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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..e5cbecd --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #60028 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60028) diff --git a/old/60028-0.txt b/old/60028-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b1391b3..0000000 --- a/old/60028-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,19860 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary: The Queen of the House of David and -Mother of Jesus, by A. Stewart (Alexander Stewart) Walsh - -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: Mary: The Queen of the House of David and Mother of Jesus - The Story of Her Life - -Author: A. Stewart (Alexander Stewart) Walsh - -Contributor: T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage - -Release Date: August 1, 2019 [EBook #60028] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY: QUEEN OF HOUSE OF DAVID *** - - - - -Produced by MFR and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - -[Illustration: By Frederick Goodall. - -MARY AND THE INFANT SAVIOUR.] - - - - - MARY: - THE - QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID - AND - MOTHER OF JESUS. - - THE STORY OF HER LIFE. - - GABRIEL.—“Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: - Blessed art thou among women.” - - MARY.—“All generations shall call me blessed.” - - BY - REV. A. STEWART WALSH, D.D. - - WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY - REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. - - _ILLUSTRATED._ - - PUBLISHED EXCLUSIVELY BY - A. S. GRAY & CO. - SUCCESSORS TO - CENTRAL PUBLISHING HOUSE AND KEYSTONE PUBLISHING CO. - PITTSBURGH, PA. - 1889. - - COPYRIGHT BY H. S. ALLEN, - 1886. - COPYRIGHT OWNED BY - A. S. GRAY. - 1889. - - ARGYLE PRESS, - PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING, - 265 & 267 CHERRY ST., N. Y. - - - - - TO WOMANKIND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD - - THIS - - STORY OF A LIFE - - MOST - - BEAUTIFUL, BENEFICENT, AND INSPIRING - - Is Dedicated - - BY THE AUTHOR. - - - - -INTRODUCTION TO THE QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID. - -BY REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. - - -I have been asked to open the front door of this book. But I must not -keep you standing too long on the threshold. The picture-gallery, the -banqueting hall and the throne-room are inside. All the fascinations -of romance are, by the able author, thrown around the facts of Mary’s -life. Much-abused tradition is also called in for splendid service. The -pen that the author wields is experienced, graceful, captivating, and -multipotent. As perhaps no other book that was ever written, this one -will show us woman as standing at the head of the world. It demonstrates -in the life of Mary what woman was and what woman may be. Woman’s -position in the world is higher than man’s; and although she has often -been denied the right of suffrage, she always does vote and always will -vote—by her influence; and her chief desire ought to be that she should -have grace rightly to rule in the dominion which she has already won. - -She has no equal as a comforter of the sick. What land, what street, -what house has not felt the smitings of disease? Tens of thousands of -sick beds! What shall we do with them? Shall man, with his rough hand, -and heavy foot, and impatient bearing, minister? No; he cannot soothe the -pain. He can not quiet the nerves. He knows not where to set the light. -His hand is not steady enough to pour out the drops. He is not wakeful -enough to be watcher. You have known men who have despised women, but the -moment disease fell upon them, they did not send for their friends at -the bank or their worldly associates. Their first cry was, “Take me to -my wife.” The dissipated young man at the college scoffs at the idea of -being under home influence; but at the first blast of typhoid fever on -his cheek he says, “Where is mother?” I think one of the most pathetic -passages in all the Bible is the description of the lad who went out to -the harvest fields of Shunem and got sunstruck; throwing his hands on his -temples, and crying out, “Oh, my head! my head!” and they said, “Carry -him to his mother.” And the record is “He sat on her knees till noon and -then died.” - -In the war men cast the cannon, men fashioned the muskets, men cried to -the hosts “Forward, march!” men hurled their battalions on the sharp -edges of the enemy, crying “Charge! charge!” but woman scraped the lint, -woman administered the cordials, woman watched by the dying couch, woman -wrote the last message to the home circle, woman wept at the solitary -burial, attended by herself and four men with a spade. Men did their work -with shot and shell, and carbine and howitzer; women did their work with -socks and slippers, and bandages, and warm drinks, and scripture texts, -and gentle soothings of the hot temples, and stories of that land where -they never have any pain. Men knelt down over the wounded and said, “On -which side did you fight?” Women knelt down over the wounded and said, -“Where are you hurt? What nice thing can I make for you to eat? What -makes you cry?” To-night, while we men are soundly asleep in our beds, -there will be a light in yonder loft; there will be groaning down that -dark alley; there will be cries of distress in that cellar. Men will -sleep and women will watch. - -No one as well as a woman can handle the poor. There are hundreds and -thousands of them in all our cities. There is a kind of work that men -cannot do for the destitute. Man sometimes gives his charity in a rough -way, and it falls like the fruit of a tree in the East, which fruit comes -down so heavily that it breaks the skull of the man who is trying to -gather it. But woman glides so softly into the house of want, and finds -out all the sorrows of the place, and puts so quietly the donation on the -table, that all the family come out on the front steps as she departs, -expecting that from under her shawl she will thrust out two wings and go -right up to Heaven, from whence she seems to have come down. O, Christian -young woman, if you would make yourself happy and win the blessings of -Christ, go out among the poor! A loaf of bread or a bundle of socks may -make a homely load to carry, but the angels of God will come out to -watch, and the Lord Almighty will give His messenger hosts a charge, -saying, “Look after that woman, canopy her with your wings, and shelter -her from all harm.” And while you are seated in the house of destitution -and suffering, the little ones around the room will whisper, “Who is she? -is she not beautiful?” and if you will listen right sharply, you will -hear dripping through the leaky roof, and rolling over the broken stairs, -the angel chant that shook Bethlehem: “Glory to God in the highest, and -on earth peace and good will to man.” Can you tell why a Christian woman, -going down among the haunts of iniquity on a Christian errand, seldom -meets with any indignity? - -I stood in the chapel of Helen Chalmers, the daughter of the celebrated -Dr. Chalmers, in the most abandoned part of the city of Edinburg; and I -said to her, as I looked around upon the fearful surroundings of that -place, “Do you come here nights to hold a service?” “Oh, yes,” she said; -“I take my lantern and I go through all these haunts of sin, the darkest -and the worst; and I ask all the men and women to come to the chapel, and -then I sing for them, and I pray for them, and I talk to them.” I said, -“Can it be possible that you never meet with an insult while performing -this Christian errand?” “Never,” she said; “never.” That young woman, -who has her father by her side, walking down the street, and an armed -policeman at each corner is not so well defended as that Christian woman -who goes forth on Gospel work into the haunts of iniquity carrying the -Bible and bread. - -Some one said, “I dislike very much to see that Christian woman teaching -these bad boys in the mission school. I am afraid to have her instruct -them.” “So,” said another man, “I am afraid too.” Said the first, “I am -afraid they will use vile language before they leave the place.” “Ah,” -said the other man, “I am not afraid of that; what I am afraid of is, -that if any of those boys should use a bad word in her presence, the -other boys would tear him to pieces—killing him on the spot.” - -Woman is especially endowed to soothe disaster She is called the weaker -vessel, but all profane as well as sacred history attests that when the -crisis comes she is better prepared than man to meet the emergency. How -often have you seen a woman who seemed to be a disciple of frivolity and -indolence, who, under one stroke of calamity, changed to be a heroine. -There was a crisis in your affairs, you struggled bravely and long, -but after a while there came a day when you said, “Here I shall have -to stop;” and you called in your partners, and you called in the most -prominent men in your employ, and you said, “We have got to stop.” You -left the store suddenly; you could hardly make up your mind to pass -through the street and over on the ferry-boat; you felt everybody would -be looking at you and blaming you and denouncing you. You hastened home; -you told your wife all about the affair. What did she say? Did she -play the butterfly; did she talk about the silks and the ribbons and -the fashions? No; she came up to the emergency; she quailed not under -the stroke. She helped you to begin to plan right away. She offered to -go out of the comfortable house into a smaller one, and wear the old -cloak another winter. She was one who understood your affairs without -blaming you. You looked upon what you thought was a thin, weak woman’s -arm holding you up; but while you looked at that arm there came into the -feeble muscles of it the strength of the eternal God. No chiding. No -fretting. No telling you about the beautiful house of her father, from -which you brought her, ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. You said, “Well, -this is the happiest day of my life. I am glad I have got from under my -burden. My wife don’t care—I don’t care.” At the moment you were utterly -exhausted, God sent a Deborah to meet the host of the Amalekites and -scatter them like chaff over the plain. There are scores and hundreds of -households to-day where as much bravery and courage are demanded of woman -as was exhibited by Grace Darling or Marie Antoinette or Joan of Arc. - -Woman is further endowed to bring us into the Kingdom of Heaven. It is -easier for a woman to be a Christian than for a man. Why? You say she -is weaker. No. Her heart is more responsive to the pleadings of divine -love. The fact that she can more easily become a Christian, I prove by -the statement that three-fourths of the members of the churches in all -Christendom are women. So God appoints them to be the chief agencies for -bringing this world back to God. The greatest sermons are not preached -on celebrated platforms; they are preached with an audience of two or -three and in private home-life. A patient, loving, Christian demeanor -in the presence of transgression, in the presence of hardness, in the -presence of obduracy and crime, is an argument from the throne of the -Lord Almighty; and blessed is that woman who can wield such an argument. -A sailor came slipping down the ratlin one night as though something -had happened, and the sailors cried, “What’s the matter?” He said, “My -mother’s prayers haunt me like a ghost.” - -In what a realm is every mother the queen. The eagles of heaven can not -fly across that dominion. Horses, panting and with lathered flanks, are -not swift enough to run to the outpost of that realm, and death itself -will only be the annexation of heavenly principalities. When you want -your grandest idea of a queen you do not think of Catherine of Russia, -or of Anne of England, or Maria Theresa of Germany: but when you want to -get your grandest idea of a queen you think of the plain woman who sat -opposite your father at the table or walked with him, arm in arm, down -life’s pathway; sometimes to the Thanksgiving banquet, sometimes to the -grave, but always together; soothing your petty griefs, correcting your -childish waywardness, joining in your infantile sports, listening to your -evening prayer, toiling for you with needle or at the spinning wheel, and -on cold nights wrapping you up snug and warm; and then, at last, on that -day when she lay in the back room dying, and you saw her take those thin -hands with which she had toiled for you so long, and put them together -in a dying prayer that commended you to the God whom she had taught you -to trust—oh, she was the queen! The chariots of God came down to fetch -her, and as she went in, all heaven rose up. You can not think of her now -without a rush of tenderness that stirs the deep foundations of your -soul, and you feel as much a child again as when you cried on her lap; -and if you could bring her back to life again to speak, just once more, -your name as tenderly as she used to speak it, you would be willing to -throw yourself on the ground and kiss the sod that covers her, crying, -“Mother! mother!” Ah, she was the queen! - -Home influences are the mightiest of all influences upon the soul. There -are men who have maintained their integrity, not because they were any -better naturally than some other people, but because there were home -influences praying for them all the time. They got a good start. They -were launched on the world with the benedictions of a Christian mother. -They may track Siberian snows, they may plunge into African jungles, they -may fly to the earth’s end, they can not go so far and so fast but the -prayer will keep up with them. Oh, what a multitude of women in heaven. -Mary, Christ’s mother, in heaven. Elizabeth Fry in heaven. Charlotte -Elizabeth in heaven. The mother of Augustine in heaven. The Countess of -Huntingdon is in heaven—who sold her splendid jewels to build chapels—in -heaven; while a great many others who have never been heard of on earth, -or known but little of, have gone into the rest and peace of heaven. What -a rest. What a change it was from the small room with no fire and one -window, the glass broken out, and the aching side and worn out eyes, to -the “house of many mansions.” Heaven for aching heads. Heaven for broken -hearts. Heaven for anguish-bitten frames. No more sitting up until -midnight for the coming of staggering steps. No more rough blows on the -temples. No more sharp, keen, bitter curses. - -Some of you will have no rest in this world; it will be toil and struggle -all the way up. You will have to stand at your door fighting back the -wolf with your own hand red with carnage. But God has a crown for you. -He is now making it, and whenever you weep a tear, He sets another gem -in that crown; whenever you have a pang of body or soul, He puts another -gem in that crown, until after a while in all the tiara there will be no -room for another splendor; and God will say to his angel, “The crown is -done; let her up that she may wear it.” And as the Lord of righteousness -puts the crown upon your brow, angel will cry to angel, “Who is she?” -and Christ will say, “I will tell you who she is; she is the one that -came up out of great tribulation and had her robe washed and made white -in the blood of the Lamb.” And then God will spread a banquet, and He -will invite all the principalities of heaven to sit at the feast, and -the tables will blush with the best clusters from the vineyards of God -and crimson with the twelve manner of fruits from the tree of life, and -water from the fountains of the rock will flash from the golden tankards; -and the old harpers of heaven will sit there, making music with their -harps, and Christ will point you out amid the celebrities of heaven, -saying, “She suffered with me on earth, now we are going to be glorified -together.” And the banquetters, no longer able to hold their peace, -will break forth with congratulation. “Hail! hail!” And there will be a -handwriting on the wall; not such as struck the Persian noblemen with -horror, but with fire-tipped fingers writing in blazing capitals of light -and love and victory: “God has wiped away all tears from all faces.” - -And now I leave you in the hands of Dr. Walsh, the author of this book. -He will show you Mary, the model of all womanly, wifely, motherly -excellence—the Madonna hanging in the Louvre of admiration for all -Christendom, and for many millions in the higher Vatican of their worship. - - T. DE WITT TALMAGE. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I.—THE QUEEN’S PORTRAIT. - - “A form beloved comes again”—Inspired painters in a voyage of - discovery—Tributes to Mary, honoring all womankind—Guido’s - wish—Madonnas of many climes. Raphael’s “Transfigured - Woman”—Savonarola’s bonfire—St. Luke’s picture of the - Virgin—The Vandal spirit. Page 29 - - CHAPTER II.—THE PILGRIM, CRUSADER AND VIRGIN. - - Life a pilgrimage—Pilgrims of many faiths—A struggle for holy - places between the Pilgrim-Crusaders and Moslem—The harem and - the home—The rise of Chivalry—The Knights and “Our Lady”—The - results of the Crusades. Page 36 - - CHAPTER III.—ARMAGEDDON! “THE KEY AND SICKLE.” - - “The wandering hermit wakes the storms of war”—Acre and - Esdrælon, the “Armageddon” or “Mountain of the Gospel” of the - Scriptures—The battle-field of nations—The City of Jeanne - d’Arc. The jewel in the sickle-haft—Prince Edward, the Crusade - leader—Sultan Kha-tel—The sacking of Acre—Actors introduced. Page 48 - - CHAPTER IV.—SIR CHARLEROY; THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE AND KNIGHT - OF SAINT MARY. - - The flight from Acre to Nazareth—The born-leader—Life estimates - with Death holding the scales—A prince honors, a bishop - blesses, and a mother loves—An epitome of paradoxes. Page 53 - - CHAPTER V.—NAZARETH. - - Nazareth, the place of Mary’s nativity—The choice of a - leader—The coward king—The Virgin’s Fount—English songsters—The - Knights’ mountain Litany—Longings for home and mother—Nain and - Endor’s lessons. Page 61 - - CHAPTER VI.—THE FUGITIVES. - - A night bivouac amid sacred scenes—The “Knight of the - Holy-Sepulcher” who fled on “a white charger with black - wings”—The funeral at dawn—Mary’s palm-bearing angel-guard—The - twelve knights separate into two parties—Will-makings and - farewells—By Endor to oblivion. Page 74 - - CHAPTER VII.—ICHABOD. - - Sir Charleroy’s band approach Shunem, the City of Elijah—The - surprise—Sir Charleroy the captive of Azrael the Mameluke—The - Mohammedan heaven depicted—“A hair, the bridge over hell”—The - odoriferous houris—A gorgeous charnel-house blasted—The - prodigal becomes the herald of purity—The Knight of Saint - Mary and the Jewish Spy—Adversity makes the Knight and the - Jew friends—The Knight instructing Ichabod—“’Till Shiloh - comes”—“The true, refined and final Judaism”—“The east and - the west embracing; truth leading.”—An honest doubt is a real - prayer. Page 82 - - CHAPTER VIII.—FROM JERICHO TO JORDAN. - - The radiant proselyte—Climbing to glory—The ghostly forms - hovering over submerged Sodom—Jordan’s sweetening—Siddim-angels - among the willows and oleanders by the Dead Sea—Summonsed - to fight for the Crescent or go to the slave mart—Nourahmal - “The light of the harem” becomes the disciple and friend of - Ichabod—A debate concerning women—A rarity and a wonder—“I told - her women had souls; she laughed like a monkey”—The flight from - Jericho by night—The lightning—God’s torch—“Canst thou dance - rocks into camels?”—A mummy’s flight, and the burial of a live - man—“Unclean”—The solemn passage of Jordan. Page 93 - - CHAPTER IX.—THE FEAST OF THE ROSE. - - A breakfast of lentils and barley in the wilderness—The gloom - of the Knight and the joy of the Jew—Sermons on fate and - songs in flowers—The poetry of Ichabod—Celibacy a reward at - Rome—Kneph “The father of his mother”—The heathen and the - Christian “Feast of the Rose”—The summary of the events in - Mary’s life and in the life of Jesus—The Egyptian Rosary—Neb-ta - the maiden sister—The egg and the cross, ancient signs of - immortality—The Copt priest—The insights of the Egyptians - symbolized by the Sphinx. Page 113 - - CHAPTER X.—AFTER EVE, ESTHER OR MARY? - - By Jabbock, in the native place of Ichabod—Israelitish - maidens keeping the feast of Esther—Religious love, filial - love and lover’s love—The poetic Jew’s rhapsody concerning - affection—God’s voice in the Garden—The ideal women of the Old - Testament and of the New—The Jew’s cry for mother—Vacillating - Sir Charleroy—“Echo’s Magic”—Jewish customs. Page 135 - - CHAPTER XI.—THE FEAST OF PURIM. - - A night-scene by Jabbock—Harrimai the priest, and his daughter - Rizpah—The religious ceremonial and the revel—Sir Charleroy - and Rizpah as “Ahasuerus and Esther”—The Knight’s secret - discovered—Conquest of a woman’s heart through pity—“Of what - metals Jewish maidens are.” Page 152 - - CHAPTER XII.—ASTARTE OR MARY? - - The Knight of Saint Mary enslaved by a Hebrew beauty—The - journey toward Bozrah—The Mameluke attack—The hand to hand - fight—Sir Charleroy wounded and Ichabod slain—Rizpah’s heroism - in peril—Espousal in the face of death—A wonderful vision. Page 170 - - CHAPTER XIII.—FROM RAMOTH GILEAD TO DAMASCUS. - - Teacher and pupil become patient and nurse—Perilous - relations—Delights, assurances, fears and clouds—Harrimai’s - discovery and his malediction—Love’s debate and - decision—Elopement by night—the Knight and the Jewess wedded at - Damascus. Page 182 - - CHAPTER XIV.—THE THEATER OF THE GIANTS. - - The death of Harrimai—A honey-moon in the “Eye of the - East”—To Bashan with the Mecca chaplet-seekers—Nature, - art and desolation—Lejah’s black lava-sea—The frenzies of - Gerash’s passion-flower—Reaction after exaltation—“A camel - voyage in-sea”—Rizpah’s challenge—Jealous of Sir Charleroy’s - love for Mary—“Illusion”—The church of Saint George at - Edrei—Recrimination—Ridicule costly to pride—Neither Christian, - Jew nor Pagan—A woman with unsettled faith—A babe poisoned by - its mother’s passion—The lamp and the palm-trees—The Knight’s - appeals—Omens—A beacon needed—Fleeing the Lejah—To Bozrah. Page 195 - - CHAPTER XV.—THE REVELS OF MEN AND THE RITES OF THEIR GODDESSES. - - Kunawat at the City of Job—The Shrine of Astarte—The Cyclopean - image—Questioning the Soul, Time and God—Hugeness, greatness; - littleness, caricature—The naked worshipers of the golden - calf—Sins exposed—Purity’s vision—Phallic mysteries—Khem—Female - deities—Dualism—Immortality by progeny and by regeneration—The - fire-worshiper’s mystic number eight, and the Jewish covenant - number seven. Page 212 - - CHAPTER XVI.—A BATTLE OF GIANTS AT BOZRAH. - - Houses forty centuries old—The old stone-house of an - ancient giant becomes the home of the knight and his - wife—How circumstances change people—Recriminations and - reconciliation—“The gall taken from animals offered to Juno, - goddess of marriage”—Rizpah’s temper that seemed brilliant - before wedlock, afterward seems to Sir Charleroy very like - that of a virago—The charming nonsense of those for the - first time parents—Shall she be named Davidah, Angela, Marah - or Mary?—The Christian and Jewish faith battle about the - cradle—The separation of husband and wife, in anger—The sick - child and the desolated, deserted wife—Rizpah longs for a - mother, such as Mary of Bethlehem. Page 224 - - CHAPTER XVII.—RIZPAH THE ANCIENT MOTHER OF SORROWS. - - After many years, Rizpah dwells in Bozrah with her - three children—Rizpah of Bozrah fascinated by Rizpah of - Gibeah—Miriamne the daughter of Rizpah—The daughter appalled - by her mother’s mysterious hallucinations—The wonders of - mother-love—The story of the ancient, Jewish “Mother of - Sorrows”—The omen of the bat and the parable of the stars. Page 245 - - CHAPTER XVIII.—THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED IN THE GIANT CITY. - - The old and the young Jews—The old Christian priest and - his Jewess proselyte—Attacked by Mamelukes—The “Old Clock - Man”—The Balsam Band—Miriamne, the Jewess proselyte, questions - concerning the queen of the old priest’s heart—The miraculous - picture of Mary at Damascus—Silver hands and feet—Crown - jewels. Page 264 - - CHAPTER XIX.—THE STORY OF MARY’S CHILDHOOD. Page 282 - - CHAPTER XX.—THE WEDDING—THE BIRTH AND THE FLIGHT. - - The birth of Jesus and the flight to Egypt—Miriamne reads - to her mother a Christian account of Mary’s espousal—Rizpah - curious but doubtful. Page 293 - - CHAPTER XXI.—THE QUEEN AND HER FAMILY IN EGYPT. - - Father Adolphus and Miriamne converse of the Holy Family’s - sojourn in Egypt—Heliopolis and the Temple of the - Sun—Fire-worshipers—At Memphis, the shrine of Apis the - sacred bull—The red heifer of Israel—The Holy Family rescued - in Egypt by a robber who afterward died on the cross next - to the Savior—The legend of a gipsy’s prophecy concerning - Jesus—Zingarella won by the Virgin. Page 312 - - CHAPTER XXII.—THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS. - - Rizpah dreading heresy yet charmed by the story of the “Girl - Wife”—“Behold my mother and brethren”—Christ’s message to his - widowed mother—The “Church of the Terror”—Rizpah’s vision - of “Glad Tidings.” Rizpah of Bozrah allured from Rizpah of - Gibeah—A hot-chase after an old love—The sword that pierced - Mary—The shadow of the cross horrifies Rizpah—The faith of the - Nazarene denounced—Miriamne driven from home by her mother. - Page 322 - - CHAPTER XXIII.—THE MISERERE AND THE EASTER ANTHEM. - - Miriamne alone at night in the giant city—A refuge at the - Christian priest’s—The midnight Miserere—Penitents—Easter at - Bozrah—Finding the mother-love in God’s heart. Page 337 - - CHAPTER XXIV.—A HEROINE’S PILGRIMAGE. - - The convert’s yearnings—“Go and tell”—When parents oppose each - other which shall the child follow?—A child of the kingdom - in a new family circle—Jesus, Mary and the elect—Miriamne’s - two great ambitions—Living apart may be as sinful as actual - divorcement—Father Adolphus encourages and Rizpah opposes - Miriamne—Rizpah recounts to Miriamne the story of her love for - Sir Charleroy, his madness and her own futile visit to London - in the effort to win him back—The curse of heredity—“I’ll - disown thee with tears in my voice and kisses in my heart.” Page 351 - - CHAPTER XXV.—CONSOLATRIX AFFLICTORUM. - - Miriamne’s welcome by the London Palestineans—The daughter - meets her father in a mad-house—Disappointment—The flight—The - search—The White Madonna of the Asylum Park—Love the remedy - of minds perturbed by hate—Pallas-Athene the virgin of the - heathen—Miriamne’s letter to her mother and its grim answer. Page 367 - - CHAPTER XXVI.—THE WEDDING AT CANA. - - Sir Charleroy giving signs of recovery under Miriamne’s - Ministries—A remarkable service in the chapel of the - Palestineans—The knight interested in the story of Cana—The - address of Cornelius, on “Home” and “Marriage”—“Is this - London or Bozrah?”—Sir Charleroy’s sudden relapse—Miriamne’s - adroit ministries—Memories that awaken hopes—The clouds again - lifting—Mary’s life motto. Page 381 - - CHAPTER XXVII.—THE STAR OF THE SEA. - - Sir Charleroy, partially restored, with Miriamne and Cornelius - journeying toward Syria—Passing Cyprus—Olympus—A storm rising - on the Mediterranean—Cornelius presses his love suit on - Miriamne—Miriamne pledges love, but pleads her mission as a - barrier to marriage—Conflicts below, tempests aloft—A dream; - Venus’s court and Mary’s triumph—Sir Charleroy in frenzy - defying the billows—An hour of peril—The “Lightning Song” of - the sailors—The twin stars—“Mary, Star of the Sea”—The victims - of fabricated consciences—Parting. Page 397 - - CHAPTER XXVIII.—THE QUEEN IN THE VALLEY OF SORROWS. - - Father and daughter at Acre—The mysterious Hospitaler—From - Acre to Joppa—“The myths are as full of women as the - women are full of myths”—The wars of men about women—At - Jerusalem—The wonderful words of the Knight-Hospitaler, turned - preacher—The _Via Dolorosa_—The Valley of Jehosaphat—The - mountain outlook—“Soldiers Speed the Cross”—Mary, the sun - of women, rising in moral grandeur above the women of the - grove-shrines—The panorama of the ages, passing before Mary’s - mind. Page 419 - - CHAPTER XXIX.—TWO DEAD HEARTS UNITING TWO LIVING ONES. - - From Jerusalem to Bozrah—The tomb of Ichabod—Sir Charleroy - argues against meeting Rizpah—Miriamne’s strong argument - in behalf of the lasting obligations of marriage—A husband - reaching the climax of revenges—Joseph by kindness kept Mary - in sweet mood and so blessed the unborn Christ—“Miriamne, - I am a bundle of contradictions!”—The news-rider—A plague - at Bozrah—De Griffin’s twins nigh death—Miriamne meets her - mother—Reconciliation—A strange funeral; only two women as - mourners and pall-bearers. Page 437 - - CHAPTER XXX.—THE “KNIGHT OF SAINT MARY” AND RIZPAH AT THE - GRAVE OF THEIR SONS. - - Father Adolphus and Sir Charleroy—A ruined temple and a - ruined man—“A woman, a woman leading in religion!”—Jesus and - Magdalena—The twelve appearings of the lingering Christ—The - Savior’s love-letter from heaven to His mother—Lucifer’s - attempt at suicide—The kiss befouled by treason—The meeting - of Sir Charleroy and Rizpah—“The tomb of giant-love grown to - mad-hate.” Page 453 - - CHAPTER XXXI.—THE ROSE, QUEEN OF HEARTS IN BOZRAH. - - A scene of domestic happiness—Love the vassal of the - will—Neb-ta in the “Judgment Hall of Truth”—The lambs that - are offered by sectarian hates—The Arcana of glorious wedded - love—Rizpah transformed—Miriamne’s public profession of - Christ—Cornelius Woelfkin again appeals for union in wedlock—An - inner and an outer Miriamne—The coronation of love—The solemn - espousal. Page 467 - - CHAPTER XXXII.—THE QUEEN AND THE GRAIL-SEEKERS. - - “The gold of my heart to the man that piloted me to - happiness”—Miriamne yearns for a world in sin—Has the Church - or God failed?—A revolutionary reformer—The story of the - grail quest—The quest of a heavenly cure for human ills—The - triumphant Adam and Eve—The queenly women of patriarchal - times—The mother of the Savior as the wife of a carpenter—What - kept her young heart from breaking—Miriamne’s farewell to - Bozrah. Page 484 - - CHAPTER XXXIII.—THE HOSPITALER’S ORATION. - - The secret meeting of the Knights at the house of Phebe—Swords - bent sickle-like and spears crossed—After war, social - victories—Sunrise at midnight—Each career determined by the - life that gives life—The girdle of Venus—Next after God, Mary - chiefly instrumental in giving the world a Savior. Page 498 - - CHAPTER XXXIV.—MEMORIALS AT BOZRAH. - - The death of Dorothea—The priest of the wayside—The wedding of - Cornelius and Miriamne—A pilgrimage to the tombs of Adolphus, - Charleroy and Rizpah. Backlook, and outlooks. Page 510 - - CHAPTER XXXV.—THE SISTERS OF BETHANY. - - The Missioners at Bethany—The site of the Home of - Jesus—Miriamne’s ideal society—The miracle age—A home, not a - throne, the place of Ascension—Will Jesus so return?—The angel - bivouac. Page 522 - - CHAPTER XXXVI.—THE QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID. - - The Knight’s Pentecost—In the upper room of Joseph of - Arimathæa—Mary’s title and realm—Luke, the word-painter—The - smoke side and the fire side of Pentecost. Page 529 - - CHAPTER XXXVII.—THE CORONATION OF THE QUEEN. - - The Hospitaler deemed a prophet at Bethany. The legitimacy of - Jesus as the “son of David” assured through His mother—“The - reign of blood”—First born—Pagan Rome made sponsor for Mary’s - son—Doomsday books and royal charters. Page 538 - - CHAPTER XXXVIII.—THE “LIGHT OF THE HAREM” IN THE “TEMPLE OF - ALLEGORY.” - - The old church at Bethany—A dedication—The wonders of - symbolism—Idolatry and Mariolatry. Page 548 - - CHAPTER XXXIX.—CROWN JEWELS. - - The Hospitaler warns the Missioners of the Sheik of Jerusalem’s - designs—The son of Azrael—Immunity purchased—The wedding of - Beulah, Nourahmal’s grand-daughter to a Jewish convert—The - wedding address—Juno-Moneta—Crown jewels of maidens and - mothers—Mary sounding the depths of woman’s miseries—A - malediction for lust—“Knights of the White Cross”—The lost - woman dreaming of how it seems to have a mother’s arms - infolding her—The Virgin’s potent example. Page 568 - - CHAPTER XL.—THE QUEEN’S VISION OF THE AGE OF GOLD AND FIRE. - - Nourahmal wed to the Druse camel-driver—the Druse converted—The - Hospitaler’s message—Ezekiel prophecies fulfilled at Olivet—The - “Mother’s pillow”—Gabriel, the “Angel of Mothers and of - Victories.” Page 581 - - CHAPTER XLI.—A CHIME AND A DIRGE AT CHRISTMAS-TIME. - - “Motherhood priced”—“Thou shalt be saved in - child-bearing”—Sylvan gods of Rome—“The Miriamites,”—“In - Rama, weeping and great mourning”—Joachim’s bleating lamb - slain—Woman’s supreme hour—Maternity’s crucifixion—“The - Cæsarian Section”—The ebbing tide and the stranded wreck, - at midnight. Page 595 - - CHAPTER XLII.—THE MOTHER OF SORROWS TRIUMPHANT AT LAST. - - The funeral of Miriamne—The Hospitaler tells the traditions of - Mary’s death and assumption—What the Druse convert said to his - camel—“The beatings of mighty wings”—The tomb of Miriamne in - Gethsemane. Page 611 - - CHAPTER XLIII.—A COFFIN FULL OF FLOWERS, AND A GIRDLE WITH - WINGS. - - Cornelius and his son at Bethany—Changed scenes—Under the - lights and shadows of Chemosh—A widower’s grief—Azrael’s - putative son razes to the ground Miriamne’s home and temple—The - legend of Mary’s coffin and girdle—The last of the new - grail-knights—A sad and dramatic tableau. Page 618 - - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - I. - - MARY AND THE INFANT JESUS, Frontispiece - - (The original painted by GOODALL.) - - PAGE - - II. - - THE BIRTH OF MARY 60 - - (The original painted by MURILLO.) - - III. - - RIZPAH DEFENDING THE DEAD BODIES OF HER RELATIONS, 250 - - (The original painted by BECKER.) - - IV. - - THE EDUCATION OF MARY, 282 - - (The original painted by CARL MULLER.) - - V. - - THE MARRIAGE OF MARY AND JOSEPH, 294 - - (The original painted by RAPHAEL.) - - VI. - - THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS, 332 - - (The original painted by MORRIS.) - - VII. - - JESUS AT THE AGE OF TWELVE WITH MARY AND JOSEPH ON THEIR WAY - TO JERUSALEM, 350 - - (The original painted by MENGELBURG.) - - VIII. - - THE YOUTH JESUS YIELDING TO THE WISHES OF HIS MOTHER, 366 - - (The original painted by W. HOLMAN HUNT.) - - IX. - - THE WEDDING AT CANA, 380 - - (The original painted by PAUL VERONESE.) - - X. - - MARY AND ST. JOHN, 433 - - (The original painted by PLOCKHORST.) - - - - -THE QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -THE QUEEN’S PORTRAIT. - - “And breaking as from distant gloom, - A face comes painted on the air; - A presence walks the haunted room, - Or sits within the vacant chair. - And every object that I feel - Seems charged by some enchanter’s wand. - And keen the dizzy senses thrill, - As with the touch of spirit hand. - A form beloved comes again, - A voice beside me seems to start, - While eager fancies fill the brain, - And eager passions hold the heart.” - - -_Master, we would see a sign from Thee_, was the cunning challenge of -the Scribes and Pharisees. They were certain that, in this at least, the -hearts of the people would be with them. A sign, a scene, a symbol, were -the constant demand and quest of the olden times, as of all times. Even -Jehovah led forth to victory and trust, as necessity was upon Him in -leading human followers, “with an _outstretched arm_, and with _signs_ -and with _wonders_.” The Jews, seemingly so doubtful and so querulous, -after all articulated the longings of the universal humanity. The longing -stimulated the effort to gratify it, and forthwith the artist became the -teacher of the people. Presentments of Mary, as she might have been, and -as she was imagined to have been by those most devout, were multiplied. -Piety sought to express its regard for her by making her more real to -faith through the instrumentality of the speaking canvas, but beyond this -there was the desire to embody certain charms and virtues of character -dear to all pure and devout ones. These were expressed by pictured faces, -ideally perfect. They called each such “Mary”; and if there had never -been a real Mary, still these handiworks would have had no small value. -Who can say that those consecrated artists were in no degree moved by -the Spirit which guided David when “he opened dark sayings on the harp,” -and rapturously extolled that other Beloved of God, the Church? Music -and painting—twin sisters—equal in merit, and both from Him who displays -form, color and harmony as among the chief rewards and glories of His -upper kingdom. These also meet a want in human nature as God created -it. The artists did not beget this desire for presentments through form -and color of the woman deemed most blessed; the desire rather begot the -artists. Stately theology has never ceased truly to proclaim from the day -Christ cried “_It is finished!_” that “_in Him all fullness dwells_;” but -no theology, has been able to silence the cry of woman’s heart in woman -and woman’s nature in man which pleads through the long years, “_Show us -the mother and it sufficeth us_.” It has happened sometimes that gross -minds have strayed from the ideal or spiritual imports of Mary’s life and -fallen into idolizing her effigies. That was their fault, and must not be -taken as full proof that nothing but evil came from the portrayings of -our queen. The facts are conclusively otherwise. The painters that made -glorious ideals shine forth from the canvas unconsciously painted the -shadows largely out of the conditions of all women. Before this second -advent of the Virgin, the paganish idea that women were the “weaker sex,” -the inferiors of men, at best only useful, handsome animals, prevailed. -The renaissance of Mary, as the ideal woman, was an event seeded with -the germs of revolutionary impulses socially. Like sunrise it began in -the East, at first dimly manifest, then it became effulgent and quickly -coursed westward along the pathways of Christianity’s conquests. Like -sweet, grateful light then there came to the hearts of men the braver -true persuasion, that the woman who not only bore the Christ but won His -reverent love must have been morally beautiful and great. In the track -of this persuasion, and as its sequence, there came the conviction that -the sex, of which Mary was one, had within it possibilities beyond what -its sturdier companions had dreamed. After this it came about that the -painters, often the interpreters of human feelings, began to represent -all goodness under the form of a Madonna. Not knowing the contour -of Mary’s face they began gathering here and there, from the women -they knew, features of beauty. They combined these in one harmonious -presentment. They set out to represent the ideal woman, but had to go -to women to find her parts. It became a tribute to womankind to do this. -It was like a voyage of discovery, and the artist voyagers depicted not -only the best things in womankind, but by putting these things together -illustrated what woman could be and should be at her best. - -It was thus that Guido produced a picture of the Madonna which enravished -all that beheld it. Once he had said, “I wish I’d the wings of an angel -to behold the beatified spirits, which I might have copied.” After, here -and there, he picked out fragments of color and form on earth; then put -them into one ideal composition. It was a heart-expanding work; the work -of a prophet, since it told of what might be in woman wholly at her -best. Then he said, “the beautiful and pure idea must be in the head” -of the artist. It was a deep saying. Given the ideal, and the worker -will need only proper ambition to present a grand composition, whether -on canvas or in the patternings of the inner life. The presentments of -the Virgin rose in fineness when priests turned from their exegesis to -kneel and paint for men. The great Saint Augustine, held in high honor -by Christians of every name, redeemed from a youth of darkest sinning, -revered as his guiding star two lovely women, Monica, his mother, and -Mary, the mother of Jesus. He argues, in stalwart polemics, that through -the acknowledgment of Mary’s pre-eminence all womankind was elevated. -Her presentment, so as to be fully comprehended, was in the beginning a -blessing to every soul in being an inspiration to purer, sweeter living. -So far as such presentment now conserves the same results the work is -worthy and profitable. In all times the representations of the Virgin, -whether by the historian or the master of the studio, varied; but the -piety they awakened always seemed to be of one type, and that lofty. -Thus we have “the stern, awful quietude of the old Mosaics, the hard -lifelessness of the degenerate Greeks, the pensive sentiment of the -Siena, the stately elegance of the Florentine Madonnas, the intellectual -Milanese, with their large foreheads and thoughtful eyes, the tender, -refined mysticism of the Umbrian, the sumptuous loveliness of the -Venetian; the quaint, characteristic simplicity of the early German, so -stamped with their nationality that I never looked round me in a room -full of German girls without thinking of Albert Durer’s Virgins; the -intense, life-like feeling of the Spanish, the prosaic, portrait-like -nature of the Flemish schools, and so on.” Each time and place produced -its own ideal, but all tried to express the one thought uppermost; pious -regard for the Queen and model. All seemed to feel that in this devotion -there was somehow comfort and exaltation—and there generally were both. - -The writer of the foregoing quotation, a woman of widest culture and -admirable good sense, attested the need that many feel by her own -rapturous description of the Madonna of Raphael in the Dresden Gallery. -“I have seen my own ideal once where Raphael—inspired, if ever painter -was inspired—projected on the space before him that wonderful creation.” -“There she stands, the transfigured woman; at once completely human and -completely divine, an abstraction of power, purity and love; poised on -the empurpled air, and requiring no other support; with melancholy, -loving mouth, her slightly dilated sibylline eyes looking out quite -through the universe to the end and consummation of all things; sad, as -if she beheld afar off the visionary sword that was to reach her heart -through HIM, now resting as enthroned on that heart; yet already exalted -through the homage of the redeemed generations who were to salute her -as blessed. Is it so indeed? Is she so divine? or does not rather the -imagination lend a grace that is not there? I have stood before it and -confessed that there is more in that form and face than I have ever -yet conceived. The _Madonna di San Sisto_ is an abstract of _all_ the -attributes of Mary.” - -The foregoing representation marked a step forward in things spiritual. -Before Raphael, painters numberless, under the influence of the luxurious -and vicious Medici, had filled the churches of Florence with painted -presentments of the Virgin, characterized by an alluring beauty which -seemed next door to blasphemy. Then came that Luther of his times, -Savonarola. He thundered for purity, simplicity and reform; aiming his -blows at the depraving, sensuous conceptions of the grosser artists. He -made a bonfire in the Piazza of Florence, there consuming these false -madonnas. He was, for this, persecuted to death by the Borgia family. -They could not bear his trumpet call to Florentines, “Your sins make me -a prophet; I have been a Jonah warning Nineveh; I shall be a Jeremiah -weeping over the ruins; for God will renew His church and that will not -take place without blood—” Art heard his voice, the painters became -disgusted with their meaner handiwork, the rude, the obscene, the -mischievous was obliterated; finer, more spiritual and loftier concepts -of the Virgin appeared as proof of a reformation of morals. And Raphael, -later on, seeing these productions, felt the influence that begot them, -and then produced that masterpiece. Tradition says Saint Luke painted -a picture of the Virgin from life. The picture, reputed to have been -so painted, was found by the Turks in Constantinople when that city -fell into their conquering hands. They despoiled it of its princely -jewel-decorations, then tramped it contemptuously beneath their feet. The -latter act was typical, and the Turk still lives to trample in contempt -on honest efforts to portray with amplitude and finished details this -splendid character, whose outlines alone are presented by the Gospels. -But though the Vandal spirit survives, there survives also the strong -yearning for the representation of that woman beyond compare, and some -will still revel amid the ideals of painters, and some will be gladdened -still more by truth’s complete presentment which words alone can make. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -THE PILGRIM, CRUSADER AND VIRGIN. - - “There is a fire— - And motion of the soul which will not dwell, - In its own narrow being, but aspire - Beyond the fitting medium of desire; - And but once kindled, quenchless ever more, - Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire - Of aught but rest.”—“_Childe Harold._” - - -There is something very fascinating about the contemplation of life as a -continuous pilgrimage, and the fascination grows on one as the conviction -of the truth of the conception is deepened by study of it. The course of -our race has been a series of processions from continent to continent, -from age to age, from barbarism to refinement, from darkness toward -light. Whether measuring the little arcs of individuals from birth to -dust, or following along the mighty marches of our universe with all its -grouping hosts of whirling constellations, we have before us ever this -constant truth; man moves willingly or unwillingly onward, as a pilgrim -amid pilgrims. “Move on” is the constant mandate and necessity of being. -Man’s course is mapped; onward from the swaddling clothes to the shroud, -from life to dust; then onward again; while all the mighty planet fleets -of which the earth-ship is but one, move along their courses, over -trackless oceans, toward destinations, all unknown, yet concededly in a -grand as well as in an inexorable pilgrimage. Partly because the motions -of his earth-ship makes him restless, partly because he is a being that -hopes and so comes to try to find by distant quests hope’s fruitions, and -more largely because he is of a religious nature, which impels him to -seek things beyond himself, the man becomes a pilgrim. He that is content -as and where he is, always, is regarded as a fool playing with the toys -of a child, by wise men; by religionists, lack of holy restlessness is -ever adjudged to be a sign of depravity. Hence almost all religions, -whether false or true, have given birth to the pilgrim spirit. The zeal -to express and to utilize this spirit has been often pitiful to behold. -Multitudes, failing to grasp the fact that life itself is a pilgrimage, -have invented other pilgrimages and gone aside to useless, needless -miseries. But all the time they attested human nature seeking something -beyond itself, better than its present. So the tribes that lived in the -lowlands nourished traditions of descent from gods or ancestors who abode -on the mountains, and they inaugurated pilgrimages to seek inspiration -or a golden age “on high places, far away.” The chosen people of God -thus constantly were allured from the worship of the Everywhere and One -Jehovah by the enthusiasm of the heathen devotees who flocked to the -mountain fanes. Turn which way one will in the night of the ages and -the spectacle of the pilgrim is before him. Ancient Hinduism, followed -by that of to-day, witnessed annually, pilgrims counted by hundreds of -thousands to the temple of murderous Juggernaut, the Ganga Sagor, or isle -of Sacred Ganges. The Buddhists journey to Adam’s Peak in Ceylon, and -the Lamaists of Thibet travel adoringly to their Lha-Isa; the Japanese -have their pilgrim shrines amid perilous approaches at Istje, while the -Chinese, who claim to be sons of the mountains, clamber with naked knees -the rugged sides of Kicou-hou-chan. The pilgrimages of the Jews occupy -many chapters of Holy Writ, for all their ancient worthies “_not having -received the promises, but seeing them afar off ... confessed that they -were pilgrims and strangers_.” Christ confronted the pilgrim spirit -perverted in the person of the woman of Samaria, at the eastern foot of -Gerezim. She and her people rested their hopes in pilgrimages to their -supposed to be sacred places, but the Saviour declared to her by Jacob’s -well, truths, both grand and revolutionary, in these words: “The hour ... -now is when the true worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit ... not -in this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” “Go call thy husband and come hither. -Whosoever drinketh the water I shall give shall never thirst.” There were -volumes in the golden sentences and they plainly said no need to travel -far to find the Everywhere God Who ever comes where men are to satisfy -their every thirst. “Go call thy husband.” Go to thy home and find the -water of life through doing God’s will; it is better to be a missionary -than a pilgrim unless the pilgrim be also missioner. But the truths of -that hour have found tardy acceptance among many. The children of Jacob -are pilgrims throughout the earth, and the disciples of Christ, since -His departure, have gone pilgriming often, as did their fathers before -them. Constantine, the Roman emperor, and his mother, Helena, by example -and precept, urged Christendom to re-embark in such pious journeys, and -at the end of the first thousand years of its existence, Christianity -had hosts of disciples actuated by the same old passion that sent -religionists everywhere to seek shrines, fanes and blessings. Then the -belief began to be held everywhere among Christians that the millennial -period was at hand. Multitudes abandoned friends, sold or gave away their -possessions, and hastened toward the Holy Land, where they believed -Jesus Christ was to appear to judge the world. Here two pilgrim tides, -utterly opposed to each other, met; the Christian and the Mohammedan. -The followers of the False Prophet, like other men, were imbued with -the pilgrim spirit. Some of these thought perfection could be attained -only within the precincts of Babylon or Bagdad, and others sincerely -believed that they could find peculiar nearness to heaven about the -stone-walled Kaaba of Mecca. It was held to be not only a privilege but -a duty, incumbent upon all, to take these religious journeys; hence men -and women, young and old, undertook them. Even the decrepit were under -the obligation, and they must either undertake the work, though failure -by death were certain, or hire a proxy to go in their behalf. So was -rolled up stupendously the numbers of pilgrim graves which have marked -this earth of ours. The Christian pilgrims for a time thronged toward -Palestine, first as a small stream, then as a torrent. Europe at large -was aroused, and all impulses converged toward the Holy Sepulcher. The -soldiers of the Cross soon added swords to their equipments; the flashing -of spears outshone the altar lights, and almost before they realized it -the priests and pious pilgrims were transformed to mailed knights. There -was a root to the impulse, and that the universally felt need of ideals, -patterns, personages of heroic mold in all goodness, to show men how to -live. The pilgrims turned their eyes to the worthies of the past, and -soon came to believe that they could best imbibe their spirit amid their -tombs and former abodes. Like most religionists they grew to believe God -their especial friend, and they therefore soon came to feel that, against -all odds, He would help them to victory. Then they easily grew to believe -that death in their crusades would merit the martyr’s crown. Their -courage was unbounded, for many went out with a passion to die in the -cause they had embraced. The following crusades were marked by conflicts -between Moslem and Christian, filled with fanatical and merciless fury, -though both the opposing hosts claimed to be doing all they did in God’s -name and under his especial direction. “_Deus vult_,” “God wills it,” -was the war-cry of a mighty army, each of which bore on his banner and -on his breast the sign of the Cross, the emblem eternally exalted by the -Prince of Peace, who willingly died that others might live; but these -soldiers were bent on slaying those they could not convert. They were in -a transitional state, passing from being pilgrims to being missionaries, -but the course was a bloody one. They promoted their self-complacency by -persuading themselves that it was a heaven-offending wrong to continue -to suffer heretics to occupy the places made sacred by the Saviour when -in the world. Then multitudes of Christian priests taught that the pious -needed free course to visit the holy places of the East, that they -might upbuild their faith and their grasp of theological abstractions -by beholding objects associated with the tenets they had adopted. The -Moslems had no interest in these proceedings beyond a desire to thwart -them. The Christians, to be sure, had the moral disadvantage of being -invaders, but then censure of them is mitigated by the fact that Syria -was stolen property to the Turk. The latter held it by the stern title -deed of the sword. The reader of this summary will be chiefly advantaged -by remembering that this conflict was one of the mightiest efforts in -the direction of missionary work ever attempted by man, and that being -attempted by force it failed utterly. Now the Crusaders were believers -in Christ and devoted to Mary. These facts awaken questions as to how, -since the spirits of these twain are finally to conquer all hearts, their -champions were so defeated? The Crusaders desired to promote the glory of -the Man of men and the woman of women, but sought it by aims only weakly -worthy, and means often atrocious. It never matters to Christ’s kingdom -who possesses His grave if He only possesses all hearts. The Crusaders, -beginning with a warm sentiment of respect for the Virgin, suffered -their sentimentality to run mad, and mad sentiment is ripe for folly and -defilement. An opal, they say, will change its color when its wearer is -sick; so a man wearing a priceless virtue on the sleeve of his creed, -will find its luster bedimmed when evil sickens his heart. The Crusaders -had grand banners, mottoes, war-cries and ideals, but they did not know -how to honestly and truly apply them. Their efforts and results well -serve to emphasize the truth that moral advances are made with grander -forces than those of the sword; that in the end the heroes and heroines -of the world’s regeneration will appear potent and regnant solely in -the sweetness, truth and exaltation of personal character. Crusader and -Moslem, at heart, were each desirous of making the world better, but they -each, in fact for a time made it fearfully worse. Probably the followers -of the Cross and the followers of the Crescent would have been glad to -have bestowed all kindness each on the other, if only the one would have -accepted the creed of the other. But the humanity and charity of each -were as to the other eclipsed utterly by a zeal for theories. There was -need to both that there arise a harmonizing ideal. It would seem as if -Providence suffered these opposing pilgrims to peel each other until each -in sheer disgust was driven to seek some better way. An able historian -affirms that the Crusades did not “change the fate of a single dynasty, -nor the boundaries and relative strength of a nation”—but they did leave -a history, the contemplation of which affords rare thought-food. The -conflict ended in the utter route and flight of the Christians. The -tragedy ended at Acre, but there were left some things that took shape in -men’s thinking, and the world was made thereby better. The populations -and properties of Christian Europe had been squandered to a startling -degree in these religious wars, and it was fitting that there be some -return to compensate. The result of all others, that grew out of the -Crusades, and was indeed also a leading cause of their vigor, was the -rising of the spirit of chivalry. The dawn of chivalry first begat brave -fighting, but in time the chivalrous discovered a theater for their -activity amid the amenities of peace. Chivalry was a rebound from the -rugged, barbarous belief of the semi-civilized, whose trust was in brute -force and whose constant _dictum_ was, “Might makes right.” Men became -impressed with a spirit of tenderness, and, little by little the duty -and beauty of the strong’s helping the weak dawned upon humanity. To -be chivalrous, by the unwritten laws of custom, became the obligation -of every man who sought popular respect. Chivalry was in the creed of -the noble and brave, and men delighted to become the companions of lone -pilgrims, patrons of beggars, protectors of children and defenders of -women. Toward the gentler sex, the spirit of chivalry finely expressed -itself by not only defending helpless females amid physical perils, but -by according to womankind distinguished courtesy, refined politeness, -and all those proper respects that so appropriately garnish and ornament -the social intercourse of the sexes in properly cultivated societies. -Before the advent of this chivalric time, women had been deemed as -generally every way inferior to men; chiefly desirable as ministers to -the necessities or appetites of their lords; useful as mothers, but -worthy of very little respect, confidence or lasting admiration. The dawn -of this new and fine gallantry was a step toward woman’s disinthrallment. -Chivalry tried to express itself in the Crusades; defeated, its ardor -still burned, and Europe felt its beneficent glow long after the -conflict for Syrian sepulchers had ceased. And here it is of the utmost -importance that the reader forget not the key fact, that before the -advent of the attractive spirit of chivalry, men’s minds in Christian -communities were profoundly penetrated and wondrously incited by a deep -and new regard for the _Queenly woman Mary, the mother of Jesus_! She -had been almost rediscovered. By a common consent, Christian pulpits -had begun sounding her praises, as the ideal woman; a woman worthy of -the veneration and emulation of all. The various religious communities -vied with each other in doing her honor. The Cistercians declared her -purity by wearing white, the Servi wore black to commemorate her touching -sorrows, and other bodies elected as their distinguishing badges, various -garbs or signs solely to proclaim their allegiance to their ideal woman. -A popular moral coronation of Mary resulted. The Crusaders outran all -others in their adulation of, and committal to, the wondrous woman. They -were the first to call her “Our Lady.” She was THE Lady of the hearts -of all. These chivalrous soldiers to her spoke their pious vows, from -her besought holy favors, and in her name, with sacred oaths, committed -their all to effort to wrest all Palestine from the enemies of Mary’s -Son.[1] Now these millions of men were not mad, nor in pursuit of a -phantom. It was all very real to them. They desired to express a long -pent-up natural feeling, and they found an object all satisfactory in -Mary. The Crusaders returned finally and for good from battling with -Moslem; they returned thoroughly, disastrously defeated: but with their -love for Mary all aglow. When they first called her “Our Lady,” there -may have been an admixture of irreverence and dilettante in the thought -of many; they were purged of these in the hurricane of battle and in the -terrors of that inhospitable land of their pilgrimages. Amid trials, -far away from his home, often in severe want, frequently confronting -slavery and death, the Christian knight while adding “_Ave Marie_” to his -“_Patre Nostre_,” learned to think of the Madonna as his mother. Missing -the latter keenly, worshiping the other unfeignedly, woman took a high -throne in his esteem. Sword conquest began to seem to the war-wearied -soldier very insignificant as compared to a ministry of comfort, peace -and good will. The defeated Crusaders returned to scatter through all -Europe a new gospel of humanity. They exalted the Queen of David’s line -and forgot to recount the fortunes of war in the East in expounding the -dawning beauties of the woman that entranced them and the queenship this -ideal had gained over their minds. So they prepared multitudes of the -sterner sex for a lasting belief in the worthfulness of true womanhood -at its best. The Christian world was ripe for such a revival, when the -priests began to thunder “On to Jerusalem!” but men needed not so much -war as conversion; not so much relics and tombs as loving principles -exemplified. It is wonderful how conversion womanizes some men. That -is a triumph of the spiritual over the sensual, the beautiful over the -gross. It will make a man of brutal, selfish fiber, in time, as tender -as a mother toward her child and as self-denying as a maid toward her -lover. The Crusaders started out to rescue the tomb of the dead Saviour -from unbelievers and failed, but they returned to herald the renaissance -of Mary, the disenslaving of woman; to call the state, the home and -individuals to all the refinements which the exaltation of such an ideal -of necessity offered. Toward this advening the rising spirit of chivalry -was bending the finest hearts when the clarions of war, sounded from -altar and baptistry, summoned all to raise the red banner against the -Moslem. Right here it is worthy of notice that God’s providence presented -other, though allied, principles in the conflict against the Orientals. -Two pilgrim hosts, thinking to choose their own ways, were wisely led to -better goals than they knew. The Turk presented the throng of the harem -as his family; the Christian was committed to the union of only two in -holy wedlock. One party presented a banner with a Cross, forever the -emblem of self-sacrifice; the other the Crescent, emblem of youthfulness -increasing, a hint ever of the hope of endless lust, whether borne of the -master of a harem or by the heathen follower of the ancient moon-horned -Astarte. The last at Acre, by the Syrian border of the Mediterranean Sea, -the Saracen hugged victory and the Cross-bearers were utterly routed. -So reads human history, but in truth the defeat was only apparent and -local. The followers of the Crescent, holding the creed of lust and -making pleasure of sense their end came surely toward their destruction -when successes encouraged them in their courses; the followers of the -Cross, on the other hand, had within some germs of truth, life-giving in -themselves and too beautiful to be suffered to die from the earth. Trial -and defeat watered these germs and the knightly hosts returned to Europe -by thousands to proclaim finer doctrines than those by which the priest -had incited them to war. The returning soldiers were transformed from -pilgrims to missionaries, from being taught to teaching, from restorers -of Palestine’s graves to restorers of European society. Of the “Teutonic -Knights of Saint Mary,” a fine and representative order, an impartial -historian writes: “They defended Christianity against the barbarians of -Eastern Europe.” “After many bloody encounters introduced German manners, -language and morals.” Of the Knighthood, as a whole, says another, “the -institution that could breed such characters as these, obviously rendered -an enduring service to humanity. Its spirit lives on, offering examples -which the young still welcome in their joyous, dreamy days. The ideal -still remains, purified by time, freed from its frailties, and aids in -fashioning modern sentiment to the conception and admiration of the -Christian gentleman.” - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -ARMAGEDDON; THE KEY AND SICKLE. - - “From the moist regions of the western star, - The wandering hermits wake the storm of war; - Their limbs all iron, their souls all flame; - A countless host the Red Cross warriors came.”—REGINALD HEBER. - - -As a traveler climbs the mountain to see the sunrise, so he that would -overlook the past or present must needs clamber to some lofty point of -vision in a significant era or historic location. There are two plains in -Syria; one lying along the Mediterranean, the other jutting out from the -base of the former toward Jordan; the two together, in shape very like -a sickle, have witnessed events wonderfully instructive and determinate -to the student of the philosophy of time’s course. These two plains -are known respectively as Esdrælon and Acre. The sea and the mountains -give these plains their sickle shape, and the geographical outlines are -constantly suggestively before the mind as one remembers these plateaus -not only as the highways but the battle-fields of the ancient nations. -For while, as one says, “the face of nature smiles”—“no spot on earth -more fertile,” he also says “no field on earth was so fattened by the -blood of the slain.” There the Philistines, the Ptolemys, Antiochus, the -Maccabees, Herod, Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, Salah-ed-din, Cœur-de-Lion, -Melek-Seruf and Napoleon, each in turn, put their ambitions and their -beliefs to the stern arbitrament of swords. There the kingdom of the -House of David struggled for life; there the splendid dream of the -Crusaders ended as a nightmare. - -As a jewel in the haft of the sickle, at the northerly end of the plain -by the sea, sits the city of Acre. This city compels the attention of -the preacher and student of history and gives theme to him who blends -symbol into song. Acre gave its name to its adjacent country round about, -and though both city and plain witnessed many a change of master in the -past, those changing masters, to gratify their whims or strengthen their -policies from time to time, giving the places various names. The Knights -of Saint John made it their elect city, honoring it as Saint Jean de -Acre, the martyr maid of France. From the city itself one may look out -over the sea-highway of nations; from the drear and lofty mountains of -its surrounding country one may look over many memorable places. Acre was -often called the “Key of Palestine” by the soldier strategists and by the -chroniclers of events. To their testimony is added that of the inspired -writers and prophets who made it their key and mountain of outlook -frequently. - -These plains, dotted all about by sacred places, memorable for two great -victories; Barak over the Canaanites and Gideon over the Midianites; and -two great disasters, the death of Saul and the death of Josiah, became -to the Jews the symbol of the conflict of right and wrong. Prophetically, -and in the serene hope that righteousness at last would prevail, the -plain was called Armageddon, “the Mountain of the Gospel.” We hear the -rapt Zechariah thus descanting: “The Lord also shall save the glory of -the house of David and the house of David shall be as God.” “And it -shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the -nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of -David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of -supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and -they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be -in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.” - -The prophet looked forth to the Pentecostal day of salvation and the -assured victories of David’s great successor. Following this ancient -seer, John the beloved, in the Visions of the Apocalypse repeats, these -oracles. During the wars of the Crusaders, Acre was sometimes in their -possession and sometimes held by their Turkish foes. In the year 1191 -Richard the Lion Heart wrested it from the infidel leader Salah-ed-din. -The Christians held it firmly until 1291, the time when the last wave -of the Crusader advance ebbed, in bloody defeat, from the shores of -the Holy Land. For two hundred years the believer of the West and the -Moslem grappled with each other in deadly conflict; war’s fortunes -often changing, but the awful price in human misery and human blood was -inexorably exacted at every stage of the conflict. Acre was the focus -toward which the eddying tides ever and anon moved; therefore it saw not -only the end but the worst of the Crusades. - -Our story begins A. D. 1291 at Acre, the Key of Palestine, in Armageddon, -“the mountain of the Gospel.” The situation may be briefly depicted: -Acre was filled with a mixed and un-homogeneous population. There were -the ubiquitous Galilean traders, without politics; shrewd to the last -degree in traffic and courtly as a Parisian; there some secret, sullen, -silent enemies of the Christian invaders, awaiting the coming end; there -hundreds of those camp-following nondescript “good lord and good devil” -characters, and there the remnants of the Crusader armies. The latter -were not only diminished as to numbers but greatly degraded in moral -tone. Their warfare had been belittled to a defense and a retreat. The -adventurers were uppermost; courts-martial, intrigues and fanfaronade -were their occupation daily. Prince Edward, the Christian leader, had -made a sworn treaty with the Moslems long before this time; but his -pious followers had quickly, wickedly violated it. Thereupon the Sultan, -Kha-tel, had made an irrevocable treaty with himself, sealed with the -most awful oath he could register, that he would never tire until he -had exterminated the last of the Western invaders now circumscribed and -besieged in Acre. With 200,000 dusky followers the Sultan besieged the -last stronghold of the Crusaders. The hearts of the defenders sank within -them, and scores sought safety in homeward flight, loading down every -vessel bound for Europe. Among the first fugitives was the chief leader, -Hugh de Lusignan, who wore the phantom title, “King of Jerusalem.” He -preferred the safety of distant Cyprus to the doubtful regality which -was overshadowed with nearing death. Only 12,000 were left to represent -the Crusade cause which once mustered millions. May 18, 1291, the devoted -city was stormed by the Turks; an entrance was effected and a murderous -carnage, heaping the streets with the dead, and redding the foam of the -moaning sea, followed. But there was no easy victory to the Moslem, for -the steady, vigorous, brilliant, desperate fighting of the knights, -laying low piles of their foes for every one of themselves that fell, -compelled the respect of the Sultan’s host. The Turks attempted to gain -a surrender by offering bribes; these failing, terms were offered. The -latter, which included permission for the Crusade remnant to depart the -country in peace, were accepted. But the Sultan, taught, if he needed -the lesson, by the perfidy of Prince Edward’s Christian truce-breakers, -quickly broke his promise of safe conduct. Though the retreating band was -in no way party to the wrong he sought to avenge, they were mercilessly -ambuscaded. There followed another struggle to the death, a handful -against a host and but few succeeded in cutting their way through the -cordon of death. History has often recounted the preceding events up to -the point; from this point it is proposed to lead the reader along the -career of a fragment tossed out of the foregoing whirlpool of disaster. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -SIR CHARLEROY; THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE AND KNIGHT OF SAINT MARY. - - “’Tis quickly seen, - Whate’er he be, ’twas not what he had been; - That brow in furrowed lines had fixed at last, - And spoke of passion but of passion past.” - - ... - - “Chained to excess, the slave of each extreme, - How woke he from the wildness of his dream? - Alas! he told not, but he did awake, - To curse the withered heart that would not break.”—“_Lara._” - - -The course of the knights fleeing from Acre was turned toward Nazareth. -There being but one way open to them, they took that way quickly and -with one accord. The fugitives from Acre represented various knightly -orders, but they were disorganized, without any definite destination and -without an authorized leader. Among them was Sir Charleroy de Griffin, -a knight famed for valor, a central and commanding personage; one that -would have attracted attention in almost any assembly of men. As he -went, so went the rest of the fleeing Christians, and when he reined in -his panting steed, after a time, at the top of a fir-crested knoll not -far from Nazareth, the knights following him did likewise. Then they -drew around him in a semi-circle, without command, and simultaneously, -as if to solicit his direction. They had followed the course he took -because he took it, and now with one accord they halted because he had -done so. There is to some a subtile influence that makes them leaders of -men; so the disorganized Crusaders, by an unvoiced but fully expressed -concession, admitted the leadership of this dashing horseman. Some may -designate this a triumph of personal magnetism, but be that as it may, -it was a fact that Sir Charleroy was chief. Sir Charleroy, just at the -time of the foregoing incident, presented an admirable study for the -philosopher or painter. From his saddle he was able to overlook leagues -of bright landscape, but he could not claim the protection of a foot of -it; for the first time in his life he yearned for home, now a spreading -sea, and a wall of death shut it out from him apparently for ever; by -circumstances absolute sovereign almost of the men about him, but doubt -and danger were confounding all his ability to give commands. He fell -into a train of thought, leaving his comrades to converse with their -pawing steeds and to questionings within themselves as to the future. -Sir Charleroy had reached an eminence in life, one of those points of -out-look where a man’s past meets him and demands review, that it may -explain the present. He believed that he had reached very nearly the end -of his career, and in that belief he began to weigh it for what it was -worth. In imagination he saw one writing the story of his life. Sir -Charleroy, the refugee, began faithfully to review Sir Charleroy, the -wayward youth, pleasure-seeker and reckless man. The former dictated -mentally to the imaginary scribe: “Write, Charleroy de Griffin was the -son of a stalwart French Baron, used to duels and trained to war. The boy -inherited from his father a splendid physique, of which he was unduly -proud, and a restless disposition that he never sincerely asked God to -control. By the death of the baron, his son, an infant, was left to the -sole tutelage of his English mother. The latter was of high birth, by -nature a noble woman, and in every way worthy of a better son than the -one whom he had turned out to be. She had idolized her brawny spouse in -his lifetime, and when she had recovered from the shock his death caused, -her yearning heart, little by little, turned from the idol in the tomb -to the child he had left her. Ere long she lived again in the rapture -of a love all absorbing, all bestowing, all ruling. She lavished her -affection on the youth, not because he was particularly lovable, for he -was not, but because he was the only one left her to love, and she was so -constituted that she must love; the necessity of loving to her made it -easy. - -“Then there were many things in the features and form of her son that -reminded her of the man who, in brighter days, had won entirely her -maiden heart and her young wife love. The child was wont to wonder why -his mother embraced him as she did sometimes, with a wondering, startled, -wild, passionate embrace; but when he got older he discerned the meaning -of these outbreaks. He knew that the mother-heart was having a vision of -past wifehood, memory’s grace-given solace of widowhood. Besides this -the embraces were her appealings or warnings to death; her heart suddenly -seizing as if to shelter and save her last and only idol; for the thought -would sometimes come with shadows deep enough, that perhaps the boy -might also die. Such love would have been a prized wealth and blessing -to some; but in this case, on the one hand, it unfitted this mother for -the proper disciplining of this son, and this son though, sometimes, when -his conceit permitted it, realizing that the love was given, not won, -began to expect it as his due or despise it for its lavishness. In due -time he entered the period expressively designated, ‘The monster age.’ -This is the time when expanding young life has outgrown the tenderness of -infancy and failed of putting on manly and womanly graces; a time when -there is a mighty ambition to put on the characteristics of adult life -and a mighty lack of ability gracefully to wear them. At this period, -perhaps, the majority of youths of both sexes, are interesting chiefly -for what they have been, or what it is hoped they will be. They feel, -conscious of their growing powers, great self-conceit, and with their -growth comes an expansion of their capacities and wants. The plenitude of -their wantings makes them avaricious, hence parsimonious toward others of -every thing, especially of gratitude. Reverence for elders, respect for -fathers, holy regard for mothers, tenderness toward women, chief charms -of youth, are buried in the tomb of other virtues by great, selfish, -ugly demons of desire. The monster age came to Charleroy in its full -virulence, but his mother discerned little of his monstrosity; what she -did discern, all unasked, she condoned. She believed all things, hoped -all things good of him, although seldom comforted by an expression or -act of gratitude on his part. She was to be pitied; but it may be said -that the lad was to be pitied almost as much as herself. It was the old -story over; she unconsciously went about destroying her own happiness -and though she would have willingly died if need be in his behalf, she -harmed him beyond estimate by her indulgent loving. Then the youth was -surrounded by those who sought the favor of the baroness by constantly -sounding in her ears, and in the ears of the boy, praises of the dead -baron. They told of his daring, they descanted upon his adventures, his -powers, his wisdom. He was the widow’s idol, and the incense was grateful -to her, but the worst of it was that they befooled the lad by continually -assuring him that he was the image of his father, and surely destined to -equal, if not surpass, his sire in deeds of valor. A dangerous burden is -wealth; whether it come as great name or great intellect, great physical -strength or as much gold, it is a fateful load which few can gracefully -support. The youth had wealth in all the foregoing directions; if he -had had a mother whose love loved wisely enough to save, if it need be -by pain, he might have been saved; but her love infatuated her. The -youth’s folly brought him frequently into shameful entanglements; but she -extricated him each time. Nobody ever heard of her even rebuking him; as -to chastising him, that were a thing abhorrent to her thoughts. His face -always bespoke his pardon in advance with her. She would have smitten -her husband’s corpse, as it lay in its coffin, as soon as she would have -smitten the one whose features constantly reminded her of him her heart -had held most dear. Then she hoped, with a mother’s large-hearted faith, -that each escapade would be the last. But as the youth grew older his -acts were bolder. Again and again, without notice and with heartless -inconsiderateness, he left his home to pursue some adventure, and again -and again, mother’s love followed him, ever to find him at last in some -sore plight, and then quickly to forgive him. By the time Charleroy had -reached his majority, the family fortune had been severely tried and -depleted in paying the penalty of his follies. He himself had become an -old young man, with too many gray hairs and too much experience for one -of his years. - -“At that time, a few enthusiasts having determined to make one last -effort to secure the Holy Sepulcher, Charleroy de Griffin ardently -enlisted in the pre-doomed enterprise, allured largely by its very -desperateness. The crusade spirit was then a fitful dying flame -throughout Europe. England and France were left practically alone to -furnish the men and the money for the last crusade. Prince Edward of -France was its leader, and De Griffin, having in his veins the blood -of both of the supporting nations, a French name, a splendid physique, -together with a fearless, dashing temperament, was enthusiastically -hailed to the enlistment and pushed forward to leadership. ‘_Sir_ -Charleroy de Griffin!’ smilingly called out Prince Edward, the day of -review, before the one set for departure. The young man’s comrades, many -of whom had been his associates in former days of wassail, hearing the -Prince’s word, shouted out with one accord, ‘Knighted! The prince has -knighted de Griffin! Hurrah for Sir Charleroy!’ The day following Sir -Charleroy bowed his head, as he stood on the quay ready to embark, to -receive the benediction of a bishop. As the sacrist laid his hands on the -young man’s head, the latter, throwing back his cloak, reverently touched -the cross he had attached to his bosom with his jeweled sword-hilt. The -young knight for a little while was very complacent; for he was enjoying -a sentimental emotion of virtue, arising from sophistries with which his -mind toyed. Some way he felt he had become a soldier of the holy Christ, -and somehow it seemed to him he was making atonement for past follies -by now placing himself side by side with the pious and noble. Though in -reality only bent on seeking excitement, adventure, change, he looked -forward to the rewards of conscience belonging alone to the penitent, -and to a possible public canonizing as one going forth to die for God. -A little piety paralleling one’s own desires is often made to do great -service in silencing the clamors from within. His proud, tearful mother -was by his side. Passionately she kissed his cross, then his brow, then -his eyes and then his lips; leaving on the brow the glistening, dewy -jewels that told the story of the heart which bade him stay, yet go. The -young knight was for once in his life very serious, but tearless. After -all this, in rapid steps, followed the disaster at Acre; the desperate -struggle outside the city; the flight toward Nazareth. Sir Charleroy -finally stands between the sea and the city, a mother’s idol ready to -be broken; at twenty-five, near the apparent apex and end of a life, -having had great opportunities, now, with all lost, he stands there an -epitome of paradoxes. He had made life a pursuit of pleasure only to -find the pursuit ending in misery; he had enlisted to serve the Prince -of Peace, but that service he had undertaken with the sword; he had -championed, as he said, the cause of Christ, the all-conquering, but he -meets utter defeat. He had taken for his patron saint Mary, after years -of libertinism. He elected Mary, he said, because his mother was so like -her. But Sir Charleroy’s mother demoralized her son by over-indulgence, -while Mary, though informed by Gabriel that her offspring was divine, -followed her child as a true mother, with the divinely appointed -authority of a mother, serenely, constantly directing his career up to -the feast of Jerusalem, where he began to reveal his divine commission. -Even then, motherhood affirmed its rights in the very presence of God -manifest, in the question: ‘_Son, why hast thou dealt thus?_’ Nor was -the right challenged, for ‘_he went down and was subject to_’ father -and mother!” At this point Sir Charleroy ceased mentally tracing his -own career, and lifting his eyes looked intently toward Nazareth. “Ah,” -he said, but so that none could hear his words, “my mother loved as -many another, in part selfishly, for the joy of abandoned love, and I -squander that patrimony like a spendthrift, to my harm. Mary’s love for -her son was like his for the world, a constant self-abnegation. That love -survives as an inspiration to the world. By these contrasts I explain my -failure in life, and the present is the natural sequence of the past.” - -[Illustration: By Murillo. - -THE BIRTH OF MARY.] - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -NAZARETH. - - “This is indeed the blessed Mary’s land, - Virgin and Mother of our dear Redeemer! - All hearts are touched and softened by her name; - Alike the bandit with the bloody hand, - The priest, the prince, the scholar and the peasant, - The man of deeds, the visionary dreamer, - Pay homage to her as one ever present.”—LONGFELLOW—“_Golden Legend_.” - - “I walked along the top of the hills overlooking Nazareth. A - glorious scene opened on the view. The air was perfectly serene - and clear. I remained for some hours lost in contemplation of - the wide prospect and the events connected with the scene. One - of the most beautiful and sublime prospects on earth.”—ROBINSON’S - _Biblical Researches_. - - -The avenging Turks easily persuaded themselves that they could serve God -better by participating in the sacking of fallen Acre than by pursuing -the conquered, fleeing Christian knights; so they let the latter escape -inland, while they themselves returned to the pillage. Ere long, by -stealth, good fortune and Providential leading, the fugitives arrived -unmolested at the top of a hill, overlooking the little city of Nazareth, -forever memorable as having been once the earthly abiding place of Jesus -and Mary. On the way thither scarcely a sentence had been spoken, -for each felt that murmuring would be harmful, mirth inopportune. -They chose their course indifferently, all following Sir Charleroy de -Griffin because he rode bravely and onward. The fugitives paused, partly -sequestered by the shrubbed hillock, forgetting for a time all else in -admiration of the outspreading panorama in view. Heaven and earth were -smiling at each other; thousands of leagues of sky were filled with the -raptured songs of larks, while as echo and challenge of the songs from -above, the thrush and robin of the grass knoll and thicket responded. -From the plains of El Battaf on the north to Esdrælon on the south -Nature, God’s flower queen, had decked the earth everywhere with blossoms -of pinks, tulips and marigolds. - -“Those dusky cowards,” spoke Sir Charleroy, “though numbering ten to one, -will not seek us here; they’ll wait an opportunity to ambuscade us.” - -“We’ve broken our knight’s pledge, never to flee more than the distance -of four French acres from a foe, and yet methinks we’ve made them respect -our swords; that’s something to say, though we’ve not made them respect -our creed.” It was a Knight of the Golden Cross that spoke. - -Sir Charleroy continued, while his eyes turned toward the city: “I thirst -for the waters of a fount in Nazareth as did David once for one in -Bethlehem.” - -“For all of our getting at it, Nazareth’s water might as well be in -Ethiopia,” spoke a Hospitaler. - -“I’ve a yearning that comes near to sending me on a charge into the city.” - -“That would be a hot pursuit of death surely.” - -“A fair one, then, since death has been long pursuing us.” After a -moment’s pause Sir Charleroy continued: - -“Ah, death! None can escape, none overtake him; see we are his prisoners -now, yet he tantalizes us by a show of immunity. As a sarcophagus is let -down by suspending ropes in tedious stages, with jogglings and pauses, -into the grave, so passes each through perils and sickenings from life to -death. No, no, an undue fear of death intoxicates us until phantasmagoria -possess the brain. We call these hopes; they are delusive! But will any -of you follow for a charge down to the Virgin’s fountain? We can not -more than die; that we must soon, in any event. I think I could die more -complacently, having cooled my thirst where she was wont to cool hers.” - -“Ugh,” exclaimed the Templar, with a shudder of disgust, “the fountain -flows out through an old stone coffin! By my plume! while drinking there -I’d be fancying that the ghost of the one robbed of his last house -were leering at me and reveling in the thought that I’d soon be poor -and thirstless as he. Verily the flavor of a drink depends much on the -goblet!” - -“We may have plenty of miserable fancies, if we only court such; for -me, Templar, I prefer to comfort myself by cheerier thoughts; while I -drank there, I’d think of the coolings of death’s streams; of her, that -at this fountain slaked her body’s thirst and from the chalice of death -drank serenely at last. My sword, the gift of my king, after having -shed torrents of blood, hangs uselessly at my side. It seems cruel as -powerless; ay, ’tis hateful! My mother gave me, on my departure, better -gifts by far; tears, kisses, undying love, and the charge to call on Mary -if ever evil befell me. The latter I know not how to do; but still my -weak faith, methinks, would be helped to cry ‘Mother’ to God, if I could -only stand where that mother stood who won the first love of the infant -Jesus, the last anxious thoughts of the God man.” - -“Sir Charleroy is unusually pious to-night; but alas, though I’ve -been taught to say our church’s _Litany_, calling on ‘the Virgin most -faithful,’ ‘Virgin most merciful,’ ‘Help of the Christian,’ ‘Lady of -Victories,’ I can not use those phrases here. Where’s the help, the -mercy, the victory now? The _Litany_, belongs to England!” - -“We are in our present plight because we have won heaven’s neglect -through having more vices than graces, probably.” - -“Whatever the cause, the mocking disappointment is apparent. It is -nigh thirteen hundred years since the Holy son and His mother began -proclaiming and exemplifying the White Kingdom here. Now in all this -land of theirs, we thirteen, fateful number, alone are left of those who -openly own His cause. Yea, and the city where He grew in favor, these -nature-blessed plains whose flowers gave Him picture sermons, are all -filled with burrowing monsters eternally at war with Him and His.” - -“Faith will rest until assured that the Promiser is dead, and that can -never be, Sir Knight.” - -“My faith staggers at the sights of Nazareth. Chief, look yonder.” - -The knights all now called Sir Charleroy chief, when addressing him. - -“At what?” - -“The ruins!” - -“Ah, all that’s left of our Crusader church. They say it was built on the -very spot where Mary fell fainting, when she saw the Nazarenes in wrath -dragging her son away to cast him down from the precipice to death. But -He escaped, though the church since built did not!” - -“True; therefore it seems to me that the hand on time’s dial turns -backward. This city is filled with creatures having hearts as hard as -the limestone walls of the cave-like houses they fittingly inhabit. If -Christ and His Mother were again on earth as before, mercy’s ministers, -the present inhabitants of Nazareth would surpass His ancient persecutors -in the zeal with which they would drag not only Him but His mother to the -cliffs.” - -“Over the door of yon ruined church, some hand of faith carved the word -‘Victory!’ The word is there yet, and though the hand that carved it is -dead, the faith which prompted it hath victory assured it.” - -“‘Victory,’ in ruins! A meaningless boast, as it seems to me, Sir -Charleroy. Such victory as ours; shadowy and very distant!” - -At that moment one of the Templars, who had been secretly praying behind -a cactus hedge, drew near and the Hospitaler addressed him: - -“Brother, any token?” - -“Praise Jehovah! yes, of peace.” - -“How came it?” - -“In my communings, God brought to my mind how the wondrous Deborah, not -far from here, pushed the pusillanimous Barak from his refuge among the -pistacas and oaks, from waverings to courage and to glorious victory over -God’s foes.” - -“A happy thought; ‘the stars on their course fought against Sisera!’” - -“Barak was called the ‘thunderbolt,’ but Deborah was the ‘lightning.’ The -lightning gave force to the bolt and God to the lightning.” - -Sir Charleroy, catching the last sentence, joined in the debate: - -“Gentlemen, there is another lesson on the brow of that history; it is, -that women, having more trust, cleave closer to God in peril than do men. -Men are in a panic when their devices fail; women have fewer devices to -fail, hence are less easily confounded. For that reason God sent out our -race in pairs.” - -“Hermon’s breast holds the last ray of the setting sun,” remarked the -Golden Cross. - -“And the Transfiguration of Christ is recalled! I think some angel of God -is holding the sunlight there for our instruction, now,” exclaimed the -chief. - -“Our instruction?” queried the Templar. “I do not discern its meaning; -campaigning I fear has dulled my brain.” - -“The Son of Mary, on yon mount, met Elijah, representative of the -prophets, Moses, representative of the law; both called from the -deathless land to proclaim the fulfillment of all prophecy and law -through His coming passion.” - -“And still I question how this applies to us?” - -“A Knight of the _Red Cross_ should easily discern that suffering unto -death for truth’s sake is the way, all prophecy declares that a reign -of law transforming things to spiritual splendor shall at last come to -earth.” - -“Ah, Sir Charleroy, the interpretation is entrancing, but why did the -glory need to fade into night, and to be followed by Gethsemane and -Calvary?” - -“Life is but a series of temporary glimpses of the glory that shall be -revealed. Night and cloud come and go, yet the sun never dies.” - -“But, Sir Charleroy, was it not hard that the loving Immanuel should be -forced to bide these pangs though ever pursuing true righteousness?” - -“Yea, Templar, but the glory of the Transfiguration came to all that -group while Jesus prayed; as the angel hastened to minister when -Gethsemane was darkest. These things teach that heaven watches its own, -with succor according to want; great light at hand to baffle great -darkness and royal answers for anxious prayers!” - -“You mean, Sir Charleroy, that we few, surrounded by a sea of enemies, -in an inhospitable land, far from home, should despise each despairing -thought?” - -“Good Templar, I am certain of this, anyway: Suffering for the right has -full reward, for after passion as Christ’s, so to His followers there -comes the ascension.” - -“Amen,” fervently ejaculated several surrounding knights, and Sir -Charleroy felt the glow that he felt that time the English bishop blessed -him. - -As they thus communed, the sun had quietly sunk down into the far-off -Mediterranean, flooding the west with light like molten gold. Doubtless -one thought came to each at the sight; for all smiled sadly when one -remarked: “The _West_ is very beautiful to-night!” They thought with -deep yearnings of home. But the darkness quickly drew over the scene and -the song of the baleful nightingales began to start forth here and there -from thickets which, in the darkness, appeared like plumes of mourning -on acres of black velvet. One knight, for a while entranced by the grim, -gloomy spectacle, shuddered; then looked up as if to say: “When will -the moon rise? the darkness is oppressive!” Another tried to cheer his -comrades by crying: “England’s songsters know us and come to sing us into -hopefulness!” - -“Men, to rest; you’ll need it.” It was Sir Charleroy who spoke. -Responsibility made him motherly. - -“Let us revel awhile in memories of better days,” replied the Templar. - -“But listen; do you not hear afar off something like the moaning of the -winds before a storm?” - -“What of it? A storm could add little to our misery.” - -“The sound you hear is the cry of jackal and wolf; our omens. Forget now -all unnerving thoughts of home and steel yourselves to meet hard fortune. -For a while rest. Rest is now our wisdom; night, our mother; for a time -in safety she will swaddle us within her black garments. And then——” - -“Even so, good Sir Charleroy, and I’m thinking this is her last visit to -us. She has come, I guess, to lead us to the portals of eternal day.” - -“When I say good-night to you, comrades, it will be with the expectation -of next saying good-morning where the wicked cease from troubling,” -solemnly said the Golden Cross. - -“But,” interrupted the Hospitaler, “while the pulse beats we have a -mortgage on time and a duty to plan to live.” - -“Bravely said; now tell us how to plan,” exclaimed several knights. - -“Merge all our orders into one, for the present; elect a leader, and——” -The Hospitaler paused, for he could not guess the needs or course of -the future. But the knights quickly acquiesced in the unity of action -proposed. - -“Who shall lead?” was the next question. - -“I nominate,” shouted the Hospitaler, “the one whom we all believe must -be under the especial care of the good angels of these places sacred to -all revering mother Mary.” - -The knights, with one voice, responded, “Sir Charleroy de Griffin, -Teutonic Knight of the Order of St. Mary!” - -The little band dared their danger for a moment by a spontaneous cheer. - -“We have no priest to anoint the chief of the Refugees, but with God to -witness, let each who would ratify the choice place hilt to shield, as an -oath of service and defense.” - -Every hilt rang against Sir Charleroy’s shield, as the Hospitaler ceased -speaking. - -“Comrades,” said Sir Charleroy, “I thank you for your confidence in this -hour when the issue is life or death. Let us seek the God of battles.” -The knights formed a hollow square about their leader, and all kneeled -upon the earth. - -Their wondering steeds seemed to catch the spirit of their riders, -and, drawing near, drooped their heads. For a few moments there was -awing silence, and then in deep measured tones the Hospitaler began -chanting, “_Kyrie Eleison_” (Lord have mercy). The companions responded, -“_Christi Eleison_.” Then, amid those scenes of sacred history, the -kneeling soldiers, together, and without command, with only the stars for -altar-lights, solemnly chanted a portion of the sublime Litany of their -church. Galilee never before, nor since, heard a more sincere orison: -“Pour forth, we beseech Thee, oh, Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that -we to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the -message of an angel, may by His passion and His cross be brought to the -glory of His resurrection, through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.” - -As they arose, a Templar spoke: “Companions, if it so please you, put -a seal, the seal of the Red Cross Knights, upon our act.” So saying, -the knight crossed his feet, then spread out his arms horizontally; -similitude of the crucifixion. All reverently imitated the action, -meanwhile, their swords being in hand with blades crossing, forming a -fence of steel. - -“Comrades,” spoke Sir Charleroy, with emotion, “I accept the trust, and -vow by Him that gave the single-handed Elijah on yonder far-off wrinkled -Carmel, sign by fire, that confounded Baal and its regal hosts, to lead -you to liberty and home or to glorious graves.” - -“_In hoc signo vinces_, living or dead,” was the chorused response. Just -then the rising moon flooded their interlaced swords with light, and, as -they glittered, the knights took it for an omen that there was a blessing -in the union of their swords. - -“Sir Charleroy, I proclaim thee king of Jerusalem; what say you, -comrades?” exclaimed a hitherto silent Knight of St. John. Once more -every knight’s sword touched the leader’s shield. - -“Nobly proclaimed!” remarked the Templar. “When De Lusignan deserted us, -ceasing to be kingly, he ceased to be king.” - -“Have charity, men,” interrupted their chief; “it takes a world of -courage to fall with a falling cause when a way of escape is open.” - -“Oh, we’ll have charity; the same that Tancred had for that brave -preacher and craven soldier, Hermit Peter; the latter ran from peril and -Tancred raced him back. We can not reach Lusignan to whip him to duty, -but we can vote him dethroned and dead. All cowards are dead to the -brave.” - -“But, companions, I must decline the presumptuous title and phantom -throne. Jerusalem shall have, to us, but one king; the Son of Mary. For -the future, to you, let me be simply Sir Charleroy. Now let us be moving.” - -“Whither?” anxiously inquired several knights in a breath. - -“Over the valley to the cactus hedges against the limestone cliffs before -us, where runs along the great highway from Damascus to Egypt. We shall -not need the route to either point, probably; but those hills are full of -caves for the living and tombs for the dead.” All obeyed. - -“Why so thoughtful?” said the Hospitaler to the Knight of the Golden -Cross, who marched along with his cloak partly shielding his face. - -“I’m living in the past,” he sententiously answered. - -“The past? Ah, to make up by a back journey for an expected briefing of -thy future?” - -“No, raillery here, Hospitaler. I was just wishing that since we are so -near Endor, Saul’s witch would call up some saintly Samuel to tell us -where we shall be this time to-morrow.” - -“Oh, Golden Cross, know we can best bear the good or evil of the future -by seeing it only as it comes; for me, I prefer to think of another -place, near us, but having a more helpful incident for the memory of such -as we.” - -“Dost thou mean Nain?” - -“The same. There a dead only son was raised from the bier to comfort a -widowed mother.” - -“Well said, Hospitaler,” responded Sir Charleroy, “and let us not forget -that it was a mother’s tearful prayers that won the working of the -miracle.” - -“Alas, knight,” sighed the Templar, “we have no mothers to so petition -for us here, if we be quenched ere long.” - -“Some of us have living mothers who never cease to pray for us, nor will -until their breath ceases. In this land, where God appeared through -motherhood, I have a strong confidence that our mothers’ prayers, -re-enforced by our appealing but unvoiced needs, will move the motherhood -of God, if such I may call His tenderest lovings. I’ll trust to-night my -mother’s prayers, reaching from England to Heaven and from thence to -here, further than all the sympathy forgetful Europe will vouchsafe us. A -nation cheered us to battle, and yet it will never seek for the fragments -defeat has left; but the man never lived, no matter what his ill deserts, -whom true mother love and eternal God love ever forgot.” After this long -address, Sir Charleroy again felt the glow within and the approvings that -he felt on the quay when the bishop’s hands were on his head. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -THE FUGITIVES. - - “’Tis not in mortals to command success; - But we’ll do better, Sempronius; we’ll deserve it.”—_Cato._ - - -The fugitives slept, some in the obliviousness of complete fatigue and -others restlessly, their minds perturbed by dreams of their impending -perils. Dawn summoned all to renewed activity, but its coming was not -greeted joyfully by the knights. - -“Sir Charleroy,” mournfully spoke a Hospitaler to the former, as they met -at the outskirts of the camping place, “our comrade, the Knight of the -Holy Sepulcher, made good his escape from this woeful country during the -early morning, before dawn, as our comrades were sleeping!” - -“Why, impossible!” questioningly responded the chief. - -“Alas, ’twas rather impossible for him not to go!” - -“I’m in no humor for such petty jesting! See, his steed is there yet,” -and Sir Charleroy turned on his heel impatiently as he spoke. - -“Pardon, companion, he that departed was borne away by the white charger -with black wings!” - -“Dead?” - -“Mortals say ‘dead’ of such, but it were better to say he is free.” - -“_Peace to his soul_,” fervently spoke Sir Charleroy. - -“Ah, knight, thou canst not imagine the peacefulness of his going!” - -“But why were we not summoned? We might have consoled him at least; -perhaps we might have healed. What was his malady?” - -“A poisoned arrow wounded him in the retreat from Acre. He did not -realize his peril until the agonies of the end were wracking his body. -Then he said, ‘Too late; it’s useless to attempt resistance of the -inevitable.’” - -“Now this is pitiful—a humiliation of us all. Heavens, Hospitaler! -there’s not a knight among us who would not have periled his life in -effort in the dying man’s behalf.” - -“But he cautioned me against disturbing any one on his account. ‘Poor -men,’ he said, ‘they’ll need all the rest they can get for the struggles -of the day to come.’ Only once did he seem to yearn for a remedy, and -that time he spoke mostly as one dreaming. I remember his every word—‘I -wish I could bathe these hot and bleeding wounds in the all-healing nards -said to exude exhaustlessly from the image of the Virgin Most Merciful at -Damascus.’ I roused him, then, with an appeal for permission to summon -thee, but he forbade me.” - -“Thou shouldst have overridden all protests of his! By my tokens! I’d -have emulated faithful Elenora, who sucked the poison from the dagger -stab given her spouse, our knightly Prince Edward, by the would-be -assassin at Acre.” - -“I could not resist him; his face shone in the moonlight with heavenly -brightness; mine was covered with tears. Oh, chief, the dying man spoke -like an angel. Once he said: ‘It is sweet to go out here, nigh where the -resurrection angel, Gabriel, gave Mary the glad tidings that her humanity -was to join with the Good Father to bring forth One capable of sounding -each human sorrow here and hereafter. He overcomes the dread last enemy -of all our race!’ I watched as he fixed his dying gaze upon the golden -cross he wore; his last words still fill and inflame my soul: ‘Brother, -good-night—say this to each for me. I feel great darkness creeping -in to possess this broken, weary body. It comes to stay, but my soul -moves forth out of its dungeon. I see gates most lofty, all glorious, -and oh, so near! They open to an eternal day.’ Then he breathed his -last, murmuring tenderly: ‘I’m going; good-night; good-morning!’” The -Hospitaler ended his recital with a great sob, then burying his face in -his cloak, was silent. - -Presently the knights formed a hollow square about an old tomb in the -hillside. The Hospitaler supported tenderly the head of the dead comrade -in his lap. On the naked breast of the corpse lay the many-pointed golden -cross of the Knights of the Sepulcher, while round the body was wrapped a -Templar’s banner, with its significant emblem, two riders on one horse; -symbol of friendship and necessity. - -“Let the one who received the dying prayer of our brave companion speak,” -said Sir Charleroy. The knights all knelt, and the Hospitaler still -reverently supporting the head of the dead, spoke. “Knight of Christ, -sleep; the clamors of war shall no more disturb thee. The dead at least -are just and merciful. Israelite, Mohammedan and Christian may lie -together in these vales, reconciled at last. They that would not share -a loaf to save life to one another, in death share quietly all they -have, their beds. The ashes of the long sleepers have no contentions; -here are no crowdings of each other; no misunderstandings; no alarms. -Sleep, soldier, thy worthy warfare finished; thy cause appealed to the -Judge of All! Sleep and leave us to battle on ’mid perils and pain. -Sleep thy body, while thy soul fathoms the mysteries to us inscrutable. -Rest now, and leave us here a little longer to wonder why it is that -human creatures must needs inhumanly oppose and slay each other for the -enthroning of Truth, the friend, the quest of all! Sleep, and leave us to -wonder why death and conflict are the openers of the gates of life and -peace.” Some of those kneeling wept, but they were too much depressed to -speak. Quietly they laid the body within its resting place; quietly they -sealed up the tomb’s entrance. Then they mounted their steeds at their -chief’s command. - -“There are but twelve of us left; a lucky number. Perhaps the breaking -of the fateful spell believed to follow the number thirteen, was death’s -beneficence!” It was the Templar who so spoke. - -“It is said, Templar,” responded Charleroy, “that our Mary, in her -girlhood, was escorted ever by an invisible heavenly guard, a thousand -strong. In the guard there were twelve palm-bearing angels of rare -splendor, commissioned to reveal charity.” - -“A worthy companionship, chief!” - -“I’m inclined to pray heaven to send again to these parts the beautiful -twelve, to assure us good fortune and victory.” - -“Surely the prayers of us all join thine, Sir Charleroy; but methinks -we have forgotten how to pray aright, or heaven has forgotten to answer -us. We have been praying and fighting for months only to find at last -that our prayers and our battlings are alike vain. I fear there are no -palm-bearing angels at hand.” - -The horsemen slowly wended their way back to the hill-top, overlooking -Nazareth, on which they first paused the night before. Again they halted -to admire the prospect, as well as to look for a route of safe retreat. -Nazareth was astir. The little band on the hill could hear the morning -trumpeters calling the Moslem to worship. - -“Gentlemen,” said the leader of the band on the hill, “it is wisdom to -divide into two parties, and make for the sea by different routes. At -Cæsarea we may find some vessels with which to leave these to us fateful -shores. If we meet the foe anywhere, the odds against us now are so great -that death or enslavement must be the result. Perhaps if there be two -parties one may escape.” The knights paused about their leader a few -moments in affectionate debate; all opposing at first the plan that was -to scatter them, but all, finally, convinced that it was the highest -wisdom to go on their ways apart. Lots were cast by the eleven, De -Griffin not participating. Four were grouped in one party and seven in -the other by the result. - -“I’ll join the weaker party, remembering the five wounds of Jesus,” said -Sir Charleroy, reining his steed to the smaller company. A moment after -he continued: “Now, good souls, away with grief; part we must; here and -now. May God go tenderly with the seven, a covenant number. Now make your -wills; then a brief farewell; then use the spur.” - -“Wills?” said a Templar, and they all smiled in a sickly way at the -word. “We knights, boasting our poverty, our holding of all we have in -community, know nothing of will-making.” - -“True, the pelf we each have is small enough; a few keep-sakes, our arms -and such like; but our love is something. Let’s will that, and if we’ve -aught to say before we die, we’d better say it now. There is work ahead, -and plenty of it. There will be no time for _ante-mortem_ statement -when we meet the cimeters of the Crescent.” So spoke Sir Charleroy. He -continued, “My slayer will take good care of my jewels.” He commenced -writing upon a bit of parchment, using for rest the pommel of his saddle. -In a few moments he paused. - -“Wilt thou read thine, that we may know how to make ours, chief?” -inquired one near him. - -“A message to my mother; that’s all.” - -“Enough; that’s sacred.” - -“Yes—but—no. Misery has knit us into one family. I feel to confide.” So -saying, he read his writing, omitting only the portion that recited their -recent vicissitudes:— - - “And now, beloved mother, we turn from Nazareth toward the sea - with only a forlorn hope of reaching it. I long to meet thee, - but the longing must, I fear, content itself in reaching out my - heart’s best love across the distant ocean toward thyself. It - is all I can give in return for the mysterious consciousness - that thine is a constant presence. My memory teems with records - of my life-long ingratitude toward thyself, that gave me birth - and all a loving heart could bestow, and now I’m tasting - bitterest remorse for all those selfish days of mine. I wish - I could recall their acts. Take these words as my request for - pardon. I shall bind this little parchment scrap in my belt in - a vague hope that some way, some time, it may reach thee. If it - do, remember it is sent to bear to thee, beloved mother, the - assurance that thy once wayward boy remembers now, as he has - for months, as the brightest, best, most exalting and blessed - things of all his life, thy loving words, thy patient trust in - him and all thy pious exhortations. I thank God now for all my - trials and perils. They have brought me to full prizing of thy - goodness and near to the religion thou dost profess.” - -The reader paused, and the companion knights at once began begging him to -inscribe messages for them each, he being the only one in all the company -having the priestly gift of the pen. Most of them said, “To my mother” -or “To my sister, write;” but one blushed as he said, “I’ve no mother -nor sister.” His comrades rallied him at once: “Name her, the other only -woman!” - -“A heart as brave as thine, knight,” said the Hospitaler to the blushing -youth, “has a queen on its throne, somewhere.” - -The youth blushed more and drew away a little. - -“Only a lover,” said the Templar. “Lovers, absent, assuage their -pinings by new mating! They forget; mothers never do. Write for us, Sir -Charleroy.” - -The blush of the youth deepened to anger, evincing his heart’s high -protest against any hint of doubt being aimed at his queen; but he was -self-restraining, silent. “I’ll not reveal her by defense even,” was his -whispered thought. - -The writing was finished. “Farewell! Forward.” - -The chief suited the action to the commands, and soon his steed was -dashing swiftly away with its rider, followed by the others of his party. -The seven departed toward Nain; perhaps it was an ominous choice, for -their route led them toward the cave of incantation, where Endor’s witch -called up for Saul the shade of Samuel. Most likely the words of the dead -prophet to the haunted warrior, “To-morrow thou shalt be with me,” would -have told the fate of the seven that morning fittingly, for they were -never heard from by any of their earthly friends. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -ICHABOD. - - “Oh, that many may know - The end of this day’s business, ere it come; - But it sufficeth that the day will end, - And then the end is known.”—_Julius Cæsar._ - - -A tedious ride brought the five knights nigh Shunem, the City of Elijah. - -“We’ll find no prophet’s chamber here for such as we,” remarked Sir -Charleroy. - -“Perhaps,” said a comrade, “we may by force or cajoling find a breakfast; -a cake or cruse of oil.” - -“Anyhow,” replied the chief, “we must try for a little food. We can -neither fight nor flee with gaunt hunger on our flanks. Who knows, after -all, but that we may happen on a humane being in these parts.” - -“Well, good captain, if we should find a Shulamite, black, but comely, -she might be as loving to thee as that one of old was to Solomon, -although——” - -The sentence was broken off by the interrupting command of Sir Charleroy, -“Men, quick to cover; to the lemon-tree grove on the right!” - -A glance back revealed a host of armed men behind the knights. - -“All saints defend!” cried the Templar, as the little band wheeled toward -the refuge. - -The tale of the battle to the death that ensued, is quickly told. - -Sir Charleroy, though he had fought with reckless bravery, as one hotly -pursuing death, alone survived. A bludgeon blow felled him; when he -recovered consciousness, he beheld standing by his side a gorgeously -bedecked Moslem. The clangor of the conflict was over; the blood in -which he weltered, and the vicious eyes that watched him, were all that -reminded the knight of what had recently transpired. Presently the latter -addressed the one that stood guard: - -“Why is the infidel so tardy in finishing his work?” - -“Is the Crusader in a hurry to reach night?” sententiously replied the -man of gorgeous trappings. - -“He would like to stay long enough to execute a murderer—the chief of thy -horde.” - -“My horde? Thou knowest me?” - -“Oh, yes, ‘Azrael, Angel of Death,’ thy minions call thee; but I defy -thee as I loathe thee.” - -The chief’s brow darkened; his sword rose in air, and he exclaimed: -“Hercules was healed of a serpent bite, ages ago, at Acre; Islamism in -the same place recently; I must finish the hydra by cutting off thy -hissing head, Christian.” - -Sir Charleroy steadily met his captor’s gaze, eye to eye, and was silent. - -The chief paused; then lowering his sword, toyed its point against the -cross on the prostrate man’s breast. - -“Bitter tongue, thou dost worship a death sign; dost thou so love death?” - -“Death befriends those who wear that sign in truth; this is my comfort -standing now at the rim of earth’s last night.” - -“Thy bright red blood and unwrinkled brow bespeak youth, the power to -enjoy life. Youth and such power is ever a prayer for more time; thou -liest to thyself and me by professing to seek thy end.” - -“How wonderful! The ‘Angel of Death’ is a soul-reader as well as a -murderer!” bitterly rejoined Sir Charleroy. - -“Well, then, refute me! Here’s thy greasy, blood-stained sword; now go, -by thine own hands, if thou darest, to judgment.” - -“Trusting God, I may defy thee; yet not hurry Him!” - -“I like the Christian’s metal. I might let him live.” - -“Life would be a mean gift now; a painful departure from the threshold of -Paradise, to renew weary pilgrimages.” - -“I may be merciful.” - -“I do not believe it.” - -“Thou shalt.” - -“When I believe in the tenderness of jackals and tigers, in the sincerity -of transparent hypocrisy, I’ll praise the mercy of Azrael.” - -“Our holy Koran reveals a bridge finer than a hair, sharper than a sword, -beset with thorns, laid over hell. From that bridge, with an awful -plunge, the wicked go eternally down; over it safely, swiftly, the holy -pass to happiness. Art ready to try that bridge?” - -“Ready for the land of forgetfulness; no swords nor crescents are there.” - -“No, thou wouldst only reach Orf, the partition of hell, where the -half-saints tarry; thy bravery merits that much; but I’ll teach thee to -reach better realms.” - -“Turk, Mameluke, ’tis fiendish to prejudge a dying soul; leave judgment -to God, and share now all that is within thy power, my body, with thy fit -partners, the vultures!” - -“A living slave is worth more to me than a dead knight; I’ve an humor to -let thee live.” - -“Oh, most merciful hypocrite! I did not think thou couldst tell the truth -so readily; but let me, I beseech thee, be the dead knight.” - -“What if I save thy life, teach thee the puissant faith of Islam, give -thee leadership, and with it opportunity to win entrance to that highest -Paradise, whose gateway is overshadowed by swords of the brave? There -thou mayest dwell forever with Allah and the adolescent houris.” - -“Enough; unless thou dost aim to torture me! I’m a Knight of Saint Mary, -and thou full well knowest the measure of my vows; how throughout this -land my Order has warred against thy hateful polygamy, thy gilded lusts -here, thy Harem heaven hereafter! Ye thrive by luring to your standards -men aflame now with the fire that burns such souls at last in black -perdition. I tell thee to thy teeth, thou and thine are living devils. -But ye war against the wisdom of the world and the law of God; though -triumphing now, ye will rot amid your riots and victories.” - -The chief’s face grew black as night for an instant, but recovering -himself, he continued, sarcastically at first, then with the zeal of a -proselyter: - -“Speak low, thou, last dying vestige of a wan faith! Thou mightst make my -solemn followers yell with ridiculing laughter! I tell thee of life and -of a faith as natural as nature herself. Listen; there is for the brave -and faithful a Paradise whose rivers are white as milk as odoriferous -as musk. There are sights for the eye, fetes most delicious and music -never ceasing to ravish; these lure the brilliantly-robed faithful to the -black-eyed daughters of Pleasure. One look at them would reward such as -we for a world-life of pain; and the children of the prophet’s faith are -given the eternities to companion these splendid creatures whose forms -created of musk know no infirmity, but survive, always, as adolescent -fountains. The heaven of Islamism is eternal youth, eternally luxurious.” - -“It befits the Angel of Death to gild a deformed hell with bedazzling -words. Thou and thine glorify lust, and thy heaven, like thy harem, is -but a brothel after all. Now let me blast thy gorgeous charnel-house with -the lightning of God’s Word: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they -shall see God!’” - -Sir Charleroy had raised himself up as he was speaking; now he fell back, -exhausted. He again felt the glow in his heart that he felt on the quay -when the English bishop blessed him; but it seemed more real now than -then, and the approvings of conscience some way came with rebukes that -caused tears to flow. He felt something akin to real penitence for a life -that had not been always up to the ideal that this debate had caused him -to exalt. As he fell back he closed his eyes and turned his face from his -captor; the act was a prayer to be helped to shut out of his mind the -picture of gilded lust depicted by the false teacher that stood by. For -a few moments the wounded man was left to his own thoughts, and then his -heart went out toward home crying like a sick or lost child in the night, -for “_Mother!_” Once more he returned to that duality of existence which -comes when one enters into personal introspections. There seemed to be -two Sir Charleroys, one writing the history of the other, and the writer -was recording such estimates as these: “As he lay there, nigh death, he -drew near to God. He had once been a rover, seeking the wildest pleasures -of the European capitals; but meeting passion, presented as the ultimate -of life, for all eternity, his soul recoiled from it and he became the -herald of purity. Once he had friends, wealth and physical prowess; -but he squandered them as a prodigal; when he lay bleeding, powerless -in body, amid strangers, a slave, he rose to the majesty of a moral -giant.” The Sir Charleroy that was thus reviewed was comforted, and he -stood off from the picture in imagination to admire it, as one standing -before a mirror. Just then he thought of his mother and Mary, his ideal, -standing on either side of him, before the same presentment. It might -have been a dream; but he believed they smiled through tears, pressed -their beating hearts to his and upheld him by their arms with tenderness -and strength. His captor left him for a few moments only, undisturbed. -At a sign from Azrael, he was soon carried away by a guard; the parley -was ended and he that had so bravely spoken doomed to confront that -that is to the vigorous mind the worst of happenings, uncertainty. For -months the captive mechanically submitted to the fortunes of the Sheik’s -caravan; in health improving; in spirit depressed, numbed. The knight -had constantly before him three grim certainties, escape impossible; -rebellion useless; each day hope darkened by further departure from the -sea. The captive’s treatment from the Sheik was not unkind. The latter -met him by times with a sort of courtly condescension, varied only by an -occasional penetrating, questioning glance. They had little conversation, -yet the Sheik’s looks plainly said: “When thou art subdued, sue for -favors; they’ll be granted.” De Griffin nursed his pride and firmness -and prevented all familiarity on Azrael’s part. The latter was puzzled -sometimes, sometimes angered; but he was too polite to show his feelings. -For months the only conversation between the two alert, strong men might -be summed up in these words on the Sheik’s part: “Slave, freedom and -heaven are sweet.” “Knight, Allah knows only the followers of the Prophet -as friends.” On the knight’s part a look of scorn or an expression of -disgust was the sole reply. - -In the Sheik’s retinue was another captive, a Jew. He was constantly -near the knight; for being more fully trusted than the latter, the -Sheik had made the Israelite in part the custodian of the Christian. -The knight discerned the relationship very quickly; though both Jew and -chief endeavored to conceal it. Sir Charleroy, at the first, treated his -companion captive with loathing and resentment, as a spy. After a time, -the “sphinx, eyes open, mouth shut,” as Azrael described Sir Charleroy, -deemed it wise and politic to make the Jew his ally. The resolution once -formed, he found many circumstances to aid in bridging the gulf that -separated the captive and his guard; the cultured Teutonic leader and the -wandering Israelite. They both hated the same man, their captor; both -loathed the religion he was covertly aiming to lure them to; both were -anxious for freedom. They gave voice to these feelings when together, -alone, and ere long sympathy made them friends. The next step was natural -and easy; the stronger mind took the leadership of the two, and Sir -Charleroy became teacher; his keeper became his pupil and _protégé_. - -The twain one day, after this change of relation, walked together -conversing, on a hill overlooking Jericho, by which place the Sheik’s -caravan was encamped. - -“Ichabod, thou wearest a fitting name.” - -“I suppose so, since my mother gave it. But why say so now?” - -“Ichabod, ‘glory departed,’ thou art like thy people—despoiled.” - -“Oh, Lord! how long?” piously exclaimed the Jew. - -“Till Shiloh comes!” - -“Verily it is so written,” was the Jew’s reply. - -“But He has come, Israelite!” - -“Where?” the startled Jew questioned, drawing back as if he expected his, -to him mysterious, companion to throw back his tunic and declare: “_I am -he!_” - -“In the world and in my heart.” - -“Ah, Sir Knight, Israel’s desolation refutes all that.” - -“Jew, thine eyes are veiled. I’ll teach thee to see Him yet.” - -The Jew was puzzled. - -The twain fell into prolonged converse, and then in that lone place the -Crusader waxed eloquent, preaching Christ and Him crucified to one of -Abraham’s seed. - -When the two captives descended to their tents, each was conscious of a -new, peculiar joy. One had the joy of having proclaimed exalted truth, -faithfully, to the almost persuading of his hearer; the other was moving -about in the growing delight and wonder of a new dawning faith. - -At frequent intervals Ichabod besought the knight to take him “_to the -mountain_.” - -Each visit thither was a delight to the new inquirer. - -On such a journey one day spoke Ichabod: “Christian, I am consumed with -anxiety to hear thy words and another anxiety lest they do me harm. I -am thinking, thinking, by day, and, what little time my thoughts permit -sleep, I’m filled with wondrous dreams! I fear to lose my old faith, and -yet it becomes like Dead Sea apples under the light of this new way. So -new, so infatuating. None I’ve met, and I’ve met many, ever so moved -me. Why, knight, I’ve traversed half the world; sometimes as wealth’s -favorite, sometimes of necessity in misfortune; I’ve seen the faiths of -Egypt and India in their homes, and walked amid the temples of great -Rome, but with abiding contempt for all not Israelitish. Not so this -creed of the knight affects me.” - -“And for good reason; I offer thee the true, new, refined and final -Judaism!” - -“It seems so, and yet I tremble. I dare not doubt; that’s sin; but here’s -the puzzle that harasses me: What if, in doubting these things I’m now -told, I be doubting the very truth, the Jewish faith!” - -“Ichabod, thy heart has been a buried seed awaiting the spring. It has -come.” - -“Oh, knight, I’m trusting my dear soul to thee. As a dog his master, a -maid her lover, so blindly I follow thee. I can not go back: I can not -pause nor can I go onward alone. I’m in the misery of a joy too great to -be borne, almost, and yet too much my master to be given up. Oh, knight, -thou art so wise, so strong! Steady me; hold me up! I can only pray and -adjure thee to be sincere with me; only sincere; that’s all; as sincere -as if thou wert ministering to the ills of a sick man battling death.” - -The child of Abraham, with a sudden movement, flung his arms with all -vehemence about Sir Charleroy. The East and the West embracing, truth -leading, love triumphant. - -“Poor Ichabod, if thou hadst no soul, thy clingings and yearnings would -bind me to thee faithfully. Thou hast tried to give me charge over that -that is immortal. A Higher Being has it in loving trust; were it not so, -I’d turn in dread from thy confiding!” - -“Is mine so bad a soul, master?” - -“Indeed, no. Its preciousness to Him that created it, is what would make -me dread its partial custody.” - -“Thou’lt help me, master, now?” - -“For three objects I’ll willingly die; my mother; our lady, and the soul -of one who abandons himself, as thou, to my poor pilotage.” - -“Then, thou strangely lovest me. Oh, this but more persuades me that thy -faith is right; it makes thee so good to a stranger, a slave, a hated -Jew!” - -“But then we are so apart and so unlike each other!” - -“No, Jew, I want to show that humanity is one. The very creed I’m trying -to teach thee and would fain have all thy race, ay, all mankind fully -understand, is full of love, joy, peace. These follow it as naturally -as the flower the stem, the humming the flying wing made to fly and be -musical.” - -“Oh, my dear light, with thee I’m in joy and wilderment. Thy presence -seems to bring me hosts of crowned truths, all seeking to enter my -being. I feel like a tired runner ready to faint when thou’rt absent, -but when thou talkest the tired runner is plunged into a cooling ocean, -whose circling waves, as it were charged with the stimulus of tempered -lightnings, glowing with a million rainbows, overwhelm, lift up and rest -him. I’m floating thereon now!” - -“Thy strange fancies make me wonder, Ichabod.” - -“Wonder; why my strength dies from over wonder. I was ill for hours -yesterday. Light to my sweat-blinded, feverish eyes, all calm and -healing, comes when I yield to thy will; but still all my joy is -haunted by ghosts which rise in day-mare troops, pointing rebukingly to -labyrinths into which I seem to be pushed. I sometimes wonder if I’m -seeing real spirits or going mad.” - -“Dost pray, Jew?” - -“I dare not live without praying!” - -“Then tell the All Pitiful what thou hast this day told to me. He loves -the sincere, down to the deepest hell of doubt, and from it all, at last, -will lead tumulted souls safely. An honest doubt is a real prayer, well -winged; quickly it reaches heaven, at whose portal it dies to rise again -all peace.” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -FROM JERICHO TO JORDAN. - - “Through sins of sense, perversities of will, - Through doubt and pain, through guilt and shame and ill - Thy pitying Eye is on Thy creature still.” - - “Wilt Thou not make, eternal Source and Goal, - In thy long years life’s broken circle whole, - And change to praise the cry of a lost soul?”—WHITTIER. - - -Jew and Crusader came to love each other after the manner of David and -Jonathan, and they were both made stronger and happier men on account of -this loving. - -“Sir Charleroy, a year gone to day, thou and I climbed to glory.” - -“Thou hast a prolific imagination or I a poor memory. I have no -remembrance of either climbing or glory of a year ago.” - -“I may well remember the greatest day of my life; the day thou tookst me -up yon hill over against Jericho; I saw, as Elisha, in the presence of -his great master Elijah, the mountains, that day, full of the chariots -and angels of God.” - -“But, Jew, the chariot separated Elijah and Elisha; we were, in thy -‘great day,’ made one.” - -“True, but I got the prophet’s insight and power. Oh now I see Shiloh -coming in the redemption of Jew and Gentile.” - -“Radiant proselyte, give God, not me the glory.” - -“I’ll call thee, knight, Jordan—my Jordan.” - -“The Jew rambles amid strange conceptions. Why am I like that mighty -stream?” - -“Its bed and banks, God’s cup; they nobly serve, catching the pure waters -of mountain springs and heaven’s clouds, to bear them, mingled with sweet -Galilee, to the black burning lips of Sodom’s plains below. I was a dead -sea, alive alone to misery; nothing to me but my historic past, and that -sin-stained. I’m now refreshed and purified; sometime there’ll be life -growing about me!” - -“The highlands of Galilee gather from heaven, oceans of sweet, pure -water, which Jordan, year after year, night and day, hurries down to the -Asphalt sea; but still that sea remains lifeless and bitter. Even so, -the clean, white truth comes to some, life-long, yet vainly. I think I’m -little like Jordan, but much like that sea.” - -“And yet, knight, all is not vain that seems so. I learned this once, -long ago, in the vale of Siddim, by the sea of Lot. As I entered that -place of desolation I thought of Gehenna! The lime cliffs about, all -barren and pitiless as the walls of a furnace, shut out the breezes, -and intensified the sun’s scorching rays. A solemn stillness, unbroken -by wind, wave or voice of life, was there; suffocating, plutonic odors -ladened the air, and a fog hung over that watery winding sheet of the -cities of the plain. I watched that overhanging cloud until my heated -brain shaped it into a vast company of shades; the ghostly forms of the -overwhelmed denizens of those accursed habitations, now in mute terror -and confusion, holding to one another desperately; fearing to go to final -judgment. Once I thought they were together trying to look down into -the depths, perchance to seek for vestiges of their ancient, earthly -habitations. These fancies grew and grew upon me, mad dreamer that I was, -until I was nigh to desperate fright; but I found some little angels on -the shore who comforted.” - -“Angels at Sodom?” - -“Even so. The first was light and liquid silver; it sang a bar of -nature’s tireless, varied melody by my footsteps. Ah, the little, fresh -spring that burst forth through the rim of the crystalline basin, was an -angel to me. Then I found others here and there. At first I was glad, -then I began to pity them, and to wish I could change their courses. They -all wended their ways to the desolate sea, and their sweet currents were -swallowed up in the yawning gulf of death. ‘Vainly,’ I said at first. -Then I saw other angels in the forms of bending willows, and gorgeous -oleanders. Just then it all came to me; the springs, though small and -few, were not in vain. The oleanders and the willow, whose roots kissed -their fresh life, were evidences that the springs had been for good. -Aye, more, the flowers rejoiced me in those desolations more than could -the rose gardens of the Temple in days of happiness. Yea, knight, thou -hast been a rivulet to Ichabod in a day when he wandered as among arid -mountains and dead seas.” - -“Blest child of Abraham, thy faith is great, though I be but a pitiable -guide; yet I’ll adopt thy similes. Be thou and I, to each other, Jordan, -rivulet and flower by turn; the fresh current gives life to plant and -blossom, while plant and blossom both shade and beautify the streams. -With both it shall be well, if we well learn to seek deep for the hidden -springs of the life that can never die. Already thou hast blessed me -very greatly, gathering truths I failed to find. Thou return’st to me -multiplied all I bestow.” - -“Would I could gather for all; for my race, so blinded! Oh, it is a -tristful thought that the nearer I get to God, the further I get from -them I love next after Him. Even my mother was wont to say to me, when, -as a questioning boy, I inquired beyond the traditions of the Rabbis, -that she’d disown me to all eternity as a heretic. My belief has made me -an outcast to her, and yet the thought of her hating me tears my heart.” - -“I’ll love thy orphaned heart.” - -“Me? Love me; so far beneath thee and with such pauper power of payment?” - -“Thy desolation makes thee rich; having none other to love, thou -canst love me the more. Thou know’st this open secret of loving; its -selfishness demands all; getting that it gives all. Fear not Ichabod, but -that thou’lt find the hunger of thy heart well fed. It is as natural for -us to love those we have helped as to hate those we have harmed. Thou -know’st how men wonder that the Infinite can love the finite, but they -forget, or never realized, that one may love because he has loved. So -is it with God. He loves, and that He loves becomes therefore rich and -worthful to Him.” - -The morning after the betrothal, shall we call it, of these two men to -each other, long before dawn the knight was wakened by a cautious step -on the stone floor of his sleeping place. Sir Charleroy was at once all -alert and leaped from the couch, sword in hand, expecting to confront -some gipsy thief, for there had been a band of these wanderers hovering -near the day before. - -“Who’s there?” sternly he demanded, advancing, on guard meanwhile. - -“Ichabod, Ichabod!” with trembling voice and in a half whisper. It was -the Jew. - -“I did not mean to fright thee,” he hurriedly explained, when he had -recovered from his fear of being thrust through, “but I’ve news; bad news -that would not wait!” - -“What is the bad? Is it near?” - -“Oh, knight, speak low—the news is bad enough and the ill, though not on -us, close after us!” - -“Thou art excited, my friend; sit down and then unfold the matter. -Meanwhile I’ll light a faggot.” - -“In truth, I can’t sit, and I’ve reason to be nervous.” Then the man -spread out his arms and his fingers as if he would stand all ready to -fly; his eyes wide open, staring as he talked. - -“Our Sheik leaves Jericho to-morrow; summoned by the sheriff of Mecca. -The sheriff is supreme to Moslem. The command is for war toward the east. -Blood, blood; when will the world be done shedding blood!” - -“Well, my loving alarmist,” replied Sir Charleroy, coolly, “that’s not -very bad news. If the Sheik leaves us, we’ll be free; if he takes us, -there will be a change and for that I could almost cry ‘Blessed be -Allah!’ I am sickened, crushed, dry-rotted by this hum-drum life; this -slavery; dancing abject attendance on a gluttonous master, whose sole -object seems to be eating or dallying about the marquees of his harem.” - -“Oh, Sir Charleroy, the change has dreadful things for us!” - -“Why?” - -“I heard that the runner bringing the mandate from Mecca brings also -command that all prisoners, such as we, must be made to embrace Islamism, -enlist to die, if need be, in this so-called holy war, or be sent to the -slave mart.” - -“This is a carnival for the furies! Why, Ichabod, the latter is burial -alive; the former death with a dishonored conscience!” - -“Sir Charleroy, I prefer the slavery.” - -“Well, I prefer neither. Is the mandate final?” - -“Yes; I’ve an order to commence packing at sunrise; by noon we will be -enlisted or in chains.” - -“Who gave thee these state secrets, so in detail? Perhaps ’tis only -camp-fire gossip recounted for lack of novel ghost stories.” - -“Ah, ’tis too true. I’d swear my life on it!” - -“Rash, credulous; but which now, comrade, I can not tell.” - -“Master, I had this from one that loves me as I love thee; the young -Nourahmal, light of the harem, favorite of the Sheik.” - -“Well, now it seems to me that this light of the harem is thy favorite -rather than the Sheik’s.” - -“She adores me.” - -“Doubtless! Where a woman unfolds her mind there she brings all else -an offering easily possessed. She seals her change of allegiance -by scattering the secrets of the dethroned to the enthroned lover. -‘Nourahmal’? Is she as charming in form as in name?” - -“Hold, now! If thou lov’st me thou will’st not continue thus to wound. I -love that girl, but not the way thou meanest!” - -“So? Is there an elopement pending?” - -“Unworthy gibe! Say no more like it, but answer this: Is it not possible -for a man and woman to be knitted together in soul, as I and thou have -been, without the shadow of a remembrance that they are animals of -different sexes?” - -“Possible? Really I do not know. It may be possible, but so very rare -that I have failed to hear of any such relationship.” - -“Then thou shalt hear of it now in Nourahmal and me.” - -“I’ll take both to Paris! Another wonder of the world! But explain -further.” - -“My Nourahmal is a captive; hates the man to whom she must submit as we -hate him, and loves me with the new love that you have revealed to me, -because I’ve shown her that I love her that way; so different from any -thing she ever knew before.” - -“Well, there are many women yoked to men for whom they feel no great -affection, yet they glorify womanhood by their unfaltering loyalty. -Loyalty is woman’s glory; the hope of society. If the women be traitors, -then, alas!” - -“Nourahmal is not a wife! The man that parcels out his heart to a dozen -favorites buys but scraps in return. A woman in misery’s chains, without -the bands of the confiding, utter love of her lord, will talk; she -must talk, or go mad. I tell, thee, knight, such gossip is the panacea -of suicidal bent. There’s many a woman kills herself for lack of a -confidant!” - -“Thou hast learned much philosophy going around the world, Jew, but -perhaps not this bitter truth; the woman who is traitor to one man will -be to another. Thou mayst be the next. What if she set us fleeing for the -sake of laughing at our forced return?” - -“Impossible, knight; she reveres me truly; even as she does God; just as -I did Sir Charleroy when he brought me light and rest. I was to her what -thou art to me. One day I told her women had souls, as dear to heaven as -the souls of men! She laughed at me like a monkey, at first, and reminded -me that were I a true disciple of Islam I’d know that only young and -beautiful women go to heaven, and they even there have a lowly place. -Thou knowest these infidels believe that the large majority of hellions -are women.” - -“Not strange Jew; they treat women as pretty or useful animals, and so -degrade, not only themselves, but these very women. A woman so demeaned -does not become heavenly, to say the least. But I think, if I were a -Turk, I’d keep only argus-eyed eunuchs to guard my harem; in faith, I’d -even have the tongues out of those guards.” - -“There, now, thou dost jest again.” - -“Well, go on, in seriousness. Tell us the pipings of this seraglio -beauty.” - -“I’ve won her over completely.” - -“This is not strange. Poets are always valiant, victorious orators with -women. The female heart is emotionally moved up to belief with little -logic, if the speaker be fair, or musical, or brave!” - -“I was none of these; I told her of the ‘Friend of Publicans and -Sinners;’ that fed her soul. I do not believe there is a woman on earth -that can resist that story.” - -“Oh, well, I’m not going to forget that the first woman outran her mate -in evil, nor that she exchanged the All Beautiful for the snaky demon.” - -“It would be nobler for a knight, truer for all, to judge, if judge they -will, by wider circles. Do not remember the sin of one, or a few, to the -disparagement of all!” - -“Eve, the best made of all, fell; then her weaker sisters are more likely -to follow in her way,” said the knight. - -“She found a sin and fell: thousands of her daughters have fallen by sins -that men invented and thrust on them. Thou knowest that most women who go -wrong, go in ways they would not without the temptings of the stronger -will. The sin that ruins most is that to woman’s nature abhorrent, until -honeyed over by the tongue of man.” - -“Dexterous lance, art thou, Jew; but, anyway, some women are born bad.” - -“No; I’m not able for one so wise as the knight, unless I’ve the strength -of truth. I’ve heard that our wise men say that if we could trace the -ancestry of any one evil, from birth, we would find somewhere, up the -line, a father, prëeminent in wickedness. Say, women are weak to resist -evil; then, say men are strong to propagate it. Now, which way turns the -scale?” - -“Oh, I say always, dogmatically, if need be, in man’s favor.” - -“Let me see: Eve’s humanity that sinned was out of the finest part of -Adam’s body, and the serpent which betrayed her was a male.” - -“I’ll parry the thrust by asking why the Holy Writings reveal no female -angels? I think there are none.” - -“I’ve a wiser reason, knight. It is this: Man has so foully dealt with -the angels in the flesh that God’s mercy reserves their finer spiritual -counterparts for the sole companionships of heaven, which justly -appreciates these holy, pure and tender creations. Heaven would not be -perfectly beautiful without them and, methinks, can not spare one for a -moment!” - -“Not even to minister to a needy world?” - -“Woman’s life is here, generally, all service, all ministry; her return -to earth after death would be a work of supererogation. God sends back -the male spirits to help restore the world their sex did most to ruin.” - -Then both the debaters laughed out as heartily as they dared, but there -was in the tones of the knight’s laughter a part-confession of defeat. -After a time Sir Charleroy spoke again: “Thou art calm now, after this -diversion, Ichabod; proceed with thy story of danger.” - -“Well, Nourahmal——” - -“Oh, yes, begin again with Nourahmal. Samson was a pretty good man for a -giant, but he had a betraying Delilah!” - -“True enough; but he had also a noble mother. Remember the better, rather -than the worse.” - -“I remember her peers, Mary and my mother.” - -“So, then, when sweepingly condemning all the sex, please except the -mothers, at least of those who may be thy hearers.” - -“Good Jew, I’ll not wound thee!” - -“No pity for me; pity thyself. Such thoughts as thou hast spoken wound -thine own soul. We Jews have an order called ‘Tumbler Pharisees;’ they -affect humility, shuffle as they walk and stumble on purpose that they -may not seem to walk with confidence. Akin to them we have the ‘Bleeding -Pharisees;’ they walk with shut eyes, lest they should see a woman, and, -stumbling against many a post, are soon covered with their own blood, -receiving real harm in flying from imaginary dangers.” - -“‘_Maya, Maya_,’ Ichabod,” laughing aloud, exclaimed Sir Charleroy. - -The latter, catching the knight’s arm, hoarsely whispered: “Hush! Thou -mayst be heard. What dost thou mean by ‘_Maya_’?” - -“Perhaps, Nourahmal! _Maya_ was the reputed wife of the supposed god -Brahm of the Hindus. It is reported that she was in form like unto fog -and her name means ‘illusion.’ A subtle truth, Jew; even a god, in love, -is near a fog bank!” - -“Thou dost not know Nourahmal and dost discredit her; that’s slander; -thou dost know me and ridiculest me; that’s—but—I’ll not say it.” - -“I’d not pain my Ichabod.” - -“Nor discredit Nourahmal?” - -“No; but did this angel, or Syren of thine, having shown the peril, -present a map to a city of refuge?” - -“Ah, poor, helpless girl! she has none for herself, much less for us. She -just told me all and wept and kissed me a farewell, praying me to flee. I -could think of no question in the delight of hearing her say, she hoped -I’d meet her in Heaven, in peace away from Moslem and wars. Only think of -her faith! All new; just a little while ago she did not know there was a -heaven for women. I felt I could die then in peace. I’ve taught one woman -that she is more than a pretty animal!” - -“Then, Jew, to thee, life is worth living?” - -“Oh truly! Oh, if this light could only spread over Egypt and all my own -Syria!” - -“Thy desire is akin to that of Mary’s son and noble. Certain it is that -we can not spread that light by fighting to sustain the fateful Crescent.” - -“By the glory of God, I never will.” - -“Nor I, son of Abraham; so let’s decline.” - -“And go to the slave mart?” - -“Oh, no, not while I’ve a sword, Ichabod.” - -“Then to flee is the word?” - -“The eastern campaigning with the sheik, would be a little longer route -to Paradise?” - -“Perhaps not; I am assured that we are needed of God by the use He -has recently made of us. He will keep us in our flight from bloody -persecuting war, and possible apostacy.” - -“I hate the last word! A knight enchanted of Mary can never become a -renegade; not I, at least. I was born October ninth. Tradition says that -the holy St. John Damascene, having had his hand cut off by the Saracens -that day, was by Our Lady miraculously made whole, and lived long after -to wield a powerful, facile pen in her behalf. I’ll trust my head and -saber hand, used for her, to her protection.” - -“And I’ll trust Him that led the wandering hosts of Moses; for ‘in all -their affliction, He was afflicted with them, and the angel of His -presence saved them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of -old.’ Oh, master, I’ve comfort I can not tell, when I feel orphaned, by -thinking of my Maker, not only as a Father, but as a Mother! God is our -Mother when we, bereft of mother-love, most feel our need of it. So thou -toldst me in the mountains.” - -“True; but shall we try our escape now?” - -“Nay, we had better wait till a little before dawn; the camp patrol is -then withdrawn; then we’ll embrace freedom.” - -“The Jew seems very confident.” - -“Oh, I spent the hour after I met Nourahmal (God keep her), amid the -palms for which Jericho is fitly named, and got a token.” - -“A token?” - -“My eyes were touched in the darkness.” - -“Sweet Nourahmal followed thee?” - -“No, but He that opened the eyes of blind Bartimeus near here.” - -“What didst thou see?” - -“Elisha healing the streams about this palm city, type of God healing -the floods of bitterest fates; after that I saw Jericho’s walls falling -at the blasts of Joshua’s trumpets, and remembered that his God then is -ours now.” - -“Didst thou see two poor men fleeing in the dark from peril to peril, -pursued by a hundred horsemen, who saber-lashed them; a little further -two corpses, one of a Christian the other of a Jew, on which fed fighting -jackals?” - -“I saw no such horror! I saw two led forth from their captors, as Peter -from his dungeon; the angels that blinded the eyes of the monstrous men, -who of old sought to defile Lot’s house, blinded the eyes of the pursuers -of the two; and the angel of Peter gave them guidance and light. But -come, the night-guard has retired; between now and the call to morning -prayers is our opportunity.” - -Out of the old stone stable silently knight and Jew glided, threading -their way amid splendors they believed to be, but could not see. The -ministering spirits were over and around them, their path was through the -Kelt, the sublimest waddy of Palestine; but night shrouded the latter; -their weak faith dimly discerned the other. - -“Can’t thou see any way-marks, Jew?” - -“I discern but few. Yet, what matter? It is enough that He who leads us -sees?” - -“The night is getting blacker and blacker; the omen makes my heart shiver -as it beats.” - -As the knight spoke there came a terrific crash of thunder and a -succession of blinding lightning flashes. Sir Charleroy clasped the Jew’s -arm and in startled voice questioned: - -“Dost thou not fear these?” - -“Why should I? The angel guides swing the torches of the unchangeable -Father to give us glimpses of our way. All is well; I saw by the -lightning flash that we are passing safely the camp lines of our captors.” - -A few miles were over-past. The storm had abated a little, and the first -streaks of dawn, like spears, were rising in the east. - -“Would God, good Jew,” said the now wearied Sir Charleroy, “that the -Prophet of the Moslem, who, near by here, is said once by a stamp of his -foot to have brought forth from the rock a camel, were present to dance -for us now.” - -“He is not here, so we must help ourselves, knight.” - -“Ah, my dear man, canst thou dance rocks into camels?” - -“No, but there are houses nigh, and each thou knowst has it’s stable-yard -in front.” - -“But there is the thorny nubk tree, surrounding the herds.” - -“I’ve faith to try my faith when all I have is faith.” - -“What for; to steal a camel?” - -“Oh, no; I’d not steal a camel but I’d borrow a couple of them. Two; for -I’m not one of the knights who exhibit poverty, by riding double, thou -dost know.” - -“Borrow? Well so be it; the black infidels owe us for two years’ service. -They borrowed us!” - -“It’s pious to take the beasts; for we pay so honest debts of these -heathens and shorten the list of their souls’ sins by removing from them, -in our escape, the opportunity for our murder.” - -“If this be sophistry, Ichabod, it is so sweet that it is taken as -delightful truth.” - -“Thou art persuaded?” - -“No man can out run me, be he rabbi or priest, in condemning vices, if -they be such as I do not care to practice, and I am a profound believer -in every creed that’s sweet to my desires. Here action treads the heels -of persuasion.” - - * * * * * - -On beasts, borrowed without formality, the fugitives hurried toward -Jordan, only there to find a barrier to their progress in the angry -torrent swelled by the recent storms. It was clearly futile to attempt -a passage, and to tarry, waiting the ebb of the waters, was to bring -certain detection. They turned the heads of their borrowed camels toward -their master’s homes and waited the sunrise, meanwhile moving about to -find some means of safety. - -“Well, my comrade, I think it will not be long until those Turks will -give our souls an Elijah-like ascension except that there will be no -chariot. The morning shimmering on his mountain makes me think of this, -Ichabod.” - -“The tracks of our returning camels in the wet earth will guide our -pursuers.” - -“Suppose we climb a tree as Zacchaeus, since we can not have a chariot. -By my plume! which I’ve not seen for a year, I think that would be -safety; the Turks never look up except in prayer, and the wolf Azrael -seldom prays. But God pity us! there they are coming.” - -“To the tombs, master! On the left.” - -“Refuge for jackals?” - -“Yes, but also for the miserable, living and dead! Now haste!” - -Sir Charleroy obeyed quickly, but recoiled with a groan of disgust as -he suddenly pushed against an entombed body. He touched his hilt, as -if determined to abandon attempt at flight, and then, overcoming the -rash impulse to confront the pursuers, turned about, seized the corpse, -and dragging it from its place, hurled it over the river bank into the -torrent. He was in the dispoiled nich in an instant. A cry from the -pursuers drew him forth. “See, Ichabod, the Turks are running along the -river banks watching the mummy bobbing along in the torrent. See, it -sinks. Ah, the brutes, how they shout! They think that body alive, and -that one poor slave is hounded to death.” - -“Jehovah Jeireh, now help us; they’ll soon be back,” cried Ichabod. - -“Ah, I forgot; they’ll remember there were two of us.” - -“Calm, Sir Knight, ‘By this sign I conquer,’ quoting thy words of -another. I’ll go forth; the only one left; at least so they’ll think.” - -Sir Charleroy turned and looked at the Jew, and was amazed to see him -binding in front of himself a board having the ominous words, “Unclean” -upon it. - -“What; thou, a Jew, and touch that foul thing, worn to festering death by -some leper!” - -“Better night and a clean soul, though in a body burned by the cursed -leprosy, than life in Moslem slavery.” - -“But what if the disease cleave to thee, and we escape?” - -“Sir Knight, thou wilt live to tell others that a once hated Jew was led -of thee to truth, and after died a living death, that his benefactors -might survive. I think such deeds cause noble lights to glow in human -souls.” - -“God bless and pity thee, Ichabod.” - -“Ah, he does; even now. I see the scarlet line of Rahab, and it binds the -pestilence that walketh by noonday.” - -The furious pursuers spurred their steeds up toward the tombs, but -as they beheld the solitary man, sitting in painful attitude with -beggar-like palm extended and wearing the dread sign, they rapidly -wheeled their steeds about and galloped away. The Moslem had heard that -a Jew would suffer any torture rather than ceremonial pollution; hence -judged that the object before them could not be the refugee they sought. - -“I wonder not that the demoniac cut himself madly when among the tombs, -good Jew. Sure it’s like going to glory to get out once more. Methinks -freedom is only sweet when taken with fresh air! Well, we are out and the -enemy thwarted.” - -“Methinks, master, that the leper that died here, leaving no legacy but -the sign of his death, did some good in unknowingly making me his heir.” - -“And the corpse I disposed of so unceremoniously left me a house of -safety, though small and musty. I’ve a bitter thought.” - -“So, Sir Charleroy, tell it me, perhaps I can sweeten it.” - -“I, the heir for a little time of that soulless clay, am like it.” - -“Not much being here and alive.” - -“I rather think like it. See me tossed about by strangers, robbed of my -rights, helpless to resist fate’s tides, begrudged the room I occupy, and -not one who once knew me to weep over my besetments.” - -“Sir Knight, the miracles of our frequent preservation should make our -murmurings dumb.” - -In the evening Jordan ebbed a little and the two wanderers passed over. -Nor did they regret the consequent immersing in its flood. No word was -spoken as they passed through the current, for, before they entered, -having remembered that at this Bethabara ford man’s Savior was baptized, -they were each busy with his own meditations. When they stood on the -other shore, Sir Charleroy reverently said: “Comrade, I prayed as we -passed that we might have the dove of peace henceforth above our souls at -least.” - -“I prayed on my part that God would accept the act as the Christian’s -typical burial to the world and separation from its sins.” - -“How like death and birth is that beautiful type. They level all life.” - -“Are our lives leveled? knight.” - -“Henceforth; and we are brethren.” - -“And our King and Savior was baptized here by the herald of His Kingdom, -John?” - -“Yea; here the new Judaism was formally inaugurated. Tradition says also -that Jesus baptized his mother afterward at this ford.” - -“How filial; how beautiful; how expressive! He was her God, yet her -son, she his mother and disciple; and each by all ties and forms bound -together in a fellowship of helpfulness.” - -“The Jew’s an interpreter.” - -“Sir Charleroy sweetens my trust as Jordan sweetens the bitter waters of -Bahr Lut.” - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -THE FEAST OF THE ROSE. - - “They arise now like the stars before me - Through the long, long night of years; - Some are bright with heavenly radiance, - And others shine out through our tears. - They arise, too, like mystical flowers, - All different and all the same— - As they lie on my heart like a garland - That is wreathed around MARY’S name,” - - -“Good morning and a blessing, comrade.” It was the greeting of the Jew -to the knight who lay asleep under a palm the day after the flight. The -sleeper slowly rising, murmured: - -“I’m half vexed at thee, Ichabod; thou hast dissolved a dream filled with -sights of home and mother.” - -“I’ve brought lentils, barley, and grape-clusters; they are better than -dreams when the sun is up.” - -“To those sad when awake, joyful dreams are welcome.” - -“There are real joys just before us.” - -“Real joys, just before us? Grim sarcasm; a sorry jest, Jew!” - -“No; oh, no. I’m telling thee the smiling, clean-faced truth. We’ll be -safe at Jabbock’s city by sun set!” - -“Safe? safe? I’m unused to that word; almost afraid of it. What does it -mean in this country?” - -“Oh, these cavalrymen! always on the charge; now here, now there. Thy -thoughts go by habit, sometimes racing forward, sometimes retreating. A -while ago thou wert as full of faith as Gideon, now thou art as timorous -as Canaan’s spies.” - -“My habits have grown fat by feeding on piebald experiences.” - -“Experience is a lying prophet, when it counts without reckoning God.” - -“I can not see a step ahead. That’s certainty to me, though thou callest -it doubt. I know not how to hang rainbows upon the ghostly brows of the -future when I’ve no power to lay hand on the ghostly form and have no -rainbows.” - -“He that lifted the burdens of the past from off us holds the changing -winds of the future in His fists. One second of life goes ever with -only one second of care. I learned this of Sir Charleroy long ago. Now -he forgets his own teachings. Shall I call him Reuben, never excelling -because unstable as water?” - -“Call me slave: Uncertainty’s slave! Thou didst waken me from a dream of -home, to the shock of remembering again that I was homeless, dead to all -that once made life worth living. The gorgeous hopes of thy fertile mind -are mocked by stern present facts.” - -“Odd talk from one just dreaming of his mother; a good woman didst say? -then very hopeful; all good women are. Then remember how thou didst lift -me to the very gates of heaven yesterday. Thou canst not see a step -ahead? Well, then look back; miles; years. Was not our God in thy battles -in the thickets; in the mountains; in Jordan? My poor reasoning tells -me that He has wrought too much for us to drop us now. He must get His -reward in keeping us to the end.” - -“Some of the past makes me shudder, Ichabod.” - -“Pick out the best, not the worst. We escaped the very Gehenna at -Jericho, following murderers, the storm, slavery; now free, fed, rested, -the eastern air washed and sunned to a tonic. I’m drinking lotus balm out -of it.” - -“There it is; the sun’s in thy brain, poet-preacher.” - -“No, I’m only giving thee back some of thine own sermons. I draw from my -own heart no monster memories. If I’ve fought hard battles it sufficeth -that I have fought them once. I’ll not recall their bloody sweat and -tears for the sake of refighting them. No, I’m going back to the sweet, -happy hours of babyhood; for I tell thee, knight, there is a world of joy -to a man, scorched by stern experience, to forget himself sometimes back -to the lullabys and warblings of the days of his innocence.” - -“I can’t do it.” - -“I can’t help doing it, especially in this place! My whole being feeds on -a present scent of home.” - -“Thou knowest the country hereabouts?” - -“My soul laughs in friendly converse with these crocuses, pinks, and -asphodels, turning the velvet, grassy plains to palace carpets. I’m -saying to myself these blossoms must know me, their bowing heads and -offered odors being my reward for nursing their mothers when I was a boy.” - -“Well, flowers are sincere friends; they never change and are all -charitable. That’s why they are deemed fit presents to those in prison, -or proper offering to be laid on the breast of the dead Magdalene.” - -“Ah, dead Magdalene; for even the symbol of a broken promise; born to -be a queen of love, by perverted love dethroned! Woman, man’s ward, by -man betrayed; the guide star setting in black night; the savior of human -purity befouling all purity! Given the power by which Eve was to crush -the serpent’s head and using it to breed all serpentine ills. This is -Eve turning a volcano upon Eden. Put flowers upon her once passionate, -now dead, heart, in awful contrast! Nature at her worst is intensified -anguish; at her best an ocean of joy, an universe of light and song. So I -learn of nature under man. Listen to nature’s perfumed throb now: these -thousands of feathered songsters, millions of lesser creatures, whose -melody is larger than themselves and more perceptible. Hear the humming, -thrumming, buzzing, trumpetings. Oh, this is life as the All-Saving tuned -it to utter joy! It widens, deepens, thickens; getting sweeter, louder, -happier all the way. A tempest, set to music, knight. I’m caught in its -whirl and join in its praisings. It comes over me as an insight of what -nature really is. God cares for it all and made it thus, to throb and -exult!” Ichabod paused in transport. “But I sometimes think there’s a -great waste of these things; there is so much in places where there is no -human ear or eye to hear or see.” - -“Reuben is narrow-viewed just now. Man is not all! God makes happiness -because He is so full of goodness He must. Our rabbis call Him ‘The -Fountain.’ There is no waste! He makes these things for His own joy, and, -methinks, looks down from the circle of the heavens to say to what is in -the desert or wilderness, ‘Very good.’ Then, beyond this, I’ve sometimes -thought He kept the processions of joy and beauty moving along; coming, -going, dying, living, ending and beginning again, as a sort of practice; -by action keeping all fresh and new. He causes things of beauty and power -to pass through His divine alchemy from one glory to another, as the -general causes his squadrons to move through the evolutions of the battle -before the conflict. The Father is awaiting man’s hour, man’s return -from sinning; the time for millennial advent; then all delights, as if -fresh born, all goods newly harvested, will appear to be multiplied, -intensified, transfigured. That will be the beginning of hereafter.” - -“Oh, Israel, the sun is in thy brain. I forget all logic of contention, -charmed out of words, by feasting on thy orisons, Go on, Jew.” - -“Then I’ll say ’twas God, not chance, nor fate, that brought us to wander -alone with nature. Read well nature’s book that lies open in the lap of -the Great Teacher! Only stand close to Him and He will hold the torch, -turn the pages and give the sure interpretations of the sweetness that -feeds quiet, the picturesqueness which evokes smiles and the stately -grandeurs which beget faith.” - -“Israel, thou climbest the sun-ladder to rhapsody!” - -“Whether soaring, climbing, or creeping, I know not; but this I know, -I’m tasting in these wanderings God’s kisses. They are in the flowers; my -spirit rests on His as my body on the balm of the fresh breezes. Then, -animate nature seems so contented and happy! Why, I’ve been ravished -by the songsters; as I’ve said to myself, they echo the angelic anthem -of heaven, peace. Had any such doubt as haunts thee, come to me, since -passing Jordan, it would have been sung out of countenance by the winged -warblers or dragged from my heart captive in floral fetters by Him that -hath two staves, beauty and bands.” - -“Oh, Ichabod, do not pause. Go on, I pray thee.” - -“Then thou art glad to hear that nature is not a beautiful widow mourning -her dead bridegroom through the ages?” - -“I love to listen to thee.” - -“Listen to a wiser. See those stately heliotropes. They stand above all -of their kind with shining faces; great in aspiration, great in devotion. -All day they turn toward the sun and when their blossoms fade they leave -a hardy seed. The winter may bury it, but it springs forth in vernal -days, strong in the life it won by loving the summer sun.” - -“Ichabod, I’m charmed! Let’s abide here always amid these joys of nature.” - -“What, be hermits?” - -“Yes; life’s troubles are made by its people; the fewer people the fewer -troubles.” - -“While sharing their troubles may we not lessen them. No man may live to -himself; we’re wedded to each other.” - -“Yes, wedded to life. A royal phrase; since I’ve been constantly either -hating or loving it; fearing to live and then fearing to die. Wedded! ah, -ha, ha; the wedded are those who most madly love and then most bitterly -hate.” - -“Say sometimes; then thou’lt be like the stopped horologue, telling the -true time once in twenty-four hours, at least.” - -“Thy poetry runs into caustic quality. What hast thou been lunching on -since morn?” - -“At least not on Dead Sea apples, fair without, ashes within. My poetry, -if I have any, always sings in accord with the company it keeps.” - -“How many more arrows in thy quiver, hast thou?” - -“Only one, and that a question; does my master intend to foreswear -marriage himself? He ridicules it.” - -“I have already done so.” - -“Well, ’tis well thou didst not live in Rome, for its citizens that dared -to live amid the temptations and soul-crampings of voluntary bachelorhood -were highly taxed for their disregard of the claims of society and the -state.” - -“Yet even the Romans ever deemed bachelorhood a blessing. In this opinion -royal Claudius decreed that the sailors who brought to Rome a ship loaded -from the wheat granaries of Egypt in the time of Agabus’s famine, should -be as a reward permitted to remain unmarried. If I were a Roman and a -sailor I’d pray for a famine and a Claudius.” - -“A world without wives? What a world!” - -So saying Ichabod caught up a stick and began marking on the earth. - -“How now, Israel; some sorcery?” - -“No—yet, may be, yes. I’ll picture a world without women.” - -The Jew outlined the Egyptian deity, “_Kneph._” - -“What have we, man or beast?” - -“Truly, I think partly both. The knight has described his Elysium and I -have here pictured a fit king for it. Behold thy god, sworn celibate. -Egypt’s adored Kneph. Is this hideous enough?” - -“A god! well he’s not handsome; a ram’s head; four horns; two up, two -down; armed as both ram and goat?” - -“Both were sacred to him in Egypt; also the horned snake with which -Cleopatra put out her life; poor, unfortunate man-wrecked beauty.” - -“But, Jew, thou dost dawdle! What of this play?” - -“Oh, nothing, only Kneph would do well for a sailor, at Rome, under -Claudius, in famine time!” - -“My poet wanders, but yet stings.” - -“So? Kneph was a god that boasted, or rather his spokesmen did, that he -was the _father of his mother_. What economy! No need to be grateful to -or love a mother; no need to wear a wife on the heart. The folly of a -dark age by folly darkened in the mad attempt to lift up man without his -purer better part.” - -“How strange, Jew, whenever we touch a new belief, or an old one, new -to us, we find peoples following an idea or ideal. There has been a -crying through the world ever for a some one for pilgrim man to follow. -How passing strange; our century wails the self-same cry; and somehow -it always happens that this matter has something to do with woman. See; -‘_Kneph_’ was the monstrous birth of those who thought man superlative, -and greatness to be by being all man. How sharply the devotion to the -Madonna cuts across this! She was mother of the noblest, and man in the -begetting left out. Oh, my head’s full of thoughts, but they tumble along -toward my lips without system or leader. I talk like a madman, though I -think like a Seraph.” - -“I think, Sir Charleroy, that a healthy son of Adam sneering at all -women, publicly, reproaches himself as being one who never knew a true -one.” - -“More javelins! I’d swear, anyhow, that if I’d been Adam, no winged -serpent of gaudy colors and honey tongue could have lured me from -Paradise, Eve or no Eve!” - -“If thou hadst been there thou wouldst have been lonesome with the -speechless herds; finding the new woman, would have loved her like the -boy who mates just to see how it seems.” - -“Oh, likely!” - -“Then if thy ward or angel attempted to elope with the devil thou wouldst -have gone along, too, from curiosity, as lad to a hippodrome, just to see -the finish; or as thousands of men since Adam, tied to wayward women, -have gone down with them to darkness, preferring hell with their idols to -heaven without.” - -“I suppose so. Oh, how strangely are the fates of men and women -interwoven.” - -“Then thou dost not now elect to live a hermit, without the companionship -of the frail, fair and faithful sex which are said to double our joys?” - -“Yes and multiply our sorrows!” - -“I suspect thou’lt change thy late creed very soon.” - -“Why so?” - -“I expect ere long that we’ll meet some living blossoms.” - -“By my token, that’s good news, Ichabod.” - -“So, then, thou art ready to recant?” - -Evening came, and the pilgrims supped on the meager meat they were able -to procure in the fields. - -“Now poet of the Palm Land mellow my dreams by possessing me of thy -meditations. What fixes thy gaze?” - -“The monarch of the sky; after a day such as this has been, he seems to -me to take his departure with a peculiar sort of triumphal sweep of his -trailing splendors.” - -“Horus exulting over prostrate Set.” - -“But night, not the green-colored son of Osiris, conquers now, master.” - -“Night never conquers. It merely lives by sufferance; often routed by -the invincible spears of the sun. Darkness creeps forth here because the -golden charger in masterful strategy has gone elsewhere to rout other -armies of the dark kingdom. Lay this to thy heart, good Jew.” - -“I do, as precious ointment to a blister. Enlarge me.” - -“There, Jew; see the fleecy clouds over Jordan. How grand!” - -“Yea, as I’ve often seen them; some like alabaster thrones, and others -like ships on fire, while others are like silver castles, banded with -cornelian and gold, with here and there hyacinthian shields hung on their -battlements, all fresh as the stones in heaven’s foundation walls! How -they career and float along the empurpled ocean of the west! I forget -myself even now into their midst. Oh, knight, such pictures, such visions -make my soul shout in peals of holy laughter.” - -“My Israel, the sun which woos the earth into making love to him with -flowers never sets in thy brain; thou livest in the poet’s constant noon.” - -“But we both are changing. Even the knight gets mellow. Hardship, the sun -and faith are working in us both for good.” - -“Getting to be? No; thou wert and art poet, painter and singer; all in -one. If the world does not hear thee the Seraphim will, by and by.” - -“I’ve noticed that souls unbent from some long, twisting pain, run, -aspire and play. It is mercy’s rest, reward.” - -“God fits some especially to catch passing joys, Ichabod.” - -“Yea, and it all comes from a serene faith that all is very good as He -made it. I’m just opening to the Sun Eternal, at whose right hand are -pleasures evermore. I love thy wakening touch, my guide.” - -“Ah, I’m a bungling player on the harp of thy soul, but I love thy -melody. Child of nature, speak more and more to me.” - -“I can but ill tell all. I’m dumb amid the waves of peace which enhalo, -the hopes that thrill, the views of truth that fill my being.” - -“I believe thee on my soul, Jew. I’d stop now to remember a little, -perhaps to sleep, since so I can follow dreams that would craze me to -contemplate awake; but if we now sleep, pray God our day-dreams go on and -on. I think we are pilgrims following spiritual truths. They’ll lead us -on high; let’s not miss their direction.” - -“One may sleep, master, when he can not think; for me, now, I’d rather -court, awake, my mind’s guests, for a time, meanwhile gainsaying the -lullabys of cricket and nightingale now floating out from every bush.” - -“So be it. How shall we proceed to pass the time?” - -“Can we set up an Ebenezer? God hitherto hath helped us.” - -“I have it; we’ll to the feast.” - -“Well, we have what some great kings have not, and so shall find joy in a -feast. We have appetite!” - -“Thou dost miss my meaning, though thy point is prime. We seldom think -to thank the Giver for the power to enjoy as well as for the enjoyable. -I knew a French prince, once, who said he’d give his birthright for one -good dinner, and he was no Esau, either. He had dinners and dinners, but -what were they along with premature decay gnawing at his vitals like a -rat, while he himself could eat less than a babe?” - -“I see; the knight would have us thankfully commemorate to-day’s -enjoyment of nature.” - -“Just so; I think, in loving nature, because we begin to understand -her, we will be on our way to all the natural joy of which she is God’s -interpreter.” - -“But our feast?” - -“The stars are out on the blue; their queen will soon come up from the -sea, then I’ll induct thee into the feast of the ‘Rose.’ The rose is the -queen of flowers, and flowers the thoughts of God!” - -“The feast of the Rose! I’ve heard it was a licencious, heathen orgy!” - -“It was then a shameful misnomer. My Mary found it; transformed it. Out -of it, through reverence of her, comes a beautiful observance. See here, -Jew.” - -So saying, the knight took from his bosom a string of precious stones -and arranged them, as they glowed under the moonlight, on the ground -heart-shaped. - -The knight then questioningly observed the Jew. - -The latter shook his head and remarked: - -“I’ve seen such often among the Arabs. They have a prayer for each bead -to be said the night after the death of one of their number, believing -the shade departs not to Hades ’till the prayers are said. Thou dost not -practice their enchantments?” - -“Bah! Never. My gemmed circle has a deeper, holier significance. Each -pendant is to recall to mind some virtue or event in the saintly Mary’s -life. Then there are guilds called, ‘Brothers of the Rosary.’ I belong -to one such; each member is sworn to pray for all the others wherever -scattered. The Turks may have had a praying string, but the Crusaders -have appropriated and applied it to nobler uses.” - -“Tell me more of it, if there be more.” - -“There are but fifteen in my brotherhood.” - -“Only fifteen, no room for me?” said the Jew. - -“Fifteen; to suggest the fifteen great events in Mary’s life; namely, the -_Annunciation_; Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the Mother -of Jesus; the _Visitation_; Mary in the Gospel spirit went quickly to -tell her kinswoman of her promised favor; the _Birth of Jesus_, this was -the crowning joy; then here is the gem that recalls the _Presentation of -Jesus_ in the Temple. Thou knowest, Jew, thy fathers often wondered how, -after all, a lamb, an animal, could stand between offended Deity and man. -Jesus in the Temple was the fulfillment or explanation of the mystery!” - -“Yea, truly, I’ve seen this. Oh, that all my people could also see it!” - -“Then, here is the jewel that reminds us of the ‘_Scourging at the -pillar_’ of Him ‘by whose stripes we are healed.’” - -“Israel reads Isaiah with darkened mind, my loving guide. I’ve seen this. -Oh, that my people could.” - -“Here is the jewel that recalls the ‘_Crowning with thorns_’ of Him that -hath to give, at His right hand, ‘pleasures forever more.’ He wore that -thorny coronet that His redeemed should return with singing, crowned with -everlasting joy.” - -“I’ve felt it; feel it now. Hallelujah!” - -“This one is to commemorate ‘_Jesus bearing the Cross_;’ this one ‘_His -crucifixion_,’ and this ‘_His resurrection_.’” - -“The hope of hopes by our Saducees denied!” - -“Then we have here another to remind us of our Saviour’s ‘_Ascension_,’ -with His pregnant promise of a royal return to take at last His children -home.” - -“Come, Lord Jesus, even so, quickly!” cried Ichabod. - -“‘Wait patiently for Him and He will give thee the desire of thy heart,’ -oh, heir of faithful Abraham!” - -“I weary sometimes, my loved teacher.” - -“So do we, of our brotherhood; but here is a thought of rest; this bead -recalls ‘_Pentecost_.’ We are led of the Spirit, which guides to all -truth and comforts by the way.” - -“But what has all this to do with Mary?” - -“Oh, here are two beads; one reminds us of her ‘_Assumption_’ into -heaven, the other of her ‘_Crowning_.’” - -“Was she crowned?” - -“Yea, in heaven, for the Son of Mary promised to His faithful ones this -exaltation; ‘_I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed -unto me_, ye which have continued with me in my temptation.’ Surely, she -that followed him from the pains of parturition, as an outcast, to the -Cross and the sepulcher, CONTINUED!” - -“I would I could have been there to enter the race for such crowning.” - -“‘He hath made us kings and priests unto God; if we suffer we shall also -reign with Him,’ Jew.” - -“Hallelujah! would I could shout it to heaven; no, I do; but rather to -all Jewry!” exclaimed the Israelite. - -“John was only a ‘voice crying in the wilderness,’ as he thought, but he -was heard at the palace and down the ages. Even now I voice his words in -this lone place.” - -“Thou didst not tell me of the meaning of that black and red pendant,” -said Ichabod, interrupting. - -“Oh, _Gethsemane_, Jesus, the intercessor for the world, ‘who ever lives -to intercede.’ The black sign is of that.” - -“Then I’ve a Saviour in glory praying for me. Oh, this is balm and water -to me! Why do I dare to think of myself as a poor Jew! God pity; no, -forgive me! I, repining sometimes and yet defended in glory; honored by -royal adoption, elected of God, called to kingship!” - -“How we do go up and down; sometimes thou, sometimes I. Now I’m leading, -awhile ago ’twas thou. Yea, we are all dependants; but this is healthful -meditation, Ichabod, and thy confession rebukes me as well.” - -“Is this all of the feast?” - -“Oh, no. Here are some tokens to remind us of Mary’s life; so brief, so -useful. See, here, five gems that remind us of the wounds of her son; -her wounds as well, for the sword that pierced Him pierced through to -her soul also. At each of these emblems we ‘Rosary Brothers’ repeat -the Lord’s Prayer. Last of all, reverently clasping this crucifix, -we sacredly repeat the Apostle’s Creed, the same as I taught thee at -Jericho.” - -“I remember, as I do the water courses, when thirsty.” - -“What think’st thou of all this formality? Is it like the Arabic -mummeries?” - -“No, they are mocking devils, are they not?” - -“I am not to judge of their sincerity, nor their needs, nor art thou.” - -“Master, I wish I could be a Rosary Brother. Methinks it would help my -ambling faith sometimes, if I could touch a token.” - -“He above is all tender of baby faiths that can do no better than amble. -Remember the words of thy own Hosea: ‘I drew them with cords of a man, -with bonds of love, I taught Ephriam to go; taking them by the arms; just -as a mother teaches her babe to walk,’ is it not?” - -“Even so. Does the Rosary help some to walk?” - -“I believe it does.” - -“Tell me more about it.” - -“The Crusaders were the first to call Mary ‘The Rose.’ To almost all -mankind that flower has ever been the emblem of pure, unselfish love, -and when the soldiers of the Cross grew to understand the character of -her that gave the world its Saviour, they could think of no title more -fitting for that queenly woman.” - -“I’ve an Egyptian rosary, knight. See, I wear it on this golden chain, -next my heart, for its safety——” - -“To ward off witchcraft?” - -“Bah! ’Tis a toy in usefulness. I keep it, thinking it may work -incantation with the money-lender, and so save me sometime from -starvation.” Then the Jew laughed aloud at his own wit. It seemed very -ridiculous to him to liken his talisman to the real rosary or its saint. - -“Wouldst thou let me examine it, Jew?” - -The latter handed to the knight a chain and image. - -“Egyptian?” - -“An image of Neb-ta, sister of Isis, the wife of the Sun God Osiris. It -was given me by a Copt priest, whom I saved from drowning in the Nile.” - -“A Copt?” - -“A Copt. He was a professed Christian; but, like some of the ancestral -Egyptians, sought to be right by being a little of every thing. He was -very superstitious, though he thought himself very broad-minded. He was -quite certain that Coptic Christianity was true, though not equally -certain that his pagan ancestors were in faith all false. He thought he’d -be on the safe side by mixing a little of all creeds with his own, and so -he prayed in Christ’s name and also Neb-ta’s.” - -“A pretty fool, Jew.” - -“Yea. He had a story about the goddess, very pretty when not absurd, -running somehow thus: When Osiris was cut to pieces by Set, a type of day -slain by night, I think, Neb-ta went round the world with her widowed -sister, Isis, to gather up the fragments of her spouse. Isis is the -moon above; below, reproduction. She is pictured in Egypt, as all the -female deities, with two eggs and a half-circle at the side, to express -the latter idea. Isis has in her hand also this sign—a cross supporting -an egg, to typify immortality. The old Egyptian priest told me this -sympathetic Neb-ta, if I trusted her, would reward me for saving his -life, by defending my case in Hades. There is a good deal of mysticism in -all this, but I rather prize the gift, since it reminds me that I once -saved a man.” - -“But, Nourahmal? Since thou knew of Mary thou hast saved a woman, Jew.” - -The Jew was silent. The knight continued: - -“These philosophic, inseeing, sign-writing, symbol-making Egyptians were -pilgrims, too; a nation of graal-seekers; after an idea, example. I see -always the huge Sphinx coming before me when I think of them.” - -“The Sphinx! Well, that’s strange. I’d never think of that, unless I -happened upon something very big and very meaningless!” - -“No, no; the people that rocked the cradle of religions in their infancy, -wrought all their theology into that one mighty symbol, to endure and -challenge compare with all that man should find beside.” - -“I do not see how!” - -“The Sphinx faces the East—light!” - -“True!” - -“It can not reach that light toward which it looks, neither could the -Nubians.” - -“All true.” - -“It was part man, part beast; but the upper part was man, and this is -what we think we know, and all of man?” - -“Oh, knight, Phthah, the ‘beautiful-faced,’ ‘secret-opener’ of the Nile -gods has touched thee.” - -“The Sphinx was like man’s thought; too great for words; at least such -words as men can now fit to their lips.” - -“I see; it’s all coming into my mind, master.” - -“It sat still and was silent, but the world went on; the thought it -expressed reached hearts after the men that formed the image had passed -away. The truth lives ever, and can not die until it completes its -purpose.” - -“Thou art a magician, who pleases, astonishes, excites, instructs, and at -the same time plays with me as if I were a pigmy!” - -“It’s not I, but the truth. The Sphinx again! Its hugeness, truth -expressed, appears mighty when placed by our sides.” - -“Tell me where I am! Shall I fling Neb-ta away as a bauble, or beg its -pardon for hanging so much meaning to a fool’s neck?” - -“Vehement! The sun is in thy head!” - -“But shall I sit and look as a Sphinx, or run mad because I can’t?” - -“Be calm, and let me tell thee that the dwellers by the mighty Nile -plagued themselves with lasting darkness when they banished the people -whose leader’s face shone from communion with Jehovah. They clung to -some half truths, left them by the progeny of Joseph, but the half was -dimmed by courted lusts.” - -“But my people had no Neb-ta, no women divinities to leave in Egypt.” - -“No, yet Egypt, aiming to exalt the tender, the beautiful, the mother, -incarnated certain virtues, and lo, a woman deity! It was an effort to -find the ‘Rose.’ The nation was in a vast, serious pilgrimage through all -their dynasties after an idea, a pattern; an opportunity to reach and -to express the best things. I tell thee, Jew, the heathen nations sit -in darkness; this side and that, along the track of time, holding here -and there a torch, waiting through the night whose hours are tolled off -at century intervals, for something, Some One. There have passed before -them like phantoms, gods and gods; man invented, man evolved; but none of -these tarried, none satisfied. Oh, ‘the Isles wait for thee,’ Jesus, Thou -Ideal Man, and also for the true conception of Mary the ideal woman!” - -“For two Gods? Is Mary divine?” - -“Did I say that? Nay, as the child Jesus was subject to her, so she was -subject to the Christ, at last. Christ was the Word, Mary His blessed -echo; Christ the Sun, Mary the Moon that reflected that light, showing -its beauty in woman’s life!” - -“But now, what shall I do with my beautiful fright, Neb-ta, Sir -Charleroy?” - -“Put her away, in mind, amid the galaxies of woman deities; mythical -in all but the pitiful sincerity of the adoration of their devotees -and in the greatness of the truths they vaguely articulated. See, I’ll -interpret: Isis going round the world to gather up the fragments of -her dismembered husband. Woman’s ministry; the restoration of man; -wife consecration to an only love. Then there was not only beautiful -widowhood, second only to beautiful wifehood, but also the spinster -sister. Hail Egypt! Thy Sphinx saw further than our peoples of boasted -civilizations. At our best we never rose so near to a just altitude as to -attempt the deification of the maiden sister, the omnipresent angel, who -mothers other people’s children as if they were her own. Egypt worshipped -motherhood, perhaps grossly, in adoring the earth’s fructifications, but -she did not overlook those pious souls who in a glorious self-abnegation -play waiting-maids to the real queens of earth, the child-bearers. I’d -never tire praising the child-bearers, or all who love them, for they -that bring forth a life are greater than the greatest kingly man-slayer -on earth. The world is upside down; no religion is wholly false that aids -to right it in any degree. Hail, creeds of Egypt, or any other land, -that seek to efface from fame’s pages the names of life-destroyers that -thereon may chiefly shine the names of those who give or save life.” - -“Oh, oscillating Sir Charleroy, thou art just and courtly now.” - -“Praise me, then! Mankind would average better by far than it does if all -were right half the time.” - -“Would I could gather all the threads of to-day’s blessed communings into -a golden band to support over my heart faith’s breastplate.” - -“I can give thee its summary: God, a beauty Creator, out of all things -hideous in His good Providence will emerge the fine, tender and loving. -Neb-ta, Egypt’s ideal, carried the lotus, the flower of unrestrained -pleasure, as her scepter; Neb-ta-like the influences that sway most human -hearts to-day; but the Rose of the world has blossomed. Mary, the flower -of women. They that love and serve, as that warm, red-hearted woman, -shall at last reign in eternal bliss within the ruby walls of the New -Jerusalem.” - -“I’m with the knight, to proclaim thy Rose!” - -“A good profession! It will be well if we remember that woman is as -essential to religion as religion to women. As for man he needs the one -as the interpreter of the other. Therefore, it was that God sent to earth -a flower that could talk.” - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -AFTER EVE, ESTHER OR MARY? - - “Still slowly passed the melancholy day, - And still the stranger wist not where to stray: - The world was sad—the Garden was a wild; - And man, the hermit, sighed—till woman smiled.”—MILTON. - - -The Israelites, along Jabbock, were all aglow with preparation for -celebrating one of their feasts. Sir Charleroy and his comrade journeying -along, in the early morning, were apprised of the advent of the -festivities by the passing near them of a company of maidens, marching -and chanting. The pilgrims drew apart and sequestered themselves behind a -clump of nubt trees that they might observe, themselves unobserved, the -graceful procession of singers. - -“Well, my poet, didst thou conjure up these fairies, or have we come on -the musk-born houri?” Sir Charleroy spoke in an absent-minded manner, -perhaps, with an affectation of a lack of very much interest. In fact, -long privation of the presence of women had somehow rusted from his -bearing, in their vicinage, most of the confident courtier. In a word, -he was now bashful in their presence. He spoke with a small witticism to -subdue, his own embarrassment. His words were unheard, for the Jew was -all engaged in contemplating the passing women. - -In truth, the latter made a striking picture; garbed as they were, in -holiday attire; all young, oriental in beauty, and fresh in face, form -and action. They were rural maidens and that says all. It had been a -long time since either Ichabod or Sir Charleroy had met such types of -womanhood; all free from affectation; all natural and graceful in motion; -a band of women, as sisters, bent to one purpose and that a lofty one, -the proper observance of a joyous, pious, religious ceremonial. - -Presently Ichabod drew a long breath and rapturously exclaimed: “Praise -be to the Patriarchs, my people!” - -“I’d rather say, Ichabod, praise the Patriarch’s daughters, if these be -human!” - -“Ha, ha! flesh, indeed! Our Hebrew maidens celebrating the Feast of -Esther!” - -“Are they praying God for Adams, so that each Esther and Vashti may have -one all to herself? If so, we are part answers to their prayers.” - -“Hush such jest! These be holy maidens, now honoring our Esther. Thou -knowest about her?” - -“Certainly; she was my heroine before Our Lady dethroned in my heart -all others. I was wont to wish I’d been about in Haman’s time. I’d have -aroused that old dotard, Ahasuerus, right quickly. By the sackcloth of -Mordecai, if I’d been the king, the hanging would have put the Haman -family into mourning long before it did.” - -“Oh, how like angels! It’s years since I saw a woman other than as -deflowered by harem life. Heavens, what a spoiler man is at his worst!” - -“Dost forget Nourahmal? But no matter; I admire, and wonder that some -roving band of Arabs, with less piety, or more force than we, does not -swoop down upon these innocents for seraglio prizes. Perhaps these have -the liveried angels about, that are said ever to guard saintly purity.” - -“Doubtless; and besides them, with all the practical providence which -belongs to the Jew, thou mayst be sure that the groves, not far away, are -full of fathers, brothers, lovers.” - -“I wish I were a brother to some of them.” - -“Then thou’dst be a Jew.” - -“I’d forget that in being a lover to the others.” - -“Thou wouldst not change thy faith for a woman?” - -“Now, I’d swear I would not. If like most men, and in love, I’d swear -I would; and then, having gotten my new priestess, in a little while, -backslide and drag her with me, or make her heart weep. My comfort in the -last estate being my consistency, if not my constancy. What a mad rout it -is when religion and love, born twins, cross purposes?” - -“That’s a very true, yet bitter speech. I’ll tell the Hebrew maidens to -beware.” - -“Better tell me to beware, now. It’s the beginning that makes the -trouble. No beginning, then no after folly.” - -The procession glided past and the pilgrims followed at a distance. - -“We are within an arm of dear old Jabbock,” remarked Ichabod, as they -came to a river-bank, later. - -“Ah, ha! my chartless pilot, does the current whisper its name to thee, -in Hebrew? I’d not wonder if it did, since every thing is clannish in -this country.—I hope there is no more swimming for us to do.” - -“Its tumbling waters are full of voices to me, blending with echoes of -things of the past; but one who spoke a thousand times more tenderly than -ever spoke murmuring waters, told me its name, knight.” - -“Nourahmal? No! rather some one of those pious beauties we passed not -long ago. Oh, roguish Ichabod, I remember thou wert away a long time in -the morning after our breakfast of peas and grapes. But, dear Ichabod,” -continued Sir Charleroy, feigning rebuke, “didst thou so soon forget thy -little convert of Jericho? I wonder if thou lifted up thy voice and wept -when thou kissed the maid that told thee the river’s name? Come, confess, -and I’ll call thee Isaac.” - -“Raillery of prime quality, knight; but raillery and ridicule, though -keenly pointed, are generally bad arrows for long range.” - -“Well, no matter. I’m glad thou knowest the place, if thou dost know it. -Who told thee the name of this water?” - -“One with a voice to me sweeter, kinder than that of any betrothed -lover’s ever can be.” - -“Very, very eloquent thou art. Indeed, if we were in Italy, I’d guess -’twas a syren had communed with thee; in France, a Crusader troubadour; -in Rhineland, the water sprite, Lurline; but, being in this wondrous -country of revelations, apparitions, prophets, angels and the like, I -can only as a catechumen, ask thy dulcet informer’s name?” - -“How oddly thou dost talk when thou talkest as a double man; half -sneering infidel; half Christian preacher.” - -“A truce, Ichabod. That may be a home-thrust well aimed, but it’s enough -that one of us be bitter. It’s sometimes natural to me, but not to thee.” - -“A bee-sting will redden the high priest’s brow.” - -“Well, I’ll not sting thee. Who gave the name of the river?” - -“Master, one to me alone of all the world an angel, my mother. I was born -near here, and the memories of a youth made happy by one all patient, all -loving, rises above and survives all changes.” - -“My noble friend, forgive my repartee. I’m glad, truly, that we are so -lucky as to have this knowledge.” - -“Lucky? Then all is not fate; there is some chance, if no Providence?” - -“Pardon more; the bee-sting is still on thy brow. Ichabod, I can not help -my feelings, which sometimes make me think that only God can tread the -hidden, narrow line between stern fate and happy accident. They say the -Sybil wrote her prophetic decrees upon leaves and flung them recklessly -to the inconstant winds. Just so we’re in decreed courses, swirled by -chance gusts.” - -“Yet we two are getting on well together.” - -“So do chance and fate; the pity is to the waif that falls between them.” - -“I wonder how here, in Holy Land, thou canst think of any control but -Providence.” - -“Wonder? So do I. I’m a bundle of wonderings.” - -“Listen to Jabbock.” - -“I do, more attentively than Jabbock to me. What of it?” - -“Grander rivers are forgotten; why is it so remembered?” - -“We’re forgotten, meaner men remembered.” - -“This river sings through the centuries of history the song of a fugitive -of pale heart, who in sheer desperation, long, long ago, seized a -fleeting hope and became a prince, having power to prevail with God.” - -“Ah, Jacob, who worked fourteen years to win a woman. It was, I’m sure, -the woman that nerved him to attempt greatness. Such a woman! Had she -been like our moderns she would have jilted him, or eloped with him, -before the end of one of the fourteen years.” - -“I’ll not tilt with thy sarcasms. It were much better to remember that -he, a pigmy, the night in his soul, as that about him, black as Erebus, -grappled with the mighty, unknown, unseen apparition to find he was -holding Deity. The mysteries of crossing fates and chances are as open -nut-bur compared to that of all weakness prevailing with Omnipotence, my -good master, I think.” - -“But ever after that joust, Jacob was a cripple!” - -“Oh, but remember, as he halted on his thigh the sun rose over Penuel, -‘the place of seeing God,’ by interpretation. He was stronger for his -laming!” - -“A very ‘Timor-lame,’ this prince of great chances and mean ways.” - -“Time and trial repaired Jacob’s spotted soul.” - -“There was much room for the mending, I do vow.” - -“His weightings bespeak some charity. Think; a weak mother, one designing -wife, and plenty of wealth!” - -“Well, ’tis true, these were enough to have undone St. Anthony, if the -devil had only thought to have tried them all at once upon him!” - -“Sir Charleroy swings back to his old bitterness toward women; did he -never love one?” - -“No, not as a lover. I was never tried except by designing coquetries -that nauseated finally.” - -“Perhaps, like most solitary men, thou so revered thyself by habit that -there was no room for other person in thy heart.” - -“I never met one I deemed perfect and available.” - -“Better to have loved some one far from perfect than none. If thy -heart-fount had been once touched it would have set thy imaginations to -weaving halos about the one touching. Thou wouldst have enthroned her by -a love that would have transformed both. She would have become in time -what she was in love’s young dream; while thou wouldst have grown by the -experience to be twice the man thou hadst been—or art.” - -“The sun in thy head is settling down into thy heart, Jew.” - -“Is that so, Charleroy?” - -“Yes, but not to harm; heart sunsets ripen heart fruits; that’s the -reason the autumn suns run low; the low suns ripen. But after all, I’m -not so very miserable in heart. I’ve loved some women; mother and my -Mary——” - -“Filial love, religious love! somewhat akin and blessing him that feels -their mellow, exalting influences; but, oh, Sir Charleroy, they do -not fill completely the heart’s temple. There are places there for -the expression of ruddy, glorious lover’s love. The three make up an -all-comprehending trinity, and fill the man as Deity the universe. -I see religious love in adoration of God’s Fatherhood, mother love -in the tender leading of the Spirit, lover’s love in the priceless -self-surrender of our Saviour. That made the angels sing, and in the -being of each of our race there is room, aye need, of the melody which -only the experiencing of this passion in full can produce. In love-mating -is a wondrous thrill which can be but faintly voiced even by those who -have experienced it. - -“There are other passions which ebb with time, or, being well fed, wax -gross; not so with this one. Inspired by the potencies of life, which -lie at the very core of being, it wells up in rills, rivers and torrents -of pleasurable sensations. Out from the heart it goes to the remotest -members, only to double on its courses and dash again through the beating -heart, heating its flame by its doubling and hasting, making the beatings -wilder by its hastings, and then hasting more because of the wilder -beatings. Of all emotions love is the most tireless. It increases by -giving, grows stronger by action and proclaims the secret of its heavenly -birth, its immortality, by the way in which it deepens and ripens with -every movement of its life. Aye, more, it proclaims itself the power of -the resurrection by the way it transforms the lives it possesses. A man -may be a lout, ever so crude in fiber, but this musical flame passing -through his being, burns up his dross, making him all brave, courteous, -tender, poetic, religious! Yea, religious! If it do not utterly redeem -a sinner possessed by it, it will take him nearer to salvation than -any other power known on earth, except the Spirit of Grace. It is as -the opening of the eyes of the blind man, for it opens the doors of -a new sense to the realizing of a world as new as delightful. As the -thrummings on the harp-strings someway leave a lasting sonorousness -and tenderness in the supporting woods about the lyre, so leaves this -passion, through the beatings of every wave of it, wealth. Its devotee by -it is inducted into exhaustless new realms and possessions, unalterably -secured to him, and at the same time beyond all computation. He ever -gathers treasures, as a prince from incoming fleets, and is made affluent -beyond all counting. He surpasses all in wealth-getting, and yet is -infinitely apart from the littleness of avarice. It is to him the advent -of charity’s full-orbed day. It may be fancy in him, but it’s to him -very real; the world about, as if having learned his secret, seems to -be dressing for the wedding feast, while all things appear to be coming -very confidentially to him to whisper the divine mandate, ‘marry and -multiply.’ He is trusted, yet trusts; leads, yet follows. He is proud -to display, a little, his conquest, but does so with a sort of alert -charming selfishness, which gives notice to the world that he alone is -to wear the chosen one upon his heart. He realizes the paradox of giving -all and receiving all; the mystery of two lives merged into one by an -utter surrender, each to each, which leaves both infinitely richer than -the sum of all their ownings could make either if possessed by the one -apart from the other. Oh, how almost imperiously each demands that -the other shall surrender all and then how great the joy each feels in -leading the chosen mate to surprises at the munificence and completeness -of the giving up of all by the one who just now demanded all. I do not -know the woman’s heart, but can readily believe it far surpasses the -man’s in its consecration, enjoyment and aspiring. I know the man’s, but -my words are ragged in description. I know that this grand passion makes -him wondrously weak and wondrously strong. Sometimes these inner feelings -come nigh overwhelming him; sometimes they fall upon his life like the -musical ebb-waves on resonant shores. I can not word it all, nor is it -strange, since I am speaking of a life of heavenly flights, and best -expressed by voiceless signs, embraces. In love’s hour the man realizes, -as never before, his lordliness and his pride and ambition are fed by a -growing conviction that all the world is small beside himself and his; -proud as a conqueror of untold wealth, he yields to the tender ties -that unrelentingly bind him and crucifies his native roughness that he -may be more like, more worthy her he rules and obeys. He is made finer; -she stronger. Has she virtues, he appropriates them; at the same time, -by the homage implied by his appropriation, makes them to shine more -brightly on the brow and heart of his queen. He touches the fires on the -altar she has erected within herself to love alone, and the altar-fires -blaze until her whole being is illuminated as a temple on fête days. She -puts on his best parts, and then he revels in delight as he beholds his -virtues refined and so beautifully framed. There are times when, like a -mighty anthem, his passion passes over and through him. Then is he nigh -to madness, being in the mood to slay himself, or another doing aught -to check the rapture of the mighty swellings of the music that pours -over every nerve from head to heart, to limb. Then it is he embraces and -kisses and embraces again; as an inspired artist of music, exhausting -himself to prolong this joy, almost materialized. Indeed, I saw one who -said ‘this is tangible music. I feel it; taste it; see it!’ It seems to -thicken the air until I rise unwinged, and yet in a flight that seems to -me as free and brilliant as that of the golden oriole’s. If the enchanted -enchanter be pure and true, she leads her captive king, made tender and -yet more manly by his captivity, surely upward from tumultuous passion’s -sway to the ambrosial table-lands of higher affection where both may -reign tenderly, bravely, hopefully, forever. I tell thee, knight, the -finest spectacle on earth is a man in his prime, creation’s lord at his -best, sincerely, completely in love with a queenly woman. Next after -getting God into a man’s heart, the greatest blessing is the getting of a -woman of genuine parts therein.” - -“Oh, child of the sunny palm land, thou hast imbibed wondrous eloquence. -But thou sayest truly. Now, for the women that are so to queen us men. No -woman that I ever knew of could so intoxicate, transform and translate -me.” - -“One like Eve, the gift of God?” - -“The first woman, like the first man, was pure without virtue, until -tried; then she fell. I think of her chiefly as being a splendid animal, -yet, as Adam was not left for man’s example, neither was she. I still -think Eve passed by in history to be only what she was full proof that -love which rises no higher than to give all to and for that which was -like the fruit of the tempting tree, good for food and pleasant to the -eyes, is not like the love that at last hung on the tree of Calvary. Oh, -child of Abraham, I hear the ‘_voice of God walking in the garden in the -cool of the day_,’ saying to a world of flitting, false ideals, and those -yearning for pilots and patterns, ‘_Where art thou?_’ I don’t know, for -one, exactly where I am, but I’m going forward and upward someway.” - -“Sir Charleroy thou dost dazzle me by thy correspondences and insights, -if I do thee by my pictures. We are quits.” - -“But we’ll not quit. This pilgrim idleness has value. I never knew what -I believed until, thus flung out of life’s hurly burly, I had little -company but my thoughts. There was method of reason in God’s taking His -prophets to lone places, to fit them for understanding the rapturing -visions with which He filled them.” - -“’Tis so, true; but what thinks the knight of Esther, the beautiful -Queen? She’s the idol and ideal in Israel in all times and places.” - -“Wondrous woman! A girl, petted, ill-trained, from poverty suddenly -exalted, surrounded by the skilled intriguants of court, a jealous, -exacting, conceited, harem-demoralized old king for a spouse, she was -then burdened with the salvation of a nation. I’ve so pitied her that -I’ve forgotten to admire how well she did in her trying lot.” - -“Can the world ever have a finer figure or presentment of all that is -womanly? I do not challenge thy Mary, but may I not put the two side by -side?” - -“Israel has two great women in their way. The one, Esther, exemplifying -all sweetness and the mild strength of a suddenly developed woman, doing -grandly in one emergency when great peril and great love aroused her from -only being an entrancing, petted beauty, to be the heroine of an hour. -But she was not tried by the searching test of a lifetime. She never -meets the needs of mothers seeking an ideal. Rizpah, your other grand -woman, was the mother, even the mother of sorrows, of the Old Testament. -It takes these two to make an ideal, and yet the pattern is incomplete. -God walks yet in the garden where men live, with only these two before -them, and ever and anon they hear the unanswerable, ‘_Where art thou?_’” - -“Why, my mentor, master, thou hast touched our Scriptures with the rod -that budded; the whole opens to me as if for the first time. Methinks, if -I were permitted to lay hands now upon one of our sacred volumes, I’d be -fairly overcome by the light that would break out on me from within it.” - -“‘The entrance of the word giveth light,’ Ichabod.” - -“I’m moved, master, along lines I can not turn from, to the one woman of -all, Mary. She is thy ideal queen of hearts?” - -“I’m a pilgrim and follow her, seeing none better.” - -“Then thou wouldst be willing to wed such as Mary?” - -“Hold! This is sacrilegious! I’ll not think of Mary in any such -comparison. Leave my patron saint upon her high pedestal. I save her for -my soul’s health, as every man should save some noble woman, for an inner -enshrining, to be all that woman may be at her best, his beloved, his -inspirer, and yet touching no spring of his life save such as responds -to things of moral grandeur.” - -“Ah, master, I’ve not yet been enamored fully of this woman. I feel a -stranger to her, but I feel the meaning of the finer things thou hast -just spoken. I have the need of which thou dost speak, and my life, like -a babe, often now goes out crying, ‘Mother, mother.’ As we lay, yesterday -night, beneath the quiet firmament, I gazed up and asked a sign of God -in prayer. It was a baby cry I know, but I saw one star that staid and -staid above me. It seemed to be warmed with reddish tintings, and I -thought that its glitterings were proof that it was taking part in some -anthem of the morning stars. Then I dreamed that my mother was in the -star all luminous, holy, happy, looking down in constant guardianship of -her outcast boy! Oh, can a child ever be outcast utterly to mother? Can -it be that she, who so loved me and so loved God, can hate me now, loving -her and loving God as I do? God knows my heart! Will he not tell her -all? Her constant mandate to me was, ‘keep a loyal heart, an undefiled -conscience.’ I’ve tried to do both, but then her soul loathed apostacy. -Does she loathe me for leaving Israel’s fold? My heart all torn, cries -to-day, ‘Mother, mother!’ I’m sure she can not hate me. To-morrow I hope -I shall pray at her grave.” - -Then the vehement Israelite fell on the ground in an ecstasy, utterly -unconscious of his companion, and, kissing the earth as if already he was -by that parent’s resting place, wildly called, “Mother! my mamma! oh, -I’m so lonely, so unhappy! Let me come! God, God, let me go to mother! -Mother, I did it as thou saidst. I’m no leper. I’m not a heretic! I -love thee. I love God. I’ve kept pure. I’ve trusted God’s care in all -my trouble. Mamma, my mamma, let Ichabod embrace thee!” Exhausted and -quivering he there lay. The knight was silent. It was holy ground, and -the whole thicket about seemed to be glowing with the fire that burns -without consuming. - -The travelers were encamped again under the sky, and it was now night. -A shooting star sped through the constellation of Orion and fell down -toward the Dead Sea. - -“An omen, Jew.” - -“Explain, brother knight.” - -“Life; bright, short, ending in gloom.” - -“Look at the fixed stars.” - -“They preach fate.” - -“Perhaps, but they have the majority. Few fall; I think, too, Someone -holds them.” - -“Thy hopefulness colors thy faith.” - -“Thy murmurings run toward final madness, knight; the Rabbis, good men, -so taught me.” - -“If one star falls may not all? If Providence hold them, why does one -escape?” - -“Thou hast heard that the giant Orion having lost his eyes, afterward -regained his sight by turning his sockets toward the rising sun; that -meteor we saw shot through the constellation Orion. Look up.” - -“A happy simile and pungent thrust, Jew.” - -“He that sent the lightnings to show us our way out of dread Jericho, -most likely now commissioned some angel to swing a meteor across the sky -as a torch or beacon for our guidance. The trail of flame teaches me -that God is writing His royal signature on some great message.” - -“This world is too vast and too thronged with insignificants, such as we, -for such especial carings on God’s part. There are too many kings, too -many shepherds, too many follies for Him to constantly watch any one or -two.” - -“Backward, forward; now good, now bad. What a charging, changing knight! -Pray God to get thee right and then fix thee.” - -Their converse was interrupted by a prolonged trumpet blast, echoing from -hill to hill. Sir Charleroy sprang to his feet and clasping his sword -hilt, cried eagerly, “We’re ambuscaded!” - -“No, by the glory of God, ’twas the temple call! How grand it sounds away -in this wilderness!” - -“No, no, Jew, I’ve heard that call; this one had six responses.” - -“’Twas echo’s magic! Didst thou not notice how the sound spread as it -traveled in a sort of sheet of melody? Then it rose and fell from low -hill to high. One blast; seven responses. Nature proclaiming against fate -and chance; the covenant number.” - -“I’m not so confident that it’s a miracle; what if it were some Mamelukes -or Druses, planning one of their pious immolations of heretics with us -for the victims?” - -“Nay, brother, It’s ‘_Purim_’; that feast is now due, and always begins -at early starlight. I know it. Come, I’ll put it to the proof.” - -“Hold; poets are more rash than knights in a charge, but not so skillful -in retreat! Whither wouldst thou?” - -“I’ll spy out the trumpeters and report.” - -“Not alone. I’ll go, too. This camp will care for itself if they beyond -be friends; if enemies, why then, without consulting us, they will care -for all we have. But this,” said the knight, toying with his sword, “was -blessed by a priest to preach to infidels.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -THE FEAST OF PURIM. - - -Stealthily Ichabod, followed by Sir Charleroy, approached the place from -which the trumpet call had sounded. The foliage was dense, the necessary -way somewhat winding, and these circumstances, together with the fact -that it was expedient to move with great caution, made the progress -of the explorers very slow. The last ray of day had faded, sung away -by the evening bird and insect chorusers, whose concert strains, like -the vanishing notes of æolian harps swept by dying breezes, were now -blending, without a line to mark the place of transition, into the lull -of the night. Nature’s lullaby to tired, drowsy life. It was a witching -hour in the woods, and the scene that lay just beyond the pilgrims in an -opening by Jabbock was an enchantment. The river, reflecting the moon -rays and the lights of torches borne by many intermingling feasters, -flowed silently along like a stream of mingled silver and fire, while -tree and shrub along its sides, as green as green could be, bore as -fruits lights of many colors. In the opening, surrounded by beacons, -banners and the lamp-bearing trees, the beauty as well as the center of -all was a magnificent patriarchal tent, made of costly materials. About -the pavilion were mounds of earth, elevated upon high tripods, seven -in all, in symbols of the seven temple candle-sticks. On each mound -there blazed a fire fed by resinous faggots, and the lights of the fires -falling upon the folds of the tent, caught up here and there by bands of -blue and gold, made the whole glisten like jeweled silk. - -“Hallelujah,” with suppressed joy, exclaimed Ichabod, “the tabernacle of -God with men!” - -“Hush, rash man, and watch!” rebukingly replied Sir Charleroy. - -“Watch? Why, my soul is in my eyes. I’m as one famished for years -smelling a feast!” - -As they looked on the beautiful scene, they perceived that the front -of the pavilion was lifted up and stretched forward as a canopy over -an altar, richly decorated with twined olive branches and blood-red -blossoms. A little way off, and yet partly encircling the altar, were -little walnut trees, each tree having on its branches glistening lamps, -half hidden by wreaths of hollyhocks and asters. - -The moon sank behind the hills; the night darkened, but the fires and -lamps burned still more brightly. - -“It’s like fairy-land, Jew,” after little, spake Sir Charleroy. - -“More beautiful, knight. Wait and see.” - -There was a burst of music, instantly followed by the entrance of youths -and old men; some singing, others vigorously playing ugabs, reed-flutes, -and tambourines. Somewhere near, though unseen by the watchers, were -happy women; they recognized their voices in refrains, choruses, and -merry peals of laughter. - -“Well, this is not warlike, but what is it, Jew?” queried Sir Charleroy. - -“Wait a little.” - -There came a commanding trumpet blast. Its tones died away in the -melody-waves of a score of viols, managed by unperceived musicians. Then -silence; presently the huge blue curtain that hung across the tent, just -back of the outstretching front canopy, parted, and there emerged an aged -man of stately form, wearing an Aaronic mitre and priestly robes; rich as -well as ample. He paused before the altar a moment, as if in prayer, and -then suddenly the air far and wide quivered with a sound like a cyclone -hail. There were also cornet blasts mingling therewith. - -“Heavens, Jew, explain!” - -“Selah! These the drums and waking clappers; the signal to be given. Now -for ‘Purim’ in earnest.” - -The groves about seemed to be alive and moving, for from every direction -toward the center gathered men and boys, bearing palm branches and -torches; these, as they advanced, moved with speeded pace, presently -they were in a perfect maze, the music of every kind growing louder and -louder, then seeming to die away. - -“They’re carrying the edicts of Ahasuerus to the Jews to defend -themselves, master.” - -“A fine play, Jew!” - -Now the blue curtain parted again, and from the pavilion emerged another -stately form, in all except that he lacked priestly robing, the very -counterpart of the aged man first at the altar. - -“Glory to Shaddah! again I see the holy brothers, Harrimai,” cried -Ichabod. - -The second patriarch motioned silence; all in the assembly bent their -heads in breathless attention and the patriarch spoke: “Brethren of -Israel, hearken and give God all the glory who this hour permits us, His -chosen people, to celebrate in peace, with joy, our glad Purim feast. -This day, Jehovah granted me the most wholesome comfort of hearing from a -pashaw of our scourge that the last of the armies of the Moslem, beaten -by want and internal discord, were melting out of our land like fog -banks before the rising sun. He certified to me for a handful of barley -(for which he had come to stand in need) that those hated cross-bearing -invaders, the knights, were gone, never to return. So God has worked in -our behalf as in the days of Esther, setting our enemies to destroying -one another and then compassing the slinging out of His holy places, the -abominable remnants. So may His thunders, as of old, forever beat on the -heads of all who lift themselves against our Israel!” - -There was a murmur of applause; first like the buzz of the noonday -insects of the groves, then like a careering hurricane. The applause -swelled up, drowning all sounds, causing the fires to flicker and flame, -making the pavilion’s sides sway and wave as if all were feeling the joy -present. The musical instruments quickly now caught up the strain of the -cheery voices, and all was in a perfect whirl of excitement with one -thought, ‘praise.’ It was free and fluent, because it came from hearts -practiced in the ultimate swings from joy to sorrow and then from sorrow -to joy. For half an hour nearly, the rhapsody continued, nor did it -temperate until sheer exhaustion fell on the revelers. - -Presently, after an interval of comparative quiet, there came a flourish -of cornets and a roar of the rattling clappers. It was a signal followed -by the uplifting of the old priest’s hands as if in benediction. All -heads were bowed; some of the congregation knelt, and then he spoke in -sonorous, yet soothing voice, words of benediction: “Blessed art thou, Oh -Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hath wrought all miracles for our -fathers and also for us, at this time.” - -Then the people stood up, and the second patriarch, advancing to the -front of the altar, began reading from the holy _Kethubim_ of the Jews, -the story of the Purim. At each mention of Esther’s name the congregation -murmured “how beautiful is goodness;” at each mention of Haman’s name -all in the congregation stamped their feet, also making gurgling noises -with their throats, to imitate the false prince’s strangling; the whole -being made more hideous by the shriek of discordant cornet notes and the -springing of rattles. - -The foregoing scene suddenly changed; a procession of maidens, in -graceful evolutions, emerging from the surrounding groves, presenting a -living picture, really entrancing. They were all richly robed in garments -of graceful flow, caught round their waists by flowered girdles. Some -wore sashes of jassamine, while others were crowned with lilies or asters -or violets. Their arms and ankles were clad only with circlets from which -pendant bells gave forth music at every motion. Seven of the foremost -maidens bore lamps; behind each of these followed one with a harp; behind -each harper two with tambourines and cymbals. Seven times this maiden -train, with a step in time, half march, half dance, waltzed around the -canopied altar. Then were given seven cornet blasts, the procession -leaders waving their lamps with each blast, after which there was -perfect silence. Now the old priest moved forward a little toward the -procession; the congregation meanwhile gathering in a semi-circle, just -outside of all, and he addressed the assembly: “Brethren and children, I -would speak to you a little of the ‘Virtuous Woman.’ Daughters of Israel, -hearts of homes to be, hopes of the nation looking for a Deliverer and -deliverers yet to be born; hear me! Israel knows no queen of all womanly -perfections like unto Esther, the beautiful. Evermore take her for your -meditation by day and your dreams by night. Then shall you all realize to -yourselves, your fathers, brothers, husbands, all that the holy Proverbs -of our _Kethubim_ declares of the true woman. Then the priest taking the -parchment, solemnly and in mellow tones, read the last chapter of the -book, ‘the birth-day chapter,’ a verse prophetic for every day of the -longest month, as the Jews believe.” - -When the reader ceased, the encampment was dim, many of the lights having -been quenched. Then the congregation joined in chanting a soft-aired -Jewish hymn. - -“The devotions are ended; now for the sports;” so spoke Ichabod; the -first words spoken between him and the knight during their observation -of the last part of the proceedings before the pavilion. He had scarcely -made the announcement when the second patriarch appeared, dressed in -somber black, leading by the hand a maiden of wondrous beauty, wearing -also black, in heavy trails; on her head a golden crown. As they -appeared the applause as at first burst forth, but now blended with -distinguishable cries of “Hail Esther!” “Hail Mordecai!” - -“It’s the play, knight. Watch that pair.” - -“No fear, Jew, such a wondrous beauty! Had I been Haman and she Esther, -I never could have crossed her. Heavens, Jew, it is well said the people -of promise produce the most beautiful women of earth. That’s why Deity -elected one of them, through whom to be incarnate, I think.” - -“I think I heard the knight say, awhile ago, that the revolution of all -religions was to come when men’s admiration for women rose far above -rapture over outward form. Is it not so?” - -“Ah, it’s thy remembering and my forgetting that keeps us crossing each -other! But no matter; am I looking at an angel or not?” - -“That’s the priest’s only daughter; his idol, ay, the idol of every youth -in all these parts of Israel. No nation can be dead while it produces -such flowers.” - -Suddenly the camp blazed with re-illumination, and then began a carnival. -Games and dancers were everywhere. Some, evidently men, were dressed as -women, and others, evidently women, were garbed as men. For one season, -Purim, the command against the interchange of garments between the sexes, -was suspended. Each reveler carried a little box. If he asked a favor -or a question, the reply was a challenge to try lots. Partners were so -chosen, tasks given and predictions made. Laughter was everywhere, and -wine was flowing. - -“Ichabod, I haven’t tasted wine since Acre! Why dost thou not introduce -me yonder?” - -“Wait; they will all be mellow, soon. They may be, too, for it’s a law -that a Jew is not deemed drunk at ‘_Purim_’ so long as he can discern -between a blessing for Mordecai and a curse for Haman.” - -“Heavens! how they do imbibe.” - -“It’s natural for doves to twitter after a thunder storm. They remember -the past troubles.” - -“Ay; but I fear they will consume all the beverage before we are with -them. We have had plenty of trouble; now take me in to twitter with those -doves.” - -Ichabod started, as if to lead the way, and then drew back and moaned, -“no, no; it cannot be. I’m forever anathema here, to them! I could bear -their hate, not their contempt. They may call me renegade, but never -spaniel nor hypocrite! If I appeared among them they would soon know, if -they do not already, that Ichabod is changed. Then they’d sneer and tell -me that I tried to play double, or thinking my people’s faith not good -enough for me, I yet hungered for their feasts. No, no; it must not be! -To-morrow, I hope to pray at my mother’s grave. I’d choke then if I had -to remember I’d done aught that she, living, would have thought mean.” - -“Now, I’ll not persuade thee, Jew, but go alone.” - -“That’s reckless! thou mayst regret it. They may become riotous, being -half drunk, and beat thee as a Haman. No, stay away.” - -“No dissuasion, Jew, but just change garments. It’s the fashion -to-night.” The Jew complied, remarking as he did: - -“Will the knight wear this leather thong?” - -“Heavens! no, nor the brand on thy neck.” - -“Christian knights commanded me to wear one, and burned into my flesh the -other years ago; they deemed it necessary to mark all Jews for hatred.” - -“Dear Ichabod, I never counseled branding any man!” - -“I believe it. I have forgotten all bitterness about these marks and have -borne them as my cross. - -“But, Sir Charleroy, don’t wear thy cross in their sight!” - -“For once, I’ll cover it.” So saying he hid the emblem. - -The comrades parted, and Sir Charleroy quickly found himself by the -maiden who personated Esther. He approached unnoticed until he pleasantly -said: “Queen of Shushan, a man out there behind a clump of Sharon roses, -played me a game of lots. I lost the game, and he has put it on me to -come to the Queen to fix the forfeit I shall pay.” The maiden turned her -head haughtily and examined the speaker from head to foot with repelling -gaze. It was her way of freezing off the amorous swains who constantly -aimed to pay her court. But when her eyes met those of the self-possessed -stranger, she gave a little start. Perhaps she caught sight, by some -omen, of her fate; perhaps she felt the magnetism of the strong will -which for the first time presented itself. In any event, it was the first -time she had ever been alone, face to face, with such as he; a stalwart -man, all reverential, yet all self-possessed. They were well matched, and -they both felt it, intuitively, instantly. - -“Who art thou?” - -“A child of God.” - -“Of Israel?” - -“By faith, most holy of Abraham’s seed,” responded Sir Charleroy. - -“Thy speech bewrayeth thee as lacking our shibboleth.” - -“I’ve been a life long wanderer. Thou wouldst not reject one whom -involuntary exile had robbed of tokens?” - -“But I can not be free with an uncertified stranger. I’m afraid I err in -tarrying here ’till now.” - -“Hospitality is the boast of pious Hebrews who obey Him that ‘loveth the -stranger in giving him food and raiment.’ Thou hast the Great Father’s -law: ‘Love ye therefore the stranger, for ye were strangers in the land -of Egypt.’ Some have by hospitality unawares entertained angels, thou -knowst.” - -“I’d like to entertain an angel; are they ever so human-like as thou?” -she smiled. - -“Had I known the Esther of to-night long enough to convince her that my -freedom was sincere, I’d say that she was a fine example of the union of -the angelic in the human.” - -The maiden laughed. The incense was agreeable, and the freedom of this -feast-time justified her acceptance of this novel, bold flattery. Your -proud, daring woman is very vulnerable to such assaults. The world -often wonders why such women so often, after all, surrender; but that’s -because the world does not appreciate the dexterity in such jousts of -such skilled men of the world as Sir Charleroy; or how grateful to -self-admiring beauties the admiration of superior intellects is. - -“Well, will thou give me thy name?” - -“Certainly. For to-night, Ahasuerus?” - -“A presumptious jest, sir.” - -“No, for I admire and respect Esther, that’s here.” - -“And then?” - -“I plead for help; gain me admittance to the festivities, and escape from -inquiry further, as to my identity.” - -“And afterward, be called by my people brazen by thee, a little fool!” - -“Art thou driven from right, the claim of hospitality, by fear of a lie?” - -“What if thou wert a Bedouin spy, or a hated cross follower?” - -“Thou art a noble hearted maiden.” - -“Ah, who told thee so?” - -“Thy face.” - -“What is that to thee, if true?” she blushed a little. - -“Could’st thou drive from thy bosom a fleeing kid, there seeking refuge -from pursuing lions?” - -“I do not know ’till tried. Thou art at any rate no kid; there is no -lion. If thou desirest refuge, see the path of departure is the one by -which thou cam’st hither.” - -“Well, then, farewell.” - -The knight made as if he would go, but he knew he would not. The motion -gave him excuse for looking sad, and he knew that next to a handsome face -a sad one most easily conquers a woman. - -“Tarry a moment ’till I think. Can I trust thee?” she was hesitating. - -“I’ve trusted thee, and that’s ever the best proof of fidelity.” Women -like to think they are especially trusted. - -“Well——but, see, my father comes; there’s no time for argument; let me -speak!” - -As the aged priest drew near, Esther saluted him, and said, “Father, let -me take this Galileean stranger to the youths and their games? He claims -our hospitality.” - -The priest, wont to be on the alert, was disarmed by the magic word -hospitality; then, too, for a long time before, having been wifeless, he -had been wont to put his daughter forward, according large confidence to -her; hence his reply: - -“If thou knowest him, Rizpah.” - -“I do.” - -“Welcome, brother, what is thy name?” said Harrimai. - -Rizpah, his daughter, quickly made reply, “Ahasuerus, and I’ve laughed at -the _coincidence_ until he has been ashamed to repeat it.” - -“’Tis strange, surely, and not like a Jewish one. I must examine the -family rolls to-morrow. Peace be unto thee, son,” and the old man turned -toward his pavilion. Esther plucked a lily from her crown and handed it -to Sir Charleroy saying: “Here, king, a token.” - -“Of what?” - -“Shushan; in our tongue, the name of the flower signifies ‘surrender.’” - -“They say, Esther, that Judith wore a crown of lilies when she -assassinated Holophernes. Is there any danger to me impending?” - -“Thou hast a lily. It is said to ward off enchantments, too.” - -“I am enchanted. I do not want to awaken. In Egypt they call this the -lotus, flower of unrestrained pleasure.” - -“For now then, we’ll call it lotus.” - -“All gods, even Osiris, bless thee, Esther.” - -So the twain were charmed comrades, till watch fires were dim and the -palm shadows were creeping in, like funeral attendants, to carry away -the spirit of the dying revel. Here and there was heard anon the voices -commending this one and that to pleasant slumbers. The stars were -withdrawing behind dawn’s feathery curtains, and over all, at intervals, -was heard the voice of the chanticleer, triumphantly proclaiming the -coming day. - -Charleroy and Rizpah were left alone with each other at the end of the -last game. - -The maiden gave a coy, furtive glance and tardily drew away from the -knight. The language of the drawing-room of the day, is as old as the -centuries, and that maid of the wilderness used it as finely as a queen, -to say without words, “it’s time we part; please say so first, nor leave -to me, the hostess, the first suggestion of a wish to have thee go——” - -Still the knight spake not. - -He was delighted and averse to breaking the first pleasure spell of years. - -The Jewish maiden, with fine courtesy, renewed the subject: “King, -methinks, thou art anxious to exchange the grove for the palace.” - -“I can never think of weariness when restful Esther is nigh.” - -“But thy life is precious to thy subjects; care for it, and go with -freshness to to-morrow’s cares of state.” - -“Ah, queen, I too keenly realize that with thy departure my kingdom fades -to nothingness.” - -“A truce, my liege.” - -“Granted, and any thing else, to the half of my kingdom.” - -Rizpah startled the birds in the shrubbery to premature morning song, -with a merry laugh. It was a finishing charge, that laugh, by which she -carried her point, for the knight quickly questioned “Why this?” - -“I was only thinking how odd thou wouldst appear if thou didst wear away -my pepelum. Thy subjects would think their king mad, if he met them -veiled as a woman.” - -“Pardon, queen, I’ve been so absorbed, I forgot myself—” So saying, -he gracefully transferred from his shoulder to hers the shawl she had -permitted him for the night to wear. As the maiden adjusted it, something -fell out of its folds, glittering to her feet. - -“Findings keepings;” she laughed, and stooped to pick up the object. As -she arose she turned it slowly toward the setting moon the better to -inspect the find. - -The knight was alarmed, but it was too late to prevent her examination -now of his Teutonic cross and chain. - -At a glance, Rizpah saw it was an emblem, of all others, hated by her -people, and with a low, startled cry she made a motion as if to hurl -it from her, but she checked herself with a powerful effort; suddenly -turning her black, piercing eyes upon her companion she took a step back. -She stood there the embodiment of an imperative question. - -The knight quietly said: “Be calm, dear maid.” - -Over her countenance passed a cloud which to the man all too plainly -said: “How darst thou use such terms to me?” and then the face hardened -again to imperative interrogation. - -“Thou trustedst me four hours ago, under the lotus, try now my sincerity -by any sterner test.” - -Turning her eyes full on his, with a voice without a quaver, but in -deep, measured tones indicative of suppressed emotion, she questioned as -she held out toward him his emblem, “What’s this?” - -“Concealment from thee, having trusted me as thou hast, would be futile -not only, but hateful; thou knowst the meaning of the sign.” - -“Who art thou then?” - -“A Christian knight!” - -“An enemy of my people everywhere; a spy here!” she exclaimed. - -“No, never a spy! a true Christian knight never was such! Our warfare is -open and equal. I’m degraded by the defense from such an odious charge!” - -“Why debate thy methods; ’tis enough for me to know thou art a foe to me -and mine.” - -“No enemy of thine, but rather the friend of all humanity, woman.” - -“Bloody friends I’ve heard!” - -“No! Each one of my order is sworn, by awful vow, to protect the -traveler, the poor, the weak and woman with our last drop of blood! If we -two were all alone here and one of our lives must be forfeited to save -the other’s, mine would joy to go first.” - -“Words are cheap, and thou can’st use them finely, knight.” - -“Thou knowst, maiden, to what that cross alludes.” - -“The Nazarene Imposter!” - -“His followers revere Him?” - -“Like madmen, they follow their phantom!” - -“Didst ever hear of one wearing that sign, being untrue to it?” - -“No, it’s their dread black-art.” - -“Wouldst thou trust me if I swore by it?” - -“I might; but I’d fear that devils would flock out of the airy deep to -witness thy vowing. Spare me that horror!” - -“Maiden, thou’lt craze me by thy distrust and wild words. In God’s name -tell me what to do!” - -“Swear, but wave back the evil spirits, if thou art wont to have them.” - -“That sign is their lasting terror; but the silent palms and the stars -alone shall witness, ay, the God of all, as well. Here, make thou the -words as thou wilt. Now, I kiss the cross I love, and am ready. He suited -the action to the words. The maiden drew near to him, looking down into -his eyes searchingly and seemed assured by their serene frankness.” - -“Go on, Rizpah, I’ll bind my soul with any words coined, and, remember -that I believe that perjury would consign me to misery untold here; -eternal woe hereafter!” - -“I’ll trust thy solemn asseverations; they say that a superstition on the -right side will make even a Philistine bearable. Repeat, ‘I swear never -to harm any of Rizpah’s kin or clan, except in self-defense.’” - -He complied. - -“Again, ‘I swear to depart peacefully at once, and no more seek -companionship with the people this night met.’” - -He complied, but murmured “cruelty.” - -“And how?” she questioned. - -“Wilt add a little?” - -“Add what?” - -“Add this ‘except by permission of the one ordaining my vow.’” - -“It is so fixed.” - -“I then swear it all.” - -“Well, now go,” and she pointed to the hills. - -“I obey, but yet plead delay.” - -She hesitated and fell from being master to being mastered. - -“Why, what benefits delay?” - -“Oh, woman, I yearn as only a lonely heart can, to enjoy a little while -the fellowship and hospitality of thy people! For years homeless; for -months friendless, I’ve come to feel worthless. This is the first bright -hour in my life for many a day. Perhaps, maiden of Israel, thou mightst -make life worth living to me.” - -It was a charge on her sympathy, and he knew it would succeed. - -“A Crusader, ‘one of the armies of God,’ boasting a divine call to -conquer and convert the world, so talking?” - -“Our armed crusades are ended forever; my occupation’s gone.” - -She had hesitated, now she pitied the man, and woman-like, again -surrendered while she protested. - -“I do not think there could come great harm from thy staying until -sunrise repast.” - -“Bless thee, the nine sun gods bless thee, Esther.” - -“Heathen!” - -“Well; an Egyptian-Christian-Jew taught me to say this when too cheerful -to be solemn, and pious enough not to be frivolous.” - -“An Egyptian-Hebrew-Christian! He must have been an Arab. That -name means the ‘mixed.’ But go to the men’s tents; to-morrow -I’ll have more wisdom. Peace and grace to thee; good night, -Christian-Heathen-Hebrew-Arabic-Egyptian!” She laughingly spoke and the -unbending made the knight, bold. He addressed her: - -“I’d sleep in perfect peace, if Rizpah would give me a token.” - -“I? what?” and the maiden drew back, offended. Her innocency remembered -no token then, but such solicited by her maiden friends, or given at -times to her father, a kiss. - -“Place thy hand in mine, Rizpah.” She quickly complied, glad she was -mistaken, as to her suspicion and blushing within, as she thought how -strangely, easily, her mind had had the thought, “Well, now what, knight?” - -“Promise me that while I’m permitted to tarry among thy people, I shall -have thy heart’s friendship; as freely, as loyally bestowed as if I were -thy brother.” - -“Canst trust me, a woman, a girl, almost a stranger?” - -“I trust thy woman’s heart as Joshua’s men of old trusted Rahab, a wreck, -but still a woman. Thou art infinitely more noble than she.” - -“But men think us weak, fitful, garrulous.” - -“Responsibility makes the weakest of thy sex heroines and pity is the -gateway to their hearts. Thou hast my life and my happiness as thy -responsibility; dost pity me?” - -“Yes: go now. A Gentile hater of my people shall see of what metals -Jewish maidens are.” - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -ASTARTE OR MARY? - - “Who could resist; who in the universe? - She did breathe ambrosia; so immerse - My existence in a golden clime, - She took me like a child of sucking time, - And cradled me in roses. Thus condemned - The current of my former life was stemmed: - I bowed a tranced vassal.”—KEATS. - - -The Teutonic Knight of Saint Mary, through all his changing fortunes from -the time of his knighthood’s vow, preserved his moral integrity, his -loyalty to the lofty pattern of life set forth by the Queenly exemplar, -Mary, the mother of Jesus. Crusader days had so far improved his life as -to make him the outspoken denouncer of all impurity of life. He thought -his creed and his committal thereto complete. A change came over him. He -that, in the storm of battle, had often cried as his law and his delight -“_Deus Vult_,” “God wills,” now feared to seek to know, much less to do, -that will. The intoxications of a new love were upon him; unconsciously -he was suffering his queen to be veiled, eclipsed; and he yielded to the -tide that swept him toward the Jewish maiden. Sometimes his conscience -smote him, but he parleyed with it, called it a fool, or placated it by -the assurance that this whole matter could be stopped any time at will. -Like many another man, forgetting all else except that he was a refined -animal, he passed away from the beacons of Bethlehem to the chambers of -Imagery, the gods of Egypt. In chains of roses, though with many fine -Christian sentiments on his lips, he went heart first, head first, into -an utter committal of all his being to the possession of his enchanter. -He expected to regard the laws of the land and society, but nothing -more. He was led by his tempting spirit to Ramoth Gilead, now sometimes -called Gerara or Gerash. There it was that Rizpah’s family took up its -abode. With them, and of them, was Sir Charleroy, a welcome guest, his -welcome secured by his own personal efforts to please, in part; but more -through the _finesse_ of Rizpah, who having promised to be a sister, was -permitting her mind to wonder what he might become if only her friend -were a Hebrew. Such day dreams were sinless, but impolitic if she really -meant to keep herself free and painless, when the parting time came. But -it so happens that the questions and problems of the heart are thrust -ever on life when most responsive, least experienced. The wonder is not -that so many decide them ill, but that youth so pressed, so ardent, so -callow, as a whole decide so fairly well the master social problem. The -life of Harrimai and his following was very Jewish at Gerash. There was -an unusual amount of national pride evinced in that locality for the -times. Sir Charleroy was interested deeply in the place because of its -splendid ruins, he said, but as need not be explained, chiefly on account -of its natural beauties amid which Rizpah was peerless. The Israelitish -colony revered the place for its ancient part in Jewish history, and -because they believed no Moslem invader had ever defiled the place. The -knight and the Jewish father and daughter were in frequent companionship. -They were becoming very intimate, meanwhile gaining power each to make -the other eventually very miserable. - -Rizpah was pushing out in a new experience to her. If she were enamored -she did not fully know it. She only knew that the knight’s companionship -was very delightful. If she had any misgivings as to the propriety of her -course she silenced them by saying to herself: “Sir Charleroy has sworn -to leave us forever when I say he shall. I can end this matter any time.” -She thought she could, but the shield of her safety was already too heavy -for her. She could not have said go, had she tried. Time deepened the -perplexity by multiplying the enmeshings of the trio. The knight and -Rizpah were much in each other’s society. They spoke of this as being -a happy circumstance, as youths usually do. “We shall understand each -other so well—too well to misunderstand.” Some of the Jewish young men -were jealous and made some very natural remarks, under the circumstances, -though the remarks were rather bitter with jealousy. The older people, -some of them, anxious for an alliance by marriage with the rich and -powerful Harrimai family, took up the undertone complaints of the young -people of their race. Of course, the murmurings were cloaked with -declarations that they were all for the sake of righteousness! Harrimai, -in heart far from assured, was yet compelled to defend the two secretly -loving, in order to defend his daughter’s fair fame. The two young -people wore the armor of teacher and pupil; the young woman constantly -bepraising the knight’s wondrous knowledge of the antiquities, etc., of -all the out-of-the-way places they visited. So the meshes multiplied, -though the caviling was in part silenced. As teacher and pupil they went -on, and Harrimai knew, as did Sir Charleroy, that the relationship had -its peril, as it existed between a man and woman who could love yet ought -not to love. Rizpah did not at first know how easily a woman’s heart -surrenders to a man to whom she is accustomed to look upward. In fact she -drifted in a delight in all pertaining to the knight; her only outlook -and watchfulness being toward her father. The way the latter at times -keenly, silently observed her and the knight made her uneasy. She knew -intuitively that not far away there was impending on her father’s part -an investigation. She determined to delay, if not prevent it. One day -she bounded into her father’s presence, aglow with enthusiasm over the -wonders unfolded to her by Sir Charleroy during a visit to the ruins of -Gerash’s temple of the sun. The old man was charmed by her description, -and when she declared her intention to pursue her investigations beyond -their city he hesitated to forbid. - -“And now, father, I’m going to that old city of the Giants, Bozrah.” - -The father, with an effort at firmness, dissuadingly replied: - -“We may all go there, but not now. It is better to bide here quietly, -until we learn that the perils of receding war have left assured peace.” - -“Why, father, I’m not afraid!” - -“I know it; so much the more need for me to be: these over-daring -daughters need over-careful guardians. Some of us aged ones are suffered -to tarry long from paradise, in order that we may see our darlings in -the right path thither.” - -“Give me my swift white dromedary and two attendants and I’ll defy the -miserables who ambuscade along the way.” - -Just then, there dashed toward them, over the oleander-fringed road which -passed due north along the little river and across the city, a rider on -panting steed. - -“It’s the news runner!” said the patriarch. - -“Shall we signal him?” she questioned. - -“No, daughter, we will meet him yonder, where the two great streets -cross. He will await me.” - -When the father and daughter arrived, a crowd had already gathered about -the horseman. Some pressed him for news, but he looked straight ahead -at his horse, now slaking its thirst, and merely snapped out, “News? My -beast is thirsty!” - -When Harrimai drew near the rider saluted him and at once unfolded his -budget: “Father, I’m this day from Bozrah. Its ruins are not ruined. All -around there, and from there to here, the herds sleep in the shade, and -the carrion birds that have so long been hovering around us for human -food have fled back to Egypt and Europe and Hades!” - -“Praised be the Father of Israel! I shall live then, as I prayed I might, -to see the infidels slung out of our holy places!” So spoke the priest, -and as he affectionately embraced some aged Israelites who gathered about -him, the horseman responded: - -“God reigns and Israel has peace.” He put spurs to his horse then, and -dashed away across the river to spread to other hamlets the glorious -news. - -Next morning Rizpah, having carried her point, was ready to depart for -Bozrah. She had taken silence on her father’s part for consent, and -pursued her preparations as if it were so ordered. All things being ready -she silenced protest by a good-by kiss. - -“But daughter! What escort?” - -“Ah,” she thought, “victory! I can go if well attended.” She continued -aloud; “Perhaps Sir Charleroy’s Egyptian might attend me, since our -servants are busy in the groves.” The maiden called to her Ichabod, who -had found a home in Harrimai’s establishment, his identity hidden under -the assumed name Huykos, a name from the Nile land, meaning “Shepherd -King.” “I’ll take it,” said Ichabod, one day to Sir Charleroy, “that all -unknown I may follow my pilgrim comrade and perhaps honor my new found -‘Shepherd King.’” - -“One will be a meager escort daughter,” interposed Harrimai. - -“Oh, fear for me nothing, father. I’ll quickly be at Bozrah, where there -are Israelites not a few who will be proud to aid thy daughter.” - -“No, daughter it must not be. I’ll call the young men from the vineyard, -if thou must go.” - -“Another victory,” her heart whispered; then quickly turning to Sir -Charleroy she exclaimed, “My father must not call the workmen from their -tasks; what sayst thou? Wilt serve us both by joining my body-guard, -Ahasuerus? Come, to please my father?” - -The knight had hoped for and expected the summons, so needed no urgency -and was instantly preparing for the start. - -Harrimai was not pleased by the arrangement, and yet he was forced to -thank the knight for consenting. His native courtliness compelled this -much, and Rizpah’s genius had precluded all gainsaying on his part. And -so they rode away, Rizpah in a delight, which she could not clearly -define; Sir Charleroy blinded already by the cry that at last led to -giant Samson’s blinding, namely: “Get her for me.” Ichabod masked under -his name, Huykos, followed after, knowing that the knight was captive to -the maid and feeling very happy over the circumstance. As he rode, his -mind ran forward to the wedding, and he laughed again and again at the -witty things he imagined himself saying at that wedding. Suddenly the -scene changed from one of careless delight to one filled with the frights -of impending peril. At a turn in the road, from behind a wall, there rose -up a company of Mamelukes. Rizpah saw them the instant her companion did -and exclaimed, as she half turned her camel: - -“Let’s race back to Gerash!” - -But four dusky sentinels were behind them. They were surrounded. - -“’Tis fight or flight, the latter futile,” whispered the knight. They -paused, and Ichabod joined them. Sir Charleroy drawing his sword again -spoke: “Comrade it’s a desperate chance; a dozen to two; but we have -taken such before together!” - -“Let the knight say a dozen to three,” exclaimed Rizpah, as she drew from -the folds of her garments a saber before unseen and touched the edge -expert-like with her thumb. - -“Oh, brave, pure girl! I don’t fear death; I’d court it for thee, -but”—Sir Charleroy paused and looked unutterable misery; then instantly -recovering and emboldened by the danger that threatened to soon end all, -he exclaimed: - -“Rizpah, thou rememberest my knight-vow at Purim; thou shalt see how -I’ll keep it; if I perish, remember I have loved thee as I never loved -any other being.” The words were very vehement, but probably very true. -Rizpah blushed, brushed a tear from her eyes and then, in the frankness -that such an hour engenders, replied: “And I thee—” the rest was drowned -in the wild shout of the Turks as they close about the three. But they -had not counted upon such a reception as those two men and that one -woman gave them. Ichabod fought like a roused mastiff, without a thought -of fear for himself. He struck vehemently, but a calm settled smile -was on his countenance. Sir Charleroy saw it and years after said, -recalling the incident, “amidst the greatest perils there’s a wondrous -peace to one who feels he is striking for God, close to the portals of -death and judgment.” The knight himself fenced with the rapidity of -lightning. Again and again by ones and twos and threes, the enemies -charged down upon him, but he fought with the prowess of a crusader, the -fire of a lover. Those parts had never before witnessed such splendid -swordsmanship. As the attack had been sudden, so was its ending. Two -Turks fell beneath Sir Charleroy’s weapon in quick succession, and a -third fell under his own horse, which was desperately wounded by a -sweeping blow from the knight. At the same, instant, almost, Ichabod and -one of the foemen, whom he was engaging, fell in significant silence, -while another struggled to drag Rizpah to his steed that he might make -her captive. Sir Charleroy, wounded and faint, dealt the latter miscreant -a staggering blow and the maiden, plucking a small dagger from the folds -of her garment, finished with a single thrust her captor’s earthly career. - -Those of the marauders that were able, in fright took flight, wheeling -away more quickly than they had come. - -“Rizpah, wilt thou go to Ich—Huykos? I can’t,” softly called out Sir -Charleroy. - -The maiden flew to the Jew’s side, but quickly started back, crying: -“Oh, knight, come quickly! He’s dead!” Just then, looking back, a sudden -horror fell upon her, for she saw Sir Charleroy half reclining against a -rock, bleeding and pale. Like lightning she thought: “Both dead; I alone; -home miles away; the Turks hovering near.” - -But the thought of her own peril was only momentary, and after it there -came more rapidly than can be written the thought that one dear as her -life was dead, dead for her sake. Instantly, on feet that seemed winged, -she was at Sir Charleroy’s side. All her being merged into one great, -instant impulse to save her lover. Over him she bent, and with passionate -sorrow tried with her garments to staunch the flow of blood. In the -sincerity and frankness that the presence of death ever brings, she arose -above all prudishness and impulsively kissed the cold lips of the knight. -His eyes opened, and he faintly murmured: - -“I’m so happy, dear Rizpah. I know now it is well.” A little later he -murmured: “Flee now for home. Thou’lt reach it by sun down. Leave me. To -tarry is to court a harem prison.” - -“Hush,” impatiently responded she; “see this dagger?” and she held it -close to his half-closed eyes. “My pious father gave it me when I was -but a girl. He told me it might some time save me from dishonor. It did -so to-day, once. If those black demons return, sure as my name is Rizpah, -it will do so again, even though I turn it toward my own heart.” - -“Better flee, my love.” - -“Not ’till thou can’st go, too.” - -“I may die.” - -“Then, I’ll go into the shadow land with thee.” - -The knight was silent. The pain of his wounds was forgotten in the joy -of that lone companionship. But, after all, his mind, perturbed by the -shock, the pain, the dangers, was unable to rest. He tried to say to -himself the prayer of the dying crusader, but the words were confused. -He could not remember many of them; those he remembered, seemed to -be unwilling to go heavenward for mercy. Some way in the clearness -of judgment as to simple right and wrong that comes to a mind on the -confines of death, he found himself condemned. He was haunted by a vision -that came to his mind first the day he decided against conviction, at all -hazard, to follow the family of Rizpah and Harrimai to Gerash. The vision -was that of the false prophet Zedekiah, making himself horns of iron, and -with them appearing before the wicked King of Israel, Ahab, to proclaim, -not the things of God, but the things the prophet knew would meet the -desires of his royal master. The wounded often fall asleep; it’s nature’s -way of recovering from a shock and of chaining pain in forgetfulness. Sir -Charleroy knew not whether he was sleeping or not; but the vision passed -in painful vividness over his mind. He heard the prophet’s voice saying: -“Go up to Ramoth Gilead, and prosper.” Then he saw a true prophet of God -standing nigh, with sorrowful countenance, and the face was that of the -Madonna. The latter moaned in his ear, warningly; “_Who shall persuade, -that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? Then there came forth a -spirit and said, I will persuade._” - -The spirit was black-garbed, in a blood-spotted garment, and wore, as -Sir Charleroy seemed to see the apparition, a scarlet crescent, and -the knight thought of Astarte. He heard in his vision the beatings as -of mighty wings, rising to flight, and tried to turn and see who the -departing one was. It seemed as if the spirit of Astarte-like countenance -transfixed him with a gaze, so he could not turn; but a loneliness -and darkness, almost palpable, came over him, and he knew it was the -Madonna-faced prophet that had departed. The knight started up as if to -rise, but, awakening, found Rizpah’s restraining arms about him. - -“Stay,” she soothingly said. “Thou art feverish, and too weak to rise. -Thou’lt be better presently; the blood has ceased flowing.” - -“Oh,” he groaned; “I had such a dream!” - -Just then Rizpah beheld coming in the distance, from toward Gerash, -a horseman, at rapid pace. Her first thought, “The enemy returns.” -Her second brought her hand swiftly to her reeking dagger, as she -soliloquized: “He’s only one, and I’m one; if but a woman.” - -The rider drew nearer, and she was almost overcome with the revulsion -from fear and despair; for the comer was Laconic, the “news runner.” -He knew the maiden, and wheeling his steed to her side with his usual -brevity, cried out: - -“Why, didst thou kill both?” - -“Shame on thee; ’twas the Arabs!” - -“I thought so. I met two horsemen and two riderless steeds, galloping -away down the road. I knew they’d been at some devilment.” - -“Good runner, in the name of God, speed thee to Bozrah, or somewhere, for -help, and bring it quickly.” - -“Bring? not so; send. _I_ come not ’till my set day!” - -“Any thing; but hurry!” - -“Hurry! Yes, hurry! I love hurry.” - -He was away like an arrow, in his course. His steed leaped over one of -the dead miscreants and Laconic shouted back: “Carrion dinners! Thank -God!” - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -FROM RAMOTH GILEAD TO DAMASCUS - - “Daughters of Eve! your mother did not well: - ... - The man was not deceived, nor yet could stand: - He chose to lose for love of her, his throne,— - With her could die, but could not live alone.” - - “Daughters of Eve! it was for your dear sake - The world’s first hero died an uncrowned king: - But God’s great pity touched the great mistake - And made his married love a sacred thing; - For yet his nobler sons, if aught be true, - Find the lost Eden in their love of you.”—JEAN INGELOW. - - -For many days Sir Charleroy lay wounded at the house of the Patriarch -Harrimai, and she for whom he had periled his life was his constant -attendant. He sorely needed her services, and all Gerash, the priest -included, conceded the fitness of Rizpah’s rendering the aid she was able -to render. The maiden was all willing to minister, and as she ministered -her interest in the man deepened. When she began to look up to him as her -teacher before the battle with Mamelukes, she began a sort of worship; -when she saw him fighting to the death in her behalf, her worship became -an engrossing adoration. If there had been any thing more required in -order to enlist all the affection of which her being was capable, these -opportunities of administering to her suffering lover furnished it. As -God loves because He has helped a needy one, so a woman’s heart easily -flows out toward the object for whom she has performed pious services. -On the other hand, Sir Charleroy was more and more enchanted, for there -is life and charm beyond all description to the touch of the queen of a -man’s heart when he is in trouble or pain. - -Rizpah, in woman’s most queenly garb, the one appointed her at her -creation, that of “help-mate,” was beautiful indeed, and queenly indeed, -to the man whose heart had enthroned her. When alone, they treated each -other with the frank, earnest tenderness, fitting as well as natural, to -the betrothed. Though they did not admit it even to themselves, they had -fully determined to be one, at all peril, in spite of any opposition, -reason approving or disapproving. They often said to one another, “Our -betrothal taking place at the very gates of death was therefore a very -solemn one that nothing on earth can annul.” The sentiment was perfect -and very agreeable; and with them a beautiful and agreeable sentiment -became as controlling as if it were a revelation from heaven. In this, -they were perfectly human. They even persuaded themselves of God’s -favor, thanking Him for what they were pleased to call His Providence, -namely the peril and long sickness leading to the betrothal and days of -love-life together. They were right in conceding that God’s hand was in -the battle; but they were impious in interpreting His Providence to be -fully in accord with their desires. In this, too, they were very human. -But there were shadows about them; for while at times they drifted -along on prismatic tides of Lethean delights, there were other times -when they remembered that there was to come a day of explanation, with -probable following storms. Both were glad and sorry at once, in view of -each day’s improvement of the knight’s physical condition. Convalescent, -they both realized, meant a great change in their relationship; perhaps -a long separation. Their anxiety was deepened by a change in the -demeanor of Rizpah’s father. His eyes no longer questioningly followed -the young people; but his words, uttered in tones of steelly coldness -and very deliberately, bespoke discovery, conviction, conclusion and -determination. One sentence often addressed to the lovers, was to them -like the rumblings of an approaching, gathering storm. “Our friend is -improving, and I’m very glad that he will be able soon to go to his own -dear people.” The lovers discerned a peculiar emphasis on the words “I’m -glad” and “his own dear people.” The politic priest, having read, as from -an open book, the heart-secret of the young people, was awaiting with -self-confidence an opportunity to confound them utterly. The crisis came -one Sabbath morning, just after the morning meal of the convalescent. -Harrimai had paid his usual visit and uttered his steelly sentences. This -time the words seemed especially cruel to Rizpah, for she was nervous, -indeed ill; the prolonged services and anxieties she had experienced of -late were telling on her strength. As Harrimai departed, she gave way -to a flood of tears. Rizpah was not wont to weep, nor was Sir Charleroy -skilled in comforting; but both he and she were lovers, hence it seemed -very natural to her frankly to pillow her head on the knight’s shoulder, -and very natural to him to seek to comfort with a tenderness all new -to him. Had one asked Rizpah if she were going back to babyishness, or -forward toward heaven, she could not have answered. Had one asked the -knight if he were becoming motherly, or turning priest, he could not have -answered. He felt very tender, and his work of comforting seemed like -an act of high piety. Both were glad of the tears which brought the joy -of comforting and being comforted, then, there and that way. They were -passing into a superb mood when quite unexpectedly to them, but quite -expectedly to himself, Harrimai suddenly re-entered the apartment. He -expected to surprise them and he did so, thoroughly. The scene following -was exciting, dramatic and decisive. - -Rizpah, with a slight scream, disengaged herself from Sir Charleroy’s -embrace, and hid her face in her hands. The eyes of the knight and priest -met; neither quailed; both remained for a few moments silent; but their -fixed gaze said plainly enough, each to each, “We must have a settlement -here and now!” Harrimai spoke first, addressing himself to his daughter: -“Young woman, this conduct is immodest and disgraceful! In a Hebrew -maiden, heaven defying! I’ll speak to thee further of this presently. -Now, begone, and leave me to deal with this man!” Harrimai made arrogant -by his profession and the implicit obedience he had been wont to receive -from his followers, expected to fill the young people with dismay by the -suddenness of his assault. But Rizpah, though young, was no tongue-tied -spring, and Sir Charleroy of Gerash was still Sir Charleroy of Acre. - -The words “dishonorable,” “immodest,” stung the maiden; sullenly, -defiantly almost, she settled back in her seat and leaned toward the -knight, as if to say, “I cast my lot with this man.” Her eyes plainly, -angrily said to the man whom all her life hitherto she had reverently -obeyed, “Now do thy worst.” It was impious, passionate, love going -headlong from filial duty and religious instruction to the shrine of -Astarte. The parent was chagrined at this unexpected repulse, but with -his usual adroitness pretending not to notice it, he turned to the -knight. “Stranger, this outrage excuses abruptness on my part; who art -thou?” - -Sir Charleroy arose from his hammock, the excitement and shock of the -rencounter finishing his recovery, by rousing all the machineries of his -system into normal activities. - -“Sir Priest, I’ve nothing to conceal. I love the truth and this maiden -too well to lie—I am a Christian knight.” - -“I knew it; but thy confession shortens our parley. Now, ‘Christian -knight,’ tell me why thou didst attempt to allure to thyself the -affections of a mere girl; a Jewish maiden whom thou canst never hope -to wed? Dost thou so pay our hospitality; setting at defiance parental -authority and our Jewish laws? Dost thou under the favors of this house -intrigue to quench all its light?” - -“Thou brandst that girl and me with the epithet ‘dishonorable;’ and thou -a priest! Men of thy holy calling should never slander, especially not -their own kin and strangers.” The knight was livid, but not with fear. - -“Can an Israelite slander Crusaders? these professors of high religion, -these followers of an impostor, these enemies of my people, these -practicers of intrigues, races, jousts, gluttonies and drunkenness; men -whose sole serious business is murderous war? Tell me?” - -The knight’s face flushed a little, but with complete self-control he -replied: - -“Some of my comrades have been unworthy men, ’tis true; but some Jews -have fallen to every crime and violence. Have all fallen? Thou hast not, -perhaps! Shall all be maligned for the few? What says Harrimai?” - -“Thou art of those, who come to thrust us out of our land and thrust in -here a hated creed!” - -“I am of those who live to serve the needy and erring.” - -“To the proof; I’ve heard from thy clans only of bloodshed.” - -“Our order sprung up four hundred years ago, under the stirring appeals -of religionists as pious and humane as thou; or any of thy kind since -Aaron. We were begotten in a time when grim famine made the well-fed -wondrous kind. Those hours that make men universally akin.” - -“Go on; ‘Christian knight,’ I’d like a lesson of that sort.” - -“Then remember Noah’s covenant of peace. On our banners often we have our -spirit expressed by a dove flying toward a tempest-tossed ark; in the -messenger’s beak an olive branch; around the whole the bow of promise.” - -“Well what of all this?” - -“The ark is the world; the rest is plain.” - -“Oh, a charming theory,” sarcastically responded Harrimai. - -“I wear it next my heart;” so saying the knight threw aside his cloak and -drew from around his body a banner he had hitherto concealed. “See here, -‘_chastity_,’ ‘_temperance_,’ ‘_courtesy_.’ Our mottoes in peace or war! -Women, children and pilgrims, in a word the needy the world around, are -the wards of all true Christian knights!” - -“Mottoes! words! Oh, yes, words! But then the Crusaders have used swords! -Their words I’ll meet with words to their confounding, nor while I live -will I forget their cruel weapons.” So saying the priest swept out of the -sick chamber in manifest rage. - -He returned in a moment, and with the self-command of wrath, conscious -of power, said: “Thou wouldst make all men _akin_! Thou and thine are -dreamers, the world thinks; to-day it laughs to scorn this bootless -pursuit of a chimera. Leave us forthwith and in the peace that thou -foundst here. When the kinship is reality, thou mayst come to us for -further talk; ’till then remember thou art a Christian, I a Jew!” - -“Thou art religious! Heavens! what a tender shepherd.” - -Harrimai was very much angered, but he retorted with self-control; “Oh, -yes, and the God of all hath seven garments. In creation, honor and -glory; in providence, majesty; as lawgiver, might and whiteness; of -spotless light when he appears as a Saviour. He is clad with zeal when -he punishes, and with blood red when He revenges. I would be like Him. -By the glory of God! thou follower of Nazereth’s Impostor, sooner than -suffer thy blood to contaminate my family lines, I’d hew thee to pieces -as Agag was hewn! Rizpah, thou knowest me; wed him and thou’lt be -widowed, though carrying the unborn; though widow-hood broke thy heart. -I’d rather a thousand times see thee lying dead by thy true Jewish mother -than——.” The priest, in a tumult of fanatical passion mingled with the -grief of offended pride, lacked for words to express the climax of his -feelings; so covering his tearless eyes, as one weeping, he rushed out -from those he had assailed. He persuaded himself that he had spoken all -for the glory of God; the lovers thought of their solemn betrothal and -their love which they were certain was as fine as any earth ever knew, -and they felt that they were martyrs. Both sides appealed to God and in a -spirit very ungodly, but very human, braced themselves for opposing war. - -When the maiden became somewhat calm, Sir Charleroy found words to -question: - -“Harrimai cannot find heart to blast his idol’s happiness! He does not -mean all he said?” - -“Alas, he does. It’s part of the Patriarch’s religion to hate such as -thou, as he does. He means more, if possible, than he spoke. Our people -unveil the bosom and cover the mouth; thine cover the bosom and unveil -the mouth. Ye talk, we burn.” - -“Has pure love like ours no sanctity in his sight?” - -“Alas, he can not believe any love pure that is between Gentile and -Israelite. He was sneering at ours a few evenings ago, when he remarked -as we were looking at the stars, ‘Hyperius or Venus of the evening is -mistakenly called the star of love. Lucifer of the morning is the true -emblem of most young love. It rises in maddening brightness, but fades -out of sight very soon.’” - -“Grim omen! We took Venus for our betrothal star; they say it is so -bright at times that it casts a shadow. I feel its shadow now,” said the -knight, meditating. - -“Yes, shadows and shadows!” exclaimed Rizpah, with a flood of tears, -and she swayed back and forth as she wept. She was driven by tempests -of fear that made her ready to flee, and held by anchors of passionate -loving that made her ready to brave all fears; therefore the swaying and -weeping. At intervals the two communed and debated concerning the one -all-engrossing theme, their future course. - -“Rizpah,” comfortingly spoke the knight, “when in the greatest peril of -our lives, we were drawn, by danger, closer to each other.” There was a -glance of entreaty in her eyes as if to say, “Go save thy life and let -the Jewish maiden die alone;” but the knight drew her to his bosom, and -she responded by an embrace of passionate clinging. - -“I go from Rizpah only at her command or death’s,” said the knight -solemnly. - -The maiden shuddered, and again passionately clung to her lover. He -interpreted her action, and again comfortingly spoke: - -“Fear not; earth has somewhere a refuge for us until death call us!” - -“Somewhere? What, go away?” - -“Yes. It is that or separation.” - -She knew that full well. But to flee from home with the knight, the -alternative presented to her mind, startled her. At first thought it -seemed a reckless, perilous, unfilial, God-defying act; then it seemed -attractive because so daring. A tumult of arguments questionings, fears -and yearnings mingled in her mind. She had never learned to arrange -arguments, _pro_ and _con_, judicially. What woman whose feelings were -aroused ever did that? - -He pressed on her flight, enforcing each reason presented with an -affectionate embrace; her tongue spoke not, but her embraces replied -to each of his. She had a conscience, and it asserted itself until she -placated it by a half formed resolution to be very prudent and do nothing -rashly. The resolution comforted her at first; then she began to follow -it, mentally, to its sequence. She thought of her father praising her -piety as her purpose was disclosed. Something within, coming like a voice -from her heart, mockingly whispered “Go on.” She pursued the meditations, -and heard, in imagination, her neighbors praising her as a martyr of love -for faith’s sake. Again the mocking inner voice said, “Go on.” Again -her thoughts moved forward until she saw that conscience was driving -her to separation from Sir Charleroy; in a word, making her walk in a -funeral procession, her own dead heart on the bier. The thought made her -shudder and recoil; then the knight’s arms encircled her more closely -than before. Again and again she took the foregoing mental journey, again -and again recoiled, shuddering from the alternative of separation from -her lover, and at each recoil felt his grateful embrace. Each time she -traversed the mental course the journey toward duty by the privation of -love seemed more onerous. Distaste was followed by repugnance; then utter -weariness. At last, utterly wretched, her purposes and perceptions fell -into hopeless confusion, and she exclaimed “Charleroy, Charleroy, save -me!” - -The knight was at a loss to divine fully her meaning, yet tenderly he -answered: - -“Save Rizpah? She knows I’d do that in death’s teeth!” - -“Oh, Charleroy, ’tis not death, but life, that I fear. How shall I live?” - -Quickly he ejaculated: - -“With me, forever, and safe!” - -The maiden remembering many an admonition she had heard concerning the -inconstancy of lovers, yet driven forward by the all-abandoning love of -her woman’s heart, gave voice to all she felt and feared in one vehement -interrogation: - -“Oh, Charleroy, if I forsake all for my love of thee shall I ever be -discarded by——?” - -The knight interpreted her meaning in advance, and answered by an embrace -that was all-assuring. He was rejoiced beyond words, for he knew full -well that hesitation and questionings like hers were on the rim of full -surrender. Suddenly he became very serious and felt that peculiar glow -that came over him the day of his departure from England when the bishop -blessed him. He appreciated in a measure the responsibility following -such a committal of another’s life to himself as Rizpah was making, -and he embraced her with an anxious reverence, such as a pietist feels -clasping an ideal of his God. It was well for both that the man was thus -impressed by the committal of that maiden of her soul and body to his -pilotage. Pity the woman who reaches the extremity Rizpah had reached if -her conqueror be not white-souled and sincere. - -Rizpah an incarnation of passion, a wreath of lotus flowers on a sea -of delight, tossed by the winds, borne by the tides, surrendered all -thoughts that might disturb, that she might enjoy what she had embraced -as her fate to the full. - -Sir Charleroy constantly prayed within himself, “My mother’s God help me -to deal as purely with my sacred charge as I would with the Virgin Patron -of my knightly order, were she here now to seek my knightly services.” -The prayer was effectual, for the Knight sincerely sought to make it so. - -Decisive action followed this interview between the lovers. That very -night they fled together from Gerash, and with only one trusty servant; -after many vicissitudes they reached Damascus. For a time Rizpah placated -her conscience by asserting that she would not consent to the wedding -ceremonial until it could have her father’s approval, or that of some -Jewish Rabbi. Finding it impossible to obtain these, she irresolutely -suggested the advisability of delaying until some change, quite vaguely -apprehended, might come. But there were two Rizpah’s—one that wanted to -be a faithful Jewess, and one that wanted only and constantly a darling -idol. Sir Charleroy sided with the latter; it was two to one, and the one -surrendered. Ere long a Christian missionary at Damascus sealed the vows. -They confided their story to him, as if to ask his advice as to what -they had best do, but with the impetuosity of lovers they had decided -their course before they asked advice, and did not even ask it until -they had pledged their vows before this priest. But it was a balm to -conscience to ask advice. And the Sacrist answered them briefly: “Venus -and Mercury, fabled deities of love and wisdom. They are much alike -in the firmament, and revolve in orbits in accord with the earth’s. -Methinks it is _wisdom_ to _love_ in the earth. But, children, Venus sets -sooner than Mercury; see to it that you make it your wisdom to love as -long as you go round with the world.” Then they both said “Amen.” For a -moment Sir Charleroy heard within him that impressive sound as of the -beating of mighty, departing wings. He dragged his attention quickly from -the introspection to gaze into the eyes of his bride. He was glad that a -Christian priest had prayed for a blessing upon himself and her, but all -sophistry aside, the truth remained. Astarte’s was the presiding spirit -at that wedding. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -THE THEATER OF GIANTS. - - “Once more we look and all is still as night, - All desolate! Groves, temples, palaces - Swept from the sight and nothing visible, - ... Save here and there - An empty tomb, a fragment like a limb - Of some dismembered giant.” - - “Og, the King of Bashan, came out against us to battle at - Edrei, and the Lord said unto me, Fear him not: for I will - deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand. - And we took ... three-score cities of the Kingdom of Og, in - Bashan.”—Deut. iii. - - “Bashan is the land of sacred romance.” “His mission [Paul’s, - Gal., 1: 15] to Bashan seems to have been eminently successful. - Heathen temples were converted into churches, and new churches - built in every town.” “In the fourth century nearly the whole - of the inhabitants were Christian.” “The Christians are now - nearly all gone.” “Nowhere else is patriarchal life so fully - exemplified.” “Bashan is literally crowded with towns, the - majority of them deserted, but not ruined.” “Many are as - perfect as if finished only yesterday.”—PORTER’S “_Giant - Cities_.” - - -For a brief period the delightful seasons, the famed rivers, the stately -surrounding mountains, the paradisiacal plains, the antiquities, the -pleasure gardens and palaces of the city of Damascus, whose name by -interpretation is “change,” offered sought-for gratification to the -knight and his bride. Harrimai died suddenly after the elopement of -his child, the only person on earth whom he truly loved, the only -one that had ever successfully defied his mandates. He had purposed -disinheriting her for her act, but before he could execute that purpose, -death disinherited him. Some said that he died of a broken heart; the -physicians said he was taken off by a fit; Sir Charleroy said he died -because his proud will was crossed. Rizpah inherited a fortune that -helped both her and her husband to forget the old priest’s maledictions -by enabling them to enjoy all there was to be enjoyed in Damascus, “the -eye of the East.” They gave up unreservedly to pleasure, and centered -the world more and more in themselves. Sir Charleroy did this easily, -reasoning that, having had so many pains, he was entitled to compensating -pleasures. He heard from England; and the news was to the effect that -there had been changes and changes in his native land. Many of those he -once knew, including his mother, were dead; and he himself was forgotten -as dead. Sententiously, bitterly he summed up his feelings: “They thought -me dead, and, my mother and her fortune being gone, did not care to -find out whether I was dead or not; therefore let them think as they -thought.” Rizpah feared the lashings of conscience, and, having given up -every thing once dear to enter the life she had, courted forgetfulness -of the past, pleasure for the present. The two had within themselves -exuberant youth, a wealth of possibilities of happiness; the elements -that, like the abundance of the volcano, paints the sky gorgeously when -rising heavenward; like it, in the downward course, followed by darkness -and disaster. The two, differing in almost every thing but fervor -of temperament, were in accord in pursuit of change; they persuaded -themselves that they were growing to be like each other, when they were -only exalting the one thing, love of excitement, in which they were alike. - -Damascus, naturally, in time, became uninteresting and vapid to them -both. They wore it out; they wanted new scenes. They heard that a caravan -of Mohammedan pilgrims was to pass through their city on the way to -Mecca to procure besim balm and holy chaplets, and promptly determined -to journey with it; but not to Mecca. The caravan was to pass through -Bashan, and the two excitement-seekers desired to visit the latter land -of wonders. They readily garbed themselves as Mohammedans, though once -they would have loathed such garbing as a defilement. They desired -company toward Bashan, and since the time they defied their consciences -in order to be wedded to each other, their consciences had been wont -to be very submissive in the face of their desires. They explained to -themselves the absence of qualms of conscience in the face of a pretense -of being Moslems, as the result of a growth toward liberality on their -part. The explanation made them comfortably complacent, although the fact -was that they had passed far beyond liberalism toward nothingism. - -Passing Musmeth and Khubat of the Argob, they tarried after a time at -Edrei, just inside the shore line of that mysterious black, lava sea, -the Lejah. They were in a country where nature, art and desolation had -done their greatest. Following a passing impulse seemed to them to have -brought them thither, but one believing in God’s constant providence will -readily believe that they were led thither as to a school. There were -omen and prophecy confronting them. These fervent souls had gone from -hymen’s altar filled with romancings, under a glow of prismatic auroras, -never pausing to perceive that from each wedding time there winds a troop -of serious years burdened with many a commonplace duty. Their love had -been volcanic, their impulses ecstatic, their aims toward things filled -with commotion. The wine in their cup was to leave dregs; after the -fire there was to be ashes, and it was fitting that they contemplated -a specimen of great desolation and dreariness, the result of great -fires and great storms. So they were within that wonder of the world, -three hundred and fifty square miles of awful plain, filled with ruined -towns and cities. Heaved up here and there by jutting basalt rocks, the -plain seemed filled with black ice-bergs; ridged at intervals the plain -suggested an ocean wave-tossed. Therein is many a cave and cranny place, -fit abode for the wild beast or robber; fit abode for ghosts, if one -seeks to believe there are such. But therein were only a few green spots, -oases, to bid the traveler welcome. Ere long the knight and his consort -wore out the Lejah, and, in so doing, in part, wore out themselves. They -had a fullness of the pleasure of the kind which lacks recreation. As it -was, they stayed there longer than it was well for them to stay. - -Rizpah, the passion flower of Gerash, experiencing the supreme exaction -of womanhood now, began to droop. Months spent in pursuit of excitement, -the great change in her manner of life, as well as the oppressive -desolations of her surroundings, had drawn heavily upon her resources -physically. Reaction after exaltation, and nervous discord after nervous -tension are natural results, always. - -The knight discerned the change of temper, and as an anxious novice went -about correcting the matter. He knew little concerning woman, except -that love of her intoxicates; delighting in the intoxication he sought -to stimulate Rizpah’s flagging energies by pushing her onward into -the feverish brilliancy that was so delightful to himself. It was an -attempt to cure physical impoverishment by the renewal of its causes. -She was at times complacent, because incompetent to resist; passive, -because enervated. He was most selfish, though not realizing the fact, -when trying to be most tender. In fact, the twain were on the rim of -a test period in their married life and being unskilled in its common -places, unfitted to stand the test. Sir Charleroy had recourse to the -only physician he deemed adequate; one whom on account of his dress he -called “Old Sheepskin.” This was a guide, with a motly group of Druses -assistants, and an unpronouncible name. - -“Come, Rizpah, ‘Old Sheepskin Jacket’ has put on his red tunic and -leathern girdle to carry us a camel voyage in-sea; if we do not give the -man a job he’ll fall to stealing again.” - -Rizpah languidly shook her head. - -“But we must patronize the man to keep up what little honesty he has, and -he has some. He told me but yesterday he’d rather work than rob—though -the pay be less, so is the danger less.” - -The knight was telling the truth as well as trying to be facetious. - -Again Rizpah replied with a weary shake of the head, her hands rising -deprecatingly, then falling into her lap as if almost nerveless. - -“But, Rizpah, while we are here we ought to fully explore the changeless -cities of this dead, black, lava sea. There are none other like this on -earth! ’Tis nature’s desperate effort to outrun phantasmagoria.” - -Rizpah shook her head and waved her hands; this time vehemently, as if to -repel a horror. - -“What? A fixed no?” - -“No more excursions into this counterpart of hades for me.” - -“Well, so be it to-day, at least,” with surrendering tones, the knight -replied. - -“To-day? All days! Oh, God, remove me from this nightmare!” - -So exclaiming, the woman covered her eyes, shuddered and wept -hysterically. - -Sir Charleroy was almost overcome with sudden amazement. The tears, the -terror, the complete change before him, were beyond his comprehension. -After a time he again spoke: “Why, this is a sudden freak or frenzy. I -thought Rizpah fascinated here!” - -“I’ve had my notice from the dread spirits that infest the place to -go! Didst thou note what dark and threatening clouds dipped down like -vultures upon me when we were last there?” vehemently Rizpah replied. - -“I only saw a threatening of rain that came not. It seldom rains in the -Lejah.” - -“There was rain enough in my poor, shivering, weeping heart!” - -“But, I wonder, Rizpah, thou didst not tell me of these feelings before!” - -“I could not confide then; I was too jealous!” - -“Jealous? What a word! But of whom, me?” - -“I can never forget that thy union with me has made thee alien to thy -people and in part neglectful of the faith for which thou didst once -fight bravely. I can not forget that the Teutonic knight was the devotee -of a bepraised Lady Mary. I thought of this that black day, and I felt -as if those dry, grim clouds were her frowns. It was thou, my Christian -husband, who named the Lejah, ‘Tartarus,’ and it has been such for some -time to me. Its sight has constantly burned me with remorse! That day -it seemed to me thy Mary pitied thee and blamed me! I writhed under the -thought! I, for a moment, hated her. I felt like climbing some height, -and, club in hand with defiant curses, challenging her right to have -a finer care of thee than I have. I’d have done it, if thou hadst not -been here to laugh at the folly of my frenzy. Ah, husband, if she is -or was all that thou dost depict her, she can not love me, and thou -must contrast us to my disparagement. I can not forget that thou wert a -Christian soldier; sworn to war for her and her son; now thou art wedded -to me, a daughter of her and His persecutors!” - -“Why, Rizpah, thy changing moods are appalling; thou dost beat the -magicians who conjure up the dead, since thou dost create out of nothing -the most hideous ghosts to haunt thyself—Maya! Maya!” - -“Oh, yes, I know ‘Maya,’ wife of Brahm, by interpretation ‘illusion.’ A -myth, as a gibe, has a sharp point, effective because so difficult to -parry. But, alas, ridicule, though it easily tear to pieces delusion, is -powerless to disperse the gloom that sits in a soul as mine.” - -“I’ll not ridicule my Rizpah, but I would bring her light.” - -“Ah? That is, resurrect the peace thou didst murder?” - -“Show me one wound my hand has made and I’ll abjectly beg all pardons, -attempt any atonement!” - -“Dost thou, knight, remember the ruins of the Christian church of Saint -George, at Edrei?” - -“Certainly.” - -“And thy conversation there?” - -“Yes, that Saint George was England’s patron saint famed for having slain -the dragon which imperiled a king’s daughter.” - -“More thou didst say; thou didst expatiate on the princess, saying her -name was Alexandra, meaning, ‘friend of mankind’; further, thou saidst -there was a queenly woman by name, Mary, daughter of the King of Kings, -friend beyond all women of humanity, for whom every true knight was -willing to be a Saint George.” - -“True enough; but to what purport now is this reminiscence?” - -“Thou saidst Saint George was loyal to the death to his faith, and died a -martyr!” - -“True again. What of it?” - -“Was the Teutonic knight thinking of himself as a martyr because wed to -a Jewess? I followed thy thoughts, though they were not all spoken. How -naturally that day thou didst tell me of thy visions which thou hadst -between Gerash and Bozrah when wounded nigh to death. The English saint, -knight, very loyal to creed, rebuked in his dreams, by the beating of -mighty wings, the departing of his heart’s rose! Oh, why didst thou not -tell me this before it was too late! I would have helped thee escape the -ingenuous Jewess Thou didst awaken then with dread bleeding, to find -thyself pillowed upon the bosom of a simple-hearted loving girl; I now -awaken, wounded indeed, but with none to staunch the wounding! Why, de -Griffin, didst thou keep this secret so long? Why unfold it now?” - -“I’d be the Saint George of Rizpah and slay her dragon, gloom.” - -“Poor comfort to offer since the gloom is beyond thy powers! Flout my -mood as thou mayst; what use? I vainly denounce it. Thou hast had thy -dream; now I’m having mine. I’ll not mock thy insights; thou canst not by -bantering jeer change mine. My Lejah omens assure me that I’m to have a -rain of tears and more; some way thy Mary will be their cause.” - -“Rizpah errs; the queen I revere was a living epistle of good will; her -character the joy and inspiration of all women, especially of those in -tribulation. But enough! Rizpah, being a Jew, should abhor the necromancy -of omens!” - -“Jew! Ah, yes; I was once! But the valiant English knight lured me into -his Christian love and my race’s hate. I had once the luxurious faith -of a pious girl; all feeling, all flowers; too young to reason, but -young enough to love the good and beautiful unto salvation. The knight -poisoned the blossoms before they ripened by the acids of ridicule! There -is a loss beyond repair and a bitter memory, that of a broken promise; -under our love-star thou didst swear thou wouldst never lightly treat my -believing. Venus has set, Mercury is rising; but wisdom brings a burning -glare. The promise that the knight failed to keep was made when I was, -he said his idol; now I’m only his wife!” - -“Rizpah exchanges the glory of the rose for the bitter gray of the -wormwood.” - -“I’m thy handiwork; now mock the result, if to do so comforts thee.” - -“My handiwork!” - -“Yes, fool!” - -“These words are awful.” - -“I think so and I hate them; though I can not check them. I hate my -temper and even myself when in such present moods. De Griffin, pray as -thou didst never pray before, that I do not learn to hate thee. I pity -thee, because I’ve some love left.” - -“Pity?” - -“Yes, when I imagine thee wriggling beneath the malignant detestation of -which I know I shall soon be capable.” - -“My wife, in God’s dear name, banish these moods! They are impious, -unnatural; the crisis of thy being falsely accuses thy heart. Be calm!” - -“Calm? ‘Be calm!’ Very good; calm me, please, if thou canst. Oh, why -didst thou make me thus?” - -“The God of all peace forgive me if I did, Rizpah.” - -“Thou wert the elder and shouldst have known?” - -“What?” - -“That to unsettle a woman’s faith, if she be such as I, is to let loose -a bundle of blind vagaries and to tumble her, like a drifting wreck, on -unknown shores.” - -“Oh, wife, as thou hopest for heaven and lovest our unborn child, -restrain these moods. Thou’lt mark the one to be, with germs of all -evil; for such outbursts of mothers re-act with awful effect upon their -offspring. Thou knowest how the old nurse, at Damascus, killed a babe in -an instant, merely by giving it her breast after she had yielded to an -outbreak of passion. Such tempers hurl poison through all the being!” - -“Alas, knight, that all this prudence ever comes just a little too late!” - -“What could I have done better?” - -“Left the little maid of Harrimai’s home free from thy enchantments and -to the quiet of her people’s state.” - -“But I loved thee so. That atones for all.” - -“Thou thoughtst thou lovedst, but ’twas my form which fascinated thee, -not my mind nor soul!” Rizpah’s face became ashen pale, her eyes had a -far-off gaze and were steelly, as she began plaintively to repeat the -words, “‘_There were giants in the earth.... They saw the daughters of -men, Adamish, that they were fair and they took them for wives of all -they chose, and they bore children and it repented the Lord that He had -made man, for He saw that the wickedness was great in the earth._’ Thou -wast my giant-lofty. Thou stolest my heart and body. Now for a flood to -punish the sin, and my tears are already its first droppings.” - -“We are wed; shall we not now make the best of it? Even when into this -mystic alliance unmated lives converge, they can still with wisdom -extract from it at least peace. Go fervently, firmly, back to the faiths -of thy girlhood; become again all thou wert, except that thou be ever -mine.” - -“Ah, ha! how little, after all, thou knowest of woman’s heart? Thou -wouldst command it do and be; and go and come, wouldst thou? Thinkst -thou, thou canst make such heart as mine wild with the strange -intoxications of unholy fire, filling the brain above it with all the -clouds, weird longings, doubtings and misgivings, that fume up from that -fire, and then send that heart back without a compass, chart, sail or -helm, to find the haven? Send it lashed by remorse part of the time, part -of the time half dead to all feeling, and all the time blind, to hunt up -lost creeds.” - -“But God provided an ark; let us ask Him to aid us build one in a home, -with happy parents and happy children. Thou readst to me, but yesterday, -the Prophets’ beautiful description of a lamp burning with oil supplied -from two palm trees; one on either side. I’ll interpret; the trees are -parents, the lamp the light of home, manifest in posterity, reproduction; -a prophecy of the resurrection.” - -“Beautiful mysticism. But the giantesque men rose to play at lust, just -beside Sinai of the law.” - -“Not so I, the Teutonic knight, now the husband. Rizpah; thy desperate -misery appeals to all my manhood. I swear to thee I’d turn my heart’s -blood into the oil to cause our home to glow with the serene light of -holy happiness.” - -“Words, words; how sad, because so beautiful, yet so vain!” - -“Oh Rizpah,” cried the knight, too anxious to be angry, though the -woman’s words were stinging, “thy looks startle me! Pray God to rest and -hold thy worried soul.” - -“Pray? I have tried, often of late, to pray, but I do not know how. -I fear thou hast stolen even that power from me! Ugh! the last time -I prayed, my words seemed like black cormorants rising with loads of -carrion; then falling struck dead by the sun, into great black caves, -such as abound in our Lejah hell! I heard my words flung back at me in -mockery. Pray? I dare not, lest God strike me dead for a hypocrite and a -heretic!” - -“But my poor, dear wife,” soothingly said Sir Charleroy, “He is merciful.” - -“Oh, yes, to the good and the faithful; I’m neither! I gave Him up for -a man, as the Adamish men gave him up for women. I madest thou my God, -and now have none other; for He of the heavens is very holy, but very -jealous!” - -“Rizpah, Rizpah, do not thus give way to these wild imaginations.” - -“Give way? Alas, all is already given away; soul and body were on an -idolatrous altar long ago. I’m buried in the ashes!” - -“But Rizpah, trust my love: I’ll help thee back to peace and usefulness.” - -“Bah! the masculine great I——” - -“Heavens! woman, is there any love in a heart that so hurls javelins?” - -“I don’t know! I suppose so, for I pity thee.” - -“Pity me?” - -“Yes; when I think as I do at times, that thy wife is turning into a -devil, a very devil! Sir Charleroy de Griffin, knight of St. Mary, dost -hear me? A devil, a raging devil, and one that will pity while she -assails.” The last sentence was almost screamed, then the woman fell on -the rug of their apartment and wept convulsively. After a little there -was the silence of exhaustion, of chagrin, of shame. Sir Charleroy stood -by the prostrate form and with words half commanding said: “Let us ride -out a little way.” He was trying a new strategy. - -“No, no, no! Thou’lt take me to the Lejah, and I shall see that dread -omen again.” - -“What?” As he questioned he raised the woman tenderly from the floor. - -“The lava desert, in long rolling waves, black and drear.” - -“Ah, Rizpah, thou knowest that it was only thy unreined fancy, heated by -morbid broodings, that changed the eternally-fixed furrows of the plain, -overshadowed by running clouds into threatening billows! God and the sun -are above all clouds and behind every anxious heart. Look up; look in, -until thy soul finds Him; then the horror of darkness will die away.” - -“Oh, how thy comfortings hurt me, because I do not believe in thee, -nor believe thee! Thou sayst that thou didst abandon thy Christian, -perfect queen of women, for me. I know thou must be chagrined at the bad -exchange! I can not honor nor trust the faithfulness of one so fickle. No -matter for that, but what comes after is worse. Those black sky-drapings -were over the Lejah that day because I was there. I know—I know there’s -a tide of sorrow rolling toward me. I see it as I saw those black, -serpent-like, lava waves. But, oh, the suspense! It’s awful; let the -worst come if only soon!” The knight, sworn to protect helpless women, -saw himself disarmed and powerless to aid the one woman of earth for whom -he would have died. - -Two giants at bay in Giant Land, where another mold of gianthood had died -leaving nothing but monuments to attest the greatness of the failure. The -two knew only this, that they were very miserable and powerless, by any -means accustomed, to extricate themselves. - -Sir Charleroy wished and wished, in his soul, that his patron saint and -queen of women would appear and tell both what to do. He unconsciously -was turning his mind’s eye in the right direction. Husband and wife both -believed there was a right way, a pattern of right, and an ideal of -heaven, but they could not lay hold of them. Giant, crusader and husband, -each in turn strove in his day at the same spot, and at the same point -failed. - -Sir Charleroy, in mind, went out along a strangely beset line of -thinking. Sometimes he pitied himself, and that brought the balm of -conceit. He remembered it was a fine thing to be a martyr, forgetting -that some, rewardless, suffer as sinners. Sometimes he heard those -beatings of mighty wings, as if some wondrous holy one were departing. -Then he became very penitent and full of the entreatings of prayer. -Either mood was brief enough to him not yet converted; a very Peter -in vacillations. Whether he would finally follow the beating wings or -sit down nigh to the gates of certain insanity, the gates that those -who over-much pity themselves are sure to reach, was the issue in his -life then. The bugles of war call few to the heroism of the field, but -millions are daily called by God’s bugle to the better achievements which -make for glory amid the duties of common life. That latter bugle was -calling him, but he was slow to obey, or understand even. - -The events recorded in the foregoing pages roused Sir Charleroy to an -anxious effort to do something to change the currents of his wife’s -thoughts. Necessity quickened his discernment, and though he had had but -little experience in dealing with those ill in the body or mind, he -quickly concluded that a change of place and a change of pursuit would be -beneficial. In truth, his own feelings attested this much. He himself was -weary of the pursuit of excitement as a sole and constant occupation. - -“Shall we leave the Lejah, Rizpah?” he questioned, a few days after the -outbreak before mentioned. - -“Yes, I say!—I’m leaving it! See here,” and she pointed to her cheeks, -once ruddy, now haggard. “Oh, Charleroy, take me away or death will!” - -“Enough! We’ll go. But where?” - -“Any place under heaven; say the word and I’ll run out of the place -instantly, leaving all here.” - -“What, our effects!” - -“Any thing to get away. I feel like a child approached by some monster -terror, hour by hour! For days I’ve been transfixed by my fear or I would -have run away, even alone, before this. Now thy words break the spell! -Come, let us go before I’m overcome again!” - -“There, now, be calm. No more of this undue nervousness. We’ll go, and -soon. What says Rizpah to Bozrah, southward of Bashan?” - -“Yes, to Bozrah; historic Bozrah!” and the face of the woman brightened -as she went on: “It was the fairy land of my youth. I’ve wanted to go -there since I was a wee little thing, scarce able to walk.” Then the -woman unbent and talked with the rapture of a child: - -“Oh; I’ve wanted to see Bozrah all my life, since the days when my old -nurse used to talk me to sleep with stories of Og and his bedstead nine -cubits long, and how our little Hebrew, Moses, overcame those Rephaim.” - -“Thy prophets and psalmists, as well as thy nurses, were wont to go -into rapturous descriptions of the lofty oaks, loftier mountains, -ragged plains, marvelous pastures and goodly herds of the Hauran and -Trachonitis.” - -Rizpah continued in gleeful strain: “Oh, those herds; if I can’t see old -Og, I’d like to see the famous bulls of Bashan! Show me something huge, -no matter how huge, if alive and not black! I’m becoming infatuated -with the strong and the large. If ever I lose my soul it will be by -worshiping, pagan-like, something mightier than I can imagine; of body -or muscle. Yes, yes, I’ll be a thorough pagan since I can not be a Jew -nor a Christian! Now, I forewarn thee.” So saying she laughed merrily. -The knight was rejoiced to hear the musical, natural laughter again, and -encouraged the play of her wit, which attested a mind unbending to rest. - -“Woman-like, adoring the huge when the grand can not be found. Thank God, -the giants are all dead; there are none at Bozrah, at least. I’ll not -fear the little dirty Arabs, or pigmy Druses as supplanters.” - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -THE REVELS OF MEN AND RITES OF THEIR GODDESSES. - - “Rude fragments now - Lie scattered where the shapely column stood. - Her palaces are dust. In all the streets the sprightly chords - Are silent. Revelry and dance and show - Suffer a syncope and solemn pause; - While God performs upon the trembling stage - Of His own works His dreadful part, alone.”—COWPER. - - “Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain shall - be among their idols, round about their altars ... upon every - high place ... under every thick oak.”—Ezekiel vi. - - -Passing from Edrei toward Bozrah the pilgrim knight and his wife with -their convoy reached Kunawat, the Kenath of Scripture, once the dwelling -place of Job. Here for a time they abode. The number and variety of -castles, temples, theaters and palaces in ruins, were sufficient to -engage the attention of the travelers for many days. Rizpah was more -cheerful than she was at Edrei, but yet restless to reach Bozrah, on -which place her heart was set. - -One day standing before an old Roman temple in Kunawat, Rizpah, somewhat -interested by its well preserved Corinthian columns, and Sir Charleroy -deeply engrossed in contemplation of an huge stone image, the former -asks: “Has the knight recognized an old English or a new Bashan love?” -The woman was finding the oft-repeated and prolonged visits to this -particular place monotonous. She was annoyed, but modified her rebuke -into raillery. - -“There is something very fascinating in the Cyclopean face.” - -“A broken stone fascinate a man? But I see ’tis that of a woman; the -brain part gone. Would that the English knight had wed such; then he -might have been loyal to creed, and not a martyr!” - -[Illustration: ASTARTE.] - -“Rizpah knows that I could never have loved a brainless face, nor any one -akin to this Kunawat goddess.” - -“Not if she echoed thy ‘aye’ and ‘nay’ consistently? Be careful; as many -strong men have fallen by having their conceit gratified as there have -fallen women through flattery.” - -“How absurd to hint that I could be so lured.” - -“But the knight says Astarte fascinates!” - -“I said so, meaning that I’m fascinated by the train of thoughts that the -image awakens. Think a moment; we, the living of to-day confronting the -acme of the thought of the ages long gone. Looking at this, I seem to be -seeing over rolling centuries, right into the hearts of humanity that -lived thousands of years ago.” - -“All this might have been taken in at a glance! Having seen it, what use -is it?” - -“Use? To aid in finding a key to life’s problems. I’m filled with -questionings; do not yearnings, such as beat through the being of the -ancients pulse in those of to-day? Are not humanity’s temptations and -needs ever the same?” - -“Since the ancients did not tarry to compare with us, I, being only a -woman, of Gerash, of to-day, can give only the shallow answer, I suppose -so.” - -“Oh, I’m not questioning Rizpah; but the ruins, the air, time, my soul, -God!” - -“And their reply?” - -“Bewildering echoes of each question? - -“And it’s all a mystery to Sir Charleroy?” - -“I know a little; something, next to nothing.” - -“Possess curious me of that little, and I’ll help thee wonder why so much -greatness came to naught.” - -“That wondering is easily met; they had, as god, one whose head could be -broken as this one’s was; they that would survive must be sheltered by -the Invincible.” - -Rizpah, meanwhile had drawn close to the huge stone face and placing one -hand beneath the mouth, the other on the portion of the head just above -the moon crown, her arms stretched well nigh to their limits quizically -remarked: - -“Those that dined with her must have had pyramids for chairs. What dost -thou think they were like?” - -“Crusaders?” - -“Now, I’m tantalized. Crusaders two or three thousand years ago? How -absurd!” - -“Oh, certainly they were not known by the name, Crusaders: but -they that followed Astarte and such-like deities, whether called -Kenaihites, Rephaim, Moslem, Christians, or by other appellation are -all soldier-pilgrims, dominated by an ideal. There have been many -female deities among the pagans and there is a deal of paganism left in -humanity.” - -“That’s because half the race are men. Astarte would be very popular -to-day with thy sex, if she were here in living form, a whole woman, -instead of a fragment and beautiful also—” - -“Thou dost not care to hear more of the female deities?” - -“Oh, yes; I’ll be fearfully jealous if thou dost keep any thing back. -Tell me what madmen the ancients were?” She paused, slapped the face of -the image, ejaculating “_Virago!_” then continued, “Why did they make -their effigy both hideous and huge? Ugly things should be dwarfed!” - -“The ancients, who knew not the grandeur of moral power, gave their -deities terribleness in their physical proportions, and a mountain -of flesh became their ideal of greatness—men ever try to make their -objects of worship greater than themselves, thou knowest. Hast forgotten -what Ichabod once told us of the Egyptians? How they expressed their -reverence by piling up pyramids and made that very diminutive which they -would caricature? Oh, how our true religion, having at its heart an only, -all-beautiful, Almighty God, rises above these human devices!” - -“I wonder that it did not, at its first appearing on earth, instantly -overthrow all others.” - -“And it is a still more wonderful thing that those who embraced it, -having known, should have sometimes gone back to paganism? Thou dost -remember that God’s chosen people, after enjoying marvels of His -Providence, plunged headlong into idolatry in the very presence of His -splendor at Sinai?” - -“With shame I remember it. I marvel as well that this record, which -evokes the ridicule of the grosser heathen, was made part of our Holy -writings.” - -“God’s compensation! The people stripped themselves of their jewels to -make the calf; then of their garments to worship it according to the lewd -rites of Apis. God since has lashed them naked around the world, as it -were, by giving their history to all times. ‘_Be sure your sin will find -you out_,’ is a stern truth haunting the conscience of the evil doer; -but though exposure is a bitter medicine it is a saving one. God as such -applies it.” - -“I think the devil crazed the people at Sinai.” - -“Yes, Rizpah, but Human Desire was his name. The revelers made their -devil as well as their calf, that day.” - -“But it is said ‘they rose to play.’ If so disobedient and heaven-defying -how could they have found heart to play?” - -“Odious, significant word that one is, here. It was a ‘_play_’ that -engulphed all purity. No wonder they ceased to observe the ‘burning -mountain!’ Only the pure in heart can see God.” - -“Thank God! that thy people and mine have finally escaped, my husband.” - -“So far as we have escaped, I thank Him; but, alas, the evangels of -Egypt’s scarlet heresies still go about, and there are many, everywhere, -led away in chains that seem of flowers at first, but are found to be of -galling iron at last.” - -“I did not know this?” - -“Oh, these modern perverters disguise their horrible tenets with many -refined phrases; yet He that overwhelmed gross Sodom and the jewelless, -naked dancers about the golden bull, sees through all their thin drapings -and will judge the free lover, corrupt socialist and libertine as He -did those ancients. The Assyrian and Egyptian representations of Venus -generally appeared holding a serpent; a sort of bitter admission of the -curse in the hand of perverted love and the fierce lashings that follow -it.” - -“I fail to connect the ancient with the present heresies, my good -teacher.” - -“I pause to-day here, reminded of their common origin and consequences. -God put it into the hearts of His creatures to love women, honor -motherhood, and worship Him. Read Sinai’s law, and this is all manifest. -There came a perversion; the love of woman was degraded, motherhood was -denied its honor, and men became God-defying. There was a confusion -worse than that of Babel, and the worshiping was transferred, first, to -symbolized lust; then degraded. They that adored Venus, knowing how her -adoration had depraved themselves, came to believe that she scandalized -the heaven they imagined. Then came a time when her earthly rites even -scandalized the wiser pagans.” - -“My husband leads me along strange ways. Is it wise to do so?” - -“I see a grand end; follow me. There is a deep significance in the fact -that among the pagans there constantly appeared this adoration of woman -on account of her power of motherhood. I take this adoration as proof of -a conscious need feeling after a vaguely discerned truth. The yearning -is suggested by the paired gods. Assyria had its Beltis, consort of -Bel-nimrud; and there were Allelta of the Arabians, the many-breasted -Diana of the Ephesians, the Aphrodite of the Greeks, Ceres and Venus -of Rome, this Astarte of the Giants; beyond all, in utter odiousness -Khem, the Phallic god of Egypt. Amid all these false ideals, the divine -home with its pure love and our immortality by grace’s mystery, were -overslaughed in human thought. The glaring passions, that were unwilling -to believe in other immortality than that that comes through posterity, -other heaven than that of sensuous pleasure, fascinated and dominated -hearts and souls.” - -“And worshiping women-gods did this.” - -“Worshiping beings with the form of women did it! Reverence for true -womanhood ever exalts and never degrades. But these ancients adored very -gorgons with snakes for hair, and having tearing, brazen claws. They set -these gorgons with the Harpies, in their mythologies, at the gates of -dark Pluto’s palace. Alas, where men are led by ill-flavored women, is -ever more Pluto’s gateway.” - -“The up-digging of these ancient soils, knight, give forth foul odors. -Did they not dread a just and jealous God?” - -“No. It is the constant voice of history that false belief concerning -these things of which I have spoken, brings both blindness and -degradation. Unbelief comes swiftly in the wake of impurity. The gorgons -had but one eye and that had the malign power of turning to stone all -upon whom its glance fell. When men deify a fallen woman then look for a -cataclysm of evils. Rizpah has seen little of the world, but this in time -she’ll find true; the man whose cult or faith bends toward the libidinous -is on the way to utter atheism. So these old-time free-lovers, like -those of to-day, push out of the universe in their belief, the Great, -Beautiful, First Cause. The pure in heart see God; the impure can not -even pray to Him. The latter must be aided by an Immaculate One. They -make a gulf betwixt their souls and heaven, which Great Mercy alone can -bridge.” - -“Ah, knight, I’d dread a return of those gross idolatries, knowing -mankind’s trend, but that I knew that Shiloh was to come as a Reformer.” -The knight caught at the words of his wife to lead her toward his own -dear belief. - -“If He came to Rizpah in the form of a man, unique because of his virgin -purity, unlike any other in being all unselfish, and accompanied by a -peerless woman, exemplifying all that is best in the gentle sex; between -Himself and that woman a love deep to love’s last depth, pure as a -sunbeam, enduring as eternity itself, would Rizpah welcome Him!” - -“That would be a wondrous coming; but I’d welcome Him.” - -“Does Rizpah believe such an appearing desirable?” - -“Oh, on my soul, yes! If he should so come, methinks the rites which have -gone on in the secrecy of the groves, under the uncertain light of the -moon, would be driven from the earth, and men come to worship God, taking -that man for the ideal of manhood, that woman as woman’s pattern.” - -“Dost thou see that stone with eight lines crossing, lying just there by -the image of Astarte?” - -“I see it and the lines; but what of them?” - -“In the far East, the land of the Fire Worshipers, on almost all -the handiwork of man that symbol is placed. It is to represent an -eight-pointed star, the Assyrian sign of immortality.” - -“Eight lines crossing to represent immortal life? This is inane!” - -“Not quite. I had its explanation from my wandering Jew, Ichabod, learned -by much travel in the lore of many peoples. He thus interpreted the -symbol as the Assyrians understood it; man, a four-pointed star; his four -radiate limbs suggesting that likeness. Thou knowest that the Israelites -have been wont to call men stars? The Assyrians, not having the sure -word, were led to seek by human philosophy a theory of immortality, -and they got no further than twice four, two human beings in union; so -eight or a double star, their symbol of marriage, represented the only -immortality they were able to find; that that comes from reproduction. At -least that was the only reality, the rest being very vaguely believed, -and believed only because they thought that the mystery of a new life -coming forth, was a hint of a spiritual method analogous to the -material. They then fell to worshiping the sun, the great fructifier -and light of nature; fire, the essence of passion, became their highest -god. It is said that those Magi of the East, that arrived long ago at -Bethlehem, were fire worshipers, and that in answer to a cry for light, -constantly uttered by their race, they took their journey to Judah, -seeking it.” - -“The world must turn to Israel ever for the truth, Sir Charleroy.” - -“For some truth; not all; but there is a tradition that the star the -wise men followed was a double one, two planets in conjunction. There is -a fitness in the legend, for the seekers of light were brought to the -cave where lay a mother and babe; the latter God’s finest presentment of -immortality, the Incarnation; the fruit of the Divine in union with the -human. I stand overcome with wonder and reverence when I remember that -they of the East had some light from the Jews they held captive ages -before. They lost most of what they had, then, longing for its return, -God answered their prayer by taking them to the finest of schools, a -blessed home circle. Behold all the East looking for light at Bethlehem!” - -Rizpah evaded her husband’s graceful attempt to impress on her Christian -tenets, by replying: “I prefer the Jewish choice number Seven, though I -can not give it fine interpretations, as thou to the Eight of the East.” - -“Rizpah prefers it because it is Jewish, and I prefer Seven because I -read therein a covenant; for Seven is the sacred covenant number of God’s -Word. Let me interpret: There is a Triune God, symbolized by Three; then -man, the child of chance, the being tossed hither and thither by the four -winds, a complex union himself of body, mind, animal life and immortal -spirit. Four is his representative number, or symbol. The Assyrians -paired fours; the Jews vaguely discerned a grander path to eternal -felicity through the conjunction of God and man, the Three and the Four. -From this they derived their covenant number, Seven.” - -“These are charming explanations, Sir Charleroy; especially so, if sure -ones!” - -“But the truths are fairer than my poor words. I read that at creation -the morning stars—meaning the beings that know no night, the very sons -of God—shouted for joy! They saw an immortality having its springs -in the being of the Eternal, and were glad. Since then the race has -diverged into two lines. The gross and unbelieving, seeking to effect -the apotheosis of human lust, have gone their ways reveling under the -moonlight, and building their fanes in the groves which fade, while the -believing and God-taught have walked in a covenant toward Him, ‘Who -only hath immortality dwelling in light.’ Rizpah, some day that home -group at Bethlehem, a father, mother, and child, surrounded by angels, -overshadowed by God, will come to be thought the finest ideal of this -life. Yea, a picture of Heaven itself!” - -The knight’s wife fixed her piercing, dark eyes on his, there were -expressed in her countenance admiration and fearfulness. She was charmed -by his lofty sentiments, yet apprehensive of being led into some -dangerous, Christian heresy. Fanaticism always has a terror of heresy, -so-called, even though it seemed to be full of white truth. Presently she -questioned: - -“So Og, great as a mountain of flesh, and Astarte, goddess of the -pleasure that kills, only, of all Kunawat’s ancients, have left enduring -names?” - -“One other name endures, the ages brightening its luster—Job, loyal to -the last, in spite of the devil and a virago wife.” - -“Poor woman! say I of Job’s wife. None have told her side of her family -troubles. May be Job haunted the grove of the moon-crowned?” - -“May be? Never! His splendid orations bespoke a man walking nigh Jehovah. -Listen: ‘If I beheld the moon walking in brightness, if my heart hath -been secretly enticed, or my mouth kissed my hand, let thistles grow -instead of wheat.’ He said this amid the votaries of the Lust-Queen.” - -“And Job may be praised, not only as proof that there has been one -patient man on earth, but as proof that a good man will stand pure to the -last, though the world about acclaim the praise of delightful sins?” - -“He stood because entranced by his beautiful ideal. He loved Him whose -name is Holiness.” - -“Heaven comes at last to such.” - -“Job was God’s best friend on earth in his day, and his Heavenly Father -gave him as his reward His best earthly gift—a new, pure, happy, fruitful -home.” - -“Are we through now with the fascinating image, knight?” - -“Yes, Rizpah, if we take to heart its warnings. May we preserve our -integrity, and have a home as our reward finer than that of the Man of -Uz; yea, verily, as fine in its tempers and virtues as that of Bethlehem.” - -So saying, the knight led Rizpah toward their abode. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -A BATTLE OF GIANTS AT BOZRAH. - - “Sleep—the ghostly winds are blowing! - No moon abroad—no star is glowing. - The river is deep and the tide is flowing - To the land where you and I are going! - We are going afar, - Beyond moon or star, - To the land where the sinless angels are! - - I lost my heart to your heartless sire - (’Twas melted away by his looks of fire), - Forgot my God, and my father’s ire, - All for the sake of a man’s desire; - But now we’ll go - Where the waters flow, - And make our bed where none shall know.”—“_The Mother’s Last - Song._”—BARRY CORNWALL. - - “How shall we order the child, and how shall we do.”—Judges - xiii. 12. - - -Sir Charleroy and his consort took up their abode in one of the many -deserted ancient stone houses of the city of Bozrah. The latter, situated -in one of the most fertile plains of earth, once having upward of one -hundred thousand inhabitants, several times having risen to metropolitan -splendor, ages ago sank into neglect, decay and desolation. But with -wonderful persistence that city preserves the records, or relics, of -what it was in better, greater days. The antiquarian to-day finds in and -around Bozrah the dwellings, palaces and temples of many and various -peoples, some piled in strata-like courses, one above the other, each -layer the tombstone of its predecessor; some as fine as they were -forty centuries ago. The annalist there has at hand as an open book -the achievements of some of the mightiest men of earth, physically. -The latter were contemporary with that line of God’s moral giants, -of which Abraham, Moses and David were representative leaders first, -and Christ finally. The strata of Bozrah tell of differing policies, -politics, religions; all alike in one thing—the attempt to build upon -the buttresses of giant force; but they present in the end the one -result—failure; all being equally dead at the last, if not equally -herculean at the first. Sheer robustness in the armies of Rome, the -Turk, Alexander, and Og wrought out their best about the Bashan cities, -and in that theater played the eternally losing game of all such. It -seems as if God had chosen that part of all the world to illustrate -this great lesson of His providence. The Roman, Mohammedan, Greek, and -others like them, there had their brutal and sensuous existence. There -the Crusader carried also his banners; but the end of the Rephaim was -the forerunner and prophecy of all the other giantesque gatherings that -followed after them. Each passing race and dynasty left its monuments and -tokens of possession; but of all, those of the first, the giants, are the -most enduring, most wonderful. These dateless, huge, rugged, fort-like -dwellings, standing just as they did four thousand years ago, except -that they are mostly unoccupied, are impressive monuments and reminders -of the mighty denizens who once abode within them. There are ruins of -temples, palaces, houses of commerce and places of amusement, but chiefly -of homes; the latter, significantly, instructively, being the best -preserved of all. Sir Charleroy observed this circumstance, and casually -remarked to Rizpah, as they bestowed their effects in one of the ancient -domiciles: - -“If ever I take to building, I’ll build abiding places for people, only. -Such are the most lasting.” - -But while he came thus near to a royal truth, he did not make it his -own. It passed through his mind and he felt its light, as one might -that from the wing of a ministering spirit, while his eyes were holden -and his back turned. He immediately left the angelic thought, to go -wandering through years of misery, before coming back face to face with -it again. Sir Charleroy and Rizpah, a western soldier and a woman of -Israel, two giants in their way, began a new career at Bozrah. It was -providential. Measuring power by the only available test at hand, namely, -what it accomplishes, it was manifest long ago to all that the brawn of -the Cyclops was not the master force of the word. Hercules cleansed the -earth of mythical, not real evils. Sir Charleroy and Rizpah are fittingly -brought to the theater of the giants for the purpose of testing the -potency of giantesque sentimentality and stubborn, mighty ardor. To this -end, two will do as well as a nation, and a decade will be as conclusive -as a score of generations. The husband and wife entered Bozrah gladly, -and quickly adapted themselves to their new surroundings. They were both -very impressible, and there were many things in their new environments -that impressed and stimulated them. Nature’s face and locations may -be changed by man, but he can not change her heart. She, on the other -hand, is invincible in her conquests of both his face and inner being. -Climate and environments determine the characters and careers of the -majorities. The sleets of the North, in time, will goad the sensuous -Turk or Hottentot to high activity, while the Cossack or Esquimaux, -under tropical suns soon fall into luxuriousness and laziness. Bozrah -began its molding of the knight and his wife. Rizpah and Sir Charleroy -were at first attracted to Giant Land by the hugeness of its monuments -and ghostly greatness of its record. They received at Bozrah their first -impulse to settle and make a home. Probably they were largely influenced -by the conviction that, in its way, there was nothing more entrancing -or majestic beyond. For the best results to them, the second selection -was altogether unfortunate. They had made their home in the midst of -battle-fields, and the atmosphere that hung over all things was like -that over a defeated army, sullenly submitting. The new comers from the -beginning, in their new home, were immersed in ghostly memories, and that -atmosphere so like the breath of a bound yet struggling giant. They were -affected more than they realized by all these things. - -“No more tours, no more worlds, for us to conquer!” exclaimed the knight. - -Rizpah, her cheerfulness of mind largely recovered, replied to this -remark of Sir Charleroy with a bantering laugh, at the same time pointing -upward. Quickly, and with retort cruel as a giant’s javelin, he cried: - -“Alas, so soon Rizpah seeks my final departure from her!” - -The cavalier was no more; it was the brusque and gross within him that -spoke. Had he been courtly, even without being Christian, he would have -been considerate enough not to have cruelly jested concerning that which -lay in his wife’s heart as a possible and sad fact. Often the thought of -eternal separation from her husband, even from eternal hope, haunted her -now. Her husband knew this. - -For a moment his answer seemed to stun her; then the affectations of -pouting on her mobile face, coming when she pointed upward, changed into -lines of anger. A hot flush mounting up to the roots of her hair, hung -out the warning signal. - -The knight, pretending not to observe the change, twined his arms about -his wife and mockingly sighed: - -“Poor girl! I can find no wings on thee. I once thought thou hadst such. -They must have dropped off.” - -There was no reply. He then began to retreat, to placate, and to that -intent drew her closer and closer to his heart, until, embracing her, his -hands clasped; but, for the first time since the event near Gerash, when -the Arabs were vanquished, his caress was without response. He tried a -thrust thus: - -“Well, beloved, since thou dost banish me, bestow a kiss of long -farewell.” - -Quickly, Rizpah flung aside his embracing arms and cried: “Shechemite! -I’m no Dinah, won by false professions!” - -“_Shechem was more honorable than all the house of his father_,” quoted -the knight in reply. - -“He loved himself, his passions; to these gods he gave up with all -devotion, and they immolated him. That was good!” - -“Why, Rizpah, thou art pettish.” - -“‘Rizpah!’ Thou art adroit in using bitter similes; a brutalizing power, -when brutally used! Now, call me ‘Jarnsaxa.’ Thou toldst me, yesterday, -how that mighty male god of the Norse, Thor, while hating her people, -to the death, stole Jarnsaxa. Yea, and how many giants fell for women. -Perhaps thou didst want me to pity thee. We are in Giant Land now, and -thou canst begin to play Colossus!” - -The knight was startled, and quickly entreated: “My queen, lets drop -the masks; no more of this; forget my sarcasm, and I’ll forgive the -recriminations. A truce and pardon, in the name of love. What says -Esther?” - -“‘Esther?’ Thou calledst me that when cavalier, turning lover. Thou art -neither now!” The sentence ended in a petulant sob. - -“Oh, stay now. It was playfulness. I—there, now! Canst thou not brook a -little playfulness from me?” - -“Playfulness? Bah! Ye men play so like lions, forgetting to keep the -claws cushioned! But, now thou hadst better be going, saint—the only -one here. Go, now, right along to heaven. They want thee there. They -want thee, not me.” Then she choked back another sob, but instantly -thereafter, dashing the rising tear from her eyes, she bitterly -exclaimed: “At any rate, thou’lt have company!” - -“Whom, pray?” - -“The begetter and chief of all restless vagabonds!” - -“So; I never heard of him. Has he a name, my dear?” - -The knight was sarcastic, because he was nettled. - -Rizpah’s eyes glittered with the fire of offended pride, and she quickly -began in measured tone, as if in soliloquy, and alone, to quote Job’s -record of satan’s joining the assembly of the sons of God: - -“_There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before -the Lord, and satan came also. And the Lord said whence camest thou? Then -satan said from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and -down in it._” - -“My wife responds to my penitence with bitterness; but even the pagans -were wiser. They ever took the gall from the animals offered to Juno, -goddess of wedlock.” - -“Thy wife promised to be thy helpmate and give thee all she had. Now, -just forget thy fine paganism, being a Christian long enough to remember -that I’m thy helpmate in all things, even in bitterness. I give thee all, -even returning thy giving.” - -“Thou shouldst not make so much of my little misstep.” - -“Nothing is little with which one must constantly live. Great breaks -grow from little fractures. One may stand a blow, but its the constant -fretting that roughs the heart-strings to woe unendurable. Thou hast a -habit of playfully hurting.” - -“Well, this has been a day at school; there ought to be a school for -husbands! We do not half understand the fine, sensitive creatures that -companion us.” - -“Oh, thou thoughtst thou wert a woman-reader!” - -“Were I to see an angel with a body like a harp, eyes like the -unsearchable ocean, heart of flame, arms like flowering vines, covered -with prismatic wings, I’d be no more puzzled and abashed than I am now -by my high-strung, fine-tempered Rizpah.” - -“Puzzled! abashed! I’d help thee pity thy wounded conceit, but that I -know that thou art soon to ascend. Art thou going now!” - -“I’m afraid not, since I’ve so many more sins than graces. When elephants -soar with butterfly wings, thou mayst look for my departure. Till then -I’ll stay here and practice the patience of Job, beset with his rambling -devil.” - -“How elegantly the cavalier uses simile in coining epithets.” - -“Heavens! Rizpah, thou dost twist my meanings! Why distort, instead of -pardoning my blunders, making both of us miserable!” - -“Oh, then, thou hast grace enough not to liken me to thy besetting, evil -spirit, at least in words?” - -“No, no, ’tis refined cruelty to put me on the defense as to that. -Believe it or not, Rizpah of Gerash and Rizpah of Bozrah are the same. My -heart to its core says so!” - -This second quarrel, that should not have been begun, had the merit of -ending, as it should, in reconciliation, tears, embraces and a great -many excellent pledges. Yet Sir Charleroy did not greatly profit by -the experience. He failed to perceive that these first breaks in the -rhythmic flow of conjugal love are great shocks to a deeply affectionate -woman. He knew that men easily recover from rebuffs, and so did not -stop to consider that young wife-hood was the highest expression on -earth of utter clinging to one sole support. He knew his own feelings -and took them for the standard. He set himself up as the pattern, -quite unconsciously, perhaps; and after the conflict in which he came -off conceded victor, he was condescending in his manner. This was -unfortunate. Rizpah did not need to be told that her husband was wiser -and stronger willed and more self-possessed and more able to endure -life’s trial than herself. All this she believed, absolutely, when she -surrendered her heart to the man at the first. Woman-like, these were -the very circumstances that caused her to love him as she did. A woman -never loves completely until her love is supplemented by adoration. She -must believe the man, who would make full conquest, is one to whom she -can look up; one some way her superior. But while a loving woman will -give a devotion almost religious, she will be pained amid her delights -of committal by a haunting fear that he whom she adores may rise away -from her. In the very plenitude of her fullest love-worship she will deny -the reverence, sometimes, in a seeming inconsistency, rebuff and even -ridicule her idol. It is with her a sort of hysteria, a confession of -secret terror, lest she and he grow apart in mind, and so come to part in -body. Hence it is a giant cruelty on the part of a husband, sometimes, to -enforce, or thrust forward, his size or his lordship. They may be facts, -but God has set over against them as their equal that love which clings, -stimulates and supplements, without which the finest man is far less than -the half of the united twain. Sir Charleroy blundered along in his error; -Rizpah tried to be happy and failed. She did not know how to make the -best of her surroundings, and Sir Charleroy did not know, because he did -not seek religiously to find out how to help her make the best of them. -They had some periods of pleasure, but they continually grew briefer -and were more frequently interrupted as time went on. She was ill, he -suffered himself to think her at times ill-tempered. As a lover, he -admired her outbreaks as very brilliant, and flattered her by remarking -that she had the metal of an Arabian steed; as a husband, he thought her -very disagreeable when pettish or angry. Indeed, though he never said so -to her, he did say to himself that at times she was very like a virago. -The only steed that came to his mind then was the ass, to which he -likened himself when he considered himself the perfection of submissive -patience. - -A new event radically changed the picture and situation in this troubled -home. - -The prayer of prayers was heard in Bozrah; the cry of a baby; a bundle of -needs and helplessness, with no language but a cry. Processions of silent -centuries had passed through those halls since they echoed the hoarse -voices of the brawny beings who built them. One could not hear the infant -cry without remembering the contrasts. A baby; a puny one at that, and of -the gentler sex, besides being of a race pigmy compared to the stalwarts -who builded those abodes. Sir Charleroy and his consort had set up their -household gods, and for a goodly period had occupied as theirs a Rephaim -home. - -The little stranger came, though they did not discern it, with power -to bless them both. A poetic visitor, happening on this baby’s hammock -there and then, might have gone in raptures, to some truths, after this -fashion: “It will be the golden tie, angel of peace and hope, to the -home!” The philosopher, seeing the little bundle of helplessness, might -have said: “Here is a giant, the home is immortal through its offspring; -the babe requiring so much, richly repays its loving care-takers by -inducting them into the soul expansions of unselfish service.” But then -poets and philosophers often miss the mark, attempting prophesy. - -The parents followed the usual course of those for the first time in -that relation. Their love for each other, very intense, and by its -sensitiveness witnessing after all that it was very selfish, got a new -direction. They soon drifted into the charming fooleries of their like. -Sometimes they petted the child unceasingly, and one was anon jealous of -the other if surpassed in this. They each struggled for a recognition -from the innocent, and debated as to whether the first babble of the -little one was “mamma” or “papa.” Then there were times when they handled -baby very reverently, as if it were something from God, or likely to -break. - -At such times they each, in heart, thanked God and gave the child, at -least in part, to Him. Sometimes they called it “Davidah” or “darling,” -and laughed as they assured each other, to assure themselves, that the -baby looked wise as if understanding. Sometimes they played with it as -if they were children and it a toy; sometimes they ministered to it with -anxious care, while all the time they felt quite sure it was somehow of -finer mold and fiber than any babe before on earth. They were just like -all for the first time parents, and their raptures were now for good, -being centered around the thought expressed by the sweet word home. Of -course, the question of naming the child was discussed, and, of course, -no name they could think of seemed quite good enough. Some days the -child was given a dozen, and some days it had none; for all the time -they kept trying to fit it. - -In one thing, both parents were Jewish, namely, the desire to give their -darling an appellation expressive of what it was or what they hoped -it would be. They first agreed on “Angela,” but that was discarded as -being a sort of advertisement of the quality of their treasure. In the -constant selfishness of love they would keep it all secretly, sacredly to -themselves, they said. They sought for many days some significant token -or name that should be fully expressive of their thought, and yet by the -three only be ever fully understood. One day Rizpah, always abrupt, still -nursing an old superstition, said: “Call her Marah, a mournful, sweet, -expressive title.” - -“Why, wife, that means ‘bitterness.’” - -“Bitterness, since I believe that somewhere, somehow, there is bitterness -enough in store for her—and me with her.” - -“I’d prefer ‘Mary,’ my wife; surely this little angel is to be all like -that blessed one.” - -Then there was more strife, but of a rather patient kind, which ended -in a compromise, they calling the child Miriamne, each in mind meaning -different from the other; the one Marah, the other Mary. But on the -heels of this came soon the graver problem, How should the babe be -reared, in Jewish faith or Christian? It was the old, old story of a -difficulty seemingly easily adjusted to all, except to those who have -actually met it, and in this case, as usual, the two parties fanatically -opposed each other. In the name of sweet religion they loyally served -the devil for a time. The highest achievement of a creed or faith is the -soothing and elevation of a home here, or the exalting of it heavenward -for hereafter. That is a travesty of piety which wrecks the substance -of joy for the shell of a dogma. This stricture is easily written and -may pass without dissent, the reader immediately falling into the error -denounced. Of course, as usual, these two parents began the discussion of -the subject. At intervals they cautiously pressed their arguments, but -each unwaveringly moved toward his or her point. They were like advancing -armies, firing occasional shots, but surely approaching a mighty issue. -They pretended to argue the matter by times, but it was a farce, for each -in mind irrevocably had predetermined the conclusion. Time sped on a year -or more, then the conflict fully came. - -“Rizpah, we were wed by a Christian, let us take the fruit of that -compact to Christian baptism.” - -“The first act was an error; we shall not atone for it by repetitions in -kind! The child is mine; I decline.” - -“And mine, so I request.” - -“A mother imperils her whole life for her child, and unreservedly gives -to it part of herself; justice, humanity, should give the child to the -mother, so far as may be.” - -“But even under thy faith, I, the father, am the head of the house.” - -“Under my faith the nurture and training of children belong chiefly to -the mother, and my faith has been the finest society-builder of the -world in the past. Thou hast often recounted to me the deeds of that -golden, heroic time of my people, when the great Maccabean family led us -and inspired us. Well, then, the mothers had exclusive control of the -daughters until they were wed, and so they had grand daughters among the -Maccabees.” - -“Well, we differ in belief; we had better compromise.” - -“We dare not barter a little soul to do it.” - -“Well, briefly then, being lord of this home, I command that the -grace-giving sacrament be sought for our Mary.” - -“My faith, to which thou didst first appeal, forbids fathers to command -their children to walk through idolatrous fires. Marah shall not.” - -“Hush; I only want the loved one inducted into the true faith.” - -“Mine is the older and truer.” - -“With thee argument is futile; I insist——” - -“If the father is a foreigner, Jewry’s rule is that the children are to -be called by the mother’s name and regarded as of her family. Make such -law as thou choosest for thy family but not for mine.” - -“I’ll end this,” cried Sir Charleroy, seizing the child, as if to hasten -then to seek some priest’s ministry. - -Rizpah’s eyes glittered with sullen purpose. She sprang before him, and -hissed: - -“Our fathers escaped at all cost from Egypt. I’ll not go back, nor Marah.” - -The knight was surprised, and his looks expressed it as he said: - -“Dost thou rave?” - -“Oh, no, I was just remembering that a bearded serpent was the Egyptian -symbol of deity; something like a man. You Christians would have all -husbands gods to their families! No bearded serpent for mine!” - -“Heavens, woman! thinkest thou thy scorn and vituperation can stay me?” -So saying he pushed, or rather half flung the woman from him. He had no -conception of the rage that any thing like a blow evokes in the heart of -a woman that could love as once did Rizpah. On his part it was intended -as a masterpiece of strategy, in the hope that the woman would swoon, -then surrender in the weakness of following hysteria. The act was hateful -to him, but he justified it by the end sought, yet missed that end. - -Rizpah was a tigress roused, and like many another mother, beast or -human, when the fight is once for offspring was endowed with sudden, -supernatural strength. She sprang toward the hammock, plucking her dagger -meanwhile from its hiding-place. - -“Heaven defend us, woman!” cried Sir Charleroy, glancing about for a -means of prevention, “thou wouldst not do murder?” - -“Oh, no, thou art not fit to die; but hear me; this blade, consecrated -to defense from dishonor, saved me once. Dost thou remember? It will do -it again, if need be. The giver sleeps, but his stern charge haunts me -still. ‘Protect at any cost from dishonor!’” - -“Wouldst thou shed blood of any here!” - -“Sir Charleroy saw me slay the Turk. Had I failed, thou falling, this -blade would have found my own heart. Push me onward by thy imperiousness -and I will slay the babe and then myself! Methinks, it would be an -atonement for which my parent would forgive my breaking of his heart. Ah, -then sweet rest; life’s tumults over! God would pity the tempest-tossed -soul that, through such bitterness, flung itself on Him.” - -“Dost mean all this, Rizpah?” - -“Can I trifle? Ask thyself. Have I ever? My desperate sincerity made me -thy wife, but now it impels me to defy all thy attempts to make me thy -minion, unthinking echo or slave; or worse, the ruiner of that girl.” - -“Well, then, woman, since thou or I must yield and I can not, thou wilt -not, I execute my before announced purpose to have my lawful authority -acknowledged with thee or——” - -“Say the rest, find peace away from me——” - -“Which?” sternly demanded the knight. - -“As thou dost wish, only I’ll not give up my child to Christian -sacrifice.” - -“Then we can not live in peace together.” - -“To which I reply, that God never ordained marriage to bind people to the -home when they can only for each other in that home make a very Tartarus!” - -The knight was humiliated. He had believed that the woman’s heart could -not bear the thought of separation, and now to find her willing to give -him up, rather than her will, her faith, hurt his pride. But they had -made an utter crossing of purposes. He ran out of their stone house, his -heart as stony. A little way off he paused, looked back, and said, “For -the last time, Rizpah, what dost thou say?” - -“Go; once for love I gave up all. Again I do it; I give thee up for the -highest of all love, the love of a mother for her child!” - -Caressingly Rizpah embraced the infant; and then fell on her knees with -her face averted from her husband. He took one glance, and realizing the -defeat of his strong will by that kneeling woman, angrily hurried away. -The die was cast. He turned his back on Rizpah, swearing that he would -never more return. - -For a few days Rizpah lived in a crazy dream; now laughing as she thought -of her victory; again letting her maiden love re-assert itself; then -assuring her heart that all was over and well as it was. But a woman who -imagines that reproach or even open violence can utterly extirpate love -that once completely possessed her, knows not her own heart. Especially -is this true if to that heart, she at times, press, lovingly, a child -begotten in that love, and the form bearing the impress of that man for -whom sometime she would have willingly died. - - * * * * * - -One night the baby cried piteously, being ill, and Rizpah was feeling -very lonely because so anxious for it. She had sometimes, since Sir -Charleroy’s departure, prattled with the baby calling “papa” and -“Charleroy,” mother-like, woman-like. Self-condemning, for this was a -half confession that she would have the little one think, if it thought -at all, that she, the mother, was not to blame for the absence. The baby -had caught some names and in its moaning, feverishly cried: “Abbaroy, -Abbaroy; I want my Abbaroy.” The cry was piercing to the mother’s heart -and conscience. She even then wished for the husband’s return. Indeed, -some hot tears fell as she prayed God to send “papa Charleroy back.” The -tie of marriage, potent beyond all of earth, now drew her away toward the -absent one, and she then began to marvel how easily they had separated; -how lightly they had regarded the bonds which after all tightly held -them. When lives have blended and been tied together by other lives, it -is indeed a prophesy of union “until death do us apart.” - -“Abbaroy, Abbaroy! I want my Abbaroy,” still piteously cried the sick -child. The night without was raging; the little lamp sent dancing shadows -over the black walls of her room and an unutterable loneliness took -possession of the woman. One by one thoughts like these arose; “Father -dead, mother dead; husband as good as dead; perhaps really so, and my -child like to die! What if she should die thus crying for her father! -Oh, God spare me this! I’d go mad by her corpse.” “Abbaroy, I want my -Abbaroy,” sobbed the child in her sleep. The mother heard the waving -palms without. Her vivid imagination turned them into persons, spirits. -They seemed to be her dead ancestors and they caught up the cry of her -child rebukingly “Abbaroy, I want my Abbaroy.” She swooned now and slept. -In the sleep there came a dream. She thought she saw her daughter, grown -to womanhood, but pale and sad. She had the hand of her mother and was -drawing her toward the sea. Whenever the mother drew back the daughter -wailed “Abbaroy, I want my Abbaroy.” Presently their feet touched the -water edge, she saw a ship, floating at anchor, but with sails spread -partly; on its stern was the name, “_England_.” The captain stood by the -vessel’s side, observing her. At last he cried: “Well, how long must we -wait for thee?” A wave seemed to dash against her face and she awakened. -The heavy window blind of stone had swung open, the rain was beating in -on her. She started up and felt for her child, half fearfully lest a -corpse should meet her touch. But she found her hands clasping a little -form with fast beating heart and burning skin. The light had gone out, -but there alone in that desolate home amid the ruins of past ages, the -woman bowed in agonizing prayer. The balm of broken hearts was sought and -she for a time was clothed and in her right mind. She arose, serenely, in -the morning the cry of the sea captain of her dream in her ears, and the -firm resolve in her heart to seek her husband even in far-off England; -with him to try for the things that make for peace. Then she opened the -iron-bound chest that had come to her from her father and took therefrom -a roll of the ‘_Kethrubim_’ and read. And it so happened that seeking to -refresh her mind as to the story of how the giant Sampson got honey out -of the slain lion’s carcass, that she might more fully apply the meaning -to her own experience, she came to the story of his birth. That story -fixed her attention for days. It was like a new revelation to her. And -she read and read these words over and over: - -“And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the Danites, whose name _was_ -Manoah. - -“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, -Behold now, thou shalt conceive and bear a son. - -“Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto -me, and his countenance _was_ like an angel of God, and he said unto me, -Behold thou shalt bear a son. - -“Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, O my Lord, let the man of God -which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do -unto the child. - -“And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came -again unto the woman. - -“And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband. - -“And Manoah arose, and went after his wife and came to the man. - -“And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the -child, and _how_ shall we do unto him? - -“And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the -woman let her beware. - -“So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered _it_ upon a rock -unto the Lord: and _the angel_ did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife -looked on. - -“For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the -altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar: and -Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.” - -And as Rizpah read, little by little, the truth and beauty of the scene -and its words dawned upon her. Thus she meditated: “This is the way -God brought forth His giant deliverer, Samson; God appeared to the -woman first, but she hasted to tell of the promised blessing to her -husband.” When she thought of how that angel-led wife led her husband, -she remembered her own fanatical bitterness and was condemned. Then she -remembered how Manoah and his wife, together, asked how they should -order their child and how, as together they bowed before the Spirit, he -ascended in glory over them. “Oh,” she moaned within herself, “if we had -only put aside our differences and, forgetting all else, just so sought -together the Divine directings!” It was evening as she meditated, and -she said within herself: “If ever I can get nigh Sir Charleroy’s heart -I’ll tell him all this, and before the altar of a new consecration we’ll -give ourselves and ours to God, just this way.” There came a wondrous joy -to her heart and the palms that seemed to moan rebukingly without that -other night, “Abbaroy, Abbaroy, I want my Abbaroy,” this night reminded -her some way vaguely of the beating of mighty wings, approaching nearer -and nearer. She felt no longer rage, as she thought about the often -bepraised Mary of her husband, but on the other hand, wished she knew -more about her, were more like her. It was the woman in her, yearning for -a mother. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -RIZPAH, THE ANCIENT “MOTHER OF SORROWS.” - - “Oh say to mothers, what a holy charge - Is theirs! With what a queenly power, their love - Can rule the fountain of a new-born mind. - Warn them to wake at early dawn and sow - Good seed before the world has sown its tares; - Nor in their toil decline, that angel bands - May put their sickles in and reap for God - And gather in his garner.” - - -Nearly a score of years passed away, each having wrought its changes, -and Rizpah de Griffin is dwelling quietly with her three children at -Bozrah. She is companionless though not a widow. Care has left its stern -impress on her every feature; the roses have gone from her cheeks and the -snows that tarry, baffling all springs, are on her head. But time that -has worn has also ripened. Rizpah has become a self-possessed, stately -matron; her form is erect, her eye as bright as ever. Bozrah has not -changed; the city sits in its sullen, fixed gloom, seemingly unconscious -of the ravages that time works elsewhere. But there have been changes -and changes among the people since first the woman of Gerash arrived -there. Many former inhabitants have wandered away; some to be swallowed -up by the tides of peoples of other climes; some have gone to judgment. -But new comers have taken the places of those that had departed and -speeded the swift enough forgetting of the absent ones, Rizpah was in -high honor, for although she lived in seclusion, mixing very little with -any of the people about her, all respected her. Hers was a well-ordered -house; Druses, Turks and Hebrews joined in affirming this. She ruled -her children firmly and they obeyed her implicitly, for they loved her -loyally. We meet her now amid active preparation for the observance of -the approaching Jewish Sabbath. With her are two boys, twins, born in -London, as like each other as could be, and Miriamne. The latter is in -the full possession of her roses, and in the enjoyment of that splendor -of personal charm seemingly belonging to all the maidens of Abrahamic -descent under “the covenant of the stars and the sand.” For are not -Israel’s women not only plenteous and bright and lofty like the stars, -and her men numberless, rugged and restless as the surf-washed sands on -every shore? Does not this race, in all history, continually attest the -persistence and pre-eminence of all good to those who walk under the -Divine covenants? - -Miriamne not only is seen to possess a gracefulness like unto that of the -palm, nature’s pattern of beauty in the East, but she has such robustness -of form as might be expected in one born of such a Hebrew mother and -such a Saxon father. In her temper, poetic, emotional, oriental, like -her mother; in feature and mind more like her father; she was a better, -more evenly balanced result than either. It often so happens; the child -by some natural selection or some mercifulness, inheriting a character, -the resultant of the union of two sets of parental forces, yet finer -than either apart. The scientific man in such cases will say, herein we -behold, in a new being, physical and spiritual forces in action, the -latter gaining the advantage; a prophesy without mystery that at last the -fittest only shall survive. The theologian, on the other hand, will see -Providence electing the best and preparing choice characteristics for -superior works to be done. - -At a call of the mother, the children gathered about her, and the group -was charming; a picture full of expression and contrasts. The matron -cast a look of yearning affection upon her offsprings, and the emotion -possessed her until the hard face-lines faded into a sweet smile. Just -then she would have been a satisfactory model for an artist painting -Madonna. “Thank God, children, the emblem of rest and of hope in ages to -come is at hand. I have joyed to-day, in full preparation that this next -Sabbath may be piously and earnestly celebrated with all the religious -exactness of our people.” Then, patting the boys on their heads with -playful tenderness, she continued: “Run away now up to the synagogue-ruin -on the hill. Don’t forget your duty in play, lads; be true little -Israelites! When ye see the sun go down back of Gilead’s mountains, give -us warning of the Sabbath’s beginning. Now mind, keep your eyes toward -Jerusalem.” - -The lads sped away, and Rizpah following them with her eyes prayed in -heart: “God bless them, and though in this place of desolation, make them -little Samuels in faith and service.” A little after her face glowed -with triumphant joy, for there came back to her ears the boys’ voices, -mingling in sacred song. It was the psalm of the “Captives’ Return” -that they sang. The declining sun began to throw its last rays through -the open windows of the huge stone home, flooding the black basalt -walls and pavement with golden tints. Slowly the mother’s eyes wandered -from the scene without to objects within, until they rested on a huge -painting that covered nearly half the opposite wall. One glance and her -whole being seemed transformed. In an instant her reverential and weary -attitude was changed to one of excited attention. She grew pale, her -body swayed with a waving motion, suggestive of the panther creeping -toward a victim. Then her form became rigid like one preparing for some -great muscular effort, or endeavoring to suppress some inner tempest. -Her face, made habitually calm by the schoolings of adversity, became a -theater for expression of the changing emotion within; the mouth-lines -putting on a firmness almost hideous; her eyes glittered like a serpent’s -in the act of charming; contrasting with the forehead that shone like a -silver shield. She was as one under a spell or in a trance; but for a few -moments only. There came a light footfall; then a quick, half frightened, -piteous cry and Miriamne stood beside her. - -“Oh, mother, don’t! mother, mother; thou dost terrify me!” The young -woman stopped half way between the open door and her parent. Now she -was passing through a great transition. She had seen all that was -happening, often before; had often run away from the spectacle to hide -it from herself. Now she was trying to nerve herself to penetrate the -mystery in the hope of preventing its painfulness. She was at the turning -point, where a girl changes to the woman within the circle of parental -influences. - -But so complete was the absorption of the one gazing upon the spectacle -upon the wall, at first the cry was unheeded. In a sort of sudden, -trembling desperation the young woman quickly bounded between her mother -and the picture. Then, as if realizing the unfilial imprudence of the -act, but still unwilling to recede from efforts to break the spell that -bound her parent, she fell upon her knees before the seeming devotee and -burst into tears. The mother started up a little as one awakening from a -dream; then said, with perfect control of voice and manner; “Marah, what -ails thee? Art ill? Are the Bedouin coming?” - -“No, no,” replied the other; “the picture; the picture!” - -“What is it child?” - -“I do not know. I only know that your strange, wild gaze upon its hideous -group terrifies me! For years I’ve learned to feel a mingled disgust and -fright in the presence of the woman in that presentment. When I came in, -your face looked like hers. You did not seem to be my own tender mother, -but an angry virago. Oh, why do you shadow all our Sabbath eves, by this -mysterious, cruel staring and moaning before this imagery of death? -You’ve made me to dread the approaching Holy Day, promise of all delight -to our people, as the advent of all pain to us.” - -“Marah, this is wickedness in thee. Thou shouldst learn to wrap thy soul -about with the joys thou knowest, and leave all this that thou dost not -understand, most likely terrible to thee chiefly because thou dost not -understand it, to go its way.” - -“I’ve tried and tried for months to reason thus; but how little comfort -to be saying over and over, ‘it’s all right,’ ‘it’s nothing,’ to a fear -that stops the very beatings of the heart. Oh, that I could fly from this -land of desolations. Its loneliness and shadows keep coming and coming -around me until I dread, lest they enter my very being and become part of -me. I’ve leaned hitherto alone on my mother’s greater strength for rest. -If I come to fear her, I’ll lose my reason!” - -“Marah,” said the mother, with enforced calmness, “thou art feverish -to-day; thou hast wrought too much. Now retire and say this pillow Psalm; -‘_He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, abideth under -the shadow of the Almighty._’ Thou’lt be peaceful in the morning; as are -those ever who abide under the shadow of the King.” - -But only the more passionately the daughter clung to her mother, and -again she renewed her plaint: “Ah, mother, I haven’t strength to take -these promises! Oh, forgive me, I can not help it; I feel as if something -awful were impending; something coming between us! A curse is on this -land. Is it any way over the De Griffins? Tell me, I beseech you, what -is that painted thing? Sometimes I run out of the room when alone, as -if those men hanging there were still alive, in death’s agony. I’ve -dreamed sometimes that they came down in bodily form charging you and me -with murdering them; and when I go out at evening, I imagine that the -Ismaelitish woman in the foreground is flitting about my path, while in -every thicket I hear the flapping wings of her carrion birds. Oh, mother! -let us tear down that sole defilement of our own little, only home, and -give it to the pilgrim Rabbi, now in Bozrah, that he may burn it with -exorcising rites.” - -“Then thou thinkest there’s witchery hereabouts, Marah,” said the mother, -severely. - -[Illustration: By George Becker. - -RIZPAH DEFENDING THE DEAD BODIES OF HER RELATIONS.] - -“I? I do not know what I think, beyond this, that I’m overcome, -terrified, made miserable, and you, under some spell for a time, cease to -be my mother.” - -“My daughter profanes her faith by permitting unreined imaginations to -rule her so.” - -“Oh, tell me all about this hateful thing! Why it so moves you. You said -long ago you would when I was able to bear it. I am no longer a child. -Mother, you say you read me like an open book, now look into my heart -and see that it is bursting with fright and worry! You say you know -woman’s nature; if so, you know that I can suffer when I understand, but -shall go mad in the suspense of constant fear of some threatening ill -unseen.” Thus speaking and clinging to her mother, with a twining, almost -desperate embrace, such as among women implies unerringly that a supreme -moment and demand has fallen upon the questioner, she burst forth in -tearless sobs. The mother’s face was a study and told of a succession of -weighty thoughts; parental authority brooked; infringed; new surprised -realization that the daughter was no longer a child, but a wise, earnest -woman. Then there was a degree of fearfulness springing from deep love. -The elder woman perceived the crisis, and knew full well that in such -times denials to a woman meant a dead heart, or worse. Then her manner -softened, and drawing her child to her bosom with an embrace passionate -in fervor, she tenderly, soothingly spoke to her: - -“My most dearly beloved Marah! dismiss all thy fears at once and forever. -They are needless. Rest, now and always, as thou never canst elsewhere, -in all the world, upon this heart of mine. Rest thou in thy present young -womanhood, as calmly, as trustingly, as thou didst in baby-hood. That -heart guarded thee more tenderly than its own life then, through storms -within and without that nearly broke it. In part thou dost know this; -remembering what it has been in loyalty to God and thyself, canst thou -pain it by one distrusting thought now?” - -“Oh, mother, I know, I know; I do not mean to doubt you, and I remember, -with a gratitude beyond all my poor power of speech, your toiling, -patient, constant, loving care for me and my brothers. I never can forget -that you are a Hebrew indeed, proud to emulate the noble mothers of our -nation in its olden, golden days; but after all I must think. I think, -sometimes, with anguish, that that awful picture may some way come -between us!” - -“Why, Marah, impossible! thou art my other self; a fairer copy; as I -was at thy age.” Then Rizpah spoke in unusual, confiding tenderness: -“We mothers have our vanities and take a secret pride in wearing our -daughters on our hearts as precious jewels. When nature gratifies that -pride by giving us daughters in form, features and mind, mirrors or -glad reminders of ourselves, as we were in the days of young beauty, -romancings and hopes, we hug these in our souls in a way thou canst never -realise until thou hast been such a mother. Change? I change toward -thee? Ah, girl, not being a mother, thou canst not begin to fathom the -ocean-depth, the heaven-height, the eternity-like unchanging endurance -of a woman’s love, once it has been quickened into the channels of -maternal affection. Thou art a woman to all the world, but not so to -me. I love thee now as I loved thee when thou wert a babe. To me thou -wilt always be a little, lovely, needy creature—an angel touching the -fountains of my inmost nature. All earthly friendships change; lover’s -love, at first fierce, generally dies as the tides of years roll over -it; but, mother-love, in all loving, is the exception. Believe this as -thou dost believe the tenets of our faith and thou’ll find thy troubling -thoughts fleeing away like mists of Hermon, before the conquering -banners of the morning.” There followed a prolonged embrace and a mutual -kiss; impassioned, affectionate; an action expressing volumes to one -skilled in interpreting the signs, all unvoiced and unwritten, yet, by -some constant intuition, known to all womankind as the language of the -finest, sincerest loving. That moment these two women passed onward, -upward together to a higher, lighter, stronger relationship than they had -enjoyed before. They entered the temple where daughter and mother begin -the feast of the new revelation; when to the love of parent and child is -added that of real companionship. That is a sunny, fruity hour, when a -girl is received as a woman by a woman; that woman her mother. - -The two sat embracing and happy for a long time; but the old pain -suddenly revived—Miriamne’s eyes chancing to stray to the picture. She -shuddered, then looked pleadingly into her parent’s eyes. The mother, -quickly interpreting the look, tenderly replied: “Sometime.” - -“No, oh, no; tell me, mother, all, now! Who, and what are those hanging -forms: the horror-frighted, bludgeon-armed woman; the birds of black, -hovering over the crosses? Oh! my mother, you trust me; now tell me all -or tear that down! You know it’s not lawful for us Jews to have any image -of things in Hades.” - -The last words moved the mother more than all else that Miriamne had -hitherto spoken. Heresy, she abominated; and the chief aim of her life -had been to make her children true Israelites by precept and example. To -her thinking, Israel alone was right; all others were heathen, to whom -was reserved perdition. To an apostate, in her belief, there came a final -judgment of misery, beggaring all attempt at description. A little while -she hesitated, and then came to quick resolve to tell her daughter all. -She arose, walked rapidly back and forth over the stone floor of the -abode, and, then stopping before the daughter, said: “Thy wish shall be -granted. In love of thee, for lo, these many years I’ve hidden from thee -one miserable and dark chapter of our family history. I have drank the -bitter waters alone. But too much I love thee to bear the piteous appeal -of thy lips, or the look of doubt that sometimes flits in thy questioning -eyes. Canst thou bear knowledge that is full of bitterness?” - -“Yea, mother,” said Miriamne, “there is no bitterness in reality like -that our imaginations conjure up, when fed by mysteries that hang on -pictures of such hideous mien——” - -“Thou dost force me to the explanation, but, daughter blame me not, if, -like Saul of old, who fainted at the sight he compelled Endor’s witch to -reveal, thou art given now some knowledge that kills thy sunshine.” - -“I’m the daughter of Rizpah and Sir Charleroy. Did they either of them -ever fear?” - -“Ah! but I have been the very mother of sorrows, ever since thy birth, -child. God knows it; and it were best to leave it all to Him alone.” - -“But, mother, I’d gladly share your sorrows. Sorrow shared is ever -lightened by the sharing. Let us bear the corpse between us, and in this -lonely life we shall be made more than ever companions, through a common -grief.” - -“So be it then. Thou shalt know all.” - -And Rizpah, going to a seldom-used iron-bound chest, drew therefrom a -parchment roll; handing the same to her daughter, she said: “Read. It’s -part of Father Harrimai’s ‘_Kethubim_.’” The place opened to the story -of the famine in David’s time, which endured three years, because of -wrongs done to the Gibeonites by the children of Israel. As Miriamne read -onward, Rizpah from time to time gave explanations: - -“Dost perceive, daughter, that Jehovah, though not revengeful, is a God -of recompenses?” - -“He was the friend of the Gibeonites though they were not of his chosen -people; because they had no other friend, I think,” said Miriamne. - -“Yes, and He held all Israel responsible for what they were willing to -let their blood-thirsty Saul perform. As he had been, so had been the -people; they were guilty, and God needed to punish them. How just! Oh! -God is sure to press men to a conclusion. Read what David said to the -stranger Gibeonites;” Miriamne continued: - -“And he said, what ye shall say, _that_ will I do for you. - -“And they answered the king, the man that consumed us, and that devised -against us; - -“Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up -unto the Lord in Gibeah. - -“And the king said, I will give them. - -“But the king spared Mephiboseth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul. - -“But the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she -bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephiboseth; and the five sons of Michal the -daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel. - -“And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged -them in the hill before the Lord: and they fell all seven together, and -were put to death in the beginning of barley harvest.” - -Miriamne paused; then addressed her parent: - -“Mother, I’d not be an heretic, and yet I can not see the justice of -hanging the sons for the father’s sins?” - -“Perhaps they were parties to the murder; perhaps publicly, or in heart, -defended it. At any rate, from the beginning it has been so. Thou and thy -brothers are living here fatherless on account of him that begat you——” - -“Shall I stop reading this bloody story?” quoth Miriamne. - -“It pains thee. Thou must go on now, though thou shouldst fall fainting, -as Saul at Endor. Read.” - -The daughter complied, and with quickly revived interest, for she came to -the name “Rizpah” the second time, but before she had not noticed it in -reading. - -“And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread it for her -upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon -them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on -them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. - -“And it was told David what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine -of Saul, had done. - -“And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, -his son, from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the -street of Beth-shan. - -“And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of -Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. - -“And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country -of Benjamin, in Zelah, in the sepulcher of Kish, his father: and they -performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was entreated -for the land.” - -When the last clause was finished, Miriamne cast a glance at the huge -painting on the wall. - -“I understand in part; that is Rizpah and her crucified children?” - -“It is well, daughter. Behold her; this is motherhood of strongest type! -Humanity is no where perfect, but of all the erring ones of life, I most -believe in those, who, among many perversions of judgment and blemishes -of character, have some one or more of lofty virtues. Methinks a soul -may be drenched by many sins, and yet, if within its very core it carry -sincerely and sacred as its life some noble, dominating passion, like the -holy love of parent for a child, that soul will ever have thereby a gate -open to the Holy Spirit, a handle for the grasp of saving angels, and, -while life lasts, an ever-flying signal lifted toward heaven. Such prayer -unspoken is a beseeching, not vainly for the interceding love of Him that -weighs the spirits.” - -“But, mother, you’re not such a tigress? Not like that woman?” - -“How proud I’d be to be indeed all she was. The exact interpretation of -‘Rizpah’ is a ‘living coal,’ but her name interpreted by her life is -better called the ‘flaming beacon.’ We mutually lament the dispersion -of our people! Dost thou remember how last Sabbath thou wepst while -thou didst read to me the words of the blessed Isaiah foretelling the -long-delayed but Divinely-promised regathering of all our tribes?” - -“Oh! that the hills of Judea would glow with the beacons of that day!” - -“Daughter, God’s beacons are chiefly noble spirits, such as Moses of the -Exode, Samson, the giant, David, Nehemiah and Cyrus. The world has not -yet interpreted Rizpah, the ‘burning coal,’ the beacon fire. Once I was -frail, timorous, wavering, but devotion to that character has transformed -me. When the world’s mothers look to her pattern, there will be a new -order of motherhood; then look for heroic men and an heroic age!” - -“But was not Rizpah a Hivite, a descendant of Ham, and so of those -forever under God’s curse?” - -“My child, ancestry is not always the test of worth. The consequences -of sin may pass down from sire to son, but never so as to bar the way -to hope, nor dam up the stream of ever-pitying mercy of heaven. Rizpah -had some true Jewish blood within her heart, and in the long run God’s -providence doth work to make the better part, of admixed good and ill, -dominate. Besides all this, the lovely Ruth, thou dost emulate so well, -was foreign to our people. So, too, was Rahab; and our Rabbis tell us -she was in the royal line of David, from which at last the Messiah shall -arise. Those women, with Rizpah, were beacons to the world! While mankind -revere true love, constancy, loyalty and faith, those names will be -remembered.” - -“But, mother, Rizpah was the concubine of Saul, and as I think of how -you oft denounce the harems of our neighboring Bedawin, my very soul -blushes at hearing you admire this woman so.” - -“Ah, daughter, methinks she was more sinned against than sinning. Recall -the unequal struggle: Rizpah, a foreigner, of a nation subdued by kingly -Saul; he a man, strong of mind, a king, hedged with a sort of divinity -that in the minds of the simple ever hedges kings about; making their -words and deeds seem always right and just. If women made the laws and -customs there never would have been known on earth unclean polygamy, -but ever instead thereof the union only, in holy wedlock, of two lives, -mutually consecrated, serviceful and constant. Under wrong teaching and -tyranny, a woman may do that which purer societies condemn, and yet -retain a conscience white and clean before God. - -“Within that book of Samuel, which I hold, it is recorded that -Ishbosheth, a son of Saul, who for a time reigned in a rebellious -confederacy, a horseman’s day’s journey from here, at Mahanaim, charged -Rizpah once with an act of impurity. - -“The record makes no mention of Rizpah’s reply. Like thousands of women -before and since her time, she was defenseless against slander. Men, the -stronger, may malign without evidence, and often it doth outweigh, to -ears ripe to feast upon the carrion of a scandal, the indignant denial of -outraged purity, accompanied even with evidences which make the thought -of crime upon the part of the one belied, seemingly an impossibility. But -leave all that; I appeal in behalf of my revered Rizpah to her wondrous -loyalty as a mother. Tell me not that this sublimely heroic woman, who -patiently watched the corpses of her sons and other kin from April, -through all the lonely nights and through all those burning days, until -October rains wept them to their burial, ever did an act that could let -loose upon them living or dead the hounds of scandal! They may have -suffered death as malefactors, in God’s sight, but still her mother-love -clung to them. She who kept those long vigils, lest beast or bird of prey -should harm or mar or pollute the bodies precious to her if to no one -else, I am assured, beyond all cavil, never did aught that could have -stung their brows or embittered their hearts! Such motherly devotion as -hers doth fully purify a woman. He who planned society, with its sacred -foundations resting so largely on the integrity of its child-bearers, has -planted in the bosom of woman this all-possessing love of her offspring, -as her safeguard. It’s her wall of fire by day and by night, and verily -more restraining to her than any law of man, command of God, or fear of -hell!” - -“And are loving mothers never unchaste?” - -“The Jews hated swine and the monster deities of Chaldeans, because both -destroyed their young, and our holy Talmudists declare that Mary of the -Christians, not being as pure as the Nazarene’s followers affirm, is -doomed to bide even in lowest Hades with the bar of hell’s gate through -her ear. No, I, as a Jewish woman, believe that one of my sex being a -mother and impure is neither loving, nor a woman!” - -“How I revere the noble sentiments of Rizpah of Bozrah!” - -“For all I am, after God, praise that ancient, fervent beacon, Rizpah of -Gibeah!” - -“I am in part reconciled to her, but yet I wish, in frightened agony -often, that you would renounce this historic Rizpah; lioness-like in her -devotion to her offspring, but full of murderous fury toward any that -crossed her love. Our holy book must have sweeter, nobler ideals for our -inspiration.” - -“I judge this Hebrew heroine mother by her influence upon me, and that -has been for good. The hypocrite or romancer may call the passer-by to -prayer and have no more soul in it than the Moslem trumpet. Only those -who have some God-like saintliness of character, can win effectually, -unceasingly. There is mighty power in the unspoken sermons of such a -life. _I cherish_ Rizpah, whose touch of moral power, coming where and -when I was weak to callowness, girded me with purpose for wavering and -thews of steel for rosy softness. I was once like thee, a fragile flower, -but the example of that patient woman’s heroism, ever before me, has -fitted me to meet my awful trials and worthily inhabit this giant-built -house. Thou dost remember, Miriamne, at last Passover time they wish, as -thou didst read to me of Jacob, that even now a ladder with communicating -angels might be set up from earth to heaven?” - -“Ah, that would be a feast; angels in burning bushes, or by fountains as -in Hagar’s time! I often worship in the thicket and pray for heaven’s -messengers from Paradise to fan the flames of our devotion, as Gabriel -did the orisons of Daniel. But I’d be afraid to meet an angel like your -Rizpah.” - -“Not so with me, Marah. Indeed, I often think of Rizpah and Jacob -together. Thou rememberest how, not far away, at Mahanaim, Jacob of -old met a host of angels? They came to cheer him in an hour of sad -depression, the saddest kind indeed; for in that hour he remembered -amid his repentings that he was soon to face the brother whom long -years before he had wronged. Well, when Rizpah, by the death of Saul, -was released from that domineering madman-king, she made her home at -Mahanaim, the place near which Jacob counseled with the angels. Methinks -she there also communed with the spirits that do excel in strength. -She may have been weak before, but in that angel school she outgrew -her master. Ay, my child, it is marvelous how a woman rises under the -impulses of a noble love, holy companionship and plenty of sorrow. Many a -male brute has flattered himself he was crushing into fawning servitude -by his imperious, selfish will, his weaker child-burdened mate, only -some day to find the victim asserting her individuality with power -unearthly. The partridge skulks, terrified amid lowly grasses from the -hunter, little by little gathering courage for her pinions, then she -suddenly departs to return no more, meanwhile luring the hunter from her -treasures.” - -“That is, an abused wife should run away?” - -“Oh, perhaps not; but she may rise above her tyrant.” - -“I can’t but remember the woman’s rough strength.” - -“To me the all-controlling love of Rizpah for her children condones her -former errings, her Philistine ancestry, her craggedness. I believe she -soars with the angels now, and to Israel she must be a pattern until some -more saintly and finer woman arises to take the leadership of woman.” - -“Will such an one appear, mother?” - -“God’s dial is a circle, with a sweep like eternity. He knows no hurry; -yet, though never weary, is never belated. We are not waiting for him, -but He is for us. When man is ready to take up his pilgrim march to the -highlands of a living, all light, all beautiful, there’ll be beacons and -beacons from the valleys to the hills.” - -Just then the lamp by which they had been sitting, for some time having -only flickered, was suddenly quenched, and there was a sound of the -fluttering of wings in the room. Miriamne screamed and clung to her -mother, her thoughts on the vultures of the picture. - -“’Twas only a bat, daughter!” - -“Oh, this ghostly place!” the young woman cried. - -“Ghosts and bats are very harmless; would men were like them!” bitterly -spoke Rizpah. - -“A bat putting out our light; it’s like an omen!” - -“Yes, wrongs do put out the light of human joy, but only for a little -while; look out to the firmament, my clinging other self, as I do, -for comfort by times. See, the stars are immovable; all bright and in -seemingly everlasting calm. Never forget in any long trial, or sudden -terror, that when our human-made lights expire we are to turn our eyes -toward heaven. In truth, God Himself often quenches our lights to make us -look up to His.” The mother, approaching the stone casement, and looking -out on the sky, continued: “The heavens are full of beacons and lamps. -They shall light us to bed as His truth lights those who will to serene, -long rest. Good night, my child.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED IN THE GIANT CITY. - - “Half-hearted, false-hearted! Heed we the warning! - Only the whole can be perfectly true; - Bring the whole offering, all timid thought scorning, - True-hearted only if whole-hearted too.”—HAVERGAL. - - -Another Passover season was at hand, and the few Israelites in and -about Bozrah, not being permitted to celebrate the feast, at Jerusalem -were gathering for a “Little Passover” at the Giant City. There was -sadness, murmurings and fears in the hearts of the people. Sadness in -remembering the decadence of Israel; fears, for there were Mamelukes -hovering threateningly in large numbers near the city; murmurings, -because fault-findings, the last stage to indifference, flourish when -religion is decaying. Faith and doubt waged their eternal battle; and at -Bozrah, doubt appealing to present facts, had the easier part against -faith, appealing to past providences or unseen hopes. There was clamor -for a change, but the leaders of the people were purblind to any new -light. They crushed their own secret doubts and continued to enforce -what they believed, because they had believed it. They felt a sense of -responsibility, and that made them very conservative. Before the sun had -reached high-noon Bozrah was all astir. There were but two principal -streets in the city; these ran by the four great points of the compass -and crossed at its center. Two companies of Jews of very different -make-up, each moving along one of those streets, met, and, in passing, -quite accidentally, the two processions formed a cross. One of the -companies was made up of priests and serious old men, the true elders of -the people. They tried to appear very wise and very pious, and succeeded. -They tried as well to cheer and comfort all, and did not succeed very -well. The other company was made up of young Israelitish men. They were -going eastward; the old men walked northward, away from the sun, now a -little more than southeast. By the side of the elders glided a row of -shadows of their own making. But they were as unconscious of these as of -the shadows their musty traditions flung over the people. - -The youths felt like singing, so they sang. The sadness that was so -general was not very deep with them. They would have liked to have sung -a sort of convivial song; but, that being forbidden, they compromised -with their consciences and the situation by singing the one hundred and -twenty-second Psalm, with the vigor of a madrigal. They had a surplusage -of vitality, and they let it flow out in the pious canticle. Certainly -they conserved outward propriety; as to their inward feelings, they -themselves hardly knew what they were; hence, it would be unjust, for one -without, to pass judgment. The Psalm was appointed to be sung at this -feast. They say the returning captives, coming from Babylon, centuries -before, sang this song as they ascended to a sight of Jerusalem. - -Now, some of the elders had come to think it piety to morbidly nurse -their sorrows. They were never happy except when they were miserable. One -of these paused and addressed the young singers: - -“Children, cease. Your time is too much like a dancer’s.” - -Then all eyes turned toward the leader of the youths, a man with a -Saul-like neck, large mouth, wet, thick lips, and burning eyes; all -bespeaking a person who is never religious beyond the drawings of -religious excitement, for excitement’s sake, and never self-restraining, -except as checked by fear of a very material hell. Such an one, if he -have any regularity in his piety, will have it because somebody opposes, -or because, having swallowed, with one lazy gulp, a heavy creed, he -thereafter goes about condoning by habit his petty vices, in trying to -force others to be better than he himself ever expects to be. Such are -never spiritual, and seldom martyrs; but they make good persecutors, and -so do a work that compels others, by suffering, to be spiritual, and, may -be, good martyrs. This leader made sharp retort, thrusting out his chin -to enforce it: - -“The Psalm is all right, and, if the old men sang more, they would have -less time for moaning. Singing and moaning are much alike, only the -former cheers men, the latter, devils!” - -“Son,” replied the patriarch, “revile not the fathers. We do not condemn -thy joy as sin; but yet it now seems inopportune. We are entering -captivity, not liberation. Our holy and our beautiful temple is in ruins; -our people like hunted quail.” - -“But, this is feast time,” said the youth. - -“What a feast! I remember it as it was when the nation gathered at -Jerusalem, to the number of nigh 3,000,000, and offered 250,000 lambs. -Ah, now, a handful, in this grim old city surrounded by aliens!” - -The elder, so speaking, bowed his head, threw his mantle over his -eyes and wept; meanwhile his fellow-elders gathered about him, very -reverently, and waved their hands rebuking toward the youths. Just then -there drew near a beautiful Jewess, led by an aged man, the latter garbed -partly as an Israelite, and partly as one of the Druses. He had a saintly -mien, and fixed the attention of the elders; but, the young men, with -one accord, youth-like, at once erected, in silent worship, an unseen -altar of devotion to the new goddess. The grouping was striking and -suggestive. The stranger was silent, and seemed to be intent on passing -by so; but the elders felt their responsibility. It is the fate of the -religious leader to be expected to explain every thing. He must talk to -every body, and about every matter. He cannot, when he will, keep quiet -and so get the credit for fullness of wisdom, as do some. He must express -an opinion, for silence is deemed a greater sin in such than insincerity -or words out of ignorance. The foremost of the elders felt called to act, -and so confronting the two new comers, sternly addressed the maiden: - -“I perceive that thou art of my people; wherefore comest thou here, and -in this companionship? Knowest thou not that women are forbidden to be at -the first of the feast?” - -The young men were not in accord with the elder; they stood apart, and -some whispered to others: - -“It is Miriamne de Griffin.” - -The maiden shrank back a little; but the saintly man with her, advancing -a step, replied: - -“I am the maiden’s guardian to-day, fathers, and responsible for her act. -Say on!” - -The elder, though knowing full well who the speaker was, and also fully -understanding the import of his challenge, pretended to have neither -heard nor seen him. He looked past the speaker, who was championing the -maiden, and continued: - -“Do thy people at home know of these indiscreet acts?” - -“Hold, Rabbi! no insinuations.” The saintly man’s voice was commanding, -and compelled silence. He continued: “We go our way, ye yours. Ye can not -help yourselves out of your miseries; then presume not to direct us.” He -checked his rising anger, remembering that he was a religious teacher, -and launched out in a wayside sermon. “Ye children of Abraham, hear me, -though I came not to counsel. Ye have stopped my progress, now hear God’s -truth! There are dangers without, but greater ones within; though your -eyes, being veiled, ye perceive not these things. I noticed as I was -coming this way that the tombs and grave-stones every where have been -whitened recently. They tell me this was done so as to enable your people -plainly to see them and so avoid them. Yet fleeing defilement of the -dead, ye live in a grave, all of you. All your prefiguring feasts have -ripened into a glowing present that treads out into a full day!” - -The old men seemed puzzled and angry; the young men puzzled but glad. -They welcomed any sermon if it came with novelty. They reasoned within -themselves that the old teachings were dead, and that a new creed -could be no worse. If it were novel, it would have at least a temporary -freshness. - -The speaker proceeded, for the congregation before him, being divided in -sentiment, invited him, so far, to proceed. - -“Oh, nation, called to be the light of the world, ye bear but phantom -torches. Ye move sorrowfully, surrounded by walls of cloud, but just -beyond there lies a glorious firmament, aglow with suns of hope and a -thousand golden-arched doors made of realized prophecies and promises -ripened. Can ye make these ruined habitations of mighty men, now sleeping -in the cliffs and valleys about us, again teem with their former life? -No, no! yet less readily can ye make your dead, finished, vanishing types -take new life. Ye are puzzled and partially angry, but hold in check the -hot blood. I’ll soon depart; yet before I go, I’ll tell ye, all, this -for your deepest thinking: Ye can never celebrate again the Passover! -God shut ye from your Temple long ago to teach you this; these traveling -ceremonials of yours are but mockeries. The last real passover was -celebrated when your fathers slew the Nazarene——” - -“Let us stone him!” vehemently cried the brawny leader of the youths, and -the elders turned their backs, as if to give approval to the violence, -but not incur liability by witnessing. - -The brawny youth seized a boulder as if to begin; the saintly man did not -move, and another youth seized the arm of the youth of brawn. - -“Young men, I’ll show you an entrancing picture,” was the saintly man’s -calm words. They were instantly intent. “Look, you and your old men -make the sign of the cross by your ranks. Look again, by the cross -stands this damsel, simple, pure and loving; an ideal woman. Her name, -Miriamne, or Mary. Do not delude yourselves into the belief that it will -be safe or possible for you to silence truth by murdering me. I’d despise -your attempt if I did not pity your thoughtless rage. Do not forget the -picture of this hour. The Passover will be fully celebrated when the -power of the cross and the presence of purity is universally felt in -earth. Only your men attend this your sacrifice. It is well; and when men -truly bear the burden of sacrifice, women will be at their feast. Now, -then, take heed. Farewell, ancients!” - -So saying the saintly man of strange garb suddenly turned away, drawing -the Jewess with him. The elders were confounded; they could not find -words at the moment for reply; they were stung by the pleased and -approving glances that the young men gave the departing couple. The -elders would have been pleased to have taken the Jewish maiden from -her escort with violence, but the latter was a brawny man. The elders -knew the youths would not aid; to attempt it themselves would be likely -to be a failure, certainly undignified. They deemed it wise, in any -event, to conserve their dignity, and being unable to do any thing more -terrific, they hissed an orthodox malediction after the departing man -and woman. That made the elders feel a little better. The two companies -at the crossing of the streets fell to musing and conversing, but in -different groups. The old men talked as old men, deploring the present -and be-praising the past; the youths deplored the present and be-praised -the future; some of them trying to interpret the words of the saintly -man. They all wanted to be very orthodox Jews, and yet they all felt -that the stranger’s words were full of sweetness and good cheer. Some of -the youths, like others of their age, had unconsciously sided with the -strangers on account of the woman’s influence. They admired her, and the -side she was on was charmingly invincible. - -“_The Arabs are coming!_” - -It was a cry starting up from all directions, and passed from lip to -lip like the tidings of fire at night. The city was soon in confusion -and panic; then mixed crowds surged toward the crossing of the streets -like terrified sheep. They needed leaders or shepherds. But the elders -so lavish in advice usually, were dumb with fright now. Yet every body -looked toward them for direction. Suddenly, the saintly man and the -Jewess reappeared; as suddenly transformed to a self-reliant leader, she -cried out: “Youths of Israel, to the defense; the enemy come in by the -wall toward the Sun Temple’s ruins!” - -“Perhaps it’s the ‘Angel of Death,’” cried the thick-necked leader of the -youths. - -“The All-Father of the covenant forefend!” groaned some of the elders. - -“Fathers,” cried the Jewess, “pray as you can, but we younger ones must -fight as well as pray. Pray the men to go to a charge!” - -“A Deborah!” shouted the thick-necked youth. “Now lead and we’ll follow!” - -“Shame!” cried the saintly man. “Lead yourselves!” - -There was no need of argument; the thick-necked youth waved his hand -to the other young men and they all dashed away toward the advance of -the enemy; all of the city having a mind to fight, becoming instant -volunteers. But the elders, with a piety enforced by prudence concluded -to stay at the crossing and pray. Perhaps in their hearts they reasoned -that if the enemy were repulsed they might claim the glory of having -sustained the fighters, as Aarons and Hurs; if the youths and their -followers were overcome, then they, the elders, might claim prescience -and say at the end: “We knew it were vain to resist.” - -Soon there were heard the shouts and clangor of conflict. The fight was -on. Miriamne breathlessly carried the news to her mother. - -The matron laid her hand on her bosom, not to still a fluttering heart, -but affectionately to toy with the handle of her faithful dagger. - -“Oh, mother, when will these troublous times end? what shall we do?” - -“Daughter, fight! if need be.” - -“But we are only women!” - -“But this is woman’s time; remember Sisera!” Rizpah began dressing for -departure. - -“Oh, mother, wait! Let us send the boys for news into the city. Perhaps -the worst has not come, when the mothers must take arms.” - -Rizpah silently assented. The boys were sent, and in half an hour -returned with hot and beaming faces. “The Mamelukes are all slung out of -the city! Lots of them killed,” both exclaimed, between their pantings. - -“How brothers: is it all over?” - -“Yes, all over! They’re gone! Oh, you ought to have seen how our young -men and the Druses raced them,” interposed one. - -“If it hadn’t been for the Druses we’d all been murdered!” cried the -other. Then the brothers caught up the narrative in turn. - -“And, Miriamne, some of the young soldier-like men, after the fight, -went about shouting ‘_cheers for the flag of Maccabees and the maid of -Bozrah!_’ They say the ‘maid of Bozrah’ means you. What do they intend?” - -Miriamne seemed not to hear the question. She was engrossed with her own -thoughts and thus was meditating: “It’s just as the Old Clock Man said! -The Druses by their needed aid prove it; the Jews need a Saviour!” - -“Boys,” presently questioned Rizpah, “Were many of the heretics killed?” - -“Oh, ever so many! Yes, and we want cloths for the wounded,” said the -questioned lads. - -“Now, may the alien dead rot!” - -“But we must bring cloths.” - -“Who says it?” - -“The ‘Old Clock Man’ told every body to help the hurt.” - -“And who, pray, is this ‘Old Clock Man?’” - -Rizpah was quickly answered by Miriamne. - -“I know him, mother. He’s the leader of the Christians here, and a -wondrously good old man who heals the sick, feeds the poor, teaches the -ignorant and gives the true time of day to every body by the bell of his -religious house!” - -The mother fixed her eyes penetratingly upon Miriamne for a moment, then -frigidly questioned: - -“And since thou hast disobeyed me in making the acquaintance of a -stranger, thou wilt now explain why thou hast never mentioned to me this -‘Old Clock Man’ of whom thou dost seem to know so much! Who is he?” - -“Why, he’s the ‘Old Clock Man’ who mends poor people’s clocks, plays with -the children and is doing every body kindness!” - -“Some Christian witchery!” - -“Oh, mother, he’s an angel if ever there was one on earth!” - -“Is he a Jew?” almost hissed Rizpah. - -“I’ve forgotten to ask about that; but I’m certain he is, if only Jews -are good, for he is a saint of God.” - -Rizpah’s face wore a sneer as she again spoke: “How canst thou tell, -Inexperience?” - -“By acts. He goes about seeking poor people to clothe and feed, and he is -their physician as well, and will take no pay.” - -“Some Christian perverter, trying to seduce the unthinking by pretended -service. Beware of such, Miriamne!” - -“But healing the sick and setting people’s clocks right can’t do harm! -I’m certain of that?” - -“How sly; he would set all Jewry to Christian time and faith at the same -instant!” - -“I love his way, mother; it is so good; more I do not know.” - -“The old knave!” - -“Oh! mother, he is old, but no knave. Ought we not to be reverent to the -hoary head in the way of righteousness?” - -“Yet an old man may poison women and children. I told thee the story of -Agag once, daughter.” - -“Yes.” - -“I mean now to tell thee if this man be not a Jew, let him be like Agag, -hewn to pieces. Flee him as a leper.” - -“He don’t talk so. He says all mankind are brothers. Only to-day, he -cried, to the men in the beginning of the fight, ‘save your families as -best you may,’ kill the wounded Moslem with kindness!” The rapid converse -of the two women was interrupted by the impatient cry of the boys for -wraps and lint. As they started away, Miriamne darted after them, saying: -“I’ll go and help those caring for the wounded.” - -“Wayward,” called after her the mother, “remember my commands. Keep away -from the old Perverter, and minister to suffering Israelites, only. God -can spare the rest! Let them die.” - -In the midst of the suffering ones, Miriamne soon found herself, and as -might be expected; there, too, was the “Old Clock Man.” As they met he -said, laconically, “It is fitting that woman’s tender hands minister -thus.” - -“Thanks,” was her reply. - -Presently Miriamne questions, with an unaffected diffidence, her -companion. - -“Will you tell me your name?” - -“Call me father, that’s enough.” - -“Ah! but I can not, you are not my father.” - -“I may be.” - -“What jest is this! I’ve a father living?” - -“I am father to multitudes, but after the flesh, childless.” - -“Oh, thy children are dead, then?” - -“Nay, some dead and some living; but, living or dead, they are my -children.” - -“This is a wilderment to me. Where is your wife?” - -“Everywhere. In early youth, with vows unutterable, I wed my church. She -is Humanity’s mother, and I the father of all of her children, who will -let me serve them.” - -“And is this the Christian faith?” - -“It is mine, anyway.” - -“I like it. I’m sure it must be safe; being so good, and so you may be my -father that way. Are there many fathers like you?” - -“Many, and many needed, else sin will make all orphans.” - -“And you have no wife, no home?” - -“A home most beautiful, which, at sunset, I’ll enter through a door, once -shut, not possible to be opened by my hands, though its fastenings be but -grass and daisies.” - -“You mean death?” As she said it, tears welled in Miriamne’s eyes. - -“Weep not, my child, death is beautiful, at least to me.” - -“Oh, good man—father. I do not yet know how to think about you or these -things that you say. What made you so different from the people I know?” - -“A woman, a lovely woman.” - -“Your mother?” - -“Not as you think.” - -“Oh, then pardon my curiosity. You had some love?” - -“Thou hast said it.” - -“Why did you not wed her? Did she die?” - -“A woman’s question? I’ll tell thee all some other time. I hear -approaching voices.” - -“Tell me just a little more now; do?” - -“Are the wounded all attended properly? Mercy first, stories and sermons -after.” - -“Ah, here come my brothers. I’ll inquire;” and away ran Miriamne to a -group of youths, singing a roundelay, of which she caught but a few lines; - - “Jew and Gentile, Christian, Turk, - Equally shall share our work. - For Adolphus’ good - We’d shed our blood, - For we have joined the balsam band, - To cure all troubles in our land. - We love the man, - We love the band. - We love the brothers of our balsam band.” - -Miriamne comprehended the situation in a moment, and all radiant with -smiles, bounded to the side of her aged friend, crying: “Father, oh, -you’ve a bonny family coming; over fifty youths and maidens; some -Jews, some Gentiles. They’ve been comforting the wounded and now have -spontaneously formed some sort of friendly guild.” - -“That’s praiseworthy so far,” the saintly man replied. - -“And don’t blush; when I asked the leader what were their purposes and -name, a dozen cried out at once; ‘We’re Father Adolphus’s angels of -mercy!’” - -“They could easily have found a better title, but youth in its frank -celerity interprets human need. We all must have a pattern or hero. -That’s the reason there are pagans; not finding the true God, some invent -one. Anyway, God blesses the merciful.” - -“Oh, these angels are splendid; so earnest; so happy; so every thing -good! They all wear balsam-twig crowns, and are singing improvised -ditties about charity and humanity, and such like.” - -“Praised be God if they mean them, daughter.” - -“Mean them? Why they’ll make the ancients groan if they go to the -crossways with their enthusiastic singing. ‘Black-frowns!’ if they -disturb the Passover solemnities, won’t there be trouble? - -“And Bozrah will never understand the meaning of the ceremonial, the -phantom of which meaning some to-day are pursuing, until it beholds sweet -charity sincerely applied, rising with healing and life in its wings to -pass over savingly where humanity has pains and death.” - -The old priest looked away toward Jerusalem, as he spoke—his voice -meanwhile becoming very tender, almost tremulous. Had one been able to -enter his heart, there would have been seen a memory picture of Calvary. -Miriamne was awed for a few moments; the old man was lost in thought; -presently she recalled his attention: “Father, the band is just at hand. -Shall I introduce you?” - -“It is needless; I formed that Band of Charity, though I gave them not -the name; most all except the recruits of to-day know me.” - -The singers went by, saluting the priest as they passed; obeying his -signal to them not to tarry. - -Miriamne turned to her comrade with quickened confidence, and with her -usual impetuosity exclaimed: - -“I want to be what you like. Make me a Balsamite!” - -“Thou hast a mother who might object.” - -“Oh, no, no; not if she knew all, as do I.” - -“Some have called my work witchcraft.” - -“I don’t care, since I know better. Make me a Balsamite, now, please?” - -“So be it, child. Put thy hand on thy heart and repeat: ‘_I promise my -Merciful Father always to show heartfelt kindness to all His creatures, -especially those in misery, because of His everlasting goodness toward -myself._’” - -“I promise that gladly. Is that all?” - -“Yes; thy badge, a sprig of the evergreen balm-shrub, shall teach thee -the rest.” - -“Teach me the rest?” - -“Puzzled again, child? Well, I’ll teach thee, and the shrub shall recall -my lessons. As thou dost learn to love nature, as thou wilt when getting -back to a more child-like faith, nature will talk to thee all the time. -See, this is unfading; so is mercy. When torrid suns make the shrub -suffer, it sweats or weeps these healing gums. Trials make all good souls -fruitful. Then see, this little shrub gives to the world all it receives, -transforming its earthy nourishments, sunshines and showers, into a -medicament for sufferers. It is a type of the All-Giver. It has but three -flowers, and I read in these the signature of a Triune God. This thou -wilt, perhaps, read some time for thyself, when thou hast learned the -mystery of the Unspeakable Gift.” - -“My father, your wisdom is very beautiful.” - -“Would, my child, that my words ever be to thee as the nuts of this -little evergreen emblem, though rough-coated, still filled with liquid of -honey sweetness.” - -The maiden yearned to embrace the priest. Had she done so, her feelings -would have been like those of a daughter toward a father, or a devotee -toward God. She yearned to express love for father. The fountain of that -affection, hitherto unevoked, was full. But she restrained herself, and -said, as she clasped the old man’s arm: “May I be crowned?” - -“Yes, daughter; having served the bleeding as thou didst to-day, thou -mayst.” The priest twined together some of the balsam bows and placed -them upon her brow. “I saw once, at Damascus, a painted presentment of -the mother of our Lord, on wood, from which, continuously, there exuded -a precious nard, of all healing virtue. So they said, at least; and -more than this, I was assured it had power to heal even the wounds of -infidels.” - -“Is this really so?” - -“I believe a Christian kindness to an unbeliever a medicine to the soul -of the blesser and blest. That’s why I’m merciful to Moslem.” - -“But you court dangers, do you not? I remember your telling me once, that -fanatics, or men with a false religion, falsely practiced, were like mad -dogs—one could never tell when they might bite the kindest master.” - -“True, some forgetting the essence of all religion worth the name, -Charity, to propagate their theories, easily befool their consciences and -murder gratitude. But ingratitude is a Christian and Jewish, as well as a -heathen fault. In this all are alike. Still, though a man spoil all the -good I try to do him, there’s one thing he can not spoil.” - -“And that is what?” - -“The bird of sunny plumage that sings in my heart because of the good I -attempt. I met a French pilgrim, a while ago, who spent his time mostly -in helping, as he could, to make the Mohammedan children he met, happy. -He sang to them, gave them presents, acted as umpire in their sports, and -if one got hurt he mothered it—(that’s what he called his tender, odd -ways). Some called him wrong in his head, but when I knew him I believed -that one sane, amid thousands crazed.” - -“Who and what was he?” - -“I asked him, and for reply got only this: ‘I’m Melchisedec, a priest of -the wayside, seeking to win silver hands, silver feet, and crown jewels.’” - -“Well, he would have frightened me, if I’d met him speaking that way and -in such moods?” - -“Oh, no; he was not frightful; he seemed to attract even the birds, and -the ownerless curs ran to him when others spurned them. He once, when -sick, told me that he came from Toul, in Lorraine, where was enshrined an -image of Madonna with a silver foot. He believed that tradition, which -declared that that presentment of Mary gave a sign by taking a step, on a -certain time, which warned some of great impending danger, and thereupon -the member was changed to the precious metal.” - -“It’s a pretty story.” - -“At least the lesson is honey-like. No being can strive to help another -without finding the All-Shining often in his own soul. So our crowns are -made.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -THE QUEEN’S CHILDHOOD. - - “Now raise thy view, - Unto the vision most resembling Christ’s.”—DANTE. - - “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.”—GABRIEL. - - -Miriamne, all aglow with pleasurable excitement and filled with a -curiosity which at times rose to very serious questioning as to her own -faith, anxiously sought to compass an early meeting with the “Old Clock -Man.” She could not content herself to wait a chance opportunity, and so, -remembering that it was his custom at evening time to visit, alone, for -meditation various old ruins like those of the Reservoir, she determined -to seek him there; it being not very far from her home. With beating -heart she repaired thither at sunset, the day after the Mameluke attack. -Having traversed the Reservoir’s side some two or three hundred feet, -she was on the point of returning, for the place was very lonely, when a -voice startled her. - -“Oh, Father Adolphus, how you frighten me! I’m so glad you came!” - -“Looking for me, yet frightened at finding me. Glad I came, though I -scared you?” - -“Well, men and women when frightened are glad of the fellowship of any -thing seemingly strong. It’s easy for the terrified to believe or trust.” - -[Illustration: By Carl Muller. - -THE EDUCATION OF MARY.] - -“There’s rare philosophy in thy head, little woman.” - -“So? What were you saying when I startled so?” - -“That the silvering of the moon brought out thy person beautifully. So -she that sits above the moon, a queen in heaven, would beautify thy soul -if thou shouldst elect to put on the character she ever wore.” - -“I can’t do that, knowing so little of her.” - -“A woman’s way of saying, tell me more.” - -“You would not torment your Mary with such repartee.” - -“Woman again. Art thou jealous already?” - -“Fie.” - -“Say that again! Once the foil of one of thy sex is penetrated, not -having arguments, she can at least say ‘fie’! Well, even ducklings hiss -when helplessly entangled.” - -“Adolphus Von Gombard, I’ll not call you ‘father’ again, if you approach -me any more in this courtier fashion.” - -“Again, I say, an old head; but I’d plead privilege.” - -“At least old enough to discern the sacred line that bounds all proper -commerce between the sexes. You plead privilege; I grant you the noblest -any woman can give, the privilege of guiding my immortal soul; but I -remember to have heard that he who would shepherd such as I, must be to -her as a woman. The relationship between us must be as that between the -angels of heaven who neither marry nor are given in marriage.” - -“Some young women receive teachings most willingly from fine-favored and -patronizing instructors.” - -“I know it; but let none patronize me so. I’ve begun to adore the Sacrist -of Bozrah, but if a breath or word passes that makes me think of him -chiefly as being a man, then I shall sit in his presence in fright, -or flee as I would were I to find the place changed into a lonely -night-draped waddy, my only company an image of some leering, giant -Bacchus. But this unequal defence is painful.” - -“Then desist and tell me what I’m to do.” - -“You have been my ideal man, for heaven’s sake rob me not by changing!” - -“Right nobly spoken, daughter. Now pardon me, for I was putting thee to a -test.” - -“A test?” - -“Yes. It’s forbidden, by customs hereabout, for man and woman, as we, -alone to converse face to face; perhaps wisely, if one be bad and the -other weak. Yet the custom is heathenish—low moral tone engendering -mighty suspicions!” - -“Did my priest think me a heathen?” - -“No, not that; but they say the moon makes lovers and others mad. I was -wondering whether I was dealing with a bundle of romancings or an earnest -girl?” - -Delicately the maiden avoided the query with another: - -“You loved Mary: why did you not wed her?” - -“Woman again; doomed to make all vistas end in wedlock. With your sex -love, beginning to give, gives all readily, and seems to find no rest -until there’s conjugal union.” - -“I have not desired to give all that way to those I’ve loved!” - -“It is all or nothing. Ye women love only relatives, and never cease to -desire to make all relatives whom ye want to love. Why, girl, my Mary -is a saint; she died ages ago, after the flesh; but as a model for all -womankind lives forever,” - -“How was she your Mary, then?” - -“She belongs to every noble minded man as his inspirer.” - -“Mary—you call her Mary. I thought all the holy and the great had -uncommon names?” - -“In fiction they do; in reality the name is nothing.” - -“Was she wise and beautiful?” - -“One of our most holy teachers, Epiphanius, who lived less than four -hundred years after Mary, spent many years at Bethlehem and gathered -facts that caused him thus to write. ‘She was of middle stature, her face -oval, her eyes brilliant and of an olive tint; her eyebrows arched and -black, her hair a pale brown, her complexion fair as wheat. She spoke -little, but she spoke freely and affably. She was grave, courteous, -tranquil. In her deportment was nothing lax or feeble.’ Saint Denis, the -Areopagite, who is said to have seen this queen of David’s house in her -lifetime, declared that she was ‘a dazzling beauty,’ that he ‘would have -adored her as a goddess had he not known that there was but one God!’ Of -this much I’m certain, my Bozrah Miriamne, one so serene of character, -and so pure, must have reflected her inner, imperishable beauties in her -features.” - -“Father Adolphus, you mention strange names. There are none that sound -like those revered by my people. Do you ever hate my race? If you do you -must not teach me any doctrine.” - -“Hate? Why, I love all peoples, and by faith I am made a child of -Abraham.” - -“Then you are a proselyte?” - -“Not by any forms. I believe in the God of Abraham and His Messiah. That -makes me a perfect Jew.” - -“This is strange. My mother never unfolded it to me.” - -“Ah, she has not yet looked into these royal mysteries?” - -“But, good father, is your name among our chronologies?” - -“Thanks to the God of the Patriarchs, yes; it is with that of Moses, -David, Elijah, and all the rest, in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” - -“Where?” - -“In Heaven.” - -“How wonderful; yet I’m afraid to hear more.” - -“Shall I take thee home?” - -“No; tell me more of Mary. You say she made you lonely and a father?” - -“I must then begin her history, and show thee how and why she lived?” - -“Do you think it will tire me?” - -“Fear not! Her story is a poem, a picture, a tragedy; it’s one long -delight.” - -“Then tell it to me, I pray you.” - -So the priest proceeded: - -“When the world was very wicked, and therefore very sad, God in His -goodness was drawn to send from heaven a light-bearer—some one to tell -man his duty and able to win back to the Great Father mankind’s straying -affections. Thou dost know this much, and hast read in thy sacred -Scriptures how God called to the universe, all chaotic and dark, to come -forth into beautiful form; how he said to the darkness, ‘_Let there be -light_.’ That history bears within it a fine sermon. It’s a picture of -God’s. Out of sin, darkness, confusion, there emerged a perfect man in -a Paradisiacal home, with a perfect, beautiful woman as a help-mate by -his side. That was God’s ideal of perfection and happiness. It delighted -the Father of Joys to make it. This is ever true; behind all clouds in -God’s Providence is sunshine, and beyond all disorders somewhere at last -will walk forth unalloyed pleasure, a Sabbath-like rest, and fullness of -harmony.” - -“Oh, can you make me believe and feel this?” - -“Wait patiently.” - -“I try to do so; but I’m discouraged by the present miseries in my family -and in all our nation.” - -“God mourns over all our sorrows before they or we are born, but His -wisdom and power of cure are faultless. Wait. Times are mending, and -the moral sphere is dipping into the rim of light’s oceans. I think the -angels perceive the world now, as thou perceivest the new moon.” - -“The poetry of the words I can not interpret.” - -“The moon’s a dark globe, with a ribbon of silver across it.” - -“And things have been worse; now are bettering?” - -“Assuredly so. Believe there is a God, and thou’lt rest in hope. Go -back a little in history to when Cæsar Augustus, of awful pagan Rome, -ruled the world, having won dominion through desolating wars. The most -educated Romans then believed in no hereafter, and sought openly, without -restraint, the grossest pleasures. The ignorant believed in fabled -monstrosities. Rome set the fashions of all the world. The Jews, thy -people, God’s people, were lower, morally, then, than ever they had been -before. They were divided into warring families and sects, holding a -few forms and traditions, but having little heart in religion. The rest -of mankind was barbarous. Thou hast heard how the Roman Titus overthrew -Jerusalem, slaughtering thy people by thousands, defiling their holy -Temple and seeming to blot out nearly the whole of thy race. That time -of Titus was midnight; since that the day has been slowly advancing. -Before that awful culmination of sorrows, the Divine Trinity held august -council, and, as say the traditions of my church, determined to bring a -holy sunrise to the earth’s midnight. The trouble of all creation was -that man had fallen. The Divine Council decreed to confound the devil, -who broke up the first home and ruined the first pure pair by causing -to emerge from another home, another pair. They came, this time mother -and Son, to be the moral patterns for the race, the beginning of a new, -sin-conquering dispensation. The fathers hand down these sayings: ‘The -august, regal Triune Council thus decreed: “Let us make a pure creature, -dearer to us than all others.”’ They say she was begotten upon the -Sabbath, the birth-day of the angels, whose queen she was to be. Then -one thousand of the ministering spirits were commissioned to defend her; -while Gabriel was sent to announce the glad tidings of the birth of a -Saviour’s mother, in Hades. Her angels appeared as young men, of majestic -mien, of marvelous beauty and pure as crystals. Their garments were like -gold, richly colored, and could not be touched any more than could be the -light of the sun.” - -“How charming! But is this all true?” exclaimed the maiden. - -Without reply, the priest continued: “They were crowned with diadems, -exhaling celestial perfumes; in their hands they bore interwoven palms; -on their arms and breasts were crosses and military devices. They were -swift of flight, some of them six-winged, like the angels of Isaiah’s -vision.” - -“How dazzling! But is this all true?” Miriamne persisted. - -“Well, it’s not in thy sacred books nor in mine so written.” - -“Then you are giving me your imaginings?” - -“Oh, no; but after the manner I have spoken, it is recorded in revered -traditions of my church, and none can very well disprove the sayings.” - -“I wonder if such honors made Mary proud?” - -“A strange query.” - -“I’d like to love one such as she, but could not if she were haughty or -lofty, like the great of earth.” - -“It would have made such as thou proud, perhaps; but there was none of -the serpent in her whose Offspring was to crush the serpent’s head.” - -“Is there any of the serpent in me?” - -“I’m not thy judge.” - -“Then she was immaculate?” - -“Ah, that’s a question for the doctors. I’m too simple to know beyond -what is written. I’m glad to know that she rejoiced in her son, as a -God and a _Saviour_!”—“She was of noble family, though her parents were -poor,” the priest continued. “Her mother was by name Anna, and worthy -of the name, which is by interpretation ‘_gracious_.’ Traditions of -her goodness are many, and the good and great have honored her memory. -I paid Anna homage, that of a youth respectful of worthy motherhood, -at Constantinople, in a church erected in the year 710 to commemorate -that saint. Among others, also Justinian, the Emperor, in the year 550, -dedicated a sacred place to Mary’s mother.” - -“Then she had her meed of praise, at last?” - -“Tradition, though tardy, has been just; but I trust not tradition alone. -I easily reason that there must have been much of goodness and womanly -beauty in the mother that bore such a woman as Mary. I know that God can -bring forth angels from the offscourings, but that is not His way. He -works by steps upward. I tell thee, girl, the mother gives her life to -her offspring, and in spite of training, almost in spite of regeneration, -the characteristics of this parent will reappear in the child. But to my -story about Mary’s parents, Jehoikim and Anna. - -“Blessed be God, Anna and Jehoikim were untainted by the pride of life, -and, though living in a time of loose morals, walked lovingly, constantly -with each other, through all their days. I talk to thee as to a prudent, -but not prudish, young woman. Society is well rotted when divorce is -about as common as marriage; it was that way in Anna and Jehoikim’s time. -Why, even the exacting Pharisees then taught that a man might divorce -a wife who had lost her personal beauty, or badly cooked her husband’s -meat. Jehoikim might have left Anna, for she was childless; that was -reason enough for divorcement to the average Jew, then. But their love -was beautiful. The man, as was his duty, clung tenderly to his wife; her -misfortune making her all the more in need of his tenderness. Dost thou -not think so?” - -“I suppose so. I don’t know.” - -“Pardon my earnestness; it made me forget thy inexperience! - -“Well, God rewarded their constancy, and they became the parents of -my Mary. The father had a noble ancestry; but, what is better, within -himself a royal heart. He bore by right the priestly office; but that -was not much to such a man, in respect to worldly gain. Honest priests -in his time were generally poor; the priestly preferments went, most -richly laden, to those who dealt corruptly, and truckled to the ruling -powers. Mary’s father was above sordidness and simony. He had little to -give or to leave to his beloved, but he left his child a good name and -the remembrance of the blessed. So while God chose the humble to confound -the mighty, and serenely exalted those of low estate, He was mindful to -choose His elect from the ranks of the morally great. Such are found in -all places and times, and when surrounded, as were these pious parents, -by the gross, low and selfish, they shine with transcendent splendor. -In Tisri, the first month of the Jewish civic year, while the smoke of -the holocausts were ascending, to invite heaven’s pardon, Mary, who -was to bring forth the world’s greatest offering for sin, was born at -Nazareth. Her career was fore-ordained, and she was soon walking her -course of piety and sorrow. Though inexperienced and tender-hearted, -sorrows in heaviest, grimmest forms fell upon her. Her father died when -she was, it is said, only nine years of age; not long after, the girl -knelt, a mourner, by the bier of her mother; the golden hairs of youth -mingling, in the disheveling of utter grief, with the gray, which crowned -the queen and guide of her heart, her mother. On the threshold of her -life Mary’s parents were called away from her, leaving her no heritage -but their precepts and example. They say that Jehoikim’s hands were -stretched out, as in benediction, when he died, and so remained until his -burial, reminding all that his last act was a commendation of his little -daughter to Him who carries the lambs in his bosom! The picture of these -outstretched hands, and of the girl embracing the aged dead mother, are -often in my mind; they never fail to deeply move me. Poor orphaned lamb!” - -Miriamne brushed away a tear, a sort of self-pitying tear. She ran -forward in mind, to the day when she, herself, would be orphaned, without -a benediction, or, perhaps, a cheering memory. Then she questioned: - -“Did your Mary have other friends?” - -“Yea, her Heavenly Father. It is said, also, that she was cared for by -the elders of the people, and religiously trained under the very shadows -of the Temple. We may readily believe this; for, in her after life, she -evinced a self-possession in adversity that witnessed of a thorough -religious culture. If there was no other evidence, her splendid poem, -the ‘_Magnificat_,’ would convince any seeking proof, that Mary had had -surpassing benefits and privileges in the study of God’s words, as well -as in the best learning of her people, the Jews. But, Miriamne, I’ll -weary thee; let us turn toward thy home.” Presently they stood not far -from the old stone house of Rizpah; then Von Gombard drew from under his -mantle a roll of writings. “Here, take and read. After its perusal I’ll -see thee again.” So saying, the old priest lifted a hand in blessing, and -then moved away toward his abode. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -THE WEDDING, THE BIRTH AND THE FLIGHT. - - “Seraph of heaven; too gentle to be human, - Veiled beneath the radiant form of woman. - Sweet benediction of the eternal curse; - Veiled glory of the lampless universe! - Thou moon beyond the clouds, thou living form; - Thou wonder and thou Beauty—— - Thou harmony of nature’s art.”—SHELLEY. - - “Take that one hour at Bethlehem out of human history, and - eighteen centuries of hours are left but partially explained.”—PROF. - NEWMAN SMYTH. - - -“What so engages thee, daughter?” questioned Rizpah, as they sat together -at evening in the old stone house. - -“I’m reading the story of a lovely orphan girl. I wish I were, in heart, -as lovely as she.” - -“Was she a white citadel, pure and strong?” - -“Peerless, indeed; the very queen of women, I think.” - -“Oh, then thou must be reading of glorious Rizpah? Now fill me with this -matter! I thirst to hear.” - -Miriamne, though fearful of further exposing her thoughts and study, -obeyed, knowing full well that nothing would so stimulate her mother’s -curiosity as attempted evasion. - -“I’ve been reading of the orphan girl’s marriage. Shall I go back, or -continue from that period? Her name was Mary, and she was a Jewess; -that’s the sum of the beginning.” - -“Go forward,” sententiously replied the elder. - -Miriamne complied: - - “The guardians and relatives of Mary determined that she should - early wed some proper person to be her protector, and so, - according to Jewish custom, they went about the selection of a - husband for her as soon as she had reached her fourteenth year. - This selection was deemed a pious and serious duty by all the - participants therein; therefore it was made by an appeal to the - Lord with lots. Zacharias, the presiding priest, managed the - proceeding, as follows: He first inquired God’s will in prayer. - An angel brought reply, saying: ‘Go forth; call together all - the widowers among the people, and let each bring his rod.’ - -“In truth here is refreshment! If all weddings were contrived under the -wisdom of older heads, there would be fewer mad marriages.” Rizpah swayed -back and forth as she spoke. She was remembering, now, the curse of -Harrimai that day in Gerash, long years before. She thought him a monster -then, but now she was enshrining him in mind by the Angel of the Lots. - -“Shall I go on, mother?” - -“Go on.” - -“He to whom the Lord shall show a sign, let him be husband of Mary,” read -Miriamne. - -“Ah, the Lord would not trust the youths to draw! He knows that a man is -like to harass the life out of one woman before he learns to care for -another rightly. God was good to Mary in hedging her in to a widower if -needs be that she must marry.” - -Rizpah did not sway back and forth now; she sat erect and laughed -bitterly. - -[Illustration: By Raphael. - -THE MARRIAGE OF MARY AND JOSEPH.] - -Miriamne continued: - - “There were many splendid youths who rejoiced to be permitted - to bring their wands.” - -“Oh, ho! then they were suffered to draw for the girl? But what -matter—the Angel of Lots presided! He’d not let the youths succeed!” -Again Rizpah laughed, and as mockingly as before. - -Miriamne again read: - - “After prayer each deposited his almond tree with the aged - Temple priest. In the early morning they anxiously sought the - verdict. It was found that all the rods were dead, except - that of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Mathan; but his - blossomed as that which, ages before, confirmed miraculously - the priesthood of Aaron’s sons. Then there appeared another - miracle, for as Joseph reached forth his hand to take his - blooming branch, there issued from among its luxurious - blossoms, miraculously, a white dove, dazzling as snow. For - a moment the dove gracefully suspended itself in the air, - turning its eyes from one to another of the competitors; then - it alighted on Joseph’s head. ‘Thou art the person chosen to - take the Virgin and keep her for the Lord,’ said the priest, - solemnly, to Joseph. All the rivals responded ‘Amen,’ and then - the dove flew away toward heaven. Joseph was thirty-three years - old, of pleasing countenance, very modest, graceful, and of - comely figure, and a widower. - - “When all was told to Mary she modestly replied: ‘I knew it, - for the Lord has been with me.’ Zacharias told Mary that Joseph - was a true, honest Jew, a carpenter by trade, and trained by a - father who fully believed the adage of Rabbins, which said that - ‘He who would not make his son a robber makes him a mechanic.’ - ‘Besides this,’ said the Temple priest, ‘thy espoused one is - like thyself, of the royal _house of David_. The blood of - twenty kings mingle in the veins of you both. God grant that to - that house of David there soon be born another, greater than - all before, to deliver our holy nation from foreign masters.’ - Mary made no reply, but as a blush of hopefulness passed over - her face, she looked very earnestly toward heaven and seemed - to be repeating the prayer of the priest to the All Father. The - formal betrothal then took place. Joseph presented his chosen - bride a small token of silver, saying: ‘If thou consentest to - be my bride, accept this.’ She took it, smiling affectionately, - and then the witnesses signed the usual Jewish compact, which - read as follows: - - “‘I Joseph, said to Mary, daughter of Jehoikim, become my wife - under the law of Moses and Israel. I promise to honor thee; to - provide for thy support; thy food and thy clothing; according - to the custom of Hebrew husbands, who honor their wives, as - is befitting. I give thee at once thy dowry and promise thee - besides nourishment, and clothing, and whatsoever shall be - necessary for thee, also conjugal friendship, a thing common to - all nations of the world. Mary consents to become the wife of - Joseph,’ The two signed the document.” - -“See Miriamne, the Jews were wise; they made the husbands do most of the -promising. They knew that the wives would be all wifely without such -pledging.” And Rizpah again bitterly laughed. - -“Shall I proceed?” - -“Yes, oh, proceed; it’s a Jewish poem.” - - “Thereupon Joseph placed a jeweled ring upon Mary’s fourth - finger, with a smile and a blush, saying, the ‘physicians - say, my beloved, that a nerve and a vein, reaching the heart - together, lay close to the surface of that finger.’ And she - understood and was happy. A benediction was pronounced, and - then the espoused pair were ready to depart to Joseph’s - house. He was to be the guardian of the maiden from that - hour forth. The hereditary servants of the families took - up the line of march, bearing flaming torches; immediately - after these followed a procession of women, richly garbed - and wearing golden tiaras and pearl bedecked girdles. Behind - these attendants of the virgin, followed a goodly company of - dexterous musicians and singers, discoursing rapturously the - significant canticles of Solomon. As the latter went on from - time to time they broke out of the line of march and disported - themselves in the eastern star-dance, saying as they did so, to - one another, ‘the morning stars sang at creation; the dawn of a - new home coming by love, is next to creation the most joyous - of all events.’ So the dancers went on, and as they rejoiced - in poetic motions, they thought of the stars which yet tremble - as if with the thrilling of that first delight they shouted. - Of all, the sweet orphan girl now companioned was the center. - She was bedecked with costly jewels, the glad tributes of those - that loved her; over her was the significant veil, and, so - beneath the wedding canopy, she entered Nazareth to be a wife. - Her sky had become very bright, for hers was a heart that took - exquisite joy from the honeyed petals of affection’s flower. - No bride ever more fully entered into that supreme state, the - all exalting, entrancing, expanding, thrilling period of new - married life. She went forward in the proud consciousness that - her weakness had overcome a giant, and that while she lead a - royal captive, she was supremely happy in her utter bestowal of - her all upon the one only man now became almost next to God in - the temple of her soul.” - -Miriamne paused, and Rizpah wept a little. - -“Shall I go on or pause, mother?” - -“Go on, dear.” - -“But you weep, are you ill?” - -“Oh, no, except in memory. This is sweet sorrow, that beats us back and -forth; contrasting dark endings with bright beginnings; heaven high -hopings with black disappointments, and happy lives with our own, all -interwoven with miseries. I walked once in the sweet illusions of bridal -days, but an utter widowhood came before death called. That’s the worst -bereavement.” - -“But some marriages are all happiness, are they not?” queried the -daughter. - -“Some, but not many. That’s the rule. Most of them begin well enough, but -wedded mates are not as wisely tender as lovers; they too soon entomb all -their joys in graves of selfishness and lust. So then the dove flies from -the blossom of espousal never to return.” - -“Perhaps, such as they did not love enough to begin with and so -separated?” - -“Some who would die for each other before marriage, would die to be quit -of each other, after. Hence the brood of suicides, and that blackest -crime of all, murder, which often raises its treacherous, cruel head -within the marriage chamber.” - -“How comes this error, trouble, horror?” - -“In wedding bodies, without consents or courtings of the souls, if those, -who, though mismated, happen to join lives, were only wise, they might -yet be happy, growing together. But read more daughter.” - - “In the fullness of time, the angel Gabriel, known amid the - Seraphim as God’s champion, the chosen of Jehovah and His - messenger of comfort and sympathy from heaven to man, was - commissioned to carry the glorious news to earth. He spread - his rainbow pinions, and with his own radiance to lighten his - course, passed from the confines of the august court of the - Divine Presence, the companionship of his fellow archangels, - Michael, Raphael, Uriel, to go out across the planet-lightened - realms of everlasting space. His course was watched with - throbbing interest by the spirits of mercy appointed for - ministering to man. Gabriel sped on, with sweeps of power which - almost devoured distances, nor paused to bask for a moment in - the many-colored lights of the golden and silvery shielded - planets or constellations that he passed in his rapid flight. - The wheeling suns and rushing worlds, marching and charging - along the shoreless oceans of eternal space, had no splendors - nor powers with which to challenge his high mission; though - theirs was grand, his was grander. He traveled at love’s - behest, on mercy’s work, to carry to this little earth, rolling - along, mostly in shadows, the mandate of glory, the news of - heaven’s great saving device. He bore proclamation in its - substance and its realizations forever the manifold wisdom of - God; the wonder of all who know to think or reason. And so that - voyage passed into the pages of history and the records of - eternity as well. - - “Mary, whom Gabriel sought, was engaged in evening prayer as - was her wont, with her face toward Jerusalem’s Temple.” - -Miriamne paused; she perceived that she had arrived at a part of the -manuscript which Father Adolphus had marked with a red line to remind her -it was from his Christian Bible. She feared to read this portion to her -mother. - -“Read on, daughter, the words are precious; they are as songs in the -night to my soul.” - -Miriamne continued: - -“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city -of Galilee, named Nazareth, - -“To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of -David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. - -“And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail! thou art highly favored, -the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. - -“And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her -mind what manner of salutation this should be. - -“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor -with God. - -“And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and -shalt call his name JESUS.” - -Miriamne read the last word “Joshua.” - -She proceeded: - -“He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the -Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. - -“And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom -there shall be no end. - -“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a -man? - -“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon -thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also -that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of -God.” - -“Hold! hold!” cried Rizpah. “What is this? the faith of the Nazarene?” - -Miriamne was awed. She feared she had proceeded too far; but quickly -remembering an explanation of Father Adolphus, replied: “Be content, -mother, I read but that that appears in our holy prophets, Isaiah, the -poetic and vehement; his words you so much prize have here an echo.” - -Rizpah gazed at her daughter, with a puzzled, questioning expression for -a moment, and then sententiously said, “Read on.” She was alert, though -severe. Her curiosity was ruling, but her prudence was conserved, at -least in her own mind. The daughter was anxious, but could not retreat; -she knew she must read further or make a futile effort to explain her -reluctance. The two were a study; each afraid of the other: each anxious -to aid the other to truth; both on guard, and, while professing to be all -love for each other, attempting to move forward to a fuller fellowship by -indirection. The outlines of the cross were appearing in that household, -and never was there to be complete accord until there it ruled all hearts. - -Miriamne continued to read, but confined herself chiefly to notes made by -the old priest on the margin of her manuscript. - - “Presently Joseph, the affianced husband of Mary, discovered - that his beloved was to become a mother. At first the discovery - was like a dagger in his heart, for as yet the marriage had - not been consummated. It was a crisis of great import and - trial to husband and wife. Joseph, though now a plain man and - a mechanic, carried in his veins the noblest blood of his - race, being descendant of the ancient kings and in the line of - Solomon and David. Besides that, he had all the abhorrence of - the better Jews for adultery, that their awful law of death as - its penalty, implied.” - -“Did he help the mob to stone her?” cried Rizpah. - -Miriamne was startled by her mother’s angry earnestness. - -“Oh! we’ll see.” - -She continued reading: - - “He met his affianced in the evening on her return from - Hebron’s rosy hills, whither she had gone to visit her - kinswoman, the mother of John, by name Elizabeth. The interview - of those two noble women had prepared Mary to tell her - betrothed all that troubled and rejoiced her. When her espoused - met her privately and for the last time, as he intended, he - found her sweetly, serenely singing, as was her wont, a Davidic - psalm. He was at first astonished, not knowing how she could - be so happy under such stigma as seemed to rest upon her. His - patrician blood was roused, and for a moment he was ready - to denounce her to the Sanhedrim as an adulteress. Then he - looked at her, pitifully, questioningly. It could not be, he - meditated, that one so young could be so depraved as to sing - God praises, being a criminal. She must be insane! He tore - himself from her presence, but instantly returned when she - called out: ‘Joseph, God knows all; touch not His anointed.’ - - “‘Woman!’ he cried ‘explain! explain! Thy seeming sin hangs - scorpions over my eyes, and turns my heart to ashes. Thy - calmness is a wonderment!’ - - “Then Mary quietly recited to him the wondrous story of - Gabriel’s visit. - - “Joseph was pale, and reverently attentive; but still the - sadness of his countenance betokened his incredulity. - - “Mary, self-possessed, confident in her own integrity, - continued: ‘For three months I have been secluded with my - kinswoman, Elizabeth. She knows I saw no man, and thou canst - testify of the manner of my living since our espousal; but - I got words from God, at Hebron. When I first went into my - kinswoman’s house.” - -“Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: - -“And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among -women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. - -“And whence _is_ this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? - -“For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, -the babe leaped in my womb for joy. - -“And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of -those things which were told her from the Lord.” - - “No sooner had Elizabeth finished that salutation, than the - Spirit of the Most Holy Ghost possessed me and I, thus, without - premeditation prophetically said: - -“My soul doth magnify the Lord. - -“And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. - -“For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from -henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. - -“For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name. - -“And His mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. - -“He hath shewed strength with his arm; He hath scattered the proud in the -imagination of their hearts. - -“He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low -degree. - -“He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent -empty away. - -“He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy. - -“As He spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever.”