nd what is death to me?'

'I suppose death to be death,' replied Varus.

'Therein thou showest thyself to be in the same darkness as all the rest
of this idolatrous city. Death to the Christian, Prefect, is life! Crush
me by thy engines, and in the twinkling of an eye is my soul dwelling
with God, and looking down with compassion upon thy stony heart.'

'Verily, Fronto,' said Varus, 'these Christians are an ingenious people.
What a wonderful fancy is this. But, Christian,' turning to Macer, 'it
were a pity surely for thee to die. Thou hast a family as I learn.
Would not thy life be more to them than thy death?'

'Less,' said the Christian, 'a thousand fold! were it not a better
vision to them of me crowned with a victor's wreath and sitting with
Christ, than dwelling here in this new Sodom, and drinking in its
pestilential air? The sight of me there would be to them a spring of
comfort and a source of strength which here I can never be.'

'But,' added the Prefect, 'it is but right that thou shouldst for the
present, if it may be, live here and take care of thy family. They will
want thee.'

'God,' replied Macer, 'who feeds the birds of the air, and through all
their wanderings over the earth from clime to clime still brings them
back to the accustomed home, will watch over those whom I love, and
bring them home. Such, Prefect, are the mercies of Rome toward us who
belong to Christ, that they will not be left long to bewail my loss.'

'Do thy family then hold with thee?' said Varus.

'Blessed be God, they do.'

'That is a pity--' responded the Prefect.

'Say not so, Varus; 'tis a joy and a triumph to me in this hour, and to
them, that they are Christ's.'

'Still,' rejoined the Prefect, 'I would willingly save thee, and make
thee live: and there is one way in which it may be done, and thou mayest
return in joy to thy home.'

'Let me then know it,' said Macer.

'Renounce Christ, Macer, and sacrifice; and thy life is thine, and honor
too.'

Macer's form seemed to dilate to more than its common size, his
countenance seemed bursting with expression as he said,

'Renounce Christ? save life by renouncing Christ? How little, Varus,
dost thou know what a Christian is! Not though I might sit in thy seat
or Aurelian's, or on the throne of a new universe, would I renounce him.
To Christ, Varus, do I owe it that I am not now what I was, when I dwelt
in the caves of the Flavian. To Christ do I owe it that I am not no