He Himself has given to me. But He searcheth the heart and reins. Because He knoweth that fully and exceedingly do I desire and was ready that He should grant me to drink of His chalice, as He hath permitted to others also who love him.
58. Wherefore may it never happen to me from my God that I should ever lose His people which He purchased at the ends of the earth. I beseech God to grant me perseverance, and deign that I may render myself to Him a faithful witness until my passing away for the sake of my God.
59. And if I ever took example by anything good for the sake of my God, whom I love, I beseech Him to grant me that I may shed my blood with those strangers and captives for His name's sake, even though I should be without burial itself, or that my corpse should in most miserable guise be divided limb by limb amongst dogs and fierce beasts, or that the birds of the air should devour it. I maintain as most certain that if this should happen to me I shall have gained my soul with my body, for without any doubt we shall rise again on that day in the brightness of the sun, that is, in the glory of Christ Jesus our Redeemer, as sons of the living God and joint heirs with Christ and conformed to His image as it will be, since of Him and through Him and in Him we shall reign.
60. For the sun which we see, by God's command, rises daily for our sakes, but it will never reign, nor will its splendour last, but all who adore it shall be brought miserably into dire punishment. But we who believe in and adore the true sun, Christ, who will never perish nor will anyone who does His will, but such an one will endure for ever, even as Christ also endureth for ever, who reigneth with God the Father Almighty and with the
