country, for it will be better worth dying for; every citizen
will be a brother; every ruler a brother; it will be like dying for
your own little household. If you would see Rome flourish, she must
become more pure. She can stagger along not much longer under this
mountain weight of iniquity that presses her into the dust. She needs a
new Hercules to cleanse her foul chambers. Christ is he; and if you will
invite him, he will come and sweep away these abominations, so that
imperial Rome shall smell fragrantly as a garden of spices.'

Loud exclamations of approval here interrupted Macer. The great
proportion of those who were present were now evidently with him, and
interested in his communications.

'Tell us,' cried one, as soon as the noise subsided, 'how you became
what you are? What is to be done?'

'Yes,' cried many voices, 'tell us.'

'I will tell you gladly,' answered Macer. 'I first heard the word of
truth from the lips of Probus, a preacher of the Christians, whom you
too may hear whenever you will, by seeking him out on the days when the
Christians worship. Probus was in early life a priest of the temple of
Jupiter, and if any man in Rome can place the two religions side by
side, and make the differences plain, it is he. Go to him such of you as
can, and you will never repent it. But if you would all learn the first
step toward Christian truth, and all truth, it is this; lay aside your
prejudices, be willing to see, hear, and judge for yourselves. Take not
rumor for truth. Do not believe without evidence both for and against.
You would not, without evidence and reason, charge Aurelian with the
death of Aurelia, though ten thousand tongues report it. Charge not the
Christians with worse things then, merely because the wicked and
ill-disposed maliciously invent them and spread them. If you would know
the whole truth and doctrine of Christians; if you would ascend to the
fountain-head of all Christian wisdom, take to your homes our sacred
books and read them. Some of you at least can obtain them. Let one
purchase, and then twenty or fifty read. One thing before I cease.
Believe not the wicked aspersions of the prefect. He charges me as a
brawler, a disturber of the peace and order of the city. Romans, believe
me, I am a lover of peace, but I am a lover of freedom too. Because I am
a lover of peace, and would promote it, do I labor to teach the
doctrines of Christ, which are doctrines of peace and love, both at