click to read pdf file - The Preterist Archive

TWO MARTYRDOMS .
475
Marcellus watched by the grave that night but as he
;
watched he thought that the Apostle caiue to him in vision,
and said, Let the dead bury their dead. Preach thou
'
the gospel of God.' On that spot was reared the humble
'trophy,' or memorial cell, which the presbyter Gaius saw
there in the second century. Thence, in due time, the
relics were removed to that unequalled shrine, where
the tomb which enclosed them is encircled by ever-burning
lights, and visited century after century by the devotion
of tens of thousands. Fools counted his life madness and
his end to be without honour. How is he numbered among
the children of God, and his lot is
among the saints!
The procession which accompanied the Apostle John had
taken longer to arrive at the scene of martyrdom. The
awful heat of the morning, the more crowded parts of the
city through which they had to pass, the greater throngs
which accompanied them, had caused delay. The Apostle
walked with firm step in the midst of the ten soldiers.
Though his hands were tied behind his back, his appearance
struck all beholders with involuntary dread. The high
forehead, the long hair which streamed over his shoulders,
the perfect self-possession, the beauty of holiness, gave to
his movements an unconscious majesty. His face was
mostly lifted heavenward in prayer, but whenever he turned
on those around him his bright and searching glance their
eyes fell before him. If any began to jeer at him and utter
words of ribald blasphemy, he had but to look towards
them, and in spite of themselves they stopped short. An
unwonted hush fell on the throng which surged around the
soldiers a silence of which the multitudes themselves could
give no account.
'
He is a sorcerer, that is certain,' said Tullius Senecio as
he looked down on the passing procession from a window in
the house of Crispiuilla.
' '
He must be,' she answered. I never saw the crowd of
the Forum so strangely quiet.'
'
Let me see the Christian,' said a boy in the crowd.
Soldier, lift me up that I may see him.'
'
What, Gervasius ? How earnest thou here ? But thou
'
art a soldier's son, and I will humour thee,' said the decurio.
Thy father and I were comrades in Palestine, and
'