ord after moments of
torture; but he could not sleep, and he felt greater tortures than
any of those invented by executioners for victims. Often was the dawn
whitening the roofs of houses while he was still crying from the depth
of his mourning heart: "Lord, why didst Thou command me to come hither
and found Thy capital in the den of the 'Beast'?"

For thirty-three years after the death of his Master he knew no rest.
Staff in hand, he had gone through the world and declared the "good
tidings." His strength had been exhausted in journeys and toil, till
at last, when in that city, which was the head of the world, he had
established the work of his Master, one bloody breath of wrath had
burned it, and he saw that there was need to take up the struggle anew.
And what a struggle! On one side Caesar, the Senate, the people, the
legions holding the world with a circle of iron, countless cities,
countless lands,--power such as the eye of man had not seen; on the
other side he, so bent with age and toil that his trembling hand was
hardly able to carry his staff.

At times, therefore, he said to himself that it was not for him to
measure with the Caesar of Rome,--that Christ alone could do that.

All these thoughts were passing through his care-filled head, when he
heard the prayers of the last handful of the faithful. They, surrounding
him in an ever narrowing circle, repeated with voices of entreaty,--

"Hide thyself, Rabbi, and lead us away from the power of the 'Beast.'"

Finally Linus also bowed his tortured head before him.

"O lord," said he, "the Redeemer commanded thee to feed His sheep,
but they are here no longer or to-morrow they will not be here; go,
therefore, where thou mayst find them yet. The word of God is living
still in Jerusalem, in Antioch, in Ephesus, and in other cities. What
wilt thou do by remaining in Rome? If thou fall, thou wilt merely swell
the triumph of the 'Beast.' The Lord has not designated the limit of
John's life; Paul is a Roman citizen, they cannot condemn him without
trial; but if the power of hell rise up against thee, O teacher, those
whose hearts are dejected will ask, 'Who is above Nero?' Thou art the
rock on which the church of God is founded. Let us die, but permit not
the victory of Antichrist over the viceregent of God, and return not
hither till the Lord has crushed him who shed innocent blood."

"Look at our tears!" repeated all who were present.

Tears flowed over Peter's