when enclosed by enemies, and in danger of dying for want of water, these pious men joined in prayer to Him who had granted supplies of rain to the prayers of His prophets, and soon a storm of thunder and lightning affrighted the enemy, and torrents of rain refreshed the perishing Romans. The emperor ascribed this to the power of his false gods, the Christians to the efficacy of prayer, and many doubtless to a mere accident.

I have not told you yet all I have to say of the reign of Marcus Antoninus, but as this story is already a long one, I must stop for the present. In the sixth year of this reign, A. D. 167, Polycarp was martyred, but as Marcus lived long after, and still persecuted the church, I must speak of him again.

CENTURY II.

CONTINUED.

MARCUS ANTONINUS-CHURCHES OF LYONS AND

VIENNE.

I HAVE now something to tell you of a country we have not yet found named in the history of the church. You all well know the name of France; at the time I am going to speak of, it was called Gaul, or Gallia. In this country were two cities, then and still remarkable. You have heard of Lyons, and of Vienne. Vienne was an ancient colony of Rome; Lyons, a more modern city, ranks at present next to Paris in population and size. It is situated admirably for commerce, on the junction of the Rhone and Saone, and this it is supposed occasioned this city to be so soon acquainted with Christianity; for the merchants who traded between Smyrna and Lyons might carry the knowledge of a true religion to the latter. But however they might have gained the knowledge of Christ's religion, they proved that it was with them in power and not in name only." The Christians

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of Lyons and Vienne were not behind those of Smyrna or of Rome, in faith, in love, or in sufferings. The latter, it is true, sprang from the former two, for because of the faith of the Lord Jesus, and of the love they bore him, were these pious people made the subjects of sufferings so intense, that I am sure you could not bear a full recital of them.

The

The power and rage of Marcus reached even to these cities; but in order to give you an idea of the state of the Christian church at those places, I will make a short extract from the epistle they sent to their brethren in Asia. It begins thus: servants of Christ, sojourning in Vienne and Lyons, in France, to the brethren in Asia who have the same faith and hope of redemption with us, peace and grace, and glory from God the Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord.

'We are not competent to describe with accuracy, nor is it in our power to express the greatness of the affliction sustained here by the saints, the animosity of the heathen against them, and the complicated suffering of the blessed martyrs.'

This epistle goes on to tell of the fury of persecution, and the number of the sufferers; and expresses the fear the Christians felt lest any weak members of their church, fearing the tortures of the persecutors, should be induced to forsake the faith; ten indeed actually did so, and the Christians deeply lamented this sad proof of weakness.

The most horrid and unnatural crimes were charged against them; they were accused of eating human flesh, and of every horrid evil that could irritate men against them; so that they were made to remember the words of our Lord, when he said, "the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think he doeth God service."

The whole fury of the soldiers and the multitude seemed, they say, to be poured out in a particular manner upon Sanctus of Vienne, Maturus, Attalus of Pergamus, and Blandina.

The last, though a weak and timid woman, endured every species of torture with unshaken fortitude, and seemed amidst them all,' while her body was torn and laid open with wounds, to call up her strength to say, 'I am a Christian, and no evil is committed among us.'

Sanctus, too, was superior to suffering, and though so tortured that after death his body no longer retained the appearance of a human form, he joined with his brethren in evincing that through the sustaining power of God, in all these things they were more than conquerors.

Many were driven to deny their Lord in this time of horror; yet alas! this denial availed them not, they too suffered, and in their sufferings were uncheered by the blessed hope, and unsupported by the powerful love that gave strength, and peace, and joy to the martyrs.

One female, who through fear had denied her Lord, and thus falling into the snare of Satan, was

left, as he usually leaves his victims, to their own helpless wretchedness, and was led to the torture in order to extort from her the confession of the crimes practised among Christians; her sufferings, however, brought her sins to her remembrance, and reminding her, I suppose, of the torments that await those who having denied Christ upon earth shall be denied before the angels of heaven, she declared herself once more a Christian, and denied the charges foolishly and maliciously brought against the Christians.

Almost all the ingenuity of malice was exhausted in torturing the people of Lyons and Vienne: in the words of their epistle, the martyrs were put to death in various ways, or in other words, they wore a chaplet of various flowers, and presented it to the Father.' And perhaps not even the insatiable malice of the persecutors was more painful to those afflicted Christians than the questions of some who pitied their condition, and would, if they could, have assisted them: Where is your God?' would these more humane Pagans ask, and what profit do ye derive from your religion, which ye value above life itself?' Do you remember what David says, "Wherefore should the heathen say, where is now their God." Thus does the man of this world triumph over the afflicted child of God, not knowing that God loveth whom he chasteneth, and is a very present help in every time of trouble.' As for ourselves,' say the writers of this epistle, 'our sorrows were greatly increased