[2] - - “I tarried until Elizabeth’s son was born. He is to be the - herald of mine! Joseph was amazed. The wisdom and stately - character of her _magnificent_ description and ascription were - unaccountable. But he doubted still her integrity. Yet his - wrath was softened into pity a little. He hesitated, and then, - _being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, - was minded to put her away privately_.” - -“Ha, ha;” laughed Rizpah, bitterly; “I see now, ’tis a beautiful fable -thou art reading! Put her away privately! a man do that under such -circumstances! Bah! rather would a real man parade the woman’s guilt -from the house tops. In truth, to show that he was sinless because he -was such a Nemesis of sin; or to get the pity of light-headed fools, who -would gladly take the place of the discarded! A pretty, baby face can -catch unerringly the man who pities himself well, if she will only gush -with real or affected pity for him. Pity and flatter a man and he’ll be—a -Lucifer! But read it all. This is refreshing; its so absurdly uncommon!” - -The girl continued: - -“But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord -appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not -to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of -the Holy Ghost. - -“And she shall bring forth a son, thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he -shall save his people from their sins. - -“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of -the Lord by the prophet, saying, - -“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and -they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with -us. - -“Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had -bidden him, and took unto him his wife.” - -Miriamne again read “Joshua” for Jesus, but yet felt assured that her -mother was in heart, recognizing the source of the story. Rizpah, -by silence, pretended not to know she was listening to parts of the -Christian Bible, for she was very curious now. Miriamne was willing the -harmless pretense should continue. But they furtively observed each other. - -“I see; this is a story based upon some of the Christian’s heresies,” -interrupted Rizpah. “If the stories be so unnatural, I’d never fear their -sacred books!” - -Miriamne was rejoiced, for her mother was becoming interested, and that -was nigh being fully persuaded that their home was not contaminated by -the hated Christian’s Bible. Miriamne read again: - - “Mary now was contented. She had the approval of God and - her conscience, and that for which her young heart greatly - yearned the approval of the one man of earth whom she loved. - It mattered little to her that few others knew her wondrous - secret. She knew her position was one of peril, and yet she - felt certain God would be with her to the end. The joy of - Joseph was full, and the revulsion of feeling from crushing - shame, to lofty hope was unutterable. A while before he was - ready to die, as he began tearing from his heart its idol, - and attempting to consign her to the tomb like that of death, - forgetfullness. Now he perceived himself elect of God to - defend, vouch for and shelter the woman of women, the highly - favored of Deity. - -“And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from -Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. - -“And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. - -“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into -Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, (because he was -of the house and lineage of David,) - -“To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife. - -“And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished. - -“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling -clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in -the inn.” - -“How barbarous! They surely could not have been Jews who kept that inn, -or a woman in bearing would have had tender welcome. They must have been -Christians; they are the people whose women blush when carrying little -life, and, as if ashamed, forgetting that God had royally privileged -them, hide themselves. Bah, I’m sick of the thought! I’ve seen Christian -husbands ashamed of their pregnant wives;” so soliloquised Rizpah. - -“There were no Christians at the time of these events, mother. But shall -I read of the company Mary had, to comfort her?” - -“Yes, do; I’d like to have been there, just to rail at the inn’s folks.” - -Miriamne continued, - -“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, -keeping watch over their flock by night. - -“And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord -shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. - -“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good -tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” - -“It is said that even the cave, where Mary was, was filled with supernal -light,” remarked Miriamne digressingly. - -“I believe it on my word. If angels ever come to earth, it must be surely -to hold glad torches about the couches where beings, to be at last -perchance like themselves, are coming forth to life,” said Rizpah. - -“It is thus reported,” continued Miriamne: - -“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the -king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, - -“Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his -star in the east, and are come to worship him.” - -Miriamne substituted Joshua for Jesus in the reading. - -“Joshua, ‘Joshua,’ what ‘Joshua’ is that?” - -“Joshua means “deliverer;” this one was to be such; for the rest, I’ve -not before read it, mother.” - -“Read on, again,” tritely, Rizpah spoke. - -“When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all -Jerusalem with him. - -“And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people -together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. - -“And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by -the prophet, - -“And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the -princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule -my people Israel. - -“Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them -diligently what time the star appeared. - -“And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for -the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I -may come and worship him also. - -“When they had heard the king, they departed and, lo, the star, which -they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where -the young child was. - -“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. - -“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child -with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him: and when they -had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and -frankincense, and myrrh. - -“And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, -they departed into their own country another way.” - -Miriamne read ‘The Anointed’ where the text said Christ. - -“Miriamne, who could these men have been, Rabbins?” - -“I think not, mother; I see upon the margin of my ‘_megellah_’ a note -which says, These were light or fire-worshipers of Persia. They, or -rather their ancestors had heard, centuries before, from the Jews, -then their captives, that there was an expectation, based on wondrous -prophecies, that some time, there was to be on earth a man, born of -woman, in character like God and in mission the bringer in of the golden -age. These Magi were seeking that person, like pious pilgrims.” - -“Oh, the Messiah. Alas! we all long for His coming!” Then Rizpah fell -into a revery from which Miriamne roused her with the question: “Art too -weary to hear more?” - -“No, no; read, on. These things strangely move and rest me.” - -Miriamne continued: - - “When eight days were fulfilled, they circumcised the Child, - calling him Joshua, offering, according to the law, a pair of - turtle doves.” - -“Circumcised? Ah, I’m glad! They were good Jews, though poor ones, since -they offered the gifts of the poor, two pigeons,” exclaimed Rizpah. - -Miriamne read onward: - -“There was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man -was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. - -“And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see -death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. - -“And he came by the Spirit into the Temple; and when the parents brought -in the child. - -“Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God and said: - -“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy -word: - -“For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, - -“Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; - -“A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. - -“And Joseph and his mother marveled at these things which were spoken of -him. - -“And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold this -child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a -sign which shall be spoken against; - -“(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also;) that the thoughts -of many hearts may be revealed.” - -“How mysterious and contradictory, and yet how true the old man’s word, -Miriamne? He blessed the parents amid their pious services toward their -offspring, yet predicted a sword thrust for the mother. Ah, the sword for -the mother is ever impending! But read further.” - -Miriamne continued: - -“And Anna, a prophetess, who was a widow of about fourscore and four -years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings -and prayers night and day. - -“And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and -spoke of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.” - -“What a finished picture, Miriamne,” interrupted Rizpah. “See, a young -mother committing her child to God; a blessing and a sword of pain -revealed; then the finest human sympathy in the form of motherhood -chastened by years coming to encourage her. Oh, the years have sadly -wrecked a true woman if they have put her beyond saying, from her heart: -‘Poor girl, I love thee,’ to her younger sister in her hour of maternal -trial. But what followed?” - -Miriamne replied by again reading: - -“The angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and -take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou -there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to -destroy him.” - -“Ha! the jealous old hypocrite! But I remember, Herod murdered his wife. -A man brute enough to do that could easily seek the life of an innocent -babe. If Apollyon ever be dethroned because of the appearing of one more -devilish than himself, the dethroner will be a wife-murderer!” exclaimed -Rizpah, almost in a passion. - -Miriamne continued: - -“Joseph took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into -Egypt. - -“And was there until the death of Herod.” - -“So Jewry, our Jewry, gave one of its young mothers a stable for a bed -chamber, a manger for her babe; then refused her these by making her an -exile. Cruel Israel said go or be childless! Oh, Israel! how Pagan Rome -defiled thee!” passionately exclaimed the Jewish matron. - -Miriamne paused until the mother questioned: - -“Was there a pursuit?” - -“A hot one, though a vain one; my manuscript reads as follows: - - “Herod had charged the Magi to tell him, on their return from - their quest, the abode of the Child born under the star. He - pretended to desire to pay it homage, but in heart he was - intending to murder it. The Magi, impressed by the goodness - and sanctity of mother and Infant, never returned to Herod to - betray them.” - -“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was -exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in -Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, -according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. - -“Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy, the prophet, saying: - -“In Ramah there was a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and a great -mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, -because they are not.” - - “So a dark wave of misery rolled over Bethlehem. Hundreds of - women, weeping over their own dead, were led to understand - the cruel injustice of the spirit that drove the Virgin and - her child into exile, and that, until the end of time, there - will be sorrow in the homes of the land that does despite to - the virtues and characteristics exemplified, so well, by that - mother and that Child.” - -With these words Miriamne rolled up her parchment, saying: “This is all -there is written here.” - -“All? It is well, for thou art weary, child. We’ll now retire; to-morrow -I must speak with thee about the book. Good-night, now.” - -“Good-night, mother.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -THE QUEEN WITH HER FAMILY IN EGYPT. - - “It is curious to observe, as the worship of the Virgin mother - expanded and gathered to itself the relics of many an ancient - faith, now the new and the old elements became amalgamated.... - The Madonna assumed the characteristics ... of the types of - fertility.”—ANNA JAMISON. - - “Babe Jesus lay on Mary’s lap, - The sun shone in His hair, - And so it was she saw, mayhap, - The crown already there.”—GEORGE MCDONALD. - - -The day following Miriamne’s readings to her mother, she eagerly sought -Father Adolphus that she might receive more of the narrative, delightsome -to herself and evidently interesting to her parent. - -Finding the priest at dawn in one of his accustomed walks amid the ruins, -she scarcely waited for his “Peace, daughter,” until she exclaimed, -“More! I want more of the story!” - -“Hast finished that I gave thee so soon?” - -“Yes, and read it all to my mother! Is that not wonderful?” - -“Temerity!” - -“No; it charms her. She has fallen in love with the child-wife. Oh, what -if my mother should come to think and believe as you—then I would!” - -“Thou mayst alone; but what part of the story desirest thou?” - -“All! Nothing less than all! What became of the Holy Family in Egypt?” - -“Now sit down on this shattered column and I’ll recount to thee the -traditions in order, leaving thee to judge which is true.” - -“Tell me what you believe and I’ll believe it. That’s enough!” - -“I scarcely am able to do that, not knowing whether to believe or -disbelieve some of the things reported. But I remember them, and -perceiving that though they are only traditions, they are very beautiful -and very natural, I remember them with delight, that is very near to -giving them full credence.” - -“Then, so will I do.” - -“It may be the wise way, for I’ve believed that the good angels who, -under God, watched over the little outcast family drifting about in -strange places, have also watched over the drifting stories of their -wanderings, letting the facts profitable for us to know, come safely to -us, though they have come without the seal of authenticated history.” - -“Now, I believe all this, too.” - -“Well, then, ardent catechumen, listen. For three years the queenly Mary, -with her consort and child, tarried in Egypt—” - -“How did they subsist?” - -“Oh, the God of the outcasts Ishmael and Elijah, who provided water for -one and bread for the other of those two, was the One who sent the Holy -Family to Egypt with the charge that they ‘be there until He brought them -word.’ Now, thou hast learned that when God sends any on His work He -charges Himself with their support.” - -“Did they find friends in Egypt?” - -“Thou wilt learn in time, daughter, that two of that family had, as -none on earth before, the secret of making friends. They had the -love-enchantment from on high, which has been winning its way ever since -over the world. But I’ll proceed. There were in Egypt at that time -multitudes of Israelites who had sought its refuge from the persecutions -practiced toward them nearer home. Doubtless these exiles received -Joseph’s family kindly. Also, in all the East at that time there were -many artizan leagues, banded together to aid their fellow-craftsmen. -Joseph being a carpenter, I doubt not, found among these sympathy and -help.” - -“At what place did the family abide?” - -“Tradition says they tarried for a considerable period at Heliopolis, the -city celebrated the world over for its splendid temple, where centered -the Egyptian Sun worship. To me this tradition seems most reasonable, -when I remember that the child of that family was pointed out before, -by a miraculous star, which led the Fire worshipers of Persia to his -cradle. The Fire worshipers of the far East and the Light worshipers of -Egypt were much alike in their beliefs. They were all seeking light, and, -impelled by the necessity of man’s nature for some religion, revealed or -man-made, able to do no better, looked up to the sun, the greatest light -of which they knew. God’s hand was in that meeting of the old and the -new. There is a tradition that when the Holy Family arrived at Heliopolis -all the idols in the Sun Temple fell on their faces. Be that as it may, -the pathos of the poor prayers of the Light worshipers moved the Divine -Mercy to send them the Sun of Righteousness, and all the handiwork of -Rhameses, at On, lies in great, grim silent ruins, while the faith that -had its germ in that little outcast family is overspreading the earth. -Alas, poor Egypt!” - -“Why poor Egypt?” questioned Miriamne, wonderingly. - -“Those living now are so like their ancients who, in fright and helpless -doubt, sought to save themselves by placating both good and evil; the -light struggles in Egypt to-day, entering slowly and often retiring. -Yea, poor Egypt, I pity thee! But I digress. It is said that the Holy -Family also tarried for a season at Memphis, on the Nile, the city where -chiefly was practiced the worship of _Apis_, the sacred bull. Thou -rememberest how Israel was nearly ruined by doing homage to a golden calf -at Sinai? That calf-worship was the same as the Apis-worship of Egypt. -The Egyptians, in common with all mankind of old, earnestly looked for -a manifestation of God in visible form—an incarnation. Their priests -practiced on their pitiful yearnings and credulity, and taught them to -believe that their greatest god appeared from time to time under the form -of a bull, which _Avatars_ they, the priests, claimed that they only -could discover. The Egyptians, highly esteeming endurance and passionate -vigor, readily accepted the animal pre-eminent in these things as the -abiding place and expression of their god. The Child Jesus, the token -of a better faith, was fittingly brought, therefore, to Egypt’s Temple -of _Apis_. Thus the _Light and Immortality_ confronted that typified -grossly at Memphis, and the incarnations that were as false as they were -offensive, were brought face to face with the _Incarnation_ sung by the -angels. The devotees at the fanes of Memphis degraded man by preferring -the beast. He that made man a little lower than the angels first, -afterward exalted him to sonship by appearing garbed in the likeness of a -man. Christ, at Memphis, was to do what Moses did at Sinai.” - -“I do not comprehend these words!” - -“As Moses ground the golden image worshiped by Israel to powder, so -Christ came to overthrow and blot out of the world every vestige of the -religions or believings that exalts the animal and degrades the spiritual -in man. He heralded the age of gold and fire.” - -“And was _Apis_ overthrown by the child?” - -“Not immediately; that is not the way of Him who knows no haste; but -in His own good time its fall came. Egypt, hoar with deep thinkings on -the master problems of life, death, eternity, did much in distant times -to color and express the beliefs of all peoples. It became a school of -religious as well as the theater of some of their greatest, bloodiest -conflicts. Let me recall some of the steps. First, I’ll begin with the -revival of the true faith under Moses, which was the revival of escape, -the only way to preserve God’s people from utter defilement. Thou hast -read in thy Holy writings how the conflict began between the king and -Israel’s leader: - - _And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, - sacrifice to your God in the land._ - - _And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall - sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: - lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before - their eyes, and will they not stone us?_ - - _We will go three days journey into the wilderness, and - sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us._” - -“Why was Moses so anxious to get away so far!” - -“I’ll show thee; that was then a mystery, now explained. Egypt worshiped -a bull devoutly; the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice to God a red -heifer. The color, red, was an antetype of the saving blood to be shed on -red Calvary. Moses, methinks, desired to get away that he might reveal -this sacred mystery, so far as he discerned it, to those to whom it was -sent. Follow me now with pious, frank heart. The Israelites antagonized -the customs of Egypt sharply by offering before God the finer, weaker -animal, and now, girl, as I read of Mary and her child waiting about -Memphis, I discern the past and that present meeting. It seems to me -that He who thundered to Pharaoh ‘_let my people go_’ rëappears in the -form of the child, the pitying shepherd, seeking the lost sheep amid -earth’s offscourings. More, as I think of Mary, the beautiful outcast, -following the fortunes of her Divine Child down into that dark land, and -also remember how His blood finally crimsoned her life, I recall the red -heifer offered on Israel’s ancient altars. Mary, for the world’s sake, -through her maternity, was laid on the altar.” - -“Father Adolphus, you dazzle and yet convince me. How wonderful all this -seems!” - -“I see the Holy Child in Egypt, the building nation of earth, as -the founder of a new order of building. Now follow me, child. After -the garden and the wilds, where primitive man abode, there came the -Tabernacle and Temple. When man enters into the benign influences of -social life, he begins building a house to shelter and seclude his own. -When he takes God or a god into his society he builds a temple. If -there be growth and culture he decorates his buildings, hideously at -first, æsthetically after practice. Presently he becomes a scientific -builder and a philosopher. Then to him life is all building. He grasps -the thought that he is the architect of himself, of his character, of -his future. If his religious life is deepened he expresses all his -philosophy, all his aspirations in monuments and temples. Moses and -Solomon, in tabernacle and temple, but repeated the deeds of Egypt. But -Egypt built under the sun, the patriarchs under the Spirit. Egypt had -done its best, reached the end of its resources, having filled the land -from the Delta to the cataracts of the Nile with pyramidial monument and -august fanes. But building under the sun, in the light of nature only, -was building in the dark, at least half the time. Christ, the architect -of all that is enduring, confronted the achievements of those ancients as -a merciful destroyer. He came to them to turn and overturn that, after -the ruins, their mind be turned to a building upon and with the precious -living Corner-Stone! Try to remember all this. Christianity is on the eve -of a new building age. The crusades are ended. Now for religious palaces! -But these in turn will be thrust aside, that all may give themselves to -build souls up for eternity!” - -“I am dazzled good father, indeed; but oh, I can not remember all these -things! I’m like a child in my love for stories, and I can re-tell such -to my mother, as I can not these deeper things you utter.” - -“I forgot, child. But we priests preach by habit everywhere!” - -“Tell me more of Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Were the Egyptians kind to -them?” - -“As kind as the followers of the Pharaohs to the descendants of Joseph! -No more. There was no more room in Egypt for Jesus at His coming than -there was among His own people. But the God of Moses, ever the living -God, though opposed, may never be thwarted nor killed!” - -“Oh, now do not tell me these things, too deep for me; just tell me the -simple story of the sojourn in that strange land.” - -“So be it, girl. If I digress, recall me. They say that the Holy Family -found in that land a few to accept them kindly. One such was a robber, -who, happening upon them, was at first about to do them violence; but he -was restrained by the demeanor of the saintly mother, and his heart was -all changed toward compassion of the little company. Instead of robbing, -he gave them a temporary home in his mountain retreat. It is said that -he was the one to whom the child of Mary, long after, while dying on the -cross, companion in death with that same robber, gave repentance, with -the promise of Paradise.” - -“How good and natural!” - -“Then there’s another legend. It is that Mary and her loved ones were -met in that strange country by one of the world’s pilgrims of pilgrims—a -gipsy, who was a sorceress. There’s a charming little dialogue, part in -prose and part in verse, all about that meeting, which I have here. I’ll -read it. The sorceress begins chanting: - - GIPSY—I come, I come from the land of the sun, - From the dim, dim past of the far-off dawn; - The waif of the world, the froth of the sea, - Of a clan that has been and ever shall be. - - MARY—God give thee grace and forgive thee thy sins. - - GIPSY—Ye are pilgrims, too; no lodge for to-night, - Ye are outcasts here in a flight of fright! - But the mother charms and my heart say come. - Ye may come; shall come to my gipsy’s home. - -“‘The gipsy, Zingarella, took the babe in her arms, but then suddenly -broke forth into a mournful chant, as she held the hand of the infant: - - ‘Here’s a cradle song, and a tear and a moan; - Here’s a crown of thorns and a cross, when grown. - Here’s a vale of blood and a black, black night. - Here’s a flocking world and a rising light.’ - -“‘And then suddenly falling upon her knees, the gipsy asked alms; but -this time, as never before, with both palms extended and craving neither -silver nor gold, but eternal life. It was granted.’” - -“Oh, father Adolphus, I’ll never forget this story.” - -“Forget not, either, its simple lesson; the gospel comes to the very -waifs of life, and so there is help for the sinning, wherever found, in -the Holy Child; encouragement to all holy longings in the meanest breast -of the meanest woman, once within that circle, all radiant with the -beautiful virtues of that Saviour’s mother.” - -“Surely, I’ll treasure this lesson, which is both balm and heart’s ease.” - -“I must go now, so must thou. I’ll send at noon to the Reservoir, -another parchment. Let one of the lads meet the messenger. It will be -suitable for reading to thy mother, Rizpah. Be not so soon over-hopeful. -We must proceed with her slowly. Those most needing the light will curse -it if, coming too suddenly, it chance to dazzle. Israel still goes down -all unconsciously to Egypt for gods, and the spectacle of man changing -the invisible down, down, continues everywhere. Slowly, we who would be -faithful, must raise up His only true presentment. We must allure after -us, with all wisdom and tenderness, those we would win, while striving -ourselves to rise toward Divine ideals ever beyond and above us. God -bless my little missionary.” - -They parted; and there were tears on Miriamne’s face; but not of anguish. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS. - - “Day followed day, like any childhood passing; - And silently Mary sat at her wheel - And watched the boy Messiah as she span; - And as a human child unto his mother, - Subject the while, He did her low-voiced bidding— - Or gently came to lean upon her knee - And ask her of the thoughts that in him stirred. - - “And then, all tearful-hearted, she paused, - Or with tremulous hand spun on— - The blessing that her lips instructive gave, - Asked Him with an instant thought again:” - - -“Mother, I’ve another volume of that charming story, full of wonderful -things. Shall we peruse them to please our woman’s curiosity, to-night?” - -“Woman’s curiosity?” angrily ejaculated Rizpah. - -“They say all women are inquisitive; do they not?” - -“They! The fling of the ‘lords of earth!’ Eaten up with anxiety solely -concerning themselves, they plunge into introspections and questionings -pertaining to their own worth; the ultimate of their own preciousness, -that they call philosophy. Our sex, in self-forgetfulness, ask questions -out of sympathy, and with desire to help others; that’s ‘curiosity!’ -Faugh, the fling is sickening!” - -“My book is both curious and philosophical; it’s interesting to both -sexes therefore. Shall I read?” - -“On thy promise to tell me later whence it came, who its author, thou -mayst read it to me.” - -Miriamne, perceiving that her mother was curious to hear the whole story, -though the former placated her conscience by a show of indifference, -responded: “I’ll begin with the return of the wanderers.” So saying, she -read: - -“‘But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a -dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, arise, and take the young child and his -mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought -the young child’s life. - -“‘And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into -the land of Israel. - -“‘Being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of -Galilee: - -“‘And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be -fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a -Nazarene.’” - -“Nazarene!” Rizpah ejaculated, interrupting the reader. “Does the word -not taste like wormwood, girl?” - -The maiden replied, adroitly: “We read the pagan inscriptions on the -monuments about us without being harmed! Surely we may safely read these -nobler peoples’ words and deeds.” So saying, the maiden continued: - -“‘Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the -passover. - -“‘And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the -custom of the feast. - -“‘And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus -tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and His mother knew not of it. - -“‘But they, supposing Him to have been in the company, went a day’s -journey; and they sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. - -“‘And when they found Him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, -seeking Him. - -“‘And it came to pass that after three days they found Him in the temple, -sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them -questions. - -“‘And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. - -“‘And when they saw Him, they were amazed: and His mother said unto Him, -Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, Thy father and I have -sought Thee sorrowing. - -“‘And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I -must be about my Father’s business?’” - -“That was rude, was it not, daughter? Was not his father’s business -his mother’s? He was young for such philosophy, so like that of tyrant -husband.” - -“He meant God’s business!” - -“Then his earnestness was just. God first, kin after—mother or -husband—say I. Did the mother gain-say him?” - -“It is thus recorded,” replied the maiden. - -“‘And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them. - -“‘And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto -them; but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. - -“‘And He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.’” - -“Daughter, there was a fine spirit in that house; it was enhaloed by the -girl-wife’s character! No wonder that the son increased in favor with God -and man! He was able to cope with the doctors mentally, yet subjected -himself to his mother. I’ll certify that he was wonderfully like his -mother. The traits of the woman that bore him are prominent in every man -of fine measure.” - -“And are fine daughters, like their fathers,” laughingly questioned -Miriamne, as she glanced at a reflection of herself in a metallic mirror -suspended on the wall before her. - -“Ah, that depends on whether they have wholesome fathers.” Then, turning -her eyes affectionately toward her daughter, Rizpah continued: “Thou hast -enough of Hebrew in thee to leaven thee. Yet, let me plant this in thy -memory, my lamb, destined most likely some time to lie in anguish on the -altar of maternity: Mothers determine beyond all else the fate of the -world by determining beyond all else the characters of their offspring. -Yea, girl, in the homes of industry, the bugle-calls of the soldier, the -moving orations of the holy teacher, there are ever heard echoes of their -cradle days.” Rizpah paused, drew a long sigh, and again broke forth: -“But, alas! men and women walk in pairs. How can the gentler of the -two, alone, or opposed by the stronger, succeed? I’ve seen paired birds -battle the sly serpent, creeping toward their birdlings, victoriously; -paired weakness triumphant over huge danger; and I’ve seen the lords of -creation dropping serpents upon their own mates and their own nestlings! -If one would find a monstrous cruelty, he must needs seek in human -homes!” Then the speaker, pausing, bowed herself, and sat swaying from -side to side, with her hands over her eyes. Miriamne, accustomed to such -action on her mother’s part, and knowing it was best when she was in -such moods to leave her to herself, withdrew quietly. Yet, Rizpah seemed -not alone to herself, for her mind was peopled with ghostly forms from -her gloomy past; all painful companions, but still courted by the woman -in her periods of morbidness. Presently she slept; the sleep of sorrow, -that mercy balm of nature which comes to pained or wounded humanity -as the power to grieve or ache is exhausted. The sleeper passed from -consciousness of things about her, followed by the forms that had haunted -her memory, and was soon among the wonders of dream land. Then came to -her the sound of mighty contentions, and it seemed as if opposing forces -were in conflict concerning herself. Rizpah, of the ancient, seemed to -be trying to drag the dreamer toward seven crosses supporting seven -stark forms. The babel of contending voices was silenced by others, -exulting, as if in victory. There was a change; the sleeper seemed to be -lifted up from caverns unutterably deep, and suffocating, upon a ruby -cloud, soft as down to the touch, but irresistible in uplifting. She -was borne swiftly, over vast realms of space, toward a golden gate-way -with tomb-like arch, whose cross-shaped portal swung invitingly open. A -river of light spreading to a sea, and vibrating with sense-entrancing -melody, flowed outward through the mighty gate-way. On either side of -the portals, and moving along the river, were many glorious beings. The -latter soared on wings of mighty sweep, whose motions seemed to beat -in accord with the melody of the flowing light, while, from within and -without the gate-way, there came the sound of countless voices, all, -as it were, mingling in the triumphant swellings of a grand anthem. -The dreamer discerned in the anthem two words, repeated over and over, -tirelessly: “_Glad Tidings!_” “_Glad Tidings!_” “_Glad Tidings!_” The -golden gate became rose-tinted; the color deepening to purple and gold -as down the stream of light there floated an island of gardens, and on -the island appeared two human forms; a youth and a maiden. The anthem -“Glad Tidings” continued; but sweeter, louder, deeper than before. And -the sleeper perceived that on the wings of the glorious beings there were -emblems; red crosses, about each cross a ring of fire; above the crosses, -bejeweled silver cups; then she knew that the twain on the island were -bride and groom. The scene changed; there was a consciousness of a flight -of time. She looked again, and on the island she beheld a mother lovingly -bending over a babe; over mother and babe tenderly bended a man, by the -pride and the affection he expressed, attesting himself the husband and -father. Rizpah was enraptured, and in her dream she prayed the scene -might tarry. She was nigh being envious of that happy mother. But her -prayer was denied her, for soon she was startled by a voice at her side, -saying, in tones of mournful rebuke: “Farewell, forever!” - -The dreamer, looking about, beheld in her vision, her ideal, Rizpah; but -the latter was wonderfully changed. Her eyes were dim and sunken; her -form dwarfed, bowed and age-shriveled. Suddenly the whole vision faded -into thin air, and Rizpah, of Bozrah, awakened filled with condemnation. -Before she fully realized that she had been dreaming, she cried out: - -“Rizpah, oh, Rizpah, tarry a moment!” - -Silence was her sole reply. Little by little, as she collected her -thoughts, she comprehended that her vision, while sleeping, expressed -the facts of her life while waking. The heroine girl-wife of Nazareth, -the newer, finer, surer, truer ideal of womanhood, was demolishing in -the mind of the woman of Bozrah her former idol, the lioness of Gibeah’s -hill. She knew this, for she found herself contrasting the two ideals, -and in mind lingering by preference and with the greater delight about -conceptions of the younger. Then began the struggles of the giants in -her conscience; clean truth against hoar prejudices; sweet mercy against -bitter revenge; Mary of Bethlehem against Rizpah of Gibeah. The matron -of Bozrah, usually hitherto so self-sufficient, was changing. She felt -that yearning inevitable in the career of most women for a confidant. She -could not sleep; she could not now go down to get inspiration by standing -before the grim Rizpah-painting, in the lower room; she was miserable, -lonely and restless. - -Mechanically, she moved toward her daughter’s chamber, some way feeling -that even a sleeper would be company to one so lonely as herself. Rizpah, -alone, at night, in the grim, giant house, groping her way toward -Miriamne’s sleeping place, was unconsciously illustrating her soul’s -quest. She was in heart seeking alone, and in the dark, some one to take -the place of her demolished ideal. Had the queen of women been there, in -person, Rizpah, then, would have welcomed her. She groped her way to the -maiden’s couch, feeling that, as she believed, her daughter was pure -and good and loving. Could the matron have analyzed her own feelings, -she would have found that she was in part led toward Miriamne because -the latter some way seemed like, or near to, the girl-wife who was -supplanting in the heart of Rizpah of Bozrah, the wild Rizpah of Gibeah. -A cloud passing let a flood of silvering moonlight full on the sleeper’s -couch, and Rizpah, feasting her eyes, murmured: “I wonder if that woman -of Bethlehem were not very like this maiden?” As the mother gazed on her -offspring she presently began noting features in the sleeper’s face that -reminded her of the absent father and husband. She recalled him as he -appeared under the palms that night at Purim, and as he was that day he -lay pale and bleeding in her all-giving arms. The whole past, that was -delightful, came trooping up, and with it there came the full light of an -old love revived; a renaissance of that she had supposed buried forever. -Soon the aged woman, all youthful again within, was mentally in hot chase -after the pleasure she had parted from so hastily long years before. She -was glad of her thoughts, for they were rejoicing; glad she was alone, -for the thoughts seemed sacred. It was no use, had she willed, to resist; -so she just gave up to the impulse, and with a half-suppressed cry, -passionately twined her arms about the sleeping girl, and covered the -face of the latter with burning kisses. - -The maiden started up in affright, breaking the spell that swayed her -mother, but only in part at first. Rizpah was almost angered by the -awakening, which caused the vision her soul was embracing to take swift -flight. Her first glance seemed to say to the now awakened girl: -“Begone, intruder! Leave me for a time alone with—” but she recovered -herself, and was silent. Yet her mind ran on after the vision. She had -not been embracing the girl, but the girl’s father, in heart. Had he -happened there then, he would have been all-forgiven, all-welcome. So -wonderful the heart of one capable of deep loving as well as deep hating; -so wonderful the nature of such a woman as Rizpah, when her emotions, -aroused, spread their throbbing pinions to soar at the behest of revived -affection. “Human passion,” sneeringly some may say, and truly. But -human passion is a gift of grace. When it travels along right lines, -it quickens the one enriched by it to the noblest deeds. He whose name -is Love came to earth through the Incarnation to show the splendor -of human affection, working at its best in the kingdom of its finest -displays—the home circle. The fate of Eden made men believe a lie, but -Bethlehem refuted that lie for all time. Rizpah turned bitterly from -the fiery, disappointing love she had experienced to stamp all loving, -except parent love, a mockery. She had nursed her false creed, and -suppressed her rebel heart by adoration of the wintry ideal of Gibeah. -Now she was touched by a new influence, and it was to her as the touch -of spring to winter-prisoned nature. For a few moments daughter and -mother contemplated each other; the one as if dreaming, the other full -of wilderment. Then the former quietly said: “I’ve been very nervous -to-night. I’m quieter now, and will go to rest. Sweet dreams follow thee, -daughter.” - -The maiden composed herself to sleep, and the elder woman passed out of -the room. The latter, in going, perceived on the floor-slab a parchment, -and bore it away with her. She said within herself as she did so: “It is -best for Miriamne that I know of her reading.” But, after all, she was -very curious to know all about the new matter, of which she had recently -heard a part, on her own account. The writing, that of a masculine hand, -ran as follows: - - “MIRIAMNE:—As I promised, I have herein recorded, for the - help of thy memory, further facts about the Bethlehem Mother, - MARY. Keeping constantly in heart the wonderful words of the - angel Gabriel, she followed with constancy the wanderings of - her Son as He went forth to heal and preach. She heard with - pride and joy that a Dove of Peace from heaven overshadowed - Him at His baptism in Jordan; but immediately she was plunged - into anxiety, for he disappeared from the haunts of men - in a prolonged absence. This was during the time of His - temptation in the wilderness. He returned to gladden her, - but immediately set forth to new trials, labors and dangers. - The young Miracle-Worker was denounced and driven from among - the people of His youth. Tradition points to the very place - where his mother fell fainting, when she saw the people of - Nazareth dragging her Son to a precipice by the city, with - intent to cast Him down to death. At that place of the mother’s - overcoming the Empress Helena builded the sanctuary called the - ‘_Church of the Terror_.’ But that loyal mother never wavered - in her allegiance to her Son, but, shortly after these things - formally, publicly, bravely, received baptism at His hands in - Jordan, at Bethabara. Indeed, this act on her part evinced - not only the faith of a disciple, but the zeal of motherhood; - her Son’s cause seemed to be failing, and she espoused it to - strengthen it in its most trying hour. She was willing to dare - all things to win for her Beloved a possible gain, however - small. - - “The gathering storm grew darker about the Carpenter’s Son, - and the leaders of the people were planning His destruction; - but He pursued his work of healing and teaching serenely; His - mother constantly hovering near him to encourage Him. She - heard that John the Baptist, son of Elizabeth, the herald of - her own Child, had been slain because he had been true to - God. The harlots of the Court of Herod had procured John’s - death, because that holy man had rebuked their vices. But even - this shocking event did not overawe the mother of the Founder - of the New Kingdom. She stood in splendid contrast with the - murderers of the prophet. It was purity, almost single-handed, - against lust corseleted by the nation; two phalanxes; one of - few, the other of many; but, as common in this world, each - led by a woman. Mary, like a parent bird fluttering over her - nestling, sought by the fowler, hovered around her offspring. - She exemplified the finest, fullest utterance of faith, ‘Jesus - only,’ by determining to break up the home in Nazareth, in - order that all the family might keep near the beloved One in - His journeys. So it happened that when He was near Capernaum, - working Himself nigh unto death, they visited Him to persuade - Him to rest. Of this it is written: - - ‘_While He yet talked to the people, behold, His mother and His - brethren stood without, desiring to speak with Him._ - - ‘_Then one said unto Him, Behold, thy mother and Thy brethren - stand without, desiring to speak with Thee._ - - ‘_But He answered and said unto him, Who is my mother? and who - are my brethren?_ - - ‘_And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and - said, Behold my mother and my brethren!_ - - ‘_For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in - heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother._’ - - “To all He herein proclaimed the doctrines of His kingdom, - self-denial, and though the words seem harsh, they were most - kind, for by them He said, as it were, to His disciples: - ‘Behold these all-sacrificing relatives of mine are twice - related to me; by blood and by sufferings.’ It was, on Jesus’ - part, a public adoption of His own family. As He had been - publicly adopted from on high when He typically submitted to - death in His baptism, so when He beheld His mother, having - forsaken all to be with Him, he proclaimed those that had - elected to share His sufferings His kin indeed. The sword of - His suffering bitterly wounded her when the rabble howled - after the Healer, “_Thou wast born in fornication._” But He, - amid all His engrossments, never forgot to minister to His - mother as a courtly, reverent, loving Son. These words of a - holy book not only speak of the workings of the providence of - God, but assure us that He that uttered them was prompted to - comfort His own widowed mother: ‘But I tell you of a truth, - many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the - heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great - famine was throughout all the land; - - “‘But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a - city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.’ - - “And now for the present I close with all holy salutations. - - “A. VON G.” - -[Illustration: By P. R. Morris. - -THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.] - -Rizpah was so engrossed with the matter of the letter that she scarcely -observed the initials at its end. As she turned the letter over there -fell into her lap a pictured parchment. It represented a woman, half -kneeling and with arms outstretched toward a beautiful child, the -latter balancing, and, as it were, taking a first lesson in walking. -“That woman’s face is some way very like that of my Miriamne’s in -beauty and thoughtfulness,” soliloquized Rizpah. Then observing a tent -in the picture, at one side and under the tent, the form of a strong, -dignified man, she again scrutinizingly exclaimed, “In truth, that face -is Harrimai’s! How like my father!” For some time she sat considering the -group, and then again spoke to herself: “Ah, I see, these are none other -than the girl wife, husband and child of whom Miriamne has been reading! -But what an improper legend at the bottom? ‘_A sword shall pierce through -thine own soul also!_’ A sword has no place in that happy group!” And -Rizpah still gazed at the charming presentment. Suddenly she started from -her seat. “What’s this?” she cried as she traced a dark cross made by -the shadow of the child’s outstretched arms and reaching from his feet -to the mother’s bending knees. “I have it now; the cross is the sword! -Some of the Nazarene heresy, the witchery of the ‘Old Clock Man!’” Rizpah -flung the picture from her as if it were a serpent. She thought she saw -a paramount duty, and without an instant of delay she hastened back to -Miriamne, this time in angry mood—Rizpah of Bozrah, the fanatical Nemesis -of heresy. - -“Here, girl! Whence this book of devils!” - -Miriamne, in fright, leaped from her couch, and Rizpah, laying hold of -her arm, half dragged the bewildered, trembling girl to the adjacent -apartment. “These?” imperiously questioned Rizpah, as she pointed -vehemently toward picture and manuscript lying together on the floor. - -The maiden, overcome by the suddenness of the stormy outbreak, spoke -tremblingly, pleadingly: - -“Oh, mother, forgive me if I’ve done wrong! Father Adolphus, the old—” - -“Oh, yes, the old wizzard! he gave them to thee,” interrupted the mother. -“Enough! ’tis as I expected; the Christian’s doctrine of devils!” - -Miriamne reached forth, mechanically, to take the denounced objects, but -Rizpah at once intercepted her, spurning them with her foot. - -“Don’t touch the leprosy! To-morrow we’ll hire some Druses beggars to -burn them!” - -“But, mother, they are not ours; we must return at least the painting; it -cost great labor!” - -“Leave that to me! Now, further and finally for thee, rash girl, -I’ve commands. Listen! Thou art never again to meet or speak to that -hoary-headed old wizzard, Von Gombard.” - -“But, mother—” - -“No evasion nor compromise!” - -“I can not treat the kind old man that way. He is so good, and all the -people, Jews and Gentiles, love him,” pleaded Miriamne. - -“Enough! and, in brief, meet him or speak to him again, and I’ll disown -thee! I’d drive thee, daughter of mine though thou art, out of my home to -starvation and pray God to send all the plagues written in His book to -haunt thee, while thy life remained, rather than tolerate heresy!” - -So saying, Rizpah fell upon her knees, as if even then to utter an -imprecation. - -In terror the daughter ran to her, and shielding her eyes from the -parent’s anger-distorted countenance, she pitifully cried: - -“Mother! Oh, mother! Don’t curse me! Save me! save me!” - -The elder woman’s body swayed and dilated as if she were possessed of -some furious demon, checked and muzzled, but struggling to break forth. -Evidently the pathos of the daughter’s appeal touched some responding -chord of mercy, for the mother restrained herself and then suddenly arose -and swept out of the bed-chamber. And yet Miriamne was not reassured; she -felt the fascination of dread. With trembling her eyes were riveted on -the open door; her ears heard the heavy, stately, threatening, departing -footsteps, and great misery overwhelmed her. She felt, if she could not -express it, that the breakers of a mighty wrath were heaving and tossing -in that bosom on which she had hitherto rested when in pain or peril. -She knew the meanings of those wavy motions, so like those of the boa -retiring for renewed attack. She saw them passing up and down the form of -Rizpah as the latter went out, her eyes burning, her body dilating. She -had observed these things in her parent before, but never as now directed -toward herself. - -In terror and anguish Miriamne fled out of the old Giant-house. There -was relief and a sense of getting more truly under the sheltering wings -of God in getting out under the serene canopy of heaven. So, often, the -grief-stricken seek solitude, absence from all that has crossed and -hurt, separation from all earthly, in a lonely appeal to the Holy and -Loving. And so these two women, bound to each other by the strongest -human ties, needing, because of their isolation, each other supremely; -after all, loving each other with a choice, tried love, willing each to -endure any cross, even unto death, for the other’s weal, and both anxious -to serve God loyally, went apart. They exemplified the cross-purposes -and misunderstandings that beset and mar life’s pilgrims. They needed -sorely, both of them, pilot and beacon; some one to inspire as well as -to exemplify all that is best in womanhood. The need was patent, but the -remedy but dimly discerned. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -THE MISERERE AND THE EASTER ANTHEM. - - “Under the shade of His mighty wings, - One by one - Are His secrets told, - One by one. - Lit by the rays of each morning sun, - Shall a new flower its petals unfold, - With its mystery hid in its heart of gold.” - - “But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon - their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord the - veil shall be taken away.”—II Cor., 3:15. - - -Midnight and moonlight were in Bozrah, and midnight and moonlight were -in Miriamne’s heart as she wandered out into the city. She did not -see her way further than to know it must be some direction other than -toward her home. That place all her life hitherto the dearest spot on -earth, was become her dread. As she moved away from it she did not -look back. It seemed to her that there was an angry cloud enveloping -it; a cloud holding a furious thunderbolt. As she went on, she rapidly -passed through a series of painful feelings; those that naturally beset -the runaway girl. First she felt very reckless, then, surprised at -her recklessness, then very lonely as if every tie that bound her was -broken, and then affrighted as she thought of confronting the great, -strange, selfish world alone. A woman so young and so inexperienced; a -bird with half-fledged wings, thrust out of the parent nest into a storm; -altogether a pitiable creature. In the moonlight of her conscience, -after a time, she dimly discerned a line of duty. It seemed to her -that it were best for her to turn toward the church of Adolphus, and -she resolutely turned thither. Before the resolution she had walked -aimlessly; now with an aim and with some soul comfort. She did not have -power to analyze her feelings; had she had such power she might have -discerned the fact that she was turning toward something her reason told -her was very good, therefore the soul comfort came as the harbinger of -conversion. As yet the moonlight within, like that without, was not -strong enough to resolve the shadows in and about her. She knew, and -that alone, certainly, that she was miserable, wounded, bruised. So -storm-beaten, in a flight from the ancient Rizpah and her counterpart, -Rizpah of Bozrah, the maiden naturally turned toward the place where -there seemed rest, escape; the haven known to all the troubled and sick -of the Giant city. With a great throb of joy she at length drew nigh -the Church of Adolphus. All was silent about it; but its up-pointing -spire, emblem of eternal, aspiring hope, rest on a rock, stability—in -grand contrast with the grim ruins God’s revenges had scattered in dire -confusion all around, assured her. She remembered then that she had -heard some say that they had been blessed beyond all telling, in hours -of trouble, by the services of that sanctuary. She perceived that the -church, from spire to portal, was flooded with silvering moonlight, -while all beyond and around it was in shadows; then she wearily sank -down by a small porch near the great entrance. As she sank she moaned a -broken prayer: “Oh, God, take me!” Utterly overcome, she wished for a -moment for death’s release; and death’s similitude, fainting, sometimes -sent in mercy, came over her. How long she lay unconscious, she knew -not. She was suddenly aroused by the stroke of a muffled bell; she -opened her eyes and beheld forms gliding out of the darkness into the -chapel. For a moment she felt a superstitious fear that chilled her. She -vaguely remembered that that bell had been wont to toll thus solemnly -when there was a funeral. Simultaneous with the thought she questioned, -Was she herself dead? But she quickly collected her thoughts and then -comprehended that there was to be a midnight service in the chapel. She -remembered that Father Adolphus was wont to have such, at intervals. She -longed to taste the joys within of which she had heard, and was at the -same time restrained, lest by entering she should in some way part from -her mother and the faith of her childhood forever. Conscience and desire -waged war with each other, and the girl was too much excited to stand -still or to reason clearly. She, therefore, mechanically moved through -the open doors with the throng, out of the darkness into the light. -Once within the place the grateful sense of peace and the splendors of -the various appointments, beyond all she had ever before experienced, -engrossed all her thoughts. The lofty arches, the well wrought pillars, -the niches, in which were here and there saintly paintings, the lights, -disposed so as to produce an impression of seriousness and rest, the -hum of subdued voices, all came to her as balm. At the east she beheld -a silver altar, velvet draped; on either side of it lofty columns with -golden plinths and capitals; just back of the altar, in a light that made -the face of the presentment more beautiful, she discerned the image of a -woman, splendidly robed and jewel-crowned. For a moment she thought she -was looking upon one living, for the crowned woman was so beautiful, so -much a part of the place, and seemed so inviting. She contrasted her, -in mind, with the terrible picture of Rizpah. Just then, with little -persuasion, she could have run toward the woman, back of the altar, and -plead for sympathy. The feeling was momentary. Little by little the truth -dawned upon her, and she thought, “this represents the beautiful Mary of -Father Von Gombard.” Then the moonlight within the maiden’s soul began -to change into dawn. She gazed and gazed, and as she was so engaged, her -thoughts took wing for heaven and her soul cried within itself as a babe -for its mother. She knew not her way, but she knew she needed and yearned -for a guide as pure as heaven and as serious as God. Her meditations -were interrupted when she perceived the place growing darker about her, -the forms of the congregation now becoming like so many moving shadows. -All around her bowed their heads as in prayer, and, impressed by the -solemnity of the place, she did likewise. There was a long silence. The -hush of death was over the place, the only sign of life the stealthy -movements of a tall, dark-robed personage, who glided about the chancel. -The tower bell tolled again, once, twice, thrice; its muffled tones, as -they died away, being prolonged, then caught up and borne onward with -organ notes which filled the trembling air with entrancing melody. Then -the organ tones softened and died away into subdued minors. “How like the -sighings of autumn evening breezes, before a rain,” thought Miriamne. -The place again was full of melody, the organ being reinforced by lutes -and dulcimers, played by unseen hands. But the worshippers were silent; -all bowed, apparently, in prayerful expectation. It was all new and -exceedingly impressive to the maiden, and she was carried along by the -spirit of the hour. - -The draped figure passed down from behind the altar-lattice and moved, -on tip-toe, from one to another of the worshipers. Miriamne was curious, -yet frightened. “What if he came to me?” The question she asked herself -made her tremble. If it were the priest, she was sure he would be very -kind and yet how would she explain her absence at that hour from home? -She was alert to hear the words he spoke to others near her, and when she -did, she took courage. They seemed just such as she needed. She knew the -voice; it was that of Father Adolphus, in the tenderness and triumph of -one filled with unearthly hopes and heavenly sympathy. The cadence of his -voice accorded with the plaintive tones of the organ. Miriamne’s heart -fluttered like a caged bird, back and forth, from yearnings to fears, -as the priest drew nearer and nearer to her. She yearned to hear spoken -to herself his balm-like benedictions; she feared, lest recognizing -her, he should reprove. He seemed about to pass, as if not perceiving -her. Now more intensely she yearned and dreaded than before. She could -not restrain herself, and so she sobbed aloud like a child in pain. The -priest tenderly placed his hand on her head and softly said: “_If we -confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse us -from all iniquity._” - -“Oh, Father Adolphus,” she sobbed, “is this for me?” - -The priest started, but quickly recovered himself, and again spoke in -the same tone as before, his voice rising in accord with a triumphant -strain of the music: “_He died that we might live!_” Miriamne clasped and -passionately kissed his hand. - -The place had become darker, little by little; the organ tones meanwhile -growing deeper and more solemn, while voices from an unseen choir -blended with them. Miriamne, recognizing, from the words of the singers, -the penitential Psalms, followed the worship with deepened interest -from the fifty-first to the fifty-seventh of the sacred songs. They -expressed the pains and tempests of her own soul as they voiced sublimely -sin-beseeching pardon. The Christian and Jew were for the moment made -akin. The man at the organ was a master of his art, and while handling -the keys of his instrument, he also played on the hearts of his hearers. -He was aiming to reproduce Calvary, its scenes, emotions and meanings, -and he succeeded. The devout assembly, following the motive and movement -of the composition, was led mentally to realize the journey from the -Judgment Hall to the Crucifixion. There were measured, mournful, dragging -tones; Jesus bearing his heavy cross; then followed discord and confused -uproar, the voices of a mob. Later on there were dirges and silences, -followed, as it were, by blows and ugly cries. The nailed hands, the -uplifted cross and the sneers of those who passing wagged their heads, -were all revived to the imagination. With these sounds, from the first, -there ran along a sustained minor strain, sometimes nearly obliterated, -at other times ruling. It was as mournful as the sigh of the autumn winds -amid the dying leaves and night rains. In the color and movement of that -minor there was feelingly expressed the deep, poignant, undemonstrative -sorrow of the mother that followed the thorn-crowned and scourged Son -to his martyrdom. Then came a long silence, broken only by the fleeting -whispers here and there. The worshipers were in earnest prayer. They -were at the cross, as the friends of Jesus, in earnest communings. -Again the organ broke in on the silence; there was a rush of air as if -some one passed in rapid, terrified flight, followed by a sound like -swiftly departing footsteps; the fleeing disciples came to the minds -of the worshipers. Then the organ tones deepened to the rumblings of -approaching thunders—heralds of a climax of catastrophies, while above -the rumblings a solitary, piercing voice, which ended in a thrilling, -agonizing cry: “_My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!_” Following -this came peal upon peal from the organ; louder and louder; discord and -confusion; ending in mighty crashings. The rocking earth; the earthquake; -the rent veil—all the tragedy of Cavalry—was presented in awful realism -to the minds of the kneeling worshipers. Every light had been quenched, -the temple within was as dark as a tomb, and not a sound could be heard -but moans and penitential weepings. To one any way superstitious and not -knowing the intent of the presentment, the whole would have seemed very -like the realm of the lost, filled with damned souls, making pitiful -last appeals to mercy; but to the worshipers there came a vision of a -stark, dead form on a cross, standing out vividly against the darkness -of Calvary around that cross the amazed, condemned crucifiers and a -few disciples, the latter whispering about the burial. The realism was -oppressive and some present cried out, as if by the bier of a loved one, -while some fainted away. But the Healer was there. Father Adolphus, with -a voice full of tears, with the pathos of Him that went down to preach -hope to “the spirits in prison,” spoke to the penitents of peace, light -and glory through faith. As the old Missioner went from one to another -the lights of the chapel, one after another, reappeared. Presently the -aged consoler stood by Miriamne: “Hast thou felt the power of the Cross, -my child?” - -“Oh, Father Adolphus, I do not know; I only know I’m very wretched!” - -“‘Godly sorrow worketh repentance’; but thou wert as happy as a bird thou -thoughtst and saidst a few days ago?” - -“I was a bird—a girl then! I’m a woman now. I’ve lived years in hours.” - -“Any sudden trouble?” - -“Oh, yes, a tempest and tempests.” - -“Possess me of all, daughter.” - -“I can not. It’s every thing. I seem so useless and nobody loves me!” - -“Thou art too young to be morbid and art greatly beloved by ONE.” - -“Oh, I can not come to Him. I’m under His ban; I do not honor my parents. -How can I? One, my father, I never knew. I’ve seen him through my -mother’s eyes, and to despise. Now I am afraid of her, and my terror is -poisoning the love I once felt for her. Oh, I’m miserable, lost! Father, -Father, save me!” And the wretched girl flung her arms passionately about -the old priest. - -“Ah, girl, I can not; but there is One that can save.” - -“Save, save me—one so lost?” - -“He is a ‘Prince and a Saviour.’” - -“I do not know Him. He can not love me, and one must love me to save me; -I’m so needy and wicked.” - -“Well said, and He is love. Only believe.” - -“I don’t know how to believe.” - -“Like a poor, sick babe, all need, thou, amid thy weaknesses, hast power -at least to cry.” - -“Cry? What shall I cry?” - -“‘Help thou mine unbelief.’” - -Slowly, by wisely simple gospel-counsels, the aged teacher lead the -penitent girl Christward. As they communed the congregation departed, -and an attendant lighted the lamps. Presently the music of the organ -again broke forth; but now in cheerful and triumphant strains. Miriamne -listened, and as she did, a change came over her countenance. Her dawn -was coming. - -“Art looking up, daughter?” - -“This music is like spring morning melodies, and I’m singing to it, in -soul, I think.” - -“It is the morning song of souls; the angel’s greeting to Mary. Observe -the words; first the ‘Hail Mary’ before the wondrous birth; then the -serene assurance of the mourning mother at the grave, ‘He is not here, He -has risen.’” - -“Ah, Adolphus, how blessed are you Christians in a religion all mercy, -all songs, all love, and all nearness to God!” - -“‘Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.’” - -“I would I could hear Him say as much to me; but I can not go, come, nor -do any thing else; not even stay away; I’m a bit of wind-drifted down!” - -“Come all ye heavy laden,” measuredly replied the priest. - -“Oh, if there were some one to bear me onward; blind and weak as I am!” - -“He carries the lambs in His bosom!” - -“Alas, I feel myself cowering away from His Holiness, when I attempt to -approach Him alone!” - -“All to Him must go alone, in prayer as in death. He meets with a -plenteous mercy the confiding ones who come by sorrows’ thorny path, -as He will meet the needy in judgment who have only faith’s plea. Fear -not to go alone; solitude has its benefits, and He is sole accuser or -excuser. The terms of His rebuke are eternal secrets, as are the terms of -His forgiveness. They lie alone, between the Blesser and the blessed.” - -“Is the lovely woman there, your Mary?” - -“Yes, child.” - -“And she was the mother of this Saviour?” - -“Yes.” - -“And was He like her?” - -“He is, eternal; the ‘I Am’—not was nor shall be—always.” - -“Oh, yes; but is He like the woman?” - -“In my soul I so believe, to my joy; for she was godly, therefore, -God-like.” - -“Then I can love Him, trust Him, and I’m sure He’ll pity me, at least.” - -“Amen,” piously ejaculated Father Adolphus. Then he said: “Now child, -rest; it’s too late to go home. My sister, yonder, will care for thee -till morning, and then thou must hie to thy home. Thou yet mayst be its -peace-maker and blesser.” - -Easter-tide came. All nature was serene and seemed to recognize the -memorial of holy, happy association. Father Adolphus was astir early to -ply his industry of mercy for the suffering. “Poor, unhappy land, and -unhappy because so blind! Oh, man, man, how thine eyes are holden, while -fatlings, birds and flowers rejoice!” - -“Ah, unbenumbed by sinning, they, like the cattle in Bethlehem’s stable, -are first to see the Saviour born of woman. ‘Praise ye the Lord, beasts -and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl. They shall not hurt -nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the -knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.’” Thus soliloquized -the old priest as he passed toward well-known haunts of misery in the -Giant City. - -Miriamne was called to a late breakfast by the kindly sister of Adolphus. -The aged woman said little, but every act seemed freighted with motherly -interest, and was like balm to the heart conscious chiefly of loneliness -and wretchedness. The maiden longed to have the elder woman solicit her -confidence, but the latter did not respond to the mute, though manifest -desire. “It is better so. God’s work is best done in an hour like this, -when He alone is left to searching and counsel.” So thought this aged -minister. Experience under Father Adolphus had given her this wisdom. - -The coming of evening brought to the little religious house its master -all cheerful, yet well wearied by a day of ministering for God. - -“Art here yet, daughter?” was his first greeting. - -“Yes; where else should I be? I’m friendless, lost, unhappy; even to a -vague longing for death; but I’m frightened at that longing, since it -seems as if I was as friendless in Heaven as on earth. Oh, it’s awful to -be a two-fold orphan!” - -Just then the church-bell rang forth a merry peal. - -Miriamne looked a question, and the old priest continued: “Hark, it’s the -pæan of peace, declaring that the Day Spring from on high has visited all -those in the shadow of death.” - -“Another service?” - -“Yes, the best of all. We cling to the hours of this day and battle night -away in joy, thus declaring our hope in the resurrection, the end of all -nights. Listen, that’s my organ, the one I myself made.” - -Miriamne listened, and there was wafted to her an Easter anthem; at -intervals containing the sentence: “Thou that takest away the sins of the -world have mercy.” - -As they passed into the chapel, the maiden remarked: “There are more -women here than there were at the other service?” - -“The other celebrated death; the chief pain-maker of woman’s life; for -they live in love whose ties are constantly sundered by man’s last enemy. -They are allured by the beautiful things, the joys, the hopes of our -Easter service. It proclaims eternal victory over the destroyer.” - -“How beautiful the woman’s form back of the altar, good Father, to-night.” - -“Our moods within appear to us on objects without. So strangely the -Kingdom of Heaven, beginning in the soul, spreads everywhere. It is -natural, though to think that the resurrection time brought all joy to -the childless mother: to this one as it did and does bring a thousand -times to other mothers, like her bereaved.” - -The Easter service went onward, a succession of joys; the march of a -pilgrim army with the goals in view; the triumph of truth, the crowning -of life, the final discomfiture of death. Miriamne brightened as the -service advanced; then came a fullness of joy; then a reaction and she -finally fell into a sleep akin to a trance. It was the resting of the -wounded on the way of healing. There was a Divine overpouring and a -babe-like sleep of perfect trust; from this the voice of the priest -aroused her! - -“Miriamne seems to rest.” - -“Oh, such a dream! I followed the songs to the sky and wished my body had -wings. God lifted me up and I slept, dreaming myself into His presence. I -thought I was in heaven.” - -“Thou art near it, child.” - -“Oh, this wonderful calm! What makes me so happy?” - -“Hast thou any token?” - -“I do not know: I murmured as the people sang these words: ‘_I know that -my Redeemer liveth_;’ as I murmured that, every thing, got brighter, and -I felt no more under the yoke and load!” - -“He is thy Vindicator. ’Tis well.” - -Then tears coursed down the old man’s face. - -And so the girl that fled out of her home, away from the phantom of -Rizpah of the ancients, away from her mother; a pilgrim; all wants, -all yearnings, in a few brief hours, had found a city of refuge, an -everlasting hope and was in soul serenely resting. - -[Illustration: By Mengelburg. - -JESUS AT THE AGE OF TWELVE WITH MARY AND JOSEPH ON THEIR WAY TO -JERUSALEM.] - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -A HEROINE’S PILGRIMAGE. - - “There is a vision, in the heart of each, - Of justice, mercy, wisdom, tenderness - To wrong and pain and knowledge of the cure; - And these embodied in a woman’s form, - That best transmits them pure as first received.”—Robert Browning. - - “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to - thy word.”—MARY. - - -Miriamne, the day after her conversion, at evening, was sitting in -the portal of the church at Bozrah, musing. “Oh, how I thank Father -Adolphus for showing me the way to this peace!” The western sky, to the -maiden’s rapt imagination, seemed very like the gate of Heaven, and in -her meditations she exclaimed as if talking to those in glory, yet near -to her: “Mother of my Saviour, I need a mother! Thou and I, two women, -loved of the same Lord, shall we not evermore be friends?” Then the stars -glittered through the fading sun light like night-lamps, set along the -parapets of that far off city, and the maiden felt as if heaven’s doors -were being shut. She was oppressed with a sense of being left alone, -and thereupon cried out, “Oh, Jesus, Jesus, do not leave me here in the -dark; Oh! thou mother, sainted and happy, may I not be where thou art -until morning?” The cry or prayer of the girl, having in it much of the -poet, little of the skilled theologian, was one likely to be censured -by those adept in stately forms, and yet it was very natural. Miriamne -was but an infant in experience and had yet to learn that after the -resurrection came Pentecost; then the Ascension. Steps like these are in -the believer’s experience; conversion is a rising from the dead to be -followed by the assuring work of the Holy Spirit, then Heaven. But the -soul quickened from the charnel-house of sin and inducted, not only into -a new inner life but into a new fellowship, hungers for more and more. -Hence, it is a common thing for the young convert to wish to die, and be -away from life’s turmoils and defilements at once and with the glorified, -immediately, forever. It is as if the disciple would pass at once from -the sepulcher directly up the Mount of Ascension. In this spirit Mary -Magdalene pressed forward to embrace to her human heart the newly risen -Saviour that morning when he tenderly restrained her. There was something -for her to be and do before the final rest on the Divine bosom, in -unending rapture. “_Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended_,” as if He -would say, “I myself, have other work yet, before the eternal gates are -lifted up for my triumphal entrance as the King of Glory.” “_Go to my -brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father._” -The master words were, “Go;” “say.” The load Jesus put on His followers -was the same in kind, though infinitely less, that He took on Himself. -Some way it was love burdening with blessing, for He that in dying agony -sent the Rose of His heart, Mary, to the home of John instead of at once -to Paradise, knew surely that then for her that was best. “To go” and -“tell” was best for Magdalene, as to stay and work for a time is best for -all: - -So Miriamne’s prayer, though so worded that it would have been censured -by the learned churchmen, was heard in heaven, and He that said: “My -peace I leave with you,” ministered, all unseen by human eye, to that -lamb, bleating alone amid the dark giant castles of Bashan and the darker -castles of fears that hover not far from each new-born of His Kingdom. -She passed from repining, from morbidly wishing to die and from thoughts -solely of her own weal, to the second stage of experience; that stage, -where the young convert is influenced with a burning zeal to tell of the -blessings found and thereby win others for the Saviour. Miriamne soon -felt desire inexpressible to run and tell others of her joy. Then her -mind recurred to her father, living somewhere far to the westward, just -beneath where she had fancied the gates of heaven were a little while -ago. “No, no; I cannot go yet! I must stay here and do something. Oh, I’d -be ashamed to go to heaven and leave my father, my mother, my brothers, -my people in their misery!” As she thus spoke she pulled her hand quickly -down by her side. The motion like to one pulling away from some leading -influence. A voice at hand spoke: “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall -neither slumber nor sleep.” - -Miriamne, with a slight startled exclamation, turned to see whence the -voice and with joy beheld Father Adolphus. - -“Oh, dear Father, I’m glad you came this way! I want to tell you above -all others how happy you made me.” - -Solemnly and tenderly the old man replied: “‘Not unto us, oh Lord; not -unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth’s -sake.’” - -“Yes, He has done it; but you helped, good teacher; and I am so happy! -Oh, I do not know myself! I feel so changed. I’m growing wiser, happier -and stronger every minute.” - -“If so, then, He that called thee, daughter, had a purpose.” - -“I know it; see it; feel it. I’m called to help my people; to bring -together Sir Charleroy and Rizpah.” - -“Say ‘my parents’; it’s more filial.” - -“Yes, but it’s so strange. I call them in my mind now all the time by -their names. It seems as if I belonged to another family; that of Jesus, -Mary and the Angels.” - -“A child of the Kingdom, indeed! When thy parents are converted, the -family tie will be revived. Thou dost feel the love of heaven; the great -eternal family bond, as Christ when he said: ‘My mother and my brethren -are these which hear the word of God and do it.’” - -“But if I hope to bring my parents together I must go first to my father -and persuade him. I know my mother will object to the journey. Can I -disobey her and still please God?” - -“Ask God. I have for thee, and already see thy way. I have already acted -in this matter.” - -“I can not forget the law in that I learn that ‘He that setteth lightly -by his father or his mother is cursed.’ Among our noble ancients, the -Maccabees, the disobedient child was even stoned to death.” - -“But thy salvation puts thee under the Gospel, although, under the Law -even parents had duties; they were forbidden to make their children walk -through the idolatrous fires. What says Jesus to thee?” - -“I do not know whether it be His spirit or not; yet all the time I hear a -voice within me saying: ‘These twain shall be one.’” - -“I see thy soul abhors this actual divorcement of thy parents. Oh, how -some play hide and seek with their consciences around forms as these do; -not comforting but hating each other; not bearing together their common -burdens; wide seas between them, yet fancying they have violated no law -of God, because they have not asked the law of man to do what it never -can, truly, proclaim two, neither having committed the deadly sin, apart.” - -“This separate living is their constant sin?” - -“He that starts wrongly repeats the wrong anew each time that, by act or -thought, he approves the wrong first done. Sin’s name is truly legion.” - -“What an awful thing is sin!” - -“True, daughter. It blinds its victims here, and its wages hereafter is -death.” - -“That’s why I fear to disobey my mother; what if it be sin to do so?” - -“The command, my child, is ‘children obey your parents—_in the Lord_.” - -“What does ‘in the Lord’ mean?” - -“I’ll tell thee, my little catechumen; there comes a time to some youths, -in pious life, when duty to God compels disobedience of parents; as it -came to Jonathan, son of Saul. God is Father and mother to the righteous, -and His law must be first. Mary left home and every thing, first and -last, to follow Jesus. Her way was the Christian’s.” - -“I thought once I was right in obeying my mother without question. Now I -think I may be right in disobeying without question. The old and the new -law are at war within me.” - -“Amid these Bashan hills Paul, the Holy Saint, traveled, led of God from -thinking that directly opposite to his former beliefs, the truth. Jesus -met him then on the way to Damascus, in power and in glory; Paul had been -for a long time a profound scholar, a Pharisee of thy people. On this -journey, enlightened by the spirit, he asked and learned sincerely to -ask, the question of questions in this life; ‘_Lord what wilt thou have -me to do?_’ I beseech thee to ask it daughter, as thy hourly prayer.” - -“Did God answer Paul?” - -“Yea.” - -“How?” - -“The blessed apostle tells all! ‘When it pleased God who separated me -from my mother’s womb to reveal His son in me, that I might preach among -the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, ... but -I went into Arabia.’ Neither wife, friend, child, nor Ephesian Elders, -clinging with tears, could hold him back from duty. Then he preached -through this wild country.” - -“But I’m not Paul, and only a woman.” - -“‘Only a woman!’ She out of whom went seven devils, a woman, was the -herald of the resurrection, and the church; God’s glory in the earth, is -likened unto a woman. Oh, when a woman is clothed with the Sun, there is -nothing more resplendent, and as for power, naught prevails against her. -It seems to me if thou dost emulate her who said to God’s messenger: -‘_Be it unto me according to thy word_’ thou wilt go ere long to thy -father; but thou must now return!” - -“Return whither? This spot of all earth alone tolerates me!” - -“No, that’s changed! Thou art the Child of a King. Go home; ay, rise to -tell of the One that hath risen in thy heart.” - -“Dare I? Must I?” Miriamne soon answered, by action, her own questions. - -The young woman started homeward; at first with fearfulness. Then there -came to her great calmness and courage, as she thought: “If I was wrong -in going, I’m right in returning. My mother scared me from home into -God’s arms. I can tell her that.” The new life had quickened within her -the springs of affection. In all her life before she had not been so long -apart from her mother. She said to herself, “I’ll just spring into her -arms, when I meet her!” And she would have, if permitted. - -The mother with a face like a stone, emotionless, saw her approach. When -the latter stood by the threshold, the parent freezingly said: “Well; -what dost thou want here?” - -A dozen answers pressed for utterance. Some like those shaped by an -angry or reckless girl; some such as might come to a politic woman, -having recourse ever to cunning against the odds of power. The first -thoughts were not of love, the last not of truth. In an instant Miriamne -remembered her new personality. She was the missionary! She dared, being -right, face any thing, even her mother’s wrath; but in her soul she dared -not let bitterness rule. She knew as well that she dared not tell the -truth so as to convey a false impression. She might have done so once; -but not now. “Lord what wilt thou have me to do?” the golden prayer was -on her lips and she had instant grace to say quietly: “I was doing no -wrong.” - -“Was where?” - -How brave the girl had become. Her reply was calm and courageous. “I was, -for a time praying to God; but safe, for God was with me in the Spirit -and good Father Adolphus in the flesh.” - -“The Old Clock Man!” - -“Yea.” - -“The wizard! I so suspected. Here is more of this bad work;” and Rizpah -angrily thrust before Miriamne a scroll. “That fawning, heretic-priest -came here and left this with mock piety saying: ‘I, being the mother, -might read it!’ I had no humor to converse with him; but of thee I demand -the full meaning. Now, no avoidance, girl; dost thou hear!” Miriamne was -not only not abashed, but in her new-found courage took the letter, and -without a quaver of the voice, read: - - “TO THE GRAND MASTER OF THE TEMPLE, LONDON. - - “_Faithful Knight and Son of the Church_: - - “GREETING—I herewith commend to thee and thy most pious and - chivalrous offices, my beloved catechumen, Miriamne de Griffin, - of Bozrah. She is the truly noble daughter of an English - nobleman, now living somewhere in London. He is, I fear, - prodigal toward God, and an exile from his family; perhaps in - the distress of bodily ailment, most grievous. Prompted by holy - desires, this young woman, whom I commend, may come to thy - city in the hope of finding her father, for the compassing of - his restoration to health, his family and righteousness. Had I - the power, I would command the thousand liveried angels, said - ever to attend the Holy Virgin, to encompass ever this sweet - and pious daughter of Knight de Griffin; but being impotent to - direct the angel guard, I serenely commit my daughter in the - spirit, to the watch, care and chivalrous regard of thyself and - thy companion knights. - - “All saints salute thee. My benediction be on thee. _In pace._ - - “ADOLPHUS VON GOMBARD.” - -“And _thou_ dost think thou couldst go alone, half round the world, find -that renegade wanderer, bring him here, make him good, tolerable, and -re-unite our family? THOU?” Rizpah stopped, her voice almost at the pitch -of a scream; her utterance ending in a groan that died with a hiss. - -Miriamne responded calmly: “I can not tell what I may achieve, that is -with God; but I know what I must attempt. The path of duty is clear, and -I enter it unwaveringly.” - -“And I, as unwaveringly, forbid.” - -“I expected this command, and in all love for thee, my mother, shall -disobey it.” - -Rizpah turned pale, her eyes became leaden. She was for an instant like -one stunned by a sudden, heavy blow, and disarmed. The little submissive -child that she deemed her daughter to be, was suddenly transformed before -her; changed in fact to a firm, strong, brave woman. But the elder -quickly recovered, and while clearly perceiving that violence would be -futile, had recourse to the last arm of the half-defeated, to ridicule. - -“Disobedience, oh, I see, this is a part of this superior religion of -thine and that old ‘Old Clock Man;’ this Gombard, ha! ha! It was always -so. New religions please by freeing from law! What an old idiot that -Solomon of the ancients! He taught ‘forsake not the law of thy mother.’” - -“Mother, I have two parents and obligations to both. I find our home -shattered, and I for most of my life half orphan. I have thereby great -and lasting loss. My brothers and you suffer as well. I am led of God, -in a desire to seek a remedy for our troubles. I would gladly obey your -edicts, but first I must obey my Maker and King.” - -“Girl, false teachings lure thee to a curse.” - -“You know mother, you yourself cursed the memory of Herod not long ago, -when we wandered amid the ruins at Kauawat and saw the remnants of his -image, as angry Christians left it, shattered years ago. That day you -said a curse on him that broke up families or made innocents mourn, -whether he lived anciently or now.” - -“Well?” - -“I say a curse, bitter, on every act that breaks up or beclouds a home! -But not I, it is God that curses!” - -Rizpah was speechless and withdrew from the room, motioning silence -with a stately, angry wave of her hand. She was defeated in the debate, -but not subdued. The next day Rizpah renewed the subject, but this time -adopting the tactics of kindness. - -“My darling, since yesterday I’ve been thinking thy good intentions -worthy of approval for their spirit of love. I’d approve thy purpose did -I not forsee that the great sacrifice on thy part would be fruitless. Thy -father and I could never live together! If thou foundst him thou couldst -not love him as he is, and, as for reforming him, that were impossible!” - -“I must try.” - -“’Tis useless; a woman as wise, as patient, and as earnestly seeking -that result as thou, gave years of devotion, deep as her life, to that -purpose. They failed utterly.” - -“Was that woman my mother?” - -“Yes, listen. In the glorious romances of youth I met Sir Charleroy. -I pitied him coming to our house a defeated Crusader, a refugee. Pity -gave way to admiration. There were few about me whom I could love; I had -no mother. In some way I gave him her part of my heart first, then the -rest of it. I admired him for his soldier-like bravery. He was older and -vastly wiser than I. All my ambitions seemed to be satisfied in climbing -up with his thoughts. He was able to teach me a thousand things I never -before heard of. Heart and mind were intoxicated. I unconditionally -surrendered all to him, with an almost worshipful devotion. I could not -have made a more complete committal if my God had come in human form -and sought me for His everlasting companionship. I fled with him from -my father’s home. In the wild Lejah and this Bozrah we lived for a time -together, until he changed from lover to hater! Here my unnatural love -was murdered by inches. I can now reason better than then, and yet the -past seems like a nightmare. Thy father knew a great deal, intended to -be kind but did not comprehend the dangerous responsibility of taking to -his care such a passionate, imaginative, impressible creature as I was. -He did not realize that there is a period in a woman’s life when she -may be literally made into another being. In every generation women are -walking by thousands through a sort of passion week. I walked in mine, -ready to be molded almost into any form; but he tried to have me profess -to be a Christian, live like a devotee of Astarte and be as Anata of the -Assyrians to her husband, but the echo of himself. I might have done all -this, but he tried to hasten me by force, and then all fell to ruins like -those amid which we lived. That glorious structure of love which romance -built, became the saddest ruin here in those days. - -“I was then a young woman, just entering the perilous, exhaustive periods -of maternity. I was weak and nervous, and sometimes may have tried his -patience, but I thought then that he ought to have borne with me. I am -now certain he ought. After he left, I was for a time glad. I had renewed -freedom from arguments, rasping and crossing of purposes. Then I felt -the martyr’s joy. I felt I was left, a girl-wife, with babe in arms, to -battle alone, for God’s sake, for thy sake. It seemed often that the -arching heavens above were smiling upon baby and me; that sustained me. -But, daughter, my moral training had been as thorough as has been thine. -My idea of the solemnity and life-bindingness of the marriage tie could -be no higher than it was. I believed it divine to be forgiving, and -finally was impelled to turn from our broken home, to find, if possible, -my recreant spouse. Dominated by convictions of duty, and often by a -revived, wild, soul-possessing love for Sir Charleroy, I went to far -off, strange London, I hunted out Sir Charleroy and was ready to be all -things, any thing for his sake. He received me tenderly, only to soon -change to cruelty. Your brothers were born there, adding to my load new -burdens; but I was without help. He never seemed to study my comfort, -pleasure nor needs. In a nation of strangers, with strange ways, I was -alone. He knew scores; I knew only that one man. Repulsed by him I -drank again and again the depths of misery, having no heart in all the -great city to counsel nor love me. Then thy father took delight in vice. -I was crucified for months; my only comfort communing in memory with -the Sir Charleroy that had been, the tender, loving, brave Palestine -knight. In those dark days, I found there was a place where persecuted -Israelites secretly met; a sort of cleft-rock synagogue. Thither I went -for consolation. I was wedded anew to my religion, because it was mother, -father, husband and all to me; when there was none but God left to me. I -came to long, daily, for the time to go to that meeting place of a few -Hebrews just to pray God for two things. One, the most pitiful of prayers -for a mother, that He would care for my children and keep them from being -like their father; the other that I might be permitted soon to die! Thy -father grew constantly more brutal, taciturn and fitful! At last I had -an explanation. I found by unmistakable signs that he was going mad. I -saw further that that madness took the shape of a murderous antipathy -for me and the children. Under the advice of the rabbi, leader of our -people at London, I determined, as the only alternative, to return to -our Bozrah home and leave him to the care of his companion knights. In -blank, leaden grief I left London. I came to these scenes of desolation -with a heart as broken as any that ever survived its pains. I could have -died. I returned, my fate fixed, the cup of my retribution for having -disobeyed my parent full. Once a queenly, blithesome girl, petted and -loved by hundreds, changed to a lone, sad widow and prematurely old. A -wife without a husband, a Jew without the recognition of my people. How -utterly isolated! Thou know’st the rest, daughter.” - -The two women were silent. Miriamne was moved by the revelation to a -wondrous pity; but her royal sentence: “_Lord, what wilt thou have me to -do?_” seemed to be written on the air just before her uplifted eyes. - -Then questioned the elder, “And thou my daughter, a woman, wilt not also -leave me? It’s a woman’s heart that pitifully questions.” - -“I’ll never forsake my mother!” - -“And never leave?” - -“Except, only as God commissions!” - -“Oh, say that thou wilt never leave me in life! I said this in cruel -pains for thee, Miriamne. Miriamne, daughter, here by the couch in which -thou wert born, I plead.” So saying the mother dropped on one knee, flung -one arm over the bed by her side, and stretched out the other toward her -daughter. - -The maiden was profoundly moved, her loving heart seemed to be swelling -within her, all her emotional nature ready to exclaim, “I’ll tarry,” -but again her royal sentence: “_Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?_” -controlled. - -“Loved mother, I am not my own. God has bought me, and in His dear love -I go. The story of sorrow I’ve just heard confirms me in my purpose. I’m -called, I know, to work out a new and brighter day for mother and father!” - -Rizpah was both pained and chagrined, and burying her face in her -_pepulum_ moaned, “God, pity me!” - -“He does, I know, and sends a daughter to bear thee proof, my mother.” - -The mother, as if not hearing the latter words, continued, growing -vehement: “The necromancy of that Nazarine priest has hastened the -workings of heredity’s curse! Girl, thy father’s distemper is taking root -in thy brain; thou too, art going mad! This scheme of peril, foredoomed -to failure, is worthy of a bedlamite only. Oh, Jehovah, my shepherd, thou -lead’st me now by bitter waters!” - -“Mother, you called me at my birth, ‘Marah,’ ‘bitterness.’ You know how -the people murmured by the bitter springs of Marah, in the wilderness, -but God showed Moses a tree that sweetened the water. I’ve seen that -tree and felt its power. It grows on the mount called Calvary, and is -immortal.” - -“Be considerate now, daughter, since I meet thee kindly. To one not -believing thy Nazarene doctrine, it is useless to appeal with Christian -figures.” - -“Well, mother, you remember Jeptha? He had a daughter, and she was -all-influential with him.” - -“He was the cause of her death, as thy father will be of thine.” - -“But Jeptha’s daughter became a heroine.” - -“When dost thou depart?” questioned Rizpah. - -“Next Lord’s day I say my last prayers in Bozrah.” - -“Farewell. As well now as later. I can not bear a long parting, and after -to-day we shall speak no more of this.” Miriamne was amazed by the sudden -change. - -“Do I go in peace?” - -“Ah, daughter, what a question? A mother’s undiminished love will follow -thee even unto death, winging a thousand daily prayers to Israel’s -Shepherd in thy behalf. Yet, I shall condemn thy going, rebuke thy -disobedience, perhaps frown upon thee, and even say, ‘I disown thee!’ -But, though I do all this, there will be tears in my voice and kisses -in my heart, for my first-born. All my authority as a mother cries -against thy going, and all my mother-heart embraces. I’ll not kiss thee -as thou departest, but waft hundreds after thee when thou art gone. I’m -not Rizpah, devotee of Rizpah now. I’m only a woman, a parent, a voice -uttering two decrees; one of the head and one of the heart!” - -Miriamne was inexpressibly rejoiced by the words she had heard, as they -betokened the breaking down of the strong opposition to her purpose; but -she could not trust herself further than to say, as she affectionately -embraced her mother, “And I can only cry as did that noble Bethlehem -mother to God’s messenger: ‘_Be it unto me according to thy word._’ He -leads, I follow.” - -[Illustration: By W. Holman Hunt. - -THE YOUTH JESUS YIELDING TO THE WISHES OF HIS MOTHER.] - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - -CONSOLATRIX AFFLICTORUM. - - “Furl we the sail and pass with tardy oar - Through these bright regions, casting many a glance - Upon the dream like issues and romance - Of many-colored life that Fortune pours - Round the Crusaders till, on distant shores, - Their labors end.”—WORDSWORTH. - - -Miriamne’s welcome at the “Retreat of the Palestineans,” at London, was -most cordial. The Grand Master of the returned knights and his wife -received her as a daughter; the companion knights vied with each other in -efforts to serve the child of their once honored comrade, Sir Charleroy -de Griffin. But the maiden never for a moment lost sight of her mission. -No sooner had she been bidden to rest than she questioned as to her -father’s welfare. The Grand Master attempted to assure her that she might -recuperate after her journey, but she only the more urged her desire to -be taken to her parent at once. - -“Worthy Master, dalliance would not be rest, but torture, to me. Being -now so near my father, I’m filled with a ruling, all-exciting longing to -see him, at once!” - -“Be patient, daughter, for a little season; all is done for him that can -be. The princely revenues of the knights of Europe are at the behest of -each of our veterans, as he hath need.” - -“Ah! but your wealth can not provide him what I bring—a daughter’s love!” - -“And yet, daughter, since you press me, I must explain that he is under a -cloud which would make thy offering vain at present.” - -“There is no need, kind commander, to make evasive explanations. I have -been forewarned of my father’s troubles of mind.” - -“But he is violent at times, and we are compelled to keep him secluded in -the asylum of our brotherhood.” - -“Good Master, that but the more increases my ardor to hasten a meeting -with him. I want to try the cure of love upon him; I’ve all faith in its -efficacy. When may I go?” - -The foregoing was a sample of Miriamne’s words each day. Her appeals -touched all hearts and finally over-persuaded the medical attendants, -who, in fact, began to fear lest refusal would unsettle the maiden’s -mind. She was all vehemence and urgency on this subject. - -The meeting was a sorrowful and brief one. - -She was not prepared for such a spectacle as her father presented, and -her cry, “Take me to him,” was changed to one more vehement now: - -“Take me away!” - -Terror supplemented her utter disappointment. To both feelings there -was added a sense of humiliation. She imagined her return to Bozrah, -empty-handed; the possible gibes of her mother and others. Her great -faith seemed fruitless and her enthusiasm ebbed. Then she began to -question within herself whether or not, after all, the new faith she -had embraced was not a splendid illusion! She was in “Doubting Castle,” -with “Giant Despair,” and the mighty, impelling question, “What wilt -Thou have me to do?” little by little lost its grip on her will. It had -seemed to her the voice of God; now it seemed little more than the echo -of words heard in a dream. She was moved now by a desire to get away from -something, but she could not define the thing. Certainly she desired to -escape her disappointment, but not knowing how, she sought to get away -from its scene. If she could have run away from herself she would have -been glad to have done so. She fled from the asylum, as soon as night -came to hide her flight. She had not strength to go far, and the Asylum -park of many acres of lawns and groves, afforded her solitude; that that -she now chiefly desired. The night the desolate girl thus went forth was -a lovely one; a reflection of that other night of sorrow when she fled -from the old stone-house home to the chapel of Adolphus at Bozrah. And -the memory of that night returned to the girl with some consoling. Again -she looked up to the firmament and was calmed by the eternal rest that -seemed on all above, and again she yearned to go up further to the only -seeming haven of righteousness and peace. - -Then came the reaction; the prolonged tension had done its work, and the -young woman dropped down on the earth. How long she lay in her blank -dream she knew not. If during its continuance she in part recovered -consciousness, she had no desire nor strength to rise or throw off her -weakness. - -Ere long her absence was known at the Grand Master’s and an eager search -was instituted. Foremost in the quest was the young chaplain of the -knights and his quest brought him first to the object of search. - -“Can I aid my lady?” said the chaplain, in kindly tones, standing a -little distance away from her, in part through a feeling of delicacy akin -to bashfulness, and in part fearing lest by any means he should affright -her. - -The young woman lay motionless; her eyes closed; her face as the face of -the lifeless. Receiving no answer, the man questioned within himself: -“Is she dead?” Fear emboldened him, and he essayed active assistance. -Delicately, gently, firmly he raised up the prostrate woman. She seemed -to realize that some one was assisting her, but she was very passive. -Her head, drooping, rested on the young man’s shoulder, and she sighed a -weary, broken sentence: - -“I’m so glad you came, Father Adolphus!” - -“Not Father Adolphus, but one rejoiced to serve a friend of his.” - -The maiden was silent a few moments, as if listening to words coming -to her from a distance, through confusions. Memory was struggling to -re-enforce semi-consciousness. Then came comprehension; she realized -the presence of a stranger, and, with an effort, stood erect. Her eyes -turned on the chaplain’s face with questionings, having in them mingled -surprise, timidity and rebuke. The man interpreted her glance and made -quick reply: - -“At my lady’s services, the Chaplain of the Palestineans. We are all -anxious at the Grand Master’s concerning yourself.” - -“Anxious for me!” She found words to say that much, and hearing her own -words she recalled her recent thoughts of herself, as one being very -miserable and very worthless. She turned her eyes from the young man -toward the woodland, in the darkness appearing like a gateway to black -oblivion. She yearned to bury herself in the oblivion utterly, and her -looks betrayed the thought. The youth gently touched her arm, saying: - -“Despair has no place here; the Palestineans vanquish it.” - -She then looked down toward where she had been lying, both nerves and -will weakening. It seemed to her a bed, even on the earth, were inviting, -especially so if she could take there a sleep that knew no waking. - -The young man had ministered to his fellow-beings long enough to have -become a good interpreter of hearts. He discerned the thoughts of the one -before him, and offered prompt remedies, words wisely spoken: - -“Our faith makes us all hope to see our guest happy ere long.” - -Then she gave way to a flood of tears. The tears moved the man to -exercise His professional function, and forgetting all else he spoke -as a comforter to a sorrowing woman. She listened, but, except for her -sobs, was silent until he questioned: “Shall I stay to guide back to the -‘Refuge,’ or return to send help?” - -She answered by turning toward him a face pale and blank, lighted alone -by eyes all appealing. He interpreted the look and continued: “I’ll tarry -to aid. Shall we now seek the ‘Refuge?’” - -Then she exclaimed, “Alas, there seems no refuge for me!” - -“The troubles of Miriamne de Griffin enlist all hearts at this place, I -assure you.” - -“And this, your kindness, with your happiness ever before me, but makes -to myself my own desolation more manifest! Ah, I’m but a hulk in a dark -tide!” - -“Lady, say not so, I beseech you. Look, there!” Languidly, mechanically, -she turned her eyes in the direction the speaker pointed; then suddenly -drew back from sight of a white apparition, standing out boldly from a -background of dark shrubbery. Her nerves all unstrung were for the moment -victimized by superstitious dreads. - -“Only, calm, pure marble; a fear-slayer; not fear-invoker! Look -at its pedestal!” assuringly spoke the chaplain. The maiden -did as bidden and slowly read, repeating each word aloud: -“_Sancta-Maria-Consolatrix-Afflictorum._” - -“By easy interpretation: ‘Mother of Jesus, consoler of the sorrowing!’” -responded the young man. - -“Ah, like all consolations nigh to me, this is only stone and set in deep -shadows! It can not come to me!” - -“True, yon form is passionless stone; but the truth eternal, which it -emblemizes, is living and fervent.” - -“Life and fervor? Death and sorrow submerge both!” - -“There is mother-love in the heart of God; to one so nearly orphan as my -friend, it must be comforting to look up believing that in heaven there -are fatherhood, motherhood and home! This is the sermon in yon stone.” - -Then the chaplain gently, reverently drew the sorrow stricken maiden -toward the “Refuge” and she followed, unresisting. As they moved along, -she essayed to seek further acquaintance with her guide. - -“May I know the chaplain’s name?” - -“Certainly; to those that are intimates, ‘Brother’ or ‘Friend;’ for such -I’ve renounced my former self and name.” - -“But if I should need and wish to send for you? I might. I could not call -for ‘Brother.’” - -“Ah, I’m by right, ‘Cornelius Woelfkin;’ yet the names are misnomers, -since I’m not kin to the wolf, nor am I ‘a heart-giving light’ as my name -implies; at least if I give light it is but dim.” - -The meeting of the young people, apparently accidental, was in fact an -incident in a far-reaching train of Providences. The young woman was in -trouble and needing such sympathy as one who was both young and wise -could give; the young man was courteous, pure-minded, wise beyond his -years, free from the conceits common to young men of capacity, and being -a natural philanthropist, naturally sympathetic. The young woman was at -the age that yearns for a girl friend, and needs a mother’s counsel; the -young man had much of his mother in his make-up; enough to fit him to win -his way into the confidence and fine esteem of a refined and trusting -young woman; but not enough to make him effeminate. Somehow he exactly -met the needs of Miriamne’s life. He could advise her as sincerely and -wisely as a mother and companion her as affectionately as a girl friend. -Having neither girl friend nor mother, the young chaplain became both to -her. - -They were both impressible and inexperienced in the matters that belong -to the realms of the heart, in its grander emotions; therefore with a -charming simplicity they outlined their intentions and the limitations -of their relations. They assured each other, again and again, probably -in part to assure themselves, that they were to be very true and very -sensible young friends. Their converse often ran along after this manner. - -“We understand each other so well!” - -“Yes, and are so well adapted to each other!” - -“We have had too much experience to spoil this helpful relation between -us, by giving away to any sway of the romantic emotions.” - -“There has seldom been in the world a friendship between a young man and -young woman so exalted and wise as ours is.” - -They agreed that she should call him “brother,” and he should call her -“sister.” At first they said they wished they were indeed akin by ties -of blood; though in time they were glad they were not. In this they were -like many another pair who have had such a wish, and in their case as in -many another like it, the wish, was a prediction of its own early demise. - -Among the works of art in the park of the Palestineans was a commanding -bronze of Pallas-Athene, the goddess believed by her pagan devotees to -be the patroness of wisdom, art and science. She was the Virgin of the -Romans and the Greeks, their queenly woman, deemed by her wisdom ever -superior to Mars, god of war. She was represented bearing both spear -and shield; but these as emblems of her moral potencies. In a word, she -was the result of the efforts of those ancients to express a perfection -that was virgin and matchless, because too fine and exalted to have an -equal. Between the “White Madonna” and this Minerva, Chaplain Woelfkin -and the Maid of Bozrah often walked, back and forth, in very complacent -conversations. They desired themes, the ideals afforded them; they were -in a frame of mind that delighted in Utopianism, and the effigies of the -women guided their day-dreams. Youth, quickened by dawning, though as yet -unperceived, love, naturally begins building a Pantheon filled with fine -creations. That is the time of hero-worship in general; afterward comes -the iconoclastic period when every idol is cast down to make place for -the only one that the heart crowns. Cornelius praised sincerely Miriamne, -when she said she would be as the Græco-Roman goddess—very wise, very -pure, very strong. Day by day, he believed she was becoming like Minerva. -Then he thought it very fine for the maiden to emulate the goddess in -every thing, even her perpetual virginity. Again, walking near the -Madonna and discoursing of her as the ideal of womanhood, as the mother, -the minister, the saint, the maiden said she would emulate the latter; -the chaplain in his heart prayed that she might. - -Once he finely said: “A pure, patient woman is God’s appointed and best -consoler of the afflicted. Miriamne, be like Mary, and Sir Charleroy will -find restoration.” - -The young woman was encouraged by the words to increase her efforts in -her father’s behalf. Now she did so not only because prompted by a sense -of duty, but because filial love seemed a fine ornament for a maiden. -Birds in mating-times put on their finest plumage; men and women do -likewise. The chaplain was a humanitarian by profession, and naturally -joined the maiden in her efforts for her father’s recovery. So their -thoughts and their works ran in parallel lines. They had unbounded -delight in their companionship and common efforts. This delight they -innocently explained to themselves as the natural result and reward of -their fine, exalted, frank, wise, brother-like, sister-like friendship. -In hours of their supremest satisfaction they generously expressed -sorrow for the world at large, because so few in it knew how to attain -such bliss as they enjoyed. In a word, they were a very fine and a -very innocent pair, a complete contrast with Rizpah and Sir Charleroy -at Gerash. The latter took their course under the torrid influences of -Astarte of the brawny Giants, the former moved forward charmed and led by -those things that were held to be the belongings of the fine women whose -statues graced the park of the Palestineans. Miriamne asked wisdom later -of her elect counselor, and he advised her to send letters to Bozrah -urging her mother to join her in London, in efforts in behalf of their -insane kinsman. - -The young man very wisely argued: “He is a fragment, flung out of a -wrecked home; his perturbed mind is clouded by the wild passions of a -misled heart. We must balance his brain by calming his heart. He is -filled with hatings, and love alone is hate’s cure. If the past losses be -recovered, he must be brought back to the place of loss.” - -Miriamne wrote to her mother, glad to please her counselor by so doing, -and yet almost hopeless of gaining any answer that was favorable. The -maiden renewed her visit to her father’s lodge in the asylum. She was not -permitted, nor did she then desire, to see her parent. She shuddered when -she remembered the one dreadful meeting of the beginning, and was content -to sit outside the door of his cell or keep, day by day, to perform such -little services as she could. Sometimes she would call the insane man by -his name, or title; sometimes she would call out: “Father, would you like -to see Miriamne?” or “Father, your daughter is here.” At other times she -would sit near his door singing Eastern songs, especially such as she had -heard were favorites of her parents in their younger days. - -Days passed onward, and there appeared no result beyond the fact that -when she was thus engaged the knight became very quiet. At the suggestion -of Chaplain Woelfkin, she changed her method, and began in hearing of -the knight a recital of the history of Crusader days. In this she was -encouraged, for an attendant told her that her father each day, when she -began, drew close to his barred door to listen. As she came near the -time of the Acre campaign, the knight’s face was flushed with interest. -Having followed the narrative up to the fall of the city and the flight -of Sir Charleroy and his comrades, she paused. Then she was surprised -and delighted at once, for the incarcerated man in a voice both calm and -natural, ejaculated the words: “Go on!” - -Miriamne would have rushed to the prison door had not Cornelius, who -stood not far away, motioned her to remain seated and to continue. For a -moment she was at a loss how to proceed, but then she bethought herself -of an experiment. She described by a kind of a parable the career of her -father, as follows: - -“And the noble knight, after years of illness, was found by his loving -daughter. Under her kindly care he recovered, and at her earnest request -he returned to his home in Palestine. There he spent many happy years -with his reunited family, consisting of a wife, daughter and twin sons. -He is living there now, and all that family agree that theirs is the most -happy and loving home on earth.” - -“It’s a lie! a lie!” almost shouted the lunatic. “Sir Charleroy is -not there. He went mad; the devil stole his skull and left his brain -uncovered to be scratched by a million of bats. That’s why he went mad; I -know him; he went mad, and is mad yet, and you get away with your lying!” - -The daughter fled in terror at the succeeding outburst of wild profanity; -but she was still rejoiced, that a chord of memory had been struck. It -gave a harsh response, yet it gave a response, and that was much. She -continued her efforts as before. The interviews were not fruitless, -but they were costing her fearfully. She complained to no one, yet her -youthful locks, in a few months streaked with silver, told the story of -suffering. - -One day there was delivered at the Grand Master’s a huge package directed -to herself. Miriamne, filled with wonder, called help to open the case. -Just under the cover she beheld a letter. She knew the handwriting. It -was her mother’s. Her heart took a great leap, and as a flash of joy -there ran through her mind the thought: - -“Mother has sent something to help. Perhaps it’s her clothing, and she is -coming!” - -Tremblingly Miriamne read the epistle. How formal: - - “MIRIAMNE DE GRIFFIN:—Thou went’st without my leave. Do not - return till sent for. Thou left’st a loving mother for a - worthless father, and this is a daughter’s reward. Thou dost - say Sir Charleroy is mad. I knew it, and think that the curse - is descending on thee. But I doubt not the man has cunning in - his madness, and has prompted thee to inveigle me into his - toils again. Once he had me in England, and there he put me on - the rack of his merciless temper and lust! Shame on him for - that time! Shame on me if he have opportunity to repeat it! I - send thee a comforter. Put it before his eyes, and tell him - that the woman of Bozrah is before him. Tell him that she, like - Rizpah of old, is true to the death to her sons, and, while - waking, never forgets to curse the vultures!” - -No love was added. There was no name appended. Miriamne felt like one -disowned. She dreaded to examine the contents of the case; but a servant, -who began the opening just then, spread it out. As she suspected, after -she had read the letter, it was the (to her) hateful picture of ancient -Rizpah. - -It was evening, and the maiden sought a refuge from her troubles in the -park. It was, on her part, another flight from the face of Rizpah of -Gibeah; another seeking of solitude from man that she might gain that -sense of nearness to the Eternal Father under the calm, silent stars of -His canopy. It was like that flight from the old stone house of Bozrah to -the chapel of Father Adolphus that she had made long before. - -The maiden’s course brought her to the “White Madonna,” and there she -found her counselor and brother, the chaplain. He had heard that Miriamne -was desponding that day, and had bent his course hither, confident that -the “_Consolatrix Afflictorum_” would prove a tryst. The scenery around -Pallas Athene was the finer by far, but to a troubled heart there was the -more allurement in the place where the love of heaven was expressed. -The Minerva expressed self-sufficiency; the “White Madonna,” God’s -sufficiency. One expressed justice, culture, the perfection of human -gifts, regnant and victorious; the other spoke of welcome, healing, -mercy, and help for those who were in pitiable needs. The virgin evolved -by the philosophers of the Greeks was a concept touching but few of -humanity, and fitted to be crowned only in a world of perfections, such -as has not yet existed. The “White Madonna” depicted a real character who -had a human heart and heavenly traits, and that easily found acceptance -in human affections. - -The maiden and her counselor sat together for a long time; she speaking -of her social miseries, he of God’s remedies; she describing the -thickness of the night about her; he telling her in beautiful parables -that there was a refuge and an asylum, though the night obscured all for -a time. As they conversed the rising moon flooded the “White Madonna” -with silvering light, and the chaplain rapturously exclaimed: - -“See, the moon gets its light from the sun, and gives it to the image. We -do not see the sun, but we see its work and glory reflected! So God hands -down from heaven to His children, by His angels and ministers, the powers -and blessings that they need. Miriamne, we have a Father who forgets none -and is munificent to all!” - -[Illustration: Paul Veronese. - -THE WEDDING AT CANA.] - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - -THE WEDDING AT CANA. - - “I would I were an excellent divine - That had the Bible at my fingers’ ends; - That men might hear out of this mouth of mine - How God doth make His enemies His friends; - Rather than with a thundering and long prayer - Be led into presumption, or despair.”—BRETON. - - “Hear ye Him. Whatever He saith unto you, do it.”—MARY. - - -Chaplain Woelfkin heard of Miriamne’s reply from her mother. He was both -glad and sorry thereat; sorry the heart he tenderly esteemed should have -been so wounded, and glad that the wounding afforded him opportunity to -show how gently and wisely he could comfort. - -“Your trial came at a fortunate time, sister.” - -“I can not see how such a rebuke can ever be timely, being unjust and -cruel.” - -“True enough; but if fate must assail, it is well to have its hardships -fall on us when we are supported by dawning hopes. There are hopes near -for Miriamne.” - -“Let not my brother’s warm heart give me false comfort. I’ve no sight of -hope.” - -“Say not so; there is a surprise in store for you.” - -“Now, pray, explain.” - -“You will be permitted to meet your father at the chapel service -to-night.” - -“Oh, but—!” and Miriamne bowed her head and waved her hand as if to repel -some unpleasant spectacle. - -“Be not perturbed, sister. Let me explain: You came hither to seek -your demented parent, hoping that love would find a way to compass his -healing. The purpose and effort were alike noble and wise. You lost heart -because the results were slow to appear; but the good seed was sown, and -now for the fruit.” - -“Has my father recovered?” - -“He has improved, and to-night we’ll sit quietly while we apply the balm -of Gilead.” - -“Now am I in a mystery.” - -“Miriamne’s ministries have touched a responsive chord in Sir Charleroy’s -heart and fitted him to attend our mind-cure services. Love is the surest -remedy for a mind gone down under the ruins of the crushed heart. Sir -Charleroy calls his daughter ‘Naaman’s little maid,’ and but yesterday -said: ‘Ah, she’ll take me to healing Jordan yet!’” - -“Blessed be God,” devoutly exclaimed the maiden, glancing heavenward. - -“To which I say ‘amen,’ assured that great things will come through our -‘_Birth of Peace_.’” - -“And what is that, pray?” - -“We are trying to soothe the tumultuous minds of our asylum patients by -displaying sweet peace in picture garbs. To-night by the aid of a musical -and illustrative service we shall depict, in the chapel, the Birth of -Jesus. But I’ll not explain further now. Wait until the hour of service, -sister.” - -When the people were gathered, Miriamne, glowing with hope, yet silenced -by anxiety, was in the midst of the assembly. The preliminary services -moved slowly along with a studied absence of hurry. Miriamne could not -give them her attention; she was disappointed because she did not see her -father present, and the chaplain himself was not there. Presently the -music of the occasion arrested her attention. She followed its movement -and found it gaining control of her feelings. There was an organ in soft, -quiet tones leading voices that murmured words of trust and rest. She -followed the flowing tide of melody again and again, each time further, -higher, more contentedly, until one strain, expressive of serene triumph, -lifted her to a very third heaven of satisfaction. There it left her -almost at a loss to say where the melody ceased and the remembering began. - -At that instant, the chaplain passed by her side, robed in white, -hurriedly whispering so she alone could hear: “Your father is behind the -screen of Templar banners, quietly listening. Be hopeful and pray. God is -good!” The words to her soul were as rain whisperings to spring flowers -in a torrid noon. - -Advancing to the raised platform, the young man told the story of -Bethlehem, ending with a beautiful description of the angel song of -“_Peace on earth, good will to men_.” The words of the speaker were -quietly spoken, and his address mostly like that of one conversing with -a few friends; but the words were very impressive. When all had bowed to -receive the benediction, Miriamne, lifting her eyes, beheld her father -sitting, with the flag screen thrown aside, full in view, but clad as -a knight and without manacle or guard. For a moment he sat thus, then -arose and calmly moved out of the chapel toward his lodge. She obeyed a -sudden impulse and rose to speed after him, but the restraining hand of -the Grand Master was laid on her arm: - -“Wait; not yet, daughter.” - -Renewed hope made it easy for her to comply, and she sat down again -filled with gratitude toward God. A series of similar services followed, -each bringing new causes for hopefulness to the maiden. - -“We are going to Cana to-day, sister,” remarked the young chaplain some -weeks subsequent to the “Birth of Peace” service. - -“To Cana?” - -“To Cana, and for a purpose.” - -“I can not fathom it, brother.” - -Then the young man explained to his fair hearer the scripture event, and -the method devised for presenting it at the chapel, as intended that day. - -The patients and their friends were assembled in the chapel again. Sir -Charleroy among them, but silent and absorbed with his own thoughts. - -“We are going to try a device to gain his attention,” whispered the -chaplain to Miriamne. Just then the Grand Master, dressed in the full -regalia of a knight, ascended the platform and uncovered to view a huge -earthen vessel, remarking: “Friends, we want to exhibit this evening a -vessel, on its way now to France, but left for a time in our custody by -some of our comrade Crusaders, who brought it from Cana in Galilee.” - -“Knights,” “Crusaders,” “Cana!” murmured Sir Charleroy, as if in -soliloquy. Miriamne observed her father’s eyes. They were no longer -leaden; they glowed with interest. “You all remember,” continued the -Grand Master, “how Jesus turned the water into wine at Cana? Tradition -informs us that this before us is one of the identical water-pots used -that time by our Savior; but I’ll leave our chaplain to tell the rest.” -The youth took his position at the pulpit and began informally to talk, -as if in conversation, but he had anxiously, carefully prepared for the -occasion. - -He first pictured Cana, with its limestone houses, sitting on the side -of the highlands, a few miles north-east of Nazareth. “This place,” he -continued, “is the reminder of two instructive events. I have their -history here.” Thereupon, Cornelius turned to an illuminated volume and -began reading, with passing comments. As he read, Sir Charleroy closely -watched the reader; the puzzled look of the listener faded into satisfied -attention. - - “Jesus was proclaimed the Lamb of God, near Cana, by that - vehement, self-starving Baptist John. But in habits and manner - of living John and Jesus were utterly dissimilar. There was - harmony in the great things, faith and charity in all things.” - -The mad knight nodded inquiringly. - -The student continued: - - “Jesus, the organizer of the new kingdom, at Cana, unfolded one - part of His policy, for nigh here twain questioned: ‘_Where - dwellest thou?_’ Jesus instantly invited them to His own - abode. They dwelt with Him a day, and were won to be His loyal - disciples, thus attesting the power of Christ in the home. And - they got a home religion, for one of these, Andrew, at once - sought to win his brother Peter to discipleship. On the eve of - Cana’s wedding feast Jesus won Philip, saying, ‘_Follow me_,’ - and Philip hasted to win Nathaniel, crying, ‘Come and see.’ To - these He spoke of a hereafter home with open doors and a holy - family. Each of Jesus’s true disciples was impelled to haste - and tell salvation’s story to his nearest kin. Christianity is - a feast beginning in the home circle and spreading to all the - earth.” - -The mad knight, as he listened, cast a glance of inquiry over his -shoulder at those near him. - -“Sir Charleroy applies the lesson to himself,” whispered the Grand Master -to Miriamne. - -Cornelius went on: - - “Cana was the home of Nathaniel. We see this poor man sitting - in seclusion under a fig tree. Except his doubts, he was alone. - To him Jesus went, and at the door of his own home the Master - met him. Because Nathaniel believed, on little evidence, God - gave him more, and promised him that he should see heaven open - and the angels ascending and descending, as in Jacob’s vision. - So are those winged messengers passing back and forth forever, - to minister to and comfort needy man. One may be lost to the - world, to friends, to himself, but never lost to the Good - Shepherd, who is like the one in the parable leaving the ninety - and nine to follow the lamb that was straying.” - -Sir Charleroy’s head bowed, and Miriamne was glad, for she saw the tears -falling thick and fast down his pallid cheeks. - -A sign from the attending physicians brought the services quietly to a -close. They had seen the emotion of the knight, and desired that the -feelings aroused be permitted to quietly ebb. - -A few days later, by their advice, the Grand Master summoned the chaplain -of the Palestineans to hold another service like the last. “Sir Charleroy -was blessed that last day. He evinces interest and natural reasonings. -Since the former service he has repeated the story of Cana over and over, -together with the substance of thy discourse thereon. Besides that, he -never tires of inquiring about the ‘ruddy priest of the sweet words,’” -said the physician. - -“I obey, my Master, it’s God’s will. What shall be my theme?” - -“Oh, Cana continued; De Griffin is constantly inquiring as to when the -ruddy priest of the sweet words is to continue the tale of the Cana,” -said the Grand Master. - -“Praise the Day Spring that hath visited us!” - -“You echo the thought of all our souls, Cornelius.” - -And it was so that on the day following the chapel of the “House of Rest” -was filled with much the same company that met there the last time. - -Miriamne arrived early and eagerly questioned Cornelius as he passed her -on his way to his robing-room: - -“Oh, brother, hast thou a message of grace and hope for me, to-day?” - -“_The entrance of thy word giveth light_,” was his quiet reply; and he -passed on, not daring to tarry near the woman that so strangely moved -him. He felt very serious, and hence avoided that which might distract -his attention. - -But Miriamne felt assured, while Cornelius was all faith in the efficacy -of the Divine word in working the cure of minds perturbed. - -Presently he stood behind his reading-desk and, waiting until the organ -tone had died away, commenced by reading these words: - -“And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the -mother of Jesus was there: - -“And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.” - -Sir Charleroy had entered the chapel, and was moving toward a lonely -seat; his motions were languid; his action listless, except when at -intervals he gazed into the empty air and hissed some incoherent words -at imaginary people. But the word “Cana” arrested his attention. He -looked up, smiled, and then exclaimed: “Oh, the red-faced! That’s it; -tell us more, more of Cana!” - -Cornelius complied. “We have here a story of two lives in the most -precious tie on earth, marriage.” - -Then the chaplain read: - - “We see Christ at a Jewish wedding, and the Hebrew marriage was - ever an occasion of great joy. Not only so, but the weddings - of that people were characterized by very instructive and - impressive ceremonies. Let me explain. The day before the - wedding both bride and groom fasted, confessed their sins and - made ceremonial atonement for the errors of their past lives. - They were to be part of each other, and felt that each owed - it to the other to be free from burden or taint of the past. - Both bride and groom at the wedding wore wreaths of myrtle, the - emblem of justice, constantly to typify that virtue as supreme - in wedlock.” - -“Oh, young priest, thou art an angel!” - -The voice startled all but Sir Charleroy. He had spoken, yet his face -indicated only placidity and interest. Cornelius proceeded: - - “The bride, veiled from head to foot to show that her beauty - was to be seen only by him to whom she gave herself, decked - with a girdle, emblem of strength and subjection, was led in - triumph from the home of her father to the home of him who was - to possess her. Before she took her departure, kindly hands - anointed her with sweet perfumes and gave her priceless jewels; - while on her way she was met by all her friends, singing songs - and bearing torches to gladden her journey toward her new - abode. Thus they that loved the bride did bestir themselves - to bestow bounties and make the maiden most choice. There was - no detraction, no defiling, no effort to belittle. Were wives - aided like brides there would be fewer broken hearts among - wedded women.” - -“Wondrous true, ruddy priest!” It was the mad knight’s voice. Cornelius -continued: - - “The feast of the wedding lasted seven days. To such a - gathering Jesus once went. Probably this was the marriage of - a kinsman. Thus, immediately after His temptation and His - baptism, with His mighty redemptional work all before Him, - our Lord deemed it a leading duty to give proper attention to - this wedding ceremonial, one of the lesser things that make - up so much of life. With man supreme selfishness, or natural - littleness, engenders apathy to all except some pre-occupying - purpose, but He, in whom all fullness dwells, entered into - and embraced around about all life. He was as glorious when - meddling with human joys and making the waters of Cana blush - to wine, as when grappling with the sorrows of sin and setting - Himself up on Calvary the beacon and light of the ages.” - -Miriamne felt the illumination again that first came to her that -Easter-day at Bozrah, while Sir Charleroy’s face glowed with intelligence -and peace. This was a full, round gospel which Cornelius was proclaiming, -and every soul present was fed. - -After pausing for an interlude of soothing music he again proceeded with -his discoursing as one conversing: - -“At Cana, Christ bound as a captive, natural law. How He did so we do not -know, but we do know that while destroying no part of nature’s system -he mysteriously made it serve for human happiness in a way unusual and -marvelous. It seems to me that the story of Cana is a fireside story. No -matter how miserable a home may be, it may have faith that in welcoming -the Divine guest it welcomes assured miraculous joy. Life’s waters may -blush everywhere to heaven’s wine!” - -The mad knight murmured: “Oh, ruddy priest! if thou couldst only preach -this in Bozrah.” - -The Grand Master, who was sitting by Miriamne, pressed her hand and -whispered: “Memory is reviving—praise to the Day-Spring!” - -Cornelius again read his parchment. - -“And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have -no wine. - -“Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is -not yet come.” - -“So,” said the reader, “these folks were likely poor, the supply meager, -though no man ever yet had enough of the wine of joy at his wedding until -it was blessed by the God of marriage.” - -Just then Sir Charleroy, standing up, solemnly said: “Young man, I’d have -thee tell these people why He said ‘Woman, what have I to do with thee?’ -He, the man, was master, that was it, eh?” - -“Oh, motion to Cornelius not to debate,” whispered Miriamne to the Grand -Master; but Cornelius was already adroitly replying: - -“True, knight of Saint Mary, but this Master of ceremonies was Divine. -Then He was not talking to his wife. He had not wed this woman, hence -was not bound by the law of being her other self. Besides that we must -not forget that they had often conversed intimately before the wedding; -she with all the tenderness of a woman’s heart, which in its love ever -naturally outruns all plans, all reasonings, to bestow all it has at once -upon the all-beloved. She hurried Christ in the way of giving. This to -her credit, if her wisdom is reproved.” - -The knight settled back in his seat, his face very pale but not -anger-marked. - -Cornelius continued: “The term ‘woman’ is often used, as here, in all -tenderness. Our rugged language ill translates the original. When a -people has not fine moods in its living, its language becomes like -sackcloth, unfit to clothe the angel-like thoughts of those who live on -more exalted planes. The gross degrade all their companions, whether such -be beings or merely words.” - -The leader again read: - -“His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” - - “This shows the good, motherly Mary supplementing the Master’s - work. Doubtless, she had her partisans, some who would have - sided with her had she chosen to rebuke her Son. But she - desired harmony at the feast and in the home. This was the - chief end, and for it she was willing to serve and wait.” - -“Very true! Our Lady was always right and good.” It was the voice of the -mad knight. - -Cornelius continued: - - “These were the finest words Mary ever spoke; they were the - key to her whole life; indeed, the spirit of the ideal woman - ever more standing nearer to Christ than any other being; at a - wedding, the very climax of fullest human love, the gateway to - home, the counterpart of heaven, Mary points all to the Christ, - exclaiming, ‘_Hear ye Him!_’” - -“Our Lady was always a wise, brave, loving, submissive woman,” exclaimed -Sir Charleroy. - -“It is an old tradition,” replied Cornelius, “that this was the wedding -of John, the beloved and confidant of Jesus. It is interesting to -remember that that blessed disciple, in his Gospel, presents the one whom -he loved as a mother but twice—once at this wedding, the other time at -the crucifixion; the places of highest joy, and deepest sorrow; a way of -saying from the altar to the cross, is woman’s course; a parable-like -presentment of the doctrine that the wife and mother are to appear at -these two points, so opposite, so common to all; the lowest dip, the -highest heaven.” - -The mad knight suddenly interrupted them. - -“What did Joseph think of all this?” - -Perhaps this odd query was fortunate, for it brought smiles to all. The -knight laughed out until his eyes were flowing with tears. - -Cornelius, self-possessed, quietly replied: “It is said that Joseph was -dead long ere this wedding, and that Mary was exhaling the perfumes of -her consecrated widowed life to gladdening in pious ministries the people -about her. Widowhood has such purposes.” - -“Ah, she was the Rose,” cried the knight. “If Joseph were not dead, he -might well stand back, behind such a wife!” - -The chaplain of the Palestineans closed with a well-worded climax, -recalling the fact that this event made a lasting impression on the -Son of God, as evinced by the wondrous tropes of the Apocalypse, where -eternal goodness and eternal joy are pictured under the similitude of a -wedding-feast. - -The mad knight cried out: “Grand, grand! Oh, ruddy priest, I worship -thee!” - -The Grand Master signaled the conclusion. The worshipers and patients -were slowly retiring, Sir Charleroy moving toward his lodge seemingly -wrapped in contemplation of some engrossing problem. - -He passed near the picture of “Rizpah Defending Her Relatives,” which by -some mischance had been left near the chapel door. Instantly the knight’s -attention was fixed; he became excited, then suddenly turning to an -attendant, exclaimed: - -“Here, tell me, where am I? Is this London or Bozrah?” - -“London, good Teuton.” - -Again he gazed at the picture, and his transformation was startling. -His face was distorted, his body became rigid and swayed as that of the -hooded snake making ready to strike a victim. Then bounding to the Grand -Master’s side he snatched the latter’s sword from its hilt, quickly -returned to the picture, and before any could prevent him began to hack -it to pieces. - -One tried to restrain him, but was overpowered, two, then three were -flung aside. Presently he was pinioned but not silenced. - -“Away! Unhand me!” he shouted. “In the name of the King of Jerusalem, the -defenders of the Sepulcher, unhand me! Do you not see? There! they’ve -come to make riot at the feast of Cana! Ruddy priest, come quickly. Help! -This fearful gang will all be loose in a moment; they be the ghosts of -the giants, and war everlastingly against the peace of homes; against our -Mary and her Son’s kingdom.” - -He was breathless for a moment, and all were anxious lest he be -permanently unsettled. Some were praying for him, others holding him. -Then he broke forth again as before. - -“Unhand me, infidels! God wills it! Let me cut to pieces yon horrible -thing fresh from hot hell; painted by the gory and beslimed hands of -devils! See! it’s bewitched, and the woman and the hanging men and the -vultures are all alive! They’ll be at us! One of those black birds has -feasted on my heart for years, and yon woman has nightly beaten my bare -brain with her club.” - -They tried to calm him; his daughter pressed to his side, and flinging -her arms about the knight, beseechingly cried: “Father! father! it is I! -Miriamne!” - -“Miriamne? Ha! ha!” cried the excited man. “More mockery! More witchery! -Miriamne is lost, eternally lost! Yon group of demons tore her from me! -Oh, God, if thou lovest a soldier of the cross, hear me, and blast with -burning, swift and quenchless lightnings, yon monsters, and with them all -who separate hearts and wreck homes!” - -“Father, so say we all; let us pray together,” pleaded the girl. - -“Father! Who says ‘father’ to me?” - -“It is I, your daughter, Miriamne!” - -Suddenly, Sir Charleroy became calm and curiously observed the maiden. -“Art thou Sir Charleroy’s daughter? I knew him once in Palestine. He died -afterward in London and left me his body. But it’s not much use. It’s -sick most of the time. I carry it about, though, hoping he’ll come for -it. If thou dost want it thou canst have it.” - -The daughter humored the fancy, and quickly replied: “I do want it. I -love it. I’ll help you take care of it. Let me now hug it to my heart.” - -Then he permitted her to twine about him her arms, and when she kissed -him the second time he returned the salutation, and tears ran down his -hot cheeks. - -“Blessed be the God of peace,” fervently ejaculated Cornelius. “The day -dawns; after tears, light.” - -The knight continued after a time, addressing Miriamne: - -“Sir Charleroy was my friend; and thou art his daughter? Thou wouldst -not deceive me, I know. Tell me in a few words,” he said, meanwhile -furtively glancing about, “Who am I?” - -Miriamne again humored him, and pressing her lips nigh his ear, in a -whisper replied: “Sir Charleroy, Teutonic knight, my father.” - -The old man held her off a little way, gazed at her a moment, doubtfully, -then said: “Thou art large for a baby! Miriamne is a little thing.” -Then he continued: “But thy eyes, they are Miriamne’s; and so honest! I -believe them! Then thou art Miriamne and I Sir Charleroy?” - -“Truly.” And again she kissed her father. - -“But thou dost not want me—a wreck, a pauper!” - -“I do, and the boys do; all Bozrah wants you, needs you.” - -“Not thy mother! Oh, no; I murdered her long ago!” - -“Not so, dear father.” - -“I did, indeed. See,” and he pointed to the painting, “I’ve killed her -again, to-day.” - -“That’s but a miserable painting, and I hate it as much as you do; but -it’s harmless, henceforth.” - -“Are all the devils in it dead; the vultures that ate up my heart?” - -“Yes, yes; who cares for them?” - -“Then I shall get better.” - -The mad knight suffered himself to be led away quietly. There was great -joy among the Palestineans that night. And so Miriamne carried the spirit -of Mary, that presided at Cana’s feast, into the misery of that English -asylum. She had given her life to ministering for others, had begun in -her own home circle, her life motto: “_Hear ye Him_”—“_Whatsoever He -saith unto you, do it._” Now she was rewarded, and began to hope that -there would be the renewal of wedding chimes at Bozrah, that the wine of -its joy would be renewed and sweetened. She questioned the chaplain for -advice. “Tell the Master there is no wine in the old stone house, and -‘_whatsoever He saith, do it_,’” was the young man’s answer. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - -“THE STAR OF THE SEA.” - - “Rocked in the cradle of the deep, - I lay me down in peace to sleep, - Secure, I rest upon the wave, - For Thou, oh Lord, hast power to save. - I know Thou wilt not slight my call, - For Thou dost mark the sparrow’s fall, - And calm and peaceful be my sleep, - Rocked in the cradle of the deep. - And such the faith that still were mine - Tho’ stormy winds swept o’er the brine, - Or tho’ the tempest’s fiery breath - Roused me from sleep to wreck and death; - In ocean’s caves still safe with Thee, - Those gems of immortality, - And calm and peaceful be my sleep - Rocked in the cradle of the deep.” - - -Like the morning dawn on a calm sea, after a night of fierce storm, so -came now great peace to Miriamne. The heaviest sorrow of her life was -lifting. Her father was recovering; his mind becoming rational; and chief -of Miriamne’s joys, was the fact that his convalescence was accompanied -by the appearance of a deep trusting love for herself. He seemed to -lean on his daughter for help; cling to her for hope and aim, by every -way, not only to express his sense of dependence on but his deep and -abiding gratitude toward the patient, chief minister, in the mission -of his recovery. He seemed for a long time to be haunted by a fear of -relapse into some great misery that he but dimly remembered and could not -define, beyond a shudder. He dreaded to be alone, and often clung to his -daughter with furtive glances of fear, even as a terrified child clings -to its mother. One day, months after he had begun to be rational, he -addressed Miriamne: “We must soon seek another abiding place, daughter. -Our Grand Master has discharged with overflowing payment, every debt of -hospitality.” - -“True, father, and I’m glad; the thought for weeks in my mind, is now in -yours. But where shall we go?” - -“I think, to France, and immediately.” - -“France?” - -“Yes, there I’ll seek out some of the De Griffins. They may be able to -mend my shattered fortunes, and if I find none of my kin, I shall not be -lacking in any thing, for there are many of our Teutonic knights. While -they prosper, no want shall harass me or mine.” - -“Father, I do not want to go to France.” - -“Why, this is strange?” - -“It seems far away, very far, to me.” - -“Art thou dreaming, my Syrian Oriole?” - -“No, awake! And very earnest.” - -“Why, we could walk thither, were it not for the water.” - -“But I can not go that way!” - -“Well, we can not stay here, so where?” - -“Eastward; Bozrah!” - -“Wouldst thou ask a spirit, by mercy permitted escape from Tophet to -return?” - -“Yes, even that, if the spirit had a mission and a safe conduct.” - -“Thou art nobler, braver than I. I can’t trust the land of giants and -vultures.” - -“The giants and vultures we must meet are in human forms, and such are -everywhere.” - -“There are over many for the population, in Syria and beyond it.” - -“But there have been many changes since you left that country, -especially, in our city,” persisted the maiden. - -“Nothing changes in Palestine or Bozrah, daughter, except wives, and they -only one way; from bad to worse.” - -The young chaplain seconded Miriamne’s efforts. - -Sir Charleroy was spasmodically the stronger, but Miriamne by patience -and persistence prevailed. In time, she won her cause, and the three -took sail for the Holy Land, the knight protesting that he would go as -far as Acre and no further. The journey was slow but not monotonous, -for the English trader on which they journeyed stopped at various -ports. Cornelius on his part was enjoying a serene delight that had no -shadow except when he remembered that voyaging with Miriamne was to -have an end; Miriamne on her part had three-fold pleasure; delight in -her companionship with the young missionary, delight in the continued -improvement of her father’s health, and greater delight still in the -glowing hope of the success of her mission of peace to her home-circle. -As for Sir Charleroy it suited him well to be sailing. He was ever -exhilarated by change; each day brought it. He was in theory a fatalist, -and the staunch ship pushing onward day and night to its destination, -carrying all along, was an expression of the inexorable. Then the -conditions about him rested him, for he was freed from any need of -bracing of his will to choose or execute any thing. He went forward -because the ship went. That was all and enough. Only once during the -voyage did he assert himself or express a desire to change his course. -THAT WAS WHEN PASSING CYPRUS. - -“Here,” he cried, “let me disembark!” - -Persuasively, Miriamne protested. - -“But I must! I’ve a mission. I want to curse the memory of the recreant -Lusignan, the coward ‘King of Jerusalem;’ he that clandestinely stole -away from Acre on the eve of those last days!” - -“But, father, Cyprus is called the ‘horned island.’ I do not like the -name!” - -“I’ve heard it better named, ‘the blessed isle.’ There the hospitable -knights had a refuge for pilgrims, and it still abides.” - -Just then some of the sailors cried, “Olympus!” They had caught sight of -that ancient mountain, the fabled home of the gods. - -Miriamne adroitly used the cry to divert her father’s mind, saying: - -“Let those admire Olympus who will; as for me, I prefer holy, fragrant -Lebanon.” - -She pointed eastward, and they saw the dim outlines of Palestine’s famous -range. The knight’s attention was fixed on Lebanon, and they sailed past -Cyprus quietly without further objection on his part. - -Miriamne and Cornelius, as the night began to settle down, stood together -by the ship’s side, feasting on glimpses of the distant shore. There were -signs of a coming storm, perceived intuitively by those accustomed to -the sea, by the young watchers best discerned in the anxious looks of the -seamen. - -“The captain says the sky and sea are preparing for a duel. You noticed -how the blue changed to dark brown in the water this afternoon? He says -that, and the muddy appearance of the sky, betoken a tempest.” - -“How like polished silver the wings of those gulls glisten as they -career!” was the maiden’s ecstatic reply. - -“The wings are as they always are. They glisten now because they flash -against a murky background.” - -“An omen, Cornelius, for good! I’ll call the sea-birds hope’s -carrier-pigeons with messages for us.” - -“I would we had their wondrous power of outriding all storms. It is said -they can sleep on the waves, even during a tempest.” - -“I’ve the heart of a sea-gull, to-night.” - -“And not a dread or pang within?” - -“No, no! Oh, come, any power, to hurry us to Acre! I’d give way to the -merriment of the becalmed sailors, who whistle for the wind, if I only -knew the notes of their call.” - -“But the old sea-captain is very grave. See how the men at his command -are lashing up almost every stitch of our ship’s dress.” - -“Oh, well, I’ll be grave, too, to please you; and yet I pray that Old -Boreas, and all the Boreadal, come in racing hurricanes, if need be, that -we may be sent gallantly into longed-for Acre!” - -“A storm at sea is grand in a picture or in imagination; sometimes, -though rarely, in experience. To be enjoyed it must be terrible; there’s -the rub; it may come with overmastering fury.” - -“Bird of ill omen! Why cry as in requiems? As for me, while you are -fearing going down, I’ll be thinking of going forward!” - -“And be disappointed, certainly, on your part, as I hope I may be -mistaken on mine. We may not go down; we shall certainly not go forward!” - -“Now, how like a wayward man! Since you can not have your way, cross me -by predicting my frustration!” - -“Oh, do not lay the blame on me! there are broader shoulders to bear it. -Lay the blame on the Taurus and Lebanon ranges!” - -“Well, this is an odd saying, surely!” - -“Wait awhile, and you will find it very true, as well. We are to meet -to-night, most likely, the Levanter or off-shore gale, Paul’s Euroclydon, -charging down from its mountain castles. Taurus and Lebanon together form -a cave of the winds!” - -“And you seem glad that they are coming to battle us back?” spake the -maiden, rebukingly. - -“Yes, if they prolong our companionship. I can not rejoice in a speed -that hastens our parting.” - -The last sentence died on the chaplain’s paling lips with a sigh. - -The maiden turned her eyes full on the speaker, then slowly, meditatively -answered: - -“I shall be sorry, too, at our parting!” - -“‘Sorry!’ Ah! that’s no word for me, this time; agonized is better!” was -the young missioner’s quick rejoinder. - -The maiden was pained, but she mastered her feelings and pleaded: - -“The parting must come some time; do not let such repinings make it -harder for both. It is wiser, when confronting what one does not desire, -but can not help, to court the balm of forgetfulness. So do I ever, -especially now.” - -“And like all attempted silencings of the heart, by cold philosophy, -mocked at last by failure!” - -“My philosophy can not mock me, since it accords with the stern facts -which confront us. I’ll be as frank now as a sister, Cornelius. Our -diverging missions part us. You go to Jerusalem to preach the cross; I, -to a narrower field, at Bozrah, to attempt the rekindling of love on one -lone altar of wedlock. God orders it thus, and I submit unquestioningly; -for it is not for one who can scarcely touch the hem of His garment to -challenge His wisdom by a murmur.” - -“But time, Miriamne, may leave you free, your work being completed in the -Giant City?” - -“Even so. There is a gulf between us; we may love across it but not pass -it, in body, in this life.” - -“And I can not see the gulf?” - -“I am in faith, after all, an Israelite; enlightened to be sure, but not -likely to renounce the ancient beliefs. You are a Christian; nor would I -wish you otherwise. Now, amid the miseries I’ve witnessed in my own home, -I can not but be admonished against any attempt at fusing, by the fire of -adolescent, transitory loving, two lives guided by faiths so constantly -in antagonisms.” - -“The faith of Jesus and Mary, truly lived, never failed to fuse hearts -sincerely loving. You may call yourself what you like; in substance of -faith we are in accord.” - -“The chaplain reasons well; better than I can, and yet he does not -convince me! I can only plead that he do not persist, and so make the -parting harder. It must be; though my heart break, I must suffer the -immolation. I’ve asked this question in the awful sincerity of a soul as -it were at the bar of judgment: ‘_What wilt Thou have me to do?_’ I know -the answer. I must seek to bring father and mother together.” - -“And then?” - -“Seek to know if the Messiah has indeed come.” - -“And then?” - -“If I find He has, some way tell His people Israel, as only a Jewess can, -of the Light Everlasting.” - -“And then?” - -“Why, that’s sufficient to measure the lives of generations; but if I -survive beyond that work, I have vaguely passing through my mind the -coming of a millennial day when all mankind will be akin; all righteous, -all just, and the tears of womankind assuaged.” - -“I pray for that, but how can we hasten joy by breaking our own hearts?” - -“I do not know what lies beyond; how that day of glory is to come, but -this I know, the spirit of Chivalry was from God. It had, and has a deep, -impressive meaning. In contact with it at the west, I felt all the time -as if it were blind, but a Samson still, feeling for the pillars of some -mighty wrong. I wonder if I may not be the giant’s true guide. Or, better -still, may I not be, under God, the giantess to do the very work. Perhaps -the world awaits a woman Samson!” - -“What Miriamne says is to me all mysticism! Explain.” - -“I do not know how, beyond this: I’m God’s bride by consecration, and He -will keep me for His work.” - -“Can’t I share it?” almost piteously, the chaplain asked. - -“Truly, yes, wherever you may be, with me or not.” - -“Oh, Miriamne, your passionate enthusiasm entrances me. You are an -inspiration to me. I fear I shall languish aside from you.” - -“I shall love you more, Cornelius, as you are more grandly, heroically -self-sacrificing.” - -“Any thing to win Miriamne’s constant love!” - -“I shall love you, Cornelius, in a deep, holy way, only and forever. I’d -be ashamed to be thus frank, but that I have a love that is as pure as -the heaven of its birth. Be true to your God, to your mission; a little -while and then at the City of Light, life’s brief dream over, the first, -after God, I’ll ask for will be the faithful man whom my heart knows.” - -“Ah, what can I do? I’m all zeal; willing to go, but the glow of your -cheeks, the flash of your eyes, even in the midst of such noble converse, -drag me away from my resolves. That that stimulates me, unmans me, or -reminds me I am a man and a lover.” - -“You ought to teach me, not I you; but you remember you told me of the -belief of some in ‘penetrative virginity.’ That is the purity of Mary -passing somehow into others. Oh, all I am that’s good, be in you, and -more, even all that she was whom you so revere; I mean the mother of the -Christ.” - -“In my soul I reverently exclaim ‘amen,’ but then again, how strange the -question will not down, ‘must we part?’” And so saying he flung his arm -about the woman, passionately embracing her. He thought for a moment he -had overcome her, but the kiss on her lips not resisted, was the end; for -slowly untwining his arms and holding his hands at arm’s length, she -questioned: “Will you promise me one thing?” - -“Surely, yes, name it.” - -“That you will think of me as a friend, sister, henceforth, and let me go -my way without further misery?” - -The man struggled with himself for a time; then gazed into her eyes with -a most piteously appealing gaze. - -She was firm. - -“Yes—I promise, but say affianced, to be wed in heaven?” - -“God bless you,” was her instant response. Their lips met and the debate -was ended. - -And so for the time they separated, persuading themselves that the whole -matter between them had been finally sealed. They had all faith in their -pledges mutually given, each to live apart from the other. As yet they -had no just conception of the power of a rebel heart constantly uprising. -Of course, they both foresaw a measure of wretchedness in the future as -a consequence of their decision, but distant pain foreseen by the young, -is ever dimmed by hope, and very different from present pain. These twain -comforted themselves, at first, by the thought that they were martyrs, -and it is always agreeable to feel ourself a martyr, especially when -expecting a martyr’s reward; at least it is so until the reality of the -martyrdom comes. - -The sky grew darker, night shut down about the ship, the winds increased, -and that sense of awful loneliness, felt on the eve of an impending -night-storm at sea, came to all hearts but those of the sailors. The -latter were too busy to think of aught but their duties. Then their -captain had his reckonings, and assured them by his bearing that he felt -confident that he could outride this storm as he had often before similar -ones. Miriamne, yielding not more to the captain’s command, than to the -entreaties of Woelfkin, went below to her cabin. She soon courted sleep -to help her forget the war of the tempest, praying a prayer most fitting, -meanwhile. The prayer was a meditation, like unto this: “He that cares -for all will care for helpless me, and come what may, keep me until that -last great day.” The storm strengthened, and she began to be anxious for -her father, and her friend. She had said to herself the latter title -should define Cornelius. But her heart forgot its fear a moment in a -mysterious, merry peal of laughter; such laughter is very real, but it is -never heard by human ears. We know it only in those exalted moments when -we try fine introspections; when there seems to be two of us; the one -observing and entering into the other. Miriamne heard that laughter when -she meditated, “Cornelius is just a friend.” Presently she became more -anxious for those aloft. Then a troop of imperious inner questions came -to her: “Might I not stand by him, if the danger increases? Would it be -wrong to show him that I am brave and loving?” - -“Will he think me cowardly and stony-hearted?” Resolution was being -assailed, and weakened. The questionings increased in number and -imperiousness: “What if to-night we are all to perish?” Then she let -imagination take the rein. She thought of a scene that might be if she -and her beloved were as betrothed, soon to be wed, lovers. In the scene -she fancied herself, her lover and her father all together in a last -embrace, going down into the yawning waves. “Would my lover try to save -me?” For the moment there were two of her again, and it was the one that -awhile ago laughed so merrily, that now seemed to be saying: “Would my -lover try to save me?” The one self heard the question, and by silence, -without sign of rebuke, seemed to give the other self plenary indulgence. -Then came a free play of her imagination. She saw herself lying in coral -palaces, beneath the moaning waves of the Mediterranean, still clasping -her lover and her parent. Then she thought of how her friends would -receive the news of her demise. Perhaps some poet would embalm the event -in deathless poems, and thousands read of the three that perished side by -side. Her mind ran back to London. She imagined a memorial service at the -chapel of the Palestineans and the Grand Master there saying: “Miriamne -de Griffin was lost at sea; in the path of glorious duty, loyally pursued -to the end.” - -Then she thought of Bozrah and the old stone house, with her mother -and her brothers, its sole occupants; the mother in mourning garbs, -her spirit subdued, and she often tenderly saying to the fatherless, -sisterless boys, “Miriamne was a good girl, a faithful daughter, a noble -woman.” - -But after all, these excursions were unsatisfactory to the young woman. -And naturally so. When she thought of lying a corpse, with weed-winding -sheets, for years, in the caves of the sea, she was repelled. Thoughts -of her memorials, possibly to transpire at London and Bozrah, were not -very comforting. She was too young, too free from morbidness, too deeply -enamored, to court, assiduously, posthumous honors. - -Then came thought of a wreck and rescue, and it was very welcome. It -grew out of the possibility of the youth she loved and she alone, of -all on board, being saved. She thought of drifting about for days on -a raft! Would she recall her resolutions and his, or would he say to -her: “Miriamne, I saved you from the deep; now you are mine entirely -and forever!” Would she believe his claim paramount? Would duty’s -requirements be satisfied? Then she was as two again. One voice said -‘yes,’ and the other did not concur, neither did it gainsay. She could -not pronounce a verdict and there were tears flowing. - -The storm grew stronger, but the laboring ship rose and fell on the -billows at intervals, and she was lulled to sleep. Her last thoughts, as -she passed into dreamland, were that it would have been a useless pain, -both endured, if now they were to be lost; the pain of determining, -as they had, to live apart. As she so thought she wished almost that -they had not resolved as they had. Conscience and desire were in their -ceaseless warfare. Then sleeping brought a dream of joy, the blessing -that comes often to the heart that is clean. The dream was colored by -events preceding. - -Cornelius had reminded her the day before, as they were sailing along -the coast of Cyprus, that, at Paphos, on that island, there was once a -temple to Venus, the fabled goddess of love. That divinity, surrounded by -multitudes paying her homage, came before the dreamer’s mind in all those -ravishing splendors of person that are so attractive to human desires. -Around the goddess, and very close to her, were hosts of young men and -maidens, their actions as boisterous and ecstatic as those intoxicated. -Outside of the throngs of youths were others older: and outside of these -were others still; those far away from the goddess, seemingly bowed with -years. The company of youths was constantly increased by new arrivals who -crowded back those there before them. - -But there was a depletion as well as augmenting of the vast, surging -congregation; for anon, as if mad, some nearest the deity rushed away, -both of the men and the maidens, nor did those fleeing stop until they -found violent deaths by leaping from cliffs or into the sea. - -Then the ancients, crowded continually back by the new arrivals, one -after another, with expressions of disappointment and disgust on their -features, seemed to melt away into a surrounding forest of trees that -were very black and very like shadows. The dreamer in her dream betook -herself to prayer that the God of mercy might change what she saw. - -Then she beheld the Paphian goddess in all the splendor of her form, a -perfect triumph of nature, just as depicted by bard and painter, looking -out contemptuously, pitilessly, toward her former votaries, now aged and -pushed aside. There came then a voice as if from above: “_God is love._” - -Immediately on the face of the divinity there was an expression as of -terror, and she began sinking. Before the mind of the dreamer, the -beautiful creature, and her retinue of nude, bold-faced attendants, with -all that appertained to them and their queen went down, ingulfed in a -foaming, roaring whirlpool. As they went down lightnings from above -shot after them. And the dreamer looked aloft to see from whence the -voice and the lightning came. As she gazed upward she saw a man of noble -form, reverently bowing, as a son might bow in the presence of a mother -revered and loved, before a woman of noble mien and beautiful beyond all -compare. - -But this one’s beauty had no similitude to that of the departed deity. -As the maiden gazed she discerned that the man was the one her heart -called lover, the woman the one she had enshrined as the ideal of her -soul, Mary. The twain stood above her, on a plain, apparently of clouds -very bright, rising in graceful curve from the earth and stretching away -in measureless vistas, filled with flowered parks, silvery rivers and -stately mountains. Along the rivers, amid the flowery plains and on the -verdant mountains, there were numerous buildings; but these latter were -inviting; not palatial, nor stately. They were homes surrounded by family -groups. And the dreamer discerned true love triumphant and fruitful. She -lingered in this presence, anon longing for a presentment of her self -amid the scenes of pleasure, until all was suddenly dissolved by a mighty -lurch of the ship that awakened her. She started from her couch and all -immediately before the dream came back to her mind. - -“We’re in a storm on the Mediterranean, and the captain is anxious!” Her -nerves were now unstrung; a woman’s timorousness was upon her. She could -hear confused noises aloft, but no voices. For a moment she questioned: -“What if all but myself have been swept away?” Then she thought of -herself as drifting about in a ship, sailless, helmless, alone! The -thought was suffocating. The noises aloft continued, and she gave -strained attention to catch the sound of a voice. There was nothing to be -heard but the creaking of timbers, the dashing of waves, the shrieking -of winds and vague thumpings, as if parts of the vessel were beating -each other to pieces. - -“I’ll not lie still in this coffin!” she exclaimed, and with a bound -she made her way to the deck. As she arrived there she thought she saw -dark forms, some crouching as if for shelter, and others as if engaged -in a great struggle. Were these demons, or the crew in a struggle for -life? She could not say. Then there came a cry from the direction of the -forward part of the ship; she thought it was her father’s voice, but it -was very hoarse and scarcely recognizable. - -She listened again to the cry: “Ho, ho; ye Olympian demons! tear up the -sea, charge now! Ha, ha; have at us!” The cry thrilled her. Again the -wild voice rose above the storm: - -“Bury her, my darling, if ye dare! What matter! her white soul has -eternal wings!” - -She was certain it was her father. She longed to rush to his side, but -she doubted whether she could find him in the darkness; then, too, even -in the terrors of the moment, her maiden modesty asserted itself. She -remembered that she was but partly clad. - -Again came that voice, wilder than before: “Ye billows, dare ye smite a -knight in the face? I’ll meet your challenge, and single-handed, in your -midst, fight!” - -Miriamne’s heart was almost paralyzed by the thought, “The boisterousness -has overcome my father. He’s contemplating leaping into the sea!” - -Just then a vivid flash of lightning made every thing visible. It seemed -to cut under the clouds, which, rain-charged, were running near the -billow crests, and at the same time enswathed the ship from the mast tips -to the partially exposed keel, in flame. - -The maiden saw by that flash her father standing on the head-rail, -one hand clinging to a stay rope, the other with clinched fist, as if -menacing the boiling waters that leaped away from the plunging prow. His -face was livid, his hair wind-tossed, his eyes glaring. With a scream she -bounded toward him; her scream and appearance terrifying the sailors. -It was so unexpected and they had forgotten the presence of a woman -on board. They only saw a white form, with disheveled hair and with a -motion light and swift as a creature on wings, passing from companion-way -forward. - -But the fright was but momentary. Cornelius, who had been vainly -endeavoring to calm the knight, knew the form, and loud enough to be -heard by all cried: - -“Miriamne de Griffin!” - -He was by her side in an instant. - -The young woman uttered pleadingly one sentence, but it thrilled all who -heard it: - -“My father!” - -Cornelius exultingly answered: - -“Saved! See, the captain holds him and has summoned the watch!” Then he -could do no less, forgetting as he did in the present surprise, all old -resolves, so he drew the trembling form to his heart as closely as he -could. She drew back a little, but he whispered, “Miriamne.” What else he -might have said was lost, for she fluttered a little, then rested, but on -the bosom of her companion. - -She was a woman in peril, in fright, storm-drenched, and in love. What -otherwise or less could she have done than nestle in the shelter that -gave love for love and promised her all else? - -“Are you not alarmed, Cornelius?” - -“No.” - -“How strange! You have changed places with me. In the evening you -trembled when I left you, and I thought I was very brave. Now I tremble; -do you not?” - -“I cowered a while ago from the cross you presented me; it seemed to -bring a lingering death.” - -Just then the ship’s prow plunged under a mountainous billow. Miriamne -clung to her support and fearfully questioned: - -“Shall we be overwhelmed?” - -“No; I’ve a token.” - -“From the captain?” - -“Not from the one who guides this ship alone.” - -A flash of lightning revealed the lover’s face to Miriamne. She saw his -eyes turned devoutly upward, and she understood his meaning. They had -withdrawn to a shelter by the vessel’s side meanwhile. Presently the -young missioner spoke again; - -“Our Heavenly Father keeps vigil, I think, sometimes with especial care -over this highway between the outer world and the desolate habitations of -His chosen people.” - -“Hark, the sailors are singing! How strange it is to sing in such -perils,” spoke the maiden. - -“They’re as happy now as the wave-walking petrels. The Levant has done -its worst; they know this by the coming of the rain, hence they sing -their ‘Lightning Song.’” - -“Lightning song?” queried the maiden. - -“Listen! How they explode their vocalized breaths in hissings, whizzings, -followed by the prolonged crash made by stamping feet and clapping hands -at the end of every stanza. That chorus is meant to imitate those -heralds of the thunder, the flashing lightnings.” - -“But it seems presumptuous to me. The lightning is so dreadful!” - -“Not that which comes as ‘a funeral torch to Euroclydon,’ as the sailors -say. Some of them call it ‘the winking and blinking of St. Elmo going to -sleep.’” - -“Oh, Cornelius, the storm is breaking! I see a star; yes two!” -rapturously cried the maiden. - -“Truly, yes; ‘Castor and Pollux,’ the ‘Twins,’ the ‘Sailor’s Delight!’ -They say these stars are storm rulers and friends of the mariner. Now -hear how they shout their song! They see the stars!” - -Above the subsiding wind and waves, rose the words of the singers: - - “Now to our harbor safe going; - Riding the billows, pushed by the gale: - The torch of the Twins bright glowing— - Tipping our mast and gilding each sail.” - -“And do these stars assure, Cornelius?” - -“I saw a star no cloud can ever hide, through the darkest part of the -storm.” - -“A star?” - -“Yes, ‘Mary, Star of Sea.’” - -“I do not comprehend you.” - -“God’s love! He that guided the maiden orphan of Bethlehem through the -besetments of her life, amid the tempests of Jewry and Rome, purely, -safely, gloriously, to the end; while many of noble birth and having -every earthly good went down to ruin, walks ever on the wave where faith -voyages.” - -“And you thought of the Holy Mother in the storm?” - -“Yes, this Adriatic is full of angels, that come in thoughts, or before -the eyes! You remember Paul, tempest tossed a day and a night on this -sea, was found by the Divine Messenger that night when the darkness was -thickest?” - -“And this ‘Star of the Sea?’” - -“It tells me mother-love was carried by a dying Savior into the heart of -the Triune, Eternal God, and we are His children, and He became Father -and Mother to us. You have seen the hen gather her chickens, as human -mother shelters with her arm or apron her child in pain or peril?” - -“How touching! Think you He felt for us like tenderness in the height of -the storm?” - -“He sought in His plenteous wisdom mother love to sustain Himself, during -the pain and perils of His incarnation, and will ever surely grant a love -and care to His own beloved ones in suffering or danger as tender as that -He sought and needed for Himself.” - -“Surely this is a grateful, natural reasoning; but do you believe Mary -presides over the sailor especially?” - -“It is enough for me to know that the Father through Mary exemplified His -motherliness.” - -“I’ll never more call yon bright luminaries Castor and Pollux, but rather -Jesus and Mary, the guides and the defenders!” And for a long time they -gazed at the double stars, the storm slowly abating. Once the youth, -drawing the maiden closely to himself, questioned: - -“Can not we call the stars in conjunction, ‘Cornelius and Miriamne’?” - -They had been watching, in sweet converse, there, a long time; there were -faint traces of dawn in the east, and Miriamne had just been thinking, -“Palestine receives us with illumination;” then she bethought herself -that she and the man with her were going hither to proclaim the Gospel -of eternal light. The question of her lover recalled the converse of the -day before. That seemed fact, unchanged; all occurring since, dream. She -arose, pointed eastward, and firmly said: “There lies our work, our all. -May a glorious day enhalo all God’s chosen country ere long. Cornelius, -yesterday we promised solemnly that we dare not turn from now; especially -after our wonderful deliverance!” She glided away to her cabin, leaving -the man alone to contemplate the poor comfort of being praised as a -martyr, on a cross of self-sacrifice; the pains of which, if not as awful -as those of Calvary, were destined to be more prolonged. His face was -as if sprinkled with white ashes; it was so pale, so blank. After the -tempest they spoke very little with each other. Miriamne waved away any -attempt at re-opening the subject, with a motion of the finger to the -lips, signaling silence, and a glance all tenderness, but full of pitiful -pleadings to be spared. The young man but once or twice essayed the -discussion, fearing on the one hand to trust himself to speak, and on the -other hand feeling that any effort to change his fate would be hopeless. -But he and she were full of inner conflicts. Then their pathways seemed -stony, brier-tangled. They had both elected, for Guide and Ideal, Jesus -and Mary; they were both going toward the cross in a noble consecration -of their lives. But they denied themselves that that sustained Jesus, -home love, such as he found at Bethany; conjugal love, such as sustained -Mary, the wife and the mother, as well as the disciple. They had as their -loftiest ambition the purpose of making the world happier and better, -and began by making misery for themselves. They had read that a star led -the wise men of the East to Christ in a cradle, the light of the Gospel -rising first in a little home circle. They looked at the double stars -above them after the storm that night almost until dawn, and then turned -away to go, each into the dark like a lone wandering star. Each was in -part the victim of a fabricated conscience, and of a misconception of -duty. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. - -THE QUEEN IN THE VALLEY OF SORROWS. - - “They led him away to crucify him.”—MARK. - - “There followed him a great company of ... women, who also - bewailed him.”—LUKE. - - GABRIEL: “Hail, highly favored among women blessed!” - - MARY: This is my favored lot! - My exaltation to affliction high!—MILTON. - - -For many days Sir Charleroy and Miriamne tarried at Acre, the latter -seeking to banish repining on account of him whom she had sent away at -the behest of conscience, by ministries for her parent. With alacrity she -joined the tours of her knightly father, visiting the scenes where he -once battled, listening, from time to time, with unaffected delight, to -his recitals. The tides of fanatical conquests had wrought few changes -on the face of the city, and the realism of those days of siege, of -the stern compacts made in the last hours of the Crusaders, the solemn -religious services before the last battle, the death struggle and the -disordered retreat, was complete. The excitement of revived memories -seemed to lift up the knight from the syncope of ill health. This -encouraged the maiden to solicit the reviews and recitals of her father. -The night before their departure from Acre, as determined, the knight and -his daughter stood together contemplating the sacred pile which stood -in the moonlight and shadows, mostly in shadows. The soldier of fortune, -having told its story over and over, was now silent, dreaming of the past. - -“_Selamet!_” - -They both started, for the voice was like one from the tomb, none but -themselves being apparent. - -“I’m afraid here; let’s be going, father,” whispered Miriamne, essaying -to withdraw. - -Thereupon there glided out of the shadows a stately form who, drawing -near to the father and daughter, spoke: - -“Fear not, lady! Knight, they can not be foes who court kindred memories -and hope of like colors at the same shrine!” - -“Thou speakest with Christian allusions the ‘peace’ word of the Turk.” - -“I wear the Turkish ‘_selamet_,’ as I do this Turkish harness, a loathed -necessity, but without; the peace I pray and feel is the mystic inner -peace.” - -“As a Christian?” - -“Yea; nor do I fear confession, since I am speaking to those who abhor -the Crescent.” - -“A pious Jew would as soon adhere to Astarte with her orgies as to bow to -the mooned-crown she wore.” - -“Jews? No, not Jews! Such would not sooner run from the moon-mark than -they would from the shadows which fall down about you from yon grand and -awful sign.” - -The speaker pointed to the crossed spire above, as he spoke. - -“No more avoidance; we are brethren. I’m Sir Charleroy de Griffin, -Teutonic knight.” - -“And not unknown. The story of thy valor, even here, lives in the bosoms -of true companions. I’m a Knight Hospitaler of Rhodes, yet fameless.” - -The two men came closely together; there were a few secret tests. The -Hospitaler said: - -“_In hoc signo vinces!_” - -Sir Charleroy crossed his feet, stretched out his arms and murmured -something heard only by his comrade. It made the other’s eyes lighten -with pleasure. - -To Miriamne it was a dumb show; but the tokens given and received were -useful to pilgrims in those perilous times. - -“Whither, Sir Charleroy?” - -“To-morrow, toward Joppa.” - -“So, ho! By interpretation, _The Watch-tower of Joy_. From thence one may -see Jerusalem! And then?” - -“And then? God knows where! A useless life, like mine, is ever aimless.” - -“No, no, father!” interrupted the daughter; “not useless. No life that -God prolongs is useless.” - -“True; the girl is right, Teuton. Aspiration will cure thee, since it’s -the mother of immortality. I go to Joppa also.” - -“They say, Hospitaler, its sea-side is full wild; its reefs like barking -Scylla and Charybdis? I hope it may be so; I’d like a terrible uproar.” - -“The sea is the emblem of change; from calm to weary moan, to howling -terrors and back again.” - -“But the people? They say Joppa’s outside is fine, naturally, though, -within, the life of its people is mean, colorless; a charnel-house whose -activity is that of grave worms!” And Sir Charleroy shuddered with -disgust at his own figure. - -“I think the legend of Andromeda, said to have been chained to Joppa’s -sea-crags for a season, to be persecuted by a serpent, then freed, -prophetic. Joppa may have a future.” - -“How?” - -“Oh, the chained maiden was boasted by her fond mother as more beautiful -than Neptune’s Nereids, hence the persecution. Crescent faiths have been -the persecutors of Joppa and all the other beautiful Andromedas of this -land.” - -“And the chains are riveted?” - -“No, not certainly. There was, in the myth, a Perseus of winged feet, -having a helmet that made invisible and a sickle from Minerva, goddess of -wisdom; he slew the serpent, then wed the victim.” - -“Now the key, further.” - -“When wrongs overwhelm all, women suffer most; but time brings their -deliverance.” - -“The myths are as full of women as the women full of myths!” exclaimed -Sir Charleroy. - -“But Andromeda, the woman, was blameless!” - -“Yet it’s strange that in all men’s fightings, as in their religions, -constantly the woman appears,” replies Sir Charleroy. - -“I’d have thee think, knight, of the legend; it tells how men, in those -dark times, tied their faith to the sure conviction that right would -triumph, wrong be slain, and the martyrs at last go up among the stars. -See how they placed their Andromeda in the constellation now above us. -Perseus was a Christian, or rather a Christian was a Perseus.” - -“Now, thou art merry!” - -“No; I mean St. Peter; he was a Perseus. Hearken to the word: - -“‘Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha: this woman was -full of good works and alms-deeds. - -“‘And it came to pass that she died. - -“‘The disciples sent unto Peter two men, desiring him that he would not -delay to come to them. - -“‘When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the -widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which she -made, while she was with them. - -“‘But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning -him to the body, said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when -she saw Peter, she sat up. - -“‘And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up; and when he had called the -saints and widows, he presented her alive. - -“‘And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord.’” - -“Why, Hospitaler, thou hast a memory like an elephant or an emperor and a -tongue like a sacrist!” - -“Well, the time for swords being past I have taken to books; their leaves -are wings. The world will be conquered yet by the words of the Swordless -King.” - -“And thou wouldst liken Tabitha to Andromeda?” - -“Wasn’t she a real beauty, as her name is interpreted? Beautiful old -soul! She robed the poor! Peter bringing her to the truth of the new life -smote the dragon at Joppa, as a very Perseus.” - -“A woman! a woman, again leading the army of salvation!” - -“After that Peter slept on the house top of Simon the Tanner, and God -gave him the vision of Jew and Gentile, bond and free, rich and poor; -all, as one family coming into the benign rays of the Sun whose wings are -full of healing.” - -“And will that day come, Sir Hospitaler? I’m feeling almost a frenzy of -desire for it!” - -“Surely as the morning to Acre; but we must hie homeward; good-night; -I’ll see you at the quay to-morrow.” - -From Acre, Miriamne and her father, next day, set sail. The companions on -the journey from Acre by Joppa arrived at Jerusalem, there to separate -soon, for Miriamne, with every ingenious device, urged her father -forward. Bozrah was constantly uppermost in her mind. - -“We part, Sir Charleroy, to-morrow?” said the Hospitaler. - -“If thou dost elect to stay in sad Jerusalem, surely. - -“Yes; I’d go mad here from doing nothing but wrestling with my thoughts. -In fact, I guess I’d go mad anywhere, if long there. I think, sometimes, -that my mind’s in a whirlpool, moving not like others; yet, round and -round in some consistency, carrying its befooling creeds, hopes, dreams, -visions, phantasmagoria in a pretty fair march. I’m sure, more than sure, -that if I once stopped moving, my brain would rest like a house after -a land-slide, tilted over, while all the things in the whirlpool would -drift about in hopeless confusion.” - -“Thou dost talk like a physician, gone mad with philosophy!” - -“No doubt of it; that’s all because I’ve been idling here a month; a week -longer and God knows who could set me going again, rightly.” - -Then the knight laughed merrily; very merrily, in fact, for a man who had -trained himself to morbidness. The Hospitaler replied: - -“I see nothing for me beyond the Holy City and its historic surrounds. -I’m training myself to proclaim God’s kingdom and must begin at that -pre-eminent, world over-looking point, Jerusalem.” - -“But there are no schools to fit one there?” - -“The most informing and man-expanding on earth; the deathless examples of -the worthies; best studied where they lived their mightful living. I go -now to Golgotha.” - -“Golgotha? ‘The Place of the Skull?’” - -“Even so, sometimes called the Valley of Jehosaphat.” - -Sir Charleroy rubbed his head as one well puzzled, and was silent. - -“Oh, knight, thou hast forgotten the goings forward of Ezekiel’s mind, -prophetically. It was in Kidron, the Golgotha Valley, that he had the -vision of the dry bones. Let me read: - -“‘Behold, there were very many bones in the open valley; and, lo, they -were very dry. - -“‘And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, -O Lord God, thou knowest. - -“‘Again He said unto me, Prophesy; - -“‘Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath -to enter into you, and ye shall live: - -“‘As I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones -came together, bone to his bone. - -“‘The sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them. - -“‘Then said he unto me, say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; come -from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they -may live. - -“‘So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and -they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.’” - -“And now, soldier, turned exegete, tell me what thou dost make of the -strange phantasm?” - -“That God will work in this world a marvelous transformation; those -living-dead, all around us and beyond, to the ends of the earth, shall -stand in new life. The scene is laid to be in this Kidron valley, to -bring all minds to the ‘Light of the World,’ who passed in painful -triumph along it, even unto Calvary.” - -“But this may not be so, yet it so seems?” - -“Hearken again to the prophet’s happy ending: - -“‘Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an -everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, -and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. - -“‘My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and -they shall be my people.’ - -“All this,” continued the Hospitaler, “is what is to come, is coming. The -dawn of this day began when Jesus passed over Kidron!” - -“And yet, Rhodes, I’m doubtful. Do not the correspondences remote, -mislead thee?” - -“If a crusade leader sent a summons like this wouldst thou respond, -trusting? ‘Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy -mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the -LORD cometh, for _it is_ nigh at hand?’” - -“The Hospitaler knows I would.” - -“Well; God by His Prophet-Herald, Joel, so alarms the nations. And more, -we have a broader summons,” and the preacher soldier read again: - -“‘Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the -Lord is near in the valley of decision. - -“‘Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehosaphat: -for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. - -“‘Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. - -“‘The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw -their shining. - -“‘The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from -Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord _will_ -be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. - -“‘So shall ye know that I _am_ the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my -holy mountain. - -“‘Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: -let the weak say, I am strong.’” - -Then the Hospitaler closed his eyes, turned his face upward as in prayer, -and began speaking like unto one in a rapture or trance: - -“When souls would measure themselves for judgment, they must stand by -the scenes wrought out by Him that died for men; just hereabouts, when -the last judgment comes, the multitudes of earth, tried by the measure -of the God-man, will be brought face to face with God’s standard of -moral grandeur, sublimely once displayed here. Before its splendor the -stars, the finest of men, shall wax dim; human philosophy, the sun of the -world, go out, and human religion, ever the child of human desire, shall -fade as the setting, waning moon, that emblem of the concupiscent. Then -Charity, that never fails, shall come to her throne, the last implement -of war be beaten into services of love, while the weak, no more dominated -by giant brutality, shall rise to the pre-eminence of moral strength. -Adam and Eve, the fallen pair, passed through the valley of sorrow and -sin, downward; Christ and Madonna, the new ideals, passed through the -valley of sorrow and salvation, upward.” - -“Oh, Rhodes, the whirl of my brain is as if touched by the swellings of -an anthem. I’ll come right yet, if thou dost enravish me so!” cried Sir -Charleroy. - -And Miriamne’s face shone as if the sun were on it, but it was not. She -was looking away, in soul, to the future. The Hospitaler continued: - -“Truly, all heads, as well as hearts, are righted here, where the touch -of the Cross makes the dry bones live. Here get I my schooling; this -place of the Cross, where the depths of sin, the heights of love, are -manifest; from which radiates all holiest tenets, to which and from -which flow the streams of Scriptural truth. If only we could get all -men to stand sincerely on this lofty hill of vision, overlooking all -times to come, all histories past, all mysteries would be explained, all -prophecies become clear, and there never would be need on earth again -for wars of faith or the burning of heretics. Pilate spake welcome words -to the ages when he cried: ‘_Miles, expedi Crucem_’—‘Soldiers, speed the -Cross.’ Its speed is light’s speed.” - -As they conversed, the three had slowly journeyed along the _Via -Dolorosa_—the road to the Cross. - -“Here,” said the Hospitaler, “it is reported that Jesus yearningly -looking back to the weeping women that followed him Cross-ward, cried: -‘_Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and -children._’” - -“The woman again in religion!” exclaimed Sir Charleroy. - -“Immanuel spoke to the world, then. When truth goes to crucifixion, women -and children—the weaker—may well weep. It’s the Giant’s hour. So children -and women ever have been the chief followers of Jesus. No wonder that -children brought palms of peace to Him and shouted His praises, while -women anointed Him with tears. They knew, by an holy intuition, that -somehow He was the King of Love, the defender of weakness.” - -“I begin to think, Sir Knight Hospitaler, that the sun of this country -has wrapped its gold about thy brain.” - -“Oh, father, don’t prevent; these words of his are balm to my soul,” -quoth Miriamne. - -“Speak on, for the girl’s sake, knight. Speak on; I’ll be silent.” - -The Hospitaler continued: - -“Daughter, thou dost follow the story as those holy women followed Jesus, -afar off; but with tenderness. As they found later unutterable nearness, -so shalt thou; God willing.” - -“The woman in religion! It’s so. I, a man; this Miriamne, a woman, -a girl, my daughter. I’m like a pupil to her, yet I professed this -cross-faith more than a score of years before she was born. I’d need a -millennium to overtake her, in glory, if we both died now. I’m like poor -old David, who fled from his rebellious son, Absalom, over the hills -that skirt Kidron. I’m dethroned.” - -“Remember, rather, that He who glorified Kidron was ‘obedient unto -death.’ Mother and son, together all loving, all loyal in that dread -hour, here attested that in David’s kingdom, at the last, at its best, -there will be no trampling on the family ties, Sir Charleroy.” - -“Wonderful! I never thought of this before, after this manner. But still, -the woman leads the world in religion!” - -“_The_ woman! Yes, but only when she takes her place, as did Mary, as a -follower of Jesus to Calvary.” - -“But how, now, about Astarte, Diana, Baaltis?” - -“They had their day; rude, gross phantoms; conceived in the hot souls of -low and lecherous men; but I told thee, here we might overlook the world. -In this valley Athaliah, daughter of cruel Jezebel, Queen of Ahab, and, -like her mother, an Astarte-socialist, worshiped the lewd ideal, Baaltis. -Death, in shocking form, took off that heathen queen of Israel. God’s -revenge, this was. - -“And now, I remember that the queen mother of Asa, here, in Kidron, set -up the worship of Ashera with its Phallic mysteries; but Asa, the youth, -pure of mind and led of God, not only tore down, root and branch the -groves and woven booths of licentiousness, but dethroned the woman who -had set them up. Just here, in finest contrasts, I remember the Virgin -Mary, the pure mother, the ideal woman, who, in this valley of decision, -rose for all time the exemplification of truest womanhood—a wife, a -mother. Mary has broken forever the idols of Baaltis. While Mary’s -memory lasts, part of the enduring, sacred history, toward which all -Christian eyes turn, Astarte can never rise under any name or form for -long toleration. She is forever broken, and her creed of lust fated to -reprobation. - -“Wherever this gospel story, eternal and eternally new, is told, there -will come to the minds of the hearers a vision of those associated in -the last dread hours of the Divine Martyr, in a fellowship of sympathy -and sorrow. Among these will stand pre-eminent the women. Simon, the -Cyrenian, compelled by the soldiers, aided the trembling sorrow-burdened -Christ to bear the cross. And it is easy to believe that the wife of that -Simon, who appears later, for a moment, in the praiseful salutations of -Paul, as the parent of Christian sons, she reverently called by the great -apostle mother, was among the women that were most sorrowful and nearest -the dying Saviour. Then there were Mary, the mother of James, Salome, -Mary Magdalene, and possibly Claudia the wife of Pilate—that brave woman -who advocated Christ’s cause before the proud, implacable Sanhedrim, the -howling mob and Imperial Rome’s representatives. What fitting mourners in -that touching, yet august funeral march! - -“Women are fully capable by nature, through their finest, tenderest -chords, ever responsive in woe, to express the whole of grief, however -deep! The sex which loves most, loves longest, mourns most easily as well -as most sincerely, and has made sorrow sacred by the lavish bestowals of -it, whene’er its founts were touched. - -“There is an holy, perfumed anointing in their tears. This -crucifixion-time was woman’s hour supremely. Mary with _magnificent_ -self-possession, heart-broken, yet strong in faith; weeping in eye and -soul, but intruding no wild howlings amid those who wept for custom’s -sake; tearful, yet retiring in her grief, here passes before our minds -at once the most fascinating, winsome, yet pity-begetting woman known to -man.” - -“Father,” cried Miriamne, restraining but little her own tears: “Are you -listening?” - -“Yes, yes; oh, yes. The glory of Eden’s noon has fallen on the tongue and -brain of Rhodes, and yet I cannot gainsay him; nor would I try to dispel -his wise and honored sayings. I can only wonder and wonder how it is that -woman rises at the very front when any grand advance is made.” - -“Good Rhodes, go on,” spoke Miriamne. - -[Illustration: B. Plockhorst. - -MARY AND ST. JOHN.] - -“I’m easily persuaded, for there is something of a savory sweetness to -this grief—welcome mother of true penitence, that comes over souls, who, -in imagination, follow the steps to the cross. I’ve heard that Mary -followed her son from the Judgment Hall to Calvary. He moved at slow -pace, and well He might; worn by months of toil for needy humanity; by -watchings, teachings and the like; until now ready to drop down under the -thorn-crown, the scourging and the cross. But the blessed Virgin, still -a woman, still a mother, faltered by the way. Sometimes she hid her eyes -from the scourging, sometimes she was pushed aside by those who knew her -not, or those who knowing hated her because of her goodness. Tradition -tells us she fainted several times overcome by the terrors of that sad -journey through the valley. She had small strength to witness the climax -of brutality when cruel hands drove the awful nails into that One she -loved! The history of that dread hour has often wrung tears from stout -hearts; and he who understands in any degree a mother’s heart, easily -believes that she was absent when the mob raised the victim on His cross. -But, mother-like, nothing could keep her from the final parting, which -death brought to her and her son. - -“Sorrow sharpens the language of love to a deep expressiveness; when the -end was approaching, Mary and John stood side by side and near to the -One, who, to them, was dearer than all. I have heard, and I believe that -a sign from the Christ had hurried John away, just before His death, -to bring mother to the heart that was yearning not more to give than -to receive, the comforts that both needed, the assurance of undying -affection. The man on the cross, stripped of all earthly except His -flesh, even robbed of the tunic that Mary had made, and for which the men -of war gambled, as war has often gambled for the patrimony of the King of -Men, had little or nothing of earth to give, other than His rights in the -hearts of mother and John. - -“These were His farewell keepsakes to each. It needs no strained -imagination to fathom His heart, for He opened it all in His dying cry, -‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ This was not as the cry of -a victor, but that of a broken heart; not as a strong man, but typical -humanity, alone, facing death as a child. The language He used then was -not that usually His, it was the language of His childhood. In every -syllable of that cry, one may read, I fear that God, even God, has -forsaken me; but mother, my own loved mother! mother, mother, oh, my -dying, human heart, leans as a babe on thy bosom!’” - -“Here, here!” cried Sir Charleroy. “Quick! Take this cross of a Teutonic -Knight of St. Mary; bury it when I’m gone by her grave in Gethsemane! -I have praised myself as her champion, and son, and devotee. Heavens! -I’m abashed by thy splendid revelation! I never have even dreamed of her -glorious worth!” - -“Father, my father, be calm, be calm—calm for my sake; you fright me when -you so give way. Remember, we’re at the place where a wrong past ends at -the right beginning.” - -“Thou art my good angel, Miriamne; but, oh, it’s twice sad! I’ve been a -madman half my life and a player in a farce the other half!” - -“Be calm, Sir Knight, and look into the wonders of this place. Christ’s -coming to earth to pardon its errings, right its wrongs, and hang -unfading victory crowns on all futures. Listen: There was night when that -King died, and the dead arose and went about the city, attesting the -eternal fact that He was Ruler of all worlds. And it was the Feast of the -New Moon at Jerusalem; the Feast of Venus at Rome; of Khem in Egypt; but -the crescent was hidden.” - -“I see, I see, Rhodes; Mary and Mary’s son were to come forth; all others -eclipsed!” - -“It is attested by history that there was black darkness about the Sun -Temple at Heliopolis as Christ was bidding His mother and earth Death’s -good-night. The Egyptian city of Osiris, by miracle, witnessed of the -great event at Calvary. Some there were prompted to say: ‘Either the -world is coming to an end, or the god of nature suffers.’” - -“And Mary, wise and erudite, Rhodes? Tell us more of her.” - -“‘It is finished!’ cried her son, and she passed from the grief of those -who agonize amid somber, monster pangs impending, into that quiet, -subdued, ripening sadness that comes over those who have learned to say: -‘_Thy will be done._’ At Cana’s feast her Beloved told her: ‘_Mine hour -has not yet come._’ Now, she knew the meaning of the mystic words, and -saw His hour, with all its mighty imports, at last marked in full; all -the prophecies gathered as into a full-orbed sun; the cross rose like a -dial, mountains high, the shadows on it telling eternity’s time! Mary, -the singer of the ‘_Magnificat_,’ her imagination fired, her vision -inspired, as she stood by that interpreting, ghastly symbol, could see -the course of the sacred past emerging into meaning. Eve leading; the -wealth of her bloom no longer sacrificed to primeval, Astarte-like -intoxications; the wings of the real tree of life above her; the serpent -crushed beneath her heel. Then, following, Noah, the man of the ark, -symbol of sheltering covenants between God and man, covenants ever -circled by bows of hope, ever surmounted by dove-like peace. After these -Abraham, with his typical lamb, followed by a countless multitude of -priests, laying down at the cross, as they passed, their temple-pattern, -the symbols of its service realized and ellipsed! After these, Moses, -the law-giver, with face serene at law’s fulfillment, in company with -flaming prophets innumerable, all rejoicing in visions realized. Behind -all followed Captivity and Hades, Christ’s grandest trophies, forever in -chains! Teutonic Knight of St. Mary, thy queen saw all these, and as they -passed there rose to her view the White Kingdom of David. Now, stand here -where she stood; surrender mind and heart to the Spirit and Word, then -thou shalt behold the radiant procession, the coming glory!” - -The Hospitaler ceased. Then softly, meanwhile waving his hand as if -entreating, Sir Charleroy spoke: - -“Rhodes, wait a little; don’t say any more now. I want to watch that -procession. It seems to me I see it. Oh, wonderful, all wonderful!” - -“He shall be called Wonderful.” - -There was a long, long pause, broken gently by Miriamne, who, after a -while, said: - -“We’d better return to the city; the day is very hot, and I’m—” She could -say no more. - -Silently Sir Charleroy complied; silently all three journeyed to their -abodes. The Hospitaler was content with his effort to proclaim the -truths of Calvary, and Miriamne was glad to leave her father to the full -benefit of his sacred, all-engrossing thoughts. Miriamne, in heart, was -enraptured by her thoughts of the mother of Jesus. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX. - -TWO DEAD HEARTS UNITING TWO LIVING ONES - - “Let us alone regret, ... - ... Sorrow humanizes our race. - Tears are the showers that fertilize the world; - And memory of things precious keepeth warm - The heart that once did hold them. - They are poor that have lost nothing; they are far more poor - Who, losing, have forgotten; they most poor - Of all who lose and wish they might forget.”—JEAN INGELOW. - - -Under Miriamne’s adroit and patient guidance Sir Charleroy and his -attendants made goodly progress until they reached ancient Jabbock, -bordering Giant Bashan; but at that point the knight made a stubborn -stand, persisting that he would proceed no further Bozrah-ward. - -“I smell Mohammedanism coming to me from the East, and, having had enough -of the Saracens in my day, I’ll tarry away from their haunts—— - -“I must go, beloved, to the tomb of my dear defender, Ichabod. I must go -to Gerash to do the pious offices of a mourner.” - -The maiden brought forward every reason her ingenuity could invent -opposed to the proposed deflection in course. She enlisted the Druses -guides, whom she had employed to accompany them hitherto, to aid her in -raising objections, and they magnified the obstacles in the way to Gerash -with commendable loyalty to their employer, the maiden, if not with -strict regard to truth. They all encamped, and the debate was the sole -occupation for hours. - -“Now, Miriamne, hitherto my good spirit, thou wouldst lure me to -perdition! I’ve been in the Lejah. I’m certain that black lava-sea is -hell’s mouth, and Bozrah’s its porch!” - -“So be it; but if we go carrying the heavenly consciousness of doing our -Father’s will, we may carry heaven to those gates.” - -“It’s not my duty to go thither. I passed through that purgatory once. -Its horrors blasted my life! To return thither would be presumption.” - -“But you have forgotten the sunrise coming to you. Each day, for months, -as you have journeyed eastward, you have gained in health of body and -mind.” - -“Dost thou mean that God blesses those who plunge headlong to -destruction, as the possessed swine that ran violently into the sea?” - -“Can not my father let faith silence the disquietings of his wild -fancies? The memory of a past pain, though a persistent, is often a false -teacher.” - -“Oh, I do remember. Some memories seem to scorch the very substance of my -brain! I pray when such come that God give me eternal forgetfulness. I’d -rather be an idiot than have the power of coherent thinking filled with -such reminiscences!” - -“Ah, if we all, always, had the wisdom, while gazing into our dark, deep -pools, to gaze until we saw at their bottoms the image of the sky above!” - -“Well said, daughter! Bozrah is a dark pool! I saw there only an image of -the sky, and that very far away!” - -The day of the foregoing they were wandering along the flowery banks -and over the forest-covered hills that undulated away from Jabbock’s -ravine. As they moved along the maiden plucked a hyacinth blossom and -affectionately fastened it on her father’s bosom; just where he was wont -to wear, when in England, his knight’s cross. - -“Rizpah once placed a lotus there; it made me drunk; a votary of -pleasure, mad; but Miriamne, her daughter, places there the flower of -serene, deathless affection! Sweet, thou art my good angel, the flower -says to Gerash!” - -“Why, father! I do not understand!” - -“Apollo unwittingly caused the death of a beautiful youth, the friend -of his heart, whose name was Hyacinthus. So says tradition, and it’s so -charming, I more than half believe it! Apollo, in loyal love, made a -flower grow from the grave of his friend. This is it! See; here’s the -color of the dead youth’s blood. This blossom is the flower of deathless -friendship and I love it.” - -“A touching story, I’ll remember it; but it seems to me the flower says, -‘Bozrah,’ my father.” - -“Take this leaf, girl; here.” - -“And what of this?” - -“There, on that leaf, behold those signs, ‘Ai’ ‘Ai’.” - -“I think some markings are there like what you say, though never ’till -now did I so trace them.” - -“That’s the Greek cry of woe. The perfumes of these flowers, in every -field of Gerash, remind me of my duty. I must go to the tomb of the man -that died in my defense.” - -“A pious sentiment; but duty to the living can not be pushed aside by -such a call. You have other and living friends?” - -“Yes, thou art my friend, lover, angel; but I’ll keep thee with me, my -lamb.” - -“Rizpah and your sons!” - -“Rizpah my friend? that would be amusing, if it were not such a grim -sarcasm. Oh, what a miserable race she led me!” - -“Misery, like joy, in wedded life, is won or lost by the deed of two; not -one. I shall not acquit my mother; but were not there two to blame?” - -“Two? no; only one. I could not be peaceful with a panther.” - -“Be not too severe, and think a little; did not you, after all, do much -to make your wedded wife what she was at her worst?” - -“What, I? Thou dost not think that?” - -“Yes; I know the story of your espousal; your flight from Gerash, and -then your after conflicts. You knew before you determined against all -opposing, in the face of reasons most grave, and without any thought of -your adaptation to each other, to wed, that your tempers, tastes, and -trainings were in almost every thing apart.” - -“Well, we loved each other sincerely; our marriage vows were honestly -taken.” - -“Marriage; that settled it forever! Did you as honestly keep as you took -the vows, for better or worse?” - -“Now that were impossible. Did you ever see your mother in rage, her -muscles rising in a sort of serpentine wavings from her feet upward? -Ugh! I hear her sibilant, hissing words of scorn, now. They’ll haunt me -forever. She was a lotus in love, and a boa in wrath.” - -“I may have seen her so, but out on the love that lets such visions -displace memories of the best things; a daughter, nurtured by her, can -not; a husband sworn on hymen’s altar, dare not forget.” - -“I tried to set her right, Miriamne.” - -“Not always with kindness unfailing. I’ve seen the scourge-marks on her -heart. I’ve heard her moan as a wounded dove; no, more piteously, as -a deserted wife and mother. You tried to set her right by forcing her -to your faith, that, too, when the girl-wife was weak and exhausted by -early maternity. You have been wont ever to pity profoundly the holy -mother who recoiled fainting from the spectacle of her son scourged to -crucifixion. That pity is a fine feeling; but since Mary’s day is passed, -it is finer to evince a manly tenderness for living women moving toward -their Calvary. How you waste your emotions on the dead! Mary Hyacinthus, -Ichabod, have all, Rizpah nothing.” - -“See here, daughter; let me look down into thy eyes. I’m of a mind to -think the sun has gotten into thy brain. It gets into every body’s in -this country.” So saying, he turned her face toward his own. It was a -bungling effort on his part to parry her thrusts with ridicule, the last -weapon of the defeated. - -She was a little indignant, but yet too earnest to be diverted, and so -followed up her advantage. - -“You were the stronger, every way, and fenced well against your other -self. The woman erred, sometimes grievously, perhaps, and you had your -sweet retaliations. How sweet you can tell. Each blow at her, fell on me, -my brothers and yourself. Oh, it’s the climax-revenge to lay open with -giant thrusts, monstrous and keen, vein and nerve. One may mar a good -purpose by pursuing it cruelly. Were not your efforts to set my mother -right severe, sometimes?” - -“Did the eloquent Hospitaler put these fine words together for thee, -girl?” testily questioned Sir Charleroy. - -“No matter who sent them, if they be true words. If you get angry, I’ll -be wounded. You need not try hard to hurt me. I will strive to be all -filial, while all loyal; but not more so to father than to mother.” - -“Well, but she was a rheumatism to me.” - -“So be it; still she was part of you. Does one dismember a limb that -aches, or give it tenderer care than all others?” - -“‘It is better,’ said Solomon, ‘to dwell in the wilderness, than with a -contentious and angry woman.’ I got heartily weary of an ache that ached -because it ached.” - -“I’ll place Joseph by Solomon.” - -“Pray, how?” - -“He espoused Mary and was with her, yet apart; thus showing God’s idea -of the needs of weary mothers in their trying hours, when giving their -strength to another being. Joseph was kept as a lover only, until after -Jesus was born, that his services might have a lover’s tenderness. I have -heard that the manhood of Jesus reflected the sweetness of Mary; Joseph -kept his wife in those days sweet, so the kindness of that noble spouse -lived after all, an immortal influence. Joseph, through Mary in part, -determined the bodily traits of the child Jesus; the latter influences -all time.” - -“Why, truly, thou hast found a beautiful flower, Miriamne, and I’m -wondering that I never saw it before in Mary’s life. But, finally, I tell -thee I loved Rizpah as my soul at first.” - -“Oh, yes; you both loved with almost volcanic ardor. My mother told me -so; but this very power and inclination of passionate loving gave you -each for the other power of dreadfully hurting.” - -“Well, we’ll speak further of this, perhaps, another time. The hyacinth -lures me to Ichabod’s tomb.” - -“The rose, emblem of Mary, flower of wedded love, is sweeter than the -hyacinth. Go home to Bozrah, father, I beseech you, so you may prove -yourself still a Knight of Saint Mary.” - -“Home? I’ve none! Bozrah is grim ruins within, without. There, as only -fit and in fit dwellings, abide the cormorant and hyena. All hopes that -ever centred in that place for me were but dancing satyrs at the last; -all loves but eagles with hot-iron beaks, which devoured the hearts that -fed them, then fled away! I hate Bozrah!” - -“You have a wife and children there. I a mother. Where the brood is, -there is home. Bozrah has no gloom for us, save such as we make for it. -It may be a glad place yet. Remember that Kidron and Golgotha were made -all beautiful by the fidelity of Mary and the cross-bearing of Jesus.” - -“Miriamne, this parley is useless. Once for all, hear me. Before I wed -thy mother I took upon my soul an impious, almost desperate, vow, that -I’d possess her though the possessing ruined me. The strong, hopeful -Knight of the Cross was domineered over by his love. Before this I had -some commendable principles and a little piety. What am I now, after long -driftings about through wasted years of prime? I’m the wreck of a man; -less! a part of a wreck, trying to get made over in a meaner pattern out -of the fragments left. Thy mother unmade me!” - -“Adam said something like that of Eve.” - -“Don’t interrupt me, Miriamne. The Jewish maiden Zainab gave Mohammed, -of Bozrah, the poisoned lamp which ruined his health; the Jewish -Rizpah has such a lamp. See me, wrinkled, hair whitened, all too soon; -chivalry, morality and piety dragged out of me bit by bit. I stand here -the caricature of what I was or what I should be. I’m fit for neither -war nor courtship. I’d make a pretty show attempting to court Rizpah! -I’ve forgotten how such things are done, and, besides, I’m not the -original Sir Charleroy she wed. Let her find him, or his counterfeit, -and be happy. The original Sir Charleroy and Rizpah loved each other -desperately, but these that I know hate each other as desperately. I -tell thee it would be legalized adultery for these latter two to live -under the same roof, pleading as justification the vows of the other -two! Miriamne, I tell thee that thou mayst tell it on the house tops, or -hill tops, as I’ll cry it through eternity, if permitted, Sir Charleroy -and Rizpah, of Gerash and Bozrah, died long ago! The devil stole their -bodies, put an imp’s spirit in each, and then parted them forever. If -they ever meet it will be by the fiend’s device, that he may revel over -their warrings with each other! Ah, ha! What the Roman arena was to the -blood-thirsty populace, such to the fiends the homes of the world when -full of tumults!” - -And Miriamne, alarmed by the outbreak, tried to calm her father: - -“Oh, father, you will need mercy some day; merit it by bestowing it. You -suffer an unforgiving spirit to inflame your passion!” - -“Forgiving? What’s the use? I’ve vainly tried mercy!” - -“Try once more. The injured have resource so long as they have power to -forgive. Remember Him who in the great extremity cried: ‘_They know not -what they do!_’ Trust Rizpah once more!” - -“I do not see the shadow of a peg on which to hang a trust.” - -“You, a Teutonic Knight of St. Mary!” - -“Thank God Mary was not a Rizpah!” - -“Mary had the trust of Joseph in those dire days, when nothing but a -miracle could prove her integrity. She presents not only woman’s goodness -but that which even the loftiest wife needs, the constancy beyond measure -of her husband.” - -“Joseph was advised by an angel. I not.” - -“As you love your mother, honor the woman who mothers your children. They -bear your image, yet she alone, with a sublime self-forgetting, struggles -to have them grow up honorably, purely, and in the fear of God.” - -“She wants to make them Israelites.” - -“Perhaps so, and perhaps the Christian examples she has seen give her no -reason to wish otherwise. But after all, her way is better than to have -left them as their father left them, to become infidels or nothing. Oh, -father, do not think me bold. I speak because I love you; as perhaps no -other might care or presume to give utterance.” - -“Well, girl, I guess I’m a double man; for, determined to oppose, I feel -a desire within to have thee win in this argument. I’m one compound of -contradictions. I was a sworn bachelor, then a sworn husband, now I’m -neither. I’m a widower, with a living wife; a parent of three children -with only one. I bewail my homelessness, yet run from an offered home. -I confess to being useless, yet see a mission most important at my own -door. Swearing loyalty to Mary, I disregard all she exemplified—of late -revealed to me; professing to be a Christian, I live a life that would -shame a decent Jew. I have a daughter, said by all to be much like me in -temper, feature, and mind, yet we are here utterly opposed in thought and -purpose. I’ve heard the profoundest teachers in grandest temples unmoved -to this duty, to-day presented; and, now, without the pale of any church, -in the wilds of Jericho, a mere girl, my daughter, instructs me well! -This all proves that I’m the caricature of Miriamne’s father. If I be Sir -Charleroy, then I’m beside myself!” - -“A good half confession! Now for the atonement!” - -“What, a bundle of contradictions making atonement? undoing the past! -more contradictions?” - -“Righteousness displaces all the contradictions of life!” - -“I could make no atonement except by contradicting a score of years, and -going to Bozrah! Now hear me finally; by the glory of God, alive, I’ll -never go to Rizpah’s house!” - -Miriamne felt that further persuasion would be futile. She made a last -request, then. - -“Will my father take me to the outskirts of that city? I’ll enter alone -to comfort the woman who, notwithstanding her faults, I believe to be the -noblest of mothers. She may not have a husband; she has a daughter.” - -As the father and daughter rested at noon, not far from the Giant City, -some days after the foregoing events, they beheld a single horseman from -toward Bozrah speeding along the great southern highway. - -“I think he’s a Jew and in peaceful pursuit. I’ll hail him,” said the -knight, “in the language of Galilee.” - -The rider, hearing the call, halted. Glancing about him he discovered -the source of the call, and promptly reined his steed toward where the -pilgrims were sitting. Instantly he began in short, quick sentences: - -“Wonder; the face of a Frank, the garb of a Turk, the voice of a Jew! -An old man, a young woman! A Moslem in company with his slave? No, she -sits by his side! A harem favorite? No! She is not veiled! Ye do not -look cunning enough for magicians, too cunning to be pilgrims; not pious -enough, old man, to be a priest, and too pious-looking to be a robber.” - -“True, Laconic,” said the knight, “I’m at no loss as to thee.” - -“So it seems! But pray, Christian, Jewish, Druses, Turks, who are ye?” - -“We’re pilgrims, good runner.” - -“Ha, ha; these pilgrims are a mad-lot, with piebald customs!” - -“What news, runner?” - -“What news! A plague in Bozrah! De Griffin’s twins are nigh to death—De -Griffin? May be thou knowest him? Thou dost look like him: but he’s -dead. Now his twins have no nurses nor mourners, but Rizpah, and I’m -racing to Gerash to see if I can find a soul to swell her wailings.” - -The rider turned his horse and with a word, “_Selamet_,”—“peace,” was -gone. - -Miriamne had heard enough, and now, with redoubled vehemence, reöpened -her arguments and appeals to her father to go to her home. - -“I’ll not go into Rizpah’s house. I tell thee thou art inviting me into -hell!” - -Miriamne, in turn, replied: “There is good anywhere for those that -earnestly seek it. Mohammed, they say, got his first inspiration in -Bozrah, and he a Moslem, a crescent devotee!” - -“Yes; he wed a rich wife there, too, and she was a saint. I may envy him -in these things.” - -The young woman hastily entered the city and stopped for a little time at -the mission house of Father Adolphus, briefly, hurriedly, to announce her -return, inquire the latest report concerning the illness of her brothers, -and to beseech the old priest to go out after her father; if possible, to -bring him into the city and to the desolate fireside. - -“Well, well; there, now, I’d call thee bee or humming-bird, truly, -darting from point to point, subject to subject, if I didn’t know I was -talking to an angel.” - -The sincere compliment was unheard by Miriamne, for she was gone ere it -was sounded. The old man shaded his eyes, looked after her a few moments, -then girding himself, hobbled down the street to seek at the city’s -outskirt the waiting knight. - -And Miriamne, with heart beating high, sped on homeward. But as she -approached it she slackened her pace, with questionings as to how she -had best enter, so as to secure loving welcome and in no wise perturb -by sudden surprise. She saw her mother through the doorway, bowed and -swinging back and forth. The girl’s heart divined all; “My brothers -are dead!” The mother seemed oblivious to all about her, and Miriamne -hesitated on the threshold. Just then the runner galloped up to the open -door, reined his steed, and exclaimed: “Out of sight, out of mind! Death, -like poverty, sifts our friends! Ye can hire mourners cheaper at Bozrah -than at Gerash, and there are none to be had without coins! Gerash is -distant. I had no coins, and was a fool to start, wise to return!” It was -Laconic, and he was gone before any reply was given. Rizpah didn’t even -lift up her head to notice his coming or going. - -Miriamne was glad of the circumstance, for the runner gave her words with -which to enter: “A daughter never forsakes.” She spoke thus, very softly. - -Rizpah, perhaps not recognizing the voice, moaned on, swaying as she -moaned: - -“Mother, mother?” - -Rizpah slowly lifted her eyes to the speaker; then, either by a masterful -self-control or because sorrow dazed, she slowly and without emotion, -addressed the maiden: - -“Thou here? So, then, my three are safe together, before my eyes, in -death. Thou wert buried years ago.” - -Without another word the daughter and sister quietly moved to the forms -lying beside the mother, and knelt down, bowing, her one arm flung over -the corses. Presently she reached out her hand and it met a warm clasp -from her mother. The maiden knew full well that it meant welcome. It -was death’s victory; expressive, unspoken eloquence. There were four -hearts; two still in death; two alive and breaking, but the dead hearts -somehow drew the living ones together and then they beat as one, each -all comforting to the other. Two dead hearts bridged the gulf between -two living ones. There followed the embrace and kiss of peace, and then -Rizpah questioned: - -“Wilt stay with me a little while, my only—?” thereupon she sobbed and -was relieved. - -“Stay? Yes, always! But when, the burial?” - -“At once! It’s the plague and the law requires promptness. O Death, thou -didst do thy bitterest for Rizpah!” - -Rizpah soon rose up and began to busy herself about the bodies. - -“Mother, tell me how to aid you.” - -“Yea, as I need. Thou and I wilt carry them to the cave of entombment.” - -“But will there be no funeral rites?” - -“I’ll perform such; keeping vigil as Rizpah of old. My children were -crucified, as were hers. All mankind turned from us in our stress, and so -they died in want.” - -“But, mother, the watching would kill you!” - -“Thou dost comfort me, now. Oh, I’d be overjoyed, if I only knew for -certainty that death would court me at my vigil.” - -Softly Miriamne spoke: - -“Sir Charleroy is at Bozrah.” - -“Now thou makest Bozrah seem afar. Oh, the garments of people may brush -together passing, but still to all things else the passers be eternities -apart,” replied quickly, and yet with cool self-possession, Rizpah. - -“Death, that cools the pulses, also subdues the asperities. I could not -hate an enemy if I met him amid his dead,” persuasively responded the -maiden. - -“Imperious, fanatical, stubborn Charleroy! changeable in all but his -determination to make conquest of the faith of others. Then, I can not -ask his pardon for my serving God. Liberty came to Egypt because the -mothers of captive Israel were faithful. So says our Talmud.” - -“Sir Charleroy respects at least, fidelity.” - -“Then ’tis well to have me die. He never did me justice to my face; let -him embalm me in honey after I’m dead, as Herod did the wife he murdered. -It’s a way of some husbands. But we must be moving, daughter; I’ve -prepared two biers. The plague is a stern messenger, nor leaves room for -any dallying.” - -And Bozrah witnessed a strange, sad spectacle. Two roughly constructed -burial couches; on each a body, and two women, the one aged, the other -youthful, both bowed with grief, slowly bearing the biers away, down to -the tomb-hill. The elder directed; and so they went; first a little way -forward with one body, then returning to advance the other. There were no -mourners following; the passers-by offered no help; the women of the city -drew their doors shut, and the children playing in the streets, when they -beheld this funeral procession, fled away with subdued exclamations. - -The ancient Rizpah, watching her dead on their crosses, was standing that -time in her valley of “dry bones;” her imitator, Rizpah de Griffin, was -now walking through that same valley. Both made pitiable by desolation. -Neither was able to hide her dead from her sight by looking for the hope -of the blessed resurrection. Their loving had been fierce enough, but -the soul-reviving Spirit of the prophet’s vision was not yet seen to be -in the valley for them. The two Rizpahs were “mothers of sorrow,” but -followed no cross that had on it besides “death,” “victory.” They went -with tears, but not held by a love that triumphs in “leading captivity -captive.” These ancient Jewish mothers may be put in striking contrast -with the Davidic Queen Mary, who wept from the Judgment Hall, past the -cross, past the tomb, up to the chamber of Pentecost, from which she -viewed the transports of the Ascension of her Son, her Saviour, her King. - - - - -CHAPTER XXX. - -THE “KNIGHT OF ST. MARY” AND RIZPAH AT THE GRAVE OF THEIR SONS. - - “Courage, for life is hasting - To endless life away; - The inner fires unwaiting, - Transfigure our dull clay.” - - ... - - “Lost, lost are all our losses; - Love set forever free; - The full life heaves and tosses - Like an eternal sea; - One endless, living story; - One poem spread abroad, - And the sun of all our glory - Is the countenance of God.”