{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_12671/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_12671","id":"gutenberg_12671","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12671","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Historical Novels","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Easter stories"],"text":"AN EASTER DISCIPLE\n\nThe Chronicle of Quintus, the Roman Knight\n\nBy\n\nARTHUR BENTON SANFORD\n\n1922\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIN MEMORY OF ABSENT ONES\n\nWHO HAVE ENTERED INTO LIFE\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n      An Opening Word\n\n   I. A Roman Quest\n\n  II. In Solomon's Porch\n\n III. Christ Himself the Witness to Immortality\n\n  IV. Cicero or Christ?\n\n   V. The Vision of the Risen Christ\n\n  VI. Christ's Witnesses at Rome\n\n\n\n\nAN OPENING WORD\n\nMany voices had been speaking of eternal life, before the days of\nthe Son of man.  Especially pronounced had been the teachings of\nthe Egyptians that there is another world.   In their Acadian hymns\nthe Chaldaeans had dimly foretold a future life.  The belief of the\nParsees, as expressed in their Zend-Avesta, had included a place of\ndarkness for the evil soul and a reward for the good in the realm\nof light.  The Hindus had declared, in their Rig-Veda, their\nbeautiful conception of the immortality of the soul, and had\nwritten of a future \"imperishable world, where there is eternal\nlight and glory.\"  The Grecian and Roman mythologies had voiced\ntheir hope of blessedness for the shades of the departed.\nEverywhere serious men had been asking as to the experiences beyond\nthe grave.  It was as if the Eastern world had become a vast\nparliament chamber, wherein the nations were proclaiming their\ndifferent doctrines as to a future life.\n\nIn the midst of these varying and uncertain voices, Christ spoke\nhis authoritative message.  There was no wavering in his tone.\nWhat the Oriental philosophers were guessing, he revealed; what the\nHebrew prophets had foreshadowed in their holy writings, he\nunfolded in full light.  The ancient Vedic hymns, the oracles of\nGreece, the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_, anticipating by two\nthousand years the Hebrew exodus--all these are naught compared\nwith the words of that inspired Teacher who spoke in Palestine.\n\nIn addition, Christ was himself the vital evidence of the\nresurrection which he taught.  Against the assaults of doubt his\nunique teachings are buttressed forevermore by his own return from\nthe land of silence.  In a short week after his words to Martha at\nBethany he had become, through his own rare experience, the\nresurrection and the life.  Not the dead Buddha, nor the departed\nZoroaster, nor the vanished  Pythagoras  ever came back through the\nopened door of the sepulcher, wearing the grave clothes of those\nwho sleep.  Human fancy had never dreamed of such a rapturous\ndenouement for faiths other than Christianity.  The resurrection of\nthe Lord is the crowning narrative with which the Gospels close.\nIt is a risen Christ who repairs the wastage of human decay and\ndeath.  A voice above all those from Ind or Persia or the Nile\nspeaks henceforth in Judaea and the world concerning immortality.\nThe superlative Easter argument is the risen Christ himself.\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nA ROMAN QUEST\n\n\"If one might only have a guide to the truth.\"--_Seneca_.\n\n\nOn Scopus, the high mountain north of Jerusalem, the Roman camp was\npitched, that last autumn in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.  A\nfew years further on, if the warriors of the Emperor Tiberius could\nthen have foreseen the future, Titus was to quarter his famous\nlegions on that vantage point; and from its elevation he was to\nhurl himself as a resistless battering ram against the Holy City.\nBut, on this autumn day, when these chronicles begin, no blare of\ntrumpets was summoning the Roman soldiery to arms; only the feet of\nthe camp sentinels, as they walked their appointed rounds, broke\nthe quiet of the sunlit afternoon.\n\nThat lithesome, cultivated, serious-minded young knight, Quintus\nCornelius Benignus, is standing on the height which overlooks the\ngreat metropolis.  He is the son of Marcus Cornelius Magnus, that\nRoman noble who is the intimate associate of the reigning Caesar,\nand who has been a luxurious resident on the Palatine Hill since\nhis distinguished proconsulship in Africa.\n\n     *     *     *     *     *\n\nNOTE.--It is not from any time-marked Hebrew roll that this story\nof Quintus is now taken.  He was of Roman blood, and his record is,\nrather, to be found in the Latin literature of his time.  Well it\nis when some new leaf is discovered among the musty folios,\nreciting the saintly character and the triumphs of those who lived\nwhen Christianity was new.  This record shows the worth of\nconsecrated life and service in the days when the luxurious Roman\nstate most needed a Christian citizenship.  But the lesson is none\nthe less for these last days, when the hope of the world is in the\ncreed of Quintus.\n\n     *     *     *     *     *\n\nBy the side of Quintus is his fellow soldier Aulus.  They had spent\ntheir boyhood together among the scenes of Rome; now they are\ncompanions still, on this last Roman expedition to the district of\nJudaea.  While the common soldiery are throwing their  dice  in\nthe  camp thoroughfare, these are speaking of more serious things.\nThe picture on which they look from lofty Scopus includes the\nshining roofs of Jerusalem, the wooded Mount of Olives, and the far\nlandscape to the south and west; its undulations and brilliant\ncolorings no Roman artist might put upon the canvas.\n\nWith the autumn haze covering the extended panorama, Quintus says\nfirst to his comrade:\n\n\"What the fates have in store for me, here in the city of\nHierosolyma, I am much wondering.  