ON THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. "They stood prepared to die; a people doomed Was bliss." GRAHAME'S SABBATH. FRANCES. ELLEN, I think you will hurt your eyes if you read any more before the candles are lighted. ELLEN. Yes, I believe I must leave off. It is what little Frederick calls "blindman's holiday." We must be idle till Anne rings for the candles. ANNE. We need not be idle. You know we can talk of what we have been reading. ELLEN. Oh! then suppose, Anne, instead of our giving you an account of what we have been reading, you give an account of your book to us. HARRIETTE. Oh, yes!-do, pray; I shall like it very much; that is, if it is about any thing I can understand. ANNE. I think you will be able to understand it very well. It is an account of the cruel manner in which some of the early Christians were treated who lived at Lyons and Vienne, in Gaul, which you know was the ancient name of France. ELLEN. I did not know it before. Well, how did the people treat them? ANNE. They began by not allowing the Christians to go to the baths, the markets, or any public places. Then they proceeded to insult them in the most outrageous manner, dragging them about, destroying their property, and obliging them to keep within their houses. After this, the inhabitants made them appear before the magistrates, and on confessing themselves to be Christians, they were sent to prison till the president of the province arrived. Being brought before him, about ten of the Christians, frightened at the prospect of punishment, renounced their religion, that is, declared they were not Christians. HARRIETTE. Cowardly people! They ought to have recollected that Jesus Christ said, whoever was ashamed of him, of them would he himself also be ashamed. These are not quite the words, but that is the meaning. ANNE. The magistrates having given strict orders that enquiry should be made into the conduct and supposed crimes of the Christians, some wicked people were prevailed upon to accuse them of eating human flesh, and many other shocking things. ELLEN. Eating human flesh! I don't wonder at the people being shocked, if they thought the Christians would do that. FRANCES. But they should not have been so ready to believe it, Ellen; if they had made proper enquiries, they would have become convinced of their mistake. ANNE. At this accusation, the rage of the people was raised to the highest pitch. They immediately began to torture the Christians in different dreadful ways, to make them confess that what was said of them was true. One of the Christians was a young girl called Blandina, a slave. ELLEN. How dreadful! They ought to have been ashamed of torturing women and girls. ANNE. Many persons, and especially Blandina's mistress, were afraid the torture would be too much for her. But she bore it very patiently, in many different ways, from morning till evening, to the surprise of every body who saw her; and she seemed to relieve herself, by saying continually that she was a Christian, and that the Christians were innocent people. HARRIETTE. I am glad she bore pain so well. Go on. ANNE. There was another Christian, a man named Sanctus, who, to all the cruel questions they asked him, answered nothing but that he was a Christian. This provoked the executioners so much that they put plates of red hot iron all over his body, till he was one continued wound all over, and scarcely looked like a human creature. ELLEN and HARRIETTE together. Oh! how could they be so cruel! ANNE. One of those ten persons, who I told you had been frightened, and pretended they were not Christians, was a woman named Biblias, who now, filled with remorse at the untruth she had told, openly denied what she had before said, and asked, "How could the Christians eat infants, or drink their blood, when they would not even eat the blood of brute animals?" In consequence of this she was added to the martyrs. FRANCES. I knew that the Jews were not allowed to |