—GEORGE MCDONALD. - - “I am ascending unto my Father and your Father, and to my God - and your God.”—JNO. xx. 17. - - -The Teutonic knight was standing in silent contemplation of a pile of -ruins, from the center of which rose a number of stately columns like so -many mourners about a grave. These were all left of a stately old temple. -Art had done nobly here once; now desolation was master, even the name of -the structure being forgotten. The priest approached, questioning within -himself as to how he would address Sir Charleroy, when they met. As he -drew nearer, he thought here are two temples in decay. There came to his -mind out of the distant past a vision of Sir Charleroy as he was when he -stood erect, ruddy-cheeked and every wit a man by his bride’s side, the -time of the wedding at Damascus. The priest, contrasting the man before -him, now aged and solemn faced, with what he was then, thought “of the -two ruined temples, the man is the sadder one. A quarter of a century -slipping over a life, though with noiseless feet, generally leaves its -tracks; if pain and passion have been the companion of the years, havoc -is wrought.” Solemnly, and in measured tones, the priest’s meditations -having given him free utterance, he spoke, quoting the words long before -sadly pronounced by the Savior concerning Jerusalem’s holy place: -“_Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up._” - -Sir Charleroy slowly, very slowly, turning his eyes upon the speaker, -observed him from head to foot, but uttered not a word. - -Again the priest spoke: “Time has so changed both knight and priest, that -they forget themselves; nor is it therefore wonderful, they should not -remember each other.” - -“Father Adolphus! Miriamne’s work?” - -“What matter whose act if we see God back of the actor. I’ve a message -from on high!” - -“Why, thou dost astound me!” - -“Methinks no man more needs astounding. May righteousness enter the gates -opened by wonder, and so move thee into Rizpah’s home and thine; death is -there!” - -“Is there? has been! When love was slain, I shut out its bleeding form -with the mourning robes of a long forgetfulness. - -“There are hopes that die to live no more; so there are homes which -bereft of their household Penates are doomed to grim ruin forever. See -these giant dwellings. They tell it all. - -“Thou art a Christian, I believe; but like the disciples, Cleopas and -Luke, with eyes holden; not discerning the Lord. - -“Just as some, having embalmed the body, looked into the tomb at a napkin -only, seeing merely the place where He lay. Though puzzled that the -grave’s seal was broken, they were still blind to the miracle of a new -dawn, simultaneous with the unclasping of night’s grim arms. They had -heard of the resurrection to be, yet they reasoned that the Promiser was -surely dead. Love alone, in the person of Mary Magdalene, most loving -because most forgiven, overleaped all doubts, disappointments and fears, -to hie away in the thinning darkness, in an utter abandonment to her -trust in the words of Him, to whom her heart was given. That was love -indeed.” - -“Oh, priest, ’tis so. A woman; a woman; leading in religion! I do not -much bepraise her, for she, being a woman, easily could believe, where -men doubted.” - -“It would have been cruel to have crossed her faith, would it not, Sir -Charleroy?” - -“Yes, on my soul, yes!” - -“Then go to the bier of thy boys. Let love overleap all obstacles.” - -“But let me rest, priest. I’ve had the full draught of trouble’s cup. I’m -quit of further conflict.” - -“Thou believest? Listen: - -“To whom also he shewed himself alive after His passion by many -infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the -things pertaining to the kingdom of God—— - -“Christian Cross-bearing knight, hear me! The suffering Savior could -never have revealed Himself, as the Almighty, Risen Christ, if there had -been no cross. By what He suffered He had gain of power. Thy wrinkles, -disciplines and all such like, fit thee now to minister in the chamber of -death; even where now of all places on earth, thou art needed.” - -“But my case is so peculiar, my home so unnatural!” - -“Is there no balm in Gilead, Sir Charleroy? If thou and she have been -great sinners, He’s a great Savior, and more, a patient one. Hast thou -thought how He lingered near His followers in an overplus of love, lured -from the triumphs of heaven, to personally deal, all comfortingly, all -encouragingly, peculiarly with individuals? For thirty-three years in -the flesh he wandered about, doing good, healing all those oppressed -of the devil; but the finest hours of all His life lay in those forty -days between the resurrection and the ascension. Well might He say to -Mary: ‘Touch me not,’ when in love, she fain would have retarded Him by -sentimental fondling. Listen now: - -“‘I have not yet ascended: Go to my disciples, say to them: I ascend -unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God!’ He was making a -sublime accent along golden steps, and the number of those steps were ten -and two, even as the number of Israel’s tribes.” - -“I do not comprehend this mysticism, though the word-frame is beautiful.” - -“Then know it. On the cross, Immanuel cried: ‘It is finished!’ Glorious -salvation’s work was finished; but then He lingered still to bless, -especially His friends. Count the steps. He appeared first to Mary -Magdalene, out of whom he had cast the seven devils and who doubtless -clung to the Savior, her only hope, her only deliverance from the awful -realities of the tragedy in her soul. Thy Rizpah was never so ill as -Magdalene, yet surely she is worthy as much tenderness.” - -“Secondly. Jesus appeared to His mother; love’s appearing. I see her -now, in mind, by the record here unnamed—left in the sacred privacy of -her grief; too stricken to minister, but close to the triumph, because -all needful of its blessing. I see a third step—Jesus, by special -appointment, meeting the backsliding fisherman of Tiberias, now gone away -to his nets, persuading himself he had done and suffered enough, even as -does Sir Charleroy to-day.” - -“I’ve been called Pilate. Go on. Call me Peter; I can bear it.” - -“Fourthly. The Christ joined Luke and Cleopas, the Greek proselytes, now -doubters; but the chill of their misgivings was burned away in hearts -inflamed, while they journeyed to Emmaus.” - -“Now call me Luke-Cleopas, priest. I’ve the chill of the doubts, I’m -sure.” - -“Fifthly. He came to His own little church-of-the-upper-room, to breathe -on it peace and to display His all-convincing body; then He waited a week -for a special unfoldment to Thomas, the all-doubter, leaving him filled -with all faith.” - -“Oh, that He’d come to Sir Charleroy!” said the knight. - -“He does, but the knight’s eyes are holden, and he starves while toiling -for fish in a dead sea. Listen to these words by the shore of Tiberias: - -“‘Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered -him, No. - -“‘And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and -ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it -for the multitude of fishes. - -“‘Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst -ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. - -“‘Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish -likewise.’ - -“Oh, Sir Charleroy, cast in the net on the right side, then come and -dine.” - -“But I’m an odd man; not like others.” - -“He that is All Fullness later appeared to multitudes of every clime, the -representatives of the Church universal, ever full of odd people; again -to the apostle of good works, James, called the pillar of faith. The -tenth appearing was at Bethany, as the blesser and promiser to all. After -that he showed himself to Paul, proof that he was a returning Christ, -and, last of all, to John on Patmos. This the John that was care-taker of -Mary, the mother; John, the all-loving. I read each page of the glowing -Apocalypse as a love-letter from heaven to a mother, from a Son who -carries eternally within His glorious heart the image of the woman great -chiefly for her great love of Him. She loyally followed Him to the grave; -He lovingly followed her beyond it. When he set John to picturing heaven -as a virgin-bride and His Church as a woman clothed with the sun, Christ -had surely the choicest of women, Mary, in His heart.” - -“And the Heart of Heaven might well lovingly remember the mystical Rose,” -quoth the knight. - -“As heaven loved Mary, so should noble men love ‘bone of their bone, -flesh of their flesh,’ _as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for -it_.” - -“Thou wert never wed, good priest?” - -“No; perhaps ’tis well so. I’ve had a work in helping those who were wed -unhappily, to peace; forgetting, in serving their need, my own joy.” - -“Then thou hast no idea of what it is to deal with a Rizpah as a wife.” - -“I know she’s a woman; a marvel in her fidelity to her children. She -may have infirmities, but there was a woman, bowed grievously for -eighteen years, fully restored by one kind touch of the man, Jesus, ever -all-pitiful and tender toward women.” - -“But that one was willing to be healed.” - -“No; she was trying to hide, but the Savior called her out, just to heal -her.” - -“Now, then, let me cross swords at close quarters, since thou dost press -me. I ask thee, as a Christian priest, wouldst thou have me tolerate the -sins of heresy in my own home? Remember, Jezebel, she beguiled Ahab, -her daughter, Athaliah, and her husband, Jehoram, also, into gravest -transgressions. So God’s people were led, little by little, to the groves -of Astarte. I think I’ve a good parallel: Jezebel was the daughter of a -priest, so this Rizpah of Bozrah. With her hot temper, pride of exalted -birth, and a mouthful of arguments; a man meets such a woman as a pigmy, -to crouch, or as a knight, to resist.” - -“The name Jezebel means ‘chaste.’ Her pious namers must have respected -chastity once. Her practices were all loyalty to Ahab and her children, -though her theories may have been odious. All that is recorded of them, -which engenders hate for her memory, is the hatefulness of the way she -pressed her creeds upon others, the Jews. Which the more like Jezebel—Sir -Charleroy or Rizpah?” - -“But Rizpah was ardent to lay our love, and our children on her altar. -Like the women who brought their jewels to Aaron to be transmuted into -the golden calf! I could only protest, and I did.” - -“Did not the men of Egypt and Israel first proclaim the worship of Apis? -Were not the women merely following their lords? There are many women who -defile their jewels because, with contempts that turn their hearts to -ashes, their lords do not, as they should, wear both the wives and the -jewels on strong and loyal hearts.” - -“Oh, I perceive! Rizpah has been parading to thee her family troubles. A -true woman would have rather given herself to nest-hiding.” - -“Thou hast not hidden thy nest, but, like a wandering bird, fled it.” - -“She never asked my aid; she left me in London.” - -The knight was charging blindly, and defeated. - -“It was not for her to crave, but for thee to lavishly bestow. She -left thee? What better could Abigail have done than turn her beautiful -countenance and good understanding away from churlish Nabal, who lived -chiefly to gloat about the cross on which he had placed her?” - -“Does the sacrist advocate divorce?” - -“No! No rupture of the tie sealed in heaven; but when by recriminations -a home becomes a living burial, a hell, then two houses are better than -one. I feel here keenly, knight. My mother had a monstrous man, my -father, in wedlock. He left her to battle single-handed for her little -ones. Her patient, sad face comes ever before me. Oh, how she eschewed -all other men, though courted by worthier than he; how she strove to hide -my father’s faults and taught us, his children, to try to respect him! I -was but a youth when he died, but I tell thee I dared not look upon his -coffined face lest I should curse him, then and there!” - -The knight cowered as if from a malediction. - -“There, there! for heaven’s sake pause, Sacrist! Abashed at home, lashed -by the teacher of the faith I’ve suffered to defend, I’ll be driven to -flee to the wandering Bedouin, or to death!” - -“They say Lucifer, unable to commit suicide, plunges headlong into the -abyss when thwarted in any design.” - -“Call me Lucifer; another epithet!” - -“There are no black gulfs into which thou canst flee from the memories -which conscience points to when duty is contemned.” - -“Is it the priest’s purpose to harass my soul?” - -“No; but rather to lead it back to its peace that thou didst leave long -ago. There is only one way of return, that a very _Via Dolorosa_. Mary -along it walked with her son, her God and Savior, to the cross and the -resurrection! By the cross God gives, we go to our glory.” - -“I’ve tried my best to be a loyal, Christian knight. Give me, at least, -that award.” - -“I can not praise justly; I dare not flatter; I must in all faithfulness -say thou hast yet to learn the alphabet of loyalty, as interpreted -by that glorious pair, Mary and the Christ—the triumphant Eve, the -triumphant Adam. Thou hast been following afar off, nearer the flickering -of Judas’ illusive lantern than to Him who pleaded amid His griefs, -all self-forgetting, with His Roman guards to let His little band of -followers depart unharmed. The woman whom thou exaltest as the queen of -hearts is, after all, not thy pattern. Judas and Mary are in lasting -contrast; he all treason, she fidelity’s choicest fruit. It is well to -see to it to which one is the nearer. Oh, Gethsemane, garden of touching -contrasts! There love was most grossly interpreted by the shrines of -_Baaltis_; there most grandly interpreted by love’s sublimest offering -that night the Saviour agonized. There twice the enemy of man did his -almost worst; once by the rites of the groves, once in the wracking -temptations of the Man of Sorrows. The arch-fiend was baffled, and then -the ingenuity of hell was taxed to one last, most terrific and dastardly -assault. What thinkest thou was the climax? The last effort to blot out -the hope of man was made through betrayal by a kiss; the finest sign of -affection befouled by treason! When the wedded betray each other, alas, -for the world!” - -Sir Charleroy surrendered now, exclaiming: - -“Oh, Father Adolphus; again I see there is a mist on my knightly cross! -I’m unworthy to wear the sign. It has been an emblem of death; I see it -now an emblem of life and love.” - -“Will the knight look on the dead faces of his sons?” - -“Yes, yes! In the name of God, yes! Lead me as a child, for I’m nothing -more.” - -The knight was in the throes of transformation. He and the priest walked -side by side, mostly in silence, broken anon, only by questions of Sir -Charleroy’s, like these: - -“Am I worth saving? Shall I ever become able to fully sound and truly -express, in life, the depths of all thou hast told me? And Rizpah! what -will Rizpah say or do?” - -The old priest answered ever: - -“‘Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ Himself -shall give thee light!’” - -The lone burial cave was reached. Nigh the two biers stood Rizpah and -Miriamne and but a little way off Sir Charleroy and the priest. The -maiden, with surprised joy, saw the two men, but Rizpah, busy with her -thoughts, never lifted her eyes. The latter drew a slab away from the -entrance of the tomb and then moaned: “Better I’d never been a mother.” - -Father Adolphus seized the opportunity to say in deep, entreating tones: - -“‘I will ransom them from the power of the grave: I will redeem them from -death.’” - -The mother supposing it was some kindly neighbor, still unnoticing any -thing but the speaker’s voice, moaned on, sitting nigh the tomb-door, -between the dead, a hand on each. - -Then the old shepherd drew nearer, saying: - -“Sisters of Israel, only believe. Beyond this stony gate there is an -eternal home fairer than any dream. There all broken homes shall rise in -joy, their treasures reunited and happy.” - -Now Rizpah rose, and observing the speaker silently for a moment, she did -not seem offended at the priest’s presence. Misery had overcome, at least -for the time, her prejudice. Presently she exclaimed: - -“My family reunited in heaven? Ah! that can not be, and if it were so, -what joy to ever repeat the bickering, blamings and wrongs of this poor -miserable life?” - -“Thou wilt know as thou art known there and see eye to eye,” said the -missioner. - -“Oh, if it could be only so!” - -“Wouldst like it so?” - -“Yes, by the grave of my darlings, I swear it! I loved them with my life -madly. All the love I had was concentrated in them. I knew when I began -idolizing them that I had loved before full well my husband and daughter. -I knew this, because the love I withdrew from them rushed forth to the -boys. But my idols are dead, and now if my love do not dry up, it will -hunger, feed on me myself, then turn to ferocity wolf-like.” - -“Perhaps a husband restored may fill and enlarge thy heart. There never -was a great sorrow but there stood near it a great joy,” spoke the priest. - -“Ah, he is stubborn, I, perhaps, proud. Immensity is between me and Sir -Charleroy.” - -“Hast thou not yet had enough of pride’s dead sea apples?” - -“Alas! why ask me?” - -“If thou art ready for a better day, he may be.” - -“Ready? I’ve always been. What I did for conscience sake and these -children is done. What he did to me he only can undo, as far as the past -can be undone.” - -Then Miriamne waved her hand to her father, unseen by Rizpah, -entreatingly, as if to say: “Come, but not too quickly, a little nearer.” - -Sir Charleroy complied and not as a laggard, for Rizpah seemed changed -from what she was in London. He now saw her as in those golden early days -at Gerash. But the truth was, the change was chiefly in himself. - -“Rizpah!” - -“Sir Charleroy de Griffin!” replied the woman addressed deliberately, and -apparently emotionlessly, as she fixed her eyes upon the knight. Then her -eyes turned toward the tomb, seemingly inviting his to follow there their -course. She stepped back and glanced from man to tomb, by the glance -saying more plainly than words: - -“That is thy work. Thou didst open that grave in my pathway.” - -The knight stood by her side and put forth his hand to clasp hers, but -with a respectfulness that betokened the cavalier and one not quite -certain of his welcome. - -Then spake Father Adolphus: - -“Remember Damascus, both of you. Come, Miriamne,” he continued, drawing -the maiden aside, “I’ve a giant’s grave to show thee.” - -The priest and the maiden moved to a turn in the road and passed behind -the crumbled wall of a Roman palace. - -“But, Father Adolphus, where now? What of the giant’s grave?” - -“Be content, girl. I mean the grave of mad love grown to mad hate. It -will be made and deep enough by thy parents, but they can best make it -alone.” - -And Miriamne fell upon her knees in silent, grateful prayer; a great -burden that had borne her down for years seemed lifted from off her. -The Miserere that had wailed through her life so long now changed to an -Easter anthem. - -Father Adolphus after a time recalled her by a single question: - -“Dost see the fierce woman and the vultures fleeing away before the -coming of our Christian Mother of Sorrows?” - - - - -CHAPTER XXXI. - -THE ROSE, QUEEN OF HEARTS IN THE GIANT CITY - - “Around thy starry crown are wreathed - So many names divine! - Which is the dearest to my heart - And the most worthy thine?” - - ... - - “‘_Mother of sorrows_,’ many a heart, - Half broken by despair, - Hath laid its burden by the cross, - And found a mother there. - ‘_Mary_,’ the dearest name of all, - The holiest and the best, - The first low word that Jesus lisped - Laid on His mother’s breast.”—A. A. PROCTOR. - - -There had come a great change to the home of the De Griffins at Bozrah, -without and within. Shrubs and vines grew about the old stone house -in profusion, birds sang contentedly at its casements, and kittens, -undisturbed, played around its doors. These were tokens of the new inner -life. - -The queen of that domestic palace was happy; its king restored to his -rights and duties; therefore there was abounding delight and peace within -and without. Sir Charleroy and Rizpah, the two mature wed-lovers that -abode there, had, out of all their estrangements and tribulations, come -to understand at last that love grows out of law and is more than a -sentiment, free to go when lured or flee from that which burdens. It was -to them like a revelation from heaven to find that love is the vassal of -the will and can be made to go where it ought, as well as be reined back -from lawless rovings. They found there was great satisfaction in their -efforts to be very agreeable to each other. Sir Charleroy constantly -assured Rizpah of his belief that they were now more really lovers -than they had been in those fervent days at Gerash. She believed this -new creed with the avidity of a heart sore with long waitings for its -proclaiming. - -The knight bethought himself of a graceful advance, and introduced the -matter with a sort of parable. “I’ve been thinking to-day that the only -man whom I ever felt like kissing, the man who loved me to the full of -his great heart, is present with us in spirit these days to joy over our -reconciliation. I’ve felt a strange thrill at times which made me think I -was touched by the glowing heart of Ichabod.” - -“Ichabod?” - -“Yes; he that fell in our defense the day of that perilous battle with -those Mamelukes, near Gerash. Ah, he had the heart of a mastiff, the soul -of a martyr!” - -“Thy love is constant. But what’s in thy hand?” - -The knight had hoped for the question. - -“A token I took from his corpse. It was given him by a Copt priest, whose -life he saved in Egypt. See.” - -“I see a stone in a gold setting; on the stone an image, I think of a -woman? I’ve noticed it with thee before.” - -“I knew it! Once I thought thou didst observe it askance, as if a trifle -jealous. Well, no more secrets, no more jealousies. What says Rizpah?” - -“I say amen; and yet I say tell all, or none; either way I shall be -content. Love’s trust, when full, has few questions and no doubts.” - -“Nobly spoken, but yet I must tell all. The image is of _Neb-ta_, from -the country of Hamites.” - -“What an odd figure! Her head-dress, a basket!” - -“The basket on her head and the little house by her side betoken that -she was the presiding spirit of domestic life. I love Neb-ta! She ever -reminds me of woman at her best, as a mother brooding her chicks.” - -“Praise be the Patriarchs; they left us testimonies which makes it -needless to go to Egypt for precepts concerning home-love!” responded the -wife. - -“But, Rizpah, thou dost divert me! Wait; I’m coming around with the -patriarchs, by way of Jerusalem, to Bozrah.” - -“Now, that’s a fine parade; I await it,” the woman, with quick reply, -answered. - -“Tradition says this Neb-ta will stand before Osiris and Isis in the -judgment ‘hall of truth,’ where another deity styled ‘divine wisdom’ -opens the books of men’s earthly deeds. As the great Anubis weighs them, -Neb-ta stands by ready to cut away the failings of those weighed. When -the scale of their merit is lacking, she herself leaps into it, to weigh -it down in their behalf.” - -“A pretty myth for grim old Nile Land!” - -“It proves man’s belief that at last he’ll need help.” - -“It is strange those women degraders should have allotted one of that sex -so fine a part in the hereafter.” - -“It illustrates the constant conviction in men’s hearts that woman’s -sympathy abides to the last.” - -“In some men’s hearts, say. All are not equally just.” - -“I’ll be direct, Rizpah, and sincere. I’ve felt an indescribable -unworthiness of all I enjoy here in the house saved and brightened by my -wife. I’ve been saying, ‘Oh, that some one like Neb-ta would cut off my -failings and enrich my merit.’” - -Sir Charleroy, after this long journey around about, felt relieved. He -had made his confession and waited his absolution. - -Rizpah’s eyes brightened up, and, though bedewed, shone with the luster -of gleaming affection. - -He knew full well how to interpret that look, and evinced the quality -of the interpretation by quickly embracing her. There passed between -them salutations having the purity of manna, the lusciousness of Escol’s -grapes. - -“Will Sir Charleroy need to go to Egypt for a Neb-ta?” - -“No, never, while I’ve an all-forgiving, all-blessing Rizpah!” - -Encouraged by the success attending one simile, he attempted another -later: - -“I was thinking,” tenderly replied the knight, “that I’ve sinned against -God in the name of religion, and unconsciously offered ‘the female lamb.’” - -“Pardon my stupidity, but yet I do not gather what is thy meaning.” - -“My Rizpah has been sacrificed for years.” - -The wife tried to reply, “I’m no lamb without blemish;” but her tears -and his passionate embrace, checked her utterance. To those without, -there is much incomprehensible in the estrangements and reconciliations -of human pairs, made utterly one in wedlock. If, since the Incarnate -died for love, and the Temple’s veil was rent, there has been on earth -an unrevealed Holiest of Holy places, it has been where wed lives, -alienated, have been reunited. It is like a sacrilege to attempt its -depicting to stranger eyes or ears. Many, for themselves, have been -within that holy place; each twain meeting its own peculiar and varied -experiences. But, having come forth with a natural and most meritorious -reverence for the events of such supreme hours, they are wont to withdraw -from human curiosity all that transpired, as completely as they hide from -the world their souls’ dealings with God. They who have never been within -that Holy Place, can not understand about what there transpires; those -that have been there, defend their sacred right to keep from all the -world that which they saw and felt, by refusing to give audience to the -experiences of others. - -Sir Charleroy and Rizpah, at the time of the foregoing conversation, -entered serenely, lovingly that Holy Place. Then they took, as it were, -wings of memory and shields of faith. The grim giant house was forgotten. -Its walls seemed to thin away, until they had to themselves a broad, but -secluded world. There was light, but not exposure; repentance, mutual, -and forgiveness, not only free, but in every syllable seeming to have -balm for healing. There followed an unutterable sense of getting nearer -and nearer to each other. They felt as if they had but one will, and that -guided by God; one mind, and that clear and heaven soaring. The only -sense of being two, was in their beating hearts, and then two hearts -seemed more blessed than one; for being two, there was the joy of their -beatings for and against each other. Words fail; it would be sacrilege -to go further. Let the curtain drop. Leave them with a thousand angels, -winged and liveried in white, with wands of silence to keep watch and -ward until morning! - -On the morrow they knew that both had surrendered and both conquered. -And by a paradox, to those uninitiated, each rejoiced as much in the -surrender each had made, as in the victory which had been won by the -one defeated. Defeat and victory was their common wealth. There was a -full community between them, and that made both rich, whatever their -possessings. Thenceforward, between them, there was perfect frankness -and consideration; no sarcasms, no recriminations, and hence no need of -foils nor masks. Christ had captured the Crusader’s heart, and he was -now, as never before, able to reveal the King of his soul to Rizpah. She -moved unconsciously into a beauty of character like unto that of Mary, -and her heart began singing a ‘Magnificat.’ The woman was transformed, -if possible, more completely than the man. For years amid hurtings she -had schooled herself to reticence, and had been an enigma to all who knew -her; but now, under the rising of this new sun, she opened as the blossom -of early spring. Sir Charleroy, indeed all who knew her, attested delight -and surprise; but Rizpah was as much surprised at herself as any other -could be at her. - -“I didn’t know I could,” she exclaimed often with laughter and tears. -She seemed to break away and run from her former self as one from -some phantom, as a child from a reputed witch, or a freed bird from a -prisoning cage. She saw herself growing in all these things every moment -and exclaimed, in the rush of feeling; “I could fly, I’m sure!” Then -tenderly, “I would not, my mate, for a thousand worlds, unless thou -couldst fly with me. No, no, Charleroy, watch my wings; they are thine; -cut them if they grow or flutter for rising. If they do, they’ll do it -themselves, without my willing.” Again the sacredness of the holiest came -over them. - -“Oh, Rizpah, I know, I knew this wealth of love was in thee; I’ve -wondered often why I could not find it.” - -“I did not know it, my lover king; I’m glad thou hast found it, for thy -finding feeds me with light and glory! I’m carried back to Gerash and -Damascus.” - -“I think not. There were flaming swords at Eden’s Gate, after the fall. -No going back; but the swords gave light for departure into broader -places. I think that’s the symbol of the sword and the flame, Rizpah.” -Again he spoke: “Hadrian built a temple of Venus over the tomb of -Christ, but Hadrian and Venus are no more in power and there has been a -resurrection from that tomb.” - -“Ah, Sir Charleroy, I’m a child in thy creed, but I’m comforted by thy -resurrection hopes, especially since conversing yesterday more freely -than ever with our lovely child of God, Miriamne.” - -“Hers is an angel’s visit, wife.” - -“And angel-like, with filial spirit, she comes, this time, with request -for our consent to an act of great import to her.” - -“So; and what may it be? Though I know it can only be good.” - -“She came to tell us, that she desires publicly to profess the religion -of the Naz——of Jesus.” - -Sir Charleroy felt a twinge of an old pain, and for a moment queried -within: “Will the old struggle over faiths again confront us?” But he -dismissed it with an unexpressed “Impossible, we’re all changed!” Then -replied he quietly with a question. “Does the dear girl fully understand -the seriousness of the act? If she do and then acts, I’ll be glad to -commit her to Christ as her Bridegroom and King.” - -“We cannot be with her always, and she seems determined to go through -life unwed.” - -“A Neb-ta, an angel spinster, mothering other people’s chicks! But what -says my Rizpah of our daughter’s purpose to profess her faith?” - -“I? This: God being my Helper, I’ll never again stand between Him and any -soul, except it be to pray for that soul’s health.” - -Just then the maiden entered bearing a lamp which suddenly lighted the -room, now well nigh in darkness. She presented a most striking and -suggestive figure. Her eyes were full of her heart’s chief question, and, -standing in the light of her own bearing, she seemed to fitly represent -the part she had borne in that household. - -Sir Charleroy, anticipating his daughter’s question, greeted her with -promptness thus: “Sunshine, thy purpose I know. It’s all between God -and thyself. Go gladden Father Adolphus and Cornelius with an early -profession.” - -She was filled with surprise, and voiced its chief cause: - -“Cornelius? He’s at Jerusalem!” - -“Well, if so, ’tis wonderful, since I met him here to-day.” - -“I wonder,” she meditated, meanwhile speaking her thoughts as if -unconscious of those about her, “What brought him here?” - -“Oh,” replied the father, “he says ‘to see Father Adolphus about the -church of Jerusalem;’ but Father Adolphus says ‘the young man came -because he could not help it, to see his good angel.’” - -“‘His good angel!’ Whom?” - -“Now, Sunrise, guess! When thou dost so, to make short work, begin with -the good angel of us all, Miriamne.” - -Miriamne lifted her hand reprovingly, but the tell-tale crimson hung -confession on her cheeks, while her lips, wreathed in smiles, told her -pleasure. - -“Well, now, will my father go with me to good Adolphus about my -profession?” - -“As thou mayst like, but it will be easier to reduce three to two than -four to two!” - -Again the uplifted, reproving hand and the blush and Miriamne ran out. - - * * * * * - -“Do not reöpen that question settled once; it can only pain us both to -recur to it.” - -“‘Reöpened!’ ‘Settled!’” exclaimed Cornelius. “Not with me. Nothing in -silence can settle it; and it is always open to me, sleeping or waking.” - -“The consciousness of duty done comes like the breezes of Galilee, -turning all moanings to a song within me.” - -“Oh, Miriamne, who is it decrees that we, belonging, all, each, to the -other, should be torn asunder ruthlessly? Duty, conscience! Hard metallic -words when they describe the links of a chain! Ah, our misconceptions -often bind us to pain; this one I cannot bear!” - -“And yet, Cornelius, you told me in that Adriatic storm you could as -easily drown a passion rising against righteousness as you could drown -the body then, by a plunge into the billows!” - -“You held me back when I moved forward to show how easily I could make -the plunge.” - -“But then you had no intention of leaping to death!” - -“Not while held back by Miriamne!” - -“I? Poor, weak I, hold you?” - -“To me your touch has ever had persuasion and might! Oh, woman, you lead -me captive to your will in chains riveted, unyielding, and yet of golden -delights.” - -“Say not so. We have each a great mission, but apart.” - -“Apart! The decree that settles our courses that way is monstrous. It is -not of God. He ordained that our race go in pairs. And when He set up -the new kingdom of Jesus, its heralding disciples were sent forth two -by two. As Moses needed his Hobab, Christ his confidants, so need I a -yoke-fellow. I’ve no ambition to live, much less to work, unless I have -my heart’s idol with me.” - -“Illusion.” - -“Call it ‘_Maya_’ if you like; but ‘_Maya_,’ Brahm’s wife, illusion, made -the universe visible to him. So say those ancient mythologians. I can see -nothing without my Miriamne!” - -“Oh, man, hold; nor pain me further! I cannot help you. How can I, -since my own chosen work seems too great for me! I’m like a mere shell, -drifting with the tides, without sail or helm; the harbor unknown. I only -know I carry a precious pearl, truth, and that there are those who need -it. I must bear it to them.” - -“I’m a shell, without helm or sail, and have the same pearl. Let me -voyage with you.” - -“And—what?” - -“In all brevity—marry me!” - -“That cannot be, I fear. I’d rather be the——. Can’t I be your ideal -as Mary?” She blundered amid her efforts to express herself, and the -tell-tale blush betokened defeat. - -“Yes; be my Mary, and let me take the place as your Joseph. Mary was a -wife and mother. The greatest of God’s works in the old dispensation was -to translate men; in the new dispensation, seeking to surpass the old, He -presented a perfect woman, in her highest estate, as the queen of a home!” - -The woman was silent for time. There then seemed to her to be two -Miriamnes, and the debate was transferred from being between the young -man and herself to these two which she seemed to be. One Miriamne said -“Yield,” one “Be firm.” One said, “He has the better reasons,” one said -“Nay;” one said, “It is pleasant to be overcome,” the other said “_Maya, -Maya, Maya!_” Then recovering herself she exclaimed, “I wish the priest -were here; he’d guide us by the Divine word.” - -“I have a holy text,” and drawing a line at a venture, the youth repeated -these words: - -“‘_God said it is not good that man should be alone!_’” - -She smiled and stammered: - -“Oh, Cornelius! I want to admire you and lean on you as my guide, -teacher, pastor; but you meet all my approaches that way, transformed to -a lover.” - -“_Maya! Maya!_ Miriamne; let the illusion work; sleep the Leathen sleep; -yield to love’s dream; then comes the full noon to awaken to marriage -joy. Thou wilt find, not above thee but at thy side, then, the teacher, -guide; shepherd as well; but also the husband.” - -Miriamne had reached a point of hesitancy, which is, in all lives, just -a step from surrender, and the lover, made alert by his ardor, perceived -the advantage. Though a prey to hopes and fears, an incarnation of -paradoxes, in which bashfulness contested with audacity for control -of the will, he gathered all his powers into a grand charge. With a -tender vehemence he stormed the citadel of the heart before him. First -he imprisoned her hand in his; he had done so before. Now it fluttered -strangely; presently it rested as a bird; at first as if frightened, then -helpless, then content. All that followed may be easily imagined. Suffice -to say that Cornelius Woelfkin just then believed life worth living and -the universe made visible, though not by an illusion. - -Just as many another of Eve’s daughters placed as she in a tempest of -delights, she confessed her capitulation by a series of retorts, which -gave her relief from tears by affording apologies for laughter. - -“No woman ever so loved as I now? You men all talk that way at betrothal!” - -“‘To death!’ Miriamne, ’twill be true with me.” - -“Yes, at betrothal and when their wives are dead, they say men are very -affectionate. But, Cornelius, remember I’ll expect sweets between times. -Do not love me to death at first, vex me to death later, then go mad for -love’s sake after I’m gone!” - -He vowed, protested and assured; she believed him without the shadow of -a doubt. They were irrevocably committed to each other now. There was -a rush of thoughts, plannings, questionings and hopes. Two lives apart -converging, becoming mysteriously one. Over them arose that wondrous sun -which illumines some betrothal days. They were both very happy, very -proud, and also each to the other very beautiful. The harmless conceits -of love possessed them and they persuaded themselves easily that they -were at the center of all things, even of the infinite love of God. The -glow of their own hearts brightened to them all things immediately about -them, and they entered that arcana of delights where secret blessings -may be experienced but can not be depicted. They ate of that hidden -manna which is reserved alone for those who sincerely love and are -loved. No being ever loved as they, who afterward despised or regretted -the enchantment, although it brought some pain or at the last ended in -disappointment. None ever having been for a season in that Beulah-Land -but wishes himself there again. None who comprehends the thrillings of -lover days can fail to envy more or less, if they are loveless, those who -are in love as these twain were. - -Much of the ridiculing of this grand passion, affected by some, is after -all the result of envy, secretly longing for that beyond its reach. -Sometimes the enraptured themselves attempt this deriding, but theirs is -an hysterical laughter, a feeble effort to rest from the intensity of -their rapture or to hide their secret from others. The laughter of all -such as the foregoing is hollow and eventually turns the shame back upon -the ridiculers who would cover others with it; for love, while it is an -angel of sunshine, has also the power of carrying to every heart which -shamefully entreats it remorse, humiliation and pains as numberless as -nameless. - -Cornelius and Miriamne, the young reformers, having embarked fully -upon the full, glowing, exalting, triumphant tide of their love were -themselves reformed and transformed. A while ago each was willing to -die for the world, now each was willing to die, if need be, for the -other and not for humanity’s sake, unless some way the heart’s idol was -to be part of the reward of that sacrifice. This new tide carried them -quickly to that place of paradoxical oscillations, the place where the -lover is one moment utterly self-denying, the next utterly grasping; -willing to be annihilated one instant in behalf of another, and then in -an avariciousness without a parallel on earth, the next moment willing to -annihilate the universe rather than be bereft of the one object deemed -above all others. - -The young lovers passed through the usual, often experienced, often -depicted, old, old, ever new phases of this relation. The fire kindled -in their hearts sped from center to center of their beings, the laughter -of secret joy quivered along every nerve of each. Each was happier than -it was possible to tell, even that other one that awakened the joy. -Their gait, their blushing cheeks, their flashing eyes, and their words -proclaimed unmistakable the complete coronation of love. They believed, -and perhaps properly, that they were enjoying the seraphic, exuberant, -mellow, yet exciting delights of an hundred ordinary lives merged into -one. Each in turn, over and over, in repetitions that tired neither to -utter nor to hear, said to the other: “I love you.” A rain of impassioned -kisses made reply. Time was not observed; they forgot their former hurry, -that pushed them earnestly, ever toward duty, when they were committed -to being reformers. They were only and completely lovers now, and lovers -are beings whose existence is in a heaven where there are no clocks. -The sun set over Bozrah while the twain communed, but there was so much -light in their hearts they did not observe the lull of night around them. -Existence seemed to them a living fullness, a soaring upward without -friction or effort, and they incarnated that which at last makes heaven, -perfect desire perfectly satisfied. They were presently recalled to the -things outside of themselves by the sound of some one approaching. - -“It’s Father Adolphus. I know his step,” remarked Miriamne. - -Cornelius, remembering his recent, successful assault, was encouraged -to attempt another. His heart whispered to him: “Why not make this -matter final now?” His heart seemed to grow pale and trembled at its own -whispering, until he himself grew pale and trembled throughout his whole -being, at the audacity of the thought. But love’s suggestions are ever -very domineering; this one dominated the man instantly, and he acted on -it. - -“Miriamne, why not permit Father Adolphus now to seal our betrothal with -his blessing?” - -“He will bless us, I know,” quoth the maiden, evasively; but she knew -what her lover meant full well. Not only so, her heart, against her -judgment, was siding for the blessing. - -The youth felt certain he had carried one line of defense, and now went -charging onward, determined to carry all before him. - -“Yes; he will bless us, I know, if we ask him. I’ll ask him, and then, -Miriamne, mine, I’ll call thee no more sister, but wife.” - -“Oh, you are in such a hurry! This is all too sudden. I—only wanted to be -engaged—not married, perhaps, for years. We could work for the Master—” - -She was interrupted, as victorious lovers usually interrupt. - -Just then the priest entered. Miriamne tried to greet him with a smile -and a sentence, but she was under a spell. She seemed to herself to be -a different woman than she was when he last met her guide. She spoke a -few meaningless words, which were lost in the vigorous utterance of her -companion, as he explained the betrothal and requested its ratification. - -The aged man of God looked tenderly down on both, and then questioned: - -“Miriamne, I know his heart toward thee; is thine resting on his?” - -The maiden drooped her eye-lids, but the tell-tale blush on her cheek -gave answer. - -“Shall I commit you to each other before God, forever!” - -Her hand rose in an effort to restrain, but it fell back into her lap, as -if unwilling to do so. - -“Bless us quickly, good father, I pray you,” spoke Cornelius. - -“Clasp four hands crossed,” said the priest. - -The maiden’s hands joined those of the young man, and yet one drew back a -little, as if to say, Wait. The motion was slight; then she found voice. - -“But, Father Adolphus, do you think God will condemn, if we do?” - -“God made such as ye are to love each other. What says thy conscience? -Speak frankly now, girl; thou art with those that care for thee with an -eternal regard.” - -“My conscience does not condemn, and I commit all I am to the guidance of -you two men. I feel quiet and safe in the committal.” - -And the solemn sealing words were soon spoken. - -“Shall I pronounce you husband and wife?” questioned the priest. - -Cornelius, like a knight in full charge desirous of taking all before him -as trophy, exclaimed quickly, confidently: “Yes, yes, all!” - -Then Miriamne recovered herself in the emergency, and with maidenly -dignity and tenderness, yet with unalterable firmness, said: “Nay.” - -“But, Miriamne—” - -The youth could proceed no further. He was defeated by the glance that -met his, filled with pious, kindly, yet firm dissent. She spoke then -freely. - -“Before God we are affianced; the first step, as an Israelite, I’ve -taken. We are now bound to each other forever. I am proud to wear the -yoke of betrothal. We must wait before the final words are spoken, until -we’ve seen my parents, and until God has given us further wisdom.” - -She prevailed. Shortly after the foregoing, Cornelius, taking a tender -farewell, returned to his work at Jerusalem. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXII. - -THE QUEEN AND THE GRAIL SEEKERS. - - “My good blade carves the casques of men; - My tough lance thrusteth sure, - My strength is as the strength of ten, - Because my heart is pure. - - Sometimes on lonely mountain meres; - I find a magic bark, - I leap on board, no helmsman steers, - I float ’till all is dark. - - A gentle sound, an awful light! - Three angels bear the Holy Grail, - With folded feet, in stoles of white, - On sleeping wings they sail. - - So pass I hostel, hall and grange; - By hedge, and fort, by park and pale, - All armed I ride, what e’er betide, - Until I find the Holy Grail.”—TENNYSON. - - “Moreover certain women of our company amazed us, having been - early at the tomb.” - - -Another Easter, to some the brightest yet, smiled in Bozrah, and Miriamne -was at the Christian Chapel. - -Father Adolphus, after serious, tender greeting, questioned: - -“I wonder thy father came not to-day?” - -“Oh, he’s celebrating the resurrection of love, joy, and peace, at home. -You often told me these were the realities of Christ’s rising.” - -“Thy joy in this must reach all fullness?” - -“I don’t know, I’m in a strange way—very happy, yet very restless.” - -“I have seen souls before at their noon; hast thou not observed how the -air seems to tremble sometimes at midday? This is not fear but fullness.” - -“Oh, my shepherd, I’m not at noon yet, only dawn. I’ve only begun my -work.” - -“Has our missionary Cupid other couples at odds to reunite?” - -“Perhaps so; but whether God calls me to such work or not, this much I -know, He has put a burden on me.” - -“Will Miriamne confide it to me—or has the lover dethroned the priest?” - -“There now, never say that again! None on earth can dethrone in my heart -my constant friend and guide; yea under God, my savior! Had there been -no Father Adolphus there would have been no lover; at least no Christian -Cornelius, as my heart’s lord.” - -“I fear Miriamne in her generous desire to cheer a tired old man -flatters.” - -“No; not flattery, but just award. As the ancient captives on their -return to their own Israel gave their wealth to provide crowns for their -priests, so do I to-day offer the finest gold of my heart to the man who -piloted me with purity, patience, and wisdom, along and over perilous -ways, to happiness beyond all words to express.” - -The old missionary’s face expressed the wondrous comfort he felt in the -words of his convert. - -“And what is it that burdens thee, daughter?” - -“I hope my pastor will not be offended, but I’m burdened by the slow -dawning of religious day. Why does it take so long to convert the earth?” - -“The zeal of the young convert fills thee!” - -“Ah, but that trite answer, defense of the slow progress of true or false -creed, after all does not answer. I feel those Easter services at times -lifting me up, out of and beyond myself, out of all thought of my own -final glory, and to anxiety for a lost Israel, a lost world! I think, -at times, I comprehend what was meant by the descent to the grave, the -captivity of death, the triumphal ascent, and then I wonder and doubt.” - -“Wonder and doubt?” - -“Yes; I wonder at the grandeur of all that the resurrection implies, -and seeing it unrealized I doubt whether my interpretation of it be the -right one. Worse than that, I’m pained by darker doubts. Forgive me, but -my poor soul sometimes questions whether or not God has grown weary or -failed to keep His promises. Oh, these doubts pain me to my heart’s core, -but they will come! I see day by day on every hand such widespread gloom; -not only that very few walk in the light, but how many shadows fall on -those who profess to have entered the light of the Rising?” - -“Alas, day drags wearily!” slowly responded the priest. - -“Yes; the centuries since Calvary, filled with misery, ignorance, and -sin, seem to me to have rebuke in them to all who saw, from time to time, -the Gospel light, and imperious urgency for those who see it now.” - -“But the church is doing its best to get onward, Miriamne.” - -“That I doubt, though I’d fear to be heretical.” - -“Again, I do not comprehend thee, girl.” - -“That’s it; I do not comprehend myself, or what it is that I’m stirred to -be or do. I think that there’s a reason for sadness at Easter time. It -is the reminder of a great hope unfulfilled. Over twelve hundred years -have passed away since Christ arose, typical of the rising of mankind by -faith to all that was noble and blissful, and yet we are all in the dim -twilight of the morning. Oh, my teacher, it seems to me as if a funeral -chord went weeping through every Easter anthem.” - -The old priest sat silently for a time, then bowed his head and wearily -sighed; “I have done my best any way!” - -“Oh, do not think I doubt that! No, no; I’d not hint a rebuke of my noble -guide; but I can’t make you understand me! Nobody seems to grasp my -meaning! Yet of this I’m certain, I want to do something differing from -what has been; something great, revolutionary, for the world, for Christ.” - -“All reforms are revolutionary; all consecration to noble work, noble.” - -“I suppose I express myself as vaguely as other Christians, whose efforts -are chiefly words. But why is it that there can not be a presentment of -Divine truth in such a simple and attractive form as to make all hearing -and seeing love it? Why is it that the followers of truth separate into -armies, not only not sympathizing with, but opposing each other? Why do -not all having a common Father and one Saviour, join as one loving family -to bear aloft the banner of the Invincible?” - -“That day will come in God’s good time.” - -“Oh, again forgive me; but that trite apology for the delayed dawn seems -to me to fling the blame on God in order to palliate man’s indifference.” - -“Miriamne, thou art thoughtful beyond thy years, but what wouldst thou -have?” - -“Some one to show me how, and when, and where to proclaim a revolution! -There is need that Israel believe; that one half the race, its women, -be crowned with its full privileges and powers; that Christian humanity -check war, banish poverty and bring in universal justice.” - -“Revolutionist, indeed; though a blessed one art thou!” - -“So I’m often told; but who will show me how to work for such ends!” - -“Hast thou among thy knightly companionships heard of the Grail knights?” - -“I’ve heard of them; but not a great deal. Why ask?” - -“Thou art like them.” - -“I’m glad to know whom I’m like; tell me of them that I may know myself.” - -“They, as their life work, and with charming enthusiasm, sought an object -pure and noble, but which none but they themselves could see.” - -“Did they obtain their object and do much good?” - -“They were a blessing to the world; but sometimes, like others seeking -lofty ends, they failed. Eternity alone can estimate their work and -worth.” - -“Where are they now?” - -“Their successors are like thee. That grail guild of old is now no more.” - -“Tell me all about them and the Grail!” - -“Listen. Joseph of Arimathæa, he that secretly followed the Lord in his -lifetime, and openly, after he saw the glory of His crucifixion, is -said to have caught the blood that flowed from the speared side in the -paschal vessel or cup used at the last supper. There is a cathedral in -Glastonbury, England, which once I saw, erected on the place where Joseph -builded a little wicker oratory, when there as a missionary. At least -they say he once was there. The aged Joseph died and the Grail or Passion -cup passed into the custody of other holy men. Finally a custodian of it -sinned, and thereupon it was caught away quickly to heaven. But there is -a legend that it is brought, from time to time, to earth, only to be seen -by those that are pure—virgin men and women. Then out of the yearnings -for the cup’s presence (for it is said it gave unutterable joy as well -as miraculous healings to any that came nigh to it), an order of knights -sprung up, to seek it, everywhere in earth. They were sworn not to -disclose their mission, and bound, as their only hope of success, to keep -their hearts noble and pure.” - -“But how am I like a ‘grail knight?’” - -“Miriamne pursues a heavenly cure for human ills, a something she cannot -see nor quite explain.” - -“’Tis true and wonderful.” - -“The ‘grail’ story is almost as old as man, being shaped out of other -most ancient pilgrim quests. All noble hearts yearn for a healer and -ideal.” - -“Perhaps the time has come for a woman crusade, a new order of grail -seekers?” - -“Indeed, I think as much; and Miriamne, taking Mary as her model, may be -the very one to proclaim it.” - -“But being a woman, and so young, I might be ridiculed as an enthusiast, -as brazen, perhaps, or worse, if I attempted such things.” - -“If thou didst undertake any thing truly good, thou wouldst best know -its goodness by the bitterness of its opposing. The cross is very bright -on one side, on the other it casts shadows. Walking toward it we walk in -those chastening shadows. But when we’ve passed the grave, which it ever -guards, there is light, all light—not before.” - -“Sometimes I think I’m a very womanish woman and not the stuff of which -the heroine can be made.” - -“To be a woman is to have within thee a wealth of power. To be queenly -is to do in queenly spirit the work falling to thy lot. Behold the -queenly women of the patriarchs! Rebecca watered the flocks, Rachel was -a shepherdess. The daughter of Jethro, King of Midian, also kept the -flocks; and Tamar baked bread. The Word of God records these things, -methinks, to show in what a queenly way a queenly woman may perform a -seemingly unimportant work. Doing humble works well, they had their honor -in due time. Think of our Mary, Mother of Jesus, after her call, serving -humbly as a good housewife to a carpenter.” - -“Oh, if I could only catch the flavor of her life more fully!” - -“A worthy wish! Her life was a sermon on faith. Called of God to bring -forth Immanuel, she accepted the trust with joyful humility, leaving -the miraculous performance to the Promiser. For thirty years, from -Bethlehem’s cradle to Bethabara, where Her Son was owned of God, she -bore her pains and toils, facing persecutions, the leers and slanderous -innuendoes of the rabble, all without faltering. Only wondrous faith -kept her gentle young heart from breaking! I think she carried the cross -all along the course of Christ’s life—until He Himself took it. She -wrought out her work as a satellite of her son, and yet as a poem most -eloquent, voicing thoughts without which some of His wondrous, greater -life would lack explanation.” - -“I fain would be like her, but then to be so seems beyond my capacities.” - -“If thou canst not be a satellite of the Sun as Mary, be a satellite of -a satellite. Reflect her, and it will be well, since she reflected Him. -’Tis a simple lesson, but profitable; learn it; there is greatness in -little things; regarding them we may at the same time lay hold of that -that is great. I’d have all women heroines by teaching them what heroism -is.” - -“Was Mary learned? She had to meet some grand company?” - -“Wise, as thou mayst be in the solid culture of God’s word.” - -“But I can never be a Mary,” presently the maiden murmured. - -“Thou canst be thyself, and what thou canst. A seraph could be no more. -God needed for his lofty purpose but one like the Maiden of Nazareth, and -for thy comfort remember Mary could not have been the mother of Jesus and -Miriamne de Griffin of Bozrah also. She had her mission, thou thine; it -is a judgment of God to attempt to say that each in her station was not -and is not placed in the way most excellent.” - -Their converse ended but to be renewed. At frequent intervals Miriamne -advised with her guide upon the subject uppermost in her mind, and -more and more became endued with the spirit of the missionary. To all -questionings within herself, as to how she might compass her lofty and -philanthropic designs, there came but one answer, “To Jerusalem!” It -seemed to her that there, at the heart of Syrian life, she might obtain -inspiration and wisdom, as well as the widest possible opportunity of -applying these for others. To her to believe was to act, and so she soon -had completed all her arrangements to join a band of pilgrims passing -by way of Bozrah toward the great city. The parting was painful to -mother and daughter, and unlike any they had experienced before. The -daughter felt a misgiving. Her mother was aged. The tensions of trial -and responsibility being removed so largely from the life of the latter -by recent events, left her spiritless. Perhaps it would be more accurate -to say that in the days of excitement and conflict she exerted herself -beyond her ability; now, when the motive was gone, nature proclaimed its -premature exhaustion. Miriamne was convinced that she would be motherless -ere long, and was haunted by misgivings as to ever again seeing her if -she left Bozrah. Rizpah herself, though she feared that the present -separation and farewell were to be final, urged her child tenderly, -earnestly, to go forward as conscience dictated. The parting between -these two women was secret, they two being alone. It was affectionate -and most tender, and yet cheered by the mutual hope both expressed of an -eternal reunion after death. The eventful day and the supreme moment came -to find Miriamne and her mother nerved for the parting. That was soon -over, and the maiden moved out of the old stone home toward the white -camel already caparisoned for her use. Father Adolphus and Sir Charleroy -awaited her by its side, having repeated, over and over, to the maiden’s -chosen attendant a score of directions, and having in the fussiness -of nervousness again and again examined bridle and girt and hamper. -The maiden, glancing after the caravan of pilgrims which was to be her -convoy, now slowly passing out of the city, turned toward her father to -say the last words of parting. She began: “And now, dear father.” Her -voice, tremulous to begin with, broke down. - -“There, Miriamne,” interrupted the knight, “wait, we’ll accompany thee a -little distance.” The three moved out of the city together, the attendant -riding on before them. They were all too sorrowful to speak cheerfully, -so each said nothing. On the crest of a hillock the old priest paused; -simultaneously the father and daughter did likewise. “I’m too weary to -go further,” spoke the priest. Miriamne’s eyes filled with tears, and -Sir Charleroy, drawing close to the maiden, turned his eyes away. He -stood in silence gazing afar, but at nothing. Each at the last seemed -to dread to be the first to speak that one word so inexpressibly sad -when believed to be about to be spoken as a last “farewell.” The silence -became oppressive, and then Father Adolphus murmured, “I suppose we must -bid thee adieu, now.” Sir Charleroy shuddered and drew his turban down -over his eyes. - -Just then all the child and all the woman in Miriamne’s nature was -awakened. Her feelings well nigh over-mastered her, and she exclaimed: -“Oh, Bozrah, how can I leave thee and thy dear ones!” Bozrah to her meant -home; for a moment her world seemed centred there. The old priest, ever -adroit in ministering comfort, sought to divert the thoughts of those -about him from needless pain, and so shading his eyes looked steadily -eastward for a few moments. Then he questioned: “Daughter, canst thou see -Salchad, at the Crater’s Mouth. I can not see it for my sight faileth; -but I know ’tis yonder.” Miriamne followed the direction of the priest’s -pointing hand, though she knew full well without directing, where the -grim fortress city lay. Habit had made it natural to follow the guidance -of that old, trembling hand. Some way, it helped her; she seemed better -to understand what she already partly knew, when it directed. - -“Yes, I see it. It is there; changeless and dreary as ever. But why this -question?” - -“Dost thou observe how the prospect fades away south of it, until it -reaches the spreading desert?” - -“Yes, I perceive!” - -“Turn to the north, what object is most striking?” - -“Oh, Hermon! ‘The old-man mountain;’ the sun makes its snowy-top appear -to-day very like the white on an old man’s head and chin.” - -Sir Charleroy’s attention was recalled from his contemplation of the pain -of parting for an instant, and he questioned: - -“Canst thou see aught of the ruins of the ‘Temple of the Sun,’ said to be -at Hermon’s crest?” - -But before an answer could be given to the knight’s question, Father -Adolphus exclaimed: “Daughter, look back again to ruined Salchad! Beyond -its ‘war tower of giants,’ there lies only the desert. Now turn thy back -on it all forever, without repinings. Leave the desert and the war tower -of the giants to the wandering Bedouin.” - -“And then what?” - -“Turn thy face toward Jerusalem, thy back to the drear desert—” - -The maiden almost involuntarily complied, and the priest continued: - -“Go forward with Hermon on thy right. Remember that the temple of the -Fire Worshipers is overturned, its altars cold; but more remember that on -Hermon humanity was transfigured in answer to prayer.” - -“And so my shepherd and guide would promise me blessing and bid me God -speed?” quoth the maiden. - -“Thou read’st my heart, daughter.” - -“The same true heart; it never gets old or weary of cheering.” - -“I’m made grateful and happy, daughter, by thy words. He that saith, -‘_Let not your hearts be troubled!_’ and ‘_comfort ye, comfort ye my -people_,’ is my leader. For cheering, I was called.” - -“How noble such a call seems to me, now.” - -“Yea; daughter, if one can not be as the stars that fought in their -course for Sisera, he may be as a summer evening’s breeze, in cooling -pain’s fevers, and in drying the tears from cheeks that blush through the -rains of weeping times.” - -Gently, firmly she guided her camel from the hillock, on which it was -feeding, toward the highway, along which the caravan was departing. “We -must be going now.” - -At her words, Sir Charleroy and the old Sacrist each caught one of her -hands. - -“Oh, my fathers!” was her pitying but not pitiable exclamation. Sir -Charleroy, standing on the hillock, by the camel, on which his daughter -was mounted, drew the hand he held close to his heart, then his arm -tenderly encircled its owner. The maiden’s head rested upon the breast -that had often borne her since babyhood, her lips met in unfeigned -tenderness those of the man who not only loved her as a daughter, but as -his good angel, almost savior. It was a scene for a painter; the past -and the present, sunset and morning; the one looking back in a confessed -ineffectiveness of a life nearly spent, in contrast with a fresh, young, -hopeful life, before which lay a world to be conquered. Miriamne, the -called leader in a new crusade for women, for humanity, was bidding -farewell to the ruins of giant land, and to a representative of the last -of the sworded-crusaders. - -Her staff fell on the side of the beast that bore her and it moved away -quickly after the departing troop. - -The parting was over, and yet the two old men silently lingered at the -place of the farewell. Once or twice the maiden looked back to them, -as she was borne forward, to wave an adieu. The lone watchers followed -her with their eyes, until her white camel appeared but a speck moving -along at the skirt of a column of dust. The eyes of the watchers dimmed -by years, now supplemented by tears, presently could discern only dust. -She was buried from their view forever. Then they silently returned to -the city, each busy with his own thoughts. Thereafter there was a heavy -loneliness on all hearts in that Bozrah circle. The priest moved about -his chapel, and the parents about their home as though an angel of light -had gone from their midst, or as if the angel of death had come among -them. - -“It seems strange like,” said the Sacrist’s sister, “to let a girl go -away to that far-off city, among strangers, and about such meaningless -purposes.” - -“Never mind; never mind, sister, God’s lambs are ever safe. Her mission -is clear to her, at least, and she’ll not be among strangers. The knights -who secretly abide in the city of God have a charge concerning her in -letters I’ve sent them. As well, Cornelius, her betrothed, is there. Pure -love will be her wall of fire.” Thus ended all arguments and misgivings. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIII. - -THE HOSPITALER’S ORATION. - - “I do not say that a social cyclone is impending; but the - signs of the times certainly admonish us that if Christianity - is to avert a revolution of the most gigantic proportions, - and the most ruinous results, we have not an hour to lose - in assuring the restless masses that they have no better - friends than are the professed disciples of Him whose glory - it was to preach the gospel to the poor, and to lift up their - crushing burdens.”—REV. DR. A. J. F. BEHREND’S “_Socialism and - Christianity_.” - - “My soul doth magnify the Lord.... He hath put down princes - from their thrones, and exalted them of low degree.”—MARY. - - -The daughter of Sir Charleroy found a home and a mother with Dorothea -Woelfkin, the widowed parent of her affianced. What manner of woman the -latter was may be readily inferred from the character of her beloved and -only son, Cornelius. It sufficeth to say, mother and son were in all -things wonderfully alike. - -“Miriamne, I’ve called to ask, if we get the consent of my mother, that -you attend a conclave of knights, to be secretly held, after Moslem -prayers this evening.” - -“Where?” - -“At the house of the Christian sister, aged Phebe; just by the second -wall of the city.” - -“And why do they meet?” - -“An eloquent Hospitaler, lately returned from a long mission, is to -address the companions and their friends.” - -“A Hospitaler; what’s his name?” - -“Ah, there it is; the question all ask, and none can answer! He has given -full tokens of his right to confidence, but declines, for reasons which -he says are most pious, to reveal himself further than that he is a -Knight Hospitaler of Rhodes.” - -“Rhodes? Is he very tall, of piercing eyes, his hair long and jet, with -streaks of gray?” - -“Even so.” - -“My father knew such a man, whom he called ‘silver-tongued.’” - -“This man is as eloquent as Apollos.” - -“We met such an one, and were with him for a time. We left him here, on -our journey from Acre to Bozrah.” - -“Did you penetrate his secret?” - -“I did not, though my father once said to him ‘Grail.’ After that he kept -aloof from us.” - -“A proof it must be as I’ve suspected; the Hospitaler is one of the new -Grail-Knights!” exclaimed Cornelius. - -“And he is here? I must hear him again. The words he spoke to me in -Gethsemane have followed me night and day since. He made the journey of -Mary and Christ, by way of Kedron, to the cross, seem like a present -reality; a path typical of the one before every child of God. I saw it -all then, but have been unable since to find it. Oh, I burn with desire -to have the ‘silver-tongued’ guide me to that pathway again.” - -At the appointed time the twain sought the house of Christian Phebe, -and found it wrapped in gloom; the only sign of life without being a -man garbed as a camel driver, standing guard at the door. Cornelius -whispered to Miriamne, “He’s a knight—the warden.” The young man gave -the watchman a secret signal; the latter communicated through a little -gated window, with those within, and quickly the door swung open, -admitting Woelfkin and his companion. Within were light and cheerfulness -contrasting with the gloom without. A goodly company was already -assembled, chiefly made up of Crusaders, but now unharnessed. The faces -of the pilgrim soldiers betokened a change within. They betokened -spirits subdued, but not crushed; hearts having surrendered ambition for -devastating conquest, to welcome a finer hope. There were few things -about the place suggestive of war, and many suggestive of peace. At one -end of the room stood a desk, in shape much like an altar. It was draped -with a Templar banner, and to its side were fastened a sword, bent in the -shape of a sickle, and two spears forming a cross, supporting a cup; the -latter was in form the same as the cup of the Passion. - -“There is something about this place that recalls the chapel of the -Palestineans, in London, Cornelius.” - -“Well, you and I were there; now we are here. In that the two places have -likeness,” pleasantly responded the maiden’s escort. - -Miriamne’s eyes wandered from object to object, as if seeking proof of, -her assertion, and her companion followed her gaze with a glance about -the place, which finally rested, as his glances were wont, on the eyes of -Miriamne. - -“Oh, the devoutness, the peace, the fellowship!” she exclaimed. - -Just then there was a movement: a number of the men present arose; a -hailing sign, significant to the initiated, was given by some, while -simultaneously a slight applause passed around the room: - -“’Tis he,” whispered Miriamne. - -“Your Hospitaler?” - -“Yes.” - -The knights all stood and sang in subdued voices, a psalm of hope. “The -movement of the melody suggests pilgrims climbing a hill.” At least, so -the maiden said its movement seemed to her. - -When the psalm was finished, the knights resumed their seats and the -Hospitaler, without preliminary, at once addressed them: - -“Knights of Christ, few and often in hiding, I would remind ye that no -plan of God is futile, and that His cause has no backward movement. - -“A dream of conquest, restoration and glory came over all followers of -the cross. The dream had within it a hope of a holy land in Christian -possession, and all the children of earth getting from it the story of -the true faith. Then there was to come, we believed, the golden age, -in which all mankind in sweet charity’s glorious fellowship should go -forward. - -“Nature, man’s mother, prays in a million mournful voices for that -golden day; and God, man’s eternal and loving Father, works by countless -invincible agencies to cause its full dawning. We Crusaders gave our -lives by thousands for our faith, but we seemed to have done little -beside change the name of this land from Philistine to Palestine. One, to -be sure, is softer to the ear than the other, but to the heart both names -bring the same miserable thoughts. Yet there was more than this attained. -Ye remember how our cavalier soldiers expressed their chivalric impulses -in honoring that queen of women, Our Lady? Like the rising of sun at -midnight, came the conviction to Christian Europe when at its worst, -socially, that reform must begin by purifying the homes of the people, -by exalting all home life. To do this, the mothers who bare and nurture -the fruits of the home, as well as making them for weal or for woe what -they are, must needs be exalted by right as well as by fitness to their -queenship. Every knight’s praise of Mary was an avowal of faith; his -faith that woman could be, should be, what his imagination pictured Mary -to have been. - -“The knightly Christians were among the first to be moved by the belief -that that was a monstrous blight, a heresy toward God and nature which -regarded the finer sex as necessities or luxuries. Impressed by reverence -for Mary, the banded soldiers of the cross began to feel their mission -to be not only the recovery of the dead, but also of the living from -infidel dominion; hence, each Crusade banner came as a sunburst to those, -who, under the spell of gross passion, were enslaving their natural -co-partners. - -“Men, while the harem ideal stands, while woman is impotent because -uncrowned, our lofty hopes can not bear fruit nor will our labors be -ended!” - -The speaker was interrupted by a murmur of applause that ran around the -circle of auditors. - -Miriamne glowed with delight, and raised her hand impressively and nodded -toward Cornelius. He only saw the motion and easily interpreted it as -meaning, “There, that’s what I felt, but could not express.” - -The speaker continued: “God said it is not good that the man should be -alone; time that resolves all mysteries, and experience which transmutes -to gold all the rubbish of guess and experiment, has irrevocably declared -that man cannot be to his fullness, in a state of solitary grandeur. He -and the woman go up or down together; and, whether a seraph or a serpent -leads her, the man by inclination or by force is sure to follow her -footsteps. - -“We Crusaders had a glimpse of the truth, but lost it to follow an _ignis -fatuus_. Yet, in this land, we confronted the harem with the home ruled -by one queenly wife and mother. The world, beholding the contrast begins -to believe, as never before, in the supremacy, over all institutions, of -that one where, under Eden’s covenant charters, purity and mother-love -mold the race in the name of sole and patient love. The Saracens paraded -their houris, their concubines, and their slaves as the proofs of their -prowess; but the Christians challenged the array by the quality of their -possessions, commencing with their women of God’s blood royal, and -ascending to each revered personage, from love’s companions, to Mary, to -Jesus. He that nobly deals with the one by his side will find her putting -on a glory that will brighten the luster of his kingliness, and bringing -forth to him those having the power to grasp and mold the destinies of -coming years. Listeners, mark me; there is a lesson profound in the -record of the strugglings with each other of Rebecca’s twins before their -birth. Indeed, each being begins his career within the life that gives -him life. - -“Who will say, with assurance, that all of life lies within the reach of -any man of himself? Nay, be it said, rather, that she who first carries, -then leads, then inspires, as she only can, her sons and daughters, is -the one who lays her gentle hands, with resistless power, upon the keys -of all futures. It is the mother who impresses the prophecy of what is -to be on the heart of the infant, before the event finds place upon the -deathless page which records deeds done.” - -Again applause interrupted. - -The Hospitaler continued, as attention was given anew: - -“That profoundest of ancient teachers, Plato, enunciated at least a -half-truth or truth’s shadow, in his doctrine of the preëxistence of -souls, though, as our church understands it, it pronounces the teaching -heretical. Be that as it may, this much assuredly is true: if each -man has not been on earth before, his present existence being the -repetition of a prior one, his intuitions, vague recollections out of -a past forgotten in a former death, surely there is none who is not -the fruit of his parents. He is largely what they made him, and of the -twain that beget, I affirm that the mother wields the ruling influence -in the life and character of the begotten. I believe men perpetuate -their worst traits through their posterity, easily and more persistently -than do women theirs. In the giant of the human pair brawn and muscle -predominate, and these, if depraved, feed every evil passion, giving -each power to run with virulence from sire to son. The woman, formed by -finer conceptions to be an angel, may fall to sinning and let weakness -take the place of gentleness. So be it; yet even then her weaknesses -and her sinnings, constantly repugnant to her nature as God framed it, -antagonistic to the refinement that is native, ebb and die along the -shores of her being’s course. She more naturally and more forcefully -transmits her good than she does her evil, as a general rule. They have -in fable-lore a tradition that the mythical goddess of love, Venus, -wore a resplendent girdle, the sight of which made every beholder love -the wearer. Let me give present force to the legend by affirming that -every true woman, girded with the virtues that it is her duty and her -privilege to wear, is an object, among all earthly beings, superlatively, -entrancingly beautiful—next after Christ, God’s best gift to man.” - -Cornelius now plucked the corner of Miriamne’s _pepulum_. It was a -lover’s restless, questioning act. Being a man, trained as men, he was -naturally inclined to doubt the speaker and to join in secret ridicule, -that substitute for gainsaying when arguments are utterly lacking; but -being a lover, he was so far doubtful as to his old creeds concerning -women, as to be ready to be led. Miriamne turned toward her lover with a -smile lightened by eyes which glowed. Hers was not the smile of a girl -flatly complacent in an effort to be very agreeable. She believed; the -love she had for the man at her side was consecrated first to truth. -Her will was that of a blade of steel—yielding, serviceable; but still -elastic or firm, as need be and as its highest purposes required. She -smiled, but the smile mounting to her brightening eyes, left her fine -forehead, a very temple of thought, all placid. The smile and the glance -routed all doubts from the young man’s mind. She to him was a Venus, and -more, a saint. She wore the invisible girdle of which the knight had -spoken, and the youth felt its winning power. Another proof that the best -advocate of a woman is a woman; and of her worth, the best argument an -example. - -The orator knight proceeded without pause: - -“I know full well that some sneer and carp on woman’s weakness, having -recourse to Eden for argument. To these I reply: The enemy assailed not -the weaker, but the stronger first, and exhibited masterly generalship -in seeking to overcome the citadel that would insure the greatest loss, -the most complete victory. And note how long and arduous his siege of -Eve; then remember how quickly Adam fell. Crush the woman’s heart, ruin -her faith, degrade her body, and then, with this work completed, we are -ready to ring down the curtain over the end of the tragedy of a wrecked -world. When men hold women to their hearts, their manhood is enlarged and -their queens become their angels, bearing a ‘grail’ that catches for both -the choice things of heaven. But when a man turns his strength against a -woman, she ceases to be his charming, alluring helpmate. He has brawn, -and she, not having that, puts on that cunning which is the natural arm -of the weaker. When the honey-suckle turns to poison-ivy, or the dove to -a fox, then weep; but when woman lays aside the entrancings of her moral -beauty to enter a desperate strife with armed cunning, let men go mad -over their queens become witches. I tell you, hearers, when men become -demons women will give themselves to sorcery. I speak not of spiritual -possession, but of human deflowering. Shall our queens be uncrowned, -disrobed, degraded? No, no, Satan alone could say ‘yea.’” - -When the burst of applause that had interrupted him subsided, the -Hospitaler continued: - -“We knights revere the sign of the cross because the world’s Savior died -thereon; it will be well for us to revere womankind because it was given -to woman, not to man, to coöperate with God in bringing that Savior to -the world. A woman bore him with crucial pains, as each of us was borne, -before He bore the cross. And reverently I say it, companions, woman’s -cross is ever set, and all the earth is her Calvary. I can not but see, -as must you who think, that all this pain to her has in God’s great plan -some vicarious element, some blessing for mankind. We Christians pray -for the second coming of Jesus, the Jews wait and weep for the dawn of -a day of salvation, the Mohammedans, like hosts of the Pagans, in every -clime, are longing for some golden day; better than the present. This -universal longing is a prophecy of good to come. I can not believe that -the All-Father would suffer this universal and intuitive longing to end -in disappointment and mockery. He is too good for that. By this longing I -see standing out, less dimly, and yet dimly enough to be by many unseen, -some sublime, prophetic hints. Read sacred Writ. Wherever therein you -discern a prophetic character, emblem of Christ, forerunner of the golden -age, you will find not far from him, as his partner and help, fittingly a -woman! - -“From the first it was so. Adam the first appeared, and a woman was his -partner, helpmate and more. He fell. A way of recovery was provided for -him, but it was the woman who was given to bring forth the One whose heel -was to crush the head of the author of humanity’s great catastrophe. Then -came the second Adam—Immanuel. At his advent the chief figure, next after -God the chief instrument in His bringing in, by His side along the years -in all helpful ministries, a woman, Mary, the beautiful, the perfect, the -ideal of women. - -“Again and again we have puzzled over the records, wondering why Matthew -traced the genealogy of Jesus along the male line only, through David and -Jacob to Abraham the father of the faithful, and that Luke traced that -genealogy through Mary and her father, Heli. But there’s method most wise -in the records. Matthew wrote for the Jews, Luke for the Gentiles. The -hint is herein given that when the Gentiles are fully gathered in, woman -will be recognized in the ultimate religion, that knows neither race -nor sex. As in the royal line which gave man a Savior, as in a queenly -line having for man, society and home—the emblem of heaven expressed on -earth—blessing and saving powers.” - -The knight closed with an appeal for the continuance of the revival of -the chivalrous spirit toward woman, saying: - -“It matters little what becomes of the dust of the pious dead; the past -is secure, and Deity guards till the resurrection all tombs in His own -unfrustrated way, but it matters much how we treat the living! That is a -puerile piety which is ready to die to defend from foes that can not harm -inanimate ashes that appeal for no favor, while suffering, willingly, -living bodies encompassing bleeding hearts, to continue amid untold -agonies, their whole existence one long appeal for succor! Christian -knights, on with your new crusade, and may the golden age come grandly -in, its fruits—love, joy, and peace in every clime, to every race, to -every man, woman, and child!” - -The speaker sat down; there was a moment of deep silence, followed by an -outburst of approving acclamations. - -Then ensued a hum of voices, the assembly breaking up into little -groups, one and another attempting each to prove his loyalty, his piety -or his good sense to the man next to him, by certifying his belief in the -knight’s words. - -Miriamne, half unconscious of her surroundings, exclaimed: - -“Oh, will not some one tell me how to begin?” - -“Can I aid my Miriamne?” asked her lover. - -“I don’t know; perhaps. But that Grail Knight with the silver tongue -sees, in his soul, what I would reach. When he speaks my feet take wings. -I can not tell you what or how it all is. He speaks and I see, as Moses -in the mount, the outline of the tabernacle of God that is to be with -men.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIV. - -MEMORIALS AT BOZRAH. - - “I’m footsore and very weary, - But I travel to meet a Friend; - The way is long and dreary, - But I know it soon must end. - He is traveling swiftly as whirlwinds, - And though I creep slowly on, - We are drawing nearer and nearer, - And the journey is almost done. - I know He will not fail me, - So I count every hour a chime, - Every throb of my heart’s beating - That tells of the flight of TIME. - I will not fear at His coming, - Although I must meet Him alone, - He will look in my eyes so gently - And take my hand in His own.” - - -An uneventful year passed over the missioners, but it was followed -quickly by eventful times. - -Two messages came, one after the other, and not far apart, to Jerusalem, -which moved all the Christian colony at the latter place, but especially -Cornelius and his consort. The first was from Father Adolphus and as -follows: - - “Your parents, Sir Charleroy and Rizpah, have departed - Bozrah. They went out together, and their end was peace. They - compensated themselves for the needless miseries they had - wrought in their younger days by keeping out of all shadows - during their journey after their reconciliation by the tomb of - their children, even until sunset. I could not summon you, for - they passed away quickly, only a few days coming between their - goings.” - -Shortly after the foregoing, came the other message, and that -accidentally, for the link between Jerusalem and Bozrah being broken -by death, there was none left in the Giant City to send after or for -comforting to the missioners. “Father Adolphus is dead.” That was the -report brought by chance to the Christians at Zion. Hundreds in Jerusalem -had heard of him, and hearing of his death sighed mildly. The missioners -were his mourners—really, solely. - -Ere long Dorothea left Jerusalem of Syria for the New Jerusalem, and this -event not only brought sorrow but also perplexity. Miriamne realized -that she could not now continue in the house of her betrothed, simply as -his betrothed, even if it were possible for the household to continue, -the head being absent. Whither should she go, orphan and kinless as she -was? Love protested mightily against any thought of going far from her -affianced, and then she felt profound pity for the man who mourned and -felt a mother’s loss deeply, as did Cornelius. He entreated for a speedy -wedding, and she, seeing then no alternative, consented thereto; but -as she assumed love’s yoke, she believed that the ambition of her life -was frustrated. She was not disconsolate, neither was she tearless. She -thought she discerned the leadings of God and submitted promptly, making -it thenceforth her duty cheerfully to engage in the, to her, seemingly -commonplace works of a missionary pastor’s wife. Her husband was a “man -of the people,” and found acceptance with the lowly. He was wont to call -himself “a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.” Said he anon -to his flock: “Like that mysterious man who flits across your sacred -histories am I! You of the Jews, self-elect, as God’s elect, though -disgrafted, would put me, intending to do so or not, by the unknown and -unheralded Melchisedec. You think me, without father, without mother, -beginning of days, or end of life, because you do not find my name in the -chronologies of your high families nor myself in the covenants of the -Hebrews. You Christians doubt my authority because no ghostly ordaining -hands have been laid upon my head. But I’m the child of a King, and a -towel, such as my Master wore as He ministered, is robing enough for me!” -Old people, women and children, gave the young man unquestioning love, -and thus was well indorsed the choiceness of his ministerings. Miriamne -beheld these manifestations with secret joy, for she knew that through -the one she loved she was, in part, expressing her own thoughts and -sympathies. Once wed, she was too honest, too tender-hearted, too noble -to be less than all that wifehood implied, and yet she felt at times -as if the ambitions and hopes of her life, nursed through many years, -had not been compassed. She tried to settle down and humbly do the work -of a missionary’s helpmate, and to overcome, through Divine grace, the -ambition to do seemingly grander things than she was doing. Sometimes, -smiling through tears, she would say to her husband as he sought to -satisfy her heart’s yearnings with mention of the good work they were -doing: - -“Well, a man has come between me and the ‘grail.’ I’m following him, may -he follow it, and God guide both.” - -After a time Cornelius and Miriamne made a pilgrimage to Bozrah, drawn -thither by a desire common to both to honor their loved ones departed. -They found the Giant City all pervaded by the spirit of the moribund -past. Even the Christian church, once a light, a joy and a promise of a -better day, had fallen into decline at Bozrah. The edifice had become -dilapidated, the congregation was depleted. - -In name, Father Adolphus had a successor, younger, more learned, more -eloquent in his way, than the saintly man now sleeping. But the infidels, -the very ones who were wont to confess that they could not, if they -would, make headway against the old priest’s godly life, now laughed to -scorn the stately and scholarly arguments of the new leader. The converts -under the new regime were few, the common people did not from him hear -the word gladly; and the regular congregation was rent by schisms. - -One chapel service sufficed both Miriamne and Cornelius. They found in it -nothing but cold formality and the memory of what had been, but was now -no more. - -“Oh, Cornelius,” Miriamne cried, “reverently I say it, but is it not -strange that our faith edges its way over the world so slowly, with such -heralds?” - -“Leastwise, you may say, you do not see your ‘Grail’ here, Miriamne?” - -“Oh, now, I realize the worth of Von Gombard as I never did before.” - -“Are you not sorrowed at his absence, Miriamne?” - -“Sorrowed! Truly not; but unspeakably glad that he walks with the sons -of God; a very king, I know, amid the greatest. Oh, how sad I’d be to -see the poor, dear, tired old man with his overfull heart and trembling -limbs now going about in painful ministries here! God was twice good; -in leaving him so long, then in taking him. Ah, if there were more like -that old saint, those that there are would not need to tarry till their -twilight.” - -“Shall we prolong our stay?” - -“No! I’ve listened long enough to the lull of eternity here. Bozrah’s -past has taught me its all. I’m ready to go home.” - -“Home! When, to-morrow?” ardently questioned Cornelius, anxious himself -to depart the Giant City. - -“After to-morrow; the coming day, at my instance, the memorial of my -parents is to be set up.” - -The following morning, just before sunrise, the husband and wife repaired -to the tomb of their loved ones, to witness, by pre-arrangement, the -unveiling of a memorial. It consisted of two figures carved from whitest -marble; a woman’s form with a face expressive of tenderness and beauty, -marked with deepest grief, but not with hopelessness. Across her lap -there lay the form of a young man, the rigors of death plainly marked -on his face and limbs. There was no mistaking the representation, and -Cornelius quickly exclaimed: - -“I know the one that sits thus holding that crucified body! ’Tis real! -Impressive! Awful!” - -“It is fitting, think you?” - -“I’m too much moved to judge, perhaps; though I do wonder that you -have not had carved upon the pedestal the names of your dead, or some -explanation.” - -“Names? What matter, to the stranger passing, who lie beneath the stone? -As for the meaning, let those who come and go question till it appear.” - -“I’m the first questioner, Miriamne. The application?” - -“Remember that my mother, in her almost solitary grief, held her dead -children for a time against her broken heart, but it was a heart filled -with a mother-love which never faltered. There is nothing in love -surpassing such on earth. Then at last, when her life work was done, her -cup full, my mother, as her final consolation, held to her heart the Son -whose death gives life, as yon Madonna holds the Christ.” - -“I bow to Miriamne’s judgment; the creation is appropriate; Glorious -Madonna!” - -“I have a hope that it may stand here in the Hauran an enduring sermon to -the varied races who pass. They who come and go here, reminded that the -Nephalim with all their arrogant might left little but their crumbling -tombs; that Astarte, once the potent, dangerous goddess of the groves, -here faded from the love of her fevered hosts, who themselves in turn -faded from the face of the earth, may pause to question what the meaning -and power of this last, new, fresh presentment! Perhaps they will hear -from those made wise, and in time learn to tell one another, that -these two figures speak of the Deathless Kingdom, its white loves, its -wondrous rewards and its Spirit of might expressed by all who are in it -through the power of an endless life, and through the agency of immortal -influence.” - -“Miriamne, I see thee a palpitating angel in the flesh! I can say no -more!” - -As the young missioner thus spoke he stretched out his arms toward the -woman he loved as if he would restrain her. The motion came from his -heart, which was anxiously saying within: “She is growing upward and away -from her consort.” But he had neither courage nor words to voice the -vague thought which brought admiration mixed with fears. - -They turned toward their temporary home in the Giant City. As they went, -the rising sun flooded the marble forms by the graves with a golden -light, and the twain, beholding the glory of that morning benediction, -felt an illumining in their hearts that some way made heaven seem very -near. - -“And now, darling, we’ll return to Jerusalem, and quietly pursue our work -until we join those loved ones gone on before,” spoke the husband the day -after the monument’s unveiling. - -“I trust we shall work in future with better plans and grander results -than we have had before.” - -“Are you discontented with what we accomplish?” - -“No, and yes,” was her measured reply. - -Cornelius turned his eyes full upon her, lifting inquiringly his eyebrows. - -She continued: “I’m satisfied, if God so will, to blend my work into my -husband’s; I know this is my duty as a wife, but I long to echo nobler -music. Can you make it?” - -“Annata, the Assyrian goddess, was content to be the echo of her spouse, -the mighty Ammon. I’d be an Ammon if I could to be worthy being echoed by -Miriamne. But, little wife, your words sound almost Delphic; and yet you -are no such ambiguous oracle. Is there any wish unmet?” - -“I’ve a misgiving.” - -“Why, wife of mine, see how strong you’ve been, each year adding health! -See the shadows over our people. We are sent to chase these away with -Gospel truth. We’ve hitherto only learned how to work efficiently, and -in the future will do braver, greater things than ever. We’ll tarry, as -Adolphus, ay, and by grace renew strength, turning back the dial pointer, -as with prayer, did Hezekiah of old.” - -“I’ll not go, I know, until my work is done. None go before such time.” - -“Oh, but we must go together everywhere, even to death.” - -“Ah, beloved, I know your meaning. It’s the lover, not the consecrated -missionary, who speaks now.” - -“I can’t help it! I’ll be useless without you. I’m useless now, except as -you sustain me; as Abishag, the Shunnamite, the fairest young maiden of -all Israel, brought heart to the bosom of David, old and shaken by years, -so you put into me all the ambition I have. To my trembling heart you are -what Deborah was to Barak’s.” - -“God help you, Cornelius; I believe you, because I know your trusting -nature and have joyed in the fullness of your lavish love, but let us -bravely face this matter as it comes. For God, I know, I must quickly do -my work and be gone.” - -“Oh, say not so, if I’m to be left alone! That must not be! By your love -for me I entreat you to stay; a thousand ties bind my life to thine; it -will kill me by inches to have them severed!—— - -“Miriamne, my own, nearer to God by far than am I; plead with Him to -spare us this agony!” - -“In spirit, my loyal spouse, we shall ever be near each other, but I -feel that in the body we shall not be together long. I shall finish my -course and then——” - -“No, not that,” vehemently exclaimed the husband. “Say not that! I’ll -work for you, with you, for God. Help me to the end and let me so help -you, beloved!” - -“You may help me while I tarry.” - -“I’ll joy to realize the prophet’s vision, who saw the hands of a man -under the wings of an angel. Here are the hands and Miriamne is the -angel.” - -“But your imagination glows, kindled by the torch of a human heart almost -idolatrous.” - -“Nay, not idolatrous; for the fire rises to things holy. I only plead -that God let me walk with Miriamne; I know she will walk nigh Him. Go -where you will my feet will bear me thither, undertake what you may, -my heart and hand will help; point out any goal of darling desire and -thither I’ll carry you, if need be. For you I’ll gladly die, if, at the -dying, I have the comforting assurance that soon my other self will join -me in the overshadowed land of life.” - -“How it would brighten the world, if all who take the holy vows of -marriage on their souls were as truly wed in heart as we.” As the twain -stood by the white marble figures at sunrise the next morning, equipped -for departure, they made a striking picture. The living and the dead; the -exemplars of the purest, deepest wedded love committed to serving their -fellow man; they rose grandly above the ruins of the place builded by -those mighty self-seeking devotees of Astarte. - -Bozrah sat in desolation, knowing no hope and having a bitter past only -and forever to contemplate; the youthful gospel heralds had all life, -rising to new life—hope beyond hope, joy beyond joy, and then life, -hope and joy in endless unfoldments, stretching way through measureless -eternities, all before them. Miriamne was pensive; Cornelius was -chastened by the remembrance of the words she had spoken the day before, -and both subdued by the presence of the majestic monument before them. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXV. - -THE SISTERS OF BETHANY. - - “Her eyes are homes of silent prayer, - No thought her mind admits; - But ‘He was dead and there he sits! - And He that brought him back is there!’ - - “All subtle thought, all curious fears, - Borne down by gladness so complete; - She bows, she bathes the Savior’s feet - With costly spikenard and with tears.”—ALFRED TENNYSON. - - “In the day time He was teaching in the temple, and at night - He went out and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of - Olives.”—LUKE xxi., 37. - - “Gethsemane on one side, Bethany on the other ... where He - was wont to pray for His people and weep for a sinful world; - where His feet stood on the eve of His ascension and where - His wondering disciples received from white-robed angels the - promise of His second advent. It will be admitted that above - and beyond all places in Palestine Olivet witnessed ‘God - manifest in the flesh.’”—_Porter’s “Giants of Bashan.”_ - - -After Jesus had been driven from His native Nazareth, He found a home -in the house of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, in the village of Bethany, -on the eastern slope of Olivet. That was sweet, memorable Bethany of -the Gospels; “the perfection of repose,” amid the palm and oak-covered -slopes of Olivet; hidden by its quiet life, as well as its sequestering -mountain, from Jerusalem, that great, throbbing heart of Palestine. - -Thither, down the east steps of the Temple, through the “Golden Gate,” -along camel paths that wound past Gethsemane and across fitful Kedron, -the Son of Man often went when worn out by His love ministries, or -harassed by the gainsayings of the great city. So, preaching His new -kingdom, He exalted its cornerstone, the godly home, by electing one -such, that of Lazarus and his sisters, as a rest and a refuge for -Himself. Beyond this He proved His own humanity by seeking earthly -friendships, at the same time exhibiting Himself, though the favored of -heaven, the object of constant angelic regard, as needing, because He was -human, that which humanity ever needs—congenial human fellowships. - -The history of that ancient Bethany family, gathered from various -sources, but chiefly from the simple and touching narrative of the -Evangelist John, is full of interest. The mother of that home, to us -nameless, was dead. Yet she was not fameless; that circle of children -in their several relationships witnessed full well of a finest -mother-culture, that had been theirs. The father of that family was -worse than dead; he was a leper, buried alive in the Lazar keeps of the -plague-stricken, and the husband of Martha, the elder sister, early had -left his bride widowed. - -That was a circle cut through its center; but affliction had knit -together in deepened affection the few left. The fatherly brother, -Lazarus, well fulfilled his double obligation, and wins admiration, as -do ever those sons and brothers who faithfully take the place of dead -fathers. That he was such a brother, the grief of his sisters when he -died fully proclaimed. - -With a few fine sentences John depicts those sisters. Martha, widowed -in life’s morning, but surmounting all morbidness by giving herself to -motherly ministries in her home; and then was Mary, a clinging, trusting, -pious maiden; a poem of faith, a tear-bedewed rose-wreath. When Christ -joined that circle there was presented the finest conceivable ideal of -a home. They served and He blessed, and though their bereavements could -never be forgotten, while His banner of love was over them, they were -able to alleviate the poignancy of their griefs through the hope of a -blessed resurrection and a final, eternal reunion. - -The sacred associations gathering about the village of Olivet made it a -place peculiarly attractive to Cornelius and Miriamne; for they, too, -were bereaved; neither in all the world having a single living kinsman of -whom they knew. - -They determined, shortly after their final farewell to Bozrah, to take -up their abode at the “House of Dates,” and were unmeasurably delighted -in being able to secure for themselves a house reputed to have been the -identical one occupied by Christ and His choice friends. If it were not -the same, there seemed good reason to believe it was at least on the site -of that ancient sacred domicile. - -One day they conversed of their work, their hopes, and the needs of their -field of labor. - -“I’m led to think that we should establish a refuge for Magdalenes, -Miriamne.” - -“If we did attempt the founding of an asylum for outcasts we would not -belie the memory of a noble woman, who was never a harlot, by applying -to it her name. But my ‘grail’ does not lead me that way. I’d go mad -working for the utterly lost only! No; no, our work must be more radical, -by beginning back of the falling so as to prevent it.” - -“Something must be done to educate the women of this country to better -living and higher conceptions of womanhood. We need a school of some -kind.” - -“A school? Good, if it be of the right kind; but there have been schools -and schools for men, such as they were, and they have effectually proven -that education alone is not a savior. Learning does not transform the -soul, else God would have given Moses the pattern of a college instead of -that of a tabernacle. My mother used often to tell me that the devil is -superbly educated. The more he knows the prouder and more dangerous he -becomes. I do not despise learning, but since it is impotent to transform -men, why try it as the savior of woman? She who takes counsel less of the -intellect than of the conscience and affections! We must seek for those -we aim to help something surpassing in direct efficacy any thing yet -attempted;” so saying, Miriamne paused. - -“Shall we organize a church, ‘fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and -terrible as an army with banners?’” - -“There have been churches and churches. It would be vain for me to -attempt to prove to you, a theologian and a churchman, that this you call -the ‘Bride of Christ’ is imperfect or lacking in any energy of reform; -but, though I heartily confess ’tis the choicest institution this side of -the stars, yet I see it professing to have heavenly charity, abounding -light, and measureless joys, leaving the needy without hospitals, the -heathen in ignorance, and most of the world, including many churchmen, -famishing for happiness. The trouble is, it infolds too many wolves and -repels too many lambs. Your flocks are too much given to atoning for lean -living by fat believing; memorizing huge creeds instead of incarnating -them; putting their faith-confessions into themselves rather than -themselves into their faith professions. You churchmen shut your ears to -friendly criticism, sneer at those that censure, and in branding such -heretics proclaim yourselves infallible. I’d not be a vaporing railler, -but I hear within your ecclesiastical bodies of warring factions, of -ambitious and multitudinous leaders, a proof that they are of the -church militant; though theirs is an internecine militating. I doubt if -there has existed Christ’s ideal of a church since Pentecost. He gave a -glimpse of its true outlines there, and it will yet come in its power and -splendor; then, for the pæans!” - -“You’d organize, perhaps, a _Vestal Band_?” - -“Vestals?” - -“Yes; an union of women of pure hearts, committed solely to such works as -those performed in part by the holy sisters of our church fraternities.” - -“I revere such as are thus engaged with all my heart; but, churchman, -you are narrow in your plan; even Pagan Rome, which honored Vesta, the -fire goddess, by having an altar to her in every community, held that -the State was a great family, and placed Vesta, the goddess of virginal -purity, near the Penates, or gods of the household and family.” - -“I see nothing now in this juxtaposition.” - -“They saw that there was ruin to all society if their girls were impure; -hence buried alive a Vestal, if she fell from her vow of chastity. You -have heard, Cornelius, how good Romans were wont to invoke, often, as -their family guardians, the manes of their departed kin; and this very -naturally; they held to the belief that the family tie, the finest, -strongest known among men, outlived, by virtue of its heavenliness, the -shock of death. Imperial Rome trusted much its all-conquering swords, for -this life, but for the life to come it appealed to Jupiter omnipotent or -Minerva, the all-wise. No, no, a ‘Vestal Society,’ such as you imply, -would not suffice. I’ve a broader clientage and vaster scheme in mind, -good churchman husband—” - -“Shall I venture another guess?” - -“It would be needless. Let me explain myself fully. Good Father Adolphus, -founder of Bozrah’s ‘_Balsam Band_,’ which he sometimes called ‘nursing -preachers,’ told me that in olden times there was in this country a -fraternity of women, banded together to perform works of charity. -They were remembered chiefly for their helpfulness to those that were -in direst need and utterly friendless. They befriended criminals and -social outcasts. He said that the women of Jerusalem who followed -Christ weeping, were, probably, of that fraternity, since it was the -custom of that pious company to offer their tears for those on the way -to execution. More, these women were wont to furnish the pain-dulling -herbs to victims dying condemned. You remember the Christ was offered -such herbs? When I remember the spirit that actuated Martha and Mary, I -readily believe they were members of that pious fraternity. More, when I -remember how, for His own dear sake, they ministered to His human wants, -there comes to my mind the possibility of a perpetual organization, for -God’s sake, ministering to human want, taking the home as its palace, and -to be known to the world by the expressive, winning title, ‘_Sisters of -Bethany_.’” - -“Miriamne, if you were not Miriamne, I’d call you Gabriel. I’m dazzled by -these words. In truth, thy ‘_grail_’ is near, I believe.” - -“That I seek to build up I’ve explained, and here in Bethany I’ll attempt -it. We’ll have a fraternity of women, Christ-guided, with burning hearts, -and in methods simple, direct and catholic, reaching after women.” - -“Now for our pillow prayer, Miriamne. Then side by side, unto wondrous -sleep land, side by side in heart and being at awakening. - -“‘The sun of the millennium will rise from behind the family altar,’ -Father Adolphus was wont to say. ’Twas well said; redeemed homes are the -fruits of the restoration. Shall I read to-night?” - -“Surely we need the Word to understand the throbbings of our own hearts -when our prayers return, dove-like, with olive branches from heaven.” - -“What shall I read?” - -“What came after Pentecost!” - -Then the husband opened to the Gospel Story, and remarking the -‘Ascension,’ read: - -“He was taken up, after that He through the Holy Ghost had given -commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: - -“To whom also He shewed himself alive after His passion by many -infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the -things pertaining to the kingdom of God: - -“When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, -wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel? - -“And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the -seasons, which the Father hath put into His own power. - -“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: -and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, -and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. - -“And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; -and a cloud received Him out of their sight. - -“And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, -two men stood by them in white apparel; - -“Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? -This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in -like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” - -“And His farewell happened at Bethany? It makes our home seem still more -like the gate of heaven, when I remember this; ‘He’ll come so as He -went;’ what if that meant His next advent is to be at this very place?” - -“Or, what if it meant that He would appear the second time, in glory, -at the homes of men; since He elected His home for the gateway of His -earthly exit,” replied the husband. Then they sat for a little while in a -blessed silence; that kind that falls upon souls bowing to a benediction, -or moved by thoughts that are holy beyond expression. - -The wife broke in on their reverie: “I wonder how His departure affected -the disciples?” - -“I have it all here, darling;” then he took one of his parchments and -read: - -“And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands, -and blessed them. - -“And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and -carried up into heaven. - -“And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: - -“And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. - -“And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with -them, and confirming the word with signs following.” - -“I knew it was as I thought! If believers are as they say, enlisted -soldiers, under the blood-stained banners, our Christ has not been true -to His word, or there is universal treason in the camp! The world is not -gospeled and the soldiers have not the miracle power. I tell you husband, -there is need of a revolution, a revival of zeal, an improvement of -methods! The Hospitaler was right. The Christian world needs to be led -along the _Via Dolorosa_ after Jesus and Mary, up to their measure of -utter consecration, to their undying love, to their lofty, soul consuming -zeal!” - -And the young gospel herald was silent, for he could not gainsay her. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVI. - -THE QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID. - - “The harp the monarch minstrel swept, - The king of men, the loved of heaven. - ... - It softened men of iron mold; - No ear so dull, no soul so cold - That felt not, fired not to the tone, - Till David’s lyre grew mightier than the throne; - Since then, though heard on earth no more, - Devotion, and her daughter, love, - Still bid the bursting spirit soar, - To sounds that seem as from above, - In dreams that day’s broad light can not remove.”—BYRON. - - “The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, ... - and caused a seat to be set for the king-mother, and she sat at - his right hand.”—1 KINGS, 2, 19. - - -“Miriamne, the heavenly host we imagined to be in bivouac about our -Bethany home, methinks were really present, and gave color and form to my -dreams. I was in a grail-quest all night.” - -“What a golden day is such a night! But tell me of the color and form of -your visions, Cornelius.” - -“We fell asleep last night conversing of the Ascension; my dreams carried -me on to Pentecost.” - -“And what have you brought from the dream-land to help in the stern and -pressing waking hours?” - -“A panting heart, as one having climbed mountain above mountain. I burn -to know and feel the whole significance of Pentecost! - -“I’ve determined to seek holy companionship and wise guiding by -attendance at the next ‘Harvest Feast’ at Jerusalem. I think I’ll get -peculiar help at the great city.” - -“The Israelites will not welcome a Christian to their feast.” - -“The one I aim to attend is that that will be observed by the Christian -knights in an upper room, in the great city. They think they have -possession of the identical apartment in which the disciples of our Lord -met and witnessed the glories of Pentecost, after the Ascension.” - -“In Joseph of Arimathæa’s house?” - -“That is the accepted report. The Hospitaler, whom we believe to be a -‘Grail Knight’ of to-day, is quite earnest in so affirming.” - -“Wondrous white-souled Arimathæa! Jewish and a priest, yet secretly -a disciple of Jesus! I dare to liken myself unto that holy man, in a -measure. He left an old faith for a new one, and followed the cup of the -Passion, as I, my ideal.” - -“_A good man and a just_,” says the Testament. - - * * * * * - -“We meet to-night in Arimathæa’s house,” said the Hospitaler to -Cornelius, shortly after the arrival and welcome of the latter at -Jerusalem. - -“Can the uninitiated attend?” questioned Cornelius. - -“Now, that’s the joy of it, they can; and more, we are to have a number -of Jews present, among them some once priests; but now like that Joseph -of blessed memory, seeing the true light.” - -“And the meeting?” - -“The exalting of the Word, that’s the need of the hour, world-wide. I -tell thee, young man, set to teach; the needs are not more religions but -more religion, not more revelators or prophets but surer interpreters. -The world blooms with truth on every hand; who will pluck the blossoms?” - -And the disciples were again, all with one accord, in the holy upper -chamber. - -The Hospitaler, with an abruptness of John the Baptist, merely throwing -back his tunic and exposing the golden sign of knighthood for a moment to -his companions, as he entered, at once began to address the assembly; - -“Jews and Gentiles, all children by creation of a common Father—greeting! -The fires of Pentecost are kindled everywhere in Jerusalem, but they are -the old fires and cold enough; sacrifices smoke on the altars, but the -day of such offerings is past. - -“Methinks, the offered bulls, goats and lambs, if they could speak, would -cry out against the priestly hands that shed their blood; ‘How long, -how long the blood of our flocks has pointed to the lamb of God, the -All-Savior, who died to save men from sin and beasts from the altar; and -yet we die as if our work were not finished!’ - -“The beasts join in the wailings of humanity. - -“For centuries God’s chosen people celebrated this feast of the harvest, -the joy of Jewry; and now the world’s harvest advenes. Yet, for the most -part, the multitudes see not the ripening. For years the first fruits -were offered, and as yet, the people do not understand that first fruits -mean chosen, choice fruits, the elect of God. - -“For centuries, Israel offered the shoulder and heart of the lamb, and -yet Israel waits under the overshadowing smokes of its burnt offering, -not discerning the Lamb Priest, whose heart of eternal love and shoulder -of power, are given for the salvation of the people. - -“Israelites, hear me; out of the altar’s smoke emerges to view the -kingdom of the house of David, refined, purified—the hope of the future. -Ye have thought, hitherto, that David’s kingdom, whatsoever it might have -been, is, in these ages, to be reckoned with the dynasties and forces of -an antiquity, whose influences long ago ebbed away along the shores of -the all-entombing past. - -“Yet such conclusion is as fallacious as it is evidently superficial. The -God who works in unbroken time cycles, though men remit their tasks at -the beck of sleep or death, pushes forth His forceful, faultless projects -with a tireless consistency that knows no cross purposes. A real and -present kingdom is that with which this Pentecost we have to do. We are -not, _at that time_ when _they shall bring out the bones of the kings of -Judah and spread them before the sun_. David’s throne is a verity, though -long incrusted with neglects; it is a symbol of power in a dynasty that -is ordained to overspread the earth. I’d summon my witnesses; first the -weeping Jeremiah. ‘Thus said the Lord: David shall never lack a man to -sit on the throne of the house of Israel.’ How bold! but amid the ruins -about us, I cry never! never! Now call the God-nourished captive Daniel, -who, sincere to the last, made all Babylon glow with his prayers and his -visions. Saith Daniel: - -“‘The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom that shall never be -destroyed.’ The dream is certain; the interpretation sure. He was proof -against the alluring blandishments of his royal captors, and as pure to -the last as a knight of San Grail.” - -Cornelius saw a light on the Hospitaler’s face, and knew it was that that -comes from a conscience clear before God. The latter went on with a voice -suddenly become tenderer than it was before. - -“Let us hear the reply of the converted pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar: -‘_Whose kingdom is from generation to generation!_’ - -“Hearken to Isaiah, to whom the scroll of human history through a -thousand generations then yet to come was present and lucid: ‘Unto us -a child is born ... his name shall be called Wonderful ... The Prince -of Peace.’ ‘Of the _increase_ of His government and peace there shall -be no end upon the throne of David to _establish_ it with judgment and -with justice from henceforth and _forever_.’ Surely he must be of dull -comprehension who saith this is only the spiritual, heavenly kingdom of -the glorified. - -“Let us stand for a little under the light of the blazing tongues of -Pentecost, enswathed in imagination by the mighty, rushing tide of Spirit -manifestation, fresh from the Being of the Almighty. Now listen to Peter, -transfigured and illuminated within and without. Error here, with him, -was impossible! Untruth at such a time would be a madness like that of -the attempted steadying of the ark. Saith Peter: ‘_David being a prophet -knowing that God had sworn to him that He would raise up Christ to sit -on his throne._’ Peter at last, a rock of God, I bless thee! Call that -archangel, who doth excel in strength, his name given him in heaven being -Gabriel, the ‘Champion of God.’ He certified his mission to Mary in terms -that can be made no finer: ‘_I am Gabriel, that STAND IN THE PRESENCE OF -GOD and sent to show thee glad tidings. Thou shalt bring forth a son. And -the Lord shall give unto Him the throne of His father David._’ Of His -Kingdom there shall be no end. These are ‘glad tidings,’ indeed, sung -as such to the joy and wonder of heaven, as well as proclaimed as the -sovereign comfort of earth’s inhabiters. - -“The splendid, earthly Kingdom outlined so gloriously by the prophets -has suffered no syncope, and David’s royal line has not found its end in -sepulchral palaces. That Kingdom and that line survives; their zenith not -yet attained. - -“In that zenith day, _Truth shall spring out of the earth, and -righteousness shall look down from heaven_. - -“So it was settled forever in heaven, for earth and to all eternity, that -in the vocabulary of divine wisdom, ‘first-born’ means ‘choice-born.’ -And he is choice-born no matter how ill his beginning, who is reborn by -the all-uplifting, renewing Spirit of Grace! Jesus, in marked manner, -even in this respect, parallels David in reäffirming in Himself this law -of His refined, exalted kingdom. The line of the Christ from remotest -generations is found to have deflected from the line of the first born. -His descent must be traced through Seth, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, -Judah, David, Solomon and Nathan, and still others, none of whom were -first in their advent into the families to which they belonged. Again, -the Christ and his progenitor, David, antagonized the barbarian tenet of -all ages that a man was to be honored merely because of his gigantesque -figure or prowess. In olden times men revered greatly the giantly. -Among the primitives to be a weakling was to be pitiable, and to be -huge to monstrosity was to be respected, if not actually worshiped. -Indeed, paganism in its essence is but homage paid to the great, that -is terrible. The princely David began his career in slaying wild beasts -and monstrous giants, but we may cease admiring the prowess he had -physically in greater admiration of the symbol that lies in his early -exploits. He was to be the giant-slayer; evil giants and giant evils -were to fall before him alike; and a shepherd’s little sling, in pious -hands, was shown to be invincible. In Solomon’s time, there was more -outward splendor, but less spirituality than in David’s time. The latter -witnessed the gilded decline in its beginnings. Decay followed swiftly. -The world sighed for a restoration; the heathen manufactured gods; the -Fire Worshipers followed stars; in the groves, virgins were, after a -sort, worshiped, as in the forest night-services of the old England of -some of you, the Druids prayed to a mystical ‘virgin that was to bring -forth.’ There was a common yearning for the coming of a Champion to lead -and defend the races of man. The yearning felt its way blindly toward the -wonder to be, that of a woman of the children of men, mothering One all -human, all divine, a Prince fit to link together the parts of David’s -kingdom, whether militant here or triumphant above. That full day has -begun, but is only dimly seen by many. You Jews have been wont to keep a -Pentecost of males only while Egypt deifies a woman as goddess of the -harvest. One turns to brawn, the other to the bringer forth, and neither -gets the truth, the royal truth, found in the faith that brings forth -through all humanity! - -“Would you see a real Pentecost? Now, look how the first was to the -fathers. The holy ones, among Christ’s followers, believing His promises, -assembled at Joseph of Arimathæa’s house, to await it. Hear the word: - -“And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, the -number of names together were about a hundred and twenty. - -“These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the -women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.” - -“Our holy Luke, said to have been an artist, artistically presents the -scene. As we read his record, we behold the ‘Queen of the House of -David,’ the representative woman; as she should be, in the company and -honor of God’s people. Not there as a beautiful creature to be admired; -but there to pray with those who prayed for the dawn and the glory. With -the genius of an artist, and the insight of a prophet, Luke displays his -ideal thus. The Scripture record closes, leaving the typical woman amid -God’s people, on her knees, waiting in hopefulness for the full dawn; -while for a little time over all falls the earnest of the promise in -miraculous displays from above. There was a rushing of mighty sounds, the -providences of God in motion, the movements of His spirits who minister, -for a time made visible! The scene was one never to be forgotten, and -the holy John, years after in the glowing visions of the Apocalypse, had -brought to his mind its central figure the woman clothed with the sun; -the transfigured woman, and she as woman in her highest estate; that is -mothering a child! He saw her rising above all perils, all evils; but as -she rose, she bore aloft her child, a Man Child! Look at the picture, men -and brethren, ’till it possesses your souls! BEHOLD THE WOMAN! Behold -the interlaced symbols! As a mother holds above peril her child, so the -peerless woman held aloft her Divine Babe; as the church holds aloft -its offspring, so also in the apotheosis of the ideal mother, comes the -uplifting of man’s hopes, and the triumph of all that is best, all that -is promised. We see to-day, but the smoke side of Pentecost, by and by -we’ll see, as do those in heaven, its fire side.” - -The speaker ceased his address, and all were filled with great and moving -thoughts. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVII. - -THE CORONATION OF THE QUEEN. - - “My knowledge is so weak, oh, blissful queen, - To tell abroad thy mighty worthiness, - That I the weight of it may not sustain; - But as a child of twelve months’ old or less - That laboreth his language to express, - Even so fare I and therefore pray, - Guide thou my song which I of thee may say.”—WORDSWORTH. - - -“If I could only carry to Bethany what I feel now!” ejaculated the young -chaplain, as he hurried along from the knights’ celebration of Pentecost, -homeward, at the time that the Moslems were summoned to evening prayers -by the minaret calls. - -After his greeting, on arriving at his abode, his first words were: “I’ve -seen the crowns of fire, and now comprehend the meaning of Pentecost, -where men gathered from varied climes, heard each the spirit’s message in -his own tongue! The Spirit is the interpreter!” - -“By what aid came this revelation?” - -“God and the Hospitaler.” - -“We have the first here; let us call the other, that the temple on the -hill be made to feel the glow. The time is opportune, for each day -witnesses new triumphs of our cause.” - -When the knight arrived a feast was in progress. His air awed those to -whom he was a stranger, and there were not a few who thought within -themselves, - -“Is he a prophet?” - -Abruptly, as usual, he began: - -“Friends: I would that all hearts here were moved by justice to enthrone -the Queen whose praise your frank youths have been sincerely singing. I -am here to-day to proclaim her rights, and in so doing I shall appeal to -that sure word which survives when all else fails. She was of David’s -royal line; the noblest one of all the earth. To the proof? The Christian -Scriptures, from the hands of Matthew and Luke, present her ancestral -descent. These apostles wrote as God directed, and, after all, only -reaffirmed that already set forth in the most carefully, religiously -guarded records of all antiquity, the Jewish genealogical tables. - -“You know that the ancient Jews held those tables in sacred regard, for -on their integrity depended the proof of the things to them most dear, -as they believed. By them every Jew could trace his Abrahamic descent, -and to Abraham’s seed were all the great promises of the covenant. By -those tables they proved their title to the land of promise, Canaan. -Every Jew, believing himself one of God’s chosen people, and that his -advancement and the advancement of his posterity in the Divine favor, -depended on the purity of the blood of both, felt that he needed the -guidance of those tables to preserve him from any admixture with alien or -Gentile blood. The Aaronic priesthood was hereditary and the priesthood -was initial in the religious system of the Hebrews. Its legitimacy was -preserved chiefly by these hereditary charters. Then all true Israelites -looked for the coming of a Savior, Priest and King to bring to the chosen -transcendent glory, and to win an universal dominion, marked by love, joy -and peace. Every Jew knew that Great One was to spring from the house of -David, and all within that Judaic line hoping that he or his children -might be near akin to the One to come, carefully, constantly, proudly -guarded and studied these records of descent. Birth was the foundation -upon which all Jewish institutions were founded. ‘_So all Israel was -reckoned by genealogies._’ They lived in a reign of blood, and in blood -to be Jewishly thoroughbred was, they thought, to be most highly favored. -They had not yet discerned the law of the new dispensation, which -declares all men akin; a dispensation seeking to build up a superior -humanity by first of all transforming and exalting the inner life. By the -revered records of these Jewish patriarchs, both holy and love-ladened, -place the writings of Matthew and Luke, and with concurrent testimony, -unimpeachable as well as conclusive, the legitimacy of Jesus the son of -Mary is proven! He was beyond a cavil of David’s kingly line. There were -Christ-haters who contested at every point His claim of Messiahship. They -forged lies freely; they hurled after Him slanders innumerable; they -insinuated that He was born in fornication; they affected to flee from -Him as one having a devil; they denounced Him to Jewish as well as Roman -authorities as a liar, a seducer of men and a traitor. In a word, they -howled Him down in every way they could, unabashed by the splendor of His -baptismal indorsement, unsilenced by the awful warnings of His cross. But -in their desperation they never dared to challenge the records which -proved Him ‘_the son of David_.’ Now had His claims rested upon His -relations to His earthly father, Joseph, they would have been disproven. -All Jewry would have quickly, fiercely proclaimed Him a pretender and -not in the family of promise. The Christ was heir of David’s name and -fame because His mother was, and so in exalting Him you crown the saintly -woman who bore Him! He was the adopted son of Joseph, type of all His -followers, adopted sons of a Royal Father. He was legitimate through his -mother, type of all his followers, brought into the royal family of God -by the power of a mystic new birth. - -“But there is another line running backward, preserved through the -centuries to connect the first Adam with this last one. This line runs -from Christ through his mother to Eden. Behold the august truth suspended -by that chain of names! Names; only names of the dead! names of the -forgotten! Jesus by Mary is linked to the chain! It’s an old, old chain, -but yet it has gems in its links. Each named is the child of another -living before, and the history of each is recorded in two words, ‘begat,’ -‘died.’ A chain of dust! One man precedes another. Each in turn vanishes -until immortality is confronted in the last sentence: ‘_Adam, who was -the son of God!_’ The first mortal son of God uncrowned and led away -from his kingdom, by a woman, to death! The twain go down together, each -ruinous to the other, with nothing left them but a hope; and that hope -rested upon a to them mysterious promise: ‘_The seed of the woman shall -crush the head of the serpent!_’ It would have staggered their faith had -one told them that in God’s revenges, all compensating, all healing, -she that led down was of the sex that should lead upward. Out of their -darkness there came a seeming dawn, and Eve cried ecstatically at the -birth of Cain: - -‘I have gotten a man from the Lord!’ - -“They thought he was a token of renewed favor and probably the redeemer -from the curse. He turned out a murderer, and introduced them to the -supreme horror of humanity—death. The conflict of light and darkness went -on, and the first pair tasted death themselves, looking along the horizon -of unrealized hopes to the last and waiting, as all their posterity -through painful centuries waited, for the Man that was to save. The long -years with leaden tread marched on, struggles amid suffering weighty and -countless, accompanied the race; of them all woman bore the heavier part, -but she kept somehow the larger hope. Each Jewish mother, with a pride of -sex secretly cherished, watched and longed for the coming from herself of -the ONE who was to lift her up and crown her queen, indeed. - -“God at last gathered all woman’s trustful hopings into one great -answered prayer, and deigning, in sovereign love, His marvelous -co-operation, brought forth another and a perfect Adam. - -“We are informed that Joseph and Mary went, about the time of Jesus’ -birth, in compliance with Roman law, to Bethlehem to pay their personal -taxes. The Roman tax lists were based upon the records of family descent -so far as concerned the Jews. - -“To make the collection certain beyond the possibility of any one’s -escape, the law required each taxable subject to pay his allotted tribute -in the city of his nativity. The father and mother of Jesus were cited -to the city of David. Thither they went. And so in the providence of God -it happened that pagan Rome was summoned to the cradle of the infant -Savior and made unwittingly an attester to all time that He was of a -family by right recorded among those descended from great David. - -“The son and the mother here stand or fall together. If Mary was not of -David’s line, then the Son she bore was not, and He is left without proof -of being of the seed of David. - -“Joseph was not the father of the Christ _after the flesh_. The lives of -mother and son are eternally intertwined. If we honor one we must needs -honor the other; abating the fame of one we degrade the other. - -“Jesus’ claims to being the Messiah depended upon the fact that His -mother was of the tribe and family royal. The absolute requirements -of prophecy can only be met in the Messiah by His being of the House -of David. Jesus himself admitted and fairly met this necessity. So -he questioned the Pharisees: ‘What think ye of Christ? Whose son is -he?’ ‘They say unto him, the Son of David.’ Admitting this, the Savior -propounded the question involving sonship and spiritual unity with God -which His questioners could not answer: - -“‘If David then call him Lord, how is he son?’ - -“‘_Neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions._’ - -“Had He denied the necessity of Davidic origin they could have -overwhelmed Him with Scriptures. Had he not been of that family the most -ignorant Jew would have promptly rejected His claims to being the Hope of -Israel. - -“Peter the apostle, amid the soul-trying solemnities of Pentecost, -speaking to the representatives of people from all parts of the earth -and for all time, cried: ‘Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you -concerning the Patriarch David: Being a prophet, and knowing God had -sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, _according to -the flesh_, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.’ - -“This orator spoke then with the accuracy of one in the presence of the -Holy Ghost, and not only made sincere, but illuminated, by the torch of -God. This is conclusive, but the reiteratives of the inspired writers -justify us in presenting their cumulative evidence. - -“After Peter comes the learned Hebrew of the Hebrews, Paul; before his -conversion to Christianity declaring himself to have been ‘after the most -straightest sect a Pharisee;’ after that conversion, rejoicing to the end -of life, as of the true, new Israel by faith in Him that makest all new. - -“Twice Paul met Mary’s son mysteriously, face to face, within the very -confines of Glory. Let Paul speak: ‘Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, -separated unto the gospel of God, concerning His Son, our Lord, which was -made of the seed of David according to the flesh!’ - -“Let us not longer make a mock of eternal, holy verities! Christ was of -David’s flesh through His mother, and born to be a real king of a real -kingdom, not a phantom kingdom! That kingdom must come; yea, blessed be -Jehovah! it is coming. - -“Joseph, the putative father of Jesus, adopted Jesus as his son, but he -could not, by that legal act, make his foster son, whose father was the -Holy Spirit of the seed of David, _after the flesh_! Jesus received, -then, His royal blood from Mary, and bore His Kingly title after the -flesh as ‘_the crown wherewith his mother crowned Him_.’ Revelations -harmonize; Luke and Matthew must therefore agree with Paul and Peter. - -“The tables of Luke and Matthew agree down to David’s time, but then -they diverge, until they are converged in Jesus, through the undoubted -legitimacy of Mary as a descendant of David and the adoption of Jesus -by Joseph, a scion of another branch of the same great family. Luke -gives a sentence, all luminous, but first puzzling: ‘_Jesus himself -began to be about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son -of Joseph, which was the son of Heli._’ ‘Ah, as was _supposed!_’ sneers -the infidel. ‘As was _supposed!_ SUPPOSED!!’ hatefully shouts some -insinuating, ignorant Jews! But now let us fill out, naturally, Luke’s -statement, ‘as was supposed, the son of Joseph, but in reality the son -of Heli.’ But here it may be asked, was Jesus the son of Heli? It is, -I answer, not infrequently in the Scriptures that a grandson is called -a son. Jesus was probably the grandson of Heli. It was a common custom -of the Jews, except in cases of especial necessity, not to record the -names of women in tracing lines of descent. Men kept the books, and it -had become a habit with the lords of creation to thrust woman into the -background. Mary was too insignificant a person, socially considered, in -her time, to be registered in her own name in the hereditary charters. -Joseph was put in her stead, as her representative. There was not any -supposition about the descent of Mary, but these scribes, who had charge -of the books, thought it were more creditable to the male sex to record -Joseph as the father of Jesus, and, by a little fiction, suppose him to -have descended through the former from Heli, than to say Mary descended -from Heli and Jesus descended from Mary. The Romans encouraged this, -and also the politicians. Men were the only ones to fight or pay taxes, -and, as political factors, were strictly watched by those in authority. -Luke, in reality, gives Mary’s line. He was scholarly and accurate, -besides that a physician, and we judge by all experience that there is -that in the profession of medicine which makes its followers tender -toward all suffering, consequently especially tender to women, the -largest inheritors of the pains that beset our race. Doctor Luke, like -those of his fraternity, by an act of graceful justice, in the spirit of -Christianity which is essentially humane, just, and courtly, accorded -gladly the woman her place. But the ‘_doomsday books_’ of the Jews, -containing their family trees or genealogies, perished with the perishing -of the Jewish nation. Those records had done their work; it was time for -them to go. They had become by misuse agencies of evil. They stood long -enough to demonstrate that God works through cycles vastly wide, and that -His definite promise made to Adam, Abraham and many of their successors, -had finally been fulfilled, at the end of thousands of years, with a -miraculous explicitness. The records disappeared after Christ came, and -herein was a providence saying to the watchers: ‘He is come. No need -further of the patents of His ancestry to aid your watching.’ More than -that, they being gone, no other could arise claiming to be Shiloh, with -hope of convincing any by appeal to proof from the records of ancestry. - -“Shiloh and his white kingdom have come. It is ruling the earth; not -in memories of its mighty dead, but by its regal, potent virtues and -charities. The battering rams of Titus destroyed wall and Holy Temple, -but thus was let in new dawn. Above the storm of that awful conflict the -spiritual may discern in living letters the mightly words of God which -dispelled disordering darkness from the universe at the beginning: ‘_Let -there be light_,’ and, indeed, ‘light was.’ The obliterated records of -Jewish ancestral lines, on which alone many a worthless child of Abraham -based his claims to superiority, his right to despise and neglect his -fellow men, his justification to tyrannize, and finally his hope of favor -with God, ceased to present their sturdy barriers to the entering in of a -better hope. Then came in the beginning of this new era; now the patent -of nobility is noble character; this is the time to be marked by an -universal recognition of universal brotherhood in a kingdom where there -is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female. A kingdom -where righteousness, impartial justice, liberty, equality, purity and -humanity are to be the regnant potencies. In this kingdom, how fittingly, -Christ stands as the king and ideal of man, and how fittingly his mother -supplements his sway by being presented herself to all womankind as a -queenly ideal. Let him or her dispute her title, who can surely say -the earth, in this redemption period, needs no such sublime epitome of -womanly virtue and worthfulness. - -“My words are ended for to-day, assembled men and women. Some of these -things spoken may seem like deep sayings, but I leave them to find their -lodgment in your hearts and minds. I trust them, knowing that Truth has a -sword which cuts her way, each sweep of that sword making light.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVIII. - -THE “LIGHT OF THE HAREM” IN “THE TEMPLE OF ALLEGORY.” - - “Would I had fallen upon those happier days, - And those Arcadian scenes.... - Vain wish! Those days were never! airy dreams - Sat for the picture, and the poet’s hand - Imposed a gay delirium for a truth. - Grant it; I still must envy them an age - That favored such a dream; in days like these - Impossible when virtue is so scarce, - That to suppose a scene where she presides - Is tramontane, and stumbles all belief.”—YOUNG. - - “The glory of the Lord came from the way of the east, ... and - the earth shined with His glory. Thou son of man show the house - to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their - iniquities, and let them measure the pattern.”—EZEKIEL, xliii. - - -“My Cornelius once said I might expend the fortune coming from my -grandfather, Harrimai, as I chose.” - -“Why, that’s so without my saying. I did not court your grandfather, nor -his ownings, and have gotten affluence beyond the wildest dreams of a -lover in Miriamne’s self.” - -“I think the old church on the hill is smiling day by day, more and more.” - -“I’ve noted the improvement, and it assures me our hearers are growing. -A meanly kept sanctuary, witnesses of starved worshipers. Some churches -might be called stables for all-devouring, nothing-giving, lean kine.” - -“I’d like to be brought to confession; question me!” - -“Question? I can not doubt either Miriamne or her doings; to question, -one must doubt.” - -“Sir Courtly! But I’ll flank your courtesy; I’ve purchased and furbished -up the old ecclesiastical pile.” - -“I might have guessed it was Miriamne’s work! Now, good Bishop of -Bethany, appoint me Rector.” - -“Churchman forever! We’ll have no Rector.” - -“No Rector? No sermons? No congregation?” - -“We’ll have a multitude, if we can get into the place the God-shine; that -brightens and draws ever.” - -“Allurement by light! A new device. Are we to have a tryst where -lotus-dreamers may take sun-baths?” - -“Curiosity, too proud to question directly, travels around with -banterings.” - -“Incisive Miriamne, my ægis, thin as paper, is shredded: I confess!” - -“Confession compels pardon and counsel. I’ll give both. The restored -sanctuary is to be the capitol of our fraternity, the ‘_Sisters of -Bethany_.’” - -“Capitol? Are you inviting the Sultan to take your homes and your heads? -A capitol sounds like politics, revolution and things governmental.” - -“There is to be war and a revolution; our munitions are to be solely -moral agencies; our aim, to revolve the world around toward Paradisiacal -days. I’d have parting streams flow out from Bethany to water the -earth, and sing anew the jubilant strains of Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel and -Euphrates.” - -“Arcadia! Alas, how sad such dreams, because so impossible to realize. -The Arcadians, so charming in the poet’s pictures, were, in fact, very -warlike, very loutish, very human.” - -“Say not that what has been must always be. Moses, at a time when Israel -was at its lowest dip, received of God a pattern of the Tabernacle. The -God of Moses is unchangeable. I’ve gotten from Him a pattern, also.” - -“And now I question, as you wish!” - -“The old sanctuary is to be a ‘_Temple of Allegory_.’ We shall attempt -therein to picture the finest truths by symbols that shall make them -tangible and irresistible.” - -“A splendid ambition! Possess me of your intricacies of canon and -catechism. I’d accept them.” - -“You overlook our simplicity by expecting complexity. We shall not walk -like ghosts, hampered by the grave-clothes of the dead, though august -forms. Seven words, enough for each day of the round week, are our whole -profession: ‘_Humanity toward humanity, with godliness toward God._’” - -As they conversed, they walked toward the old sanctuary at the suburbs of -Bethany, and now were drawing near it. - -“Behold, Miriamne, the Hospitaler; yonder.” - -“Yes, I’ve called the knights hither; the Hospitaler will dedicate our -temple to-day.” - -“But has he ecclesiastical authority so to do?” - -“The same authority that these growing shrubs and vines have to make the -place beautiful. See, I’ve pierced the walls of the grim pile, wherever I -could, to make a window. The Hospitaler is to take them for a theme.” - -“Windows for themes?” - -“He is able; and understands by them that we’d have let into musty -beliefs floods of sweet light.” - -“The knights are singing!” - -“Yes, the Grail song, ‘_Faint though pursuing_;’ the dedication has -commenced.” - -The words sung recited the grail quest; but its chorus, a simple one, -was much the same as that sung at the May-day festivities on a former -occasion. The people gathered, heartily joined in the chorus. When the -singing ceased, the Knight, in his usual abrupt manner, began addressing -the assembly: - - “The beloved young missioners have undertaken, by means of - their handiwork here, to strikingly present the noblest truths, - and they have taken a step in the right direction. Love for the - pictorial, manifest especially in children, grows with growth; - those adult needing and seeking, as they grow, finer, grander - symbols. Our Divine Lord, who ‘_knew men_’ and ‘_knew_ what - was in man,’ did not rebuke, but rather utilized this taste - of man, by teaching the profoundest things of His Kingdom by - means of it. He came as close as close could be to the very - core of human life, as it was or to all time will be. While - He might have navigated Galilee in a palatial barge, borne - over be-flowered waves by perfumed breezes and golden wings, - with the aureoled spirits, ‘_who do excel in strength_,’ by - thousands, to escort Him, He chose rather to journey in an - all-winning humility, borrowing, as He had need, the old - boat of some poor Tiberian fisherman. He might have entered - Jerusalem, that last time, in an Elijah-like chariot, dazzling - the city with splendors surpassing those that the rapt John - beheld on Patmos; but the King of Glory, seeking to be the - King of all men, elected in that supreme moment to get near to - men by approaching the august courts of Herod and Caiphas, and - the commons as well, on an ass—an humble beast, and borrowed - at that. All this allegorized the condescension and sympathy - of Jehovah. The universe is full of patterns! The books of - Nature, Revelation, and Providence, having a common authority, - are constant in the use of pictured truth. Nature gives us the - dawning of light and the marshaling of order out of darkness - and chaos. There is the low earth, the high firmament, ripe - summer going down into the winding sheets of winter and up - to the resurrections of spring. Twig, flower, seed, forest; - insect that creeps, and bird that flies; the speck-life moved, - and the behemoth; the atom and the planet-system—waning and - growing, dying and living, from formlessness to beauty, from - time to eternity! Then take the inspired picture-history: - Eden’s fall, Egyptian captivity, the Red Sea passage, the - wilderness, the manna by the way, the rest by the Mount of the - Law, the entrance to the Promised Land. Lastly, the Incarnate - One, an eternal symbol, the realization and fulfillment of all - preceding. ‘Which things are an allegory,’ exclaimed Paul, with - a sweeping back-look. The three books present to the thoughtful - pictured banners innumerable, to wave him onward. This temple - is dedicated to the purpose of pointing to these pictures. - Fitly the ‘angels of the mount’ have determined to make - prominent the beautiful, patient, modest Mary, Mother of Jesus. - And to study her intelligently or profitably, it is necessary - to know her not only as an historical personage, but as one - in the cavalcade of symbolism unfolded by Sacred Writ and by - Nature. She passes by, herself every way unique, the exemplar - of God to those aspiring after gentle, devout girlhood, - pure and wise maiden-life, constant wifehood, and patient, - consecrated, and influential motherhood. Turn again to the - Divine Word, the beacon of the ages, the history of Providence, - the solver of life’s problems. It is made up of an entrancing - array of symbols, types, prophetic dramas, and gorgeously - constructed visions, constantly representing or dextrously - pointing, by countless trophies and allegories, to its Ideal - and Darling, Mary’s Son, _who ‘spoke as man never spake, yet - who without a parable spake nothing.’_ Though the literary ages - are strewn with long winrows of dead books, no work of man long - surviving the mutations of time, God’s picturesque handiwork, - the inspired volume, as potently molds the thoughts, charms - the affections and quickens the hopes of our race with its - tokens, types, idyls and illustration as it did when the earth - was younger by far than it is now. It is a living fountain, - not only giving, but retaining its immortality! It abides - because it masterfully deals with the things that pertain to - the wonderland of the soul. How necessary its methods is at - once apparent to any one who considers, discerningly, man as - a complex union of spirit and matter; wonderful forever, but - ‘_very good_,’ since the All Holy, Great High Priest performed - the nuptial ceremony of that union. If there could be found a - being able to reason, as a man, who had not within himself this - unity, and who had never experienced its phenomena, such would - at once combat the possibility of its existence. Even those - so organized, and momentarily realizing the jointure of the - God-like spirit with the earthly body, the higher condescending - to and communing with the inferior, the inferior at times - over-persuading, dominating and utterly shipwrecking its great - spiritual co-partner, are compelled to admit the whole as being - a fact without parallel, alike inscrutable and bewildering. A - life-time of profoundest introspection can carry the greatest - mind, herein, only to the confines of new wonders. But the - interest in the study of the unwritten, unvoiced language of - symbolisms by which the wonderfully united twain, soul and - body, confer and commune with each other deepens with the - study. What a fine, expressive, rapid, exact, exalted language - that must be! To each well understood; without their arcana - unknown, unheard, incomprehensible. And it is of necessity - all symbol, natural, intuitive, without a single arbitrary - sign! This sign-language acts by _symbol_ in the royal temple - of memory and imagination. And so again we perceive the - representative, picturesque or typical is the medium of the - fine, the deep and the lofty in expressing truth. This is the - soul’s language, by which it communes with whatever else there - is in man, through which it receives the songs of Heaven, - and the august or tender messages of the Spirit, out of the - deathless land. - - “When this sphere of ours was rolling swiftly onward through - the shadows of night, as well as swiftly downward through - darker shadows of sin, Divine love said ‘Let there be light.’ - Then the hosts of heaven saw at Bethlehem a mother and babe - marking the place of world-dawn, unfolding the design of - Deity to effect redemption by touching the race of man at - infancy; the most effective because the most plastic point; - through motherhood the most influential because the tenderest - instrumentality. The never-to-be-forgotten spectacle thrilled, - with a new ecstasy, the beings of glory whose every throb - of life is joy. They tracked the heavens about with light as - they sped out to keep abreast the fleeing earth and shout over - Bethlehem, ‘Glad tidings! Glad tidings!’ They saw Eden restored - through the advent of a new, pure home; they saw a mystic - covenant between God and man typified in the child begotten of - a human mother in conjunction with the Eternal Father. By this - there seemed to be an attesting that humanity was to be raised - to Divine favor; there also was a symbol showing the value of - law; for through the incarnation, Deity, in the form of a babe, - became submissive to law administered by a mortal mother. - - “He is blind who can not see in all these things God’s purpose - to elect some of His creatures to be His co-laborers in the - choicest co-operations, and also to be exemplars of what He - does and would do. These things being so, we do well to learn - the alphabet of His goodness from His elect heroes, heroines - and saints; and I proclaim to-day my innermost belief in Christ - as the argument, logic and fruit of God’s love; but, at the - same time, I praise, as one enravished, the character of her - who was God’s poem, God’s peroration! We now proclaim this - temple dedicated to the purposes of showing forth the things I - have spoken.” - -The Hospitaler abruptly ceased his address, as he began it. There were -other services consisting of psalm-singing and prayers, and the service -was ended. - -As the congregation dispersed, the young missioner, Cornelius, exclaimed: -“Miriamne, the Hospitaler has awakened me as from sleep by God’s truth. -Oh, the heavens are not as full of shining stars as God’s truth is full -of beauty! It seems strange that men like myself, and wiser, are so long -in bringing these things to their minds. You, my dear little mystic, are -my interpreter. - -“It’s just as I told you, wife. We must go in pairs. In the Egyptian -mythologies, Osiris had his Isis, Amen-Ra his Maut, and Kneph his Sate. -Thank God I have my adolescent other self!” - -“I, a woman, help you? My sex is honored by the praise. Are they worthy -of all they need? Is it madness to seek to gather all women having gifts -and needs into a helped and helping fraternity whose creed is a fine -example? If I help Cornelius, cannot a peerless one like Mary help all?” - -“Pardon the thought, but one word haunts me—idolatry!” - -“Impossible! We all need soul company, and have room within for such. We -must have an inner population of real heroines and heroes or be filled -with ghosts and myths. The empty soul, eaten up with self-worship, goes -mad; the myth-possessed becomes an idolater. If we harbor the God-like, -keeping the highest place for Deity, our inner selves will be no hideous -chambers of imagery, but a counterpart of heaven.” - -“But some have fallen into putting Mary before Jesus, and so we’ve seen -the advent of Mariolatry.” - -“But this only, and surely, here I know, no friend of the Divine Son -can dethrone Him by honoring her, aright; indeed, as He, Himself, did. -It was of Him she spoke when exclaiming: ‘_My soul doth rejoice in God -my Savior!_’ Can one truly honor Him and despise and ignore the woman -who gave Him human birth? Can one have His mind and forget her for whom -love was uppermost to Him in His supreme last hours? Can one honor her -aright, and yet dethrone the Son whom she enthroned? She bore Him, then -lived for Him. She honored herself in bearing Him, and was His mother, -His teacher and His disciple. He revered her, she worshiped Him. Awed by -His augustness, she was yet conscious of an ownership of His greatness; -believing in His divinity, she yet enjoyed the nearness to Him of a -mother.” - -“I can not but believe that she is a queen, indeed, high among the -glorified who reign with God! I question again: Who ever did, or could, -become heretic or carnal by sincerely revering the peerless woman whom -Christ enthroned on His heart?” - -“I know at least that the fathers at imperial and pagan Rome placed a -representation of Mary in their Pantheon when public policy made it an -imperative necessity to overthrow the influence of the lewd, fanciful and -ungodly ideals that had been set up therein,” responded Cornelius. - -“The world is a Pantheon full of corrupt ideas. Let us raise high the -choice ones God has sent us—But see, yonder is the wife of a poor old -Druse camel-driver. She was once a sinner in the streets of Jerusalem. -Now she is a Sister of Bethany, allured to goodness by our Temple’s -allegories!” - -“A woman that was a sinner, a scarlet woman?” - -“Only such. No; all of that! One woman; a lost one? How little to man; -how much to God! Had nothing else been done, heaven would have been set -singing, as ever, over a sinner’s return. That’s reward enough for all -we’ve attempted.” - -“Now I’m interested, indeed!” - -“Well you may be, when you hear all. We’ve here one once a harem beauty, -who, having lost her power to fascinate, was committing her life to that -hag-cunning belonging to old women who supplement their decaying power by -wickedness, fox-like and serpentine.” - -“The old, old story; yet I thank God if her life be sweetened.” - -“Hers is a strange story.” - -“May I know it?” - -“Yes; it is, as I’ve gathered it in scraps, a sad romance. She was born -of Georgian parents, among the mountains of Armenia, and gifted, in her -youth, as are most of those of her sex in that country, with unusual -personal beauty. She early attracted the attention of the monsters -who dealt in human flesh, and a Georgian noble unrighteously claiming -her family as his serfs, bartered away Nourahmal to merchants seeking -recruits for Mameluke harems. She became, in time, part of the retinue of -a sheik by the name of Azrael, a desperate adventurer, who, on account -of his blood-deeds, was called by his followers the ‘Angel of Death,’ -His luxurious and desperate way of living justified his claim to Turkish -extraction; his adroitness and avidity for intrigue stamped him as a -Mameluke.” - -“Nourahmal? Azrael? Why, these must be the same of whom I’ve heard Sir -Charleroy speak?” queried Cornelius. - -“The same!” - -“She comes out of the past as one from the dead!” - -“And her story is a series of strange events. It is as follows: Azrael -suspected her of having abetted the escape of my father and Ichabod, -therefore determined to kill her. She gained a temporary respite through -having saved her master’s life from an assassin plotting to supplant him; -though she periled her own in so doing. - -“As Azrael awaited her recovery from the wounds she had suffered in -his behalf, he devised another scheme which he hoped would compass his -favorite’s destruction and his own elevation. He was ambitious to be -Sherif of Mecca. To attain that honor he saw he must needs do something -to enhance his popularity greatly with his Mohammedan followers, and so -conceived the plan of getting into his power, Harrimai of the Jews and -Adolphus of the Christians. His purpose was to rack those two leaders -into apostasy and the betrayal of their followers. Had he succeeded, the -event would have been crushing to Jews and Christians east of Jordan. -He promised Nourahmal her freedom and restoration to her Georgian home -if she aided him in his design; though he did not disclose his purpose -to her beyond that of securing the presence of Von Gombard and Harrimai -in his camp. She felt that there was some malign, hidden purpose in her -master’s breast, but deemed it expedient, at the outset, to seem to -co-operate in his plan.” - -“But how was the sheik using his strategy against Nourahmal?” - -“As a fiend! He, having no conception of a friendship between a man and -a woman that was pure and free from intrigue, suspected the relations -between his favorite and Ichabod. He thought the two only needed the -opportunity to precipitate into perfidy. He laid his plan darkly, and, -leaving a trusty follower to carry it out, hastened forward to Mecca.” - -“But surely, Nourahmal was not what he thought her!” - -“No; though training her as a plastic child, he judged she was what he -had tried to make her; at her worst she was. But let me continue. The -assault on my parents and Ichabod, on the road between Gerash and Bozrah, -was the opening of the drama. The plan then was to seize Rizpah, and -under pretense of negotiating for her ransom, inveigle Harrimai into the -hands of Azrael’s followers. Nourahmal was to aid in this by affecting -tears, pleading for pity and suggesting the sending for the girl’s -father.” - -“What besetments perilous we pass through, all unknown to us! Harrimai -and your parents, to their death, never suspected the devices worked -against them!” - -“Nor dreamed that a harem favorite, a mere girl, and an utter stranger to -them, was their good angel!” - -“Good angel! How?” - -“She witnessed the assault from behind a sequestering wall, in company -with a follower of the sheik, commissioned to kill her instantly if she -faltered in the part appointed her. This infernal guard was also charged -to insinuate into her mind the feasibility of elopement with Ichabod. If -she could be compromised, Azrael knew he could justify her death to those -who remembered her heroic defense of himself. That was to follow as soon -as she had done her part in inveigling Harrimai to Azrael’s camp.” - -“A demonstration of a personal devil, Miriamne.” - -“I’d say rather of an overruling God.” - -“How fared Nourahmal after Azrael’s chagrin?” - -“Cornelius anticipates me. When she saw Ichabod fall, a sudden desire -for liberty for herself and to help the imperiled Rizpah, prompted her -to drive a dagger into the heart of her guard and cry, ‘Rescuers come!’ -That cry drove the remnants of the assailers of Sir Charleroy to sudden -flight. She asserted to the fugitives that Laconic, the new runner, just -passing, had slain her guard, and so allayed suspicion until opportunity -of escape came. She soon made her way to Bozrah, where she found among -the Christians a temporary home. From thence she drifted into Jerusalem.” - -“’Twas strange she did not turn toward Gerash.” - -“I said as much to her, but desire to get as far as possible from -Azrael, and as near as possible to the Holy City, of which Ichabod had -so glowingly spoken to her, determined her course; besides that, Ichabod -being dead, Gerash was a strange place to her—Jerusalem seemed to her, -she said, near heaven.” - -“Had she only known it, she was near heaven in Bozrah, being near Von -Gombard.” - -“Her story weaves a chaplet for his tomb to-day; for now it appears that -from Nourahmal the old priest foreknew the intention of those Saracens, -who assailed the city that day I was with him. Though they designed -capturing him to put him on the rack, he rushed into the conflict, -crying, ‘Kill the foe with kindness!’ The assault would have been fatal -to Bozrah, too, had not the leader of one of the invading bands ordered -a retreat, just at the point of victory. This was indirectly Nourahmal’s -work; for that leader had been won by her to esteem Christians far enough -to be unwilling to murder them, though not adverse to plundering them. -That was a great improvement in a Mohammedan.” - -“And Nourahmal knows from you that you are Sir Charleroy’s daughter?” - -“Yes, by that I won her confidence. Indeed, she began this confidence at -first, by saying, ‘I love you, because you so remind me, angel of the -mount, of a Christian knight, who was the dear friend of the only pure -and unselfish man I knew in all my youth! Such words led to questions -and explanations. The rest you know.” - -“And you have allured, comforted and enlightened her?” - -“By God’s help, I have. I have told her of the universal sisterhood, of -all women, who take as their exemplar the worthy mother of the One who -proclaimed the universal brotherhood of man. This knowledge is her joy -and inspiration. When I am with her, she never tires of hearing of the -‘Queen of David’s House,’ the mother of mothers.” - -“But how have you allured her hither, Miriamne?” - -“You have questioned curiously with your eyes, at least, concerning those -gated alcoves and curtained balconies in our Temple of Allegory. They -helped her!” - -“Since you say they are not ‘Confessionals,’ as I call them, tell me what -they are?” - -“‘Rock clefts’ our sisterhood calls them; some are doors to little -adjacent chapels; some are quiet resting places, where, in impressive -solitude, souls in prayer may find the mountain manna, for which the -Savior sought in many a lone night-watching; and some are places where -are presented, under entrancing symbols, exalting truths.” - -“Words have failed to turn the world to faith: may signs do better.” - -“I’ve put truth into visible form, that they who get it here may learn -that truth thus is only up to its full might. I’d have my followers -believe in visible, not phantom, truth; so believing, truth will not be a -ghostly proclamation, the toy of the mind, but a force moving hands and -hearts!” - -“And you have met Nourahmal’s case?” - -“Yes; fully in what we call the ‘Lover’s Bower,’ yonder. Remember she has -been the victim of mock love, from first to last.” - -“The ‘Lover’s Bower’?” - -“Behold the trophy and the bower! There is Nourahmal, now rapturously -contemplating the picture of Joseph putting the ring of espousal on the -hand of the Virgin Mary.” - -“Nourahmal? That gray-haired, hard-faced woman, holding the hand of a -charming girl?” - -“That is Nourahmal; the younger woman is Beulah, her grand-daughter; they -two are almost inseparable now.” - -“An oleander by a limestone cliff! And so she takes her station by a -scene of betrothal, forgetting that hymen’s altars can be fired by youth -alone!” - -“The world says so; but yet a disappointed life may sometimes learn why -it has been a failure, by studying the ashes of time gone in the light of -quickened memories.” - -“What finds Nourahmal there?” - -“Golden lessons. First for her grand-daughter, her idol. She never tires -of saying before yon picture to that maiden now her charge: ‘My flower, -my lamb, be always as pure as the espoused of Joseph, and you will be a -jewel which your husband, if he be a true man, will ever proudly wear on -as his heart. My flower, my lamb, no woman should leave all for any man, -unless she is certain of finding in him father, mother, brother, sister, -companion, as Mary found in Joseph!’” - -“But how did these things bless Nourahmal herself?” - -“Love counterfeited, blasted her life. She believed that it was only -gross passion masquerading in attractive, delusive colors. So believing, -it was difficult to tell her of the Love of God so she could realize -its wealth. Love was only great selfishness, excited and persistent, to -her mind. It was something to teach her that the genuine affection was -utterly otherwise; in fact the foundation and crown of all the noblest -sentiments implanted by God in His choicest creations. - -“I have sought to allegorize here, true affection in all its perfection. -It seems to be fitting to do so, for my ideal queen was ruled by it. She -never could have loved to the depths she did, as a mother, if she had -not had within her being all the possibilities of woman’s love. And in -a rightly balanced woman love is all-impressive, all-controlling; with -her worship is loving and loving is worship. Here I shall seek to refine -that sentiment in the hearts of my sisters until each becomes an evangel -in its behalf. Then mankind will understand the wealth a woman bestows -on the man that wins her. There is nothing in her career that surpasses -it, except that sovereign act wherein she lays herself a convert on God’s -altar. I am seeking to exalt this sacred act, the loving of the gentler -sex, until all men, brought to revere it as they ought, shall become true -knights; until society shall be of one mind in crying traitor to every -man that contemns it in wedlock, and ready to lash naked around the world -every betrayer who awakens it in innocency to lead it astray.” - -“I can only again exclaim, oh! how full of flowers and honey is my -Miriamne’s creed and gospel!” - -“And the churchman so exclaims because I’ve put love where God put it, at -the front of religion’s cohorts! Can there be a religion worth the name -that does not masterfully meet the requirements of the relations most -sacred between human beings?” - -As she spoke she led her husband under the splendid painting of Joseph -espousing Mary, toward the entrance of the bower, remarking: “This -vestibule, from the Roman word Vesta, Goddess of Purity, is suggestive. -Rome placed Vesta among the household gods, and was wont to have an altar -at every outer door. If Purity guard the door, Light and Love will dwell -within. See the laurel, emblem of victory, as the ancients put it by -Purity’s altar; so do I. Love, when pure, is all-victorious!” - -“Miriamne, these old truths seem to me very charming as you now present -them; but can Nourahmal and others like her enter into their meaning?” - -“A pious saint of our church says that the star which guided to Bethlehem -finally sank into a spring, where it may be yet seen by women if they be -pure.” - -As they thus communed he passed through an arched doorway, and was -admitted to a grand court, three sides of which were inclosed by -the temple and two of its wings, the fourth side hedged by palms, -vine-interlaced. The sky was the roof, the carpet the floor of that -country. Just in front of the palm-hedge, on a grassy hillock, -conspicuous beyond all else, was a colossal stone face. It seemed as if -it had emerged from the earth, bald of all life—desolation expressed in -mute stone. - -“Astarte here!” exclaimed Cornelius. - -“Yes; that’s part of my Bashan inheritance, from Kunawat, the land of -Job.” - -“A woman and a devil beset him; (the two are in this face, methinks). -Its hideousness, as its import, seems inappropriate in Love’s Bower.” - -“Yes, ’tis hideous now, though once the face had beauty. It is not futile -for young-love to remember that time gouges deformity into beautifulness, -nor for all to remember how the Kings of the East in Moses’ time -overthrew the Rephaim, the fallen giant followers of the goddess. The -East is the home of light, and light is fateful to evil lives. Where are -the Astarte-devotees now?” - -As the man listened his eyes wandered to the place where the palm grove -came up against the temple wing, and there he observed a purling ribband -of water. - -“Cornelius sees my poem of silver. It comes from a grove of cedars and -sharon roses, out of a spring in the bosom of a hill. Look the other way. -It passes under the alcove, under the temple wall; a short, dark passage -brings it to liberty, ending in the Virgin’s Pool of Kidron. The sun -allures it up to the clouds at last. But listen; it sings as it runs!” - -“I hear many blending melodies.” - -“Do you see that canopied dais? There the instructor, or preacher if you -will, stands. The stream passes near it, getting impulse by a fall; true -love is speeded when it runs by truth. That’s my lesson. Then there are -Æolian harps this side and that of the dark alcove, the latter the type -of the tomb.” - -“But why?” - -“True love has music both sides of the grave.” - -“Mystic!” - -“Interpreter, say.” - -“But I hear the songs of birds?” - -“There they are, this side the dark exit: but in a cage, supported above -the current by an hour-glass and sickle.” - -“Grim emblems.” - -“Yes; but it’s a grim truth that love’s joy notes here are caged, -hampered and transitory. The hour-glass and sickle are, when those notes -are sung, ever. - -“Look to the West.” - -“I look, and see nothing but the picture of a sunset.” - -“Yes, and that curtains the ‘Rest of the Aged’ in our temple.” - -“But whither am I led by these words?” - -“Led to look toward sunset, for morning, by faith. You remember the -Christ was never old; neither are they who draw their life from Him. The -‘Ancient of Days’ not only has, but gives, eternal youth. Oh, there were -young men at His sepulcher; yet those angels could count their years -by centuries! Let the hour-glass make record and the sickle reap; the -passion flower recalls a vernal life, where the oldest saints are the -youngest, where all existence is growth, refreshment, glory, exultation! -There, love is law and law is love, and to love is to live and to live is -to love. We get a breath of this life here as we enter the vicinage of -the immortal pair, Jesus and Mary; and we get a distant view of the whole -from the mountains of the gospel.” - -“I believe, and yet sometimes start back at the question, ‘What if, after -all, at the end almost of eternities there come monotony, decadence, -satiety—death?’ Next after hell, and nigh as horrible, is annihilation; -and worst of all, eternal existence with nothing for which to strive—a -living death!” - -“They say, that in Egypt, a palm bowed to give shade to the mother, Mary; -while the aspen refused to her any comfort. Then Christ blessed the palm -and it became the fruitful evergreen, while the aspen leaf is fated to -the end of time by constant tremblings to betoken the agues of a cursed -life. But, under the sun in submission, our aspen lives are turned to -palms! We, having His life, need never tremble at death, for we shall -ever throb with a loving like His.” - -“But there are many conditions and needs to womankind. Let us speak of -these, since the present is hers, the future God’s.” - -“The knights vainly tried swords; my King promised to draw all men to -Himself. You told me how Sir Galahad, the pure knight, had made, about -the Holy Grail, when he found it, a chest of precious stones and gold. -Now, I’ve found the virgin pattern of perfection, representative of the -human-like beating heart of God. Here I’ve set her, exalted her. This -shall be her golden precious palace. Though dead, here shall be presented -in the grandeur of her character, the sweetness of her power. By and by, -it may come about that all mankind akin, shall make it the chief duty of -Church and State, to care, with a loyal tenderness, for all women, all -children, from first and last; that not one such shall be left miserable. -That will be the world obeying the Crucified’s, ‘Behold thy mother.’” - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIX. - -CROWN JEWELS. - - “The VIRGIN MARY unquestionably holds forever a peculiar - position among all women in the history of redemption. - Perfectly natural, yea, essential to a sound religious feeling, - it is to associate with Mary, the fairest traits of maidenly - and maternal character, and to revere her as the highest model - of female love and power.”—PROF. PHILIP SCHAFF’S _Church - History_. - - -“There’s a footman at the door; the good man that talks, I think; he -would speak with Cornelius.” - -With such words, at sunrise one morning a few weeks after the May-day -service, the missioners of Bethany were aroused by an attendant. Quickly -robing himself, the young chaplain went forth, and, sure enough, the -Hospitaler stood before him. - -“Selamet; but what haste brings our ever-welcome friend so early?” - -“To relieve your minds! I’ve purchased immunity! The Mameluke sheik, at -Jerusalem, has secured the Sultan’s revocation of the order of razing and -banishment,” answered the knight. Cornelius gazed at the Hospitaler with -anxiety, questioning within himself as to whether the knight had taken -leave of his reason or not. - -The abrupt soldier-priest perceiving the perplexity of his hearer broke -forth: “Why the edict that the Temple on the hill be despoiled, and -the ‘Angels of the Mount’ be summarily driven out of Syria, has been -rescinded; the ‘Faithful,’ as those infidels style themselves, have been -converted; seen a great light which came by mighty gold.” - -“All Saints defend us! I did not hear of this. Tell me all!” exclaimed -Cornelius. - -“Not now; the peril is past. I knew it was impending sometime, and -supposed ye did. I promised a reward, if time were given. I got money -help from foreign knights. The vandals took it with a mighty thirst, and -then with a great show of piety promised toleration.” - -“I see, as usual with them, great gain with godliness is contentment; but -what are we on the mount to do?” - -“Go on; the Sultan isn’t God, nor his sheik the Devil.” - -“The Hospitaler comforts. Now let us enter and breakfast together, that -we may get wisdom by conferring.” - -“I may not tarry longer; I staid all night without the city’s wall so -as not to be delayed by awaiting the gate-opening. I must be with my -companions by the time the Moslems have ended their first prayers, or my -comrades will be alarmed. I’ll return to-morrow.” - -Another dawn, another noon, and another sunset, came and went; but the -knight did not reappear at Bethany. The chaplain vainly tried to suppress -his anxiety. He feared some treachery on the sheik’s part. Again and -again the former went to the house-top to look along the Jerusalem road. -It was a hot June day; the watchings flushed the young man’s face but -fears’ rigors in the heart paled it. He was a picture of misery. Darkness -followed sunset; then came tidings: - -“There’s a company with garlands and torches coming around the bend!” - -The news was brought by a company of Sisters of Bethany. The missioner -was excited, yet reasoned: - -“Garlands and torches! Their bearers can not have baleful report nor evil -designs.” - -The visitants quickly arrived, and singing a roundelay, encircled the -house of Cornelius and Miriamne. With delight the latter recognized the -Hospitaler and his companion knights. With them were a number of the -friends of the new movement at Bethany. They also observed, standing by -his camel, a little aloof, a tall, gaunt man, garbed as a Druse; by him, -an elderly woman, and also a maiden. - -“’Tis Nourahmal and her grand-child!” whispered Miriamne, following her -husband’s questioning eyes. - -“The maiden wears the flower crown of a bride, and see, there is a young -man by her side!” - -The Hospitaler interrupted their converse: - -“I’ve kept my promise to the ‘Angels of the Mount’ and to God. I’m here, -and to celebrate a proper thanksgiving!” - -“Welcome! Now command us,” exclaimed Miriamne. “Yea, welcome, though -coming in mystery!” - -“Another surprise, good chaplain? Well, ’tis fitting, since this one -is cheering. There was need of offset to thy painful astonishment of -yesterday. I’ve trapped a wolf for our festivities.” - -“A wolf!” exclaimed Miriamne. - -“Yes, even the sheik. He swore that he’d make all Bethany bald by fire -and sword if it were attempted here to establish a Christian church. To -him I explained that the work on the hill was festal. Praise God, it -is to be such, to all eternity! And Miriamne’s disavowal of the title -church, the use of the appellations ‘Pool of Bethesda,’ ‘House of Mercy,’ -‘Temple of Allegory,’ and the like, by your followers in the city, -concerning your place of gathering, helped the righteous diversion. I -finished the argument by parading with my cortege, as you see us now. -Indeed I even asked the sheik to come to the wedding!” - -“A wedding?” - -“The cruel sheik invited?” - -“Two questions and two questioners to be answered with more surprises. -Nourahmal’s grand-daughter, Beulah, is to be joined to a Jewish convert! -I asked the sheik to attend with us as one of her next akin; for I -believe him to be a son of Azrael, though he denies that parentage, as -well he may, since the ‘Angel of Death’ was strangled at Bagdad for -treason. Be assured, Miriamne, the young Mohammedan will not be present -at our ceremonies to-night!” - -“Will wonders never cease?” spoke Cornelius, at a loss to know what to -say. - -“No. Let us be going now,” abruptly spoke the Hospitaler. - -“Do you return to the city so soon?” queried Miriamne. - -The question was answered indirectly: - -“Let’s to the temple, or ‘House of Bethesda.’ I’ve taken the liberty to -order its illumination. Come, we’ll see how its jasmines climb on its -sturdy walls by the light of the torches kindled for hymen!” - -So saying, the Hospitaler turned in the direction mentioned, and all, -including the missioners, followed him. The scene was fairy-like. There -were lights and flowers and songs. The feasters from Jerusalem were in -holiday attire, and those of the villagers that joined in the concourse -were hearty participants in the festivities. - -Arriving at the temple, the Hospitaler led Beulah toward the speaker’s -dais. - -“Will not the camel-driver enter?” questioned the knight of a companion. - -“No; he’s half way back to the city by this time.” - -“Stand by thy other self,” said the knight to the Jewish groom. - -The latter obeyed with alacrity; his zeal and his bashfulness precluding -grace of action. - -“Four hands clasped; crossed,” said the Hospitaler. - -The twain did as commanded, the youth with avidity, the maid with a -timorous, modest reserve. The touch of each, electric to the other, was -recorded in their faces, over which passed rapidly a poem of emotion. The -audience became silent, hushed by admiration akin to adoration. The old, -old, yet ever new, ever-entrancing spectacle of love’s full crowning, -brought to all minds the splendor and holiness of that royal gift -which finds in earth its completest unfoldment in wedlock. Each of the -auditors, conscious of admiration of the presentment, was also conscious -of self-approving. There is a cleansing of conscience like that which -follows prayer in the act of heartily approbating the thing which is good -and beautiful. With the espoused for his inspiration and his background -of light, the Hospitaler, with his usual abruptness, began addressing the -assembly: - - “You of the East hear best when your eyes are treated together - with your ears, hence I speak at this time, most propitious, of - themes pertinent. You have heard how the ancient Romans named - this month, deemed by them favorable to marriage, Junonius, in - honor of their chaste and prudent goddess of conjugal life. - She was the _Hera_ of the Greeks, the only lawfully wedded - goddess of all their mythologies. The myths prove that those - pagans discerned the potency and beauty of holy wedlock. They - polished jewels and wove girdles for its personifications, and - to-night, in this temple dedicated to womanhood at her best, - I’d take the girdle and crown and place them upon the Queen of - Women, the peerless Virgin. For such a real woman the ancients - were seeking when they had their dream of the myths. She was - what they yearned for, and her exaltation as the representative - of all that she truly did represent, will be found of lasting - profit to all. Behold her, an orphan girl, yet by faith having - an Eternal Father. As a girl, abhorring waywardness; as a - woman, therefore, free from wantonness. Mark me, ye maidens, - the wayward becomes the wanton. Coquetry brushes the down - from the cheek of the peach, and she that frivolously plays - with passion in the morning will be likely to seek the groves - of Astarte at noon. Our ideal woman reached maidenhood’s - roses all portionless, as world-help is counted, but with the - inestimable affluence of prudence, constancy and purity. Thus - she set the finest youths of all Jewry to striving for her - heart and hand. What Juno was to Rome, Mary was to Israel. The - Romans proclaimed their faith in the good wife as the producer - and conserver of wealth by putting their mint in their temple - of ‘_Juno-Moneta_.’ The carpenter of Nazareth, building up a - clean, honest, though humble home, by the aid of his consort, - built more enduringly, and presents a finer historical figure, - than that once mighty, once wise Solomon; though the latter - erected the wondrous Temple. The home and love of Joseph and - Mary will be praised by the ages that abhor the ivory houses - of pleasure of the great and fallen king. The story of that - home life at Nazareth has not been written, and we must gather - it from fragments and eloquent silence. Mary’s jewels as a - wife were unostentatiously treasured within the four walls of - her domicile. The devastating tornado leaves enduring, though - hateful history; but the constant, man-blessing tides of the - ocean come and go without having their recurring blessings - recorded. So the constant, loyal, patient woman of Nazareth - passed noiselessly by in her day. Her exclamation to the Angel - of the Annunciation, ‘_Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be - it unto me according to thy word_,’ was the keynote of that - life ever enhanced by the beauty of duty. There was submission - to right because it was righteous. And this was not mere - passiveness. You remember how she challenged her Son in His - early youth, that time He was absent for a season from His - parents, at first without explanation? The words Mary spoke - that day burn like polished gems when considered aright: ‘_Why - hast thou dealt thus with us? Behold, thy father and I have - sought thee, sorrowing._’ She did not forget her Son’s divine - origin, but exalted the rights of motherhood and fatherhood, - confident that even Deity could not ignore them. She challenged - the right of a son to cause parental sorrow without instant - strong reason for so doing. She put her husband’s cause before - her own, and made his honor her sacred wifely trust. There are - in this history some very fine things expressed by implication. - We know the woman was beautiful and much younger than her - husband; the disparity of years did not hinder full affinity. - She did not fall into the weakness of feeling self-sufficient - and all-complacent because feeling pretty. All she was and all - she had was centred in her consort as a commonwealth between - him and her. That the sycophant and flatterer crossed her - path there can be no doubt; but she who was not intoxicated - by Bethlehem’s _gloria in excelsis_ could not be dazzled by - the honeyed words of mortals. Wearing such a wife on his - heart, Joseph was rich indeed. Silence is once more eloquent. - We know that the mother of Jesus, having been widowed, never - wed again. Her first love suffered no eclipse. That she was - courted, after her spouse’s death, we must believe. The mother - of a Son so famous as was hers, and the possessor of personal - charms enshrining a soul that knew how to utilize sorrows until - they became refinements, doubtless had many suitors in her - widowhood days. And there was no law forbidding her a second - marriage, except the unwritten law of fine sentiment; but to - the Queen of the House of David the law of fine sentiment was - all-controlling. All her heart was filled with love for her - husband, her Son and her Savior. When her consort died, the - niche in her heart that he occupied, the only part with room - for conjugal love, became a shrine. Its door was sealed then - until the final resurrection. Where such constancy exists there - is certainty of pure homes. Sanctity, chastity and faithfulness - were the lights of the temple, dedicated to the mythical Juno, - within whose precincts no impure woman was suffered to enter. - To-day I claim for the True Ideal all that was accorded the - mythical one.” - -When the speaker paused, some of the men present broke forth, as was -the custom in the synagogue service, with an “Amen,” and some exclaimed -“Rabbi, thine are good words for our women to hear!” - -The Hospitaler’s black eyes flashed; a hint of retort of lightning-like -directness to come. And it came, instantly: - - “I shall fail of my duty if I give all to one-half. I shall - fail of my intent if my words seem like railings at the sex - most tender, most burdened. Since we are treating of the weeds - of the mourners, let us question why it is that widowers more - frequently seek remarriage than do widows. The bereaved man - easily says: ‘Get me another wife.’ The bereaved woman more - frequently says: ‘Let me hurry on heavenward after my only and - ever beloved.’ - - “With the true woman marriage is a committal so utter that it - is difficult for her, generally, to make it more than once. - Again me thinks that marriage brings the graver, heavier loads - to women. Once experienced, there is need of a mighty love to - allure her to a second trial. The man rises by self-assertion, - and wedlock does not hinder him. With the woman wedlock means - self-denial; her name changes, her career is merged into that - of her consort; her body is given, literally, to the new beings - she bears. To woman marriage has no parallel, except death. Her - only possible compensation is love, and that she should receive - with measures knowing no stint. Oh, men, all fair to other men, - all merciful to the beasts that toil, all prudent in keeping in - motion, by day and by night, the water-wheels in your orange - and mulberry groves, be fair and merciful to your consorts. - Yea, and evermore water with love’s most grateful refreshments - the bearing vines whose tendrils intwine your hearts, whose - fruits enrich your homes. This is religion; what is less is - heresy, and he who deals unkindly, cruelly or niggardly with - his other self, can not face God. The prayers of such are - hindered and like unto a tree whose leaves are storm-stripped. - You know the race, by birth, comes forth in two sexes, of - equal numbers, a hint of God’s plan to have mankind live as - pairs; but the men are a constant majority. Why? I answer that, - notwithstanding the perils falling upon the sterner sex, by - exposure, by war, and all such things, the trials falling to - woman’s lot work the greater havoc, keeping her sex in huge - majority in the places of the dead. Now you praise me, because - I’ve told your women to be like the glorious Mary? Praise me - again for telling them, as I do this instant, to be like her in - choice of consorts. If they can not find Josephs to begin with, - God grant to make the men they have like the choice spouse who - fell to Mary’s lot!” - -The Hospitaler paused for a moment; there was a wave of excitement, very -near to applause, running over the audience. The bride and the groom, -together with all the women present, by their faces expressed their -delight. The men who had exclaimed at the first, looked blank and kept -silent now. - -Abruptly, as before, again the knight spoke: - - “I’ll touch now another pertinent theme—_Mary under the shadows - of scandal!_ I’d exalt her as one having sounded the depths - of woman’s misery, and yet preserving her integrity. I know - that some here will think themselves offended, since it’s the - fashion so to think when listening to discourse such as I - now intend. Society, more prudish than sincere or wise, has - demanded that the burning, scarlet, social wrong be spoken of - only by scrupulous hint, half words and reserves, at least - among decent and happy folks. For once, as God’s accredited - ambassador, I’ll change all this, and by Purity’s earthly - throne, the marriage altar, denounce the crime of crimes, the - blasting curse of all mankind. Let him that’s conscious of his - own impurity mince words. I’ll not! Jehovah might have brought - forth the Christ without subjecting Nazareth’s Virgin to the - painful necessity of being doubted. It was as He decreed - and wisely ordered. The happening was not because Deity was - frustrated, but because He knew that she whose example was - to be woman’s inspiration, could be so more surely, if her - career took her along all lines of woman’s needs. There was - a time when almost all who knew Mary doubted her integrity; - a time when her name was banded about by the roués of her - native place; a time when even her betrothed was resolving - to renounce, if not to denounce her. First I’d speak of how - impurity is abhorred of God, and then of His wondrous effort to - allure those lost by it, as evinced in sending out after them - the two lambs—the Eternal Lamb and the lamb-like woman. - - “To say that they whose trend is toward things unclean are - abhorred of God is to re-echo the edicts of nature and history. - They say whenever a sin is committed a devil is created to - avenge it. What legions avenge this sin which, most of all, - brutalizes man and turns all social relations into anarchy! - Ask your men of science. They will tell you that all the evils - flesh is heir to seem to get their seeds herein. Immortal - revenge haunts it! You know, how in the Christian’s holy book, - it is affirmed that many sicken and die because partaking - of the cup of the holy communion unworthily. Presumptuous - hypocrisy thus meets the wrath which paralyzed Uzzah and - Jeroboam. But the cup of the passion was love’s highest gift, - and the offense is not against the cup but against love in - its sublimest display. Therefore forever death is the penalty - that overhangs those who outrage this finest gem of angels and - mortals. Treason to love is suicidal as well as murderous! They - say that there is a demon whose touch causes hideous, coiling, - stinging serpents to grow from the bodies of those he touches. - I’ll tell you his name—Lasciviousness, and he works fatefully - wherever man abides. But the pure home is an invincible bulwark - against him, and hymen’s torch his blinding horror.” - -There were some of the knight’s auditors, both men and women, who felt -it their duty, because of custom, to affect disapproval of the free -speaking they heard. Of these dissenters the women uttered no word, but -their eyes glared, and the color went and came in their cheeks. The -disapproving men exhibited faces as hard as marble, while their lips -mumbled incoherently. - -The knight was not slow to perceive the rising storm, but he was -undaunted. He waxed more earnest and more eloquent; his words and theme -inflamed him. - -One favorable to his faithfulness remarked to a comrade: - -“The Hospitaler seems to grow taller, as if filled and enlarged by an -inspiration.” - -His face shone as that of Moses when bearing the law, and some cowered -as if they heard coming toward them, from afar, the rumblings of Sinai. -Some white souls present wept, moved more by the truth in its beauty and -power than they could have been by any play on their emotions. It was an -hour of true oratory’s triumph; logic set on fire; a consecrated herald -grappling awful sin with the power of omnipotence. - -Presently, after the thunder and lightning, came “the still, small -voice.” The man of God spoke with loving persuasiveness; he healed with -words, the woundings truth had made. Then he carried his audience with -him. Many bowed their heads to weep, as trees beaten by winds that -carried rain! - - “We can all entreat fallen men as to most sins, why not as to - the chief sins? We speak to the fathers, brothers and sons - faithfully, pleadingly; why not to the women who are elect to - companion creation’s lords? Alas, the women have the greater - need of helpful admonition, when they fall, for revilings and - black despair fill up the cup of their remorse! You have heard - of the Feast of Lanterns among the Chinese? Those pagans, once - a year, go out with many-colored lights to symbolize Mercy - seeking lost daughters. Shall God’s choicest people fall behind - the pagan? Never, if true to the noble, tender, pure spirit - that emanates from God’s own ideal of womanhood. No, no! let - us vow with unwonted zeal, amid the lights, lessons and joys - of this hour, to be knights of new order; knights of the white - cross; sworn to denounce all impure practices on our own part, - and on the other hand to strive to allure the fallen to that - that is clean and white as the souls of the angels which do - excel! Let us go to those whom sin has made drunk, in their - despairing. Let us tell them that doubt castles are stormed! - Let us proclaim the seed of the woman the serpent’s destroyer! - Go, women to women, in woman’s name, remembering that pity in - the soul makes him or her that hath it successful suppliant - for all mercies at the throne on which forever the Interceding - Son of the Virgin reigns! Go, fathers, making your fatherhood - godlike in its just tenderness! Go, brothers, sons of women, - as pure, strong brothers indeed! There is many a scarlet woman - to-day with scalded eyes and ashen heart who is so because she - believed men brothers and fathers and found some wolves and - vultures. Go to those who have all days as nights, all joys - as apples of Sodom. They were not always so, and need not so - continue. Do not belittle their sin, yet seek to allure them - by a noble presentment of purity and by all encouragement to - attempt to win back their lost crowns. Tell them of the woman - that stood serenely amid bitterest scorns, and say as did her - Son to one like them: ‘_Go, and sin no more._’ Then teach those - who have no such blot upon them to be kind and helpful. We can - never judge any soul’s guilt until we at last know the measure - of the temptation! God alone knows that. - - “I could speak on this theme for hours; but this is enough! The - story of Mary has somehow ever had peculiar efficacy with the - blighted of her sex. They easily are led, when all men fail - them, to dare to trust the One who had a mother so tender. - Many a motherless outcast has found Christ in trying to find - mother-love in Mary. After the phantasmagoria of illusive - pleasure it is healing, through faith in God’s exemplified - love, to dream of how it seems to have a real mother’s arms - enfolding one. I hold that it is profitable to the impure - man, sometimes looking within the Pantheon of memory, to find - therein conceptions he treasured in his purer days; but with - more determined assertion I find that it lifts up the soiled - woman to come in contact with the girdle of power and crown - jewels of that maiden and mother of Nazareth and Bethlehem. - It was she that stood against imperial Rome, in the person of - Herod; a chaste young Jewess against corsleted animality; a - country maiden, heaven-endowed, against an old fox; the loyal - mother-eagle against the python! But she that was simply good - evaded, outran, soared above, and finally confounded the evil - at its lowest dip, its highest power!” - -Then the orator-knight, waving his hand to Cornelius to signify to him -that the missioner was to conclude the ceremonial, abruptly closed his -address and retired to one of the little alcove-chapels. - -A simple espousal service followed, and then the company gathered -dispersed, going to join in hastily-arranged festivities in the park by -the temple. The Hospitaler and the missioners were auditors. - -“Nourahmal, I can well believe, was a rare beauty; her grand-child has -her features, and she’s a vision.” - -“What time my friend here, the Hospitaler, did not engage me I was -admiring the groom,” Miriamne responded to her husband. - -“He hails from the Jabbock country,” remarked the knight. - -“Jabbock? Faithful Ichabod’s native place?” exclaimed Miriamne. - -“He was the groom’s uncle,” quoth the knight. - -Then the trio were silent, the thoughts of each following back over -the past years and along God’s providences. The way life’s lines were -crossed, interwoven and entangled seemed to each very wonderful. - - - - -CHAPTER XL. - -THE QUEEN’S VISION OF THE “AGE OF GOLD AND FIRE.” - - “Oh, moist eyes, - And hurrying lips and heaving heart! - The world we’ve come to late is swollen hard - With perishing generations and their sins; - The civilizer’s spade grinds horribly - On dead men’s bones, and can not turn up soil, - That’s otherwise than fetid. All successes - Prove partial failure.... - ... All governments, some wrong; - The rich men make the poor who curse the rich, - Who agonize together, rich and poor, - Under and over in the social spasm. - ... - Who being man and human, can stand calmly by - And view these things, and never tease his soul - For some great cure.”—MRS. E. B. BROWNING: “_Aurora Leigh_.” - - “They went up into an upper room, - With the woman and Mary the mother of Jesus.” - - “Many signs and wonders were done. - All that believed had all things common.”—ACTS. - - -“I’m anxious for the coming of the people to-day; Beulah said, a week -ago, at her wedding, that she’d have the old Druse camel-driver at this -service; though he ran away from her marriage feast.” - -“I’ve heard that she and her grandmother had a convert to our faith, -nearly ripe,” replied Cornelius to his wife. - -At this instant one of the “Bethany Sisters” timidly approached the -speakers, evidently anxious to deliver some communication. - -“’Tis ‘Brightness’ by name and by nature,” remarked Miriamne. - -“Well, sister Ziha, what is it?” questioned the chaplain. - -“Pardon me; but there is waiting without, a grave and taciturn man who -says he would speak with the ‘Prophetess.’ He means our Miriamne.” - -“Of what flavor is he, Ziha?” - -“Surely, I can not imagine, sister Miriamne! His countenance is that of a -Persian Jew; his turban is Turkish; his tunic Christian. But his bearing -is that of a prince, though all his belongings, except his gorgeously -dressed camel, are those of a beggar!” - -“I’ll see him, Ziha; bid him enter,” exclaimed Miriamne. - -“That I did; but he says his haste is too great and his limbs too stiff -for dismounting. In truth, his brow, bleached to the bone, tells of -weighty years.” - -“Let’s go to him,” said the chaplain. - -The missioners going forth, at the easterly side of their temple, were -confronted by a majestic figure, mounted on a splendidly caparisoned -white camel, evidently a borrowed one. - -“_Ullah makum_,” “God be with you,” said the man on the camel with great -courtliness and dignity, at the same time extending to the chaplain a -parchment roll. - -“This for me?” questioned the latter. - -“For thee,” replied the rider, bowing as before, but looking past the -question with fixed, though reverent, gaze at Miriamne. - -“But who are you?” again questions the chaplain. - -“God knows,” was the sententious reply of the rider, his eyes still -turning, not with curiosity, but with a deferential and affectionate -interest, toward the chaplain’s wife. - -“What message here, my father?” questioned again Cornelius, in the -language of Galilee. - -The aged man’s dark face lightened at the words, and turning his reverent -gaze from Miriamne toward the questioner, he slowly responded: - -“The ‘Angels of the Mount’ are not too proud to call a poor camel driver -‘my father?’ Age has respect here! I might have known this: Nourahmal is -full of the odors of this new Bethany!” - -“And do you come from Nourahmal?” quickly interrogated Miriamne. - -“Nourahmal and I are one, by the voice of God spoken through the holy -Hospitaler, who is alluring me daily from the secret faiths of my fathers -to learn the prayers that Nourahmal learns here.” - -“I see,” continued Miriamne; “I speak with Nourahmal’s consort. Pray -dismount for refreshment. We bid you every welcome, Mahmood.” - -“Mahmood! called by such fine people by my proper name; not ‘dog’ or -‘here you,’ or ‘old camel goad!’ Wonderful!” - -“Will Nourahmal’s spouse dismount?” - -“Blessed woman, I’ve had great refreshment in being thus permitted to see -thee face to face, and thank thee and thine for what thou hast done for -me and mine; but I can not tarry; old age and poverty have bargained to -make constant toil my master. I must keep moving or the swifter youths -will take away my master and leave me to hire out to starvation;” so -saying, the speaker smote his camel and the beast moved away, slowly, -along the road toward Jerusalem. - -Cornelius, recovering himself from his meditations, called after the -departing Druse. - -“What of this parchment?” - -“The Hospitaler sent it! He said it would talk with ‘the Angels of the -Mount.’” - -The camel driver had stopped his beast to say this much. For a moment -he looked at the missioners, then at their temple and its surroundings. -There was a world of questioning, and wonder, and yearning in the old -man’s countenance. Again his goad fell on the beast he rode and the -latter bore him along. - -“Shall we meet again, father?” Cornelius called after him. - -“Stay master work! Go master want! ’Till good shade Death takes to -the cool rest-land the holy Hospitaler, the Angels of the Mount, my -Nourahmal, and may be me; even me the poor, old, camel-driver, Mahmood!” -was the slow reply as the Druse departed. A turn in the road soon shut -him from view. - -“Well, my spouse, Miriamne, our new Bethany sees strange visitants these -days,” remarked her husband. - -“The mystic Druse is finding something that is finer than the creeds of -his mountain clans,” rejoined Miriamne. - -“Be not too certain; those Highlanders of Palestine are ever politic; -they’ll quote the Koran to one of Islam, kiss the Bible in the company -of Christians; but once alone are Druse to the last.” - -“That is their character; but we’ve a transforming gospel; no man as -old as he and companion of such advocates of the White Kingdom as the -Hospitaler and Nourahmal, could talk as did that old man to kill time or -conventionally.—But you do not study your parchment.” Cornelius, recalled -by Miriamne’s words, unfolded the document given him by the camel-driver, -and read aloud: - - “My son and my daughter: Greeting; the streams of gospel - blessing rising in the springs of your mountain temple reach - refreshingly even unto Jerusalem, as I daily perceive. - Therefore, for your consolation and for the enkindling of your - pious zeal, I herewith send these lines. Work onward, beloved, - believing, hoping you have arrived at the dawn of a new - revelation and well commenced a true work for God. To-day, as I - sought to interpret His prophecies, it came to me that that you - are attempting to do is nigh to being a fulfillment of His word - as recorded in the manner following by Ezekiel: - -“Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house, -and stood over the cherubim. - -“And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in -my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every -one stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house; and the glory -of the God of Israel was over them above. - -“The word of the Lord came unto me, saying: - -“Thus saith the Lord God: I will assemble you out of the countries where -ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. - -“And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the -detestable things thereof and all the abominations. - -“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within, and -I will take the stony heart. - -“That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and they -shall be my people, and I will be their God. - -“Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the glory of the God of -Israel was over them above. - -“And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood -upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city. - - “These solemn words tell how the glory and favor of God was - driven from the people of old by their sinning; how slowly, - yearningly, God departed; how in every land He provide _little - sanctuaries_ for the faithful few. And more than all this, - the Holy Word describes God in Spirit as pausing on the mount - to the east of Jerusalem. That pausing place was your Olivet. - The Jewish Rabbins in their sacred histories affirm that for - three years God, in manifest form, tarried, near where your - Temple of Allegory stands, repeating over and over the solemn - call, ‘_Return unto me, and I will return unto you!_’ Beloved, - since then the eternal voice, through Jesus Christ, has spoken - through three ministering years from these mountains to the - world. You are now re-echoing the cry. God be with you, as He - is, and give you faith to call and call until the ascended - Christ come into all hearts.” - -“No name to his letter, as usual?” remarked the chaplain. - -“He seems to loathe names almost; but recently, when I made bold to ask -him his, he sententiously observed, ‘God knows; ’tis in a white stone, -I’m to get; for this life I’m only remembered by what I’ve done.’ But -what engages my husband’s attention now?” - -“I’m trying to interpret the picture yonder, over the door, to the -retreat you call the ‘_Mother’s Pillow_.’” - -“What think you of it? You perceive it’s the legend of the mother pelican -feeding her famishing young with blood drawn from her own bosom, which -she has wounded for their food.” - -“I think the picture likely to depress nervous mothers!” - -“That’s a picture of one side of mother life; look beyond it.” - -At that the light from a distant window was let fall, by some unseen -attendant, all about the entrance to the “_Mother’s Pillow_!” - -“I see a splendid ‘Gabriel’ above the pelican; the angel’s hand points -upward.” - -“Glorious Gabriel! Angel of mothers and victories, by interpretation, -‘God’s champion!’ You’ve heard his titles, Cornelius?” - -“I know that he bore victory to Gideon and lightened the way for Daniel’s -conquest of all Babylon; nor do I forget that he was the angel which -comforted giant Samson’s mother before her child was born.” - -“Yea, he that made the sign of the cross, doing wondrously, above the -smoke of Monoah’s altar, was after commissioned to greet and guide Mary, -the mother of the Giant King of the new dispensation.” - -“You’ve fine insights, Miriamne, but there’s incompleteness in your -symbolism here.” - -“True, I feel that; all interpretation of motherhood is inadequate; but -look further.” - -“I see the ‘Queen of Mothers!’ Why have you left her and the babe in such -deep shadows?” - -“That’s this life’s reality; but look higher.” - -The chaplain complied; a vine trellis was swung aside, and he beheld, -above the shadowed picture, in an arch reaching nearly to the roof of the -temple, another, the latter a marvel of light and color. - -“Glorified Mary, uplifted by the babe, now grown and Kingly!” exclaimed -the chaplain. - -“And so is taught for mothers’ comfort, that the Son of God honored her -who bore Him, because she was to Him a true mother. May we not believe -that this love for Mary, in the God heart, is widened into peculiar -tenderness toward all who give the earth its lords and paradise its elect -through the crucifixions of maternity?” - -“Oh, Miriamne, I’ve learned in the past to stand, as it were, with bared -head, all reverential in the presence of true motherhood; when I see -it strengthened by faith, enriched by suffering; the most entrancing -example of self-abnegation on earth! To-day I feel, if possible, in these -surroundings, a deeper reverence than ever, for that estate of woman. Say -on.” - -“Paganism worshiped the sun, the earth, woman; whatever brought forth; -it was its best attempt at expressing a vaguely realized yet noble -sentiment. The religions that repudiated paganism, in their efforts to -extirpate all idolatry, went to the extreme of denying merited honor to -some most worthy. Then came the Christian revolution, and God turned all -eyes toward a pure woman. He proclaimed forever the honors of motherhood -by presenting through it to the world His Unspeakable Gift.” - -“So heaven’s last appeal to our race, after Sinai’s thunders and the rapt -visions of the prophets became ineffective, was made by the eloquence of -the life of the silent Mary.” - -“Well said! Now filled with that belief, herald the White Kingdom!” - -“I’ll help Miriamne, encouraging, upholding her; for the rest I’ve -learned to lean and follow.” - -“I’m a column of dust, not a pillar of fire; and dust, alas, to dust -returns. There is much to do here, more than I shall be able to compass. -I’ve hitherto but vaguely taught the meaning, power and blessings of -motherhood.” - -“I think more than vaguely.” - -“The sun rises in the east. I think we’ve sunrise, but the depth, height -and breadth have not been sounded nor measured yet. Shall we go toward -the west wing?” - -“Yea, lead, though I’m charmed in this presence.” - -“I’d lead to the ‘_Rest of the Aged_.’” - -“To the retreat with door like a castle? What are those amazon forms in -armor?” - -“The Peri?” - -“I bid them welcome in Miriamne’s name, having learned that she is -serious as well as cunning in weaving the manna-bearing garlands of every -myth about her ideals. Say on.” - -“They say there is beneath the Caucasian mountains a wondrous city -builded of pearls and precious stones, in which dwells a race of -surpassing beauty of person. I’ve utilized the tradition.” - -“Oh, the fabled Peri; but I’m mystified.” - -“They also say,” continued Miriamne, “that Dives, a wicked genus, wages -constant war against the Peri, hoping to possess the treasures of the -Peri capital, but that they successfully repel him and make their -happiness secure. I have a similitude of the Peri city.” - -“In truth, I wonder now. What fitness for such an allegory here?” - -“I think I have come near to a profound truth. Listen; here at the west, -I have planned to show what makes approaching age a terror.” - -“There are many evils which fall upon man’s declining years.” - -“Judge me if my philosophy is faulty. I see ever that the fear of being -left poor and also old here haunts most lives. This fear is the parent -of avarice, and avarice is a serpent of glowing head and deadly sting. -It robs society and individuals of the two choicest jewels, plenteous -benevolence and serene hopefulness. You will find that most of the -wrongs from man to man arise from hearts made cruel by the rigors of -avariciousness. If we could stay that master passion, all streams of -benevolence would rise to their flood, and hoarding, now a seeming -necessity, most frequently a curse, become the occupation solely of a few -monomaniacs.” - -“Miriamne’s philosophy is as invulnerable as a knight’s hauberk, but how -can you make it a general practice?” - -“Oh, very easily. I’ve planned to endow our Temple of Allegory so that it -may not only teach but also do beautiful things. I’d have it a Pool of -Bethesda, stirred continuously to meet every human need.” - -“Miriamne will have a vast following; the masses believe in loaves and -fishes!” - -“True, avarice prompts some to a mean faith, but I seek to slay avarice -and blast the love of money, that root of all evil.” - -“‘Enthusiast!’ a gainsaying world will cry.” - -“And the cry of the world will be then, as often before, a burning lie! -So be it. I’m holding up the truth, the royal truth of Christianity. I’ll -hold it up while I have breath, and leave that truth, if God gives me -grace, as the beacon light on our hill to glow until all Christendom puts -on a charity as multiform and broad as the needs of humanity.” - -“But there is a large and needy world.” - -“I have a rich Father; the earth is His and the fullness thereof. The -only difficulty is in securing from His stewards an accounting and a -beginning of payment.” - -“This, Miriamne, sounds like the dream of a poet. I’ll not waken you from -your beautiful trance, but still the rough fates of life as it is, and -the very common commonplace confront us.” - -“What a world this would be if all mankind was as one family, realizing -universal brotherhood!” - -“This, too, is the dream of the poet, Socialism; Astarte’s devotees -practiced it in the past.” - -“Now, I’ll say silence! You speak of heathen socialism. Whatever its -form, lust was its corner stone, and a barbarous selfishness, which -limited it to those of each tribe or clan, its best expression! I speak -of a vastly finer, grander creed! I look out and forward to a day when -all shall know the Lord; a day when law shall be love and love shall be -law. Then earth shall be an Eden, with plenty for all, such plenty as -Divine bounty bestows. Christianity means the bringing in of that day; -the ‘Precious Gift’ was an earnest of all needed gifts from on high. -When that day comes we shall understand why the Pentecostal fire came to -all hearts in the time when all worshipers were thanking the All-Giver -for the bounties of the harvest. Then avarice shall cease from the earth, -and men, no more harassed by it, learn to practice all bountifulness in -youth and mid-life, and also serene restfulness when their powers of -bread-winning are paralyzed by the burdens of years. All will be noble, -therefore none indolent. There will be no beggars, for charity will run -before want, ever glad to serve those that can not serve themselves. Then -those who wear the glory-crowns of gray will be nourished reverently and -gladly, not as if they were useless paupers; not with a niggardly service -which seems to be constantly saying, ‘How long are you going to live!’ -There will be no more worriment, no more crowdings of each other, no more -dishonesty among men! It is, I say, the constant fear of coming, in the -day when the heart is beating the last strokes of its own funeral march, -to doled charity or to nothing, that makes men pile up gain in dishonor -and hoard it with miserly grasping. Do you remember that Mary returned -from ministering to Elizabeth to sing her ‘Magnificat’ with these -prophetic strains: - -“‘His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He -hath filled the hungry with good things. He hath holpen His servant -Israel.’ - -“From the song she went to humble, painful ministries in behalf of all -the world. Mary supplemented the wondrous work of her Son and King, all -the way bearing as best she could her part of His cross; all the way her -quivering heart pierced by the sword that finally slew Him. She saw His -bloody tears turning to crown jewels as He ascended from Olivet, and -with unfaltering faith knelt among His earthly followers that she with -them might receive her crown of flame. That room was the highest point -of outlook on earth. It was the place of supreme beneficence; the place -where God gave Himself up freely for His followers and established the -memorial-superlative of the ages. Thither they hasted that they might -learn how all-receiving comes from all-giving, that they might realize -the measure and splendor of perfect charity, which is perfect love.” - -“Miriamne, whence do you get such wondrous insights?” - -Then the young wife turned aside to her “own little mountain,” as she -called a secret praying place in the chapel. She quickly returned, and -handing a manuscript to Cornelius, said: - -“Read, please, of Pentecost.” - -He complied: - -“Then they that gladly received His word were baptized; and the same day -there were added unto them about three thousand souls. - -“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, -and in breaking of bread and in prayers. - -“And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by -the apostles. - -“And all that believed were together, and had all things common; - -“And sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as -every man had need. - -“And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking -bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and -singleness of heart, - -“Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added -to the church daily such as should be saved.” - - - - -CHAPTER XLI. - -A CHIME AND A DIRGE AT CHRISTMAS TIME. - - “Oh, not alone, because his name is Christ; - Oh, not alone, because Judea waits - This man-child for her King—the star stands still! - Its glory reinstates, - Beyond humiliation’s utmost ill, - On peerless throne which she alone can fill, - Each earthly woman! Motherhood is priced - Of God, at price no man may dare - To lessen or misunderstand. - ... - The crown of purest purity revealed - Virginity eternal, signed and sealed - Upon all motherhood.”