The day before our trireme\nsailed from Brundisium for Tyrus I made a visit to the augur's\ntent.  His prediction was that my journey hither would be followed\nby strange consequences.  The flight of the birds through the air\ndid not reveal to him just what was to occur; but that something\neventful was to take place he was very sure.  What is to be my\nfortune?\"\n\n\"Your lot it may be,\" answers Aulus, \"to perform some daring deed,\nhere in our Jewish campaign; and on your return to Rome you may\nreceive a great reward from the hand of Tiberius.\"\n\n\"In my mind this has been,\" replies Quintus; \"before I left Rome I\nhad an audience with our divine Caesar, and he was pleased to say\nthat my fidelity here might bring me special recompense.  Yet would\nthat be satisfying?  I have seen the triumphal processions in the\nstreets of Rome, when heroes have been acclaimed; I have heard our\nstatesmen in the Senate hall, and prize the joys of oratory; I have\nbeen served all my days by slaves in my father's palace, and know\nthe sweetness of the Falernian wine in the banquet room.  A\nproconsulate, if I might come to that dignity, would be a high\nhonor to write in my life story.  But, my dear Aulus, would there\nbe content in this?  My restless soul seems crying out for some\nbetter gift from the gods.\"\n\n\"It cannot be,\" continues Aulus.  \"that your heart's love is\ninvolved.  When our military movements bring the Roman knights to\nPalaestina, in their pride of birth they do not wed the black-eyed\ndaughters of the Jews.  On your earlier expedition to Egypt you met\na princess of the land, but were not let to espouse that swarthy\nmaiden of the Nile.  The reward of love cannot be the experience of\nwhich the augur spoke at Brundisium.\"\n\n\"Not so,\" says Quintus in response; \"as I was leaving Rome, it was\nthe beautiful Lucretia who sent me forth with her rare farewell.\nFor my return from Palaestina she is now waiting; and under the\nblue skies of Italia we are to wed.  I have been wondering,\"\nQuintus adds further, \"if the augur, watching the flight of birds\nthere at Brundisium.  could mean that I am to fall by death, here\nin Palaestina.  We have not come for battle, but to guard the\npeace.  Yet it is easy for Atropos, that cruel fate, to clip the\nslender thread of life and send men on to die land of shades.  If\nthis was what the augur meant, no Roman in the days of Tiberius has\never set forth upon a more serious adventure.\"\n\n\"You are given to melancholy, this autumn afternoon, my comrade\nQuintus,\" the other says; \"you are feeling that sadness which comes\nto men when the Dryads move over the earth and touch the leaves\ninto crimson and gold and brown.\"\n\n\"Not so,\" answers Quintus; \"but I am remembering that I have come\ninto a land where a strange Teacher is speaking to men of a future\nlife.  Yet are men to live again?  I have seen the marble tombs on\nthe Appia Via where the Scipios, the Metelli, and so many more of\nour great Romans lie asleep.  Shall I soon follow them?  Is it an\nendless slumber?  What is it that the new Rabbi from Nazareth\nmeans, when in the city yonder he speaks of another life?\"\n\n\"A fig for your weird autumn fancy,\" responds Aulus; \"down to the\nstreets of Hierosolyma we will go, and among their novel sights we\nwill forget your serious meditations.\"\n\n\nThey walk that afternoon as sightseers through the crowded Jewish\nemporium.  The shops remind them, with all their contrasts, of the\nmarts of Rome, for men always and everywhere have the trader's\npassion.  In the narrow streets of Jerusalem they see the stir of\nmany activities.  The workman is hammering his brass; the shoemaker\nshapes his sandals; the flax spinner is winding his thread; the\nscribe sits on his mat, and is ready for his writing.  In the shops\nthey see costly merchandise for sale--silks and jewels, fine linens\nand perfumes, delicious foods and drinks.  These have been imported\nfrom far Arabia and India; they have been brought from distant\nPersia and Media.  With all their variety, no taste, however\nfitful, need go unsatisfied.\n\nWhat a motley crowd is on the streets!  They hear the Aramaic\nspeech of Palestine, which Quintus has been taught by his Athenian\ntutor, and their ears also catch the accents  of other  foreign\ntongues.  They meet traders from western Zidon, sailors from Crete,\nbearded Idumaeans from beyond Judaea, and scholars from far\nAlexandria.  Magnificent Jerusalem it is!  Yet destined soon to\nfall.  For the day draws near when the Roman Titus shall weep on\nScopus over its fading splendors and then shall smite it to the\ndust.\n\nOne purchase only does Quintus make.  In a shop where Egyptian\nwares are sold he says to Aulus:\n\n\"Look on this scarab, this sacred beetle, which has been shaped by\nsome workman down in Thebae on the Nile.  We may be sure that no\npeople believes more intensely in a future life.  What compliment\nthey pay this physical frame of men when they hold that embalmment\nrestores to the soul its former body!  After the judgment of\nOsiris, if their lives be true, the worthy shall enjoy the\ncompanionship of the great god forever.  No other people wears such\na visible emblem of their faith in another life.  I will buy this\nscarab for an amulet against accident and evil.\"\n\n\nBut where had the workman gone who once had shaped that token of\nimmortality?  Whither had vanished his carver's skill?  Where had\ndisappeared his projects and his dreams?  Quintus is not thinking\nof any proconsulship he may win, or even of the love light in the\neyes of Lucretia, as he climbs again the heights of Scopus.  Rather\nhe is meditating on the departed maker of scarabs--and on the\ndestiny of the soul.  For ages the philosophers have been\nspeculating about the future life.  Familiar is Quintus with the\nviews of Laelius and Seneca, among the Roman inquirers, and with\nthe teachings of the great Grecians who have spoken in classic\nAthens.  