of Serenus
having put the officer to the blush for his wife's action, which was too
plain an indication of her wicked purpose and design, he dropped his
prosecution against the innocent gardener, and withdrew out of court.

But the governor, understanding by this answer that Serenus was a man of
virtue, suspected by it that he might be a Christian, such being the
most likely, he thought, to resent visits from ladies at improper hours.
Wherefore, instead of discharging him, he began to question him on this
head, saying: "Who are you, and what is your religion?" Serenus, without
hesitating one moment, answered: "I am a Christian." The governor said:
"Where have you concealed yourself? and how have you avoided sacrificing
to the gods?" "It has pleased God," replied Serenus, "to reserve me for
this present time. It seemed awhile ago as if he rejected me as a stone
unfit to enter his building, but he has the goodness to take me now to
be placed in it; I am ready to suffer all things for his name, that I
may have a part in his kingdom with his saints." The governor, hearing
this generous answer, burst into rage, and said: "Since you sought to
elude by flight the emperor's edicts, and have positively refused to
sacrifice to the gods, I condemn you for these crimes to lose your
head." The sentence was no sooner pronounced, but the saint was carried
off and led to the place of execution, where he was beheaded, on the 23d
of February, in 307. The ancient Martyrology attributed to St. Jerom,
published at Lucca by Florentinius, joins with him sixty-two others,
who, at different times, were crowned at Sirmium. The Roman Martyrology,
with others, says seventy-two.

The garden affords a beautiful emblem of a Christian's continual
progress to the path of virtue. Plants always mount upwards, and never
stop in their growth till they have attained to that maturity which the
author of nature has prescribed: all the nourishment they,receive ought
to tend to this end; if any part wastes itself in superfluities, this is
a kind of disease. So in a Christian, every thing ought to carry him
towards that perfection which the sanctity of his state requires; and
every desire of his soul, every action of his life, to be a step
advancing to this in a direct line. When all his inclinations have one
uniform bent, and all his labors the same tendency, his progress must be
great, because uninterrupted, however imperceptible it may often appear.
Even his