hall unite
who receive from Christ the unwithering crown.

[Illustration: ANCIENT AGAPE.

(_From Withrow's_ "_Catacombs of Rome_," which states that the
inscriptions, according to Dr. Maitland, should be expanded thus IRENE
DA CALDA[M AQVAM]--"Peace, give hot water," and AGAPE MISCE MI [VINVM
CVM AQVA]--"Love, mix me wine with water," the allusion being to the
ancient custom of tempering wine with water, hot or cold)]

[Illustration]

But they who would wear the crown must first bear the cross, and these
early Christians had to pass through dreadful days of persecution.
Some of them were made food for the torches of the atrocious Nero,
others were thrown into the Imperial fish-ponds to fatten lampreys for
the Bacchanalian banquets, and many were mangled to death by savage
beasts, or still more savage men, to make sport for thousands of
pitiless sightseers, while not a single thumb was turned to make the
sign of mercy. But perhaps the most gigantic and horrible of all
Christmas atrocities were those perpetrated by the tyrant Diocletian,
who became Emperor A.D. 284. The early years of his reign were
characterised by some sort of religious toleration, but when his
persecutions began many endured martyrdom, and the storm of his fury
burst on the Christians in the year 303. A multitude of Christians of
all ages had assembled to commemorate the Nativity in the temple at
Nicomedia, in Bithynia, when the tyrant Emperor had the town
surrounded by soldiers and set on fire, and about twenty thousand
persons perished. The persecutions were carried on throughout the
Roman Empire, and the death-roll included some British martyrs,
Britain being at that time a Roman province. St. Alban, who was put to
death at Verulam in Diocletian's reign, is said to have been the first
Christian martyr in Britain. On the retirement of Diocletian, satiated
with slaughter and wearied with wickedness, Galerius continued the
persecutions for a while. But the time of deliverance was at hand, for
the martyrs had made more converts in their deaths than in their
lives. It was vainly hoped that Christianity would be destroyed, but
in the succeeding reign of Constantine it became the religion of the
empire. Not one of the martyrs had died in vain or passed through
death unrecorded.

[Illustration]

"There is a record traced on high,
That shall endure eternally;
The angel standing by God's throne
Treasures there each word and groan;
And not