But now the question leaps to the front.  Quintus is in\nthe city where Ayran travelers and Persian magi and Egyptian\npriests are busy telling their theories of immortality.  He is in\nthe very streets, besides, where a sandaled Teacher from Nazareth\nis declaring that the dead shall live again.  If but half is true\nthat this strange Man is reputed to have said, no priest of Jupiter\nhas ever uttered at Rome so luminous a word.  Can it be that\nQuintus himself shall see this Christus and hear his message?  If\nso, his will be in very truth a momentous quest.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nIN SOLOMON'S PORCH\n\n\"Give me new consolation, great and strong, of which I nave never\nheard or read.\"--_Pliny_.\n\n\nWith increasing frequency Christ was now speaking his prophecies of\nthe life immortal.  In his earlier ministry he had been dwelling\nupon the presence of the divine kingdom in the earth, the practical\nconditions for membership therein, and the inclusion of Gentile as\nwell as Jew in the gracious provision.  Novel were his words.\nWhoever had heard his discourse on the Mount or the parable of the\nlost sheep was rich beyond the modern sons of men.  But now, in the\nclosing period of his stay with mortals, he was more frequently\nforetelling the life to come.  Like a footworn traveler drawing\nnear the homeland, he was keenly anticipating his return to the\nspirit world.  Those who listened to him heard majestic intimations\nof a celestial country which eye had not beheld.  Nor is it to be\nthought that the Gospels, in their restricted pages, have recorded\nhalf his words concerning the heavenly land.\n\nNow comes the opportunity for Quintus himself to hear this new\nTeacher of the Jews.  A messenger from Pilate, sent on an errand to\nthe headquarters at Scopus, brings the tidings that Christ is in\nJerusalem as a visitor at the Feast of Dedication.  Favored are\nthose who hear through the years the world's commanding voices;\nbeyond estimate is the high privilege now granted Quintus.\n\n\"I will hasten in to Hierosolyma,\" he says to Aulus, who is\ndetained by camp duties; \"I will hear him for myself; and I will\nbring you back report as to this latest prophet of immortality.\"\n\n\nWith his soldier's cloak about him, in protection against the\nwinter's chill, Quintus is away to Jerusalem.  The national Feast\nof Dedication attracts his notice.  A courteous Hebrew explains to\nhim that the joyful festival commemorates the cleansing of the\nTemple after its profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes, two hundred\nyears before.  The procession of pious Jews, carrying their palm\nbranches and marching to the heights of Moriah, the chanting of the\ngreat Hallel within the imposing fane, the ascription of praise to\nJehovah all impress the keen-eyed soldier.\n\nThe enthusiasm of it all!  Though of other blood, Quintus clearly\nfeels the thrill of patriotism that stirs the multitude about him;\nand he understands in some measure their impatient waiting for the\ncoming prince who shall deliver Israel.\n\n\nBut is this all?  Instead it is only the beginning of the wonders\nwhich the serious Quintus is to witness.  Forth he passes to the\neastern cloister of the Temple, known then among the Jews as\nSolomon's Porch, in memory of their illustrious king.  The\nbystanders tell Quintus that it is built of a fragment of the first\nTemple which Nebuchadnezzar had left standing.  As the soldier\nlooks down the far-reaching aisle, he sees a quadruple row of white\nCorinthian columns, one hundred and sixty in number, and extending\na length of many hundred feet.  The vista is most amazing.\nAccustomed though he has been all his days to the magnificence of\nthe Roman architecture, he yields in willing admiration to the\nsplendors of the Solomonic porch.\n\nThen--he sees the Christ!  Walking through that forest of massive\ncolumns is the superlative Jew of his times, and of all times.  For\nnow--when the voices of that winter day are still, and Solomon's\nPorch has vanished where stood those blessed feet--there is no\nearthly measurement by which to estimate the Man whom Quintus saw.\n\n\nAmong the throng that surround him hostile Pharisees challenge him\nto tell them plainly if he be the foretold Messiah.  With impatient\nhearts they have waited long for their redemption.  Let him say if\ntheir deliverer has now come.  Then shall they throw off the yoke\nof the detested Roman rule and renew their ancient monarchy with\nenlarging influence and increasing splendors.\n\nMemorable words in answer does Quintus hear.  The Stranger  puts\naside  the thought of the Jewish struggle for an earthly throne,\nand turns in his fancy to the quiet pastures where feed the flocks.\nHe is a guardian Shepherd; Israel and all the world besides are his\ncherished sheep.  Those who are truly his shall hear his guiding\nvoice, and shall follow him.  They shall never perish.  From the\nhand of the Shepherd no vandal shall steal his own away.  How the\nwords thrill!  Sometimes Quintus has seen in the Judaean pastures\nthe keeper with his flocks, and knows how unchanging is his\nfidelity.  It is as if this watcher in his devotion is anticipating\nthe faithfulness of the greater Shepherd.  How entrancing is the\nlesson to this seeking soldier from beyond the Adriatic!\n\nThen does the Christ add another word more surprising than the\nrest.  To men who are his sheep he makes a promise that compasses\nthe furthest limit of the eternities.  Of such he says: \"Unto those\nwho follow me I will give the Life of the Ages.  Beyond the tomb\nthey are to live on forevermore.\"  Nor to the Jews alone, amid the\nmaze of those Corinthian columns, does the coming Shepherd speak.\nThe listening Roman soldier, wearing the armor of the empire on the\nTiber, comes within the circle of his promise.  