ered; the work was wrecked; that
church, which before the burning of the city had been flourishing like a
splendid tree, was turned into dust by the power of the "Beast." Nothing
remained save tears, nothing save memories of torture and death. The
sowing had yielded rich fruit, but Satan had trampled it into the earth.
Legions of angels had not come to aid the perishing,--and Nero was
extending in glory over the earth, terrible, mightier than ever, the
lord of all seas and all lands. More than once had that fisherman of the
Lord stretched his hands heavenward in loneliness and asked: "Lord, what
must I do? How must I act? And how am I, a feeble old man, to fight with
this invincible power of Evil, which Thou hart permitted to rule, and
have victory?"

And he called out thus in the depth of his immense pain, repeating in
spirit: "Those sheep which Thou didst command me to feed are no more,
Thy church is no more; loneliness and mourning are in Thy capital; what
dost Thou command me to do now? Am I to stay here, or lead forth the
remnant of the flock to glorify Thy name in secret somewhere beyond the
sea?"

And he hesitated, He believed that the living truth would not perish,
that it must conquer; but at moments he thought that the hour had not
come yet, that it would come only when the Lord should descend to the
earth in the day of judgment in glory and power a hundred times greater
than the might of Nero.

Frequently it seemed to him that if he left Rome, the faithful would
follow; that he would lead them then far away to the shady groves of
Galilee, to the quiet surface of the Lake of Tiberias, to shepherds
as peaceful as doves, or as sheep, who feed there among thyme and
pepperwort. And an increasing desire for peace and rest, an increasing
yearning for the lake and Galilee, seized the heart of the fisherman;
tears came more frequently to the old man's eyes.

But at the moment when he made the choice, sudden alarm and fear came on
him. How was he to leave that city, in which so much martyrs' blood had
sunk into the earth, and where so many lips had given the true testimony
of the dying? Was he alone to yield? And what would he answer the Lord
on hearing the words, "These have died for the faith, but thou didst
flee"?

Nights and days passed for him in anxiety and suffering. Others, who had
been torn by lions, who had been fastened to crosses, who had been burnt
in the gardens of Caesar, had fallen asleep in the L