An Easter Disciple | Page 3

your serious meditations."
They walk that afternoon as sightseers through the crowded Jewish
emporium. The shops remind them, with all their contrasts, of the marts
of Rome, for men always and everywhere have the trader's passion. In
the narrow streets of Jerusalem they see the stir of many activities. The
workman is hammering his brass; the shoemaker shapes his sandals;

the flax spinner is winding his thread; the scribe sits on his mat, and is
ready for his writing. In the shops they see costly merchandise for
sale--silks and jewels, fine linens and perfumes, delicious foods and
drinks. These have been imported from far Arabia and India; they have
been brought from distant Persia and Media. With all their variety, no
taste, however fitful, need go unsatisfied.
What a motley crowd is on the streets! They hear the Aramaic speech
of Palestine, which Quintus has been taught by his Athenian tutor, and
their ears also catch the accents of other foreign tongues. They meet
traders from western Zidon, sailors from Crete, bearded Idumaeans
from beyond Judaea, and scholars from far Alexandria. Magnificent
Jerusalem it is! Yet destined soon to fall. For the day draws near when
the Roman Titus shall weep on Scopus over its fading splendors and
then shall smite it to the dust.
One purchase only does Quintus make. In a shop where Egyptian wares
are sold he says to Aulus:
"Look on this scarab, this sacred beetle, which has been shaped by
some workman down in Thebae on the Nile. We may be sure that no
people believes more intensely in a future life. What compliment they
pay this physical frame of men when they hold that embalmment
restores to the soul its former body! After the judgment of Osiris, if
their lives be true, the worthy shall enjoy the companionship of the
great god forever. No other people wears such a visible emblem of their
faith in another life. I will buy this scarab for an amulet against
accident and evil."
But where had the workman gone who once had shaped that token of
immortality? Whither had vanished his carver's skill? Where had
disappeared his projects and his dreams? Quintus is not thinking of any
proconsulship he may win, or even of the love light in the eyes of
Lucretia, as he climbs again the heights of Scopus. Rather he is
meditating on the departed maker of scarabs--and on the destiny of the
soul. For ages the philosophers have been speculating about the future
life. Familiar is Quintus with the views of Laelius and Seneca, among
the Roman inquirers, and with the teachings of the great Grecians who
have spoken in classic Athens. But now the question leaps to the front.
Quintus is in the city where Ayran travelers and Persian magi and
Egyptian priests are busy telling their theories of immortality. He is in

the very streets, besides, where a sandaled Teacher from Nazareth is
declaring that the dead shall live again. If but half is true that this
strange Man is reputed to have said, no priest of Jupiter has ever uttered
at Rome so luminous a word. Can it be that Quintus himself shall see
this Christus and hear his message? If so, his will be in very truth a
momentous quest.

II
IN SOLOMON'S PORCH
"Give me new consolation, great and strong, of which I nave never
heard or read."--Pliny.
With increasing frequency Christ was now speaking his prophecies of
the life immortal. In his earlier ministry he had been dwelling upon the
presence of the divine kingdom in the earth, the practical conditions for
membership therein, and the inclusion of Gentile as well as Jew in the
gracious provision. Novel were his words. Whoever had heard his
discourse on the Mount or the parable of the lost sheep was rich beyond
the modern sons of men. But now, in the closing period of his stay with
mortals, he was more frequently foretelling the life to come. Like a
footworn traveler drawing near the homeland, he was keenly
anticipating his return to the spirit world. Those who listened to him
heard majestic intimations of a celestial country which eye had not
beheld. Nor is it to be thought that the Gospels, in their restricted pages,
have recorded half his words concerning the heavenly land.
Now comes the opportunity for Quintus himself to hear this new
Teacher of the Jews. A messenger from Pilate, sent on an errand to the
headquarters at Scopus, brings the tidings that Christ is in Jerusalem as
a visitor at the Feast of Dedication. Favored are those who hear through
the years the world's commanding voices; beyond estimate is the high
privilege now granted Quintus.
"I will hasten in to Hierosolyma," he says to Aulus, who is detained by