Other
Read books online » Other » Ben Hur Lew Wallace (black male authors .TXT) 📖

Book online «Ben Hur Lew Wallace (black male authors .TXT) 📖». Author Lew Wallace



1 ... 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194
Go to page:
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 The Standard Ebooks logo.

Ben Hur
was published in 1880 by
Lew Wallace.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Vince Rice,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2000 by
An Anonymous Volunteer
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
The Chariot Race,
a painting completed in 1873 by
Alexander von Wagner.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
March 19, 2021, 8:57 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/lew-wallace/ben-hur.

The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at standardebooks.org.

Uncopyright

May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.

Copyright pages exist to tell you can’t do something. Unlike them, this Uncopyright page exists to tell you, among other things, that the writing and artwork in this ebook are believed to be in the U.S. public domain. The U.S. public domain represents our collective cultural heritage, and items in it are free for anyone in the U.S. to do almost anything at all with, without having to get permission. Public domain items are free of copyright restrictions.

Copyright laws are different around the world. If you’re not located in the U.S., check with your local laws before using this ebook.

Non-authorship activities performed on public domain items⁠—so-called “sweat of the brow” work⁠—don’t create a new copyright. That means nobody can claim a new copyright on a public domain item for, among other things, work like digitization, markup, or typography. Regardless, to dispel any possible doubt on the copyright status of this ebook, Standard Ebooks L3C, its contributors, and the contributors to this ebook release this ebook under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, thus dedicating to the worldwide public domain all of the work they’ve done on this ebook, including but not limited to metadata, the titlepage, imprint, colophon, this Uncopyright, and any changes or enhancements to, or markup on, the original text and artwork. This dedication doesn’t change the copyright status of the underlying works, which, though believed to already be in the U.S. public domain, may not yet be in the public domain of other countries. We make this dedication in the interest of enriching our global cultural heritage, to promote free and libre culture around the world, and to give back to the unrestricted culture that has given all of us so much.

1 ... 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194
Go to page:

Free ebook «Ben Hur Lew Wallace (black male authors .TXT) 📖» - read online now

Comments (0)

There are no comments yet. You can be the first!
Add a comment