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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3032c8e --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51006 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51006) diff --git a/old/51006-0.txt b/old/51006-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 58786cf..0000000 --- a/old/51006-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1007 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Obil Keeper of Camels, by Lucia Chase Bell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Obil Keeper of Camels - Being the parable of the man whom the disciples saw casting out devils - -Author: Lucia Chase Bell - -Release Date: January 23, 2016 [EBook #51006] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBIL KEEPER OF CAMELS *** - - - - -Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - -THE VERY GOD! THINK, ABIB; DOST THOU THINK? SO, THE ALL-GREAT, -WERE THE ALL-LOVING TOO--SO, THROUGH THE THUNDER COMES A HUMAN -VOICE SAYING: “O HEART I MADE, A HEART BEATS HERE! FACE, MY HANDS -FASHIONED, SEE IT IN MYSELF! THOU HAST NO POWER NOR MAYST CONCEIVE -OF MINE: BUT LOVE I GAVE THEE, WITH MYSELF TO LOVE, & THOU MUST -LOVE ME WHO HAVE DIED FOR THEE!” - - “AN EPISTLE” - BY ROBERT BROWNING - - - - - OBIL - KEEPER OF CAMELS - - BEING THE PARABLE OF - THE MAN WHOM THE DISCIPLES - SAW CASTING OUT - DEVILS - - ¶ AND JOHN ANSWERED & SAID, MASTER, - WE SAW ONE CASTING OUT DEVILS - IN THY NAME; AND WE FORBAD HIM, - BECAUSE HE FOLLOWETH NOT WITH - US. ¶ AND JESUS SAID UNTO HIM, FORBID - HIM NOT: FOR HE THAT IS NOT - AGAINST US IS FOR US.--LUKE IX: 49-50. - - BY - LUCIA CHASE BELL - - - [Illustration] - - - PAUL ELDER & COMPANY - PUBLISHERS · SAN FRANCISCO - - - - -_How did it happen that this unknown man could work that tremendous -miracle? How, when, where, did he get this amazing power? Was he -some mere street necromancer, amiably conjuring with the Holy -Name? Was this story which the disciples brought to Jesus only a -bit of incidental roadside news to Him? Was His reply simply a -gentle beam of that tender love which shines upon all those who -may be, ever so dimly, ever so stumblingly, following His “far -flag”? ✠ Often I have asked of this or that one, what he thought -of this wonder-worker. ✠ Every one has seemed to think of him -vaguely, indifferently, as a figure carelessly thrown upon the -canvas “for what he is worth,” or--in most minds--only to reveal -the sweet, meek tolerance of Jesus. ✠ No wonder the disciples, -who were themselves but just stumbling through the first lessons -of infinite Love, could not understand. ✠ It came to me at last, -that the reply of Jesus was really glowing with mighty inward joy, -with the rapture of possession, of victory. ✠ The man casting -out devils belonged to Him absolutely. No stranger, he, to the -Christ. On the contrary, he had an intimate, secret, personal and -blessed understanding with the Master. Somewhere, somehow, the -World-Brother had looked into his soul, seized him, owned him, -filled him with His own power, pity and love. He had entered into -the divine joy, the divine Comradeship. ✠ He was working miracles -of love because he must, not because he could._ - - _Copyright, 1910 - by Paul Elder and Company_ - - - - -OBIL - -KEEPER OF CAMELS - - - ¶AND JOHN ANSWERED HIM, SAYING, MASTER, WE SAW ONE CASTING OUT - DEVILS IN THY NAME, AND HE FOLLOWETH NOT US: AND WE FORBAD HIM, - BECAUSE HE FOLLOWETH NOT US. ¶BUT JESUS SAID, FORBID HIM NOT: FOR - THERE IS NO MAN WHICH SHALL DO A MIRACLE IN MY NAME, THAT CAN - LIGHTLY SPEAK EVIL OF ME. ¶FOR HE THAT IS NOT AGAINST US IS ON - OUR PART.--MARK IX: 38-40. - - -Women called their children to hide under mantles, or skurried -with them to the shelter of dark huts, as Obil came riding up into -Carmel on that day of the Lord’s Great Year in Galilee; Obil, -and three others, horses and accoutrements and their own bodies -steaming yet from the long rush through salt surf down from Akka to -Haifa and through the clean-smelling waters of the yellow Kishon -where it puts into the sea. - -What would he care--to ride a child down--that Obil? He would laugh -to see it wildly flying from before his horse’s hoofs. Every one -knew this, from Ptolemais to Jerusalem and even beyond, down into -the wilderness, and over across Jordan. - -Some people said that Obil served the evil priests--which was far -from the truth; others, that he was a tool of Herod, more silent -than lightnings out of summer heat, and as sure to kill. It was, -besides, insisted with whisperings and shudderings that he served -only himself, and that somewhere deep among the awful crags by the -Salt Sea a wondrous treasure sparkled, hidden by the red hand of -the robber, Obil. - -Yet there were some, away out in the hill country beyond Hebron, -as you go toward Beersheba, who could tell of years when Obil had -tilled a few fields there under the kindly sun and had kept cattle -of his own on the gentle hills. - -With his young wife Miriam he had paid tithes and kept the pleasant -feasts. In not one humble home did the Sabbath candles ever burn -brighter. No one’s son had been brought up with more loving -regard for the plain things of the law than the child of Obil and -Miriam, from the very first. These things they knew in Hebron. But -there was in Obil--here the heads came closer together under the -mantles--in Obil there was a Strain of wild desert blood, strong -in his race from the time of the first Obil, the Ishmaelite, Keeper -of King David’s Camels, and master of the great caravans that went -from great Hebron down to far Havilah. - -Since he was a child, when his father took him on a chance journey -far to the South, the desert-lust had come upon him year by year, -driving him from his home till the lust was satisfied and he could -return. - -While he was gone, Miriam his wife, the soft-eyed, the meek one, -tended the doves, the lambs, the goats and cattle. - -Faithfully she taught their little son of the prophets, and of all -the heroes of his race; of the great priest Simon; of Judas the -Hammer, and his army. - -When Obil came home, as the boy grew on, it came to be that he -always took the boy on his knee, first breath, and asked for his -tales of the heroes. And the boy loved to tell them as he stumbled -after his father in the furrow, or lay with him in the cool evening -under the vine at the door. - -Every one marveled at this child as he recited long strings of the -sayings of the sages, and prayers and psalms, and at the star-eyed -reverence with which he would touch the name of the Most High on -the little folded parchment that Miriam had placed on the lowly -door-post of their home. Not only to his father but to every one -the boy loved to tell his burning tales of the heroes and the -prophets, until often it was whispered, “Perhaps God will raise up -even this child, the son of Obil, to be liberator of Israel,--who -can tell?” - -Perhaps, all unguessed by themselves, this hope was the reason -that, to those who knew the little family of three, it seemed -a strange and evil thing, certainly unblessed of God, that so -suddenly and silently each year Obil should go away out of sight. - -As for Obil, he had cared nothing for these secret whisperings. He -never had struggled against the call of the desert in those old -days, but had yielded in absolute joy. - -Each year he knew that far to the South he would find old Abdul in -the same spot in the wilderness bordering the desert, waiting at -his tent door, the same horizon before