life and joy in Him of whom he wrote, 'I live, and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;' and of whose abiding power within him he felt, as he tells his Philippians, 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.' It is generally believed that his First Epistle to Timothy and that to Titus were written after his trial had taken place, probably during a visit to Spain. From his Second Epistle to Timothy, it appears that he had a narrow escape at the terrible tribunal of Nero. 'At my first answer,' he says, 'no man

stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it be not laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.'

Scarcely had Paul turned his back upon the abominations which steeped in the same fearful guilt the people and the prince, than God visited Rome with an awful punishment, which almost overwhelmed it, like the Cities of the Plain, in a sheet of retributive fire. Crowded as were the close, wooden houses of the mass of the citizens, fires were of frequent occurrence; but the greatest of all broke out on the 19th of July, A.D. 64. It began in the valley between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, in a block of wooden booths, and stores filled with combustible articles, and by the force of a strong east wind, its flames swept on through the city with a furnace-fury that crumbled brick and stone like paper. Amidst the horror and confusion of the scene, the smoke, the blaze, the scorching heat, the uproar, and the din, with half the vast population, bond and free, cast loose and houseless in the streets, ruffians were seen to thrust blazing torches into the houses, who vociferated when seized by the outraged owners, that they were 'acting by orders.' The flames subsided after raging six days, and the wretched outcasts were

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beginning to take breath, and visit the ruins of their dwellings, when a second fire broke out in a different quarter, and swept along, the wind now blowing fiercely from the northwest, for three days more, through the streets and buildings, in valleys between the Quirinal and Viminal hills, and on their summits, consuming alike shrines and temples of the gods, palaces and porticos of the nobles, and cabins and dwellings of the people, with such terrible havoc, that of the fourteen regions, or quarters, into which Augustus had divided the city, three were entirely destroyed, seven were more or less desolated, and four only escaped unharmed. Many were the monuments, and temples, and palaces, famous as memorials of the ancient families and glories of the Republic, which sank in the common ruin. Many a master-piece of the Grecian pencil or chisel was destroyed by the devouring flames, with trophies, images, family devices, and writings and records of inestimable value. Amidst all the splendour with which Rome afterward rose from her ashes, the few old patriots still to be found in her mourned bitterly over the irreparable loss of these ancient memorials, which was the more deplorable at a moment when the heads of the old families were falling so fast by the sword, and their domestic traditions-so interwoven with the Republic and its liberties -were so fast dying away. It was rumoured that Nero had watched the conflagration from the towers of his Mæcenatian villa, chaunting to his lyre, as each great sheet of fire rose into the sky, that doleful dirge, the 'Sack of Troy.' It was remembered bitterly, that when the line of the tragedy quoted by the gloomy tyrant Tiberius, 'After my death perish the world in fire,' was recited to Nero, that his fiendish reply was, 'Nay, in my life time!' Accordingly whatever favour the populace had hitherto entertained towards the prince for his largesses, shows and banquets, vanished

away, and was succeeded by a fierce spirit of revenge which thirsted for his life-blood.

6

Nero only extricated himself from his perilous position, by charging with the crime a suspected and hated body of strangers in Rome, to whom the vulgar gave the name of Christians.' This name, says Tacitus, was derived from one Christus, who was executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procuratur of Judea, Pontius Pilate. They were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning, as for their general hatred to mankind. Those only were first arrested who avowed themselves of that sect, afterwards a vast number discovered by them, who were convicted. Their execution was accompanied with mockery; they were wrapped in skins to be torn in pieces by dogs, or crucified and thus set on fire to serve as torches by night. Nero lent his own gardens for the spectacle (on the slope of the Vatican). He gave a chariot race on the occasion, at which he mingled freely with the multitude in the garb of a driver, or actually holding the reins. The populace however turned, with their usual levity, to compassion for the sufferers, justly odious though they were held to be; for they felt it was not for their actual guilt, nor for the common weal that they were punished, but to glut the ferocity of a single tyrant.'

The opinions of historians widely differ on this event. The general idea is, that incautious or misinterpreted expressions of the Christians themselves, when they beheld the Babylon of the West wrapped in one vast sheet of destroying flames, might have been reported to Nero, and given him the desired means of extricating himself from his danger, by their seizure and sacrifice. With fiendish ingenuity to make their punishment correspond with their crime, he then caused them to illuminate the city at night, by enveloping their bodies in a mass of fire. But Mr. Merivale suggests that

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the suspicions of the Roman mob were directed against the turbulent Jews, notorious for their constant expectation of a Messiah or Christ, as their leader and deliverer; and that when seized those fanatics sought to implicate a few of the true Christians, known and hated by them with the animosity so strongly marked in the Acts of the Apostles, and that this frightful attack fell only obliquely on the true Christians, and that it was as transient as sudden; the seditious Jews being the chief sufferers. This would seem highly probable, because of the recently discovered Columbarium of the Emperor Claudius. This was a chamber built in the garden or courtyard of some great family; furnished with niches, disposed round the walls in horizontal rows, giving it the appearance of a dove-cote, in which were deposited urns containing the ashes of the burnt bodies of the owner, his freedmen, and favourite slaves; the name of each being inscribed over his respective urn. Now many of the names still clearly visible over those niches of the Columbarium of Claudius, occur in the salutations of St. Paul to his fellow-countrymen in the Capital, in his Epistle to the Romans; or in his Second Epistle to Timothy. Some, as Hermias and Nereis, connected with the Claudian family; others, as Tryphæna and Tryphosa, with the Valerian, that of Messalina; others, as Crescens, Philetus, Hymenæus, mentioned as Cæsar's freedmen; others again, as Philologus and Amplias, occurring independently. Hence it would seem that many leading disciples whom St. Paul greeted died quietly in their beds, and received honourable burial. Besides in his Second Epistle to Timothy, written from Rome within two years of this date, St. Paul makes no allusion to the recent death of any disciple, but speaks generally of the duty of meeting afflictions with Christian courage. So it was probably amongst the Jewish fanatical followers of the 'false Christs'

predicted by our SAVIOUR, that Nero's persecution chiefly and in its full fury raged.

6

But a more interesting inquiry here engages our attention. Is the story true that tells of the martyrdom of the Apostles Peter and Paul at Rome, in a second persecution by Nero? The last Epistle just quoted, which we have from the noble Paul's heart and hand-the 2nd of Timothy-contains passages which are pleaded in support of the popular rumour of his martyrdom about this period. We thus incidentally learn that the Apostle's second captivity at Rome was much more rigid than the first; that he no longer dwelt in his own hired house'-known and free to all-for he speaks of his benevolent friend as having sought him out very diligently before he found him.' Then a foretaste of quick coming bliss might appear in the lofty martyr-spirit in which he proclaims himself ready to be offered up, and the time of his departure at hand'; in his triumphant assurance of having 'fought a good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith; and in his felt nearness to the prize of his high calling of God in Christ Jesus-the crown of righteousness.' But with these same blessed assurances he had cheered the hearts of the sorrowing Elders of Ephesus about seven years before; they were now well calculated to comfort the afflicted Timothy; and they are still vouchsafed by our sympathizing SAVIOUR to His tried and toil-worn ministers in every clime.

6

Eusebius and Origen are the chief ancient authorities for the support of this story; but a careful examination of their words convinces me that they state it not as a certain fact, but as received from the ancients,' a mere old rumour. Besides the learned Bunsen points out that they were 'entirely men of the East, and their literary knowledge of the Western Church in the second and third centuries was noto