and
were made to appear in the market-place of every town, where they were
required by the magistrates to sacrifice, and, if they refused, were
sentenced to severe punishment. The emperor wished most to get at the
bishops and clergy; for he thought that, if the teachers were put out
of the way, the people would soon give up the Gospel. Although many
martyrs were put to death at this time, the persecutors did not so much
wish to kill the Christians, as to make them disown their religion; and,
in the hope of this, many of them were starved, and tortured, and sent
into banishment in strange countries, among wild people who had never
before heard of Christ. But here the emperor's plans were notably
disappointed; for the banished bishops and clergy had thus an
opportunity of making the Gospel known to those poor wild tribes, whom
it might not have reached for a long time if the Church had been left in
quiet.

We shall hear more about the persecution in the next chapter. Here I
shall only say that Origen was imprisoned and cruelly tortured. He was
by this time nearly seventy years old, and was weak in body from the
labours which he had gone through in study, and from having hurt his
health by hard and scanty living in his youth; so that he was ill able
to bear the pains of the torture, and, although he did not die under it,
he died of its effects soon after (A.D. 254).

Decius himself was killed in battle (A.D. 251), and his persecution came
to an end. And when it was over, the faithful understood that it had
been of great use, not only by helping to spread the Gospel, in the way
which has been mentioned, but in purifying the Church, and in rousing
Christians from the carelessness into which too many of them had fallen
during the long time of ease and quiet which they had before enjoyed.
For the trials which God sends on His people in this world are like the
chastisements of a loving Father; and, if we accept them rightly, they
will all be found to turn out to our good.

CHAPTER VIII.

ST. CYPRIAN.

PART I. A.D. 200-253.

About the same time with Origen lived St Cyprian, bishop of Carthage. He
was born about the year 200, and had been long famous as a professor of
heathen learning, when he was converted at the age of forty-five. He
then gave up his calling as a teacher, and, like the first Christians at
Jerusalem (_Acts_ iv. 34-5), he sold a fine house and gardens, which he
had near the town, and gave the pric