"Yes," interrupted Julius ; " but you only seem to be martyrs and to be ever eager to lay down your lives for the truth. In reality truth is not on your side; you are proud madmen engaged in sapping the foundations of social life. In words you preach love, but it needs no very search ing analysis of the results that flow from that love of yours to discover that it should be called by a very different name; for the results in question are savagery, retrogression to the primitive state of nature, murders, robbery, violence of all kinds, etc., which according to your doctrines must not be opposed or checked in any

way.

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No; that is not so," rejoined Pamphilius; "and if you will only consider carefully and impartially what results from our teaching and our living, you will see without my pointing it out, not only that murders, violence, and robbery do not flow from them, but that on the contrary, crimes of this nature cannot be successfully rooted out otherwise than by employing the means we advocate. Murder, robbery, and every kind of evil existed in the world long before Christianity appeared there, and people grappled with them in vain, employing those very means the efficacy of which we deny. These expedients, which all consist in meeting violence with violence, do not, cannot check crime, but they provoke it by arousing in individuals feelings of anger and bitterness.

"Just look at the mighty Roman Empire. In no other country,have such pains been taken to apply the laws as in Rome. The study and delicate adjustment of the legislation to the varying wants of the people have been raised to the rank of a special science there. The laws are taught in the schools, discussed in the Senate, reformed and administered by the most gifted citizens. Legal justice is regarded as one of the noblest human achievements, and the office of judge is held in the highest esteem. And yet it is known to every one that there is no city existing at the present moment throughout the length and breadth of God's earth, which has sunk so deeply in the ooze of debauchery and crime as Rome. Call to mind the history of Rome and you will be struck by the fact that the Roman people were distinguished by many virtues in remoter times, notwithstanding the circumstance that the laws then were neither so numner

ous nor drawn up with such a careful eye to the end in view as at the present time. Nowadays, side by side with the study, adjustment, and application of the laws, we observe a steady deterioration in the morals of the Roman people, the number of crimes continues to increase, and all species of criminal offences grow more various and artificial every day.

"To grapple successfully with crimes, or with any description of evil, is possible only by employing the means which Christianity places within our reach, viz., love; the Pagan weapons of vengeance, punishment, violence, are absurdly inefficacious. I am sure that you yourself would like to see people refraining from doing evil, not from fear of punishment, but from a lack of desire to do what is wrong. Surely you would not wish mankind to resemble the wretches confined in prison who abstain from committing crime only because they are continually watched and kept in order by their gaolers? All the preventive and remedial laws and punishments in the world will not root out people's propensity to do wrong, and put a desire to do right in its place. This result can be accomplished only when you deal with the root of the evil which you seek to eradicate; and the root lies inside the individual. And to do this is our aim and object, whereas you confine yourself to the outward manifestations of the evil. You can never hope to reach its source, because you do not seek for it, you do not know where it is hidden.

"The most common and prevalent crimes, such as murder, robbery, theft, fraud, have their source in men's desire to increase their stock of this world's goods, or simply to obtain the bare necessaries of life, which for one reason or another they cannot procure in any other way. Some of these crimes are punished by the law, although those which are the most coinplicated and wide-reaching in their effects are committed under the protecting wing of this same law, such, for instance, as huge commercial frauds and the endless methods of stripping the poor of their possessions which are constantly practised by the rich. Those crimes which are punished by the law are to a certain extent checked or rather made more difficult, and the criminals are driven, by fear of incurring the penalty, to set to work more prudently and cunningly than would be other

wise necessary, devising new species of crime which the law cannot punish. By practising the teachings of the Christian religion, a man keeps clear of all such crimes as arise either from the scramble for riches or from the unequal distribution of wealth, great quantities of which are accumulated in the hands of a few. We take away all motive to crime, to robbery, and murder, solely by refusing to take for ourselves more than what is strictly indispensable for the support of life, and by giving up to others all our free labor; thus it is that we never tempt others by the sight of accumulated wealth, for we rarely possess more than is absolutely necessary for our day's support. Hence, if a man who is driven to despair by the pains of hunger, and is ready to commit a crime in order to procure a crust of bread, comes to us, he will find what he is in search of, without having recourse to crime or violence, inasmuch as we live for the purpose of sharing our last morsel of food, our last shred of clothes with those who are suffering from hunger and cold. And the result is that one class of criminals avoid us altogether, while others come over to us, find salvation, abandon their criminal life and, little by little, become useful workers, toiling like the others for the common good of all mankind.

