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tell me not that he was old, that he was infirm, (they are circum- 

 stances I have long known) but let it be some new, some uncom- 

 mon consolation; something I have never heard nor read. All 

 that I have already heard or read occurs to my memory; but that 

 is not sufficient to overcome my sorrow !" 



I repeat, how do we wish this noble Roman had known one of 

 those proscribed Christians he punished even to torture; not 

 sparing the female sex, to extort confession of a crime, which, ac- 

 cording to his own account, amounted only to an obstinate kind 

 of superstition; in assembling to sing hymns to Christ as to a 

 God; and binding themselves by an oath, not to be guilty of any 

 wickedness; affirming that these charges, with a refusal to worship 

 the Roman deities, and the image of the emperor Trajan, was the 

 sum total of their fault, or of their error. The earl of Orrery pro- 

 nounces Pliny to have been one of the best, and one of the greatest 

 men, that any age has produced; second to none in virtue, equal 

 to most in accomplishments; of high birth by his ancestors, but 

 more ennobled by himself — yet, to this dignified Roman, so 

 eminently great and good, the humblest Christian, in the season 

 of doubt and distress, would exultingly exclaim, " I know that my 

 Redeemer liveth! that he hath brought life and immortality to 

 light; and that where He is, there shall his followers be!" 



Pliny's letter unequivocally informs us what were the ideas of 

 death, the hopeless view of a future state, in the great, the wise, 

 the learned philosophers of Greece and Rome. The Christian, in 

 strong faith, humble hope, and holy confidence, beholds the king 

 of terrors in a very different character. He knows that flesh and 



