nd
shut up fast in prison; but while they were getting ready the
instruments of execution, _the prison doors came open of their own
accord, and the chains fell from his limbs_, and when they looked for
him he was nowhere to be found.[257:6] Here is still another edition of
"Peter in prison."

_AEsculapius_ was another great performer of miracles. The ancient Greeks
said of him that he not only cured the sick of the most malignant
diseases, _but even raised the dead_.

A writer in Bell's Pantheon says:

"As the Greeks always carried the encomiums of their great men
beyond the truth, so they feigned that AEsculapius was so
expert in medicine as not only to cure the sick, but even to
raise the dead."[258:1]

Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian, speaking of AEsculapius, says:

"He sometimes appeared unto them (the Cilicians) in dreams and
visions, and sometimes restored the sick to health."

He claims, however, that this was the work of the DEVIL, "who by this
means did withdraw the minds of men from the knowledge of the _true_
SAVIOUR."[258:2]

For many years after the death of AEsculapius, miracles continued to be
performed by the efficacy of faith in his name. Patients were conveyed
to the temple of AEsculapius, and there cured of their disease. A short
statement of the symptoms of each case, and the remedy employed, were
inscribed on tablets and hung up in the temples.[258:3] There were also
a multitude of eyes, ears, hands, feet, and other members of the human
body, made of wax, silver, or gold, and presented by those whom the god
had cured of blindness, deafness, and other diseases.[258:4]

Marinus, a scholar of the philosopher Proclus, relates one of these
remarkable cures, in the life of his master. He says:

"Asclipigenia, a young maiden who had lived with her parents,
was seized with a grievous distemper, incurable by the
physicians. All help from the physicians failing, the father
applied to the philosopher, earnestly entreating him to pray
for his daughter. Proclus, full of faith, went to the temple
of AEsculapius, intending to pray for the sick young woman to
the god--for the city (Athens) was at that time blessed in
him, and still enjoyed the undemolished temple of THE
SAVIOUR--but while he was praying, a sudden change appeared in
the damsel, and she immediately became convalescent, for the
_Saviour_, AEsculapiu