Into the face of\nQuintus he looks and benignly says: \"There are other sheep not of\nthe Jewish pasture, to whom I shall give this unending life.  I\ncovet your great empire as my own.  O soldier of the Caesars,\nfollow after me!\"\n\n\nBack to the camp on Scopus the soldier goes, moved to his deepest\nsoul.  Impossible it seems to longer worship the Roman gods.  When\nhe has described to Aulus the Feast of Dedication, he repeats the\nwords he has heard in the Temple cloister, and says in deepest\nseriousness:\n\n\"Most unearthly is the Man on whom I have looked to-day.  In his\nspeech a divine patience, kindness, and dignity combine.  As for\nthe words he spoke, I cannot tell their moving power.  The sayings\nof our noblest Romans are feeble in the comparison.  Never have I\nheard another speak as he has done about a future world.  Truly, an\nunequaled Man is this new Teacher who is abroad in Judaea.\"\n\nSleep is of little consequence that night.  Is the word of the\naugur at Brundisium beginning to be fulfilled?  In his tent Quintus\nis wondering through the long hours if, among his people on the\nTiber, the Shepherd shall not find some sheep to whom he will give\nthe unending life.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nCHRIST HIMSELF THE WITNESS TO IMMORTALITY\n\n\"He appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine\nprophets had foretold.\"--_Josephus_.\n\n\nHow often have men missed the sight of great historic occurrences,\nin their attention to the routine of life!  So it was that Quintus\ndid not witness the tragic events of that Passover week on which\nhuman destiny was to turn.  To Tyre on the Great Sea he had gone,\nto arrange for the landing of a new quota of troops from\nBrundisium.  The commander at Scopus had chosen him for the\nresponsible mission, in token of his especial fitness.  The\ncompliment was pleasing.  But in his absence he was ever thinking\nof the promise made by the Teacher in Solomon's Porch, that the\nsheep who followed him should have eternal life.\n\nAstir was all Jerusalem, when the knight returned to Scopus.  It\nwas on the morning after the Lord's resurrection.  That Roman\ncenturion who had been at Calvary reviewed for Quintus the fateful\nhappenings.  With pomp reminding of a Roman triumph the Christ had\nentered David's city; after four days Iscariot had betrayed him\nwith a kiss; for blasphemy Pilatus, the procurator, had sentenced\nhim to the cross; they had put on him a scarlet robe in mockery;\nthey had hung him between two robbers on the hill of Golgotha; a\nbrutal soldier now at Scopus had won by lot his seamless robe, and\nwas jauntily displaying it as a trophy; an uncanny darkness had\ncovered the Judaean sky; the soldier Longinus had pierced the\nsufferer's side; they had buried the dead Christ in the garden tomb\nof the Arimathaean Joseph.  Monumental events were these--all new\nto Quintus, but destined to be written indelibly in the calendars\nof Christendom.\n\n\"More than this,\" continues the centurion, \"an amazing rumor is now\nabroad in the city that yesterday the dead Christus awoke from his\nsleep and has been five times seen by his amazed disciples.  When I\nbeheld him yield up the ghost, I hailed his death as that of a\ndevout man, but little did I think that he was a God and would\nreturn from the tomb.  The report says he has now come back.  On\nswift wing the rumor has flown through Jerusalem and even into\nPilate's palace.\"\n\n\nDown from the heights of Scopus the hurrying feet of Quintus carry\nhim to Jerusalem.  Doubts and wonderings and half-beliefs fill his\nmind.  What if by any shadow of possibility the prediction of the\nstrange Teacher has been fulfilled, that he should return from the\ndead on the third day?  Finding his way to Joseph's garden, Quintus\nstands by an empty sepulcher.  There is a group of wondering\nvisitors near, and among them is one whose inviting face leads\nQuintus to accost him.  Not frightened by the sword and armor of\nthe Roman knight, but assured by his candid look, the other answers\nin the Aramaic which both can speak:\n\n\"Johannes is my name.  Till three years ago I was a fisherman, up\non the waters of Gennesaret.  Since then I have been a disciple of\nthis Man from Galilee.  In his company I have heard surprising\nwords and have felt a heavenly influence.  He was no ordinary\nTeacher.  He was indeed from above.\"\n\n\"Is it true,\" asks Quintus in breathless words, \"that your Master\nhas risen from the grave?  I have been away in Tyrus.  Now in the\nRoman camp on Scopus I have heard that he has come forth from the\nsepulcher.  What means such a marvelous report?\"\n\n\"Yes, it is all true,\" John answers with his face aglow; \"this is\nthe very sepulcher where our Lord was laid.  Your own sentries kept\nguard before the tomb securely sealed.  But on the morning of\nyesterday there was a shaking of the earth; some angelic visitants\nrolled away the stone door of the grave; and our immortal Christus\ncame forth again.\n\n\"Astounding,\" Quintus interrupts in a whirl of words; \"but did he\nmake any promise of another life for men, before he was put to\ndeath?\"\n\n\"He truly did,\" replies the disciple; \"when we had eaten the\nPassover supper with him, he spoke a word more marvelous than any\nof your Roman teachers has ever uttered.  Into the spirit world he\nsaid he was departing, to make ready a room in the Father's ample\nhouse for those who were his own; and on his return he would take\nthem to be with himself.  Ever since our sad-hearted band have been\ncomforting themselves with this last promise in the upper room.\"\n\n\"None of our Roman gods has ever promised such a future.\" responds\nQuintus; \"but is this all?\"\n\n\"No,\" answers the disciple; \"on his cross our Christus spoke again\nabout another experience for men.  By his side was Dysmas, the\ncrucified robber, grieving for his faults and asking comfort.  