‘No,’ he answered, glancing at the Prætorian; ‘but,’ he added in a whisper, ‘I am, or rather I was, a Christian.’
‘Speak without fear,’ said Celsus; ‘I, too, am one of the brethren.’
‘Thou wilt soon remember me,’ said the youth to Paul, removing the disguise which covered his dark locks and greatly altered his appearance. ‘I saw thee in the school of Tyrannus at Ephesus, when I came there with my master, Philemon of Colossæ.’
‘Onesimus!’ said the Apostle. ‘Welcome, my son—though I have heard sad things of thee from many.’
‘It is true, it is all true, that thou hast heard of me, O my father!’ said Onesimus, as he knelt before the Apostle, and kissed the hand on which his tears were falling fast. ‘Yes; I stole money from Philemon, my beloved master. I ran away from him; I am a worthless fugitive, a thievish Phrygian slave, whom most masters would crucify. And worse—I have denied the faith; I have done all things vile. Can there be forgiveness, can there be hope, for such as I am?’
‘My son,’ said the Apostle, ‘there is forgiveness, there is hope, for all who seek it.’
‘But oh, thou knowest not, my father, to what depths I have sunk. I have stolen a second time. I have been drunken with the drunken, slothful with the slothful, unclean with the unclean. I have been false to my trust. I have been in the slaves’ prison, and the gladiators’ school. I have fought in the amphitheatre. I have served the shameful wandering priests of the Syrian goddess. Twice over have I been all but a murderer. Can all this be forgiven?’
‘My son,’ said Paul, deeply touched, ‘thou hast sinned deeply; but so have many, who now are washed, cleansed, justified, sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.’
‘Ah, but,’ cried the youth, ‘they have never been renegades.’
‘Onesimus,’ answered Paul, ‘hast thou not heard how the Lord Jesus told us to forgive our brethren, not only seven times, but seventy times seven? Will He be less merciful than He has bidden us to be? I bid thee hope in His infinite forgiveness. The blind and the leper, the publican and the harlot, the impotent man, and she out of whom he cast seven devils, went to Him, and were forgiven. Go thou, if thou canst not otherwise, as a leper, as a demoniac, as a paralytic, and He will abundantly pardon. Hast thou, indeed, sought Him?’