by F. W. Farrar
CHAPTER LXI
_BEFORE THE LION_
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S. Paul. ad Tim. ?. iv. 17.
When Onesimus had succeeded in rescuing Nereus from the pitchy tunicon the dreadful-glorious night of the Church’s martyrdom, the twomade their way through the darkness to Aricia, which they reached atthe earliest dawn. Old Dromo welcomed them, and Junia received herfather with transports of love and gratitude. Onesimus hung modestlyback during their meeting, but when the girl had ceased to weepon her father’s neck, she turned to his deliverer, and thanked himfrom her heart as one to whose courage and devotion she owed hispreservation from that death of agony.
During that day they arranged their plans. In the little farm andvineyard of Pudens there was ample room for free labour, and it wassettled that Nereus and Junia should stay there for the present,Nereus working in the vineyard, and Junia helping in the care of theflocks and fowls, and in the management of the household. Among thosegroves, in that remote and humble homestead, they were safe in theirobscurity, and there they could abide until some other opportunityoffered, or happier times came round.
Onesimus thought it his duty to return to the Apostle, to whoseservice he had devoted his life. The generosity of Octavia had lefthim with sufficient funds for his simple needs, and he prepared tomake his way to Crete, where he expected to find St. Paul. But beforehe started he asked Nereus to sanction his marriage with Junia. Bothof them were baptised Christians, and Onesimus had now sufficientlyproved the sincerity of his faith, and the depth of his repentancefor former errors.
‘I am grateful to thee, youth,’ said the old man, ‘and I know thatthou art a brand plucked from the burning. But the coming of theLord draweth nigh, and the sky is red and lowering, and Antichrist isstriving to destroy the Church of God. Is it a time to marry and givein marriage? Is it not rather a time for them who have wives to beas though they had none, and for the unmarried to abide as virginsbecause of the present necessity?’
‘I know it, my father,’ said Onesimus; ‘but thou mayst die, and Juniabe left an orphan in these evil days. Let us be married, and she willhave an earthly arm to defend her and toil for her. We will marry,and will separate to-day. I will seek the Apostle, and if it be God’swill He will make our way plain before our face.’
Nereus consented. At a little distance from Rome, in the lonelinessof the Campagna, the fossors had already begun to construct thecatacomb now known as that of St. Callistus, and there in a smallsubterranean chapel in one of those dim galleries, the Christiansbegan to hold their evening or early morning assemblies. Thitherafter sunset Nereus, Onesimus, and Junia made their way. Theyfound but a handful of Christians who had escaped the fury of thepersecution, and though these were, in one sense, deeply discouragedby the shattering blow which had destroyed their Church, and almostheartbroken at the agonising loss of their loved brethren, in anothersense they were full of hope and exalted courage, and uttered to oneanother their watchword _Maranatha_, with more intense conviction.And among them was Cletus, who had escaped as by miracle. His namehad been denounced, but being young and active, he had succeeded inhiding himself and eluding research. He was now the humble bishop ofthe ruined community. He it was who joined the hands of Onesimus andJunia in the holy bond, and he it was who blessed the bread and wineof which the little band of brethren partook in humble communion.Marriage gladness, marriage festivities there were none. The Phrygianfreedman and the Roman maiden pledged their faith to each other underthe shadow of the Cross.
Before the dawn was red, Onesimus was making his way to Rhegium,whence he purposed to get to Messana, and so by ship to Lasæa onthe stormy shores of Crete. On his arrival he found only Titus ofCorinth, whom St. Paul had left in charge of the young and strugglingChurches. He sailed in search of the Apostle, and his ship stoppedfor a day at Patmos, where he found the Beloved Disciple in hisexile. The ascendency of St. John’s personality had overawed theinhabitants of that rocky islet, and he was suffered to spend histime in freedom. Onesimus sat with him under a grey olive tree, onthe grassy summit of a rock, the highest point of the island, anddiscoursed with him for hours. The scene was lovely. The brilliantsapphire of the sea lay beneath them in unbroken calm, rippled hereand there by the white wings of the beautiful seabirds. The cragsglowed a deep rich red, except when they were covered with grass,on which the pink sea-thrift had already faded into white. On everyside the sea-line was broken by the fantastic contour of islesand islets. Eastward on the Ionian shore, so rich in heroic andphilosophic memories, they saw the historic summit of Mount Mycale,and northwards the island of Thera. A burning mountain, cast intothe midst of the sea, and at that time in a crisis of violenteruption, it vomited, as though from the depths of the abyss, itsvolumes of turbid smoke which hung like a cloud at one spot of thefar horizon.[117] It was here that St. John heard from Onesimusthe scenes which had followed his providential deliverance from theboiling oil, the illumination of Nero’s gardens with living torches,the orgies of the wild beast from the sea of nations as he wallowedin the blood of the saints. His whole soul was already broodingon the awful manifesto in which he answered the fury of the world,and spoke of the impending destruction of the two great cities ofantiquity--Jerusalem, the metropolis of God’s olden Temple; Rome,the metropolis of the dragon and the Antichrist. Here, too, heentrusted to Onesimus--in whose youth, prudence, and courage hewas interested--some of the keys to that strange cryptogram of theApocalypse, which, if it had been written otherwise than in symbols,might have involved the ruin of whole communities. Among other thingshe told him that, by the cabbalistic system of Gematria, which theGreeks called isopsephism, ‘Nero Cæsar’ in _Hebrew letters_ gave thatwhich he had called the number of the Beast, 666. It was necessarythat such secrets should be kept with care, for in the hands of aninformer they might lead to overwhelming disasters; yet Onesimus didnot wholly throw into the Mæander the key to the secret; but in duetime revealed enough to guide the guesses which Irenæus and others ofthe ancient Christian Fathers had heard through the martyr Polycarp.
