Opening the library…
A Plea for the Christians
Athenagoras of Athens
A polished petition to Roman emperors rebutting charges of atheism, incest, and cannibalism while explaining Christian monotheism, moral discipline, and belief in Father, Son, and Spirit.
In your empire, greatest of sovereigns,
There are here many varieties of reading: we have followed the text suggested by Gesner.
We here follow the text of Otto; others read ἡμῖν.
[Kaye, 153.]
[For three centuries the faithful were made witnesses for Jesus and the resurrection, even unto death; with “spoiling of their goods,” not only, but dying daily, and “counted as sheep for the slaughter.” What can refuse such testimony? They conquered through suffering. The reader will be pleased with this citation from an author, the neglect of whose heavenly writings is a sad token of spiritual decline in the spirit of our religion:— “The Lord is sure of His designed advantages out of the sufferings of His Church and of His saints for His name. He loses nothing, and they lose nothing; but their enemies, when they rage most and prevail most, are ever the greatest losers. His own glory grows, the graces of His people grow; yea, their very number grows, and that, sometimes, most by their greatest sufferings. This was evident in the first ages of the Christian Church. Where were the glory of so much invincible love and patience, if they had not been so put to it?” Leighton, Comm. on St. Peter, Works, vol. iv. p. 478. West’s admirable edition, London, Longmans, 1870.]