Latin work of Gregory of Tours,1 and may be described in brief as referring
to the age of the Emperor Decius (249-251 A.D.), when Christians were terribly
persecuted, and every endeavour made to destroy the Faith. To escape with their
lives, seven men of Ephesus took refuge in a Cave near their city, and fell
asleep for two hundred years, till the reign of Theodorus II. (447 A.D.). On
awaking, one of them ventured into the City to see what in the interval had
happened, and was overcome with amazement to find the Christian faith triumphant
over all other religions. The Cross, once the sign of shame and disgrace, now
the crown of the Emperor, and the mark of Empire; and nearly the whole people of
the land turned Christians. All this is of course a mere story, composed no
doubt to illustrate the rapidity with which, by the grace of the Holy Spirit and
shedding of Martyrs' blood, the Faith had gained ascendency at the last. No
Christian ever dreamt that the tale was true; but such as the nurse tells her
children of "the cat and the mouse," etc. But the Prophet has entered
it with all gravity in the Qur'an for the instruction of his followers. Is it
needful for us to add that such a tale could never have been placed by the Most
High upon the heavenly Table, and from thence sent down to the Prophet; but was
learned by him from some of the ignorant Christians around him?
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