t the court of the emperors in Constantinople, had learnt
the value of _icons_, of sacred pictures, as texts for an appeal, or as
stimulants to devotion. Those who cannot read, he said, should be
taught by pictures, but pictures are valuable only because they point
to Him whom we adore as incarnate, crucified, sitting at the right hand
of God. As they came, they sang, and Bede says: "they sang litanies,
entreating the Lord for their own salvation and that of those for whom
and to whom they came." The litany ended when they came to the king,
and then Augustine preached the word. He declared, says an old English
writer of later days, "how the merciful Saviour with His own sufferings
redeemed their guilty world, and opened an entrance into the kingdom of
heaven to all faithful men."

The king bade them deliver their message, and they {185} sat--for it
was no formal sermon, but rather, as we should say, a meditation on the
things of God--and "preached the word of life to him and all his
gesiths who were present." Bede tells us the answer of the grave
thoughtful Aethelbert--"They are certainly beautiful words and promises
that you bring; but because they are new and unproved, I cannot give my
assent to them and give up those things which I with all the English
race have so long observed. But since you are strangers and have come
a long way, so that--as I think I can see clearly--you might impart to
us that which you believe to be true and most good, I do not wish you
any harm, but rather will treat you kindly and see that you have all
you need, and we will not hinder you from bringing over to the faith of
your own religion all of our people that you can win." And so he gave
them lodging in his own city, the metropolis, as Bede, as it were by
prophecy, calls it, of Canterbury. [Sidenote: The litanies.] Towards
Canterbury they went, still with litany and procession, and thus, Bede
tells us, it is said they sang--still carrying the holy cross and the
picture of the great King, our Lord Jesus Christ.--

"We beseech Thee, O Lord, according to all Thy mercy, that Thy wrath
and Thine anger may be turned away from this city, and from Thy holy
house; for we have sinned. Alleluia."

A tradition that lasted down to Bede's own day thus handed down their
words. There is great interest in this picture of Christian worship in
the heathen land, our own, that was to be won for Christ. It
illustrates the worship of the land the m