ied (A.D. 311).

The cruellest of all the persecutors was Maximin, who, from the year
305, had possession of Asia Minor, Syria, the Holy Land, and Egypt. When
Galerius made his law in favour of the Christians, Maximin for a while
pretended to give them the same kind of liberty in _his_ dominions. But
he soon changed again, and required that all his subjects should
sacrifice--even that little babies should take some grains of incense
into their hands, and should burn it in honour of the heathen gods; and
when a season of great plenty followed after this, Maximin boasted that
it was a sign of the favour with which the gods received his law. But it
very soon appeared how false his boast was, for famine and plague began
to rage throughout his dominions. The Christians, of course, had their
share in the distress; but instead of triumphing over their persecutors,
they showed the true spirit of the Gospel by treating them with
kindness, by relieving the poor, by tending the sick, and by burying the
dead, who had been abandoned by their own nearest relations.

Although there is no room to give any particular account of the martyrs
here, there is one of them who especially deserves to be remembered,
because he was the first who suffered in our own island. This good man,
Alban, while he was yet a heathen, fell in with a poor Christian priest,
who was trying to hide himself from the persecutors. Alban took him into
his own house, and sheltered him there; and he was so much struck with
observing how the priest prayed to God, and spent long hours of the
night in religious exercises, that he soon became a believer in Christ.
But the priest was hotly searched for, and information was given that he
was hidden in Alban's house. And when the soldiers came to look for him
there, Alban knew their errand, and put on the priest's dress, so that
the soldiers seized him and carried him before the judge. The judge
found that they had brought the wrong man, and, in his rage at the
disappointment, he told Alban that he must himself endure the punishment
which had been meant for the other. Alban heard this without any fear,
and on being questioned, he declared that he was a Christian, a
worshipper of the one true God, and that he would not sacrifice to idols
which could do no good. He was put to the torture, but bore it gladly
for his Saviour's sake, and then, as he was still firm in professing his
faith, the judge gave orders that he should be be