I saw the shroud and the linen cloths, and the angels
seated on the tomb.
And I saw the glory of the Risen One."

She asked him--

"Father, why do you sing about angels seated on a tomb?"

And he replied--

"Little light of my eyes, I sing of the angels because Jesus, our Lord,
is risen to heaven."

Ahmes was a Christian. He had been baptised, and was known as Theodore
at the meetings of the faithful, to which he went secretly during the
hours allowed him for sleep.

At that time the Church was suffering the severest trials. By order of
the Emperor, the churches had been thrown down, the holy books burned,
the sacred vessels and candlesticks melted. The Christians had been
deprived of all their honours, and expected nothing but death. Terror
reigned over all the community at Alexandria, and the prisons were
crammed with victims. It was whispered with horror amongst the faithful,
that in Syria, in Arabia, in Mesopotamia, in Cappadocia, in all the
empire, bishops and virgins had been flogged, tortured, crucified or
thrown to wild beasts. Then Anthony, already celebrated for his visions
and his solitary life, a prophet, and the head of all the Egyptian
believers, descended like an eagle from his desert rock on the city of
Alexandria, and, flying from church to church, fired the whole community
with his holy ardour. Invisible to the pagans, he was present at the
same time at all the meetings of Christians, endowing all with the
spirit of strength and prudence by which he was animated. Slaves, in
particular, were persecuted with singular severity. Many of them, seized
with fright, denied the faith. Others, and by far the greater number,
fled to the desert, hoping to live there, either as hermits or robbers.
Ahmes, however, frequented the meetings as usual, visited the prisoners,
buried the martyrs, and joyfully professed the religion of Christ. The
great Anthony, who saw his unshaken zeal, before he returned into the
desert, pressed the black slave in his arms, and gave him the kiss of
peace.

When Thais was seven years old, Ahmes began to talk to her of God.

"The good Lord God," he said, "lived in heaven like a Pharaoh, under
the tents of His harem, and under the trees of His gardens. He was the
Ancient of Ancients, and older than the world; and He had but one Son,
the Prince Jesus, whom He loved with all His heart, and who surpassed in
beauty the virgins and the angels. And the good Lord God said