When\nthe cross pain and thirst were over, our Lord replied, the outlaw\nshould walk with him among the bowers of the beautiful Paradise\nbeyond this world's horizon.  It was enough.  In this consolation\nthe tortured Dysmas passed on, with a smile of peace upon his face.\"\n\n\"Have you more wonders to tell?\" presses Quintus, in his eagerness,\nwhile the story of the cross begins to compel his judgment and call\nfor his heart's surrender.\n\nThen, the consummation!  In ecstatic words John tells of the one\nfinal and overmastering proof, in the thought of the eleven\ndisciples;\n\n\"Greatest of all, we have ourselves seen our Friend again.  Five\ntimes already has he showed himself.  First, Mary of Magdala saw\nhim under the trees of the garden, and spoke with him; then the\nother women met him and fell at his feet; next our fellow disciple\nPetros saw him; then two of our band walked with him to outlying\nEmmaus, and knew him as he broke bread at the journey's end; and\nthen last evening, he came to ten of us in the Passover room and\nspoke his peace on us.\n\n\"Perhaps you have all seen a spectral form which has no real\nexistence,\" remonstrates Quintus, while all the time he is yielding\nhimself to the compelling story.\n\n\"It cannot be,\" responds the convincing John; \"there have been too\nmany witnesses for that.  We have seen the very wound made by the\nspear of Longinus; we have heard his familiar voice; we have\nreceived his blessing.  Our number is our evidence; it cannot be\npossible that all of us have been deceived.  It is surely he, O\nRoman soldier, unless the senses of the women and of ten honest men\nare far astray.  No other teacher of the East has ever come back\nfrom the sepulcher.  Look and see for yourself.  Yonder is Joseph's\nempty tomb.  The Christus is himself the evidence.\"\n\n\nWhat can Quintus do, in the face of such proof as this?  He returns\nto Scopus in wildest tumult.  Little does he say to Aulus, his\nchosen friend.  The company of Longinus or the centurion he does\nnot seek.  The time has come--as it comes to all--when he must\ncommune with himself, and make the decision confronting every soul\nthat has heard the resurrection story.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nCICERO OR CHRIST?\n\n\"The name of Jesus can still remove distractions from the minds of\nmen.\"--_Origen_.\n\n\nShall men believe in a future life because of Christ's return from\nthe grave?  Is his established resurrection at Jerusalem the\nclimacteric proof for immortality?  The problem is inescapable.\nEvery man is himself a judge; before every man the accumulated\nevidence passes; for every man it is doomsday when he stands at the\npoint of decision.\n\nIn his sore perplexity Quintus says to himself that night, when he\nhas returned from his interview with the disciple John: \"My soul is\nlike a traveler who halts at the point where two roads meet.  Great\nissues depend upon his choice.  But while he hesitates may the\nimmortals, who watch over the destinies of men, guide his feet\naright.\"\n\nClearly defined are the alternatives before the Roman soldier.  On\nthe one hand are his ancestral beliefs, long established and deeply\ncherished by the nation.  Nor does any man quickly toss aside the\nfaith of his fathers.  If belief is waning in the primitive\nmythologies, and if the social life of the Empire is moved by\nunrest and despair, the problem is to find a greater satisfaction.\nThere have been spoken many beautiful words by the Roman scholars\nwhich are sweet premonitions of immortality.  Does not Quintus\nremember that Cicero likens to heaven a port prepared, and prays\nthat he may sail thither with full-spread sails?  And if the gifted\nCicero has just gone tragically out of life, let it be hoped that\nhe has reached the harbor.\n\nBut on the other hand are the challenging and captivating words of\nChrist.  Had he only spoken of the future life as an enthusiastic\nTeacher, and then had passed to the perpetual slumber of the grave\nlike other philosophers of the time, he would be remembered long.\nBut, when he had spoken his words concerning immortality, he had\nadded, \"I myself shall surely come back again.\"  From the evidence\nwhich Quintus has heard in Jerusalem he has now fulfilled his\nprediction.  He has put to scorn the fidelity of the Roman\nsentinels at the tomb of Joseph; he has reversed the laws of\nnature; he has appeared again, in unique proof that there is to be\na resurrection of the dead.  Wide is the difference between Cicero\nand the Christ.  The one has spoken a mere opinion, so beautiful in\nits phrase that it shall pass down into the future literature of\nmen.  The other has spoken a revelation, and then has returned to\nprove that revelation true.  Which shall it be--Cicero or the\nChrist?\n\nBut to accept the Jewish Teacher means earthly loss.  As he keeps\nguard with himself through the night hours Quintus is wondering if\nhe shall incur the hostility of his father Marcus and shall be\nforced to sacrifice his estates on the Palatine.  He fancies also\nthe grief of the fair Lucretia when she learns that he has chosen\nan alien faith.  And he remembers, further, that in the choice of\nthe Christus he is joining a company on whom the Eastern world is\nalready casting its withering contempt.  Cicero or the Christus.\nWhich shall it be?\n\n\nThere are no struggles like the night wrestlings of the soul in\nmatters of religion.  What words can measure the divers arguments,\nthe opposing considerations, the conflicting emotions that shape\nhuman choice?  Quintus stands at the point where soon--in the\nprogress of the new faith--Saul from Tarsus, Clement of Rome, and\nso many more of the great spirits of that first era are to stand.\nThe wrestlings of the night!  Then foul demons are abroad; and then\nGod's good angels are descending the ladders of the sky.\n\nSoon comes a great moment.  While the soul of Quintus is in wild\ncommotion, there falls upon him a mighty force which is not of\nearth.  