him silhouetted with the -same three palms (one lop-eared), the same remote, tawny line of -low hills against the beryl sky, like some vast lion’s long, lithe -contour slipping through grass. - -His horse’s harness would click dustily as it slipped down. Abdul -would utter no word, Obil no word. There would be a fire of good -coals and broiled meat ready--clean--such as was fit for a Son of -the Law. - -The big herd of camels would be there, and when Obil had eaten his -meal the two would rise and walk with one accord out where the -creatures lay, their drivers among them sound asleep, the beasts -stirring with moans and complainings at sound of this half-familiar -footfall. Then Abdul would open his mouth and speak, while Obil -listened thirstily, of this camel and that; one here that was new, -another old one there; this ugly one that was seized with the -desert-lust every year, so evilly you could do nothing with her -till the caravan started--and Obil affectionately patted her rough -hide; of the various drivers, and the promise of trade, and bad -shiftings in the route. Obil was head of the drivers in those days, -and loved to sleep with them in the open air among the camels. It -gave him deep content and oblivion for that time to all that lay -beyond the horizon. He satisfied his hunger for the limitless skies -at night, and soaked himself with unspeakable enjoyment in the -passionate sun by day. No huge elemental turmoil of that wide life -ever disturbed Obil. Sweeping fires of the wilderness, thunderings, -earthquakes, winds, all gave him joy. Often he had wheeled his -horse to chase the dry wild artichoke--the cursèd Wheel, when -caught in the wilderness flames it was turned into a ball of fire, -and, lifted and tossed in the fierce wind, eagerly kindled new -fires in its wild flight. - -Other men feared this fiery thing which maddened horses and camels -and set vast tracts of wilderness on fire, but not Obil. It was -true that he had listened with awe to the Chazzan reading from the -Psalmist, in the little synagogue at home: “O my God, make them -like a wheel, as the stubble before the wind. * * * So persecute -them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill -their faces with shame, that they may seek thy face, O Lord.” For -he remembered how he had seen that fierce Wheel suddenly snuffed -out before the rushing winds, and he knew by this what must be the -angry breath of Jehovah upon the wicked; still Obil feared nothing -in those old days, neither the tempests of the desert nor the fires -of the wilderness nor the avenging hand of God, for his heart was -good then, his hands pure. - - * * * * * - -In the year when Barzillai, his son, was ten, Obil said to his wife -Miriam, “Next year the boy shall go with me to the desert, that his -shoulders may grow broad and his heart strong.” - -And Miriam bowed her head and answered, “As you will, Obil--next -year.” - -But the child never went with him to the desert. For that year, -while Obil was gone deep into the South silence, the long drouth -swept out of the wilderness with such terrible heat as no one -living had ever known. The fierce beasts came down from the -mountains into the tilled fields and upon the herds. And the -fiery Wheel came one day and lit Obil’s field of grain and killed -the cattle and the sheep that were left, and devoured his little -vine-covered home. - -Miriam and the child escaped the fire, but she died soon, of a -fever, or of the fright and shock--he never quite knew--and the -Rabbi Elkanah, granduncle of Miriam, member of the Sanhedrin and -a very great man, took the boy into his stately Palace of Palms -standing in glowing gardens down near to Jericho. - -“Come, Obil, be a man!” the rabbi said, standing like some great -radiant iris in his full-bordered robes of pearl and blue, and laid -a jeweled hand upon Obil’s bowed shoulder. - -“I will keep the boy. The blood of his mother’s race is plain in -him. It will be worth while. As for you, doubtless this is a curse, -yea, and a curse also upon Miriam, your wife. ‘As the bird by -wandering, the swallow by flying, causeless the curse cannot come.’ - -“You have not put difference between the clean and the unclean. You -have not washed the wrist nor cleansed the cup before and after. On -the Sabbath day you have lifted many times the weight of the fig. -You have eaten things not cooked with intention for the Sabbath, -and you have on the Sabbath dried your coat beside the fire. For -these things the wrath of Jehovah is kindled against you.” - -“Doubtless it is a curse,” said Obil humbly then. “But who of us -common people can know the law? It may be that my son shall learn, -if he attends with his whole heart.” - -“I will see that he attends,” answered the rabbi with bitter haste. - - * * * * * - -Obil went to Tyre, for it seemed good to him to be in a new land -among new men, beside the tumult of the busy sea, far from that -lone blackened field in old Hebron, far from the paths of the -desert. - -Years went by and then he came riding home--just as he was -coming up from the sea on this day of the Lord’s Great Year in -Galilee--only then his heart was good and his hands pure. And his -heart sang to itself that first day as he rode alone through the -surf, as he climbed the uplands and clattered along stony ways, -“How tall my son must be grown, and how wise! No doubt he is marked -even now in the streets--the splendid young nephew of the great -rabbi. He will hardly be noted as Barzillai, the son of Obil. But -no matter. Some day doubtless he will be a rabbi. It may be that -he has even learned by this time what is the Greatest Commandment. -This is something the common people seldom can know.” - -He was sure that his son would welcome him with great joy. They -would go out to the hill country together. He would have great -things to tell his son, while his son would instruct him in the -things of the law, the things one must know to be saved. The world -shone wondrously that day. Secretly in the stormy rains the leaves -had been glossing themselves, the long boughs of the plane trees -had clothed themselves with mottled velvet in the blue darkness, -the hillsides had gathered acres upon acres of rich purple iris -bloom and glowing woof of tulips and anemones. All forms and colors -stood out sharply in this clear sunlight; the backs of the red -cattle in the sun, an old spear point glittering in the grass by -the winding brook, and Hermon gleaming in his snows. - -Myriads of butterflies flecked the blossoming fields amid the wide -humming of bees, and everywhere--everywhere--the larks sang, in -silver unison with the joy of Obil. - -That day faded into dusk before Obil came to the home of the Rabbi -Elkanah in its wilderness of grove and garden. - -In darkness came Obil to that well-remembered gateway. But what -meant this? - -No lantern gleamed here from rose-wreathed pillar. No sound of any -lute floated out from perfumed bowers. Only a lone beggar started -up from dank shadows. Obil’s hand shivered as he dropped a gift -into the beseeching palm and inquired of the rabbi and his house. - -“Dost thou know?” came the quick, answering question, whispered -with hot breath close in the ear of Obil. “Gone--gone! Some say -dwelling in Jerusalem, some that he is gone to Capernaum. For he -hates this house. Here died the lady Sarah, his wife. Here lived -and died his son, the leper, hidden from the world. - -“And”--here the beggar’s face again touched hotly the face of -Obil--“didst thou know Obil, the Desert-lover, and Keeper of Camels -for Abdul’s Caravan? His wife Miriam was niece to the great rabbi. -It was the son of Obil and Miriam they took with deceit and hid -away deep, deep in the inner courts of the palace here, to be -companion of their son, the leper. - -“_Art thou Obil?