Again he grasped the dagger, and anxiously examined its keen edge; and again he threw it aside with a groan of despair. Just then the clatter of horsemen was heard, and a party of dragoons was seen approaching. His retreat was discovered, and in a few moments Nero would be helpless in the hands of his enemies: then there would be no possible escape from the ignominious and agonizing death. In the delirium of despair, he ordered a freedman to hold a sharp sword, so that he might throw himself violently against it. He thus succeeded in severing the jugular vein, and his life-blood spouted forth. As he sank upon the ground, the soldiers came up. He looked at them with a malignant scowl; and, saying “You’re too late!” he died. Thus perished this monster of depravity. It is said that this event took place on the 19th of June, A.D. 68. Many Christians at the time supposed Nero to be the antichrist. This wretch had reigned thirteen years, and died in the thirty-second year of his age. In view of his career, the only solution upon which the mind can repose is found in the declaration of Scripture, “After death cometh the judgment.” These events occurred eighteen hundred years ago. During the long and weary centuries which have since elapsed, what a spectacle has this world almost constantly presented to the eye of God! The billows of war have, with scarcely any intermission, surged over the nations, consigning countless millions to bloody graves. Pestilence and famine have ever followed in the train of armies, creating an amount of misery which no human arithmetic can ever gauge. Slavery, intemperance, domestic discord, ungovernable passions, the tyranny of kings, the oppression of the rich and powerful, and the countless forms in which man has trampled upon his feebler brother-man, have made this world indeed a vale of tears. The student of history is appalled in view of the woes which, century after century, man has visited upon his fellow-man. For all this there is and can be no remedy but in the religion of Jesus. Here is the panacea for nearly every earthly woe. Here, and here only, is there hope for the world. Against this almost universal corruption the Christians were struggling. The conflict seemed hopeless. In this moral warfare, the only weapon they had to wield was the simple preaching of the gospel of Christ. But that gospel, by its wonderful triumphs, has proved itself to be “the wisdom of God and the power of God to salvation.” It is refreshing to read a letter which Clement, the bishop of Rome, wrote to the church at Corinth about this time. We can quote but one paragraph:――