"Another category of crime consists of those offences which are provoked by the play of unbridled passions, of vengeance. for instance, jealousy, carnal love, anger, hatred. Criminal acts of this species are never prevented by laws. The individual about to commit them is in a state of animal irresponsibility, of perfect freedom from all moral restraints; and thus blinded and swayed by his passion, he is utterly incapable of calculating the trend or weigh ing the results of his actions. An obstacle only serves to fan the flame of his passion. Laws, therefore, are perfectly useless as instruments for suppressing such crimes. Our method of treating them is efficacious. We believe that man will never attain the satisfaction and the aim of life by ministering to his passions, or anywhere except within himself, in his own soul. deavor, therefore, to tame and curb our passions by a life of labor and of love, developing thereby in a corresponding degree the force and suppleness of the spiritual principle within us; and in proportion as our number becomes larger, and

We en

our faith penetrates farther and deeper among men; will the number of such crimes become less.

Finally, there is still another class of crimes which have their root in a sincere desire to help one's fellow-creatures. The desire to alleviate the sufferings of an entire people, for instance, impels some men -conspirators they are called-to kill a tyrant, in the belief that they are thereby benefiting the majority. The source of such crimes is a mistaken conviction that evil may be perpetrated, in order that good may follow. Now, crimes of this description are not only not prevented or their number lessened by the promulgation and application of legal pains and penalties, but they are positively provoked thereby.

The persons who commit offences of this kind, although grievously mistaken in their hopes and beliefs, are impelled to act as they do by a noble motive-a desire to do good to others. Most of these men, if sincere, are ready to lay down all they have and are for the attainment of their end, and they quail before no dangers or difficulties. Hence fear of punishment is powerless to restrain or cause them to hesitate. On the contrary, dangers infuse new life and spirit into them, their sufferings raise them to the dignity of martyrs, earn for them the sympathy of most men, and stimulate many others to go and do likewise. This is confirmed by the history of any, of every people.

"We Christians believe that the evil will not cease entirely until all men get to understand the gravity of the misfortunes it causes to themselves and to others. We also know that a brotherhood cannot be founded until every one of us is himself a brother; that a brotherhood cannot be organized without brethren. Therefore, we Christians, although we clearly perceive the error of such conspirators, cannot but appreciate their sincerity and self. denial, and we draw near them and meet them on the common ground of the posi tive good which it must be admitted they possess. In us they recognize not foes, but people quite as sincere and as eagerly bent on doing good as they are themselves, and many of them come over to us, after having acquired the conviction that a quiet life of toil and unceasing solicitude for the welfare of others is incomparably more beneficial to mankind, and a more

own person, and He warned us, His followers, many times, that we too should experience it. Me,' He said once, the world hateth because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.' If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.' 'A time will come when he who kills you will think that he has served God.' But, strengthened by Christ's example, we, like Him, do not fear those who kill the body, for they can do nothing more. Illumined by the rays of truth, we live in its light, and our life knows not death. Physical sufferings and death no man can escape. A time will come when our executioners will also suffer in body and die, and it is hor rible to think how the unfortunate, helpless creatures will be tortured at the sight of death, which will strip them of all that they acquired at the cost of arduous labor continued throughout their lifetime. Thanks to God that we are guaranteed against these the most frightful of all sufferings; for the happiness for which we yearn consists not in immunity from bodily pain and death, but in the preservation and development of our spiritual life, in the maintenance of equanimity in all the vicissitudes of life, in the consoling conviction that whatever happens to us, independently of our own will, is unavoidable and for our ultimate good, and above all in the knowledge that we are true to our conscience and our reason-these noble lights bestowed upon man by the source of truth. And thus we suffer nothing from those who hate and persecute us. It is not we, but they, who smart from the stings of that enmity, that hatred which, like a snake in their bosom, they nurture in their breasts. And this is their condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.' There is nothing to perplex or trouble us in all that; for truth will do its work. The sheep hear the voice of their shepherd, and they follow him because they know his voice.

"And Christ's flock will not perish, but will grow and thrive, attracting ever new sheep from all parts of the world; 'for the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou bearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth.

CHAPTER IX.

WHILE he was still speaking Pamphi!ius's little son rushed into the apartment and hugged and clasped his father. In spite of all the coaxing and caresses, he had run away from Julius's wife and now took shelter in his father's embrace.

Pamphilius sighed, fondled his boy, rose up, and was about to depart; but Julius detaining him, requested him to continue the conversation and stay for din

ner.