—HELEN HUNT. - - “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth.”—Gen. iii. 16. - - “Thou shalt be saved in child-bearing.”—Tim. ii. 15. - - -Hundreds of willing hands, directed by Miriamne, were engaged in -preparations for fitly celebrating the feast of the Nativity at Bethany. -There was cheerful expectation everywhere in the village, and the Temple -of Allegory was smiling and glowing by day and by night with flowers and -lights. - -“Miriamne, look forth! There approaches our domicile a company of -singing maidens, wearing holly wreaths and bearing a kline! What can it -mean?” - -An instant of wonderment ready to echo the chaplain’s question possessed -Miriamne, then with a glow of satisfaction on her pale face, she cried: - -“I know it all! The maidens of our fraternity have been declaring for a -month past they’d have me this Christmas at our Temple on the Hill, if -they must needs carry me thither!” - -“And they knew you were drooping? Who told them? Not I.” - -“Love has quick eyes, and my sisters love indeed! - -“But, Miriamne, you surely will not risk your life, so precious to all, -by going forth to-day?” - -“The holly, over-canopying the couch they bear, says to me: ‘Yea, go.’ I -told them the secret of the holly, and how those ancient Romans, thinking -their deities largely sylvan, cherished this shrub, so persistently -evergreen, in the belief that it afforded a safe and certain abiding -place for their gods in bitter, biting days of winter. The maidens -remember their lesson.” - -And shortly after, all went forth toward the temple, the physically weak -but spiritually strong woman borne by her followers in a sort of triumph, -and Cornelius leading; the latter, that day was one of the happiest, -proudest men in all Syria. He rejoiced and exulted in being companion of -a woman such as Miriamne was. - -Miriamne entered the temple to find a vast congregation awaiting her. -There was a ripple of excitement, a deep murmuring of satisfied voices -almost reaching the proportion of a masculine outbreak of applause, -as she appeared. Contentment was depicted on all faces, on many real -happiness. Neither was it transitory; there was a throbbing of gladness -running back and forth, rising higher and higher, until it finally broke -out into an impromptu “_Gloria in excelsis!_” Then followed a scripture -lesson: - -“And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men -and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day -of the seventh month. - -“And he read therein before the street that was before the water-gate -from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those -that could understand; and the ears of the people were attentive unto the -book of the law.” - -And now the attention of all was drawn to the sound of footsteps in the -throbbings of a march, keeping time to the tones of the organ and the -flourishings of cymbals. Nigh an hundred Syrian maidens, wearing girdles -and crowns of evergreen, moved with graceful evolutions from the temple’s -east entrance and quickly formed in a crescent nigh to Cornelius and -Miriamne. They paused in their progress but still kept time with their -feet and swinging cymbals. Then the crescent was broken; those in the -center standing in lines that made a cross; those at either end grouping -as stars. - -“Sisters, we’d hear the fitting song of this day,” said Miriamne. -Forthwith the gathered company of garlanded maidens began to retire, -but in perfect order, the two star groups passing along as the company -making the cross went, so preserving the form of the tableau, until the -exits were reached. As the procession went forth the temple bell tolled -solemnly, and the maidens sang, accompanied by organ-notes which died -away finally like the sigh of tired waves on a beaten strand. Cornelius -was silent, though his eyes were like the eyes of a child awakened from a -dream of wonderland. - -Miriamne penetrating his thoughts remarked: - -“Is Cornelius weary of questioning?” - -“I listen as to autumn winds in a scared flight through weeping forests, -instead of to Christmas exultations!” - -“The singers are of my ‘Miriamne Band,’ as they call themselves, in honor -of the sister of Moses, Israel’s greatest law giver.” - -“Methinks all here are mystics in thought and poets in expression!” - -“Then so was God. We are but reproducing His lessons! Remember now how -the Egyptian Pharaoh once commanded that all the male children of his -Israelitish captives be put to death, to the intent that eventually all -the females should become the prey of his people.” - -“Miriamne journeys far from Bethlehem.” - -“The mother and the sister watched the ark in which the infant Moses was -given to the cruel mercies of the Nile.” - -“I remember, but there come no carols from the bullrushes.” - -“Yea, finer than from the reeds of Pan. Listen; the ark, emblem of God’s -covenant, carried the law. The mother and sisters, by the ministries of a -love which never faltered, frustrated wily Egypt, saved themselves, their -male companions, and finally their whole race. When God embalms a history -it is well to look into it for germs of mighty portent.” - -“But thinking of this distant and bitter history, we are kept from -Bethlehem, Miriamne.” - -“So the Red Sea and the wilderness preceded the Promised Land. You -remember there were fears and tears before Miriam and her mother saw -their babe safely adopted at the palace; so there were pains and toils -to Mary along the way from Bethlehem’s manger to Bethany’s mount of -Ascension.” - -The words of Miriamne were broken off by a strain of the organ that was -very like a moan of the distressed. - -“Look yonder!” - -The chaplain did as bidden, following a motion of his wife’s hand, and -saw the folds of a huge black curtain slowly rising from in front of one -of the temple alcoves. - -“Woman’s sorrow is tardily lifted!” exclaimed his wife; then there came -to his ears words of human voices, which were joining in the almost -human-like moanings of the organ; - - “In Rama was there a voice heard; - Lamentation and weeping and great mourning; - Rachel weeping for her children, - And would not be comforted, - Because they are not.” - -“Rachel and funeral dirges seem still distant from the songs of the -angels in Judea!” - -“Rachel is here likened to Mary by the Apostle Matthew.” - -“I liken Rachel to Miriamne: for the former Jacob served fourteen years -which, for the love he bore her, seemed but a few days. Cornelius could -have done as much for Miriamne.” - -“My knightly spouse goes from Bethlehem himself toward Bethany. Go back -now.” - -“I listen; lead me.” - -“At Rama, the site of the tomb of Mary’s son, the converted publican, -St. Matthew, told how death began its cruel hunt of the Virgin’s loved -Child at His very cradle. Sorrow envies joy; death battles life, and ever -more woman’s love, the choicest rose of life, has been crossed by the -destroyer of human happiness; that is human hatings.” - -“But how is Rachel so like Mary?” - -“A common agony and common needs make all women akin.” - -“I accord great homage to the woman who taught one so selfish, gnarled -and rugged of soul as Jacob was to love so deeply, as he was taught to -love by her, and yet almost infinitely I separate her from our Rose and -Queen.” - -“Rachel died a martyr in maternity and therefore is worthy of place -among the regal women of earth. She was one of that line of women who -gave their lives for others. The line survives, and suffers through -the years; all-worthy, but not fully honored. Saint Matthew touched an -all-responsive chord when he voiced the Divine pity for all motherhood, -by placing the sorrows of Rachel and of Mary side by side. The plain man -unconsciously soars to the plane of the prophets and poets when he is -moved by human need or Divine justice.” - -“The lesson is irresistible, but still I’m waiting for the celestial -melodies that awakened the shepherd the night of the Nativity!” - -“My partner shall get by giving. Here is a parchment given me years ago -to read for my mother’s consolation after the death of my brothers. Read -it, thou, to the matrons and maidens when the chantings cease.” - -After a time there was silence! the hush of expectation, for that -gathering was wont at times to wait for words of blessing from the -missioners, as the hart for the rivulet at the beginnings of the rain. - -“Read!” whispered Miriamne, “but not as the tragedian! Read as a father -and lover, both in one.” The young man complied, and these were the words -of the parchment: - - “There was a man named Jehoikim who, impressed of God thereto, - offered a lamb in sacrifice. As he slew it his heart was - touched with tenderness, and he would have staid his hand, - but God gave him strength to perform the command. After this - a daughter, called Mary, was born to him. Whenever he looked - upon her gentle face he remembered the bleating lamb, and was - certain that some way his child was to be a sacrifice to God. - And it was so; for she bore a Son to whom she gave all the - wealth of a mother’s love, but at last He was offered for man’s - sin upon a felon’s cross, the agony He felt reaching the heart - of his mother. As the Son gave Himself up for the world, so - she gave herself up for her Son. She was sustained through it - all by a conscience void of offense, and by the ministry of - angels. Alone to the world, she had no solitude, for though her - espousal to God had no human witness, even as Eve’s to Adam had - none, and both were inexperienced, God was at her nuptials, as - He is ever with those who purely give themselves to Him.” - -Then the wife wept and was silent. - -“My darling, what so moves you? I’ve never experienced such a Christmas. -You make the feast as solemn as the holy supper.” - -There came no answer; but ere the husband could turn to seek a reason it -came in a cry from the audience, and a thronging from all directions -toward where the missioners were. - -“Miriamne has fallen!” - -“’Tis a swoon?” - -“No, ’tis death!” There were surgings back and forth, voices suggesting -helps, voices filled with stifled sobs, and voices of fright in the -trebles of hysteria. - -The sick woman was borne by strong men to her domicile, and then began -the tension of waiting. The young chaplain was entering the valley -of poignant pains by sympathy’s pathway, bound by that mystic chain -whose links are in the words: “These twain shall be one flesh.” Herein -is a mystery often repeated; the man’s grief was supplemented by a -consciousness of vague pains passing along unseen lines from the woman to -himself. Slowly Miriamne recovered consciousness; but still she hovered -on the confines of woman’s supreme hour, the hour when great fear haunts -great hopes, great weakness yields to miraculous influxes of power, and -great joy, in company with unutterable yearnings, moves along under the -shadows and by the gulfs of greatest perils. About her gathered a group -of matrons of her sisterhood, pressing to serve their beloved. - -One whispered to another: “Her face is unearthly, like Mary’s as we saw -it in the ‘Assumption’ to-day.” - -The one that heard the words answered with a sob. The voice of pain -called the drooping woman quickly from her semi-stupor to ministry, -and opening her eyes she tenderly murmured to the woman that sobbed, -“Remember what he said: ‘Women of Jerusalem, weep not for me; but weep -for yourselves and children.’ If I go ’twill be all well; yes, by His -grace, all well with me. Let all your pity follow the pilgrims of our -sex who tarry to painfully journey through years of trial, unrequited.” - -A little later Cornelius was hastily summoned by one that sought him, -from the shadows of an arch of the roof, whither he had gone for a few -moments’ solitude, in which to plead, as only can a man who writhes in -the fear of having his life torn in two. - -“Miriamne asks for her husband.” He heard the words and was by his -consort’s side instantly. Her eyes were closed, but taking her pale hand -tenderly in his he impressed a kiss on her brow. She opened her eyes full -upon him, with a gaze of undying love. - -“You kissed my brow, the first kiss as a lover. Then you said it was -given in the spirit of reverential admiration. Has marriage ever changed -the thought?” - -“Never!” - -“If I should leave you, do you think you could tell others how to love -so?” - -“Oh, I can, surely; if I can do any thing, alone!” And then came to -him the silence of a dumb grief. She saw his agony and pitied him, yet -serenely she spoke: - -“Go onward, beloved, in the way of the prophet’s vision; the power of -Christ be with you; the life of Mary is an open book; speak to, work for -those most needing, then will you have your constant Pentecost with the -ever present ‘Grail.’” - -Cornelius pressed the hand he held tenderly; he could not speak. - -“Repeat to me the beautiful words concerning the Harvest Feast which you -heard out of Moses at the service that so blessed you at Jerusalem,” she -continued again. Then, mastering his voice, he complied: - -“And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a -tribute of a freewill-offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give _unto -the Lord thy God_, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: - -“And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and -thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite -that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the -widow, that are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God hath -chosen to place His name there.” - -When he finished the words he hid his face in his hands. - -“Thou art weary, my good master,” spoke a Jewish mother present. “Go now -and rest. I’ll watch.” - -Quickly, gently, firmly he waved her away, as one unwittingly trying to -draw him from the gates of heaven. - -“It is not usual,” she persisted, “for a man to serve this way; then thou -hast other and more important duties, our holy missioner!” - -He found voice to speak, and needed to restrain himself from indignant -tone. It seemed as if it were impiety now, so great his love, to speak -of any duty as higher than that he had toward this one woman, more to -him than all the world beside. “No; if I were on the cross she would be -there, another Mary; if I am now in torture I’d be no Christian if I did -not emulate Him who, amid crucial agonies, between two worlds, cried as -inmost thought of His heart, ‘_Behold thy Mother!_’” - -He felt Miriamne’s hand pressing his, and drawing him closer to herself. - -“Cornelius, I’m leaning now as never before upon my husband’s loyal -heart!” - -It seemed to the man as if she were nigh to crying: “My God, my God, why -hast thou forsaken me!” and as if to answer his own thought he exclaimed: - -“He will be Father, I as a mother, Miriamne, my Miriamne!” - -Grief had made him an interpreter. It was as he thought, the heart of the -young woman, woman-like, had been groping about for mother-love. Memory -had been busy, but had sent the heart of the woman back from groping amid -the graves of Bozrah all weary, to nestle and rest on the breast of him -that gave mother-love, and promised all else that loyal heart ere gave. - -But all was not gloomful; the clouds were shot through and tinted by some -light-rays. - -“What if our forebodings prove untrue?” - -Hope’s question was as a north wind to a desert noon. - -Once the man bashfully questioned his spouse, with broken sentence that -was half signs. - -“Does Miriamne feel aught of reproach toward the great love, seemingly -not far from utter selfishness, which enchanted to this peril?” - -“Could Madonna reproach God when she felt the heart-piercing sword? To -Him she submitted, no less do I in doing and suffering as He wills!” - -It has been said a woman’s heart is complex, but this one’s was not now. -It lay open, as a book, before her lover-husband. He saw no idol there -but himself. Had there ever been hidden remembrance of some girlish love, -some secret scar left by a romance, both burning and brief, it would have -been opened or effaced now. - -As she beheld her consort, this time more loved, if possible, than ever -before, knightly, courtly and tender, alert and strong to help, lavish -in caressing, she not only felt conquered, but filled with desire to -surrender to the uttermost; for she joyed to place this man on the -throne of her being next after God, supremely lord over all. So together -they moved amid the flowers of Beulah-land, under the glorious lights -of married love. She all compensated for the pangs the trying hour -brought; he thrilled, as he ascended higher and higher from lover love to -husband love, to that holy delight that comes to a man beginning to feel -fatherhood, the gift of the woman his heart has enthroned. For a little -time both were too happy to speak, so they let their thoughts wing their -way upward to the eternities where hopes eternally blossom. She presently -signaled him to draw close to her, then his clasped hands lay on her -heart, and their lips met. She said nothing, yet by a sign-language well -understood by each, plainly entreated him to tell her over and over, more -and more, his inmost thought, that her heart knew full well already. - -She heard his heart’s beatings, then she whispered: “Don’t be anxious; -all is well, for all is as He that loves us wills.” - -“Oh, Miriamne, I loved you never as now; God bless you! bless you! bless -you!” - -She interrupted him again. “The crisis is coming, and I thought perhaps I -might not survive, Cornelius, but if I do not—” - -Her words were silenced by an impassioned kiss. - -She continued, “I dreamed, last night, that I saw the shadow of a cross, -but on it a woman’s form.” - -“Oh, beloved, do not think of it!” - -“I do. I must! I understand it all.” - -Pity now silenced her. - -“Oh, Miriamne!” he cried anon, as he saw her descending into the vale of -agony, from which he could not hold her back. He dare say no more. He -feared to voice his thoughts, lest his fears become ponderous and huge, -once they found escape in the garb of words. - -Just past midnight the dispatched courier arrived, bringing twain of the -most-skilled physicians of Jerusalem. - -Cornelius watched them with an interest beyond words. His heart sank -down and down again, as he saw them in serious consultation. Unable to -restrain himself, he seized the elder, and drawing him hastily aside, -demanded an opinion. The grave old man only shook his head, saying: “We -may save one.” - -“One? One! - -“Which? What?” - -“Young man, be quiet; do not let thy emotions disturb the patient or the -nurses. Prepare for the worst.” - -The husband seized the wrinkled hand of the aged practitioner, and then -flung it from him, crying: “It must not be! It shall not be!” Instantly -he rushed toward the couch, but the two men of healing intercepted him. -Then the elder one said: “We must be obeyed, or else we will give no -commands! Shall we go or stay?” - -What a revulsion came! It seemed to Cornelius as if these two men -of skill were angels, and flinging his arms about them, he hoarsely -whispered: “Save, save! Stay and save! All I have I give you, only save -her!” - -Quietly they led him to the adjoining apartment; then charged him, as -he hoped for any good to his wife, not to re-enter her chamber until -sent for. Reluctantly he consented, not daring to do otherwise and yet -believing in his very soul that in this hour of peril the bestowment of -love’s caresses on the invalid would be better than any skill of the -stranger. He withdrew to the arch on the roof, where unmolested he could -pray. But his meditations were full of miserable sights. He thought of -the Egyptians in their feats of Osiris, leading to sacrifice the heifer -draped in black; then of Rizpah defending her relatives; then of the -monument in Bozrah, with the mother holding her dead Son. He thought, -amid the latter meditations, of himself creeping about that monument, in -the night, until he came to another, on which he deciphered the name, -“_Miriamne_.” The imagination gave him a shock, and he gave way to it -exhausted. An hour or so after he was awakened from a sort of stupor by -the younger of the physicians, who, standing by his side, addressed him: - -“Sir Priest, thou mayst come now; but as thy profession teaches, nerve -thyself to confront any fate, good or ill.” - -“How’s my wife?” exclaimed the stricken man, leaping from his couch and -approaching the speaker, that he might devour with his eyes the thought -of the one he questioned. - -The emotionless features of the man accustomed to confront human -suffering softened a little to pity. The quick eye of the missioner -discerned the change, then he cried: - -“What, dead!” - -“No; if thou wilt but control thyself, thou mayst see her for a little -while; there’ll be a change soon.” - -The man of healing had done and said his best, but that was bad enough. -He had tried to comfort, but the exigencies were beyond human powers. “A -change soon!” - -Hard, mocking words. Apology for bad news! Stepping-stone to saying -the worst is at hand; words so often used by the man of healing when -his art is defeated! How like a funeral knell breaking the heart -has come, again and again, to tingling ears those terrible sounds: -“In—a—little—while—there’ll—be—a—change!” Cornelius felt all their -stunning force, and was instantly by the side of Miriamne. What a change -met his hungry eyes! The fever had died away; fever, that blast from the -shores of Death’s ocean, had passed, because there was nothing longer -for it to attack. The tide was ebbing. She lay silent, pale and haggard; -motionless, except as to a feeble breathing. The husband would have -encircled her with his arms. It was love’s impulse, but science, the -men of healing, restrained him. There was a little wail just then, and -he glanced around with a look of joy. The nurse had brought the babe -close to him, turning away her own face to hide her tears, but holding -the little one out as if trying to say: “This shall compensate.” Then -again the grief-stricken man turned to the physicians and whispered, in a -half-fierce, half-terrified way: “She’ll live—she’ll be better now.” - -The aged man, slowly adjusting the paraphernalia of his profession -preparatory to departure, replied: “Few survive the Cæsarean section. It -was a dire necessity.” - -“Lord, behold whom Thou lovest is sick,” moaned the young chaplain, as he -knelt by the couch and buried his face in its disordered covering. So the -tide of life ebbed at midnight, leaving a stranded wreck at Bethany, and -the Christmas chimes turned to dirges. - - - - -CHAPTER XLII. - -THE MOTHER OF SORROWS TRIUMPHANT AT LAST - - Are we not kings? Both night and day. - From early unto late, - About our bed, about our way, - A guard of angels wait! - And so we watch and work and pray - In more than royal state. - Are we not more? Out life shall be - Immortal and divine; - The nature MARY gave to THEE, - Dear JESUS, still is THINE; - Adoring, in THY heart I see - Such blood as beats in mine.—A. A. PROCTOR. - - -Hundreds were assembled within the “_Temple of Allegory_,” and other -hundreds, unable to effect an entrance, tarried around about it. -The knell of Miriamne, the Angel of the Mount, had called the vast -congregation together from Bethany, from the country round about and from -the City of Jerusalem. - -There were many signs of subdued sorrow, but the intensive expression -of grief common in the East was absent; neither was there any of the -paganish blackness, which sometimes characterizes Christians’ funerals, -manifest. Though Miriamne was dead, her sweet, trustful, cheerful spirit -still survived and still ruled. - -The knights of Jerusalem, led by the Hospitaler, were present, the latter -to direct the services, by request generally extended. - -After a “grail” song by his companions, and at its last words, “_I -shall be satisfied when I awake in His likeness_,” the Hospitaler began -discoursing. - -“Men and women, death, the leveler, makes us all akin; therefore all of -us feel impoverished by the departure of the angel who shone upon us here -from the form that lies yonder. Miriamne Woelfkin, daughter of a knight, -consort of a Gospel herald, devoted friend of womankind, disciple of -Jesus, was gifted with almost prophetic insight and power of alluring -unsurpassed in our day. Hers was the power of a burning heart entranced -of a superb ideal, and therefore was it the power of immortal influence. -She will live not more truly in the life she died to give than in the -lives she lived to save. She was an unique woman, but only so because of -her superior womanliness. Being dead, she reaches the reward generally -denied the living, full appreciation. Her career was in part a parallel -of her choice exemplar’s. You have heard how the Mother of our Lord sung -her ‘_Magnificat_’ out of a heart as free as a girl’s, yet as proud as -that of a woman’s glowing in the prospect of honoring maternity. But -the last note of her rapture died on her lips full soon, and she never -after in this life rose to such measure of joy. God permitted her life -to pass through a series of suppressions and griefs, doubtless that she -might exemplify the sad side of woman’s career. The histories of women, -mostly written by men, are marred by the conceits of their writers, and -are at best but obscure pictures. The man with the pen lacks insight -as to the being, whose life is so largely an expression of heart and -soul. The lordly writer clothes his heroes in the light of his fevered -imagination, depicting with bold stroke the mighty deeds of stalwartness; -but he sees few heroines in his horizon. Those he does see are beyond his -power of analysis. He falls to actual worship of his masculine demi-gods, -perhaps as a partial atonement for his failings toward the fine and -noble characters whose traits are too spiritual for his thought-limits -or vocabularies. The generality of those who discourse concerning women, -do it in a patronizing way, and feel to praise themselves as paragons -in doing justice in this, even by halves. The queenship of Mary is -constantly disputed, and so her lot is more closely linked with that of -her sex. As she received the royal gifts of the Magi, holding them as a -sacred trust for Him to whom her life was utterly devoted, so woman, the -bearer and nurse of the race, gives all that she has without stint to -others. Her life is a suppression; all bestowing; her reward the joy she -has in the lavishness of her bestowals. Hers is the joy of the fountain -that sings because it flows. - -“But recently ye saw the Jewish priests deposit on his mount, after a -custom constant since Moses, the ashes of the red heifer. They burned -their sacrifice with red wood. Red pointed to the blood that can only -atone for sin. But underneath all lies a deep lesson. ’Twas the female -instead of the male thus offered, and her ashes gave potency to the -waters of purification. I read this hidden truth: the sacrifices of -the gentler sex work out the purification of the race. As the moss in -the heart of the stone, I see this truth lying in the heart of the -ceremonial! As Christ’s cross precedes the cleansing of regeneration, so -woman’s cross is the means by which the decays of life are offset by new -created beings. By the bier of the wondrous comforter of others, I may -surely appeal to those who hear me and loved her to seek with quickened -ardor to offer the pain-assuaging myrrhs to those grand souls who go -along the way to life’s crucial glories. I’d have such justice done as -would cause all women to cease pitying themselves because they are such, -and go about rejoicing that God gave them the superlative privileges of -womanhood.” - -There came forth a loud cry, with moanings, from the part of the temple, -called the “Mother’s Pillow,” where the honored dead lay. - -“Miriamne, oh, Miriamne, you brought me through Gethsemane to your -Calvary!” - -A silence almost oppressive fell on the assembly. It was the silence of a -pity too deep for words. - -Then spake the Hospitaler, in words as invigorating as a herald of God’s -should be, and yet as soothing as a mother’s to her child in pain: - -“Christ, who loved the young man who was very good and yet not perfect, -loves thee, for He is unchanging in His mercy. Hear me, an old man, -stricken with the years that have schooled, and one who has experienced -the bitterness of widowerhood after loyal, full loving. God’s hand is on -thee. He is schooling thee to carry on the work begun by thy wondrous -consort now asleep.” - -“Oh, Miriamne, Miriamne! alone in the dark, I move through Gethsemane -toward thy Calvary!” - -Again the silence of pity was broken by the voice of the knight. - -“Remember how David of the White Kingdom was called and furnished for his -kingship. ‘He chose David, also, His servant, and took him from the sheep -folds, from following the ewes great with young. He brought him to feed -Jacob, His people, and Israel, His inheritance.’ - -“Missioner-shepherd, God calls thee to a ministry of love, for those -whose trials thou hast now been taught, in part, to measure. You have -heard how Hadadrimmon, the fabled god of the harvest, ever comes, bearing -sheaves, with tears. - -“Thus speaks the prophet: - -“‘In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the -mourning of Hadadrimmon. - -“‘And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house -of David apart, and their wives apart.’ - -“Young man, God is giving thee a crown in David’s royal line. - -“Once more I turn to her who was thy Miriamne’s exemplar and queen. Let -me tell you all of the last hours of Mary, that you may find instructive -parallels. I’ll read from my treasured book of traditions: - - “After the ascension of Jesus, our Mary dwelt in the house - of John upon Mount of Olives, and she spent her last days in - visiting places which had been hallowed by her Divine Son; not - as seeking the living among the dead, but for consolation and - for remembrance and that she might perform works of charity. - - “In the twenty-second year after the ascension of the Lord, she - was filled with an inexpressible longing to be with her Son; - and, lo, an angel appearing with the salutation, ‘Hail, Mary, - I bring thee a palm-branch, gathered in paradise; command that - it be carried before thy bier, for thou shalt enter where thy - son awaits thee.’ And Mary prayed that it be permitted that - the apostles, now widely scattered under their great commission - to gospel the world, be gathered about her dying couch; also - that her soul be not affrighted in the passage through the pale - realm of death. The angel departed; the palm-branch beside - her shed light like stars from every leaf; the house was - filled with splendor, and angel voices chanted the celestial - canticles. The Holy Spirit caught up John as he was preaching - at Ephesus, and Peter, offering sacrifice at Rome, and Paul, - from his place of labor, Thomas, from India, while Matthew - and James were summoned from afar. After these were called, - Philip, Andrew, Luke, Simon, Mark and Bartholemew were awakened - from their sleep of death. These holy ones were carried to the - Virgin’s home on clouds bright as the morning, and angels and - powers gathered round about in multitudes. There were Gabriel - and Michael close beside her, fanning her with their wings, - which never cease their loving motions. That night a supernal - perfume of ravishing delightsomeness filled the house, and - immediately Jesus, with an innumerable company of patriarchs - and holy ones, the elect of God, approached the dying mother. - And Jesus stretched out His hand in benediction as He did when - ascending from the world, long before at Bethany. Then Mary - tenderly took the hand and kissed it, saying: ‘I bow before the - hand that made heaven and earth. Oh, Lord, take me to Thyself!’ - Thereupon Christ said, ‘Arise, my beloved; come unto me.’ ‘My - heart is ready,’ she replied; a few moments after: ‘Lord, unto - thy hands I commend my spirit.’ Then having gently closed her - eyes, the holy Virgin expired without a malady; simply of - consuming love, permitted now by the loving Creator to melt - the golden cord binding spirit to body. And triumphantly amid - mourners who rejoiced exceedingly in spirit, the body of this - Queen of the House of David was entombed amid the solemn cedars - and olive trees of Gethsemane. Now, this happened upon the day - that the true Ark of the Covenant was placed in the eternal - temple of the new heavenly Jerusalem, as they say; and the - saying is good, for surely, in her heart, this saintly woman - kept the law; the divine manna as well. Even more, she was the - fulfillment of God’s covenant that a woman should bear the - masterers of sin.” - -The speaker then knelt; all heads were bowed; he spread out his hands -as in benediction, but spoke not. Yet all in the silence were blessed, -for the manifestation of Christ was there. After the benediction the -companion knights chanted an old grail psalm, repeating again and again -the stately words: - -“_I am the resurrection and the life._” - -As they sang their eyes were turned upward in a rapture as of men who saw -a glorious appearing; and indeed they had a vision of splendor; but they -saw it within, not without. - -“There are angels hovering round,” reverently whispered Mahmood to his -camel. He was too full to keep silent; too distrustful of his wisdom to -confide his thoughts to a human being. But the thought of the old Druse -was as exalted as that of the Hospitaler, for the latter exclaimed, as -the congregation slowly moved out to the strains of the organ: - -“Methinks I hear the beatings of mighty wings! Not far away is Gabriel, -the ‘angel of mothers’ and of victories! Yea, verily, I believe that the -spirits of Adolphus, Rizpah, Sir Charleroy and Ichabod are ministering -nigh us!” - -Many looked up through their tears fixedly, as if they felt what the -knight had said in their souls. - -Then they laid the body of Miriamne in a new-made tomb nigh the Garden of -Olives, not far from the burial-place of Mary the mother of Jesus. - - - - -CHAPTER XLIII. - -A COFFIN FULL OF FLOWERS AND A GIRDLE WITH WINGS. - - “Behold thy mother!”—JESUS TO JOHN. - - -Two travelers journeyed slowly along Mount Olivet, pausing anon to -observe the flower-dells between them and Mount Zion, or to contemplate -the wilder prospects where the wilderness of Judea edged close up to the -hills they traversed. As the travelers passed, the natives looked after -them with curiosity; for the garments of the former, though dust-covered, -were those of personages above the ranks of the common people; also of a -fashion that betokened them strangers in that vicinity. - -One of these men was a youth, stalwart and comely; the other was -gray-haired and bent as if by the weight of years, though a closer view -suggested premature blasting, rather than senile decline. - -“Winfred, before entering Bethany, we’ll to the ‘Hill of Solomon,’ the -site of Chemosh, the black image of the Roman Saturn.” - -Thereupon the twain turned away from the village and soon came upon a -company of revelers, each wearing a crown of autumn fruits, and all -gathered about a platform crowded with hilarious dancers. - -“Saturnalia!” exclaimed the elder. - -“The worship of Saturn ceased ages ago, did it not?” - -“Of the image, yes; but the folly, little changed, continues.” - -“This is strange enough; and yet it’s a relief to meet a few happy people -in this land of solemn faces; even if those happy ones do joy like fools.” - -“They celebrate the passing of summer-heat and the coming of the rains -of autumn. Say not fools; they are trying to be glad about something -good, somehow coming from some one somewhere above them. Perhaps God can -resolve scraps of thanksgiving out of it all.” - -“Theirs is the laughter of wine! the laughter of the goat-god, Pan, whose -face scared his mother and whose voice scared the gods!” - -“We’ve a persistent custom here, son; and men do not play the fool for -generations after one manner, at least, without cause. - -“These attempt to press into the court of Pleasure to cajole her; all -men do that; these have chosen merely an old way. They cling to the myth -of Saturn, the subduer of the Titan of fiction. They say that deity, -dethroned in the god-world, fled to Italy, where he gave happiness and -plenty through life, and the freedom of air and earth after death, which -latter he made to be only a little sleep.” - -“That was not more than a mock golden-age; it never came, I think.” - -“But very alluring to those that long for it; they dance half-naked, -typifying the primitive times when men had fewer cares, because fewer -wants.” - -“Can one laugh hard fates out of countenance, and make his troubles run -with a guffaw?” - -“The devotees of Saturn were wont to offer their children in his -altar-fires, and so ever more it happens; he that bends to the -materialistic solely, kindles altar-fires for his posterity.” - -“After to-day what comes to these, peace?” - -“Nay, a year all dark and colorless; then another spasm called a feast—a -brief lightning-flash revealing the darkness.” - -“And so the years come and go; one generation of madmen, then another; -death the only variety?” - -“Nay! I’d have you look upon pleasure of sense deified, taking its -pleasures under the shadows of Chemosh, for a purpose. You remember we -read together, under the palms at Babylon, how the holy Daniel saw in -vision the four winds of heaven striving on the sea?” - -“I remember the prophet’s reverie or revel.” - -“The four winds and the sea! the meaning, opened, is conflict on every -hand on earth! Out of the follies and turmoils David’s White Kingdom will -emerge at last. Listen to the words of the inspired seer: - -“‘Behold one like the Son of Man! There was given Him a dominion and a -glory that all people should serve Him; an everlasting dominion!’ - -“It is coming; my poor faith, amid the conflicts and revels of man, -hears the voice of God crying through the night, as in Eden’s dark hour: -‘_Where art thou?_’ My last lesson to my son awaits us at Bethany; let’s -be going.” - -Ere long Cornelius Woelfkin and his son Winfred stood silently, and with -uncovered heads, before, but a little apart from, a stately marble shaft -that rose up amid the olive trees of Gethsemane. It was night, and they -were alone. The father motioned the son back, and alone glided under the -shadowing trees, toward the pillar. There the elder one threw himself -down on the earth, close beside the monument; the youth, deeply moved, -but unwilling to intrude upon the scene of sacred, silent grief, stood -aloof. In a small way, there was a repetition of the grief of the Man -of Sorrows, who there, ages before, yearned in His humanity over a lost -world, over those from whom His heart was soon to part for life. To be -sure, the cross of Cornelius Woelfkin was infinitely less galling, less -heavy than that borne by his Master; and yet it was as heavy as he could -bear, and hence the pitifulness of his grief. - -Who can lift the curtain from his thoughts? The years roll back and -memory’s pictures pass through his brain, at first in joyful train. The -lovers in London; the betrothal at sea; the wedding at Jerusalem; the -ecstatic consummation in years of marriage. Then the painful, almost -awful separation by death, that never to be forgotten Christmas time. -And then, twenty years with leaden feet carrying the lone-hearted man -so painfully slow toward death’s portals, for which he longed with -unutterable yearning. “Oh, Miriamne, Miriamne, let me come,” he cried. -The youth, hearing the agonized utterings, was instantly by his father’s -side. But the old man, still oblivious to all but his sorrow and his -memories, moaned on with deepening fervor. - -“Father,” called out the son. The father rose to his feet and calmly -said: “My boy, pity me. I’m weak. But oh, you never knew what it is to -have your life sawn in twain and be compelled then to drag your half and -lacerated being along the over-clouded vales of an undesired existence!” - -“My mother’s tomb?” - -“Yes. I promised, as my last service to you, to bring you to it. Its -study shall be the finish of your schooling.” - -Just then the clouds broke away and the moonlight fell full upon the -monument. It was a shaft, terminating in a crucifix; by its side were -two forms, one that of St. John, with face turned toward the figure of -the dying Savior; the other that of a woman kneeling, her face buried -in her hands. On the base of the cross was the brief sentence: “Behold -thy mother.” As the youth gazed on the farewell charge of Jesus to John, -when He commended to the care of that beloved disciple His sorrowing -mother, he started. It seemed as if the words had grown out of the marble -suddenly while he was gazing, and for himself only. He felt as if he -could almost embrace the stone. - -The two men were silent and heart full. After a long time, they -simultaneously turned away toward Bethany. They came to a turn in the -road that would shut out all view of the garden of sorrow, and the elder -paused, loath to leave the place where his heart was buried. - -Presently he spoke again, as if unconscious of any other being with him: -“Oh, Miriamne, I failed to carry out the work thou left’st me! How could -I, alone? I was but half a man without thee, my other self! Miriamne, -Miriamne, I can be only nothing when I can not be with thee.” Then the -old man lifted his hands as in benediction or embrace, and continued: -“Farewell, a last farewell, sweet, white soul, until upon the tearless, -healing shores of light I say good morning!” - -There was a mighty pathos in the display of this old, ripe, strong grief, -which lived on a love that could not die. The man was a study. He was of -fine fibre, almost effeminate, never firm, except in his affection for -that one woman. That was the one strong trend, the one anchorage of his -life. He need not study the man far, who strove to know him, to discover -that this tenacity was not natural to him always. It had been a growth -under the influence of the peerless wife. - -“Shall we go on?” after a little asked the son. With a shudder and a -suppressed sob the elder moved on, but with laggard step, which soon -paused. Just now, the moon being beclouded, it was very dark about them, -and the father reached out his hand and drew the youth to his embrace. He -whispered: “Winfred, son of Miriamne, you bear her image in your face, -bear it ever in heart, as well. I’m glad you’re not so like me.” The son -tried to speak, but the elder interrupted: - -“You’ll ere long be fatherless as well as motherless, but take your -mother for your guiding-star. You know what your birth cost her. By her -death you obtained life, as by the Christ’s, immortality. She saved -others, she could not save herself; but if you’re true to her memory -she’ll have a mother’s immortality, that life that lives in the life of -her child.” - - * * * * * - -Let us gather up the _last_ threads of our story. After the death of -Miriamne, the “Sisters of Bethany” soon ceased to congregate at the -“House of Bethesda,” in the city on Olivet. Cornelius Woelfkin attempted -for a time to carry forward the work of the mission, but, utterly -miserable himself, he did not know how to bestow comfort on others; a -man, without the intimate companionship of the woman who had been his -inspirer, he had no discernment of the needs of woman, nor power to -interpret the truths that were in the Book or in nature, those garners of -manna. - -The Hospitaler was sent for as an aid. He came but once, and then spoke -as kindly as he could to the women of Bethany and Jerusalem, and took his -farewell of them all, in closing words like these: - -“The blessed Miriamne, child of Jesus, and emulator of Mary, has passed -away, but Christ her Comforter and Savior may be such to each of you, -that wills Mary’s example, as the inspiration of all women, can never -die. The world has been a battle-ground, and each of you can here see -over the whole field of conflict. Shall all pleasures be found under the -leadership of Bacchus and Venus, or in Him that is the God of Joy? Shall -woman echo the passions of man or the ‘_Magnificat_’ of Mary? Shall the -strength that man seeks be that of the giants, brute force; the strength -of woman be, in her youth the bewitchings of personal beauty, in old age -the cunning of the witch-hag? Shall it not rather be in the girdle of her -moral worth? - -“The world needs to seek and find love, beauty and light. Some go after -it, vainly, as did the Egyptian devotees of Phallic Khem; to whom, with -pitiful incongruity, were offered rampant goats and bulls, decorated -with most delicate flowers. They called Khem the ‘God of births,’ the -‘beautiful God,’ but we know to put mothers on the throne as the -beautiful; their flowers, their jewels, their glories being their -offspring! - -“Women of Jerusalem, never forget the Savior’s own words to the women -that envied His mother, crying that the one that bore Him and nursed Him -was therefore peculiarly blessed! His reply was: ‘YEA, RATHER BLESSED ARE -THEY THAT HEAR THE WORD OF GOD AND KEEP IT.’” - -Then the Hospitaler, bending his eyes upon the pale-faced, widowed -missioner, continued: “I’ll tell thee a tradition of our Lord’s mother. -Doubting Thomas, laggard because doubting, came late to the burial-place -of Mary. He begged to have her coffin opened, that once more he might -gaze on the face of his Savior’s mother. It was done. But there seemed to -be nothing in that coffin except lilies and roses, luxuriously blooming. -Then, looking up, he saw the spirit of the woman ‘soaring heavenward in -a glory of light.’ But as she soared, she threw down to him her girdle. -Here is a beautiful parable. The graves of the holy are to memory full -of the ever-blooming roses of love and the lilies of purity. If we may -not have them we loved with us always, we may have the virtues with which -they engirdled themselves, for our conflicts.” - -The Hospitaler paused, cast a glance of yearning tenderness upon the -assembled women and the heart-stricken Cornelius; then exclaimed: - -“Long partings are painful. Farewell!” He glided away ere any could -clasp his hand. Not long after this event the Sheik of Jerusalem, -Azrael’s putative son, raided Bethany, razing the “Temple of Allegory” -to the earth. He was maddened because, after the disappearance of the -Hospitaler, there came to him no stipend to buy immunity for the -“Bethesda House” of the “Sisters of Bethany.” He despoiled it, hoping to -find a treasure therein, but though there was in and about the place a -great wealth, it was all beyond his grasp or ken, for he knew naught of -the worth or power of precious truths and precious memories. Cornelius, -after this, taking his infant son, soon departed from Syria. His dream of -evangelizing the world and the great designs of Miriamne faded from his -hopes, as the vision of universal empire has faded often from the hopes -of dying conquerors. For years he devoted himself to being father and -mother to his child. At last we behold him, as in the foregoing pages, -looking toward sunset. He stands finally in Bethany, his dismantled -home and Miriamne’s ruined temple not far away, her tomb close at hand, -himself like the fragment of a wreck; altogether presenting a sad, -dramatic tableau. He stands there as the last of the new “Grail Knights,” -the last of those who in his time were devoted to the new grail quest. It -was Saturnalia-time, and it was night. - - “VIRGIN AND MOTHER OF OUR DEAR REDEEMER - ... - IF OUR FAITH HAD GIVEN US NOTHING MORE - THAN THIS EXAMPLE OF ALL WOMANHOOD, - SO MILD, SO STRONG, SO GOOD, - SO PATIENT, PEACEFUL, LOYAL, LOVING, PURE, - THIS WERE ENOUGH TO PROVE IT HIGHER AND TRUER - THAN ALL THE CREEDS THE WORLD HAD KNOWN BEFORE.” - - HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] Jamison. - -[2] The Magnificat. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary: The Queen of the House of David -and Mother of Jesus, by A. 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The story of her life., by Rev. A. Stewart Walsh, D.D. - </title> - - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - -<style type="text/css"> - -a { - text-decoration: none; -} - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -h1,h2 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; -} - -hr { - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - clear: both; -} - -hr.tb { - width: 45%; - margin-left: 27.5%; - margin-right: 27.5%; -} - -hr.chap { - width: 65%; - margin-left: 17.5%; - margin-right: 17.5%; -} - -p { - margin-top: 0.5em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: 0.5em; - text-indent: 1em; -} - -p.dropcap { - text-indent: 0em; -} - -p.dropcap:first-letter { - color: transparent; - visibility: hidden; - margin-left: -0.9em; -} - -img.dropcap { - float: left; - margin: 0 0.5em 0 0; -} - -table { - margin: 1em auto 1em auto; - max-width: 40em; - border-collapse: collapse; -} - -table.max { - max-width: 30em; -} - -td { - padding-left: 2.25em; - padding-right: 0.25em; - vertical-align: top; - text-indent: -2em; - text-align: justify; -} - -.tdc { - text-align: center; -} - -.tdp { - padding-top: 1em; -} - -.tdpg { - vertical-align: bottom; - text-align: right; - white-space: nowrap; -} - -.blockquote { - margin: 1.5em 10%; -} - -.caption { - text-align: center; - margin-bottom: 1em; - font-size: 90%; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.caption-r { - text-align: right; - margin-top: 0.25em; - margin-bottom: 0.5em; - font-size: 85%; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.center { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.dedication { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - line-height: 2em; - margin: 3em auto; -} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.footnotes { - margin-top: 1em; - border: dashed 1px; -} - -.footnote { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - font-size: 0.9em; -} - -.footnote .label { - position: absolute; - right: 84%; - text-align: right; -} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: super; - font-size: .8em; - text-decoration: none; -} - -.gothic { - font-family: 'Old English Text MT', 'Old English', serif; -} - -.larger { - font-size: 150%; -} - -.noindent { - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - right: 4%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - font-style: normal; -} - -.poetry-container { - text-align: center; - margin: 1em; -} - -.poetry { - display: inline-block; - text-align: left; -} - -.poetry .stanza { - margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; -} - -.poetry .attr { - text-align: right; -} - -.poetry .verse { - text-indent: -3em; - padding-left: 3em; -} - -.poetry .indent1 { - text-indent: -2em; -} - -.poetry .indent3 { - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.poetry .indent5 { - text-indent: 2em; -} - -.poetry .indent7 { - text-indent: 4em; -} - -.right { - text-align: right; - margin-right: 1em; -} - -.smaller { - font-size: 80%; -} - -.smcap { - font-variant: small-caps; - font-style: normal; -} - -.spacer10 { - padding-left: 10em; -} - -.titlepage { - text-align: center; - margin-top: 3em; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -@media handheld { - -img { - max-width: 100%; - width: auto; - height: auto; -} - -.poetry { - display: block; - margin-left: 1.5em; -} - -.blockquote { - margin: 1.5em 5%; -} - -img.dropcap { - display: none; -} - -p.dropcap:first-letter { - color: inherit; - visibility: visible; - margin-left: 0; -} -} - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary: The Queen of the House of David and -Mother of Jesus, by A. Stewart (Alexander Stewart) Walsh - -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: Mary: The Queen of the House of David and Mother of Jesus - The Story of Her Life - -Author: A. Stewart (Alexander Stewart) Walsh - -Contributor: T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage - -Release Date: August 1, 2019 [EBook #60028] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY: QUEEN OF HOUSE OF DAVID *** - - - - -Produced by MFR 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> - - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="500" height="750" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;" id="illus1"> -<img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="475" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption-r">By Frederick Goodall.</p> -<p class="caption">MARY AND THE INFANT SAVIOUR.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> - -<p class="titlepage larger"><span class="larger">MARY:</span><br /> -<span class="smaller">THE</span><br /> -QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID<br /> -<span class="smaller">AND</span><br /> -MOTHER OF JESUS.</p> - -<p class="titlepage larger">THE STORY OF HER LIFE.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Gabriel.</span>—“Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee:</div> -<div class="verse indent5">Blessed art thou among women.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Mary.</span>—“All generations shall call me blessed.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">Rev. A. STEWART WALSH, D.D.</span></p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smaller">WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">Rev. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D.</span></p> - -<p class="center"><i>ILLUSTRATED.</i></p> - -<p class="titlepage">PUBLISHED EXCLUSIVELY BY<br /> -A. S. GRAY & CO.<br /> -<span class="smaller">SUCCESSORS TO</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">Central Publishing House and Keystone Publishing Co.</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">Pittsburgh, Pa.</span><br /> -1889.</p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">COPYRIGHT BY H. S. ALLEN,<br /> -1886.<br /> -COPYRIGHT OWNED BY<br /> -A. S. GRAY.<br /> -1889.</p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">ARGYLE PRESS,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Printing and Bookbinding</span>,<br /> -265 & 267 CHERRY ST., N. Y.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> - -<p class="dedication">TO WOMANKIND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD<br /> -<span class="smaller">THIS</span><br /> -<span class="larger">STORY OF A LIFE</span><br /> -<span class="smaller">MOST</span><br /> -BEAUTIFUL, BENEFICENT, AND INSPIRING<br /> -<span class="gothic">Is Dedicated</span><br /> -<span class="spacer10">BY THE AUTHOR.</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span class="smaller">INTRODUCTION TO</span><br /> -THE QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID.</h2> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.</span></p> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-i.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">I have been asked to open the front door -of this book. But I must not keep you -standing too long on the threshold. The -picture-gallery, the banqueting hall and -the throne-room are inside. All the fascinations -of romance are, by the able author, thrown around -the facts of Mary’s life. Much-abused tradition is -also called in for splendid service. The pen that -the author wields is experienced, graceful, captivating, -and multipotent. As perhaps no other book -that was ever written, this one will show us woman as -standing at the head of the world. It demonstrates in -the life of Mary what woman was and what woman -may be. Woman’s position in the world is higher -than man’s; and although she has often been denied -the right of suffrage, she always does vote and always -will vote—by her influence; and her chief desire ought -to be that she should have grace rightly to rule in the -dominion which she has already won.</p> - -<p>She has no equal as a comforter of the sick.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> -What land, what street, what house has not felt the -smitings of disease? Tens of thousands of sick beds! -What shall we do with them? Shall man, with his -rough hand, and heavy foot, and impatient bearing, -minister? No; he cannot soothe the pain. He can -not quiet the nerves. He knows not where to set the -light. His hand is not steady enough to pour out the -drops. He is not wakeful enough to be watcher. You -have known men who have despised women, but the -moment disease fell upon them, they did not send for -their friends at the bank or their worldly associates. -Their first cry was, “Take me to my wife.” The dissipated -young man at the college scoffs at the idea of -being under home influence; but at the first blast -of typhoid fever on his cheek he says, “Where is -mother?” I think one of the most pathetic passages -in all the Bible is the description of the lad who went -out to the harvest fields of Shunem and got sunstruck; -throwing his hands on his temples, and crying out, -“Oh, my head! my head!” and they said, “Carry -him to his mother.” And the record is “He sat on -her knees till noon and then died.”</p> - -<p>In the war men cast the cannon, men fashioned the -muskets, men cried to the hosts “Forward, march!” -men hurled their battalions on the sharp edges of -the enemy, crying “Charge! charge!” but woman -scraped the lint, woman administered the cordials, -woman watched by the dying couch, woman wrote -the last message to the home circle, woman wept -at the solitary burial, attended by herself and four -men with a spade. Men did their work with shot -and shell, and carbine and howitzer; women did their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> -work with socks and slippers, and bandages, and warm -drinks, and scripture texts, and gentle soothings of the -hot temples, and stories of that land where they -never have any pain. Men knelt down over the -wounded and said, “On which side did you fight?” -Women knelt down over the wounded and said, -“Where are you hurt? What nice thing can I make -for you to eat? What makes you cry?” To-night, -while we men are soundly asleep in our beds, there -will be a light in yonder loft; there will be groaning -down that dark alley; there will be cries of distress in -that cellar. Men will sleep and women will watch.</p> - -<p>No one as well as a woman can handle the poor. -There are hundreds and thousands of them in all our -cities. There is a kind of work that men cannot do -for the destitute. Man sometimes gives his charity -in a rough way, and it falls like the fruit of a tree -in the East, which fruit comes down so heavily -that it breaks the skull of the man who is trying -to gather it. But woman glides so softly into the -house of want, and finds out all the sorrows of -the place, and puts so quietly the donation on the -table, that all the family come out on the front steps -as she departs, expecting that from under her shawl -she will thrust out two wings and go right up to -Heaven, from whence she seems to have come down. -O, Christian young woman, if you would make yourself -happy and win the blessings of Christ, go out -among the poor! A loaf of bread or a bundle of -socks may make a homely load to carry, but the angels -of God will come out to watch, and the Lord Almighty -will give His messenger hosts a charge, saying, “Look<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> -after that woman, canopy her with your wings, and -shelter her from all harm.” And while you are seated -in the house of destitution and suffering, the little -ones around the room will whisper, “Who is she? is -she not beautiful?” and if you will listen right sharply, -you will hear dripping through the leaky roof, and -rolling over the broken stairs, the angel chant that -shook Bethlehem: “Glory to God in the highest, and -on earth peace and good will to man.” Can you tell -why a Christian woman, going down among the haunts -of iniquity on a Christian errand, seldom meets with -any indignity?</p> - -<p>I stood in the chapel of Helen Chalmers, the daughter -of the celebrated Dr. Chalmers, in the most abandoned -part of the city of Edinburg; and I said to her, -as I looked around upon the fearful surroundings of -that place, “Do you come here nights to hold a -service?” “Oh, yes,” she said; “I take my lantern -and I go through all these haunts of sin, the darkest -and the worst; and I ask all the men and women to -come to the chapel, and then I sing for them, and I -pray for them, and I talk to them.” I said, “Can it be -possible that you never meet with an insult while performing -this Christian errand?” “Never,” she said; -“never.” That young woman, who has her father by -her side, walking down the street, and an armed policeman -at each corner is not so well defended as that -Christian woman who goes forth on Gospel work into -the haunts of iniquity carrying the Bible and bread.</p> - -<p>Some one said, “I dislike very much to see that -Christian woman teaching these bad boys in the -mission school. I am afraid to have her instruct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span> -them.” “So,” said another man, “I am afraid too.” -Said the first, “I am afraid they will use vile language -before they leave the place.” “Ah,” said the other -man, “I am not afraid of that; what I am afraid of is, -that if any of those boys should use a bad word in her -presence, the other boys would tear him to pieces—killing -him on the spot.”</p> - -<p>Woman is especially endowed to soothe disaster -She is called the weaker vessel, but all profane as well -as sacred history attests that when the crisis comes she -is better prepared than man to meet the emergency. -How often have you seen a woman who seemed to be -a disciple of frivolity and indolence, who, under -one stroke of calamity, changed to be a heroine. -There was a crisis in your affairs, you struggled -bravely and long, but after a while there came a -day when you said, “Here I shall have to stop;” -and you called in your partners, and you called -in the most prominent men in your employ, and -you said, “We have got to stop.” You left the -store suddenly; you could hardly make up your -mind to pass through the street and over on the -ferry-boat; you felt everybody would be looking at you -and blaming you and denouncing you. You hastened -home; you told your wife all about the affair. What -did she say? Did she play the butterfly; did she talk -about the silks and the ribbons and the fashions? No; -she came up to the emergency; she quailed not under -the stroke. She helped you to begin to plan right -away. She offered to go out of the comfortable house -into a smaller one, and wear the old cloak another -winter. She was one who understood your affairs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> -without blaming you. You looked upon what you -thought was a thin, weak woman’s arm holding you -up; but while you looked at that arm there came into -the feeble muscles of it the strength of the eternal -God. No chiding. No fretting. No telling you -about the beautiful house of her father, from which -you brought her, ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. -You said, “Well, this is the happiest day of my -life. I am glad I have got from under my burden. -My wife don’t care—I don’t care.” At the moment -you were utterly exhausted, God sent a Deborah -to meet the host of the Amalekites and scatter -them like chaff over the plain. There are scores -and hundreds of households to-day where as much -bravery and courage are demanded of woman as was -exhibited by Grace Darling or Marie Antoinette or -Joan of Arc.</p> - -<p>Woman is further endowed to bring us into the -Kingdom of Heaven. It is easier for a woman to be a -Christian than for a man. Why? You say she is -weaker. No. Her heart is more responsive to the -pleadings of divine love. The fact that she can more -easily become a Christian, I prove by the statement -that three-fourths of the members of the churches in -all Christendom are women. So God appoints them -to be the chief agencies for bringing this world back to -God. The greatest sermons are not preached on -celebrated platforms; they are preached with an audience -of two or three and in private home-life. A -patient, loving, Christian demeanor in the presence of -transgression, in the presence of hardness, in the presence -of obduracy and crime, is an argument from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> -throne of the Lord Almighty; and blessed is that -woman who can wield such an argument. A sailor -came slipping down the ratlin one night as though -something had happened, and the sailors cried, -“What’s the matter?” He said, “My mother’s -prayers haunt me like a ghost.”</p> - -<p>In what a realm is every mother the queen. The -eagles of heaven can not fly across that dominion. -Horses, panting and with lathered flanks, are not swift -enough to run to the outpost of that realm, and -death itself will only be the annexation of heavenly -principalities. When you want your grandest idea -of a queen you do not think of Catherine of -Russia, or of Anne of England, or Maria Theresa -of Germany: but when you want to get your grandest -idea of a queen you think of the plain woman -who sat opposite your father at the table or walked -with him, arm in arm, down life’s pathway; sometimes -to the Thanksgiving banquet, sometimes to -the grave, but always together; soothing your petty -griefs, correcting your childish waywardness, joining -in your infantile sports, listening to your evening -prayer, toiling for you with needle or at the spinning -wheel, and on cold nights wrapping you up snug and -warm; and then, at last, on that day when she lay in -the back room dying, and you saw her take those thin -hands with which she had toiled for you so long, and -put them together in a dying prayer that commended -you to the God whom she had taught you to trust—oh, -she was the queen! The chariots of God came -down to fetch her, and as she went in, all heaven rose -up. You can not think of her now without a rush of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span> -tenderness that stirs the deep foundations of your -soul, and you feel as much a child again as when you -cried on her lap; and if you could bring her back to -life again to speak, just once more, your name as tenderly -as she used to speak it, you would be willing to -throw yourself on the ground and kiss the sod that -covers her, crying, “Mother! mother!” Ah, she was -the queen!</p> - -<p>Home influences are the mightiest of all influences -upon the soul. There are men who have maintained -their integrity, not because they were any better -naturally than some other people, but because there -were home influences praying for them all the time. -They got a good start. They were launched on the -world with the benedictions of a Christian mother. -They may track Siberian snows, they may plunge -into African jungles, they may fly to the earth’s end, -they can not go so far and so fast but the prayer will -keep up with them. Oh, what a multitude of women -in heaven. Mary, Christ’s mother, in heaven. Elizabeth -Fry in heaven. Charlotte Elizabeth in heaven. -The mother of Augustine in heaven. The Countess -of Huntingdon is in heaven—who sold her splendid -jewels to build chapels—in heaven; while a great -many others who have never been heard of on -earth, or known but little of, have gone into the -rest and peace of heaven. What a rest. What a -change it was from the small room with no fire -and one window, the glass broken out, and the -aching side and worn out eyes, to the “house of many -mansions.” Heaven for aching heads. Heaven for -broken hearts. Heaven for anguish-bitten frames.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span> -No more sitting up until midnight for the coming -of staggering steps. No more rough blows on the -temples. No more sharp, keen, bitter curses.</p> - -<p>Some of you will have no rest in this world; it will -be toil and struggle all the way up. You will have to -stand at your door fighting back the wolf with your -own hand red with carnage. But God has a crown for -you. He is now making it, and whenever you weep a -tear, He sets another gem in that crown; whenever -you have a pang of body or soul, He puts another gem -in that crown, until after a while in all the tiara there -will be no room for another splendor; and God will -say to his angel, “The crown is done; let her up that -she may wear it.” And as the Lord of righteousness -puts the crown upon your brow, angel will cry to -angel, “Who is she?” and Christ will say, “I will -tell you who she is; she is the one that came up out -of great tribulation and had her robe washed and made -white in the blood of the Lamb.” And then God will -spread a banquet, and He will invite all the principalities -of heaven to sit at the feast, and the tables will -blush with the best clusters from the vineyards of God -and crimson with the twelve manner of fruits from the -tree of life, and water from the fountains of the rock -will flash from the golden tankards; and the old -harpers of heaven will sit there, making music with -their harps, and Christ will point you out amid the -celebrities of heaven, saying, “She suffered with me -on earth, now we are going to be glorified together.” -And the banquetters, no longer able to hold their -peace, will break forth with congratulation. “Hail! -hail!” And there will be a handwriting on the wall;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span> -not such as struck the Persian noblemen with horror, -but with fire-tipped fingers writing in blazing capitals -of light and love and victory: “God has wiped away -all tears from all faces.”</p> - -<p>And now I leave you in the hands of Dr. Walsh, -the author of this book. He will show you Mary, the -model of all womanly, wifely, motherly excellence—the -Madonna hanging in the Louvre of admiration for -all Christendom, and for many millions in the higher -Vatican of their worship.</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">T. De Witt Talmage.</span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> - -<table summary="Contents"> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter I.—The Queen’s Portrait.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>“A form beloved comes again”—Inspired painters in a - voyage of discovery—Tributes to Mary, honoring all - womankind—Guido’s wish—Madonnas of many climes. - Raphael’s “Transfigured Woman”—Savonarola’s bonfire—St. - Luke’s picture of the Virgin—The Vandal - spirit.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Page 29</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter II.—The Pilgrim, Crusader and Virgin.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Life a pilgrimage—Pilgrims of many faiths—A struggle for - holy places between the Pilgrim-Crusaders and Moslem—The - harem and the home—The rise of Chivalry—The - Knights and “Our Lady”—The results of the Crusades.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">Page 36</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter III.—Armageddon! “The Key and Sickle.”</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>“The wandering hermit wakes the storms of war”—Acre - and Esdrælon, the “Armageddon” or “Mountain of the - Gospel” of the Scriptures—The battle-field of nations—The - City of Jeanne d’Arc. The jewel in the sickle-haft—Prince - Edward, the Crusade leader—Sultan Kha-tel—The - sacking of Acre—Actors introduced.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Page 48</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.—Sir Charleroy; The Soldier of Fortune and Knight of Saint Mary.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The flight from Acre to Nazareth—The born-leader—Life - estimates with Death holding the scales—A prince - honors, a bishop blesses, and a mother loves—An epitome - of paradoxes.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Page 53</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter V.—Nazareth.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Nazareth, the place of Mary’s nativity—The choice of - a leader—The coward king—The Virgin’s Fount—English - songsters—The Knights’ mountain Litany—Longings - for home and mother—Nain and Endor’s - lessons.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Page 61</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.—The Fugitives.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>A night bivouac amid sacred scenes—The “Knight of the - Holy-Sepulcher” who fled on “a white charger with - black wings”—The funeral at dawn—Mary’s palm-bearing - angel-guard—The twelve knights separate into - two parties—Will-makings and farewells—By Endor - to oblivion.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Page 74</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter VII.—Ichabod.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Sir Charleroy’s band approach Shunem, the City of Elijah—The - surprise—Sir Charleroy the captive of Azrael the - Mameluke—The Mohammedan heaven depicted—“A - hair, the bridge over hell”—The odoriferous houris—A - gorgeous charnel-house blasted—The prodigal becomes - the herald of purity—The Knight of Saint Mary and the - Jewish Spy—Adversity makes the Knight and the Jew - friends—The Knight instructing Ichabod—“’Till Shiloh - comes”—“The true, refined and final Judaism”—“The - east and the west embracing; truth leading.”—An - honest doubt is a real prayer.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Page 82</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII.—From Jericho to Jordan.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The radiant proselyte—Climbing to glory—The ghostly - forms hovering over submerged Sodom—Jordan’s sweetening—Siddim-angels - among the willows and oleanders - by the Dead Sea—Summonsed to fight for the Crescent - or go to the slave mart—Nourahmal “The light of the - harem” becomes the disciple and friend of Ichabod—A - debate concerning women—A rarity and a wonder—“I - told her women had souls; she laughed like a - monkey”—The flight from Jericho by night—The - lightning—God’s torch—“Canst thou dance rocks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span> - into camels?”—A mummy’s flight, and the burial of a - live man—“Unclean”—The solemn passage of Jordan.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Page 93</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter IX.—The Feast of The Rose.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>A breakfast of lentils and barley in the wilderness—The - gloom of the Knight and the joy of the Jew—Sermons on - fate and songs in flowers—The poetry of Ichabod—Celibacy - a reward at Rome—Kneph “The father of his - mother”—The heathen and the Christian “Feast of - the Rose”—The summary of the events in Mary’s life - and in the life of Jesus—The Egyptian Rosary—Neb-ta - the maiden sister—The egg and the cross, ancient signs - of immortality—The Copt priest—The insights of the - Egyptians symbolized by the Sphinx.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Page 113</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter X.—After Eve, Esther or Mary?</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>By Jabbock, in the native place of Ichabod—Israelitish - maidens keeping the feast of Esther—Religious love, - filial love and lover’s love—The poetic Jew’s rhapsody - concerning affection—God’s voice in the Garden—The - ideal women of the Old Testament and of the New—The - Jew’s cry for mother—Vacillating Sir Charleroy—“Echo’s - Magic”—Jewish customs.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">Page 135</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XI.—The Feast of Purim.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>A night-scene by Jabbock—Harrimai the priest, and his - daughter Rizpah—The religious ceremonial and the - revel—Sir Charleroy and Rizpah as “Ahasuerus and - Esther”—The Knight’s secret discovered—Conquest of - a woman’s heart through pity—“Of what metals Jewish - maidens are.”</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">Page 152</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XII.—Astarte or Mary?</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The Knight of Saint Mary enslaved by a Hebrew beauty—The - journey toward Bozrah—The Mameluke attack—The - hand to hand fight—Sir Charleroy wounded and - Ichabod slain—Rizpah’s heroism in peril—Espousal in - the face of death—A wonderful vision.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Page 170</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[xx]</a></span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XIII.—From Ramoth Gilead to Damascus.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Teacher and pupil become patient and nurse—Perilous relations—Delights, - assurances, fears and clouds—Harrimai’s - discovery and his malediction—Love’s debate and - decision—Elopement by night—the Knight and the - Jewess wedded at Damascus.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">Page 182</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XIV.—The Theater of the Giants.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The death of Harrimai—A honey-moon in the “Eye of the - East”—To Bashan with the Mecca chaplet-seekers—Nature, - art and desolation—Lejah’s black lava-sea—The - frenzies of Gerash’s passion-flower—Reaction after exaltation—“A - camel voyage in-sea”—Rizpah’s challenge—Jealous - of Sir Charleroy’s love for Mary—“Illusion”—The - church of Saint George at Edrei—Recrimination—Ridicule - costly to pride—Neither Christian, Jew nor - Pagan—A woman with unsettled faith—A babe poisoned - by its mother’s passion—The lamp and the palm-trees—The - Knight’s appeals—Omens—A beacon needed—Fleeing - the Lejah—To Bozrah.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">Page 195</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XV.—The Revels of Men and the rites of Their Goddesses.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Kunawat at the City of Job—The Shrine of Astarte—The - Cyclopean image—Questioning the Soul, Time and - God—Hugeness, greatness; littleness, caricature—The - naked worshipers of the golden calf—Sins exposed—Purity’s - vision—Phallic mysteries—Khem—Female - deities—Dualism—Immortality by progeny and by regeneration—The - fire-worshiper’s mystic number eight, - and the Jewish covenant number seven.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">Page 212</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XVI.—A Battle of Giants at Bozrah.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Houses forty centuries old—The old stone-house of an - ancient giant becomes the home of the knight and his - wife—How circumstances change people—Recriminations - and reconciliation—“The gall taken from animals - offered to Juno, goddess of marriage”—Rizpah’s temper - that seemed brilliant before wedlock, afterward seems to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</a></span> - Sir Charleroy very like that of a virago—The charming - nonsense of those for the first time parents—Shall she - be named Davidah, Angela, Marah or Mary?—The - Christian and Jewish faith battle about the cradle—The - separation of husband and wife, in anger—The sick - child and the desolated, deserted wife—Rizpah longs - for a mother, such as Mary of Bethlehem.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Page 224</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XVII.—Rizpah the Ancient Mother of Sorrows.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>After many years, Rizpah dwells in Bozrah with her three - children—Rizpah of Bozrah fascinated by Rizpah of - Gibeah—Miriamne the daughter of Rizpah—The - daughter appalled by her mother’s mysterious hallucinations—The - wonders of mother-love—The story of the - ancient, Jewish “Mother of Sorrows”—The omen of - the bat and the parable of the stars.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">Page 245</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XVIII.—The Queen Proclaimed in the Giant City.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The old and the young Jews—The old Christian priest and - his Jewess proselyte—Attacked by Mamelukes—The - “Old Clock Man”—The Balsam Band—Miriamne, - the Jewess proselyte, questions concerning the queen - of the old priest’s heart—The miraculous picture of - Mary at Damascus—Silver hands and feet—Crown - jewels.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">Page 264</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XIX.—The Story of Mary’s Childhood.</span></td> - <td class="tdpg tdp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">Page 282</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XX.—The Wedding—The Birth and the Flight.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The birth of Jesus and the flight to Egypt—Miriamne - reads to her mother a Christian account of Mary’s - espousal—Rizpah curious but doubtful.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">Page 293</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXI.—The Queen and Her Family in Egypt.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Father Adolphus and Miriamne converse of the Holy - Family’s sojourn in Egypt—Heliopolis and the Temple<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</a></span> - of the Sun—Fire-worshipers—At Memphis, the shrine - of Apis the sacred bull—The red heifer of Israel—The - Holy Family rescued in Egypt by a robber who afterward - died on the cross next to the Savior—The legend - of a gipsy’s prophecy concerning Jesus—Zingarella - won by the Virgin.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">Page 312</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXII.—The Shadow of the Cross.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Rizpah dreading heresy yet charmed by the story of the - “Girl Wife”—“Behold my mother and brethren”—Christ’s - message to his widowed mother—The “Church - of the Terror”—Rizpah’s vision of “Glad Tidings.” - Rizpah of Bozrah allured from Rizpah of Gibeah—A - hot-chase after an old love—The sword that pierced - Mary—The shadow of the cross horrifies Rizpah—The - faith of the Nazarene denounced—Miriamne driven - from home by her mother.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">Page 322</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIII.—The Miserere and the Easter Anthem.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Miriamne alone at night in the giant city—A refuge at the - Christian priest’s—The midnight Miserere—Penitents—Easter - at Bozrah—Finding the mother-love in God’s - heart.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">Page 337</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIV.—A Heroine’s Pilgrimage.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The convert’s yearnings—“Go and tell”—When parents - oppose each other which shall the child follow?—A - child of the kingdom in a new family circle—Jesus, - Mary and the elect—Miriamne’s two great ambitions—Living - apart may be as sinful as actual divorcement—Father - Adolphus encourages and Rizpah opposes Miriamne—Rizpah - recounts to Miriamne the story of her - love for Sir Charleroy, his madness and her own futile - visit to London in the effort to win him back—The - curse of heredity—“I’ll disown thee with tears in my - voice and kisses in my heart.”</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">Page 351</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXV.—Consolatrix Afflictorum.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Miriamne’s welcome by the London Palestineans—The - daughter meets her father in a mad-house—Disappointment—The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</a></span> - flight—The search—The White Madonna - of the Asylum Park—Love the remedy of minds perturbed - by hate—Pallas-Athene the virgin of the - heathen—Miriamne’s letter to her mother and its grim - answer.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">Page 367</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVI.—The Wedding at Cana.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Sir Charleroy giving signs of recovery under Miriamne’s - Ministries—A remarkable service in the chapel of the - Palestineans—The knight interested in the story of - Cana—The address of Cornelius, on “Home” and - “Marriage”—“Is this London or Bozrah?”—Sir - Charleroy’s sudden relapse—Miriamne’s adroit ministries—Memories - that awaken hopes—The clouds again - lifting—Mary’s life motto.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">Page 381</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVII.—The Star of the Sea.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Sir Charleroy, partially restored, with Miriamne and Cornelius - journeying toward Syria—Passing Cyprus—Olympus—A - storm rising on the Mediterranean—Cornelius - presses his love suit on Miriamne—Miriamne pledges - love, but pleads her mission as a barrier to marriage—Conflicts - below, tempests aloft—A dream; Venus’s - court and Mary’s triumph—Sir Charleroy in frenzy defying - the billows—An hour of peril—The “Lightning - Song” of the sailors—The twin stars—“Mary, Star of - the Sea”—The victims of fabricated consciences—Parting.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">Page 397</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVIII.—The Queen in the Valley of Sorrows.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Father and daughter at Acre—The mysterious Hospitaler—From - Acre to Joppa—“The myths are as full of women - as the women are full of myths”—The wars of men about - women—At Jerusalem—The wonderful words of the - Knight-Hospitaler, turned preacher—The <i>Via Dolorosa</i>—The - Valley of Jehosaphat—The mountain outlook—“Soldiers - Speed the Cross”—Mary, the sun of women, - rising in moral grandeur above the women of the grove-shrines—The - panorama of the ages, passing before - Mary’s mind.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">Page 419</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[xxiv]</a></span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIX.—Two Dead Hearts Uniting Two Living Ones.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>From Jerusalem to Bozrah—The tomb of Ichabod—Sir - Charleroy argues against meeting Rizpah—Miriamne’s - strong argument in behalf of the lasting obligations of - marriage—A husband reaching the climax of revenges—Joseph - by kindness kept Mary in sweet mood and so - blessed the unborn Christ—“Miriamne, I am a bundle - of contradictions!”—The news-rider—A plague at Bozrah—De - Griffin’s twins nigh death—Miriamne meets her - mother—Reconciliation—A strange funeral; only two - women as mourners and pall-bearers.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">Page 437</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXX.—The “Knight of Saint Mary” and Rizpah at the Grave of their Sons.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Father Adolphus and Sir Charleroy—A ruined temple and - a ruined man—“A woman, a woman leading in religion!”—Jesus - and Magdalena—The twelve appearings of the - lingering Christ—The Savior’s love-letter from heaven to - His mother—Lucifer’s attempt at suicide—The kiss - befouled by treason—The meeting of Sir Charleroy and - Rizpah—“The tomb of giant-love grown to mad-hate.”</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">Page 453</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXI.—The Rose, Queen of Hearts in Bozrah.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>A scene of domestic happiness—Love the vassal of the will—Neb-ta - in the “Judgment Hall of Truth”—The lambs - that are offered by sectarian hates—The Arcana of - glorious wedded love—Rizpah transformed—Miriamne’s - public profession of Christ—Cornelius Woelfkin again - appeals for union in wedlock—An inner and an outer - Miriamne—The coronation of love—The solemn espousal.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">Page 467</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXII.—The Queen and the Grail-seekers.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>“The gold of my heart to the man that piloted me to happiness”—Miriamne - yearns for a world in sin—Has the - Church or God failed?—A revolutionary reformer—The - story of the grail quest—The quest of a heavenly cure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">[xxv]</a></span> - for human ills—The triumphant Adam and Eve—The - queenly women of patriarchal times—The mother of the - Savior as the wife of a carpenter—What kept her young - heart from breaking—Miriamne’s farewell to Bozrah.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">Page 484</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXIII.—The Hospitaler’s Oration.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The secret meeting of the Knights at the house of Phebe—Swords - bent sickle-like and spears crossed—After war, - social victories—Sunrise at midnight—Each career - determined by the life that gives life—The girdle of - Venus—Next after God, Mary chiefly instrumental in - giving the world a Savior.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">Page 498</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXIV.—Memorials at Bozrah.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The death of Dorothea—The priest of the wayside—The - wedding of Cornelius and Miriamne—A pilgrimage to - the tombs of Adolphus, Charleroy and Rizpah. Backlook, - and outlooks.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">Page 510</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXV.—The Sisters of Bethany.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The Missioners at Bethany—The site of the Home of Jesus—Miriamne’s - ideal society—The miracle age—A home, not - a throne, the place of Ascension—Will Jesus so return?—The - angel bivouac.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">Page 522</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXVI.—The Queen of the House of David.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The Knight’s Pentecost—In the upper room of Joseph of - Arimathæa—Mary’s title and realm—Luke, the word-painter—The - smoke side and the fire side of Pentecost.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">Page 529</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXVII.—The Coronation of the Queen.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The Hospitaler deemed a prophet at Bethany. The legitimacy - of Jesus as the “son of David” assured through - His mother—“The reign of blood”—First born—Pagan - Rome made sponsor for Mary’s son—Doomsday - books and royal charters.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">Page 538</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvi" id="Page_xxvi">[xxvi]</a></span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXVIII.—The “light of the Harem” in the “Temple of Allegory.”</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The old church at Bethany—A dedication—The wonders - of symbolism—Idolatry and Mariolatry.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">Page 548</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXIX.—Crown Jewels.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The Hospitaler warns the Missioners of the Sheik of Jerusalem’s - designs—The son of Azrael—Immunity purchased—The - wedding of Beulah, Nourahmal’s grand-daughter to - a Jewish convert—The wedding address—Juno-Moneta—Crown - jewels of maidens and mothers—Mary sounding - the depths of woman’s miseries—A malediction for lust—“Knights - of the White Cross”—The lost woman dreaming - of how it seems to have a mother’s arms infolding her—The - Virgin’s potent example.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">Page 568</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XL.—The Queen’s Vision of the Age of Gold and Fire.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Nourahmal wed to the Druse camel-driver—the Druse converted—The - Hospitaler’s message—Ezekiel prophecies - fulfilled at Olivet—The “Mother’s pillow”—Gabriel, the - “Angel of Mothers and of Victories.”</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XL">Page 581</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XLI.—A Chime and a Dirge at Christmas-Time.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>“Motherhood priced”—“Thou shalt be saved in child-bearing”—Sylvan - gods of Rome—“The Miriamites,”—“In - Rama, weeping and great mourning”—Joachim’s - bleating lamb slain—Woman’s supreme hour—Maternity’s - crucifixion—“The Cæsarian Section”—The ebbing tide - and the stranded wreck, at midnight.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">Page 595</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XLII.—The Mother of Sorrows Triumphant at Last.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The funeral of Miriamne—The Hospitaler tells the traditions - of Mary’s death and assumption—What the Druse convert - said to his camel—“The beatings of mighty wings”—The - tomb of Miriamne in Gethsemane.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII">Page 611</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvii" id="Page_xxvii">[xxvii]</a></span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp"><span class="smcap">Chapter XLIII.—A Coffin Full of Flowers, and a Girdle with Wings.</span></td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Cornelius and his son at Bethany—Changed scenes—Under - the lights and shadows of Chemosh—A widower’s grief—Azrael’s - putative son razes to the ground Miriamne’s - home and temple—The legend of Mary’s coffin and girdle—The - last of the new grail-knights—A sad and dramatic tableau.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII">Page 618</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxviii" id="Page_xxviii">[xxviii]</a></span></p> - -<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> - -<table summary="List of illustrations" class="max"> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp" colspan="2">I.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Mary and the Infant Jesus</span>,</td> - <td class="tdpg smaller"><a href="#illus1">Frontispiece</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc smaller">(The original painted by <span class="smcap">Goodall</span>.)</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdp"></td> - <td class="tdpg tdp smaller">PAGE</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp" colspan="2">II.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Birth of Mary</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus2">60</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc smaller">(The original painted by <span class="smcap">Murillo</span>.)</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp" colspan="2">III.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Rizpah Defending the Dead Bodies of Her Relations</span>,</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus3">250</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc smaller">(The original painted by <span class="smcap">Becker</span>.)</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp" colspan="2">IV.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Education of Mary</span>,</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus4">282</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc smaller">(The original painted by <span class="smcap">Carl Muller</span>.)</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp" colspan="2">V.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Marriage of Mary and Joseph</span>,</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus5">294</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc smaller">(The original painted by <span class="smcap">Raphael</span>.)</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp" colspan="2">VI.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Shadow of the Cross</span>,</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus6">332</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc smaller">(The original painted by <span class="smcap">Morris</span>.)</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp" colspan="2">VII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Jesus at the Age of Twelve with Mary and Joseph on their way to Jerusalem</span>,</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus7">350</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc smaller">(The original painted by <span class="smcap">Mengelburg</span>.)</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp" colspan="2">VIII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Youth Jesus Yielding to the Wishes of His Mother</span>,</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus8">366</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc smaller">(The original painted by <span class="smcap">W. Holman Hunt</span>.)</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp" colspan="2">IX.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Wedding at Cana</span>,</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus9">380</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc smaller">(The original painted by <span class="smcap">Paul Veronese</span>.)</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc tdp" colspan="2">X.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Mary and St. John</span>,</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus10">433</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc smaller">(The original painted by <span class="smcap">Plockhorst</span>.)</td> - <td></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> - -<h1><span class="smaller">THE</span><br /> -QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID</h1> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE QUEEN’S PORTRAIT.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“And breaking as from distant gloom,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">A face comes painted on the air;</div> -<div class="verse">A presence walks the haunted room,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Or sits within the vacant chair.</div> -<div class="verse">And every object that I feel</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Seems charged by some enchanter’s wand.</div> -<div class="verse">And keen the dizzy senses thrill,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">As with the touch of spirit hand.</div> -<div class="verse">A form beloved comes again,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">A voice beside me seems to start,</div> -<div class="verse">While eager fancies fill the brain,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">And eager passions hold the heart.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-m.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap"><i>Master, we would see a sign from Thee</i>, -was the cunning challenge of the Scribes -and Pharisees. They were certain that, in -this at least, the hearts of the people -would be with them. A sign, a scene, a symbol, were -the constant demand and quest of the olden times, as of -all times. Even Jehovah led forth to victory and trust, -as necessity was upon Him in leading human followers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> -“with an <i>outstretched arm</i>, and with <i>signs</i> and with <i>wonders</i>.” -The Jews, seemingly so doubtful and so querulous, -after all articulated the longings of the universal -humanity. The longing stimulated the effort to gratify -it, and forthwith the artist became the teacher of the -people. Presentments of Mary, as she might have been, -and as she was imagined to have been by those most -devout, were multiplied. Piety sought to express its -regard for her by making her more real to faith through -the instrumentality of the speaking canvas, but beyond -this there was the desire to embody certain charms and -virtues of character dear to all pure and devout ones. -These were expressed by pictured faces, ideally perfect. -They called each such “Mary”; and if there had never -been a real Mary, still these handiworks would have had -no small value. Who can say that those consecrated -artists were in no degree moved by the Spirit which -guided David when “he opened dark sayings on the -harp,” and rapturously extolled that other Beloved of -God, the Church? Music and painting—twin sisters—equal -in merit, and both from Him who displays -form, color and harmony as among the chief rewards -and glories of His upper kingdom. These also meet a -want in human nature as God created it. The artists -did not beget this desire for presentments through -form and color of the woman deemed most blessed; -the desire rather begot the artists. Stately theology has -never ceased truly to proclaim from the day Christ cried -“<i>It is finished!</i>” that “<i>in Him all fullness dwells</i>;” but -no theology, has been able to silence the cry of woman’s -heart in woman and woman’s nature in man which -pleads through the long years, “<i>Show us the mother and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> -it sufficeth us</i>.” It has happened sometimes that gross -minds have strayed from the ideal or spiritual imports -of Mary’s life and fallen into idolizing her effigies. That -was their fault, and must not be taken as full proof that -nothing but evil came from the portrayings of our -queen. The facts are conclusively otherwise. The -painters that made glorious ideals shine forth from the -canvas unconsciously painted the shadows largely out -of the conditions of all women. Before this second -advent of the Virgin, the paganish idea that women -were the “weaker sex,” the inferiors of men, at best -only useful, handsome animals, prevailed. The -renaissance of Mary, as the ideal woman, was an event -seeded with the germs of revolutionary impulses -socially. Like sunrise it began in the East, at first -dimly manifest, then it became effulgent and quickly -coursed westward along the pathways of Christianity’s -conquests. Like sweet, grateful light then there came -to the hearts of men the braver true persuasion, that -the woman who not only bore the Christ but won -His reverent love must have been morally beautiful -and great. In the track of this persuasion, and as its -sequence, there came the conviction that the sex, -of which Mary was one, had within it possibilities beyond -what its sturdier companions had dreamed. -After this it came about that the painters, often the -interpreters of human feelings, began to represent all -goodness under the form of a Madonna. Not knowing -the contour of Mary’s face they began gathering -here and there, from the women they knew, features of -beauty. They combined these in one harmonious presentment. -They set out to represent the ideal woman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> -but had to go to women to find her parts. It became -a tribute to womankind to do this. It was like a voyage -of discovery, and the artist voyagers depicted not -only the best things in womankind, but by putting -these things together illustrated what woman could be -and should be at her best.</p> - -<p>It was thus that Guido produced a picture of the -Madonna which enravished all that beheld it. Once -he had said, “I wish I’d the wings of an angel to -behold the beatified spirits, which I might have -copied.” After, here and there, he picked out fragments -of color and form on earth; then put them into -one ideal composition. It was a heart-expanding -work; the work of a prophet, since it told of what -might be in woman wholly at her best. Then he said, -“the beautiful and pure idea must be in the head” of -the artist. It was a deep saying. Given the ideal, -and the worker will need only proper ambition to present -a grand composition, whether on canvas or in the -patternings of the inner life. The presentments of the -Virgin rose in fineness when priests turned from their -exegesis to kneel and paint for men. The great Saint -Augustine, held in high honor by Christians of every -name, redeemed from a youth of darkest sinning, -revered as his guiding star two lovely women, Monica, -his mother, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. He -argues, in stalwart polemics, that through the acknowledgment -of Mary’s pre-eminence all womankind was -elevated. Her presentment, so as to be fully comprehended, -was in the beginning a blessing to every soul -in being an inspiration to purer, sweeter living. So -far as such presentment now conserves the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> -results the work is worthy and profitable. In all -times the representations of the Virgin, whether by -the historian or the master of the studio, varied; but -the piety they awakened always seemed to be of one -type, and that lofty. Thus we have “the stern, awful -quietude of the old Mosaics, the hard lifelessness of -the degenerate Greeks, the pensive sentiment of the -Siena, the stately elegance of the Florentine Madonnas, -the intellectual Milanese, with their large foreheads -and thoughtful eyes, the tender, refined mysticism -of the Umbrian, the sumptuous loveliness of -the Venetian; the quaint, characteristic simplicity of -the early German, so stamped with their nationality -that I never looked round me in a room full of German -girls without thinking of Albert Durer’s Virgins; -the intense, life-like feeling of the Spanish, the prosaic, -portrait-like nature of the Flemish schools, and so on.” -Each time and place produced its own ideal, but all -tried to express the one thought uppermost; pious -regard for the Queen and model. All seemed to feel -that in this devotion there was somehow comfort and -exaltation—and there generally were both.</p> - -<p>The writer of the foregoing quotation, a woman of -widest culture and admirable good sense, attested the -need that many feel by her own rapturous description -of the Madonna of Raphael in the Dresden Gallery. -“I have seen my own ideal once where Raphael—inspired, -if ever painter was inspired—projected on -the space before him that wonderful creation.” -“There she stands, the transfigured woman; at once -completely human and completely divine, an abstraction -of power, purity and love; poised on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> -empurpled air, and requiring no other support; -with melancholy, loving mouth, her slightly dilated -sibylline eyes looking out quite through the universe -to the end and consummation of all things; sad, as if -she beheld afar off the visionary sword that was to -reach her heart through <span class="smcap">him</span>, now resting as enthroned -on that heart; yet already exalted through the homage -of the redeemed generations who were to salute -her as blessed. Is it so indeed? Is she so divine? or -does not rather the imagination lend a grace that is -not there? I have stood before it and confessed that -there is more in that form and face than I have ever -yet conceived. The <i>Madonna di San Sisto</i> is an -abstract of <i>all</i> the attributes of Mary.”</p> - -<p>The foregoing representation marked a step forward -in things spiritual. Before Raphael, painters numberless, -under the influence of the luxurious and vicious -Medici, had filled the churches of Florence with painted -presentments of the Virgin, characterized by an alluring -beauty which seemed next door to blasphemy. -Then came that Luther of his times, Savonarola. He -thundered for purity, simplicity and reform; aiming -his blows at the depraving, sensuous conceptions of -the grosser artists. He made a bonfire in the Piazza -of Florence, there consuming these false madonnas. -He was, for this, persecuted to death by the Borgia -family. They could not bear his trumpet call to Florentines, -“Your sins make me a prophet; I have been a -Jonah warning Nineveh; I shall be a Jeremiah weeping -over the ruins; for God will renew His church and -that will not take place without blood—” Art heard -his voice, the painters became disgusted with their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> -meaner handiwork, the rude, the obscene, the mischievous -was obliterated; finer, more spiritual and -loftier concepts of the Virgin appeared as proof of a -reformation of morals. And Raphael, later on, seeing -these productions, felt the influence that begot them, -and then produced that masterpiece. Tradition says -Saint Luke painted a picture of the Virgin from life. -The picture, reputed to have been so painted, was -found by the Turks in Constantinople when that city -fell into their conquering hands. They despoiled it of -its princely jewel-decorations, then tramped it contemptuously -beneath their feet. The latter act was -typical, and the Turk still lives to trample in contempt -on honest efforts to portray with amplitude and finished -details this splendid character, whose outlines -alone are presented by the Gospels. But though the -Vandal spirit survives, there survives also the strong -yearning for the representation of that woman beyond -compare, and some will still revel amid the ideals of -painters, and some will be gladdened still more by -truth’s complete presentment which words alone can -make.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE PILGRIM, CRUSADER AND VIRGIN.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“There is a fire—</div> -<div class="verse">And motion of the soul which will not dwell,</div> -<div class="verse">In its own narrow being, but aspire</div> -<div class="verse">Beyond the fitting medium of desire;</div> -<div class="verse">And but once kindled, quenchless ever more,</div> -<div class="verse">Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire</div> -<div class="verse">Of aught but rest.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—“<i>Childe Harold.</i>”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">There is something very fascinating about -the contemplation of life as a continuous -pilgrimage, and the fascination grows on -one as the conviction of the truth of the -conception is deepened by study of it. The course of -our race has been a series of processions from continent -to continent, from age to age, from barbarism to refinement, -from darkness toward light. Whether measuring -the little arcs of individuals from birth to dust, or following -along the mighty marches of our universe with all -its grouping hosts of whirling constellations, we have -before us ever this constant truth; man moves willingly -or unwillingly onward, as a pilgrim amid pilgrims. -“Move on” is the constant mandate and -necessity of being. Man’s course is mapped; -onward from the swaddling clothes to the shroud, from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> -life to dust; then onward again; while all the mighty -planet fleets of which the earth-ship is but one, move -along their courses, over trackless oceans, toward destinations, -all unknown, yet concededly in a grand as -well as in an inexorable pilgrimage. Partly because -the motions of his earth-ship makes him restless, partly -because he is a being that hopes and so comes to try -to find by distant quests hope’s fruitions, and more -largely because he is of a religious nature, which -impels him to seek things beyond himself, the man -becomes a pilgrim. He that is content as and where -he is, always, is regarded as a fool playing with the -toys of a child, by wise men; by religionists, lack of -holy restlessness is ever adjudged to be a sign of -depravity. Hence almost all religions, whether false -or true, have given birth to the pilgrim spirit. The -zeal to express and to utilize this spirit has been -often pitiful to behold. Multitudes, failing to grasp -the fact that life itself is a pilgrimage, have invented -other pilgrimages and gone aside to useless, needless -miseries. But all the time they attested human -nature seeking something beyond itself, better than -its present. So the tribes that lived in the lowlands -nourished traditions of descent from gods or ancestors -who abode on the mountains, and they inaugurated -pilgrimages to seek inspiration or a golden -age “on high places, far away.” The chosen people -of God thus constantly were allured from the worship -of the Everywhere and One Jehovah by the enthusiasm -of the heathen devotees who flocked to the mountain -fanes. Turn which way one will in the night of the -ages and the spectacle of the pilgrim is before him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> -Ancient Hinduism, followed by that of to-day, witnessed -annually, pilgrims counted by hundreds -of thousands to the temple of murderous Juggernaut, -the Ganga Sagor, or isle of Sacred Ganges. The -Buddhists journey to Adam’s Peak in Ceylon, and the -Lamaists of Thibet travel adoringly to their Lha-Isa; -the Japanese have their pilgrim shrines amid perilous -approaches at Istje, while the Chinese, who claim to -be sons of the mountains, clamber with naked knees -the rugged sides of Kicou-hou-chan. The pilgrimages -of the Jews occupy many chapters of Holy Writ, for all -their ancient worthies “<i>not having received the promises, -but seeing them afar off ... confessed that they were -pilgrims and strangers</i>.” Christ confronted the pilgrim -spirit perverted in the person of the woman of Samaria, -at the eastern foot of Gerezim. She and her people -rested their hopes in pilgrimages to their supposed -to be sacred places, but the Saviour declared to her by -Jacob’s well, truths, both grand and revolutionary, in -these words: “The hour ... now is when the true -worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit ... not -in this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” “Go call thy husband -and come hither. Whosoever drinketh the water -I shall give shall never thirst.” There were volumes -in the golden sentences and they plainly said no need -to travel far to find the Everywhere God Who ever -comes where men are to satisfy their every thirst. “Go -call thy husband.” Go to thy home and find the water -of life through doing God’s will; it is better to be a -missionary than a pilgrim unless the pilgrim be also -missioner. But the truths of that hour have found -tardy acceptance among many. The children of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> -Jacob are pilgrims throughout the earth, and the disciples -of Christ, since His departure, have gone pilgriming -often, as did their fathers before them. Constantine, -the Roman emperor, and his mother, Helena, -by example and precept, urged Christendom to -re-embark in such pious journeys, and at the end of -the first thousand years of its existence, Christianity -had hosts of disciples actuated by the same old -passion that sent religionists everywhere to seek -shrines, fanes and blessings. Then the belief began -to be held everywhere among Christians that the -millennial period was at hand. Multitudes abandoned -friends, sold or gave away their possessions, and -hastened toward the Holy Land, where they believed -Jesus Christ was to appear to judge the world. Here -two pilgrim tides, utterly opposed to each other, met; -the Christian and the Mohammedan. The followers of -the False Prophet, like other men, were imbued with -the pilgrim spirit. Some of these thought perfection -could be attained only within the precincts of Babylon -or Bagdad, and others sincerely believed that they -could find peculiar nearness to heaven about the stone-walled -Kaaba of Mecca. It was held to be not only a -privilege but a duty, incumbent upon all, to take these -religious journeys; hence men and women, young and -old, undertook them. Even the decrepit were under -the obligation, and they must either undertake the work, -though failure by death were certain, or hire a proxy to -go in their behalf. So was rolled up stupendously the -numbers of pilgrim graves which have marked this earth -of ours. The Christian pilgrims for a time thronged -toward Palestine, first as a small stream, then as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> -a torrent. Europe at large was aroused, and all impulses -converged toward the Holy Sepulcher. The -soldiers of the Cross soon added swords to their equipments; -the flashing of spears outshone the altar lights, -and almost before they realized it the priests and pious -pilgrims were transformed to mailed knights. There -was a root to the impulse, and that the universally -felt need of ideals, patterns, personages of heroic mold -in all goodness, to show men how to live. The pilgrims -turned their eyes to the worthies of the past, and -soon came to believe that they could best imbibe their -spirit amid their tombs and former abodes. Like -most religionists they grew to believe God their -especial friend, and they therefore soon came to feel -that, against all odds, He would help them to victory. -Then they easily grew to believe that death in their -crusades would merit the martyr’s crown. Their courage -was unbounded, for many went out with a passion -to die in the cause they had embraced. The following -crusades were marked by conflicts between Moslem -and Christian, filled with fanatical and merciless fury, -though both the opposing hosts claimed to be doing -all they did in God’s name and under his especial direction. -“<i>Deus vult</i>,” “God wills it,” was the war-cry -of a mighty army, each of which bore on his banner and -on his breast the sign of the Cross, the emblem eternally -exalted by the Prince of Peace, who willingly died -that others might live; but these soldiers were bent on -slaying those they could not convert. They were in a -transitional state, passing from being pilgrims to being -missionaries, but the course was a bloody one. They -promoted their self-complacency by persuading themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> -that it was a heaven-offending wrong to continue -to suffer heretics to occupy the places made sacred by -the Saviour when in the world. Then multitudes of -Christian priests taught that the pious needed free course -to visit the holy places of the East, that they might upbuild -their faith and their grasp of theological abstractions -by beholding objects associated with the tenets -they had adopted. The Moslems had no interest in -these proceedings beyond a desire to thwart them. -The Christians, to be sure, had the moral disadvantage -of being invaders, but then censure of them is mitigated -by the fact that Syria was stolen property to the Turk. -The latter held it by the stern title deed of the sword. -The reader of this summary will be chiefly advantaged -by remembering that this conflict was one of -the mightiest efforts in the direction of missionary -work ever attempted by man, and that being attempted -by force it failed utterly. Now the Crusaders were -believers in Christ and devoted to Mary. These -facts awaken questions as to how, since the spirits of -these twain are finally to conquer all hearts, their -champions were so defeated? The Crusaders desired to -promote the glory of the Man of men and the woman -of women, but sought it by aims only weakly worthy, -and means often atrocious. It never matters to Christ’s -kingdom who possesses His grave if He only possesses -all hearts. The Crusaders, beginning with a warm -sentiment of respect for the Virgin, suffered their -sentimentality to run mad, and mad sentiment is ripe -for folly and defilement. An opal, they say, will -change its color when its wearer is sick; so a man -wearing a priceless virtue on the sleeve of his creed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> -will find its luster bedimmed when evil sickens his -heart. The Crusaders had grand banners, mottoes, war-cries -and ideals, but they did not know how to honestly -and truly apply them. Their efforts and results -well serve to emphasize the truth that moral advances -are made with grander forces than those of the -sword; that in the end the heroes and heroines of the -world’s regeneration will appear potent and regnant -solely in the sweetness, truth and exaltation of personal -character. Crusader and Moslem, at heart, were -each desirous of making the world better, but they each, -in fact for a time made it fearfully worse. Probably -the followers of the Cross and the followers of the -Crescent would have been glad to have bestowed all -kindness each on the other, if only the one would have -accepted the creed of the other. But the humanity -and charity of each were as to the other eclipsed -utterly by a zeal for theories. There was need to both -that there arise a harmonizing ideal. It would seem -as if Providence suffered these opposing pilgrims to -peel each other until each in sheer disgust was driven -to seek some better way. An able historian affirms -that the Crusades did not “change the fate of a single -dynasty, nor the boundaries and relative strength of a -nation”—but they did leave a history, the contemplation -of which affords rare thought-food. The conflict -ended in the utter route and flight of the Christians. -The tragedy ended at Acre, but there were left some -things that took shape in men’s thinking, and the world -was made thereby better. The populations and properties -of Christian Europe had been squandered to a -startling degree in these religious wars, and it was fitting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> -that there be some return to compensate. The result -of all others, that grew out of the Crusades, and was -indeed also a leading cause of their vigor, was the rising -of the spirit of chivalry. The dawn of chivalry first begat -brave fighting, but in time the chivalrous discovered -a theater for their activity amid the amenities of peace. -Chivalry was a rebound from the rugged, barbarous belief -of the semi-civilized, whose trust was in brute force -and whose constant <i>dictum</i> was, “Might makes right.” -Men became impressed with a spirit of tenderness, and, -little by little the duty and beauty of the strong’s helping -the weak dawned upon humanity. To be chivalrous, -by the unwritten laws of custom, became the obligation -of every man who sought popular respect. Chivalry was -in the creed of the noble and brave, and men delighted -to become the companions of lone pilgrims, patrons of -beggars, protectors of children and defenders of women. -Toward the gentler sex, the spirit of chivalry finely -expressed itself by not only defending helpless females -amid physical perils, but by according to womankind -distinguished courtesy, refined politeness, and -all those proper respects that so appropriately garnish -and ornament the social intercourse of the sexes in properly -cultivated societies. Before the advent of this -chivalric time, women had been deemed as generally -every way inferior to men; chiefly desirable as ministers -to the necessities or appetites of their lords; useful -as mothers, but worthy of very little respect, confidence -or lasting admiration. The dawn of this new -and fine gallantry was a step toward woman’s disinthrallment. -Chivalry tried to express itself in the -Crusades; defeated, its ardor still burned, and Europe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> -felt its beneficent glow long after the conflict for Syrian -sepulchers had ceased. And here it is of the utmost -importance that the reader forget not the key fact, -that before the advent of the attractive spirit of chivalry, -men’s minds in Christian communities were profoundly -penetrated and wondrously incited by a deep -and new regard for the <i>Queenly woman Mary, the -mother of Jesus</i>! She had been almost rediscovered. -By a common consent, Christian pulpits had begun -sounding her praises, as the ideal woman; a woman -worthy of the veneration and emulation of all. The -various religious communities vied with each other in -doing her honor. The Cistercians declared her purity -by wearing white, the Servi wore black to commemorate -her touching sorrows, and other bodies elected as -their distinguishing badges, various garbs or signs -solely to proclaim their allegiance to their ideal -woman. A popular moral coronation of Mary resulted. -The Crusaders outran all others in their adulation of, -and committal to, the wondrous woman. They were -the first to call her “Our Lady.” She was <span class="smcap">the</span> Lady -of the hearts of all. These chivalrous soldiers to her -spoke their pious vows, from her besought holy favors, -and in her name, with sacred oaths, committed their -all to effort to wrest all Palestine from the enemies of -Mary’s Son.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Now these millions of men were not -mad, nor in pursuit of a phantom. It was all very real -to them. They desired to express a long pent-up natural -feeling, and they found an object all satisfactory -in Mary. The Crusaders returned finally and for -good from battling with Moslem; they returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> -thoroughly, disastrously defeated: but with their -love for Mary all aglow. When they first called her -“Our Lady,” there may have been an admixture of -irreverence and dilettante in the thought of many; -they were purged of these in the hurricane of battle -and in the terrors of that inhospitable land of their -pilgrimages. Amid trials, far away from his home, -often in severe want, frequently confronting slavery -and death, the Christian knight while adding “<i>Ave -Marie</i>” to his “<i>Patre Nostre</i>,” learned to think of the -Madonna as his mother. Missing the latter keenly, -worshiping the other unfeignedly, woman took a high -throne in his esteem. Sword conquest began to seem -to the war-wearied soldier very insignificant as compared -to a ministry of comfort, peace and good will. -The defeated Crusaders returned to scatter through all -Europe a new gospel of humanity. They exalted the -Queen of David’s line and forgot to recount the fortunes -of war in the East in expounding the dawning -beauties of the woman that entranced them and the -queenship this ideal had gained over their minds. So -they prepared multitudes of the sterner sex for a lasting -belief in the worthfulness of true womanhood at -its best. The Christian world was ripe for such a -revival, when the priests began to thunder “On to -Jerusalem!” but men needed not so much war as -conversion; not so much relics and tombs as loving -principles exemplified. It is wonderful how conversion -womanizes some men. That is a triumph of the -spiritual over the sensual, the beautiful over the gross. -It will make a man of brutal, selfish fiber, in time, as -tender as a mother toward her child and as self-denying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> -as a maid toward her lover. The Crusaders started -out to rescue the tomb of the dead Saviour from unbelievers -and failed, but they returned to herald the -renaissance of Mary, the disenslaving of woman; -to call the state, the home and individuals to all the -refinements which the exaltation of such an ideal of -necessity offered. Toward this advening the rising -spirit of chivalry was bending the finest hearts when -the clarions of war, sounded from altar and baptistry, -summoned all to raise the red banner against the -Moslem. Right here it is worthy of notice that God’s -providence presented other, though allied, principles in -the conflict against the Orientals. Two pilgrim hosts, -thinking to choose their own ways, were wisely led to -better goals than they knew. The Turk presented the -throng of the harem as his family; the Christian was -committed to the union of only two in holy wedlock. -One party presented a banner with a Cross, forever the -emblem of self-sacrifice; the other the Crescent, -emblem of youthfulness increasing, a hint ever of the -hope of endless lust, whether borne of the master of a -harem or by the heathen follower of the ancient moon-horned -Astarte. The last at Acre, by the Syrian border -of the Mediterranean Sea, the Saracen hugged -victory and the Cross-bearers were utterly routed. So -reads human history, but in truth the defeat was only -apparent and local. The followers of the Crescent, -holding the creed of lust and making pleasure of sense -their end came surely toward their destruction when successes -encouraged them in their courses; the followers -of the Cross, on the other hand, had within some -germs of truth, life-giving in themselves and too beautiful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> -to be suffered to die from the earth. Trial and defeat -watered these germs and the knightly hosts returned -to Europe by thousands to proclaim finer doctrines -than those by which the priest had incited them to -war. The returning soldiers were transformed from -pilgrims to missionaries, from being taught to teaching, -from restorers of Palestine’s graves to restorers of -European society. Of the “Teutonic Knights of Saint -Mary,” a fine and representative order, an impartial -historian writes: “They defended Christianity against -the barbarians of Eastern Europe.” “After many -bloody encounters introduced German manners, language -and morals.” Of the Knighthood, as a whole, -says another, “the institution that could breed such -characters as these, obviously rendered an enduring service -to humanity. Its spirit lives on, offering examples -which the young still welcome in their joyous, dreamy -days. The ideal still remains, purified by time, freed -from its frailties, and aids in fashioning modern sentiment -to the conception and admiration of the Christian -gentleman.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br /> -<span class="smaller">ARMAGEDDON; THE KEY AND SICKLE.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“From the moist regions of the western star,</div> -<div class="verse">The wandering hermits wake the storm of war;</div> -<div class="verse">Their limbs all iron, their souls all flame;</div> -<div class="verse">A countless host the Red Cross warriors came.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Reginald Heber.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-a.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">As a traveler climbs the mountain to see the -sunrise, so he that would overlook the past -or present must needs clamber to some -lofty point of vision in a significant era or -historic location. There are two plains in Syria; one -lying along the Mediterranean, the other jutting out -from the base of the former toward Jordan; the two -together, in shape very like a sickle, have witnessed -events wonderfully instructive and determinate to the -student of the philosophy of time’s course. These -two plains are known respectively as Esdrælon and -Acre. The sea and the mountains give these plains -their sickle shape, and the geographical outlines are -constantly suggestively before the mind as one remembers -these plateaus not only as the highways but the -battle-fields of the ancient nations. For while, as one -says, “the face of nature smiles”—“no spot on earth -more fertile,” he also says “no field on earth was so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> -fattened by the blood of the slain.” There the Philistines, -the Ptolemys, Antiochus, the Maccabees, Herod, -Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, Salah-ed-din, Cœur-de-Lion, -Melek-Seruf and Napoleon, each in turn, put -their ambitions and their beliefs to the stern arbitrament -of swords. There the kingdom of the House of -David struggled for life; there the splendid dream of -the Crusaders ended as a nightmare.</p> - -<p>As a jewel in the haft of the sickle, at the northerly -end of the plain by the sea, sits the city of Acre. This -city compels the attention of the preacher and student -of history and gives theme to him who blends symbol -into song. Acre gave its name to its adjacent country -round about, and though both city and plain witnessed -many a change of master in the past, those changing -masters, to gratify their whims or strengthen their -policies from time to time, giving the places various -names. The Knights of Saint John made it their elect -city, honoring it as Saint Jean de Acre, the martyr maid -of France. From the city itself one may look out over -the sea-highway of nations; from the drear and lofty -mountains of its surrounding country one may look -over many memorable places. Acre was often called -the “Key of Palestine” by the soldier strategists and -by the chroniclers of events. To their testimony is -added that of the inspired writers and prophets who -made it their key and mountain of outlook frequently.</p> - -<p>These plains, dotted all about by sacred places, -memorable for two great victories; Barak over the -Canaanites and Gideon over the Midianites; and two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> -great disasters, the death of Saul and the death of -Josiah, became to the Jews the symbol of the conflict -of right and wrong. Prophetically, and in the serene -hope that righteousness at last would prevail, the plain -was called Armageddon, “the Mountain of the Gospel.” -We hear the rapt Zechariah thus descanting: -“The Lord also shall save the glory of the house of -David and the house of David shall be as God.” “And -it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to -destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. -And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the -inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; -and they shall look upon me whom they -have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one -mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for -him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.”</p> - -<p>The prophet looked forth to the Pentecostal day of -salvation and the assured victories of David’s great -successor. Following this ancient seer, John the beloved, -in the Visions of the Apocalypse repeats, these -oracles. During the wars of the Crusaders, Acre was -sometimes in their possession and sometimes held by -their Turkish foes. In the year 1191 Richard the Lion -Heart wrested it from the infidel leader Salah-ed-din. -The Christians held it firmly until 1291, the time when -the last wave of the Crusader advance ebbed, in bloody -defeat, from the shores of the Holy Land. For two -hundred years the believer of the West and the Moslem -grappled with each other in deadly conflict; war’s fortunes -often changing, but the awful price in human -misery and human blood was inexorably exacted at -every stage of the conflict. Acre was the focus toward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> -which the eddying tides ever and anon moved; therefore -it saw not only the end but the worst of the Crusades.</p> - -<p>Our story begins A. D. 1291 at Acre, the Key of Palestine, -in Armageddon, “the mountain of the Gospel.” -The situation may be briefly depicted: Acre was filled -with a mixed and un-homogeneous population. There -were the ubiquitous Galilean traders, without politics; -shrewd to the last degree in traffic and courtly as a -Parisian; there some secret, sullen, silent enemies of -the Christian invaders, awaiting the coming end; there -hundreds of those camp-following nondescript “good -lord and good devil” characters, and there the remnants -of the Crusader armies. The latter were not -only diminished as to numbers but greatly degraded in -moral tone. Their warfare had been belittled to a defense -and a retreat. The adventurers were uppermost; -courts-martial, intrigues and fanfaronade were their occupation -daily. Prince Edward, the Christian leader, -had made a sworn treaty with the Moslems long before -this time; but his pious followers had quickly, wickedly -violated it. Thereupon the Sultan, Kha-tel, had made -an irrevocable treaty with himself, sealed with the most -awful oath he could register, that he would never tire -until he had exterminated the last of the Western -invaders now circumscribed and besieged in Acre. -With 200,000 dusky followers the Sultan besieged the -last stronghold of the Crusaders. The hearts of the -defenders sank within them, and scores sought safety -in homeward flight, loading down every vessel bound -for Europe. Among the first fugitives was the chief -leader, Hugh de Lusignan, who wore the phantom title, -“King of Jerusalem.” He preferred the safety of distant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> -Cyprus to the doubtful regality which was overshadowed -with nearing death. Only 12,000 were left -to represent the Crusade cause which once mustered -millions. May 18, 1291, the devoted city was stormed -by the Turks; an entrance was effected and a murderous -carnage, heaping the streets with the dead, and redding -the foam of the moaning sea, followed. But there -was no easy victory to the Moslem, for the steady, vigorous, -brilliant, desperate fighting of the knights, laying -low piles of their foes for every one of themselves -that fell, compelled the respect of the Sultan’s host. -The Turks attempted to gain a surrender by offering -bribes; these failing, terms were offered. The latter, -which included permission for the Crusade remnant to -depart the country in peace, were accepted. But the -Sultan, taught, if he needed the lesson, by the perfidy -of Prince Edward’s Christian truce-breakers, quickly -broke his promise of safe conduct. Though the retreating -band was in no way party to the wrong he -sought to avenge, they were mercilessly ambuscaded. -There followed another struggle to the death, a handful -against a host and but few succeeded in cutting -their way through the cordon of death. History has -often recounted the preceding events up to the point; -from this point it is proposed to lead the reader along -the career of a fragment tossed out of the foregoing -whirlpool of disaster.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br /> -<span class="smaller">SIR CHARLEROY; THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE AND -KNIGHT OF SAINT MARY.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse indent7">“’Tis quickly seen,</div> -<div class="verse">Whate’er he be, ’twas not what he had been;</div> -<div class="verse">That brow in furrowed lines had fixed at last,</div> -<div class="verse">And spoke of passion but of passion past.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">...</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Chained to excess, the slave of each extreme,</div> -<div class="verse">How woke he from the wildness of his dream?</div> -<div class="verse">Alas! he told not, but he did awake,</div> -<div class="verse">To curse the withered heart that would not break.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—“<i>Lara.</i>”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">The course of the knights fleeing from Acre -was turned toward Nazareth. There being -but one way open to them, they took that -way quickly and with one accord. The -fugitives from Acre represented various knightly -orders, but they were disorganized, without any definite -destination and without an authorized leader. Among -them was Sir Charleroy de Griffin, a knight famed for -valor, a central and commanding personage; one that -would have attracted attention in almost any assembly -of men. As he went, so went the rest of the fleeing -Christians, and when he reined in his panting steed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> -after a time, at the top of a fir-crested knoll not far -from Nazareth, the knights following him did likewise. -Then they drew around him in a semi-circle, without -command, and simultaneously, as if to solicit his -direction. They had followed the course he took -because he took it, and now with one accord they -halted because he had done so. There is to some a -subtile influence that makes them leaders of men; so -the disorganized Crusaders, by an unvoiced but fully -expressed concession, admitted the leadership of this -dashing horseman. Some may designate this a -triumph of personal magnetism, but be that as it may, -it was a fact that Sir Charleroy was chief. Sir Charleroy, -just at the time of the foregoing incident, presented -an admirable study for the philosopher or -painter. From his saddle he was able to overlook -leagues of bright landscape, but he could not claim the -protection of a foot of it; for the first time in his life -he yearned for home, now a spreading sea, and a wall -of death shut it out from him apparently for ever; by -circumstances absolute sovereign almost of the men -about him, but doubt and danger were confounding all -his ability to give commands. He fell into a train of -thought, leaving his comrades to converse with their -pawing steeds and to questionings within themselves -as to the future. Sir Charleroy had reached an -eminence in life, one of those points of out-look where -a man’s past meets him and demands review, that it -may explain the present. He believed that he had -reached very nearly the end of his career, and in that -belief he began to weigh it for what it was worth. -In imagination he saw one writing the story of his life.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> -Sir Charleroy, the refugee, began faithfully to review -Sir Charleroy, the wayward youth, pleasure-seeker and -reckless man. The former dictated mentally to the -imaginary scribe: “Write, Charleroy de Griffin was -the son of a stalwart French Baron, used to duels and -trained to war. The boy inherited from his father a -splendid physique, of which he was unduly proud, and -a restless disposition that he never sincerely asked God -to control. By the death of the baron, his son, an -infant, was left to the sole tutelage of his English -mother. The latter was of high birth, by nature a -noble woman, and in every way worthy of a better son -than the one whom he had turned out to be. She had -idolized her brawny spouse in his lifetime, and when -she had recovered from the shock his death caused, her -yearning heart, little by little, turned from the idol in -the tomb to the child he had left her. Ere long she -lived again in the rapture of a love all absorbing, all -bestowing, all ruling. She lavished her affection on -the youth, not because he was particularly lovable, for -he was not, but because he was the only one left her -to love, and she was so constituted that she must love; -the necessity of loving to her made it easy.</p> - -<p>“Then there were many things in the features and -form of her son that reminded her of the man who, in -brighter days, had won entirely her maiden heart and -her young wife love. The child was wont to wonder -why his mother embraced him as she did sometimes, -with a wondering, startled, wild, passionate embrace; -but when he got older he discerned the meaning of -these outbreaks. He knew that the mother-heart was -having a vision of past wifehood, memory’s grace-given<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> -solace of widowhood. Besides this the embraces were -her appealings or warnings to death; her heart suddenly -seizing as if to shelter and save her last and only -idol; for the thought would sometimes come with -shadows deep enough, that perhaps the boy might -also die. Such love would have been a prized wealth -and blessing to some; but in this case, on the one hand, -it unfitted this mother for the proper disciplining of this -son, and this son though, sometimes, when his conceit -permitted it, realizing that the love was given, not won, -began to expect it as his due or despise it for its lavishness. -In due time he entered the period expressively -designated, ‘The monster age.’ This is the time -when expanding young life has outgrown the tenderness -of infancy and failed of putting on manly and -womanly graces; a time when there is a mighty ambition -to put on the characteristics of adult life and a -mighty lack of ability gracefully to wear them. At this -period, perhaps, the majority of youths of both sexes, -are interesting chiefly for what they have been, or what -it is hoped they will be. They feel, conscious of their -growing powers, great self-conceit, and with their -growth comes an expansion of their capacities and wants. -The plenitude of their wantings makes them avaricious, -hence parsimonious toward others of every thing, especially -of gratitude. Reverence for elders, respect for -fathers, holy regard for mothers, tenderness toward -women, chief charms of youth, are buried in the tomb of -other virtues by great, selfish, ugly demons of desire. -The monster age came to Charleroy in its full virulence, -but his mother discerned little of his monstrosity; -what she did discern, all unasked, she condoned. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> -believed all things, hoped all things good of him, -although seldom comforted by an expression or act of -gratitude on his part. She was to be pitied; but it -may be said that the lad was to be pitied almost as -much as herself. It was the old story over; she unconsciously -went about destroying her own happiness and -though she would have willingly died if need be in his -behalf, she harmed him beyond estimate by her indulgent -loving. Then the youth was surrounded by those -who sought the favor of the baroness by constantly -sounding in her ears, and in the ears of the boy, praises -of the dead baron. They told of his daring, they descanted -upon his adventures, his powers, his wisdom. -He was the widow’s idol, and the incense was grateful -to her, but the worst of it was that they befooled the -lad by continually assuring him that he was the image -of his father, and surely destined to equal, if not surpass, -his sire in deeds of valor. A dangerous burden is -wealth; whether it come as great name or great intellect, -great physical strength or as much gold, it is a -fateful load which few can gracefully support. The -youth had wealth in all the foregoing directions; if he -had had a mother whose love loved wisely enough to -save, if it need be by pain, he might have been saved; -but her love infatuated her. The youth’s folly brought -him frequently into shameful entanglements; but she -extricated him each time. Nobody ever heard of her -even rebuking him; as to chastising him, that were a -thing abhorrent to her thoughts. His face always -bespoke his pardon in advance with her. She would -have smitten her husband’s corpse, as it lay in its -coffin, as soon as she would have smitten the one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> -whose features constantly reminded her of him her -heart had held most dear. Then she hoped, with a -mother’s large-hearted faith, that each escapade would -be the last. But as the youth grew older his acts were -bolder. Again and again, without notice and with -heartless inconsiderateness, he left his home to pursue -some adventure, and again and again, mother’s love -followed him, ever to find him at last in some sore -plight, and then quickly to forgive him. By the time -Charleroy had reached his majority, the family fortune -had been severely tried and depleted in paying the -penalty of his follies. He himself had become an old -young man, with too many gray hairs and too much -experience for one of his years.</p> - -<p>“At that time, a few enthusiasts having determined -to make one last effort to secure the Holy Sepulcher, -Charleroy de Griffin ardently enlisted in the pre-doomed -enterprise, allured largely by its very desperateness. -The crusade spirit was then a fitful dying -flame throughout Europe. England and France were -left practically alone to furnish the men and the money -for the last crusade. Prince Edward of France was its -leader, and De Griffin, having in his veins the blood of -both of the supporting nations, a French name, a -splendid physique, together with a fearless, dashing -temperament, was enthusiastically hailed to the enlistment -and pushed forward to leadership. ‘<i>Sir</i> Charleroy -de Griffin!’ smilingly called out Prince Edward, -the day of review, before the one set for departure. -The young man’s comrades, many of whom had been -his associates in former days of wassail, hearing the -Prince’s word, shouted out with one accord, ‘Knighted!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> -The prince has knighted de Griffin! Hurrah for Sir -Charleroy!’ The day following Sir Charleroy bowed -his head, as he stood on the quay ready to embark, to -receive the benediction of a bishop. As the sacrist -laid his hands on the young man’s head, the latter, -throwing back his cloak, reverently touched the cross -he had attached to his bosom with his jeweled sword-hilt. -The young knight for a little while was very -complacent; for he was enjoying a sentimental emotion -of virtue, arising from sophistries with which his -mind toyed. Some way he felt he had become a soldier -of the holy Christ, and somehow it seemed to -him he was making atonement for past follies by now -placing himself side by side with the pious and -noble. Though in reality only bent on seeking excitement, -adventure, change, he looked forward to the rewards -of conscience belonging alone to the penitent, -and to a possible public canonizing as one going forth -to die for God. A little piety paralleling one’s own -desires is often made to do great service in silencing -the clamors from within. His proud, tearful mother -was by his side. Passionately she kissed his cross, -then his brow, then his eyes and then his lips; leaving -on the brow the glistening, dewy jewels that told the -story of the heart which bade him stay, yet go. The -young knight was for once in his life very serious, but -tearless. After all this, in rapid steps, followed the -disaster at Acre; the desperate struggle outside the -city; the flight toward Nazareth. Sir Charleroy finally -stands between the sea and the city, a mother’s idol -ready to be broken; at twenty-five, near the apparent -apex and end of a life, having had great opportunities,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> -now, with all lost, he stands there an epitome of paradoxes. -He had made life a pursuit of pleasure only -to find the pursuit ending in misery; he had enlisted -to serve the Prince of Peace, but that service he had -undertaken with the sword; he had championed, as he -said, the cause of Christ, the all-conquering, but he -meets utter defeat. He had taken for his patron saint -Mary, after years of libertinism. He elected Mary, he -said, because his mother was so like her. But Sir -Charleroy’s mother demoralized her son by over-indulgence, -while Mary, though informed by Gabriel -that her offspring was divine, followed her child as a -true mother, with the divinely appointed authority of -a mother, serenely, constantly directing his career up -to the feast of Jerusalem, where he began to reveal his -divine commission. Even then, motherhood affirmed -its rights in the very presence of God manifest, in the -question: ‘<i>Son, why hast thou dealt thus?</i>’ Nor was the -right challenged, for ‘<i>he went down and was subject to</i>’ -father and mother!” At this point Sir Charleroy ceased -mentally tracing his own career, and lifting his eyes -looked intently toward Nazareth. “Ah,” he said, but -so that none could hear his words, “my mother loved -as many another, in part selfishly, for the joy of -abandoned love, and I squander that patrimony like a -spendthrift, to my harm. Mary’s love for her son -was like his for the world, a constant self-abnegation. -That love survives as an inspiration to the world. By -these contrasts I explain my failure in life, and the -present is the natural sequence of the past.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;" id="illus2"> -<img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="650" height="475" alt="" /> -<p class="caption-r">By Murillo.</p> -<p class="caption">THE BIRTH OF MARY.</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br /> -<span class="smaller">NAZARETH.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“This is indeed the blessed Mary’s land,</div> -<div class="verse">Virgin and Mother of our dear Redeemer!</div> -<div class="verse">All hearts are touched and softened by her name;</div> -<div class="verse">Alike the bandit with the bloody hand,</div> -<div class="verse">The priest, the prince, the scholar and the peasant,</div> -<div class="verse">The man of deeds, the visionary dreamer,</div> -<div class="verse">Pay homage to her as one ever present.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Longfellow</span>—“<i>Golden Legend</i>.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“I walked along the top of the hills overlooking Nazareth. A -glorious scene opened on the view. The air was perfectly serene -and clear. I remained for some hours lost in contemplation of the -wide prospect and the events connected with the scene. One of -the most beautiful and sublime prospects on earth.”—<span class="smcap">Robinson’s</span> -<i>Biblical Researches</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">The avenging Turks easily persuaded themselves -that they could serve God better by -participating in the sacking of fallen Acre -than by pursuing the conquered, fleeing -Christian knights; so they let the latter escape -inland, while they themselves returned to the pillage. -Ere long, by stealth, good fortune and Providential -leading, the fugitives arrived unmolested at -the top of a hill, overlooking the little city of -Nazareth, forever memorable as having been once the -earthly abiding place of Jesus and Mary. On the way<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> -thither scarcely a sentence had been spoken, for each -felt that murmuring would be harmful, mirth inopportune. -They chose their course indifferently, all following -Sir Charleroy de Griffin because he rode bravely -and onward. The fugitives paused, partly sequestered -by the shrubbed hillock, forgetting for a time all else in -admiration of the outspreading panorama in view. -Heaven and earth were smiling at each other; thousands -of leagues of sky were filled with the raptured -songs of larks, while as echo and challenge of the -songs from above, the thrush and robin of the grass -knoll and thicket responded. From the plains of -El Battaf on the north to Esdrælon on the south -Nature, God’s flower queen, had decked the earth everywhere -with blossoms of pinks, tulips and marigolds.</p> - -<p>“Those dusky cowards,” spoke Sir Charleroy, -“though numbering ten to one, will not seek us here; -they’ll wait an opportunity to ambuscade us.”</p> - -<p>“We’ve broken our knight’s pledge, never to flee -more than the distance of four French acres from -a foe, and yet methinks we’ve made them respect -our swords; that’s something to say, though we’ve -not made them respect our creed.” It was a Knight -of the Golden Cross that spoke.</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy continued, while his eyes turned -toward the city: “I thirst for the waters of a fount -in Nazareth as did David once for one in Bethlehem.”</p> - -<p>“For all of our getting at it, Nazareth’s water might -as well be in Ethiopia,” spoke a Hospitaler.</p> - -<p>“I’ve a yearning that comes near to sending me on -a charge into the city.”</p> - -<p>“That would be a hot pursuit of death surely.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> - -<p>“A fair one, then, since death has been long -pursuing us.” After a moment’s pause Sir Charleroy -continued:</p> - -<p>“Ah, death! None can escape, none overtake him; -see we are his prisoners now, yet he tantalizes us by a -show of immunity. As a sarcophagus is let down by -suspending ropes in tedious stages, with jogglings and -pauses, into the grave, so passes each through perils and -sickenings from life to death. No, no, an undue fear -of death intoxicates us until phantasmagoria possess -the brain. We call these hopes; they are delusive! -But will any of you follow for a charge down to the -Virgin’s fountain? We can not more than die; that -we must soon, in any event. I think I could die more -complacently, having cooled my thirst where she was -wont to cool hers.”</p> - -<p>“Ugh,” exclaimed the Templar, with a shudder of -disgust, “the fountain flows out through an old stone -coffin! By my plume! while drinking there I’d be -fancying that the ghost of the one robbed of his last -house were leering at me and reveling in the thought -that I’d soon be poor and thirstless as he. Verily -the flavor of a drink depends much on the goblet!”</p> - -<p>“We may have plenty of miserable fancies, if we -only court such; for me, Templar, I prefer to comfort -myself by cheerier thoughts; while I drank there, I’d -think of the coolings of death’s streams; of her, that -at this fountain slaked her body’s thirst and from the -chalice of death drank serenely at last. My sword, -the gift of my king, after having shed torrents of -blood, hangs uselessly at my side. It seems cruel as -powerless; ay, ’tis hateful! My mother gave me, on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> -my departure, better gifts by far; tears, kisses, undying -love, and the charge to call on Mary if ever evil -befell me. The latter I know not how to do; but -still my weak faith, methinks, would be helped to -cry ‘Mother’ to God, if I could only stand where -that mother stood who won the first love of the -infant Jesus, the last anxious thoughts of the God -man.”</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy is unusually pious to-night; but -alas, though I’ve been taught to say our church’s -<i>Litany</i>, calling on ‘the Virgin most faithful,’ ‘Virgin -most merciful,’ ‘Help of the Christian,’ ‘Lady of -Victories,’ I can not use those phrases here. Where’s -the help, the mercy, the victory now? The <i>Litany</i>, -belongs to England!”</p> - -<p>“We are in our present plight because we have -won heaven’s neglect through having more vices than -graces, probably.”</p> - -<p>“Whatever the cause, the mocking disappointment -is apparent. It is nigh thirteen hundred years since -the Holy son and His mother began proclaiming and -exemplifying the White Kingdom here. Now in all -this land of theirs, we thirteen, fateful number, alone -are left of those who openly own His cause. Yea, and -the city where He grew in favor, these nature-blessed -plains whose flowers gave Him picture sermons, are -all filled with burrowing monsters eternally at war -with Him and His.”</p> - -<p>“Faith will rest until assured that the Promiser is -dead, and that can never be, Sir Knight.”</p> - -<p>“My faith staggers at the sights of Nazareth. Chief, -look yonder.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> - -<p>The knights all now called Sir Charleroy chief, when -addressing him.</p> - -<p>“At what?”</p> - -<p>“The ruins!”</p> - -<p>“Ah, all that’s left of our Crusader church. They -say it was built on the very spot where Mary fell -fainting, when she saw the Nazarenes in wrath dragging -her son away to cast him down from the precipice -to death. But He escaped, though the church since -built did not!”</p> - -<p>“True; therefore it seems to me that the hand -on time’s dial turns backward. This city is filled -with creatures having hearts as hard as the limestone -walls of the cave-like houses they fittingly -inhabit. If Christ and His Mother were again on -earth as before, mercy’s ministers, the present inhabitants -of Nazareth would surpass His ancient persecutors -in the zeal with which they would drag not only -Him but His mother to the cliffs.”</p> - -<p>“Over the door of yon ruined church, some hand -of faith carved the word ‘Victory!’ The word is there -yet, and though the hand that carved it is dead, the -faith which prompted it hath victory assured it.”</p> - -<p>“‘Victory,’ in ruins! A meaningless boast, as it -seems to me, Sir Charleroy. Such victory as ours; -shadowy and very distant!”</p> - -<p>At that moment one of the Templars, who had been -secretly praying behind a cactus hedge, drew near and -the Hospitaler addressed him:</p> - -<p>“Brother, any token?”</p> - -<p>“Praise Jehovah! yes, of peace.”</p> - -<p>“How came it?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> - -<p>“In my communings, God brought to my mind how -the wondrous Deborah, not far from here, pushed the -pusillanimous Barak from his refuge among the pistacas -and oaks, from waverings to courage and to glorious -victory over God’s foes.”</p> - -<p>“A happy thought; ‘the stars on their course fought -against Sisera!’”</p> - -<p>“Barak was called the ‘thunderbolt,’ but Deborah -was the ‘lightning.’ The lightning gave force to the -bolt and God to the lightning.”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy, catching the last sentence, joined in -the debate:</p> - -<p>“Gentlemen, there is another lesson on the brow of -that history; it is, that women, having more trust, -cleave closer to God in peril than do men. Men are -in a panic when their devices fail; women have fewer -devices to fail, hence are less easily confounded. For -that reason God sent out our race in pairs.”</p> - -<p>“Hermon’s breast holds the last ray of the setting -sun,” remarked the Golden Cross.</p> - -<p>“And the Transfiguration of Christ is recalled! I -think some angel of God is holding the sunlight there -for our instruction, now,” exclaimed the chief.</p> - -<p>“Our instruction?” queried the Templar. “I do -not discern its meaning; campaigning I fear has -dulled my brain.”</p> - -<p>“The Son of Mary, on yon mount, met Elijah, representative -of the prophets, Moses, representative of the -law; both called from the deathless land to proclaim -the fulfillment of all prophecy and law through His -coming passion.”</p> - -<p>“And still I question how this applies to us?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> - -<p>“A Knight of the <i>Red Cross</i> should easily discern -that suffering unto death for truth’s sake is the way, -all prophecy declares that a reign of law transforming -things to spiritual splendor shall at last come to earth.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, Sir Charleroy, the interpretation is entrancing, -but why did the glory need to fade into night, and to -be followed by Gethsemane and Calvary?”</p> - -<p>“Life is but a series of temporary glimpses of the -glory that shall be revealed. Night and cloud come -and go, yet the sun never dies.”</p> - -<p>“But, Sir Charleroy, was it not hard that the loving -Immanuel should be forced to bide these pangs though -ever pursuing true righteousness?”</p> - -<p>“Yea, Templar, but the glory of the Transfiguration -came to all that group while Jesus prayed; as the -angel hastened to minister when Gethsemane was -darkest. These things teach that heaven watches its -own, with succor according to want; great light at -hand to baffle great darkness and royal answers for -anxious prayers!”</p> - -<p>“You mean, Sir Charleroy, that we few, surrounded -by a sea of enemies, in an inhospitable land, far from -home, should despise each despairing thought?”</p> - -<p>“Good Templar, I am certain of this, anyway: -Suffering for the right has full reward, for after passion -as Christ’s, so to His followers there comes the -ascension.”</p> - -<p>“Amen,” fervently ejaculated several surrounding -knights, and Sir Charleroy felt the glow that he felt -that time the English bishop blessed him.</p> - -<p>As they thus communed, the sun had quietly sunk -down into the far-off Mediterranean, flooding the west<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> -with light like molten gold. Doubtless one thought -came to each at the sight; for all smiled sadly when -one remarked: “The <i>West</i> is very beautiful to-night!” -They thought with deep yearnings of home. But the -darkness quickly drew over the scene and the song of -the baleful nightingales began to start forth here and -there from thickets which, in the darkness, appeared -like plumes of mourning on acres of black velvet. -One knight, for a while entranced by the grim, gloomy -spectacle, shuddered; then looked up as if to say: -“When will the moon rise? the darkness is oppressive!” -Another tried to cheer his comrades by crying: -“England’s songsters know us and come to sing -us into hopefulness!”</p> - -<p>“Men, to rest; you’ll need it.” It was Sir Charleroy -who spoke. Responsibility made him motherly.</p> - -<p>“Let us revel awhile in memories of better days,” -replied the Templar.</p> - -<p>“But listen; do you not hear afar off something -like the moaning of the winds before a storm?”</p> - -<p>“What of it? A storm could add little to our -misery.”</p> - -<p>“The sound you hear is the cry of jackal and wolf; -our omens. Forget now all unnerving thoughts of -home and steel yourselves to meet hard fortune. -For a while rest. Rest is now our wisdom; night, -our mother; for a time in safety she will swaddle us -within her black garments. And then——”</p> - -<p>“Even so, good Sir Charleroy, and I’m thinking -this is her last visit to us. She has come, I -guess, to lead us to the portals of eternal day.”</p> - -<p>“When I say good-night to you, comrades, it will be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> -with the expectation of next saying good-morning -where the wicked cease from troubling,” solemnly said -the Golden Cross.</p> - -<p>“But,” interrupted the Hospitaler, “while the pulse -beats we have a mortgage on time and a duty to plan -to live.”</p> - -<p>“Bravely said; now tell us how to plan,” exclaimed -several knights.</p> - -<p>“Merge all our orders into one, for the present; elect -a leader, and——” The Hospitaler paused, for he -could not guess the needs or course of the future. -But the knights quickly acquiesced in the unity of -action proposed.</p> - -<p>“Who shall lead?” was the next question.</p> - -<p>“I nominate,” shouted the Hospitaler, “the one -whom we all believe must be under the especial care -of the good angels of these places sacred to all revering -mother Mary.”</p> - -<p>The knights, with one voice, responded, “Sir Charleroy -de Griffin, Teutonic Knight of the Order of St. -Mary!”</p> - -<p>The little band dared their danger for a moment by -a spontaneous cheer.</p> - -<p>“We have no priest to anoint the chief of the -Refugees, but with God to witness, let each who would -ratify the choice place hilt to shield, as an oath of -service and defense.”</p> - -<p>Every hilt rang against Sir Charleroy’s shield, as the -Hospitaler ceased speaking.</p> - -<p>“Comrades,” said Sir Charleroy, “I thank you for -your confidence in this hour when the issue is life or -death. Let us seek the God of battles.” The knights<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> -formed a hollow square about their leader, and all -kneeled upon the earth.</p> - -<p>Their wondering steeds seemed to catch the spirit -of their riders, and, drawing near, drooped their heads. -For a few moments there was awing silence, and then -in deep measured tones the Hospitaler began chanting, -“<i>Kyrie Eleison</i>” (Lord have mercy). The companions -responded, “<i>Christi Eleison</i>.” Then, amid those -scenes of sacred history, the kneeling soldiers, together, -and without command, with only the stars for altar-lights, -solemnly chanted a portion of the sublime -Litany of their church. Galilee never before, nor since, -heard a more sincere orison: “Pour forth, we beseech -Thee, oh, Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to -whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made -known by the message of an angel, may by His passion -and His cross be brought to the glory of His resurrection, -through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.”</p> - -<p>As they arose, a Templar spoke: “Companions, if it -so please you, put a seal, the seal of the Red Cross -Knights, upon our act.” So saying, the knight crossed -his feet, then spread out his arms horizontally; similitude -of the crucifixion. All reverently imitated the -action, meanwhile, their swords being in hand with -blades crossing, forming a fence of steel.</p> - -<p>“Comrades,” spoke Sir Charleroy, with emotion, “I -accept the trust, and vow by Him that gave the single-handed -Elijah on yonder far-off wrinkled Carmel, sign -by fire, that confounded Baal and its regal hosts, to -lead you to liberty and home or to glorious graves.”</p> - -<p>“<i>In hoc signo vinces</i>, living or dead,” was the chorused -response. Just then the rising moon flooded their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> -interlaced swords with light, and, as they glittered, the -knights took it for an omen that there was a blessing -in the union of their swords.</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy, I proclaim thee king of Jerusalem; -what say you, comrades?” exclaimed a hitherto silent -Knight of St. John. Once more every knight’s sword -touched the leader’s shield.</p> - -<p>“Nobly proclaimed!” remarked the Templar. -“When De Lusignan deserted us, ceasing to be kingly, -he ceased to be king.”</p> - -<p>“Have charity, men,” interrupted their chief; “it -takes a world of courage to fall with a falling cause -when a way of escape is open.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, we’ll have charity; the same that Tancred had -for that brave preacher and craven soldier, Hermit -Peter; the latter ran from peril and Tancred raced him -back. We can not reach Lusignan to whip him to duty, -but we can vote him dethroned and dead. All cowards -are dead to the brave.”</p> - -<p>“But, companions, I must decline the presumptuous -title and phantom throne. Jerusalem shall have, to -us, but one king; the Son of Mary. For the future, to -you, let me be simply Sir Charleroy. Now let us be -moving.”</p> - -<p>“Whither?” anxiously inquired several knights in a -breath.</p> - -<p>“Over the valley to the cactus hedges against the -limestone cliffs before us, where runs along the great -highway from Damascus to Egypt. We shall not -need the route to either point, probably; but those -hills are full of caves for the living and tombs for the -dead.” All obeyed.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Why so thoughtful?” said the Hospitaler to the -Knight of the Golden Cross, who marched along with -his cloak partly shielding his face.</p> - -<p>“I’m living in the past,” he sententiously answered.</p> - -<p>“The past? Ah, to make up by a back journey for -an expected briefing of thy future?”</p> - -<p>“No, raillery here, Hospitaler. I was just wishing -that since we are so near Endor, Saul’s witch would -call up some saintly Samuel to tell us where we shall -be this time to-morrow.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Golden Cross, know we can best bear the good -or evil of the future by seeing it only as it comes; -for me, I prefer to think of another place, near us, but -having a more helpful incident for the memory of such -as we.”</p> - -<p>“Dost thou mean Nain?”</p> - -<p>“The same. There a dead only son was raised from -the bier to comfort a widowed mother.”</p> - -<p>“Well said, Hospitaler,” responded Sir Charleroy, -“and let us not forget that it was a mother’s tearful -prayers that won the working of the miracle.”</p> - -<p>“Alas, knight,” sighed the Templar, “we have no -mothers to so petition for us here, if we be quenched -ere long.”</p> - -<p>“Some of us have living mothers who never cease to -pray for us, nor will until their breath ceases. In this -land, where God appeared through motherhood, I -have a strong confidence that our mothers’ prayers, -re-enforced by our appealing but unvoiced needs, will -move the motherhood of God, if such I may call His -tenderest lovings. I’ll trust to-night my mother’s -prayers, reaching from England to Heaven and from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> -thence to here, further than all the sympathy forgetful -Europe will vouchsafe us. A nation cheered us to battle, -and yet it will never seek for the fragments defeat -has left; but the man never lived, no matter what his -ill deserts, whom true mother love and eternal God -love ever forgot.” After this long address, Sir Charleroy -again felt the glow within and the approvings -that he felt on the quay when the bishop’s hands were -on his head.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE FUGITIVES.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“’Tis not in mortals to command success;</div> -<div class="verse">But we’ll do better, Sempronius; we’ll deserve it.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<i>Cato.</i></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">The fugitives slept, some in the obliviousness -of complete fatigue and others restlessly, -their minds perturbed by dreams of their -impending perils. Dawn summoned all to -renewed activity, but its coming was not greeted joyfully -by the knights.</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy,” mournfully spoke a Hospitaler to -the former, as they met at the outskirts of the camping -place, “our comrade, the Knight of the Holy -Sepulcher, made good his escape from this woeful -country during the early morning, before dawn, as our -comrades were sleeping!”</p> - -<p>“Why, impossible!” questioningly responded the -chief.</p> - -<p>“Alas, ’twas rather impossible for him not to go!”</p> - -<p>“I’m in no humor for such petty jesting! See, his -steed is there yet,” and Sir Charleroy turned on his -heel impatiently as he spoke.</p> - -<p>“Pardon, companion, he that departed was borne -away by the white charger with black wings!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Dead?”</p> - -<p>“Mortals say ‘dead’ of such, but it were better to -say he is free.”</p> - -<p>“<i>Peace to his soul</i>,” fervently spoke Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“Ah, knight, thou canst not imagine the peacefulness -of his going!”</p> - -<p>“But why were we not summoned? We might have -consoled him at least; perhaps we might have healed. -What was his malady?”</p> - -<p>“A poisoned arrow wounded him in the retreat from -Acre. He did not realize his peril until the agonies of -the end were wracking his body. Then he said, ‘Too -late; it’s useless to attempt resistance of the inevitable.’”</p> - -<p>“Now this is pitiful—a humiliation of us all. -Heavens, Hospitaler! there’s not a knight among us -who would not have periled his life in effort in the -dying man’s behalf.”</p> - -<p>“But he cautioned me against disturbing any one on -his account. ‘Poor men,’ he said, ‘they’ll need all the -rest they can get for the struggles of the day to come.’ -Only once did he seem to yearn for a remedy, and that -time he spoke mostly as one dreaming. I remember -his every word—‘I wish I could bathe these hot and -bleeding wounds in the all-healing nards said to exude -exhaustlessly from the image of the Virgin Most -Merciful at Damascus.’ I roused him, then, with an -appeal for permission to summon thee, but he forbade -me.”</p> - -<p>“Thou shouldst have overridden all protests of his! -By my tokens! I’d have emulated faithful Elenora, -who sucked the poison from the dagger stab given her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> -spouse, our knightly Prince Edward, by the would-be -assassin at Acre.”</p> - -<p>“I could not resist him; his face shone in the moonlight -with heavenly brightness; mine was covered with -tears. Oh, chief, the dying man spoke like an angel. -Once he said: ‘It is sweet to go out here, nigh where -the resurrection angel, Gabriel, gave Mary the glad -tidings that her humanity was to join with the Good -Father to bring forth One capable of sounding each -human sorrow here and hereafter. He overcomes the -dread last enemy of all our race!’ I watched as he -fixed his dying gaze upon the golden cross he wore; -his last words still fill and inflame my soul: ‘Brother, -good-night—say this to each for me. I feel great -darkness creeping in to possess this broken, weary -body. It comes to stay, but my soul moves forth out -of its dungeon. I see gates most lofty, all glorious, -and oh, so near! They open to an eternal day.’ Then -he breathed his last, murmuring tenderly: ‘I’m going; -good-night; good-morning!’” The Hospitaler ended -his recital with a great sob, then burying his face in his -cloak, was silent.</p> - -<p>Presently the knights formed a hollow square about -an old tomb in the hillside. The Hospitaler supported -tenderly the head of the dead comrade in his -lap. On the naked breast of the corpse lay the many-pointed -golden cross of the Knights of the Sepulcher, -while round the body was wrapped a Templar’s banner, -with its significant emblem, two riders on one -horse; symbol of friendship and necessity.</p> - -<p>“Let the one who received the dying prayer of our -brave companion speak,” said Sir Charleroy. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> -knights all knelt, and the Hospitaler still reverently -supporting the head of the dead, spoke. “Knight of -Christ, sleep; the clamors of war shall no more disturb -thee. The dead at least are just and merciful. -Israelite, Mohammedan and Christian may lie together -in these vales, reconciled at last. They that would not -share a loaf to save life to one another, in death share -quietly all they have, their beds. The ashes of the -long sleepers have no contentions; here are no -crowdings of each other; no misunderstandings; no -alarms. Sleep, soldier, thy worthy warfare finished; -thy cause appealed to the Judge of All! Sleep and -leave us to battle on ’mid perils and pain. Sleep -thy body, while thy soul fathoms the mysteries to us -inscrutable. Rest now, and leave us here a little -longer to wonder why it is that human creatures must -needs inhumanly oppose and slay each other for the -enthroning of Truth, the friend, the quest of all! -Sleep, and leave us to wonder why death and conflict -are the openers of the gates of life and peace.” Some -of those kneeling wept, but they were too much depressed -to speak. Quietly they laid the body within -its resting place; quietly they sealed up the tomb’s -entrance. Then they mounted their steeds at their -chief’s command.</p> - -<p>“There are but twelve of us left; a lucky number. -Perhaps the breaking of the fateful spell believed to -follow the number thirteen, was death’s beneficence!” -It was the Templar who so spoke.</p> - -<p>“It is said, Templar,” responded Charleroy, “that -our Mary, in her girlhood, was escorted ever by an invisible -heavenly guard, a thousand strong. In the guard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> -there were twelve palm-bearing angels of rare splendor, -commissioned to reveal charity.”</p> - -<p>“A worthy companionship, chief!”</p> - -<p>“I’m inclined to pray heaven to send again to these -parts the beautiful twelve, to assure us good fortune -and victory.”</p> - -<p>“Surely the prayers of us all join thine, Sir Charleroy; -but methinks we have forgotten how to pray aright, -or heaven has forgotten to answer us. We have been -praying and fighting for months only to find at last -that our prayers and our battlings are alike vain. I -fear there are no palm-bearing angels at hand.”</p> - -<p>The horsemen slowly wended their way back to the -hill-top, overlooking Nazareth, on which they first -paused the night before. Again they halted to admire -the prospect, as well as to look for a route of -safe retreat. Nazareth was astir. The little band on -the hill could hear the morning trumpeters calling the -Moslem to worship.</p> - -<p>“Gentlemen,” said the leader of the band on the -hill, “it is wisdom to divide into two parties, and -make for the sea by different routes. At Cæsarea we -may find some vessels with which to leave these to us -fateful shores. If we meet the foe anywhere, the -odds against us now are so great that death or enslavement -must be the result. Perhaps if there be -two parties one may escape.” The knights paused -about their leader a few moments in affectionate debate; -all opposing at first the plan that was to scatter -them, but all, finally, convinced that it was the highest -wisdom to go on their ways apart. Lots were cast by -the eleven, De Griffin not participating. Four were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> -grouped in one party and seven in the other by the -result.</p> - -<p>“I’ll join the weaker party, remembering the five -wounds of Jesus,” said Sir Charleroy, reining his steed -to the smaller company. A moment after he continued: -“Now, good souls, away with grief; part we -must; here and now. May God go tenderly with the -seven, a covenant number. Now make your wills; -then a brief farewell; then use the spur.”</p> - -<p>“Wills?” said a Templar, and they all smiled in a -sickly way at the word. “We knights, boasting our -poverty, our holding of all we have in community, -know nothing of will-making.”</p> - -<p>“True, the pelf we each have is small enough; a -few keep-sakes, our arms and such like; but our love is -something. Let’s will that, and if we’ve aught to say -before we die, we’d better say it now. There is work -ahead, and plenty of it. There will be no time for -<i>ante-mortem</i> statement when we meet the cimeters of -the Crescent.” So spoke Sir Charleroy. He continued, -“My slayer will take good care of my jewels.” -He commenced writing upon a bit of parchment, -using for rest the pommel of his saddle. In a few -moments he paused.</p> - -<p>“Wilt thou read thine, that we may know how to -make ours, chief?” inquired one near him.</p> - -<p>“A message to my mother; that’s all.”</p> - -<p>“Enough; that’s sacred.”</p> - -<p>“Yes—but—no. Misery has knit us into one family. -I feel to confide.” So saying, he read his -writing, omitting only the portion that recited their -recent vicissitudes:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“And now, beloved mother, we turn from Nazareth -toward the sea with only a forlorn hope of -reaching it. I long to meet thee, but the longing -must, I fear, content itself in reaching out my heart’s -best love across the distant ocean toward thyself. It -is all I can give in return for the mysterious consciousness -that thine is a constant presence. My memory -teems with records of my life-long ingratitude toward -thyself, that gave me birth and all a loving heart -could bestow, and now I’m tasting bitterest remorse -for all those selfish days of mine. I wish I could -recall their acts. Take these words as my request for -pardon. I shall bind this little parchment scrap in my -belt in a vague hope that some way, some time, it may -reach thee. If it do, remember it is sent to bear to -thee, beloved mother, the assurance that thy once wayward -boy remembers now, as he has for months, as the -brightest, best, most exalting and blessed things of all -his life, thy loving words, thy patient trust in him and -all thy pious exhortations. I thank God now for all -my trials and perils. They have brought me to full -prizing of thy goodness and near to the religion thou -dost profess.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>The reader paused, and the companion knights at -once began begging him to inscribe messages for them -each, he being the only one in all the company -having the priestly gift of the pen. Most of them -said, “To my mother” or “To my sister, write;” -but one blushed as he said, “I’ve no mother nor -sister.” His comrades rallied him at once: “Name -her, the other only woman!”</p> - -<p>“A heart as brave as thine, knight,” said the Hospitaler -to the blushing youth, “has a queen on its -throne, somewhere.”</p> - -<p>The youth blushed more and drew away a little.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Only a lover,” said the Templar. “Lovers, absent, -assuage their pinings by new mating! They forget; -mothers never do. Write for us, Sir Charleroy.”</p> - -<p>The blush of the youth deepened to anger, evincing -his heart’s high protest against any hint of doubt -being aimed at his queen; but he was self-restraining, -silent. “I’ll not reveal her by defense even,” was his -whispered thought.</p> - -<p>The writing was finished. “Farewell! Forward.”</p> - -<p>The chief suited the action to the commands, and -soon his steed was dashing swiftly away with its -rider, followed by the others of his party. The seven -departed toward Nain; perhaps it was an ominous -choice, for their route led them toward the cave of -incantation, where Endor’s witch called up for Saul the -shade of Samuel. Most likely the words of the dead -prophet to the haunted warrior, “To-morrow thou -shalt be with me,” would have told the fate of the -seven that morning fittingly, for they were never -heard from by any of their earthly friends.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">ICHABOD.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Oh, that many may know</div> -<div class="verse">The end of this day’s business, ere it come;</div> -<div class="verse">But it sufficeth that the day will end,</div> -<div class="verse">And then the end is known.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<i>Julius Cæsar.</i></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-a.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">A tedious ride brought the five knights -nigh Shunem, the City of Elijah.</p> - -<p>“We’ll find no prophet’s chamber here -for such as we,” remarked Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps,” said a comrade, “we may by force or -cajoling find a breakfast; a cake or cruse of oil.”</p> - -<p>“Anyhow,” replied the chief, “we must try for a -little food. We can neither fight nor flee with gaunt -hunger on our flanks. Who knows, after all, but that -we may happen on a humane being in these parts.”</p> - -<p>“Well, good captain, if we should find a Shulamite, -black, but comely, she might be as loving to thee as -that one of old was to Solomon, although——”</p> - -<p>The sentence was broken off by the interrupting -command of Sir Charleroy, “Men, quick to cover; to -the lemon-tree grove on the right!”</p> - -<p>A glance back revealed a host of armed men behind -the knights.</p> - -<p>“All saints defend!” cried the Templar, as the little -band wheeled toward the refuge.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> - -<p>The tale of the battle to the death that ensued, is -quickly told.</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy, though he had fought with reckless -bravery, as one hotly pursuing death, alone survived. -A bludgeon blow felled him; when he recovered -consciousness, he beheld standing by his side a -gorgeously bedecked Moslem. The clangor of the -conflict was over; the blood in which he weltered, and -the vicious eyes that watched him, were all that reminded -the knight of what had recently transpired. -Presently the latter addressed the one that stood -guard:</p> - -<p>“Why is the infidel so tardy in finishing his work?”</p> - -<p>“Is the Crusader in a hurry to reach night?” sententiously -replied the man of gorgeous trappings.</p> - -<p>“He would like to stay long enough to execute a -murderer—the chief of thy horde.”</p> - -<p>“My horde? Thou knowest me?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, ‘Azrael, Angel of Death,’ thy minions call -thee; but I defy thee as I loathe thee.”</p> - -<p>The chief’s brow darkened; his sword rose in air, -and he exclaimed: “Hercules was healed of a serpent -bite, ages ago, at Acre; Islamism in the same -place recently; I must finish the hydra by cutting off -thy hissing head, Christian.”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy steadily met his captor’s gaze, eye to -eye, and was silent.</p> - -<p>The chief paused; then lowering his sword, toyed -its point against the cross on the prostrate man’s -breast.</p> - -<p>“Bitter tongue, thou dost worship a death sign; -dost thou so love death?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Death befriends those who wear that sign in truth; -this is my comfort standing now at the rim of earth’s -last night.”</p> - -<p>“Thy bright red blood and unwrinkled brow bespeak -youth, the power to enjoy life. Youth and such -power is ever a prayer for more time; thou liest to thyself -and me by professing to seek thy end.”</p> - -<p>“How wonderful! The ‘Angel of Death’ is a soul-reader -as well as a murderer!” bitterly rejoined Sir -Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“Well, then, refute me! Here’s thy greasy, blood-stained -sword; now go, by thine own hands, if thou -darest, to judgment.”</p> - -<p>“Trusting God, I may defy thee; yet not hurry -Him!”</p> - -<p>“I like the Christian’s metal. I might let him live.”</p> - -<p>“Life would be a mean gift now; a painful departure -from the threshold of Paradise, to renew weary -pilgrimages.”</p> - -<p>“I may be merciful.”</p> - -<p>“I do not believe it.”</p> - -<p>“Thou shalt.”</p> - -<p>“When I believe in the tenderness of jackals and -tigers, in the sincerity of transparent hypocrisy, I’ll -praise the mercy of Azrael.”</p> - -<p>“Our holy Koran reveals a bridge finer than a hair, -sharper than a sword, beset with thorns, laid over hell. -From that bridge, with an awful plunge, the wicked go -eternally down; over it safely, swiftly, the holy pass -to happiness. Art ready to try that bridge?”</p> - -<p>“Ready for the land of forgetfulness; no swords nor -crescents are there.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> - -<p>“No, thou wouldst only reach Orf, the partition of -hell, where the half-saints tarry; thy bravery merits that -much; but I’ll teach thee to reach better realms.”</p> - -<p>“Turk, Mameluke, ’tis fiendish to prejudge a dying -soul; leave judgment to God, and share now all that is -within thy power, my body, with thy fit partners, the -vultures!”</p> - -<p>“A living slave is worth more to me than a dead -knight; I’ve an humor to let thee live.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, most merciful hypocrite! I did not think thou -couldst tell the truth so readily; but let me, I beseech -thee, be the dead knight.”</p> - -<p>“What if I save thy life, teach thee the puissant -faith of Islam, give thee leadership, and with it opportunity -to win entrance to that highest Paradise, whose -gateway is overshadowed by swords of the brave? -There thou mayest dwell forever with Allah and the -adolescent houris.”</p> - -<p>“Enough; unless thou dost aim to torture me! I’m -a Knight of Saint Mary, and thou full well knowest -the measure of my vows; how throughout this land my -Order has warred against thy hateful polygamy, thy -gilded lusts here, thy Harem heaven hereafter! Ye -thrive by luring to your standards men aflame now -with the fire that burns such souls at last in black perdition. -I tell thee to thy teeth, thou and thine are -living devils. But ye war against the wisdom of the -world and the law of God; though triumphing now, ye -will rot amid your riots and victories.”</p> - -<p>The chief’s face grew black as night for an instant, -but recovering himself, he continued, sarcastically at -first, then with the zeal of a proselyter:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Speak low, thou, last dying vestige of a wan faith! -Thou mightst make my solemn followers yell with ridiculing -laughter! I tell thee of life and of a faith as -natural as nature herself. Listen; there is for the brave -and faithful a Paradise whose rivers are white as milk -as odoriferous as musk. There are sights for the eye, -fetes most delicious and music never ceasing to ravish; -these lure the brilliantly-robed faithful to the black-eyed -daughters of Pleasure. One look at them -would reward such as we for a world-life of pain; and -the children of the prophet’s faith are given the -eternities to companion these splendid creatures whose -forms created of musk know no infirmity, but survive, -always, as adolescent fountains. The heaven of -Islamism is eternal youth, eternally luxurious.”</p> - -<p>“It befits the Angel of Death to gild a deformed -hell with bedazzling words. Thou and thine glorify lust, -and thy heaven, like thy harem, is but a brothel after -all. Now let me blast thy gorgeous charnel-house -with the lightning of God’s Word: ‘Blessed are the -pure in heart for they shall see God!’”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy had raised himself up as he was speaking; -now he fell back, exhausted. He again felt the -glow in his heart that he felt on the quay when the -English bishop blessed him; but it seemed more real -now than then, and the approvings of conscience some -way came with rebukes that caused tears to flow. He -felt something akin to real penitence for a life that had -not been always up to the ideal that this debate had -caused him to exalt. As he fell back he closed his -eyes and turned his face from his captor; the act was a -prayer to be helped to shut out of his mind the picture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> -of gilded lust depicted by the false teacher that -stood by. For a few moments the wounded man was -left to his own thoughts, and then his heart went out -toward home crying like a sick or lost child in the -night, for “<i>Mother!</i>” Once more he returned to that -duality of existence which comes when one enters into -personal introspections. There seemed to be two Sir -Charleroys, one writing the history of the other, and -the writer was recording such estimates as these: “As -he lay there, nigh death, he drew near to God. He -had once been a rover, seeking the wildest pleasures of -the European capitals; but meeting passion, presented -as the ultimate of life, for all eternity, his soul recoiled -from it and he became the herald of purity. Once he -had friends, wealth and physical prowess; but he -squandered them as a prodigal; when he lay bleeding, -powerless in body, amid strangers, a slave, he rose to -the majesty of a moral giant.” The Sir Charleroy that -was thus reviewed was comforted, and he stood off -from the picture in imagination to admire it, as one -standing before a mirror. Just then he thought of his -mother and Mary, his ideal, standing on either side of -him, before the same presentment. It might have been -a dream; but he believed they smiled through tears, -pressed their beating hearts to his and upheld him by -their arms with tenderness and strength. His captor -left him for a few moments only, undisturbed. At a -sign from Azrael, he was soon carried away by a guard; -the parley was ended and he that had so bravely spoken -doomed to confront that that is to the vigorous mind -the worst of happenings, uncertainty. For months the -captive mechanically submitted to the fortunes of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> -Sheik’s caravan; in health improving; in spirit depressed, -numbed. The knight had constantly before -him three grim certainties, escape impossible; rebellion -useless; each day hope darkened by further departure -from the sea. The captive’s treatment from the -Sheik was not unkind. The latter met him by times -with a sort of courtly condescension, varied only by an -occasional penetrating, questioning glance. They had -little conversation, yet the Sheik’s looks plainly said: -“When thou art subdued, sue for favors; they’ll be -granted.” De Griffin nursed his pride and firmness and -prevented all familiarity on Azrael’s part. The latter -was puzzled sometimes, sometimes angered; but he -was too polite to show his feelings. For months the -only conversation between the two alert, strong men -might be summed up in these words on the Sheik’s -part: “Slave, freedom and heaven are sweet.” “Knight, -Allah knows only the followers of the Prophet as -friends.” On the knight’s part a look of scorn or an -expression of disgust was the sole reply.</p> - -<p>In the Sheik’s retinue was another captive, a Jew. -He was constantly near the knight; for being more -fully trusted than the latter, the Sheik had made the -Israelite in part the custodian of the Christian. The -knight discerned the relationship very quickly; though -both Jew and chief endeavored to conceal it. Sir -Charleroy, at the first, treated his companion captive -with loathing and resentment, as a spy. After a time, -the “sphinx, eyes open, mouth shut,” as Azrael -described Sir Charleroy, deemed it wise and politic to -make the Jew his ally. The resolution once formed, -he found many circumstances to aid in bridging the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> -gulf that separated the captive and his guard; the cultured -Teutonic leader and the wandering Israelite. -They both hated the same man, their captor; both -loathed the religion he was covertly aiming to lure -them to; both were anxious for freedom. They gave -voice to these feelings when together, alone, and ere -long sympathy made them friends. The next step was -natural and easy; the stronger mind took the leadership -of the two, and Sir Charleroy became teacher; his -keeper became his pupil and <i>protégé</i>.</p> - -<p>The twain one day, after this change of relation, -walked together conversing, on a hill overlooking Jericho, -by which place the Sheik’s caravan was encamped.</p> - -<p>“Ichabod, thou wearest a fitting name.”</p> - -<p>“I suppose so, since my mother gave it. But why -say so now?”</p> - -<p>“Ichabod, ‘glory departed,’ thou art like thy people—despoiled.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Lord! how long?” piously exclaimed the Jew.</p> - -<p>“Till Shiloh comes!”</p> - -<p>“Verily it is so written,” was the Jew’s reply.</p> - -<p>“But He has come, Israelite!”</p> - -<p>“Where?” the startled Jew questioned, drawing -back as if he expected his, to him mysterious, companion -to throw back his tunic and declare: “<i>I am he!</i>”</p> - -<p>“In the world and in my heart.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, Sir Knight, Israel’s desolation refutes all that.”</p> - -<p>“Jew, thine eyes are veiled. I’ll teach thee to see -Him yet.”</p> - -<p>The Jew was puzzled.</p> - -<p>The twain fell into prolonged converse, and then -in that lone place the Crusader waxed eloquent, preaching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> -Christ and Him crucified to one of Abraham’s -seed.</p> - -<p>When the two captives descended to their tents, -each was conscious of a new, peculiar joy. One had the -joy of having proclaimed exalted truth, faithfully, to the -almost persuading of his hearer; the other was moving -about in the growing delight and wonder of a new -dawning faith.</p> - -<p>At frequent intervals Ichabod besought the knight -to take him “<i>to the mountain</i>.”</p> - -<p>Each visit thither was a delight to the new inquirer.</p> - -<p>On such a journey one day spoke Ichabod: “Christian, -I am consumed with anxiety to hear thy words -and another anxiety lest they do me harm. I am -thinking, thinking, by day, and, what little time my -thoughts permit sleep, I’m filled with wondrous dreams! -I fear to lose my old faith, and yet it becomes like -Dead Sea apples under the light of this new way. So -new, so infatuating. None I’ve met, and I’ve met -many, ever so moved me. Why, knight, I’ve traversed -half the world; sometimes as wealth’s favorite, sometimes -of necessity in misfortune; I’ve seen the faiths -of Egypt and India in their homes, and walked amid -the temples of great Rome, but with abiding contempt -for all not Israelitish. Not so this creed of the knight -affects me.”</p> - -<p>“And for good reason; I offer thee the true, new, -refined and final Judaism!”</p> - -<p>“It seems so, and yet I tremble. I dare not doubt; -that’s sin; but here’s the puzzle that harasses me: -What if, in doubting these things I’m now told, I be -doubting the very truth, the Jewish faith!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Ichabod, thy heart has been a buried seed awaiting -the spring. It has come.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, knight, I’m trusting my dear soul to thee. -As a dog his master, a maid her lover, so blindly I -follow thee. I can not go back: I can not pause nor -can I go onward alone. I’m in the misery of a joy too -great to be borne, almost, and yet too much my master -to be given up. Oh, knight, thou art so wise, so -strong! Steady me; hold me up! I can only pray -and adjure thee to be sincere with me; only sincere; -that’s all; as sincere as if thou wert ministering to the -ills of a sick man battling death.”</p> - -<p>The child of Abraham, with a sudden movement, -flung his arms with all vehemence about Sir Charleroy. -The East and the West embracing, truth leading, love -triumphant.</p> - -<p>“Poor Ichabod, if thou hadst no soul, thy clingings -and yearnings would bind me to thee faithfully. Thou -hast tried to give me charge over that that is immortal. -A Higher Being has it in loving trust; were it not so, -I’d turn in dread from thy confiding!”</p> - -<p>“Is mine so bad a soul, master?”</p> - -<p>“Indeed, no. Its preciousness to Him that created -it, is what would make me dread its partial custody.”</p> - -<p>“Thou’lt help me, master, now?”</p> - -<p>“For three objects I’ll willingly die; my mother; -our lady, and the soul of one who abandons himself, as -thou, to my poor pilotage.”</p> - -<p>“Then, thou strangely lovest me. Oh, this but more -persuades me that thy faith is right; it makes thee so -good to a stranger, a slave, a hated Jew!”</p> - -<p>“But then we are so apart and so unlike each other!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> - -<p>“No, Jew, I want to show that humanity is one. -The very creed I’m trying to teach thee and would fain -have all thy race, ay, all mankind fully understand, is -full of love, joy, peace. These follow it as naturally as -the flower the stem, the humming the flying wing -made to fly and be musical.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, my dear light, with thee I’m in joy and wilderment. -Thy presence seems to bring me hosts of -crowned truths, all seeking to enter my being. I feel -like a tired runner ready to faint when thou’rt absent, -but when thou talkest the tired runner is plunged into a -cooling ocean, whose circling waves, as it were charged -with the stimulus of tempered lightnings, glowing with -a million rainbows, overwhelm, lift up and rest him. -I’m floating thereon now!”</p> - -<p>“Thy strange fancies make me wonder, Ichabod.”</p> - -<p>“Wonder; why my strength dies from over wonder. -I was ill for hours yesterday. Light to my sweat-blinded, -feverish eyes, all calm and healing, comes -when I yield to thy will; but still all my joy is -haunted by ghosts which rise in day-mare troops, -pointing rebukingly to labyrinths into which I seem -to be pushed. I sometimes wonder if I’m seeing real -spirits or going mad.”</p> - -<p>“Dost pray, Jew?”</p> - -<p>“I dare not live without praying!”</p> - -<p>“Then tell the All Pitiful what thou hast this day -told to me. He loves the sincere, down to the deepest -hell of doubt, and from it all, at last, will lead -tumulted souls safely. An honest doubt is a real -prayer, well winged; quickly it reaches heaven, at -whose portal it dies to rise again all peace.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">FROM JERICHO TO JORDAN.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Through sins of sense, perversities of will,</div> -<div class="verse">Through doubt and pain, through guilt and shame and ill</div> -<div class="verse">Thy pitying Eye is on Thy creature still.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Wilt Thou not make, eternal Source and Goal,</div> -<div class="verse">In thy long years life’s broken circle whole,</div> -<div class="verse">And change to praise the cry of a lost soul?”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Whittier.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-j.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Jew and Crusader came to love each other -after the manner of David and Jonathan, -and they were both made stronger and -happier men on account of this loving.</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy, a year gone to day, thou and I climbed -to glory.”</p> - -<p>“Thou hast a prolific imagination or I a poor memory. -I have no remembrance of either climbing or -glory of a year ago.”</p> - -<p>“I may well remember the greatest day of my life; -the day thou tookst me up yon hill over against Jericho; -I saw, as Elisha, in the presence of his great master -Elijah, the mountains, that day, full of the chariots -and angels of God.”</p> - -<p>“But, Jew, the chariot separated Elijah and Elisha; -we were, in thy ‘great day,’ made one.”</p> - -<p>“True, but I got the prophet’s insight and power. Oh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> -now I see Shiloh coming in the redemption of Jew and -Gentile.”</p> - -<p>“Radiant proselyte, give God, not me the glory.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll call thee, knight, Jordan—my Jordan.”</p> - -<p>“The Jew rambles amid strange conceptions. Why -am I like that mighty stream?”</p> - -<p>“Its bed and banks, God’s cup; they nobly serve, -catching the pure waters of mountain springs and -heaven’s clouds, to bear them, mingled with sweet Galilee, -to the black burning lips of Sodom’s plains below. -I was a dead sea, alive alone to misery; nothing to me -but my historic past, and that sin-stained. I’m now -refreshed and purified; sometime there’ll be life growing -about me!”</p> - -<p>“The highlands of Galilee gather from heaven, -oceans of sweet, pure water, which Jordan, year after -year, night and day, hurries down to the Asphalt -sea; but still that sea remains lifeless and bitter. -Even so, the clean, white truth comes to some, life-long, -yet vainly. I think I’m little like Jordan, but -much like that sea.”</p> - -<p>“And yet, knight, all is not vain that seems so. I -learned this once, long ago, in the vale of Siddim, by -the sea of Lot. As I entered that place of desolation -I thought of Gehenna! The lime cliffs about, all -barren and pitiless as the walls of a furnace, shut out -the breezes, and intensified the sun’s scorching rays. -A solemn stillness, unbroken by wind, wave or voice of -life, was there; suffocating, plutonic odors ladened the -air, and a fog hung over that watery winding sheet of -the cities of the plain. I watched that overhanging -cloud until my heated brain shaped it into a vast company<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> -of shades; the ghostly forms of the overwhelmed -denizens of those accursed habitations, now in mute -terror and confusion, holding to one another desperately; -fearing to go to final judgment. Once I thought -they were together trying to look down into the depths, -perchance to seek for vestiges of their ancient, earthly -habitations. These fancies grew and grew upon me, -mad dreamer that I was, until I was nigh to desperate -fright; but I found some little angels on the shore -who comforted.”</p> - -<p>“Angels at Sodom?”</p> - -<p>“Even so. The first was light and liquid silver; it -sang a bar of nature’s tireless, varied melody by my footsteps. -Ah, the little, fresh spring that burst forth -through the rim of the crystalline basin, was an angel to -me. Then I found others here and there. At first I was -glad, then I began to pity them, and to wish I could -change their courses. They all wended their ways to -the desolate sea, and their sweet currents were swallowed -up in the yawning gulf of death. ‘Vainly,’ I -said at first. Then I saw other angels in the forms of -bending willows, and gorgeous oleanders. Just then it -all came to me; the springs, though small and few, -were not in vain. The oleanders and the willow, whose -roots kissed their fresh life, were evidences that the -springs had been for good. Aye, more, the flowers rejoiced -me in those desolations more than could the -rose gardens of the Temple in days of happiness. -Yea, knight, thou hast been a rivulet to Ichabod in a -day when he wandered as among arid mountains and -dead seas.”</p> - -<p>“Blest child of Abraham, thy faith is great, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> -I be but a pitiable guide; yet I’ll adopt thy similes. -Be thou and I, to each other, Jordan, rivulet and -flower by turn; the fresh current gives life to plant and -blossom, while plant and blossom both shade and beautify -the streams. With both it shall be well, if we well -learn to seek deep for the hidden springs of the life -that can never die. Already thou hast blessed me very -greatly, gathering truths I failed to find. Thou return’st -to me multiplied all I bestow.”</p> - -<p>“Would I could gather for all; for my race, so -blinded! Oh, it is a tristful thought that the nearer I -get to God, the further I get from them I love next -after Him. Even my mother was wont to say to me, -when, as a questioning boy, I inquired beyond the -traditions of the Rabbis, that she’d disown me to all -eternity as a heretic. My belief has made me an outcast -to her, and yet the thought of her hating me tears -my heart.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll love thy orphaned heart.”</p> - -<p>“Me? Love me; so far beneath thee and with such -pauper power of payment?”</p> - -<p>“Thy desolation makes thee rich; having none other -to love, thou canst love me the more. Thou know’st -this open secret of loving; its selfishness demands all; -getting that it gives all. Fear not Ichabod, but that -thou’lt find the hunger of thy heart well fed. It is as -natural for us to love those we have helped as to hate -those we have harmed. Thou know’st how men wonder -that the Infinite can love the finite, but they forget, -or never realized, that one may love because he -has loved. So is it with God. He loves, and that He -loves becomes therefore rich and worthful to Him.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> - -<p>The morning after the betrothal, shall we call it, of -these two men to each other, long before dawn the -knight was wakened by a cautious step on the stone -floor of his sleeping place. Sir Charleroy was at once -all alert and leaped from the couch, sword in hand, -expecting to confront some gipsy thief, for there had -been a band of these wanderers hovering near the day -before.</p> - -<p>“Who’s there?” sternly he demanded, advancing, -on guard meanwhile.</p> - -<p>“Ichabod, Ichabod!” with trembling voice and in a -half whisper. It was the Jew.</p> - -<p>“I did not mean to fright thee,” he hurriedly -explained, when he had recovered from his fear of -being thrust through, “but I’ve news; bad news that -would not wait!”</p> - -<p>“What is the bad? Is it near?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, knight, speak low—the news is bad enough -and the ill, though not on us, close after us!”</p> - -<p>“Thou art excited, my friend; sit down and then -unfold the matter. Meanwhile I’ll light a faggot.”</p> - -<p>“In truth, I can’t sit, and I’ve reason to be nervous.” -Then the man spread out his arms and his fingers as if -he would stand all ready to fly; his eyes wide open, -staring as he talked.</p> - -<p>“Our Sheik leaves Jericho to-morrow; summoned by -the sheriff of Mecca. The sheriff is supreme to -Moslem. The command is for war toward the east. -Blood, blood; when will the world be done shedding -blood!”</p> - -<p>“Well, my loving alarmist,” replied Sir Charleroy, -coolly, “that’s not very bad news. If the Sheik leaves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> -us, we’ll be free; if he takes us, there will be a change -and for that I could almost cry ‘Blessed be Allah!’ I -am sickened, crushed, dry-rotted by this hum-drum -life; this slavery; dancing abject attendance on a gluttonous -master, whose sole object seems to be eating or -dallying about the marquees of his harem.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Sir Charleroy, the change has dreadful things -for us!”</p> - -<p>“Why?”</p> - -<p>“I heard that the runner bringing the mandate from -Mecca brings also command that all prisoners, such as -we, must be made to embrace Islamism, enlist to die, -if need be, in this so-called holy war, or be sent to the -slave mart.”</p> - -<p>“This is a carnival for the furies! Why, Ichabod, -the latter is burial alive; the former death with a dishonored -conscience!”</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy, I prefer the slavery.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I prefer neither. Is the mandate final?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; I’ve an order to commence packing at sunrise; -by noon we will be enlisted or in chains.”</p> - -<p>“Who gave thee these state secrets, so in detail? -Perhaps ’tis only camp-fire gossip recounted for lack of -novel ghost stories.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, ’tis too true. I’d swear my life on it!”</p> - -<p>“Rash, credulous; but which now, comrade, I can -not tell.”</p> - -<p>“Master, I had this from one that loves me as I love -thee; the young Nourahmal, light of the harem, -favorite of the Sheik.”</p> - -<p>“Well, now it seems to me that this light of the -harem is thy favorite rather than the Sheik’s.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> - -<p>“She adores me.”</p> - -<p>“Doubtless! Where a woman unfolds her mind -there she brings all else an offering easily possessed. -She seals her change of allegiance by scattering the -secrets of the dethroned to the enthroned lover. -‘Nourahmal’? Is she as charming in form as in name?”</p> - -<p>“Hold, now! If thou lov’st me thou will’st not -continue thus to wound. I love that girl, but not the -way thou meanest!”</p> - -<p>“So? Is there an elopement pending?”</p> - -<p>“Unworthy gibe! Say no more like it, but answer -this: Is it not possible for a man and woman to be knitted -together in soul, as I and thou have been, without -the shadow of a remembrance that they are animals of -different sexes?”</p> - -<p>“Possible? Really I do not know. It may be possible, -but so very rare that I have failed to hear of any -such relationship.”</p> - -<p>“Then thou shalt hear of it now in Nourahmal and -me.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll take both to Paris! Another wonder of the -world! But explain further.”</p> - -<p>“My Nourahmal is a captive; hates the man to -whom she must submit as we hate him, and loves me -with the new love that you have revealed to me, -because I’ve shown her that I love her that way; so -different from any thing she ever knew before.”</p> - -<p>“Well, there are many women yoked to men for -whom they feel no great affection, yet they glorify -womanhood by their unfaltering loyalty. Loyalty is -woman’s glory; the hope of society. If the women -be traitors, then, alas!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Nourahmal is not a wife! The man that parcels -out his heart to a dozen favorites buys but scraps in -return. A woman in misery’s chains, without the -bands of the confiding, utter love of her lord, will talk; -she must talk, or go mad. I tell, thee, knight, such gossip -is the panacea of suicidal bent. There’s many a -woman kills herself for lack of a confidant!”</p> - -<p>“Thou hast learned much philosophy going around -the world, Jew, but perhaps not this bitter truth; the -woman who is traitor to one man will be to another. -Thou mayst be the next. What if she set us fleeing for -the sake of laughing at our forced return?”</p> - -<p>“Impossible, knight; she reveres me truly; even -as she does God; just as I did Sir Charleroy when he -brought me light and rest. I was to her what thou -art to me. One day I told her women had souls, as -dear to heaven as the souls of men! She laughed at -me like a monkey, at first, and reminded me that were I -a true disciple of Islam I’d know that only young and -beautiful women go to heaven, and they even there -have a lowly place. Thou knowest these infidels believe -that the large majority of hellions are women.”</p> - -<p>“Not strange Jew; they treat women as pretty or -useful animals, and so degrade, not only themselves, but -these very women. A woman so demeaned does not -become heavenly, to say the least. But I think, if I -were a Turk, I’d keep only argus-eyed eunuchs to -guard my harem; in faith, I’d even have the tongues -out of those guards.”</p> - -<p>“There, now, thou dost jest again.”</p> - -<p>“Well, go on, in seriousness. Tell us the pipings of -this seraglio beauty.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I’ve won her over completely.”</p> - -<p>“This is not strange. Poets are always valiant, victorious -orators with women. The female heart is -emotionally moved up to belief with little logic, if the -speaker be fair, or musical, or brave!”</p> - -<p>“I was none of these; I told her of the ‘Friend of -Publicans and Sinners;’ that fed her soul. I do not -believe there is a woman on earth that can resist that -story.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, well, I’m not going to forget that the first -woman outran her mate in evil, nor that she exchanged -the All Beautiful for the snaky demon.”</p> - -<p>“It would be nobler for a knight, truer for all, to -judge, if judge they will, by wider circles. Do not remember -the sin of one, or a few, to the disparagement -of all!”</p> - -<p>“Eve, the best made of all, fell; then her weaker -sisters are more likely to follow in her way,” said the -knight.</p> - -<p>“She found a sin and fell: thousands of her daughters -have fallen by sins that men invented and thrust -on them. Thou knowest that most women who go -wrong, go in ways they would not without the temptings -of the stronger will. The sin that ruins most is -that to woman’s nature abhorrent, until honeyed over -by the tongue of man.”</p> - -<p>“Dexterous lance, art thou, Jew; but, anyway, some -women are born bad.”</p> - -<p>“No; I’m not able for one so wise as the knight, -unless I’ve the strength of truth. I’ve heard that our -wise men say that if we could trace the ancestry of any -one evil, from birth, we would find somewhere, up the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> -line, a father, prëeminent in wickedness. Say, women -are weak to resist evil; then, say men are strong to -propagate it. Now, which way turns the scale?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I say always, dogmatically, if need be, in man’s -favor.”</p> - -<p>“Let me see: Eve’s humanity that sinned was out of -the finest part of Adam’s body, and the serpent which -betrayed her was a male.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll parry the thrust by asking why the Holy Writings -reveal no female angels? I think there are none.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve a wiser reason, knight. It is this: Man has so -foully dealt with the angels in the flesh that God’s -mercy reserves their finer spiritual counterparts for the -sole companionships of heaven, which justly appreciates -these holy, pure and tender creations. Heaven -would not be perfectly beautiful without them and, -methinks, can not spare one for a moment!”</p> - -<p>“Not even to minister to a needy world?”</p> - -<p>“Woman’s life is here, generally, all service, all ministry; -her return to earth after death would be a work -of supererogation. God sends back the male spirits -to help restore the world their sex did most to ruin.”</p> - -<p>Then both the debaters laughed out as heartily as -they dared, but there was in the tones of the knight’s -laughter a part-confession of defeat. After a time -Sir Charleroy spoke again: “Thou art calm now, after -this diversion, Ichabod; proceed with thy story of -danger.”</p> - -<p>“Well, Nourahmal——”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, begin again with Nourahmal. Samson was -a pretty good man for a giant, but he had a betraying -Delilah!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> - -<p>“True enough; but he had also a noble mother. Remember -the better, rather than the worse.”</p> - -<p>“I remember her peers, Mary and my mother.”</p> - -<p>“So, then, when sweepingly condemning all the sex, -please except the mothers, at least of those who may -be thy hearers.”</p> - -<p>“Good Jew, I’ll not wound thee!”</p> - -<p>“No pity for me; pity thyself. Such thoughts as -thou hast spoken wound thine own soul. We Jews -have an order called ‘Tumbler Pharisees;’ they affect -humility, shuffle as they walk and stumble on purpose -that they may not seem to walk with confidence. -Akin to them we have the ‘Bleeding Pharisees;’ they -walk with shut eyes, lest they should see a woman, and, -stumbling against many a post, are soon covered with -their own blood, receiving real harm in flying from -imaginary dangers.”</p> - -<p>“‘<i>Maya, Maya</i>,’ Ichabod,” laughing aloud, exclaimed -Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>The latter, catching the knight’s arm, hoarsely -whispered: “Hush! Thou mayst be heard. What -dost thou mean by ‘<i>Maya</i>’?”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps, Nourahmal! <i>Maya</i> was the reputed wife -of the supposed god Brahm of the Hindus. It is -reported that she was in form like unto fog and her -name means ‘illusion.’ A subtle truth, Jew; even a -god, in love, is near a fog bank!”</p> - -<p>“Thou dost not know Nourahmal and dost discredit -her; that’s slander; thou dost know me and ridiculest -me; that’s—but—I’ll not say it.”</p> - -<p>“I’d not pain my Ichabod.”</p> - -<p>“Nor discredit Nourahmal?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> - -<p>“No; but did this angel, or Syren of thine, having -shown the peril, present a map to a city of refuge?”</p> - -<p>“Ah, poor, helpless girl! she has none for herself, -much less for us. She just told me all and wept and -kissed me a farewell, praying me to flee. I could think -of no question in the delight of hearing her say, she -hoped I’d meet her in Heaven, in peace away from -Moslem and wars. Only think of her faith! All new; -just a little while ago she did not know there was a -heaven for women. I felt I could die then in peace. -I’ve taught one woman that she is more than a pretty -animal!”</p> - -<p>“Then, Jew, to thee, life is worth living?”</p> - -<p>“Oh truly! Oh, if this light could only spread over -Egypt and all my own Syria!”</p> - -<p>“Thy desire is akin to that of Mary’s son and noble. -Certain it is that we can not spread that light by fighting -to sustain the fateful Crescent.”</p> - -<p>“By the glory of God, I never will.”</p> - -<p>“Nor I, son of Abraham; so let’s decline.”</p> - -<p>“And go to the slave mart?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no, not while I’ve a sword, Ichabod.”</p> - -<p>“Then to flee is the word?”</p> - -<p>“The eastern campaigning with the sheik, would -be a little longer route to Paradise?”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps not; I am assured that we are needed of -God by the use He has recently made of us. He will -keep us in our flight from bloody persecuting war, and -possible apostacy.”</p> - -<p>“I hate the last word! A knight enchanted of Mary -can never become a renegade; not I, at least. I was -born October ninth. Tradition says that the holy St.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> -John Damascene, having had his hand cut off by the -Saracens that day, was by Our Lady miraculously -made whole, and lived long after to wield a powerful, -facile pen in her behalf. I’ll trust my head and saber -hand, used for her, to her protection.”</p> - -<p>“And I’ll trust Him that led the wandering hosts -of Moses; for ‘in all their affliction, He was afflicted -with them, and the angel of His presence saved -them; and He bore them and carried them all the -days of old.’ Oh, master, I’ve comfort I can not tell, -when I feel orphaned, by thinking of my Maker, -not only as a Father, but as a Mother! God is -our Mother when we, bereft of mother-love, most -feel our need of it. So thou toldst me in the mountains.”</p> - -<p>“True; but shall we try our escape now?”