Sacred Lines

LEGENDARY ANECDOTES OF ST. JOHN. 463

legendary myths, but his life down through the ages has been a subject of reviving tradition. It is said that he lived in the reign of Trojan. That would have made him nearly ninety-eight. The Chronicon Paschale says he lived one hundred years and seven months, and pseudo-Chrysostom that he lived one hundred and twenty. Legend said also that he had been taken alive to heaven like Enoch and Elijah, "and that sometimes he still wandered and appeared on earth." Theodoret the historian tells us that the Emperor Theodsius on the eve of a terrific battle beheld the Apostle John riding on a white horse. This omen Theodoret interpreted favorably, and the next day's encounter proved a fortunate one to him. -It is claimed that Gregory Thaumaturgus saw him in the fourth century, and Edward the Confessor in the tenth century claimed a similar privilege, which came perhaps as a reward for his piety. The vision which this penitent potentate received is now to be seen represented on the screen of the Confessor's Chapel in Westminster Abbey. In the early part of the sixteenth century he appeared, so it

is claimed, to King James IV., on the eve of the fatal battle of Flodden. This seems to have been his last visit to the kings and princes, or else they have been either too modest to tell of it or feared their subjects would not believe them if they should tell it.

SACRED.

Deep in each artist's soul some picture lies That he will never paint for mortal eyes;

And every author in his heart doth hold Some sad, sweet tale that he will leave untold. C. B. Morgan