The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

daughter, on my gray hairs; have compassion on thy father, if he is worthy of the name of
father. If I have brought thee up to the flower of thine age, if I have preferred thee to all
thy brothers, do not expose me to this disgrace. Look on thy brother; look on thy mother;
look on thy child, who, cannot live without thee. Do not destroy us all." . . . And I was
grieved for the gray hairs of my father; . . . and I consoled him saying, "In this trial, what
God wills, will take place. Know that we are not in our own power, but in that of God."
And he went away sorrowing. . . .
"'Another day, while we were at dinner, we were suddenly seized and carried off to trial.
The report spread rapidly, and an immense multitude were assembled. We were placed at
the bar; the rest were interrogated, and made their confession. And it came to my turn;
and my father instantly appeared with my child, and he drew me down the step and said
in a beseeching tone, "Have compassion on your infant"; and Hilarianus the procurator,
who exercised the power of life and death for the proconsul Timinianus, who had died,
said, "Spare the gray hairs of your parent; spare your infant; offer sacrifice for the welfare
of your emperor." And I answered, "I will not sacrifice." "Art thou a Christian?" said
Hilarianus. I answered, "I am a Christian." And while my father stood there to persuade
me, Hilarianus ordered him to be thrust down and beaten with rods. And the misfortune
of my father grieved me; and I was as much grieved for his old age, as if I had been
scourged myself. He then passed a sentence upon us all and condemned us to the wild
beasts; and we went back in cheerfulness to the prison.'"
The narrative then proceeds to another instance of the triumph of faith on the part of
Felicitas, over the strongest of human feelings, the love of a young mother for her
offspring.
"She feared that her friends shared in her apprehensions, that on that account her
martyrdom might be delayed. They prayed together, and her travail came on. In her agony
at that most painful period of delivery, she gave away to her sufferings. 'How then,' said
one of the servants of the prison, 'if you cannot endure these pains, will you endure
exposure to the wild beasts?' She replied, 'I bear now my own sufferings; then, there will
be one within me who will bear my sufferings for me, because I shall suffer for His sake.'"
Concerning the last scene, we have the following most touching account from the same
historian:
"Perpetua maintained her calmness to the end. When taken out to the execution . . . they
came forward in their simple attire, Perpetua singing hymns. The men were exposed to
leopards and bears; the women were hung up naked in nets, to be gored by a furious cow.
But even the excited populace shrunk with horror at the spectacle of two young and
delicate women, one recently recovered from child birth, in this state. They were recalled
by acclamation and in mercy brought forward again in loose robes. Perpetua was tossed,
her garment was rent; but more conscious of her wounded modesty than of pain, she drew
the robe over the part of her person which was exposed. She then calmly clasped up her
hair, because it did not become a martyr to suffer with disheveled locks, the sign of