Constantine,
Athanasius, Hosius, and all of their faction, perceived that
this assault also had not only failed, but had left the
powerful heretic in full possession of the field of battle;
and, at a sign from the emperor, the bishops immediately
adjourned the council until the following day.





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.. _`THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS`:

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   CHAPTER X.


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   THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS.

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As soon as the great council assembled on the following
day, Eusebius of Cæsarea addressed them, saying:
"Brethren, the controversy concerning the nature of
Deity provoketh much uncharity, and leadeth to no
result.  I have, therefore, drawn up, and now offer for
your consideration, a Confession of Faith, which is no
new form of doctrine, but is the same which I learned
in my childhood, and during the time I was a catechumen,
and at the time I was baptized, from my predecessors
in the bishopric of Nicomedia; and the same
which I have taught for many years while I was
presbyter and bishop, before this great dispute had arisen.
This confession hath been read and approved by the
emperor, the beloved of Heaven, and it seemeth to me to
be the truth as nearly as divine things can be expressed
in human language.  I have a hope, therefore, that it
may be accepted by all as a sufficient declaration of our
Christian faith.

"It is as follows: 'I believe in one God, the Father
Almighty, Maker of all things both visible and invisible,
and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, God
of God, Light of Light, Life of Life, the only-begotten
Son, the first-born of every creature; begotten of the
Father before all worlds, by whom, also, all things were
made; who for our salvation was made flesh and lived
among men, and suffered, and rose again on the third
day, and ascended to the Father, and shall come in
glory to judge the quick and the dead.  And we
believe in one Holy Ghost.  As also our Lord, sending
forth his own disciples to preach, said: 'Go and teach
all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'  Concerning
which things we affirm that this is so, and that we think
so, and that it hath long been so held; and that we
remain steadfast to death for this faith, anathematizing
every godless heresy; that we have taught these things
from our heart and soul, from the time that we have
known ourselves; and that we now think and say them
in truth, we testify in the name of Almighty God, and
of our Lord Jesus Christ, being able to prove even by
demonstration, and to persuade you that in past times
also this we believed and preached.'"

This creed seemed to be acceptable to nearly all the
members of the council, and Hosius said unto Arius,
"Wilt thou subscribe this creed?"

And the heretic answered: "Certainly.  I can cheerfully
subscribe to all that is contained in this confession
of faith; for Eusebius hath only made a formal statement
of what I have taught and believed, and what the
ancient Church hath held from the beginning.  Yet I
like not the creed.  For the bishops all know that while
never before did a council draw up any written confession
of faith, yet at every council the bishops did
repeat and affirm the creed received from the apostles;
and the most important item therein, next to the
profession of faith in Christ, was this: 'I believe in the
communion of saints'; by which the Church constantly
affirmed its faith in the divine wisdom of the communal
organization of 'the kingdom of heaven.'  Ye have
mutilated the confession by omitting this vital article in
order to accommodate the faith to the imperial laws
regarding war, slavery, and mammon-worship.  Let the
great article be restored to its proper place, and I will
subscribe the creed."

Then there was a terrible clamor, greater than all
that had preceded it--the partisans of Constantine
boldly declaring that "the day had gone by forever for
maintaining the communal organization of the Church";
that this "primitive community of rights and property
was only a temporary arrangement, not designed to be
permanent, and had faded away"; and, finally, that
"the emperor would not permit the creed to contain an
article which cut off not only the emperor and all his
officers, but also every 'rich man,' from admission to
the Church."  But those who were determined to maintain
the apostolic organization which Jesus himself had
ordained were equally clamorous in shouting that to
omit the article of "communion of the saints" was to
adopt the Roman law, and betray the Church into the
hands of the enemies of Jesus.  Then Constantine
ordered in the imperial guards and commanded them to
clear the hall, and the bishops adjourned the council in
the midst of an uproar in which the struggle was not
always confined to words, but some severe blows were
given and received upon both sides.  The voice of the
bishops adjourning the council had failed to designate
any day or hour at which it should reassemble, and for
some days no session at all was held; and during these
days all the weight of the imperial authority was brought
to bear upon the unhappy bishops to force them to adopt
a creed omitting the article concerning "the communion
of saints" which from the very days of Jesus had been
the sacred symbol of the social and political organization
of the Christian Church.  Constantine declared that
bishops who made it a matter of conscience to do so might
continue to teach and to preach it, but that the article
must be omitted from the creed; and gradually all of them
were brought over to the making of this kind of a
compromise with their consciences.  When this result had
been attained, the bishops gave out that the council would
be reassembled upon the following day.

On that evening, Constantine called unto him Hosius,
Alexander, Athanasius, and others of his adherents, and
said unto them: "It is not expedient for me that Arius,
or any other man, should be condemned for refusing to
subscribe a confession of faith that omits the article
concerning community of the saints.  I wish that thing to
be forgotten as soon as possible, and that the
condemnation of this man should be founded upon some other
accusation.  I desire ye, therefore, to seek for some
scriptural word or other which may not be repugnant to the
majority of the council, but which Arius can not
subscribe.  He is a man that would manifestly die and count
it great gain rather than make even the slightest
concession in any matter of conscience.  Ye must,
therefore, insert in the creed some word or phrase that he
will not subscribe, but to which the majority shall not
make any strenuous objection.  It must not appear to
the Church that 'the communion of saints' hath caused
trouble."

"There is no such word or expression in any gospel,"
answered Hosius, sententiously.

"Then ye must seek for it elsewhere," said Constantine.
"The creed must contain some word which he will
refuse to subscribe, and it must appear that the controversy
with him is concerning that word, and not concerning
the abandonment of the primitive Church polity."

"There is a word that hath lately come into use at
Alexandria," said Athanasius, "which I feel certain would
prevent the presbyter from signing any creed that
contains it, but I do not think that either the Latin
language or the Latin brain is delicate enough to grasp
that peculiar signification of the Greek expression which
would make it repugnant to Arius, so that the Western
churchmen would not object to the use of it, but it is
not exactly a scriptural phrase."

"What is the word?" asked the emperor.

"It is the new compound, 'consubstantial' ([Greek: *homoousios*]),
which admitteth of an interpretation that would shock the
fine Egyptian thought of the presbyter, but many might
not be subtile enough to perceive it.  It suiteth well the
majority of the bishops in the sense in which they
understand it."

"I do well remember the word," said Constantine.
"For, when I was upon the study of this controversy,
I first heard it; and it occurreth either in some
memoranda which I made of a conversation with Eusebius, or
in a letter written unto him by his brother of Nicomedia.
Let me get those papers."

