“Father, why do you sing about angels seated on a tomb?”

And he replied—­

“Little light of my eyes, I sing of the angels because Jesus, our Lord, is risen to heaven.”

Ahmes was a Christian.  He had been baptised, and was known as Theodore at the meetings of the faithful, to which he went secretly during the hours allowed him for sleep.

At that time the Church was suffering the severest trials.  By order of the Emperor, the churches had been thrown down, the holy books burned, the sacred vessels and candlesticks melted.  The Christians had been deprived of all their honours, and expected nothing but death.  Terror reigned over all the community at Alexandria, and the prisons were crammed with victims.  It was whispered with horror amongst the faithful, that in Syria, in Arabia, in Mesopotamia, in Cappadocia, in all the empire, bishops and virgins had been flogged, tortured, crucified or thrown to wild beasts.  Then Anthony, already celebrated for his visions and his solitary life, a prophet, and the head of all the Egyptian believers, descended like an eagle from his desert rock on the city of Alexandria, and, flying from church to church, fired the whole community with his holy ardour.  Invisible to the pagans, he was present at the same time at all the meetings of Christians, endowing all with the spirit of strength and prudence by which he was animated.  Slaves, in particular, were persecuted with singular severity.  Many of them, seized with fright, denied the faith.  Others, and by far the greater number, fled to the desert, hoping to live there, either as hermits or robbers.  Ahmes, however, frequented the meetings as usual, visited the prisoners, buried the martyrs, and joyfully professed the religion of Christ.  The great Anthony, who saw his unshaken zeal, before he returned into the desert, pressed the black slave in his arms, and gave him the kiss of peace.

When Thais was seven years old, Ahmes began to talk to her of God.

“The good Lord God,” he said, “lived in heaven like a Pharaoh, under the tents of His harem, and under the trees of His gardens.  He was the Ancient of Ancients, and older than the world; and He had but one Son, the Prince Jesus, whom He loved with all His heart, and who surpassed in beauty the virgins and the angels.  And the good Lord God said to Prince Jesus—­

“’Leave My harem and My palace, and My date trees and My running waters.  Descend to earth for the welfare of men.  There Thou shalt be like a little child, and Thou shalt live poor amongst the poor.  Suffering shall be Thy daily bread, and Thou shalt weep so profusely that Thy tears shall form rivers, in which the tired slave shall bathe with delight.  Go, My Son!’

“Prince Jesus obeyed the good Lord, and He came down to earth, to a place named Bethlehem of Judaea.  And He walked in fields, amidst the flowering anemones, saying to His companion—­

“’Blessed are they who hunger, for I will lead them to My Father’s table!  Blessed are they who thirst, for they shall drink of the fountains of heaven!  Blessed are they who weep, for I will dry their tears with veils finer than those of the almehs!’