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Tuesday in Holy Week.

THE PRÆFECT'S VISION.

JUNE 26, A.D. 363.

EHOLD, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This

shall ye have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow." Thus it is that GOD speaks in the epistle for to-day; and I am going to tell you of one in whom the prophecy was fulfilled;-of one who, when the Sun of Righteousness had risen upon him, loved the darkness rather than the light, because his deeds were evil; and after compassing himself about with the miserable sparks of worldly luxury and Pagan philosophy, did indeed lie down in sorrow.

Julian the Apostate is one of those of whom, like Balaam and Judas, it is hardly possible to speak without awe. If any man ever did so, he certainly crucified to himself the Son of GOD afresh, and put Him to an open shame : if for any man, surely for him it would seem that there remained no place for repentance; but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. I had rather tell you of some mighty deed which God has done for His saints, or by them, than of such a man; but yet I will not pass by one of the many stories which have to do with his end. Church could not but rejoice with trembling when the tempter and persecutor of her children was destroyed, and could not but see her LORD's hand as the means of his destruction, and in the signs that went before it.

The

Julian was now on his march against the Persians. In spite of warnings, and dreams, and auguries, he would proceed. His heart was hardened, and every step was bringing him nearer to his bloody end, and to his fearful sentence.

It was on the evening of the 26th of June, three hundred and sixty-three years after our

LORD's birth, that an officer of high rank in the Roman army, Cneius Piso by name, was riding through the wild deserts of Mesopotamia, on his road to Nisibis. He wished, if possible, to come up with Julian before the decisive battle with the Persians should be fought; and having had some military business at Antioch which had delayed him beyond his expectations, he was now endeavouring to make up for lost time. The horses of the two soldiers who were his attendants, and his own, gave plain proofs that their strength and speed had not been spared; and now, as the sun was slowly sinking behind the hills of Chalybonitis, the Præfect of the Wing saw that his day's journey must conclude.

"Cheer up, brave Ethon;" he said to his horse; "you have made a good day's work of it, and shall rest well. Orisbanes, good fellow, -you know the country: where can we put up for the night?"

"There is no town nearer than Daras, my Lord," said the Syrian, riding up a little closer to his officer; "and that we shall hardly reach, for it must be five leagues off yet."

"But is there no place of any kind where we might escape the dew? Provisions we

have, and shelter and water is all that we need."

"If I am not mistaken, my Lord," replied Orisbanes, "about a quarter of a league further on there is a Church, hard by the wayside. There, doubtless, we might sleep, and our horses will find plenty of grass at hand; for, as I remember me, there is a spring in that place."

"Excellently well thought of, good Orisbanes. I know not why, I feel somewhat heavy this evening,-the heat of the day, I suppose. But we must look for hotter work yet."

"The army must have suffered greatly," said Damasus, the other soldier, "judging by the number of sick men left at every village on the road."

"I fear we must expect nothing else," said Piso. "The Cross that led Constantine, of blessed memory, to victory, leads us no longer. All these stories we hear of the Cæsar's determination to advance at all risks, make me call

But that

to mind Ahab and Ramoth-Gilead. changes not our duty a whit. It is our place to show that the Christians, whom he thinks to be the great enemies of the empire, shall be as far in the ranks of the Persians, as the boldest Pagan of them all.".

"So said the Bishop of Antioch, my Lord," remarked Orisbanes. "I laid it to my heart; for, truth to say, before that, I had some doubts whether I should not rather suffer the worst, than follow an Apostate to battle."

"So would you have erred grievously, in my judgment," replied the Præfect; "and not in mine alone. As I remember, it was blessed Paul who wrote, 'Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath, but even for conscience' sake.' But, as I think, there is the Church."

A few minutes more, and the weary horses were enjoying themselves in the green meadow that surrounded the fountain whereof Orisbanes had spoken. The Church itself, a low, dark, cross-shaped building, with a dome in the centre, had lately, it appeared, been broken open. Piso entered at the western door.