So saying, the emperor opened a drawer in his bureau
and took therefrom a bundle of manuscript, and after a
short examination he said: "Here is the letter.  Eusebius
of Nicomedia saith here that 'to assert the Son of God
to be of one substance with the Father is a proposition
evidently absurd.'"

The beautiful eyes of Athanasius sparkled with delight,
and he cried out: "That is the very word and letter
that we want!  It cometh, like all good things, from the
emperor, and is like an inspiration to our cause!"

"Yea," said Hosius.  "The majority will receive the
word well--holding that it does not necessarily imply the
identity of persons; but will Arius certainly reject it?"

"Yea," replied Athanasius; "I have heard his
comments on the word, and I am certain that his stubborn,
inflexible spirit will not bend enough to make him
subscribe a creed containing it."

"Press thou not the matter too vehemently, arch-deacon,"
said Constantine, "lest thou drive many to support
him.  Be mild and persuasive, for there is time
enough."

So, when the council had assembled on the following
day, Athanasius said: "The learned and venerable
Bishops Alexander and Hosius, and many others with them,
have carefully examined the form of the Confession of
Faith offered by the learned Bishop Eusebius, and they
make no objection thereto: but fear that it may leave
open some advantages for entrance of heresy, as is
shown by this letter of Eusebius of Nicomedia, wherein
he declareth that to say that the Son is consubstantial
([Greek: *homoousios*]) with the Father is absurd.  They therefore
desire, in order to cut off all heretical interpretation of
the creed, and vindicate the divinity of our Lord, to
offer a creed containing the declaration that Son and
Father are of one substance."

Immediately there was a clamor of the Arians against
the use of the word; but they, and many who were
undecided, looked to Arius for advice and direction, and
Athanasius said, "The bishops desire to know whether
the learned presbyter Arius will subscribe the creed
containing this word, the bulwark against all heresy?"

And Arius arose, and, looking upon Athanasius with
a gentle smile, said unto him: "I perceive that thy
master Constantine hath at last reached the fulfillment
of his desires against the Church and kingdom of my
master Christ.  Brethren, I have already declared to you
that I would subscribe no confession of faith which
omitted to set forth the article of the communion of
saints; and I perceive well that the insertion of this
new ecclesiastical term is resorted to only in order to
avoid making notorious the fact that the emperor hath
commanded that the primitive organization of the Church
shall be abandoned.  As to this word 'consubstantial,' I
have no objection to it in the only sense in which I can
conscientiously use it, as implying that the Father and
Son (like every other father and son) are beings of the
same nature; yet I would not subscribe a creed containing
this word, because it is unscriptural.  In the sense
in which it will come to be used hereafter (if not, indeed,
already), it denies the separate existence of the Son; it
will imply an almost physical adhesion of the persons of
the Divine Family, and the actual identity of Father and
Son.  It hath before this time been used by incautious
or heretical persons, and hath already been condemned
as heretical by councils which no prince or emperor
controlled, and whose voice was the free utterance of the
unsecularized but persecuted Church.  I will never
subscribe a creed containing such a word; and have never
found it necessary to go outside of the Scriptures to find
words wherewith to define the Christian faith."

And Athanasius answered: "What if the word, in the
exact form of it, is not in the Scriptures?  Surely its
derivatives and compounds are found therein; nor is it any
more unscriptural than the songs of Arius written in his
book 'Thalia.'  What if it hath been used by heretics and
condemned as heretical?  That was only because it hath
been used in some heretical sense, and not as we use it
now.  What if the use of the word might be tortured into
the support of Sabellianism by some who wrest even the
Scriptures to their own destruction?  The rejection of it
argues far more strongly in favor of polytheism--the
ancient paganism from which the Church hath so long
suffered; and the word must be used, because it is the only
safeguard against the very heresy of which Arius hath
been suspected or accused."

And the question was long debated by others, and the
council adjourned; but there were not many that stood
out firmly against the use of this celebrated word.

At the next meeting of the council, Hosius of Cordova
announced that, following the sentiments of the great
majority, they had prepared another declaration of the faith,
upon which he hoped all might agree; and thereupon the
same was read: "We believe in one God, the Father
Almighty, Maker of all things, both visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten
of the Father, only begotten, that is to say, of the
substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God
of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance
with the Father, by whom all things were made, both
things in heaven and things in earth; who for us men
and for our salvation came down and was made man,
suffered, and rose again on the third day; went up into
the heavens, and is to come again to judge the quick and
the dead.  And in the Holy Ghost.

"*But those who say, 'There was when he was not,' and
'Before he was begotten he was not,' and that 'He came
into existence from what was not,' or who profess that the
Son of God is a different 'person' or 'substance,' or that
he is created, or changeable, or variable, are anathematized
by the Catholic Church.*"

A great many members refused to sign the creed, and
especially the anathema with which it concluded; because
they thought that the presbyter Arius, at whom it was
aimed, neither taught nor held the views thereby imputed
to him.  Eusebius of Cæsarea asked for time to consider
the matter, and "to consult with the emperor who had
imposed it upon them"--a course which others also followed.