</p> - -<p>“Nay, we had better wait till a little before dawn; -the camp patrol is then withdrawn; then we’ll embrace -freedom.”</p> - -<p>“The Jew seems very confident.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I spent the hour after I met Nourahmal (God -keep her), amid the palms for which Jericho is fitly -named, and got a token.”</p> - -<p>“A token?”</p> - -<p>“My eyes were touched in the darkness.”</p> - -<p>“Sweet Nourahmal followed thee?”</p> - -<p>“No, but He that opened the eyes of blind Bartimeus -near here.”</p> - -<p>“What didst thou see?”</p> - -<p>“Elisha healing the streams about this palm city, -type of God healing the floods of bitterest fates; after -that I saw Jericho’s walls falling at the blasts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> -Joshua’s trumpets, and remembered that his God then -is ours now.”</p> - -<p>“Didst thou see two poor men fleeing in the dark -from peril to peril, pursued by a hundred horsemen, -who saber-lashed them; a little further two corpses, one -of a Christian the other of a Jew, on which fed fighting -jackals?”</p> - -<p>“I saw no such horror! I saw two led forth from -their captors, as Peter from his dungeon; the angels -that blinded the eyes of the monstrous men, who of -old sought to defile Lot’s house, blinded the eyes of -the pursuers of the two; and the angel of Peter gave -them guidance and light. But come, the night-guard -has retired; between now and the call to morning -prayers is our opportunity.”</p> - -<p>Out of the old stone stable silently knight and Jew -glided, threading their way amid splendors they believed -to be, but could not see. The ministering -spirits were over and around them, their path was -through the Kelt, the sublimest waddy of Palestine; -but night shrouded the latter; their weak faith dimly -discerned the other.</p> - -<p>“Can’t thou see any way-marks, Jew?”</p> - -<p>“I discern but few. Yet, what matter? It is enough -that He who leads us sees?”</p> - -<p>“The night is getting blacker and blacker; the omen -makes my heart shiver as it beats.”</p> - -<p>As the knight spoke there came a terrific crash of -thunder and a succession of blinding lightning flashes. -Sir Charleroy clasped the Jew’s arm and in startled -voice questioned:</p> - -<p>“Dost thou not fear these?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Why should I? The angel guides swing the torches -of the unchangeable Father to give us glimpses of our -way. All is well; I saw by the lightning flash that we -are passing safely the camp lines of our captors.”</p> - -<p>A few miles were over-past. The storm had abated -a little, and the first streaks of dawn, like spears, were -rising in the east.</p> - -<p>“Would God, good Jew,” said the now wearied Sir -Charleroy, “that the Prophet of the Moslem, who, near -by here, is said once by a stamp of his foot to have -brought forth from the rock a camel, were present to -dance for us now.”</p> - -<p>“He is not here, so we must help ourselves, knight.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, my dear man, canst thou dance rocks into -camels?”</p> - -<p>“No, but there are houses nigh, and each thou -knowst has it’s stable-yard in front.”</p> - -<p>“But there is the thorny nubk tree, surrounding the -herds.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve faith to try my faith when all I have is -faith.”</p> - -<p>“What for; to steal a camel?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no; I’d not steal a camel but I’d borrow a -couple of them. Two; for I’m not one of the knights -who exhibit poverty, by riding double, thou dost -know.”</p> - -<p>“Borrow? Well so be it; the black infidels owe us -for two years’ service. They borrowed us!”</p> - -<p>“It’s pious to take the beasts; for we pay so honest -debts of these heathens and shorten the list of their -souls’ sins by removing from them, in our escape, the -opportunity for our murder.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> - -<p>“If this be sophistry, Ichabod, it is so sweet that it -is taken as delightful truth.”</p> - -<p>“Thou art persuaded?”</p> - -<p>“No man can out run me, be he rabbi or priest, in -condemning vices, if they be such as I do not care to -practice, and I am a profound believer in every creed -that’s sweet to my desires. Here action treads the -heels of persuasion.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>On beasts, borrowed without formality, the fugitives -hurried toward Jordan, only there to find a barrier to -their progress in the angry torrent swelled by the -recent storms. It was clearly futile to attempt a passage, -and to tarry, waiting the ebb of the waters, was -to bring certain detection. They turned the heads of -their borrowed camels toward their master’s homes and -waited the sunrise, meanwhile moving about to find -some means of safety.</p> - -<p>“Well, my comrade, I think it will not be long until -those Turks will give our souls an Elijah-like ascension -except that there will be no chariot. The morning -shimmering on his mountain makes me think of this, -Ichabod.”</p> - -<p>“The tracks of our returning camels in the wet -earth will guide our pursuers.”</p> - -<p>“Suppose we climb a tree as Zacchaeus, since we can -not have a chariot. By my plume! which I’ve not -seen for a year, I think that would be safety; the -Turks never look up except in prayer, and the wolf -Azrael seldom prays. But God pity us! there they are -coming.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> - -<p>“To the tombs, master! On the left.”</p> - -<p>“Refuge for jackals?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but also for the miserable, living and dead! -Now haste!”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy obeyed quickly, but recoiled with a -groan of disgust as he suddenly pushed against an -entombed body. He touched his hilt, as if determined -to abandon attempt at flight, and then, overcoming the -rash impulse to confront the pursuers, turned about, -seized the corpse, and dragging it from its place, hurled -it over the river bank into the torrent. He was in the -dispoiled nich in an instant. A cry from the pursuers -drew him forth. “See, Ichabod, the Turks are running -along the river banks watching the mummy bobbing -along in the torrent. See, it sinks. Ah, the -brutes, how they shout! They think that body -alive, and that one poor slave is hounded to death.”</p> - -<p>“Jehovah Jeireh, now help us; they’ll soon be back,” -cried Ichabod.</p> - -<p>“Ah, I forgot; they’ll remember there were two of -us.”</p> - -<p>“Calm, Sir Knight, ‘By this sign I conquer,’ quoting -thy words of another. I’ll go forth; the only one -left; at least so they’ll think.”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy turned and looked at the Jew, and was -amazed to see him binding in front of himself a board -having the ominous words, “Unclean” upon it.</p> - -<p>“What; thou, a Jew, and touch that foul thing, worn -to festering death by some leper!”</p> - -<p>“Better night and a clean soul, though in a body -burned by the cursed leprosy, than life in Moslem -slavery.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p> - -<p>“But what if the disease cleave to thee, and we -escape?”</p> - -<p>“Sir Knight, thou wilt live to tell others that a once -hated Jew was led of thee to truth, and after died a -living death, that his benefactors might survive. I -think such deeds cause noble lights to glow in human -souls.”</p> - -<p>“God bless and pity thee, Ichabod.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, he does; even now. I see the scarlet line of -Rahab, and it binds the pestilence that walketh by -noonday.”</p> - -<p>The furious pursuers spurred their steeds up toward -the tombs, but as they beheld the solitary man, sitting -in painful attitude with beggar-like palm extended and -wearing the dread sign, they rapidly wheeled their -steeds about and galloped away. The Moslem had -heard that a Jew would suffer any torture rather than -ceremonial pollution; hence judged that the object -before them could not be the refugee they sought.</p> - -<p>“I wonder not that the demoniac cut himself madly -when among the tombs, good Jew. Sure it’s like going -to glory to get out once more. Methinks freedom is -only sweet when taken with fresh air! Well, we are -out and the enemy thwarted.”</p> - -<p>“Methinks, master, that the leper that died here, -leaving no legacy but the sign of his death, did some -good in unknowingly making me his heir.”</p> - -<p>“And the corpse I disposed of so unceremoniously -left me a house of safety, though small and musty. -I’ve a bitter thought.”</p> - -<p>“So, Sir Charleroy, tell it me, perhaps I can sweeten -it.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I, the heir for a little time of that soulless clay, am -like it.”</p> - -<p>“Not much being here and alive.”</p> - -<p>“I rather think like it. See me tossed about by -strangers, robbed of my rights, helpless to resist fate’s -tides, begrudged the room I occupy, and not one who -once knew me to weep over my besetments.”</p> - -<p>“Sir Knight, the miracles of our frequent preservation -should make our murmurings dumb.”</p> - -<p>In the evening Jordan ebbed a little and the two -wanderers passed over. Nor did they regret the consequent -immersing in its flood. No word was spoken -as they passed through the current, for, before they -entered, having remembered that at this Bethabara -ford man’s Savior was baptized, they were each busy -with his own meditations. When they stood on the -other shore, Sir Charleroy reverently said: “Comrade, -I prayed as we passed that we might have the dove of -peace henceforth above our souls at least.”</p> - -<p>“I prayed on my part that God would accept the act -as the Christian’s typical burial to the world and separation -from its sins.”</p> - -<p>“How like death and birth is that beautiful type. -They level all life.”</p> - -<p>“Are our lives leveled? knight.”</p> - -<p>“Henceforth; and we are brethren.”</p> - -<p>“And our King and Savior was baptized here by the -herald of His Kingdom, John?”</p> - -<p>“Yea; here the new Judaism was formally inaugurated. -Tradition says also that Jesus baptized his -mother afterward at this ford.”</p> - -<p>“How filial; how beautiful; how expressive! He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> -was her God, yet her son, she his mother and disciple; -and each by all ties and forms bound together in a fellowship -of helpfulness.”</p> - -<p>“The Jew’s an interpreter.”</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy sweetens my trust as Jordan sweetens -the bitter waters of Bahr Lut.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE FEAST OF THE ROSE.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“They arise now like the stars before me</div> -<div class="verse">Through the long, long night of years;</div> -<div class="verse">Some are bright with heavenly radiance,</div> -<div class="verse">And others shine out through our tears.</div> -<div class="verse">They arise, too, like mystical flowers,</div> -<div class="verse">All different and all the same—</div> -<div class="verse">As they lie on my heart like a garland</div> -<div class="verse">That is wreathed around <span class="smcap">Mary’s</span> name,”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-g.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“Good morning and a blessing, comrade.” It -was the greeting of the Jew to the knight -who lay asleep under a palm the day after -the flight. The sleeper slowly rising, -murmured:</p> - -<p>“I’m half vexed at thee, Ichabod; thou hast dissolved -a dream filled with sights of home and mother.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve brought lentils, barley, and grape-clusters; -they are better than dreams when the sun is up.”</p> - -<p>“To those sad when awake, joyful dreams are welcome.”</p> - -<p>“There are real joys just before us.”</p> - -<p>“Real joys, just before us? Grim sarcasm; a sorry -jest, Jew!”</p> - -<p>“No; oh, no. I’m telling thee the smiling, clean-faced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> -truth. We’ll be safe at Jabbock’s city by sun -set!”</p> - -<p>“Safe? safe? I’m unused to that word; almost -afraid of it. What does it mean in this country?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, these cavalrymen! always on the charge; now -here, now there. Thy thoughts go by habit, sometimes -racing forward, sometimes retreating. A while -ago thou wert as full of faith as Gideon, now thou art -as timorous as Canaan’s spies.”</p> - -<p>“My habits have grown fat by feeding on piebald -experiences.”</p> - -<p>“Experience is a lying prophet, when it counts without -reckoning God.”</p> - -<p>“I can not see a step ahead. That’s certainty to -me, though thou callest it doubt. I know not how to -hang rainbows upon the ghostly brows of the future -when I’ve no power to lay hand on the ghostly form -and have no rainbows.”</p> - -<p>“He that lifted the burdens of the past from off us -holds the changing winds of the future in His fists. -One second of life goes ever with only one second of -care. I learned this of Sir Charleroy long ago. Now -he forgets his own teachings. Shall I call him Reuben, -never excelling because unstable as water?”</p> - -<p>“Call me slave: Uncertainty’s slave! Thou didst -waken me from a dream of home, to the shock of -remembering again that I was homeless, dead to all -that once made life worth living. The gorgeous hopes -of thy fertile mind are mocked by stern present facts.”</p> - -<p>“Odd talk from one just dreaming of his mother; a -good woman didst say? then very hopeful; all good -women are. Then remember how thou didst lift me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> -to the very gates of heaven yesterday. Thou canst not -see a step ahead? Well, then look back; miles; years. -Was not our God in thy battles in the thickets; in the -mountains; in Jordan? My poor reasoning tells me -that He has wrought too much for us to drop us -now. He must get His reward in keeping us to the -end.”</p> - -<p>“Some of the past makes me shudder, Ichabod.”</p> - -<p>“Pick out the best, not the worst. We escaped the -very Gehenna at Jericho, following murderers, the -storm, slavery; now free, fed, rested, the eastern air -washed and sunned to a tonic. I’m drinking lotus balm -out of it.”</p> - -<p>“There it is; the sun’s in thy brain, poet-preacher.”</p> - -<p>“No, I’m only giving thee back some of thine own -sermons. I draw from my own heart no monster -memories. If I’ve fought hard battles it sufficeth -that I have fought them once. I’ll not recall their -bloody sweat and tears for the sake of refighting them. -No, I’m going back to the sweet, happy hours of babyhood; -for I tell thee, knight, there is a world of joy to -a man, scorched by stern experience, to forget himself -sometimes back to the lullabys and warblings of the -days of his innocence.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t do it.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t help doing it, especially in this place! My -whole being feeds on a present scent of home.”</p> - -<p>“Thou knowest the country hereabouts?”</p> - -<p>“My soul laughs in friendly converse with these -crocuses, pinks, and asphodels, turning the velvet, -grassy plains to palace carpets. I’m saying to myself -these blossoms must know me, their bowing heads<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> -and offered odors being my reward for nursing their -mothers when I was a boy.”</p> - -<p>“Well, flowers are sincere friends; they never change -and are all charitable. That’s why they are deemed fit -presents to those in prison, or proper offering to be laid -on the breast of the dead Magdalene.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, dead Magdalene; for even the symbol of a -broken promise; born to be a queen of love, by perverted -love dethroned! Woman, man’s ward, by man -betrayed; the guide star setting in black night; the -savior of human purity befouling all purity! Given -the power by which Eve was to crush the serpent’s -head and using it to breed all serpentine ills. This is -Eve turning a volcano upon Eden. Put flowers upon -her once passionate, now dead, heart, in awful contrast! -Nature at her worst is intensified anguish; at her best -an ocean of joy, an universe of light and song. So I -learn of nature under man. Listen to nature’s perfumed -throb now: these thousands of feathered songsters, -millions of lesser creatures, whose melody is -larger than themselves and more perceptible. Hear -the humming, thrumming, buzzing, trumpetings. -Oh, this is life as the All-Saving tuned it to utter -joy! It widens, deepens, thickens; getting sweeter, -louder, happier all the way. A tempest, set to music, -knight. I’m caught in its whirl and join in its praisings. -It comes over me as an insight of what nature -really is. God cares for it all and made it thus, to -throb and exult!” Ichabod paused in transport. -“But I sometimes think there’s a great waste of these -things; there is so much in places where there is no -human ear or eye to hear or see.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Reuben is narrow-viewed just now. Man is not -all! God makes happiness because He is so full of -goodness He must. Our rabbis call Him ‘The Fountain.’ -There is no waste! He makes these things for -His own joy, and, methinks, looks down from the circle -of the heavens to say to what is in the desert or wilderness, -‘Very good.’ Then, beyond this, I’ve sometimes -thought He kept the processions of joy and beauty -moving along; coming, going, dying, living, ending and -beginning again, as a sort of practice; by action keeping -all fresh and new. He causes things of beauty and -power to pass through His divine alchemy from one -glory to another, as the general causes his squadrons -to move through the evolutions of the battle before -the conflict. The Father is awaiting man’s hour, man’s -return from sinning; the time for millennial advent; -then all delights, as if fresh born, all goods newly harvested, -will appear to be multiplied, intensified, transfigured. -That will be the beginning of hereafter.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Israel, the sun is in thy brain. I forget all -logic of contention, charmed out of words, by feasting -on thy orisons, Go on, Jew.”</p> - -<p>“Then I’ll say ’twas God, not chance, nor fate, that -brought us to wander alone with nature. Read well -nature’s book that lies open in the lap of the Great -Teacher! Only stand close to Him and He will hold -the torch, turn the pages and give the sure interpretations -of the sweetness that feeds quiet, the picturesqueness -which evokes smiles and the stately grandeurs -which beget faith.”</p> - -<p>“Israel, thou climbest the sun-ladder to rhapsody!”</p> - -<p>“Whether soaring, climbing, or creeping, I know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> -not; but this I know, I’m tasting in these wanderings -God’s kisses. They are in the flowers; my spirit rests -on His as my body on the balm of the fresh breezes. -Then, animate nature seems so contented and happy! -Why, I’ve been ravished by the songsters; as I’ve said -to myself, they echo the angelic anthem of heaven, -peace. Had any such doubt as haunts thee, come to -me, since passing Jordan, it would have been sung out -of countenance by the winged warblers or dragged -from my heart captive in floral fetters by Him that -hath two staves, beauty and bands.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Ichabod, do not pause. Go on, I pray thee.”</p> - -<p>“Then thou art glad to hear that nature is not a -beautiful widow mourning her dead bridegroom -through the ages?”</p> - -<p>“I love to listen to thee.”</p> - -<p>“Listen to a wiser. See those stately heliotropes. -They stand above all of their kind with shining faces; -great in aspiration, great in devotion. All day they -turn toward the sun and when their blossoms fade they -leave a hardy seed. The winter may bury it, but it -springs forth in vernal days, strong in the life it won -by loving the summer sun.”</p> - -<p>“Ichabod, I’m charmed! Let’s abide here always -amid these joys of nature.”</p> - -<p>“What, be hermits?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; life’s troubles are made by its people; the -fewer people the fewer troubles.”</p> - -<p>“While sharing their troubles may we not lessen -them. No man may live to himself; we’re wedded to -each other.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, wedded to life. A royal phrase; since I’ve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> -been constantly either hating or loving it; fearing to -live and then fearing to die. Wedded! ah, ha, ha; the -wedded are those who most madly love and then most -bitterly hate.”</p> - -<p>“Say sometimes; then thou’lt be like the stopped -horologue, telling the true time once in twenty-four -hours, at least.”</p> - -<p>“Thy poetry runs into caustic quality. What hast -thou been lunching on since morn?”</p> - -<p>“At least not on Dead Sea apples, fair without, ashes -within. My poetry, if I have any, always sings in -accord with the company it keeps.”</p> - -<p>“How many more arrows in thy quiver, hast thou?”</p> - -<p>“Only one, and that a question; does my master intend -to foreswear marriage himself? He ridicules it.”</p> - -<p>“I have already done so.”</p> - -<p>“Well, ’tis well thou didst not live in Rome, for its -citizens that dared to live amid the temptations and -soul-crampings of voluntary bachelorhood were highly -taxed for their disregard of the claims of society and -the state.”</p> - -<p>“Yet even the Romans ever deemed bachelorhood -a blessing. In this opinion royal Claudius decreed that -the sailors who brought to Rome a ship loaded from -the wheat granaries of Egypt in the time of Agabus’s -famine, should be as a reward permitted to remain unmarried. -If I were a Roman and a sailor I’d pray for -a famine and a Claudius.”</p> - -<p>“A world without wives? What a world!”</p> - -<p>So saying Ichabod caught up a stick and began -marking on the earth.</p> - -<p>“How now, Israel; some sorcery?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> - -<p>“No—yet, may be, yes. I’ll picture a world without -women.”</p> - -<p>The Jew outlined the Egyptian deity, “<i>Kneph.</i>”</p> - -<p>“What have we, man or beast?”</p> - -<p>“Truly, I think partly both. The knight has described -his Elysium and I have here pictured a fit king -for it. Behold thy god, sworn celibate. Egypt’s -adored Kneph. Is this hideous enough?”</p> - -<p>“A god! well he’s not handsome; a ram’s head; -four horns; two up, two down; armed as both ram and -goat?”</p> - -<p>“Both were sacred to him in Egypt; also the horned -snake with which Cleopatra put out her life; poor, unfortunate -man-wrecked beauty.”</p> - -<p>“But, Jew, thou dost dawdle! What of this play?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, nothing, only Kneph would do well for a sailor, -at Rome, under Claudius, in famine time!”</p> - -<p>“My poet wanders, but yet stings.”</p> - -<p>“So? Kneph was a god that boasted, or rather his -spokesmen did, that he was the <i>father of his mother</i>. -What economy! No need to be grateful to or love a -mother; no need to wear a wife on the heart. The -folly of a dark age by folly darkened in the mad attempt -to lift up man without his purer better part.”</p> - -<p>“How strange, Jew, whenever we touch a new -belief, or an old one, new to us, we find peoples following -an idea or ideal. There has been a crying -through the world ever for a some one for pilgrim -man to follow. How passing strange; our century -wails the self-same cry; and somehow it always happens -that this matter has something to do with woman. -See; ‘<i>Kneph</i>’ was the monstrous birth of those who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> -thought man superlative, and greatness to be by being -all man. How sharply the devotion to the Madonna -cuts across this! She was mother of the noblest, and -man in the begetting left out. Oh, my head’s full of -thoughts, but they tumble along toward my lips without -system or leader. I talk like a madman, though I -think like a Seraph.”</p> - -<p>“I think, Sir Charleroy, that a healthy son of Adam -sneering at all women, publicly, reproaches himself as -being one who never knew a true one.”</p> - -<p>“More javelins! I’d swear, anyhow, that if I’d been -Adam, no winged serpent of gaudy colors and honey -tongue could have lured me from Paradise, Eve or no -Eve!”</p> - -<p>“If thou hadst been there thou wouldst have been -lonesome with the speechless herds; finding the new -woman, would have loved her like the boy who mates -just to see how it seems.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, likely!”</p> - -<p>“Then if thy ward or angel attempted to elope -with the devil thou wouldst have gone along, too, -from curiosity, as lad to a hippodrome, just to see the -finish; or as thousands of men since Adam, tied to -wayward women, have gone down with them to darkness, -preferring hell with their idols to heaven without.”</p> - -<p>“I suppose so. Oh, how strangely are the fates of -men and women interwoven.”</p> - -<p>“Then thou dost not now elect to live a hermit, -without the companionship of the frail, fair and faithful -sex which are said to double our joys?”</p> - -<p>“Yes and multiply our sorrows!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I suspect thou’lt change thy late creed very soon.”</p> - -<p>“Why so?”</p> - -<p>“I expect ere long that we’ll meet some living blossoms.”</p> - -<p>“By my token, that’s good news, Ichabod.”</p> - -<p>“So, then, thou art ready to recant?”</p> - -<p>Evening came, and the pilgrims supped on the meager -meat they were able to procure in the fields.</p> - -<p>“Now poet of the Palm Land mellow my dreams by -possessing me of thy meditations. What fixes thy -gaze?”</p> - -<p>“The monarch of the sky; after a day such as this -has been, he seems to me to take his departure with a -peculiar sort of triumphal sweep of his trailing splendors.”</p> - -<p>“Horus exulting over prostrate Set.”</p> - -<p>“But night, not the green-colored son of Osiris, conquers -now, master.”</p> - -<p>“Night never conquers. It merely lives by sufferance; -often routed by the invincible spears of the sun. -Darkness creeps forth here because the golden charger -in masterful strategy has gone elsewhere to rout other -armies of the dark kingdom. Lay this to thy heart, -good Jew.”</p> - -<p>“I do, as precious ointment to a blister. Enlarge me.”</p> - -<p>“There, Jew; see the fleecy clouds over Jordan. -How grand!”</p> - -<p>“Yea, as I’ve often seen them; some like alabaster -thrones, and others like ships on fire, while others are -like silver castles, banded with cornelian and gold, with -here and there hyacinthian shields hung on their battlements, -all fresh as the stones in heaven’s foundation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> -walls! How they career and float along the empurpled -ocean of the west! I forget myself even -now into their midst. Oh, knight, such pictures, -such visions make my soul shout in peals of holy -laughter.”</p> - -<p>“My Israel, the sun which woos the earth into making -love to him with flowers never sets in thy brain; thou -livest in the poet’s constant noon.”</p> - -<p>“But we both are changing. Even the knight gets -mellow. Hardship, the sun and faith are working in -us both for good.”</p> - -<p>“Getting to be? No; thou wert and art poet, -painter and singer; all in one. If the world does not -hear thee the Seraphim will, by and by.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve noticed that souls unbent from some long, twisting -pain, run, aspire and play. It is mercy’s rest, reward.”</p> - -<p>“God fits some especially to catch passing joys, Ichabod.”</p> - -<p>“Yea, and it all comes from a serene faith that all -is very good as He made it. I’m just opening to the -Sun Eternal, at whose right hand are pleasures evermore. -I love thy wakening touch, my guide.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, I’m a bungling player on the harp of thy soul, -but I love thy melody. Child of nature, speak more -and more to me.”</p> - -<p>“I can but ill tell all. I’m dumb amid the waves of -peace which enhalo, the hopes that thrill, the views of -truth that fill my being.”</p> - -<p>“I believe thee on my soul, Jew. I’d stop now to -remember a little, perhaps to sleep, since so I can follow -dreams that would craze me to contemplate awake; but -if we now sleep, pray God our day-dreams go on and on.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> -I think we are pilgrims following spiritual truths. -They’ll lead us on high; let’s not miss their direction.”</p> - -<p>“One may sleep, master, when he can not think; for -me, now, I’d rather court, awake, my mind’s guests, for -a time, meanwhile gainsaying the lullabys of cricket -and nightingale now floating out from every bush.”</p> - -<p>“So be it. How shall we proceed to pass the time?”</p> - -<p>“Can we set up an Ebenezer? God hitherto hath -helped us.”</p> - -<p>“I have it; we’ll to the feast.”</p> - -<p>“Well, we have what some great kings have not, and -so shall find joy in a feast. We have appetite!”</p> - -<p>“Thou dost miss my meaning, though thy point is -prime. We seldom think to thank the Giver for the -power to enjoy as well as for the enjoyable. I knew a -French prince, once, who said he’d give his birthright -for one good dinner, and he was no Esau, either. He -had dinners and dinners, but what were they along -with premature decay gnawing at his vitals like a rat, -while he himself could eat less than a babe?”</p> - -<p>“I see; the knight would have us thankfully commemorate -to-day’s enjoyment of nature.”</p> - -<p>“Just so; I think, in loving nature, because we begin -to understand her, we will be on our way to all the natural -joy of which she is God’s interpreter.”</p> - -<p>“But our feast?”</p> - -<p>“The stars are out on the blue; their queen will -soon come up from the sea, then I’ll induct thee into -the feast of the ‘Rose.’ The rose is the queen of -flowers, and flowers the thoughts of God!”</p> - -<p>“The feast of the Rose! I’ve heard it was a licencious, -heathen orgy!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p> - -<p>“It was then a shameful misnomer. My Mary found -it; transformed it. Out of it, through reverence of her, -comes a beautiful observance. See here, Jew.”</p> - -<p>So saying, the knight took from his bosom a string -of precious stones and arranged them, as they glowed -under the moonlight, on the ground heart-shaped.</p> - -<p>The knight then questioningly observed the Jew.</p> - -<p>The latter shook his head and remarked:</p> - -<p>“I’ve seen such often among the Arabs. They have -a prayer for each bead to be said the night after the -death of one of their number, believing the shade departs -not to Hades ’till the prayers are said. Thou -dost not practice their enchantments?”</p> - -<p>“Bah! Never. My gemmed circle has a deeper, -holier significance. Each pendant is to recall to mind -some virtue or event in the saintly Mary’s life. Then -there are guilds called, ‘Brothers of the Rosary.’ I -belong to one such; each member is sworn to pray for -all the others wherever scattered. The Turks may -have had a praying string, but the Crusaders have -appropriated and applied it to nobler uses.”</p> - -<p>“Tell me more of it, if there be more.”</p> - -<p>“There are but fifteen in my brotherhood.”</p> - -<p>“Only fifteen, no room for me?” said the Jew.</p> - -<p>“Fifteen; to suggest the fifteen great events in -Mary’s life; namely, the <i>Annunciation</i>; Gabriel announced -to Mary that she was to be the Mother of -Jesus; the <i>Visitation</i>; Mary in the Gospel spirit went -quickly to tell her kinswoman of her promised favor; the -<i>Birth of Jesus</i>, this was the crowning joy; then here is the -gem that recalls the <i>Presentation of Jesus</i> in the Temple. -Thou knowest, Jew, thy fathers often wondered how,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> -after all, a lamb, an animal, could stand between -offended Deity and man. Jesus in the Temple was -the fulfillment or explanation of the mystery!”</p> - -<p>“Yea, truly, I’ve seen this. Oh, that all my people -could also see it!”</p> - -<p>“Then, here is the jewel that reminds us of the -‘<i>Scourging at the pillar</i>’ of Him ‘by whose stripes we -are healed.’”</p> - -<p>“Israel reads Isaiah with darkened mind, my loving -guide. I’ve seen this. Oh, that my people could.”</p> - -<p>“Here is the jewel that recalls the ‘<i>Crowning with -thorns</i>’ of Him that hath to give, at His right hand, -‘pleasures forever more.’ He wore that thorny coronet -that His redeemed should return with singing, -crowned with everlasting joy.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve felt it; feel it now. Hallelujah!”</p> - -<p>“This one is to commemorate ‘<i>Jesus bearing the -Cross</i>;’ this one ‘<i>His crucifixion</i>,’ and this ‘<i>His resurrection</i>.’”</p> - -<p>“The hope of hopes by our Saducees denied!”</p> - -<p>“Then we have here another to remind us of our -Saviour’s ‘<i>Ascension</i>,’ with His pregnant promise of a -royal return to take at last His children home.”</p> - -<p>“Come, Lord Jesus, even so, quickly!” cried Ichabod.</p> - -<p>“‘Wait patiently for Him and He will give thee the -desire of thy heart,’ oh, heir of faithful Abraham!”</p> - -<p>“I weary sometimes, my loved teacher.”</p> - -<p>“So do we, of our brotherhood; but here is a thought -of rest; this bead recalls ‘<i>Pentecost</i>.’ We are led of -the Spirit, which guides to all truth and comforts by -the way.”</p> - -<p>“But what has all this to do with Mary?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Oh, here are two beads; one reminds us of her -‘<i>Assumption</i>’ into heaven, the other of her ‘<i>Crowning</i>.’”</p> - -<p>“Was she crowned?”</p> - -<p>“Yea, in heaven, for the Son of Mary promised to -His faithful ones this exaltation; ‘<i>I appoint unto you a -Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me</i>, ye which -have continued with me in my temptation.’ Surely, -she that followed him from the pains of parturition, -as an outcast, to the Cross and the sepulcher, <span class="smcap">continued</span>!”</p> - -<p>“I would I could have been there to enter the race -for such crowning.”</p> - -<p>“‘He hath made us kings and priests unto God; -if we suffer we shall also reign with Him,’ Jew.”</p> - -<p>“Hallelujah! would I could shout it to heaven; no, -I do; but rather to all Jewry!” exclaimed the Israelite.</p> - -<p>“John was only a ‘voice crying in the wilderness,’ as -he thought, but he was heard at the palace and down -the ages. Even now I voice his words in this lone -place.”</p> - -<p>“Thou didst not tell me of the meaning of that black -and red pendant,” said Ichabod, interrupting.</p> - -<p>“Oh, <i>Gethsemane</i>, Jesus, the intercessor for the -world, ‘who ever lives to intercede.’ The black sign -is of that.”</p> - -<p>“Then I’ve a Saviour in glory praying for me. Oh, -this is balm and water to me! Why do I dare to think of -myself as a poor Jew! God pity; no, forgive me! I, repining -sometimes and yet defended in glory; honored -by royal adoption, elected of God, called to kingship!”</p> - -<p>“How we do go up and down; sometimes thou, sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> -I. Now I’m leading, awhile ago ’twas thou. -Yea, we are all dependants; but this is healthful meditation, -Ichabod, and thy confession rebukes me as well.”</p> - -<p>“Is this all of the feast?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no. Here are some tokens to remind us of -Mary’s life; so brief, so useful. See, here, five gems -that remind us of the wounds of her son; her wounds -as well, for the sword that pierced Him pierced through -to her soul also. At each of these emblems we ‘Rosary -Brothers’ repeat the Lord’s Prayer. Last of all, -reverently clasping this crucifix, we sacredly repeat -the Apostle’s Creed, the same as I taught thee at -Jericho.”</p> - -<p>“I remember, as I do the water courses, when thirsty.”</p> - -<p>“What think’st thou of all this formality? Is it like -the Arabic mummeries?”</p> - -<p>“No, they are mocking devils, are they not?”</p> - -<p>“I am not to judge of their sincerity, nor their needs, -nor art thou.”</p> - -<p>“Master, I wish I could be a Rosary Brother. Methinks -it would help my ambling faith sometimes, if I -could touch a token.”</p> - -<p>“He above is all tender of baby faiths that can do -no better than amble. Remember the words of thy -own Hosea: ‘I drew them with cords of a man, with -bonds of love, I taught Ephriam to go; taking them -by the arms; just as a mother teaches her babe to walk,’ -is it not?”</p> - -<p>“Even so. Does the Rosary help some to walk?”</p> - -<p>“I believe it does.”</p> - -<p>“Tell me more about it.”</p> - -<p>“The Crusaders were the first to call Mary ‘The Rose.’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> -To almost all mankind that flower has ever been the -emblem of pure, unselfish love, and when the soldiers -of the Cross grew to understand the character of her -that gave the world its Saviour, they could think of no -title more fitting for that queenly woman.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve an Egyptian rosary, knight. See, I wear it -on this golden chain, next my heart, for its safety——”</p> - -<p>“To ward off witchcraft?”</p> - -<p>“Bah! ’Tis a toy in usefulness. I keep it, thinking -it may work incantation with the money-lender, -and so save me sometime from starvation.” Then the -Jew laughed aloud at his own wit. It seemed very -ridiculous to him to liken his talisman to the real -rosary or its saint.</p> - -<p>“Wouldst thou let me examine it, Jew?”</p> - -<p>The latter handed to the knight a chain and image.</p> - -<p>“Egyptian?”</p> - -<p>“An image of Neb-ta, sister of Isis, the wife of the -Sun God Osiris. It was given me by a Copt priest, -whom I saved from drowning in the Nile.”</p> - -<p>“A Copt?”</p> - -<p>“A Copt. He was a professed Christian; but, like -some of the ancestral Egyptians, sought to be right by -being a little of every thing. He was very superstitious, -though he thought himself very broad-minded. -He was quite certain that Coptic Christianity was true, -though not equally certain that his pagan ancestors -were in faith all false. He thought he’d be on the safe -side by mixing a little of all creeds with his own, and -so he prayed in Christ’s name and also Neb-ta’s.”</p> - -<p>“A pretty fool, Jew.”</p> - -<p>“Yea. He had a story about the goddess, very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> -pretty when not absurd, running somehow thus: When -Osiris was cut to pieces by Set, a type of day slain by -night, I think, Neb-ta went round the world with her -widowed sister, Isis, to gather up the fragments of her -spouse. Isis is the moon above; below, reproduction. -She is pictured in Egypt, as all the female deities, with -two eggs and a half-circle at the side, to express the -latter idea. Isis has in her hand also this sign—a -cross supporting an egg, to typify immortality. The -old Egyptian priest told me this sympathetic Neb-ta, -if I trusted her, would reward me for saving his life, by -defending my case in Hades. There is a good deal of -mysticism in all this, but I rather prize the gift, since -it reminds me that I once saved a man.”</p> - -<p>“But, Nourahmal? Since thou knew of Mary thou -hast saved a woman, Jew.”</p> - -<p>The Jew was silent. The knight continued:</p> - -<p>“These philosophic, inseeing, sign-writing, symbol-making -Egyptians were pilgrims, too; a nation of -graal-seekers; after an idea, example. I see always the -huge Sphinx coming before me when I think of -them.”</p> - -<p>“The Sphinx! Well, that’s strange. I’d never think -of that, unless I happened upon something very big -and very meaningless!”</p> - -<p>“No, no; the people that rocked the cradle of religions -in their infancy, wrought all their theology into -that one mighty symbol, to endure and challenge compare -with all that man should find beside.”</p> - -<p>“I do not see how!”</p> - -<p>“The Sphinx faces the East—light!”</p> - -<p>“True!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> - -<p>“It can not reach that light toward which it looks, -neither could the Nubians.”</p> - -<p>“All true.”</p> - -<p>“It was part man, part beast; but the upper part -was man, and this is what we think we know, and all -of man?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, knight, Phthah, the ‘beautiful-faced,’ ‘secret-opener’ -of the Nile gods has touched thee.”</p> - -<p>“The Sphinx was like man’s thought; too great for -words; at least such words as men can now fit to their -lips.”</p> - -<p>“I see; it’s all coming into my mind, master.”</p> - -<p>“It sat still and was silent, but the world went on; -the thought it expressed reached hearts after the men -that formed the image had passed away. The truth -lives ever, and can not die until it completes its purpose.”</p> - -<p>“Thou art a magician, who pleases, astonishes, -excites, instructs, and at the same time plays with -me as if I were a pigmy!”</p> - -<p>“It’s not I, but the truth. The Sphinx again! Its -hugeness, truth expressed, appears mighty when placed -by our sides.”</p> - -<p>“Tell me where I am! Shall I fling Neb-ta away as -a bauble, or beg its pardon for hanging so much meaning -to a fool’s neck?”</p> - -<p>“Vehement! The sun is in thy head!”</p> - -<p>“But shall I sit and look as a Sphinx, or run mad -because I can’t?”</p> - -<p>“Be calm, and let me tell thee that the dwellers by -the mighty Nile plagued themselves with lasting darkness -when they banished the people whose leader’s face<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> -shone from communion with Jehovah. They clung to -some half truths, left them by the progeny of Joseph, -but the half was dimmed by courted lusts.”</p> - -<p>“But my people had no Neb-ta, no women divinities -to leave in Egypt.”</p> - -<p>“No, yet Egypt, aiming to exalt the tender, the beautiful, -the mother, incarnated certain virtues, and lo, a -woman deity! It was an effort to find the ‘Rose.’ -The nation was in a vast, serious pilgrimage through all -their dynasties after an idea, a pattern; an opportunity -to reach and to express the best things. I tell thee, -Jew, the heathen nations sit in darkness; this side -and that, along the track of time, holding here and -there a torch, waiting through the night whose hours -are tolled off at century intervals, for something, Some -One. There have passed before them like phantoms, -gods and gods; man invented, man evolved; but none -of these tarried, none satisfied. Oh, ‘the Isles wait for -thee,’ Jesus, Thou Ideal Man, and also for the true conception -of Mary the ideal woman!”</p> - -<p>“For two Gods? Is Mary divine?”</p> - -<p>“Did I say that? Nay, as the child Jesus was subject -to her, so she was subject to the Christ, at -last. Christ was the Word, Mary His blessed echo; -Christ the Sun, Mary the Moon that reflected that -light, showing its beauty in woman’s life!”</p> - -<p>“But now, what shall I do with my beautiful fright, -Neb-ta, Sir Charleroy?”</p> - -<p>“Put her away, in mind, amid the galaxies of -woman deities; mythical in all but the pitiful sincerity -of the adoration of their devotees and in the greatness -of the truths they vaguely articulated. See, I’ll interpret:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> -Isis going round the world to gather up the -fragments of her dismembered husband. Woman’s -ministry; the restoration of man; wife consecration to -an only love. Then there was not only beautiful widowhood, -second only to beautiful wifehood, but also -the spinster sister. Hail Egypt! Thy Sphinx saw -further than our peoples of boasted civilizations. At -our best we never rose so near to a just altitude as to -attempt the deification of the maiden sister, the omnipresent -angel, who mothers other people’s children as -if they were her own. Egypt worshipped motherhood, -perhaps grossly, in adoring the earth’s fructifications, -but she did not overlook those pious souls who -in a glorious self-abnegation play waiting-maids to the -real queens of earth, the child-bearers. I’d never -tire praising the child-bearers, or all who love them, -for they that bring forth a life are greater than the -greatest kingly man-slayer on earth. The world is -upside down; no religion is wholly false that aids to -right it in any degree. Hail, creeds of Egypt, or any -other land, that seek to efface from fame’s pages the -names of life-destroyers that thereon may chiefly -shine the names of those who give or save life.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, oscillating Sir Charleroy, thou art just and -courtly now.”</p> - -<p>“Praise me, then! Mankind would average better -by far than it does if all were right half the time.”</p> - -<p>“Would I could gather all the threads of to-day’s -blessed communings into a golden band to support -over my heart faith’s breastplate.”</p> - -<p>“I can give thee its summary: God, a beauty Creator, -out of all things hideous in His good Providence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> -will emerge the fine, tender and loving. Neb-ta, Egypt’s -ideal, carried the lotus, the flower of unrestrained -pleasure, as her scepter; Neb-ta-like the influences -that sway most human hearts to-day; but the Rose of -the world has blossomed. Mary, the flower of women. -They that love and serve, as that warm, red-hearted -woman, shall at last reign in eternal bliss within the -ruby walls of the New Jerusalem.”</p> - -<p>“I’m with the knight, to proclaim thy Rose!”</p> - -<p>“A good profession! It will be well if we remember -that woman is as essential to religion as religion to -women. As for man he needs the one as the interpreter -of the other. Therefore, it was that God sent -to earth a flower that could talk.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;"> -<img src="images/hieroglyph.jpg" width="100" height="215" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br /> -<span class="smaller">AFTER EVE, ESTHER OR MARY?</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Still slowly passed the melancholy day,</div> -<div class="verse">And still the stranger wist not where to stray:</div> -<div class="verse">The world was sad—the Garden was a wild;</div> -<div class="verse">And man, the hermit, sighed—till woman smiled.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Milton.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">The Israelites, along Jabbock, were all aglow -with preparation for celebrating one of -their feasts. Sir Charleroy and his comrade -journeying along, in the early morning, -were apprised of the advent of the festivities -by the passing near them of a company of maidens, -marching and chanting. The pilgrims drew apart and -sequestered themselves behind a clump of nubt trees -that they might observe, themselves unobserved, the -graceful procession of singers.</p> - -<p>“Well, my poet, didst thou conjure up these fairies, -or have we come on the musk-born houri?” Sir Charleroy -spoke in an absent-minded manner, perhaps, with -an affectation of a lack of very much interest. In fact, -long privation of the presence of women had somehow -rusted from his bearing, in their vicinage, most of the -confident courtier. In a word, he was now bashful in -their presence. He spoke with a small witticism to subdue,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> -his own embarrassment. His words were unheard, -for the Jew was all engaged in contemplating the -passing women.</p> - -<p>In truth, the latter made a striking picture; garbed -as they were, in holiday attire; all young, oriental in -beauty, and fresh in face, form and action. They were -rural maidens and that says all. It had been a long -time since either Ichabod or Sir Charleroy had met -such types of womanhood; all free from affectation; -all natural and graceful in motion; a band of women, -as sisters, bent to one purpose and that a lofty one, -the proper observance of a joyous, pious, religious ceremonial.</p> - -<p>Presently Ichabod drew a long breath and rapturously -exclaimed: “Praise be to the Patriarchs, my -people!”</p> - -<p>“I’d rather say, Ichabod, praise the Patriarch’s -daughters, if these be human!”</p> - -<p>“Ha, ha! flesh, indeed! Our Hebrew maidens celebrating -the Feast of Esther!”</p> - -<p>“Are they praying God for Adams, so that each -Esther and Vashti may have one all to herself? If so, -we are part answers to their prayers.”</p> - -<p>“Hush such jest! These be holy maidens, now honoring -our Esther. Thou knowest about her?”</p> - -<p>“Certainly; she was my heroine before Our Lady -dethroned in my heart all others. I was wont to wish -I’d been about in Haman’s time. I’d have aroused -that old dotard, Ahasuerus, right quickly. By the -sackcloth of Mordecai, if I’d been the king, the -hanging would have put the Haman family into -mourning long before it did.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Oh, how like angels! It’s years since I saw a woman -other than as deflowered by harem life. Heavens, -what a spoiler man is at his worst!”</p> - -<p>“Dost forget Nourahmal? But no matter; I admire, -and wonder that some roving band of Arabs, with -less piety, or more force than we, does not swoop down -upon these innocents for seraglio prizes. Perhaps -these have the liveried angels about, that are said ever -to guard saintly purity.”</p> - -<p>“Doubtless; and besides them, with all the practical -providence which belongs to the Jew, thou mayst be -sure that the groves, not far away, are full of fathers, -brothers, lovers.”</p> - -<p>“I wish I were a brother to some of them.”</p> - -<p>“Then thou’dst be a Jew.”</p> - -<p>“I’d forget that in being a lover to the others.”</p> - -<p>“Thou wouldst not change thy faith for a woman?”</p> - -<p>“Now, I’d swear I would not. If like most men, -and in love, I’d swear I would; and then, having gotten -my new priestess, in a little while, backslide and drag -her with me, or make her heart weep. My comfort in -the last estate being my consistency, if not my constancy. -What a mad rout it is when religion and love, -born twins, cross purposes?”</p> - -<p>“That’s a very true, yet bitter speech. I’ll tell the -Hebrew maidens to beware.”</p> - -<p>“Better tell me to beware, now. It’s the beginning -that makes the trouble. No beginning, then no after -folly.”</p> - -<p>The procession glided past and the pilgrims followed -at a distance.</p> - -<p>“We are within an arm of dear old Jabbock,” remarked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> -Ichabod, as they came to a river-bank, later.</p> - -<p>“Ah, ha! my chartless pilot, does the current whisper -its name to thee, in Hebrew? I’d not wonder if it -did, since every thing is clannish in this country.—I -hope there is no more swimming for us to do.”</p> - -<p>“Its tumbling waters are full of voices to me, blending -with echoes of things of the past; but one who -spoke a thousand times more tenderly than ever spoke -murmuring waters, told me its name, knight.”</p> - -<p>“Nourahmal? No! rather some one of those pious -beauties we passed not long ago. Oh, roguish Ichabod, -I remember thou wert away a long time in the -morning after our breakfast of peas and grapes. But, -dear Ichabod,” continued Sir Charleroy, feigning -rebuke, “didst thou so soon forget thy little convert -of Jericho? I wonder if thou lifted up thy voice -and wept when thou kissed the maid that told thee -the river’s name? Come, confess, and I’ll call thee -Isaac.”</p> - -<p>“Raillery of prime quality, knight; but raillery and -ridicule, though keenly pointed, are generally bad arrows -for long range.”</p> - -<p>“Well, no matter. I’m glad thou knowest the place, -if thou dost know it. Who told thee the name of this -water?”</p> - -<p>“One with a voice to me sweeter, kinder than that -of any betrothed lover’s ever can be.”</p> - -<p>“Very, very eloquent thou art. Indeed, if we were -in Italy, I’d guess ’twas a syren had communed with -thee; in France, a Crusader troubadour; in Rhineland, -the water sprite, Lurline; but, being in this wondrous -country of revelations, apparitions, prophets, angels<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> -and the like, I can only as a catechumen, ask thy dulcet -informer’s name?”</p> - -<p>“How oddly thou dost talk when thou talkest as a -double man; half sneering infidel; half Christian -preacher.”</p> - -<p>“A truce, Ichabod. That may be a home-thrust well -aimed, but it’s enough that one of us be bitter. It’s -sometimes natural to me, but not to thee.”</p> - -<p>“A bee-sting will redden the high priest’s brow.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I’ll not sting thee. Who gave the name of -the river?”</p> - -<p>“Master, one to me alone of all the world an angel, -my mother. I was born near here, and the memories -of a youth made happy by one all patient, all loving, -rises above and survives all changes.”</p> - -<p>“My noble friend, forgive my repartee. I’m glad, -truly, that we are so lucky as to have this knowledge.”</p> - -<p>“Lucky? Then all is not fate; there is some chance, -if no Providence?”</p> - -<p>“Pardon more; the bee-sting is still on thy brow. -Ichabod, I can not help my feelings, which sometimes -make me think that only God can tread the hidden, -narrow line between stern fate and happy accident. -They say the Sybil wrote her prophetic decrees upon -leaves and flung them recklessly to the inconstant -winds. Just so we’re in decreed courses, swirled by -chance gusts.”</p> - -<p>“Yet we two are getting on well together.”</p> - -<p>“So do chance and fate; the pity is to the waif that -falls between them.”</p> - -<p>“I wonder how here, in Holy Land, thou canst think -of any control but Providence.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Wonder? So do I. I’m a bundle of wonderings.”</p> - -<p>“Listen to Jabbock.”</p> - -<p>“I do, more attentively than Jabbock to me. What -of it?”</p> - -<p>“Grander rivers are forgotten; why is it so remembered?”</p> - -<p>“We’re forgotten, meaner men remembered.”</p> - -<p>“This river sings through the centuries of history -the song of a fugitive of pale heart, who in sheer -desperation, long, long ago, seized a fleeting hope and -became a prince, having power to prevail with God.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, Jacob, who worked fourteen years to win a -woman. It was, I’m sure, the woman that nerved him -to attempt greatness. Such a woman! Had she been -like our moderns she would have jilted him, or eloped -with him, before the end of one of the fourteen years.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll not tilt with thy sarcasms. It were much better -to remember that he, a pigmy, the night in his soul, -as that about him, black as Erebus, grappled with the -mighty, unknown, unseen apparition to find he was -holding Deity. The mysteries of crossing fates and -chances are as open nut-bur compared to that of all -weakness prevailing with Omnipotence, my good master, -I think.”</p> - -<p>“But ever after that joust, Jacob was a cripple!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, but remember, as he halted on his thigh the -sun rose over Penuel, ‘the place of seeing God,’ by interpretation. -He was stronger for his laming!”</p> - -<p>“A very ‘Timor-lame,’ this prince of great chances -and mean ways.”</p> - -<p>“Time and trial repaired Jacob’s spotted soul.”</p> - -<p>“There was much room for the mending, I do vow.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p> - -<p>“His weightings bespeak some charity. Think; a -weak mother, one designing wife, and plenty of wealth!”</p> - -<p>“Well, ’tis true, these were enough to have undone -St. Anthony, if the devil had only thought to have tried -them all at once upon him!”</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy swings back to his old bitterness toward -women; did he never love one?”</p> - -<p>“No, not as a lover. I was never tried except by -designing coquetries that nauseated finally.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps, like most solitary men, thou so revered -thyself by habit that there was no room for other person -in thy heart.”</p> - -<p>“I never met one I deemed perfect and available.”</p> - -<p>“Better to have loved some one far from perfect -than none. If thy heart-fount had been once touched -it would have set thy imaginations to weaving halos -about the one touching. Thou wouldst have enthroned -her by a love that would have transformed both. She -would have become in time what she was in love’s -young dream; while thou wouldst have grown by the -experience to be twice the man thou hadst been—or -art.”</p> - -<p>“The sun in thy head is settling down into thy -heart, Jew.”</p> - -<p>“Is that so, Charleroy?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but not to harm; heart sunsets ripen heart -fruits; that’s the reason the autumn suns run low; the -low suns ripen. But after all, I’m not so very miserable -in heart. I’ve loved some women; mother and my -Mary——”</p> - -<p>“Filial love, religious love! somewhat akin and -blessing him that feels their mellow, exalting influences;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> -but, oh, Sir Charleroy, they do not fill completely the -heart’s temple. There are places there for the expression -of ruddy, glorious lover’s love. The three make -up an all-comprehending trinity, and fill the man as -Deity the universe. I see religious love in adoration of -God’s Fatherhood, mother love in the tender leading -of the Spirit, lover’s love in the priceless self-surrender -of our Saviour. That made the angels sing, and in -the being of each of our race there is room, aye need, -of the melody which only the experiencing of this passion -in full can produce. In love-mating is a wondrous -thrill which can be but faintly voiced even by -those who have experienced it.</p> - -<p>“There are other passions which ebb with time, or, -being well fed, wax gross; not so with this one. Inspired -by the potencies of life, which lie at the very -core of being, it wells up in rills, rivers and torrents of -pleasurable sensations. Out from the heart it goes to -the remotest members, only to double on its courses -and dash again through the beating heart, heating -its flame by its doubling and hasting, making the -beatings wilder by its hastings, and then hasting more -because of the wilder beatings. Of all emotions love -is the most tireless. It increases by giving, grows -stronger by action and proclaims the secret of its heavenly -birth, its immortality, by the way in which it -deepens and ripens with every movement of its life. -Aye, more, it proclaims itself the power of the resurrection -by the way it transforms the lives it possesses. -A man may be a lout, ever so crude in fiber, but this -musical flame passing through his being, burns up his -dross, making him all brave, courteous, tender, poetic,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> -religious! Yea, religious! If it do not utterly redeem -a sinner possessed by it, it will take him nearer to salvation -than any other power known on earth, except -the Spirit of Grace. It is as the opening of the eyes -of the blind man, for it opens the doors of a new sense -to the realizing of a world as new as delightful. As -the thrummings on the harp-strings someway leave -a lasting sonorousness and tenderness in the supporting -woods about the lyre, so leaves this passion, -through the beatings of every wave of it, wealth. Its -devotee by it is inducted into exhaustless new realms -and possessions, unalterably secured to him, and at -the same time beyond all computation. He ever gathers -treasures, as a prince from incoming fleets, and is -made affluent beyond all counting. He surpasses all -in wealth-getting, and yet is infinitely apart from the -littleness of avarice. It is to him the advent of charity’s -full-orbed day. It may be fancy in him, but it’s to -him very real; the world about, as if having learned his -secret, seems to be dressing for the wedding feast, -while all things appear to be coming very confidentially -to him to whisper the divine mandate, ‘marry and multiply.’ -He is trusted, yet trusts; leads, yet follows. He -is proud to display, a little, his conquest, but does so -with a sort of alert charming selfishness, which gives -notice to the world that he alone is to wear the chosen -one upon his heart. He realizes the paradox of giving -all and receiving all; the mystery of two lives merged -into one by an utter surrender, each to each, which -leaves both infinitely richer than the sum of all their -ownings could make either if possessed by the one -apart from the other. Oh, how almost imperiously each<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> -demands that the other shall surrender all and then -how great the joy each feels in leading the chosen mate -to surprises at the munificence and completeness of the -giving up of all by the one who just now demanded all. -I do not know the woman’s heart, but can readily believe -it far surpasses the man’s in its consecration, enjoyment -and aspiring. I know the man’s, but my -words are ragged in description. I know that this -grand passion makes him wondrously weak and wondrously -strong. Sometimes these inner feelings come -nigh overwhelming him; sometimes they fall upon his -life like the musical ebb-waves on resonant shores. I -can not word it all, nor is it strange, since I am speaking -of a life of heavenly flights, and best expressed by -voiceless signs, embraces. In love’s hour the man realizes, -as never before, his lordliness and his pride and -ambition are fed by a growing conviction that all -the world is small beside himself and his; proud as a -conqueror of untold wealth, he yields to the tender -ties that unrelentingly bind him and crucifies his native -roughness that he may be more like, more worthy her -he rules and obeys. He is made finer; she stronger. -Has she virtues, he appropriates them; at the same time, -by the homage implied by his appropriation, makes -them to shine more brightly on the brow and heart -of his queen. He touches the fires on the altar she has -erected within herself to love alone, and the altar-fires -blaze until her whole being is illuminated as a temple on -fête days. She puts on his best parts, and then he revels -in delight as he beholds his virtues refined and so -beautifully framed. There are times when, like a mighty -anthem, his passion passes over and through him. Then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> -is he nigh to madness, being in the mood to slay himself, -or another doing aught to check the rapture of the -mighty swellings of the music that pours over every -nerve from head to heart, to limb. Then it is he embraces -and kisses and embraces again; as an inspired -artist of music, exhausting himself to prolong this joy, -almost materialized. Indeed, I saw one who said ‘this -is tangible music. I feel it; taste it; see it!’ It seems -to thicken the air until I rise unwinged, and yet in a -flight that seems to me as free and brilliant as that of -the golden oriole’s. If the enchanted enchanter be -pure and true, she leads her captive king, made tender -and yet more manly by his captivity, surely upward from -tumultuous passion’s sway to the ambrosial table-lands of -higher affection where both may reign tenderly, bravely, -hopefully, forever. I tell thee, knight, the finest spectacle -on earth is a man in his prime, creation’s lord at -his best, sincerely, completely in love with a queenly -woman. Next after getting God into a man’s heart, -the greatest blessing is the getting of a woman of genuine -parts therein.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, child of the sunny palm land, thou hast imbibed -wondrous eloquence. But thou sayest truly. Now, for -the women that are so to queen us men. No woman -that I ever knew of could so intoxicate, transform and -translate me.”</p> - -<p>“One like Eve, the gift of God?”</p> - -<p>“The first woman, like the first man, was pure without -virtue, until tried; then she fell. I think of her -chiefly as being a splendid animal, yet, as Adam was -not left for man’s example, neither was she. I still think -Eve passed by in history to be only what she was full<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> -proof that love which rises no higher than to give all -to and for that which was like the fruit of the tempting -tree, good for food and pleasant to the eyes, is not like -the love that at last hung on the tree of Calvary. Oh, -child of Abraham, I hear the ‘<i>voice of God walking in -the garden in the cool of the day</i>,’ saying to a world of -flitting, false ideals, and those yearning for pilots and -patterns, ‘<i>Where art thou?</i>’ I don’t know, for one, -exactly where I am, but I’m going forward and upward -someway.”</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy thou dost dazzle me by thy correspondences -and insights, if I do thee by my pictures. -We are quits.”</p> - -<p>“But we’ll not quit. This pilgrim idleness has value. -I never knew what I believed until, thus flung out of -life’s hurly burly, I had little company but my thoughts. -There was method of reason in God’s taking His prophets -to lone places, to fit them for understanding the -rapturing visions with which He filled them.”</p> - -<p>“’Tis so, true; but what thinks the knight of Esther, -the beautiful Queen? She’s the idol and ideal in -Israel in all times and places.”</p> - -<p>“Wondrous woman! A girl, petted, ill-trained, from -poverty suddenly exalted, surrounded by the skilled -intriguants of court, a jealous, exacting, conceited, -harem-demoralized old king for a spouse, she was then -burdened with the salvation of a nation. I’ve so pitied -her that I’ve forgotten to admire how well she did in -her trying lot.”</p> - -<p>“Can the world ever have a finer figure or presentment -of all that is womanly? I do not challenge thy -Mary, but may I not put the two side by side?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Israel has two great women in their way. The -one, Esther, exemplifying all sweetness and the mild -strength of a suddenly developed woman, doing grandly -in one emergency when great peril and great love -aroused her from only being an entrancing, petted -beauty, to be the heroine of an hour. But she was not -tried by the searching test of a lifetime. She never -meets the needs of mothers seeking an ideal. Rizpah, -your other grand woman, was the mother, even the -mother of sorrows, of the Old Testament. It takes -these two to make an ideal, and yet the pattern is -incomplete. God walks yet in the garden where men -live, with only these two before them, and ever and -anon they hear the unanswerable, ‘<i>Where art thou?</i>’”</p> - -<p>“Why, my mentor, master, thou hast touched our -Scriptures with the rod that budded; the whole opens -to me as if for the first time. Methinks, if I were permitted -to lay hands now upon one of our sacred volumes, -I’d be fairly overcome by the light that would break -out on me from within it.”</p> - -<p>“‘The entrance of the word giveth light,’ Ichabod.”</p> - -<p>“I’m moved, master, along lines I can not turn from, -to the one woman of all, Mary. She is thy ideal -queen of hearts?”</p> - -<p>“I’m a pilgrim and follow her, seeing none better.”</p> - -<p>“Then thou wouldst be willing to wed such as Mary?”</p> - -<p>“Hold! This is sacrilegious! I’ll not think of -Mary in any such comparison. Leave my patron saint -upon her high pedestal. I save her for my soul’s health, -as every man should save some noble woman, for an -inner enshrining, to be all that woman may be at her -best, his beloved, his inspirer, and yet touching no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> -spring of his life save such as responds to things of -moral grandeur.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, master, I’ve not yet been enamored fully of -this woman. I feel a stranger to her, but I feel the -meaning of the finer things thou hast just spoken. I -have the need of which thou dost speak, and my life, -like a babe, often now goes out crying, ‘Mother, -mother.’ As we lay, yesterday night, beneath the -quiet firmament, I gazed up and asked a sign of God -in prayer. It was a baby cry I know, but I saw one -star that staid and staid above me. It seemed to be -warmed with reddish tintings, and I thought that its -glitterings were proof that it was taking part in some -anthem of the morning stars. Then I dreamed that -my mother was in the star all luminous, holy, happy, -looking down in constant guardianship of her outcast -boy! Oh, can a child ever be outcast utterly to -mother? Can it be that she, who so loved me and so -loved God, can hate me now, loving her and loving God -as I do? God knows my heart! Will he not tell her -all? Her constant mandate to me was, ‘keep a loyal -heart, an undefiled conscience.’ I’ve tried to do both, -but then her soul loathed apostacy. Does she loathe -me for leaving Israel’s fold? My heart all torn, cries -to-day, ‘Mother, mother!’ I’m sure she can not hate -me. To-morrow I hope I shall pray at her grave.”</p> - -<p>Then the vehement Israelite fell on the ground in -an ecstasy, utterly unconscious of his companion, and, -kissing the earth as if already he was by that parent’s -resting place, wildly called, “Mother! my mamma! -oh, I’m so lonely, so unhappy! Let me come! God, -God, let me go to mother! Mother, I did it as thou<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> -saidst. I’m no leper. I’m not a heretic! I love thee. -I love God. I’ve kept pure. I’ve trusted God’s care -in all my trouble. Mamma, my mamma, let Ichabod -embrace thee!” Exhausted and quivering he there lay. -The knight was silent. It was holy ground, and the -whole thicket about seemed to be glowing with the fire -that burns without consuming.</p> - -<p>The travelers were encamped again under the sky, -and it was now night. A shooting star sped through -the constellation of Orion and fell down toward the -Dead Sea.</p> - -<p>“An omen, Jew.”</p> - -<p>“Explain, brother knight.”</p> - -<p>“Life; bright, short, ending in gloom.”</p> - -<p>“Look at the fixed stars.”</p> - -<p>“They preach fate.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps, but they have the majority. Few fall; I -think, too, Someone holds them.”</p> - -<p>“Thy hopefulness colors thy faith.”</p> - -<p>“Thy murmurings run toward final madness, knight; -the Rabbis, good men, so taught me.”</p> - -<p>“If one star falls may not all? If Providence hold -them, why does one escape?”</p> - -<p>“Thou hast heard that the giant Orion having lost his -eyes, afterward regained his sight by turning his -sockets toward the rising sun; that meteor we saw shot -through the constellation Orion. Look up.”</p> - -<p>“A happy simile and pungent thrust, Jew.”</p> - -<p>“He that sent the lightnings to show us our way -out of dread Jericho, most likely now commissioned -some angel to swing a meteor across the sky as a -torch or beacon for our guidance. The trail of flame<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> -teaches me that God is writing His royal signature on -some great message.”</p> - -<p>“This world is too vast and too thronged with insignificants, -such as we, for such especial carings on -God’s part. There are too many kings, too many -shepherds, too many follies for Him to constantly -watch any one or two.”</p> - -<p>“Backward, forward; now good, now bad. What a -charging, changing knight! Pray God to get thee -right and then fix thee.”</p> - -<p>Their converse was interrupted by a prolonged -trumpet blast, echoing from hill to hill. Sir Charleroy -sprang to his feet and clasping his sword hilt, cried -eagerly, “We’re ambuscaded!”</p> - -<p>“No, by the glory of God, ’twas the temple call! -How grand it sounds away in this wilderness!”</p> - -<p>“No, no, Jew, I’ve heard that call; this one had six -responses.”</p> - -<p>“’Twas echo’s magic! Didst thou not notice how -the sound spread as it traveled in a sort of sheet -of melody? Then it rose and fell from low hill -to high. One blast; seven responses. Nature proclaiming -against fate and chance; the covenant number.”</p> - -<p>“I’m not so confident that it’s a miracle; what if it -were some Mamelukes or Druses, planning one of -their pious immolations of heretics with us for the -victims?”</p> - -<p>“Nay, brother, It’s ‘<i>Purim</i>’; that feast is now due, -and always begins at early starlight. I know it. -Come, I’ll put it to the proof.”</p> - -<p>“Hold; poets are more rash than knights in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> -charge, but not so skillful in retreat! Whither wouldst -thou?”</p> - -<p>“I’ll spy out the trumpeters and report.”</p> - -<p>“Not alone. I’ll go, too. This camp will care for -itself if they beyond be friends; if enemies, why then, -without consulting us, they will care for all we have. -But this,” said the knight, toying with his sword, -“was blessed by a priest to preach to infidels.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE FEAST OF PURIM.</span></h2> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-s.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Stealthily Ichabod, followed by Sir -Charleroy, approached the place from -which the trumpet call had sounded. The -foliage was dense, the necessary way somewhat -winding, and these circumstances, together with -the fact that it was expedient to move with great -caution, made the progress of the explorers very slow. -The last ray of day had faded, sung away by the evening -bird and insect chorusers, whose concert strains, -like the vanishing notes of æolian harps swept by -dying breezes, were now blending, without a line to -mark the place of transition, into the lull of the night. -Nature’s lullaby to tired, drowsy life. It was a witching -hour in the woods, and the scene that lay just -beyond the pilgrims in an opening by Jabbock was an -enchantment. The river, reflecting the moon rays and -the lights of torches borne by many intermingling -feasters, flowed silently along like a stream of mingled -silver and fire, while tree and shrub along its sides, as -green as green could be, bore as fruits lights of many -colors. In the opening, surrounded by beacons, banners -and the lamp-bearing trees, the beauty as well as -the center of all was a magnificent patriarchal tent, -made of costly materials. About the pavilion were -mounds of earth, elevated upon high tripods, seven<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> -in all, in symbols of the seven temple candle-sticks. -On each mound there blazed a fire fed by resinous faggots, -and the lights of the fires falling upon the folds -of the tent, caught up here and there by bands of blue -and gold, made the whole glisten like jeweled silk.</p> - -<p>“Hallelujah,” with suppressed joy, exclaimed Ichabod, -“the tabernacle of God with men!”</p> - -<p>“Hush, rash man, and watch!” rebukingly replied -Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“Watch? Why, my soul is in my eyes. I’m as -one famished for years smelling a feast!”</p> - -<p>As they looked on the beautiful scene, they perceived -that the front of the pavilion was lifted up and -stretched forward as a canopy over an altar, richly -decorated with twined olive branches and blood-red -blossoms. A little way off, and yet partly encircling -the altar, were little walnut trees, each tree having on -its branches glistening lamps, half hidden by wreaths of -hollyhocks and asters.</p> - -<p>The moon sank behind the hills; the night darkened, -but the fires and lamps burned still more -brightly.</p> - -<p>“It’s like fairy-land, Jew,” after little, spake Sir -Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“More beautiful, knight. Wait and see.”</p> - -<p>There was a burst of music, instantly followed by -the entrance of youths and old men; some singing, -others vigorously playing ugabs, reed-flutes, and tambourines. -Somewhere near, though unseen by the -watchers, were happy women; they recognized their -voices in refrains, choruses, and merry peals of laughter.</p> - -<p>“Well, this is not warlike, but what is it, Jew?” -queried Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Wait a little.”</p> - -<p>There came a commanding trumpet blast. Its tones -died away in the melody-waves of a score of viols, -managed by unperceived musicians. Then silence; -presently the huge blue curtain that hung across the -tent, just back of the outstretching front canopy, parted, -and there emerged an aged man of stately form, wearing -an Aaronic mitre and priestly robes; rich as well as -ample. He paused before the altar a moment, as if in -prayer, and then suddenly the air far and wide -quivered with a sound like a cyclone hail. There were -also cornet blasts mingling therewith.</p> - -<p>“Heavens, Jew, explain!”</p> - -<p>“Selah! These the drums and waking clappers; the -signal to be given. Now for ‘Purim’ in earnest.”</p> - -<p>The groves about seemed to be alive and moving, -for from every direction toward the center gathered -men and boys, bearing palm branches and torches; -these, as they advanced, moved with speeded pace, -presently they were in a perfect maze, the music of -every kind growing louder and louder, then seeming to -die away.</p> - -<p>“They’re carrying the edicts of Ahasuerus to the -Jews to defend themselves, master.”</p> - -<p>“A fine play, Jew!”</p> - -<p>Now the blue curtain parted again, and from the -pavilion emerged another stately form, in all except that -he lacked priestly robing, the very counterpart of the -aged man first at the altar.</p> - -<p>“Glory to Shaddah! again I see the holy brothers, -Harrimai,” cried Ichabod.</p> - -<p>The second patriarch motioned silence; all in the -assembly bent their heads in breathless attention and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> -the patriarch spoke: “Brethren of Israel, hearken and -give God all the glory who this hour permits us, His -chosen people, to celebrate in peace, with joy, our -glad Purim feast. This day, Jehovah granted me the -most wholesome comfort of hearing from a pashaw of -our scourge that the last of the armies of the Moslem, -beaten by want and internal discord, were melting out -of our land like fog banks before the rising sun. He -certified to me for a handful of barley (for which he -had come to stand in need) that those hated cross-bearing -invaders, the knights, were gone, never to return. -So God has worked in our behalf as in the days -of Esther, setting our enemies to destroying one another -and then compassing the slinging out of His holy -places, the abominable remnants. So may His thunders, -as of old, forever beat on the heads of all who lift -themselves against our Israel!”</p> - -<p>There was a murmur of applause; first like the buzz -of the noonday insects of the groves, then like a careering -hurricane. The applause swelled up, drowning -all sounds, causing the fires to flicker and flame, making -the pavilion’s sides sway and wave as if all were -feeling the joy present. The musical instruments -quickly now caught up the strain of the cheery voices, -and all was in a perfect whirl of excitement with one -thought, ‘praise.’ It was free and fluent, because it -came from hearts practiced in the ultimate swings -from joy to sorrow and then from sorrow to joy. For -half an hour nearly, the rhapsody continued, nor did it -temperate until sheer exhaustion fell on the revelers.</p> - -<p>Presently, after an interval of comparative quiet, -there came a flourish of cornets and a roar of the rattling -clappers. It was a signal followed by the uplifting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> -of the old priest’s hands as if in benediction. All -heads were bowed; some of the congregation knelt, -and then he spoke in sonorous, yet soothing voice, -words of benediction: “Blessed art thou, Oh Lord -our God, King of the Universe, who hath wrought all -miracles for our fathers and also for us, at this time.”</p> - -<p>Then the people stood up, and the second patriarch, -advancing to the front of the altar, began reading from -the holy <i>Kethubim</i> of the Jews, the story of the Purim. -At each mention of Esther’s name the congregation -murmured “how beautiful is goodness;” at each mention -of Haman’s name all in the congregation stamped -their feet, also making gurgling noises with their -throats, to imitate the false prince’s strangling; the -whole being made more hideous by the shriek of discordant -cornet notes and the springing of rattles.</p> - -<p>The foregoing scene suddenly changed; a procession -of maidens, in graceful evolutions, emerging from the -surrounding groves, presenting a living picture, really -entrancing. They were all richly robed in garments -of graceful flow, caught round their waists by flowered -girdles. Some wore sashes of jassamine, while others -were crowned with lilies or asters or violets. Their -arms and ankles were clad only with circlets from -which pendant bells gave forth music at every motion. -Seven of the foremost maidens bore lamps; behind -each of these followed one with a harp; behind -each harper two with tambourines and cymbals. -Seven times this maiden train, with a step in time, -half march, half dance, waltzed around the canopied -altar. Then were given seven cornet blasts, the procession -leaders waving their lamps with each blast, -after which there was perfect silence. Now the old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> -priest moved forward a little toward the procession; -the congregation meanwhile gathering in a semi-circle, -just outside of all, and he addressed the assembly: -“Brethren and children, I would speak to you a little -of the ‘Virtuous Woman.’ Daughters of Israel, hearts -of homes to be, hopes of the nation looking for a Deliverer -and deliverers yet to be born; hear me! Israel -knows no queen of all womanly perfections like unto -Esther, the beautiful. Evermore take her for your -meditation by day and your dreams by night. Then -shall you all realize to yourselves, your fathers, brothers, -husbands, all that the holy Proverbs of our <i>Kethubim</i> -declares of the true woman. Then the priest taking -the parchment, solemnly and in mellow tones, read -the last chapter of the book, ‘the birth-day chapter,’ a -verse prophetic for every day of the longest month, as -the Jews believe.”</p> - -<p>When the reader ceased, the encampment was dim, -many of the lights having been quenched. Then the -congregation joined in chanting a soft-aired Jewish -hymn.</p> - -<p>“The devotions are ended; now for the sports;” so -spoke Ichabod; the first words spoken between him and -the knight during their observation of the last part of -the proceedings before the pavilion. He had scarcely -made the announcement when the second patriarch appeared, -dressed in somber black, leading by the hand -a maiden of wondrous beauty, wearing also black, in -heavy trails; on her head a golden crown. As they -appeared the applause as at first burst forth, but now -blended with distinguishable cries of “Hail Esther!” -“Hail Mordecai!”</p> - -<p>“It’s the play, knight. Watch that pair.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p> - -<p>“No fear, Jew, such a wondrous beauty! Had I -been Haman and she Esther, I never could have -crossed her. Heavens, Jew, it is well said the people -of promise produce the most beautiful women of earth. -That’s why Deity elected one of them, through whom -to be incarnate, I think.”</p> - -<p>“I think I heard the knight say, awhile ago, that the -revolution of all religions was to come when men’s admiration -for women rose far above rapture over outward -form. Is it not so?”</p> - -<p>“Ah, it’s thy remembering and my forgetting that -keeps us crossing each other! But no matter; am I -looking at an angel or not?”</p> - -<p>“That’s the priest’s only daughter; his idol, ay, -the idol of every youth in all these parts of Israel. -No nation can be dead while it produces such flowers.”</p> - -<p>Suddenly the camp blazed with re-illumination, and -then began a carnival. Games and dancers were -everywhere. Some, evidently men, were dressed as -women, and others, evidently women, were garbed as -men. For one season, Purim, the command against -the interchange of garments between the sexes, was -suspended. Each reveler carried a little box. If he -asked a favor or a question, the reply was a challenge -to try lots. Partners were so chosen, tasks given and -predictions made. Laughter was everywhere, and -wine was flowing.</p> - -<p>“Ichabod, I haven’t tasted wine since Acre! Why -dost thou not introduce me yonder?”</p> - -<p>“Wait; they will all be mellow, soon. They may -be, too, for it’s a law that a Jew is not deemed drunk -at ‘<i>Purim</i>’ so long as he can discern between a blessing -for Mordecai and a curse for Haman.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Heavens! how they do imbibe.”</p> - -<p>“It’s natural for doves to twitter after a thunder -storm. They remember the past troubles.”</p> - -<p>“Ay; but I fear they will consume all the beverage -before we are with them. We have had plenty of -trouble; now take me in to twitter with those doves.”</p> - -<p>Ichabod started, as if to lead the way, and then drew -back and moaned, “no, no; it cannot be. I’m forever -anathema here, to them! I could bear their hate, not -their contempt. They may call me renegade, but -never spaniel nor hypocrite! If I appeared among them -they would soon know, if they do not already, that -Ichabod is changed. Then they’d sneer and tell me -that I tried to play double, or thinking my people’s -faith not good enough for me, I yet hungered for their -feasts. No, no; it must not be! To-morrow, I hope -to pray at my mother’s grave. I’d choke then if I had -to remember I’d done aught that she, living, would have -thought mean.”</p> - -<p>“Now, I’ll not persuade thee, Jew, but go alone.”</p> - -<p>“That’s reckless! thou mayst regret it. They may -become riotous, being half drunk, and beat thee as a -Haman. No, stay away.”</p> - -<p>“No dissuasion, Jew, but just change garments. It’s -the fashion to-night.” The Jew complied, remarking -as he did:</p> - -<p>“Will the knight wear this leather thong?”</p> - -<p>“Heavens! no, nor the brand on thy neck.”</p> - -<p>“Christian knights commanded me to wear one, and -burned into my flesh the other years ago; they deemed -it necessary to mark all Jews for hatred.”</p> - -<p>“Dear Ichabod, I never counseled branding any -man!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I believe it. I have forgotten all bitterness about -these marks and have borne them as my cross.</p> - -<p>“But, Sir Charleroy, don’t wear thy cross in their -sight!”</p> - -<p>“For once, I’ll cover it.” So saying he hid the -emblem.</p> - -<p>The comrades parted, and Sir Charleroy quickly -found himself by the maiden who personated Esther. -He approached unnoticed until he pleasantly said: -“Queen of Shushan, a man out there behind a clump -of Sharon roses, played me a game of lots. I lost the -game, and he has put it on me to come to the Queen -to fix the forfeit I shall pay.” The maiden turned her -head haughtily and examined the speaker from head to -foot with repelling gaze. It was her way of freezing -off the amorous swains who constantly aimed to pay -her court. But when her eyes met those of the self-possessed -stranger, she gave a little start. Perhaps -she caught sight, by some omen, of her fate; perhaps -she felt the magnetism of the strong will which for the -first time presented itself. In any event, it was the first -time she had ever been alone, face to face, with such -as he; a stalwart man, all reverential, yet all self-possessed. -They were well matched, and they both -felt it, intuitively, instantly.</p> - -<p>“Who art thou?”</p> - -<p>“A child of God.”</p> - -<p>“Of Israel?”</p> - -<p>“By faith, most holy of Abraham’s seed,” responded -Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“Thy speech bewrayeth thee as lacking our shibboleth.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve been a life long wanderer. Thou wouldst not reject<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> -one whom involuntary exile had robbed of -tokens?”</p> - -<p>“But I can not be free with an uncertified stranger. -I’m afraid I err in tarrying here ’till now.”</p> - -<p>“Hospitality is the boast of pious Hebrews who -obey Him that ‘loveth the stranger in giving him food -and raiment.’ Thou hast the Great Father’s law: -‘Love ye therefore the stranger, for ye were strangers -in the land of Egypt.’ Some have by hospitality unawares -entertained angels, thou knowst.”</p> - -<p>“I’d like to entertain an angel; are they ever so -human-like as thou?” she smiled.</p> - -<p>“Had I known the Esther of to-night long enough -to convince her that my freedom was sincere, I’d say -that she was a fine example of the union of the angelic -in the human.”</p> - -<p>The maiden laughed. The incense was agreeable, -and the freedom of this feast-time justified her acceptance -of this novel, bold flattery. Your proud, daring -woman is very vulnerable to such assaults. The world -often wonders why such women so often, after all, surrender; -but that’s because the world does not appreciate -the dexterity in such jousts of such skilled men -of the world as Sir Charleroy; or how grateful to -self-admiring beauties the admiration of superior intellects -is.</p> - -<p>“Well, will thou give me thy name?”</p> - -<p>“Certainly. For to-night, Ahasuerus?”</p> - -<p>“A presumptious jest, sir.”</p> - -<p>“No, for I admire and respect Esther, that’s here.”</p> - -<p>“And then?”</p> - -<p>“I plead for help; gain me admittance to the festivities, -and escape from inquiry further, as to my identity.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And afterward, be called by my people brazen -by thee, a little fool!”</p> - -<p>“Art thou driven from right, the claim of hospitality, -by fear of a lie?”</p> - -<p>“What if thou wert a Bedouin spy, or a hated cross -follower?”</p> - -<p>“Thou art a noble hearted maiden.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, who told thee so?”</p> - -<p>“Thy face.”</p> - -<p>“What is that to thee, if true?” she blushed a little.</p> - -<p>“Could’st thou drive from thy bosom a fleeing kid, -there seeking refuge from pursuing lions?”</p> - -<p>“I do not know ’till tried. Thou art at any rate no -kid; there is no lion. If thou desirest refuge, see the -path of departure is the one by which thou cam’st -hither.”</p> - -<p>“Well, then, farewell.”</p> - -<p>The knight made as if he would go, but he knew he -would not. The motion gave him excuse for looking -sad, and he knew that next to a handsome face a sad -one most easily conquers a woman.</p> - -<p>“Tarry a moment ’till I think. Can I trust thee?” -she was hesitating.</p> - -<p>“I’ve trusted thee, and that’s ever the best proof of -fidelity.” Women like to think they are especially -trusted.</p> - -<p>“Well——but, see, my father comes; there’s no -time for argument; let me speak!”</p> - -<p>As the aged priest drew near, Esther saluted him, -and said, “Father, let me take this Galileean stranger -to the youths and their games? He claims our hospitality.”</p> - -<p>The priest, wont to be on the alert, was disarmed by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> -the magic word hospitality; then, too, for a long time -before, having been wifeless, he had been wont to put -his daughter forward, according large confidence to -her; hence his reply:</p> - -<p>“If thou knowest him, Rizpah.”</p> - -<p>“I do.”</p> - -<p>“Welcome, brother, what is thy name?” said Harrimai.</p> - -<p>Rizpah, his daughter, quickly made reply, “Ahasuerus, -and I’ve laughed at the <i>coincidence</i> until he has -been ashamed to repeat it.”</p> - -<p>“’Tis strange, surely, and not like a Jewish one. I -must examine the family rolls to-morrow. Peace be -unto thee, son,” and the old man turned toward his -pavilion. Esther plucked a lily from her crown and -handed it to Sir Charleroy saying: “Here, king, a -token.”</p> - -<p>“Of what?”</p> - -<p>“Shushan; in our tongue, the name of the flower -signifies ‘surrender.’”</p> - -<p>“They say, Esther, that Judith wore a crown of lilies -when she assassinated Holophernes. Is there any -danger to me impending?”</p> - -<p>“Thou hast a lily. It is said to ward off enchantments, -too.”</p> - -<p>“I am enchanted. I do not want to awaken. In -Egypt they call this the lotus, flower of unrestrained -pleasure.”</p> - -<p>“For now then, we’ll call it lotus.”</p> - -<p>“All gods, even Osiris, bless thee, Esther.”</p> - -<p>So the twain were charmed comrades, till watch fires -were dim and the palm shadows were creeping in, like -funeral attendants, to carry away the spirit of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> -dying revel. Here and there was heard anon the voices -commending this one and that to pleasant slumbers. -The stars were withdrawing behind dawn’s feathery -curtains, and over all, at intervals, was heard the voice -of the chanticleer, triumphantly proclaiming the coming -day.</p> - -<p>Charleroy and Rizpah were left alone with each -other at the end of the last game.</p> - -<p>The maiden gave a coy, furtive glance and tardily -drew away from the knight. The language of the -drawing-room of the day, is as old as the centuries, and -that maid of the wilderness used it as finely as a queen, -to say without words, “it’s time we part; please say so -first, nor leave to me, the hostess, the first suggestion -of a wish to have thee go——”</p> - -<p>Still the knight spake not.</p> - -<p>He was delighted and averse to breaking the first -pleasure spell of years.</p> - -<p>The Jewish maiden, with fine courtesy, renewed the -subject: “King, methinks, thou art anxious to exchange -the grove for the palace.”</p> - -<p>“I can never think of weariness when restful Esther -is nigh.”</p> - -<p>“But thy life is precious to thy subjects; care for it, -and go with freshness to to-morrow’s cares of state.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, queen, I too keenly realize that with thy departure -my kingdom fades to nothingness.”</p> - -<p>“A truce, my liege.”</p> - -<p>“Granted, and any thing else, to the half of my kingdom.”</p> - -<p>Rizpah startled the birds in the shrubbery to premature -morning song, with a merry laugh. It was a finishing -charge, that laugh, by which she carried her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> -point, for the knight quickly questioned “Why -this?”</p> - -<p>“I was only thinking how odd thou wouldst appear if -thou didst wear away my pepelum. Thy subjects would -think their king mad, if he met them veiled as a -woman.”</p> - -<p>“Pardon, queen, I’ve been so absorbed, I forgot myself—” -So saying, he gracefully transferred from his -shoulder to hers the shawl she had permitted him for -the night to wear. As the maiden adjusted it, -something fell out of its folds, glittering to her feet.</p> - -<p>“Findings keepings;” she laughed, and stooped to -pick up the object. As she arose she turned it slowly -toward the setting moon the better to inspect the -find.</p> - -<p>The knight was alarmed, but it was too late to prevent -her examination now of his Teutonic cross and -chain.</p> - -<p>At a glance, Rizpah saw it was an emblem, of all -others, hated by her people, and with a low, startled cry -she made a motion as if to hurl it from her, but she -checked herself with a powerful effort; suddenly turning -her black, piercing eyes upon her companion she took -a step back. She stood there the embodiment of an -imperative question.</p> - -<p>The knight quietly said: “Be calm, dear maid.”</p> - -<p>Over her countenance passed a cloud which to the -man all too plainly said: “How darst thou use such -terms to me?” and then the face hardened again to imperative -interrogation.</p> - -<p>“Thou trustedst me four hours ago, under the lotus, -try now my sincerity by any sterner test.”</p> - -<p>Turning her eyes full on his, with a voice without a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> -quaver, but in deep, measured tones indicative of suppressed -emotion, she questioned as she held out toward -him his emblem, “What’s this?”</p> - -<p>“Concealment from thee, having trusted me as thou -hast, would be futile not only, but hateful; thou knowst -the meaning of the sign.”</p> - -<p>“Who art thou then?”</p> - -<p>“A Christian knight!”</p> - -<p>“An enemy of my people everywhere; a spy here!” -she exclaimed.</p> - -<p>“No, never a spy! a true Christian knight never was -such! Our warfare is open and equal. I’m degraded -by the defense from such an odious charge!”</p> - -<p>“Why debate thy methods; ’tis enough for me to -know thou art a foe to me and mine.”</p> - -<p>“No enemy of thine, but rather the friend of all humanity, -woman.”</p> - -<p>“Bloody friends I’ve heard!”</p> - -<p>“No! Each one of my order is sworn, by awful -vow, to protect the traveler, the poor, the weak and -woman with our last drop of blood! If we two were -all alone here and one of our lives must be forfeited to -save the other’s, mine would joy to go first.”</p> - -<p>“Words are cheap, and thou can’st use them finely, -knight.”</p> - -<p>“Thou knowst, maiden, to what that cross alludes.”</p> - -<p>“The Nazarene Imposter!”</p> - -<p>“His followers revere Him?”</p> - -<p>“Like madmen, they follow their phantom!”</p> - -<p>“Didst ever hear of one wearing that sign, being -untrue to it?”</p> - -<p>“No, it’s their dread black-art.”</p> - -<p>“Wouldst thou trust me if I swore by it?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I might; but I’d fear that devils would flock out of -the airy deep to witness thy vowing. Spare me that -horror!”</p> - -<p>“Maiden, thou’lt craze me by thy distrust and wild -words. In God’s name tell me what to do!”</p> - -<p>“Swear, but wave back the evil spirits, if thou art -wont to have them.”</p> - -<p>“That sign is their lasting terror; but the silent -palms and the stars alone shall witness, ay, the God -of all, as well. Here, make thou the words as thou -wilt. Now, I kiss the cross I love, and am ready. He -suited the action to the words. The maiden drew -near to him, looking down into his eyes searchingly -and seemed assured by their serene frankness.”</p> - -<p>“Go on, Rizpah, I’ll bind my soul with any words -coined, and, remember that I believe that perjury would -consign me to misery untold here; eternal woe hereafter!”</p> - -<p>“I’ll trust thy solemn asseverations; they say that a -superstition on the right side will make even a Philistine -bearable. Repeat, ‘I swear never to harm any -of Rizpah’s kin or clan, except in self-defense.’”</p> - -<p>He complied.</p> - -<p>“Again, ‘I swear to depart peacefully at once, and -no more seek companionship with the people this -night met.’”</p> - -<p>He complied, but murmured “cruelty.”</p> - -<p>“And how?” she questioned.</p> - -<p>“Wilt add a little?”</p> - -<p>“Add what?”</p> - -<p>“Add this ‘except by permission of the one ordaining -my vow.’”</p> - -<p>“It is so fixed.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I then swear it all.”</p> - -<p>“Well, now go,” and she pointed to the hills.</p> - -<p>“I obey, but yet plead delay.”</p> - -<p>She hesitated and fell from being master to being -mastered.</p> - -<p>“Why, what benefits delay?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, woman, I yearn as only a lonely heart can, to -enjoy a little while the fellowship and hospitality of -thy people! For years homeless; for months friendless, -I’ve come to feel worthless. This is the first bright -hour in my life for many a day. Perhaps, maiden of -Israel, thou mightst make life worth living to me.”</p> - -<p>It was a charge on her sympathy, and he knew it -would succeed.</p> - -<p>“A Crusader, ‘one of the armies of God,’ boasting a -divine call to conquer and convert the world, so talking?”</p> - -<p>“Our armed crusades are ended forever; my occupation’s -gone.”</p> - -<p>She had hesitated, now she pitied the man, and -woman-like, again surrendered while she protested.</p> - -<p>“I do not think there could come great harm from -thy staying until sunrise repast.”</p> - -<p>“Bless thee, the nine sun gods bless thee, Esther.”</p> - -<p>“Heathen!”</p> - -<p>“Well; an Egyptian-Christian-Jew taught me to say -this when too cheerful to be solemn, and pious enough -not to be frivolous.”</p> - -<p>“An Egyptian-Hebrew-Christian! He must have -been an Arab. That name means the ‘mixed.’ But -go to the men’s tents; to-morrow I’ll have more wisdom. -Peace and grace to thee; good night, Christian-Heathen-Hebrew-Arabic-Egyptian!” -She laughingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> -spoke and the unbending made the knight, bold. He -addressed her:</p> - -<p>“I’d sleep in perfect peace, if Rizpah would give -me a token.”</p> - -<p>“I? what?” and the maiden drew back, offended. -Her innocency remembered no token then, but such -solicited by her maiden friends, or given at times to -her father, a kiss.</p> - -<p>“Place thy hand in mine, Rizpah.” She quickly -complied, glad she was mistaken, as to her suspicion -and blushing within, as she thought how strangely, -easily, her mind had had the thought, “Well, now what, -knight?”</p> - -<p>“Promise me that while I’m permitted to tarry among -thy people, I shall have thy heart’s friendship; as -freely, as loyally bestowed as if I were thy brother.”</p> - -<p>“Canst trust me, a woman, a girl, almost a stranger?”</p> - -<p>“I trust thy woman’s heart as Joshua’s men of old -trusted Rahab, a wreck, but still a woman. Thou art -infinitely more noble than she.”</p> - -<p>“But men think us weak, fitful, garrulous.”</p> - -<p>“Responsibility makes the weakest of thy sex heroines -and pity is the gateway to their hearts. Thou -hast my life and my happiness as thy responsibility; -dost pity me?”</p> - -<p>“Yes: go now. A Gentile hater of my people shall -see of what metals Jewish maidens are.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">ASTARTE OR MARY?</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Who could resist; who in the universe?</div> -<div class="verse">She did breathe ambrosia; so immerse</div> -<div class="verse">My existence in a golden clime,</div> -<div class="verse">She took me like a child of sucking time,</div> -<div class="verse">And cradled me in roses. Thus condemned</div> -<div class="verse">The current of my former life was stemmed:</div> -<div class="verse">I bowed a tranced vassal.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Keats.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">The Teutonic Knight of Saint Mary, through -all his changing fortunes from the time of -his knighthood’s vow, preserved his moral -integrity, his loyalty to the lofty pattern -of life set forth by the Queenly exemplar, Mary, the -mother of Jesus. Crusader days had so far improved -his life as to make him the outspoken denouncer of all -impurity of life. He thought his creed and his committal -thereto complete. A change came over him. He that, -in the storm of battle, had often cried as his law and his -delight “<i>Deus Vult</i>,” “God wills,” now feared to seek -to know, much less to do, that will. The intoxications -of a new love were upon him; unconsciously he was -suffering his queen to be veiled, eclipsed; and he yielded -to the tide that swept him toward the Jewish maiden. -Sometimes his conscience smote him, but he parleyed -with it, called it a fool, or placated it by the assurance -that this whole matter could be stopped any time at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> -will. Like many another man, forgetting all else except -that he was a refined animal, he passed away from -the beacons of Bethlehem to the chambers of Imagery, -the gods of Egypt. In chains of roses, though -with many fine Christian sentiments on his lips, he -went heart first, head first, into an utter committal of -all his being to the possession of his enchanter. He -expected to regard the laws of the land and society, -but nothing more. He was led by his tempting -spirit to Ramoth Gilead, now sometimes called -Gerara or Gerash. There it was that Rizpah’s family -took up its abode. With them, and of them, was Sir -Charleroy, a welcome guest, his welcome secured by -his own personal efforts to please, in part; but more -through the <i>finesse</i> of Rizpah, who having promised to -be a sister, was permitting her mind to wonder what -he might become if only her friend were a Hebrew. -Such day dreams were sinless, but impolitic if she -really meant to keep herself free and painless, when the -parting time came. But it so happens that the questions -and problems of the heart are thrust ever on life -when most responsive, least experienced. The wonder -is not that so many decide them ill, but that -youth so pressed, so ardent, so callow, as a whole -decide so fairly well the master social problem. The -life of Harrimai and his following was very Jewish at -Gerash. There was an unusual amount of national -pride evinced in that locality for the times. Sir Charleroy -was interested deeply in the place because of its -splendid ruins, he said, but as need not be explained, -chiefly on account of its natural beauties amid which -Rizpah was peerless. The Israelitish colony revered -the place for its ancient part in Jewish history, and because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> -they believed no Moslem invader had ever defiled -the place. The knight and the Jewish father and -daughter were in frequent companionship. They were -becoming very intimate, meanwhile gaining power each -to make the other eventually very miserable.</p> - -<p>Rizpah was pushing out in a new experience to her. -If she were enamored she did not fully know it. She -only knew that the knight’s companionship was very -delightful. If she had any misgivings as to the propriety -of her course she silenced them by saying to -herself: “Sir Charleroy has sworn to leave us forever -when I say he shall. I can end this matter any time.” -She thought she could, but the shield of her safety was -already too heavy for her. She could not have said -go, had she tried. Time deepened the perplexity by -multiplying the enmeshings of the trio. The knight -and Rizpah were much in each other’s society. They -spoke of this as being a happy circumstance, as youths -usually do. “We shall understand each other so well—too -well to misunderstand.” Some of the Jewish -young men were jealous and made some very natural -remarks, under the circumstances, though the remarks -were rather bitter with jealousy. The older people, -some of them, anxious for an alliance by marriage with -the rich and powerful Harrimai family, took up the -undertone complaints of the young people of their race. -Of course, the murmurings were cloaked with declarations -that they were all for the sake of righteousness! -Harrimai, in heart far from assured, was yet compelled -to defend the two secretly loving, in order to defend his -daughter’s fair fame. The two young people wore the -armor of teacher and pupil; the young woman constantly -bepraising the knight’s wondrous knowledge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> -of the antiquities, etc., of all the out-of-the-way places -they visited. So the meshes multiplied, though -the caviling was in part silenced. As teacher and -pupil they went on, and Harrimai knew, as did Sir -Charleroy, that the relationship had its peril, as it existed -between a man and woman who could love yet -ought not to love. Rizpah did not at first know how -easily a woman’s heart surrenders to a man to whom -she is accustomed to look upward. In fact she drifted -in a delight in all pertaining to the knight; her only -outlook and watchfulness being toward her father. -The way the latter at times keenly, silently observed -her and the knight made her uneasy. She knew intuitively -that not far away there was impending on her -father’s part an investigation. She determined to delay, -if not prevent it. One day she bounded into her -father’s presence, aglow with enthusiasm over the wonders -unfolded to her by Sir Charleroy during a visit to -the ruins of Gerash’s temple of the sun. The old man -was charmed by her description, and when she declared -her intention to pursue her investigations beyond their -city he hesitated to forbid.</p> - -<p>“And now, father, I’m going to that old city of the -Giants, Bozrah.”</p> - -<p>The father, with an effort at firmness, dissuadingly -replied:</p> - -<p>“We may all go there, but not now. It is better -to bide here quietly, until we learn that the perils -of receding war have left assured peace.”</p> - -<p>“Why, father, I’m not afraid!”</p> - -<p>“I know it; so much the more need for me to be: -these over-daring daughters need over-careful guardians. -Some of us aged ones are suffered to tarry long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> -from paradise, in order that we may see our darlings -in the right path thither.”</p> - -<p>“Give me my swift white dromedary and two attendants -and I’ll defy the miserables who ambuscade -along the way.”</p> - -<p>Just then, there dashed toward them, over the oleander-fringed -road which passed due north along the -little river and across the city, a rider on panting -steed.</p> - -<p>“It’s the news runner!” said the patriarch.</p> - -<p>“Shall we signal him?” she questioned.</p> - -<p>“No, daughter, we will meet him yonder, where the -two great streets cross. He will await me.”</p> - -<p>When the father and daughter arrived, a crowd had -already gathered about the horseman. Some pressed -him for news, but he looked straight ahead at his -horse, now slaking its thirst, and merely snapped out, -“News? My beast is thirsty!”</p> - -<p>When Harrimai drew near the rider saluted him and -at once unfolded his budget: “Father, I’m this day -from Bozrah. Its ruins are not ruined. All around -there, and from there to here, the herds sleep in the -shade, and the carrion birds that have so long been -hovering around us for human food have fled back -to Egypt and Europe and Hades!”</p> - -<p>“Praised be the Father of Israel! I shall live then, -as I prayed I might, to see the infidels slung out of -our holy places!” So spoke the priest, and as he affectionately -embraced some aged Israelites who gathered -about him, the horseman responded:</p> - -<p>“God reigns and Israel has peace.” He put spurs to -his horse then, and dashed away across the river to -spread to other hamlets the glorious news.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p> - -<p>Next morning Rizpah, having carried her point, was -ready to depart for Bozrah. She had taken silence -on her father’s part for consent, and pursued her preparations -as if it were so ordered. All things being ready -she silenced protest by a good-by kiss.</p> - -<p>“But daughter! What escort?”</p> - -<p>“Ah,” she thought, “victory! I can go if well attended.” -She continued aloud; “Perhaps Sir Charleroy’s -Egyptian might attend me, since our servants are -busy in the groves.” The maiden called to her Ichabod, -who had found a home in Harrimai’s establishment, -his identity hidden under the assumed name -Huykos, a name from the Nile land, meaning “Shepherd -King.” “I’ll take it,” said Ichabod, one day to -Sir Charleroy, “that all unknown I may follow my -pilgrim comrade and perhaps honor my new found -‘Shepherd King.’”</p> - -<p>“One will be a meager escort daughter,” interposed -Harrimai.</p> - -<p>“Oh, fear for me nothing, father. I’ll quickly be at -Bozrah, where there are Israelites not a few who will be -proud to aid thy daughter.”</p> - -<p>“No, daughter it must not be. I’ll call the young -men from the vineyard, if thou must go.”</p> - -<p>“Another victory,” her heart whispered; then -quickly turning to Sir Charleroy she exclaimed, “My -father must not call the workmen from their tasks; -what sayst thou? Wilt serve us both by joining my -body-guard, Ahasuerus? Come, to please my father?”</p> - -<p>The knight had hoped for and expected the summons, -so needed no urgency and was instantly preparing -for the start.</p> - -<p>Harrimai was not pleased by the arrangement, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> -yet he was forced to thank the knight for consenting. -His native courtliness compelled this much, and Rizpah’s -genius had precluded all gainsaying on his part. -And so they rode away, Rizpah in a delight, which she -could not clearly define; Sir Charleroy blinded already -by the cry that at last led to giant Samson’s blinding, -namely: “Get her for me.” Ichabod masked under -his name, Huykos, followed after, knowing that the -knight was captive to the maid and feeling very happy -over the circumstance. As he rode, his mind ran forward -to the wedding, and he laughed again and again -at the witty things he imagined himself saying at that -wedding. Suddenly the scene changed from one of -careless delight to one filled with the frights of impending -peril. At a turn in the road, from behind a wall, -there rose up a company of Mamelukes. Rizpah saw -them the instant her companion did and exclaimed, -as she half turned her camel:</p> - -<p>“Let’s race back to Gerash!”</p> - -<p>But four dusky sentinels were behind them. They -were surrounded.</p> - -<p>“’Tis fight or flight, the latter futile,” whispered the -knight. They paused, and Ichabod joined them. Sir -Charleroy drawing his sword again spoke: “Comrade -it’s a desperate chance; a dozen to two; but we have -taken such before together!”</p> - -<p>“Let the knight say a dozen to three,” exclaimed -Rizpah, as she drew from the folds of her garments a -saber before unseen and touched the edge expert-like -with her thumb.</p> - -<p>“Oh, brave, pure girl! I don’t fear death; I’d court -it for thee, but”—Sir Charleroy paused and looked unutterable -misery; then instantly recovering and emboldened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> -by the danger that threatened to soon end -all, he exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“Rizpah, thou rememberest my knight-vow at -Purim; thou shalt see how I’ll keep it; if I perish, remember -I have loved thee as I never loved any other -being.” The words were very vehement, but probably -very true. Rizpah blushed, brushed a tear from her -eyes and then, in the frankness that such an hour engenders, -replied: “And I thee—” the rest was drowned -in the wild shout of the Turks as they close about the -three. But they had not counted upon such a reception -as those two men and that one woman gave them. -Ichabod fought like a roused mastiff, without a thought -of fear for himself. He struck vehemently, but a -calm settled smile was on his countenance. Sir Charleroy -saw it and years after said, recalling the incident, -“amidst the greatest perils there’s a wondrous peace -to one who feels he is striking for God, close to the portals -of death and judgment.” The knight himself -fenced with the rapidity of lightning. Again and again -by ones and twos and threes, the enemies charged down -upon him, but he fought with the prowess of a crusader, -the fire of a lover. Those parts had never before witnessed -such splendid swordsmanship. As the attack -had been sudden, so was its ending. Two Turks fell -beneath Sir Charleroy’s weapon in quick succession, -and a third fell under his own horse, which was desperately -wounded by a sweeping blow from the knight. -At the same, instant, almost, Ichabod and one of the foemen, -whom he was engaging, fell in significant silence, -while another struggled to drag Rizpah to his steed -that he might make her captive. Sir Charleroy, -wounded and faint, dealt the latter miscreant a staggering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> -blow and the maiden, plucking a small dagger -from the folds of her garment, finished with a single -thrust her captor’s earthly career.</p> - -<p>Those of the marauders that were able, in fright took -flight, wheeling away more quickly than they had -come.</p> - -<p>“Rizpah, wilt thou go to Ich—Huykos? I can’t,” -softly called out Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>The maiden flew to the Jew’s side, but quickly started -back, crying: “Oh, knight, come quickly! He’s dead!” -Just then, looking back, a sudden horror fell upon her, -for she saw Sir Charleroy half reclining against a rock, -bleeding and pale. Like lightning she thought: “Both -dead; I alone; home miles away; the Turks hovering -near.”</p> - -<p>But the thought of her own peril was only momentary, -and after it there came more rapidly than can be -written the thought that one dear as her life was dead, -dead for her sake. Instantly, on feet that seemed -winged, she was at Sir Charleroy’s side. All her being -merged into one great, instant impulse to save her -lover. Over him she bent, and with passionate sorrow -tried with her garments to staunch the flow of blood. -In the sincerity and frankness that the presence of -death ever brings, she arose above all prudishness and -impulsively kissed the cold lips of the knight. His -eyes opened, and he faintly murmured:</p> - -<p>“I’m so happy, dear Rizpah. I know now it is well.” -A little later he murmured: “Flee now for home. -Thou’lt reach it by sun down. Leave me. To tarry is -to court a harem prison.”</p> - -<p>“Hush,” impatiently responded she; “see this dagger?” -and she held it close to his half-closed eyes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> -“My pious father gave it me when I was but a girl. -He told me it might some time save me from dishonor. -It did so to-day, once. If those black demons -return, sure as my name is Rizpah, it will do so again, -even though I turn it toward my own heart.”</p> - -<p>“Better flee, my love.”</p> - -<p>“Not ’till thou can’st go, too.”</p> - -<p>“I may die.”</p> - -<p>“Then, I’ll go into the shadow land with thee.”</p> - -<p>The knight was silent. The pain of his wounds was -forgotten in the joy of that lone companionship. But, -after all, his mind, perturbed by the shock, the pain, -the dangers, was unable to rest. He tried to say to -himself the prayer of the dying crusader, but the words -were confused. He could not remember many of them; -those he remembered, seemed to be unwilling to go -heavenward for mercy. Some way in the clearness of -judgment as to simple right and wrong that comes to -a mind on the confines of death, he found himself condemned. -He was haunted by a vision that came to his -mind first the day he decided against conviction, at all -hazard, to follow the family of Rizpah and Harrimai -to Gerash. The vision was that of the false -prophet Zedekiah, making himself horns of iron, and -with them appearing before the wicked King of Israel, -Ahab, to proclaim, not the things of God, but the -things the prophet knew would meet the desires of -his royal master. The wounded often fall asleep; -it’s nature’s way of recovering from a shock and of -chaining pain in forgetfulness. Sir Charleroy knew -not whether he was sleeping or not; but the vision -passed in painful vividness over his mind. He heard -the prophet’s voice saying: “Go up to Ramoth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> -Gilead, and prosper.” Then he saw a true prophet -of God standing nigh, with sorrowful countenance, -and the face was that of the Madonna. The latter -moaned in his ear, warningly; “<i>Who shall persuade, -that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? Then -there came forth a spirit and said, I will persuade.</i>”</p> - -<p>The spirit was black-garbed, in a blood-spotted garment, -and wore, as Sir Charleroy seemed to see the -apparition, a scarlet crescent, and the knight thought -of Astarte. He heard in his vision the beatings as -of mighty wings, rising to flight, and tried to turn -and see who the departing one was. It seemed as -if the spirit of Astarte-like countenance transfixed -him with a gaze, so he could not turn; but a loneliness -and darkness, almost palpable, came over him, and -he knew it was the Madonna-faced prophet that had -departed. The knight started up as if to rise, but, -awakening, found Rizpah’s restraining arms about him.</p> - -<p>“Stay,” she soothingly said. “Thou art feverish, -and too weak to rise. Thou’lt be better presently; -the blood has ceased flowing.”</p> - -<p>“Oh,” he groaned; “I had such a dream!”</p> - -<p>Just then Rizpah beheld coming in the distance, -from toward Gerash, a horseman, at rapid pace. Her -first thought, “The enemy returns.” Her second -brought her hand swiftly to her reeking dagger, as -she soliloquized: “He’s only one, and I’m one; if -but a woman.”</p> - -<p>The rider drew nearer, and she was almost overcome -with the revulsion from fear and despair; for -the comer was Laconic, the “news runner.” He -knew the maiden, and wheeling his steed to her side -with his usual brevity, cried out:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Why, didst thou kill both?”</p> - -<p>“Shame on thee; ’twas the Arabs!”</p> - -<p>“I thought so. I met two horsemen and two riderless -steeds, galloping away down the road. I knew -they’d been at some devilment.”</p> - -<p>“Good runner, in the name of God, speed thee -to Bozrah, or somewhere, for help, and bring it quickly.”</p> - -<p>“Bring? not so; send. <i>I</i> come not ’till my set day!”</p> - -<p>“Any thing; but hurry!”</p> - -<p>“Hurry! Yes, hurry! I love hurry.”</p> - -<p>He was away like an arrow, in his course. His steed -leaped over one of the dead miscreants and Laconic -shouted back: “Carrion dinners! Thank God!”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">FROM RAMOTH GILEAD TO DAMASCUS</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Daughters of Eve! your mother did not well:</div> -<div class="verse">...</div> -<div class="verse">The man was not deceived, nor yet could stand:</div> -<div class="verse">He chose to lose for love of her, his throne,—</div> -<div class="verse">With her could die, but could not live alone.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Daughters of Eve! it was for your dear sake</div> -<div class="verse">The world’s first hero died an uncrowned king:</div> -<div class="verse">But God’s great pity touched the great mistake</div> -<div class="verse">And made his married love a sacred thing;</div> -<div class="verse">For yet his nobler sons, if aught be true,</div> -<div class="verse">Find the lost Eden in their love of you.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Jean Ingelow.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-f.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">For many days Sir Charleroy lay wounded at -the house of the Patriarch Harrimai, and -she for whom he had periled his life was -his constant attendant. He sorely needed -her services, and all Gerash, the priest included, conceded -the fitness of Rizpah’s rendering the aid she was -able to render. The maiden was all willing to minister, -and as she ministered her interest in the man deepened. -When she began to look up to him as her teacher -before the battle with Mamelukes, she began a sort of -worship; when she saw him fighting to the death in her -behalf, her worship became an engrossing adoration. -If there had been any thing more required in order to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> -enlist all the affection of which her being was capable, -these opportunities of administering to her suffering -lover furnished it. As God loves because He has -helped a needy one, so a woman’s heart easily flows out -toward the object for whom she has performed pious -services. On the other hand, Sir Charleroy was more -and more enchanted, for there is life and charm beyond -all description to the touch of the queen of a man’s -heart when he is in trouble or pain.</p> - -<p>Rizpah, in woman’s most queenly garb, the one appointed -her at her creation, that of “help-mate,” was -beautiful indeed, and queenly indeed, to the man whose -heart had enthroned her. When alone, they treated -each other with the frank, earnest tenderness, fitting as -well as natural, to the betrothed. Though they did -not admit it even to themselves, they had fully determined -to be one, at all peril, in spite of any opposition, -reason approving or disapproving. They often said to -one another, “Our betrothal taking place at the very -gates of death was therefore a very solemn one that -nothing on earth can annul.” The sentiment was perfect -and very agreeable; and with them a beautiful -and agreeable sentiment became as controlling as if it -were a revelation from heaven. In this, they were -perfectly human. They even persuaded themselves of -God’s favor, thanking Him for what they were pleased -to call His Providence, namely the peril and long sickness -leading to the betrothal and days of love-life together. -They were right in conceding that God’s hand -was in the battle; but they were impious in interpreting -His Providence to be fully in accord with their -desires. In this, too, they were very human. But there -were shadows about them; for while at times they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> -drifted along on prismatic tides of Lethean delights, -there were other times when they remembered that -there was to come a day of explanation, with probable -following storms. Both were glad and sorry at once, in -view of each day’s improvement of the knight’s physical -condition. Convalescent, they both realized, meant -a great change in their relationship; perhaps a long -separation. Their anxiety was deepened by a change in -the demeanor of Rizpah’s father. His eyes no longer -questioningly followed the young people; but his words, -uttered in tones of steelly coldness and very deliberately, -bespoke discovery, conviction, conclusion and -determination. One sentence often addressed to the -lovers, was to them like the rumblings of an approaching, -gathering storm. “Our friend is improving, and -I’m very glad that he will be able soon to go to his -own dear people.” The lovers discerned a peculiar -emphasis on the words “I’m glad” and “his own dear -people.” The politic priest, having read, as from an -open book, the heart-secret of the young people, was -awaiting with self-confidence an opportunity to confound -them utterly. The crisis came one Sabbath -morning, just after the morning meal of the convalescent. -Harrimai had paid his usual visit and uttered his -steelly sentences. This time the words seemed especially -cruel to Rizpah, for she was nervous, indeed ill; -the prolonged services and anxieties she had experienced -of late were telling on her strength. As Harrimai -departed, she gave way to a flood of tears. Rizpah -was not wont to weep, nor was Sir Charleroy -skilled in comforting; but both he and she were lovers, -hence it seemed very natural to her frankly to pillow -her head on the knight’s shoulder, and very natural to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> -him to seek to comfort with a tenderness all new to -him. Had one asked Rizpah if she were going back to -babyishness, or forward toward heaven, she could -not have answered. Had one asked the knight if he -were becoming motherly, or turning priest, he could not -have answered. He felt very tender, and his work of -comforting seemed like an act of high piety. Both -were glad of the tears which brought the joy of comforting -and being comforted, then, there and that way. -They were passing into a superb mood when quite unexpectedly -to them, but quite expectedly to himself, -Harrimai suddenly re-entered the apartment. He -expected to surprise them and he did so, thoroughly. -The scene following was exciting, dramatic and -decisive.</p> - -<p>Rizpah, with a slight scream, disengaged herself -from Sir Charleroy’s embrace, and hid her face in her -hands. The eyes of the knight and priest met; neither -quailed; both remained for a few moments silent; but -their fixed gaze said plainly enough, each to each, “We -must have a settlement here and now!” Harrimai -spoke first, addressing himself to his daughter: “Young -woman, this conduct is immodest and disgraceful! In -a Hebrew maiden, heaven defying! I’ll speak to thee -further of this presently. Now, begone, and leave me -to deal with this man!” Harrimai made arrogant by -his profession and the implicit obedience he had been -wont to receive from his followers, expected to fill the -young people with dismay by the suddenness of his -assault. But Rizpah, though young, was no tongue-tied -spring, and Sir Charleroy of Gerash was still Sir Charleroy -of Acre.</p> - -<p>The words “dishonorable,” “immodest,” stung the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> -maiden; sullenly, defiantly almost, she settled back -in her seat and leaned toward the knight, as if to say, -“I cast my lot with this man.” Her eyes plainly, angrily -said to the man whom all her life hitherto she -had reverently obeyed, “Now do thy worst.” It was -impious, passionate, love going headlong from filial -duty and religious instruction to the shrine of Astarte. -The parent was chagrined at this unexpected repulse, -but with his usual adroitness pretending not to notice -it, he turned to the knight. “Stranger, this outrage excuses -abruptness on my part; who art thou?”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy arose from his hammock, the excitement -and shock of the rencounter finishing his recovery, -by rousing all the machineries of his system into -normal activities.</p> - -<p>“Sir Priest, I’ve nothing to conceal. I love the truth -and this maiden too well to lie—I am a Christian -knight.”</p> - -<p>“I knew it; but thy confession shortens our parley. -Now, ‘Christian knight,’ tell me why thou didst attempt -to allure to thyself the affections of a mere girl; a -Jewish maiden whom thou canst never hope to wed? -Dost thou so pay our hospitality; setting at defiance -parental authority and our Jewish laws? Dost thou -under the favors of this house intrigue to quench all -its light?”</p> - -<p>“Thou brandst that girl and me with the epithet ‘dishonorable;’ -and thou a priest! Men of thy holy calling -should never slander, especially not their own -kin and strangers.” The knight was livid, but not with -fear.</p> - -<p>“Can an Israelite slander Crusaders? these professors -of high religion, these followers of an impostor,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> -these enemies of my people, these practicers of -intrigues, races, jousts, gluttonies and drunkenness; -men whose sole serious business is murderous war? -Tell me?”</p> - -<p>The knight’s face flushed a little, but with complete -self-control he replied:</p> - -<p>“Some of my comrades have been unworthy men, -’tis true; but some Jews have fallen to every crime -and violence. Have all fallen? Thou hast not, perhaps! -Shall all be maligned for the few? What says -Harrimai?”</p> - -<p>“Thou art of those, who come to thrust us out of -our land and thrust in here a hated creed!”</p> - -<p>“I am of those who live to serve the needy and erring.”</p> - -<p>“To the proof; I’ve heard from thy clans only of -bloodshed.”</p> - -<p>“Our order sprung up four hundred years ago, under -the stirring appeals of religionists as pious and humane -as thou; or any of thy kind since Aaron. We -were begotten in a time when grim famine made the -well-fed wondrous kind. Those hours that make men -universally akin.”</p> - -<p>“Go on; ‘Christian knight,’ I’d like a lesson of -that sort.”</p> - -<p>“Then remember Noah’s covenant of peace. On -our banners often we have our spirit expressed by a -dove flying toward a tempest-tossed ark; in the messenger’s -beak an olive branch; around the whole the -bow of promise.”</p> - -<p>“Well what of all this?”</p> - -<p>“The ark is the world; the rest is plain.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, a charming theory,” sarcastically responded -Harrimai.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I wear it next my heart;” so saying the knight -threw aside his cloak and drew from around his body a -banner he had hitherto concealed. “See here, ‘<i>chastity</i>,’ -‘<i>temperance</i>,’ ‘<i>courtesy</i>.’ Our mottoes in peace or -war! Women, children and pilgrims, in a word the -needy the world around, are the wards of all true -Christian knights!”</p> - -<p>“Mottoes! words! Oh, yes, words! But then the -Crusaders have used swords! Their words I’ll meet -with words to their confounding, nor while I live will I -forget their cruel weapons.” So saying the priest swept -out of the sick chamber in manifest rage.</p> - -<p>He returned in a moment, and with the self-command -of wrath, conscious of power, said: “Thou -wouldst make all men <i>akin</i>! Thou and thine are -dreamers, the world thinks; to-day it laughs to scorn -this bootless pursuit of a chimera. Leave us forthwith -and in the peace that thou foundst here. When -the kinship is reality, thou mayst come to us for further -talk; ’till then remember thou art a Christian, I -a Jew!”</p> - -<p>“Thou art religious! Heavens! what a tender -shepherd.”</p> - -<p>Harrimai was very much angered, but he retorted -with self-control; “Oh, yes, and the God of all hath -seven garments. In creation, honor and glory; in -providence, majesty; as lawgiver, might and whiteness; -of spotless light when he appears as a Saviour. He is -clad with zeal when he punishes, and with blood red -when He revenges. I would be like Him. By the -glory of God! thou follower of Nazereth’s Impostor, -sooner than suffer thy blood to contaminate my family -lines, I’d hew thee to pieces as Agag was hewn! Rizpah,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> -thou knowest me; wed him and thou’lt be widowed, -though carrying the unborn; though widow-hood -broke thy heart. I’d rather a thousand times see thee -lying dead by thy true Jewish mother than——.” -The priest, in a tumult of fanatical passion mingled -with the grief of offended pride, lacked for words to -express the climax of his feelings; so covering his -tearless eyes, as one weeping, he rushed out from -those he had assailed. He persuaded himself that he -had spoken all for the glory of God; the lovers thought -of their solemn betrothal and their love which they -were certain was as fine as any earth ever knew, and -they felt that they were martyrs. Both sides appealed -to God and in a spirit very ungodly, but very human, -braced themselves for opposing war.</p> - -<p>When the maiden became somewhat calm, Sir -Charleroy found words to question:</p> - -<p>“Harrimai cannot find heart to blast his idol’s happiness! -He does not mean all he said?”</p> - -<p>“Alas, he does. It’s part of the Patriarch’s religion -to hate such as thou, as he does. He means more, if -possible, than he spoke. Our people unveil the bosom -and cover the mouth; thine cover the bosom and unveil -the mouth. Ye talk, we burn.”</p> - -<p>“Has pure love like ours no sanctity in his sight?”</p> - -<p>“Alas, he can not believe any love pure that is between -Gentile and Israelite. He was sneering at ours -a few evenings ago, when he remarked as we were -looking at the stars, ‘Hyperius or Venus of the evening -is mistakenly called the star of love. Lucifer of the -morning is the true emblem of most young love. It -rises in maddening brightness, but fades out of sight -very soon.’”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Grim omen! We took Venus for our betrothal -star; they say it is so bright at times that it casts a -shadow. I feel its shadow now,” said the knight, meditating.</p> - -<p>“Yes, shadows and shadows!” exclaimed Rizpah, -with a flood of tears, and she swayed back and forth -as she wept. She was driven by tempests of fear that -made her ready to flee, and held by anchors of passionate -loving that made her ready to brave all fears; -therefore the swaying and weeping. At intervals the -two communed and debated concerning the one all-engrossing -theme, their future course.</p> - -<p>“Rizpah,” comfortingly spoke the knight, “when -in the greatest peril of our lives, we were drawn, by -danger, closer to each other.” There was a glance of -entreaty in her eyes as if to say, “Go save thy life and -let the Jewish maiden die alone;” but the knight drew -her to his bosom, and she responded by an embrace of -passionate clinging.</p> - -<p>“I go from Rizpah only at her command or death’s,” -said the knight solemnly.</p> - -<p>The maiden shuddered, and again passionately clung -to her lover. He interpreted her action, and again -comfortingly spoke:</p> - -<p>“Fear not; earth has somewhere a refuge for us -until death call us!”</p> - -<p>“Somewhere? What, go away?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. It is that or separation.”</p> - -<p>She knew that full well. But to flee from home with -the knight, the alternative presented to her mind, -startled her. At first thought it seemed a reckless, -perilous, unfilial, God-defying act; then it seemed attractive -because so daring. A tumult of arguments<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> -questionings, fears and yearnings mingled in her mind. -She had never learned to arrange arguments, <i>pro</i> and -<i>con</i>, judicially. What woman whose feelings were -aroused ever did that?</p> - -<p>He pressed on her flight, enforcing each reason presented -with an affectionate embrace; her tongue spoke -not, but her embraces replied to each of his. She had -a conscience, and it asserted itself until she placated it -by a half formed resolution to be very prudent and do -nothing rashly. The resolution comforted her at first; -then she began to follow it, mentally, to its sequence. -She thought of her father praising her piety as her -purpose was disclosed. Something within, coming like -a voice from her heart, mockingly whispered “Go on.” -She pursued the meditations, and heard, in imagination, -her neighbors praising her as a martyr of love for -faith’s sake. Again the mocking inner voice said, “Go -on.” Again her thoughts moved forward until she saw -that conscience was driving her to separation from -Sir Charleroy; in a word, making her walk in a funeral -procession, her own dead heart on the bier. The -thought made her shudder and recoil; then the -knight’s arms encircled her more closely than before. -Again and again she took the foregoing mental journey, -again and again recoiled, shuddering from the -alternative of separation from her lover, and at each -recoil felt his grateful embrace. Each time she traversed -the mental course the journey toward duty by -the privation of love seemed more onerous. Distaste -was followed by repugnance; then utter weariness. At -last, utterly wretched, her purposes and perceptions fell -into hopeless confusion, and she exclaimed “Charleroy, -Charleroy, save me!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> - -<p>The knight was at a loss to divine fully her meaning, -yet tenderly he answered:</p> - -<p>“Save Rizpah? She knows I’d do that in death’s -teeth!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Charleroy, ’tis not death, but life, that I fear. -How shall I live?”</p> - -<p>Quickly he ejaculated:</p> - -<p>“With me, forever, and safe!”</p> - -<p>The maiden remembering many an admonition she -had heard concerning the inconstancy of lovers, yet -driven forward by the all-abandoning love of her -woman’s heart, gave voice to all she felt and feared in -one vehement interrogation:</p> - -<p>“Oh, Charleroy, if I forsake all for my love of thee -shall I ever be discarded by——?”</p> - -<p>The knight interpreted her meaning in advance, and -answered by an embrace that was all-assuring. He -was rejoiced beyond words, for he knew full well that -hesitation and questionings like hers were on the rim of -full surrender. Suddenly he became very serious and -felt that peculiar glow that came over him the day of -his departure from England when the bishop blessed -him. He appreciated in a measure the responsibility -following such a committal of another’s life to himself -as Rizpah was making, and he embraced her with an -anxious reverence, such as a pietist feels clasping an -ideal of his God. It was well for both that the man -was thus impressed by the committal of that maiden -of her soul and body to his pilotage. Pity the woman -who reaches the extremity Rizpah had reached if her -conqueror be not white-souled and sincere.</p> - -<p>Rizpah an incarnation of passion, a wreath of lotus -flowers on a sea of delight, tossed by the winds, borne<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> -by the tides, surrendered all thoughts that might -disturb, that she might enjoy what she had embraced -as her fate to the full.</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy constantly prayed within himself, -“My mother’s God help me to deal as purely with my -sacred charge as I would with the Virgin Patron of my -knightly order, were she here now to seek my knightly -services.” The prayer was effectual, for the Knight -sincerely sought to make it so.</p> - -<p>Decisive action followed this interview between the -lovers. That very night they fled together from Gerash, -and with only one trusty servant; after many vicissitudes -they reached Damascus. For a time Rizpah -placated her conscience by asserting that she would -not consent to the wedding ceremonial until it could -have her father’s approval, or that of some Jewish -Rabbi. Finding it impossible to obtain these, she irresolutely -suggested the advisability of delaying until -some change, quite vaguely apprehended, might come. -But there were two Rizpah’s—one that wanted to be a -faithful Jewess, and one that wanted only and constantly -a darling idol. Sir Charleroy sided with the -latter; it was two to one, and the one surrendered. -Ere long a Christian missionary at Damascus sealed the -vows. They confided their story to him, as if to ask -his advice as to what they had best do, but with the -impetuosity of lovers they had decided their course -before they asked advice, and did not even ask it -until they had pledged their vows before this priest. -But it was a balm to conscience to ask advice. And -the Sacrist answered them briefly: “Venus and Mercury, -fabled deities of love and wisdom. They are -much alike in the firmament, and revolve in orbits in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> -accord with the earth’s. Methinks it is <i>wisdom</i> to <i>love</i> -in the earth. But, children, Venus sets sooner than -Mercury; see to it that you make it your wisdom to -love as long as you go round with the world.” Then -they both said “Amen.” For a moment Sir Charleroy -heard within him that impressive sound as of the beating -of mighty, departing wings. He dragged his attention -quickly from the introspection to gaze into -the eyes of his bride. He was glad that a Christian -priest had prayed for a blessing upon himself -and her, but all sophistry aside, the truth remained. -Astarte’s was the presiding spirit at that wedding.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE THEATER OF GIANTS.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Once more we look and all is still as night,</div> -<div class="verse">All desolate! Groves, temples, palaces</div> -<div class="verse">Swept from the sight and nothing visible,</div> -<div class="verse indent5">... Save here and there</div> -<div class="verse">An empty tomb, a fragment like a limb</div> -<div class="verse">Of some dismembered giant.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Og, the King of Bashan, came out against us to battle at -Edrei, and the Lord said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver -him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand. And we took -... three-score cities of the Kingdom of Og, in Bashan.”—Deut. iii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Bashan is the land of sacred romance.” “His mission [Paul’s, -Gal., 1: 15] to Bashan seems to have been eminently successful. -Heathen temples were converted into churches, and new churches -built in every town.” “In the fourth century nearly the whole of -the inhabitants were Christian.” “The Christians are now nearly -all gone.” “Nowhere else is patriarchal life so fully exemplified.” -“Bashan is literally crowded with towns, the majority of them -deserted, but not ruined.” “Many are as perfect as if finished -only yesterday.”—<span class="smcap">Porter’s</span> “<i>Giant Cities</i>.”</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-f.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">For a brief period the delightful seasons, the -famed rivers, the stately surrounding mountains, -the paradisiacal plains, the antiquities, -the pleasure gardens and palaces of the -city of Damascus, whose name by interpretation is -“change,” offered sought-for gratification to the knight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> -and his bride. Harrimai died suddenly after the -elopement of his child, the only person on earth whom -he truly loved, the only one that had ever successfully -defied his mandates. He had purposed disinheriting -her for her act, but before he could execute that purpose, -death disinherited him. Some said that he died -of a broken heart; the physicians said he was taken off -by a fit; Sir Charleroy said he died because his proud -will was crossed. Rizpah inherited a fortune that -helped both her and her husband to forget the old -priest’s maledictions by enabling them to enjoy all -there was to be enjoyed in Damascus, “the eye of the -East.” They gave up unreservedly to pleasure, and -centered the world more and more in themselves. Sir -Charleroy did this easily, reasoning that, having had -so many pains, he was entitled to compensating pleasures. -He heard from England; and the news was to -the effect that there had been changes and changes in -his native land. Many of those he once knew, including -his mother, were dead; and he himself was forgotten -as dead. Sententiously, bitterly he summed up -his feelings: “They thought me dead, and, my mother -and her fortune being gone, did not care to find out -whether I was dead or not; therefore let them think -as they thought.” Rizpah feared the lashings of conscience, -and, having given up every thing once dear to -enter the life she had, courted forgetfulness of the past, -pleasure for the present. The two had within themselves -exuberant youth, a wealth of possibilities of -happiness; the elements that, like the abundance of -the volcano, paints the sky gorgeously when rising -heavenward; like it, in the downward course, followed -by darkness and disaster. The two, differing in almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> -every thing but fervor of temperament, were in accord -in pursuit of change; they persuaded themselves that -they were growing to be like each other, when they -were only exalting the one thing, love of excitement, -in which they were alike.</p> - -<p>Damascus, naturally, in time, became uninteresting -and vapid to them both. They wore it out; they -wanted new scenes. They heard that a caravan of -Mohammedan pilgrims was to pass through their city -on the way to Mecca to procure besim balm and holy -chaplets, and promptly determined to journey with it; -but not to Mecca. The caravan was to pass through -Bashan, and the two excitement-seekers desired to visit -the latter land of wonders. They readily garbed -themselves as Mohammedans, though once they would -have loathed such garbing as a defilement. They -desired company toward Bashan, and since the time -they defied their consciences in order to be wedded to -each other, their consciences had been wont to be very -submissive in the face of their desires. They explained -to themselves the absence of qualms of conscience in -the face of a pretense of being Moslems, as the result -of a growth toward liberality on their part. The -explanation made them comfortably complacent, -although the fact was that they had passed far beyond -liberalism toward nothingism.</p> - -<p>Passing Musmeth and Khubat of the Argob, they -tarried after a time at Edrei, just inside the shore line -of that mysterious black, lava sea, the Lejah. They -were in a country where nature, art and desolation had -done their greatest. Following a passing impulse -seemed to them to have brought them thither, but one -believing in God’s constant providence will readily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> -believe that they were led thither as to a school. There -were omen and prophecy confronting them. These -fervent souls had gone from hymen’s altar filled with -romancings, under a glow of prismatic auroras, never -pausing to perceive that from each wedding time there -winds a troop of serious years burdened with many a -commonplace duty. Their love had been volcanic, -their impulses ecstatic, their aims toward things filled -with commotion. The wine in their cup was to leave -dregs; after the fire there was to be ashes, and it was -fitting that they contemplated a specimen of great desolation -and dreariness, the result of great fires and -great storms. So they were within that wonder of the -world, three hundred and fifty square miles of awful -plain, filled with ruined towns and cities. Heaved up -here and there by jutting basalt rocks, the plain seemed -filled with black ice-bergs; ridged at intervals the plain -suggested an ocean wave-tossed. Therein is many a -cave and cranny place, fit abode for the wild beast or -robber; fit abode for ghosts, if one seeks to believe -there are such. But therein were only a few green -spots, oases, to bid the traveler welcome. Ere long -the knight and his consort wore out the Lejah, and, in -so doing, in part, wore out themselves. They had a -fullness of the pleasure of the kind which lacks recreation. -As it was, they stayed there longer than it was -well for them to stay.</p> - -<p>Rizpah, the passion flower of Gerash, experiencing -the supreme exaction of womanhood now, began to -droop. Months spent in pursuit of excitement, the -great change in her manner of life, as well as the -oppressive desolations of her surroundings, had drawn -heavily upon her resources physically. Reaction after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> -exaltation, and nervous discord after nervous tension -are natural results, always.</p> - -<p>The knight discerned the change of temper, and as -an anxious novice went about correcting the matter. -He knew little concerning woman, except that love of -her intoxicates; delighting in the intoxication he -sought to stimulate Rizpah’s flagging energies by -pushing her onward into the feverish brilliancy that -was so delightful to himself. It was an attempt -to cure physical impoverishment by the renewal of its -causes. She was at times complacent, because incompetent -to resist; passive, because enervated. He was -most selfish, though not realizing the fact, when trying -to be most tender. In fact, the twain were on the rim -of a test period in their married life and being unskilled -in its common places, unfitted to stand the test. Sir -Charleroy had recourse to the only physician he deemed -adequate; one whom on account of his dress he called -“Old Sheepskin.” This was a guide, with a motly -group of Druses assistants, and an unpronouncible -name.</p> - -<p>“Come, Rizpah, ‘Old Sheepskin Jacket’ has put on -his red tunic and leathern girdle to carry us a camel -voyage in-sea; if we do not give the man a job he’ll fall -to stealing again.”</p> - -<p>Rizpah languidly shook her head.</p> - -<p>“But we must patronize the man to keep up what -little honesty he has, and he has some. He told me -but yesterday he’d rather work than rob—though the -pay be less, so is the danger less.”</p> - -<p>The knight was telling the truth as well as trying to -be facetious.</p> - -<p>Again Rizpah replied with a weary shake of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> -head, her hands rising deprecatingly, then falling into -her lap as if almost nerveless.</p> - -<p>“But, Rizpah, while we are here we ought to fully -explore the changeless cities of this dead, black, lava -sea. There are none other like this on earth! ’Tis -nature’s desperate effort to outrun phantasmagoria.”</p> - -<p>Rizpah shook her head and waved her hands; this -time vehemently, as if to repel a horror.</p> - -<p>“What? A fixed no?”</p> - -<p>“No more excursions into this counterpart of hades -for me.”</p> - -<p>“Well, so be it to-day, at least,” with surrendering -tones, the knight replied.</p> - -<p>“To-day? All days! Oh, God, remove me from -this nightmare!”</p> - -<p>So exclaiming, the woman covered her eyes, shuddered -and wept hysterically.</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy was almost overcome with sudden -amazement. The tears, the terror, the complete -change before him, were beyond his comprehension. -After a time he again spoke: “Why, this is a sudden -freak or frenzy. I thought Rizpah fascinated here!”</p> - -<p>“I’ve had my notice from the dread spirits that infest -the place to go! Didst thou note what dark and -threatening clouds dipped down like vultures upon me -when we were last there?” vehemently Rizpah replied.</p> - -<p>“I only saw a threatening of rain that came not. It -seldom rains in the Lejah.”</p> - -<p>“There was rain enough in my poor, shivering, weeping -heart!”</p> - -<p>“But, I wonder, Rizpah, thou didst not tell me of -these feelings before!”</p> - -<p>“I could not confide then; I was too jealous!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Jealous? What a word! But of whom, me?”</p> - -<p>“I can never forget that thy union with me has -made thee alien to thy people and in part neglectful of -the faith for which thou didst once fight bravely. I -can not forget that the Teutonic knight was the devotee -of a bepraised Lady Mary. I thought of this that black -day, and I felt as if those dry, grim clouds were her -frowns. It was thou, my Christian husband, who named -the Lejah, ‘Tartarus,’ and it has been such for some -time to me. Its sight has constantly burned me with -remorse! That day it seemed to me thy Mary pitied -thee and blamed me! I writhed under the thought! -I, for a moment, hated her. I felt like climbing some -height, and, club in hand with defiant curses, challenging -her right to have a finer care of thee than I have. -I’d have done it, if thou hadst not been here to laugh -at the folly of my frenzy. Ah, husband, if she is or was -all that thou dost depict her, she can not love me, and -thou must contrast us to my disparagement. I can not -forget that thou wert a Christian soldier; sworn to war -for her and her son; now thou art wedded to me, a -daughter of her and His persecutors!”</p> - -<p>“Why, Rizpah, thy changing moods are appalling; -thou dost beat the magicians who conjure up the dead, -since thou dost create out of nothing the most hideous -ghosts to haunt thyself—Maya! Maya!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, I know ‘Maya,’ wife of Brahm, by interpretation -‘illusion.’ A myth, as a gibe, has a sharp -point, effective because so difficult to parry. But, alas, -ridicule, though it easily tear to pieces delusion, is powerless -to disperse the gloom that sits in a soul as mine.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll not ridicule my Rizpah, but I would bring her -light.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Ah? That is, resurrect the peace thou didst murder?”</p> - -<p>“Show me one wound my hand has made and I’ll -abjectly beg all pardons, attempt any atonement!”</p> - -<p>“Dost thou, knight, remember the ruins of the Christian -church of Saint George, at Edrei?”</p> - -<p>“Certainly.”</p> - -<p>“And thy conversation there?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, that Saint George was England’s patron saint -famed for having slain the dragon which imperiled a -king’s daughter.”</p> - -<p>“More thou didst say; thou didst expatiate on the -princess, saying her name was Alexandra, meaning, -‘friend of mankind’; further, thou saidst there was a -queenly woman by name, Mary, daughter of the King -of Kings, friend beyond all women of humanity, for -whom every true knight was willing to be a Saint -George.”</p> - -<p>“True enough; but to what purport now is this -reminiscence?”</p> - -<p>“Thou saidst Saint George was loyal to the death -to his faith, and died a martyr!”</p> - -<p>“True again. What of it?”</p> - -<p>“Was the Teutonic knight thinking of himself as a -martyr because wed to a Jewess? I followed thy -thoughts, though they were not all spoken. How naturally -that day thou didst tell me of thy visions which -thou hadst between Gerash and Bozrah when wounded -nigh to death. The English saint, knight, very loyal to -creed, rebuked in his dreams, by the beating of mighty -wings, the departing of his heart’s rose! Oh, why -didst thou not tell me this before it was too late! I -would have helped thee escape the ingenuous Jewess<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> -Thou didst awaken then with dread bleeding, to find -thyself pillowed upon the bosom of a simple-hearted -loving girl; I now awaken, wounded indeed, but with -none to staunch the wounding! Why, de Griffin, -didst thou keep this secret so long? Why unfold it -now?”</p> - -<p>“I’d be the Saint George of Rizpah and slay her -dragon, gloom.”</p> - -<p>“Poor comfort to offer since the gloom is beyond -thy powers! Flout my mood as thou mayst; what -use? I vainly denounce it. Thou hast had thy -dream; now I’m having mine. I’ll not mock thy insights; -thou canst not by bantering jeer change mine. -My Lejah omens assure me that I’m to have a rain of -tears and more; some way thy Mary will be their -cause.”</p> - -<p>“Rizpah errs; the queen I revere was a living epistle -of good will; her character the joy and inspiration of -all women, especially of those in tribulation. But -enough! Rizpah, being a Jew, should abhor the necromancy -of omens!”</p> - -<p>“Jew! Ah, yes; I was once! But the valiant English -knight lured me into his Christian love and my -race’s hate. I had once the luxurious faith of a pious -girl; all feeling, all flowers; too young to reason, but -young enough to love the good and beautiful unto salvation. -The knight poisoned the blossoms before -they ripened by the acids of ridicule! There is a loss -beyond repair and a bitter memory, that of a broken -promise; under our love-star thou didst swear thou -wouldst never lightly treat my believing. Venus has -set, Mercury is rising; but wisdom brings a burning -glare. The promise that the knight failed to keep was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> -made when I was, he said his idol; now I’m only his -wife!”</p> - -<p>“Rizpah exchanges the glory of the rose for the bitter -gray of the wormwood.”</p> - -<p>“I’m thy handiwork; now mock the result, if to do -so comforts thee.”</p> - -<p>“My handiwork!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, fool!”</p> - -<p>“These words are awful.”</p> - -<p>“I think so and I hate them; though I can not check -them. I hate my temper and even myself when in -such present moods. De Griffin, pray as thou didst -never pray before, that I do not learn to hate thee. I -pity thee, because I’ve some love left.”</p> - -<p>“Pity?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, when I imagine thee wriggling beneath the -malignant detestation of which I know I shall soon be -capable.”</p> - -<p>“My wife, in God’s dear name, banish these moods! -They are impious, unnatural; the crisis of thy being -falsely accuses thy heart. Be calm!”</p> - -<p>“Calm? ‘Be calm!’ Very good; calm me, please, -if thou canst. Oh, why didst thou make me thus?”</p> - -<p>“The God of all peace forgive me if I did, Rizpah.”</p> - -<p>“Thou wert the elder and shouldst have known?”</p> - -<p>“What?”</p> - -<p>“That to unsettle a woman’s faith, if she be such as -I, is to let loose a bundle of blind vagaries and to -tumble her, like a drifting wreck, on unknown shores.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, wife, as thou hopest for heaven and lovest our -unborn child, restrain these moods. Thou’lt mark the -one to be, with germs of all evil; for such outbursts of -mothers re-act with awful effect upon their offspring.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> -Thou knowest how the old nurse, at Damascus, killed -a babe in an instant, merely by giving it her breast -after she had yielded to an outbreak of passion. Such -tempers hurl poison through all the being!”</p> - -<p>“Alas, knight, that all this prudence ever comes just -a little too late!”</p> - -<p>“What could I have done better?”</p> - -<p>“Left the little maid of Harrimai’s home free from -thy enchantments and to the quiet of her people’s -state.”</p> - -<p>“But I loved thee so. That atones for all.”</p> - -<p>“Thou thoughtst thou lovedst, but ’twas my form -which fascinated thee, not my mind nor soul!” Rizpah’s -face became ashen pale, her eyes had a far-off -gaze and were steelly, as she began plaintively to repeat -the words, “‘<i>There were giants in the earth.... -They saw the daughters of men, Adamish, that they -were fair and they took them for wives of all they chose, -and they bore children and it repented the Lord that He -had made man, for He saw that the wickedness was -great in the earth.</i>’ Thou wast my giant-lofty. Thou -stolest my heart and body. Now for a flood to punish -the sin, and my tears are already its first droppings.”</p> - -<p>“We are wed; shall we not now make the best of it? -Even when into this mystic alliance unmated lives -converge, they can still with wisdom extract from it at -least peace. Go fervently, firmly, back to the faiths -of thy girlhood; become again all thou wert, except -that thou be ever mine.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, ha! how little, after all, thou knowest of woman’s -heart? Thou wouldst command it do and be; and go -and come, wouldst thou? Thinkst thou, thou canst -make such heart as mine wild with the strange intoxications<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> -of unholy fire, filling the brain above it with all -the clouds, weird longings, doubtings and misgivings, -that fume up from that fire, and then send that heart -back without a compass, chart, sail or helm, to find the -haven? Send it lashed by remorse part of the time, -part of the time half dead to all feeling, and all the -time blind, to hunt up lost creeds.”</p> - -<p>“But God provided an ark; let us ask Him to aid us -build one in a home, with happy parents and happy -children. Thou readst to me, but yesterday, the -Prophets’ beautiful description of a lamp burning with -oil supplied from two palm trees; one on either side. -I’ll interpret; the trees are parents, the lamp the light -of home, manifest in posterity, reproduction; a prophecy -of the resurrection.”</p> - -<p>“Beautiful mysticism. But the giantesque men rose -to play at lust, just beside Sinai of the law.”</p> - -<p>“Not so I, the Teutonic knight, now the husband. -Rizpah; thy desperate misery appeals to all my manhood. -I swear to thee I’d turn my heart’s blood into -the oil to cause our home to glow with the serene -light of holy happiness.”</p> - -<p>“Words, words; how sad, because so beautiful, yet -so vain!”</p> - -<p>“Oh Rizpah,” cried the knight, too anxious to be -angry, though the woman’s words were stinging, “thy -looks startle me! Pray God to rest and hold thy worried -soul.”</p> - -<p>“Pray? I have tried, often of late, to pray, but I -do not know how. I fear thou hast stolen even that -power from me! Ugh! the last time I prayed, my -words seemed like black cormorants rising with loads of -carrion; then falling struck dead by the sun, into great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> -black caves, such as abound in our Lejah hell! I -heard my words flung back at me in mockery. Pray? I -dare not, lest God strike me dead for a hypocrite and a -heretic!”</p> - -<p>“But my poor, dear wife,” soothingly said Sir Charleroy, -“He is merciful.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, to the good and the faithful; I’m neither! -I gave Him up for a man, as the Adamish men gave -him up for women. I madest thou my God, and now -have none other; for He of the heavens is very holy, -but very jealous!”</p> - -<p>“Rizpah, Rizpah, do not thus give way to these wild -imaginations.”</p> - -<p>“Give way? Alas, all is already given away; soul -and body were on an idolatrous altar long ago. I’m -buried in the ashes!”</p> - -<p>“But Rizpah, trust my love: I’ll help thee back to -peace and usefulness.”</p> - -<p>“Bah! the masculine great I——”</p> - -<p>“Heavens! woman, is there any love in a heart that -so hurls javelins?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know! I suppose so, for I pity thee.”</p> - -<p>“Pity me?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; when I think as I do at times, that thy wife is -turning into a devil, a very devil! Sir Charleroy de -Griffin, knight of St. Mary, dost hear me? A devil, a -raging devil, and one that will pity while she assails.” -The last sentence was almost screamed, then the woman -fell on the rug of their apartment and wept convulsively. -After a little there was the silence of exhaustion, of -chagrin, of shame. Sir Charleroy stood by the prostrate -form and with words half commanding said: “Let us -ride out a little way.” He was trying a new strategy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p> - -<p>“No, no, no! Thou’lt take me to the Lejah, and I -shall see that dread omen again.”</p> - -<p>“What?” As he questioned he raised the woman -tenderly from the floor.</p> - -<p>“The lava desert, in long rolling waves, black and -drear.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, Rizpah, thou knowest that it was only thy unreined -fancy, heated by morbid broodings, that changed -the eternally-fixed furrows of the plain, overshadowed -by running clouds into threatening billows! God -and the sun are above all clouds and behind every -anxious heart. Look up; look in, until thy soul finds -Him; then the horror of darkness will die away.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, how thy comfortings hurt me, because I do not -believe in thee, nor believe thee! Thou sayst that thou -didst abandon thy Christian, perfect queen of women, -for me. I know thou must be chagrined at the bad -exchange! I can not honor nor trust the faithfulness -of one so fickle. No matter for that, but what comes -after is worse. Those black sky-drapings were over the -Lejah that day because I was there. I know—I know -there’s a tide of sorrow rolling toward me. I see it -as I saw those black, serpent-like, lava waves. But, oh, -the suspense! It’s awful; let the worst come if only -soon!” The knight, sworn to protect helpless women, -saw himself disarmed and powerless to aid the one -woman of earth for whom he would have died.</p> - -<p>Two giants at bay in Giant Land, where another -mold of gianthood had died leaving nothing but -monuments to attest the greatness of the failure. The -two knew only this, that they were very miserable and -powerless, by any means accustomed, to extricate -themselves.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy wished and wished, in his soul, that his -patron saint and queen of women would appear and -tell both what to do. He unconsciously was turning -his mind’s eye in the right direction. Husband and -wife both believed there was a right way, a pattern of -right, and an ideal of heaven, but they could not lay -hold of them. Giant, crusader and husband, each in -turn strove in his day at the same spot, and at the -same point failed.</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy, in mind, went out along a strangely -beset line of thinking. Sometimes he pitied himself, -and that brought the balm of conceit. He remembered -it was a fine thing to be a martyr, forgetting that -some, rewardless, suffer as sinners. Sometimes he -heard those beatings of mighty wings, as if some wondrous -holy one were departing. Then he became very -penitent and full of the entreatings of prayer. Either -mood was brief enough to him not yet converted; a -very Peter in vacillations. Whether he would finally -follow the beating wings or sit down nigh to the gates -of certain insanity, the gates that those who over-much -pity themselves are sure to reach, was the issue in his -life then. The bugles of war call few to the heroism -of the field, but millions are daily called by God’s -bugle to the better achievements which make for glory -amid the duties of common life. That latter bugle was -calling him, but he was slow to obey, or understand -even.</p> - -<p>The events recorded in the foregoing pages roused -Sir Charleroy to an anxious effort to do something to -change the currents of his wife’s thoughts. Necessity -quickened his discernment, and though he had had but -little experience in dealing with those ill in the body or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> -mind, he quickly concluded that a change of place and -a change of pursuit would be beneficial. In truth, his -own feelings attested this much. He himself was weary -of the pursuit of excitement as a sole and constant -occupation.</p> - -<p>“Shall we leave the Lejah, Rizpah?” he questioned, -a few days after the outbreak before mentioned.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I say!—I’m leaving it! See here,” and she -pointed to her cheeks, once ruddy, now haggard. “Oh, -Charleroy, take me away or death will!”</p> - -<p>“Enough! We’ll go. But where?”</p> - -<p>“Any place under heaven; say the word and I’ll run -out of the place instantly, leaving all here.”</p> - -<p>“What, our effects!”</p> - -<p>“Any thing to get away. I feel like a child approached -by some monster terror, hour by hour! For -days I’ve been transfixed by my fear or I would have -run away, even alone, before this. Now thy words -break the spell! Come, let us go before I’m overcome -again!”</p> - -<p>“There, now, be calm. No more of this undue nervousness. -We’ll go, and soon. What says Rizpah to -Bozrah, southward of Bashan?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, to Bozrah; historic Bozrah!” and the face of -the woman brightened as she went on: “It was the -fairy land of my youth. I’ve wanted to go there since -I was a wee little thing, scarce able to walk.” Then -the woman unbent and talked with the rapture of a -child:</p> - -<p>“Oh; I’ve wanted to see Bozrah all my life, since -the days when my old nurse used to talk me to sleep -with stories of Og and his bedstead nine cubits long,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> -and how our little Hebrew, Moses, overcame those -Rephaim.”</p> - -<p>“Thy prophets and psalmists, as well as thy nurses, -were wont to go into rapturous descriptions of the lofty -oaks, loftier mountains, ragged plains, marvelous pastures -and goodly herds of the Hauran and Trachonitis.”</p> - -<p>Rizpah continued in gleeful strain: “Oh, those -herds; if I can’t see old Og, I’d like to see the famous -bulls of Bashan! Show me something huge, no matter -how huge, if alive and not black! I’m becoming infatuated -with the strong and the large. If ever I lose -my soul it will be by worshiping, pagan-like, something -mightier than I can imagine; of body or muscle. -Yes, yes, I’ll be a thorough pagan since I can not be a -Jew nor a Christian! Now, I forewarn thee.” So saying -she laughed merrily. The knight was rejoiced to -hear the musical, natural laughter again, and encouraged -the play of her wit, which attested a mind unbending -to rest.</p> - -<p>“Woman-like, adoring the huge when the grand -can not be found. Thank God, the giants are all dead; -there are none at Bozrah, at least. I’ll not fear the -little dirty Arabs, or pigmy Druses as supplanters.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE REVELS OF MEN AND RITES OF THEIR -GODDESSES.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse indent5">“Rude fragments now</div> -<div class="verse">Lie scattered where the shapely column stood.</div> -<div class="verse">Her palaces are dust. In all the streets the sprightly chords</div> -<div class="verse">Are silent. Revelry and dance and show</div> -<div class="verse">Suffer a syncope and solemn pause;</div> -<div class="verse">While God performs upon the trembling stage</div> -<div class="verse">Of His own works His dreadful part, alone.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Cowper.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain -shall be among their idols, round about their altars ... upon -every high place ... under every thick oak.”—Ezekiel vi.</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-p.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Passing from Edrei toward Bozrah the pilgrim -knight and his wife with their convoy -reached Kunawat, the Kenath of Scripture, -once the dwelling place of Job. Here -for a time they abode. The number and variety of -castles, temples, theaters and palaces in ruins, were -sufficient to engage the attention of the travelers for -many days. Rizpah was more cheerful than she was -at Edrei, but yet restless to reach Bozrah, on which -place her heart was set.</p> - -<p>One day standing before an old Roman temple in -Kunawat, Rizpah, somewhat interested by its well preserved -Corinthian columns, and Sir Charleroy deeply -engrossed in contemplation of an huge stone image, the -former asks: “Has the knight recognized an old English<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> -or a new Bashan love?” The woman was finding -the oft-repeated and prolonged visits to this particular -place monotonous. She was annoyed, but modified -her rebuke into raillery.</p> - -<p>“There is something very fascinating in the Cyclopean -face.”</p> - -<p>“A broken stone fascinate a man? But I see ’tis -that of a woman; the brain part gone. Would that -the English knight had wed such; then he might have -been loyal to creed, and not a martyr!”</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/astarte.jpg" width="400" height="475" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">ASTARTE.</p> -</div> - -<p>“Rizpah knows that I could never have loved a -brainless face, nor any one akin to this Kunawat -goddess.”</p> - -<p>“Not if she echoed thy ‘aye’ and ‘nay’ consistently? -Be careful; as many strong men have fallen by -having their conceit gratified as there have fallen -women through flattery.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> - -<p>“How absurd to hint that I could be so lured.”</p> - -<p>“But the knight says Astarte fascinates!”</p> - -<p>“I said so, meaning that I’m fascinated by the -train of thoughts that the image awakens. Think a -moment; we, the living of to-day confronting the -acme of the thought of the ages long gone. Looking -at this, I seem to be seeing over rolling centuries, right -into the hearts of humanity that lived thousands of -years ago.”</p> - -<p>“All this might have been taken in at a glance! -Having seen it, what use is it?”</p> - -<p>“Use? To aid in finding a key to life’s problems. -I’m filled with questionings; do not yearnings, such as -beat through the being of the ancients pulse in those -of to-day? Are not humanity’s temptations and needs -ever the same?”</p> - -<p>“Since the ancients did not tarry to compare with -us, I, being only a woman, of Gerash, of to-day, can -give only the shallow answer, I suppose so.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’m not questioning Rizpah; but the ruins, the -air, time, my soul, God!”</p> - -<p>“And their reply?”</p> - -<p>“Bewildering echoes of each question?</p> - -<p>“And it’s all a mystery to Sir Charleroy?”</p> - -<p>“I know a little; something, next to nothing.”</p> - -<p>“Possess curious me of that little, and I’ll help thee -wonder why so much greatness came to naught.”</p> - -<p>“That wondering is easily met; they had, as god, one -whose head could be broken as this one’s was; they -that would survive must be sheltered by the Invincible.”</p> - -<p>Rizpah, meanwhile had drawn close to the huge stone -face and placing one hand beneath the mouth, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> -other on the portion of the head just above the moon -crown, her arms stretched well nigh to their limits -quizically remarked:</p> - -<p>“Those that dined with her must have had pyramids -for chairs. What dost thou think they were like?”</p> - -<p>“Crusaders?”</p> - -<p>“Now, I’m tantalized. Crusaders two or three -thousand years ago? How absurd!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, certainly they were not known by the name, -Crusaders: but they that followed Astarte and such-like -deities, whether called Kenaihites, Rephaim, Moslem, -Christians, or by other appellation are all soldier-pilgrims, -dominated by an ideal. There have been -many female deities among the pagans and there is a -deal of paganism left in humanity.”</p> - -<p>“That’s because half the race are men. Astarte -would be very popular to-day with thy sex, if she were -here in living form, a whole woman, instead of a fragment -and beautiful also—”</p> - -<p>“Thou dost not care to hear more of the female -deities?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes; I’ll be fearfully jealous if thou dost -keep any thing back. Tell me what madmen the -ancients were?” She paused, slapped the face of the -image, ejaculating “<i>Virago!</i>” then continued, “Why -did they make their effigy both hideous and huge? -Ugly things should be dwarfed!”</p> - -<p>“The ancients, who knew not the grandeur of moral -power, gave their deities terribleness in their physical -proportions, and a mountain of flesh became their ideal -of greatness—men ever try to make their objects of -worship greater than themselves, thou knowest. Hast -forgotten what Ichabod once told us of the Egyptians?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> -How they expressed their reverence by piling up pyramids -and made that very diminutive which they would -caricature? Oh, how our true religion, having at its -heart an only, all-beautiful, Almighty God, rises above -these human devices!”</p> - -<p>“I wonder that it did not, at its first appearing on -earth, instantly overthrow all others.”</p> - -<p>“And it is a still more wonderful thing that those -who embraced it, having known, should have sometimes -gone back to paganism? Thou dost remember that -God’s chosen people, after enjoying marvels of His -Providence, plunged headlong into idolatry in the very -presence of His splendor at Sinai?”</p> - -<p>“With shame I remember it. I marvel as well that -this record, which evokes the ridicule of the grosser -heathen, was made part of our Holy writings.”</p> - -<p>“God’s compensation! The people stripped themselves -of their jewels to make the calf; then of their -garments to worship it according to the lewd rites of -Apis. God since has lashed them naked around the -world, as it were, by giving their history to all times. -‘<i>Be sure your sin will find you out</i>,’ is a stern truth -haunting the conscience of the evil doer; but though -exposure is a bitter medicine it is a saving one. God -as such applies it.”</p> - -<p>“I think the devil crazed the people at Sinai.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, Rizpah, but Human Desire was his name. -The revelers made their devil as well as their calf, -that day.”</p> - -<p>“But it is said ‘they rose to play.’ If so disobedient -and heaven-defying how could they have found -heart to play?”</p> - -<p>“Odious, significant word that one is, here. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> -a ‘<i>play</i>’ that engulphed all purity. No wonder they -ceased to observe the ‘burning mountain!’ Only the -pure in heart can see God.”</p> - -<p>“Thank God! that thy people and mine have finally -escaped, my husband.”</p> - -<p>“So far as we have escaped, I thank Him; but, alas, -the evangels of Egypt’s scarlet heresies still go about, -and there are many, everywhere, led away in chains that -seem of flowers at first, but are found to be of galling -iron at last.”</p> - -<p>“I did not know this?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, these modern perverters disguise their horrible -tenets with many refined phrases; yet He that overwhelmed -gross Sodom and the jewelless, naked dancers -about the golden bull, sees through all their thin drapings -and will judge the free lover, corrupt socialist and -libertine as He did those ancients. The Assyrian and -Egyptian representations of Venus generally appeared -holding a serpent; a sort of bitter admission of the -curse in the hand of perverted love and the fierce lashings -that follow it.”</p> - -<p>“I fail to connect the ancient with the present heresies, -my good teacher.”</p> - -<p>“I pause to-day here, reminded of their common -origin and consequences. God put it into the hearts -of His creatures to love women, honor motherhood, -and worship Him. Read Sinai’s law, and this is all -manifest. There came a perversion; the love of woman -was degraded, motherhood was denied its honor, and -men became God-defying. There was a confusion -worse than that of Babel, and the worshiping was -transferred, first, to symbolized lust; then degraded. -They that adored Venus, knowing how her adoration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> -had depraved themselves, came to believe that she scandalized -the heaven they imagined. Then came a time -when her earthly rites even scandalized the wiser -pagans.”</p> - -<p>“My husband leads me along strange ways. Is it -wise to do so?”</p> - -<p>“I see a grand end; follow me. There is a deep -significance in the fact that among the pagans there -constantly appeared this adoration of woman on -account of her power of motherhood. I take this -adoration as proof of a conscious need feeling after a -vaguely discerned truth. The yearning is suggested by -the paired gods. Assyria had its Beltis, consort of -Bel-nimrud; and there were Allelta of the Arabians, -the many-breasted Diana of the Ephesians, the Aphrodite -of the Greeks, Ceres and Venus of Rome, this -Astarte of the Giants; beyond all, in utter odiousness -Khem, the Phallic god of Egypt. Amid all these false -ideals, the divine home with its pure love and our immortality -by grace’s mystery, were overslaughed in human -thought. The glaring passions, that were unwilling -to believe in other immortality than that that comes -through posterity, other heaven than that of sensuous -pleasure, fascinated and dominated hearts and souls.”</p> - -<p>“And worshiping women-gods did this.”</p> - -<p>“Worshiping beings with the form of women did -it! Reverence for true womanhood ever exalts and -never degrades. But these ancients adored very gorgons -with snakes for hair, and having tearing, brazen -claws. They set these gorgons with the Harpies, in -their mythologies, at the gates of dark Pluto’s palace. -Alas, where men are led by ill-flavored women, is ever -more Pluto’s gateway.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p> - -<p>“The up-digging of these ancient soils, knight, give -forth foul odors. Did they not dread a just and jealous -God?”</p> - -<p>“No. It is the constant voice of history that false -belief concerning these things of which I have spoken, -brings both blindness and degradation. Unbelief comes -swiftly in the wake of impurity. The gorgons had but -one eye and that had the malign power of turning to -stone all upon whom its glance fell. When men deify -a fallen woman then look for a cataclysm of evils. Rizpah -has seen little of the world, but this in time she’ll -find true; the man whose cult or faith bends toward -the libidinous is on the way to utter atheism. So these -old-time free-lovers, like those of to-day, push out -of the universe in their belief, the Great, Beautiful, -First Cause. The pure in heart see God; the impure -can not even pray to Him. The latter must be aided -by an Immaculate One. They make a gulf betwixt their -souls and heaven, which Great Mercy alone can bridge.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, knight, I’d dread a return of those gross idolatries, -knowing mankind’s trend, but that I knew that -Shiloh was to come as a Reformer.” The knight -caught at the words of his wife to lead her toward his -own dear belief.</p> - -<p>“If He came to Rizpah in the form of a man, unique -because of his virgin purity, unlike any other in being -all unselfish, and accompanied by a peerless woman, -exemplifying all that is best in the gentle sex; between -Himself and that woman a love deep to love’s last depth, -pure as a sunbeam, enduring as eternity itself, would -Rizpah welcome Him!”</p> - -<p>“That would be a wondrous coming; but I’d welcome -Him.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Does Rizpah believe such an appearing desirable?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, on my soul, yes! If he should so come, methinks -the rites which have gone on in the secrecy of -the groves, under the uncertain light of the moon, would -be driven from the earth, and men come to worship -God, taking that man for the ideal of manhood, that -woman as woman’s pattern.”</p> - -<p>“Dost thou see that stone with eight lines crossing, -lying just there by the image of Astarte?”</p> - -<p>“I see it and the lines; but what of them?”</p> - -<p>“In the far East, the land of the Fire Worshipers, -on almost all the handiwork of man that symbol is -placed. It is to represent an eight-pointed star, the -Assyrian sign of immortality.”</p> - -<p>“Eight lines crossing to represent immortal life? -This is inane!”</p> - -<p>“Not quite. I had its explanation from my wandering -Jew, Ichabod, learned by much travel in the lore -of many peoples. He thus interpreted the symbol -as the Assyrians understood it; man, a four-pointed -star; his four radiate limbs suggesting that likeness. -Thou knowest that the Israelites have been wont to call -men stars? The Assyrians, not having the sure word, -were led to seek by human philosophy a theory of -immortality, and they got no further than twice four, -two human beings in union; so eight or a double -star, their symbol of marriage, represented the only -immortality they were able to find; that that comes -from reproduction. At least that was the only reality, -the rest being very vaguely believed, and believed only -because they thought that the mystery of a new life -coming forth, was a hint of a spiritual method analogous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> -to the material. They then fell to worshiping the -sun, the great fructifier and light of nature; fire, the -essence of passion, became their highest god. It is -said that those Magi of the East, that arrived long ago -at Bethlehem, were fire worshipers, and that in answer -to a cry for light, constantly uttered by their race, they -took their journey to Judah, seeking it.”</p> - -<p>“The world must turn to Israel ever for the truth, -Sir Charleroy.”</p> - -<p>“For some truth; not all; but there is a tradition -that the star the wise men followed was a double one, -two planets in conjunction. There is a fitness in the -legend, for the seekers of light were brought to the cave -where lay a mother and babe; the latter God’s finest -presentment of immortality, the Incarnation; the fruit -of the Divine in union with the human. I stand overcome -with wonder and reverence when I remember -that they of the East had some light from the Jews -they held captive ages before. They lost most of what -they had, then, longing for its return, God answered -their prayer by taking them to the finest of schools, a -blessed home circle. Behold all the East looking for -light at Bethlehem!”</p> - -<p>Rizpah evaded her husband’s graceful attempt to -impress on her Christian tenets, by replying: “I prefer -the Jewish choice number Seven, though I can not give -it fine interpretations, as thou to the Eight of the East.”</p> - -<p>“Rizpah prefers it because it is Jewish, and I prefer -Seven because I read therein a covenant; for Seven is -the sacred covenant number of God’s Word. Let me -interpret: There is a Triune God, symbolized by -Three; then man, the child of chance, the being tossed -hither and thither by the four winds, a complex union<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> -himself of body, mind, animal life and immortal spirit. -Four is his representative number, or symbol. The -Assyrians paired fours; the Jews vaguely discerned a -grander path to eternal felicity through the conjunction -of God and man, the Three and the Four. -From this they derived their covenant number, -Seven.”</p> - -<p>“These are charming explanations, Sir Charleroy; -especially so, if sure ones!”</p> - -<p>“But the truths are fairer than my poor words. I -read that at creation the morning stars—meaning the -beings that know no night, the very sons of God—shouted -for joy! They saw an immortality having its -springs in the being of the Eternal, and were glad. -Since then the race has diverged into two lines. The -gross and unbelieving, seeking to effect the apotheosis -of human lust, have gone their ways reveling under the -moonlight, and building their fanes in the groves -which fade, while the believing and God-taught have -walked in a covenant toward Him, ‘Who only hath immortality -dwelling in light.’ Rizpah, some day that -home group at Bethlehem, a father, mother, and child, -surrounded by angels, overshadowed by God, will come -to be thought the finest ideal of this life. Yea, a picture -of Heaven itself!”</p> - -<p>The knight’s wife fixed her piercing, dark eyes on his, -there were expressed in her countenance admiration -and fearfulness. She was charmed by his lofty sentiments, -yet apprehensive of being led into some dangerous, -Christian heresy. Fanaticism always has a -terror of heresy, so-called, even though it seemed to -be full of white truth. Presently she questioned:</p> - -<p>“So Og, great as a mountain of flesh, and Astarte,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> -goddess of the pleasure that kills, only, of all Kunawat’s -ancients, have left enduring names?”</p> - -<p>“One other name endures, the ages brightening its -luster—Job, loyal to the last, in spite of the devil and -a virago wife.”</p> - -<p>“Poor woman! say I of Job’s wife. None have told -her side of her family troubles. May be Job haunted -the grove of the moon-crowned?”</p> - -<p>“May be? Never! His splendid orations bespoke -a man walking nigh Jehovah. Listen: ‘If I beheld the -moon walking in brightness, if my heart hath been -secretly enticed, or my mouth kissed my hand, let -thistles grow instead of wheat.’ He said this amid -the votaries of the Lust-Queen.”</p> - -<p>“And Job may be praised, not only as proof that -there has been one patient man on earth, but as proof -that a good man will stand pure to the last, though the -world about acclaim the praise of delightful sins?”</p> - -<p>“He stood because entranced by his beautiful ideal. -He loved Him whose name is Holiness.”</p> - -<p>“Heaven comes at last to such.”</p> - -<p>“Job was God’s best friend on earth in his day, and -his Heavenly Father gave him as his reward His best -earthly gift—a new, pure, happy, fruitful home.”</p> - -<p>“Are we through now with the fascinating image, -knight?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, Rizpah, if we take to heart its warnings. May -we preserve our integrity, and have a home as our reward -finer than that of the Man of Uz; yea, verily, as -fine in its tempers and virtues as that of Bethlehem.”</p> - -<p>So saying, the knight led Rizpah toward their abode.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">A BATTLE OF GIANTS AT BOZRAH.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Sleep—the ghostly winds are blowing!</div> -<div class="verse">No moon abroad—no star is glowing.</div> -<div class="verse">The river is deep and the tide is flowing</div> -<div class="verse">To the land where you and I are going!</div> -<div class="verse indent1">We are going afar,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Beyond moon or star,</div> -<div class="verse">To the land where the sinless angels are!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I lost my heart to your heartless sire</div> -<div class="verse">(’Twas melted away by his looks of fire),</div> -<div class="verse">Forgot my God, and my father’s ire,</div> -<div class="verse">All for the sake of a man’s desire;</div> -<div class="verse indent1">But now we’ll go</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Where the waters flow,</div> -<div class="verse">And make our bed where none shall know.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—“<i>The Mother’s Last Song.</i>”—<span class="smcap">Barry Cornwall.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“How shall we order the child, and how shall we do.”—Judges -xiii. 12.</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-s.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Sir Charleroy and his consort took up -their abode in one of the many deserted -ancient stone houses of the city of Bozrah. -The latter, situated in one of the most -fertile plains of earth, once having upward of one -hundred thousand inhabitants, several times having -risen to metropolitan splendor, ages ago sank into -neglect, decay and desolation. But with wonderful -persistence that city preserves the records, or relics, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> -what it was in better, greater days. The antiquarian -to-day finds in and around Bozrah the dwellings, -palaces and temples of many and various peoples, -some piled in strata-like courses, one above the other, -each layer the tombstone of its predecessor; some -as fine as they were forty centuries ago. The -annalist there has at hand as an open book the -achievements of some of the mightiest men of earth, -physically. The latter were contemporary with that -line of God’s moral giants, of which Abraham, Moses -and David were representative leaders first, and Christ -finally. The strata of Bozrah tell of differing policies, -politics, religions; all alike in one thing—the attempt -to build upon the buttresses of giant force; but they -present in the end the one result—failure; all being -equally dead at the last, if not equally herculean at -the first. Sheer robustness in the armies of Rome, -the Turk, Alexander, and Og wrought out their best -about the Bashan cities, and in that theater played -the eternally losing game of all such. It seems as if -God had chosen that part of all the world to illustrate -this great lesson of His providence. The Roman, -Mohammedan, Greek, and others like them, there had -their brutal and sensuous existence. There the Crusader -carried also his banners; but the end of the -Rephaim was the forerunner and prophecy of all the -other giantesque gatherings that followed after them. -Each passing race and dynasty left its monuments -and tokens of possession; but of all, those of the -first, the giants, are the most enduring, most wonderful. -These dateless, huge, rugged, fort-like dwellings, -standing just as they did four thousand years ago, except -that they are mostly unoccupied, are impressive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> -monuments and reminders of the mighty denizens -who once abode within them. There are ruins of -temples, palaces, houses of commerce and places of -amusement, but chiefly of homes; the latter, significantly, -instructively, being the best preserved of -all. Sir Charleroy observed this circumstance, and -casually remarked to Rizpah, as they bestowed their -effects in one of the ancient domiciles:</p> - -<p>“If ever I take to building, I’ll build abiding places -for people, only. Such are the most lasting.”</p> - -<p>But while he came thus near to a royal truth, he did -not make it his own. It passed through his mind and -he felt its light, as one might that from the wing of a -ministering spirit, while his eyes were holden and his -back turned. He immediately left the angelic thought, -to go wandering through years of misery, before coming -back face to face with it again. Sir Charleroy and -Rizpah, a western soldier and a woman of Israel, two -giants in their way, began a new career at Bozrah. It -was providential. Measuring power by the only available -test at hand, namely, what it accomplishes, it was -manifest long ago to all that the brawn of the Cyclops -was not the master force of the word. Hercules -cleansed the earth of mythical, not real evils. Sir -Charleroy and Rizpah are fittingly brought to the theater -of the giants for the purpose of testing the potency -of giantesque sentimentality and stubborn, mighty -ardor. To this end, two will do as well as a nation, -and a decade will be as conclusive as a score of generations. -The husband and wife entered Bozrah gladly, -and quickly adapted themselves to their new surroundings. -They were both very impressible, and there -were many things in their new environments that impressed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> -and stimulated them. Nature’s face and locations -may be changed by man, but he can not change -her heart. She, on the other hand, is invincible in her -conquests of both his face and inner being. Climate -and environments determine the characters and careers -of the majorities. The sleets of the North, in time, -will goad the sensuous Turk or Hottentot to high -activity, while the Cossack or Esquimaux, under tropical -suns soon fall into luxuriousness and laziness. Bozrah -began its molding of the knight and his wife. -Rizpah and Sir Charleroy were at first attracted to -Giant Land by the hugeness of its monuments and -ghostly greatness of its record. They received at Bozrah -their first impulse to settle and make a home. -Probably they were largely influenced by the conviction -that, in its way, there was nothing more -entrancing or majestic beyond. For the best results -to them, the second selection was altogether unfortunate. -They had made their home in the midst of -battle-fields, and the atmosphere that hung over all -things was like that over a defeated army, sullenly submitting. -The new comers from the beginning, in their -new home, were immersed in ghostly memories, and -that atmosphere so like the breath of a bound yet -struggling giant. They were affected more than they -realized by all these things.</p> - -<p>“No more tours, no more worlds, for us to conquer!” -exclaimed the knight.</p> - -<p>Rizpah, her cheerfulness of mind largely recovered, -replied to this remark of Sir Charleroy with a bantering -laugh, at the same time pointing upward. -Quickly, and with retort cruel as a giant’s javelin, he -cried:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Alas, so soon Rizpah seeks my final departure -from her!”</p> - -<p>The cavalier was no more; it was the brusque and -gross within him that spoke. Had he been courtly, even -without being Christian, he would have been considerate -enough not to have cruelly jested concerning that -which lay in his wife’s heart as a possible and sad fact. -Often the thought of eternal separation from her husband, -even from eternal hope, haunted her now. -Her husband knew this.</p> - -<p>For a moment his answer seemed to stun her; then -the affectations of pouting on her mobile face, coming -when she pointed upward, changed into lines of anger. -A hot flush mounting up to the roots of her hair, hung -out the warning signal.</p> - -<p>The knight, pretending not to observe the change, -twined his arms about his wife and mockingly sighed:</p> - -<p>“Poor girl! I can find no wings on thee. I once -thought thou hadst such. They must have dropped -off.”</p> - -<p>There was no reply. He then began to retreat, to -placate, and to that intent drew her closer and closer -to his heart, until, embracing her, his hands clasped; -but, for the first time since the event near Gerash, -when the Arabs were vanquished, his caress was without -response. He tried a thrust thus:</p> - -<p>“Well, beloved, since thou dost banish me, bestow -a kiss of long farewell.”</p> - -<p>Quickly, Rizpah flung aside his embracing arms and -cried: “Shechemite! I’m no Dinah, won by false -professions!”</p> - -<p>“<i>Shechem was more honorable than all the house of his -father</i>,” quoted the knight in reply.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p> - -<p>“He loved himself, his passions; to these gods he -gave up with all devotion, and they immolated him. -That was good!”</p> - -<p>“Why, Rizpah, thou art pettish.”</p> - -<p>“‘Rizpah!’ Thou art adroit in using bitter similes; a -brutalizing power, when brutally used! Now, call me -‘Jarnsaxa.’ Thou toldst me, yesterday, how that -mighty male god of the Norse, Thor, while hating her -people, to the death, stole Jarnsaxa. Yea, and how -many giants fell for women. Perhaps thou didst want -me to pity thee. We are in Giant Land now, and thou -canst begin to play Colossus!”</p> - -<p>The knight was startled, and quickly entreated: -“My queen, lets drop the masks; no more of this; -forget my sarcasm, and I’ll forgive the recriminations. -A truce and pardon, in the name of love. What says -Esther?”</p> - -<p>“‘Esther?’ Thou calledst me that when cavalier, -turning lover. Thou art neither now!” The sentence -ended in a petulant sob.</p> - -<p>“Oh, stay now. It was playfulness. I—there, now! -Canst thou not brook a little playfulness from me?”</p> - -<p>“Playfulness? Bah! Ye men play so like lions, -forgetting to keep the claws cushioned! But, now -thou hadst better be going, saint—the only one here. -Go, now, right along to heaven. They want thee there. -They want thee, not me.” Then she choked back -another sob, but instantly thereafter, dashing the rising -tear from her eyes, she bitterly exclaimed: “At any -rate, thou’lt have company!”</p> - -<p>“Whom, pray?”</p> - -<p>“The begetter and chief of all restless vagabonds!”</p> - -<p>“So; I never heard of him. Has he a name, my dear?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> - -<p>The knight was sarcastic, because he was nettled.</p> - -<p>Rizpah’s eyes glittered with the fire of offended -pride, and she quickly began in measured tone, as if in -soliloquy, and alone, to quote Job’s record of satan’s -joining the assembly of the sons of God:</p> - -<p>“<i>There was a day when the sons of God came to present -themselves before the Lord, and satan came also. -And the Lord said whence camest thou? Then satan -said from going to and fro in the earth and from walking -up and down in it.</i>”</p> - -<p>“My wife responds to my penitence with bitterness; -but even the pagans were wiser. They ever took the -gall from the animals offered to Juno, goddess of wedlock.”</p> - -<p>“Thy wife promised to be thy helpmate and give -thee all she had. Now, just forget thy fine paganism, -being a Christian long enough to remember that I’m -thy helpmate in all things, even in bitterness. I give -thee all, even returning thy giving.”</p> - -<p>“Thou shouldst not make so much of my little misstep.”</p> - -<p>“Nothing is little with which one must constantly -live. Great breaks grow from little fractures. One -may stand a blow, but its the constant fretting that -roughs the heart-strings to woe unendurable. Thou -hast a habit of playfully hurting.”</p> - -<p>“Well, this has been a day at school; there ought to -be a school for husbands! We do not half understand -the fine, sensitive creatures that companion us.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, thou thoughtst thou wert a woman-reader!”</p> - -<p>“Were I to see an angel with a body like a harp, -eyes like the unsearchable ocean, heart of flame, arms -like flowering vines, covered with prismatic wings, I’d<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> -be no more puzzled and abashed than I am now by -my high-strung, fine-tempered Rizpah.”</p> - -<p>“Puzzled! abashed! I’d help thee pity thy wounded -conceit, but that I know that thou art soon to ascend. -Art thou going now!”</p> - -<p>“I’m afraid not, since I’ve so many more sins than -graces. When elephants soar with butterfly wings, -thou mayst look for my departure. Till then I’ll stay -here and practice the patience of Job, beset with his -rambling devil.”</p> - -<p>“How elegantly the cavalier uses simile in coining -epithets.”</p> - -<p>“Heavens! Rizpah, thou dost twist my meanings! -Why distort, instead of pardoning my blunders, making -both of us miserable!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, then, thou hast grace enough not to liken me -to thy besetting, evil spirit, at least in words?”</p> - -<p>“No, no, ’tis refined cruelty to put me on the defense -as to that. Believe it or not, Rizpah of Gerash -and Rizpah of Bozrah are the same. My heart to its -core says so!”</p> - -<p>This second quarrel, that should not have been begun, -had the merit of ending, as it should, in reconciliation, -tears, embraces and a great many excellent -pledges. Yet Sir Charleroy did not greatly profit by -the experience. He failed to perceive that these first -breaks in the rhythmic flow of conjugal love are great -shocks to a deeply affectionate woman. He knew that -men easily recover from rebuffs, and so did not stop to -consider that young wife-hood was the highest expression -on earth of utter clinging to one sole support. -He knew his own feelings and took them for the standard. -He set himself up as the pattern, quite unconsciously,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> -perhaps; and after the conflict in which he -came off conceded victor, he was condescending in his -manner. This was unfortunate. Rizpah did not need -to be told that her husband was wiser and stronger -willed and more self-possessed and more able to endure -life’s trial than herself. All this she believed, absolutely, -when she surrendered her heart to the man at -the first. Woman-like, these were the very circumstances -that caused her to love him as she did. A -woman never loves completely until her love is supplemented -by adoration. She must believe the man, who -would make full conquest, is one to whom she can -look up; one some way her superior. But while a -loving woman will give a devotion almost religious, she -will be pained amid her delights of committal by a -haunting fear that he whom she adores may rise away -from her. In the very plenitude of her fullest love-worship -she will deny the reverence, sometimes, in a -seeming inconsistency, rebuff and even ridicule her -idol. It is with her a sort of hysteria, a confession of -secret terror, lest she and he grow apart in mind, and -so come to part in body. Hence it is a giant cruelty -on the part of a husband, sometimes, to enforce, or -thrust forward, his size or his lordship. They may be -facts, but God has set over against them as their equal -that love which clings, stimulates and supplements, -without which the finest man is far less than the half -of the united twain. Sir Charleroy blundered along -in his error; Rizpah tried to be happy and failed. -She did not know how to make the best of her surroundings, -and Sir Charleroy did not know, because he -did not seek religiously to find out how to help her -make the best of them. They had some periods of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> -pleasure, but they continually grew briefer and were -more frequently interrupted as time went on. She was -ill, he suffered himself to think her at times ill-tempered. -As a lover, he admired her outbreaks as very -brilliant, and flattered her by remarking that she had -the metal of an Arabian steed; as a husband, he thought -her very disagreeable when pettish or angry. Indeed, -though he never said so to her, he did say to himself that -at times she was very like a virago. The only steed -that came to his mind then was the ass, to which he -likened himself when he considered himself the perfection -of submissive patience.</p> - -<p>A new event radically changed the picture and situation -in this troubled home.</p> - -<p>The prayer of prayers was heard in Bozrah; the cry -of a baby; a bundle of needs and helplessness, with no -language but a cry. Processions of silent centuries had -passed through those halls since they echoed the hoarse -voices of the brawny beings who built them. One -could not hear the infant cry without remembering the -contrasts. A baby; a puny one at that, and of the -gentler sex, besides being of a race pigmy compared to -the stalwarts who builded those abodes. Sir Charleroy -and his consort had set up their household gods, and for -a goodly period had occupied as theirs a Rephaim -home.</p> - -<p>The little stranger came, though they did not discern -it, with power to bless them both. A poetic visitor, -happening on this baby’s hammock there and then, -might have gone in raptures, to some truths, after this -fashion: “It will be the golden tie, angel of peace and -hope, to the home!” The philosopher, seeing the -little bundle of helplessness, might have said: “Here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> -is a giant, the home is immortal through its offspring; -the babe requiring so much, richly repays its loving -care-takers by inducting them into the soul expansions -of unselfish service.” But then poets and philosophers -often miss the mark, attempting prophesy.</p> - -<p>The parents followed the usual course of those for -the first time in that relation. Their love for each -other, very intense, and by its sensitiveness witnessing -after all that it was very selfish, got a new direction. -They soon drifted into the charming fooleries of their -like. Sometimes they petted the child unceasingly, -and one was anon jealous of the other if surpassed in -this. They each struggled for a recognition from the -innocent, and debated as to whether the first babble of -the little one was “mamma” or “papa.” Then there -were times when they handled baby very reverently, -as if it were something from God, or likely to -break.</p> - -<p>At such times they each, in heart, thanked God and -gave the child, at least in part, to Him. Sometimes -they called it “Davidah” or “darling,” and laughed -as they assured each other, to assure themselves, that -the baby looked wise as if understanding. Sometimes -they played with it as if they were children and it a -toy; sometimes they ministered to it with anxious -care, while all the time they felt quite sure it was somehow -of finer mold and fiber than any babe before on -earth. They were just like all for the first time parents, -and their raptures were now for good, being centered -around the thought expressed by the sweet word -home. Of course, the question of naming the child -was discussed, and, of course, no name they could think -of seemed quite good enough. Some days the child<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> -was given a dozen, and some days it had none; for all -the time they kept trying to fit it.</p> - -<p>In one thing, both parents were Jewish, namely, the -desire to give their darling an appellation expressive -of what it was or what they hoped it would be. They -first agreed on “Angela,” but that was discarded as -being a sort of advertisement of the quality of their -treasure. In the constant selfishness of love they -would keep it all secretly, sacredly to themselves, they -said. They sought for many days some significant -token or name that should be fully expressive of their -thought, and yet by the three only be ever fully understood. -One day Rizpah, always abrupt, still nursing an -old superstition, said: “Call her Marah, a mournful, -sweet, expressive title.”</p> - -<p>“Why, wife, that means ‘bitterness.’”</p> - -<p>“Bitterness, since I believe that somewhere, somehow, -there is bitterness enough in store for her—and -me with her.”</p> - -<p>“I’d prefer ‘Mary,’ my wife; surely this little angel -is to be all like that blessed one.”</p> - -<p>Then there was more strife, but of a rather patient -kind, which ended in a compromise, they calling the -child Miriamne, each in mind meaning different from -the other; the one Marah, the other Mary. But on -the heels of this came soon the graver problem, How -should the babe be reared, in Jewish faith or Christian? -It was the old, old story of a difficulty seemingly easily -adjusted to all, except to those who have actually met -it, and in this case, as usual, the two parties fanatically -opposed each other. In the name of sweet religion -they loyally served the devil for a time. The highest -achievement of a creed or faith is the soothing and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> -elevation of a home here, or the exalting of it heavenward -for hereafter. That is a travesty of piety which -wrecks the substance of joy for the shell of a dogma. -This stricture is easily written and may pass without -dissent, the reader immediately falling into the error -denounced. Of course, as usual, these two parents -began the discussion of the subject. At intervals they -cautiously pressed their arguments, but each unwaveringly -moved toward his or her point. They were like -advancing armies, firing occasional shots, but surely -approaching a mighty issue. They pretended to argue -the matter by times, but it was a farce, for each in -mind irrevocably had predetermined the conclusion. -Time sped on a year or more, then the conflict fully -came.</p> - -<p>“Rizpah, we were wed by a Christian, let us take -the fruit of that compact to Christian baptism.”</p> - -<p>“The first act was an error; we shall not atone for -it by repetitions in kind! The child is mine; I decline.”</p> - -<p>“And mine, so I request.”</p> - -<p>“A mother imperils her whole life for her child, and -unreservedly gives to it part of herself; justice, humanity, -should give the child to the mother, so far as -may be.”</p> - -<p>“But even under thy faith, I, the father, am the -head of the house.”</p> - -<p>“Under my faith the nurture and training of children -belong chiefly to the mother, and my faith has -been the finest society-builder of the world in the past. -Thou hast often recounted to me the deeds of that -golden, heroic time of my people, when the great Maccabean -family led us and inspired us. Well, then, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> -mothers had exclusive control of the daughters until -they were wed, and so they had grand daughters among -the Maccabees.”</p> - -<p>“Well, we differ in belief; we had better compromise.”</p> - -<p>“We dare not barter a little soul to do it.”</p> - -<p>“Well, briefly then, being lord of this home, I command -that the grace-giving sacrament be sought for -our Mary.”</p> - -<p>“My faith, to which thou didst first appeal, forbids -fathers to command their children to walk through -idolatrous fires. Marah shall not.”</p> - -<p>“Hush; I only want the loved one inducted into -the true faith.”</p> - -<p>“Mine is the older and truer.”</p> - -<p>“With thee argument is futile; I insist——”</p> - -<p>“If the father is a foreigner, Jewry’s rule is that the -children are to be called by the mother’s name and -regarded as of her family. Make such law as thou -choosest for thy family but not for mine.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll end this,” cried Sir Charleroy, seizing the child, -as if to hasten then to seek some priest’s ministry.</p> - -<p>Rizpah’s eyes glittered with sullen purpose. She -sprang before him, and hissed:</p> - -<p>“Our fathers escaped at all cost from Egypt. I’ll -not go back, nor Marah.”</p> - -<p>The knight was surprised, and his looks expressed it -as he said:</p> - -<p>“Dost thou rave?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no, I was just remembering that a bearded -serpent was the Egyptian symbol of deity; something -like a man. You Christians would have all husbands -gods to their families! No bearded serpent for mine!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Heavens, woman! thinkest thou thy scorn and vituperation -can stay me?” So saying he pushed, or -rather half flung the woman from him. He had no -conception of the rage that any thing like a blow -evokes in the heart of a woman that could love as once -did Rizpah. On his part it was intended as a masterpiece -of strategy, in the hope that the woman would -swoon, then surrender in the weakness of following -hysteria. The act was hateful to him, but he justified -it by the end sought, yet missed that end.</p> - -<p>Rizpah was a tigress roused, and like many another -mother, beast or human, when the fight is once for -offspring was endowed with sudden, supernatural -strength. She sprang toward the hammock, plucking -her dagger meanwhile from its hiding-place.</p> - -<p>“Heaven defend us, woman!” cried Sir Charleroy, -glancing about for a means of prevention, “thou -wouldst not do murder?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no, thou art not fit to die; but hear me; this -blade, consecrated to defense from dishonor, saved me -once. Dost thou remember? It will do it again, if -need be. The giver sleeps, but his stern charge haunts -me still. ‘Protect at any cost from dishonor!’”</p> - -<p>“Wouldst thou shed blood of any here!”</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy saw me slay the Turk. Had I failed, -thou falling, this blade would have found my own -heart. Push me onward by thy imperiousness and I -will slay the babe and then myself! Methinks, it -would be an atonement for which my parent would forgive -my breaking of his heart. Ah, then sweet rest; -life’s tumults over! God would pity the tempest-tossed -soul that, through such bitterness, flung itself -on Him.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Dost mean all this, Rizpah?”</p> - -<p>“Can I trifle? Ask thyself. Have I ever? My -desperate sincerity made me thy wife, but now it impels -me to defy all thy attempts to make me thy minion, -unthinking echo or slave; or worse, the ruiner of -that girl.”</p> - -<p>“Well, then, woman, since thou or I must yield and -I can not, thou wilt not, I execute my before announced -purpose to have my lawful authority acknowledged -with thee or——”</p> - -<p>“Say the rest, find peace away from me——”</p> - -<p>“Which?” sternly demanded the knight.</p> - -<p>“As thou dost wish, only I’ll not give up my child -to Christian sacrifice.”</p> - -<p>“Then we can not live in peace together.”</p> - -<p>“To which I reply, that God never ordained marriage -to bind people to the home when they can only -for each other in that home make a very Tartarus!”</p> - -<p>The knight was humiliated. He had believed that -the woman’s heart could not bear the thought of separation, -and now to find her willing to give him up, -rather than her will, her faith, hurt his pride. But -they had made an utter crossing of purposes. He ran -out of their stone house, his heart as stony. A little -way off he paused, looked back, and said, “For the last -time, Rizpah, what dost thou say?”</p> - -<p>“Go; once for love I gave up all. Again I do it; I -give thee up for the highest of all love, the love of a -mother for her child!”</p> - -<p>Caressingly Rizpah embraced the infant; and then -fell on her knees with her face averted from her husband. -He took one glance, and realizing the defeat of -his strong will by that kneeling woman, angrily hurried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> -away. The die was cast. He turned his back on Rizpah, -swearing that he would never more return.</p> - -<p>For a few days Rizpah lived in a crazy dream; now -laughing as she thought of her victory; again letting -her maiden love re-assert itself; then assuring her heart -that all was over and well as it was. But a woman who -imagines that reproach or even open violence can utterly -extirpate love that once completely possessed her, -knows not her own heart. Especially is this true if to -that heart, she at times, press, lovingly, a child begotten -in that love, and the form bearing the impress of -that man for whom sometime she would have willingly -died.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>One night the baby cried piteously, being ill, and -Rizpah was feeling very lonely because so anxious for -it. She had sometimes, since Sir Charleroy’s departure, -prattled with the baby calling “papa” and “Charleroy,” -mother-like, woman-like. Self-condemning, for -this was a half confession that she would have the -little one think, if it thought at all, that she, the -mother, was not to blame for the absence. The baby -had caught some names and in its moaning, feverishly -cried: “Abbaroy, Abbaroy; I want my Abbaroy.” The -cry was piercing to the mother’s heart and conscience. -She even then wished for the husband’s return. Indeed, -some hot tears fell as she prayed God to send -“papa Charleroy back.” The tie of marriage, potent -beyond all of earth, now drew her away toward the -absent one, and she then began to marvel how easily -they had separated; how lightly they had regarded -the bonds which after all tightly held them. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> -lives have blended and been tied together by other -lives, it is indeed a prophesy of union “until death do -us apart.”</p> - -<p>“Abbaroy, Abbaroy! I want my Abbaroy,” still -piteously cried the sick child. The night without was -raging; the little lamp sent dancing shadows over the -black walls of her room and an unutterable loneliness -took possession of the woman. One by one thoughts -like these arose; “Father dead, mother dead; husband -as good as dead; perhaps really so, and my child like -to die! What if she should die thus crying for her -father! Oh, God spare me this! I’d go mad by her -corpse.” “Abbaroy, I want my Abbaroy,” sobbed the -child in her sleep. The mother heard the waving -palms without. Her vivid imagination turned them -into persons, spirits. They seemed to be her dead ancestors -and they caught up the cry of her child rebukingly -“Abbaroy, I want my Abbaroy.” She swooned -now and slept. In the sleep there came a dream. She -thought she saw her daughter, grown to womanhood, -but pale and sad. She had the hand of her -mother and was drawing her toward the sea. Whenever -the mother drew back the daughter wailed “Abbaroy, -I want my Abbaroy.” Presently their feet touched -the water edge, she saw a ship, floating at anchor, but -with sails spread partly; on its stern was the name, -“<i>England</i>.” The captain stood by the vessel’s side, -observing her. At last he cried: “Well, how long -must we wait for thee?” A wave seemed to dash -against her face and she awakened. The heavy window -blind of stone had swung open, the rain was beating -in on her. She started up and felt for her child, -half fearfully lest a corpse should meet her touch. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> -she found her hands clasping a little form with fast -beating heart and burning skin. The light had gone -out, but there alone in that desolate home amid the -ruins of past ages, the woman bowed in agonizing -prayer. The balm of broken hearts was sought and -she for a time was clothed and in her right mind. She -arose, serenely, in the morning the cry of the sea captain -of her dream in her ears, and the firm resolve in -her heart to seek her husband even in far-off England; -with him to try for the things that make for peace. -Then she opened the iron-bound chest that had come -to her from her father and took therefrom a roll of the -‘<i>Kethrubim</i>’ and read. And it so happened that seeking -to refresh her mind as to the story of how the -giant Sampson got honey out of the slain lion’s carcass, -that she might more fully apply the meaning to -her own experience, she came to the story of his birth. -That story fixed her attention for days. It was like a -new revelation to her. And she read and read these -words over and over:</p> - -<p>“And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the -Danites, whose name <i>was</i> Manoah.</p> - -<p>“And the angel of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> appeared unto the -woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou shalt conceive -and bear a son.</p> - -<p>“Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, -A man of God came unto me, and his countenance -<i>was</i> like an angel of God, and he said unto me, -Behold thou shalt bear a son.</p> - -<p>“Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, O my -Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come -again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the -child.