mandate, and have spoken by the emperor’s command. As to the empire, I have no authority and no desire to make laws for it; as to my Christian faith, no man nor angel hath right or power to meddle therewith, or to prescribe laws for it. It is a thing between my soul and its Saviour, whom I have served all my life long in spite of imperial laws, and whom I will continue to serve, no matter what laws may be enacted. Brethren, will ye do likewise? or will ye now deny the Christ?" For an instant the old man raised his tall form upright, the shaggy head sprang forward upon the long, peculiar neck, and the somber, sad eyes rested upon almost every face. Then quietly he resumed his seat. Athanasius, Hosius, Constantine, and others, saw at the same instant that against the impregnable position taken by Arius no assault could prosper. They knew that constant and almost imperceptible steps had been necessary for years to seduce any large section of the Western Church from that very position, and that the church which Ulfilas had planted among the Goths had only been driven therefrom by the merciless use of fire and sword. They knew well that the line of demarkation between all earthly kingdoms and the kingdom of Christ in the world was clearly and unmistakably drawn, consisting not alone in faith and sentiment, but in a social and political policy which had been for three centuries the glory of Christianity, and had been so fearfully illustrated by recent persecutions under Licinius in the East, that the council could not be deluded in reference thereto; and they were seeking with anxious solicitude to find some way to avoid further discussion upon the matter, which might arouse an interest in it that would dissolve the council upon the point which the Libyan urged, that the Church could not meet in oecumenical council at the order of an emperor, and make decrees to be forced by imperial law, without forsaking Christ. Long before the bold presbyter had ceased to speak, the emperor had determined in his own mind that it was necessary to gain time for consultation and for concerted action, and especially necessary to stop the discussion of this dangerous question as to the right of a royal council to legislate for the Church of Christ--the tendency of which was obviously to separate the Church from imperialism altogether, rather than to accomplish his determined purpose of blending the Church with imperial law and make himself head of both. As soon, therefore, as the heretic sat down, at a sign from the emperor, Alexander and Hosius adjourned the council until the following day. CHAPTER VIII. THE ABDICATION OF CONSTANTINE.