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was to be made of Basil by flattery or by threats. In order to terrify him into submission, the Emperor, however, accompanied by his guards, went into the church on Epiphany in the face of a crowded congregation, and took his place near the bishop, with a gift in his hand, that he might compel him to receive it, and thus seem to be received into his communion.

Basil remained immoveable, and left the Emperor standing unnoticed, who, completely unmanned by the bishop's calmness, staggered and would have fallen had he not been supported. He would, however, have banished Basil; but dreading a disturbance on account of the reverence and respect in which he was held, he rescinded his impolitic and unjust decree, and seems afterwards to have regarded the man by whom he had been so manfully opposed and completely baffled with feelings of superstitious awe. In this scene Basil rises into heroic proportions. In that sickly emaciated form, keeping an emperor with his guards at bay, we see a symbol not of the contest of priestly arrogance and secular tyranny, but of the impotence of imperial might and menace in the presence of an imperial soul; an instance of the triumph of Christian faith and principle over the terrors of physical force, which entitles the name of Basil to be enrolled in the noble army of the defenders of the sacred rights of conscience.

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BASIL REFUSING TO GIVE UP THE WIDOW.

"The assessor of the prefect of Pontus attempted to compel a noble widow to marry him. Having no other resource, she took refuge in Basil's church, who, having refused to deliver her up, was dragged before the tribunal of the prefect. The officers were ordered to tear off his pallium. Basil offered to do it himself, and welcomed the threat of his flesh being torn with nails, by saying, that it would cure his liver complaint, from which he was then suffering greatly, and release him from all his troubles. The prefect dearly rued his violence," (Page 187.)

The officers Basil offered

The man on whom the Emperor's wrath had spent itself and had been broken into foam and spray, was not likely to give way before an inferior foe. The assessor of the prefect of Pontus attempted to compel a noble widow to marry him. Having no other resource, she took refuge in Basil's church, who, having refused to deliver her up, was dragged before the tribunal of the prefect. were ordered to tear off his pallium. to do it himself, and welcomed the threat of his flesh being torn with nails by saying that it would cure his liver-complaint, from which he was then suffering greatly, and release him from all his troubles. The prefect dearly rued his violence. Immediately on its being known that the bishop had been apprehended, men and women, seizing whatever weapon they could lay their hands upon, rushed to the rescue. From threats the prefect speedily turned to entreaties, and besought Basil to use his influence to quell the riot.

For such a man as Basil, in such a time, ease and peace were out of the question. He was harassed till his dying day, and laid aside his armour only with his life. The shafts of calumny rained upon him thick as hail, and he became involved in irritating and vexatious contests with neighbouring bishops, who envied his greatness, and hated his creed, especially with Anthimus, respecting the limits of their respective dioceses. He retained the monastic

habit, and lived on monastic fare, till the last. The keen sword at length cut through its scabbard. Worn out by austerities, labours, and anxieties, under which his frame, sickly from the first, but for the iron strength of his will and the glowing enthusiasm of his nature, would have long before succumbed, he died in A.D. 379, at the age of fifty. His last words were, "Into Thy hands I commend my spirit." He was followed to the tomb by the frantic tears of his flock, and the universal Church bewailed the fall of a master in Israel. Such was the concourse of all classes on the day of his funeral, that not a few were crushed to death in the crowd. His literary remains are numerous, and among them nearly a hundred homilies, which, though not cast in the highest mould of pulpit eloquence, are evidently the productions of a well-balanced and highly-cultivated mind. They are marked by a clearness, a silvery sweetness, and a chaste beauty of style, a solidity of thought, cogency of argument, and power of familiar, yet ornate illustration, which contrast favourably with the frothy and affected declamation which at that time passed for eloquence. If the essence of eloquence be defined by its etymological meaning-as speaking cut-that term applies well to the discourses of Basil. He is direct and home-thrusting, leads them by no circuitous paths, but straight to the mark, smoothing, however, the way by a winning

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