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and -the angel of God came again unto the woman.</p> - -<p>“And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed -her husband.</p> - -<p>“And Manoah arose, and went after his wife and -came to the man.</p> - -<p>“And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to -pass. How shall we order the child, and <i>how</i> shall we -do unto him?</p> - -<p>“And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Of -all that I said unto the woman let her beware.</p> - -<p>“So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and -offered <i>it</i> upon a rock unto the Lord: and <i>the angel</i> -did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.</p> - -<p>“For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward -heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the -Lord ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manoah -and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the -ground.”</p> - -<p>And as Rizpah read, little by little, the truth and -beauty of the scene and its words dawned upon her. -Thus she meditated: “This is the way God brought -forth His giant deliverer, Samson; God appeared to the -woman first, but she hasted to tell of the promised -blessing to her husband.” When she thought of how -that angel-led wife led her husband, she remembered -her own fanatical bitterness and was condemned. -Then she remembered how Manoah and his wife, -together, asked how they should order their child and -how, as together they bowed before the Spirit, he -ascended in glory over them. “Oh,” she moaned -within herself, “if we had only put aside our differences -and, forgetting all else, just so sought together<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> -the Divine directings!” It was evening as she meditated, -and she said within herself: “If ever I can get -nigh Sir Charleroy’s heart I’ll tell him all this, and before -the altar of a new consecration we’ll give ourselves -and ours to God, just this way.” There came a -wondrous joy to her heart and the palms that seemed -to moan rebukingly without that other night, “Abbaroy, -Abbaroy, I want my Abbaroy,” this night -reminded her some way vaguely of the beating of -mighty wings, approaching nearer and nearer. She -felt no longer rage, as she thought about the often bepraised -Mary of her husband, but on the other hand, -wished she knew more about her, were more like her. -It was the woman in her, yearning for a mother.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">RIZPAH, THE ANCIENT “MOTHER OF SORROWS.”</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Oh say to mothers, what a holy charge</div> -<div class="verse">Is theirs! With what a queenly power, their love</div> -<div class="verse">Can rule the fountain of a new-born mind.</div> -<div class="verse">Warn them to wake at early dawn and sow</div> -<div class="verse">Good seed before the world has sown its tares;</div> -<div class="verse">Nor in their toil decline, that angel bands</div> -<div class="verse">May put their sickles in and reap for God</div> -<div class="verse">And gather in his garner.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-n.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Nearly a score of years passed away, each -having wrought its changes, and Rizpah de -Griffin is dwelling quietly with her three -children at Bozrah. She is companionless -though not a widow. Care has left its stern impress on -her every feature; the roses have gone from her cheeks -and the snows that tarry, baffling all springs, are on -her head. But time that has worn has also ripened. -Rizpah has become a self-possessed, stately matron; -her form is erect, her eye as bright as ever. Bozrah -has not changed; the city sits in its sullen, fixed -gloom, seemingly unconscious of the ravages that -time works elsewhere. But there have been changes -and changes among the people since first the woman -of Gerash arrived there. Many former inhabitants have -wandered away; some to be swallowed up by the tides -of peoples of other climes; some have gone to judgment. -But new comers have taken the places of those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> -that had departed and speeded the swift enough forgetting -of the absent ones, Rizpah was in high honor, -for although she lived in seclusion, mixing very little -with any of the people about her, all respected her. -Hers was a well-ordered house; Druses, Turks and -Hebrews joined in affirming this. She ruled her children -firmly and they obeyed her implicitly, for they loved -her loyally. We meet her now amid active preparation -for the observance of the approaching Jewish Sabbath. -With her are two boys, twins, born in London, -as like each other as could be, and Miriamne. The latter -is in the full possession of her roses, and in the enjoyment -of that splendor of personal charm seemingly -belonging to all the maidens of Abrahamic descent -under “the covenant of the stars and the sand.” For -are not Israel’s women not only plenteous and bright -and lofty like the stars, and her men numberless, rugged -and restless as the surf-washed sands on every shore? -Does not this race, in all history, continually attest the -persistence and pre-eminence of all good to those who -walk under the Divine covenants?</p> - -<p>Miriamne not only is seen to possess a gracefulness -like unto that of the palm, nature’s pattern of beauty -in the East, but she has such robustness of form as might -be expected in one born of such a Hebrew mother and -such a Saxon father. In her temper, poetic, emotional, -oriental, like her mother; in feature and mind more -like her father; she was a better, more evenly balanced -result than either. It often so happens; the child by -some natural selection or some mercifulness, inheriting -a character, the resultant of the union of two sets of -parental forces, yet finer than either apart. The scientific -man in such cases will say, herein we behold, in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> -new being, physical and spiritual forces in action, the -latter gaining the advantage; a prophesy without -mystery that at last the fittest only shall survive. The -theologian, on the other hand, will see Providence electing -the best and preparing choice characteristics for -superior works to be done.</p> - -<p>At a call of the mother, the children gathered about -her, and the group was charming; a picture full of expression -and contrasts. The matron cast a look of -yearning affection upon her offsprings, and the emotion -possessed her until the hard face-lines faded into a sweet -smile. Just then she would have been a satisfactory -model for an artist painting Madonna. “Thank God, -children, the emblem of rest and of hope in ages to -come is at hand. I have joyed to-day, in full preparation -that this next Sabbath may be piously and earnestly -celebrated with all the religious exactness of our -people.” Then, patting the boys on their heads with -playful tenderness, she continued: “Run away now up -to the synagogue-ruin on the hill. Don’t forget your -duty in play, lads; be true little Israelites! When ye -see the sun go down back of Gilead’s mountains, give -us warning of the Sabbath’s beginning. Now mind, -keep your eyes toward Jerusalem.”</p> - -<p>The lads sped away, and Rizpah following them with -her eyes prayed in heart: “God bless them, and though -in this place of desolation, make them little Samuels -in faith and service.” A little after her face glowed -with triumphant joy, for there came back to her ears -the boys’ voices, mingling in sacred song. It was the -psalm of the “Captives’ Return” that they sang. The -declining sun began to throw its last rays through the -open windows of the huge stone home, flooding the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> -black basalt walls and pavement with golden tints. -Slowly the mother’s eyes wandered from the scene -without to objects within, until they rested on a huge -painting that covered nearly half the opposite wall. One -glance and her whole being seemed transformed. In -an instant her reverential and weary attitude was -changed to one of excited attention. She grew pale, -her body swayed with a waving motion, suggestive of -the panther creeping toward a victim. Then her form -became rigid like one preparing for some great muscular -effort, or endeavoring to suppress some inner tempest. -Her face, made habitually calm by the schoolings -of adversity, became a theater for expression of the -changing emotion within; the mouth-lines putting on -a firmness almost hideous; her eyes glittered like a -serpent’s in the act of charming; contrasting with the -forehead that shone like a silver shield. She was as -one under a spell or in a trance; but for a few moments -only. There came a light footfall; then a quick, half -frightened, piteous cry and Miriamne stood beside her.</p> - -<p>“Oh, mother, don’t! mother, mother; thou dost terrify -me!” The young woman stopped half way between -the open door and her parent. Now she was passing -through a great transition. She had seen all that was -happening, often before; had often run away from the -spectacle to hide it from herself. Now she was trying -to nerve herself to penetrate the mystery in the hope -of preventing its painfulness. She was at the turning -point, where a girl changes to the woman within the -circle of parental influences.</p> - -<p>But so complete was the absorption of the one gazing -upon the spectacle upon the wall, at first the cry -was unheeded. In a sort of sudden, trembling desperation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> -the young woman quickly bounded between -her mother and the picture. Then, as if realizing the -unfilial imprudence of the act, but still unwilling to -recede from efforts to break the spell that bound her -parent, she fell upon her knees before the seeming devotee -and burst into tears. The mother started up a -little as one awakening from a dream; then said, with -perfect control of voice and manner; “Marah, what -ails thee? Art ill? Are the Bedouin coming?”</p> - -<p>“No, no,” replied the other; “the picture; the -picture!”</p> - -<p>“What is it child?”</p> - -<p>“I do not know. I only know that your strange, -wild gaze upon its hideous group terrifies me! For -years I’ve learned to feel a mingled disgust and -fright in the presence of the woman in that presentment. -When I came in, your face looked like -hers. You did not seem to be my own tender mother, -but an angry virago. Oh, why do you shadow all our -Sabbath eves, by this mysterious, cruel staring and -moaning before this imagery of death? You’ve made -me to dread the approaching Holy Day, promise of all -delight to our people, as the advent of all pain to us.”</p> - -<p>“Marah, this is wickedness in thee. Thou shouldst -learn to wrap thy soul about with the joys thou knowest, -and leave all this that thou dost not understand, most -likely terrible to thee chiefly because thou dost not -understand it, to go its way.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve tried and tried for months to reason thus; but -how little comfort to be saying over and over, ‘it’s -all right,’ ‘it’s nothing,’ to a fear that stops the very -beatings of the heart. Oh, that I could fly from this -land of desolations. Its loneliness and shadows keep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> -coming and coming around me until I dread, lest they -enter my very being and become part of me. I’ve leaned -hitherto alone on my mother’s greater strength for -rest. If I come to fear her, I’ll lose my reason!”</p> - -<p>“Marah,” said the mother, with enforced calmness, -“thou art feverish to-day; thou hast wrought too much. -Now retire and say this pillow Psalm; ‘<i>He that dwelleth -in the secret place of the Most High, abideth under -the shadow of the Almighty.</i>’ Thou’lt be peaceful in -the morning; as are those ever who abide under the -shadow of the King.”</p> - -<p>But only the more passionately the daughter clung to -her mother, and again she renewed her plaint: “Ah, -mother, I haven’t strength to take these promises! Oh, -forgive me, I can not help it; I feel as if something -awful were impending; something coming between us! -A curse is on this land. Is it any way over the De -Griffins? Tell me, I beseech you, what is that painted -thing? Sometimes I run out of the room when -alone, as if those men hanging there were still alive, in -death’s agony. I’ve dreamed sometimes that they -came down in bodily form charging you and me with -murdering them; and when I go out at evening, I imagine -that the Ismaelitish woman in the foreground is -flitting about my path, while in every thicket I hear -the flapping wings of her carrion birds. Oh, mother! -let us tear down that sole defilement of our own -little, only home, and give it to the pilgrim Rabbi, -now in Bozrah, that he may burn it with exorcising -rites.”</p> - -<p>“Then thou thinkest there’s witchery hereabouts, -Marah,” said the mother, severely.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;" id="illus3"> -<img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="475" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption-r">By George Becker.</p> -<p class="caption">RIZPAH DEFENDING THE DEAD BODIES OF HER RELATIONS.</p> -</div> - -<p>“I? I do not know what I think, beyond this, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> -I’m overcome, terrified, made miserable, and you, under -some spell for a time, cease to be my mother.”</p> - -<p>“My daughter profanes her faith by permitting unreined -imaginations to rule her so.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, tell me all about this hateful thing! Why it so -moves you. You said long ago you would when I was -able to bear it. I am no longer a child. Mother, you -say you read me like an open book, now look into my -heart and see that it is bursting with fright and worry! -You say you know woman’s nature; if so, you know -that I can suffer when I understand, but shall go mad -in the suspense of constant fear of some threatening ill -unseen.” Thus speaking and clinging to her mother, -with a twining, almost desperate embrace, such as -among women implies unerringly that a supreme moment -and demand has fallen upon the questioner, she -burst forth in tearless sobs. The mother’s face was a -study and told of a succession of weighty thoughts; -parental authority brooked; infringed; new surprised -realization that the daughter was no longer a child, but -a wise, earnest woman. Then there was a degree of -fearfulness springing from deep love. The elder woman -perceived the crisis, and knew full well that in such -times denials to a woman meant a dead heart, or worse. -Then her manner softened, and drawing her child to -her bosom with an embrace passionate in fervor, she -tenderly, soothingly spoke to her:</p> - -<p>“My most dearly beloved Marah! dismiss all thy -fears at once and forever. They are needless. Rest, -now and always, as thou never canst elsewhere, in all -the world, upon this heart of mine. Rest thou in thy -present young womanhood, as calmly, as trustingly, as -thou didst in baby-hood. That heart guarded thee<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> -more tenderly than its own life then, through storms -within and without that nearly broke it. In part thou -dost know this; remembering what it has been in -loyalty to God and thyself, canst thou pain it by one -distrusting thought now?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, mother, I know, I know; I do not mean to -doubt you, and I remember, with a gratitude beyond -all my poor power of speech, your toiling, patient, -constant, loving care for me and my brothers. I never -can forget that you are a Hebrew indeed, proud to -emulate the noble mothers of our nation in its olden, -golden days; but after all I must think. I think, -sometimes, with anguish, that that awful picture may -some way come between us!”</p> - -<p>“Why, Marah, impossible! thou art my other self; -a fairer copy; as I was at thy age.” Then Rizpah spoke -in unusual, confiding tenderness: “We mothers have -our vanities and take a secret pride in wearing our -daughters on our hearts as precious jewels. When -nature gratifies that pride by giving us daughters in -form, features and mind, mirrors or glad reminders of -ourselves, as we were in the days of young beauty, -romancings and hopes, we hug these in our souls in a -way thou canst never realise until thou hast been such a -mother. Change? I change toward thee? Ah, girl, -not being a mother, thou canst not begin to fathom -the ocean-depth, the heaven-height, the eternity-like -unchanging endurance of a woman’s love, once it has -been quickened into the channels of maternal affection. -Thou art a woman to all the world, but not so to me. -I love thee now as I loved thee when thou wert a -babe. To me thou wilt always be a little, lovely, -needy creature—an angel touching the fountains of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> -my inmost nature. All earthly friendships change; -lover’s love, at first fierce, generally dies as the tides of -years roll over it; but, mother-love, in all loving, is the -exception. Believe this as thou dost believe the tenets -of our faith and thou’ll find thy troubling thoughts -fleeing away like mists of Hermon, before the conquering -banners of the morning.” There followed a prolonged -embrace and a mutual kiss; impassioned, affectionate; -an action expressing volumes to one skilled -in interpreting the signs, all unvoiced and unwritten, -yet, by some constant intuition, known to all womankind -as the language of the finest, sincerest loving. -That moment these two women passed onward, upward -together to a higher, lighter, stronger relationship -than they had enjoyed before. They entered the -temple where daughter and mother begin the feast of -the new revelation; when to the love of parent and -child is added that of real companionship. That is a -sunny, fruity hour, when a girl is received as a woman -by a woman; that woman her mother.</p> - -<p>The two sat embracing and happy for a long time; -but the old pain suddenly revived—Miriamne’s eyes -chancing to stray to the picture. She shuddered, then -looked pleadingly into her parent’s eyes. The mother, -quickly interpreting the look, tenderly replied: “Sometime.”</p> - -<p>“No, oh, no; tell me, mother, all, now! Who, -and what are those hanging forms: the horror-frighted, -bludgeon-armed woman; the birds of black, hovering -over the crosses? Oh! my mother, you trust me; now -tell me all or tear that down! You know it’s not lawful -for us Jews to have any image of things in Hades.”</p> - -<p>The last words moved the mother more than all else<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> -that Miriamne had hitherto spoken. Heresy, she -abominated; and the chief aim of her life had been to -make her children true Israelites by precept and example. -To her thinking, Israel alone was right; all -others were heathen, to whom was reserved perdition. -To an apostate, in her belief, there came a final judgment -of misery, beggaring all attempt at description. -A little while she hesitated, and then came to quick -resolve to tell her daughter all. She arose, walked -rapidly back and forth over the stone floor of the -abode, and, then stopping before the daughter, said: -“Thy wish shall be granted. In love of thee, for lo, -these many years I’ve hidden from thee one miserable -and dark chapter of our family history. I have drank -the bitter waters alone. But too much I love thee to -bear the piteous appeal of thy lips, or the look of -doubt that sometimes flits in thy questioning eyes. -Canst thou bear knowledge that is full of bitterness?”</p> - -<p>“Yea, mother,” said Miriamne, “there is no bitterness -in reality like that our imaginations conjure up, when -fed by mysteries that hang on pictures of such hideous -mien——”</p> - -<p>“Thou dost force me to the explanation, but, daughter -blame me not, if, like Saul of old, who fainted at -the sight he compelled Endor’s witch to reveal, thou -art given now some knowledge that kills thy sunshine.”</p> - -<p>“I’m the daughter of Rizpah and Sir Charleroy. Did -they either of them ever fear?”</p> - -<p>“Ah! but I have been the very mother of sorrows, -ever since thy birth, child. God knows it; and it -were best to leave it all to Him alone.”</p> - -<p>“But, mother, I’d gladly share your sorrows. Sorrow -shared is ever lightened by the sharing. Let us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> -bear the corpse between us, and in this lonely life we -shall be made more than ever companions, through a -common grief.”</p> - -<p>“So be it then. Thou shalt know all.”</p> - -<p>And Rizpah, going to a seldom-used iron-bound -chest, drew therefrom a parchment roll; handing the -same to her daughter, she said: “Read. It’s part of -Father Harrimai’s ‘<i>Kethubim</i>.’” The place opened to -the story of the famine in David’s time, which endured -three years, because of wrongs done to the Gibeonites -by the children of Israel. As Miriamne read onward, -Rizpah from time to time gave explanations:</p> - -<p>“Dost perceive, daughter, that Jehovah, though -not revengeful, is a God of recompenses?”</p> - -<p>“He was the friend of the Gibeonites though they -were not of his chosen people; because they had no -other friend, I think,” said Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“Yes, and He held all Israel responsible for what -they were willing to let their blood-thirsty Saul perform. -As he had been, so had been the people; they -were guilty, and God needed to punish them. How -just! Oh! God is sure to press men to a conclusion. -Read what David said to the stranger Gibeonites;” -Miriamne continued:</p> - -<p>“And he said, what ye shall say, <i>that</i> will I do for -you.</p> - -<p>“And they answered the king, the man that consumed -us, and that devised against us;</p> - -<p>“Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and -we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah.</p> - -<p>“And the king said, I will give them.</p> - -<p>“But the king spared Mephiboseth, the son of Jonathan -the son of Saul.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span></p> - -<p>“But the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the -daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni -and Mephiboseth; and the five sons of Michal the -daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel.</p> - -<p>“And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, -and they hanged them in the hill before the -Lord: and they fell all seven together, and were put to -death in the beginning of barley harvest.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne paused; then addressed her parent:</p> - -<p>“Mother, I’d not be an heretic, and yet I can not see -the justice of hanging the sons for the father’s sins?”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps they were parties to the murder; perhaps -publicly, or in heart, defended it. At any rate, from -the beginning it has been so. Thou and thy brothers -are living here fatherless on account of him that begat -you——”</p> - -<p>“Shall I stop reading this bloody story?” quoth -Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“It pains thee. Thou must go on now, though thou -shouldst fall fainting, as Saul at Endor. Read.”</p> - -<p>The daughter complied, and with quickly revived interest, -for she came to the name “Rizpah” the second -time, but before she had not noticed it in reading.</p> - -<p>“And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth -and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning -of harvest until water dropped upon them out -of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to -rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by -night.</p> - -<p>“And it was told David what Rizpah, the daughter -of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.</p> - -<p>“And David went and took the bones of Saul -and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from the men of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> -Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street -of Beth-shan.</p> - -<p>“And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul -and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered -the bones of them that were hanged.</p> - -<p>“And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son -buried they in the country of Benjamin, in Zelah, in -the sepulcher of Kish, his father: and they performed -all that the king commanded. And after that God -was entreated for the land.”</p> - -<p>When the last clause was finished, Miriamne cast a -glance at the huge painting on the wall.</p> - -<p>“I understand in part; that is Rizpah and her crucified -children?”</p> - -<p>“It is well, daughter. Behold her; this is motherhood -of strongest type! Humanity is no where perfect, -but of all the erring ones of life, I most believe in -those, who, among many perversions of judgment and -blemishes of character, have some one or more of lofty -virtues. Methinks a soul may be drenched by many -sins, and yet, if within its very core it carry sincerely -and sacred as its life some noble, dominating passion, -like the holy love of parent for a child, that soul will -ever have thereby a gate open to the Holy Spirit, a -handle for the grasp of saving angels, and, while life -lasts, an ever-flying signal lifted toward heaven. Such -prayer unspoken is a beseeching, not vainly for the interceding -love of Him that weighs the spirits.”</p> - -<p>“But, mother, you’re not such a tigress? Not like -that woman?”</p> - -<p>“How proud I’d be to be indeed all she was. The -exact interpretation of ‘Rizpah’ is a ‘living coal,’ but -her name interpreted by her life is better called the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> -‘flaming beacon.’ We mutually lament the dispersion -of our people! Dost thou remember how last Sabbath -thou wepst while thou didst read to me the words -of the blessed Isaiah foretelling the long-delayed but -Divinely-promised regathering of all our tribes?”</p> - -<p>“Oh! that the hills of Judea would glow with the -beacons of that day!”</p> - -<p>“Daughter, God’s beacons are chiefly noble spirits, -such as Moses of the Exode, Samson, the giant, David, -Nehemiah and Cyrus. The world has not yet interpreted -Rizpah, the ‘burning coal,’ the beacon fire. -Once I was frail, timorous, wavering, but devotion to -that character has transformed me. When the world’s -mothers look to her pattern, there will be a new order -of motherhood; then look for heroic men and an heroic -age!”</p> - -<p>“But was not Rizpah a Hivite, a descendant of -Ham, and so of those forever under God’s curse?”</p> - -<p>“My child, ancestry is not always the test of worth. -The consequences of sin may pass down from sire to -son, but never so as to bar the way to hope, nor dam -up the stream of ever-pitying mercy of heaven. Rizpah -had some true Jewish blood within her heart, and -in the long run God’s providence doth work to make -the better part, of admixed good and ill, dominate. Besides -all this, the lovely Ruth, thou dost emulate so well, -was foreign to our people. So, too, was Rahab; and our -Rabbis tell us she was in the royal line of David, from -which at last the Messiah shall arise. Those women, -with Rizpah, were beacons to the world! While mankind -revere true love, constancy, loyalty and faith, -those names will be remembered.”</p> - -<p>“But, mother, Rizpah was the concubine of Saul,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> -and as I think of how you oft denounce the harems of -our neighboring Bedawin, my very soul blushes at hearing -you admire this woman so.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, daughter, methinks she was more sinned against -than sinning. Recall the unequal struggle: Rizpah, a -foreigner, of a nation subdued by kingly Saul; he a -man, strong of mind, a king, hedged with a sort of -divinity that in the minds of the simple ever hedges -kings about; making their words and deeds seem -always right and just. If women made the laws and -customs there never would have been known on earth -unclean polygamy, but ever instead thereof the union -only, in holy wedlock, of two lives, mutually consecrated, -serviceful and constant. Under wrong teaching -and tyranny, a woman may do that which purer -societies condemn, and yet retain a conscience white -and clean before God.</p> - -<p>“Within that book of Samuel, which I hold, it is recorded -that Ishbosheth, a son of Saul, who for a time -reigned in a rebellious confederacy, a horseman’s day’s -journey from here, at Mahanaim, charged Rizpah once -with an act of impurity.</p> - -<p>“The record makes no mention of Rizpah’s reply. -Like thousands of women before and since her time, -she was defenseless against slander. Men, the stronger, -may malign without evidence, and often it doth outweigh, -to ears ripe to feast upon the carrion of a scandal, -the indignant denial of outraged purity, accompanied -even with evidences which make the thought of crime -upon the part of the one belied, seemingly an impossibility. -But leave all that; I appeal in behalf of my revered -Rizpah to her wondrous loyalty as a mother. Tell -me not that this sublimely heroic woman, who patiently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> -watched the corpses of her sons and other kin from -April, through all the lonely nights and through all -those burning days, until October rains wept them to -their burial, ever did an act that could let loose upon -them living or dead the hounds of scandal! They may -have suffered death as malefactors, in God’s sight, but -still her mother-love clung to them. She who kept -those long vigils, lest beast or bird of prey should harm -or mar or pollute the bodies precious to her if to no -one else, I am assured, beyond all cavil, never did -aught that could have stung their brows or embittered -their hearts! Such motherly devotion as hers doth -fully purify a woman. He who planned society, with -its sacred foundations resting so largely on the integrity -of its child-bearers, has planted in the bosom of woman -this all-possessing love of her offspring, as her safeguard. -It’s her wall of fire by day and by night, and -verily more restraining to her than any law of man, -command of God, or fear of hell!”</p> - -<p>“And are loving mothers never unchaste?”</p> - -<p>“The Jews hated swine and the monster deities of -Chaldeans, because both destroyed their young, and -our holy Talmudists declare that Mary of the Christians, -not being as pure as the Nazarene’s followers -affirm, is doomed to bide even in lowest Hades with -the bar of hell’s gate through her ear. No, I, as a -Jewish woman, believe that one of my sex being a -mother and impure is neither loving, nor a woman!”</p> - -<p>“How I revere the noble sentiments of Rizpah of -Bozrah!”</p> - -<p>“For all I am, after God, praise that ancient, fervent -beacon, Rizpah of Gibeah!”</p> - -<p>“I am in part reconciled to her, but yet I wish, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> -frightened agony often, that you would renounce this -historic Rizpah; lioness-like in her devotion to her offspring, -but full of murderous fury toward any that -crossed her love. Our holy book must have sweeter, -nobler ideals for our inspiration.”</p> - -<p>“I judge this Hebrew heroine mother by her influence -upon me, and that has been for good. The -hypocrite or romancer may call the passer-by to prayer -and have no more soul in it than the Moslem trumpet. -Only those who have some God-like saintliness of -character, can win effectually, unceasingly. There is -mighty power in the unspoken sermons of such a life. -<i>I cherish</i> Rizpah, whose touch of moral power, coming -where and when I was weak to callowness, girded me -with purpose for wavering and thews of steel for rosy -softness. I was once like thee, a fragile flower, but the -example of that patient woman’s heroism, ever before -me, has fitted me to meet my awful trials and worthily -inhabit this giant-built house. Thou dost remember, -Miriamne, at last Passover time they wish, as thou -didst read to me of Jacob, that even now a ladder with -communicating angels might be set up from earth to -heaven?”</p> - -<p>“Ah, that would be a feast; angels in burning -bushes, or by fountains as in Hagar’s time! I often -worship in the thicket and pray for heaven’s messengers -from Paradise to fan the flames of our devotion, -as Gabriel did the orisons of Daniel. But I’d be afraid -to meet an angel like your Rizpah.”</p> - -<p>“Not so with me, Marah. Indeed, I often think of -Rizpah and Jacob together. Thou rememberest how, -not far away, at Mahanaim, Jacob of old met a host of -angels? They came to cheer him in an hour of sad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> -depression, the saddest kind indeed; for in that hour -he remembered amid his repentings that he was soon -to face the brother whom long years before he had -wronged. Well, when Rizpah, by the death of Saul, -was released from that domineering madman-king, -she made her home at Mahanaim, the place near which -Jacob counseled with the angels. Methinks she there -also communed with the spirits that do excel in strength. -She may have been weak before, but in that angel -school she outgrew her master. Ay, my child, it is -marvelous how a woman rises under the impulses of a -noble love, holy companionship and plenty of sorrow. -Many a male brute has flattered himself he was crushing -into fawning servitude by his imperious, selfish will, -his weaker child-burdened mate, only some day to find -the victim asserting her individuality with power unearthly. -The partridge skulks, terrified amid lowly -grasses from the hunter, little by little gathering courage -for her pinions, then she suddenly departs to -return no more, meanwhile luring the hunter from her -treasures.”</p> - -<p>“That is, an abused wife should run away?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, perhaps not; but she may rise above her -tyrant.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t but remember the woman’s rough strength.”</p> - -<p>“To me the all-controlling love of Rizpah for her -children condones her former errings, her Philistine -ancestry, her craggedness. I believe she soars with the -angels now, and to Israel she must be a pattern until -some more saintly and finer woman arises to take the -leadership of woman.”</p> - -<p>“Will such an one appear, mother?”</p> - -<p>“God’s dial is a circle, with a sweep like eternity.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> -He knows no hurry; yet, though never weary, is never -belated. We are not waiting for him, but He is for us. -When man is ready to take up his pilgrim march to the -highlands of a living, all light, all beautiful, there’ll be -beacons and beacons from the valleys to the hills.”</p> - -<p>Just then the lamp by which they had been sitting, -for some time having only flickered, was suddenly -quenched, and there was a sound of the fluttering of -wings in the room. Miriamne screamed and clung to -her mother, her thoughts on the vultures of the picture.</p> - -<p>“’Twas only a bat, daughter!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, this ghostly place!” the young woman cried.</p> - -<p>“Ghosts and bats are very harmless; would men -were like them!” bitterly spoke Rizpah.</p> - -<p>“A bat putting out our light; it’s like an omen!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, wrongs do put out the light of human joy, but -only for a little while; look out to the firmament, my -clinging other self, as I do, for comfort by times. See, -the stars are immovable; all bright and in seemingly -everlasting calm. Never forget in any long trial, or -sudden terror, that when our human-made lights expire -we are to turn our eyes toward heaven. In truth, God -Himself often quenches our lights to make us look up -to His.” The mother, approaching the stone casement, -and looking out on the sky, continued: “The -heavens are full of beacons and lamps. They shall -light us to bed as His truth lights those who will to -serene, long rest. Good night, my child.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED IN THE GIANT CITY.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Half-hearted, false-hearted! Heed we the warning!</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Only the whole can be perfectly true;</div> -<div class="verse">Bring the whole offering, all timid thought scorning,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">True-hearted only if whole-hearted too.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Havergal.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-a.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Another Passover season was at hand, and -the few Israelites in and about Bozrah, not -being permitted to celebrate the feast, at -Jerusalem were gathering for a “Little -Passover” at the Giant City. There was sadness, murmurings -and fears in the hearts of the people. Sadness -in remembering the decadence of Israel; fears, for -there were Mamelukes hovering threateningly in large -numbers near the city; murmurings, because fault-findings, -the last stage to indifference, flourish when -religion is decaying. Faith and doubt waged their -eternal battle; and at Bozrah, doubt appealing to present -facts, had the easier part against faith, appealing -to past providences or unseen hopes. There was -clamor for a change, but the leaders of the people were -purblind to any new light. They crushed their own -secret doubts and continued to enforce what they believed, -because they had believed it. They felt a sense -of responsibility, and that made them very conservative. -Before the sun had reached high-noon Bozrah<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> -was all astir. There were but two principal streets -in the city; these ran by the four great points of the -compass and crossed at its center. Two companies of -Jews of very different make-up, each moving along one -of those streets, met, and, in passing, quite accidentally, -the two processions formed a cross. One of the companies -was made up of priests and serious old men, the -true elders of the people. They tried to appear very -wise and very pious, and succeeded. They tried as well -to cheer and comfort all, and did not succeed very well. -The other company was made up of young Israelitish -men. They were going eastward; the old men walked -northward, away from the sun, now a little more than -southeast. By the side of the elders glided a row of -shadows of their own making. But they were as -unconscious of these as of the shadows their musty -traditions flung over the people.</p> - -<p>The youths felt like singing, so they sang. The -sadness that was so general was not very deep with -them. They would have liked to have sung a sort -of convivial song; but, that being forbidden, they compromised -with their consciences and the situation -by singing the one hundred and twenty-second Psalm, -with the vigor of a madrigal. They had a surplusage -of vitality, and they let it flow out in the pious -canticle. Certainly they conserved outward propriety; -as to their inward feelings, they themselves hardly -knew what they were; hence, it would be unjust, -for one without, to pass judgment. The Psalm was -appointed to be sung at this feast. They say the returning -captives, coming from Babylon, centuries before, -sang this song as they ascended to a sight of Jerusalem.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span></p> - -<p>Now, some of the elders had come to think it piety -to morbidly nurse their sorrows. They were never -happy except when they were miserable. One of these -paused and addressed the young singers:</p> - -<p>“Children, cease. Your time is too much like a -dancer’s.”</p> - -<p>Then all eyes turned toward the leader of the -youths, a man with a Saul-like neck, large mouth, wet, -thick lips, and burning eyes; all bespeaking a person -who is never religious beyond the drawings of religious -excitement, for excitement’s sake, and never self-restraining, -except as checked by fear of a very material -hell. Such an one, if he have any regularity in -his piety, will have it because somebody opposes, or -because, having swallowed, with one lazy gulp, a heavy -creed, he thereafter goes about condoning by habit his -petty vices, in trying to force others to be better than -he himself ever expects to be. Such are never spiritual, -and seldom martyrs; but they make good persecutors, -and so do a work that compels others, by suffering, to -be spiritual, and, may be, good martyrs. This leader -made sharp retort, thrusting out his chin to enforce it:</p> - -<p>“The Psalm is all right, and, if the old men sang -more, they would have less time for moaning. Singing -and moaning are much alike, only the former -cheers men, the latter, devils!”</p> - -<p>“Son,” replied the patriarch, “revile not the fathers. -We do not condemn thy joy as sin; but yet it now -seems inopportune. We are entering captivity, not -liberation. Our holy and our beautiful temple is in -ruins; our people like hunted quail.”</p> - -<p>“But, this is feast time,” said the youth.</p> - -<p>“What a feast! I remember it as it was when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> -nation gathered at Jerusalem, to the number of -nigh 3,000,000, and offered 250,000 lambs. Ah, -now, a handful, in this grim old city surrounded by -aliens!”</p> - -<p>The elder, so speaking, bowed his head, threw his -mantle over his eyes and wept; meanwhile his fellow-elders -gathered about him, very reverently, and waved -their hands rebuking toward the youths. Just then -there drew near a beautiful Jewess, led by an aged -man, the latter garbed partly as an Israelite, and partly -as one of the Druses. He had a saintly mien, and fixed -the attention of the elders; but, the young men, with -one accord, youth-like, at once erected, in silent worship, -an unseen altar of devotion to the new goddess. -The grouping was striking and suggestive. The -stranger was silent, and seemed to be intent on passing -by so; but the elders felt their responsibility. It is -the fate of the religious leader to be expected to -explain every thing. He must talk to every body, and -about every matter. He cannot, when he will, keep -quiet and so get the credit for fullness of wisdom, as do -some. He must express an opinion, for silence is -deemed a greater sin in such than insincerity or words -out of ignorance. The foremost of the elders felt -called to act, and so confronting the two new comers, -sternly addressed the maiden:</p> - -<p>“I perceive that thou art of my people; wherefore -comest thou here, and in this companionship? Knowest -thou not that women are forbidden to be at the -first of the feast?”</p> - -<p>The young men were not in accord with the elder; -they stood apart, and some whispered to others:</p> - -<p>“It is Miriamne de Griffin.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span></p> - -<p>The maiden shrank back a little; but the saintly man -with her, advancing a step, replied:</p> - -<p>“I am the maiden’s guardian to-day, fathers, and -responsible for her act. Say on!”</p> - -<p>The elder, though knowing full well who the speaker -was, and also fully understanding the import of his -challenge, pretended to have neither heard nor seen -him. He looked past the speaker, who was championing -the maiden, and continued:</p> - -<p>“Do thy people at home know of these indiscreet -acts?”</p> - -<p>“Hold, Rabbi! no insinuations.” The saintly man’s -voice was commanding, and compelled silence. He -continued: “We go our way, ye yours. Ye can not -help yourselves out of your miseries; then presume -not to direct us.” He checked his rising anger, remembering -that he was a religious teacher, and -launched out in a wayside sermon. “Ye children of -Abraham, hear me, though I came not to counsel. Ye -have stopped my progress, now hear God’s truth! -There are dangers without, but greater ones within; -though your eyes, being veiled, ye perceive not these -things. I noticed as I was coming this way that the -tombs and grave-stones every where have been whitened -recently. They tell me this was done so as to enable -your people plainly to see them and so avoid them. -Yet fleeing defilement of the dead, ye live in a grave, -all of you. All your prefiguring feasts have ripened -into a glowing present that treads out into a full -day!”</p> - -<p>The old men seemed puzzled and angry; the young -men puzzled but glad. They welcomed any sermon if -it came with novelty. They reasoned within themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> -that the old teachings were dead, and that a new -creed could be no worse. If it were novel, it would -have at least a temporary freshness.</p> - -<p>The speaker proceeded, for the congregation before -him, being divided in sentiment, invited him, so far, to -proceed.</p> - -<p>“Oh, nation, called to be the light of the world, -ye bear but phantom torches. Ye move sorrowfully, -surrounded by walls of cloud, but just beyond there -lies a glorious firmament, aglow with suns of hope and -a thousand golden-arched doors made of realized prophecies -and promises ripened. Can ye make these -ruined habitations of mighty men, now sleeping in the -cliffs and valleys about us, again teem with their former -life? No, no! yet less readily can ye make your dead, -finished, vanishing types take new life. Ye are puzzled -and partially angry, but hold in check the hot -blood. I’ll soon depart; yet before I go, I’ll tell ye, -all, this for your deepest thinking: Ye can never celebrate -again the Passover! God shut ye from your -Temple long ago to teach you this; these traveling -ceremonials of yours are but mockeries. The last real -passover was celebrated when your fathers slew the -Nazarene——”</p> - -<p>“Let us stone him!” vehemently cried the brawny -leader of the youths, and the elders turned their backs, -as if to give approval to the violence, but not incur liability -by witnessing.</p> - -<p>The brawny youth seized a boulder as if to begin; -the saintly man did not move, and another youth -seized the arm of the youth of brawn.</p> - -<p>“Young men, I’ll show you an entrancing picture,” -was the saintly man’s calm words. They were instantly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> -intent. “Look, you and your old men -make the sign of the cross by your ranks. -Look again, by the cross stands this damsel, simple, -pure and loving; an ideal woman. Her name, Miriamne, -or Mary. Do not delude yourselves into the -belief that it will be safe or possible for you to silence -truth by murdering me. I’d despise your attempt if I -did not pity your thoughtless rage. Do not forget the -picture of this hour. The Passover will be fully celebrated -when the power of the cross and the presence -of purity is universally felt in earth. Only your men attend -this your sacrifice. It is well; and when men -truly bear the burden of sacrifice, women will be at -their feast. Now, then, take heed. Farewell, ancients!”</p> - -<p>So saying the saintly man of strange garb suddenly -turned away, drawing the Jewess with him. The elders -were confounded; they could not find words at the -moment for reply; they were stung by the pleased and -approving glances that the young men gave the departing -couple. The elders would have been pleased -to have taken the Jewish maiden from her escort with -violence, but the latter was a brawny man. The elders -knew the youths would not aid; to attempt it themselves -would be likely to be a failure, certainly undignified. -They deemed it wise, in any event, to conserve -their dignity, and being unable to do any thing -more terrific, they hissed an orthodox malediction after -the departing man and woman. That made the elders -feel a little better. The two companies at the crossing -of the streets fell to musing and conversing, but in -different groups. The old men talked as old men, deploring -the present and be-praising the past; the youths<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> -deplored the present and be-praised the future; some -of them trying to interpret the words of the saintly man. -They all wanted to be very orthodox Jews, and yet -they all felt that the stranger’s words were full of -sweetness and good cheer. Some of the youths, like -others of their age, had unconsciously sided with the -strangers on account of the woman’s influence. They -admired her, and the side she was on was charmingly -invincible.</p> - -<p>“<i>The Arabs are coming!</i>”</p> - -<p>It was a cry starting up from all directions, and -passed from lip to lip like the tidings of fire at night. -The city was soon in confusion and panic; then mixed -crowds surged toward the crossing of the streets like -terrified sheep. They needed leaders or shepherds. -But the elders so lavish in advice usually, were dumb -with fright now. Yet every body looked toward them -for direction. Suddenly, the saintly man and the -Jewess reappeared; as suddenly transformed to a self-reliant -leader, she cried out: “Youths of Israel, to the -defense; the enemy come in by the wall toward the Sun -Temple’s ruins!”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps it’s the ‘Angel of Death,’” cried the thick-necked -leader of the youths.</p> - -<p>“The All-Father of the covenant forefend!” groaned -some of the elders.</p> - -<p>“Fathers,” cried the Jewess, “pray as you can, but -we younger ones must fight as well as pray. Pray the -men to go to a charge!”</p> - -<p>“A Deborah!” shouted the thick-necked youth. -“Now lead and we’ll follow!”</p> - -<p>“Shame!” cried the saintly man. “Lead yourselves!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p> - -<p>There was no need of argument; the thick-necked -youth waved his hand to the other young men and -they all dashed away toward the advance of the -enemy; all of the city having a mind to fight, becoming -instant volunteers. But the elders, with a piety enforced -by prudence concluded to stay at the crossing -and pray. Perhaps in their hearts they reasoned that -if the enemy were repulsed they might claim the -glory of having sustained the fighters, as Aarons and -Hurs; if the youths and their followers were overcome, -then they, the elders, might claim prescience and say -at the end: “We knew it were vain to resist.”</p> - -<p>Soon there were heard the shouts and clangor of -conflict. The fight was on. Miriamne breathlessly -carried the news to her mother.</p> - -<p>The matron laid her hand on her bosom, not to still -a fluttering heart, but affectionately to toy with the -handle of her faithful dagger.</p> - -<p>“Oh, mother, when will these troublous times end? -what shall we do?”</p> - -<p>“Daughter, fight! if need be.”</p> - -<p>“But we are only women!”</p> - -<p>“But this is woman’s time; remember Sisera!” -Rizpah began dressing for departure.</p> - -<p>“Oh, mother, wait! Let us send the boys for news -into the city. Perhaps the worst has not come, when -the mothers must take arms.”</p> - -<p>Rizpah silently assented. The boys were sent, and -in half an hour returned with hot and beaming faces. -“The Mamelukes are all slung out of the city! Lots -of them killed,” both exclaimed, between their pantings.</p> - -<p>“How brothers: is it all over?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Yes, all over! They’re gone! Oh, you ought to -have seen how our young men and the Druses raced -them,” interposed one.</p> - -<p>“If it hadn’t been for the Druses we’d all been murdered!” -cried the other. Then the brothers caught up -the narrative in turn.</p> - -<p>“And, Miriamne, some of the young soldier-like -men, after the fight, went about shouting ‘<i>cheers for the -flag of Maccabees and the maid of Bozrah!</i>’ They -say the ‘maid of Bozrah’ means you. What do they -intend?”</p> - -<p>Miriamne seemed not to hear the question. She was -engrossed with her own thoughts and thus was meditating: -“It’s just as the Old Clock Man said! The Druses -by their needed aid prove it; the Jews need a Saviour!”</p> - -<p>“Boys,” presently questioned Rizpah, “Were many -of the heretics killed?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, ever so many! Yes, and we want cloths for -the wounded,” said the questioned lads.</p> - -<p>“Now, may the alien dead rot!”</p> - -<p>“But we must bring cloths.”</p> - -<p>“Who says it?”</p> - -<p>“The ‘Old Clock Man’ told every body to help the -hurt.”</p> - -<p>“And who, pray, is this ‘Old Clock Man?’”</p> - -<p>Rizpah was quickly answered by Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“I know him, mother. He’s the leader of the -Christians here, and a wondrously good old man who -heals the sick, feeds the poor, teaches the ignorant and -gives the true time of day to every body by the bell of -his religious house!”</p> - -<p>The mother fixed her eyes penetratingly upon Miriamne -for a moment, then frigidly questioned:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And since thou hast disobeyed me in making the -acquaintance of a stranger, thou wilt now explain why -thou hast never mentioned to me this ‘Old Clock -Man’ of whom thou dost seem to know so much! -Who is he?”</p> - -<p>“Why, he’s the ‘Old Clock Man’ who mends poor -people’s clocks, plays with the children and is doing -every body kindness!”</p> - -<p>“Some Christian witchery!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, mother, he’s an angel if ever there was one on -earth!”</p> - -<p>“Is he a Jew?” almost hissed Rizpah.</p> - -<p>“I’ve forgotten to ask about that; but I’m certain -he is, if only Jews are good, for he is a saint -of God.”</p> - -<p>Rizpah’s face wore a sneer as she again spoke: -“How canst thou tell, Inexperience?”</p> - -<p>“By acts. He goes about seeking poor people to -clothe and feed, and he is their physician as well, and -will take no pay.”</p> - -<p>“Some Christian perverter, trying to seduce the -unthinking by pretended service. Beware of such, -Miriamne!”</p> - -<p>“But healing the sick and setting people’s clocks -right can’t do harm! I’m certain of that?”</p> - -<p>“How sly; he would set all Jewry to Christian time -and faith at the same instant!”</p> - -<p>“I love his way, mother; it is so good; more I do -not know.”</p> - -<p>“The old knave!”</p> - -<p>“Oh! mother, he is old, but no knave. Ought we -not to be reverent to the hoary head in the way of righteousness?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Yet an old man may poison women and children. -I told thee the story of Agag once, daughter.”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“I mean now to tell thee if this man be not a Jew, -let him be like Agag, hewn to pieces. Flee him as a -leper.”</p> - -<p>“He don’t talk so. He says all mankind are brothers. -Only to-day, he cried, to the men in the beginning -of the fight, ‘save your families as best you may,’ -kill the wounded Moslem with kindness!” The rapid -converse of the two women was interrupted by the impatient -cry of the boys for wraps and lint. As they -started away, Miriamne darted after them, saying: “I’ll -go and help those caring for the wounded.”</p> - -<p>“Wayward,” called after her the mother, “remember -my commands. Keep away from the old Perverter, -and minister to suffering Israelites, only. God can -spare the rest! Let them die.”</p> - -<p>In the midst of the suffering ones, Miriamne soon -found herself, and as might be expected; there, too, -was the “Old Clock Man.” As they met he said, -laconically, “It is fitting that woman’s tender hands -minister thus.”</p> - -<p>“Thanks,” was her reply.</p> - -<p>Presently Miriamne questions, with an unaffected -diffidence, her companion.</p> - -<p>“Will you tell me your name?”</p> - -<p>“Call me father, that’s enough.”</p> - -<p>“Ah! but I can not, you are not my father.”</p> - -<p>“I may be.”</p> - -<p>“What jest is this! I’ve a father living?”</p> - -<p>“I am father to multitudes, but after the flesh, childless.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Oh, thy children are dead, then?”</p> - -<p>“Nay, some dead and some living; but, living or -dead, they are my children.”</p> - -<p>“This is a wilderment to me. Where is your wife?”</p> - -<p>“Everywhere. In early youth, with vows unutterable, -I wed my church. She is Humanity’s mother, and -I the father of all of her children, who will let me serve -them.”</p> - -<p>“And is this the Christian faith?”</p> - -<p>“It is mine, anyway.”</p> - -<p>“I like it. I’m sure it must be safe; being so good, -and so you may be my father that way. Are there -many fathers like you?”</p> - -<p>“Many, and many needed, else sin will make all orphans.”</p> - -<p>“And you have no wife, no home?”</p> - -<p>“A home most beautiful, which, at sunset, I’ll enter -through a door, once shut, not possible to be opened -by my hands, though its fastenings be but grass and -daisies.”</p> - -<p>“You mean death?” As she said it, tears welled -in Miriamne’s eyes.</p> - -<p>“Weep not, my child, death is beautiful, at least -to me.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, good man—father. I do not yet know how to -think about you or these things that you say. What -made you so different from the people I know?”</p> - -<p>“A woman, a lovely woman.”</p> - -<p>“Your mother?”</p> - -<p>“Not as you think.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, then pardon my curiosity. You had some -love?”</p> - -<p>“Thou hast said it.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Why did you not wed her? Did she die?”</p> - -<p>“A woman’s question? I’ll tell thee all some other -time. I hear approaching voices.”</p> - -<p>“Tell me just a little more now; do?”</p> - -<p>“Are the wounded all attended properly? Mercy -first, stories and sermons after.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, here come my brothers. I’ll inquire;” and -away ran Miriamne to a group of youths, singing a -roundelay, of which she caught but a few lines;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Jew and Gentile, Christian, Turk,</div> -<div class="verse">Equally shall share our work.</div> -<div class="verse indent1">For Adolphus’ good</div> -<div class="verse indent1">We’d shed our blood,</div> -<div class="verse">For we have joined the balsam band,</div> -<div class="verse">To cure all troubles in our land.</div> -<div class="verse indent1">We love the man,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">We love the band.</div> -<div class="verse">We love the brothers of our balsam band.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Miriamne comprehended the situation in a moment, -and all radiant with smiles, bounded to the side of her -aged friend, crying: “Father, oh, you’ve a bonny family -coming; over fifty youths and maidens; some Jews, -some Gentiles. They’ve been comforting the wounded -and now have spontaneously formed some sort of -friendly guild.”</p> - -<p>“That’s praiseworthy so far,” the saintly man replied.</p> - -<p>“And don’t blush; when I asked the leader what -were their purposes and name, a dozen cried out at -once; ‘We’re Father Adolphus’s angels of mercy!’”</p> - -<p>“They could easily have found a better title, but -youth in its frank celerity interprets human need. We -all must have a pattern or hero. That’s the reason there -are pagans; not finding the true God, some invent one. -Anyway, God blesses the merciful.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Oh, these angels are splendid; so earnest; so happy; -so every thing good! They all wear balsam-twig -crowns, and are singing improvised ditties about charity -and humanity, and such like.”</p> - -<p>“Praised be God if they mean them, daughter.”</p> - -<p>“Mean them? Why they’ll make the ancients groan -if they go to the crossways with their enthusiastic singing. -‘Black-frowns!’ if they disturb the Passover solemnities, -won’t there be trouble?</p> - -<p>“And Bozrah will never understand the meaning of -the ceremonial, the phantom of which meaning some -to-day are pursuing, until it beholds sweet charity -sincerely applied, rising with healing and life in its -wings to pass over savingly where humanity has pains -and death.”</p> - -<p>The old priest looked away toward Jerusalem, as he -spoke—his voice meanwhile becoming very tender, -almost tremulous. Had one been able to enter his -heart, there would have been seen a memory picture of -Calvary. Miriamne was awed for a few moments; the -old man was lost in thought; presently she recalled his -attention: “Father, the band is just at hand. Shall I -introduce you?”</p> - -<p>“It is needless; I formed that Band of Charity, -though I gave them not the name; most all except -the recruits of to-day know me.”</p> - -<p>The singers went by, saluting the priest as they -passed; obeying his signal to them not to tarry.</p> - -<p>Miriamne turned to her comrade with quickened confidence, -and with her usual impetuosity exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“I want to be what you like. Make me a Balsamite!”</p> - -<p>“Thou hast a mother who might object.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Oh, no, no; not if she knew all, as do I.”</p> - -<p>“Some have called my work witchcraft.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t care, since I know better. Make me a -Balsamite, now, please?”</p> - -<p>“So be it, child. Put thy hand on thy heart and -repeat: ‘<i>I promise my Merciful Father always to show -heartfelt kindness to all His creatures, especially those in -misery, because of His everlasting goodness toward myself.</i>’”</p> - -<p>“I promise that gladly. Is that all?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; thy badge, a sprig of the evergreen balm-shrub, -shall teach thee the rest.”</p> - -<p>“Teach me the rest?”</p> - -<p>“Puzzled again, child? Well, I’ll teach thee, and -the shrub shall recall my lessons. As thou dost -learn to love nature, as thou wilt when getting back -to a more child-like faith, nature will talk to thee -all the time. See, this is unfading; so is mercy. -When torrid suns make the shrub suffer, it sweats or -weeps these healing gums. Trials make all good souls -fruitful. Then see, this little shrub gives to the world -all it receives, transforming its earthy nourishments, -sunshines and showers, into a medicament for sufferers. -It is a type of the All-Giver. It has but three flowers, -and I read in these the signature of a Triune God. -This thou wilt, perhaps, read some time for thyself, -when thou hast learned the mystery of the Unspeakable -Gift.”</p> - -<p>“My father, your wisdom is very beautiful.”</p> - -<p>“Would, my child, that my words ever be to thee -as the nuts of this little evergreen emblem, though -rough-coated, still filled with liquid of honey sweetness.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span></p> - -<p>The maiden yearned to embrace the priest. Had -she done so, her feelings would have been like those -of a daughter toward a father, or a devotee toward -God. She yearned to express love for father. The -fountain of that affection, hitherto unevoked, was full. -But she restrained herself, and said, as she clasped the -old man’s arm: “May I be crowned?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, daughter; having served the bleeding as thou -didst to-day, thou mayst.” The priest twined together -some of the balsam bows and placed them upon her -brow. “I saw once, at Damascus, a painted presentment -of the mother of our Lord, on wood, from which, -continuously, there exuded a precious nard, of all -healing virtue. So they said, at least; and more than -this, I was assured it had power to heal even the -wounds of infidels.”</p> - -<p>“Is this really so?”</p> - -<p>“I believe a Christian kindness to an unbeliever a -medicine to the soul of the blesser and blest. That’s -why I’m merciful to Moslem.”</p> - -<p>“But you court dangers, do you not? I remember -your telling me once, that fanatics, or men with a false -religion, falsely practiced, were like mad dogs—one -could never tell when they might bite the kindest -master.”</p> - -<p>“True, some forgetting the essence of all religion -worth the name, Charity, to propagate their theories, -easily befool their consciences and murder gratitude. -But ingratitude is a Christian and Jewish, as well as a -heathen fault. In this all are alike. Still, though a -man spoil all the good I try to do him, there’s one -thing he can not spoil.”</p> - -<p>“And that is what?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p> - -<p>“The bird of sunny plumage that sings in my -heart because of the good I attempt. I met a -French pilgrim, a while ago, who spent his time mostly -in helping, as he could, to make the Mohammedan -children he met, happy. He sang to them, gave them -presents, acted as umpire in their sports, and if one got -hurt he mothered it—(that’s what he called his tender, -odd ways). Some called him wrong in his head, but -when I knew him I believed that one sane, amid thousands -crazed.”</p> - -<p>“Who and what was he?”</p> - -<p>“I asked him, and for reply got only this: ‘I’m -Melchisedec, a priest of the wayside, seeking to win -silver hands, silver feet, and crown jewels.’”</p> - -<p>“Well, he would have frightened me, if I’d met him -speaking that way and in such moods?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no; he was not frightful; he seemed to attract -even the birds, and the ownerless curs ran to him when -others spurned them. He once, when sick, told me -that he came from Toul, in Lorraine, where was enshrined -an image of Madonna with a silver foot. He -believed that tradition, which declared that that presentment -of Mary gave a sign by taking a step, on a -certain time, which warned some of great impending -danger, and thereupon the member was changed to the -precious metal.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a pretty story.”</p> - -<p>“At least the lesson is honey-like. No being can -strive to help another without finding the All-Shining -often in his own soul. So our crowns are made.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE QUEEN’S CHILDHOOD.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Now raise thy view,</div> -<div class="verse">Unto the vision most resembling Christ’s.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Dante.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Gabriel.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-m.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Miriamne, all aglow with pleasurable excitement -and filled with a curiosity which -at times rose to very serious questioning -as to her own faith, anxiously sought to -compass an early meeting with the “Old Clock Man.” -She could not content herself to wait a chance opportunity, -and so, remembering that it was his custom at -evening time to visit, alone, for meditation various old -ruins like those of the Reservoir, she determined to -seek him there; it being not very far from her home. -With beating heart she repaired thither at sunset, the -day after the Mameluke attack. Having traversed the -Reservoir’s side some two or three hundred feet, she -was on the point of returning, for the place was very -lonely, when a voice startled her.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Father Adolphus, how you frighten me! I’m -so glad you came!”</p> - -<p>“Looking for me, yet frightened at finding me. -Glad I came, though I scared you?”</p> - -<p>“Well, men and women when frightened are glad of -the fellowship of any thing seemingly strong. It’s -easy for the terrified to believe or trust.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 425px;" id="illus4"> -<img src="images/illus4.jpg" width="425" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption-r">By Carl Muller.</p> -<p class="caption">THE EDUCATION OF MARY.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span></p> - -<p>“There’s rare philosophy in thy head, little woman.”</p> - -<p>“So? What were you saying when I startled so?”</p> - -<p>“That the silvering of the moon brought out thy -person beautifully. So she that sits above the moon, a -queen in heaven, would beautify thy soul if thou -shouldst elect to put on the character she ever wore.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t do that, knowing so little of her.”</p> - -<p>“A woman’s way of saying, tell me more.”</p> - -<p>“You would not torment your Mary with such repartee.”</p> - -<p>“Woman again. Art thou jealous already?”</p> - -<p>“Fie.”</p> - -<p>“Say that again! Once the foil of one of thy sex -is penetrated, not having arguments, she can at least -say ‘fie’! Well, even ducklings hiss when helplessly -entangled.”</p> - -<p>“Adolphus Von Gombard, I’ll not call you ‘father’ -again, if you approach me any more in this courtier -fashion.”</p> - -<p>“Again, I say, an old head; but I’d plead privilege.”</p> - -<p>“At least old enough to discern the sacred line that -bounds all proper commerce between the sexes. You -plead privilege; I grant you the noblest any woman -can give, the privilege of guiding my immortal soul; -but I remember to have heard that he who would shepherd -such as I, must be to her as a woman. The relationship -between us must be as that between the -angels of heaven who neither marry nor are given in -marriage.”</p> - -<p>“Some young women receive teachings most willingly -from fine-favored and patronizing instructors.”</p> - -<p>“I know it; but let none patronize me so. I’ve begun -to adore the Sacrist of Bozrah, but if a breath or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> -word passes that makes me think of him chiefly as -being a man, then I shall sit in his presence in fright, -or flee as I would were I to find the place changed into -a lonely night-draped waddy, my only company an -image of some leering, giant Bacchus. But this unequal -defence is painful.”</p> - -<p>“Then desist and tell me what I’m to do.”</p> - -<p>“You have been my ideal man, for heaven’s sake rob -me not by changing!”</p> - -<p>“Right nobly spoken, daughter. Now pardon me, -for I was putting thee to a test.”</p> - -<p>“A test?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. It’s forbidden, by customs hereabout, for -man and woman, as we, alone to converse face to face; -perhaps wisely, if one be bad and the other weak. -Yet the custom is heathenish—low moral tone engendering -mighty suspicions!”</p> - -<p>“Did my priest think me a heathen?”</p> - -<p>“No, not that; but they say the moon makes lovers -and others mad. I was wondering whether I was dealing -with a bundle of romancings or an earnest girl?”</p> - -<p>Delicately the maiden avoided the query with -another:</p> - -<p>“You loved Mary: why did you not wed her?”</p> - -<p>“Woman again; doomed to make all vistas end in -wedlock. With your sex love, beginning to give, gives -all readily, and seems to find no rest until there’s conjugal -union.”</p> - -<p>“I have not desired to give all that way to those -I’ve loved!”</p> - -<p>“It is all or nothing. Ye women love only relatives, -and never cease to desire to make all relatives whom -ye want to love. Why, girl, my Mary is a saint; she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> -died ages ago, after the flesh; but as a model for all -womankind lives forever,”</p> - -<p>“How was she your Mary, then?”</p> - -<p>“She belongs to every noble minded man as his -inspirer.”</p> - -<p>“Mary—you call her Mary. I thought all the holy -and the great had uncommon names?”</p> - -<p>“In fiction they do; in reality the name is nothing.”</p> - -<p>“Was she wise and beautiful?”</p> - -<p>“One of our most holy teachers, Epiphanius, who -lived less than four hundred years after Mary, spent -many years at Bethlehem and gathered facts that -caused him thus to write. ‘She was of middle stature, -her face oval, her eyes brilliant and of an olive tint; -her eyebrows arched and black, her hair a pale brown, -her complexion fair as wheat. She spoke little, but she -spoke freely and affably. She was grave, courteous, -tranquil. In her deportment was nothing lax or feeble.’ -Saint Denis, the Areopagite, who is said to have seen -this queen of David’s house in her lifetime, declared -that she was ‘a dazzling beauty,’ that he ‘would have -adored her as a goddess had he not known that there was -but one God!’ Of this much I’m certain, my Bozrah -Miriamne, one so serene of character, and so pure, -must have reflected her inner, imperishable beauties in -her features.”</p> - -<p>“Father Adolphus, you mention strange names. -There are none that sound like those revered by my -people. Do you ever hate my race? If you do you -must not teach me any doctrine.”</p> - -<p>“Hate? Why, I love all peoples, and by faith I am -made a child of Abraham.”</p> - -<p>“Then you are a proselyte?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Not by any forms. I believe in the God of Abraham -and His Messiah. That makes me a perfect Jew.”</p> - -<p>“This is strange. My mother never unfolded it to -me.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, she has not yet looked into these royal mysteries?”</p> - -<p>“But, good father, is your name among our chronologies?”</p> - -<p>“Thanks to the God of the Patriarchs, yes; it is -with that of Moses, David, Elijah, and all the rest, in -the Lamb’s Book of Life.”</p> - -<p>“Where?”</p> - -<p>“In Heaven.”</p> - -<p>“How wonderful; yet I’m afraid to hear more.”</p> - -<p>“Shall I take thee home?”</p> - -<p>“No; tell me more of Mary. You say she made -you lonely and a father?”</p> - -<p>“I must then begin her history, and show thee how -and why she lived?”</p> - -<p>“Do you think it will tire me?”</p> - -<p>“Fear not! Her story is a poem, a picture, a tragedy; -it’s one long delight.”</p> - -<p>“Then tell it to me, I pray you.”</p> - -<p>So the priest proceeded:</p> - -<p>“When the world was very wicked, and therefore -very sad, God in His goodness was drawn to send from -heaven a light-bearer—some one to tell man his duty -and able to win back to the Great Father mankind’s -straying affections. Thou dost know this much, and -hast read in thy sacred Scriptures how God called to -the universe, all chaotic and dark, to come forth into -beautiful form; how he said to the darkness, ‘<i>Let there -be light</i>.’ That history bears within it a fine sermon.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> -It’s a picture of God’s. Out of sin, darkness, confusion, -there emerged a perfect man in a Paradisiacal -home, with a perfect, beautiful woman as a help-mate -by his side. That was God’s ideal of perfection and -happiness. It delighted the Father of Joys to make -it. This is ever true; behind all clouds in God’s Providence -is sunshine, and beyond all disorders somewhere -at last will walk forth unalloyed pleasure, a Sabbath-like -rest, and fullness of harmony.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, can you make me believe and feel this?”</p> - -<p>“Wait patiently.”</p> - -<p>“I try to do so; but I’m discouraged by the present -miseries in my family and in all our nation.”</p> - -<p>“God mourns over all our sorrows before they or we -are born, but His wisdom and power of cure are faultless. -Wait. Times are mending, and the moral sphere -is dipping into the rim of light’s oceans. I think the -angels perceive the world now, as thou perceivest the -new moon.”</p> - -<p>“The poetry of the words I can not interpret.”</p> - -<p>“The moon’s a dark globe, with a ribbon of silver -across it.”</p> - -<p>“And things have been worse; now are bettering?”</p> - -<p>“Assuredly so. Believe there is a God, and thou’lt -rest in hope. Go back a little in history to when Cæsar -Augustus, of awful pagan Rome, ruled the world, having -won dominion through desolating wars. The -most educated Romans then believed in no hereafter, -and sought openly, without restraint, the grossest -pleasures. The ignorant believed in fabled monstrosities. -Rome set the fashions of all the world. The -Jews, thy people, God’s people, were lower, morally, -then, than ever they had been before. They were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> -divided into warring families and sects, holding a few -forms and traditions, but having little heart in religion. -The rest of mankind was barbarous. Thou hast heard -how the Roman Titus overthrew Jerusalem, slaughtering -thy people by thousands, defiling their holy Temple -and seeming to blot out nearly the whole of thy race. -That time of Titus was midnight; since that the day -has been slowly advancing. Before that awful culmination -of sorrows, the Divine Trinity held august -council, and, as say the traditions of my church, determined -to bring a holy sunrise to the earth’s midnight. -The trouble of all creation was that man had fallen. -The Divine Council decreed to confound the devil, who -broke up the first home and ruined the first pure pair -by causing to emerge from another home, another pair. -They came, this time mother and Son, to be the moral -patterns for the race, the beginning of a new, sin-conquering -dispensation. The fathers hand down these -sayings: ‘The august, regal Triune Council thus decreed: -“Let us make a pure creature, dearer to us than -all others.”’ They say she was begotten upon the Sabbath, -the birth-day of the angels, whose queen she -was to be. Then one thousand of the ministering -spirits were commissioned to defend her; while Gabriel -was sent to announce the glad tidings of the birth of a -Saviour’s mother, in Hades. Her angels appeared as -young men, of majestic mien, of marvelous beauty and -pure as crystals. Their garments were like gold, richly -colored, and could not be touched any more than could -be the light of the sun.”</p> - -<p>“How charming! But is this all true?” exclaimed -the maiden.</p> - -<p>Without reply, the priest continued: “They were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> -crowned with diadems, exhaling celestial perfumes; in -their hands they bore interwoven palms; on their arms -and breasts were crosses and military devices. They -were swift of flight, some of them six-winged, like the -angels of Isaiah’s vision.”</p> - -<p>“How dazzling! But is this all true?” Miriamne -persisted.</p> - -<p>“Well, it’s not in thy sacred books nor in mine so -written.”</p> - -<p>“Then you are giving me your imaginings?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no; but after the manner I have spoken, it is -recorded in revered traditions of my church, and none -can very well disprove the sayings.”</p> - -<p>“I wonder if such honors made Mary proud?”</p> - -<p>“A strange query.”</p> - -<p>“I’d like to love one such as she, but could not if she -were haughty or lofty, like the great of earth.”</p> - -<p>“It would have made such as thou proud, perhaps; -but there was none of the serpent in her whose Offspring -was to crush the serpent’s head.”</p> - -<p>“Is there any of the serpent in me?”</p> - -<p>“I’m not thy judge.”</p> - -<p>“Then she was immaculate?”</p> - -<p>“Ah, that’s a question for the doctors. I’m too -simple to know beyond what is written. I’m glad to -know that she rejoiced in her son, as a God and a <i>Saviour</i>!”—“She -was of noble family, though her parents -were poor,” the priest continued. “Her mother was -by name Anna, and worthy of the name, which is by -interpretation ‘<i>gracious</i>.’ Traditions of her goodness -are many, and the good and great have honored her -memory. I paid Anna homage, that of a youth respectful -of worthy motherhood, at Constantinople, in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> -church erected in the year 710 to commemorate that -saint. Among others, also Justinian, the Emperor, -in the year 550, dedicated a sacred place to Mary’s -mother.”</p> - -<p>“Then she had her meed of praise, at last?”</p> - -<p>“Tradition, though tardy, has been just; but I trust -not tradition alone. I easily reason that there must -have been much of goodness and womanly beauty in -the mother that bore such a woman as Mary. I know -that God can bring forth angels from the offscourings, -but that is not His way. He works by steps upward. -I tell thee, girl, the mother gives her life to her offspring, -and in spite of training, almost in spite of -regeneration, the characteristics of this parent will -reappear in the child. But to my story about Mary’s -parents, Jehoikim and Anna.</p> - -<p>“Blessed be God, Anna and Jehoikim were untainted -by the pride of life, and, though living in a -time of loose morals, walked lovingly, constantly with -each other, through all their days. I talk to thee as -to a prudent, but not prudish, young woman. Society -is well rotted when divorce is about as common as -marriage; it was that way in Anna and Jehoikim’s -time. Why, even the exacting Pharisees then taught -that a man might divorce a wife who had lost her personal -beauty, or badly cooked her husband’s meat. Jehoikim -might have left Anna, for she was childless; that -was reason enough for divorcement to the average Jew, -then. But their love was beautiful. The man, as was -his duty, clung tenderly to his wife; her misfortune -making her all the more in need of his tenderness. -Dost thou not think so?”</p> - -<p>“I suppose so. I don’t know.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Pardon my earnestness; it made me forget thy -inexperience!</p> - -<p>“Well, God rewarded their constancy, and they -became the parents of my Mary. The father had a -noble ancestry; but, what is better, within himself a -royal heart. He bore by right the priestly office; but -that was not much to such a man, in respect to worldly -gain. Honest priests in his time were generally poor; -the priestly preferments went, most richly laden, to -those who dealt corruptly, and truckled to the ruling -powers. Mary’s father was above sordidness and simony. -He had little to give or to leave to his beloved, -but he left his child a good name and the remembrance -of the blessed. So while God chose the humble -to confound the mighty, and serenely exalted those of -low estate, He was mindful to choose His elect from -the ranks of the morally great. Such are found in all -places and times, and when surrounded, as were these -pious parents, by the gross, low and selfish, they shine -with transcendent splendor. In Tisri, the first month -of the Jewish civic year, while the smoke of the holocausts -were ascending, to invite heaven’s pardon, Mary, -who was to bring forth the world’s greatest offering -for sin, was born at Nazareth. Her career was fore-ordained, -and she was soon walking her course of piety -and sorrow. Though inexperienced and tender-hearted, -sorrows in heaviest, grimmest forms fell upon her. -Her father died when she was, it is said, only nine -years of age; not long after, the girl knelt, a mourner, -by the bier of her mother; the golden hairs of youth -mingling, in the disheveling of utter grief, with the -gray, which crowned the queen and guide of her heart, -her mother. On the threshold of her life Mary’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> -parents were called away from her, leaving her no heritage -but their precepts and example. They say that -Jehoikim’s hands were stretched out, as in benediction, -when he died, and so remained until his burial, reminding -all that his last act was a commendation of his -little daughter to Him who carries the lambs in his -bosom! The picture of these outstretched hands, and -of the girl embracing the aged dead mother, are often -in my mind; they never fail to deeply move me. -Poor orphaned lamb!”</p> - -<p>Miriamne brushed away a tear, a sort of self-pitying -tear. She ran forward in mind, to the day when she, -herself, would be orphaned, without a benediction, or, -perhaps, a cheering memory. Then she questioned:</p> - -<p>“Did your Mary have other friends?”</p> - -<p>“Yea, her Heavenly Father. It is said, also, that -she was cared for by the elders of the people, and religiously -trained under the very shadows of the Temple. -We may readily believe this; for, in her after life, she -evinced a self-possession in adversity that witnessed of -a thorough religious culture. If there was no other -evidence, her splendid poem, the ‘<i>Magnificat</i>,’ would -convince any seeking proof, that Mary had had surpassing -benefits and privileges in the study of God’s -words, as well as in the best learning of her people, -the Jews. But, Miriamne, I’ll weary thee; let us turn -toward thy home.” Presently they stood not far from -the old stone house of Rizpah; then Von Gombard drew -from under his mantle a roll of writings. “Here, take -and read. After its perusal I’ll see thee again.” So -saying, the old priest lifted a hand in blessing, and -then moved away toward his abode.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE WEDDING, THE BIRTH AND THE FLIGHT.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Seraph of heaven; too gentle to be human,</div> -<div class="verse">Veiled beneath the radiant form of woman.</div> -<div class="verse">Sweet benediction of the eternal curse;</div> -<div class="verse">Veiled glory of the lampless universe!</div> -<div class="verse">Thou moon beyond the clouds, thou living form;</div> -<div class="verse">Thou wonder and thou Beauty——</div> -<div class="verse">Thou harmony of nature’s art.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Shelley.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Take that one hour at Bethlehem out of human history, and -eighteen centuries of hours are left but partially explained.”—<span class="smcap">Prof. -Newman Smyth.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-w.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“What so engages thee, daughter?” questioned -Rizpah, as they sat together at evening -in the old stone house.</p> - -<p>“I’m reading the story of a lovely orphan -girl. I wish I were, in heart, as lovely as she.”</p> - -<p>“Was she a white citadel, pure and strong?”</p> - -<p>“Peerless, indeed; the very queen of women, I -think.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, then thou must be reading of glorious Rizpah? -Now fill me with this matter! I thirst to hear.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne, though fearful of further exposing her -thoughts and study, obeyed, knowing full well that -nothing would so stimulate her mother’s curiosity as -attempted evasion.</p> - -<p>“I’ve been reading of the orphan girl’s marriage. -Shall I go back, or continue from that period? Her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> -name was Mary, and she was a Jewess; that’s the -sum of the beginning.”</p> - -<p>“Go forward,” sententiously replied the elder.</p> - -<p>Miriamne complied:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“The guardians and relatives of Mary determined that -she should early wed some proper person to be her protector, -and so, according to Jewish custom, they went about -the selection of a husband for her as soon as she had -reached her fourteenth year. This selection was deemed -a pious and serious duty by all the participants therein; -therefore it was made by an appeal to the Lord with lots. -Zacharias, the presiding priest, managed the proceeding, -as follows: He first inquired God’s will in prayer. An -angel brought reply, saying: ‘Go forth; call together -all the widowers among the people, and let each bring -his rod.’</p> - -</div> - -<p>“In truth here is refreshment! If all weddings were -contrived under the wisdom of older heads, there would -be fewer mad marriages.” Rizpah swayed back and -forth as she spoke. She was remembering, now, -the curse of Harrimai that day in Gerash, long -years before. She thought him a monster then, but -now she was enshrining him in mind by the Angel of -the Lots.</p> - -<p>“Shall I go on, mother?”</p> - -<p>“Go on.”</p> - -<p>“He to whom the Lord shall show a sign, let him -be husband of Mary,” read Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“Ah, the Lord would not trust the youths to draw! -He knows that a man is like to harass the life out of -one woman before he learns to care for another rightly. -God was good to Mary in hedging her in to a widower -if needs be that she must marry.”</p> - -<p>Rizpah did not sway back and forth now; she sat -erect and laughed bitterly.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 425px;" id="illus5"> -<img src="images/illus5.jpg" width="425" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption-r">By Raphael.</p> -<p class="caption">THE MARRIAGE OF MARY AND JOSEPH.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p> - -<p>Miriamne continued:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“There were many splendid youths who rejoiced to be -permitted to bring their wands.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Oh, ho! then they were suffered to draw for the -girl? But what matter—the Angel of Lots presided! -He’d not let the youths succeed!” Again Rizpah -laughed, and as mockingly as before.</p> - -<p>Miriamne again read:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“After prayer each deposited his almond tree with the -aged Temple priest. In the early morning they anxiously -sought the verdict. It was found that all the rods were -dead, except that of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of -Mathan; but his blossomed as that which, ages before, confirmed -miraculously the priesthood of Aaron’s sons. Then -there appeared another miracle, for as Joseph reached forth -his hand to take his blooming branch, there issued from -among its luxurious blossoms, miraculously, a white dove, -dazzling as snow. For a moment the dove gracefully suspended -itself in the air, turning its eyes from one to another -of the competitors; then it alighted on Joseph’s head. -‘Thou art the person chosen to take the Virgin and keep -her for the Lord,’ said the priest, solemnly, to Joseph. All -the rivals responded ‘Amen,’ and then the dove flew away -toward heaven. Joseph was thirty-three years old, of pleasing -countenance, very modest, graceful, and of comely -figure, and a widower.</p> - -<p>“When all was told to Mary she modestly replied: ‘I -knew it, for the Lord has been with me.’ Zacharias told -Mary that Joseph was a true, honest Jew, a carpenter by -trade, and trained by a father who fully believed the adage -of Rabbins, which said that ‘He who would not make his -son a robber makes him a mechanic.’ ‘Besides this,’ said -the Temple priest, ‘thy espoused one is like thyself, of the -royal <i>house of David</i>. The blood of twenty kings mingle -in the veins of you both. God grant that to that house of -David there soon be born another, greater than all before, -to deliver our holy nation from foreign masters.’ Mary -made no reply, but as a blush of hopefulness passed over -her face, she looked very earnestly toward heaven and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> -seemed to be repeating the prayer of the priest to the -All Father. The formal betrothal then took place. Joseph -presented his chosen bride a small token of silver, saying: -‘If thou consentest to be my bride, accept this.’ She -took it, smiling affectionately, and then the witnesses signed -the usual Jewish compact, which read as follows:</p> - -<p>“‘I Joseph, said to Mary, daughter of Jehoikim, become -my wife under the law of Moses and Israel. I promise to -honor thee; to provide for thy support; thy food and thy -clothing; according to the custom of Hebrew husbands, -who honor their wives, as is befitting. I give thee at once -thy dowry and promise thee besides nourishment, and -clothing, and whatsoever shall be necessary for thee, also -conjugal friendship, a thing common to all nations of the -world. Mary consents to become the wife of Joseph,’ The -two signed the document.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“See Miriamne, the Jews were wise; they made the -husbands do most of the promising. They knew that -the wives would be all wifely without such pledging.” -And Rizpah again bitterly laughed.</p> - -<p>“Shall I proceed?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, oh, proceed; it’s a Jewish poem.”</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Thereupon Joseph placed a jeweled ring upon Mary’s -fourth finger, with a smile and a blush, saying, the ‘physicians -say, my beloved, that a nerve and a vein, reaching the -heart together, lay close to the surface of that finger.’ And -she understood and was happy. A benediction was pronounced, -and then the espoused pair were ready to depart -to Joseph’s house. He was to be the guardian of the maiden -from that hour forth. The hereditary servants of the families -took up the line of march, bearing flaming torches; -immediately after these followed a procession of women, -richly garbed and wearing golden tiaras and pearl bedecked -girdles. Behind these attendants of the virgin, followed a -goodly company of dexterous musicians and singers, discoursing -rapturously the significant canticles of Solomon. -As the latter went on from time to time they broke out of the -line of march and disported themselves in the eastern star-dance, -saying as they did so, to one another, ‘the morning -stars sang at creation; the dawn of a new home coming by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> -love, is next to creation the most joyous of all events.’ So -the dancers went on, and as they rejoiced in poetic motions, -they thought of the stars which yet tremble as if with the -thrilling of that first delight they shouted. Of all, the sweet -orphan girl now companioned was the center. She was bedecked -with costly jewels, the glad tributes of those that loved -her; over her was the significant veil, and, so beneath the -wedding canopy, she entered Nazareth to be a wife. Her sky -had become very bright, for hers was a heart that took -exquisite joy from the honeyed petals of affection’s flower. -No bride ever more fully entered into that supreme state, -the all exalting, entrancing, expanding, thrilling period of -new married life. She went forward in the proud consciousness -that her weakness had overcome a giant, and -that while she lead a royal captive, she was supremely happy -in her utter bestowal of her all upon the one only man now -became almost next to God in the temple of her soul.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>Miriamne paused, and Rizpah wept a little.</p> - -<p>“Shall I go on or pause, mother?”</p> - -<p>“Go on, dear.”</p> - -<p>“But you weep, are you ill?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no, except in memory. This is sweet sorrow, -that beats us back and forth; contrasting dark endings -with bright beginnings; heaven high hopings with -black disappointments, and happy lives with our own, -all interwoven with miseries. I walked once in the sweet -illusions of bridal days, but an utter widowhood came -before death called. That’s the worst bereavement.”</p> - -<p>“But some marriages are all happiness, are they -not?” queried the daughter.</p> - -<p>“Some, but not many. That’s the rule. Most of -them begin well enough, but wedded mates are not -as wisely tender as lovers; they too soon entomb -all their joys in graves of selfishness and lust. So -then the dove flies from the blossom of espousal never -to return.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Perhaps, such as they did not love enough to begin -with and so separated?”</p> - -<p>“Some who would die for each other before marriage, -would die to be quit of each other, after. Hence -the brood of suicides, and that blackest crime of all, -murder, which often raises its treacherous, cruel head -within the marriage chamber.”</p> - -<p>“How comes this error, trouble, horror?”</p> - -<p>“In wedding bodies, without consents or courtings of -the souls, if those, who, though mismated, happen to -join lives, were only wise, they might yet be happy, -growing together. But read more daughter.”</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“In the fullness of time, the angel Gabriel, known amid -the Seraphim as God’s champion, the chosen of Jehovah and -His messenger of comfort and sympathy from heaven to -man, was commissioned to carry the glorious news to earth. -He spread his rainbow pinions, and with his own radiance -to lighten his course, passed from the confines of the august -court of the Divine Presence, the companionship of his fellow -archangels, Michael, Raphael, Uriel, to go out across -the planet-lightened realms of everlasting space. His -course was watched with throbbing interest by the spirits of -mercy appointed for ministering to man. Gabriel sped on, -with sweeps of power which almost devoured distances, nor -paused to bask for a moment in the many-colored lights of -the golden and silvery shielded planets or constellations -that he passed in his rapid flight. The wheeling suns and -rushing worlds, marching and charging along the shoreless -oceans of eternal space, had no splendors nor powers with -which to challenge his high mission; though theirs was -grand, his was grander. He traveled at love’s behest, on -mercy’s work, to carry to this little earth, rolling along, -mostly in shadows, the mandate of glory, the news of -heaven’s great saving device. He bore proclamation in its -substance and its realizations forever the manifold wisdom of -God; the wonder of all who know to think or reason. And -so that voyage passed into the pages of history and the -records of eternity as well.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Mary, whom Gabriel sought, was engaged in evening -prayer as was her wont, with her face toward Jerusalem’s -Temple.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>Miriamne paused; she perceived that she had arrived -at a part of the manuscript which Father Adolphus -had marked with a red line to remind her it was -from his Christian Bible. She feared to read this portion -to her mother.</p> - -<p>“Read on, daughter, the words are precious; they -are as songs in the night to my soul.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne continued:</p> - -<p>“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent -from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,</p> - -<p>“To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was -Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name -was Mary.</p> - -<p>“And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail! -thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed -art thou among women.</p> - -<p>“And when she saw him, she was troubled at his -saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation -this should be.</p> - -<p>“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for -thou hast found favor with God.</p> - -<p>“And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, -and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne read the last word “Joshua.”</p> - -<p>She proceeded:</p> - -<p>“He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of -the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him -the throne of his father David.</p> - -<p>“And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; -and of his kingdom there shall be no end.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, -seeing I know not a man?</p> - -<p>“And the angel answered and said unto her, The -Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of -the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that -Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called -the Son of God.”</p> - -<p>“Hold! hold!” cried Rizpah. “What is this? the -faith of the Nazarene?”</p> - -<p>Miriamne was awed. She feared she had proceeded -too far; but quickly remembering an explanation of -Father Adolphus, replied: “Be content, mother, I -read but that that appears in our holy prophets, Isaiah, -the poetic and vehement; his words you so much prize -have here an echo.”</p> - -<p>Rizpah gazed at her daughter, with a puzzled, questioning -expression for a moment, and then sententiously -said, “Read on.” She was alert, though severe. -Her curiosity was ruling, but her prudence was conserved, -at least in her own mind. The daughter was -anxious, but could not retreat; she knew she must -read further or make a futile effort to explain her -reluctance. The two were a study; each afraid of the -other: each anxious to aid the other to truth; both on -guard, and, while professing to be all love for each -other, attempting to move forward to a fuller fellowship -by indirection. The outlines of the cross were -appearing in that household, and never was there to be -complete accord until there it ruled all hearts.</p> - -<p>Miriamne continued to read, but confined herself -chiefly to notes made by the old priest on the margin -of her manuscript.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Presently Joseph, the affianced husband of Mary, discovered -that his beloved was to become a mother. At first -the discovery was like a dagger in his heart, for as yet the -marriage had not been consummated. It was a crisis of -great import and trial to husband and wife. Joseph, though -now a plain man and a mechanic, carried in his veins the -noblest blood of his race, being descendant of the ancient -kings and in the line of Solomon and David. Besides that, -he had all the abhorrence of the better Jews for adultery, -that their awful law of death as its penalty, implied.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Did he help the mob to stone her?” cried Rizpah.</p> - -<p>Miriamne was startled by her mother’s angry earnestness.</p> - -<p>“Oh! we’ll see.”</p> - -<p>She continued reading:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“He met his affianced in the evening on her return from -Hebron’s rosy hills, whither she had gone to visit her kinswoman, -the mother of John, by name Elizabeth. The interview -of those two noble women had prepared Mary to tell -her betrothed all that troubled and rejoiced her. When her -espoused met her privately and for the last time, as he intended, -he found her sweetly, serenely singing, as was her -wont, a Davidic psalm. He was at first astonished, not -knowing how she could be so happy under such stigma as -seemed to rest upon her. His patrician blood was roused, -and for a moment he was ready to denounce her to the -Sanhedrim as an adulteress. Then he looked at her, pitifully, -questioningly. It could not be, he meditated, that -one so young could be so depraved as to sing God praises, -being a criminal. She must be insane! He tore himself -from her presence, but instantly returned when she called -out: ‘Joseph, God knows all; touch not His anointed.’</p> - -<p>“‘Woman!’ he cried ‘explain! explain! Thy seeming -sin hangs scorpions over my eyes, and turns my heart to -ashes. Thy calmness is a wonderment!’</p> - -<p>“Then Mary quietly recited to him the wondrous story of -Gabriel’s visit.</p> - -<p>“Joseph was pale, and reverently attentive; but still the -sadness of his countenance betokened his incredulity.</p> - -<p>“Mary, self-possessed, confident in her own integrity, -continued: ‘For three months I have been secluded with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> -my kinswoman, Elizabeth. She knows I saw no man, and -thou canst testify of the manner of my living since our -espousal; but I got words from God, at Hebron. When I -first went into my kinswoman’s house.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:</p> - -<p>“And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, -Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the -fruit of thy womb.</p> - -<p>“And whence <i>is</i> this to me, that the mother of my -Lord should come to me?</p> - -<p>“For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation -sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb -for joy.</p> - -<p>“And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be -a performance of those things which were told her -from the Lord.”</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“No sooner had Elizabeth finished that salutation, than -the Spirit of the Most Holy Ghost possessed me and I, -thus, without premeditation prophetically said:</p> - -</div> - -<p>“My soul doth magnify the Lord.</p> - -<p>“And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.</p> - -<p>“For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: -for, behold, from henceforth all generations -shall call me blessed.</p> - -<p>“For He that is mighty hath done to me great -things; and holy is His name.</p> - -<p>“And His mercy is on them that fear him from generation -to generation.</p> - -<p>“He hath shewed strength with his arm; He hath -scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.</p> - -<p>“He hath put down the mighty from their seats, -and exalted them of low degree.</p> - -<p>“He hath filled the hungry with good things; and -the rich He hath sent empty away.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p> - -<p>“He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance -of his mercy.</p> - -<p>“As He spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his -seed forever.”<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“I tarried until Elizabeth’s son was born. He is to be the -herald of mine! Joseph was amazed. The wisdom and -stately character of her <i>magnificent</i> description and ascription -were unaccountable. But he doubted still her integrity. -Yet his wrath was softened into pity a little. He -hesitated, and then, <i>being a just man and not willing to make -her a public example, was minded to put her away privately</i>.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Ha, ha;” laughed Rizpah, bitterly; “I see now, -’tis a beautiful fable thou art reading! Put her away -privately! a man do that under such circumstances! -Bah! rather would a real man parade the woman’s -guilt from the house tops. In truth, to show that he -was sinless because he was such a Nemesis of sin; or to -get the pity of light-headed fools, who would gladly -take the place of the discarded! A pretty, baby face -can catch unerringly the man who pities himself well, if -she will only gush with real or affected pity for him. Pity -and flatter a man and he’ll be—a Lucifer! But read -it all. This is refreshing; its so absurdly uncommon!”</p> - -<p>The girl continued:</p> - -<p>“But while he thought on these things, behold, the -angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, -Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto -thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her -is of the Holy Ghost.</p> - -<p>“And she shall bring forth a son, thou shalt call his -name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their -sins.</p> - -<p>“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled -which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring -forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, -which being interpreted is, God with us.</p> - -<p>“Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the -angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him -his wife.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne again read “Joshua” for Jesus, but yet -felt assured that her mother was in heart, recognizing -the source of the story. Rizpah, by silence, pretended -not to know she was listening to parts of the Christian -Bible, for she was very curious now. Miriamne was -willing the harmless pretense should continue. But -they furtively observed each other.</p> - -<p>“I see; this is a story based upon some of the -Christian’s heresies,” interrupted Rizpah. “If the -stories be so unnatural, I’d never fear their sacred -books!”</p> - -<p>Miriamne was rejoiced, for her mother was becoming -interested, and that was nigh being fully persuaded -that their home was not contaminated by the hated -Christian’s Bible. Miriamne read again:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Mary now was contented. She had the approval of -God and her conscience, and that for which her young -heart greatly yearned the approval of the one man of earth -whom she loved. It mattered little to her that few others -knew her wondrous secret. She knew her position was -one of peril, and yet she felt certain God would be with -her to the end. The joy of Joseph was full, and the revulsion -of feeling from crushing shame, to lofty hope was -unutterable. A while before he was ready to die, as he -began tearing from his heart its idol, and attempting to -consign her to the tomb like that of death, forgetfullness. -Now he perceived himself elect of God to defend, vouch -for and shelter the woman of women, the highly favored of -Deity.</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And it came to pass in those days that there -went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus that all the -world should be taxed.</p> - -<p>“And all went to be taxed, every one into his own -city.</p> - -<p>“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the -city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, -which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the -house and lineage of David,)</p> - -<p>“To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife.</p> - -<p>“And so it was, that, while they were there, the -days were accomplished.</p> - -<p>“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped -him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; -because there was no room for them in the inn.”</p> - -<p>“How barbarous! They surely could not have been -Jews who kept that inn, or a woman in bearing would -have had tender welcome. They must have been -Christians; they are the people whose women blush -when carrying little life, and, as if ashamed, forgetting -that God had royally privileged them, hide themselves. -Bah, I’m sick of the thought! I’ve seen Christian -husbands ashamed of their pregnant wives;” so soliloquised -Rizpah.</p> - -<p>“There were no Christians at the time of these -events, mother. But shall I read of the company -Mary had, to comfort her?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, do; I’d like to have been there, just to rail at -the inn’s folks.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne continued,</p> - -<p>“And there were in the same country shepherds -abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by -night.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, -and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; -and they were sore afraid.</p> - -<p>“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, -I bring you good tidings of great joy, which -shall be to all people.”</p> - -<p>“It is said that even the cave, where Mary was, was -filled with supernal light,” remarked Miriamne digressingly.</p> - -<p>“I believe it on my word. If angels ever come to -earth, it must be surely to hold glad torches about the -couches where beings, to be at last perchance like -themselves, are coming forth to life,” said Rizpah.</p> - -<p>“It is thus reported,” continued Miriamne:</p> - -<p>“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea -in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came -wise men from the east to Jerusalem,</p> - -<p>“Saying, Where is he that is born King of the -Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are -come to worship him.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne substituted Joshua for Jesus in the reading.</p> - -<p>“Joshua, ‘Joshua,’ what ‘Joshua’ is that?”</p> - -<p>“Joshua means “deliverer;” this one was to be -such; for the rest, I’ve not before read it, mother.”</p> - -<p>“Read on, again,” tritely, Rizpah spoke.</p> - -<p>“When Herod the king had heard these things, he -was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.</p> - -<p>“And when he had gathered all the chief priests and -scribes of the people together, he demanded of them -where Christ should be born.</p> - -<p>“And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: -for thus it is written by the prophet,</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not -the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee -shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people -Israel.</p> - -<p>“Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise -men, inquired of them diligently what time the star -appeared.</p> - -<p>“And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and -search diligently for the young child; and when ye -have found him, bring me word again, that I may come -and worship him also.</p> - -<p>“When they had heard the king, they departed -and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before -them, till it came and stood over where the young -child was.</p> - -<p>“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding -great joy.</p> - -<p>“And when they were come into the house, they -saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell -down, and worshiped him: and when they had -opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; -gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.</p> - -<p>“And being warned of God in a dream that they -should not return to Herod, they departed into their -own country another way.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne read ‘The Anointed’ where the text -said Christ.</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, who could these men have been, Rabbins?”</p> - -<p>“I think not, mother; I see upon the margin of my -‘<i>megellah</i>’ a note which says, These were light or fire-worshipers -of Persia. They, or rather their ancestors -had heard, centuries before, from the Jews, then their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> -captives, that there was an expectation, based on -wondrous prophecies, that some time, there was to -be on earth a man, born of woman, in character -like God and in mission the bringer in of the golden -age. These Magi were seeking that person, like pious -pilgrims.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, the Messiah. Alas! we all long for His coming!” -Then Rizpah fell into a revery from which -Miriamne roused her with the question: “Art too -weary to hear more?”</p> - -<p>“No, no; read, on. These things strangely move -and rest me.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne continued:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“When eight days were fulfilled, they circumcised the -Child, calling him Joshua, offering, according to the law, a -pair of turtle doves.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Circumcised? Ah, I’m glad! They were good -Jews, though poor ones, since they offered the gifts of -the poor, two pigeons,” exclaimed Rizpah.</p> - -<p>Miriamne read onward:</p> - -<p>“There was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was -Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting -for the consolation of Israel.</p> - -<p>“And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, -that he should not see death, before he had seen the -Lord’s Christ.</p> - -<p>“And he came by the Spirit into the Temple; and -when the parents brought in the child.</p> - -<p>“Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God -and said:</p> - -<p>“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, -according to thy word:</p> - -<p>“For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Which thou hast prepared before the face of all -people;</p> - -<p>“A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of -thy people Israel.</p> - -<p>“And Joseph and his mother marveled at these -things which were spoken of him.</p> - -<p>“And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his -mother, Behold this child is set for the fall and rising -again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be -spoken against;</p> - -<p>“(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul -also;) that the thoughts of many hearts may be -revealed.”</p> - -<p>“How mysterious and contradictory, and yet how -true the old man’s word, Miriamne? He blessed the -parents amid their pious services toward their offspring, -yet predicted a sword thrust for the mother. Ah, the -sword for the mother is ever impending! But read -further.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne continued:</p> - -<p>“And Anna, a prophetess, who was a widow of -about fourscore and four years, which departed not -from the temple, but served God with fastings and -prayers night and day.</p> - -<p>“And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise -unto the Lord, and spoke of him to all them that -looked for redemption in Jerusalem.”</p> - -<p>“What a finished picture, Miriamne,” interrupted -Rizpah. “See, a young mother committing her child -to God; a blessing and a sword of pain revealed; -then the finest human sympathy in the form of -motherhood chastened by years coming to encourage -her. Oh, the years have sadly wrecked a true woman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> -if they have put her beyond saying, from her heart: -‘Poor girl, I love thee,’ to her younger sister in her -hour of maternal trial. But what followed?”</p> - -<p>Miriamne replied by again reading:</p> - -<p>“The angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a -dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his -mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I -bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child -to destroy him.”</p> - -<p>“Ha! the jealous old hypocrite! But I remember, -Herod murdered his wife. A man brute enough to do -that could easily seek the life of an innocent babe. If -Apollyon ever be dethroned because of the appearing -of one more devilish than himself, the dethroner -will be a wife-murderer!” exclaimed Rizpah, almost -in a passion.</p> - -<p>Miriamne continued:</p> - -<p>“Joseph took the young child and his mother by -night, and departed into Egypt.</p> - -<p>“And was there until the death of Herod.”</p> - -<p>“So Jewry, our Jewry, gave one of its young -mothers a stable for a bed chamber, a manger for her -babe; then refused her these by making her an exile. -Cruel Israel said go or be childless! Oh, Israel! how -Pagan Rome defiled thee!” passionately exclaimed the -Jewish matron.</p> - -<p>Miriamne paused until the mother questioned:</p> - -<p>“Was there a pursuit?”</p> - -<p>“A hot one, though a vain one; my manuscript -reads as follows:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Herod had charged the Magi to tell him, on their -return from their quest, the abode of the Child born under -the star. He pretended to desire to pay it homage, but in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> -heart he was intending to murder it. The Magi, impressed -by the goodness and sanctity of mother and Infant, never -returned to Herod to betray them.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of -the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and -slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all -the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, -according to the time which he had diligently inquired -of the wise men.</p> - -<p>“Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by -Jeremy, the prophet, saying:</p> - -<p>“In Ramah there was a voice heard, lamentation, -and weeping, and a great mourning, Rachel weeping -for her children, and would not be comforted, because -they are not.”</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“So a dark wave of misery rolled over Bethlehem. -Hundreds of women, weeping over their own dead, were led -to understand the cruel injustice of the spirit that drove the -Virgin and her child into exile, and that, until the end of -time, there will be sorrow in the homes of the land that -does despite to the virtues and characteristics exemplified, -so well, by that mother and that Child.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>With these words Miriamne rolled up her parchment, -saying: “This is all there is written here.”</p> - -<p>“All? It is well, for thou art weary, child. We’ll -now retire; to-morrow I must speak with thee about -the book. Good-night, now.”</p> - -<p>“Good-night, mother.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE QUEEN WITH HER FAMILY IN EGYPT.</span></h2> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“It is curious to observe, as the worship of the Virgin mother -expanded and gathered to itself the relics of many an ancient faith, -now the new and the old elements became amalgamated.... -The Madonna assumed the characteristics ... of the types of -fertility.”—<span class="smcap">Anna Jamison.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Babe Jesus lay on Mary’s lap,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">The sun shone in His hair,</div> -<div class="verse">And so it was she saw, mayhap,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">The crown already there.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">George McDonald</span>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">The day following Miriamne’s readings to her -mother, she eagerly sought Father Adolphus -that she might receive more of the -narrative, delightsome to herself and evidently -interesting to her parent.</p> - -<p>Finding the priest at dawn in one of his accustomed -walks amid the ruins, she scarcely waited for his -“Peace, daughter,” until she exclaimed, “More! I -want more of the story!”</p> - -<p>“Hast finished that I gave thee so soon?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, and read it all to my mother! Is that not -wonderful?”</p> - -<p>“Temerity!”</p> - -<p>“No; it charms her. She has fallen in love with -the child-wife. Oh, what if my mother should come -to think and believe as you—then I would!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Thou mayst alone; but what part of the story desirest -thou?”</p> - -<p>“All! Nothing less than all! What became of -the Holy Family in Egypt?”</p> - -<p>“Now sit down on this shattered column and I’ll -recount to thee the traditions in order, leaving thee to -judge which is true.”</p> - -<p>“Tell me what you believe and I’ll believe it. -That’s enough!”</p> - -<p>“I scarcely am able to do that, not knowing whether -to believe or disbelieve some of the things reported. -But I remember them, and perceiving that though they -are only traditions, they are very beautiful and very -natural, I remember them with delight, that is very -near to giving them full credence.”</p> - -<p>“Then, so will I do.”</p> - -<p>“It may be the wise way, for I’ve believed that the -good angels who, under God, watched over the little -outcast family drifting about in strange places, have -also watched over the drifting stories of their wanderings, -letting the facts profitable for us to know, come -safely to us, though they have come without the seal -of authenticated history.”</p> - -<p>“Now, I believe all this, too.”</p> - -<p>“Well, then, ardent catechumen, listen. For three -years the queenly Mary, with her consort and child, -tarried in Egypt—”</p> - -<p>“How did they subsist?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, the God of the outcasts Ishmael and Elijah, -who provided water for one and bread for the other of -those two, was the One who sent the Holy Family to -Egypt with the charge that they ‘be there until He -brought them word.’ Now, thou hast learned that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> -when God sends any on His work He charges Himself -with their support.”</p> - -<p>“Did they find friends in Egypt?”</p> - -<p>“Thou wilt learn in time, daughter, that two of that -family had, as none on earth before, the secret of making -friends. They had the love-enchantment from on -high, which has been winning its way ever since over -the world. But I’ll proceed. There were in Egypt -at that time multitudes of Israelites who had sought -its refuge from the persecutions practiced toward them -nearer home. Doubtless these exiles received Joseph’s -family kindly. Also, in all the East at that time there -were many artizan leagues, banded together to aid -their fellow-craftsmen. Joseph being a carpenter, I -doubt not, found among these sympathy and help.”</p> - -<p>“At what place did the family abide?”</p> - -<p>“Tradition says they tarried for a considerable period -at Heliopolis, the city celebrated the world over -for its splendid temple, where centered the Egyptian -Sun worship. To me this tradition seems most reasonable, -when I remember that the child of that family -was pointed out before, by a miraculous star, which -led the Fire worshipers of Persia to his cradle. The -Fire worshipers of the far East and the Light worshipers -of Egypt were much alike in their beliefs. -They were all seeking light, and, impelled by the necessity -of man’s nature for some religion, revealed or -man-made, able to do no better, looked up to the sun, -the greatest light of which they knew. God’s hand -was in that meeting of the old and the new. There is -a tradition that when the Holy Family arrived at -Heliopolis all the idols in the Sun Temple fell on their -faces. Be that as it may, the pathos of the poor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> -prayers of the Light worshipers moved the Divine -Mercy to send them the Sun of Righteousness, and all -the handiwork of Rhameses, at On, lies in great, grim -silent ruins, while the faith that had its germ in that -little outcast family is overspreading the earth. Alas, -poor Egypt!”</p> - -<p>“Why poor Egypt?” questioned Miriamne, wonderingly.</p> - -<p>“Those living now are so like their ancients who, in -fright and helpless doubt, sought to save themselves -by placating both good and evil; the light struggles in -Egypt to-day, entering slowly and often retiring. Yea, -poor Egypt, I pity thee! But I digress. It is said -that the Holy Family also tarried for a season at Memphis, -on the Nile, the city where chiefly was practiced -the worship of <i>Apis</i>, the sacred bull. Thou rememberest -how Israel was nearly ruined by doing homage -to a golden calf at Sinai? That calf-worship was the -same as the Apis-worship of Egypt. The Egyptians, -in common with all mankind of old, earnestly looked -for a manifestation of God in visible form—an incarnation. -Their priests practiced on their pitiful yearnings -and credulity, and taught them to believe that -their greatest god appeared from time to time under -the form of a bull, which <i>Avatars</i> they, the priests, -claimed that they only could discover. The -Egyptians, highly esteeming endurance and passionate -vigor, readily accepted the animal pre-eminent -in these things as the abiding place and expression -of their god. The Child Jesus, the -token of a better faith, was fittingly brought, therefore, -to Egypt’s Temple of <i>Apis</i>. Thus the <i>Light and -Immortality</i> confronted that typified grossly at Memphis,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> -and the incarnations that were as false as they -were offensive, were brought face to face with the <i>Incarnation</i> -sung by the angels. The devotees at the -fanes of Memphis degraded man by preferring the -beast. He that made man a little lower than the angels -first, afterward exalted him to sonship by appearing -garbed in the likeness of a man. Christ, at Memphis, -was to do what Moses did at Sinai.”</p> - -<p>“I do not comprehend these words!”</p> - -<p>“As Moses ground the golden image worshiped by -Israel to powder, so Christ came to overthrow and blot -out of the world every vestige of the religions or believings -that exalts the animal and degrades the spiritual -in man. He heralded the age of gold and fire.”</p> - -<p>“And was <i>Apis</i> overthrown by the child?”</p> - -<p>“Not immediately; that is not the way of Him who -knows no haste; but in His own good time its fall -came. Egypt, hoar with deep thinkings on the master -problems of life, death, eternity, did much in distant -times to color and express the beliefs of all peoples. It -became a school of religious as well as the theater of -some of their greatest, bloodiest conflicts. Let me recall -some of the steps. First, I’ll begin with the revival -of the true faith under Moses, which was the -revival of escape, the only way to preserve God’s people -from utter defilement. Thou hast read in thy -Holy writings how the conflict began between the king -and Israel’s leader:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p><i>And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and -said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.</i></p> - -<p><i>And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall -sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord -our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> -the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not -stone us?</i></p> - -<p><i>We will go three days journey into the wilderness, and -sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us.</i>”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Why was Moses so anxious to get away so far!”</p> - -<p>“I’ll show thee; that was then a mystery, now explained. -Egypt worshiped a bull devoutly; the -Israelites were commanded to sacrifice to God a red -heifer. The color, red, was an antetype of the saving -blood to be shed on red Calvary. Moses, methinks, -desired to get away that he might reveal this sacred -mystery, so far as he discerned it, to those to whom it -was sent. Follow me now with pious, frank heart. -The Israelites antagonized the customs of Egypt -sharply by offering before God the finer, weaker animal, -and now, girl, as I read of Mary and her child -waiting about Memphis, I discern the past and that -present meeting. It seems to me that He who thundered -to Pharaoh ‘<i>let my people go</i>’ rëappears in the -form of the child, the pitying shepherd, seeking the -lost sheep amid earth’s offscourings. More, as I think -of Mary, the beautiful outcast, following the fortunes -of her Divine Child down into that dark land, and also -remember how His blood finally crimsoned her life, I -recall the red heifer offered on Israel’s ancient altars. -Mary, for the world’s sake, through her maternity, was -laid on the altar.”</p> - -<p>“Father Adolphus, you dazzle and yet convince me. -How wonderful all this seems!”</p> - -<p>“I see the Holy Child in Egypt, the building nation -of earth, as the founder of a new order of building. -Now follow me, child. After the garden and the wilds, -where primitive man abode, there came the Tabernacle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> -and Temple. When man enters into the benign influences -of social life, he begins building a house to shelter -and seclude his own. When he takes God or a god -into his society he builds a temple. If there be growth -and culture he decorates his buildings, hideously at -first, æsthetically after practice. Presently he becomes -a scientific builder and a philosopher. Then to him -life is all building. He grasps the thought that he is -the architect of himself, of his character, of his future. -If his religious life is deepened he expresses all his -philosophy, all his aspirations in monuments and temples. -Moses and Solomon, in tabernacle and temple, -but repeated the deeds of Egypt. But Egypt built -under the sun, the patriarchs under the Spirit. Egypt -had done its best, reached the end of its resources, -having filled the land from the Delta to the cataracts -of the Nile with pyramidial monument and august -fanes. But building under the sun, in the light of nature -only, was building in the dark, at least half the -time. Christ, the architect of all that is enduring, confronted -the achievements of those ancients as a merciful -destroyer. He came to them to turn and overturn -that, after the ruins, their mind be turned to a building -upon and with the precious living Corner-Stone! Try -to remember all this. Christianity is on the eve of a -new building age. The crusades are ended. Now for -religious palaces! But these in turn will be thrust -aside, that all may give themselves to build souls up -for eternity!”</p> - -<p>“I am dazzled good father, indeed; but oh, I can -not remember all these things! I’m like a child in my -love for stories, and I can re-tell such to my mother, as -I can not these deeper things you utter.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I forgot, child. But we priests preach by habit -everywhere!”</p> - -<p>“Tell me more of Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Were -the Egyptians kind to them?”</p> - -<p>“As kind as the followers of the Pharaohs to the -descendants of Joseph! No more. There was no more -room in Egypt for Jesus at His coming than there was -among His own people. But the God of Moses, ever -the living God, though opposed, may never be thwarted -nor killed!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, now do not tell me these things, too deep for -me; just tell me the simple story of the sojourn in that -strange land.”</p> - -<p>“So be it, girl. If I digress, recall me. They say -that the Holy Family found in that land a few to accept -them kindly. One such was a robber, who, happening -upon them, was at first about to do them violence; but -he was restrained by the demeanor of the saintly -mother, and his heart was all changed toward compassion -of the little company. Instead of robbing, he gave -them a temporary home in his mountain retreat. It is -said that he was the one to whom the child of Mary, -long after, while dying on the cross, companion in -death with that same robber, gave repentance, with the -promise of Paradise.”</p> - -<p>“How good and natural!”</p> - -<p>“Then there’s another legend. It is that Mary and -her loved ones were met in that strange country by -one of the world’s pilgrims of pilgrims—a gipsy, who -was a sorceress. There’s a charming little dialogue, -part in prose and part in verse, all about that meeting, -which I have here. I’ll read it. The sorceress begins -chanting:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Gipsy</span>—I come, I come from the land of the sun,</div> -<div class="verse indent3">From the dim, dim past of the far-off dawn;</div> -<div class="verse indent3">The waif of the world, the froth of the sea,</div> -<div class="verse indent3">Of a clan that has been and ever shall be.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Mary</span>—God give thee grace and forgive thee thy sins.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Gipsy</span>—Ye are pilgrims, too; no lodge for to-night,</div> -<div class="verse indent3">Ye are outcasts here in a flight of fright!</div> -<div class="verse indent3">But the mother charms and my heart say come.</div> -<div class="verse indent3">Ye may come; shall come to my gipsy’s home.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“‘The gipsy, Zingarella, took the babe in her arms, -but then suddenly broke forth into a mournful chant, -as she held the hand of the infant:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">‘Here’s a cradle song, and a tear and a moan;</div> -<div class="verse">Here’s a crown of thorns and a cross, when grown.</div> -<div class="verse">Here’s a vale of blood and a black, black night.</div> -<div class="verse">Here’s a flocking world and a rising light.’</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“‘And then suddenly falling upon her knees, the -gipsy asked alms; but this time, as never before, -with both palms extended and craving neither silver -nor gold, but eternal life. It was granted.’”</p> - -<p>“Oh, father Adolphus, I’ll never forget this story.”</p> - -<p>“Forget not, either, its simple lesson; the gospel -comes to the very waifs of life, and so there is help -for the sinning, wherever found, in the Holy Child; encouragement -to all holy longings in the meanest breast -of the meanest woman, once within that circle, all -radiant with the beautiful virtues of that Saviour’s -mother.”</p> - -<p>“Surely, I’ll treasure this lesson, which is both balm -and heart’s ease.”</p> - -<p>“I must go now, so must thou. I’ll send at noon to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> -the Reservoir, another parchment. Let one of the lads -meet the messenger. It will be suitable for reading to -thy mother, Rizpah. Be not so soon over-hopeful. -We must proceed with her slowly. Those most needing -the light will curse it if, coming too suddenly, it -chance to dazzle. Israel still goes down all unconsciously -to Egypt for gods, and the spectacle of man -changing the invisible down, down, continues everywhere. -Slowly, we who would be faithful, must raise -up His only true presentment. We must allure after -us, with all wisdom and tenderness, those we would -win, while striving ourselves to rise toward Divine ideals -ever beyond and above us. God bless my little missionary.”</p> - -<p>They parted; and there were tears on Miriamne’s -face; but not of anguish.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Day followed day, like any childhood passing;</div> -<div class="verse">And silently Mary sat at her wheel</div> -<div class="verse">And watched the boy Messiah as she span;</div> -<div class="verse">And as a human child unto his mother,</div> -<div class="verse">Subject the while, He did her low-voiced bidding—</div> -<div class="verse">Or gently came to lean upon her knee</div> -<div class="verse">And ask her of the thoughts that in him stirred.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“And then, all tearful-hearted, she paused,</div> -<div class="verse">Or with tremulous hand spun on—</div> -<div class="verse">The blessing that her lips instructive gave,</div> -<div class="verse">Asked Him with an instant thought again:”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-m.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“Mother, I’ve another volume of that charming -story, full of wonderful things. Shall -we peruse them to please our woman’s -curiosity, to-night?”</p> - -<p>“Woman’s curiosity?” angrily ejaculated Rizpah.</p> - -<p>“They say all women are inquisitive; do they not?”</p> - -<p>“They! The fling of the ‘lords of earth!’ Eaten -up with anxiety solely concerning themselves, they -plunge into introspections and questionings pertaining -to their own worth; the ultimate of their own preciousness, -that they call philosophy. Our sex, in self-forgetfulness, -ask questions out of sympathy, and with -desire to help others; that’s ‘curiosity!’ Faugh, the -fling is sickening!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span></p> - -<p>“My book is both curious and philosophical; it’s interesting -to both sexes therefore. Shall I read?”</p> - -<p>“On thy promise to tell me later whence it came, -who its author, thou mayst read it to me.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne, perceiving that her mother was curious to -hear the whole story, though the former placated her -conscience by a show of indifference, responded: “I’ll -begin with the return of the wanderers.” So saying, -she read:</p> - -<p>“‘But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the -Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, -arise, and take the young child and his mother, -and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which -sought the young child’s life.</p> - -<p>“‘And he arose, and took the young child and his -mother, and came into the land of Israel.</p> - -<p>“‘Being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside -into the parts of Galilee:</p> - -<p>“‘And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: -that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the -prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene.’”</p> - -<p>“Nazarene!” Rizpah ejaculated, interrupting the -reader. “Does the word not taste like wormwood, -girl?”</p> - -<p>The maiden replied, adroitly: “We read the pagan -inscriptions on the monuments about us without -being harmed! Surely we may safely read these -nobler peoples’ words and deeds.” So saying, the -maiden continued:</p> - -<p>“‘Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at -the feast of the passover.</p> - -<p>“‘And when He was twelve years old, they went up -to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span></p> - -<p>“‘And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, -the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; -and Joseph and His mother knew not of it.</p> - -<p>“‘But they, supposing Him to have been in the company, -went a day’s journey; and they sought Him -among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.</p> - -<p>“‘And when they found Him not, they turned back -again to Jerusalem, seeking Him.</p> - -<p>“‘And it came to pass that after three days they -found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the -doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.</p> - -<p>“‘And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding -and answers.</p> - -<p>“‘And when they saw Him, they were amazed: and -His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast thou thus -dealt with us? Behold, Thy father and I have sought -Thee sorrowing.</p> - -<p>“‘And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought -me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s -business?’”</p> - -<p>“That was rude, was it not, daughter? Was not his -father’s business his mother’s? He was young for such -philosophy, so like that of tyrant husband.”</p> - -<p>“He meant God’s business!”</p> - -<p>“Then his earnestness was just. God first, kin -after—mother or husband—say I. Did the mother -gain-say him?”</p> - -<p>“It is thus recorded,” replied the maiden.</p> - -<p>“‘And they understood not the saying which He -spake unto them.</p> - -<p>“‘And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, -and was subject unto them; but his mother kept -all these sayings in her heart.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span></p> - -<p>“‘And He increased in wisdom and stature, and in -favor with God and man.’”</p> - -<p>“Daughter, there was a fine spirit in that house; it -was enhaloed by the girl-wife’s character! No wonder -that the son increased in favor with God and man! -He was able to cope with the doctors mentally, yet -subjected himself to his mother. I’ll certify that he -was wonderfully like his mother. The traits of the -woman that bore him are prominent in every man of -fine measure.”</p> - -<p>“And are fine daughters, like their fathers,” laughingly -questioned Miriamne, as she glanced at a reflection -of herself in a metallic mirror suspended on the -wall before her.</p> - -<p>“Ah, that depends on whether they have wholesome -fathers.” Then, turning her eyes affectionately toward -her daughter, Rizpah continued: “Thou hast enough -of Hebrew in thee to leaven thee. Yet, let me plant -this in thy memory, my lamb, destined most likely -some time to lie in anguish on the altar of maternity: -Mothers determine beyond all else the fate of the world -by determining beyond all else the characters of their -offspring. Yea, girl, in the homes of industry, the bugle-calls -of the soldier, the moving orations of the holy -teacher, there are ever heard echoes of their cradle -days.” Rizpah paused, drew a long sigh, and again -broke forth: “But, alas! men and women walk in -pairs. How can the gentler of the two, alone, or -opposed by the stronger, succeed? I’ve seen paired -birds battle the sly serpent, creeping toward their birdlings, -victoriously; paired weakness triumphant over -huge danger; and I’ve seen the lords of creation dropping -serpents upon their own mates and their own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> -nestlings! If one would find a monstrous cruelty, he -must needs seek in human homes!” Then the speaker, -pausing, bowed herself, and sat swaying from side to -side, with her hands over her eyes. Miriamne, accustomed -to such action on her mother’s part, and knowing -it was best when she was in such moods to leave -her to herself, withdrew quietly. Yet, Rizpah seemed -not alone to herself, for her mind was peopled with -ghostly forms from her gloomy past; all painful companions, -but still courted by the woman in her periods -of morbidness. Presently she slept; the sleep of sorrow, -that mercy balm of nature which comes to pained -or wounded humanity as the power to grieve or ache -is exhausted. The sleeper passed from consciousness -of things about her, followed by the forms that had -haunted her memory, and was soon among the wonders -of dream land. Then came to her the sound of -mighty contentions, and it seemed as if opposing forces -were in conflict concerning herself. Rizpah, of the -ancient, seemed to be trying to drag the dreamer -toward seven crosses supporting seven stark forms. -The babel of contending voices was silenced by others, -exulting, as if in victory. There was a change; the -sleeper seemed to be lifted up from caverns unutterably -deep, and suffocating, upon a ruby cloud, soft as down to -the touch, but irresistible in uplifting. She was borne -swiftly, over vast realms of space, toward a golden -gate-way with tomb-like arch, whose cross-shaped -portal swung invitingly open. A river of light spreading -to a sea, and vibrating with sense-entrancing -melody, flowed outward through the mighty gate-way. -On either side of the portals, and moving along the -river, were many glorious beings. The latter soared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> -on wings of mighty sweep, whose motions seemed to -beat in accord with the melody of the flowing light, -while, from within and without the gate-way, there came -the sound of countless voices, all, as it were, mingling -in the triumphant swellings of a grand anthem. The -dreamer discerned in the anthem two words, repeated -over and over, tirelessly: “<i>Glad Tidings!</i>” “<i>Glad -Tidings!</i>” “<i>Glad Tidings!</i>” The golden gate became -rose-tinted; the color deepening to purple and gold -as down the stream of light there floated an island of -gardens, and on the island appeared two human forms; -a youth and a maiden. The anthem “Glad Tidings” -continued; but sweeter, louder, deeper than before. -And the sleeper perceived that on the wings of the -glorious beings there were emblems; red crosses, about -each cross a ring of fire; above the crosses, bejeweled -silver cups; then she knew that the twain on the island -were bride and groom. The scene changed; there was -a consciousness of a flight of time. She looked again, -and on the island she beheld a mother lovingly bending -over a babe; over mother and babe tenderly bended -a man, by the pride and the affection he expressed, -attesting himself the husband and father. Rizpah was -enraptured, and in her dream she prayed the scene -might tarry. She was nigh being envious of that -happy mother. But her prayer was denied her, for -soon she was startled by a voice at her side, saying, in -tones of mournful rebuke: “Farewell, forever!”</p> - -<p>The dreamer, looking about, beheld in her vision, her -ideal, Rizpah; but the latter was wonderfully changed. -Her eyes were dim and sunken; her form dwarfed, -bowed and age-shriveled. Suddenly the whole vision -faded into thin air, and Rizpah, of Bozrah, awakened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> -filled with condemnation. Before she fully realized -that she had been dreaming, she cried out:</p> - -<p>“Rizpah, oh, Rizpah, tarry a moment!”</p> - -<p>Silence was her sole reply. Little by little, as she -collected her thoughts, she comprehended that her -vision, while sleeping, expressed the facts of her life -while waking. The heroine girl-wife of Nazareth, the -newer, finer, surer, truer ideal of womanhood, was -demolishing in the mind of the woman of Bozrah her -former idol, the lioness of Gibeah’s hill. She knew -this, for she found herself contrasting the two ideals, -and in mind lingering by preference and with the -greater delight about conceptions of the younger. -Then began the struggles of the giants in her conscience; -clean truth against hoar prejudices; sweet -mercy against bitter revenge; Mary of Bethlehem -against Rizpah of Gibeah. The matron of Bozrah, -usually hitherto so self-sufficient, was changing. She -felt that yearning inevitable in the career of most -women for a confidant. She could not sleep; she -could not now go down to get inspiration by standing -before the grim Rizpah-painting, in the lower room; -she was miserable, lonely and restless.</p> - -<p>Mechanically, she moved toward her daughter’s chamber, -some way feeling that even a sleeper would be -company to one so lonely as herself. Rizpah, alone, -at night, in the grim, giant house, groping her way -toward Miriamne’s sleeping place, was unconsciously -illustrating her soul’s quest. She was in heart seeking -alone, and in the dark, some one to take the place of -her demolished ideal. Had the queen of women been -there, in person, Rizpah, then, would have welcomed -her. She groped her way to the maiden’s couch, feeling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> -that, as she believed, her daughter was pure and -good and loving. Could the matron have analyzed her -own feelings, she would have found that she was in -part led toward Miriamne because the latter some -way seemed like, or near to, the girl-wife who was supplanting -in the heart of Rizpah of Bozrah, the wild -Rizpah of Gibeah. A cloud passing let a flood of -silvering moonlight full on the sleeper’s couch, and -Rizpah, feasting her eyes, murmured: “I wonder -if that woman of Bethlehem were not very like this -maiden?” As the mother gazed on her offspring she -presently began noting features in the sleeper’s face -that reminded her of the absent father and husband. -She recalled him as he appeared under the palms that -night at Purim, and as he was that day he lay pale and -bleeding in her all-giving arms. The whole past, that -was delightful, came trooping up, and with it there -came the full light of an old love revived; a renaissance -of that she had supposed buried forever. Soon the -aged woman, all youthful again within, was mentally -in hot chase after the pleasure she had parted from so -hastily long years before. She was glad of her thoughts, -for they were rejoicing; glad she was alone, for the -thoughts seemed sacred. It was no use, had she willed, -to resist; so she just gave up to the impulse, and with -a half-suppressed cry, passionately twined her arms -about the sleeping girl, and covered the face of the -latter with burning kisses.</p> - -<p>The maiden started up in affright, breaking the spell -that swayed her mother, but only in part at first. -Rizpah was almost angered by the awakening, which -caused the vision her soul was embracing to take swift -flight. Her first glance seemed to say to the now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> -awakened girl: “Begone, intruder! Leave me for a -time alone with—” but she recovered herself, and was -silent. Yet her mind ran on after the vision. She had -not been embracing the girl, but the girl’s father, in -heart. Had he happened there then, he would have -been all-forgiven, all-welcome. So wonderful the heart -of one capable of deep loving as well as deep hating; -so wonderful the nature of such a woman as Rizpah, -when her emotions, aroused, spread their throbbing -pinions to soar at the behest of revived affection. -“Human passion,” sneeringly some may say, and -truly. But human passion is a gift of grace. When -it travels along right lines, it quickens the one enriched -by it to the noblest deeds. He whose name is Love -came to earth through the Incarnation to show the -splendor of human affection, working at its best in the -kingdom of its finest displays—the home circle. The -fate of Eden made men believe a lie, but Bethlehem -refuted that lie for all time. Rizpah turned bitterly -from the fiery, disappointing love she had experienced -to stamp all loving, except parent love, a mockery. -She had nursed her false creed, and suppressed her rebel -heart by adoration of the wintry ideal of Gibeah. -Now she was touched by a new influence, and it was to -her as the touch of spring to winter-prisoned nature. -For a few moments daughter and mother contemplated -each other; the one as if dreaming, the other full of -wilderment. Then the former quietly said: “I’ve -been very nervous to-night. I’m quieter now, and will -go to rest. Sweet dreams follow thee, daughter.”</p> - -<p>The maiden composed herself to sleep, and the elder -woman passed out of the room. The latter, in going, -perceived on the floor-slab a parchment, and bore it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> -away with her. She said within herself as she did so: -“It is best for Miriamne that I know of her reading.” -But, after all, she was very curious to know all about -the new matter, of which she had recently heard a -part, on her own account. The writing, that of a masculine -hand, ran as follows:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Miriamne</span>:—As I promised, I have herein recorded, for -the help of thy memory, further facts about the Bethlehem -Mother, <span class="smcap">Mary</span>. Keeping constantly in heart the wonderful -words of the angel Gabriel, she followed with constancy the -wanderings of her Son as He went forth to heal and preach. -She heard with pride and joy that a Dove of Peace from -heaven overshadowed Him at His baptism in Jordan; but -immediately she was plunged into anxiety, for he disappeared -from the haunts of men in a prolonged absence. -This was during the time of His temptation in the wilderness. -He returned to gladden her, but immediately set forth to new -trials, labors and dangers. The young Miracle-Worker was -denounced and driven from among the people of His youth. -Tradition points to the very place where his mother fell -fainting, when she saw the people of Nazareth dragging her -Son to a precipice by the city, with intent to cast Him down -to death. At that place of the mother’s overcoming the -Empress Helena builded the sanctuary called the ‘<i>Church of -the Terror</i>.’ But that loyal mother never wavered in her -allegiance to her Son, but, shortly after these things formally, -publicly, bravely, received baptism at His hands in Jordan, -at Bethabara. Indeed, this act on her part evinced not only -the faith of a disciple, but the zeal of motherhood; her -Son’s cause seemed to be failing, and she espoused it to -strengthen it in its most trying hour. She was willing to -dare all things to win for her Beloved a possible gain, however -small.</p> - -<p>“The gathering storm grew darker about the Carpenter’s -Son, and the leaders of the people were planning His destruction; -but He pursued his work of healing and teaching -serenely; His mother constantly hovering near him to encourage -Him. She heard that John the Baptist, son of -Elizabeth, the herald of her own Child, had been slain because -he had been true to God. The harlots of the Court<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> -of Herod had procured John’s death, because that holy man -had rebuked their vices. But even this shocking event did -not overawe the mother of the Founder of the New Kingdom. -She stood in splendid contrast with the murderers of the -prophet. It was purity, almost single-handed, against lust -corseleted by the nation; two phalanxes; one of few, the -other of many; but, as common in this world, each led by -a woman. Mary, like a parent bird fluttering over her -nestling, sought by the fowler, hovered around her offspring. -She exemplified the finest, fullest utterance of -faith, ‘Jesus only,’ by determining to break up the home in -Nazareth, in order that all the family might keep near the -beloved One in His journeys. So it happened that when He -was near Capernaum, working Himself nigh unto death, -they visited Him to persuade Him to rest. Of this it is -written:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘<i>While He yet talked to the people, behold, His mother -and His brethren stood without, desiring to speak with -Him.</i></p> - -<p>‘<i>Then one said unto Him, Behold, thy mother and Thy -brethren stand without, desiring to speak with Thee.</i></p> - -<p>‘<i>But He answered and said unto him, Who is my -mother? and who are my brethren?</i></p> - -<p>‘<i>And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, -and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!</i></p> - -<p>‘<i>For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is -in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.</i>’</p> - -</div> - -<p>“To all He herein proclaimed the doctrines of His kingdom, -self-denial, and though the words seem harsh, they were -most kind, for by them He said, as it were, to His disciples: -‘Behold these all-sacrificing relatives of mine are twice related -to me; by blood and by sufferings.’ It was, on Jesus’ part, -a public adoption of His own family. As He had been publicly -adopted from on high when He typically submitted to -death in His baptism, so when He beheld His mother, having -forsaken all to be with Him, he proclaimed those that had -elected to share His sufferings His kin indeed. The sword -of His suffering bitterly wounded her when the rabble howled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> -after the Healer, “<i>Thou wast born in fornication.</i>” But He, -amid all His engrossments, never forgot to minister to His -mother as a courtly, reverent, loving Son. These words of -a holy book not only speak of the workings of the providence -of God, but assure us that He that uttered them was -prompted to comfort His own widowed mother: ‘But I tell -you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of -Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six -months, when great famine was throughout all the land;</p> - -<p>“‘But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, -a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.’</p> - -<p>“And now for the present I close with all holy salutations.</p> - -<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">A. von G.</span>”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;" id="illus6"> -<img src="images/illus6.jpg" width="650" height="425" alt="" /> -<p class="caption-r">By P. R. Morris.</p> -<p class="caption">THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.</p> -</div> - -<p>Rizpah was so engrossed with the matter of the letter -that she scarcely observed the initials at its end. -As she turned the letter over there fell into her lap a -pictured parchment. It represented a woman, half -kneeling and with arms outstretched toward a beautiful -child, the latter balancing, and, as it were, taking a -first lesson in walking. “That woman’s face is some -way very like that of my Miriamne’s in beauty and -thoughtfulness,” soliloquized Rizpah. Then observing -a tent in the picture, at one side and under the tent, -the form of a strong, dignified man, she again scrutinizingly -exclaimed, “In truth, that face is Harrimai’s! -How like my father!” For some time she sat considering -the group, and then again spoke to herself: “Ah, -I see, these are none other than the girl wife, husband -and child of whom Miriamne has been reading! But -what an improper legend at the bottom? ‘<i>A sword -shall pierce through thine own soul also!</i>’ A sword has -no place in that happy group!” And Rizpah still -gazed at the charming presentment. Suddenly she -started from her seat. “What’s this?” she cried as -she traced a dark cross made by the shadow of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> -child’s outstretched arms and reaching from his feet to -the mother’s bending knees. “I have it now; the cross -is the sword! Some of the Nazarene heresy, the witchery -of the ‘Old Clock Man!’” Rizpah flung the picture -from her as if it were a serpent. She thought she saw -a paramount duty, and without an instant of delay she -hastened back to Miriamne, this time in angry mood—Rizpah -of Bozrah, the fanatical Nemesis of heresy.</p> - -<p>“Here, girl! Whence this book of devils!”</p> - -<p>Miriamne, in fright, leaped from her couch, and -Rizpah, laying hold of her arm, half dragged the bewildered, -trembling girl to the adjacent apartment. -“These?” imperiously questioned Rizpah, as she -pointed vehemently toward picture and manuscript -lying together on the floor.</p> - -<p>The maiden, overcome by the suddenness of the -stormy outbreak, spoke tremblingly, pleadingly:</p> - -<p>“Oh, mother, forgive me if I’ve done wrong! Father -Adolphus, the old—”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, the old wizzard! he gave them to thee,” -interrupted the mother. “Enough! ’tis as I expected; -the Christian’s doctrine of devils!”</p> - -<p>Miriamne reached forth, mechanically, to take the -denounced objects, but Rizpah at once intercepted her, -spurning them with her foot.</p> - -<p>“Don’t touch the leprosy! To-morrow we’ll hire -some Druses beggars to burn them!”</p> - -<p>“But, mother, they are not ours; we must return at -least the painting; it cost great labor!”</p> - -<p>“Leave that to me! Now, further and finally for -thee, rash girl, I’ve commands. Listen! Thou art -never again to meet or speak to that hoary-headed old -wizzard, Von Gombard.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span></p> - -<p>“But, mother—”</p> - -<p>“No evasion nor compromise!”</p> - -<p>“I can not treat the kind old man that way. He is -so good, and all the people, Jews and Gentiles, love -him,” pleaded Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“Enough! and, in brief, meet him or speak to him -again, and I’ll disown thee! I’d drive thee, daughter -of mine though thou art, out of my home to starvation -and pray God to send all the plagues written in -His book to haunt thee, while thy life remained, rather -than tolerate heresy!”</p> - -<p>So saying, Rizpah fell upon her knees, as if even -then to utter an imprecation.</p> - -<p>In terror the daughter ran to her, and shielding her -eyes from the parent’s anger-distorted countenance, -she pitifully cried:</p> - -<p>“Mother! Oh, mother! Don’t curse me! Save -me! save me!”</p> - -<p>The elder woman’s body swayed and dilated as if -she were possessed of some furious demon, checked -and muzzled, but struggling to break forth. Evidently -the pathos of the daughter’s appeal touched -some responding chord of mercy, for the mother restrained -herself and then suddenly arose and swept -out of the bed-chamber. And yet Miriamne was not -reassured; she felt the fascination of dread. With -trembling her eyes were riveted on the open door; her -ears heard the heavy, stately, threatening, departing -footsteps, and great misery overwhelmed her. She -felt, if she could not express it, that the breakers of a -mighty wrath were heaving and tossing in that bosom -on which she had hitherto rested when in pain or -peril. She knew the meanings of those wavy motions,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> -so like those of the boa retiring for renewed attack. -She saw them passing up and down the form of Rizpah -as the latter went out, her eyes burning, her body -dilating. She had observed these things in her parent -before, but never as now directed toward herself.</p> - -<p>In terror and anguish Miriamne fled out of the old -Giant-house. There was relief and a sense of getting -more truly under the sheltering wings of God in getting -out under the serene canopy of heaven. So, often, -the grief-stricken seek solitude, absence from all that -has crossed and hurt, separation from all earthly, in a -lonely appeal to the Holy and Loving. And so these -two women, bound to each other by the strongest human -ties, needing, because of their isolation, each other -supremely; after all, loving each other with a choice, -tried love, willing each to endure any cross, even unto -death, for the other’s weal, and both anxious to serve -God loyally, went apart. They exemplified the cross-purposes -and misunderstandings that beset and mar -life’s pilgrims. They needed sorely, both of them, -pilot and beacon; some one to inspire as well as to -exemplify all that is best in womanhood. The need -was patent, but the remedy but dimly discerned.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE MISERERE AND THE EASTER ANTHEM.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Under the shade of His mighty wings,</div> -<div class="verse indent7">One by one</div> -<div class="verse indent3">Are His secrets told,</div> -<div class="verse indent7">One by one.</div> -<div class="verse">Lit by the rays of each morning sun,</div> -<div class="verse">Shall a new flower its petals unfold,</div> -<div class="verse">With its mystery hid in its heart of gold.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon -their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord the veil -shall be taken away.”—II Cor., 3:15.</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-m.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Midnight and moonlight were in Bozrah, -and midnight and moonlight were in -Miriamne’s heart as she wandered out into -the city. She did not see her way further -than to know it must be some direction other than -toward her home. That place all her life hitherto the -dearest spot on earth, was become her dread. As -she moved away from it she did not look back. It -seemed to her that there was an angry cloud -enveloping it; a cloud holding a furious thunderbolt. -As she went on, she rapidly passed through a series of -painful feelings; those that naturally beset the runaway -girl. First she felt very reckless, then, surprised -at her recklessness, then very lonely as if every tie -that bound her was broken, and then affrighted as she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> -thought of confronting the great, strange, selfish world -alone. A woman so young and so inexperienced; a -bird with half-fledged wings, thrust out of the parent -nest into a storm; altogether a pitiable creature. In -the moonlight of her conscience, after a time, she -dimly discerned a line of duty. It seemed to her that -it were best for her to turn toward the church of -Adolphus, and she resolutely turned thither. Before -the resolution she had walked aimlessly; now with -an aim and with some soul comfort. She did not -have power to analyze her feelings; had she had -such power she might have discerned the fact that -she was turning toward something her reason told her -was very good, therefore the soul comfort came as the -harbinger of conversion. As yet the moonlight within, -like that without, was not strong enough to resolve the -shadows in and about her. She knew, and that alone, -certainly, that she was miserable, wounded, bruised. -So storm-beaten, in a flight from the ancient Rizpah -and her counterpart, Rizpah of Bozrah, the maiden -naturally turned toward the place where there seemed -rest, escape; the haven known to all the troubled and -sick of the Giant city. With a great throb of joy she -at length drew nigh the Church of Adolphus. All -was silent about it; but its up-pointing spire, emblem -of eternal, aspiring hope, rest on a rock, stability—in -grand contrast with the grim ruins God’s revenges had -scattered in dire confusion all around, assured her. -She remembered then that she had heard some say -that they had been blessed beyond all telling, in hours -of trouble, by the services of that sanctuary. She perceived -that the church, from spire to portal, was -flooded with silvering moonlight, while all beyond and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> -around it was in shadows; then she wearily sank down -by a small porch near the great entrance. As she -sank she moaned a broken prayer: “Oh, God, take -me!” Utterly overcome, she wished for a moment for -death’s release; and death’s similitude, fainting, sometimes -sent in mercy, came over her. How long she -lay unconscious, she knew not. She was suddenly -aroused by the stroke of a muffled bell; she opened -her eyes and beheld forms gliding out of the darkness -into the chapel. For a moment she felt a superstitious -fear that chilled her. She vaguely remembered that -that bell had been wont to toll thus solemnly when -there was a funeral. Simultaneous with the thought -she questioned, Was she herself dead? But she -quickly collected her thoughts and then comprehended -that there was to be a midnight service in the chapel. -She remembered that Father Adolphus was wont to -have such, at intervals. She longed to taste the joys -within of which she had heard, and was at the same -time restrained, lest by entering she should in some -way part from her mother and the faith of her childhood -forever. Conscience and desire waged war with -each other, and the girl was too much excited to stand -still or to reason clearly. She, therefore, mechanically -moved through the open doors with the throng, out -of the darkness into the light. Once within the -place the grateful sense of peace and the splendors of -the various appointments, beyond all she had ever -before experienced, engrossed all her thoughts. The -lofty arches, the well wrought pillars, the niches, in -which were here and there saintly paintings, the lights, -disposed so as to produce an impression of seriousness -and rest, the hum of subdued voices, all came to her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> -as balm. At the east she beheld a silver altar, velvet -draped; on either side of it lofty columns with golden -plinths and capitals; just back of the altar, in a light -that made the face of the presentment more beautiful, -she discerned the image of a woman, splendidly -robed and jewel-crowned. For a moment she thought -she was looking upon one living, for the crowned -woman was so beautiful, so much a part of the place, -and seemed so inviting. She contrasted her, in mind, -with the terrible picture of Rizpah. Just then, with -little persuasion, she could have run toward the -woman, back of the altar, and plead for sympathy. The -feeling was momentary. Little by little the truth -dawned upon her, and she thought, “this represents -the beautiful Mary of Father Von Gombard.” Then -the moonlight within the maiden’s soul began to -change into dawn. She gazed and gazed, and as she -was so engaged, her thoughts took wing for heaven and -her soul cried within itself as a babe for its mother. -She knew not her way, but she knew she needed and -yearned for a guide as pure as heaven and as serious as -God. Her meditations were interrupted when she -perceived the place growing darker about her, the -forms of the congregation now becoming like so many -moving shadows. All around her bowed their heads -as in prayer, and, impressed by the solemnity of the -place, she did likewise. There was a long silence. -The hush of death was over the place, the only -sign of life the stealthy movements of a tall, dark-robed -personage, who glided about the chancel. The -tower bell tolled again, once, twice, thrice; its muffled -tones, as they died away, being prolonged, then -caught up and borne onward with organ notes which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> -filled the trembling air with entrancing melody. Then -the organ tones softened and died away into subdued -minors. “How like the sighings of autumn evening -breezes, before a rain,” thought Miriamne. The place -again was full of melody, the organ being reinforced -by lutes and dulcimers, played by unseen hands. But -the worshippers were silent; all bowed, apparently, in -prayerful expectation. It was all new and exceedingly -impressive to the maiden, and she was carried -along by the spirit of the hour.</p> - -<p>The draped figure passed down from behind the altar-lattice -and moved, on tip-toe, from one to another of -the worshipers. Miriamne was curious, yet frightened. -“What if he came to me?” The question she asked -herself made her tremble. If it were the priest, she -was sure he would be very kind and yet how would she -explain her absence at that hour from home? She -was alert to hear the words he spoke to others near -her, and when she did, she took courage. They -seemed just such as she needed. She knew the voice; -it was that of Father Adolphus, in the tenderness and -triumph of one filled with unearthly hopes and heavenly -sympathy. The cadence of his voice accorded -with the plaintive tones of the organ. Miriamne’s heart -fluttered like a caged bird, back and forth, from yearnings -to fears, as the priest drew nearer and nearer to -her. She yearned to hear spoken to herself his balm-like -benedictions; she feared, lest recognizing her, he -should reprove. He seemed about to pass, as if not -perceiving her. Now more intensely she yearned and -dreaded than before. She could not restrain herself, -and so she sobbed aloud like a child in pain. The -priest tenderly placed his hand on her head and softly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> -said: “<i>If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to -forgive and to cleanse us from all iniquity.</i>”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Father Adolphus,” she sobbed, “is this for -me?”</p> - -<p>The priest started, but quickly recovered himself, -and again spoke in the same tone as before, his voice -rising in accord with a triumphant strain of the music: -“<i>He died that we might live!</i>” Miriamne clasped and -passionately kissed his hand.</p> - -<p>The place had become darker, little by little; the -organ tones meanwhile growing deeper and more solemn, -while voices from an unseen choir blended with -them. Miriamne, recognizing, from the words of the -singers, the penitential Psalms, followed the worship -with deepened interest from the fifty-first to the fifty-seventh -of the sacred songs. They expressed the -pains and tempests of her own soul as they voiced -sublimely sin-beseeching pardon. The Christian and -Jew were for the moment made akin. The man at the -organ was a master of his art, and while handling the -keys of his instrument, he also played on the hearts of -his hearers. He was aiming to reproduce Calvary, its -scenes, emotions and meanings, and he succeeded. The -devout assembly, following the motive and movement -of the composition, was led mentally to realize the -journey from the Judgment Hall to the Crucifixion. -There were measured, mournful, dragging tones; -Jesus bearing his heavy cross; then followed discord -and confused uproar, the voices of a mob. Later on -there were dirges and silences, followed, as it were, by -blows and ugly cries. The nailed hands, the uplifted -cross and the sneers of those who passing wagged their -heads, were all revived to the imagination. With<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> -these sounds, from the first, there ran along a sustained -minor strain, sometimes nearly obliterated, at other -times ruling. It was as mournful as the sigh of the -autumn winds amid the dying leaves and night rains. -In the color and movement of that minor there was -feelingly expressed the deep, poignant, undemonstrative -sorrow of the mother that followed the thorn-crowned -and scourged Son to his martyrdom. Then -came a long silence, broken only by the fleeting whispers -here and there. The worshipers were in earnest -prayer. They were at the cross, as the friends of Jesus, -in earnest communings. Again the organ broke in on -the silence; there was a rush of air as if some one -passed in rapid, terrified flight, followed by a sound -like swiftly departing footsteps; the fleeing disciples -came to the minds of the worshipers. Then the -organ tones deepened to the rumblings of approaching -thunders—heralds of a climax of catastrophies, while -above the rumblings a solitary, piercing voice, which -ended in a thrilling, agonizing cry: “<i>My God, my God, -why hast thou forsaken me!</i>” Following this came -peal upon peal from the organ; louder and louder; -discord and confusion; ending in mighty crashings. -The rocking earth; the earthquake; the rent veil—all -the tragedy of Cavalry—was presented in awful -realism to the minds of the kneeling worshipers. -Every light had been quenched, the temple within was -as dark as a tomb, and not a sound could be heard but -moans and penitential weepings. To one any way -superstitious and not knowing the intent of the presentment, -the whole would have seemed very like the -realm of the lost, filled with damned souls, making pitiful -last appeals to mercy; but to the worshipers there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> -came a vision of a stark, dead form on a cross, standing -out vividly against the darkness of Calvary around -that cross the amazed, condemned crucifiers and a few -disciples, the latter whispering about the burial. -The realism was oppressive and some present cried out, -as if by the bier of a loved one, while some fainted -away. But the Healer was there. Father Adolphus, -with a voice full of tears, with the pathos of Him that -went down to preach hope to “the spirits in prison,” -spoke to the penitents of peace, light and glory through -faith. As the old Missioner went from one to another -the lights of the chapel, one after another, reappeared. -Presently the aged consoler stood by Miriamne: “Hast -thou felt the power of the Cross, my child?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Father Adolphus, I do not know; I only know -I’m very wretched!”</p> - -<p>“‘Godly sorrow worketh repentance’; but thou wert -as happy as a bird thou thoughtst and saidst a few -days ago?”</p> - -<p>“I was a bird—a girl then! I’m a woman now. -I’ve lived years in hours.”</p> - -<p>“Any sudden trouble?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, a tempest and tempests.”</p> - -<p>“Possess me of all, daughter.”</p> - -<p>“I can not. It’s every thing. I seem so useless and -nobody loves me!”</p> - -<p>“Thou art too young to be morbid and art greatly -beloved by <span class="smcap">One</span>.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I can not come to Him. I’m under His ban; -I do not honor my parents. How can I? One, my -father, I never knew. I’ve seen him through my -mother’s eyes, and to despise. Now I am afraid of -her, and my terror is poisoning the love I once felt for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> -her. Oh, I’m miserable, lost! Father, Father, save -me!” And the wretched girl flung her arms passionately -about the old priest.</p> - -<p>“Ah, girl, I can not; but there is One that can -save.”</p> - -<p>“Save, save me—one so lost?”</p> - -<p>“He is a ‘Prince and a Saviour.’”</p> - -<p>“I do not know Him. He can not love me, and -one must love me to save me; I’m so needy and -wicked.”</p> - -<p>“Well said, and He is love. Only believe.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know how to believe.”</p> - -<p>“Like a poor, sick babe, all need, thou, amid thy -weaknesses, hast power at least to cry.”</p> - -<p>“Cry? What shall I cry?”</p> - -<p>“‘Help thou mine unbelief.’”</p> - -<p>Slowly, by wisely simple gospel-counsels, the aged -teacher lead the penitent girl Christward. As they -communed the congregation departed, and an attendant -lighted the lamps. Presently the music of the organ -again broke forth; but now in cheerful and triumphant -strains. Miriamne listened, and as she did, a -change came over her countenance. Her dawn was -coming.</p> - -<p>“Art looking up, daughter?”</p> - -<p>“This music is like spring morning melodies, and I’m -singing to it, in soul, I think.”</p> - -<p>“It is the morning song of souls; the angel’s greeting -to Mary. Observe the words; first the ‘Hail -Mary’ before the wondrous birth; then the serene assurance -of the mourning mother at the grave, ‘He is -not here, He has risen.’”</p> - -<p>“Ah, Adolphus, how blessed are you Christians in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> -a religion all mercy, all songs, all love, and all nearness -to God!”</p> - -<p>“‘Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy -laden.’”</p> - -<p>“I would I could hear Him say as much to me; but -I can not go, come, nor do any thing else; not even stay -away; I’m a bit of wind-drifted down!”</p> - -<p>“Come all ye heavy laden,” measuredly replied the -priest.</p> - -<p>“Oh, if there were some one to bear me onward; -blind and weak as I am!”</p> - -<p>“He carries the lambs in His bosom!”</p> - -<p>“Alas, I feel myself cowering away from His Holiness, -when I attempt to approach Him alone!”</p> - -<p>“All to Him must go alone, in prayer as in death. -He meets with a plenteous mercy the confiding -ones who come by sorrows’ thorny path, as He will -meet the needy in judgment who have only faith’s plea. -Fear not to go alone; solitude has its benefits, and He -is sole accuser or excuser. The terms of His rebuke -are eternal secrets, as are the terms of His forgiveness. -They lie alone, between the Blesser and the -blessed.”</p> - -<p>“Is the lovely woman there, your Mary?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, child.”</p> - -<p>“And she was the mother of this Saviour?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“And was He like her?”</p> - -<p>“He is, eternal; the ‘I Am’—not was nor shall be—always.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes; but is He like the woman?”</p> - -<p>“In my soul I so believe, to my joy; for she was -godly, therefore, God-like.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Then I can love Him, trust Him, and I’m sure -He’ll pity me, at least.”</p> - -<p>“Amen,” piously ejaculated Father Adolphus. -Then he said: “Now child, rest; it’s too late to go -home. My sister, yonder, will care for thee till morning, -and then thou must hie to thy home. Thou yet -mayst be its peace-maker and blesser.”</p> - -<p>Easter-tide came. All nature was serene and seemed -to recognize the memorial of holy, happy association. -Father Adolphus was astir early to ply his industry of -mercy for the suffering. “Poor, unhappy land, and unhappy -because so blind! Oh, man, man, how thine eyes -are holden, while fatlings, birds and flowers rejoice!”</p> - -<p>“Ah, unbenumbed by sinning, they, like the cattle in -Bethlehem’s stable, are first to see the Saviour born of -woman. ‘Praise ye the Lord, beasts and all cattle, -creeping things and flying fowl. They shall not hurt -nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall -be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters -cover the sea.’” Thus soliloquized the old priest as he -passed toward well-known haunts of misery in the -Giant City.</p> - -<p>Miriamne was called to a late breakfast by the kindly -sister of Adolphus. The aged woman said little, but -every act seemed freighted with motherly interest, and -was like balm to the heart conscious chiefly of loneliness -and wretchedness. The maiden longed to have the -elder woman solicit her confidence, but the latter did -not respond to the mute, though manifest desire. “It -is better so. God’s work is best done in an hour like -this, when He alone is left to searching and counsel.” -So thought this aged minister. Experience under -Father Adolphus had given her this wisdom.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span></p> - -<p>The coming of evening brought to the little religious -house its master all cheerful, yet well wearied by a -day of ministering for God.</p> - -<p>“Art here yet, daughter?” was his first greeting.</p> - -<p>“Yes; where else should I be? I’m friendless, lost, -unhappy; even to a vague longing for death; but I’m -frightened at that longing, since it seems as if I was as -friendless in Heaven as on earth. Oh, it’s awful to be -a two-fold orphan!”</p> - -<p>Just then the church-bell rang forth a merry -peal.</p> - -<p>Miriamne looked a question, and the old priest continued: -“Hark, it’s the pæan of peace, declaring that -the Day Spring from on high has visited all those in -the shadow of death.”</p> - -<p>“Another service?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, the best of all. We cling to the hours of this -day and battle night away in joy, thus declaring our -hope in the resurrection, the end of all nights. Listen, -that’s my organ, the one I myself made.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne listened, and there was wafted to her an -Easter anthem; at intervals containing the sentence: -“Thou that takest away the sins of the world have -mercy.”</p> - -<p>As they passed into the chapel, the maiden remarked: -“There are more women here than there were -at the other service?”</p> - -<p>“The other celebrated death; the chief pain-maker -of woman’s life; for they live in love whose ties are -constantly sundered by man’s last enemy. They are -allured by the beautiful things, the joys, the hopes of -our Easter service. It proclaims eternal victory over -the destroyer.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p> - -<p>“How beautiful the woman’s form back of the -altar, good Father, to-night.”</p> - -<p>“Our moods within appear to us on objects without. -So strangely the Kingdom of Heaven, beginning -in the soul, spreads everywhere. It is natural, though -to think that the resurrection time brought all joy to -the childless mother: to this one as it did and does -bring a thousand times to other mothers, like her bereaved.”</p> - -<p>The Easter service went onward, a succession of -joys; the march of a pilgrim army with the goals in -view; the triumph of truth, the crowning of life, the -final discomfiture of death. Miriamne brightened as -the service advanced; then came a fullness of joy; then -a reaction and she finally fell into a sleep akin to a -trance. It was the resting of the wounded on the way -of healing. There was a Divine overpouring and a -babe-like sleep of perfect trust; from this the voice -of the priest aroused her!</p> - -<p>“Miriamne seems to rest.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, such a dream! I followed the songs to the -sky and wished my body had wings. God lifted me up -and I slept, dreaming myself into His presence. I -thought I was in heaven.”</p> - -<p>“Thou art near it, child.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, this wonderful calm! What makes me so -happy?”</p> - -<p>“Hast thou any token?”</p> - -<p>“I do not know: I murmured as the people sang -these words: ‘<i>I know that my Redeemer liveth</i>;’ as I -murmured that, every thing, got brighter, and I felt no -more under the yoke and load!”</p> - -<p>“He is thy Vindicator. ’Tis well.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span></p> - -<p>Then tears coursed down the old man’s face.</p> - -<p>And so the girl that fled out of her home, away -from the phantom of Rizpah of the ancients, away -from her mother; a pilgrim; all wants, all yearnings, -in a few brief hours, had found a city of refuge, an -everlasting hope and was in soul serenely resting.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 525px;" id="illus7"> -<img src="images/illus7.jpg" width="525" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption-r">By Mengelburg.</p> -<p class="caption">JESUS AT THE AGE OF TWELVE WITH MARY AND JOSEPH ON THEIR WAY -TO JERUSALEM.</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.<br /> -<span class="smaller">A HEROINE’S PILGRIMAGE.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“There is a vision, in the heart of each,</div> -<div class="verse">Of justice, mercy, wisdom, tenderness</div> -<div class="verse">To wrong and pain and knowledge of the cure;</div> -<div class="verse">And these embodied in a woman’s form,</div> -<div class="verse">That best transmits them pure as first received.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—Robert Browning.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Behold, the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according -to thy word.”—<span class="smcap">Mary.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-m.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Miriamne, the day after her conversion, at -evening, was sitting in the portal of the -church at Bozrah, musing. “Oh, how I -thank Father Adolphus for showing me the -way to this peace!” The western sky, to the maiden’s -rapt imagination, seemed very like the gate of -Heaven, and in her meditations she exclaimed as if -talking to those in glory, yet near to her: “Mother of -my Saviour, I need a mother! Thou and I, two -women, loved of the same Lord, shall we not evermore -be friends?” Then the stars glittered through the fading -sun light like night-lamps, set along the parapets of -that far off city, and the maiden felt as if heaven’s -doors were being shut. She was oppressed with a -sense of being left alone, and thereupon cried out, -“Oh, Jesus, Jesus, do not leave me here in the dark; -Oh! thou mother, sainted and happy, may I not be -where thou art until morning?” The cry or prayer of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> -the girl, having in it much of the poet, little of the -skilled theologian, was one likely to be censured by -those adept in stately forms, and yet it was very -natural. Miriamne was but an infant in experience -and had yet to learn that after the resurrection came -Pentecost; then the Ascension. Steps like these are -in the believer’s experience; conversion is a rising from -the dead to be followed by the assuring work of the -Holy Spirit, then Heaven. But the soul quickened from -the charnel-house of sin and inducted, not only into a new -inner life but into a new fellowship, hungers for more -and more. Hence, it is a common thing for the young -convert to wish to die, and be away from life’s turmoils -and defilements at once and with the glorified, immediately, -forever. It is as if the disciple would pass at -once from the sepulcher directly up the Mount of Ascension. -In this spirit Mary Magdalene pressed forward -to embrace to her human heart the newly risen Saviour -that morning when he tenderly restrained her. There -was something for her to be and do before the final rest -on the Divine bosom, in unending rapture. “<i>Touch -me not; for I am not yet ascended</i>,” as if He would -say, “I myself, have other work yet, before the eternal -gates are lifted up for my triumphal entrance as the -King of Glory.” “<i>Go to my brethren, and say unto -them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father.</i>” The -master words were, “Go;” “say.” The load Jesus -put on His followers was the same in kind, though infinitely -less, that He took on Himself. Some way it -was love burdening with blessing, for He that in dying -agony sent the Rose of His heart, Mary, to the home -of John instead of at once to Paradise, knew surely -that then for her that was best. “To go” and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> -“tell” was best for Magdalene, as to stay and work for -a time is best for all:</p> - -<p>So Miriamne’s prayer, though so worded that it -would have been censured by the learned churchmen, -was heard in heaven, and He that said: “My peace I -leave with you,” ministered, all unseen by human eye, -to that lamb, bleating alone amid the dark giant castles -of Bashan and the darker castles of fears that -hover not far from each new-born of His Kingdom. -She passed from repining, from morbidly wishing to -die and from thoughts solely of her own weal, to the -second stage of experience; that stage, where the -young convert is influenced with a burning zeal to tell -of the blessings found and thereby win others for the -Saviour. Miriamne soon felt desire inexpressible to run -and tell others of her joy. Then her mind recurred to -her father, living somewhere far to the westward, just beneath -where she had fancied the gates of heaven were -a little while ago. “No, no; I cannot go yet! I must -stay here and do something. Oh, I’d be ashamed to -go to heaven and leave my father, my mother, my -brothers, my people in their misery!” As she thus -spoke she pulled her hand quickly down by her side. -The motion like to one pulling away from some leading -influence. A voice at hand spoke: “Behold, he that -keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne, with a slight startled exclamation, turned -to see whence the voice and with joy beheld Father -Adolphus.</p> - -<p>“Oh, dear Father, I’m glad you came this way! I -want to tell you above all others how happy you made -me.”</p> - -<p>Solemnly and tenderly the old man replied: “‘Not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> -unto us, oh Lord; not unto us, but unto thy name -give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth’s sake.’”</p> - -<p>“Yes, He has done it; but you helped, good teacher; -and I am so happy! Oh, I do not know myself! I -feel so changed. I’m growing wiser, happier and -stronger every minute.”</p> - -<p>“If so, then, He that called thee, daughter, had a -purpose.”</p> - -<p>“I know it; see it; feel it. I’m called to help my -people; to bring together Sir Charleroy and Rizpah.”</p> - -<p>“Say ‘my parents’; it’s more filial.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but it’s so strange. I call them in my mind -now all the time by their names. It seems as if I belonged -to another family; that of Jesus, Mary and the -Angels.”</p> - -<p>“A child of the Kingdom, indeed! When thy -parents are converted, the family tie will be revived. -Thou dost feel the love of heaven; the great eternal -family bond, as Christ when he said: ‘My mother and -my brethren are these which hear the word of God -and do it.’”</p> - -<p>“But if I hope to bring my parents together I must -go first to my father and persuade him. I know my -mother will object to the journey. Can I disobey her -and still please God?”</p> - -<p>“Ask God. I have for thee, and already see thy -way. I have already acted in this matter.”</p> - -<p>“I can not forget the law in that I learn that ‘He -that setteth lightly by his father or his mother is -cursed.’ Among our noble ancients, the Maccabees, -the disobedient child was even stoned to death.”</p> - -<p>“But thy salvation puts thee under the Gospel, -although, under the Law even parents had duties; they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> -were forbidden to make their children walk through -the idolatrous fires. What says Jesus to thee?”</p> - -<p>“I do not know whether it be His spirit or not; -yet all the time I hear a voice within me saying: -‘These twain shall be one.’”</p> - -<p>“I see thy soul abhors this actual divorcement of -thy parents. Oh, how some play hide and seek with -their consciences around forms as these do; not comforting -but hating each other; not bearing together their -common burdens; wide seas between them, yet fancying -they have violated no law of God, because they -have not asked the law of man to do what it never -can, truly, proclaim two, neither having committed -the deadly sin, apart.”</p> - -<p>“This separate living is their constant sin?”</p> - -<p>“He that starts wrongly repeats the wrong anew -each time that, by act or thought, he approves the -wrong first done. Sin’s name is truly legion.”</p> - -<p>“What an awful thing is sin!”</p> - -<p>“True, daughter. It blinds its victims here, and its -wages hereafter is death.”</p> - -<p>“That’s why I fear to disobey my mother; what if -it be sin to do so?”</p> - -<p>“The command, my child, is ‘children obey your -parents—<i>in the Lord</i>.”</p> - -<p>“What does ‘in the Lord’ mean?”</p> - -<p>“I’ll tell thee, my little catechumen; there comes a -time to some youths, in pious life, when duty to God -compels disobedience of parents; as it came to Jonathan, -son of Saul. God is Father and mother to the -righteous, and His law must be first. Mary left home -and every thing, first and last, to follow Jesus. Her -way was the Christian’s.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I thought once I was right in obeying my mother -without question. Now I think I may be right in disobeying -without question. The old and the new law -are at war within me.”</p> - -<p>“Amid these Bashan hills Paul, the Holy Saint, -traveled, led of God from thinking that directly -opposite to his former beliefs, the truth. Jesus met -him then on the way to Damascus, in power and in -glory; Paul had been for a long time a profound -scholar, a Pharisee of thy people. On this journey, -enlightened by the spirit, he asked and learned sincerely -to ask, the question of questions in this life; ‘<i>Lord what -wilt thou have me to do?</i>’ I beseech thee to ask it -daughter, as thy hourly prayer.”</p> - -<p>“Did God answer Paul?”</p> - -<p>“Yea.”</p> - -<p>“How?”</p> - -<p>“The blessed apostle tells all! ‘When it pleased -God who separated me from my mother’s womb -to reveal His son in me, that I might preach among -the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh -and blood, ... but I went into Arabia.’ Neither wife, -friend, child, nor Ephesian Elders, clinging with tears, -could hold him back from duty. Then he preached -through this wild country.”</p> - -<p>“But I’m not Paul, and only a woman.”</p> - -<p>“‘Only a woman!’ She out of whom went seven -devils, a woman, was the herald of the resurrection, -and the church; God’s glory in the earth, is likened -unto a woman. Oh, when a woman is clothed with -the Sun, there is nothing more resplendent, and as for -power, naught prevails against her. It seems to me if -thou dost emulate her who said to God’s messenger:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> -‘<i>Be it unto me according to thy word</i>’ thou wilt go ere -long to thy father; but thou must now return!”</p> - -<p>“Return whither? This spot of all earth alone tolerates -me!”</p> - -<p>“No, that’s changed! Thou art the Child of a King. -Go home; ay, rise to tell of the One that hath risen in -thy heart.”</p> - -<p>“Dare I? Must I?” Miriamne soon answered, by -action, her own questions.</p> - -<p>The young woman started homeward; at first with -fearfulness. Then there came to her great calmness -and courage, as she thought: “If I was wrong in going, -I’m right in returning. My mother scared me from -home into God’s arms. I can tell her that.” The new -life had quickened within her the springs of affection. -In all her life before she had not been so long apart -from her mother. She said to herself, “I’ll just spring -into her arms, when I meet her!” And she would -have, if permitted.</p> - -<p>The mother with a face like a stone, emotionless, -saw her approach. When the latter stood by the -threshold, the parent freezingly said: “Well; what -dost thou want here?”</p> - -<p>A dozen answers pressed for utterance. Some like -those shaped by an angry or reckless girl; some such -as might come to a politic woman, having recourse -ever to cunning against the odds of power. The first -thoughts were not of love, the last not of truth. In an -instant Miriamne remembered her new personality. -She was the missionary! She dared, being right, face -any thing, even her mother’s wrath; but in her soul -she dared not let bitterness rule. She knew as well -that she dared not tell the truth so as to convey a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> -false impression. She might have done so once; but -not now. “Lord what wilt thou have me to do?” the -golden prayer was on her lips and she had instant grace -to say quietly: “I was doing no wrong.”</p> - -<p>“Was where?”</p> - -<p>How brave the girl had become. Her reply was -calm and courageous. “I was, for a time praying to -God; but safe, for God was with me in the Spirit and -good Father Adolphus in the flesh.”</p> - -<p>“The Old Clock Man!”</p> - -<p>“Yea.”</p> - -<p>“The wizard! I so suspected. Here is more of -this bad work;” and Rizpah angrily thrust before -Miriamne a scroll. “That fawning, heretic-priest came -here and left this with mock piety saying: ‘I, being the -mother, might read it!’ I had no humor to converse -with him; but of thee I demand the full meaning. -Now, no avoidance, girl; dost thou hear!” Miriamne -was not only not abashed, but in her new-found courage -took the letter, and without a quaver of the voice, -read:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="center">“TO THE GRAND MASTER OF THE TEMPLE, LONDON.</p> - -<p class="noindent">“<i>Faithful Knight and Son of the Church</i>:</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Greeting</span>—I herewith commend to thee and thy most -pious and chivalrous offices, my beloved catechumen, -Miriamne de Griffin, of Bozrah. She is the truly noble -daughter of an English nobleman, now living somewhere in -London. He is, I fear, prodigal toward God, and an exile -from his family; perhaps in the distress of bodily ailment, -most grievous. Prompted by holy desires, this young -woman, whom I commend, may come to thy city in the -hope of finding her father, for the compassing of his restoration -to health, his family and righteousness. Had I the -power, I would command the thousand liveried angels, said -ever to attend the Holy Virgin, to encompass ever this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> -sweet and pious daughter of Knight de Griffin; but being -impotent to direct the angel guard, I serenely commit my -daughter in the spirit, to the watch, care and chivalrous -regard of thyself and thy companion knights.</p> - -<p>“All saints salute thee. My benediction be on thee. <i>In -pace.</i></p> - -<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Adolphus Von Gombard.</span>”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“And <i>thou</i> dost think thou couldst go alone, half -round the world, find that renegade wanderer, bring -him here, make him good, tolerable, and re-unite our -family? <span class="smcap">Thou?</span>” Rizpah stopped, her voice almost -at the pitch of a scream; her utterance ending in a -groan that died with a hiss.</p> - -<p>Miriamne responded calmly: “I can not tell what I -may achieve, that is with God; but I know what I -must attempt. The path of duty is clear, and I enter -it unwaveringly.”</p> - -<p>“And I, as unwaveringly, forbid.”</p> - -<p>“I expected this command, and in all love for thee, -my mother, shall disobey it.”</p> - -<p>Rizpah turned pale, her eyes became leaden. She -was for an instant like one stunned by a sudden, heavy -blow, and disarmed. The little submissive child that -she deemed her daughter to be, was suddenly transformed -before her; changed in fact to a firm, strong, -brave woman. But the elder quickly recovered, and -while clearly perceiving that violence would be futile, -had recourse to the last arm of the half-defeated, to -ridicule.</p> - -<p>“Disobedience, oh, I see, this is a part of this superior -religion of thine and that old ‘Old Clock Man;’ -this Gombard, ha! ha! It was always so. New religions -please by freeing from law! What an old idiot -that Solomon of the ancients! He taught ‘forsake not -the law of thy mother.’”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Mother, I have two parents and obligations to -both. I find our home shattered, and I for most of -my life half orphan. I have thereby great and lasting -loss. My brothers and you suffer as well. I am led of -God, in a desire to seek a remedy for our troubles. I -would gladly obey your edicts, but first I must obey my -Maker and King.”</p> - -<p>“Girl, false teachings lure thee to a curse.”</p> - -<p>“You know mother, you yourself cursed the memory -of Herod not long ago, when we wandered amid the -ruins at Kauawat and saw the remnants of his image, -as angry Christians left it, shattered years ago. That -day you said a curse on him that broke up families or -made innocents mourn, whether he lived anciently or -now.”</p> - -<p>“Well?”</p> - -<p>“I say a curse, bitter, on every act that breaks up -or beclouds a home! But not I, it is God that -curses!”</p> - -<p>Rizpah was speechless and withdrew from the room, -motioning silence with a stately, angry wave of her -hand. She was defeated in the debate, but not subdued. -The next day Rizpah renewed the subject, but -this time adopting the tactics of kindness.</p> - -<p>“My darling, since yesterday I’ve been thinking thy -good intentions worthy of approval for their spirit of -love. I’d approve thy purpose did I not forsee that -the great sacrifice on thy part would be fruitless. Thy -father and I could never live together! If thou -foundst him thou couldst not love him as he is, and, as -for reforming him, that were impossible!”</p> - -<p>“I must try.”</p> - -<p>“’Tis useless; a woman as wise, as patient, and as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> -earnestly seeking that result as thou, gave years of devotion, -deep as her life, to that purpose. They failed -utterly.”</p> - -<p>“Was that woman my mother?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, listen. In the glorious romances of youth I -met Sir Charleroy. I pitied him coming to our house a -defeated Crusader, a refugee. Pity gave way to admiration. -There were few about me whom I could love; -I had no mother. In some way I gave him her part of -my heart first, then the rest of it. I admired him for -his soldier-like bravery. He was older and vastly wiser -than I. All my ambitions seemed to be satisfied in -climbing up with his thoughts. He was able to teach -me a thousand things I never before heard of. Heart -and mind were intoxicated. I unconditionally surrendered -all to him, with an almost worshipful devotion. -I could not have made a more complete committal if -my God had come in human form and sought me for -His everlasting companionship. I fled with him from -my father’s home. In the wild Lejah and this Bozrah -we lived for a time together, until he changed from -lover to hater! Here my unnatural love was murdered -by inches. I can now reason better than then, and yet -the past seems like a nightmare. Thy father knew a -great deal, intended to be kind but did not comprehend -the dangerous responsibility of taking to his care -such a passionate, imaginative, impressible creature as -I was. He did not realize that there is a period in a -woman’s life when she may be literally made into another -being. In every generation women are walking -by thousands through a sort of passion week. I walked -in mine, ready to be molded almost into any form; but -he tried to have me profess to be a Christian, live like a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> -devotee of Astarte and be as Anata of the Assyrians -to her husband, but the echo of himself. I might have -done all this, but he tried to hasten me by force, and -then all fell to ruins like those amid which we lived. -That glorious structure of love which romance built, -became the saddest ruin here in those days.</p> - -<p>“I was then a young woman, just entering the perilous, -exhaustive periods of maternity. I was weak and -nervous, and sometimes may have tried his patience, -but I thought then that he ought to have borne with -me. I am now certain he ought. After he left, I was -for a time glad. I had renewed freedom from arguments, -rasping and crossing of purposes. Then I felt -the martyr’s joy. I felt I was left, a girl-wife, with -babe in arms, to battle alone, for God’s sake, for thy -sake. It seemed often that the arching heavens -above were smiling upon baby and me; that sustained -me. But, daughter, my moral training had been as -thorough as has been thine. My idea of the solemnity -and life-bindingness of the marriage tie could be no -higher than it was. I believed it divine to be forgiving, -and finally was impelled to turn from our broken -home, to find, if possible, my recreant spouse. Dominated -by convictions of duty, and often by a revived, -wild, soul-possessing love for Sir Charleroy, I went to -far off, strange London, I hunted out Sir Charleroy -and was ready to be all things, any thing for his sake. -He received me tenderly, only to soon change to -cruelty. Your brothers were born there, adding to my -load new burdens; but I was without help. He never -seemed to study my comfort, pleasure nor needs. In a -nation of strangers, with strange ways, I was alone. -He knew scores; I knew only that one man. Repulsed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> -by him I drank again and again the depths of misery, -having no heart in all the great city to counsel nor -love me. Then thy father took delight in vice. I was -crucified for months; my only comfort communing in -memory with the Sir Charleroy that had been, the -tender, loving, brave Palestine knight. In those dark -days, I found there was a place where persecuted -Israelites secretly met; a sort of cleft-rock synagogue. -Thither I went for consolation. I was wedded anew to -my religion, because it was mother, father, husband -and all to me; when there was none but God left to -me. I came to long, daily, for the time to go to that -meeting place of a few Hebrews just to pray God for -two things. One, the most pitiful of prayers for a -mother, that He would care for my children and keep -them from being like their father; the other that I -might be permitted soon to die! Thy father grew -constantly more brutal, taciturn and fitful! At last I -had an explanation. I found by unmistakable signs that -he was going mad. I saw further that that madness -took the shape of a murderous antipathy for me and -the children. Under the advice of the rabbi, leader of -our people at London, I determined, as the only -alternative, to return to our Bozrah home and leave -him to the care of his companion knights. In blank, -leaden grief I left London. I came to these scenes of -desolation with a heart as broken as any that ever survived -its pains. I could have died. I returned, my fate -fixed, the cup of my retribution for having disobeyed -my parent full. Once a queenly, blithesome girl, -petted and loved by hundreds, changed to a lone, sad -widow and prematurely old. A wife without a husband, -a Jew without the recognition of my people.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> -How utterly isolated! Thou know’st the rest, daughter.”</p> - -<p>The two women were silent. Miriamne was moved -by the revelation to a wondrous pity; but her royal -sentence: “<i>Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?</i>” -seemed to be written on the air just before her uplifted -eyes.</p> - -<p>Then questioned the elder, “And thou my daughter, -a woman, wilt not also leave me? It’s a woman’s heart -that pitifully questions.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll never forsake my mother!”</p> - -<p>“And never leave?”</p> - -<p>“Except, only as God commissions!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, say that thou wilt never leave me in life! I -said this in cruel pains for thee, Miriamne. Miriamne, -daughter, here by the couch in which thou wert born, -I plead.” So saying the mother dropped on one knee, -flung one arm over the bed by her side, and stretched -out the other toward her daughter.</p> - -<p>The maiden was profoundly moved, her loving heart -seemed to be swelling within her, all her emotional nature -ready to exclaim, “I’ll tarry,” but again her royal -sentence: “<i>Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?</i>” -controlled.</p> - -<p>“Loved mother, I am not my own. God has bought -me, and in His dear love I go. The story of sorrow -I’ve just heard confirms me in my purpose. I’m called, -I know, to work out a new and brighter day for mother -and father!”</p> - -<p>Rizpah was both pained and chagrined, and burying -her face in her <i>pepulum</i> moaned, “God, pity me!”</p> - -<p>“He does, I know, and sends a daughter to bear thee -proof, my mother.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span></p> - -<p>The mother, as if not hearing the latter words, continued, -growing vehement: “The necromancy of that -Nazarine priest has hastened the workings of heredity’s -curse! Girl, thy father’s distemper is taking -root in thy brain; thou too, art going mad! This -scheme of peril, foredoomed to failure, is worthy of a -bedlamite only. Oh, Jehovah, my shepherd, thou -lead’st me now by bitter waters!”</p> - -<p>“Mother, you called me at my birth, ‘Marah,’ ‘bitterness.’ -You know how the people murmured by the -bitter springs of Marah, in the wilderness, but God -showed Moses a tree that sweetened the water. I’ve -seen that tree and felt its power. It grows on the -mount called Calvary, and is immortal.”</p> - -<p>“Be considerate now, daughter, since I meet thee -kindly. To one not believing thy Nazarene doctrine, -it is useless to appeal with Christian figures.”</p> - -<p>“Well, mother, you remember Jeptha? He had a -daughter, and she was all-influential with him.”</p> - -<p>“He was the cause of her death, as thy father will -be of thine.”</p> - -<p>“But Jeptha’s daughter became a heroine.”</p> - -<p>“When dost thou depart?” questioned Rizpah.</p> - -<p>“Next Lord’s day I say my last prayers in Bozrah.”</p> - -<p>“Farewell. As well now as later. I can not bear a -long parting, and after to-day we shall speak no more -of this.” Miriamne was amazed by the sudden -change.</p> - -<p>“Do I go in peace?”</p> - -<p>“Ah, daughter, what a question? A mother’s undiminished -love will follow thee even unto death, winging -a thousand daily prayers to Israel’s Shepherd in thy -behalf. Yet, I shall condemn thy going, rebuke thy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> -disobedience, perhaps frown upon thee, and even say, -‘I disown thee!’ But, though I do all this, there -will be tears in my voice and kisses in my heart, for -my first-born. All my authority as a mother cries -against thy going, and all my mother-heart embraces. -I’ll not kiss thee as thou departest, but waft hundreds -after thee when thou art gone. I’m not Rizpah, devotee -of Rizpah now. I’m only a woman, a parent, a -voice uttering two decrees; one of the head and one of -the heart!”</p> - -<p>Miriamne was inexpressibly rejoiced by the words -she had heard, as they betokened the breaking down -of the strong opposition to her purpose; but she could -not trust herself further than to say, as she affectionately -embraced her mother, “And I can only cry as -did that noble Bethlehem mother to God’s messenger: -‘<i>Be it unto me according to thy word.</i>’ He leads, -I follow.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;" id="illus8"> -<img src="images/illus8.jpg" width="450" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption-r">By W. Holman Hunt.</p> -<p class="caption">THE YOUTH JESUS YIELDING TO THE WISHES OF HIS MOTHER.</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.<br /> -<span class="smaller">CONSOLATRIX AFFLICTORUM.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Furl we the sail and pass with tardy oar</div> -<div class="verse">Through these bright regions, casting many a glance</div> -<div class="verse">Upon the dream like issues and romance</div> -<div class="verse">Of many-colored life that Fortune pours</div> -<div class="verse">Round the Crusaders till, on distant shores,</div> -<div class="verse">Their labors end.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Wordsworth.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-m.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Miriamne’s welcome at the “Retreat of -the Palestineans,” at London, was most -cordial. The Grand Master of the returned -knights and his wife received her as a -daughter; the companion knights vied with each other -in efforts to serve the child of their once honored -comrade, Sir Charleroy de Griffin. But the maiden -never for a moment lost sight of her mission. No -sooner had she been bidden to rest than she questioned -as to her father’s welfare. The Grand Master -attempted to assure her that she might recuperate after -her journey, but she only the more urged her desire to -be taken to her parent at once.</p> - -<p>“Worthy Master, dalliance would not be rest, but -torture, to me. Being now so near my father, I’m -filled with a ruling, all-exciting longing to see him, at -once!”</p> - -<p>“Be patient, daughter, for a little season; all is done -for him that can be. The princely revenues of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span> -knights of Europe are at the behest of each of our -veterans, as he hath need.”</p> - -<p>“Ah! but your wealth can not provide him what I -bring—a daughter’s love!”</p> - -<p>“And yet, daughter, since you press me, I must explain -that he is under a cloud which would make thy -offering vain at present.”</p> - -<p>“There is no need, kind commander, to make evasive -explanations. I have been forewarned of my father’s -troubles of mind.”</p> - -<p>“But he is violent at times, and we are compelled to -keep him secluded in the asylum of our brotherhood.”</p> - -<p>“Good Master, that but the more increases my ardor -to hasten a meeting with him. I want to try the cure -of love upon him; I’ve all faith in its efficacy. When -may I go?”</p> - -<p>The foregoing was a sample of Miriamne’s words -each day. Her appeals touched all hearts and finally -over-persuaded the medical attendants, who, in fact, -began to fear lest refusal would unsettle the maiden’s -mind. She was all vehemence and urgency on this -subject.</p> - -<p>The meeting was a sorrowful and brief one.</p> - -<p>She was not prepared for such a spectacle as her -father presented, and her cry, “Take me to him,” was -changed to one more vehement now:</p> - -<p>“Take me away!”</p> - -<p>Terror supplemented her utter disappointment. To -both feelings there was added a sense of humiliation. -She imagined her return to Bozrah, empty-handed; -the possible gibes of her mother and others. Her -great faith seemed fruitless and her enthusiasm ebbed. -Then she began to question within herself whether or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> -not, after all, the new faith she had embraced was not -a splendid illusion! She was in “Doubting Castle,” -with “Giant Despair,” and the mighty, impelling -question, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” little by -little lost its grip on her will. It had seemed to her -the voice of God; now it seemed little more than the -echo of words heard in a dream. She was moved now -by a desire to get away from something, but she could -not define the thing. Certainly she desired to escape -her disappointment, but not knowing how, she sought -to get away from its scene. If she could have run -away from herself she would have been glad to have -done so. She fled from the asylum, as soon as night -came to hide her flight. She had not strength to go -far, and the Asylum park of many acres of lawns and -groves, afforded her solitude; that that she now chiefly -desired. The night the desolate girl thus went forth -was a lovely one; a reflection of that other night of -sorrow when she fled from the old stone-house home -to the chapel of Adolphus at Bozrah. And the memory -of that night returned to the girl with some consoling. -Again she looked up to the firmament and -was calmed by the eternal rest that seemed on all -above, and again she yearned to go up further to the -only seeming haven of righteousness and peace.</p> - -<p>Then came the reaction; the prolonged tension had -done its work, and the young woman dropped down on -the earth. How long she lay in her blank dream she -knew not. If during its continuance she in part recovered -consciousness, she had no desire nor strength to -rise or throw off her weakness.</p> - -<p>Ere long her absence was known at the Grand Master’s -and an eager search was instituted. Foremost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> -in the quest was the young chaplain of the knights -and his quest brought him first to the object of search.</p> - -<p>“Can I aid my lady?” said the chaplain, in kindly -tones, standing a little distance away from her, in part -through a feeling of delicacy akin to bashfulness, and -in part fearing lest by any means he should affright her.</p> - -<p>The young woman lay motionless; her eyes closed; -her face as the face of the lifeless. Receiving no answer, -the man questioned within himself: “Is she -dead?” Fear emboldened him, and he essayed active -assistance. Delicately, gently, firmly he raised up the -prostrate woman. She seemed to realize that some -one was assisting her, but she was very passive. Her -head, drooping, rested on the young man’s shoulder, -and she sighed a weary, broken sentence:</p> - -<p>“I’m so glad you came, Father Adolphus!”</p> - -<p>“Not Father Adolphus, but one rejoiced to serve a -friend of his.”</p> - -<p>The maiden was silent a few moments, as if listening -to words coming to her from a distance, through confusions. -Memory was struggling to re-enforce semi-consciousness. -Then came comprehension; she realized -the presence of a stranger, and, with an effort, -stood erect. Her eyes turned on the chaplain’s face -with questionings, having in them mingled surprise, -timidity and rebuke. The man interpreted her glance -and made quick reply:</p> - -<p>“At my lady’s services, the Chaplain of the Palestineans. -We are all anxious at the Grand Master’s -concerning yourself.”</p> - -<p>“Anxious for me!” She found words to say that -much, and hearing her own words she recalled her -recent thoughts of herself, as one being very miserable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> -and very worthless. She turned her eyes from the -young man toward the woodland, in the darkness appearing -like a gateway to black oblivion. She yearned -to bury herself in the oblivion utterly, and her looks -betrayed the thought. The youth gently touched her -arm, saying:</p> - -<p>“Despair has no place here; the Palestineans vanquish -it.”</p> - -<p>She then looked down toward where she had been -lying, both nerves and will weakening. It seemed to -her a bed, even on the earth, were inviting, especially -so if she could take there a sleep that knew no waking.</p> - -<p>The young man had ministered to his fellow-beings -long enough to have become a good interpreter of -hearts. He discerned the thoughts of the one before -him, and offered prompt remedies, words wisely -spoken:</p> - -<p>“Our faith makes us all hope to see our guest happy -ere long.”</p> - -<p>Then she gave way to a flood of tears. The tears -moved the man to exercise His professional function, -and forgetting all else he spoke as a comforter to a -sorrowing woman. She listened, but, except for her -sobs, was silent until he questioned: “Shall I stay to -guide back to the ‘Refuge,’ or return to send help?”</p> - -<p>She answered by turning toward him a face pale and -blank, lighted alone by eyes all appealing. He interpreted -the look and continued: “I’ll tarry to aid. -Shall we now seek the ‘Refuge?’”</p> - -<p>Then she exclaimed, “Alas, there seems no refuge -for me!”</p> - -<p>“The troubles of Miriamne de Griffin enlist all -hearts at this place, I assure you.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And this, your kindness, with your happiness ever -before me, but makes to myself my own desolation -more manifest! Ah, I’m but a hulk in a dark tide!”</p> - -<p>“Lady, say not so, I beseech you. Look, there!” -Languidly, mechanically, she turned her eyes in the -direction the speaker pointed; then suddenly drew -back from sight of a white apparition, standing out -boldly from a background of dark shrubbery. Her -nerves all unstrung were for the moment victimized by -superstitious dreads.</p> - -<p>“Only, calm, pure marble; a fear-slayer; not fear-invoker! -Look at its pedestal!” assuringly spoke -the chaplain. The maiden did as bidden and slowly -read, repeating each word aloud: “<i>Sancta-Maria-Consolatrix-Afflictorum.</i>”</p> - -<p>“By easy interpretation: ‘Mother of Jesus, consoler -of the sorrowing!’” responded the young man.</p> - -<p>“Ah, like all consolations nigh to me, this is only -stone and set in deep shadows! It can not come to -me!”</p> - -<p>“True, yon form is passionless stone; but the truth -eternal, which it emblemizes, is living and fervent.”</p> - -<p>“Life and fervor? Death and sorrow submerge -both!”</p> - -<p>“There is mother-love in the heart of God; to one so -nearly orphan as my friend, it must be comforting to -look up believing that in heaven there are fatherhood, -motherhood and home! This is the sermon in yon -stone.”</p> - -<p>Then the chaplain gently, reverently drew the sorrow -stricken maiden toward the “Refuge” and she followed, -unresisting. As they moved along, she essayed -to seek further acquaintance with her guide.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span></p> - -<p>“May I know the chaplain’s name?”