_ Go, go! Let them tell thee these things in -Hebron! Let them tell thee how thy son, the slave, caught the -poison at last, how they thrust him forth into the highways, blind, -to beg with the leper herd! There they will tell thee how one black -night he wandered over yonder broken aqueduct wall and fell to the -stones below, to lie dead and forgotten,--a Thing not to be touched -or known! Go!” - -In Hebron they told him all, in much trembling and fear. This it -was that changed the heart of Obil. - -Serve a God who only lived to Curse, and whose honored servants -were like this? Never Obil. He would curse Jehovah, kill, and die. - -But a strange spirit arose and grappled his soul within him. It -said, “Wait! Kill now? Keep that for a joy to come. Nurse it, -prize it, plan for it! Wait till he has reached the pinnacle of -power and life is glorious and very precious to him! Strike now -and lose the long joy of anticipation? Strike now and die? Do not -be such a fool. Take your fill of life first. Have your will. Defy -this Jehovah. Then kill, and die.” And again Obil went his way. On -stormy galleys of the great sea, into mines of Spain, far north -to strange icy coasts, into the whirling wickedness of Antioch, -carousing from city to city in Egypt, but never more to the desert! -His hand came to have no mercy. A heap of dead faces might stare -at him beside their own charred threshold, and Obil could stand, -jocund, eating grapes from the piteous vine. - -Often he had come back to look in secret upon the face he hated -with supreme hate, wondering if he should strike now, and yet the -strange hand of that mocking inner spirit held him back as at first. - -Those who in those swift visits had glimpses of the face of Obil -did not forget. - - * * * * * - -And now it was April once more; the same sky, the same scents in -the air; Hermon gleaming in his snows just as he did that first day -when Obil came riding up from the sea alone with the song in his -heart. - -Away in Damascus he had felt in his soul that the time was come. He -had bought two wonderful blades of steel. One had power that would -crush bones, the other was swift and sure and silent. - -By crooked ways, that day of the Lord’s Great Year in Galilee the -four riders, after they left the sea, began trailing after one -another among the sweet wild thickets of Carmel, brushing the -dew from great flushing bowers of honeysuckle among the oaks, or -skirting some little mossy dell where doves filled all the air with -the mellow thunder of their blended calls. - -The others laughed and sang, but not Obil. At other times in that -strong swim through the wild waste of waters he had thought, “Thus -will I come when I have had my fill and am to take the last and -best of the feast. More glad will I come than the waters of this -full stream rushing to the sea! With deeper content than yonder -doves in the sun!” - -But today--how strange it was! The waters seemed dumb. They had no -message for him. Yet he was to take the last and best. He was to -strike, and say, “This for my son, whose life you took!” But the -old huge joy did not rush upon him now. There was only a weight of -dull will instead. - -One of the three riding with Obil that day had secret letters -from Spain to a nobleman in upper Cæsarea. Obil carried under his -cuirass gold and gems sent from Rome by a slave to his master in -Capernaum. Another had a debt of his own to pay, which he was -coming home to settle hideously. He talked of it constantly, with -boastings and glee. It was a woman. Thus and thus would he do--and -then--would he never make an end of his story? - -Obil rode in silence. Had he “turned rabbi”? one asked. “Here, -Fulvius!” laughed another, twisting himself on his horse to turn -the youngest rider’s face toward Obil. “Obil has taken up the -doctrine of the new rabbi in Galilee. If I smite you on one cheek -you shall turn to me the other. Try him!” - -Fulvius tried, and was promptly knocked to the ground, his head cut -on the stones, his wrist sprained. Laughing and swearing by their -gods, and Fulvius raging, they set him on his horse and clattered -on. - -Obil stopped to pick up a little hurt jerboa. The strange creature, -half bird, half mouse, had been nearly crushed, but it was alive. -It seemed to look at him appealingly. Strangely, it made him think -of a child he had picked up once and thrown into some dark pool to -end its misery. (They had wiped out a whole clan that day, over in -cruel Thracian forests.) - -“Thou must die,” said Obil, and gently laid the thing down, its -eyes turned away from the blaring light. Then he drew his hand -across his own eyes, mounted and rode on, thinking, “Those Steaming -scents all around go to a man’s head on a day like this.” And over -and over Obil said grimly in his own thoughts, “The hour has come!” - -All of the four had business in Capernaum, after which they were to -go separate ways. - -Obil went out to Cana and left his horse at a little vineyard -that he knew, for reasons of his own. And walking on his way to -Jerusalem he came to Magdala. - - * * * * * - -That day the Lord was in Magdala. All the wretchedness of the -world seemed gathered there,--a vast, groaning, pleading, hideous, -tumultuous sea of waiting, with one Face shining out of this -darkness like a Star. - -A Voice, infinitely sweet, told of the Kingdom of God, while the -wondrous hands lifted and blessed and healed. - -Obil stood on the farther edge of this sea at first, but the Voice -reached him as it poured forth glad news of peace and freedom and -love, and swept away the rags and tatters, the “old garments” of -cruel doctrines of Scribe and Pharisee. - -“Why, these things are not hard! Can a man please God with these -things?” said the man Obil, and a great trembling fell upon him. - -“Was it not a Curse, then?” he asked himself, going back to that -day of dumb agony when he stood, bereaved, before the uncle of his -dead Miriam. Something in the pure blue peace of the sky above that -Face made him think of her and see her once more, as with holy -joy she lit her Sabbath candles and chanted from the sacred song -that she loved: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the -Soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. -The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the -commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” He had -despised the words and the spirit of that sacred song in those wild -years that lay so close behind him, hated them, trampled on them, -called them a lie. - -But now--Miriam cursed for “lifting the weight of the fig” on the -day that she loved? For moving a bench in her home, or drying his -coat beside the fire? - -He pressed nearer, with a mighty hunger to hear of the real God, -who loved and did not hate His world. - -The maimed and the halt and the devil-possessed weltering there -snarled at Obil, “Here, you lusty one! Get back! Nothing is the -matter with you!” - -For indeed his clear eyes were velvet and full of fire; his strong -neck was like a column; his shoulders were massive as a good piece -of gunwale timber out of Lebanon. - -But Obil did not heed. A stern voice rose insistent in his soul: -“Go, and delay not! The hour has come! Wilt thou avenge not the -life of thy