Arius the Libyan: A Romance of the Primitive Church

by Nathan C. Kouns

Many of those who were present, and especially those who had come in boats, brought prepared food with them, and soon this was distributed over clean cloths spread out under the trees, and all of them did eat together with gladness, as if it had been one large and loving family--Arete and old Thopt being diligent to supply from their own stores everything that was needed or had been forgotten.

Then in the afternoon the congregation was again assembled, and they engaged in singing and prayer. The presbyter informed the people that a blind boy had come, with his parents, to ask the prayers of the Church that God would restore his sight, explaining the reason why they had not sooner done so, very much as the boy had stated to Theckla, and saying that they should first partake of the holy communion, and afterward pray for the lad's recovery. Then this rite was administered; and all of them engaged in prayer, the presbyter leading and the people making occasional responses. And even while they were so engaged the lad sprang to his feet, and, throwing his arms about his mother's neck, he cried aloud: "O mother, I see! I see!--Brethren, thank God for me, for my sight is perfectly restored!"

And the presbyter changed the form of his words from supplication into praise and thanksgiving; and, when he had finished, many pressed forward to congratulate the lad upon his miraculous cure; and afterward, when they went away, he went also, seeing as well as other boys.

Then later in the evening, having first agreed upon the place of their next meeting, the congregation received a benediction at the mouth of the presbyter and quietly dispersed. But almost every head of a family first came unto Am-nem-hat and unto Hatasa and Theckla, and urged them with great kindness to come unto their homes and abide with them as long as might be convenient.

But, before the presbyter departed, Hatasa requested that he come unto her, and of him she asked concerning the baptism for the dead; and having diligently inquired of her concerning the character and manner of life of her husband, and having heard her firm declaration of her belief that he was one who ever sought to do that which he thought to be just, right, and true, so that if he had sufficiently learned of Jesus he would have been a Christian, the presbyter administered to her the baptism for the dead, from which the poor lady derived a strange and unmeasurable satisfaction and peace.

But Hatasa did not recover any strength, and the next day she was weaker than ever, and the next, and so on from day to day. She requested them to hold services in her room every evening, and seemed gladly to engage with them in prayer. But she said that she had no power to will or to wish that she might continue to live. She dreaded the pain and weariness of a lingering convalescence, and she said that the only earthly care that had troubled her was concern for her daughter's welfare, and that she would never separate her from her newly discovered but precious Christian friendships, and did not wish her to go among their pagan kindred. She informed Ammonius that there was much property in Alexandria that now belonged to Theckla, and asked him what disposition should be made of it. Ammonius at first said: "Let it go. Theckla shall lack for nothing; and riches are a snare to the young." But, upon considering that the estate would go to the pagan kindred, and never to the Church, unless the legal right of the girl thereto was asserted, he sent unto Cyrene for a proper officer, who came and took the depositions of Hatasa, Arius, Thopt, and Theckla, as to the shipwreck of Amosis and his family, and as to the identity and parentage of the maiden, to be laid before the orphans' court at Alexandria. She also made a written request that Theckla's relative Am-nem-hat should be appointed guardian of the maiden's person and estate, with her friend Ammonius to succeed him if the aged man should die during Theckla's minority. And, having accomplished these things in due and proper form, she began to fail more rapidly, and about midnight sank peacefully into rest, almost her last request being that she might be buried in the "sleeping-ground" of the Christians of that vicinity.

And, when Theckla saw that she was dead, the wild sorrow of her heart broke out in almost the very same words that her mother had used upon the death of Amosis, and she cried: "No more! no more! Ah, never more!"

But Ammonius said unto her, "Come hither, daughter!" And, when she had come, he laid his hand upon her head and he asked, "Art thou a Christian?"

And she answered, "Yea, I love the Lord."

Then he saith: "That is well, my child. But, if thou art a Christian, use not the vain and despairing lamentation of the heathen. Thou shouldst not think nor feel as they do when they cry out in their bitterness, 'No more.' Thy mother leaveth thee not forever, child. She hath only gone before thee by a little space at most, and thou shalt go unto her again. So the Lord whom thou lovest doth solemnly promise thee, and thou must never distrust his promise or his love."