not to endanger their lives. But, kneeling in the centre
of the arena, they prayed and sang until they were devoured.
How helpless they seemed and, measured by every human rule, how
hopeless was their cause! And yet within a few decades the
power which they invoked proved mightier than the legions of the
emperor, and the faith in which they died was triumphant o'er
all that land. It is said that those who went to mock at their
sufferings returned asking themselves, 'What is it that can enter into
the heart of man and make him die as these die?' They were greater
conquerors in their death than they could have been had they
purchased life by a surrender of their faith.

"What would have been the fate of the Church if the early Christians
had had as little faith as many of our Christians now have? And, on
the other hand, if the Christians of to-day had the faith of the
martyrs, how long would it be before the fulfilment of the prophecy
that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess?

"Our faith should be even stronger than the faith of those who
lived two thousand years ago, for we see our religion spreading
and supplanting the philosophies and creeds of the Orient.

"As the Christian grows older he appreciates more and more the
completeness with which Christ fills the requirements of the heart
and, grateful for the peace which he enjoys and for the strength
which he has received, he repeats the words of the great scholar, Sir
William Jones:

'Before thy mystic altar, heavenly truth,
I kneel in manhood, as I knelt in youth.
Thus let me kneel, till this dull form decay,
And life's last shade be brightened by thy ray.'"

XXX
THE COLONELS

A CONVIVIAL MEETING OF LAWYERS--HILARITY SMOTHERED BY THE MAINE
LAW--A FAINTING WAYFARER IS REFUSED A DRINK IN A MAINE VILLAGE--
THE APOTHECARY DEMANDS A PHYSICIAN'S PRESCRIPTION--SNAKE-BITES
IN GREAT DEMAND.

Some years ago, I spent a few weeks of inclement weather in a
beautiful village in southern Georgia. Upon calling at his office
to renew my acquaintance with a well-known lawyer, he soon invited
in the remaining members of the local bar. Everything was propitious,
and the conversation never for a moment flagged, many experiences
of the legal practitioners of the South and of the North being
related with happy effect.

I at length remarked that since my arrival, I had, somewhat to
my surprise, learned that "local option" had been adopted in their
c