Constantine professed to believe that this last creed
was delivered by an inspiration of the bishops directly
given from heaven; and he at once issued a decree of
banishment against all who might refuse to subscribe to it.
"He denounced Arius and his disciples as impious, and
ordered that he and his books should follow the fate of
the pagan Porphyry; and that he and his school should
be called Porphyrians, and his books burned under penalty
of death to any one who perused them."  But he gave
them time to reflect upon the matter; and on the next
day many stood resolved not to sign, notwithstanding the
terrible threats of the emperor.  In this state of fear and
perplexity, when no man knew to what extremities his
brutal threats to extort their compliance might be carried,
and when a moody silence, born of their terror and
distress, had settled upon the council, to the surprise of all,
Arius the Libyan arose and addressed them as follows:
"Brethren, I am well persuaded that no other opportunity
will ever be given unto me to address any assembly
of Christians; being persuaded that the condemnation
denounced against me ariseth not from any mistaken zeal
on the part of the unbaptized emperor concerning religion,
but only from a political necessity that springeth
from his godless and insatiable thirst for universal and
unhindered power; for verily I think he knoweth little,
and careth less, for any confession of faith, except as it
affecteth his imperial ambition.  As a man, therefore,
already doomed, and soon, perhaps, to die, I desire to stir
up your pure minds by way of remembrance concerning
the primitive Church, which now fadeth out of the world,
as it hath already faded out of the Western Empire.
Brethren, centuries ago, the great Greek philosopher,
Plato, in his 'Republic,' did declare that 'any ordinary
city is in fact two cities, one the city of the rich, the
other that of the poor, at war with one another'; and this
statement is verily true everywhere on earth.  For the
religion of mankind hath been, in some shape, the
worship of mammon, and the warfare, of which Plato
speaketh, a warfare for property--for property in offices,
prerogatives, lands, houses, wealth, slaves, and every shape
that property can take.  Ye know that the law was a
schoolmaster to lead us to Christ; and that, to prevent
the universal and hopeless oppression of the poor, God by
Moses did ordain the statute of the year of jubilee, and
the statute of the seventh year; and ye know that the
prophet Isaiah did make these statutes, which secured a
certain blessing for the poor every 'seventh year' and
every 'fiftieth year,' typical of the continuous state of
believers, in the kingdom of heaven, declaring it to be the
gospel preached to the poor; and ye know that our Lord
did solemnly declare that this prophecy was fulfilled in
him, wherefore the wealthy and aristocratic Scribes and
Pharisees, who were 'covetous,' persecuted him even unto
death; even as the ruling classes at Rome, and
throughout the world, have done until the triumph of
Constantine over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.  Ye know
that our Lord set up a kingdom that was good news, a
gospel, to the poor of the earth, because its purpose and
effect were to abolish war, slavery, polygamy, and all
unjust distinctions between men and classes of men, based
upon the idolatry of mammon.  Ye know that all of
these parables were spoken with reference to this
kingdom in which communion of saints, partnership of all
believers, should secure liberty, equality, fraternity, for
all Christians.  Ye know that, while the apostles
remained on earth, the believers had all things common,
except wives and children, disowned all government
except that of Jesus, obeyed all laws for the sake of
peace except such as conflicted with conscience, and so
builded up the Christian communes that governed
themselves by the laws of Christ alone, inflicting no temporal
punishment except that they refused to fellowship the
obdurately wicked.  Ye know that they commonly wrought
miracles to prove the divinity of Jesus and the right of
the Church to preach and to teach in his name.  We
learn from Philo the Egyptian, and from many others,
that 'those who entered upon the Christian life divested
themselves of their property, and gave it to those legally
entitled thereto or to the common Church,' and that
'the disciples of that time, animated by more ardent love
of the divine word, first fulfilled the Saviour's precept by
distributing their substance to the needy; and that the
Holy Spirit wrought many wonders through them, so
that, as soon as the gospel was heard, men voluntarily
and in crowds eagerly embraced the true faith.'  Ye
know that three bishops were ordained by the apostles,
even Lucius, Evodius, and Polycarp, all of whom
consecrated their property to the common Church, as did
the apostolical fathers Clemens, Ignatius, Barnabas,
Hermas, as also did Paulinas, Cyprian, Hilary, and countless
other well-known and notable Christians; and ye know
that such were the law and the practice of the Church until
very recent times!  Ye know that thaumaturgy remained
with the Church until this divine ordinance was neglected.
Ye know, brethren, that there were no slaves, no
war, no rich, no poor, no kings, no rulers, in the kingdom
of our Lord, but liberty, fraternity, equality for all;
and that war, slavery, mammon-worship, which had ever
been the curse of human life, were abolished by the
gospel of Christ.  Brethren, already in the Western Empire
(and from this day in the East) all this is changed.
'The kingdom of heaven' is utterly subverted.  Even
the bishops came hither with slaves; many of you are
'rich men,' that could not enter into the kingdom of
heaven.  The Church conformeth in all things to the
imperial laws: for that man Constantine hath such
unbounded ambition and unbelief that he suffereth not
the Church of Christ to exist in the world, and hath
so founded the Church of Constantine, subverting all of
Christianity except its spiritual truth.  But ye can
plainly see what things shall come to pass.  That man whom
ye love because it hath suited the purposes of his
atheistic ambition to protect the Church against other tyrants,
hath established an imperial legal religion for the world,
and declares that he will persecute all who conform not
thereto.  So did the Scribes and Pharisees; so did
Tiberius Cæsar, Nero, Diocletian, and the rest of his
predecessors; but so Jesus and his apostles never did.  I
know not whether that man who doeth these things,
and hath begun to found his capital, called by his own
name of blasphemy, upon seven hills above the sea, be
he of whom John in the Apocalypse did speak, but he
suiteth well in many respects with what John did prophesy.

"Hear me yet a little further.  Ye will all, or nearly
all, subscribe this creed!  Ye will be forced so to do!
For the Holy Spirit cometh upon no council of an
earthly emperor, but only of Christ's Church.  Henceforth,
therefore, thaumaturgy shall be lost unto the Church!
Henceforth, therefore, Christianity shall be a human
institution!  And the faith of Christians will be first one
thing, then another, as successive emperors may determine
to be best.  Those who now are orthodox will be
proscribed as heretics, and those who now are heretics
will be called orthodox; and Christian emperors will seek
to exterminate Christian heretics with fire and sword
throughout the world.  For the millions of Armenia,
and many more throughout Egypt, Syria, and Africa,
and the whole nation of the Goths, are as I am--what
ye call Arian.  So is the brave, the successful, the
popular Crispus Cæsar.  So is Ulfilas, whom Constantine
calleth the Moses of the Goths, whom he now proposes
to ordain a bishop over the people whom he converted,
and upon whom Constantine made war to force them to
accommodate their religion to imperial law.  So is
Constantia, the sister of the emperor, the widow of Licinius;
and so is the young Licinius, her son, and others
perhaps of the same imperial family, concerning whom I do
not know.  See ye not that when Constantine shall die,
and his sons shall succeed to empire, the faith of Christ
which is now condemned shall be established by the
imperial law as true?--And even thou, Athanasius, next
Bishop of Alexandria, mayst find thyself a fugitive from
thine episcopal palace (which the emperor shall give unto
thee), a vagabond upon the friendless earth, a martyr for,
or a renegade from, what thou now maintainest to be true!

"Brethren, I go hence to death, or banishment, or
both.  I care not for it.  For I live in the steadfast faith
and hope that, although the kingdom of heaven be now
subverted by the man of sin, yet again some time,
somehow, somewhere, it shall be re-established upon the
foundation of faith and communism which our Lord did lay,
and shall prevail; and war, slavery, and mammon-worship,
shall all cease to curse the world; for all people that
love liberty and hate tyrants shall be Arians, and mankind
shall yet realize the promise of our Lord which he
confirmed by his life, by his miracles and parables, and by
his death and resurrection, of universal liberty, equality,
and fraternity.  Brethren, farewell! and the peace of God
be with you!"