son?” - -But with that horrible trembling upon him the man Obil stood. -And the Lord bent his gaze upon Obil,--a gaze that was shorter -than breath; yet it lifted his minutest past out from its veiling -haze and pushed it before Obil’s agonized consciousness; all his -failures, mistakes, misunderstandings, selfishness, blasphemies; -all his cruelties and crimes, and the one long savage purpose to -kill,--all arose, black, intolerable, before the flaming purity of -the gaze of the Lord. - -If the earth could only open to receive him in safe darkness and -oblivion! - -But the earth did not answer his agony. Then the eyes of the -World-Brother looked into his, deep, tender, glowing. “Come, follow -Me! Hate no more, but love, and share My joy!” said that burning -Look. - -Back the soul of Obil answered, in unspeakable longing, out of -that horrible trembling: “Thou who forgivest sins, canst thou -forgive the black sins of Obil--even of Obil? So will I follow thee -forever, blessed Son of God!” - -Then quicker than comes the breath, the eyes of the Lord beamed -upon him in immeasurable welcome, infinite forgiveness; and the man -Obil knew that the compact was made, and the covenant was sure. - -Strange pity and love for these hideous beings around him suddenly -streamed into his soul. Were they not God’s children? The Blessed -One had said it, and it must be true. - -A little shriveled child lay half crushed among the groaning heaps -at his feet, waiting its turn. He looked down in that wondrous -moment and knew that he loved this little wretched thing with -naked, knotted, palsied limbs,--he, Obil! Tenderly he lifted it -into his arms, and he laid it in the welcoming arms of the Lord. -And again the eyes of Obil met the deep eyes of the World-Brother -looking into his, as one should say, in full gladness, “Yea, now we -are Comrades!” - -Then turned away Obil in pity, to make room, and the cripples -muttered, “It is good that he goes! What has the Master to do with -him!” - -He went forth, not knowing whither, but only that go where he -would, he was always to be, every moment, within the circumference -of that mighty Love. - -As Obil walked he came to a village where the Lord had not yet come -to heal, nor his disciples. It waited in tears and pain and seemed -to be forgotten. The people were crowded in the narrow streets. -Would he never come, the Miracle-Worker? - -The synagogue was deserted, the market, the fields. Here in an open -space in the street, an awed multitude in safe perspective, heads -clustered in upper windows or bending over balconies, Obil beheld -one possessed of a devil. - -Wild white hair all torn and bleeding, sinewy old arms with muscles -and tendons torn and bared, body naked and gashed, tongue thick -with hateful cursing, throat hoarse with horribly echoing shrieks! - -“How they hate--those devils!” said a man just under Obil’s chin, -to his neighbor in the crowd. “It is hard to know which kind is -most evil, this one that shrieks, or the dumb--but all _hate_, mark -you! When a man begins to hate with all his soul, then comes in the -devil!” - -“I have not a devil,” said this man’s neighbor, “yet I know for -myself that what you say is true. When I am only mad against my -wife Josepha I get dumb--I do not speak! So I know if I went far -enough I would have a dumb devil, which God forbid! But know you -this one?” - -“Why, _this_”--came the answer--“this is the great Rabbi Elkanah, -he of the Palace of Palms, by Jericho. By Simon the Just, how he -must have hated!” - -Obil heard. Heard, too, the larks on the wide hills of Hebron, away -back in the dim years; heard the voice of his star-eyed son, fresh -as theirs, talking of heroes! - -A dread voice tolled in his soul and shut out all the world--the -universe--with its vast resounding. “Kill! Now! Now is the -time--the time!” - -And out there in the hot, white space where the devil threw a -black, writhing, horrible shadow on the ground, an answering shriek -and wild, taunting laughter responded to that tolling bell in the -soul of Obil. - -“Obil! Thou hast come at last! Wouldst thou have thy son learn the -Law, thou dog of Ishmael? Shall my son die and thine live, thou -Accursed? Hear thou, hear, Obil, Son of the Desert! Why hast thou -waited so long? Kill, kill, and die!” - -Then the stormy blood rushed hotly in Obil from head to heel. But -he remembered the Look, the Covenant. His soul melted in an ocean -of love. He ran into that naked space. His shadow braided itself -with that horrible writhing one on the ground. - -On the torn white hair he laid his hand. Around that old bleeding -shoulder he threw his encircling arm. - -“Thou devil!” called Obil then. “In the name of the Christ, the Son -of God, I command thee, come forth!” - -Then the man Elkanah sank to the ground, and he clasped the knees -of Obil, murmuring low a prayer of thanksgiving and praise, till -those strong arms lifted him to Obil’s heart once more. - -“What is this?” broke in with sharp authority through the babbling -murmur that arose. - -“Who is this that dares heal in that Name?” - -Muttering together, a group of the Lord’s disciples stood, -surprised, displeased, bewildered. - -But joy ineffable made glorious the face of Obil. He looked far -beyond them, and he stretched out his arms toward Magdala, and loud -he cried, - -“Jesus, thou blessed Son of God, the victory is thine--thine!” - - -HERE ENDS OBIL, KEEPER OF CAMELS BY LUCIA CHASE BELL. PUBLISHED -BY PAUL ELDER & COMPANY, & PRINTED FOR THEM BY THE TOMOYE PRESS -UNDER THE DIRECTION OF J. H. NASH IN THE FAIR CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO -DURING THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY & YEAR NINETEEN HUNDRED & TEN - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Obil Keeper of Camels, by Lucia Chase Bell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBIL KEEPER OF CAMELS *** - -***** This file should be named 51006-0.txt or 51006-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/0/0/51006/ - -Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Obil Keeper of Camels - Being the parable of the man whom the disciples saw casting out devils - -Author: Lucia Chase Bell - -Release Date: January 23, 2016 [EBook #51006] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBIL KEEPER OF CAMELS *** - - - - -Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - -<p class="large">THE VERY GOD! THINK, ABIB; DOST THOU THINK? SO, THE ALL-GREAT, -WERE THE ALL-LOVING TOO—SO, THROUGH THE THUNDER COMES A HUMAN -VOICE SAYING: “O HEART I MADE, A HEART BEATS HERE! FACE, MY HANDS -FASHIONED, SEE IT IN MYSELF! THOU HAST NO POWER NOR MAYST CONCEIVE -OF MINE: BUT LOVE I GAVE THEE, WITH MYSELF TO LOVE, & THOU MUST -LOVE ME WHO HAVE DIED FOR THEE!”</p> - - -<p class="center">“AN EPISTLE”<br /> -BY ROBERT BROWNING -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<h1><a id="OBIL_KEEPER_OF_CAMELS" name="OBIL_KEEPER_OF_CAMELS">OBIL</a><br /> -KEEPER OF CAMELS</h1> - -<p class="center p2">BEING THE PARABLE OF -THE MAN WHOM THE DISCIPLES -SAW CASTING OUT -DEVILS</p> - -<table class="p2" style="width: 50%" summary="centering"> -<tr><td>¶ AND JOHN ANSWERED & SAID, MASTER, -WE SAW ONE CASTING OUT DEVILS -IN THY NAME; AND WE FORBAD HIM, -BECAUSE HE FOLLOWETH NOT WITH -US. ¶ AND JESUS SAID UNTO HIM, FORBID -HIM NOT: FOR HE THAT IS NOT -AGAINST US IS FOR US.—LUKE IX: 49-50.