An Easter Disciple | Page 9

convoy
the Son of God to glory everlasting.
With Quintus that visit to Kurn Hattin shaped all his future. His
Master's countenance had seemed to him more wonderful than any face
which the gifted Phidias had ever carved in stone. But never in after
days could he worthily tell to Lucretia the vision he had seen. Only in
one poor sentence could he sum it up: "I have seen for myself the risen
and ascending Lord."

VI
CHRIST'S WITNESSES AT ROME
"A great multitude."--Tacitus.
With jubilation Quintus sees again the shores of Italy rise over the
Adriatic, and finds himself once more in his beloved Rome. The center
of magnificence and power it seems. Alter clamorous public greetings
in the Forum, there comes another welcome which happens only in a
returning soldier's life. In the palace of Marcus the kindred of Quintus
are gathered, and Lucretia also is in the circle, to hear his great
adventure.
"How wonderful it seems," the knight begins: "so many times have
your faces come to me in my dreams, but now I am fully awake and see
them once again. Hail to you all! When I was sailing away from
Brundisium, the augur foretold for me an unusual experience. In the
Jewish life beyond the Sea I have learned much, if that were the

fulfillment. But, most of all, I have come back with a new religious
faith. In Judaea, as you must have heard, a certain Galilaean has called
himself the Son of the one true God. He has spoken of a future life for
men; and he has now risen from the grave, after his torture on a cross,
to prove his doctrine true. I now believe in him, as the interpreter of the
future life. Forevermore he is my High Priest, and not the great
pontifex in the temple of your Jupiter."
Brave words they are. There in the great hall of Marcus, with the
sunlight shining on the gorgeous palaces of the Caesars, the Temple of
Apollo, and all else which crowns the Palatine, the noble Quintus
confesses his new belief. Come what will the consequences!
Then, while they hear in amazement, he further says; "Most inviting is
this new creed. Our wise Roman scholars, as well as those in Greece,
have only been guessers about the future life. But the Christus speaks
as one who has come from the heavens. Those who keep his
commandments are to dwell with him forevermore in eternal joy.
Everywhere through Judaea men are becoming his followers, and the
wide world is to believe on him. Perhaps you also, my cherished ones,
will come to accept his teaching of the future life."
So Quintus speaks, with his vibrant voice and with a strange light on
his face. Wonderingly they hear the tidings that he brings--the recital of
the greatest happening that can ever befall a man. Not deriding their
valiant soldier, and not withholding their wealth of love from one who
has come safely back to them, they watch the changes in his life.
"I do not care," he says, "to loiter in the baths of Agrippa and to hear
from the idlers there the gossip of the hour. The gladiatorial struggles
in the Circus Maximus and the comedies in the theaters have lost for
me their relish. For the civic rewards which Tiberius gives his favored
ones I have no wish. Senatorships and proconsulships are like the dust
in the apothecaries' scales. I have seen the risen Lord!"
Influential is such a life on the home group of Quintus. With his pride
of birth and his great properties, Marcus becomes a believer. A
conversion it is which is the surprise of Rome. The rare Lucretia, as
well, receives the truth. At times, before she has called herself a
disciple, Quintus escorts her to the worship of the Roman Christians.
Their captivating speech, their holy love for one another, their
rapturous faces move her deepest heart. Till, one day, when Quintus

has been telling her of the womanhood in Judaea which the Christ has
ennobled, she replies:
"I believe it all, O Quintus. Of late into my heart an untold peace has
come. All things are changed for me. The sunlight is on the hills!" It is
her open confession. Lucretia is thenceforth enrolled among the Roman
saints of whom the world was not worthy, and who looked for the life
to come.
In the fellowship of the Roman church--already founded and rapidly
enlarging--Quintus finds his pleasure. A few are Jews from the ghetto
beyond the Tiber, till the persecution of Claudius drives them forth.
More are of the varied nationalities met in that commercial and
luxurious center. Most are of plebeian blood. There are smiths and
mechanics; there are stone cutters, workers in mosaics,