Without the Bible it could not have been, my love. There was a man named Constantine dwelling in Mananalis; and to his house he brought, and for some days hospitably entertained, a poor deacon, who had been taken prisoner by the Syrians, and having obtained his liberty was returning to his own country, and passed through the village on his way. Wishing to give his kind host some little parting token, the deacon presented him with two books which he had brought out of Syria. One was the gospel; the other the epistles of St. Paul." Oh, how glad I am!' cried Fanny. Go on, Mamma.'

The Manichee read these books; God opened the eyes of his mind, and he became wise unto salvation, by faith which is in Christ Jesus.'

'No doubt he began at once to teach his neighbors,' observed Thomas.

My children, it is an extraordinary circumstance, that every single particular relating to those people is to be found only in the history related by their persecuting murderers, who, while describing them as the worst of criminals, have given us the account that I am repeating to you. Not a word written by them, or by any of their friends, has ever been discovered.'

That renders the evidence more certain,' said

Robert, so far as it can be turned to their advantage.'

6

At the same time it renders that evidence not only imperfect, but exceedingly partial and unjust. However, it appears that those books, that is to say one of the gospels and the epistles of Paul, were all that the people of Mananalis possessed of the Holy Bible, so that their knowledge was not very great.' • But it was enough to save their souls,' observed Frank, and to make them a true church too; for, you know, Mamma, the apostles went and preached to idolators, who knew nothing of the Jewish Scriptures, and as many as believed his word were saved. He left a church in every place, though it were but one household.'

Frank is right,' said Robert.

Mrs. Willis proceeded: Constantine, being fully convinced of the truth of the gospel, changed his name to Sylvanus, resolving to become a pastor to the little flock that he might gather about him; and for twenty-seven years he lived peaceably in that same village, making many converts to the faith. They utterly rejected all the blasphemous books and doctrines of Manichæism on one hand; and on the other, they, of course, and without knowing that such notions existed, were prepared to reject the inventions of Popery. Transubstantiation and the worship of the virgin were plainly against the truths

that they had learned from holy Scripture; and when afterwards called on as Christians to believe them, they preferred death to such a departure from the truth. At the end of the twenty-seven years, the emperor sent down into Armenia an officer named Simeon, with a band of soldiers, commanding them to stone Sylvanus, and to disperse his followers. Simeon seized them all, and led them away to a spot near the village, where he placed Sylvanus in the midst, and ordered his own disciples to stone him.'

What a wicked, cruel order" said Fanny; 'surely they did not obey it ?

No, they said their teacher had been sent to them by the Lord; and in spite of the threats of their powerful enemies, they threw away, behind their backs, the great stones that they were commanded to hurl at him. But, alas! as in the first twelve, and as in the church in all ages, a traitor was to be found. A disciple named Justus acted this wicked part; and by his hand alone, and no doubt with great suffering, and after many cruel blows, the good Sylvanus was murdered.'

But it was the emperor, not the pope who committed this wickedness,' observed Robert.

The

eastern, not the western church, was the persecutor.

• Christianity was then as corrupt in the East as in the West. answered his mother,

though its

professed heads had not set up such arrogant pretensions. I am not charging upon Rome the shedding of this innocent blood, but showing you where to look, at the period of almost universal apostacy, for the true church of Christ-a witnessing church, which, rejecting all man's inventions, maintained the simple faith of the gospel, loving not their lives unto the death, but willingly suffering for Christ's sake and the gospel. We do not know the exact grounds on which Sylvanus was put to death, because we have none of the writings of his little church; but his fate resembling that of Stephen, produced the same results, in the conversion of the murderer.'

No, he continued the bitter enemy of his brethren, doing them all the injury in his power, as you shall hear; but Simeon himself, the imperial commander, who had made himself acquainted with the belief of his victims, when he returned to court, 'could not shake off the convictions that the Lord had awakened in his mind. He tried for three or four years to stifle them; and then, no longer able to resist the Holy Spirit, he gave up the world with all its false delights, and dedicated himself to God: not by going into a monastry, as was the custom of that superstitious age, but, casting off the corrupt doctrines that he had been brought up in, he em

braced the pure faith, went to a place called Cibossa, assembled the scattered Paulicians, and became to the poor flock all that Sylvanus had been. He took the name of Titus, and continued to be their spiritual leader, until the arm of ungodly power was again stretched forth to sweep away, if it could, this simple church of Christ from the earth.'

Thomas repeated, "The time cometh when whosoever killeth you shall think he doeth God service.”

The traitor, Justus, had been forgiven by his brethren, and admitted into their company again : but after a time some controversy sprung up between him and Titus; where the latter, no doubt, held the right view. Justus, defeated, went to a bigoted bishop of Colonia, and lodged an accusation against the flock. This bishop, who according to the authority that you quote, Robert, must have been a pastor of the church of Christ, immediately appealed to the emperor to extirpate the heresy by destroying the heretics; and in consequence of his application a huge fire was kindled, heaped up to an immense height, and in one dreadful pile Titus with his believing brethren to the number of some hundreds, were together burned alive."

A shudder ran through the little party, and Thomas said, 'I never heard of a more horrible butchery: Mamma, the scene must have been so dreadful that I can scarcely bear to fancy it.'