much as He had taken
upon Himself to die on the cross for love of them.

To a highly cultured race like the Alexandrians it had long seemed an
absurdity to try to purchase the favor of the god; by blood-offerings.
Many philosophical sects, and especially the Pythagoreans, had forbidden
such sacrifices, and had enjoined the bringing of offerings not to
purchase good fortune, but only to honor the gods; and now they saw the
Christians not making any offerings at all, but sharing a love-feast.
This, as they declared, was to keep them in remembrance of their
brotherhood and of their crucified Lord, whose blood, once shed, His
heavenly Father had accepted instead of every other sacrifice. The
voluntary and agonizing death of the Redeemer had saved the soul of
every Christian from sin and damnation; and many who in the late scenes
of horror had been inconsolable in anticipation of the grave, felt moved
to share in this divine gift of grace.

Beautiful, wise, and convincing sentences from the Bible went from lip
to lip; and a saying of Clemens, whose immense learning was well known,
was especially effective and popular. He had said that "faith was
knowledge of divine things through revelation, but that learning
must give the proof thereof"; and this speech led many men of high
attainments to study the new doctrines.

The lower classes were no doubt those most strongly attracted, the poor
and the slaves; and with them the sorrowing and oppressed. There were
many of these now in the town; ten thousand had seen those dearest
to them perish, and others, being wounded, had within a few days been
ruined both in health and estate.

As to Melissa in her peril, so to all these the Saviour's call to the
heavy-laden that He would give them rest had come as a promise of new
hope to car and heart. At the sound of these words they saw the buds
of a new spring-time for the soul before their eyes; any one who knew
a Christian improved his intimacy that he might hear more about the
tender-hearted Comforter, the Friend of children, the kind and helpful
Patron of the poor, the sorrowful, and the oppressed.

Assemblies of any kind were prohibited by the new governor; but the law
of Aelius Marcianus allowed gatherings for religious purposes, and the
learned lawyer, Johannes, directed his fellow-Christians to rely on
that. All Alexandria was bidden to these meetings, and the text with
which Andreas opened the first, "Now the fullness of time i