his purpose. He soon saw
the lighted torches streaming off in every direction in search of him,
and to avoid his pursuers, turned aside a short distance, and climbed
into a tree. From this situation he did not dare to come down till the
night was fairly gone, when he shifted the position of his clothes,
turning his cloak inside out, using his turban for a girdle and his
girdle for a turban, and took his way. He had, however, not proceeded
far, when one of the patriarch's men discovered him, and called out,
"Asaad is it you?" He answered, "it is I." The man immediately caught
him, like a greedy wolf, bound him, beat him, and drove him before him,
as a slave, or a brute, to Cannobeen. On their way they were met by many
others who had been sent off in quest of him, who all united with the
captor in his brutal treatment. On his arrival, the patriarch gave
immediate orders for his punishment, and they fell upon him with
reproaches, caning him and smiting him with their hands; and so it was,
that as often as they struck him on one cheek, he turned to them the
other also. "This," said he, "is a joyful day to me. My blessed Lord and
Master has said, 'Bless them that curse you, and if they strike you on
the right cheek turn to them the left also.' This I have been enabled to
do, and I am ready to suffer even more than this for him, who was
beaten, and spit upon, and led as a sheep to the slaughter, on our
account." When they heard this, they fell to beating him anew saying,
"Have we need of your preaching, thou deceiver? Of what avail are such
pretensions in one who is in the broad way to perdition?" He replied,
"he that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, hath eternal
life." "Ah," said they, "this is what blinds you. Your salvation is _by
faith alone in Christ_; thus you cast contempt on his mother, and his
saints; you deny the presence of his holy body on earth;"--and they
threw him on the ground, overwhelmed with the multitude of their blows.
For three successive days, he was subjected to the bastinado, by order
of the patriarch, who, after that, summoned him to his presence, and
demanded of him his faith. "I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus of
Nazareth." Those present exhorted him to acknowledge the intercession of
the saints, and to repair to them for help in this hour of trial. But he
refused, saying, "My help is in him who shed his blood for sinners."
"But have the saints," said they, "no intercession, and is