Coming he knows not whence, but not invading the department\nof his will, it impels him to the Christ.  Transformed is this\nRoman knight, who has been taught the doctrines of the Latin cult,\nand whose nation can only feel disdain for a Galilaean who proposes\nto revolutionize the ages.  The words of the augur at Brundisium\nare having in truth a strange fulfillment.\n\nAs if the Man were present on whom he had looked in the Porch of\nSolomon.  Quintus speaks his choice for the long eternities:\n\n\"Happen what may, I take thee, O Christus, for my Lord and Master.\nI sacrifice my Roman knighthood for thee, if it shall be required.\nI choose thee, because thou hast risen from the dead and hast\nproven that there is another life for men.\"\n\nNot Cicero, but Christ!  The Roman knight has made the great\ndecision.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nTHE VISION OF THE RISEN CHRIST\n\n\"After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at\nonce.\"--_Paul_.\n\n\nOnce for himself was Quintus to see the Lord, before his departure\nheavenward.  When midnight hours afterward came to him in Italy,\nthe memory of that vision was golden.  When, among the temples of\nthe gods in pagan Rome, men challenged his belief, his sufficient\nanswer was: \"With mine own eyes I have seen the risen Teacher who\nhas revealed immortality to men.\"  So did the first disciples of\nthe faith who bore its weightiest burdens, enjoy its highest\nprivilege.\n\nIt was the disciple John who told Quintus of the opportunity to see\nthe risen Lord.  In an hour of fellowship at Jerusalem--when the\nknight had confessed his new allegiance--John spoke of the Master's\nwish.  The disciples who were in the city and its environs were to\ngather in Galilee with those from that upper district.  Once more\nwould their Lord show himself to all who believed on him, and would\nspeak with them.  Nor did Quintus ever cease to rejoice that he was\nreckoned worthy to look that day on the Conqueror of death.\n\nWith light feet the Jerusalem company, some six score in number,\nmade the journey north to Galilee.  One subject only was on their\nlips, as they followed the road through Samaria to Kurn Hattin,\nnear the Sea of Tiberias.  Here the Lord at the opening of his\nmission had spoken his nine blessings to needy mortals; most\nfitting it now was that on this memorable hillside he should utter\nhis farewell to those who had come to believe on him.  Thus would\nthe circle of his teachings end where it had begun.  Bright was the\npicture.  The glint of the sunlight on the Galilaean sea so near at\nhand, with the uncounted flowers of the spring-time that covered\nthe lower plains, lent a charm to the scene that Quintus remembered\nalways.\n\n\nAt the outset the Roman convert is impressed with the goodly number\nof those first disciples.  They are not twelve or six score, but\nmany more.  They greet each other with the salutation, \"Peace be to\nyou,\" and then they rapturously add, \"To-day we shall see our\nLord.\"  In that intimacy which should always mark the followers of\nChrist, they give Quintus their welcome; and at once he feels\nhimself among a congenial brotherhood.\n\nOne is by name Nicodemus, a member of the Great Sanhedrin.  Another\nis one Bartimaeus, from southern Jericho, whose finger tips have\nbeen his eyes, till the Lord has healed his blindness.  A third has\nbeen a demoniac among the hills of the Gergesenes, and has been a\nwandering and truculent challenge to his times.  A woman is there\nfrom Jacob's well, with Salome and Susanna and the virgin mother\nherself.  They are from southern Bethlehem; they have come from the\nwild hills of Peraea, beyond the Jordan; many are from Galilee,\nwhere Christ has found so many devoted followers.  All these, as\nwell as the immortal eleven who have composed the inner circle of\nthe Master's associates.\n\nTwo other peculiar disciples does Quintus see, both of whom have\nbeen raised from the dead.  Lazarus has come, who has so often\nwelcomed the Lord to his home in Bethany; and with him are the\nsisters, of whom one has heard the Teacher say.  \"Whosoever liveth\nand believeth in me shall never die.\"  The other is a young\nvineyard keeper from the neighboring village of Nain, whom Christ\nhas restored.  His word to Quintus is:\n\n\"Last year I sickened with a fever and passed through the door of\ndeath.  They were carrying me out for burial, and my widowed mother\nwas weeping as one weeps who has lost her only son.  The Master\nhalted the mourners, and called me back to earth.  I have never\ntold of the wonders which I saw in the spirit world; it would not\nbe lawful.  But I have been in the great spaces beyond the stars,\nand know that the tomb is only a resting place for a little sleep.\"\n\n\"How many disciples are there here?\" Quintus asks of the good John.\nTo which question the other answers:\n\n\"Over a half thousand.  It has been our Master's wish that every\ndisciple of his throughout the land should come to this meeting\nplace.  Unto all he would show himself once more, before he returns\nto the upper life.  So they shall have a glad memory of his face,\nand shall be strengthened in their coming tribulations by the hope\nof immortality.\"\n\nThen suddenly--the risen Lord has come!  The marvel of it!  The\nsplendor of it!  While the five hundred are talking together, the\nair grows luminous with his presence.  Out of the invisible he\nappears.  As suddenly he comes as Aurora in her chariot drives up\nthe eastern sky and brings in the shining day.  When the company\nhave fallen on their faces and have adored their Master, in the\nhush that follows he gives them a great commission:\n\n\"You are to go forth.\" he says, \"and herald my gospel to the world.\nLet there be no laggards in your company.  It is a lifelong charge.\nThere is a task for Petrus and Johannes, for Philippus and\nMattheus, and for all.  You are to look for disciples everywhere.