almost executioners. However large may be the proportion of the friendly
or the neutral in the city, they dare not show themselves. The mob of
those devoted to Aurelian constitutes now the true sovereignty of
Rome--the streets are theirs--the courts are theirs--and anon the games
will be theirs.'

'I am given to understand,' said Probus, 'that to-morrow I suffer; yet
have I received from the Prefect no warning to that effect. It is the
judgment of my keeper.'

'I have heard the same,' I answered, 'but I know not with what truth.'

'It can matter little to me,' he replied, 'when the hour shall come,
whether to-morrow or to-night.'

'It cannot,' said Julia. 'Furnished with the whole armor of the gospel,
it will be an easy thing for you to encounter death.'

'It will, lady, believe me. I have many times fought with enemies of a
more fearful front. The enemies of the soul are those whom the Christian
most dreads. Death is but the foe of life. So the Christian may but live
to virtue and God, he can easily make his account with death. It is not
the pain of dying, nor the manner of it, nor any doubts or speculations
about the life to come, which, at an hour like this, intrude upon the
Christian's thoughts.'

'And what then,' asked Julia, as Probus paused and fell back into
himself, 'is it that fills and agitates the mind? for at such a moment
it can scarcely possess itself in perfect peace.'

'It is this,' replied Probus. 'Am I worthy? Have I wrought well my
appointed task? Have I kept the faith? And is God my friend and Jesus my
Saviour? These are the thoughts that engross and fill the mind. It is
busy with the past--and with itself. It has no thoughts to spare upon
suffering and death--it has no doubts or fears to remove concerning
immortality. The future life, to me, stands out in the same certainty as
the present. Death is but the moment which connects the two. You say
well, that at such an hour as this the mind can scarce possess itself
in perfect peace. Yet is it agitated by nothing that resembles fear. It
is the agitation that must necessarily have place in the mind of one to
whom a great trust has been committed for a long series of years, at
that moment when he comes to surrender it up to him from whom it was
received. I have lived many years. Ten thousand opportunities of doing
good to myself and others have been set before me. The world has been a
wide field of action and labor, where I have been required t