be grievously tortured for their injuries.  For children are the cause of many pains; either the King falls upon them or a demon lays hold of them, or paralysis befalls them.  And if they be healthy they come to ill, either by adultery, or theft, or fornication, or covetousness, or vain-glory.  But if ye will be persuaded by me, and keep yourselves purely unto God, ye shall have living children to whom not one of these blemishes and hurts cometh nigh; and ye shall be without care and without grief and without sorrow, and ye shall hope for the time when ye shall see the true wedding-feast.”  The young couple were persuaded, and refrained from lust, and our Lord vanished.  And in the morning, when it was dawn, the King had the table furnished early and brought in before the bridegroom and bride.  And he found them sitting the one opposite the other, and the face of the bride was uncovered and the bridegroom was very cheerful.  The mother of the bride saith to her:  “Why art thou sitting thus, and art not ashamed, but art as if, lo, thou wert married a long time, and for many a day?” And her father, too, said; “Is it thy great love for thy husband that prevents thee from even veiling thyself?” And the bride answered and said:  “Truly, my father, I am in great love, and am praying to my Lord that I may continue in this love which I have experienced this night.  I am not veiled, because the veil of corruption is taken from me, and I am not ashamed, because the deed of shame has been removed far from me, and I am cheerful and gay, and despise this deed of corruption and the joys of this wedding-feast, because I am invited to the true wedding-feast.  I have not had intercourse with a husband, the end whereof is bitter repentance, because I am betrothed to the true Husband.”  The bridegroom answered also in the same spirit, very naturally to the dismay of the King, who sent for the sorcerer whom he had asked to bless his unlucky daughter.  But Judas Thomas had already left the city and at his inn the King’s stewards found only the flute-player, sitting and weeping because he had not taken her with him.  She was glad, however, when she heard what had happened, and hastened to the young couple, and lived with them ever afterwards.  The King also was finally reconciled, and all ended chastely, but happily.

In these same Judas Thomas’s Acts, which are not later than the fourth century, we find (eighth act) the story of Mygdonia and Karish.  Mygdonia, the wife of Karish, is converted by Thomas and flees from her husband, naked save for the curtain of the chamber door which she has wrapped around her, to her old nurse.  With the nurse she goes to Thomas, who pours holy oil over her head, bidding the nurse to anoint her all over with it; then a cloth is put round her loins and he baptizes her; then she is clothed and he gives her the sacrament.  The young rapture of chastity grows lyrical at times, and Judas Thomas breaks out:  “Purity is the