Then the gaunt, sad, immovable, and irreconcilable
heretic walked calmly out of the hall.  During the
utterance of this terrible oration, many seemed awed by
the solemn grandeur and prophetic earnestness of the
speaker; many were terrified at his fearless denunciation
of the plans, atheism, and hypocrisy of the emperor; and
some secretly rejoiced because they supposed that his
boldness irrevocably sealed his doom.  Constantine himself,
convulsed with suppressed wrath, grew pale with passion,
and bit his lips to restrain some indiscreet expression of
his jealousy, doubt, and fear, as Arius declared the
numbers and strength of the Arian party in Armenia, Egypt,
Syria, and among the Goths, and eulogized the gallant
Crispus Cæsar, his popular and splendid son.





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.. _`ONE JOT THAT PASSED FROM THE LAW`:

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   CHAPTER XI.


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   ONE JOT THAT PASSED FROM THE LAW.

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On that very night the grand, lonely, immovable
presbyter disappeared, and in that council was seen no more.
But the next day came the emperor's sister Constantia,
the widow of Licinius, and Licinius, her son, and Crispus
Cæsar, the eldest son of Constantine, born of his first wife
Minervina, and the emperor's mother, Helena, and all,
casting themselves at the feet of Constantine, with tears
and supplications besought him that the great, learned,
and holy Arius might not be put to death.  And they so
vehemently urged this petition that Constantine finally
seemed to give way thereto, and promised, confirming his
promise with an awful oath, that he would spare the life
of the presbyter.  In truth, he supposed that to execute
Arius would be impolitic, because it would forever alienate
a very large number of his subjects, and he wished to avoid
it, and also to win praises for his clemency.  He
therefore ordered that Arius be banished to, and closely
guarded in, a strong fortress in the wildest portion of
Illyricum, until, "in the opinion of the emperor, the
Arians of Armenia, Egypt, and Syria, and the Goths,
might have become reconciled unto the creed of Nicea."

Crispus Cæsar boldly declared that he indorsed the
opinions of Arius, and regarded the great heretic with
larger love and reverence than any other man had ever
gained from him; and the emperor heard this declaration
with gloom and hatred, but in ominous silence.

And one by one, under the influence of the threats of
Constantine, who still held the bishops together, determined
to extort the unanimous consent of all to the acts of
the council, under the specious and continuous arguments
and forced interpretations of the creed, used by his
partisans both lay and clerical, and under the benumbing and
stupefying effects of protracted weariness and hopelessness
all of them finally subscribed the creed, except Arius and
six others--Eusebius of Cæsarea, Eusebius of Nicomedia,
Theonas, Bishop of Marmarica, Secundus, Bishop of
Theuchira, Euzoius the deacon, Achillas the reader, and
Saras, a presbyter--against all of whom the emperor made
a decree of perpetual banishment, but gave not orders for
the enforcement thereof.  He was not satisfied; especially
he was dissatisfied because he was unable to extort the
signatures of the Eusebii; and he still waited, determined in
some way to obtain these signatures.  Finally, he caused
Eusebius of Cæsarea to be brought before him, and,
assuming an air of great friendliness and concern toward
him, he said: "Dear bishop, I did tell thee long ago that
our differences about the Arian heresy must never be a
cause of quarrel between thee and me.  I wish to know
what difficulty thou hast (and thy brother) in subscribing
the creed?"

And Eusebius answered: "The difficulty truly is not
a very large one; it is just the size and shape of an
'iota' of the Greek alphabet."

"If it is as insignificant as that," answered the
emperor, "let us quietly remove it and be friends again.
Tell me, therefore, what thou dost mean."

"Hast thou here the creed?" asked Eusebius.

Constantine handed the parchment to him, and
Eusebius said: "This word [Greek: *homoousios*] is one which Arius
condemneth as implying the identity of Father and Son,
and my conscience suffereth not me to sign it; but the
word [Greek: *homoiousios*], which differeth therefrom only by the
one small [Greek: *iota*] therein, expresses exactly what I believe,
that Father and Son are of like divine nature."

"And wouldst thou sign it if this letter had been
written therein? and thy brother? and the others who
are sentenced to banishment?"

"Assuredly!"

"It shall never be said," laughed Constantine, "that
I have lost my friend and bishop for such a trifle!"

Then he pointed out the fact that a small "[Greek: *i*]" had
been dexterously inserted between
"[Greek: *homo*]" and "[Greek: *ousios*]" in
both the places where the word occurred in the creed,
making it the Arian [Greek: *homoiousios*],
instead of the Trinitarian [Greek: *homoousios*].

"Now, bishop, give me thy signature, and communicate
this arrangement confidentially unto the others, and
let them come and sign also, that the creed may be
unanimously signed, and all of these unseemly
dissensions banished out of the established Church."

The bishop laughed lightly, but signed the confession
of faith, and not long afterward all the others did so,
except Arius, who was already far upon the road to the
heart of Illyricum.

Constantine had now completed his long-cherished
design of subverting the social and political organization
of the primitive Church, and establishing a state
religion, of which he might be the head in place of
Jesus Christ, in whose name he founded a system that
was in open rebellion against the Saviour's whole life
and teachings.

It remained only for him to have the action of the
OEcumenical Council confirmed by some miraculous
circumstances, and the imperial ingenuity was fully equal
to the occasion; for two members of the council had
died at Nicea during its protracted session, and were
buried in the church: With a grand and ostentatious
procession by torch-light, the sacred roll of parchment
was taken to their tomb and left there through the
night, the emperor himself having prayed publicly that,
if the departed bishops approved the action of the
council, they might in some way signify their assent to the
decrees and creed thereof; and early the next morning
the signatures of the dead bishops were found upon the
parchment!  Their endorsement was unequivocal: "We,
Chrysanthus and Mysonius, fully concurring with the first
Holy and OEcumenical Synod, although removed from
earth, have signed the volume with our own hands."