"I am astonished, I confess," said Julius, "that you should be married and have children. It is a mystery to me how you Christians can bring up your children in spite of the absence of property; how Christian mothers can attain peace of mind, knowing, as they do, how precarious is the future of their offspring, and how powerless they are to put their children beyond the reach of want."

"In what respect are our children worse off than yours?" asked Pamphilius.

"In this respect, that they have no slaves to look after them, no property of any kind to fall back upon. My wife is very favorably disposed to Christianity; in fact, at one time she was firmly bent on abandoning her present life and becoming a Christian. That was several years ago. I, too, was then resolved to accompany her. But what frightened her more than anything else was the precariousness of the position of Christian children, the want to which they are exposed. And I must say I could not but agree with her. That was when I was ill and confined to my bed. I was then thoroughly disgusted with the life I had been leading, and had taken the resolution to forsake it once for all and join your community. But the apprehensions of my wife on the one hand, and the arguments of the physician who attended me and brought me round, on the other hand, impressed me with the conviction that the life of a Christian, at least as you understand and practise it, is possible and beneficial only when those who embrace it are unmarried; but that persons with families, mothers with children, are utterly unsuited for it, and should never think of trying it. Furthermore, that the upshot of the life you approve and lead will be the cessation of all human life; that is to say, the extinction of the race. This is a fact which there is no getting

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Well, will you explain how it is done? Do what I will, I positively cannot under. stand it. A few years ago I was, as I remarked, on the point of forswearing my worldly life and embracing Christianity. But I was the father of children, and I felt that, however distasteful the fact might be, to me it still remained a fact that I had no right to sacrifice my children, and recognizing this, I stayed on leading my old life for their sakes, in order to bring them up in the same conditions as those in which I was educated myself."

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It is very odd," replied Pamphilius, that you should reason so. From the same facts we draw opposite conclusions. We say, if grown-up people live in a worldly manner, this is to a certain extent excusable, because because they are spoiled already. But children ?-that is horrible! To live with them in the world and expose then continually to its temptations and dangers! Woe unto the world because of offences for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh !

"Those are the words of our Master; and I make use of them for that reason, and because they are the expression of the truth, and not merely for the purpose of objecting; for it is really a fact that the necessity of living as we live results mainly from the circumstance that there are children in our midst, tender beings of whom it has been said: " Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'"'

66 But how can a Christian family contrive to get along without definite means of subsistence ?"

"Means of subsistence, according to our belief, arc of one kind, and only one kind: work for the benefit of others inspired by love. Your means of livelihood, on the contrary, are violence, which can vanish as wealth vanishes, and then nothing remains but the labor and love of men. We start with the idea that we should hold fast by that which is the foundation, the basis of everything else, increasing it when possible. And when this is done the family lives and even thrives.

"No," continued Pamphilius; "if I entertained any doubts about the truth of Christ's teaching, and if I hesitated about putting them in practice, my doubts and hesitations would instantly disappear the moment I pictured to myself the sad fate of the children who are brought up in Paganism, amid the surroundings and associations in which you grew up and are now educating your children. No matter what strenuous efforts we, a small band of individuals, make to render life comfortable and pleasant by means of palaces, slaves, and the imported products of foreign climes, the lives of the great mass of the people will remain what they were, what they must be. The only provision

for these lives remains the love of mankind and earnest toil. We are desirous of freeing ourselves and our friends from the pressure of these conditions, and we get other people to work for us, not voluntarily out of love, but by employing violence; and, strange to say, the better we seem to provide for ourselves the more we are depriv ing ourselves of the only true, natural, and enduring provision-love. The greater the power of the ruler, the less he is loved. "The same thing holds good of that other provision-work. The more a man shirks work and accustoms himself to luxury, the less capable he becomes of working, and the more consequently he deprives himself of the true and eternal provision. And these conditions in which people place their children they term making provision for them. To test my statement, take your son and mine, and send them to find a road, to transmit an order or to transact any important business, and note which of them acquits himself more satisfactorily ; or propose to confide them to a master to be educated and see which of them will be the more willingly received. No, never again utter those terrible words that a Christian life is possible only for those who are childless. On the contrary, one might rather say that to lead the life of a Pagan is excusable only in those who are without children. But woe to him who offendeth any of these little ones.

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Julius remained silent. "Yes," be said, after a considerable pause, it may be that you are right; but their education is already begun, the very best masters are teaching them. Let them learn all the we know that can surely do them no harm. There is plenty of time yet both