[Illustration: [page 75] THE PRINCESS STRUCK THE TREMBLING CREATURE A BLOW ON ITS FLANK.] _The_ QUENCHLESS LIGHT BY AGNES C. LAUT [Illustration: LOGO] D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK :: LONDON :: MCMXXIV COPYRIGHT, 1924, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Copyright, 1923, 1924, by The Pictorial Review Company PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOREWORD How much is fact and how much is fiction in the narrative told here of the early struggles against fearful odds in the lives of the Disciples? And why could the life of each Disciple not be given in direct historic record? For readers to whom these questions present themselves, answer can be given in few words. The most cursory reading of the Gospels and Epistles makes self-evident that the writers were very much more concerned with the message than the messenger; and this was natural in an age when zealous partisans were much more eager to rally round political and religious leaders than to demonstrate the truth of the message in better living and good works and pure beliefs. It is as if the early evangelists of the Faith were determined to let the cause rest on its eternal truths rather than on the merits or frailties of the human medium through whom the truths were transmitted to humanity. It is as if the records seem to say—don’t judge the message by the frail human vessel from whom you take it. Judge it by its own effects.