Still, the emperor did not dissolve the assembly, and,
in order to gain over the personal affection even of those
who had most stubbornly resisted his sacrilegious
domination of the council, he provided a magnificent banquet
for the members thereof, and lavished upon them every
mark of love and honor.  He lodged the one-eyed,
hamstrung old Paphnutius in his own palace, "and often
sent for him to hear the story of his persecutions; and
now it was remarked how he would throw his arms round
the old man, and put his lips to his eyeless socket as
if to suck out with his reverential kiss the blessing which,
as it were, lurked in the sacred cavity, and stroked down
with his imperial hand the frightful wound; how he
pressed his legs and arms, and the royal purple, to the
paralyzed limbs, and put his own eyeball into the
socket."  And, because those maimed and tortured members of the
council who had been "confessors" enjoyed the reputation
of especial sanctity and honor throughout the Church,
Constantine used the same disgusting demagogy in his
dealings with them all, and fawned upon and flattered
them in the name of Jesus, until he believed he had
stolen for himself their influence in aiding him to
eradicate primitive Christianity out of the East, as he had
already done in the West, and so banishing the kingdom
of heaven from the face of the earth; and so nourishing
in the very bosom of the Church, maintained and
governed by imperial authority, the ancient crimes of war,
slavery, and mammon-worship, perpetuating the bondage
of the people unto the ruling classes, and giving the
sanction of religion to class distinctions between men and
families, based upon this idolatry, which had been always
the curse of human life.

And for a whole year Constantine pursued his
purpose quietly, unceasingly, intelligently, by the use of a
thousand different means and agencies, to reduce the East
to a condition of ecclesiastical serfdom to his authority,
and to confirm, popularize, and consolidate his power.
But the slow, doubtful, hesitating adoption of the
imperial church by the Christians of Armenia, and to a
less degree by those of Syria, Egypt, and the Gothic
provinces along the Danube, to whom he had sent back
their teacher Ulfilas after ordaining him to be a royal
bishop, inspired the emperor with misgivings of the
future, and with an almost unreasoning jealousy and hatred
of Crispus Cæsar, his son, who was the favorite of all
those regions, and of Licinius, who represented the
family of the legitimate sovereign thereof, whom Constantine
had dethroned and destroyed.

And the next year the emperor went to Rome to celebrate
the Ides of Quintilis, the anniversary of the battle
of Lake Regillus, in which, according to the chronicles
of pagan Rome, the twin-gods Castor and Pollux had
fought in defense of the Eternal City, and brought thereto
the welcome news of victory.  It was esteemed to be the
most sacred ceremony known to the Roman people.  During
the grand festival, Constantine, believing that after
the Council of Nicea his own ecclesiastical system was
so powerful and so securely established that he need not
longer patronize the heathen, refused to take his proper
place in the ancient ritual appropriate to the occasion,
and even exhibited his contempt for the empty pageantry
of a legion of knights passing in solemn procession,
by commenting upon their appearance with that caustic,
epigrammatic wit of which few men were more thoroughly
master.  That large portion of the Romans who
yet openly adhered to the ancient religion were insulted
and furious at the conduct of the emperor, and there
was a fierce riot in the streets, during which stones were
hurled at the statues of the emperor, and attempts made
to overthrow them.

His wife Fausta, the daughter of the fierce old
emperor Maximian, inherited much of her father's cruel
nature and imperious ambition.  She and Constantine had
three sons--Constantine, Constantius, and Constans.  She
had always envied Crispus Cæsar the superiority which
his primogenial rights gave to him as the first-born of
Constantine over her own sons, and especially had her
jealousy been inflamed by the splendid reputation which
young Cæsar had gained by the skill and courage wherewith
he had defeated the vastly superior navy of Licinius
in the straits of the Hellespont.  Next to the great
emperor himself stood Crispus Cæsar, not only in official
station, but in the love and admiration of the world;
and her own sons occupied a far less conspicuous position,
which was rendered more galling to her pride by the very
prominence derived from the fact that they also were the
sons of the emperor.  Fausta had remarked with secret
joy the open aid and friendship showed by Crispus Cæsar
for Arius, which fact had aroused the suspicions, as much
as the victory of Crispus had excited the jealousy, of the
emperor.  She failed not, also, to perceive that the
devotion of Constantia, the widow of Licinius, and of the
Empress Helena, Constantine's mother, to this same Arius,
had created a common interest and friendship between
Cæsar, Helena, and Constantia, while Eusebius of
Nicomedia was the trusted friend and adviser of all of them,
and the tutor of young Licinius.  Fausta herself, the
daughter of a pagan and the wife of an atheist, was as
nearly devoid of religious sentiment as it was ever possible
for a woman to become; and, like her husband, thought
that all faith is only superstition, which may be
advantageously used by a wise ruler for the government of
men; and understanding better than any one else that
Constantine regarded the free Arian spirit as the most
dangerous element in the political future of the empire,
she had cunningly employed every artifice and innuendo
that could tend to inflame his personal hatred of these
religious dissenters.  She affected to regard the riot in
the streets of Rome as arising from the machinations of
the Arian recusants.  Knowing that Constantine had only
once visited Rome since the overthrow of Maxentius, and
that he disliked the place, she pretended to desire that
he should fix his imperial residence at Rome, on the
ground that Milan was inconveniently situated, and that
both Nicomedia and Constantinople, being in the midst
of vast Arian communities, were unsafe for him.

She thought that the rioting in Rome gave her the
opportunity to take some decisive step in accomplishing
her long-cherished designs, and began more vehemently
to press her insidious suggestions upon the gloomy soul
of the atheist whom she knew to worship only himself.

"If the stone wherewith these Arian strangers who
are in the city marred the head of thy statue on the
Via Sacra had smitten thee, thou wouldst have been slain
at once."

"But," said the emperor, dryly, passing his hand over
his forehead, "I feel not the slightest pain from the
blow."

"The undirected mob is powerless against thee," she
said; "but this infamous act is but the unguarded
expression of a sentiment common to the millions of
Armenia, and to large numbers of the Egyptians and Syrians,
and to nearly all of the Goths."

"What hath caused thee so much uneasiness from
such a trifle as the throwing of a stone or two?  The royal
blood should despise such visionary fears."

"But the guardsman, Pilus, who hath lately come
from Illyricum, informeth me that in the garrison it is
commonly reported that the heretic Arius saith that,
if Christians could lawfully bear arms, the Arians of
Armenia and the Goths alone could seat Licinius upon
the throne of his father, and Crispus Cæsar upon thine."

"But neither Licinius, nor Crispus, nor the Arians,
cherish any such treasonable designs," said Constantine.

"I fear lest thou art lulled into a false security.
Ever anxious for thy safety and for thy glory, I have
consulted auguries and oracles, and, although these things
have no great weight with thee or with me as matters of
religious faith, the oracles were always valuable portents to
show the drift of popular opinion and desire; and no great
statesman can afford to despise them, for that which the
multitude long after doth sooner or later come to pass;
and all the divinations portend calamity to thee and thy
house from the Arians."

