Wide is the difference between Cicero
and the Christ. The one has spoken a mere opinion, so beautiful in
its phrase that it shall pass down into the future literature of
men. The other has spoken a revelation, and then has returned to
prove that revelation true. Which shall it be--Cicero or the
Christ?
But to accept the Jewish Teacher means earthly loss. As he keeps
guard with himself through the night hours Quintus is wondering if
he shall incur the hostility of his father Marcus and shall be
forced to sacrifice his estates on the Palatine. He fancies also
the grief of the fair Lucretia when she learns that he has chosen
an alien faith. And he remembers, further, that in the choice of
the Christus he is joining a company on whom the Eastern world is
already casting its withering contempt. Cicero or the Christus.
Which shall it be?
There are no struggles like the night wrestlings of the soul in
matters of religion. What words can measure the divers arguments,
the opposing considerations, the conflicting emotions that shape
human choice? Quintus stands at the point where soon--in the
progress of the new faith--Saul from Tarsus, Clement of Rome, and
so many more of the great spirits of that first era are to stand.
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