f Marcus Aurelius, a
number of Christians suffered with great constancy, and the heathen
multitude, being provoked at their refusal to give up their faith,
cried out for the death of Polycarp. The aged bishop, although he was
ready to die for his Saviour, remembered that it was not right to throw
himself in the way of danger; so he left the city, and went first to one
village in the neighbourhood, and then to another. But he was discovered
in his hiding-place, and when he saw the soldiers who were come to seize
him, he calmly said, "God's will be done!" He desired that some food
should be given to them, and, while they were eating, he spent the time
in prayer. He was then set on an ass, and led towards Smyrna; and, when
he was near the town, one of the heathen magistrates came by in his
chariot, and took him up into it. The magistrate tried to persuade
Polycarp to sacrifice to the gods; but finding that he could make
nothing of him, he pushed him out of the chariot so roughly that the old
man fell and broke his leg. But Polycarp bore the pain without showing
how much he was hurt, and the soldiers led him into the amphitheatre,
where great numbers of people were gathered together. When all these saw
him, they set up loud cries of rage and savage delight; but Polycarp
thought, as he entered the place, that he heard a voice saying to him,
"Be strong and play the man!" and he did not heed all the shouting of
the crowd. The governor desired him to deny Christ, and said that, if he
would, his life should be spared. But the faithful bishop answered,
"Fourscore and six years have I served Christ, and He hath never done me
wrong; how then can I now blaspheme my King and Saviour?" The governor
again and again urged him, as if in a friendly way, to sacrifice; but
Polycarp stedfastly refused. He next threatened to let wild beasts loose
on him; and as Polycarp still showed no fear, he said that he would burn
him alive. "You threaten me," said the bishop, "with a fire which lasts
but a short time; but you know not of that eternal fire which is
prepared for the wicked." A stake was then set up, and a pile of wood
was collected around it. Polycarp walked to the place with a calm and
cheerful look, and, as the executioners were going to fasten him to the
stake with iron cramps, he begged them to spare themselves the trouble:
"He who gives me the strength to bear the flames," he said, "will enable
me to remain steady." He was therefore onl