"But Licinius is a boy, and Crispus Cæsar is quiet,
modest, temperate, and unostentatious.  He hath neither
vices nor ambitions that require him to aspire higher
than he already standeth."

"Thou wouldst rather cease to be than cease to rule
the empire.  Dominion is the dominant passion of thy
lofty soul.  It is the marked characteristic of thy race.
There are other men mastered by similar ambition.  The
quiet, orderly life of Cæsar may blind the eyes of
mankind to an ambition that would hesitate at nothing.  Thy
father was such a temperate youth that he sacrificed all
common lusts and appetites to win the sovereignty of
Rome, and he would not have been contented long with
that if he had lived.  Thou didst inherit his nature
with his military genius, and thou hast lived moderately
in order to gain the sovereignty of the world.  Crispus
hath inherited from thee the great abilities which
enabled him to triumph on the Hellespont and share thy
glory, or rather take to himself the greater share.  He
would not forego the pleasures of youth and the advantages
of his great position unless he were constantly meditating
upon some great design.  Look to thyself, Augustus."

Such insidious counsels she constantly offered to the
jealous and cruel emperor, and they bore a deadly fruit.
Suddenly the gallant young Cæsar was seized, transported
to the gloomy fortress of Pola, imprisoned, and
then murdered, by order of "the most Christian
Emperor Constantine," "the favorite of God," "the
defender of the faith," his father!  Almost immediately
the young Licinius was snatched from the arms of his
mother, and put to death by the order of his uncle,
Constantine, "the first Christian Emperor of Rome."

"I have fortified my throne against all danger from
Crispus Cæsar and the Arians," said Constantine unto
himself.

"The road to royal favor and to future power is
opened for my splendid brood of Cæsars," murmured
Fausta under her breath.

"The Empress Fausta hath plotted against and murdered
my gallant son Crispus, and my grandson Licinius,
whom I loved.  I will be revenged upon the cruel
murderess or die!" was the unuttered comment of the
Empress-mother Helena; and from that hour, with the slow,
settled, and deliberate hatred of old age and hopeless
sorrow, she sought for the life of Fausta.

The world held its breath in horror at these fearful
crimes, and hardly did the historians of that age dare to
commit any account thereof unto posterity.  But it was
impossible for the officers of the Illyrian fortress, where
Arius was imprisoned, to speak of such atrocities
without some knowledge thereof coming to their quiet,
intelligent prisoner.  When he heard of the assassination
of Crispus Cæsar and of Licinius, the only comment
made by the stern, inflexible, incorruptible old heretic
was this: "A council of Christ's Church ought not to
be oecumenical and barren; and the first one already
beareth terrible but legitimate fruits."

The empress-mother, old Helena, continually and skillfully
directed the suspicions of her dark-souled, bloody
son against the Empress Fausta herself; and, when she
had prepared her vengeance so that she thought it could
not fail, she accused Fausta of infidelity to the emperor,
with that same Pilus, of the imperial guardsmen.  Many
craftily prepared circumstances corroborated the infamous
and degrading accusation, and quickly and secretly the
emperor put his wife to death.

"Small recompense for my great wrong," murmured
Helena, "but all that I can take; for the woman's
beautiful sons are also mine own grandchildren."

"I have no friend on earth," mused Constantine,
"except my mother and Eusebius of Cæsarea."

When the gloomy old prisoner of the Illyrian fortress
heard of the murder of Fausta, upon this disgraceful
charge of adultery with a guardsman, he said: "The grand
name of Constantine is soaked with domestic blood and
draggled in domestic filth.  The royal oecumenical council
beareth such strange and deadly fruit."

The officers of the fortress were held to be accountable
with their lives for the heretic's safe-keeping, and
vigilant spies reported to Constantine almost every word
he uttered, and stole and transmitted to the emperor
almost every line he wrote, and the old man's gloomy
comments upon the condition of the Church, and his strange
and seemingly inspired interpretations of prophecy, which
he supposed to relate to Constantine and his new city
of Constantinople, built upon seven hills, above the
narrow straits whereto the commerce of the world resorted,
doubtless aided Fausta's and Helena's conspiracies to lead
him into the commission of those horrible crimes which
shocked the moral sense of the world, and justified the
pagans in breathless wonder as to what new atrocities
would follow the legal establishment of the Christian
faith--atrocities that perhaps afterward drove Julian the
Apostate to struggle for the restoration of paganism.  And
doubtless Arius himself would long ago have perished,
if the emperor had not hoped to obtain from his
manuscripts and prophecies warning of every coming danger.





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.. _`AN IMPERIAL REPENTANCE`:

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   CHAPTER XII.


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   AN IMPERIAL REPENTANCE.

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But, although these secret horrors, which degraded the
noblest family of the empire, were kept as still as
private crimes, and men dared scarcely speak of them
except in terrified whispers, the knowledge thereof spread
abroad, until enough was known to fill the Christian
world with detestation of the emperor; and he whose
governing passion had been to rule mankind, and to
command their respect and reverence at any cost, found
himself to be held by the popular verdict as an
outcast from virtue and decency.  His iron soul was proof
against every shaft except this, but the wound it inflicted
upon his boundless self-love was bitter and incurable.
Realizing that he had outraged the moral sentiment of
Christendom by these atrocious crimes, the emperor
determined to overthrow what he called Christianity, and
re-establish the pagan religion, charging his crimes to
the blinding influences of the superstition and strong
magic of the Church, and thereby win for himself the
love and confidence of that large portion of his subjects
who still adhered to the ancient idolatries.  In
pursuance of this design, Constantine applied to the flamens
at Rome for purification from his domestic crimes, as
the first step toward the rehabilitation of his moral
nakedness and deformity; but the priests, who knew his
crafty, unscrupulous, cruel, and atheistic nature, and who
already had in training the young and gifted Julian,
seized this opportunity to gratify their theological hate,
by boldly declaring that the ancient rituals of paganism
did not know any form of expiation for such fearful
and unnecessary crimes as his.

Then Constantine turned away forever from heathenism,
and sent for Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, who assured
him that "in Christianity all sin, however great, may
find forgiveness: for He saveth unto the uttermost all
that come unto God by him."

"And what method must I use to secure this forgiveness?"
asked the emperor.

"Only true repentance toward God, and humble, sincere
faith in Jesus Christ," said the bishop.

Then, with a singular smile, Constantine looked at
the bishop and answered: "Bishop, thou dost forget that
thou art not now talking to a woman taken in adultery,
nor to a thief upon the cross.  Farewell!"

And with a wave of the hand the emperor contemptuously
dismissed him.