</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="center p2">BY<br /> -<span class="large">LUCIA CHASE BELL</span></p> - - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 120px;"> -<img src="images/tpimg.jpg" width="120" height="73" alt="decoration" /> -</div> - - -<p class="center large p2">PAUL ELDER & COMPANY<br /> -PUBLISHERS · SAN FRANCISCO -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><i>How did it happen that this unknown man could work that tremendous -miracle? How, when, where, did he get this amazing power? Was he -some mere street necromancer, amiably conjuring with the Holy -Name? Was this story which the disciples brought to Jesus only a -bit of incidental roadside news to Him? Was His reply simply a -gentle beam of that tender love which shines upon all those who -may be, ever so dimly, ever so stumblingly, following His “far -flag”? ✠ Often I have asked of this or that one, what he thought -of this wonder-worker. ✠ Every one has seemed to think of him -vaguely, indifferently, as a figure carelessly thrown upon the -canvas “for what he is worth,” or—in most minds—only to reveal -the sweet, meek tolerance of Jesus. ✠ No wonder the disciples, -who were themselves but just stumbling through the first lessons -of infinite Love, could not understand. ✠ It came to me at last, -that the reply of Jesus was really glowing with mighty inward joy, -with the rapture of possession, of victory. ✠ The man casting -out devils belonged to Him absolutely. No stranger, he, to the -Christ. On the contrary, he had an intimate, secret, personal and -blessed understanding with the Master. Somewhere, somehow, the -World-Brother had looked into his soul, seized him, owned him, -filled him with His own power, pity and love. He had entered into -the divine joy, the divine Comradeship. ✠ He was working miracles -of love because he must, not because he could.</i></p> - -<p class="center"> -<i>Copyright, 1910<br /> -by Paul Elder and Company</i> -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="center xlarge">OBIL</p> - -<p class="center xlarge">KEEPER OF CAMELS -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> - -<div class="dp1"> - <table style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0; width: 600px;" cellspacing="0" summary="format wrapped image"> - <tr><td colspan="2"><img src="images/obilimg1.jpg" alt="vine" /></td></tr> - <tr style="height: 134px;"><td style="height: 134px;"><img src="images/obilimg2.jpg" alt="vine" /></td><td class="small" style="height: 134px;"> -¶AND JOHN ANSWERED HIM, SAYING, MASTER, WE SAW ONE CASTING OUT -DEVILS IN THY NAME, AND HE FOLLOWETH NOT US: AND WE FORBAD HIM, -BECAUSE HE FOLLOWETH NOT US. ¶BUT JESUS SAID, FORBID HIM NOT: FOR -THERE IS NO MAN WHICH SHALL DO A MIRACLE IN MY NAME, THAT CAN -LIGHTLY SPEAK EVIL OF ME. ¶FOR HE THAT IS NOT AGAINST US IS ON -OUR PART.—MARK IX: 38-40.</td></tr> - <tr><td colspan="2"><img src="images/obilimg3.jpg" alt="vine" /></td></tr> - <tr><td><img src="images/obilimg4.jpg" alt="vine" /></td><td>Women called their children to hide under mantles, or skurried -with them to the shelter of dark huts, as Obil came riding up into -Carmel on that day of the Lord’s Great Year in Galilee; Obil, -and three others, horses and accoutrements and their own bodies -steaming yet from the long rush through salt surf down from Akka to -Haifa and through the clean-smelling waters of the yellow Kishon -where it puts into the sea.<br /><br /> - -What would he care—to ride a child down—that Obil? He would laugh -to see it wildly flying from before his horse’s hoofs. Every one -knew this, from Ptolemais to Jerusalem and even beyond, down into -the wilderness, and over across Jordan.<br /><br /> -</td></tr> - <tr><td colspan="2"><img src="images/obilimg5.jpg" alt="vine" /></td></tr> - </table> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> - -<p>Some people said that Obil served the evil priests—which was far -from the truth; others, that he was a tool of Herod, more silent -than lightnings out of summer heat, and as sure to kill. It was, -besides, insisted with whisperings and shudderings that he served -only himself, and that somewhere deep among the awful crags by the -Salt Sea a wondrous treasure sparkled, hidden by the red hand of -the robber, Obil.</p> - -<p>Yet there were some, away out in the hill country beyond Hebron, -as you go toward Beersheba, who could tell of years when Obil had -tilled a few fields there under the kindly sun and had kept cattle -of his own on the gentle hills.</p> - -<p>With his young wife Miriam he had paid tithes and kept the pleasant -feasts. In not one humble home did the Sabbath candles ever burn -brighter. No one’s son had been brought up with more loving -regard for the plain things of the law than the child of Obil and -Miriam, from the very first. These things they knew in Hebron. But -there was in Obil—here the heads came closer together under the -mantles—in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> Obil there was a Strain of wild desert blood, strong -in his race from the time of the first Obil, the Ishmaelite, Keeper -of King David’s Camels, and master of the great caravans that went -from great Hebron down to far Havilah.</p> - -<p>Since he was a child, when his father took him on a chance journey -far to the South, the desert-lust had come upon him year by year, -driving him from his home till the lust was satisfied and he could -return.</p> - -<p>While he was gone, Miriam his wife, the soft-eyed, the meek one, -tended the doves, the lambs, the goats and cattle.</p> - -<p>Faithfully she taught their little son of the prophets, and of all -the heroes of his race; of the great priest Simon; of Judas the -Hammer, and his army.</p> - -<p>When Obil came home, as the boy grew on, it came to be that he -always took the boy on his knee, first breath, and asked for his -tales of the heroes. And the boy loved to tell them as he stumbled -after his father in the furrow, or lay with him in the cool evening -under the vine at the door.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> - -<p>Every one marveled at this child as he recited long strings of the -sayings of the sages, and prayers and psalms, and at the star-eyed -reverence with which he would touch the name of the Most High on -the little folded parchment that Miriam had placed on the lowly -door-post of their home. Not only to his father but to every one -the boy loved to tell his burning tales of the heroes and the -prophets, until often it was whispered, “Perhaps God will raise up -even this child, the son of Obil, to be liberator of Israel,—who -can tell?”</p> - -<p>Perhaps, all unguessed by themselves, this hope was the reason -that, to those who knew the little family of three, it seemed -a strange and evil thing, certainly unblessed of God, that so -suddenly and silently each year Obil should go away out of sight.</p> - -<p>As for Obil, he had cared nothing for these secret whisperings. He -never had struggled against the call of the desert in those old -days, but had yielded in absolute joy.</p> - -<p>Each year he knew that far to the South he would find old Abdul in -the same spot in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> wilderness bordering the desert, waiting at -his tent door, the same horizon before him silhouetted with the -same three palms (one lop-eared), the same remote, tawny line of -low hills against the beryl sky, like some vast lion’s long, lithe -contour slipping through grass.</p> - -<p>His horse’s harness would click dustily as it slipped down. Abdul -would utter no word, Obil no word. There would be a fire of good -coals and broiled meat ready—clean—such as was fit for a Son of -the Law.