“To begin,” said the Prefect, “obey the gods and do what the Emperors command.” Justin replied: “We cannot be accused or blamed for obeying the precepts of Our Saviour Jesus Christ.” “What doctrines do you profess?” “I have studied all doctrines in turn and have settled in that of the Christians, although it is disliked by the advocates of error.” “What dogma is that?” “The doctrine which we Christians devotedly follow, the only true doctrine, is the belief in one only God, Creator of all things, visible and invisible, and the confession of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Whom also the prophets announced, Who is to judge the race of man, the Herald of Salvation, and the Teacher of all those who have good-will to be taught by Him. And I consider myself, being but man, incapable of speaking worthily of His Infinite Deity. That is the work of the prophets. They for centuries, inspired from on high, announced the coming amongst men of Him Whom I have said is the Son of God.” Here was a revelation to the devotee of Epictetus, one of the best of pagans; but he paid no heed. “Where do you Christians meet?” he asked. “The God of the Christians is not confined to any place; He fills Heaven and earth with His invisible presence; in every place the faithful adore and praise Him.” “You are then a Christian?” “Yes, I am a Christian.” Turning to Justin’s companions he asked the same question and got the same reply. To the slave Euelpistus, he said: “And you, what are you?” “I am a slave of Cæsar, but also a Christian, and I have got my freedom from Christ; by His goodness, through His grace, I have one hope with these.” Here for the first time was realised the equality of man in its truest sense. Rusticus might well have recalled the words of his master Epictetus: “The slave, like you, derives his origin from Jupiter himself; he is his son like you; he is born of the same divine seed.” But he gave no token of sympathy. The winged word of Euelpistus: “a slave of Cæsar but a freedman of Christ” passed like an arrow through his mind and left not a trace of its passage.