Beaufoy, as she closed the volume: "can you believe it possible, that people wouldchoose to undergo all this, in attestation of a falsehood by which they could gain no worldly advantage, while their hypocrisy would expose them to the Divine displeasure?"

"Why-no: I should think not," said Harry, rather doubtfully.

"You surprise me, my dear child. How can you suppose the possibility of such madness?"

"I was thinking, just then, of the Old Man of the Mountain, and that his followers would leap from the top of a tower, at the slightest sign from their chief*"

"And did they expect to gain nothing by such implicit devotion to his will?" "Oh, yes; they were taught from childhood to believe, that it would procure. them eternal happiness."

"Then was not leaping from the tower a proof that they were sincere in that belief?"

"Certainly, mamma.”

We

"Very well, Harry; then your story, instead of weakening my argument, will confirm it. But you must recollect that the belief of these Mahometan enthusiasts related to a matter of opinion, in which, from what we know of the Divine government, we conclude that they were mistaken. Now, the assertion of the Apostles related to a matter of fact. know, to a certainty, whether we see a person, or do not see him: it is a case which admits of no mistake. As if purposely to guard against the possibility of doubt, only three days intervened between the time of our Saviour's death and his resurrection. (Indeed, strictly speaking, the time was much shorter than that: from Friday afternoon till day-break on Sunday morning.) When he appeared

again, it was not once, to two or three individuals, but repeatedly, and to a great number. He was seen, says St. Paul, of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present*. If the story was false, would Paul have ventured to mention this host of living witnesses, who might so easily have come forward and contradicted the statement; but we cannot find that any of them ever attempted to dispute it. Lastly, the Apostle declares that he had himself seen the Lord, and that his former prejudices were vanquished by the miraculous display of his power and glory. But I need not tell you, Harry, the history of St. Paul."

"No, mamma: not unless you can tell me something about him that is not in the Testament. But you said, I think, that

• 1 Cor. xv. 5, 6.

there are other sources of information. Did you only mean those remarks of Clement?"

"I could tell you many things, my dear Harry, respecting the early Christians, but we have very little authentic information with regard to St. Paul. The most probable account is, that after his release from the imprisonment mentioned in the last chapter of the Acts, he again visited Jerusalem, and some of the churches he had planted in Asia; that, after this, he returned to Rome, where he might reasonably hope to be more useful than in any other place. He seems to have lived there very comfortably while he was a prisoner; occupying his own hired house, and receiving all who chose to come to him, without experiencing any molestation from the government. But, according to Dr. Lardner's account, Paul could not have been long returned to Rome, when a dreadful persecution arose

against the Christians, in which it is supposed that both he and St. Peter suffered martyrdom. This happened in the reign of the emperor Nero, about the year of our Lord, 65."

"But how came the Romans to be angry with the Christians? They could have no popular expectations to be disappointed: on the contrary, they must have been glad that the Messiah was not a conquering prince."

"You had better judge of the feelings of the Romans from their own account of the circumstances. Give me the fourth volume of Murphy's Tacitus out of the bookcase, and I will find the passage for you."

Harry then read to his mother the account of that dreadful fire, by which more than three quarters of the city were destroyed. 'A calamity,' says Tacitus, 'by some ascribed to chance, and by others to the execrable wickedness of Nero.'