From Patmos Onesimus sailed to Ephesus, but did not overtake theApostle Paul till he had followed him to Nicopolis, in Epirus. Aftera restful winter there St. Paul went through Macedonia to Troas.There, in the hospitable house of Carpus, he was suddenly arrested atthe instance of Alexander the coppersmith, who was animated by tradegrudges, because that part of his work which was connected with smallimages of Diana of the Ephesians had suffered from Paul’s preaching.Paul was seized by night, and so suddenly that he had no time to takewith him his few precious books and documents and his large cloak. Hewas hurried to Ephesus, and tried before the proconsul; but, knowingthat there he was little likely to obtain justice, he again appealedto Cæsar. During his imprisonment at Ephesus he had been cheered byOnesiphorus, and by the son of his heart Timotheus, who had sharedwith him for so many years in the life of a despised and huntedmissionary. They parted with streaming tears which Paul longremembered. With Onesimus as his attendant, and Luke, Demas,Tychicus, Trophimus, and Erastus as his fellow-helpers, the gloriousprisoner set forth on his last journey. Trophimus fell ill atMiletus; Erastus stayed at Corinth, of which city he had beenchamberlain. They went over the Diolkos to Lechæum, along the Gulfof Corinth, and across the Adriatic to Brundisium. Thence they madetheir dreary way to Rome. This time there were no rejoicing crowds ofChristians to meet them at Appii Forum or the Three Taverns, at sightof whom he could thank God and take courage. He found the Church ofRome in its ashes. No one could visit him without peril; and indeedno Christian of rank was left at Rome. Clemens and his family sharedthe disgrace into which Vespasian had fallen, and were living atthe Sabine farm. Pomponia, after her visit to Poppæa, had suffereda severe relapse, and had been moved to a distant villa in theApennines. Every leader of the Christian Church except Cletus andHermas had perished in the persecution. Pudens was in Britain withCaractacus and Claudia. In later days the devotion of Christians totheir i
mprisoned brethren struck Pagans with curious amazement, butPaul himself discouraged visits which might so easily bring death tothe visitors. He was left, therefore, in painful loneliness, exceptfor the loving care of Luke and Onesimus. Of his companions, Demashad forsaken him, and the presence of others had been necessary invarious Churches. He was imprisoned, as his brother Apostles hadbeen, in the Tullianum, and it was difficult to find out where hewas. The Ephesian Onesiphorus, who came to Rome for the purpose,cheered his heart by fearlessly seeking him, and, unashamed of hischain, refreshed him in this his seventh imprisonment with that senseof human sympathy which he most required. But this one gleam of lightwas speedily quenched, for Onesiphorus caught the prison fever, anddied at Rome.
Nero himself presided at the first trial of the Apostle. The crimewhich the Emperor had committed against the Christians was soenormous that the recollection of it haunted him, and intensifiedhis hatred. He would not lose the opportunity of condemning thegreatest of the Christian leaders. Paul was conducted to the basilicain the Golden House. It was a hall of the utmost splendour. The floorwas of mosaic, in which porphyry, and serpentine, and giallo anticoblended their soft lustres in patterns of wonderful variety andgrace. The pillars were of light-green cipollino, the walls wereinlaid with pavonazzetto from the Apennines near Pisa, and theircornices of alabaster were sculptured with animals and dolphins,and winged figures. The Emperor sat in the centre of the apse,which was divided from the body of the hall by a balustrade ofwhite marble. His gilded and ivory chair was elevated on an inlaidpavement, approached by steps of porphyry. Round him stood a group ofPrætorians with their silver eagles and other military ensigns. Thelictors with their axed fasces stood at the back of his chair, andnear him on lower seats sat Tigellinus, Eprius Marcellus, CossutianusCapito, and other informers who had recently been enriched with thespoils of the innocent. Not far from these were some of the leadingJews, and conspicuous among them were the High Priest Ishmael, thealabarch Tiberius Alexander the unworthy nephew of Philo, and thefoxy features of that arch-impostor, the magician Simon.