But Constantine could not endure the popular detestation
of which he knew himself to be justly the object, and
as a last resort he sent for Eusebius of Cæsarea.  Eusebius
knew the emperor fully as well as the emperor knew him,
and, of course, knew that he might as well chant psalms
to a deaf ass as to recommend faith and repentance to the
imperial atheist, as Hosius of Cordova had innocently
endeavored to do.  When Eusebius came before the
emperor, Constantine spoke to him in a light, bantering tone,
saying: "Bishop, Crispus Cæsar became infatuated with
the idea that he was great enough to wear my sandals and
to wield my spear even while I live; and the young man
met with a fatal accident.  The youth Licinius, and the
woman Fausta, exposed themselves to some unwholesome
atmosphere, and the results of their indiscretion were
deleterious to their health.  These events have happened
unfortunately for me, and I require thine unfailing aid in
avoiding further inconvenience from them.  What canst
thou do for me?"

"Could not the flamens of Jupiter give thy burdened
conscience rest?" said the bishop, quietly, but with
malicious pleasure.

"No," answered Constantine, laughing.  "The priests
are good haters--somewhat too demonstrative, perhaps,
but steady and reliable in their antipathies; and so they
took out their spite upon me the first time Fate gave them
an opportunity."

"Could not the most learned and holy Hosius point
out to thee the road to peace?"

"No, indeed.  That respectable idiot began some sort
of mummery concerning faith and repentance; but I cut
him short.  Bishop, thou wert not wont to be so difficult.
I confess that, since the Council of Nicea, I have not done
justice to thy superior merit, and have even felt somewhat
estranged from thee.  Forget all that, and let us once
more be friends."

"Augustus," said the bishop, "I have keenly felt the
withdrawal of thy favor, although I have complained to
no one.  I think that, if it had been otherwise, I could
have showed thee sufficient reasons for avoiding some
terrible mistakes.  What is the exact difficulty which
these mistakes have led thee upon?"

"The Arians are rejoiced by any occurrence that
gives them a pretext for railing at me; the orthodox
Christians have the unblushing impudence to attempt to
sit in judgment upon the actions of the emperor that
rescued them from persecutions, and affect to be shocked
thereby, just as if they were fit to judge his deeds or
comprehend his policy; the implacable flamens hope to make
such use of these accidents as to lead the world back to
paganism without my aid.  The Arians hate me because
I would not permit them to establish a kingdom in the
empire of which I was not to be the king.  Thou must
find some way to conciliate the fools, for the hearts of all
men are estranged from me; and, as thou hast always
known, I would rather rule by love than by terror.  But
rule I will, while I shall live.  Now, how can I regain my
former hold upon either the pagan or the Christian world?"

"Thou must first of all definitely abandon the idea
that the empire can ever return to paganism," said
Eusebius.  "The amazing progress of Christianity among the
people and the rapid decline of heathenism demonstrate
that the old religion hath almost ceased to be a political
force, and any emperor who would seek to re-establish it
is foredoomed to certain failure."

"Let that pass.  Ye bishops always regard the Church
as the first thing to be considered.  I concede that thou
art right.  What then?"

"Thou must also understand," said Eusebius, with
malicious pleasure, "that, while the will of the emperor is
the law of the land, it is no longer the standard of right
and wrong for Christians.  Thy statutes may control
political life, and prescribe the external forms of worship for
the Church: its conscience hath passed even beyond thy
control."

Constantine turned white with wrath.

"The impudent beggars!" he cried, "whom I redeemed
from tortures and from death!  Where, then, was
their 'conscience' when the council subverted the kingdom
of heaven upon earth, and they all signed the decree
which abolished the earthly sovereignty of Christ?  But,"
checking his furious anger with a mighty effort, "what next?"

"If a man hath done a crime," said Eusebius, "no
matter how cruel and unnatural, the Christians
understand that he may obtain forgiveness for his sin by
repentance and faith, even as King David did in the matter
of Bath-sheba."

"Well!" said Constantine, impatiently.

"The Christian world will never pardon thee without
this repentance and faith, or the appearance of it," said
Eusebius, and he uttered the last few words in a low,
peculiar tone.

"And what shape might 'the appearance of it' assume?"
asked the emperor, with a laugh.

"Thou mightst go in sackcloth and ashes unto the
church and publicly pray to God and man for pardon!"

"And I might far sooner hang up a bishop and exterminate
a sect that would seriously insist upon any such
degrading terms!"

"So I supposed," said Eusebius, "and even then such
a course would only be 'the appearance' of faith and
repentance, not the things themselves.  But thou mightst
build a church and dedicate it unto the memory of Cæsar;
or set up his statue, with an inscription intimating that
he was the victim of a mistake, and the object of affectionate
and sorrowful remembrance.  Either of these 'appearances
of it' might be sufficient."

"That will answer," cried Constantine.  "Crispus
Cæsar was a handsome man, and an excellent subject for
a statue.  The statue shall be of gold, and the inscription
shall be, 'To Crispus, mine injured and innocent son.'  Will
that, think you, reconcile the orthodox?  Or what
else dost thou advise?"

"The Empress-mother Helena should exhibit some
similar token of repentance for her hatred of the Empress
Fausta."

"And what 'appearance of it' should her faith and
repentance assume?" said Constantine, laughing merrily.

"Recently," replied Eusebius, "a lively interest hath
sprung up throughout the Church in the 'holy places' in
Palestine.  If the empress should make a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land, and found there a handsome church and some
sacred shrines, she would cease to annoy thee, amuse
herself, and do a great work toward restoring the love and
confidence of Christians to thyself and her."

"Thou art a true and glorious bishop," laughed the
emperor, "and thou dost never forget the welfare of the
Church.  The empress-mother shall go quickly on her
sacred pilgrimage, and all the holy places shall rejoice.  Is
not that enough?  Or is there yet something more?"

"This would suffice for the orthodox," said Eusebius;
"but years have passed since the Council of Nicea.  Time
hath assuaged the bitterness of former days, which would,
perhaps, have faded out altogether but that the
banishment of Arius keepeth it alive.  If thou wouldst
reconcile the whole Church unto thyself, recall and even show
some special honor to the Libyan."

"Thou hast reserved thy bitterest medicine for the last!"