\nYou are to proclaim the message of repentance.  You are to give\nthem the waters of baptism, in the name of the God triune.  You are\nto declare to sad-hearted men the promise of eternal life, until I\nshall come again to take men to myself.\"\n\nThat honorable commission!  It was in coming days to stir the souls\nof apostles and quicken the feet of missioners and fire with zeal\nearth's coming reformers.  Nor does Quintus forget that he too has\nhis charge.   In the city on the Tiber is to be his task.  To his\nhome circle, to priests in the temples of the gods, and even to the\nroyal Tiberius he is to herald the gospel of the resurrection.  His\nvision of the risen Lord is the measure of his opportunity.\n\nThen the Master looks into his very face, and remembers him as the\nRoman knight he had seen in the Porch of Solomon.  The half\nthousand disciples on Kurn Hattin prostrate themselves to the\nearth; and in their acclaim the soldier joins his voice, \"Rabboni!\nRabboni!  Our great Master!\"  Then departs the Christ, and back to\ntheir homes they go, evermore to comfort themselves with the vision\nof their risen Lord.\n\n\nSoon afterward their Rabboni goes from earth.  Out beyond the hill\nof Olivet he walks one day with his eleven.  In their last words\ntogether he reminds them again that they are to be his heralds to\nthe eastern world.  A cloud gathers above their heads, like some\nhalting chariot, and he is gone forever from human sight.  Yet only\nin the distance it seems a cloud.  For John afterward says to\nQuintus that it was in reality a phalanx of ten thousand angels,\nrobed in whiteness and sent to convoy the Son of God to glory\neverlasting.\n\nWith Quintus that visit to Kurn Hattin shaped all his future.  His\nMaster's countenance had seemed to him more wonderful than any face\nwhich the gifted Phidias had ever carved in stone.  But never in\nafter days could he worthily tell to Lucretia the vision he had\nseen.  Only in one poor sentence could he sum it up: \"I have seen\nfor myself the risen and ascending Lord.\"\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nCHRIST'S WITNESSES AT ROME\n\n\"A great multitude.\"--_Tacitus_.\n\n\nWith jubilation Quintus sees again the shores of Italy rise over\nthe Adriatic, and finds himself once more in his beloved Rome.  The\ncenter of magnificence and power it seems.  Alter clamorous public\ngreetings in the Forum, there comes another welcome which happens\nonly in a returning soldier's life.  In the palace of Marcus the\nkindred of Quintus are gathered, and Lucretia also is in the\ncircle, to hear his great adventure.\n\n\"How wonderful it seems,\" the knight begins: \"so many times have\nyour faces come to me in my dreams, but now I am fully awake and\nsee them once again.  Hail to you all!  When I was sailing away\nfrom Brundisium, the augur foretold for me an unusual experience.\nIn the Jewish life beyond the Sea I have learned much, if that were\nthe fulfillment.  But, most of all, I have come back with a new\nreligious faith.  In Judaea, as you must have heard, a certain\nGalilaean has called himself the Son of the one true God.  He has\nspoken of a future life for men; and he has now risen from the\ngrave, after his torture on a cross, to prove his doctrine true.  I\nnow believe in him, as the interpreter of the future life.\nForevermore he is my High Priest, and not the great pontifex in the\ntemple of your Jupiter.\"\n\nBrave words they are.  There in the great hall of Marcus, with the\nsunlight shining on the gorgeous palaces of the Caesars, the Temple\nof Apollo, and all else which crowns the Palatine, the noble\nQuintus confesses his new belief.  Come what will the consequences!\n\nThen, while they hear in amazement, he further says; \"Most inviting\nis this new creed.  Our wise Roman scholars, as well as those in\nGreece, have only been guessers about the future life.  But the\nChristus speaks as one who has come from the heavens.  Those who\nkeep his commandments are to dwell with him forevermore in eternal\njoy.  Everywhere through Judaea men are becoming his followers, and\nthe wide world is to believe on him.  Perhaps you also, my\ncherished ones, will come to accept his teaching of the future\nlife.\"\n\nSo Quintus speaks, with his vibrant voice and with a strange light\non his face.  Wonderingly they hear the tidings that he brings--the\nrecital of the greatest happening that can ever befall a man.  Not\nderiding their valiant soldier, and not withholding their wealth of\nlove from one who has come safely back to them, they watch the\nchanges in his life.\n\n\"I do not care,\" he says, \"to loiter in the baths of Agrippa and to\nhear from the idlers there the gossip of the hour.  The\ngladiatorial struggles in the Circus Maximus and the comedies in\nthe theaters have lost for me their relish.  For the civic rewards\nwhich Tiberius gives his favored ones I have no wish.  Senatorships\nand proconsulships are like the dust in the apothecaries' scales.\nI have seen the risen Lord!\"\n\nInfluential is such a life on the home group of Quintus.  With his\npride of birth and his great properties, Marcus becomes a believer.\nA conversion it is which is the surprise of Rome.  The rare\nLucretia, as well, receives the truth.  At times, before she has\ncalled herself a disciple, Quintus escorts her to the worship of\nthe Roman Christians.  Their captivating speech, their holy love\nfor one another, their rapturous faces move her deepest heart.\nTill, one day, when Quintus has been telling her of the womanhood\nin Judaea which the Christ has ennobled, she replies:\n\n\"I believe it all, O Quintus.  Of late into my heart an untold\npeace has come.  All things are changed for me.  The sunlight is on\nthe hills!\"  It is her open confession.  Lucretia is thenceforth\nenrolled among the Roman saints of whom the world was not worthy,\nand who looked for the life to come.