intreating that in order to "change the cross, yet suffer with his Lord," he might be crucified with his head downwards. So passed from this life the greatest names among the brethren, the great Apostle of the Jews and the great Apostle of the Gentiles, men who had once differed, but who were held so close and fast together by the love of their Lord, that their paths became blended close together in the shining light of perfect day that shone round them as their steps neared the eternal glory that has ever since enwrapt them.

Timothy was thrown into prison by St. Paul's enemies, but was released, and the other companions of the saints were guarded from the storm.

Some strangers then dwelling at Rome must have grieved, yet rejoiced, at the crowning of these martyrs. Even when St. Paul first visited Rome, in the time of the Emperor Claudius, the gallant though betrayed British chief, Caradoc, or Caractacus, had been brought captive to the city, after his nine years' brave defence, and with his family had been made to walk behind the Emperor's funeral car. Ever since they are believed to have lived at Rome; and moreover, Claudia, daughter of the British king of Chichester, was (almost certainly) a hostage at Rome. She was fair, bright, and clever, and the Spanish poet, Martial, wrote verses in her praise, when she had become the wife of the Roman senator Pudens, little thinking that his mention of her would chiefly be valued because it coincides with that kind message of greeting to Timothy, which shows that she was one who

ministered to Paul in his prison. And according to tradition it was Timotheus, son of Pudens, who laboured to teach the Gospel in Britain, so that the senator and his royal lady must, in their love and veneration for their friend and fellow-disciple, have departed from the old Roman habit of naming their sons after their forefathers, and called him after the son of the Jewess Eunice. The father of Caractacus is said to have returned to Britain, taking with him that other disciple of St. Paul, Aristobulus, to teach his subjects.

St. Timothy himself returned to Ephesus, but shortly after, during a great festival of the goddess, he ventured into the streets, and was pounced on by the mob, like Paul before him, as a contemner of her worship. He was torn to pieces by the mob, and thus, after this terrible period of trial, only John remained, one brave vessel still riding on the waves, not yet in haven, but not submerged, and destined yet to put forth a brighter light, not for Ephesus or for Asia only, but for us and for the whole world.

THAT persecution caused by the caprice of Nero, does not seem to have been very violent except at Rome, and towards the persons known as leaders of the Roman Christians. There were edicts then made which remained in force, and under which, any person refusing to sacrifice to the gods, might be put to death; but unless anything happened to provoke the governors of the provinces, they were not eager to seek out the peaceful subjects who committed no other offence, and the gaps made in the Church below by martyrdom were filled up, and new Churches were founded in more distant places.

It is believed that the new angel, or messenger of God, who was set in the place of Timotheus, was Onesimus, the slave of Philemon; and the people of that great old city of Arles, in the south of France,

which still shows such wonderful Roman remains, reckon as their first bishop, Trophimus, the good Ephesian, whose sickness at Miletus was perhaps sent him by Providence to preserve him, that he might bear witness in France to the teachings of St. Paul and St. John, and of the outer glories of the Temple at Jerusalem. The very suspicion that he, a Greek, had been brought within it, had caused St. Paul to be nearly torn to pieces, but he was a worshipper in the innermost shrine of the Christian Covenant, where there was no difference between Jew and Greek, barbarian, and Scythian, bond or free.

The last storm that was to overwhelm Jerusalem was fast gathering. The Jews were ripe for revolt, and reckless violence on the part of the Roman officers drove them on, till they broke into open rebellion. Then the full severity of the Roman conquerors was prepared for them, and Vespasian, the wisest general of the army, marched against them, and began his work by taking and destroying, one by one, the steep hill-forts of Galilee, with terrible struggles, where the Jews showed all the ferocity of despair. At Jerusalem, fearful portents alarmed some minds and embittered others; a fiery sword was seen waving in the air; the heavy Temple-gate swung open of its own accord, and a voice cried, "Let us go hence!" and a maniac wandered up and down the streets wildly crying, "Woe! woe to Jerusalem." Men's hearts were indeed failing them for fear, and for looking for the things that were coming on the earth, and the Christians called to mind that discourse of their

Lord which bade them take warning by such tokens as these. At last Vespasian absolutely advanced, and attempted to besiege Jerusalem; but in the midst, thick, hurrying messages came from Rome, with tidings first that Nero had been murdered, and then of the rapid rise and fall of the men who aspired to be emperors. The army, and the governor of Syria both felt that Vespasian was the only person fit to take the headship of the empire at such a time as this, and he was saluted as emperor, and marched away to make himself master of Rome.

But the sign had been given; Jerusalem had been encompassed with armies, and while the more violent of the Jews rejoiced, and fancied they had beaten off the enemy, the Christians were confident that the time was indeed at hand; and, obeying the warning given nearly forty years before, they quitted the city in a body, leaving not one man, woman, or child behind, and profiting by the fine spring weatherfor their flight was "not in the winter,”—they safely gained the city of Pella, in the district of Decapolis, beyond Jordan, which had once been their Lord's refuge from the spite of the Pharisees and Herod.

There, with Simeon at their head, they kept their Paschal feast, while the miserable Jews were flocking to their empty passover, to swell the numbers of those whom Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the son of the new emperor, was sent back to coop up within the city, there to meet their dreadful deaths. When those Christians turned back to the Books of Moses, and read that the hornet was to be sent among the