Ben Hur, Lew Wallace [top 10 novels txt] 📗

these later years. You have much to be thankful for. Is it not time to decide finally the meaning of the gift of the great fortune now all in your hand, and growing?”

“I decided that long ago. The fortune was meant for the service of the Giver; not a part, Simonides, but all of it. The question with me has been, How can I make it most useful in his cause? And of that tell me, I pray you.”

Simonides answered,

“The great sums you have given to the Church here in Antioch, I am witness to. Now, instantly almost with this gift of the generous sheik’s, comes the news of the persecution of the brethren in Rome. It is the opening of a new field. The light must not go out in the capital.”

“Tell me how I can keep it alive.”

“I will tell you. The Romans, even this Nero, hold two things sacred⁠—I know of no others they so hold⁠—they are the ashes of the dead and all places of burial. If you cannot build temples for the worship of the Lord above ground, then build them below the ground; and to keep them from profanation, carry to them the bodies of all who die in the faith.”

Ben-Hur arose excitedly.

“It is a great idea,” he said. “I will not wait to begin it. Time forbids waiting. The ship that brought the news of the suffering of our brethren shall take me to Rome. I will sail tomorrow.”

He turned to Malluch.

“Get the ship ready, Malluch, and be thou ready to go with me.”

“It is well,” said Simonides.

“And thou, Esther, what sayest thou?” asked Ben-Hur.

Esther came to his side, and put her hand on his arm, and answered,

“So wilt thou best serve the Christ. O my husband, let me not hinder, but go with thee and help.”

If any of my readers, visiting Rome, will make the short journey to the Catacomb of San Calixto, which is more ancient than that of San Sebastiano, he will see what became of the fortune of Ben-Hur, and give him thanks. Out of that vast tomb Christianity issued to supersede the Caesars.

Endnotes

The Roman government, it will be remembered, had two harbors in which great fleets were constantly kept⁠—Ravenna and Misenum. ↩

Called hortator. ↩

Called rector. ↩

List of Illustrations

A map of prison rooms showing five individual square rooms in a horizontal line, with a passage above them the width of all five rooms combined.

A map of prison rooms showing five individual square rooms in a horizontal line, with a passage above them the width of all five rooms combined, and a sixth room below the five the full width of all five.

Colophon

Ben Hur
was published in 1880 by
Lew Wallace.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
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and is based on a transcription produced in 2000 by
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The Chariot Race,
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