regory, another pupil of Origen's, the Apostle of Pontus, had also been
obliged to conceal himself from the persecution. As for Origen himself,
the aged, laborious, gifted, zealous teacher of his time, he was just then
engaged in answering the works of an Epicurean called Celsus, and on him
too the persecution was likely to fall; and Caecilius prayed earnestly that
so great a soul might be kept from such high untrue speculations as were
threatening evil at Antioch, and from every deceit and snare which might
endanger his inheriting that bright crown which ought to be his portion in
heaven. Another remarkable report had come, viz., that some young men of
Egypt had retired to the deserts up the country under the stress of the
persecution,--Paul was the name of one of them,--and that they were there
living in the practice of mortification and prayer so singular, and had
combats with the powers of darkness and visitations from above so special,
as to open quite a new era in the spiritual history of the Church.

And then his thoughts came back to his poor Agellius, and all those
hundred private matters of anxiety which the foes of the Church, occupied
only with her external aspect, little suspected. For Agellius, he prayed,
and for his; for the strange wayward Juba, for Jucundus, for Callista; ah!
that Callista might be brought on to that glorious consummation, for which
she seemed marked out! But the ways of the Most High are not as our ways,
and those who to us seem nearest are often furthest from Him; and so our
holy priest left the whole matter in the hands of Him to whom he prayed,
satisfied that he had done his part in praying.

This was the course of thought which occupied him for many hours, after
(as we have said) he had closed the door upon him, and knelt down before
the cross. Not merely before the symbol of redemption did he kneel; for he
opened his tunic at the neck, and drew thence a small golden pyx which was
there suspended. In that carefully fastened case he possessed the Holiest,
his Lord and his God. That Everlasting Presence was his stay and guide
amid his weary wanderings, his joy and consolation amid his overpowering
anxieties. Behold the secret of his sweet serenity, and his clear
unclouded determination. He had placed it upon the small table at which he
knelt, and was soon absorbed in meditation and intercession.

CHAPTER XIX.

A PA