click to read pdf file - The Preterist Archive

482 DARKNESS AND DAWN
days the youth had been altogether displeasing to him, but
now he was a changed character. Paulus had won him back
to the paths of holiness. He had been illuminated. He had
tasted of the heavenly calling, and had devoted himself to the
personal tendance of the aged Apostle. In Rome he had
given proof of his courage and consistency by showing pity
for the prisoners and not being ashamed of their chains. It
was no time now to talk of marrying or giving in marriage,
for surely the day of the Lord was very nigh at hand ; yet, if
Junia loved the youth, Nereus would not forbid their plighting
troth to each other, and awaiting the day when the
marriage might be possible. And this he granted the more
readily, for he feared that very soon Junia would be left alone,
a helpless and friendless Christian maiden in the midst of an
evil world.
So the lovers met, but the interchange of their common
vows were solemn and sacred, under the darkening skies of
persecution, and as it were in the valley of the shadow of
death. For Junia entreated Onesimus to return to Borne and
do his utmost to watch over her father and to save him if by
any means it were possible or lawful. He bade her farewell,
and found time to pay one brief visit to the temple at Aricia
that he might express his gratitude to the priest of Virbius
for having spared his life. Alas, he was too late ! A new
Eex Nemorensis the ex-gladiator Eutilus reigned in
Croto's room. He had surprised and murdered him the evening
before, and Onesimus saw the gaunt corpse of Croto outstretched
upon its wooden bier awaiting burial in the plot
assigned to the succession of murdered priests.
Sick at heart, Onesimus hurried from the dark precincts,
and by the morning dawn he was in Eome.
On that day the terrible massacres began which were to
baptise the infant Church in a river of blood, and to consecrate
Rome in the memory of Christendom as the city of slaughtered
saints. For there Paganism was to display herself,
naked and not ashamed, a harlot holding in her hand the
brimming goblet of her wickedness, drunken with the blood
of the beloved of God. Mankind was to see exhibited a
series of startling contrasts: human nature at its best and
sweetest ;
human nature at its vilest and worst : unchecked
power smitten with fatal impotence; unarmed weakness