The great prisoner was made to stand in front of the balustrade onthe spot marked by a circle of giallo antico on the floor. His handswere fastened together with a long coupling chain. The two chiefEphesian accusers, Alexander the coppersmith, and Demetrius thesilversmith, were animated with the keenest hatred. And Paul wasleft absolutely alone. Onesimus and Luke accompanied him to theentrance, but they were both ‘suspects,’ and were not permitted toenter. But there were Gentiles and soldiers who might have helpedhim had they chosen, and the Apostle would not have been human ifhe had not felt the bitterness of desertion. ‘At my first trial,’he wrote to Timothy, ‘no man took his place at my side. All abandonedme. God forgive them!’ In all that city, where his previous bondshad made the Gospel known alike in the Palace and the camp; in thatworld, for which he had sacrificed his life in loftiest services,there was no patron to protect, no advocate to support him, nofavourable witness to plead extenuation. But he felt and said thatOne more powerful than many legions stood by him--even the Lord whomhe had served.
Nero was in his most savage mood, and Tigellinus as always, addedfuel to his rage. He insulted Paul, he glared upon him, he roaredat him, he attempted to browbeat him, with utter violation of everyprinciple of justice. Paul was a man the very sight of whom naturallyinspired Nero with ferocity. For Nero, whom all the world knew tobe a robber, a poisoner, a murderer, a matricide--a sensualist,effeminate, degraded, and unutterably depraved--had become awarethat these Christians lived lives of purity and holiness, thepossibility of which he affected to deny. And his guilty splendourand luxurious misery were forced at last to blush and tremblebefore the irresistible weakness of that despised, ragged, fetteredprisoner. For Paul did not in the least fear him, and Paul’s couragewas so marvellous to those who were accustomed to the pusillanimityof senators, who went away and committed suicide if Nero did butfrown at them, that the courtiers and soldiers turned their eyesfrom the purple of the world’s master to gaze upon the rags of thissick prisoner who stood there with his pale countenance, his stoopingfigure and thin sable-silvered hair, more dauntless in chains, andunder the axe of doom, than the Emperor amid his guards.
The first trial turned on Ephesian accusations of riot and disorder,and Paul, producing the diploma of his franchise, stood on his rightsas a Roman citizen. He demanded to answer for himself, and, in themanly speech which he made, the chained ambassador of Christ strucka feeling akin to terror into the heart of the deified autocratof heathendom. He was able to prove by the written evidence of theRecorder of Ephesus, and of friendly Asiarchs, that the testimonyof the metal-workers was false, and that he had ever behaved as apeaceable citizen. The calm dignity of his defence, and the perfectcourtesy and fearlessness which he had shown in his desperateposition, left a deep impression on the jurors. Eprius Marcellustried to cow him with that Hercules-Furens style of oratory whichhad so often driven the blood from the cheeks of consulars andgenerals. But when Paul turned on him his quiet glance, EpriusMarcellus stopped short, stammered in the middle of a sentence, andignominiously sat down, muttering something about ‘the evil eye.’
In spite of Nero’s scorn and anger, the jurors voted in accordancewith their convictions. When the votes were counted in the urn therewere a few C.s for _Condemno_ dropped by Court sycophants, but mostof the tablets were A. for _Absolvo_ and N. L. for _Non Liquet_,‘not proven.’ To the astonishment of all, this first offence endedin acquittal on the first capital charge, and _ampliatio_--thepostponement of the trial--for the examination of the second count.The second count was that Paul was a Christian, and, as such, theadherent of an illegal religion. On this he knew that he could notescape; but of the result of the first trial he wrote to Timothy withheartfelt gratitude that ‘God had saved him out of the mouth of thelion.’
There was nothing to cheer his cold and rocky prison except the lightwithin his soul, and that human tenderness which, when all others haddeserted him, was still lavished upon him by Onesimus and Luke. TheEvangelist did all that was in his power to keep alive in Rome theflickering flame which the violence of persecution had overwhelmed.In this way Onesimus could do but little. He regarded it as thepresent work of his life to console and tend the Apostle, and hedevoted himself to this work with all the more thoroughness because,when he was able to visit Aricia, Junia impressed him with itsnecessity and sacredness. He had his reward; for day by day hehimself advanced in righteousness and knowledge, as he listenedto words which have helped forward the regeneration of the world.
BOOK III
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‘_ATROPOS OCCAT_’