\n\n\nIn the fellowship of the Roman church--already founded and rapidly\nenlarging--Quintus finds his pleasure.  A few are Jews from the\nghetto beyond the Tiber, till the persecution of Claudius drives\nthem forth.  More are of the varied nationalities met in that\ncommercial and luxurious center.  Most are of plebeian blood.\nThere are smiths and mechanics; there are stone cutters, workers in\nmosaics, and decorators.  There are slaves from the very palace of\nTiberius.  There is Amon from Egypt, who sells his jewelry down in\nthe Nova Via.  There is Polemon, the Grecian shopkeeper, in the\nClivus Victoriae.  There is Onesimus, the servant of Philemon, from\nColossae.  There are Amplias and Epaenetus and Stachys, the\nparticular friends of the Gentile apostle.  There is, as well,\nPomponia Graecina, that woman of noble blood, who accepts the\nChrist.  An ever-increasing company it is.\n\nIn their assemblies, on the first day of the week, Quintus has his\ninfluential place.  He listens to the reading of the older\nScriptures; he celebrates with the gathered company the eucharistic\nsuppers and agapae; he keeps with them the Easter celebration, in\nmemory of Him who shall give them eternal life.  In emblem of their\nfaith the sign of the fish is on their evening lamps.  Theirs is a\nsterling citizenship.  The wanton metropolis of the Caesars is\nblessed immeasurably by the company of these who follow the risen\nLord.\n\nIt is after the midcentury that the great Paulus, having met with\nshipwreck on Melita, draws near to Rome.  Quintus leads the company\nthat goes out southward forty miles, to welcome the Christian\ntraveler.   At Appii Forum, that common town with its bargemen and\nits tavern keepers, they give the kiss of welcome to a little bent\nand gray-haired Jew, who shall go down into history as Christ's\nmost illustrious apostle.  The faithful Luke is his companion.\nAlong the famous highway of the Via Appia, where emperors and\nwarriors, scholars and Oriental tradesmen have walked, Quintus\nescorts their guest.  Past the tombs of the Roman great, by\nuncounted statues, past suburban villas they go, until, through the\nPorta Appia, the holy prisoner, chained to a Roman guard, finds\nhimself in the city of the Caesars.\n\nOne rare privilege the Roman knight then envoys.  In his hired\nhouse, near the Pretorian camp, Paul speaks without interruption\nhis words of grace.  The doctrines he had before written to the\nRoman church he now explains; the wish he had made to see them face\nto face now expresses itself in words of love.  The flood tides of\nhis eloquence move resistlessly on, as he interprets the new faith\nand speaks of Him who is to give them eternal life.  Quintus is\nenriched by his frequent association with the peerless soul.  Nor\ndid he have a prouder thing to say, in the days to come, than to\ndeclare, \"I heard great Paulus tell of the life immortal.\"\n\nBut how fares our knight when persecution comes?  Through the years\nhe has been bravely declaring the Christian doctrine of the eternal\nlife to priests in the temples, to Roman nobles, to all most\nhostile.  But his wealth and social standing, as well as the\nemperor's favor, now insure his safety.  His father Marcus has long\nsince passed on, in hope of the heavenly life.  Having wedded the\ngraceful Lucretia, when an apostle was in Rome to speak their\nnuptials, he has her efficient counsel in the testing times.\n\n\"Look! look! Lucretia,\" he cries, one evening; \"through the lower\ncity the flames are running like unbridled horses.  There is danger\nthat all Rome may go to ashes.\"\n\nFor nine long days they watch the sweep of the lurid flames.  The\nlight shines out like a signal torch, to mark an emperor's folly.\nThen the undeserved charge that they have lit the flames brings on\nthe martyrdom of the Roman Christians.  Sometimes Quintus and\nLucretia are able to soften the trials of the sufferers, by\npermission of the capricious Nero.  To old Chilo, the Grecian,\nbefore he meets his doom, they unfold the promise of eternal reward\nin the Father's house.  The hope of immortality they carry to those\nwho go to the lions, at the emperor's whimsical command.  And the\nglorious company of martyrs passes singing to the skies, because of\ntheir consoling words.\n\nDown into the dungeon of the Mamertine they are permitted once to\ngo, to visit Paulus.  But he needs not their consolation.  Rather\nhe is the comforter.  With the poise of a conqueror he bids them\nnot to mourn for him: he is going to the Lord in the unending life.\nOver their bowed heads he stretches his aged hands, in apostolic\nbenediction.  Soon ends his imprisonment.  At _Tre Fontane_, in a\nfew days more, his weary body rests; but his immortal spirit mounts\nbeyond the stars.\n\n\nAt last the Christian knight comes to the crossing.  The prediction\nof the augur at Brundisium has been strikingly fulfilled.  Matured\nin all the graces, he is like the ripened Chian clusters that await\nthe vintager in the autumn days.  The friends of Quintus have gone\nbefore; as the old century wanes, the old man is to follow them.\n\n\"My time has come to go,\" he says one day; \"the portals of eternal\nlife and joy I see swinging open wide.  I shall pass through the\ngates, because my ascended Lord has gone in before me to prepare my\ndwelling place.  With him as my Teacher I believe in the life\nimmortal.\"\n\n\nIn the Roman catacombs, those most remarkable testimonies to the\neternal life, his resting place may be found.  The sign of the fish\nis on his stone.  Its time-eaten inscription is still legible,\namong the many which tell of the early Christian expectation and of\nall future Christian hope:\n\n\n\"HERE RESTS THE DUST OF QUINTUS, OF NOBLE BLOOD; IN THE FAITH OF\nTHE ASCENDED LORD HE HAS ENTERED UPON THE ETERNAL LIFE.\"","title":"An Easter Disciple: The Chronicle of Quintus, the Roman Knight","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":8033}