"But it is necessary, Augustus.  For days past thy
sister Constantia, who is even now upon the bed of death,
hath entreated me that I would come unto thee and ask
thee to visit her, that she might make it her dying request
that thou recall Arius and restore his church to him.
Of course I could not come till thou didst order it."  And
then the bishop, fixing his eyes firmly upon the
face of Constantine, with his right hand extended, said
with inexpressible dignity: "Augustus, thy sister's
husband, Licinius, the Emperor of the East, and her only
son, Licinius, both perished by thine own order; yet
her devotion unto thee hath never faltered.  Surely thou
canst not refuse her dying supplications!"

Constantine's face for once grew soft with a genuine
emotion of humanity, and he replied: "Surely not,
bishop!  I always loved Constantia.  I will visit her,
and do whatever she desires."

"Go to-day, then," said Eusebius, "for she hath but
few hours more to live."

And Constantine went; and the long and sorely tried
and deeply injured, but still faithful and loving sister,
with her dying breath besought him to recall the great
and holy Arius, and restore the peace and unity of the
Church and of the empire; and with a mighty oath (as
usual) he promised so to do.





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.. _`WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT`:

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   CHAPTER XIII.


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   WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT.

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During the slow lapse of all the years which had
passed away since the date of the Nicene Council, Arius
the Libyan was almost as much dead unto the world
as if he had indeed departed from this life.  None,
except the emperor and a few trusted officers, knew
anything more of him than that he was kept a close prisoner
somewhere in Illyricum, none knew precisely where; and
so carefully was the secret guarded, that even unto this
day the precise place and manner of his imprisonment
remain entirely unknown.  For a few years after he had
disappeared so suddenly, there were now and then vague
rumors in circulation that some of his devoted adherents
had discovered the location of his prison, and were
plotting to deliver him therefrom; and the same rumors
indefinitely connected the names of Crispus Cæsar and
of young Licinius with these revolutionary designs; and
cunning Fausta had used these rumors, with remorseless
skill and intelligence, to the destruction of them both.
But whether these were merely vague and idle surmises,
whether there was some foundation in fact for them, or
whether the crafty emperor himself had invented and
floated them, in order to justify the murders upon which
he had already determined, will forever be unknown.
For, upon the perpetration of these enormous crimes, a
mist of horror overspread the empire that hid the name
and memory of the Libyan from the popular gaze, and
thenceforth absolutely nothing was known of him until
he suddenly and unexpectedly appeared at Constantinople.

A few days after the funeral of Constantia, Constantine
summoned Eusebius and said unto him: "Bishop,
I swore unto Constantia that I would recall Arius speedily,
and I will keep mine oath; for reflection convinceth
me that piety in this regard is true policy also.  In
what manner dost thou deem it most fitting to effectuate
this purpose?"

"Do it like a Christian, like a statesman, like an
emperor," said Eusebius, "with a whole heart, generously!
And let there be nothing small, or niggardly, or
mean, in thine action.  A few narrow-minded ones among
the orthodox may for a while murmur at it; but the
Arians will rejoice, and all Christians and all men will say
it was a noble thing to do!  Therefore, let it be done
in a grand and princely way!"

"Particularize the programme which thou thinkest to
be 'grand' and 'princely.'"

"Let free pardon be granted unto Arius, without
conditions of any kind whatever.  Let proclamation be
made that the presbyter will be received into communion
again, in thine own city and in thine own church, and
then transferred to his old pastoral charge, the Baucalis
church in Alexandria, and so recompense his sufferings
with a triumphant return, and receive him at the church-door
in thine own person!"

"It shall so be done at once," answered Constantine.
"No apologies or explanations to be demanded or
received.  Do thou immediately set a day, and carefully
arrange all the details of the ceremony as thou wilt.
I will have the old heretic here at the appointed time."

And Eusebius with a glad heart set to work to carry
the emperor's design into effect.  Some among the
orthodox murmured, and on the evening before the day
appointed, Alexander, the Bishop of Constantinople, was
heard to exclaim, "Let me, or Arius, die before tomorrow!"

But the emperor's will could not be resisted; and,
although the orthodox shuddered to acknowledge as a
brother beloved and equal one whom they had always
branded as a heretic, the secularized, imperial Church
must commit treason or obey; for the royal oecumenical
council had borne, along with other fruit, this, that a
difference of religious faith and action might very easily
constitute the crime of treason against the emperor.

On the day which had been set apart for the solemn
pageantry, Arius was brought by chosen officers to the
lodgings where the Eusebii abode when in the city; but,
designing to prepare for the long-imprisoned Libyan all
the delightful surprise which a sudden realization of the
great change in his condition might afford, the Eusebii
had not permitted any one to inform him fully of the
matters contemplated.  They even doubted, also, whether
the grand, ascetic, incorruptible old man would enter an
imperial church to receive honor at the hands of an
earthly sovereign unless he should be taken by surprise.  When,
therefore, the next morning, at the appointed hour, they
took places upon each side of him, and invited him to
walk with them and view the grand and beautiful
metropolitan church, the ancient man went forth not
knowing what special purpose was contemplated.  And as they
drew nearer unto the church, and beheld a vast concourse
of people in holiday attire, and ranks of soldiers in
magnificent array, with banners flying, and heard the mighty
shouts that seemed to rend the heavens, "Glory to
Constantine, the favorite of God!"  "Long live Arius, the
great and faithful presbyter!" the Libyan paused, and,
gazing upon the Eusebii, inquired, "Bishops, beloved, what
mean these mighty clamors, and these salutations of
Constantine and Arius?"

And they answered, "Father, come on with us and
thou shalt gladly see."

"Not a step more, until ye have told me all!"

"It meaneth that thou art recalled, not only to
Constantinople, but to the very bosom of the Church, subject
to no conditions whatever!  And the emperor himself
waits at the door yonder to welcome and to honor thee."

Then brake the strong heart within him of a hopeless
sorrow, and, faintly murmuring these words, 'The
Antichrist hath triumphed here where Satan hath his seat!'
a convulsion seized upon him, and, as the two steadfast
friends strove to hold him up, the gigantic form of the
grand old man glided slowly down between them, and lay
prone upon the pavement, as if the spirit had gone out
of him forever.  And presently a slight contortion swept
over the great, gaunt frame; the bony right hand
extended itself upward, waving gently from side to side; the
rough and noble head darted forward upon the long, lithe
neck; a tender smile, ineffably soft and sweet, played
around the weary, patient mouth, and lighted up the
somber eyes and haggard countenance with joy and beauty;
and gazing far away, as if his sight could pierce the
bending heavens, he sweetly murmured, 'Jesus, and Theckla
also!'  Then darkness fell upon the weary face and
eyes; the mighty limbs relaxed once more; and he lay
still upon the rocky way.

Arius the Libyan was dead!

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   THE END.

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