company it is.

In their assemblies, on the first day of the week, Quintus has his
influential place. He listens to the reading of the older
Scriptures; he celebrates with the gathered company the eucharistic
suppers and agapae; he keeps with them the Easter celebration, in
memory of Him who shall give them eternal life. In emblem of their
faith the sign of the fish is on their evening lamps. Theirs is a
sterling citizenship. The wanton metropolis of the Caesars is
blessed immeasurably by the company of these who follow the risen
Lord.

It is after the midcentury that the great Paulus, having met with
shipwreck on Melita, draws near to Rome. Quintus leads the company
that goes out southward forty miles, to welcome the Christian
traveler. At Appii Forum, that common town with its bargemen and
its tavern keepers, they give the kiss of welcome to a little bent
and gray-haired Jew, who shall go down into history as Christ's
most illustrious apostle. The faithful Luke is his companion.
Along the famous highway of the Via Appia, where emperors and
warriors, scholars and Oriental tradesmen have walked, Quintus
escorts their guest. Past the tombs of the Roman great, by
uncounted statues, past suburban villas they go, until, through the
Porta Appia, the holy prisoner, chained to a Roman guard, finds
himself in the city of the Caesars.

One rare privilege the Roman knight then envoys. In his hired
house, near the Pretorian camp, Paul speaks without interruption
his words of grace. The doctrines he had before written to the
Roman church he now explains; the wish he had made to see them face
to face now expresses itself in words of love. The flood tides of
his eloquence move resistlessly on, as he interprets the new faith
and speaks of Him who is to give them eternal life. Quintus is
enriched by his frequent association with the peerless soul. Nor
did he have a prouder thing to say, in the days to come, than to
declare, "I heard great Paulus tell of the life immortal."

But how fares our knight when persecution comes? Through the years
he has been bravely declaring the Christian doctrine of the eternal
life to priests in the temples, to Roman nobles, to all most
hostile. But his wealth and social standing, as well as the
emperor's favor, now insure his safety. His father Marcus has long
since passed on, in hope of the heavenly life. Having wedded the
graceful Lucretia, when an apostle was in Rome to speak th