n to the
Church at Rome, and was sent on by some persons who were travelling by a
shorter way. St. Ignatius begs, in this letter, that the Romans will not
try to save him from death. "I am the wheat of God," he says, "let me be
ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of
Christ. Rather do ye encourage the beasts, that they may become my
tomb, and may leave nothing of my body, so that, when dead, I may not be
troublesome to any one." He even says that, if the lions should hang
back, he will himself provoke them to attack him. It would not be right
for ordinary people to speak in this way, and the Church has always
disapproved of those who threw themselves in the way of persecution. But
a holy man who had served God for so many years as Ignatius, might well
speak in a way which would not become ordinary Christians. When he was
called to die for his people and for the truth of Christ, he might even
take it as a token of God's favour, and might long for his deliverance
from the troubles and the trials of this world, as St. Paul said of
himself, that he "had a desire to depart, and to be with Christ"
(_Phil._ i. 23).

He reached Rome just in time for some games which were to take place a
little before Christmas; for the Romans were cruel enough to amuse
themselves with setting wild beasts to tear and devour men, in vast
places called _amphitheatres_, at their public games. When the
Christians of Rome heard that Ignatius was near the city, great numbers
of them went out to meet him, and they said that they would try to
persuade the people in the amphitheatre to beg that he might not be put
to death. But he entreated, as he had before done in his letter, that
they would do nothing to hinder him from glorifying God by his death;
and he knelt down with them, and prayed that they might continue in
faith and love, and that the persecution might soon come to an end. As
it was the last day of the games, and they were nearly over, he was then
hurried into the amphitheatre (called the _Coliseum_), which was so
large that tens of thousands of people might look on. And in this place
(of which the ruins are still to be seen), St. Ignatius was torn to
death by wild beasts, so that only a few of his larger bones were left,
which the Christians took up and conveyed to his own city of Antioch.

CHAPTER III.

ST. JUSTIN, MARTYR.

A.D. 166.

Although Trajan was no friend to the Gospel, and put St. Ignatiu