</p> - -<p>The big herd of camels would be there, and when Obil had eaten his -meal the two would rise and walk with one accord out where the -creatures lay, their drivers among them sound asleep, the beasts -stirring with moans and complainings at sound of this half-familiar -footfall. Then Abdul would open his mouth and speak, while Obil -listened thirstily, of this camel and that; one here that was new, -another old one there; this ugly one that was seized with the -desert-lust every year, so evilly you could do nothing with her -till the caravan started—and Obil affectionately patted her rough -hide; of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> the various drivers, and the promise of trade, and bad -shiftings in the route. Obil was head of the drivers in those days, -and loved to sleep with them in the open air among the camels. It -gave him deep content and oblivion for that time to all that lay -beyond the horizon. He satisfied his hunger for the limitless skies -at night, and soaked himself with unspeakable enjoyment in the -passionate sun by day. No huge elemental turmoil of that wide life -ever disturbed Obil. Sweeping fires of the wilderness, thunderings, -earthquakes, winds, all gave him joy. Often he had wheeled his -horse to chase the dry wild artichoke—the cursèd Wheel, when -caught in the wilderness flames it was turned into a ball of fire, -and, lifted and tossed in the fierce wind, eagerly kindled new -fires in its wild flight.</p> - -<p>Other men feared this fiery thing which maddened horses and camels -and set vast tracts of wilderness on fire, but not Obil. It was -true that he had listened with awe to the Chazzan reading from the -Psalmist, in the little synagogue at home:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> “O my God, make them -like a wheel, as the stubble before the wind. * * * So persecute -them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill -their faces with shame, that they may seek thy face, O Lord.” For -he remembered how he had seen that fierce Wheel suddenly snuffed -out before the rushing winds, and he knew by this what must be the -angry breath of Jehovah upon the wicked; still Obil feared nothing -in those old days, neither the tempests of the desert nor the fires -of the wilderness nor the avenging hand of God, for his heart was -good then, his hands pure.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="drop-cap">IN THE year when Barzillai, his son, was ten, Obil said to his wife -Miriam, “Next year the boy shall go with me to the desert, that his -shoulders may grow broad and his heart strong.”</p> - -<p>And Miriam bowed her head and answered, “As you will, Obil—next -year.”</p> - -<p>But the child never went with him to the desert. For that year, -while Obil was gone deep into the South silence, the long drouth -swept out of the wilderness with such terrible heat as no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> one -living had ever known. The fierce beasts came down from the -mountains into the tilled fields and upon the herds. And the -fiery Wheel came one day and lit Obil’s field of grain and killed -the cattle and the sheep that were left, and devoured his little -vine-covered home.</p> - -<p>Miriam and the child escaped the fire, but she died soon, of a -fever, or of the fright and shock—he never quite knew—and the -Rabbi Elkanah, granduncle of Miriam, member of the Sanhedrin and -a very great man, took the boy into his stately Palace of Palms -standing in glowing gardens down near to Jericho.</p> - -<p>“Come, Obil, be a man!” the rabbi said, standing like some great -radiant iris in his full-bordered robes of pearl and blue, and laid -a jeweled hand upon Obil’s bowed shoulder.</p> - -<p>“I will keep the boy. The blood of his mother’s race is plain in -him. It will be worth while. As for you, doubtless this is a curse, -yea, and a curse also upon Miriam, your wife.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> ‘As the bird by -wandering, the swallow by flying, causeless the curse cannot come.’</p> - -<p>“You have not put difference between the clean and the unclean. -You have not washed the wrist nor cleansed the cup before and -after. On the Sabbath day you have lifted many times the weight of -the fig. You have eaten things not cooked with intention for the -Sabbath, and you have on the Sabbath dried your coat beside the -fire. For these things the wrath of Jehovah is kindled against you.”</p> - -<p>“Doubtless it is a curse,” said Obil humbly then. “But who of us -common people can know the law? It may be that my son shall learn, -if he attends with his whole heart.”</p> - -<p>“I will see that he attends,” answered the rabbi with bitter haste.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="drop-cap">OBIL went to Tyre, for it seemed good to him to be in a new land -among new men, beside the tumult of the busy sea, far from that -lone blackened field in old Hebron, far from the paths of the -desert.</p> - -<p>Years went by and then he came riding home—just as he was -coming up from the sea on this day of the Lord’s Great Year in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> -Galilee—only then his heart was good and his hands pure. And his -heart sang to itself that first day as he rode alone through the -surf, as he climbed the uplands and clattered along stony ways, -“How tall my son must be grown, and how wise! No doubt he is marked -even now in the streets—the splendid young nephew of the great -rabbi. He will hardly be noted as Barzillai, the son of Obil. But -no matter. Some day doubtless he will be a rabbi. It may be that -he has even learned by this time what is the Greatest Commandment. -This is something the common people seldom can know.”</p> - -<p>He was sure that his son would welcome him with great joy. They -would go out to the hill country together. He would have great -things to tell his son, while his son would instruct him in the -things of the law, the things one must know to be saved. The world -shone wondrously that day. Secretly in the stormy rains the leaves -had been glossing themselves, the long boughs of the plane trees -had clothed themselves with mottled velvet in the blue darkness, -the hillsides had gathered acres upon acres<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> of rich purple iris -bloom and glowing woof of tulips and anemones. All forms and colors -stood out sharply in this clear sunlight; the backs of the red -cattle in the sun, an old spear point glittering in the grass by -the winding brook, and Hermon gleaming in his snows.</p> - -<p>Myriads of butterflies flecked the blossoming fields amid the wide -humming of bees, and everywhere—everywhere—the larks sang, in -silver unison with the joy of Obil.</p> - -<p>That day faded into dusk before Obil came to the home of the Rabbi -Elkanah in its wilderness of grove and garden.</p> - -<p>In darkness came Obil to that well-remembered gateway. But what -meant this?</p> - -<p>No lantern gleamed here from rose-wreathed pillar. No sound of any -lute floated out from perfumed bowers. Only a lone beggar started -up from dank shadows. Obil’s hand shivered as he dropped a gift -into the beseeching palm and inquired of the rabbi and his house.</p> - -<p>“Dost thou know?” came the quick, answering question, whispered -with hot breath close in the ear of Obil. “Gone—gone! Some say<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> -dwelling in Jerusalem, some that he is gone to Capernaum. For he -hates this house. Here died the lady Sarah, his wife. Here lived -and died his son, the leper, hidden from the world.