An Easter Disciple Part 3

At last the Christian knight comes to the crossing. The prediction of the augur at Brundisium has been strikingly fulfilled. Matured in all the graces, he is like the ripened Chian cl.u.s.ters that await the vintager in the autumn days. The friends of Quintus have gone before; as the old century wanes, the old man is to follow them.

"My time has come to go," he says one day; "the portals of eternal life and joy I see swinging open wide. I shall pa.s.s through the gates, because my ascended Lord has gone in before me to prepare my dwelling place. With him as my Teacher I believe in the life immortal."

In the Roman catacombs, those most remarkable testimonies to the eternal life, his resting place may be found. The sign of the fish is on his stone. Its time-eaten inscription is still legible, among the many which tell of the early Christian expectation and of all future Christian hope:

"HERE RESTS THE DUST OF QUINTUS, OF n.o.bLE BLOOD; IN THE FAITH OF THE ASCENDED LORD HE HAS ENTERED UPON THE ETERNAL LIFE."