Soon ends his imprisonment. At _Tre Fontane_, in a
few days more, his weary body rests; but his immortal spirit mounts
beyond the stars.
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 clusters 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 pass 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 NOBLE BLOOD; IN THE FAITH OF
THE ASCENDED LORD HE HAS ENTERED UPON THE ETERNAL LIFE.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54