</p> - -<p>“And”—here the beggar’s face again touched hotly the face of -Obil—“didst thou know Obil, the Desert-lover, and Keeper of Camels -for Abdul’s Caravan? His wife Miriam was niece to the great rabbi. -It was the son of Obil and Miriam they took with deceit and hid -away deep, deep in the inner courts of the palace here, to be -companion of their son, the leper.</p> - -<p>“<em>Art thou Obil?</em> Go, go! Let them tell thee these things in -Hebron! Let them tell thee how thy son, the slave, caught the -poison at last, how they thrust him forth into the highways, blind, -to beg with the leper herd! There they will tell thee how one black -night he wandered over yonder broken aqueduct wall and fell to the -stones below, to lie dead and forgotten,—a Thing not to be touched -or known! Go!”</p> - -<p>In Hebron they told him all, in much trembling and fear. This it -was that changed the heart of Obil.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> - -<p>Serve a God who only lived to Curse, and whose honored servants -were like this? Never Obil. He would curse Jehovah, kill, and die.</p> - -<p>But a strange spirit arose and grappled his soul within him. It -said, “Wait! Kill now? Keep that for a joy to come. Nurse it, -prize it, plan for it! Wait till he has reached the pinnacle of -power and life is glorious and very precious to him! Strike now -and lose the long joy of anticipation? Strike now and die? Do not -be such a fool. Take your fill of life first. Have your will. Defy -this Jehovah. Then kill, and die.” And again Obil went his way. On -stormy galleys of the great sea, into mines of Spain, far north -to strange icy coasts, into the whirling wickedness of Antioch, -carousing from city to city in Egypt, but never more to the desert! -His hand came to have no mercy. A heap of dead faces might stare -at him beside their own charred threshold, and Obil could stand, -jocund, eating grapes from the piteous vine.</p> - -<p>Often he had come back to look in secret upon the face he hated -with supreme hate, wondering if he should strike now, and yet the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> -strange hand of that mocking inner spirit held him back as at first.</p> - -<p>Those who in those swift visits had glimpses of the face of Obil -did not forget.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="drop-cap">AND now it was April once more; the same sky, the same scents in -the air; Hermon gleaming in his snows just as he did that first day -when Obil came riding up from the sea alone with the song in his -heart.</p> - -<p>Away in Damascus he had felt in his soul that the time was come. He -had bought two wonderful blades of steel. One had power that would -crush bones, the other was swift and sure and silent.</p> - -<p>By crooked ways, that day of the Lord’s Great Year in Galilee the -four riders, after they left the sea, began trailing after one -another among the sweet wild thickets of Carmel, brushing the -dew from great flushing bowers of honeysuckle among the oaks, or -skirting some little mossy dell where doves filled all the air with -the mellow thunder of their blended calls.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> - -<p>The others laughed and sang, but not Obil. At other times in that -strong swim through the wild waste of waters he had thought, “Thus -will I come when I have had my fill and am to take the last and -best of the feast. More glad will I come than the waters of this -full stream rushing to the sea! With deeper content than yonder -doves in the sun!”</p> - -<p>But today—how strange it was! The waters seemed dumb. They had no -message for him. Yet he was to take the last and best. He was to -strike, and say, “This for my son, whose life you took!” But the -old huge joy did not rush upon him now. There was only a weight of -dull will instead.</p> - -<p>One of the three riding with Obil that day had secret letters -from Spain to a nobleman in upper Cæsarea. Obil carried under his -cuirass gold and gems sent from Rome by a slave to his master in -Capernaum. Another had a debt of his own to pay, which he was -coming home to settle hideously. He talked of it constantly, with -boastings and glee. It was a woman. Thus and thus would he do—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> -then—would he never make an end of his story?</p> - -<p>Obil rode in silence. Had he “turned rabbi”? one asked. “Here, -Fulvius!” laughed another, twisting himself on his horse to turn -the youngest rider’s face toward Obil. “Obil has taken up the -doctrine of the new rabbi in Galilee. If I smite you on one cheek -you shall turn to me the other. Try him!”</p> - -<p>Fulvius tried, and was promptly knocked to the ground, his head cut -on the stones, his wrist sprained. Laughing and swearing by their -gods, and Fulvius raging, they set him on his horse and clattered -on.</p> - -<p>Obil stopped to pick up a little hurt jerboa. The strange creature, -half bird, half mouse, had been nearly crushed, but it was alive. -It seemed to look at him appealingly. Strangely, it made him think -of a child he had picked up once and thrown into some dark pool to -end its misery. (They had wiped out a whole clan that day, over in -cruel Thracian forests.)</p> - -<p>“Thou must die,” said Obil, and gently laid the thing down, its -eyes turned away from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> blaring light. Then he drew his hand -across his own eyes, mounted and rode on, thinking, “Those Steaming -scents all around go to a man’s head on a day like this.” And over -and over Obil said grimly in his own thoughts, “The hour has come!”</p> - -<p>All of the four had business in Capernaum, after which they were to -go separate ways.</p> - -<p>Obil went out to Cana and left his horse at a little vineyard -that he knew, for reasons of his own. And walking on his way to -Jerusalem he came to Magdala.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="drop-cap">THAT day the Lord was in Magdala. All the wretchedness of the -world seemed gathered there,—a vast, groaning, pleading, hideous, -tumultuous sea of waiting, with one Face shining out of this -darkness like a Star.</p> - -<p>A Voice, infinitely sweet, told of the Kingdom of God, while the -wondrous hands lifted and blessed and healed.</p> - -<p>Obil stood on the farther edge of this sea at first, but the Voice -reached him as it poured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> forth glad news of peace and freedom and -love, and swept away the rags and tatters, the “old garments” of -cruel doctrines of Scribe and Pharisee.</p> - -<p>“Why, these things are not hard! Can a man please God with these -things?” said the man Obil, and a great trembling fell upon him.</p> - -<p>“Was it not a Curse, then?” he asked himself, going back to that -day of dumb agony when he stood, bereaved, before the uncle of his -dead Miriam. Something in the pure blue peace of the sky above that -Face made him think of her and see her once more, as with holy -joy she lit her Sabbath candles and chanted from the sacred song -that she loved: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the -Soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. -The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the -commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” He had -despised the words and the spirit of that sacred song in those wild -years that lay so close behind him, hated them, trampled on them, -called them a lie.