THE PERSECUTIONS.
"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."--_Matt_ v. 10
It had been revealed to St. John that the Church should have tribulation
for ten days; and accordingly, in her first three hundred years, ten
emperors tried to put out her light. Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Antoninus,
and Aurelius, have been mentioned; and the next persecutor was Severus,
an emperor who went to Britain, firmly established the Roman power over
England, and built the great wall to keep the Scots from injuring the
northern settlers.
In his time died the glorious band of martyrs of Carthage--five young
converts, two men, named Satur and Saturninus, a noble young married
lady, called Perpetua, who had a young infant, and two slaves, Revocatus
and Felicitas, the last of whom gave birth to a daughter in the prison.
But not even love to their babes could lead these faithful women to
dissemble their belief; Perpetua left her child with her family;
Felicitas gave hers to a Christian woman to bring up; and the lady and
the slave went out singing, hand in hand, to the amphitheatre, where
they were to be torn by beasts.
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