with
you. Ye will also have regard unto his sister when she shall come unto
you. Be ye safe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in favor with all yours.
Amen.

PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS IN GAUL

A.D. 177

FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT

That the persecutions of Christians under the Roman Empire should
have been inaugurated by a Nero is not a subject of wonder in view
of that Emperor's character as depicted in history through all ages
since his own. But it is difficult to understand how an emperor
like Trajan--an enlightened and humane ruler--if he was powerless
to prevent, could have brought himself to give countenance to a
policy at once so intolerant and cruel, and in the end to prove so
short-sighted. A great cause prospers by persecution. The
martyr-spirit is strengthened by blows and fagots. History has well
proved the truth of that saying of the Church Fathers, tersely
given by St. Jerome: _Est sanguis martyrium seminarium Ecclesiarum_
("The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church").

Still more incomprehensible to modern students is the fact that
Marcus Aurelius, the imperial philosopher and benevolent man,
should also be stained with the infamy of the persecutions. The
charges brought against him as a cruel persecutor of the Christians
have given rise to much dispute among historical scholars. Among
modern Christian writers of favorable disposition toward Marcus, F.
W. Farrar has perhaps as clearly as any set forth the views that
explain his conduct and vindicate his reputation for humanity:
"That he shared the profound dislike with which Christians were
regarded is very probable. That he was a cold-blooded and virulent
persecutor is utterly unlike his whole character. The deep
calamities in which during his whole reign the empire was involved
caused widespread distress, and roused into peculiar fury the
feelings of the provincials against men whose atheism (for such
they considered it to be) had kindled the anger of the gods.
Marcus, when appealed to, simply let the existing law take its
course." In like manner the purely official or legal view of human
affairs often leads the most kindly and conscientious of men to
pursue or acquiesce in policies against which, in different
situations, their moral nature would rebel.

There were many rea