Saint Athanasius, the Father of Orthodoxy

								

a tower of strength and comfort to his persecuted children.
A hundred Bishops and more had looked to him as their head, for the
See of Alexandria in the East was second only to that of Rome in the
West, and the burden of responsibility was heavy. But, thanks to the
example of its chief, the Church in Egypt had borne the trial bravely,
and if some had quailed before the torture and the rack and had fallen
away, by far the greater number had been true. Even the unheroic
souls, who had loved their lives better than their God, had not been
lost beyond hope, for they had come back during the lulls in the
storm, begging to be absolved from their sin. And Peter, mindful of
his Master's words that he should not quench the smoking flax nor
break the bruised reed, received them back, after they had done
penance, into the fold of Christ with mercy and compassion.
There were some who had not scrupled to protest against such mercy.
"Were these apostates," cried Meletius, Bishop of Lykopolis, "to be
made equal to those who had borne the burden and the heat of the day?"
And he had rebelled against the decision of the Patriarch and made a
schism in the Church. Even the martyrdom of the holy Peter had not
brought him back to his allegiance: the Meletians were rebels still,
to the crying scandal of Christians and pagans alike.
They were a hard people to govern, these Alexandrians--subtle,
passionate and unstable, ready to follow any preacher of novelties.
Alexander half envied Peter his martyr's crown as he stood musing over
the past.
What was delaying his guests? he wondered, as he looked down the long
road, where there was as yet no sign of them.
On the shore, at a little distance, a group of boys were playing,
their bare legs and white tunics flashing hither and thither as they
ran. One of them, a tall slim lad, whose aureole of ruddy hair seemed
to catch every wandering sunbeam, was evidently directing the game,
for all seemed to look to him for orders. "A leader of men," smiled
the Patriarch to himself, as a vigorous wave of the boy's hand brought
all his companions round him.
They were building some kind of a platform now, on to which he of the
ruddy locks was promptly hoisted, while the others appeared to be
forming a procession.
"A church ceremony," murmured the Patriarch to himself, remembering
his own boyhood days. Presently a little boy advanced solemnly and
presented some kind of a vessel to the youthful bishop, who, with a
magnificent gesture, beckoned to the procession to approach. Then, as
the foremost boy advanced and knelt at his feet, he raised the vessel
and poured some of its contents over his head.
"The baptism of the catechumens!" exclaimed the Patriarch; "but this
looks a good deal too much like earnest!"
Hastily calling a servant, he bade him go down to the shore and bring
up the band of boys who were playing there. Summoned thus hastily to