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> - -<p>But now—Miriam cursed for “lifting the weight of the fig” on the -day that she loved? For moving a bench in her home, or drying his -coat beside the fire?</p> - -<p>He pressed nearer, with a mighty hunger to hear of the real God, -who loved and did not hate His world.</p> - -<p>The maimed and the halt and the devil-possessed weltering there -snarled at Obil, “Here, you lusty one! Get back! Nothing is the -matter with you!”</p> - -<p>For indeed his clear eyes were velvet and full of fire; his strong -neck was like a column; his shoulders were massive as a good piece -of gunwale timber out of Lebanon.</p> - -<p>But Obil did not heed. A stern voice rose insistent in his soul: -“Go, and delay not! The hour has come! Wilt thou avenge not the -life of thy son?”</p> - -<p>But with that horrible trembling upon him the man Obil stood. -And the Lord bent his gaze upon Obil,—a gaze that was shorter -than breath; yet it lifted his minutest past out from its veiling -haze and pushed it before Obil’s agonized<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> consciousness; all his -failures, mistakes, misunderstandings, selfishness, blasphemies; -all his cruelties and crimes, and the one long savage purpose to -kill,—all arose, black, intolerable, before the flaming purity of -the gaze of the Lord.</p> - -<p>If the earth could only open to receive him in safe darkness and -oblivion!</p> - -<p>But the earth did not answer his agony. Then the eyes of the -World-Brother looked into his, deep, tender, glowing. “Come, follow -Me! Hate no more, but love, and share My joy!” said that burning -Look.</p> - -<p>Back the soul of Obil answered, in unspeakable longing, out of -that horrible trembling: “Thou who forgivest sins, canst thou -forgive the black sins of Obil—even of Obil? So will I follow thee -forever, blessed Son of God!”</p> - -<p>Then quicker than comes the breath, the eyes of the Lord beamed -upon him in immeasurable welcome, infinite forgiveness; and the man -Obil knew that the compact was made, and the covenant was sure.</p> - -<p>Strange pity and love for these hideous beings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> around him suddenly -streamed into his soul. Were they not God’s children? The Blessed -One had said it, and it must be true.</p> - -<p>A little shriveled child lay half crushed among the groaning heaps -at his feet, waiting its turn. He looked down in that wondrous -moment and knew that he loved this little wretched thing with -naked, knotted, palsied limbs,—he, Obil! Tenderly he lifted it -into his arms, and he laid it in the welcoming arms of the Lord. -And again the eyes of Obil met the deep eyes of the World-Brother -looking into his, as one should say, in full gladness, “Yea, now we -are Comrades!”</p> - -<p>Then turned away Obil in pity, to make room, and the cripples -muttered, “It is good that he goes! What has the Master to do with -him!”</p> - -<p>He went forth, not knowing whither, but only that go where he -would, he was always to be, every moment, within the circumference -of that mighty Love.</p> - -<p>As Obil walked he came to a village where the Lord had not yet come -to heal, nor his disciples. It waited in tears and pain and seemed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> -to be forgotten. The people were crowded in the narrow streets. -Would he never come, the Miracle-Worker?</p> - -<p>The synagogue was deserted, the market, the fields. Here in an open -space in the street, an awed multitude in safe perspective, heads -clustered in upper windows or bending over balconies, Obil beheld -one possessed of a devil.</p> - -<p>Wild white hair all torn and bleeding, sinewy old arms with muscles -and tendons torn and bared, body naked and gashed, tongue thick -with hateful cursing, throat hoarse with horribly echoing shrieks!</p> - -<p>“How they hate—those devils!” said a man just under Obil’s chin, -to his neighbor in the crowd. “It is hard to know which kind is -most evil, this one that shrieks, or the dumb—but all <em>hate</em>, mark -you! When a man begins to hate with all his soul, then comes in the -devil!”</p> - -<p>“I have not a devil,” said this man’s neighbor,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> “yet I know for -myself that what you say is true. When I am only mad against my -wife Josepha I get dumb—I do not speak! So I know if I went far -enough I would have a dumb devil, which God forbid! But know you -this one?”</p> - -<p>“Why, <em>this</em>”—came the answer—“this is the great Rabbi Elkanah, -he of the Palace of Palms, by Jericho. By Simon the Just, how he -must have hated!”</p> - -<p>Obil heard. Heard, too, the larks on the wide hills of Hebron, away -back in the dim years; heard the voice of his star-eyed son, fresh -as theirs, talking of heroes!</p> - -<p>A dread voice tolled in his soul and shut out all the world—the -universe—with its vast resounding. “Kill! Now! Now is the -time—the time!”</p> - -<p>And out there in the hot, white space where the devil threw a -black, writhing, horrible shadow on the ground, an answering shriek -and wild, taunting laughter responded to that tolling bell in the -soul of Obil.</p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> -<p>“Obil! Thou hast come at last! Wouldst thou have thy son learn the -Law, thou dog of Ishmael? Shall my son die and thine live, thou -Accursed? Hear thou, hear, Obil, Son of the Desert! Why hast thou -waited so long? Kill, kill, and die!”</p> - -<p>Then the stormy blood rushed hotly in Obil from head to heel. But -he remembered the Look, the Covenant. His soul melted in an ocean -of love. He ran into that naked space. His shadow braided itself -with that horrible writhing one on the ground.</p> - -<p>On the torn white hair he laid his hand. Around that old bleeding -shoulder he threw his encircling arm.</p> - -<p>“Thou devil!” called Obil then. “In the name of the Christ, the Son -of God, I command thee, come forth!”</p> - -<p>Then the man Elkanah sank to the ground, and he clasped the knees -of Obil, murmuring low a prayer of thanksgiving and praise, till -those strong arms lifted him to Obil’s heart once more.</p> - -<p>“What is this?” broke in with sharp authority through the babbling -murmur that arose.</p> - -<p>“Who is this that dares heal in that Name?”</p> - -<p>Muttering together, a group of the Lord’s disciples stood, -surprised, displeased, bewildered.</p> - -<p>But joy ineffable made glorious the face of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> Obil. He looked far -beyond them, and he stretched out his arms toward Magdala, and loud -he cried,</p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> -<p>“Jesus, thou blessed Son of God, the victory is thine—thine!”</p> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p>HERE ENDS OBIL, KEEPER OF CAMELS BY LUCIA CHASE BELL. PUBLISHED -BY PAUL ELDER & COMPANY, & PRINTED FOR THEM BY THE TOMOYE PRESS -UNDER THE DIRECTION OF J. H. NASH IN THE FAIR CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO -DURING THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY & YEAR NINETEEN HUNDRED & TEN</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Obil Keeper of Camels, by Lucia Chase Bell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBIL KEEPER OF CAMELS *** - -***** This file should be named 51006-h.htm or 51006-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/0/0/51006/ - -Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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