</p> - -<p>“Certainly; to those that are intimates, ‘Brother’ -or ‘Friend;’ for such I’ve renounced my former self -and name.”</p> - -<p>“But if I should need and wish to send for you? I -might. I could not call for ‘Brother.’”</p> - -<p>“Ah, I’m by right, ‘Cornelius Woelfkin;’ yet the -names are misnomers, since I’m not kin to the wolf, -nor am I ‘a heart-giving light’ as my name implies; at -least if I give light it is but dim.”</p> - -<p>The meeting of the young people, apparently accidental, -was in fact an incident in a far-reaching train of -Providences. The young woman was in trouble and -needing such sympathy as one who was both young -and wise could give; the young man was courteous, -pure-minded, wise beyond his years, free from the conceits -common to young men of capacity, and being a -natural philanthropist, naturally sympathetic. The -young woman was at the age that yearns for a girl -friend, and needs a mother’s counsel; the young man -had much of his mother in his make-up; enough to fit him -to win his way into the confidence and fine esteem of -a refined and trusting young woman; but not enough -to make him effeminate. Somehow he exactly met -the needs of Miriamne’s life. He could advise her as -sincerely and wisely as a mother and companion her -as affectionately as a girl friend. Having neither girl -friend nor mother, the young chaplain became both to -her.</p> - -<p>They were both impressible and inexperienced in -the matters that belong to the realms of the heart, in -its grander emotions; therefore with a charming simplicity -they outlined their intentions and the limitations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> -of their relations. They assured each other, -again and again, probably in part to assure themselves, -that they were to be very true and very sensible young -friends. Their converse often ran along after this -manner.</p> - -<p>“We understand each other so well!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, and are so well adapted to each other!”</p> - -<p>“We have had too much experience to spoil this -helpful relation between us, by giving away to any -sway of the romantic emotions.”</p> - -<p>“There has seldom been in the world a friendship -between a young man and young woman so exalted -and wise as ours is.”</p> - -<p>They agreed that she should call him “brother,” and -he should call her “sister.” At first they said they -wished they were indeed akin by ties of blood; -though in time they were glad they were not. In -this they were like many another pair who have had -such a wish, and in their case as in many another like -it, the wish, was a prediction of its own early demise.</p> - -<p>Among the works of art in the park of the Palestineans -was a commanding bronze of Pallas-Athene, the goddess -believed by her pagan devotees to be the patroness -of wisdom, art and science. She was the Virgin of -the Romans and the Greeks, their queenly woman, -deemed by her wisdom ever superior to Mars, god of -war. She was represented bearing both spear and -shield; but these as emblems of her moral potencies. -In a word, she was the result of the efforts of those -ancients to express a perfection that was virgin and -matchless, because too fine and exalted to have an -equal. Between the “White Madonna” and this Minerva, -Chaplain Woelfkin and the Maid of Bozrah often<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> -walked, back and forth, in very complacent conversations. -They desired themes, the ideals afforded them; -they were in a frame of mind that delighted in Utopianism, -and the effigies of the women guided their day-dreams. -Youth, quickened by dawning, though as yet -unperceived, love, naturally begins building a Pantheon -filled with fine creations. That is the time of hero-worship -in general; afterward comes the iconoclastic -period when every idol is cast down to make place for -the only one that the heart crowns. Cornelius praised -sincerely Miriamne, when she said she would be as the -Græco-Roman goddess—very wise, very pure, very -strong. Day by day, he believed she was becoming -like Minerva. Then he thought it very fine for the -maiden to emulate the goddess in every thing, even her -perpetual virginity. Again, walking near the Madonna -and discoursing of her as the ideal of womanhood, -as the mother, the minister, the saint, the maiden said -she would emulate the latter; the chaplain in his heart -prayed that she might.</p> - -<p>Once he finely said: “A pure, patient woman is God’s -appointed and best consoler of the afflicted. Miriamne, -be like Mary, and Sir Charleroy will find restoration.”</p> - -<p>The young woman was encouraged by the words to -increase her efforts in her father’s behalf. Now she -did so not only because prompted by a sense of duty, -but because filial love seemed a fine ornament for a -maiden. Birds in mating-times put on their finest -plumage; men and women do likewise. The chaplain -was a humanitarian by profession, and naturally joined -the maiden in her efforts for her father’s recovery. So -their thoughts and their works ran in parallel lines. -They had unbounded delight in their companionship<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> -and common efforts. This delight they innocently -explained to themselves as the natural result and -reward of their fine, exalted, frank, wise, brother-like, -sister-like friendship. In hours of their supremest -satisfaction they generously expressed sorrow -for the world at large, because so few in it knew how -to attain such bliss as they enjoyed. In a word, they -were a very fine and a very innocent pair, a complete -contrast with Rizpah and Sir Charleroy at Gerash. -The latter took their course under the torrid influences -of Astarte of the brawny Giants, the former moved -forward charmed and led by those things that were held -to be the belongings of the fine women whose statues -graced the park of the Palestineans. Miriamne asked -wisdom later of her elect counselor, and he advised -her to send letters to Bozrah urging her mother to join -her in London, in efforts in behalf of their insane kinsman.</p> - -<p>The young man very wisely argued: “He is a fragment, -flung out of a wrecked home; his perturbed mind -is clouded by the wild passions of a misled heart. -We must balance his brain by calming his heart. He -is filled with hatings, and love alone is hate’s cure. If -the past losses be recovered, he must be brought back -to the place of loss.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne wrote to her mother, glad to please her -counselor by so doing, and yet almost hopeless of gaining -any answer that was favorable. The maiden renewed -her visit to her father’s lodge in the asylum. -She was not permitted, nor did she then desire, to see -her parent. She shuddered when she remembered the -one dreadful meeting of the beginning, and was content -to sit outside the door of his cell or keep, day by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> -day, to perform such little services as she could. Sometimes -she would call the insane man by his name, or -title; sometimes she would call out: “Father, would -you like to see Miriamne?” or “Father, your daughter -is here.” At other times she would sit near his door -singing Eastern songs, especially such as she had -heard were favorites of her parents in their younger -days.</p> - -<p>Days passed onward, and there appeared no result -beyond the fact that when she was thus engaged the -knight became very quiet. At the suggestion of Chaplain -Woelfkin, she changed her method, and began in -hearing of the knight a recital of the history of Crusader -days. In this she was encouraged, for an attendant -told her that her father each day, when she began, drew -close to his barred door to listen. As she came near -the time of the Acre campaign, the knight’s face was -flushed with interest. Having followed the narrative -up to the fall of the city and the flight of Sir Charleroy -and his comrades, she paused. Then she was surprised -and delighted at once, for the incarcerated man -in a voice both calm and natural, ejaculated the words: -“Go on!”</p> - -<p>Miriamne would have rushed to the prison door had -not Cornelius, who stood not far away, motioned her -to remain seated and to continue. For a moment she -was at a loss how to proceed, but then she bethought -herself of an experiment. She described by a kind of -a parable the career of her father, as follows:</p> - -<p>“And the noble knight, after years of illness, was -found by his loving daughter. Under her kindly care -he recovered, and at her earnest request he returned to -his home in Palestine. There he spent many happy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> -years with his reunited family, consisting of a wife, -daughter and twin sons. He is living there now, and -all that family agree that theirs is the most happy and -loving home on earth.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a lie! a lie!” almost shouted the lunatic. -“Sir Charleroy is not there. He went mad; the devil -stole his skull and left his brain uncovered to be -scratched by a million of bats. That’s why he went -mad; I know him; he went mad, and is mad yet, and -you get away with your lying!”</p> - -<p>The daughter fled in terror at the succeeding outburst -of wild profanity; but she was still rejoiced, that a -chord of memory had been struck. It gave a harsh -response, yet it gave a response, and that was much. -She continued her efforts as before. The interviews -were not fruitless, but they were costing her fearfully. -She complained to no one, yet her youthful locks, in a -few months streaked with silver, told the story of -suffering.</p> - -<p>One day there was delivered at the Grand Master’s a -huge package directed to herself. Miriamne, filled -with wonder, called help to open the case. Just under -the cover she beheld a letter. She knew the handwriting. -It was her mother’s. Her heart took a great -leap, and as a flash of joy there ran through her mind -the thought:</p> - -<p>“Mother has sent something to help. Perhaps it’s -her clothing, and she is coming!”</p> - -<p>Tremblingly Miriamne read the epistle. How -formal:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Miriamne De Griffin</span>:—Thou went’st without my -leave. Do not return till sent for. Thou left’st a loving -mother for a worthless father, and this is a daughter’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> -reward. Thou dost say Sir Charleroy is mad. I knew -it, and think that the curse is descending on thee. -But I doubt not the man has cunning in his madness, -and has prompted thee to inveigle me into his toils -again. Once he had me in England, and there he put -me on the rack of his merciless temper and lust! -Shame on him for that time! Shame on me if he have -opportunity to repeat it! I send thee a comforter. -Put it before his eyes, and tell him that the woman of -Bozrah is before him. Tell him that she, like Rizpah -of old, is true to the death to her sons, and, while -waking, never forgets to curse the vultures!”</p> - -</div> - -<p>No love was added. There was no name appended. -Miriamne felt like one disowned. She dreaded to -examine the contents of the case; but a servant, who -began the opening just then, spread it out. As she -suspected, after she had read the letter, it was the (to -her) hateful picture of ancient Rizpah.</p> - -<p>It was evening, and the maiden sought a refuge -from her troubles in the park. It was, on her part, -another flight from the face of Rizpah of Gibeah; -another seeking of solitude from man that she might -gain that sense of nearness to the Eternal Father -under the calm, silent stars of His canopy. It was -like that flight from the old stone house of Bozrah to -the chapel of Father Adolphus that she had made -long before.</p> - -<p>The maiden’s course brought her to the “White -Madonna,” and there she found her counselor and -brother, the chaplain. He had heard that Miriamne -was desponding that day, and had bent his course -hither, confident that the “<i>Consolatrix Afflictorum</i>” -would prove a tryst. The scenery around Pallas -Athene was the finer by far, but to a troubled heart -there was the more allurement in the place where the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> -love of heaven was expressed. The Minerva expressed -self-sufficiency; the “White Madonna,” God’s sufficiency. -One expressed justice, culture, the perfection -of human gifts, regnant and victorious; the other -spoke of welcome, healing, mercy, and help for those -who were in pitiable needs. The virgin evolved by -the philosophers of the Greeks was a concept touching -but few of humanity, and fitted to be crowned only in -a world of perfections, such as has not yet existed. -The “White Madonna” depicted a real character who -had a human heart and heavenly traits, and that easily -found acceptance in human affections.</p> - -<p>The maiden and her counselor sat together for a -long time; she speaking of her social miseries, he of -God’s remedies; she describing the thickness of the -night about her; he telling her in beautiful parables -that there was a refuge and an asylum, though the -night obscured all for a time. As they conversed the -rising moon flooded the “White Madonna” with -silvering light, and the chaplain rapturously exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“See, the moon gets its light from the sun, and gives -it to the image. We do not see the sun, but we -see its work and glory reflected! So God hands down -from heaven to His children, by His angels and ministers, -the powers and blessings that they need. Miriamne, -we have a Father who forgets none and is -munificent to all!”</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;" id="illus9"> -<img src="images/illus9.jpg" width="650" height="425" alt="" /> -<p class="caption-r">Paul Veronese.</p> -<p class="caption">THE WEDDING AT CANA.</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE WEDDING AT CANA.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“I would I were an excellent divine</div> -<div class="verse indent1">That had the Bible at my fingers’ ends;</div> -<div class="verse">That men might hear out of this mouth of mine</div> -<div class="verse indent1">How God doth make His enemies His friends;</div> -<div class="verse">Rather than with a thundering and long prayer</div> -<div class="verse">Be led into presumption, or despair.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Breton.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Hear ye Him. Whatever He saith unto you, do it.”—<span class="smcap">Mary.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-c.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Chaplain Woelfkin heard of Miriamne’s -reply from her mother. He was -both glad and sorry thereat; sorry the -heart he tenderly esteemed should have -been so wounded, and glad that the wounding afforded -him opportunity to show how gently and wisely he -could comfort.</p> - -<p>“Your trial came at a fortunate time, sister.”</p> - -<p>“I can not see how such a rebuke can ever be timely, -being unjust and cruel.”</p> - -<p>“True enough; but if fate must assail, it is well to -have its hardships fall on us when we are supported by -dawning hopes. There are hopes near for Miriamne.”</p> - -<p>“Let not my brother’s warm heart give me false -comfort. I’ve no sight of hope.”</p> - -<p>“Say not so; there is a surprise in store for you.”</p> - -<p>“Now, pray, explain.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span></p> - -<p>“You will be permitted to meet your father at the -chapel service to-night.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, but—!” and Miriamne bowed her head and -waved her hand as if to repel some unpleasant spectacle.</p> - -<p>“Be not perturbed, sister. Let me explain: You -came hither to seek your demented parent, hoping -that love would find a way to compass his healing. -The purpose and effort were alike noble and wise. -You lost heart because the results were slow to appear; -but the good seed was sown, and now for the fruit.”</p> - -<p>“Has my father recovered?”</p> - -<p>“He has improved, and to-night we’ll sit quietly -while we apply the balm of Gilead.”</p> - -<p>“Now am I in a mystery.”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne’s ministries have touched a responsive -chord in Sir Charleroy’s heart and fitted him to attend -our mind-cure services. Love is the surest remedy -for a mind gone down under the ruins of the crushed -heart. Sir Charleroy calls his daughter ‘Naaman’s -little maid,’ and but yesterday said: ‘Ah, she’ll take -me to healing Jordan yet!’”</p> - -<p>“Blessed be God,” devoutly exclaimed the maiden, -glancing heavenward.</p> - -<p>“To which I say ‘amen,’ assured that great things -will come through our ‘<i>Birth of Peace</i>.’”</p> - -<p>“And what is that, pray?”</p> - -<p>“We are trying to soothe the tumultuous minds of -our asylum patients by displaying sweet peace in -picture garbs. To-night by the aid of a musical and -illustrative service we shall depict, in the chapel, the -Birth of Jesus. But I’ll not explain further now. -Wait until the hour of service, sister.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span></p> - -<p>When the people were gathered, Miriamne, glowing -with hope, yet silenced by anxiety, was in the midst -of the assembly. The preliminary services moved -slowly along with a studied absence of hurry. Miriamne -could not give them her attention; she was disappointed -because she did not see her father present, and the -chaplain himself was not there. Presently the music -of the occasion arrested her attention. She followed -its movement and found it gaining control of her feelings. -There was an organ in soft, quiet tones leading -voices that murmured words of trust and rest. She -followed the flowing tide of melody again and again, -each time further, higher, more contentedly, until one -strain, expressive of serene triumph, lifted her to a -very third heaven of satisfaction. There it left her -almost at a loss to say where the melody ceased and -the remembering began.</p> - -<p>At that instant, the chaplain passed by her side, -robed in white, hurriedly whispering so she alone -could hear: “Your father is behind the screen of -Templar banners, quietly listening. Be hopeful and -pray. God is good!” The words to her soul were as -rain whisperings to spring flowers in a torrid noon.</p> - -<p>Advancing to the raised platform, the young man -told the story of Bethlehem, ending with a beautiful -description of the angel song of “<i>Peace on earth, good -will to men</i>.” The words of the speaker were quietly -spoken, and his address mostly like that of one conversing -with a few friends; but the words were very impressive. -When all had bowed to receive the benediction, -Miriamne, lifting her eyes, beheld her father sitting, -with the flag screen thrown aside, full in view, but -clad as a knight and without manacle or guard. For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> -a moment he sat thus, then arose and calmly moved -out of the chapel toward his lodge. She obeyed a sudden -impulse and rose to speed after him, but the restraining -hand of the Grand Master was laid on her arm:</p> - -<p>“Wait; not yet, daughter.”</p> - -<p>Renewed hope made it easy for her to comply, and -she sat down again filled with gratitude toward God. -A series of similar services followed, each bringing new -causes for hopefulness to the maiden.</p> - -<p>“We are going to Cana to-day, sister,” remarked -the young chaplain some weeks subsequent to the -“Birth of Peace” service.</p> - -<p>“To Cana?”</p> - -<p>“To Cana, and for a purpose.”</p> - -<p>“I can not fathom it, brother.”</p> - -<p>Then the young man explained to his fair hearer the -scripture event, and the method devised for presenting -it at the chapel, as intended that day.</p> - -<p>The patients and their friends were assembled in the -chapel again. Sir Charleroy among them, but silent -and absorbed with his own thoughts.</p> - -<p>“We are going to try a device to gain his attention,” -whispered the chaplain to Miriamne. Just then the -Grand Master, dressed in the full regalia of a knight, -ascended the platform and uncovered to view a huge -earthen vessel, remarking: “Friends, we want to -exhibit this evening a vessel, on its way now to -France, but left for a time in our custody by some of -our comrade Crusaders, who brought it from Cana in -Galilee.”</p> - -<p>“Knights,” “Crusaders,” “Cana!” murmured Sir -Charleroy, as if in soliloquy. Miriamne observed her -father’s eyes. They were no longer leaden; they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> -glowed with interest. “You all remember,” continued -the Grand Master, “how Jesus turned the water into -wine at Cana? Tradition informs us that this before -us is one of the identical water-pots used that time by -our Savior; but I’ll leave our chaplain to tell the rest.” -The youth took his position at the pulpit and began -informally to talk, as if in conversation, but he had -anxiously, carefully prepared for the occasion.</p> - -<p>He first pictured Cana, with its limestone houses, -sitting on the side of the highlands, a few miles north-east -of Nazareth. “This place,” he continued, “is the -reminder of two instructive events. I have their history -here.” Thereupon, Cornelius turned to an illuminated -volume and began reading, with passing comments. -As he read, Sir Charleroy closely watched the -reader; the puzzled look of the listener faded into satisfied -attention.</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Jesus was proclaimed the Lamb of God, near Cana, by -that vehement, self-starving Baptist John. But in habits -and manner of living John and Jesus were utterly dissimilar. -There was harmony in the great things, faith and charity -in all things.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>The mad knight nodded inquiringly.</p> - -<p>The student continued:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Jesus, the organizer of the new kingdom, at Cana, -unfolded one part of His policy, for nigh here twain questioned: -‘<i>Where dwellest thou?</i>’ Jesus instantly invited -them to His own abode. They dwelt with Him a day, -and were won to be His loyal disciples, thus attesting -the power of Christ in the home. And they got a home -religion, for one of these, Andrew, at once sought to win -his brother Peter to discipleship. On the eve of Cana’s -wedding feast Jesus won Philip, saying, ‘<i>Follow me</i>,’ and -Philip hasted to win Nathaniel, crying, ‘Come and see.’ -To these He spoke of a hereafter home with open doors and -a holy family. Each of Jesus’s true disciples was impelled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> -to haste and tell salvation’s story to his nearest kin. Christianity -is a feast beginning in the home circle and spreading -to all the earth.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>The mad knight, as he listened, cast a glance of inquiry -over his shoulder at those near him.</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy applies the lesson to himself,” whispered -the Grand Master to Miriamne.</p> - -<p>Cornelius went on:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Cana was the home of Nathaniel. We see this poor -man sitting in seclusion under a fig tree. Except his -doubts, he was alone. To him Jesus went, and at the door -of his own home the Master met him. Because Nathaniel -believed, on little evidence, God gave him more, and promised -him that he should see heaven open and the angels -ascending and descending, as in Jacob’s vision. So are -those winged messengers passing back and forth forever, to -minister to and comfort needy man. One may be lost to -the world, to friends, to himself, but never lost to the Good -Shepherd, who is like the one in the parable leaving the -ninety and nine to follow the lamb that was straying.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>Sir Charleroy’s head bowed, and Miriamne was glad, -for she saw the tears falling thick and fast down his -pallid cheeks.</p> - -<p>A sign from the attending physicians brought the -services quietly to a close. They had seen the emotion -of the knight, and desired that the feelings aroused -be permitted to quietly ebb.</p> - -<p>A few days later, by their advice, the Grand Master -summoned the chaplain of the Palestineans to hold another -service like the last. “Sir Charleroy was blessed -that last day. He evinces interest and natural reasonings. -Since the former service he has repeated the -story of Cana over and over, together with the substance -of thy discourse thereon. Besides that, he -never tires of inquiring about the ‘ruddy priest of the -sweet words,’” said the physician.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I obey, my Master, it’s God’s will. What shall be -my theme?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Cana continued; De Griffin is constantly inquiring -as to when the ruddy priest of the sweet words -is to continue the tale of the Cana,” said the Grand -Master.</p> - -<p>“Praise the Day Spring that hath visited us!”</p> - -<p>“You echo the thought of all our souls, Cornelius.”</p> - -<p>And it was so that on the day following the chapel -of the “House of Rest” was filled with much the same -company that met there the last time.</p> - -<p>Miriamne arrived early and eagerly questioned -Cornelius as he passed her on his way to his robing-room:</p> - -<p>“Oh, brother, hast thou a message of grace and -hope for me, to-day?”</p> - -<p>“<i>The entrance of thy word giveth light</i>,” was his -quiet reply; and he passed on, not daring to tarry near -the woman that so strangely moved him. He felt -very serious, and hence avoided that which might distract -his attention.</p> - -<p>But Miriamne felt assured, while Cornelius was all -faith in the efficacy of the Divine word in working the -cure of minds perturbed.</p> - -<p>Presently he stood behind his reading-desk and, -waiting until the organ tone had died away, commenced -by reading these words:</p> - -<p>“And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of -Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:</p> - -<p>“And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to -the marriage.”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy had entered the chapel, and was moving -toward a lonely seat; his motions were languid; -his action listless, except when at intervals he gazed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> -into the empty air and hissed some incoherent words -at imaginary people. But the word “Cana” arrested -his attention. He looked up, smiled, and then exclaimed: -“Oh, the red-faced! That’s it; tell us more, -more of Cana!”</p> - -<p>Cornelius complied. “We have here a story of two -lives in the most precious tie on earth, marriage.”</p> - -<p>Then the chaplain read:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“We see Christ at a Jewish wedding, and the Hebrew -marriage was ever an occasion of great joy. Not only so, -but the weddings of that people were characterized by very -instructive and impressive ceremonies. Let me explain. -The day before the wedding both bride and groom fasted, -confessed their sins and made ceremonial atonement for the -errors of their past lives. They were to be part of each -other, and felt that each owed it to the other to be free -from burden or taint of the past. Both bride and groom at -the wedding wore wreaths of myrtle, the emblem of justice, -constantly to typify that virtue as supreme in wedlock.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Oh, young priest, thou art an angel!”</p> - -<p>The voice startled all but Sir Charleroy. He had -spoken, yet his face indicated only placidity and interest. -Cornelius proceeded:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“The bride, veiled from head to foot to show that her -beauty was to be seen only by him to whom she gave herself, -decked with a girdle, emblem of strength and subjection, -was led in triumph from the home of her father to the -home of him who was to possess her. Before she took her -departure, kindly hands anointed her with sweet perfumes -and gave her priceless jewels; while on her way she was -met by all her friends, singing songs and bearing torches to -gladden her journey toward her new abode. Thus they that -loved the bride did bestir themselves to bestow bounties and -make the maiden most choice. There was no detraction, -no defiling, no effort to belittle. Were wives aided like -brides there would be fewer broken hearts among wedded -women.”</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Wondrous true, ruddy priest!” It was the mad -knight’s voice. Cornelius continued:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“The feast of the wedding lasted seven days. To such -a gathering Jesus once went. Probably this was the marriage -of a kinsman. Thus, immediately after His temptation and -His baptism, with His mighty redemptional work all before -Him, our Lord deemed it a leading duty to give proper attention -to this wedding ceremonial, one of the lesser things -that make up so much of life. With man supreme selfishness, -or natural littleness, engenders apathy to all except -some pre-occupying purpose, but He, in whom all fullness -dwells, entered into and embraced around about all life. -He was as glorious when meddling with human joys and -making the waters of Cana blush to wine, as when grappling -with the sorrows of sin and setting Himself up on Calvary -the beacon and light of the ages.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>Miriamne felt the illumination again that first came -to her that Easter-day at Bozrah, while Sir Charleroy’s -face glowed with intelligence and peace. This was a -full, round gospel which Cornelius was proclaiming, and -every soul present was fed.</p> - -<p>After pausing for an interlude of soothing music he -again proceeded with his discoursing as one conversing:</p> - -<p>“At Cana, Christ bound as a captive, natural law. -How He did so we do not know, but we do know that -while destroying no part of nature’s system he mysteriously -made it serve for human happiness in a way -unusual and marvelous. It seems to me that the story -of Cana is a fireside story. No matter how miserable -a home may be, it may have faith that in welcoming -the Divine guest it welcomes assured miraculous joy. -Life’s waters may blush everywhere to heaven’s wine!”</p> - -<p>The mad knight murmured: “Oh, ruddy priest! if -thou couldst only preach this in Bozrah.”</p> - -<p>The Grand Master, who was sitting by Miriamne,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> -pressed her hand and whispered: “Memory is reviving—praise -to the Day-Spring!”</p> - -<p>Cornelius again read his parchment.</p> - -<p>“And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus -saith unto him, They have no wine.</p> - -<p>“Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do -with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.”</p> - -<p>“So,” said the reader, “these folks were likely poor, -the supply meager, though no man ever yet had enough -of the wine of joy at his wedding until it was blessed -by the God of marriage.”</p> - -<p>Just then Sir Charleroy, standing up, solemnly said: -“Young man, I’d have thee tell these people why He -said ‘Woman, what have I to do with thee?’ He, the -man, was master, that was it, eh?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, motion to Cornelius not to debate,” whispered -Miriamne to the Grand Master; but Cornelius was already -adroitly replying:</p> - -<p>“True, knight of Saint Mary, but this Master of -ceremonies was Divine. Then He was not talking to -his wife. He had not wed this woman, hence was not -bound by the law of being her other self. Besides that -we must not forget that they had often conversed intimately -before the wedding; she with all the tenderness -of a woman’s heart, which in its love ever naturally -outruns all plans, all reasonings, to bestow all it -has at once upon the all-beloved. She hurried Christ -in the way of giving. This to her credit, if her wisdom -is reproved.”</p> - -<p>The knight settled back in his seat, his face very -pale but not anger-marked.</p> - -<p>Cornelius continued: “The term ‘woman’ is often -used, as here, in all tenderness. Our rugged language<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> -ill translates the original. When a people has not fine -moods in its living, its language becomes like sackcloth, -unfit to clothe the angel-like thoughts of those -who live on more exalted planes. The gross degrade -all their companions, whether such be beings or merely -words.”</p> - -<p>The leader again read:</p> - -<p>“His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever -he saith unto you, do it.”</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“This shows the good, motherly Mary supplementing -the Master’s work. Doubtless, she had her partisans, some -who would have sided with her had she chosen to rebuke -her Son. But she desired harmony at the feast and in the -home. This was the chief end, and for it she was willing -to serve and wait.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Very true! Our Lady was always right and good.” -It was the voice of the mad knight.</p> - -<p>Cornelius continued:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“These were the finest words Mary ever spoke; they -were the key to her whole life; indeed, the spirit of the -ideal woman ever more standing nearer to Christ than any -other being; at a wedding, the very climax of fullest human -love, the gateway to home, the counterpart of heaven, Mary -points all to the Christ, exclaiming, ‘<i>Hear ye Him!</i>’”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Our Lady was always a wise, brave, loving, submissive -woman,” exclaimed Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“It is an old tradition,” replied Cornelius, “that -this was the wedding of John, the beloved and confidant -of Jesus. It is interesting to remember that that -blessed disciple, in his Gospel, presents the one whom -he loved as a mother but twice—once at this wedding, -the other time at the crucifixion; the places of highest -joy, and deepest sorrow; a way of saying from the altar -to the cross, is woman’s course; a parable-like presentment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> -of the doctrine that the wife and mother are to -appear at these two points, so opposite, so common to -all; the lowest dip, the highest heaven.”</p> - -<p>The mad knight suddenly interrupted them.</p> - -<p>“What did Joseph think of all this?”</p> - -<p>Perhaps this odd query was fortunate, for it brought -smiles to all. The knight laughed out until his eyes -were flowing with tears.</p> - -<p>Cornelius, self-possessed, quietly replied: “It is said -that Joseph was dead long ere this wedding, and that -Mary was exhaling the perfumes of her consecrated -widowed life to gladdening in pious ministries the people -about her. Widowhood has such purposes.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, she was the Rose,” cried the knight. “If -Joseph were not dead, he might well stand back, behind -such a wife!”</p> - -<p>The chaplain of the Palestineans closed with a well-worded -climax, recalling the fact that this event made -a lasting impression on the Son of God, as evinced by -the wondrous tropes of the Apocalypse, where eternal -goodness and eternal joy are pictured under the similitude -of a wedding-feast.</p> - -<p>The mad knight cried out: “Grand, grand! Oh, -ruddy priest, I worship thee!”</p> - -<p>The Grand Master signaled the conclusion. The -worshipers and patients were slowly retiring, Sir -Charleroy moving toward his lodge seemingly wrapped -in contemplation of some engrossing problem.</p> - -<p>He passed near the picture of “Rizpah Defending -Her Relatives,” which by some mischance had been -left near the chapel door. Instantly the knight’s attention -was fixed; he became excited, then suddenly -turning to an attendant, exclaimed:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Here, tell me, where am I? Is this London or -Bozrah?”</p> - -<p>“London, good Teuton.”</p> - -<p>Again he gazed at the picture, and his transformation -was startling. His face was distorted, his body -became rigid and swayed as that of the hooded snake -making ready to strike a victim. Then bounding to -the Grand Master’s side he snatched the latter’s sword -from its hilt, quickly returned to the picture, and before -any could prevent him began to hack it to pieces.</p> - -<p>One tried to restrain him, but was overpowered, two, -then three were flung aside. Presently he was pinioned -but not silenced.</p> - -<p>“Away! Unhand me!” he shouted. “In the name -of the King of Jerusalem, the defenders of the Sepulcher, -unhand me! Do you not see? There! they’ve -come to make riot at the feast of Cana! Ruddy priest, -come quickly. Help! This fearful gang will all be -loose in a moment; they be the ghosts of the giants, -and war everlastingly against the peace of homes; -against our Mary and her Son’s kingdom.”</p> - -<p>He was breathless for a moment, and all were anxious -lest he be permanently unsettled. Some were -praying for him, others holding him. Then he broke -forth again as before.</p> - -<p>“Unhand me, infidels! God wills it! Let me cut to -pieces yon horrible thing fresh from hot hell; painted -by the gory and beslimed hands of devils! See! it’s -bewitched, and the woman and the hanging men and -the vultures are all alive! They’ll be at us! One of -those black birds has feasted on my heart for years, -and yon woman has nightly beaten my bare brain with -her club.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span></p> - -<p>They tried to calm him; his daughter pressed to his -side, and flinging her arms about the knight, beseechingly -cried: “Father! father! it is I! Miriamne!”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne? Ha! ha!” cried the excited man. -“More mockery! More witchery! Miriamne is lost, -eternally lost! Yon group of demons tore her from -me! Oh, God, if thou lovest a soldier of the cross, -hear me, and blast with burning, swift and quenchless -lightnings, yon monsters, and with them all who separate -hearts and wreck homes!”</p> - -<p>“Father, so say we all; let us pray together,” -pleaded the girl.</p> - -<p>“Father! Who says ‘father’ to me?”</p> - -<p>“It is I, your daughter, Miriamne!”</p> - -<p>Suddenly, Sir Charleroy became calm and curiously -observed the maiden. “Art thou Sir Charleroy’s -daughter? I knew him once in Palestine. He died -afterward in London and left me his body. But it’s -not much use. It’s sick most of the time. I carry it -about, though, hoping he’ll come for it. If thou dost -want it thou canst have it.”</p> - -<p>The daughter humored the fancy, and quickly -replied: “I do want it. I love it. I’ll help you take -care of it. Let me now hug it to my heart.”</p> - -<p>Then he permitted her to twine about him her arms, -and when she kissed him the second time he returned -the salutation, and tears ran down his hot cheeks.</p> - -<p>“Blessed be the God of peace,” fervently ejaculated -Cornelius. “The day dawns; after tears, light.”</p> - -<p>The knight continued after a time, addressing Miriamne:</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy was my friend; and thou art his -daughter? Thou wouldst not deceive me, I know.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> -Tell me in a few words,” he said, meanwhile furtively -glancing about, “Who am I?”</p> - -<p>Miriamne again humored him, and pressing her lips -nigh his ear, in a whisper replied: “Sir Charleroy, -Teutonic knight, my father.”</p> - -<p>The old man held her off a little way, gazed at her -a moment, doubtfully, then said: “Thou art large for -a baby! Miriamne is a little thing.” Then he continued: -“But thy eyes, they are Miriamne’s; and so -honest! I believe them! Then thou art Miriamne -and I Sir Charleroy?”</p> - -<p>“Truly.” And again she kissed her father.</p> - -<p>“But thou dost not want me—a wreck, a pauper!”</p> - -<p>“I do, and the boys do; all Bozrah wants you, needs -you.”</p> - -<p>“Not thy mother! Oh, no; I murdered her long -ago!”</p> - -<p>“Not so, dear father.”</p> - -<p>“I did, indeed. See,” and he pointed to the painting, -“I’ve killed her again, to-day.”</p> - -<p>“That’s but a miserable painting, and I hate it as -much as you do; but it’s harmless, henceforth.”</p> - -<p>“Are all the devils in it dead; the vultures that ate -up my heart?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, yes; who cares for them?”</p> - -<p>“Then I shall get better.”</p> - -<p>The mad knight suffered himself to be led away -quietly. There was great joy among the Palestineans -that night. And so Miriamne carried the spirit of -Mary, that presided at Cana’s feast, into the misery of -that English asylum. She had given her life to ministering -for others, had begun in her own home circle, -her life motto: “<i>Hear ye Him</i>”—“<i>Whatsoever He saith<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> -unto you, do it.</i>” Now she was rewarded, and began to -hope that there would be the renewal of wedding -chimes at Bozrah, that the wine of its joy would be -renewed and sweetened. She questioned the chaplain -for advice. “Tell the Master there is no wine in the -old stone house, and ‘<i>whatsoever He saith, do it</i>,’” was -the young man’s answer.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">“THE STAR OF THE SEA.”</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Rocked in the cradle of the deep,</div> -<div class="verse">I lay me down in peace to sleep,</div> -<div class="verse">Secure, I rest upon the wave,</div> -<div class="verse">For Thou, oh Lord, hast power to save.</div> -<div class="verse">I know Thou wilt not slight my call,</div> -<div class="verse">For Thou dost mark the sparrow’s fall,</div> -<div class="verse">And calm and peaceful be my sleep,</div> -<div class="verse">Rocked in the cradle of the deep.</div> -<div class="verse">And such the faith that still were mine</div> -<div class="verse">Tho’ stormy winds swept o’er the brine,</div> -<div class="verse">Or tho’ the tempest’s fiery breath</div> -<div class="verse">Roused me from sleep to wreck and death;</div> -<div class="verse">In ocean’s caves still safe with Thee,</div> -<div class="verse">Those gems of immortality,</div> -<div class="verse">And calm and peaceful be my sleep</div> -<div class="verse">Rocked in the cradle of the deep.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-l.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Like the morning dawn on a calm sea, after -a night of fierce storm, so came now great -peace to Miriamne. The heaviest sorrow -of her life was lifting. Her father was recovering; -his mind becoming rational; and chief of -Miriamne’s joys, was the fact that his convalescence -was accompanied by the appearance of a deep trusting -love for herself. He seemed to lean on his daughter -for help; cling to her for hope and aim, by every way, -not only to express his sense of dependence on but his -deep and abiding gratitude toward the patient, chief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> -minister, in the mission of his recovery. He seemed -for a long time to be haunted by a fear of relapse into -some great misery that he but dimly remembered -and could not define, beyond a shudder. He dreaded -to be alone, and often clung to his daughter with furtive -glances of fear, even as a terrified child clings to -its mother. One day, months after he had begun to -be rational, he addressed Miriamne: “We must soon -seek another abiding place, daughter. Our Grand -Master has discharged with overflowing payment, -every debt of hospitality.”</p> - -<p>“True, father, and I’m glad; the thought for weeks -in my mind, is now in yours. But where shall we -go?”</p> - -<p>“I think, to France, and immediately.”</p> - -<p>“France?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, there I’ll seek out some of the De Griffins. -They may be able to mend my shattered fortunes, and -if I find none of my kin, I shall not be lacking in any -thing, for there are many of our Teutonic knights. -While they prosper, no want shall harass me or mine.”</p> - -<p>“Father, I do not want to go to France.”</p> - -<p>“Why, this is strange?”</p> - -<p>“It seems far away, very far, to me.”</p> - -<p>“Art thou dreaming, my Syrian Oriole?”</p> - -<p>“No, awake! And very earnest.”</p> - -<p>“Why, we could walk thither, were it not for the water.”</p> - -<p>“But I can not go that way!”</p> - -<p>“Well, we can not stay here, so where?”</p> - -<p>“Eastward; Bozrah!”</p> - -<p>“Wouldst thou ask a spirit, by mercy permitted escape -from Tophet to return?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Yes, even that, if the spirit had a mission and a -safe conduct.”</p> - -<p>“Thou art nobler, braver than I. I can’t trust the -land of giants and vultures.”</p> - -<p>“The giants and vultures we must meet are in human -forms, and such are everywhere.”</p> - -<p>“There are over many for the population, in Syria -and beyond it.”</p> - -<p>“But there have been many changes since you left -that country, especially, in our city,” persisted the -maiden.</p> - -<p>“Nothing changes in Palestine or Bozrah, daughter, -except wives, and they only one way; from bad to -worse.”</p> - -<p>The young chaplain seconded Miriamne’s efforts.</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy was spasmodically the stronger, but -Miriamne by patience and persistence prevailed. In -time, she won her cause, and the three took sail for -the Holy Land, the knight protesting that he would -go as far as Acre and no further. The journey was -slow but not monotonous, for the English trader on -which they journeyed stopped at various ports. Cornelius -on his part was enjoying a serene delight that -had no shadow except when he remembered that voyaging -with Miriamne was to have an end; Miriamne on -her part had three-fold pleasure; delight in her companionship -with the young missionary, delight in the -continued improvement of her father’s health, and -greater delight still in the glowing hope of the success -of her mission of peace to her home-circle. As for Sir -Charleroy it suited him well to be sailing. He was -ever exhilarated by change; each day brought it. He -was in theory a fatalist, and the staunch ship pushing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> -onward day and night to its destination, carrying all -along, was an expression of the inexorable. Then the -conditions about him rested him, for he was freed from -any need of bracing of his will to choose or execute -any thing. He went forward because the ship went. -That was all and enough. Only once during the voyage -did he assert himself or express a desire to change -his course. <span class="smcap">That was when passing Cyprus.</span></p> - -<p>“Here,” he cried, “let me disembark!”</p> - -<p>Persuasively, Miriamne protested.</p> - -<p>“But I must! I’ve a mission. I want to curse the -memory of the recreant Lusignan, the coward ‘King of -Jerusalem;’ he that clandestinely stole away from -Acre on the eve of those last days!”</p> - -<p>“But, father, Cyprus is called the ‘horned island.’ -I do not like the name!”</p> - -<p>“I’ve heard it better named, ‘the blessed isle.’ -There the hospitable knights had a refuge for pilgrims, -and it still abides.”</p> - -<p>Just then some of the sailors cried, “Olympus!” -They had caught sight of that ancient mountain, the -fabled home of the gods.</p> - -<p>Miriamne adroitly used the cry to divert her father’s -mind, saying:</p> - -<p>“Let those admire Olympus who will; as for me, I -prefer holy, fragrant Lebanon.”</p> - -<p>She pointed eastward, and they saw the dim outlines -of Palestine’s famous range. The knight’s attention -was fixed on Lebanon, and they sailed past Cyprus -quietly without further objection on his part.</p> - -<p>Miriamne and Cornelius, as the night began to settle -down, stood together by the ship’s side, feasting on -glimpses of the distant shore. There were signs of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> -coming storm, perceived intuitively by those accustomed -to the sea, by the young watchers best discerned -in the anxious looks of the seamen.</p> - -<p>“The captain says the sky and sea are preparing for -a duel. You noticed how the blue changed to dark -brown in the water this afternoon? He says that, and -the muddy appearance of the sky, betoken a tempest.”</p> - -<p>“How like polished silver the wings of those gulls -glisten as they career!” was the maiden’s ecstatic reply.</p> - -<p>“The wings are as they always are. They glisten -now because they flash against a murky background.”</p> - -<p>“An omen, Cornelius, for good! I’ll call the sea-birds -hope’s carrier-pigeons with messages for us.”</p> - -<p>“I would we had their wondrous power of outriding -all storms. It is said they can sleep on the waves, -even during a tempest.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve the heart of a sea-gull, to-night.”</p> - -<p>“And not a dread or pang within?”</p> - -<p>“No, no! Oh, come, any power, to hurry us to -Acre! I’d give way to the merriment of the becalmed -sailors, who whistle for the wind, if I only knew the -notes of their call.”</p> - -<p>“But the old sea-captain is very grave. See how the -men at his command are lashing up almost every stitch -of our ship’s dress.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, well, I’ll be grave, too, to please you; and yet -I pray that Old Boreas, and all the Boreadal, come in -racing hurricanes, if need be, that we may be sent gallantly -into longed-for Acre!”</p> - -<p>“A storm at sea is grand in a picture or in imagination; -sometimes, though rarely, in experience. To be -enjoyed it must be terrible; there’s the rub; it may -come with overmastering fury.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Bird of ill omen! Why cry as in requiems? As -for me, while you are fearing going down, I’ll be thinking -of going forward!”</p> - -<p>“And be disappointed, certainly, on your part, as I -hope I may be mistaken on mine. We may not go -down; we shall certainly not go forward!”</p> - -<p>“Now, how like a wayward man! Since you can -not have your way, cross me by predicting my frustration!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, do not lay the blame on me! there are broader -shoulders to bear it. Lay the blame on the Taurus -and Lebanon ranges!”</p> - -<p>“Well, this is an odd saying, surely!”</p> - -<p>“Wait awhile, and you will find it very true, as well. -We are to meet to-night, most likely, the Levanter or -off-shore gale, Paul’s Euroclydon, charging down from -its mountain castles. Taurus and Lebanon together -form a cave of the winds!”</p> - -<p>“And you seem glad that they are coming to battle -us back?” spake the maiden, rebukingly.</p> - -<p>“Yes, if they prolong our companionship. I can not -rejoice in a speed that hastens our parting.”</p> - -<p>The last sentence died on the chaplain’s paling lips -with a sigh.</p> - -<p>The maiden turned her eyes full on the speaker, -then slowly, meditatively answered:</p> - -<p>“I shall be sorry, too, at our parting!”</p> - -<p>“‘Sorry!’ Ah! that’s no word for me, this time; -agonized is better!” was the young missioner’s quick -rejoinder.</p> - -<p>The maiden was pained, but she mastered her feelings -and pleaded:</p> - -<p>“The parting must come some time; do not let<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> -such repinings make it harder for both. It is wiser, -when confronting what one does not desire, but can not -help, to court the balm of forgetfulness. So do I ever, -especially now.”</p> - -<p>“And like all attempted silencings of the heart, -by cold philosophy, mocked at last by failure!”</p> - -<p>“My philosophy can not mock me, since it accords -with the stern facts which confront us. I’ll be as -frank now as a sister, Cornelius. Our diverging missions -part us. You go to Jerusalem to preach the -cross; I, to a narrower field, at Bozrah, to attempt the -rekindling of love on one lone altar of wedlock. God -orders it thus, and I submit unquestioningly; for it is -not for one who can scarcely touch the hem of His -garment to challenge His wisdom by a murmur.”</p> - -<p>“But time, Miriamne, may leave you free, your -work being completed in the Giant City?”</p> - -<p>“Even so. There is a gulf between us; we may -love across it but not pass it, in body, in this life.”</p> - -<p>“And I can not see the gulf?”</p> - -<p>“I am in faith, after all, an Israelite; enlightened to -be sure, but not likely to renounce the ancient beliefs. -You are a Christian; nor would I wish you otherwise. -Now, amid the miseries I’ve witnessed in my own -home, I can not but be admonished against any attempt -at fusing, by the fire of adolescent, transitory -loving, two lives guided by faiths so constantly in antagonisms.”</p> - -<p>“The faith of Jesus and Mary, truly lived, never -failed to fuse hearts sincerely loving. You may call -yourself what you like; in substance of faith we are in -accord.”</p> - -<p>“The chaplain reasons well; better than I can, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> -yet he does not convince me! I can only plead that -he do not persist, and so make the parting harder. It -must be; though my heart break, I must suffer the -immolation. I’ve asked this question in the awful -sincerity of a soul as it were at the bar of judgment: -‘<i>What wilt Thou have me to do?</i>’ I know the answer. -I must seek to bring father and mother together.”</p> - -<p>“And then?”</p> - -<p>“Seek to know if the Messiah has indeed come.”</p> - -<p>“And then?”</p> - -<p>“If I find He has, some way tell His people Israel, -as only a Jewess can, of the Light Everlasting.”</p> - -<p>“And then?”</p> - -<p>“Why, that’s sufficient to measure the lives of generations; -but if I survive beyond that work, I have -vaguely passing through my mind the coming of a -millennial day when all mankind will be akin; all righteous, -all just, and the tears of womankind assuaged.”</p> - -<p>“I pray for that, but how can we hasten joy by -breaking our own hearts?”</p> - -<p>“I do not know what lies beyond; how that day of -glory is to come, but this I know, the spirit of Chivalry -was from God. It had, and has a deep, impressive meaning. -In contact with it at the west, I felt all the time -as if it were blind, but a Samson still, feeling for the -pillars of some mighty wrong. I wonder if I may not -be the giant’s true guide. Or, better still, may I not -be, under God, the giantess to do the very work. Perhaps -the world awaits a woman Samson!”</p> - -<p>“What Miriamne says is to me all mysticism! -Explain.”</p> - -<p>“I do not know how, beyond this: I’m God’s bride -by consecration, and He will keep me for His work.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Can’t I share it?” almost piteously, the chaplain -asked.</p> - -<p>“Truly, yes, wherever you may be, with me or not.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Miriamne, your passionate enthusiasm entrances -me. You are an inspiration to me. I fear I -shall languish aside from you.”</p> - -<p>“I shall love you more, Cornelius, as you are more -grandly, heroically self-sacrificing.”</p> - -<p>“Any thing to win Miriamne’s constant love!”</p> - -<p>“I shall love you, Cornelius, in a deep, holy way, -only and forever. I’d be ashamed to be thus frank, -but that I have a love that is as pure as the heaven of -its birth. Be true to your God, to your mission; a -little while and then at the City of Light, life’s brief -dream over, the first, after God, I’ll ask for will be the -faithful man whom my heart knows.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, what can I do? I’m all zeal; willing to go, but -the glow of your cheeks, the flash of your eyes, even -in the midst of such noble converse, drag me away -from my resolves. That that stimulates me, unmans -me, or reminds me I am a man and a lover.”</p> - -<p>“You ought to teach me, not I you; but you remember -you told me of the belief of some in ‘penetrative -virginity.’ That is the purity of Mary passing -somehow into others. Oh, all I am that’s good, be in -you, and more, even all that she was whom you so -revere; I mean the mother of the Christ.”</p> - -<p>“In my soul I reverently exclaim ‘amen,’ but then -again, how strange the question will not down, ‘must -we part?’” And so saying he flung his arm about the -woman, passionately embracing her. He thought for -a moment he had overcome her, but the kiss on her -lips not resisted, was the end; for slowly untwining his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> -arms and holding his hands at arm’s length, she questioned: -“Will you promise me one thing?”</p> - -<p>“Surely, yes, name it.”</p> - -<p>“That you will think of me as a friend, sister, henceforth, -and let me go my way without further misery?”</p> - -<p>The man struggled with himself for a time; then -gazed into her eyes with a most piteously appealing -gaze.</p> - -<p>She was firm.</p> - -<p>“Yes—I promise, but say affianced, to be wed in -heaven?”</p> - -<p>“God bless you,” was her instant response. Their -lips met and the debate was ended.</p> - -<p>And so for the time they separated, persuading -themselves that the whole matter between them had -been finally sealed. They had all faith in their pledges -mutually given, each to live apart from the other. As -yet they had no just conception of the power of a -rebel heart constantly uprising. Of course, they both -foresaw a measure of wretchedness in the future as a -consequence of their decision, but distant pain foreseen -by the young, is ever dimmed by hope, and very -different from present pain. These twain comforted -themselves, at first, by the thought that they were martyrs, -and it is always agreeable to feel ourself a martyr, -especially when expecting a martyr’s reward; at least -it is so until the reality of the martyrdom comes.</p> - -<p>The sky grew darker, night shut down about the -ship, the winds increased, and that sense of awful loneliness, -felt on the eve of an impending night-storm at -sea, came to all hearts but those of the sailors. The -latter were too busy to think of aught but their duties. -Then their captain had his reckonings, and assured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> -them by his bearing that he felt confident that he -could outride this storm as he had often before similar -ones. Miriamne, yielding not more to the captain’s -command, than to the entreaties of Woelfkin, went -below to her cabin. She soon courted sleep to help -her forget the war of the tempest, praying a prayer -most fitting, meanwhile. The prayer was a meditation, -like unto this: “He that cares for all will care -for helpless me, and come what may, keep me until -that last great day.” The storm strengthened, and she -began to be anxious for her father, and her friend. She -had said to herself the latter title should define Cornelius. -But her heart forgot its fear a moment in a -mysterious, merry peal of laughter; such laughter is -very real, but it is never heard by human ears. We -know it only in those exalted moments when we try -fine introspections; when there seems to be two of us; -the one observing and entering into the other. Miriamne -heard that laughter when she meditated, “Cornelius -is just a friend.” Presently she became more -anxious for those aloft. Then a troop of imperious -inner questions came to her: “Might I not stand by -him, if the danger increases? Would it be wrong to -show him that I am brave and loving?”</p> - -<p>“Will he think me cowardly and stony-hearted?” -Resolution was being assailed, and weakened. The -questionings increased in number and imperiousness: -“What if to-night we are all to perish?” Then she -let imagination take the rein. She thought of a scene -that might be if she and her beloved were as betrothed, -soon to be wed, lovers. In the scene she fancied -herself, her lover and her father all together in a -last embrace, going down into the yawning waves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> -“Would my lover try to save me?” For the moment -there were two of her again, and it was the one that -awhile ago laughed so merrily, that now seemed to be -saying: “Would my lover try to save me?” The one -self heard the question, and by silence, without sign of -rebuke, seemed to give the other self plenary indulgence. -Then came a free play of her imagination. -She saw herself lying in coral palaces, beneath the -moaning waves of the Mediterranean, still clasping -her lover and her parent. Then she thought of how -her friends would receive the news of her demise. -Perhaps some poet would embalm the event in deathless -poems, and thousands read of the three that perished -side by side. Her mind ran back to London. -She imagined a memorial service at the chapel of the -Palestineans and the Grand Master there saying: “Miriamne -de Griffin was lost at sea; in the path of glorious -duty, loyally pursued to the end.”</p> - -<p>Then she thought of Bozrah and the old stone house, -with her mother and her brothers, its sole occupants; -the mother in mourning garbs, her spirit subdued, and -she often tenderly saying to the fatherless, sisterless -boys, “Miriamne was a good girl, a faithful daughter, -a noble woman.”</p> - -<p>But after all, these excursions were unsatisfactory to -the young woman. And naturally so. When she -thought of lying a corpse, with weed-winding sheets, -for years, in the caves of the sea, she was repelled. -Thoughts of her memorials, possibly to transpire at -London and Bozrah, were not very comforting. She -was too young, too free from morbidness, too deeply -enamored, to court, assiduously, posthumous honors.</p> - -<p>Then came thought of a wreck and rescue, and it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span> -was very welcome. It grew out of the possibility of -the youth she loved and she alone, of all on board, -being saved. She thought of drifting about for days -on a raft! Would she recall her resolutions and his, or -would he say to her: “Miriamne, I saved you from the -deep; now you are mine entirely and forever!” -Would she believe his claim paramount? Would -duty’s requirements be satisfied? Then she was as -two again. One voice said ‘yes,’ and the other did not -concur, neither did it gainsay. She could not pronounce -a verdict and there were tears flowing.</p> - -<p>The storm grew stronger, but the laboring ship rose -and fell on the billows at intervals, and she was lulled -to sleep. Her last thoughts, as she passed into dreamland, -were that it would have been a useless pain, both -endured, if now they were to be lost; the pain of determining, -as they had, to live apart. As she so -thought she wished almost that they had not resolved -as they had. Conscience and desire were in their -ceaseless warfare. Then sleeping brought a dream of -joy, the blessing that comes often to the heart that is -clean. The dream was colored by events preceding.</p> - -<p>Cornelius had reminded her the day before, as they -were sailing along the coast of Cyprus, that, at -Paphos, on that island, there was once a temple to -Venus, the fabled goddess of love. That divinity, surrounded -by multitudes paying her homage, came before -the dreamer’s mind in all those ravishing splendors -of person that are so attractive to human desires. -Around the goddess, and very close to her, were hosts -of young men and maidens, their actions as boisterous -and ecstatic as those intoxicated. Outside of the -throngs of youths were others older: and outside of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> -these were others still; those far away from the goddess, -seemingly bowed with years. The company of -youths was constantly increased by new arrivals who -crowded back those there before them.</p> - -<p>But there was a depletion as well as augmenting of -the vast, surging congregation; for anon, as if mad, -some nearest the deity rushed away, both of the men -and the maidens, nor did those fleeing stop until they -found violent deaths by leaping from cliffs or into the -sea.</p> - -<p>Then the ancients, crowded continually back by the -new arrivals, one after another, with expressions of -disappointment and disgust on their features, seemed -to melt away into a surrounding forest of trees that -were very black and very like shadows. The dreamer -in her dream betook herself to prayer that the God of -mercy might change what she saw.</p> - -<p>Then she beheld the Paphian goddess in all the splendor -of her form, a perfect triumph of nature, just as -depicted by bard and painter, looking out contemptuously, -pitilessly, toward her former votaries, now aged -and pushed aside. There came then a voice as if from -above: “<i>God is love.</i>”</p> - -<p>Immediately on the face of the divinity there was an -expression as of terror, and she began sinking. Before -the mind of the dreamer, the beautiful creature, and -her retinue of nude, bold-faced attendants, with all that -appertained to them and their queen went down, ingulfed -in a foaming, roaring whirlpool. As they -went down lightnings from above shot after them. -And the dreamer looked aloft to see from whence the -voice and the lightning came. As she gazed upward -she saw a man of noble form, reverently bowing, as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> -son might bow in the presence of a mother revered and -loved, before a woman of noble mien and beautiful beyond -all compare.</p> - -<p>But this one’s beauty had no similitude to that of -the departed deity. As the maiden gazed she discerned -that the man was the one her heart called -lover, the woman the one she had enshrined as the -ideal of her soul, Mary. The twain stood above her, -on a plain, apparently of clouds very bright, rising in -graceful curve from the earth and stretching away in -measureless vistas, filled with flowered parks, silvery -rivers and stately mountains. Along the rivers, amid -the flowery plains and on the verdant mountains, there -were numerous buildings; but these latter were inviting; -not palatial, nor stately. They were homes surrounded -by family groups. And the dreamer discerned -true love triumphant and fruitful. She lingered -in this presence, anon longing for a presentment of her -self amid the scenes of pleasure, until all was suddenly -dissolved by a mighty lurch of the ship that awakened -her. She started from her couch and all immediately -before the dream came back to her mind.</p> - -<p>“We’re in a storm on the Mediterranean, and the captain -is anxious!” Her nerves were now unstrung; a -woman’s timorousness was upon her. She could hear -confused noises aloft, but no voices. For a moment -she questioned: “What if all but myself have been -swept away?” Then she thought of herself as drifting -about in a ship, sailless, helmless, alone! The -thought was suffocating. The noises aloft continued, -and she gave strained attention to catch the sound of -a voice. There was nothing to be heard but the creaking -of timbers, the dashing of waves, the shrieking of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> -winds and vague thumpings, as if parts of the vessel -were beating each other to pieces.</p> - -<p>“I’ll not lie still in this coffin!” she exclaimed, and -with a bound she made her way to the deck. As she -arrived there she thought she saw dark forms, some -crouching as if for shelter, and others as if engaged in -a great struggle. Were these demons, or the crew in -a struggle for life? She could not say. Then there -came a cry from the direction of the forward part of -the ship; she thought it was her father’s voice, but it -was very hoarse and scarcely recognizable.</p> - -<p>She listened again to the cry: “Ho, ho; ye Olympian -demons! tear up the sea, charge now! Ha, ha; have -at us!” The cry thrilled her. Again the wild voice -rose above the storm:</p> - -<p>“Bury her, my darling, if ye dare! What matter! -her white soul has eternal wings!”</p> - -<p>She was certain it was her father. She longed to -rush to his side, but she doubted whether she could -find him in the darkness; then, too, even in the terrors -of the moment, her maiden modesty asserted itself. -She remembered that she was but partly clad.</p> - -<p>Again came that voice, wilder than before: “Ye billows, -dare ye smite a knight in the face? I’ll meet your -challenge, and single-handed, in your midst, fight!”</p> - -<p>Miriamne’s heart was almost paralyzed by the -thought, “The boisterousness has overcome my father. -He’s contemplating leaping into the sea!”</p> - -<p>Just then a vivid flash of lightning made every thing -visible. It seemed to cut under the clouds, which, -rain-charged, were running near the billow crests, and -at the same time enswathed the ship from the mast -tips to the partially exposed keel, in flame.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span></p> - -<p>The maiden saw by that flash her father standing on -the head-rail, one hand clinging to a stay rope, the -other with clinched fist, as if menacing the boiling -waters that leaped away from the plunging prow. His -face was livid, his hair wind-tossed, his eyes glaring. -With a scream she bounded toward him; her scream -and appearance terrifying the sailors. It was so unexpected -and they had forgotten the presence of a -woman on board. They only saw a white form, with -disheveled hair and with a motion light and swift as a -creature on wings, passing from companion-way forward.</p> - -<p>But the fright was but momentary. Cornelius, who -had been vainly endeavoring to calm the knight, knew -the form, and loud enough to be heard by all cried:</p> - -<p>“Miriamne de Griffin!”</p> - -<p>He was by her side in an instant.</p> - -<p>The young woman uttered pleadingly one sentence, -but it thrilled all who heard it:</p> - -<p>“My father!”</p> - -<p>Cornelius exultingly answered:</p> - -<p>“Saved! See, the captain holds him and has summoned -the watch!” Then he could do no less, forgetting -as he did in the present surprise, all old resolves, -so he drew the trembling form to his heart as -closely as he could. She drew back a little, but he -whispered, “Miriamne.” What else he might have -said was lost, for she fluttered a little, then rested, but -on the bosom of her companion.</p> - -<p>She was a woman in peril, in fright, storm-drenched, -and in love. What otherwise or less could she have -done than nestle in the shelter that gave love for love -and promised her all else?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Are you not alarmed, Cornelius?”</p> - -<p>“No.”</p> - -<p>“How strange! You have changed places with me. -In the evening you trembled when I left you, and I -thought I was very brave. Now I tremble; do you not?”</p> - -<p>“I cowered a while ago from the cross you presented -me; it seemed to bring a lingering death.”</p> - -<p>Just then the ship’s prow plunged under a mountainous -billow. Miriamne clung to her support and fearfully -questioned:</p> - -<p>“Shall we be overwhelmed?”</p> - -<p>“No; I’ve a token.”</p> - -<p>“From the captain?”</p> - -<p>“Not from the one who guides this ship alone.”</p> - -<p>A flash of lightning revealed the lover’s face to Miriamne. -She saw his eyes turned devoutly upward, and -she understood his meaning. They had withdrawn to -a shelter by the vessel’s side meanwhile. Presently -the young missioner spoke again;</p> - -<p>“Our Heavenly Father keeps vigil, I think, sometimes -with especial care over this highway between the -outer world and the desolate habitations of His chosen -people.”</p> - -<p>“Hark, the sailors are singing! How strange it is -to sing in such perils,” spoke the maiden.</p> - -<p>“They’re as happy now as the wave-walking petrels. -The Levant has done its worst; they know this by -the coming of the rain, hence they sing their ‘Lightning -Song.’”</p> - -<p>“Lightning song?” queried the maiden.</p> - -<p>“Listen! How they explode their vocalized breaths -in hissings, whizzings, followed by the prolonged crash -made by stamping feet and clapping hands at the end<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span> -of every stanza. That chorus is meant to imitate -those heralds of the thunder, the flashing lightnings.”</p> - -<p>“But it seems presumptuous to me. The lightning -is so dreadful!”</p> - -<p>“Not that which comes as ‘a funeral torch to Euroclydon,’ -as the sailors say. Some of them call it ‘the -winking and blinking of St. Elmo going to sleep.’”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Cornelius, the storm is breaking! I see a star; -yes two!” rapturously cried the maiden.</p> - -<p>“Truly, yes; ‘Castor and Pollux,’ the ‘Twins,’ the -‘Sailor’s Delight!’ They say these stars are storm -rulers and friends of the mariner. Now hear how they -shout their song! They see the stars!”</p> - -<p>Above the subsiding wind and waves, rose the words -of the singers:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Now to our harbor safe going;</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Riding the billows, pushed by the gale:</div> -<div class="verse">The torch of the Twins bright glowing—</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Tipping our mast and gilding each sail.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“And do these stars assure, Cornelius?”</p> - -<p>“I saw a star no cloud can ever hide, through the -darkest part of the storm.”</p> - -<p>“A star?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, ‘Mary, Star of Sea.’”</p> - -<p>“I do not comprehend you.”</p> - -<p>“God’s love! He that guided the maiden orphan -of Bethlehem through the besetments of her life, amid -the tempests of Jewry and Rome, purely, safely, gloriously, -to the end; while many of noble birth and having -every earthly good went down to ruin, walks ever -on the wave where faith voyages.”</p> - -<p>“And you thought of the Holy Mother in the -storm?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Yes, this Adriatic is full of angels, that come in -thoughts, or before the eyes! You remember Paul, -tempest tossed a day and a night on this sea, was found -by the Divine Messenger that night when the darkness -was thickest?”</p> - -<p>“And this ‘Star of the Sea?’”</p> - -<p>“It tells me mother-love was carried by a dying -Savior into the heart of the Triune, Eternal God, and -we are His children, and He became Father and Mother -to us. You have seen the hen gather her chickens, as -human mother shelters with her arm or apron her child -in pain or peril?”</p> - -<p>“How touching! Think you He felt for us like tenderness -in the height of the storm?”</p> - -<p>“He sought in His plenteous wisdom mother love -to sustain Himself, during the pain and perils of His -incarnation, and will ever surely grant a love and care -to His own beloved ones in suffering or danger as tender -as that He sought and needed for Himself.”</p> - -<p>“Surely this is a grateful, natural reasoning; but do -you believe Mary presides over the sailor especially?”</p> - -<p>“It is enough for me to know that the Father -through Mary exemplified His motherliness.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll never more call yon bright luminaries Castor -and Pollux, but rather Jesus and Mary, the guides and -the defenders!” And for a long time they gazed at the -double stars, the storm slowly abating. Once the youth, -drawing the maiden closely to himself, questioned:</p> - -<p>“Can not we call the stars in conjunction, ‘Cornelius -and Miriamne’?”</p> - -<p>They had been watching, in sweet converse, there, a -long time; there were faint traces of dawn in the east, -and Miriamne had just been thinking, “Palestine receives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> -us with illumination;” then she bethought herself -that she and the man with her were going hither -to proclaim the Gospel of eternal light. The question -of her lover recalled the converse of the day before. -That seemed fact, unchanged; all occurring since, -dream. She arose, pointed eastward, and firmly said: -“There lies our work, our all. May a glorious day -enhalo all God’s chosen country ere long. Cornelius, -yesterday we promised solemnly that we dare not turn -from now; especially after our wonderful deliverance!” -She glided away to her cabin, leaving the man alone -to contemplate the poor comfort of being praised as a -martyr, on a cross of self-sacrifice; the pains of which, -if not as awful as those of Calvary, were destined to -be more prolonged. His face was as if sprinkled with -white ashes; it was so pale, so blank. After the tempest -they spoke very little with each other. Miriamne -waved away any attempt at re-opening the subject, with -a motion of the finger to the lips, signaling silence, and -a glance all tenderness, but full of pitiful pleadings to -be spared. The young man but once or twice essayed -the discussion, fearing on the one hand to trust himself -to speak, and on the other hand feeling that any effort -to change his fate would be hopeless. But he and she -were full of inner conflicts. Then their pathways -seemed stony, brier-tangled. They had both elected, -for Guide and Ideal, Jesus and Mary; they were both -going toward the cross in a noble consecration of their -lives. But they denied themselves that that sustained -Jesus, home love, such as he found at Bethany; conjugal -love, such as sustained Mary, the wife and the -mother, as well as the disciple. They had as their loftiest -ambition the purpose of making the world happier<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> -and better, and began by making misery for themselves. -They had read that a star led the wise men of the -East to Christ in a cradle, the light of the Gospel -rising first in a little home circle. They looked at the -double stars above them after the storm that night -almost until dawn, and then turned away to go, each -into the dark like a lone wandering star. Each was in -part the victim of a fabricated conscience, and of a misconception -of duty.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE QUEEN IN THE VALLEY OF SORROWS.</span></h2> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“They led him away to crucify him.”—<span class="smcap">Mark.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“There followed him a great company of ... women, who -also bewailed him.”—<span class="smcap">Luke.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Gabriel</span>: “Hail, highly favored among women blessed!”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Mary</span>: This is my favored lot!</div> -<div class="verse indent3">My exaltation to affliction high!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Milton.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-f.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">For many days Sir Charleroy and Miriamne -tarried at Acre, the latter seeking to banish -repining on account of him whom she -had sent away at the behest of conscience, -by ministries for her parent. With alacrity she joined -the tours of her knightly father, visiting the scenes -where he once battled, listening, from time to time, with -unaffected delight, to his recitals. The tides of fanatical -conquests had wrought few changes on the face of -the city, and the realism of those days of siege, of the -stern compacts made in the last hours of the Crusaders, -the solemn religious services before the last battle, the -death struggle and the disordered retreat, was complete. -The excitement of revived memories seemed -to lift up the knight from the syncope of ill health. -This encouraged the maiden to solicit the reviews and -recitals of her father. The night before their departure -from Acre, as determined, the knight and his -daughter stood together contemplating the sacred pile<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span> -which stood in the moonlight and shadows, mostly in -shadows. The soldier of fortune, having told its story -over and over, was now silent, dreaming of the past.</p> - -<p>“<i>Selamet!</i>”</p> - -<p>They both started, for the voice was like one from -the tomb, none but themselves being apparent.</p> - -<p>“I’m afraid here; let’s be going, father,” whispered -Miriamne, essaying to withdraw.</p> - -<p>Thereupon there glided out of the shadows a stately -form who, drawing near to the father and daughter, -spoke:</p> - -<p>“Fear not, lady! Knight, they can not be foes who -court kindred memories and hope of like colors at the -same shrine!”</p> - -<p>“Thou speakest with Christian allusions the ‘peace’ -word of the Turk.”</p> - -<p>“I wear the Turkish ‘<i>selamet</i>,’ as I do this Turkish -harness, a loathed necessity, but without; the peace I -pray and feel is the mystic inner peace.”</p> - -<p>“As a Christian?”</p> - -<p>“Yea; nor do I fear confession, since I am speaking -to those who abhor the Crescent.”</p> - -<p>“A pious Jew would as soon adhere to Astarte with -her orgies as to bow to the mooned-crown she wore.”</p> - -<p>“Jews? No, not Jews! Such would not sooner -run from the moon-mark than they would from the -shadows which fall down about you from yon grand -and awful sign.”</p> - -<p>The speaker pointed to the crossed spire above, as -he spoke.</p> - -<p>“No more avoidance; we are brethren. I’m Sir -Charleroy de Griffin, Teutonic knight.”</p> - -<p>“And not unknown. The story of thy valor, even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> -here, lives in the bosoms of true companions. I’m a -Knight Hospitaler of Rhodes, yet fameless.”</p> - -<p>The two men came closely together; there were a -few secret tests. The Hospitaler said:</p> - -<p>“<i>In hoc signo vinces!</i>”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy crossed his feet, stretched out his -arms and murmured something heard only by his comrade. -It made the other’s eyes lighten with pleasure.</p> - -<p>To Miriamne it was a dumb show; but the tokens -given and received were useful to pilgrims in those -perilous times.</p> - -<p>“Whither, Sir Charleroy?”</p> - -<p>“To-morrow, toward Joppa.”</p> - -<p>“So, ho! By interpretation, <i>The Watch-tower of Joy</i>. -From thence one may see Jerusalem! And then?”</p> - -<p>“And then? God knows where! A useless life, like -mine, is ever aimless.”</p> - -<p>“No, no, father!” interrupted the daughter; “not -useless. No life that God prolongs is useless.”</p> - -<p>“True; the girl is right, Teuton. Aspiration will -cure thee, since it’s the mother of immortality. I go -to Joppa also.”</p> - -<p>“They say, Hospitaler, its sea-side is full wild; its -reefs like barking Scylla and Charybdis? I hope it -may be so; I’d like a terrible uproar.”</p> - -<p>“The sea is the emblem of change; from calm to -weary moan, to howling terrors and back again.”</p> - -<p>“But the people? They say Joppa’s outside is fine, -naturally, though, within, the life of its people is mean, -colorless; a charnel-house whose activity is that of -grave worms!” And Sir Charleroy shuddered with -disgust at his own figure.</p> - -<p>“I think the legend of Andromeda, said to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> -been chained to Joppa’s sea-crags for a season, to be -persecuted by a serpent, then freed, prophetic. Joppa -may have a future.”</p> - -<p>“How?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, the chained maiden was boasted by her fond -mother as more beautiful than Neptune’s Nereids, -hence the persecution. Crescent faiths have been the -persecutors of Joppa and all the other beautiful -Andromedas of this land.”</p> - -<p>“And the chains are riveted?”</p> - -<p>“No, not certainly. There was, in the myth, a Perseus -of winged feet, having a helmet that made invisible -and a sickle from Minerva, goddess of wisdom; -he slew the serpent, then wed the victim.”</p> - -<p>“Now the key, further.”</p> - -<p>“When wrongs overwhelm all, women suffer most; -but time brings their deliverance.”</p> - -<p>“The myths are as full of women as the women -full of myths!” exclaimed Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“But Andromeda, the woman, was blameless!”</p> - -<p>“Yet it’s strange that in all men’s fightings, as in -their religions, constantly the woman appears,” replies -Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“I’d have thee think, knight, of the legend; it tells -how men, in those dark times, tied their faith to the -sure conviction that right would triumph, wrong be -slain, and the martyrs at last go up among the stars. -See how they placed their Andromeda in the constellation -now above us. Perseus was a Christian, or rather -a Christian was a Perseus.”</p> - -<p>“Now, thou art merry!”</p> - -<p>“No; I mean St. Peter; he was a Perseus. Hearken -to the word:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span></p> - -<p>“‘Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named -Tabitha: this woman was full of good works and -alms-deeds.</p> - -<p>“‘And it came to pass that she died.</p> - -<p>“‘The disciples sent unto Peter two men, desiring -him that he would not delay to come to them.</p> - -<p>“‘When he was come, they brought him into the -upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him -weeping, and showing the coats and garments which -she made, while she was with them.</p> - -<p>“‘But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, -and prayed; and turning him to the body, said, Tabitha, -arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she -saw Peter, she sat up.</p> - -<p>“‘And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up; and -when he had called the saints and widows, he presented -her alive.</p> - -<p>“‘And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many -believed in the Lord.’”</p> - -<p>“Why, Hospitaler, thou hast a memory like an elephant -or an emperor and a tongue like a sacrist!”</p> - -<p>“Well, the time for swords being past I have taken -to books; their leaves are wings. The world will be -conquered yet by the words of the Swordless King.”</p> - -<p>“And thou wouldst liken Tabitha to Andromeda?”</p> - -<p>“Wasn’t she a real beauty, as her name is interpreted? -Beautiful old soul! She robed the poor! -Peter bringing her to the truth of the new life smote -the dragon at Joppa, as a very Perseus.”</p> - -<p>“A woman! a woman, again leading the army of -salvation!”</p> - -<p>“After that Peter slept on the house top of Simon -the Tanner, and God gave him the vision of Jew and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span> -Gentile, bond and free, rich and poor; all, as one family -coming into the benign rays of the Sun whose wings -are full of healing.”</p> - -<p>“And will that day come, Sir Hospitaler? I’m feeling -almost a frenzy of desire for it!”</p> - -<p>“Surely as the morning to Acre; but we must hie -homeward; good-night; I’ll see you at the quay -to-morrow.”</p> - -<p>From Acre, Miriamne and her father, next day, set -sail. The companions on the journey from Acre -by Joppa arrived at Jerusalem, there to separate -soon, for Miriamne, with every ingenious device, -urged her father forward. Bozrah was constantly -uppermost in her mind.</p> - -<p>“We part, Sir Charleroy, to-morrow?” said the -Hospitaler.</p> - -<p>“If thou dost elect to stay in sad Jerusalem, surely.</p> - -<p>“Yes; I’d go mad here from doing nothing but -wrestling with my thoughts. In fact, I guess I’d go -mad anywhere, if long there. I think, sometimes, -that my mind’s in a whirlpool, moving not like -others; yet, round and round in some consistency, -carrying its befooling creeds, hopes, dreams, visions, -phantasmagoria in a pretty fair march. I’m sure, more -than sure, that if I once stopped moving, my brain -would rest like a house after a land-slide, tilted over, -while all the things in the whirlpool would drift about -in hopeless confusion.”</p> - -<p>“Thou dost talk like a physician, gone mad with -philosophy!”</p> - -<p>“No doubt of it; that’s all because I’ve been idling -here a month; a week longer and God knows who -could set me going again, rightly.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span></p> - -<p>Then the knight laughed merrily; very merrily, in -fact, for a man who had trained himself to morbidness. -The Hospitaler replied:</p> - -<p>“I see nothing for me beyond the Holy City and its -historic surrounds. I’m training myself to proclaim -God’s kingdom and must begin at that pre-eminent, -world over-looking point, Jerusalem.”</p> - -<p>“But there are no schools to fit one there?”</p> - -<p>“The most informing and man-expanding on earth; -the deathless examples of the worthies; best studied -where they lived their mightful living. I go now to -Golgotha.”</p> - -<p>“Golgotha? ‘The Place of the Skull?’”</p> - -<p>“Even so, sometimes called the Valley of Jehosaphat.”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy rubbed his head as one well puzzled, -and was silent.</p> - -<p>“Oh, knight, thou hast forgotten the goings forward -of Ezekiel’s mind, prophetically. It was in Kidron, -the Golgotha Valley, that he had the vision of the dry -bones. Let me read:</p> - -<p>“‘Behold, there were very many bones in the open -valley; and, lo, they were very dry.</p> - -<p>“‘And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones -live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.</p> - -<p>“‘Again He said unto me, Prophesy;</p> - -<p>“‘Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, -I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:</p> - -<p>“‘As I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a -shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his -bone.</p> - -<p>“‘The sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and -the skin covered them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span></p> - -<p>“‘Then said he unto me, say to the wind, Thus saith -the Lord God; come from the four winds, O breath, -and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.</p> - -<p>“‘So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the -breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up -upon their feet, an exceeding great army.’”</p> - -<p>“And now, soldier, turned exegete, tell me what -thou dost make of the strange phantasm?”</p> - -<p>“That God will work in this world a marvelous -transformation; those living-dead, all around us and -beyond, to the ends of the earth, shall stand in new -life. The scene is laid to be in this Kidron valley, to -bring all minds to the ‘Light of the World,’ who -passed in painful triumph along it, even unto Calvary.”</p> - -<p>“But this may not be so, yet it so seems?”</p> - -<p>“Hearken again to the prophet’s happy ending:</p> - -<p>“‘Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with -them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: -and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set -my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.</p> - -<p>“‘My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will -be their God, and they shall be my people.’</p> - -<p>“All this,” continued the Hospitaler, “is what is to -come, is coming. The dawn of this day began when -Jesus passed over Kidron!”</p> - -<p>“And yet, Rhodes, I’m doubtful. Do not the correspondences -remote, mislead thee?”</p> - -<p>“If a crusade leader sent a summons like this -wouldst thou respond, trusting? ‘Blow ye the trumpet -in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: -let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day -of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> cometh, for <i>it is</i> nigh at hand?’”</p> - -<p>“The Hospitaler knows I would.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Well; God by His Prophet-Herald, Joel, so alarms -the nations. And more, we have a broader summons,” -and the preacher soldier read again:</p> - -<p>“‘Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: -for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.</p> - -<p>“‘Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the -valley of Jehosaphat: for there will I sit to judge all -the heathen round about.</p> - -<p>“‘Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.</p> - -<p>“‘The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the -stars shall withdraw their shining.</p> - -<p>“‘The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His -voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth -shall shake: but the Lord <i>will</i> be the hope of His people, -and the strength of the children of Israel.</p> - -<p>“‘So shall ye know that I <i>am</i> the Lord your God -dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.</p> - -<p>“‘Beat your plowshares into swords, and your -pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am -strong.’”</p> - -<p>Then the Hospitaler closed his eyes, turned his face -upward as in prayer, and began speaking like unto one -in a rapture or trance:</p> - -<p>“When souls would measure themselves for judgment, -they must stand by the scenes wrought out by -Him that died for men; just hereabouts, when the -last judgment comes, the multitudes of earth, tried by -the measure of the God-man, will be brought face to -face with God’s standard of moral grandeur, sublimely -once displayed here. Before its splendor the stars, -the finest of men, shall wax dim; human philosophy, -the sun of the world, go out, and human religion, ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span> -the child of human desire, shall fade as the setting, -waning moon, that emblem of the concupiscent. Then -Charity, that never fails, shall come to her throne, the -last implement of war be beaten into services of love, -while the weak, no more dominated by giant brutality, -shall rise to the pre-eminence of moral strength. Adam -and Eve, the fallen pair, passed through the valley of -sorrow and sin, downward; Christ and Madonna, the -new ideals, passed through the valley of sorrow and -salvation, upward.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Rhodes, the whirl of my brain is as if touched -by the swellings of an anthem. I’ll come right yet, -if thou dost enravish me so!” cried Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>And Miriamne’s face shone as if the sun were on it, -but it was not. She was looking away, in soul, to the -future. The Hospitaler continued:</p> - -<p>“Truly, all heads, as well as hearts, are righted here, -where the touch of the Cross makes the dry bones -live. Here get I my schooling; this place of the -Cross, where the depths of sin, the heights of love, are -manifest; from which radiates all holiest tenets, to -which and from which flow the streams of Scriptural -truth. If only we could get all men to stand sincerely -on this lofty hill of vision, overlooking all times to -come, all histories past, all mysteries would be explained, -all prophecies become clear, and there never -would be need on earth again for wars of faith or the -burning of heretics. Pilate spake welcome words to -the ages when he cried: ‘<i>Miles, expedi Crucem</i>’—‘Soldiers, -speed the Cross.’ Its speed is light’s speed.”</p> - -<p>As they conversed, the three had slowly journeyed -along the <i>Via Dolorosa</i>—the road to the Cross.</p> - -<p>“Here,” said the Hospitaler, “it is reported that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span> -Jesus yearningly looking back to the weeping women -that followed him Cross-ward, cried: ‘<i>Daughters of -Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and -children.</i>’”</p> - -<p>“The woman again in religion!” exclaimed Sir -Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“Immanuel spoke to the world, then. When truth -goes to crucifixion, women and children—the weaker—may -well weep. It’s the Giant’s hour. So children -and women ever have been the chief followers of -Jesus. No wonder that children brought palms of -peace to Him and shouted His praises, while women -anointed Him with tears. They knew, by an holy intuition, -that somehow He was the King of Love, the -defender of weakness.”</p> - -<p>“I begin to think, Sir Knight Hospitaler, that the -sun of this country has wrapped its gold about thy -brain.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, father, don’t prevent; these words of his are -balm to my soul,” quoth Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“Speak on, for the girl’s sake, knight. Speak on; -I’ll be silent.”</p> - -<p>The Hospitaler continued:</p> - -<p>“Daughter, thou dost follow the story as those holy -women followed Jesus, afar off; but with tenderness. -As they found later unutterable nearness, so shalt -thou; God willing.”</p> - -<p>“The woman in religion! It’s so. I, a man; this -Miriamne, a woman, a girl, my daughter. I’m like a -pupil to her, yet I professed this cross-faith more than -a score of years before she was born. I’d need a millennium -to overtake her, in glory, if we both died now. -I’m like poor old David, who fled from his rebellious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> -son, Absalom, over the hills that skirt Kidron. I’m -dethroned.”</p> - -<p>“Remember, rather, that He who glorified Kidron -was ‘obedient unto death.’ Mother and son, together -all loving, all loyal in that dread hour, here attested -that in David’s kingdom, at the last, at its best, there -will be no trampling on the family ties, Sir Charleroy.”</p> - -<p>“Wonderful! I never thought of this before, after -this manner. But still, the woman leads the world -in religion!”</p> - -<p>“<i>The</i> woman! Yes, but only when she takes her -place, as did Mary, as a follower of Jesus to Calvary.”</p> - -<p>“But how, now, about Astarte, Diana, Baaltis?”</p> - -<p>“They had their day; rude, gross phantoms; conceived -in the hot souls of low and lecherous men; but I -told thee, here we might overlook the world. In this -valley Athaliah, daughter of cruel Jezebel, Queen of -Ahab, and, like her mother, an Astarte-socialist, worshiped -the lewd ideal, Baaltis. Death, in shocking -form, took off that heathen queen of Israel. God’s -revenge, this was.</p> - -<p>“And now, I remember that the queen mother of Asa, -here, in Kidron, set up the worship of Ashera with its -Phallic mysteries; but Asa, the youth, pure of mind -and led of God, not only tore down, root and branch -the groves and woven booths of licentiousness, but dethroned -the woman who had set them up. Just here, -in finest contrasts, I remember the Virgin Mary, the -pure mother, the ideal woman, who, in this valley of -decision, rose for all time the exemplification of truest -womanhood—a wife, a mother. Mary has broken forever -the idols of Baaltis. While Mary’s memory lasts, -part of the enduring, sacred history, toward which all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span> -Christian eyes turn, Astarte can never rise under any -name or form for long toleration. She is forever broken, -and her creed of lust fated to reprobation.</p> - -<p>“Wherever this gospel story, eternal and eternally -new, is told, there will come to the minds of the hearers a -vision of those associated in the last dread hours of the -Divine Martyr, in a fellowship of sympathy and sorrow. -Among these will stand pre-eminent the women. -Simon, the Cyrenian, compelled by the soldiers, aided -the trembling sorrow-burdened Christ to bear the -cross. And it is easy to believe that the wife of that -Simon, who appears later, for a moment, in the praiseful -salutations of Paul, as the parent of Christian sons, -she reverently called by the great apostle mother, was -among the women that were most sorrowful and nearest -the dying Saviour. Then there were Mary, the mother of -James, Salome, Mary Magdalene, and possibly Claudia -the wife of Pilate—that brave woman who advocated -Christ’s cause before the proud, implacable Sanhedrim, -the howling mob and Imperial Rome’s representatives. -What fitting mourners in that touching, yet august -funeral march!</p> - -<p>“Women are fully capable by nature, through their -finest, tenderest chords, ever responsive in woe, to express -the whole of grief, however deep! The sex -which loves most, loves longest, mourns most easily as -well as most sincerely, and has made sorrow sacred by -the lavish bestowals of it, whene’er its founts were -touched.</p> - -<p>“There is an holy, perfumed anointing in their tears. -This crucifixion-time was woman’s hour supremely. -Mary with <i>magnificent</i> self-possession, heart-broken, -yet strong in faith; weeping in eye and soul, but intruding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> -no wild howlings amid those who wept for custom’s -sake; tearful, yet retiring in her grief, here -passes before our minds at once the most fascinating, -winsome, yet pity-begetting woman known to man.”</p> - -<p>“Father,” cried Miriamne, restraining but little her -own tears: “Are you listening?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, yes; oh, yes. The glory of Eden’s noon has -fallen on the tongue and brain of Rhodes, and yet I -cannot gainsay him; nor would I try to dispel his wise -and honored sayings. I can only wonder and wonder -how it is that woman rises at the very front when any -grand advance is made.”</p> - -<p>“Good Rhodes, go on,” spoke Miriamne.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;" id="illus10"> -<img src="images/illus10.jpg" width="450" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption-r">B. Plockhorst.</p> -<p class="caption">MARY AND ST. JOHN.</p> -</div> - -<p>“I’m easily persuaded, for there is something of a -savory sweetness to this grief—welcome mother of true -penitence, that comes over souls, who, in imagination, -follow the steps to the cross. I’ve heard that Mary -followed her son from the Judgment Hall to Calvary. -He moved at slow pace, and well He might; worn by -months of toil for needy humanity; by watchings, -teachings and the like; until now ready to drop down -under the thorn-crown, the scourging and the cross. -But the blessed Virgin, still a woman, still a mother, -faltered by the way. Sometimes she hid her eyes from -the scourging, sometimes she was pushed aside by -those who knew her not, or those who knowing hated -her because of her goodness. Tradition tells us she -fainted several times overcome by the terrors of that -sad journey through the valley. She had small -strength to witness the climax of brutality when -cruel hands drove the awful nails into that One she -loved! The history of that dread hour has often -wrung tears from stout hearts; and he who understands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> -in any degree a mother’s heart, easily believes -that she was absent when the mob raised the victim -on His cross. But, mother-like, nothing could keep -her from the final parting, which death brought to -her and her son.</p> - -<p>“Sorrow sharpens the language of love to a deep expressiveness; -when the end was approaching, Mary and -John stood side by side and near to the One, who, to -them, was dearer than all. I have heard, and I believe -that a sign from the Christ had hurried John away, just -before His death, to bring mother to the heart that was -yearning not more to give than to receive, the comforts -that both needed, the assurance of undying affection. -The man on the cross, stripped of all earthly except -His flesh, even robbed of the tunic that Mary had -made, and for which the men of war gambled, as war -has often gambled for the patrimony of the King of -Men, had little or nothing of earth to give, other than -His rights in the hearts of mother and John.</p> - -<p>“These were His farewell keepsakes to each. It needs -no strained imagination to fathom His heart, for He -opened it all in His dying cry, ‘My God, my God, why -hast Thou forsaken me?’ This was not as the cry of a -victor, but that of a broken heart; not as a strong man, -but typical humanity, alone, facing death as a child. -The language He used then was not that usually His, -it was the language of His childhood. In every -syllable of that cry, one may read, I fear that God, -even God, has forsaken me; but mother, my own loved -mother! mother, mother, oh, my dying, human heart, -leans as a babe on thy bosom!’”</p> - -<p>“Here, here!” cried Sir Charleroy. “Quick! Take -this cross of a Teutonic Knight of St. Mary; bury it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> -when I’m gone by her grave in Gethsemane! I have -praised myself as her champion, and son, and devotee. -Heavens! I’m abashed by thy splendid revelation! -I never have even dreamed of her glorious worth!”</p> - -<p>“Father, my father, be calm, be calm—calm for my -sake; you fright me when you so give way. Remember, -we’re at the place where a wrong past ends at the -right beginning.”</p> - -<p>“Thou art my good angel, Miriamne; but, oh, it’s -twice sad! I’ve been a madman half my life and a -player in a farce the other half!”</p> - -<p>“Be calm, Sir Knight, and look into the wonders of -this place. Christ’s coming to earth to pardon its -errings, right its wrongs, and hang unfading victory -crowns on all futures. Listen: There was night when -that King died, and the dead arose and went about the -city, attesting the eternal fact that He was Ruler of all -worlds. And it was the Feast of the New Moon -at Jerusalem; the Feast of Venus at Rome; of Khem -in Egypt; but the crescent was hidden.”</p> - -<p>“I see, I see, Rhodes; Mary and Mary’s son were to -come forth; all others eclipsed!”</p> - -<p>“It is attested by history that there was black darkness -about the Sun Temple at Heliopolis as Christ was -bidding His mother and earth Death’s good-night. -The Egyptian city of Osiris, by miracle, witnessed of -the great event at Calvary. Some there were prompted -to say: ‘Either the world is coming to an end, or the -god of nature suffers.’”</p> - -<p>“And Mary, wise and erudite, Rhodes? Tell us -more of her.”</p> - -<p>“‘It is finished!’ cried her son, and she passed -from the grief of those who agonize amid somber,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> -monster pangs impending, into that quiet, subdued, -ripening sadness that comes over those who have -learned to say: ‘<i>Thy will be done.</i>’ At Cana’s feast -her Beloved told her: ‘<i>Mine hour has not yet come.</i>’ -Now, she knew the meaning of the mystic words, and -saw His hour, with all its mighty imports, at last -marked in full; all the prophecies gathered as into a -full-orbed sun; the cross rose like a dial, mountains -high, the shadows on it telling eternity’s time! Mary, -the singer of the ‘<i>Magnificat</i>,’ her imagination fired, -her vision inspired, as she stood by that interpreting, -ghastly symbol, could see the course of the sacred past -emerging into meaning. Eve leading; the wealth of -her bloom no longer sacrificed to primeval, Astarte-like -intoxications; the wings of the real tree of life -above her; the serpent crushed beneath her heel. -Then, following, Noah, the man of the ark, symbol of -sheltering covenants between God and man, covenants -ever circled by bows of hope, ever surmounted by -dove-like peace. After these Abraham, with his typical -lamb, followed by a countless multitude of priests, -laying down at the cross, as they passed, their temple-pattern, -the symbols of its service realized and ellipsed! -After these, Moses, the law-giver, with face serene at -law’s fulfillment, in company with flaming prophets -innumerable, all rejoicing in visions realized. Behind -all followed Captivity and Hades, Christ’s grandest -trophies, forever in chains! Teutonic Knight of St. -Mary, thy queen saw all these, and as they passed -there rose to her view the White Kingdom of David. -Now, stand here where she stood; surrender mind and -heart to the Spirit and Word, then thou shalt behold -the radiant procession, the coming glory!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span></p> - -<p>The Hospitaler ceased. Then softly, meanwhile -waving his hand as if entreating, Sir Charleroy spoke:</p> - -<p>“Rhodes, wait a little; don’t say any more now. -I want to watch that procession. It seems to me I -see it. Oh, wonderful, all wonderful!”</p> - -<p>“He shall be called Wonderful.”</p> - -<p>There was a long, long pause, broken gently by -Miriamne, who, after a while, said:</p> - -<p>“We’d better return to the city; the day is very hot, -and I’m—” She could say no more.</p> - -<p>Silently Sir Charleroy complied; silently all three -journeyed to their abodes. The Hospitaler was content -with his effort to proclaim the truths of Calvary, -and Miriamne was glad to leave her father to the full -benefit of his sacred, all-engrossing thoughts. Miriamne, -in heart, was enraptured by her thoughts of -the mother of Jesus.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.<br /> -<span class="smaller">TWO DEAD HEARTS UNITING TWO LIVING ONES</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Let us alone regret, ...</div> -<div class="verse indent3">... Sorrow humanizes our race.</div> -<div class="verse">Tears are the showers that fertilize the world;</div> -<div class="verse">And memory of things precious keepeth warm</div> -<div class="verse">The heart that once did hold them.</div> -<div class="verse">They are poor that have lost nothing; they are far more poor</div> -<div class="verse">Who, losing, have forgotten; they most poor</div> -<div class="verse">Of all who lose and wish they might forget.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Jean Ingelow.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-u.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Under Miriamne’s adroit and patient guidance -Sir Charleroy and his attendants -made goodly progress until they reached -ancient Jabbock, bordering Giant Bashan; -but at that point the knight made a stubborn stand, -persisting that he would proceed no further Bozrah-ward.</p> - -<p>“I smell Mohammedanism coming to me from the -East, and, having had enough of the Saracens in my -day, I’ll tarry away from their haunts——</p> - -<p>“I must go, beloved, to the tomb of my dear -defender, Ichabod. I must go to Gerash to do the -pious offices of a mourner.”</p> - -<p>The maiden brought forward every reason her -ingenuity could invent opposed to the proposed deflection -in course. She enlisted the Druses guides, whom -she had employed to accompany them hitherto, to aid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span> -her in raising objections, and they magnified the -obstacles in the way to Gerash with commendable -loyalty to their employer, the maiden, if not with strict -regard to truth. They all encamped, and the debate -was the sole occupation for hours.</p> - -<p>“Now, Miriamne, hitherto my good spirit, thou -wouldst lure me to perdition! I’ve been in the Lejah. -I’m certain that black lava-sea is hell’s mouth, and -Bozrah’s its porch!”</p> - -<p>“So be it; but if we go carrying the heavenly consciousness -of doing our Father’s will, we may carry -heaven to those gates.”</p> - -<p>“It’s not my duty to go thither. I passed through -that purgatory once. Its horrors blasted my life! To -return thither would be presumption.”</p> - -<p>“But you have forgotten the sunrise coming to you. -Each day, for months, as you have journeyed eastward, -you have gained in health of body and -mind.”</p> - -<p>“Dost thou mean that God blesses those who -plunge headlong to destruction, as the possessed swine -that ran violently into the sea?”</p> - -<p>“Can not my father let faith silence the disquietings -of his wild fancies? The memory of a past pain, -though a persistent, is often a false teacher.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I do remember. Some memories seem to -scorch the very substance of my brain! I pray when -such come that God give me eternal forgetfulness. I’d -rather be an idiot than have the power of coherent -thinking filled with such reminiscences!”</p> - -<p>“Ah, if we all, always, had the wisdom, while gazing -into our dark, deep pools, to gaze until we saw at their -bottoms the image of the sky above!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Well said, daughter! Bozrah is a dark pool! I -saw there only an image of the sky, and that very far -away!”</p> - -<p>The day of the foregoing they were wandering along -the flowery banks and over the forest-covered hills -that undulated away from Jabbock’s ravine. As they -moved along the maiden plucked a hyacinth blossom -and affectionately fastened it on her father’s bosom; -just where he was wont to wear, when in England, his -knight’s cross.</p> - -<p>“Rizpah once placed a lotus there; it made me -drunk; a votary of pleasure, mad; but Miriamne, her -daughter, places there the flower of serene, deathless -affection! Sweet, thou art my good angel, the flower -says to Gerash!”</p> - -<p>“Why, father! I do not understand!”</p> - -<p>“Apollo unwittingly caused the death of a beautiful -youth, the friend of his heart, whose name was Hyacinthus. -So says tradition, and it’s so charming, I -more than half believe it! Apollo, in loyal love, made -a flower grow from the grave of his friend. This is it! -See; here’s the color of the dead youth’s blood. This -blossom is the flower of deathless friendship and I love -it.”</p> - -<p>“A touching story, I’ll remember it; but it seems -to me the flower says, ‘Bozrah,’ my father.”</p> - -<p>“Take this leaf, girl; here.”</p> - -<p>“And what of this?”</p> - -<p>“There, on that leaf, behold those signs, ‘Ai’ ‘Ai’.”</p> - -<p>“I think some markings are there like what you say, -though never ’till now did I so trace them.”</p> - -<p>“That’s the Greek cry of woe. The perfumes of -these flowers, in every field of Gerash, remind me of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span> -my duty. I must go to the tomb of the man that died -in my defense.”</p> - -<p>“A pious sentiment; but duty to the living can not -be pushed aside by such a call. You have other and -living friends?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, thou art my friend, lover, angel; but I’ll keep -thee with me, my lamb.”</p> - -<p>“Rizpah and your sons!”</p> - -<p>“Rizpah my friend? that would be amusing, if -it were not such a grim sarcasm. Oh, what a miserable -race she led me!”</p> - -<p>“Misery, like joy, in wedded life, is won or lost by -the deed of two; not one. I shall not acquit my -mother; but were not there two to blame?”</p> - -<p>“Two? no; only one. I could not be peaceful with -a panther.”</p> - -<p>“Be not too severe, and think a little; did not you, -after all, do much to make your wedded wife what she -was at her worst?”</p> - -<p>“What, I? Thou dost not think that?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; I know the story of your espousal; your -flight from Gerash, and then your after conflicts. You -knew before you determined against all opposing, in -the face of reasons most grave, and without any thought -of your adaptation to each other, to wed, that your -tempers, tastes, and trainings were in almost every -thing apart.”</p> - -<p>“Well, we loved each other sincerely; our marriage -vows were honestly taken.”</p> - -<p>“Marriage; that settled it forever! Did you as -honestly keep as you took the vows, for better or -worse?”</p> - -<p>“Now that were impossible. Did you ever see your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span> -mother in rage, her muscles rising in a sort of serpentine -wavings from her feet upward? Ugh! I hear -her sibilant, hissing words of scorn, now. They’ll haunt -me forever. She was a lotus in love, and a boa in -wrath.”</p> - -<p>“I may have seen her so, but out on the love that -lets such visions displace memories of the best things; -a daughter, nurtured by her, can not; a husband sworn -on hymen’s altar, dare not forget.”</p> - -<p>“I tried to set her right, Miriamne.”</p> - -<p>“Not always with kindness unfailing. I’ve seen the -scourge-marks on her heart. I’ve heard her moan as -a wounded dove; no, more piteously, as a deserted wife -and mother. You tried to set her right by forcing her -to your faith, that, too, when the girl-wife was weak -and exhausted by early maternity. You have been -wont ever to pity profoundly the holy mother who recoiled -fainting from the spectacle of her son scourged -to crucifixion. That pity is a fine feeling; but since -Mary’s day is passed, it is finer to evince a manly tenderness -for living women moving toward their Calvary. -How you waste your emotions on the dead! Mary -Hyacinthus, Ichabod, have all, Rizpah nothing.”</p> - -<p>“See here, daughter; let me look down into thy eyes. -I’m of a mind to think the sun has gotten into thy -brain. It gets into every body’s in this country.” So -saying, he turned her face toward his own. It was a -bungling effort on his part to parry her thrusts with -ridicule, the last weapon of the defeated.</p> - -<p>She was a little indignant, but yet too earnest to be -diverted, and so followed up her advantage.</p> - -<p>“You were the stronger, every way, and fenced well -against your other self. The woman erred, sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> -grievously, perhaps, and you had your sweet retaliations. -How sweet you can tell. Each blow at her, fell -on me, my brothers and yourself. Oh, it’s the climax-revenge -to lay open with giant thrusts, monstrous and -keen, vein and nerve. One may mar a good purpose -by pursuing it cruelly. Were not your efforts to set -my mother right severe, sometimes?”</p> - -<p>“Did the eloquent Hospitaler put these fine words -together for thee, girl?” testily questioned Sir Charleroy.</p> - -<p>“No matter who sent them, if they be true words. -If you get angry, I’ll be wounded. You need not try -hard to hurt me. I will strive to be all filial, while all -loyal; but not more so to father than to mother.”</p> - -<p>“Well, but she was a rheumatism to me.”</p> - -<p>“So be it; still she was part of you. Does one dismember -a limb that aches, or give it tenderer care than -all others?”</p> - -<p>“‘It is better,’ said Solomon, ‘to dwell in the wilderness, -than with a contentious and angry woman.’ I -got heartily weary of an ache that ached because it -ached.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll place Joseph by Solomon.”</p> - -<p>“Pray, how?”</p> - -<p>“He espoused Mary and was with her, yet apart; -thus showing God’s idea of the needs of weary mothers -in their trying hours, when giving their strength to -another being. Joseph was kept as a lover only, until -after Jesus was born, that his services might have a -lover’s tenderness. I have heard that the manhood of -Jesus reflected the sweetness of Mary; Joseph kept his -wife in those days sweet, so the kindness of that noble -spouse lived after all, an immortal influence. Joseph,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> -through Mary in part, determined the bodily traits of -the child Jesus; the latter influences all time.”</p> - -<p>“Why, truly, thou hast found a beautiful flower, -Miriamne, and I’m wondering that I never saw it before -in Mary’s life. But, finally, I tell thee I loved -Rizpah as my soul at first.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes; you both loved with almost volcanic ardor. -My mother told me so; but this very power and -inclination of passionate loving gave you each for the -other power of dreadfully hurting.”</p> - -<p>“Well, we’ll speak further of this, perhaps, another -time. The hyacinth lures me to Ichabod’s tomb.”</p> - -<p>“The rose, emblem of Mary, flower of wedded love, -is sweeter than the hyacinth. Go home to Bozrah, -father, I beseech you, so you may prove yourself still -a Knight of Saint Mary.”</p> - -<p>“Home? I’ve none! Bozrah is grim ruins within, -without. There, as only fit and in fit dwellings, abide -the cormorant and hyena. All hopes that ever centred -in that place for me were but dancing satyrs at the -last; all loves but eagles with hot-iron beaks, which -devoured the hearts that fed them, then fled away! I -hate Bozrah!”</p> - -<p>“You have a wife and children there. I a mother. -Where the brood is, there is home. Bozrah has no -gloom for us, save such as we make for it. It may -be a glad place yet. Remember that Kidron and Golgotha -were made all beautiful by the fidelity of Mary -and the cross-bearing of Jesus.”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, this parley is useless. Once for all, hear -me. Before I wed thy mother I took upon my soul -an impious, almost desperate, vow, that I’d possess -her though the possessing ruined me. The strong,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span> -hopeful Knight of the Cross was domineered over by -his love. Before this I had some commendable principles -and a little piety. What am I now, after long -driftings about through wasted years of prime? I’m -the wreck of a man; less! a part of a wreck, trying to -get made over in a meaner pattern out of the fragments -left. Thy mother unmade me!”</p> - -<p>“Adam said something like that of Eve.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t interrupt me, Miriamne. The Jewish maiden -Zainab gave Mohammed, of Bozrah, the poisoned lamp -which ruined his health; the Jewish Rizpah has such a -lamp. See me, wrinkled, hair whitened, all too soon; -chivalry, morality and piety dragged out of me bit by -bit. I stand here the caricature of what I was or what -I should be. I’m fit for neither war nor courtship. -I’d make a pretty show attempting to court Rizpah! -I’ve forgotten how such things are done, and, besides, -I’m not the original Sir Charleroy she wed. Let her -find him, or his counterfeit, and be happy. The original -Sir Charleroy and Rizpah loved each other desperately, -but these that I know hate each other as desperately. -I tell thee it would be legalized adultery for -these latter two to live under the same roof, pleading as -justification the vows of the other two! Miriamne, I tell -thee that thou mayst tell it on the house tops, or hill tops, -as I’ll cry it through eternity, if permitted, Sir Charleroy -and Rizpah, of Gerash and Bozrah, died long ago! The -devil stole their bodies, put an imp’s spirit in each, and -then parted them forever. If they ever meet it will -be by the fiend’s device, that he may revel over their -warrings with each other! Ah, ha! What the Roman -arena was to the blood-thirsty populace, such to the -fiends the homes of the world when full of tumults!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span></p> - -<p>And Miriamne, alarmed by the outbreak, tried to -calm her father:</p> - -<p>“Oh, father, you will need mercy some day; merit -it by bestowing it. You suffer an unforgiving spirit to -inflame your passion!”</p> - -<p>“Forgiving? What’s the use? I’ve vainly tried -mercy!”</p> - -<p>“Try once more. The injured have resource so long -as they have power to forgive. Remember Him who -in the great extremity cried: ‘<i>They know not what -they do!</i>’ Trust Rizpah once more!”</p> - -<p>“I do not see the shadow of a peg on which to hang -a trust.”</p> - -<p>“You, a Teutonic Knight of St. Mary!”</p> - -<p>“Thank God Mary was not a Rizpah!”</p> - -<p>“Mary had the trust of Joseph in those dire days, -when nothing but a miracle could prove her integrity. -She presents not only woman’s goodness but that which -even the loftiest wife needs, the constancy beyond -measure of her husband.”</p> - -<p>“Joseph was advised by an angel. I not.”</p> - -<p>“As you love your mother, honor the woman who -mothers your children. They bear your image, yet she -alone, with a sublime self-forgetting, struggles to have -them grow up honorably, purely, and in the fear of God.”</p> - -<p>“She wants to make them Israelites.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps so, and perhaps the Christian examples -she has seen give her no reason to wish otherwise. But -after all, her way is better than to have left them as -their father left them, to become infidels or nothing. -Oh, father, do not think me bold. I speak because I -love you; as perhaps no other might care or presume -to give utterance.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Well, girl, I guess I’m a double man; for, determined -to oppose, I feel a desire within to have thee -win in this argument. I’m one compound of contradictions. -I was a sworn bachelor, then a sworn husband, -now I’m neither. I’m a widower, with a living wife; -a parent of three children with only one. I bewail my -homelessness, yet run from an offered home. I confess -to being useless, yet see a mission most important at -my own door. Swearing loyalty to Mary, I disregard -all she exemplified—of late revealed to me; professing -to be a Christian, I live a life that would shame a decent -Jew. I have a daughter, said by all to be much like -me in temper, feature, and mind, yet we are here utterly -opposed in thought and purpose. I’ve heard the profoundest -teachers in grandest temples unmoved to this -duty, to-day presented; and, now, without the pale of -any church, in the wilds of Jericho, a mere girl, my -daughter, instructs me well! This all proves that I’m -the caricature of Miriamne’s father. If I be Sir Charleroy, -then I’m beside myself!”</p> - -<p>“A good half confession! Now for the atonement!”</p> - -<p>“What, a bundle of contradictions making atonement? -undoing the past! more contradictions?”</p> - -<p>“Righteousness displaces all the contradictions of -life!”</p> - -<p>“I could make no atonement except by contradicting -a score of years, and going to Bozrah! Now hear -me finally; by the glory of God, alive, I’ll never go to -Rizpah’s house!”</p> - -<p>Miriamne felt that further persuasion would be futile. -She made a last request, then.</p> - -<p>“Will my father take me to the outskirts of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span> -city? I’ll enter alone to comfort the woman who, -notwithstanding her faults, I believe to be the noblest -of mothers. She may not have a husband; she has a -daughter.”</p> - -<p>As the father and daughter rested at noon, not far -from the Giant City, some days after the foregoing -events, they beheld a single horseman from toward -Bozrah speeding along the great southern highway.</p> - -<p>“I think he’s a Jew and in peaceful pursuit. I’ll -hail him,” said the knight, “in the language of Galilee.”</p> - -<p>The rider, hearing the call, halted. Glancing about -him he discovered the source of the call, and promptly -reined his steed toward where the pilgrims were sitting. -Instantly he began in short, quick sentences:</p> - -<p>“Wonder; the face of a Frank, the garb of a Turk, -the voice of a Jew! An old man, a young woman! A -Moslem in company with his slave? No, she sits by -his side! A harem favorite? No! She is not veiled! -Ye do not look cunning enough for magicians, too cunning -to be pilgrims; not pious enough, old man, to be a -priest, and too pious-looking to be a robber.”</p> - -<p>“True, Laconic,” said the knight, “I’m at no loss as -to thee.”</p> - -<p>“So it seems! But pray, Christian, Jewish, Druses, -Turks, who are ye?”</p> - -<p>“We’re pilgrims, good runner.”</p> - -<p>“Ha, ha; these pilgrims are a mad-lot, with piebald -customs!”</p> - -<p>“What news, runner?”</p> - -<p>“What news! A plague in Bozrah! De Griffin’s -twins are nigh to death—De Griffin? May be thou -knowest him? Thou dost look like him: but he’s dead.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span> -Now his twins have no nurses nor mourners, but Rizpah, -and I’m racing to Gerash to see if I can find a soul -to swell her wailings.”</p> - -<p>The rider turned his horse and with a word, “<i>Selamet</i>,”—“peace,” -was gone.</p> - -<p>Miriamne had heard enough, and now, with redoubled -vehemence, reöpened her arguments and appeals -to her father to go to her home.</p> - -<p>“I’ll not go into Rizpah’s house. I tell thee thou -art inviting me into hell!”</p> - -<p>Miriamne, in turn, replied: “There is good anywhere -for those that earnestly seek it. Mohammed, -they say, got his first inspiration in Bozrah, and he a -Moslem, a crescent devotee!”</p> - -<p>“Yes; he wed a rich wife there, too, and she was a -saint. I may envy him in these things.”</p> - -<p>The young woman hastily entered the city and -stopped for a little time at the mission house of Father -Adolphus, briefly, hurriedly, to announce her return, -inquire the latest report concerning the illness of her -brothers, and to beseech the old priest to go out after -her father; if possible, to bring him into the city and -to the desolate fireside.</p> - -<p>“Well, well; there, now, I’d call thee bee or humming-bird, -truly, darting from point to point, subject to -subject, if I didn’t know I was talking to an angel.”</p> - -<p>The sincere compliment was unheard by Miriamne, -for she was gone ere it was sounded. The old man -shaded his eyes, looked after her a few moments, then -girding himself, hobbled down the street to seek at the -city’s outskirt the waiting knight.</p> - -<p>And Miriamne, with heart beating high, sped on -homeward. But as she approached it she slackened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span> -her pace, with questionings as to how she had best enter, -so as to secure loving welcome and in no wise perturb -by sudden surprise. She saw her mother through -the doorway, bowed and swinging back and forth. The -girl’s heart divined all; “My brothers are dead!” The -mother seemed oblivious to all about her, and Miriamne -hesitated on the threshold. Just then the runner -galloped up to the open door, reined his steed, and exclaimed: -“Out of sight, out of mind! Death, like -poverty, sifts our friends! Ye can hire mourners -cheaper at Bozrah than at Gerash, and there are none -to be had without coins! Gerash is distant. I had no -coins, and was a fool to start, wise to return!” It was -Laconic, and he was gone before any reply was given. -Rizpah didn’t even lift up her head to notice his coming -or going.</p> - -<p>Miriamne was glad of the circumstance, for the -runner gave her words with which to enter: “A daughter -never forsakes.” She spoke thus, very softly.</p> - -<p>Rizpah, perhaps not recognizing the voice, moaned -on, swaying as she moaned:</p> - -<p>“Mother, mother?”</p> - -<p>Rizpah slowly lifted her eyes to the speaker; then, -either by a masterful self-control or because sorrow -dazed, she slowly and without emotion, addressed the -maiden:</p> - -<p>“Thou here? So, then, my three are safe together, -before my eyes, in death. Thou wert buried years -ago.”</p> - -<p>Without another word the daughter and sister -quietly moved to the forms lying beside the mother, -and knelt down, bowing, her one arm flung over the -corses. Presently she reached out her hand and it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span> -met a warm clasp from her mother. The maiden knew -full well that it meant welcome. It was death’s victory; -expressive, unspoken eloquence. There were -four hearts; two still in death; two alive and breaking, -but the dead hearts somehow drew the living ones -together and then they beat as one, each all comforting -to the other. Two dead hearts bridged the gulf -between two living ones. There followed the embrace -and kiss of peace, and then Rizpah questioned:</p> - -<p>“Wilt stay with me a little while, my only—?” thereupon -she sobbed and was relieved.</p> - -<p>“Stay? Yes, always! But when, the burial?”</p> - -<p>“At once! It’s the plague and the law requires -promptness. O Death, thou didst do thy bitterest for -Rizpah!”</p> - -<p>Rizpah soon rose up and began to busy herself about -the bodies.</p> - -<p>“Mother, tell me how to aid you.”</p> - -<p>“Yea, as I need. Thou and I wilt carry them to -the cave of entombment.”</p> - -<p>“But will there be no funeral rites?”</p> - -<p>“I’ll perform such; keeping vigil as Rizpah of old. -My children were crucified, as were hers. All mankind -turned from us in our stress, and so they died in -want.”</p> - -<p>“But, mother, the watching would kill you!”</p> - -<p>“Thou dost comfort me, now. Oh, I’d be overjoyed, -if I only knew for certainty that death would -court me at my vigil.”</p> - -<p>Softly Miriamne spoke:</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy is at Bozrah.”</p> - -<p>“Now thou makest Bozrah seem afar. Oh, the -garments of people may brush together passing, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span> -still to all things else the passers be eternities apart,” -replied quickly, and yet with cool self-possession, -Rizpah.</p> - -<p>“Death, that cools the pulses, also subdues the -asperities. I could not hate an enemy if I met him -amid his dead,” persuasively responded the maiden.</p> - -<p>“Imperious, fanatical, stubborn Charleroy! changeable -in all but his determination to make conquest of -the faith of others. Then, I can not ask his pardon -for my serving God. Liberty came to Egypt because -the mothers of captive Israel were faithful. So says -our Talmud.”</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy respects at least, fidelity.”</p> - -<p>“Then ’tis well to have me die. He never did me -justice to my face; let him embalm me in honey after -I’m dead, as Herod did the wife he murdered. It’s a -way of some husbands. But we must be moving, -daughter; I’ve prepared two biers. The plague is a -stern messenger, nor leaves room for any dallying.”</p> - -<p>And Bozrah witnessed a strange, sad spectacle. Two -roughly constructed burial couches; on each a body, -and two women, the one aged, the other youthful, both -bowed with grief, slowly bearing the biers away, down -to the tomb-hill. The elder directed; and so they -went; first a little way forward with one body, then -returning to advance the other. There were no -mourners following; the passers-by offered no help; -the women of the city drew their doors shut, and the -children playing in the streets, when they beheld this -funeral procession, fled away with subdued exclamations.</p> - -<p>The ancient Rizpah, watching her dead on their -crosses, was standing that time in her valley of “dry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span> -bones;” her imitator, Rizpah de Griffin, was now -walking through that same valley. Both made pitiable -by desolation. Neither was able to hide her dead from -her sight by looking for the hope of the blessed resurrection. -Their loving had been fierce enough, but the -soul-reviving Spirit of the prophet’s vision was not yet -seen to be in the valley for them. The two Rizpahs were -“mothers of sorrow,” but followed no cross that had -on it besides “death,” “victory.” They went with -tears, but not held by a love that triumphs in “leading -captivity captive.” These ancient Jewish mothers -may be put in striking contrast with the Davidic Queen -Mary, who wept from the Judgment Hall, past the -cross, past the tomb, up to the chamber of Pentecost, -from which she viewed the transports of the Ascension -of her Son, her Saviour, her King.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE “KNIGHT OF ST. MARY” AND RIZPAH AT THE -GRAVE OF THEIR SONS.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Courage, for life is hasting</div> -<div class="verse">To endless life away;</div> -<div class="verse">The inner fires unwaiting,</div> -<div class="verse">Transfigure our dull clay.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">...</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Lost, lost are all our losses;</div> -<div class="verse">Love set forever free;</div> -<div class="verse">The full life heaves and tosses</div> -<div class="verse">Like an eternal sea;</div> -<div class="verse">One endless, living story;</div> -<div class="verse">One poem spread abroad,</div> -<div class="verse">And the sun of all our glory</div> -<div class="verse">Is the countenance of God.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">George McDonald.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“I am ascending unto my Father and your Father, and to my -God and your God.”—<span class="smcap">Jno.</span> xx. 17.</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">The Teutonic knight was standing in silent -contemplation of a pile of ruins, from the -center of which rose a number of stately -columns like so many mourners about a -grave. These were all left of a stately old temple. -Art had done nobly here once; now desolation was -master, even the name of the structure being forgotten. -The priest approached, questioning within himself -as to how he would address Sir Charleroy, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span> -they met. As he drew nearer, he thought here are two -temples in decay. There came to his mind out of the -distant past a vision of Sir Charleroy as he was when -he stood erect, ruddy-cheeked and every wit a man by -his bride’s side, the time of the wedding at Damascus. -The priest, contrasting the man before him, now aged -and solemn faced, with what he was then, thought “of -the two ruined temples, the man is the sadder one. A -quarter of a century slipping over a life, though with -noiseless feet, generally leaves its tracks; if pain and -passion have been the companion of the years, havoc -is wrought.” Solemnly, and in measured tones, the -priest’s meditations having given him free utterance, -he spoke, quoting the words long before sadly pronounced -by the Savior concerning Jerusalem’s holy -place: “<i>Destroy this temple and in three days I will -raise it up.</i>”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy slowly, very slowly, turning his eyes -upon the speaker, observed him from head to foot, but -uttered not a word.</p> - -<p>Again the priest spoke: “Time has so changed both -knight and priest, that they forget themselves; nor is -it therefore wonderful, they should not remember each -other.”</p> - -<p>“Father Adolphus! Miriamne’s work?”</p> - -<p>“What matter whose act if we see God back of the -actor. I’ve a message from on high!”</p> - -<p>“Why, thou dost astound me!”</p> - -<p>“Methinks no man more needs astounding. May -righteousness enter the gates opened by wonder, and -so move thee into Rizpah’s home and thine; death is -there!”</p> - -<p>“Is there? has been! When love was slain, I shut<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span> -out its bleeding form with the mourning robes of a -long forgetfulness.</p> - -<p>“There are hopes that die to live no more; so there -are homes which bereft of their household Penates are -doomed to grim ruin forever. See these giant dwellings. -They tell it all.</p> - -<p>“Thou art a Christian, I believe; but like the disciples, -Cleopas and Luke, with eyes holden; not discerning -the Lord.</p> - -<p>“Just as some, having embalmed the body, looked -into the tomb at a napkin only, seeing merely the -place where He lay. Though puzzled that the grave’s -seal was broken, they were still blind to the miracle of -a new dawn, simultaneous with the unclasping of -night’s grim arms. They had heard of the resurrection -to be, yet they reasoned that the Promiser was surely -dead. Love alone, in the person of Mary Magdalene, -most loving because most forgiven, overleaped all -doubts, disappointments and fears, to hie away in the -thinning darkness, in an utter abandonment to her -trust in the words of Him, to whom her heart was -given. That was love indeed.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, priest, ’tis so. A woman; a woman; leading -in religion! I do not much bepraise her, for she, being -a woman, easily could believe, where men -doubted.”</p> - -<p>“It would have been cruel to have crossed her faith, -would it not, Sir Charleroy?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, on my soul, yes!”</p> - -<p>“Then go to the bier of thy boys. Let love overleap -all obstacles.”</p> - -<p>“But let me rest, priest. I’ve had the full draught -of trouble’s cup. I’m quit of further conflict.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Thou believest? Listen:</p> - -<p>“To whom also he shewed himself alive after His -passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them -forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to -the kingdom of God——</p> - -<p>“Christian Cross-bearing knight, hear me! The -suffering Savior could never have revealed Himself, -as the Almighty, Risen Christ, if there had been no -cross. By what He suffered He had gain of power. -Thy wrinkles, disciplines and all such like, fit thee now -to minister in the chamber of death; even where now -of all places on earth, thou art needed.”</p> - -<p>“But my case is so peculiar, my home so unnatural!”</p> - -<p>“Is there no balm in Gilead, Sir Charleroy? If -thou and she have been great sinners, He’s a great Savior, -and more, a patient one. Hast thou thought -how He lingered near His followers in an overplus of -love, lured from the triumphs of heaven, to personally -deal, all comfortingly, all encouragingly, peculiarly -with individuals? For thirty-three years in the flesh -he wandered about, doing good, healing all those oppressed -of the devil; but the finest hours of all His -life lay in those forty days between the resurrection -and the ascension. Well might He say to Mary: -‘Touch me not,’ when in love, she fain would have -retarded Him by sentimental fondling. Listen now:</p> - -<p>“‘I have not yet ascended: Go to my disciples, say -to them: I ascend unto my Father and your Father, -to my God and your God!’ He was making a sublime -accent along golden steps, and the number of those -steps were ten and two, even as the number of Israel’s -tribes.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I do not comprehend this mysticism, though the -word-frame is beautiful.”</p> - -<p>“Then know it. On the cross, Immanuel cried: ‘It -is finished!’ Glorious salvation’s work was finished; -but then He lingered still to bless, especially His -friends. Count the steps. He appeared first to Mary -Magdalene, out of whom he had cast the seven devils -and who doubtless clung to the Savior, her only hope, -her only deliverance from the awful realities of the tragedy -in her soul. Thy Rizpah was never so ill as Magdalene, -yet surely she is worthy as much tenderness.”</p> - -<p>“Secondly. Jesus appeared to His mother; love’s appearing. -I see her now, in mind, by the record here -unnamed—left in the sacred privacy of her grief; too -stricken to minister, but close to the triumph, because -all needful of its blessing. I see a third step—Jesus, -by special appointment, meeting the backsliding fisherman -of Tiberias, now gone away to his nets, persuading -himself he had done and suffered enough, even -as does Sir Charleroy to-day.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve been called Pilate. Go on. Call me Peter; I -can bear it.”</p> - -<p>“Fourthly. The Christ joined Luke and Cleopas, the -Greek proselytes, now doubters; but the chill of their -misgivings was burned away in hearts inflamed, while -they journeyed to Emmaus.”</p> - -<p>“Now call me Luke-Cleopas, priest. I’ve the chill -of the doubts, I’m sure.”</p> - -<p>“Fifthly. He came to His own little church-of-the-upper-room, -to breathe on it peace and to display His -all-convincing body; then He waited a week for a -special unfoldment to Thomas, the all-doubter, leaving -him filled with all faith.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Oh, that He’d come to Sir Charleroy!” said the -knight.</p> - -<p>“He does, but the knight’s eyes are holden, and he -starves while toiling for fish in a dead sea. Listen to -these words by the shore of Tiberias:</p> - -<p>“‘Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye -any meat? They answered him, No.</p> - -<p>“‘And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right -side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, -and now they were not able to draw it for the -multitude of fishes.</p> - -<p>“‘Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none -of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing -that it was the Lord.</p> - -<p>“‘Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth -them, and fish likewise.’</p> - -<p>“Oh, Sir Charleroy, cast in the net on the right side, -then come and dine.”</p> - -<p>“But I’m an odd man; not like others.”</p> - -<p>“He that is All Fullness later appeared to multitudes -of every clime, the representatives of the Church -universal, ever full of odd people; again to the apostle -of good works, James, called the pillar of faith. The -tenth appearing was at Bethany, as the blesser and -promiser to all. After that he showed himself to Paul, -proof that he was a returning Christ, and, last of all, -to John on Patmos. This the John that was care-taker -of Mary, the mother; John, the all-loving. I read each -page of the glowing Apocalypse as a love-letter from -heaven to a mother, from a Son who carries eternally -within His glorious heart the image of the woman -great chiefly for her great love of Him. She loyally -followed Him to the grave; He lovingly followed her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span> -beyond it. When he set John to picturing heaven as -a virgin-bride and His Church as a woman clothed -with the sun, Christ had surely the choicest of women, -Mary, in His heart.”</p> - -<p>“And the Heart of Heaven might well lovingly remember -the mystical Rose,” quoth the knight.</p> - -<p>“As heaven loved Mary, so should noble men love -‘bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh,’ <i>as Christ -loved the Church and gave Himself for it</i>.”</p> - -<p>“Thou wert never wed, good priest?”</p> - -<p>“No; perhaps ’tis well so. I’ve had a work in helping -those who were wed unhappily, to peace; forgetting, -in serving their need, my own joy.”</p> - -<p>“Then thou hast no idea of what it is to deal with -a Rizpah as a wife.”</p> - -<p>“I know she’s a woman; a marvel in her fidelity to -her children. She may have infirmities, but there was -a woman, bowed grievously for eighteen years, fully restored -by one kind touch of the man, Jesus, ever all-pitiful -and tender toward women.”</p> - -<p>“But that one was willing to be healed.”</p> - -<p>“No; she was trying to hide, but the Savior called -her out, just to heal her.”</p> - -<p>“Now, then, let me cross swords at close quarters, -since thou dost press me. I ask thee, as a Christian -priest, wouldst thou have me tolerate the sins of -heresy in my own home? Remember, Jezebel, she beguiled -Ahab, her daughter, Athaliah, and her husband, -Jehoram, also, into gravest transgressions. So -God’s people were led, little by little, to the groves of -Astarte. I think I’ve a good parallel: Jezebel was the -daughter of a priest, so this Rizpah of Bozrah. With -her hot temper, pride of exalted birth, and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span> -mouthful of arguments; a man meets such a woman -as a pigmy, to crouch, or as a knight, to resist.”</p> - -<p>“The name Jezebel means ‘chaste.’ Her pious -namers must have respected chastity once. Her practices -were all loyalty to Ahab and her children, though -her theories may have been odious. All that is recorded -of them, which engenders hate for her memory, -is the hatefulness of the way she pressed her -creeds upon others, the Jews. Which the more like -Jezebel—Sir Charleroy or Rizpah?”</p> - -<p>“But Rizpah was ardent to lay our love, and our -children on her altar. Like the women who brought -their jewels to Aaron to be transmuted into the golden -calf! I could only protest, and I did.”</p> - -<p>“Did not the men of Egypt and Israel first proclaim -the worship of Apis? Were not the women merely -following their lords? There are many women who -defile their jewels because, with contempts that turn -their hearts to ashes, their lords do not, as they -should, wear both the wives and the jewels on strong -and loyal hearts.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I perceive! Rizpah has been parading to thee -her family troubles. A true woman would have rather -given herself to nest-hiding.”</p> - -<p>“Thou hast not hidden thy nest, but, like a wandering -bird, fled it.”</p> - -<p>“She never asked my aid; she left me in London.”</p> - -<p>The knight was charging blindly, and defeated.</p> - -<p>“It was not for her to crave, but for thee to lavishly -bestow. She left thee? What better could Abigail have -done than turn her beautiful countenance and good understanding -away from churlish Nabal, who lived chiefly -to gloat about the cross on which he had placed her?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Does the sacrist advocate divorce?”</p> - -<p>“No! No rupture of the tie sealed in heaven; but -when by recriminations a home becomes a living -burial, a hell, then two houses are better than one. I -feel here keenly, knight. My mother had a monstrous -man, my father, in wedlock. He left her to battle -single-handed for her little ones. Her patient, sad -face comes ever before me. Oh, how she eschewed all -other men, though courted by worthier than he; how -she strove to hide my father’s faults and taught us, his -children, to try to respect him! I was but a youth -when he died, but I tell thee I dared not look upon his -coffined face lest I should curse him, then and there!”</p> - -<p>The knight cowered as if from a malediction.</p> - -<p>“There, there! for heaven’s sake pause, Sacrist! -Abashed at home, lashed by the teacher of the faith -I’ve suffered to defend, I’ll be driven to flee to the -wandering Bedouin, or to death!”</p> - -<p>“They say Lucifer, unable to commit suicide, plunges -headlong into the abyss when thwarted in any design.”</p> - -<p>“Call me Lucifer; another epithet!”</p> - -<p>“There are no black gulfs into which thou canst flee -from the memories which conscience points to when -duty is contemned.”</p> - -<p>“Is it the priest’s purpose to harass my soul?”</p> - -<p>“No; but rather to lead it back to its peace that -thou didst leave long ago. There is only one way of return, -that a very <i>Via Dolorosa</i>. Mary along it walked -with her son, her God and Savior, to the cross and the -resurrection! By the cross God gives, we go to our -glory.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve tried my best to be a loyal, Christian knight. -Give me, at least, that award.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I can not praise justly; I dare not flatter; I must -in all faithfulness say thou hast yet to learn the alphabet -of loyalty, as interpreted by that glorious pair, -Mary and the Christ—the triumphant Eve, the triumphant -Adam. Thou hast been following afar off, -nearer the flickering of Judas’ illusive lantern than to -Him who pleaded amid His griefs, all self-forgetting, -with His Roman guards to let His little band of followers -depart unharmed. The woman whom thou exaltest -as the queen of hearts is, after all, not thy -pattern. Judas and Mary are in lasting contrast; he -all treason, she fidelity’s choicest fruit. It is well -to see to it to which one is the nearer. Oh, Gethsemane, -garden of touching contrasts! There love -was most grossly interpreted by the shrines of <i>Baaltis</i>; -there most grandly interpreted by love’s sublimest -offering that night the Saviour agonized. There -twice the enemy of man did his almost worst; once -by the rites of the groves, once in the wracking temptations -of the Man of Sorrows. The arch-fiend was -baffled, and then the ingenuity of hell was taxed to -one last, most terrific and dastardly assault. What -thinkest thou was the climax? The last effort to blot -out the hope of man was made through betrayal by a -kiss; the finest sign of affection befouled by treason! -When the wedded betray each other, alas, for the -world!”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy surrendered now, exclaiming:</p> - -<p>“Oh, Father Adolphus; again I see there is a mist -on my knightly cross! I’m unworthy to wear the sign. -It has been an emblem of death; I see it now an emblem -of life and love.”</p> - -<p>“Will the knight look on the dead faces of his sons?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Yes, yes! In the name of God, yes! Lead me as -a child, for I’m nothing more.”</p> - -<p>The knight was in the throes of transformation. -He and the priest walked side by side, mostly in -silence, broken anon, only by questions of Sir Charleroy’s, -like these:</p> - -<p>“Am I worth saving? Shall I ever become able to -fully sound and truly express, in life, the depths of all -thou hast told me? And Rizpah! what will Rizpah -say or do?”</p> - -<p>The old priest answered ever:</p> - -<p>“‘Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the -dead, and Christ Himself shall give thee light!’”</p> - -<p>The lone burial cave was reached. Nigh the two -biers stood Rizpah and Miriamne and but a little way -off Sir Charleroy and the priest. The maiden, with -surprised joy, saw the two men, but Rizpah, busy with -her thoughts, never lifted her eyes. The latter drew a -slab away from the entrance of the tomb and then -moaned: “Better I’d never been a mother.”</p> - -<p>Father Adolphus seized the opportunity to say in -deep, entreating tones:</p> - -<p>“‘I will ransom them from the power of the grave: -I will redeem them from death.’”</p> - -<p>The mother supposing it was some kindly neighbor, -still unnoticing any thing but the speaker’s voice, -moaned on, sitting nigh the tomb-door, between the -dead, a hand on each.</p> - -<p>Then the old shepherd drew nearer, saying:</p> - -<p>“Sisters of Israel, only believe. Beyond this stony -gate there is an eternal home fairer than any dream. -There all broken homes shall rise in joy, their treasures -reunited and happy.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span></p> - -<p>Now Rizpah rose, and observing the speaker silently -for a moment, she did not seem offended at the priest’s -presence. Misery had overcome, at least for the time, -her prejudice. Presently she exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“My family reunited in heaven? Ah! that can not -be, and if it were so, what joy to ever repeat the bickering, -blamings and wrongs of this poor miserable life?”</p> - -<p>“Thou wilt know as thou art known there and see -eye to eye,” said the missioner.</p> - -<p>“Oh, if it could be only so!”</p> - -<p>“Wouldst like it so?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, by the grave of my darlings, I swear it! I -loved them with my life madly. All the love I had -was concentrated in them. I knew when I began idolizing -them that I had loved before full well my husband -and daughter. I knew this, because the love I -withdrew from them rushed forth to the boys. But my -idols are dead, and now if my love do not dry up, -it will hunger, feed on me myself, then turn to ferocity -wolf-like.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps a husband restored may fill and enlarge -thy heart. There never was a great sorrow but there -stood near it a great joy,” spoke the priest.</p> - -<p>“Ah, he is stubborn, I, perhaps, proud. Immensity -is between me and Sir Charleroy.”</p> - -<p>“Hast thou not yet had enough of pride’s dead sea -apples?”</p> - -<p>“Alas! why ask me?”</p> - -<p>“If thou art ready for a better day, he may be.”</p> - -<p>“Ready? I’ve always been. What I did for conscience -sake and these children is done. What he did -to me he only can undo, as far as the past can be -undone.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span></p> - -<p>Then Miriamne waved her hand to her father, unseen -by Rizpah, entreatingly, as if to say: “Come, but -not too quickly, a little nearer.”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy complied and not as a laggard, for Rizpah -seemed changed from what she was in London. -He now saw her as in those golden early days at Gerash. -But the truth was, the change was chiefly in himself.</p> - -<p>“Rizpah!”</p> - -<p>“Sir Charleroy de Griffin!” replied the woman addressed -deliberately, and apparently emotionlessly, as -she fixed her eyes upon the knight. Then her eyes -turned toward the tomb, seemingly inviting his to follow -there their course. She stepped back and glanced -from man to tomb, by the glance saying more plainly -than words:</p> - -<p>“That is thy work. Thou didst open that grave in -my pathway.”</p> - -<p>The knight stood by her side and put forth his hand -to clasp hers, but with a respectfulness that betokened -the cavalier and one not quite certain of his welcome.</p> - -<p>Then spake Father Adolphus:</p> - -<p>“Remember Damascus, both of you. Come, Miriamne,” -he continued, drawing the maiden aside, “I’ve -a giant’s grave to show thee.”</p> - -<p>The priest and the maiden moved to a turn in the -road and passed behind the crumbled wall of a Roman -palace.</p> - -<p>“But, Father Adolphus, where now? What of the -giant’s grave?”</p> - -<p>“Be content, girl. I mean the grave of mad love -grown to mad hate. It will be made and deep enough -by thy parents, but they can best make it alone.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span></p> - -<p>And Miriamne fell upon her knees in silent, grateful -prayer; a great burden that had borne her down for -years seemed lifted from off her. The Miserere that -had wailed through her life so long now changed to an -Easter anthem.</p> - -<p>Father Adolphus after a time recalled her by a single -question:</p> - -<p>“Dost see the fierce woman and the vultures fleeing -away before the coming of our Christian Mother of -Sorrows?”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE ROSE, QUEEN OF HEARTS IN THE GIANT CITY</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Around thy starry crown are wreathed</div> -<div class="verse indent1">So many names divine!</div> -<div class="verse">Which is the dearest to my heart</div> -<div class="verse indent1">And the most worthy thine?”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">...</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“‘<i>Mother of sorrows</i>,’ many a heart,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Half broken by despair,</div> -<div class="verse">Hath laid its burden by the cross,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">And found a mother there.</div> -<div class="verse">‘<i>Mary</i>,’ the dearest name of all,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">The holiest and the best,</div> -<div class="verse">The first low word that Jesus lisped</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Laid on His mother’s breast.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">A. A. Proctor.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">There had come a great change to the home -of the De Griffins at Bozrah, without and -within. Shrubs and vines grew about the -old stone house in profusion, birds sang -contentedly at its casements, and kittens, undisturbed, -played around its doors. These were tokens of the new -inner life.</p> - -<p>The queen of that domestic palace was happy; its -king restored to his rights and duties; therefore there -was abounding delight and peace within and without. -Sir Charleroy and Rizpah, the two mature wed-lovers -that abode there, had, out of all their estrangements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span> -and tribulations, come to understand at last that love -grows out of law and is more than a sentiment, free to -go when lured or flee from that which burdens. It was -to them like a revelation from heaven to find that love -is the vassal of the will and can be made to go where -it ought, as well as be reined back from lawless rovings. -They found there was great satisfaction in their efforts -to be very agreeable to each other. Sir Charleroy constantly -assured Rizpah of his belief that they were now -more really lovers than they had been in those fervent -days at Gerash. She believed this new creed with the -avidity of a heart sore with long waitings for its proclaiming.</p> - -<p>The knight bethought himself of a graceful advance, -and introduced the matter with a sort of parable. “I’ve -been thinking to-day that the only man whom I ever -felt like kissing, the man who loved me to the full of -his great heart, is present with us in spirit these days -to joy over our reconciliation. I’ve felt a strange thrill -at times which made me think I was touched by the -glowing heart of Ichabod.”</p> - -<p>“Ichabod?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; he that fell in our defense the day of that -perilous battle with those Mamelukes, near Gerash. -Ah, he had the heart of a mastiff, the soul of a -martyr!”</p> - -<p>“Thy love is constant. But what’s in thy hand?”</p> - -<p>The knight had hoped for the question.</p> - -<p>“A token I took from his corpse. It was given him -by a Copt priest, whose life he saved in Egypt. See.”</p> - -<p>“I see a stone in a gold setting; on the stone an -image, I think of a woman? I’ve noticed it with thee -before.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I knew it! Once I thought thou didst observe it -askance, as if a trifle jealous. Well, no more secrets, -no more jealousies. What says Rizpah?”</p> - -<p>“I say amen; and yet I say tell all, or none; either -way I shall be content. Love’s trust, when full, has -few questions and no doubts.”</p> - -<p>“Nobly spoken, but yet I must tell all. The image -is of <i>Neb-ta</i>, from the country of Hamites.”</p> - -<p>“What an odd figure! Her head-dress, a basket!”</p> - -<p>“The basket on her head and the little house by her -side betoken that she was the presiding spirit of domestic -life. I love Neb-ta! She ever reminds me of -woman at her best, as a mother brooding her chicks.”</p> - -<p>“Praise be the Patriarchs; they left us testimonies -which makes it needless to go to Egypt for precepts -concerning home-love!” responded the wife.</p> - -<p>“But, Rizpah, thou dost divert me! Wait; I’m -coming around with the patriarchs, by way of Jerusalem, -to Bozrah.”</p> - -<p>“Now, that’s a fine parade; I await it,” the woman, -with quick reply, answered.</p> - -<p>“Tradition says this Neb-ta will stand before Osiris -and Isis in the judgment ‘hall of truth,’ where another -deity styled ‘divine wisdom’ opens the books of men’s -earthly deeds. As the great Anubis weighs them, -Neb-ta stands by ready to cut away the failings of -those weighed. When the scale of their merit is lacking, -she herself leaps into it, to weigh it down in their -behalf.”</p> - -<p>“A pretty myth for grim old Nile Land!”</p> - -<p>“It proves man’s belief that at last he’ll need help.”</p> - -<p>“It is strange those women degraders should have -allotted one of that sex so fine a part in the hereafter.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span></p> - -<p>“It illustrates the constant conviction in men’s hearts -that woman’s sympathy abides to the last.”</p> - -<p>“In some men’s hearts, say. All are not equally -just.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll be direct, Rizpah, and sincere. I’ve felt an indescribable -unworthiness of all I enjoy here in the house -saved and brightened by my wife. I’ve been saying, -‘Oh, that some one like Neb-ta would cut off my failings -and enrich my merit.’”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy, after this long journey around about, -felt relieved. He had made his confession and waited -his absolution.</p> - -<p>Rizpah’s eyes brightened up, and, though bedewed, -shone with the luster of gleaming affection.</p> - -<p>He knew full well how to interpret that look, and -evinced the quality of the interpretation by quickly -embracing her. There passed between them salutations -having the purity of manna, the lusciousness of -Escol’s grapes.</p> - -<p>“Will Sir Charleroy need to go to Egypt for a -Neb-ta?”</p> - -<p>“No, never, while I’ve an all-forgiving, all-blessing -Rizpah!”</p> - -<p>Encouraged by the success attending one simile, he -attempted another later:</p> - -<p>“I was thinking,” tenderly replied the knight, “that -I’ve sinned against God in the name of religion, and -unconsciously offered ‘the female lamb.’”</p> - -<p>“Pardon my stupidity, but yet I do not gather what -is thy meaning.”</p> - -<p>“My Rizpah has been sacrificed for years.”</p> - -<p>The wife tried to reply, “I’m no lamb without -blemish;” but her tears and his passionate embrace,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span> -checked her utterance. To those without, there is -much incomprehensible in the estrangements and reconciliations -of human pairs, made utterly one in wedlock. -If, since the Incarnate died for love, and the -Temple’s veil was rent, there has been on earth an unrevealed -Holiest of Holy places, it has been where wed -lives, alienated, have been reunited. It is like a sacrilege -to attempt its depicting to stranger eyes or ears. -Many, for themselves, have been within that holy place; -each twain meeting its own peculiar and varied experiences. -But, having come forth with a natural and -most meritorious reverence for the events of such supreme -hours, they are wont to withdraw from human -curiosity all that transpired, as completely as they hide -from the world their souls’ dealings with God. They -who have never been within that Holy Place, can not -understand about what there transpires; those that -have been there, defend their sacred right to keep from -all the world that which they saw and felt, by refusing -to give audience to the experiences of others.</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy and Rizpah, at the time of the foregoing -conversation, entered serenely, lovingly that Holy -Place. Then they took, as it were, wings of memory -and shields of faith. The grim giant house was forgotten. -Its walls seemed to thin away, until they had to -themselves a broad, but secluded world. There was -light, but not exposure; repentance, mutual, and forgiveness, -not only free, but in every syllable seeming to -have balm for healing. There followed an unutterable -sense of getting nearer and nearer to each other. They -felt as if they had but one will, and that guided by -God; one mind, and that clear and heaven soaring. -The only sense of being two, was in their beating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span> -hearts, and then two hearts seemed more blessed than -one; for being two, there was the joy of their beatings -for and against each other. Words fail; it would be -sacrilege to go further. Let the curtain drop. Leave -them with a thousand angels, winged and liveried in -white, with wands of silence to keep watch and ward -until morning!</p> - -<p>On the morrow they knew that both had surrendered -and both conquered. And by a paradox, to -those uninitiated, each rejoiced as much in the surrender -each had made, as in the victory which had -been won by the one defeated. Defeat and victory -was their common wealth. There was a full community -between them, and that made both rich, -whatever their possessings. Thenceforward, between -them, there was perfect frankness and consideration; -no sarcasms, no recriminations, and hence no need -of foils nor masks. Christ had captured the Crusader’s -heart, and he was now, as never before, able to reveal -the King of his soul to Rizpah. She moved unconsciously -into a beauty of character like unto that of -Mary, and her heart began singing a ‘Magnificat.’ -The woman was transformed, if possible, more completely -than the man. For years amid hurtings she -had schooled herself to reticence, and had been an -enigma to all who knew her; but now, under the -rising of this new sun, she opened as the blossom of -early spring. Sir Charleroy, indeed all who knew -her, attested delight and surprise; but Rizpah was -as much surprised at herself as any other could be -at her.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t know I could,” she exclaimed often with -laughter and tears. She seemed to break away and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span> -run from her former self as one from some phantom, -as a child from a reputed witch, or a freed -bird from a prisoning cage. She saw herself growing -in all these things every moment and exclaimed, -in the rush of feeling; “I could fly, I’m sure!” Then -tenderly, “I would not, my mate, for a thousand worlds, -unless thou couldst fly with me. No, no, Charleroy, watch -my wings; they are thine; cut them if they grow or -flutter for rising. If they do, they’ll do it themselves, -without my willing.” Again the sacredness of the -holiest came over them.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Rizpah, I know, I knew this wealth of love -was in thee; I’ve wondered often why I could not find -it.”</p> - -<p>“I did not know it, my lover king; I’m glad thou -hast found it, for thy finding feeds me with light and -glory! I’m carried back to Gerash and Damascus.”</p> - -<p>“I think not. There were flaming swords at Eden’s -Gate, after the fall. No going back; but the swords -gave light for departure into broader places. I think -that’s the symbol of the sword and the flame, Rizpah.” -Again he spoke: “Hadrian built a temple of Venus -over the tomb of Christ, but Hadrian and Venus are -no more in power and there has been a resurrection -from that tomb.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, Sir Charleroy, I’m a child in thy creed, but I’m -comforted by thy resurrection hopes, especially since -conversing yesterday more freely than ever with our -lovely child of God, Miriamne.”</p> - -<p>“Hers is an angel’s visit, wife.”</p> - -<p>“And angel-like, with filial spirit, she comes, this -time, with request for our consent to an act of great -import to her.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span></p> - -<p>“So; and what may it be? Though I know it can -only be good.”</p> - -<p>“She came to tell us, that she desires publicly to -profess the religion of the Naz——of Jesus.”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy felt a twinge of an old pain, and for a -moment queried within: “Will the old struggle over -faiths again confront us?” But he dismissed it with -an unexpressed “Impossible, we’re all changed!” Then -replied he quietly with a question. “Does the dear -girl fully understand the seriousness of the act? If she -do and then acts, I’ll be glad to commit her to Christ -as her Bridegroom and King.”</p> - -<p>“We cannot be with her always, and she seems determined -to go through life unwed.”</p> - -<p>“A Neb-ta, an angel spinster, mothering other people’s -chicks! But what says my Rizpah of our daughter’s -purpose to profess her faith?”</p> - -<p>“I? This: God being my Helper, I’ll never again -stand between Him and any soul, except it be to pray -for that soul’s health.”</p> - -<p>Just then the maiden entered bearing a lamp which -suddenly lighted the room, now well nigh in darkness. -She presented a most striking and suggestive figure. -Her eyes were full of her heart’s chief question, and, -standing in the light of her own bearing, she seemed -to fitly represent the part she had borne in that household.</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy, anticipating his daughter’s question, -greeted her with promptness thus: “Sunshine, thy -purpose I know. It’s all between God and thyself. -Go gladden Father Adolphus and Cornelius with an -early profession.”</p> - -<p>She was filled with surprise, and voiced its chief cause:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Cornelius? He’s at Jerusalem!”</p> - -<p>“Well, if so, ’tis wonderful, since I met him here -to-day.”</p> - -<p>“I wonder,” she meditated, meanwhile speaking her -thoughts as if unconscious of those about her, “What -brought him here?”</p> - -<p>“Oh,” replied the father, “he says ‘to see Father -Adolphus about the church of Jerusalem;’ but Father -Adolphus says ‘the young man came because he could -not help it, to see his good angel.’”</p> - -<p>“‘His good angel!’ Whom?”</p> - -<p>“Now, Sunrise, guess! When thou dost so, to make -short work, begin with the good angel of us all, Miriamne.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne lifted her hand reprovingly, but the tell-tale -crimson hung confession on her cheeks, while her -lips, wreathed in smiles, told her pleasure.</p> - -<p>“Well, now, will my father go with me to good -Adolphus about my profession?”</p> - -<p>“As thou mayst like, but it will be easier to reduce -three to two than four to two!”</p> - -<p>Again the uplifted, reproving hand and the blush -and Miriamne ran out.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>“Do not reöpen that question settled once; it can -only pain us both to recur to it.”</p> - -<p>“‘Reöpened!’ ‘Settled!’” exclaimed Cornelius. -“Not with me. Nothing in silence can settle it; and it -is always open to me, sleeping or waking.”</p> - -<p>“The consciousness of duty done comes like the -breezes of Galilee, turning all moanings to a song within -me.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Oh, Miriamne, who is it decrees that we, belonging, -all, each, to the other, should be torn asunder ruthlessly? -Duty, conscience! Hard metallic words when they -describe the links of a chain! Ah, our misconceptions -often bind us to pain; this one I cannot bear!”</p> - -<p>“And yet, Cornelius, you told me in that Adriatic -storm you could as easily drown a passion rising -against righteousness as you could drown the body -then, by a plunge into the billows!”</p> - -<p>“You held me back when I moved forward to show -how easily I could make the plunge.”</p> - -<p>“But then you had no intention of leaping to -death!”</p> - -<p>“Not while held back by Miriamne!”</p> - -<p>“I? Poor, weak I, hold you?”</p> - -<p>“To me your touch has ever had persuasion and -might! Oh, woman, you lead me captive to your will -in chains riveted, unyielding, and yet of golden delights.”</p> - -<p>“Say not so. We have each a great mission, but apart.”</p> - -<p>“Apart! The decree that settles our courses that -way is monstrous. It is not of God. He ordained -that our race go in pairs. And when He set up the -new kingdom of Jesus, its heralding disciples were sent -forth two by two. As Moses needed his Hobab, Christ -his confidants, so need I a yoke-fellow. I’ve no ambition -to live, much less to work, unless I have my heart’s -idol with me.”</p> - -<p>“Illusion.”</p> - -<p>“Call it ‘<i>Maya</i>’ if you like; but ‘<i>Maya</i>,’ Brahm’s -wife, illusion, made the universe visible to him. So -say those ancient mythologians. I can see nothing -without my Miriamne!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Oh, man, hold; nor pain me further! I cannot -help you. How can I, since my own chosen work -seems too great for me! I’m like a mere shell, drifting -with the tides, without sail or helm; the harbor unknown. -I only know I carry a precious pearl, truth, -and that there are those who need it. I must bear it -to them.”</p> - -<p>“I’m a shell, without helm or sail, and have the same -pearl. Let me voyage with you.”</p> - -<p>“And—what?”</p> - -<p>“In all brevity—marry me!”</p> - -<p>“That cannot be, I fear. I’d rather be the——. Can’t -I be your ideal as Mary?” She blundered amid -her efforts to express herself, and the tell-tale blush -betokened defeat.</p> - -<p>“Yes; be my Mary, and let me take the place as -your Joseph. Mary was a wife and mother. The -greatest of God’s works in the old dispensation was to -translate men; in the new dispensation, seeking to surpass -the old, He presented a perfect woman, in her -highest estate, as the queen of a home!”</p> - -<p>The woman was silent for time. There then seemed -to her to be two Miriamnes, and the debate was transferred -from being between the young man and herself -to these two which she seemed to be. One Miriamne -said “Yield,” one “Be firm.” One said, “He has the -better reasons,” one said “Nay;” one said, “It is pleasant -to be overcome,” the other said “<i>Maya, Maya, -Maya!</i>” Then recovering herself she exclaimed, “I -wish the priest were here; he’d guide us by the Divine -word.”</p> - -<p>“I have a holy text,” and drawing a line at a venture, -the youth repeated these words:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span></p> - -<p>“‘<i>God said it is not good that man should be alone!</i>’”</p> - -<p>She smiled and stammered:</p> - -<p>“Oh, Cornelius! I want to admire you and lean on -you as my guide, teacher, pastor; but you meet all my -approaches that way, transformed to a lover.”</p> - -<p>“<i>Maya! Maya!</i> Miriamne; let the illusion work; -sleep the Leathen sleep; yield to love’s dream; then -comes the full noon to awaken to marriage joy. Thou -wilt find, not above thee but at thy side, then, the -teacher, guide; shepherd as well; but also the husband.”</p> - -<p>Miriamne had reached a point of hesitancy, which is, -in all lives, just a step from surrender, and the lover, -made alert by his ardor, perceived the advantage. -Though a prey to hopes and fears, an incarnation of -paradoxes, in which bashfulness contested with audacity -for control of the will, he gathered all his powers -into a grand charge. With a tender vehemence he -stormed the citadel of the heart before him. First he -imprisoned her hand in his; he had done so before. -Now it fluttered strangely; presently it rested as a -bird; at first as if frightened, then helpless, then content. -All that followed may be easily imagined. Suffice -to say that Cornelius Woelfkin just then believed -life worth living and the universe made visible, though -not by an illusion.</p> - -<p>Just as many another of Eve’s daughters placed as -she in a tempest of delights, she confessed her capitulation -by a series of retorts, which gave her relief from -tears by affording apologies for laughter.</p> - -<p>“No woman ever so loved as I now? You men all -talk that way at betrothal!”</p> - -<p>“‘To death!’ Miriamne, ’twill be true with me.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, at betrothal and when their wives are dead,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span> -they say men are very affectionate. But, Cornelius, -remember I’ll expect sweets between times. Do not -love me to death at first, vex me to death later, then -go mad for love’s sake after I’m gone!”</p> - -<p>He vowed, protested and assured; she believed him -without the shadow of a doubt. They were irrevocably -committed to each other now. There was a rush of -thoughts, plannings, questionings and hopes. Two -lives apart converging, becoming mysteriously one. -Over them arose that wondrous sun which illumines -some betrothal days. They were both very happy, -very proud, and also each to the other very beautiful. -The harmless conceits of love possessed them and they -persuaded themselves easily that they were at the center -of all things, even of the infinite love of God. The -glow of their own hearts brightened to them all things -immediately about them, and they entered that arcana -of delights where secret blessings may be experienced -but can not be depicted. They ate of that hidden -manna which is reserved alone for those who sincerely -love and are loved. No being ever loved as they, who -afterward despised or regretted the enchantment, although -it brought some pain or at the last ended in -disappointment. None ever having been for a season -in that Beulah-Land but wishes himself there again. -None who comprehends the thrillings of lover days -can fail to envy more or less, if they are loveless, those -who are in love as these twain were.</p> - -<p>Much of the ridiculing of this grand passion, affected -by some, is after all the result of envy, secretly longing -for that beyond its reach. Sometimes the enraptured -themselves attempt this deriding, but theirs is an -hysterical laughter, a feeble effort to rest from the intensity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span> -of their rapture or to hide their secret from -others. The laughter of all such as the foregoing is -hollow and eventually turns the shame back upon the -ridiculers who would cover others with it; for love, -while it is an angel of sunshine, has also the power of -carrying to every heart which shamefully entreats it -remorse, humiliation and pains as numberless as -nameless.</p> - -<p>Cornelius and Miriamne, the young reformers, having -embarked fully upon the full, glowing, exalting, -triumphant tide of their love were themselves reformed -and transformed. A while ago each was willing to die -for the world, now each was willing to die, if need be, -for the other and not for humanity’s sake, unless some -way the heart’s idol was to be part of the reward of -that sacrifice. This new tide carried them quickly to -that place of paradoxical oscillations, the place where -the lover is one moment utterly self-denying, the next -utterly grasping; willing to be annihilated one instant -in behalf of another, and then in an avariciousness -without a parallel on earth, the next moment willing -to annihilate the universe rather than be bereft of the -one object deemed above all others.</p> - -<p>The young lovers passed through the usual, often -experienced, often depicted, old, old, ever new phases -of this relation. The fire kindled in their hearts sped -from center to center of their beings, the laughter of -secret joy quivered along every nerve of each. Each -was happier than it was possible to tell, even that other -one that awakened the joy. Their gait, their blushing -cheeks, their flashing eyes, and their words proclaimed -unmistakable the complete coronation of love. They -believed, and perhaps properly, that they were enjoying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span> -the seraphic, exuberant, mellow, yet exciting delights -of an hundred ordinary lives merged into one. -Each in turn, over and over, in repetitions that tired -neither to utter nor to hear, said to the other: “I love -you.” A rain of impassioned kisses made reply. Time -was not observed; they forgot their former hurry, that -pushed them earnestly, ever toward duty, when they -were committed to being reformers. They were only -and completely lovers now, and lovers are beings whose -existence is in a heaven where there are no clocks. -The sun set over Bozrah while the twain communed, -but there was so much light in their hearts they did -not observe the lull of night around them. Existence -seemed to them a living fullness, a soaring upward without -friction or effort, and they incarnated that which -at last makes heaven, perfect desire perfectly satisfied. -They were presently recalled to the things outside of -themselves by the sound of some one approaching.</p> - -<p>“It’s Father Adolphus. I know his step,” remarked -Miriamne.</p> - -<p>Cornelius, remembering his recent, successful assault, -was encouraged to attempt another. His heart whispered -to him: “Why not make this matter final now?” -His heart seemed to grow pale and trembled at its own -whispering, until he himself grew pale and trembled -throughout his whole being, at the audacity of the -thought. But love’s suggestions are ever very domineering; -this one dominated the man instantly, and he -acted on it.</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, why not permit Father Adolphus now -to seal our betrothal with his blessing?”</p> - -<p>“He will bless us, I know,” quoth the maiden, evasively; -but she knew what her lover meant full well.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span> -Not only so, her heart, against her judgment, was -siding for the blessing.</p> - -<p>The youth felt certain he had carried one line of defense, -and now went charging onward, determined to -carry all before him.</p> - -<p>“Yes; he will bless us, I know, if we ask him. I’ll -ask him, and then, Miriamne, mine, I’ll call thee no -more sister, but wife.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, you are in such a hurry! This is all too sudden. -I—only wanted to be engaged—not married, -perhaps, for years. We could work for the Master—”</p> - -<p>She was interrupted, as victorious lovers usually interrupt.</p> - -<p>Just then the priest entered. Miriamne tried to -greet him with a smile and a sentence, but she was under -a spell. She seemed to herself to be a different -woman than she was when he last met her guide. She -spoke a few meaningless words, which were lost in the -vigorous utterance of her companion, as he explained -the betrothal and requested its ratification.</p> - -<p>The aged man of God looked tenderly down on -both, and then questioned:</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, I know his heart toward thee; is thine -resting on his?”</p> - -<p>The maiden drooped her eye-lids, but the tell-tale -blush on her cheek gave answer.</p> - -<p>“Shall I commit you to each other before God, forever!”</p> - -<p>Her hand rose in an effort to restrain, but it fell back -into her lap, as if unwilling to do so.</p> - -<p>“Bless us quickly, good father, I pray you,” spoke -Cornelius.</p> - -<p>“Clasp four hands crossed,” said the priest.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></span></p> - -<p>The maiden’s hands joined those of the young man, -and yet one drew back a little, as if to say, Wait. -The motion was slight; then she found voice.</p> - -<p>“But, Father Adolphus, do you think God will condemn, -if we do?”</p> - -<p>“God made such as ye are to love each other. What -says thy conscience? Speak frankly now, girl; thou art -with those that care for thee with an eternal regard.”</p> - -<p>“My conscience does not condemn, and I commit -all I am to the guidance of you two men. I feel -quiet and safe in the committal.”</p> - -<p>And the solemn sealing words were soon spoken.</p> - -<p>“Shall I pronounce you husband and wife?” questioned -the priest.</p> - -<p>Cornelius, like a knight in full charge desirous of -taking all before him as trophy, exclaimed quickly, -confidently: “Yes, yes, all!”</p> - -<p>Then Miriamne recovered herself in the emergency, -and with maidenly dignity and tenderness, yet with -unalterable firmness, said: “Nay.”</p> - -<p>“But, Miriamne—”</p> - -<p>The youth could proceed no further. He was defeated -by the glance that met his, filled with pious, -kindly, yet firm dissent. She spoke then freely.</p> - -<p>“Before God we are affianced; the first step, as an -Israelite, I’ve taken. We are now bound to each -other forever. I am proud to wear the yoke of betrothal. -We must wait before the final words are -spoken, until we’ve seen my parents, and until God -has given us further wisdom.”</p> - -<p>She prevailed. Shortly after the foregoing, Cornelius, -taking a tender farewell, returned to his work at -Jerusalem.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[484]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE QUEEN AND THE GRAIL SEEKERS.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“My good blade carves the casques of men;</div> -<div class="verse indent1">My tough lance thrusteth sure,</div> -<div class="verse">My strength is as the strength of ten,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Because my heart is pure.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Sometimes on lonely mountain meres;</div> -<div class="verse indent1">I find a magic bark,</div> -<div class="verse">I leap on board, no helmsman steers,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">I float ’till all is dark.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">A gentle sound, an awful light!</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Three angels bear the Holy Grail,</div> -<div class="verse">With folded feet, in stoles of white,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">On sleeping wings they sail.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">So pass I hostel, hall and grange;</div> -<div class="verse indent1">By hedge, and fort, by park and pale,</div> -<div class="verse">All armed I ride, what e’er betide,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Until I find the Holy Grail.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Tennyson.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Moreover certain women of our company amazed us, having -been early at the tomb.”</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-a.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Another Easter, to some the brightest yet, -smiled in Bozrah, and Miriamne was at the -Christian Chapel.</p> - -<p>Father Adolphus, after serious, tender -greeting, questioned:</p> - -<p>“I wonder thy father came not to-day?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, he’s celebrating the resurrection of love, joy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span> -and peace, at home. You often told me these were -the realities of Christ’s rising.”</p> - -<p>“Thy joy in this must reach all fullness?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know, I’m in a strange way—very happy, -yet very restless.”</p> - -<p>“I have seen souls before at their noon; hast thou -not observed how the air seems to tremble sometimes -at midday? This is not fear but fullness.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, my shepherd, I’m not at noon yet, only dawn. -I’ve only begun my work.”</p> - -<p>“Has our missionary Cupid other couples at odds to -reunite?”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps so; but whether God calls me to such -work or not, this much I know, He has put a burden -on me.”</p> - -<p>“Will Miriamne confide it to me—or has the lover -dethroned the priest?”</p> - -<p>“There now, never say that again! None on earth -can dethrone in my heart my constant friend and -guide; yea under God, my savior! Had there been -no Father Adolphus there would have been no lover; -at least no Christian Cornelius, as my heart’s lord.”</p> - -<p>“I fear Miriamne in her generous desire to cheer a -tired old man flatters.”</p> - -<p>“No; not flattery, but just award. As the ancient -captives on their return to their own Israel gave their -wealth to provide crowns for their priests, so do I to-day -offer the finest gold of my heart to the man who -piloted me with purity, patience, and wisdom, along -and over perilous ways, to happiness beyond all words -to express.”</p> - -<p>The old missionary’s face expressed the wondrous -comfort he felt in the words of his convert.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And what is it that burdens thee, daughter?”</p> - -<p>“I hope my pastor will not be offended, but I’m -burdened by the slow dawning of religious day. Why -does it take so long to convert the earth?”</p> - -<p>“The zeal of the young convert fills thee!”</p> - -<p>“Ah, but that trite answer, defense of the slow progress -of true or false creed, after all does not answer. -I feel those Easter services at times lifting me up, out -of and beyond myself, out of all thought of my own -final glory, and to anxiety for a lost Israel, a lost world! -I think, at times, I comprehend what was meant by -the descent to the grave, the captivity of death, the -triumphal ascent, and then I wonder and doubt.”</p> - -<p>“Wonder and doubt?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; I wonder at the grandeur of all that the -resurrection implies, and seeing it unrealized I doubt -whether my interpretation of it be the right one. -Worse than that, I’m pained by darker doubts. Forgive -me, but my poor soul sometimes questions -whether or not God has grown weary or failed to keep -His promises. Oh, these doubts pain me to my heart’s -core, but they will come! I see day by day on every -hand such widespread gloom; not only that very few -walk in the light, but how many shadows fall on those -who profess to have entered the light of the Rising?”</p> - -<p>“Alas, day drags wearily!” slowly responded the -priest.</p> - -<p>“Yes; the centuries since Calvary, filled with misery, -ignorance, and sin, seem to me to have rebuke in them -to all who saw, from time to time, the Gospel light, and -imperious urgency for those who see it now.”</p> - -<p>“But the church is doing its best to get onward, -Miriamne.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span></p> - -<p>“That I doubt, though I’d fear to be heretical.”</p> - -<p>“Again, I do not comprehend thee, girl.”</p> - -<p>“That’s it; I do not comprehend myself, or what it -is that I’m stirred to be or do. I think that there’s -a reason for sadness at Easter time. It is the reminder -of a great hope unfulfilled. Over twelve hundred -years have passed away since Christ arose, typical -of the rising of mankind by faith to all that was noble -and blissful, and yet we are all in the dim twilight of -the morning. Oh, my teacher, it seems to me as if a -funeral chord went weeping through every Easter -anthem.”</p> - -<p>The old priest sat silently for a time, then bowed his -head and wearily sighed; “I have done my best any -way!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, do not think I doubt that! No, no; I’d not -hint a rebuke of my noble guide; but I can’t make -you understand me! Nobody seems to grasp my -meaning! Yet of this I’m certain, I want to do something -differing from what has been; something great, -revolutionary, for the world, for Christ.”</p> - -<p>“All reforms are revolutionary; all consecration to -noble work, noble.”</p> - -<p>“I suppose I express myself as vaguely as other -Christians, whose efforts are chiefly words. But why -is it that there can not be a presentment of Divine -truth in such a simple and attractive form as to make -all hearing and seeing love it? Why is it that the followers -of truth separate into armies, not only not -sympathizing with, but opposing each other? Why do -not all having a common Father and one Saviour, join -as one loving family to bear aloft the banner of the -Invincible?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[488]</a></span></p> - -<p>“That day will come in God’s good time.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, again forgive me; but that trite apology for the -delayed dawn seems to me to fling the blame on God -in order to palliate man’s indifference.”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, thou art thoughtful beyond thy years, -but what wouldst thou have?”</p> - -<p>“Some one to show me how, and when, and where -to proclaim a revolution! There is need that Israel -believe; that one half the race, its women, be crowned -with its full privileges and powers; that Christian -humanity check war, banish poverty and bring in universal -justice.”</p> - -<p>“Revolutionist, indeed; though a blessed one art -thou!”</p> - -<p>“So I’m often told; but who will show me how to -work for such ends!”</p> - -<p>“Hast thou among thy knightly companionships -heard of the Grail knights?”</p> - -<p>“I’ve heard of them; but not a great deal. Why -ask?”</p> - -<p>“Thou art like them.”</p> - -<p>“I’m glad to know whom I’m like; tell me of them -that I may know myself.”</p> - -<p>“They, as their life work, and with charming enthusiasm, -sought an object pure and noble, but which none -but they themselves could see.”</p> - -<p>“Did they obtain their object and do much good?”</p> - -<p>“They were a blessing to the world; but sometimes, -like others seeking lofty ends, they failed. Eternity -alone can estimate their work and worth.”</p> - -<p>“Where are they now?”</p> - -<p>“Their successors are like thee. That grail guild of -old is now no more.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[489]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Tell me all about them and the Grail!”</p> - -<p>“Listen. Joseph of Arimathæa, he that secretly followed -the Lord in his lifetime, and openly, after he -saw the glory of His crucifixion, is said to have caught -the blood that flowed from the speared side in the paschal -vessel or cup used at the last supper. There is a -cathedral in Glastonbury, England, which once I saw, -erected on the place where Joseph builded a little -wicker oratory, when there as a missionary. At least -they say he once was there. The aged Joseph died and -the Grail or Passion cup passed into the custody of other -holy men. Finally a custodian of it sinned, and thereupon -it was caught away quickly to heaven. But there -is a legend that it is brought, from time to time, to -earth, only to be seen by those that are pure—virgin -men and women. Then out of the yearnings for the -cup’s presence (for it is said it gave unutterable joy -as well as miraculous healings to any that came nigh -to it), an order of knights sprung up, to seek it, everywhere -in earth. They were sworn not to disclose their -mission, and bound, as their only hope of success, -to keep their hearts noble and pure.”</p> - -<p>“But how am I like a ‘grail knight?’”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne pursues a heavenly cure for human ills, a -something she cannot see nor quite explain.”</p> - -<p>“’Tis true and wonderful.”</p> - -<p>“The ‘grail’ story is almost as old as man, being -shaped out of other most ancient pilgrim quests. All -noble hearts yearn for a healer and ideal.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps the time has come for a woman crusade, a -new order of grail seekers?”</p> - -<p>“Indeed, I think as much; and Miriamne, taking -Mary as her model, may be the very one to proclaim it.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[490]</a></span></p> - -<p>“But being a woman, and so young, I might be ridiculed -as an enthusiast, as brazen, perhaps, or worse, if -I attempted such things.”</p> - -<p>“If thou didst undertake any thing truly good, thou -wouldst best know its goodness by the bitterness of its -opposing. The cross is very bright on one side, on the -other it casts shadows. Walking toward it we walk in -those chastening shadows. But when we’ve passed the -grave, which it ever guards, there is light, all light—not -before.”</p> - -<p>“Sometimes I think I’m a very womanish woman -and not the stuff of which the heroine can be made.”</p> - -<p>“To be a woman is to have within thee a wealth of -power. To be queenly is to do in queenly spirit the -work falling to thy lot. Behold the queenly women -of the patriarchs! Rebecca watered the flocks, Rachel -was a shepherdess. The daughter of Jethro, King of -Midian, also kept the flocks; and Tamar baked bread. -The Word of God records these things, methinks, to -show in what a queenly way a queenly woman may -perform a seemingly unimportant work. Doing humble -works well, they had their honor in due time. -Think of our Mary, Mother of Jesus, after her call, -serving humbly as a good housewife to a carpenter.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, if I could only catch the flavor of her life more -fully!”</p> - -<p>“A worthy wish! Her life was a sermon on faith. -Called of God to bring forth Immanuel, she accepted -the trust with joyful humility, leaving the miraculous -performance to the Promiser. For thirty years, from -Bethlehem’s cradle to Bethabara, where Her Son was -owned of God, she bore her pains and toils, facing persecutions, -the leers and slanderous innuendoes of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span> -rabble, all without faltering. Only wondrous faith -kept her gentle young heart from breaking! I think -she carried the cross all along the course of Christ’s -life—until He Himself took it. She wrought out her -work as a satellite of her son, and yet as a poem most -eloquent, voicing thoughts without which some of His -wondrous, greater life would lack explanation.”</p> - -<p>“I fain would be like her, but then to be so seems -beyond my capacities.”</p> - -<p>“If thou canst not be a satellite of the Sun as Mary, -be a satellite of a satellite. Reflect her, and it will be -well, since she reflected Him. ’Tis a simple lesson, -but profitable; learn it; there is greatness in little -things; regarding them we may at the same time lay -hold of that that is great. I’d have all women heroines -by teaching them what heroism is.”</p> - -<p>“Was Mary learned? She had to meet some grand -company?”</p> - -<p>“Wise, as thou mayst be in the solid culture of -God’s word.”</p> - -<p>“But I can never be a Mary,” presently the maiden -murmured.</p> - -<p>“Thou canst be thyself, and what thou canst. A -seraph could be no more. God needed for his lofty -purpose but one like the Maiden of Nazareth, and for -thy comfort remember Mary could not have been the -mother of Jesus and Miriamne de Griffin of Bozrah -also. She had her mission, thou thine; it is a judgment -of God to attempt to say that each in her station -was not and is not placed in the way most excellent.”</p> - -<p>Their converse ended but to be renewed. At frequent -intervals Miriamne advised with her guide -upon the subject uppermost in her mind, and more and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[492]</a></span> -more became endued with the spirit of the missionary. -To all questionings within herself, as to how she might -compass her lofty and philanthropic designs, there came -but one answer, “To Jerusalem!” It seemed to her -that there, at the heart of Syrian life, she might obtain -inspiration and wisdom, as well as the widest possible -opportunity of applying these for others. To her to -believe was to act, and so she soon had completed all -her arrangements to join a band of pilgrims passing -by way of Bozrah toward the great city. The parting -was painful to mother and daughter, and unlike any -they had experienced before. The daughter felt a misgiving. -Her mother was aged. The tensions of trial -and responsibility being removed so largely from the -life of the latter by recent events, left her spiritless. -Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that in the -days of excitement and conflict she exerted herself -beyond her ability; now, when the motive was gone, -nature proclaimed its premature exhaustion. Miriamne -was convinced that she would be motherless ere long, -and was haunted by misgivings as to ever again seeing -her if she left Bozrah. Rizpah herself, though she -feared that the present separation and farewell were to -be final, urged her child tenderly, earnestly, to go forward -as conscience dictated. The parting between -these two women was secret, they two being alone. -It was affectionate and most tender, and yet cheered -by the mutual hope both expressed of an eternal reunion -after death. The eventful day and the supreme -moment came to find Miriamne and her mother nerved -for the parting. That was soon over, and the maiden -moved out of the old stone home toward the white -camel already caparisoned for her use. Father Adolphus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></span> -and Sir Charleroy awaited her by its side, having -repeated, over and over, to the maiden’s chosen attendant -a score of directions, and having in the fussiness of -nervousness again and again examined bridle and girt -and hamper. The maiden, glancing after the caravan -of pilgrims which was to be her convoy, now slowly -passing out of the city, turned toward her father to say -the last words of parting. She began: “And now, -dear father.” Her voice, tremulous to begin with, -broke down.</p> - -<p>“There, Miriamne,” interrupted the knight, “wait, -we’ll accompany thee a little distance.” The three -moved out of the city together, the attendant riding -on before them. They were all too sorrowful to speak -cheerfully, so each said nothing. On the crest of a -hillock the old priest paused; simultaneously the father -and daughter did likewise. “I’m too weary to go -further,” spoke the priest. Miriamne’s eyes filled -with tears, and Sir Charleroy, drawing close to the -maiden, turned his eyes away. He stood in silence -gazing afar, but at nothing. Each at the last seemed -to dread to be the first to speak that one word so -inexpressibly sad when believed to be about to be -spoken as a last “farewell.” The silence became -oppressive, and then Father Adolphus murmured, “I -suppose we must bid thee adieu, now.” Sir Charleroy -shuddered and drew his turban down over his eyes.</p> - -<p>Just then all the child and all the woman in Miriamne’s -nature was awakened. Her feelings well nigh -over-mastered her, and she exclaimed: “Oh, Bozrah, -how can I leave thee and thy dear ones!” Bozrah to -her meant home; for a moment her world seemed centred -there. The old priest, ever adroit in ministering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[494]</a></span> -comfort, sought to divert the thoughts of those about -him from needless pain, and so shading his eyes looked -steadily eastward for a few moments. Then he questioned: -“Daughter, canst thou see Salchad, at the -Crater’s Mouth. I can not see it for my sight faileth; -but I know ’tis yonder.” Miriamne followed the -direction of the priest’s pointing hand, though she -knew full well without directing, where the grim fortress -city lay. Habit had made it natural to follow the -guidance of that old, trembling hand. Some way, it -helped her; she seemed better to understand what she -already partly knew, when it directed.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I see it. It is there; changeless and dreary as -ever. But why this question?”</p> - -<p>“Dost thou observe how the prospect fades away -south of it, until it reaches the spreading desert?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I perceive!”</p> - -<p>“Turn to the north, what object is most striking?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Hermon! ‘The old-man mountain;’ the sun -makes its snowy-top appear to-day very like the white -on an old man’s head and chin.”</p> - -<p>Sir Charleroy’s attention was recalled from his contemplation -of the pain of parting for an instant, and he -questioned:</p> - -<p>“Canst thou see aught of the ruins of the ‘Temple -of the Sun,’ said to be at Hermon’s crest?”</p> - -<p>But before an answer could be given to the knight’s -question, Father Adolphus exclaimed: “Daughter, -look back again to ruined Salchad! Beyond its ‘war -tower of giants,’ there lies only the desert. Now turn -thy back on it all forever, without repinings. Leave -the desert and the war tower of the giants to the wandering -Bedouin.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[495]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And then what?”</p> - -<p>“Turn thy face toward Jerusalem, thy back to the -drear desert—”</p> - -<p>The maiden almost involuntarily complied, and the -priest continued:</p> - -<p>“Go forward with Hermon on thy right. Remember -that the temple of the Fire Worshipers is overturned, -its altars cold; but more remember that on -Hermon humanity was transfigured in answer to -prayer.”</p> - -<p>“And so my shepherd and guide would promise me -blessing and bid me God speed?” quoth the maiden.</p> - -<p>“Thou read’st my heart, daughter.”</p> - -<p>“The same true heart; it never gets old or weary of -cheering.”</p> - -<p>“I’m made grateful and happy, daughter, by thy -words. He that saith, ‘<i>Let not your hearts be troubled!</i>’ -and ‘<i>comfort ye, comfort ye my people</i>,’ is my leader. -For cheering, I was called.”</p> - -<p>“How noble such a call seems to me, now.”</p> - -<p>“Yea; daughter, if one can not be as the stars that -fought in their course for Sisera, he may be as a summer -evening’s breeze, in cooling pain’s fevers, and in -drying the tears from cheeks that blush through the -rains of weeping times.”</p> - -<p>Gently, firmly she guided her camel from the hillock, -on which it was feeding, toward the highway, along -which the caravan was departing. “We must be going -now.”</p> - -<p>At her words, Sir Charleroy and the old Sacrist each -caught one of her hands.</p> - -<p>“Oh, my fathers!” was her pitying but not pitiable -exclamation. Sir Charleroy, standing on the hillock,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></span> -by the camel, on which his daughter was mounted, -drew the hand he held close to his heart, then his arm -tenderly encircled its owner. The maiden’s head -rested upon the breast that had often borne her since -babyhood, her lips met in unfeigned tenderness those -of the man who not only loved her as a daughter, but -as his good angel, almost savior. It was a scene for -a painter; the past and the present, sunset and morning; -the one looking back in a confessed ineffectiveness -of a life nearly spent, in contrast with a fresh, -young, hopeful life, before which lay a world to be -conquered. Miriamne, the called leader in a new -crusade for women, for humanity, was bidding farewell -to the ruins of giant land, and to a representative of -the last of the sworded-crusaders.</p> - -<p>Her staff fell on the side of the beast that bore her -and it moved away quickly after the departing troop.</p> - -<p>The parting was over, and yet the two old men -silently lingered at the place of the farewell. Once or -twice the maiden looked back to them, as she was -borne forward, to wave an adieu. The lone watchers -followed her with their eyes, until her white camel appeared -but a speck moving along at the skirt of a column -of dust. The eyes of the watchers dimmed by years, -now supplemented by tears, presently could discern only -dust. She was buried from their view forever. Then -they silently returned to the city, each busy with his -own thoughts. Thereafter there was a heavy loneliness -on all hearts in that Bozrah circle. The priest moved -about his chapel, and the parents about their home as -though an angel of light had gone from their midst, or -as if the angel of death had come among them.</p> - -<p>“It seems strange like,” said the Sacrist’s sister, “to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[497]</a></span> -let a girl go away to that far-off city, among strangers, -and about such meaningless purposes.”</p> - -<p>“Never mind; never mind, sister, God’s lambs are -ever safe. Her mission is clear to her, at least, and -she’ll not be among strangers. The knights who secretly -abide in the city of God have a charge concerning her -in letters I’ve sent them. As well, Cornelius, her betrothed, -is there. Pure love will be her wall of fire.” -Thus ended all arguments and misgivings.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE HOSPITALER’S ORATION.</span></h2> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“I do not say that a social cyclone is impending; but the signs -of the times certainly admonish us that if Christianity is to avert a -revolution of the most gigantic proportions, and the most ruinous -results, we have not an hour to lose in assuring the restless masses -that they have no better friends than are the professed disciples -of Him whose glory it was to preach the gospel to the poor, and to -lift up their crushing burdens.”—<span class="smcap">Rev. Dr. A. J. F. Behrend’s</span> -“<i>Socialism and Christianity</i>.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“My soul doth magnify the Lord.... He hath put down -princes from their thrones, and exalted them of low degree.”—<span class="smcap">Mary.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">The daughter of Sir Charleroy found a home -and a mother with Dorothea Woelfkin, the -widowed parent of her affianced. What -manner of woman the latter was may be -readily inferred from the character of her beloved and -only son, Cornelius. It sufficeth to say, mother and -son were in all things wonderfully alike.</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, I’ve called to ask, if we get the consent -of my mother, that you attend a conclave of knights, to -be secretly held, after Moslem prayers this evening.”</p> - -<p>“Where?”</p> - -<p>“At the house of the Christian sister, aged Phebe; -just by the second wall of the city.”</p> - -<p>“And why do they meet?”</p> - -<p>“An eloquent Hospitaler, lately returned from a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span> -long mission, is to address the companions and their -friends.”</p> - -<p>“A Hospitaler; what’s his name?”</p> - -<p>“Ah, there it is; the question all ask, and none can -answer! He has given full tokens of his right to confidence, -but declines, for reasons which he says are most -pious, to reveal himself further than that he is a Knight -Hospitaler of Rhodes.”</p> - -<p>“Rhodes? Is he very tall, of piercing eyes, his hair -long and jet, with streaks of gray?”</p> - -<p>“Even so.”</p> - -<p>“My father knew such a man, whom he called ‘silver-tongued.’”</p> - -<p>“This man is as eloquent as Apollos.”</p> - -<p>“We met such an one, and were with him for a time. -We left him here, on our journey from Acre to -Bozrah.”</p> - -<p>“Did you penetrate his secret?”</p> - -<p>“I did not, though my father once said to him -‘Grail.’ After that he kept aloof from us.”</p> - -<p>“A proof it must be as I’ve suspected; the Hospitaler -is one of the new Grail-Knights!” exclaimed Cornelius.</p> - -<p>“And he is here? I must hear him again. The -words he spoke to me in Gethsemane have followed -me night and day since. He made the journey of Mary -and Christ, by way of Kedron, to the cross, seem like a -present reality; a path typical of the one before -every child of God. I saw it all then, but have been -unable since to find it. Oh, I burn with desire to have -the ‘silver-tongued’ guide me to that pathway again.”</p> - -<p>At the appointed time the twain sought the house -of Christian Phebe, and found it wrapped in gloom; the -only sign of life without being a man garbed as a camel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[500]</a></span> -driver, standing guard at the door. Cornelius whispered -to Miriamne, “He’s a knight—the warden.” The young -man gave the watchman a secret signal; the latter communicated -through a little gated window, with those -within, and quickly the door swung open, admitting -Woelfkin and his companion. Within were light and -cheerfulness contrasting with the gloom without. A -goodly company was already assembled, chiefly made -up of Crusaders, but now unharnessed. The faces of -the pilgrim soldiers betokened a change within. They -betokened spirits subdued, but not crushed; hearts having -surrendered ambition for devastating conquest, to -welcome a finer hope. There were few things about -the place suggestive of war, and many suggestive of -peace. At one end of the room stood a desk, in shape -much like an altar. It was draped with a Templar -banner, and to its side were fastened a sword, bent in -the shape of a sickle, and two spears forming a cross, -supporting a cup; the latter was in form the same as -the cup of the Passion.</p> - -<p>“There is something about this place that recalls the -chapel of the Palestineans, in London, Cornelius.”</p> - -<p>“Well, you and I were there; now we are here. In -that the two places have likeness,” pleasantly responded -the maiden’s escort.</p> - -<p>Miriamne’s eyes wandered from object to object, as -if seeking proof of, her assertion, and her companion -followed her gaze with a glance about the place, which -finally rested, as his glances were wont, on the eyes of -Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“Oh, the devoutness, the peace, the fellowship!” -she exclaimed.</p> - -<p>Just then there was a movement: a number of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[501]</a></span> -men present arose; a hailing sign, significant to the -initiated, was given by some, while simultaneously a -slight applause passed around the room:</p> - -<p>“’Tis he,” whispered Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“Your Hospitaler?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>The knights all stood and sang in subdued voices, a -psalm of hope. “The movement of the melody suggests -pilgrims climbing a hill.” At least, so the maiden said -its movement seemed to her.</p> - -<p>When the psalm was finished, the knights resumed -their seats and the Hospitaler, without preliminary, -at once addressed them:</p> - -<p>“Knights of Christ, few and often in hiding, I would -remind ye that no plan of God is futile, and that His -cause has no backward movement.</p> - -<p>“A dream of conquest, restoration and glory came -over all followers of the cross. The dream had -within it a hope of a holy land in Christian possession, -and all the children of earth getting from it the story -of the true faith. Then there was to come, we believed, -the golden age, in which all mankind in sweet -charity’s glorious fellowship should go forward.</p> - -<p>“Nature, man’s mother, prays in a million mournful -voices for that golden day; and God, man’s eternal and -loving Father, works by countless invincible agencies to -cause its full dawning. We Crusaders gave our lives -by thousands for our faith, but we seemed to have done -little beside change the name of this land from Philistine -to Palestine. One, to be sure, is softer to the ear -than the other, but to the heart both names bring the -same miserable thoughts. Yet there was more than -this attained. Ye remember how our cavalier soldiers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[502]</a></span> -expressed their chivalric impulses in honoring that -queen of women, Our Lady? Like the rising of sun at -midnight, came the conviction to Christian Europe -when at its worst, socially, that reform must begin by -purifying the homes of the people, by exalting all home -life. To do this, the mothers who bare and nurture -the fruits of the home, as well as making them for weal -or for woe what they are, must needs be exalted by -right as well as by fitness to their queenship. Every -knight’s praise of Mary was an avowal of faith; his -faith that woman could be, should be, what his imagination -pictured Mary to have been.</p> - -<p>“The knightly Christians were among the first to be -moved by the belief that that was a monstrous blight, -a heresy toward God and nature which regarded the -finer sex as necessities or luxuries. Impressed by reverence -for Mary, the banded soldiers of the cross began -to feel their mission to be not only the recovery of -the dead, but also of the living from infidel dominion; -hence, each Crusade banner came as a sunburst to -those, who, under the spell of gross passion, were enslaving -their natural co-partners.</p> - -<p>“Men, while the harem ideal stands, while woman is -impotent because uncrowned, our lofty hopes can not -bear fruit nor will our labors be ended!”</p> - -<p>The speaker was interrupted by a murmur of applause -that ran around the circle of auditors.</p> - -<p>Miriamne glowed with delight, and raised her hand -impressively and nodded toward Cornelius. He only -saw the motion and easily interpreted it as meaning, -“There, that’s what I felt, but could not express.”</p> - -<p>The speaker continued: “God said it is not good -that the man should be alone; time that resolves all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span> -mysteries, and experience which transmutes to gold all -the rubbish of guess and experiment, has irrevocably -declared that man cannot be to his fullness, in a state -of solitary grandeur. He and the woman go up or -down together; and, whether a seraph or a serpent -leads her, the man by inclination or by force is sure to -follow her footsteps.</p> - -<p>“We Crusaders had a glimpse of the truth, but lost it -to follow an <i>ignis fatuus</i>. Yet, in this land, we confronted -the harem with the home ruled by one queenly -wife and mother. The world, beholding the contrast -begins to believe, as never before, in the supremacy, -over all institutions, of that one where, under Eden’s -covenant charters, purity and mother-love mold the -race in the name of sole and patient love. The Saracens -paraded their houris, their concubines, and their slaves -as the proofs of their prowess; but the Christians -challenged the array by the quality of their possessions, -commencing with their women of God’s blood royal, -and ascending to each revered personage, from love’s -companions, to Mary, to Jesus. He that nobly deals -with the one by his side will find her putting on a -glory that will brighten the luster of his kingliness, -and bringing forth to him those having the power to -grasp and mold the destinies of coming years. Listeners, -mark me; there is a lesson profound in the -record of the strugglings with each other of Rebecca’s -twins before their birth. Indeed, each being begins -his career within the life that gives him life.</p> - -<p>“Who will say, with assurance, that all of life lies -within the reach of any man of himself? Nay, be it -said, rather, that she who first carries, then leads, then -inspires, as she only can, her sons and daughters, is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span> -one who lays her gentle hands, with resistless power, -upon the keys of all futures. It is the mother who -impresses the prophecy of what is to be on the heart -of the infant, before the event finds place upon the -deathless page which records deeds done.”</p> - -<p>Again applause interrupted.</p> - -<p>The Hospitaler continued, as attention was given -anew:</p> - -<p>“That profoundest of ancient teachers, Plato, enunciated -at least a half-truth or truth’s shadow, in his doctrine -of the preëxistence of souls, though, as our church -understands it, it pronounces the teaching heretical. -Be that as it may, this much assuredly is true: if each -man has not been on earth before, his present existence -being the repetition of a prior one, his intuitions, vague -recollections out of a past forgotten in a former death, -surely there is none who is not the fruit of his parents. -He is largely what they made him, and of the twain -that beget, I affirm that the mother wields the ruling -influence in the life and character of the begotten. I -believe men perpetuate their worst traits through their -posterity, easily and more persistently than do women -theirs. In the giant of the human pair brawn and muscle -predominate, and these, if depraved, feed every evil -passion, giving each power to run with virulence from -sire to son. The woman, formed by finer conceptions -to be an angel, may fall to sinning and let weakness -take the place of gentleness. So be it; yet even then -her weaknesses and her sinnings, constantly repugnant -to her nature as God framed it, antagonistic to the refinement -that is native, ebb and die along the shores of -her being’s course. She more naturally and more -forcefully transmits her good than she does her evil, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span> -a general rule. They have in fable-lore a tradition that -the mythical goddess of love, Venus, wore a resplendent -girdle, the sight of which made every beholder -love the wearer. Let me give present force to the -legend by affirming that every true woman, girded -with the virtues that it is her duty and her privilege to -wear, is an object, among all earthly beings, superlatively, -entrancingly beautiful—next after Christ, God’s -best gift to man.”</p> - -<p>Cornelius now plucked the corner of Miriamne’s -<i>pepulum</i>. It was a lover’s restless, questioning act. -Being a man, trained as men, he was naturally inclined -to doubt the speaker and to join in secret ridicule, that -substitute for gainsaying when arguments are utterly -lacking; but being a lover, he was so far doubtful as to -his old creeds concerning women, as to be ready to be -led. Miriamne turned toward her lover with a smile -lightened by eyes which glowed. Hers was not the -smile of a girl flatly complacent in an effort to be very -agreeable. She believed; the love she had for the man -at her side was consecrated first to truth. Her will -was that of a blade of steel—yielding, serviceable; but -still elastic or firm, as need be and as its highest purposes -required. She smiled, but the smile mounting -to her brightening eyes, left her fine forehead, a very -temple of thought, all placid. The smile and the -glance routed all doubts from the young man’s mind. -She to him was a Venus, and more, a saint. She wore -the invisible girdle of which the knight had spoken, -and the youth felt its winning power. Another proof -that the best advocate of a woman is a woman; and of -her worth, the best argument an example.</p> - -<p>The orator knight proceeded without pause:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[506]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I know full well that some sneer and carp on woman’s -weakness, having recourse to Eden for argument. -To these I reply: The enemy assailed not the weaker, -but the stronger first, and exhibited masterly generalship -in seeking to overcome the citadel that would insure -the greatest loss, the most complete victory. And -note how long and arduous his siege of Eve; then remember -how quickly Adam fell. Crush the woman’s -heart, ruin her faith, degrade her body, and then, with -this work completed, we are ready to ring down the -curtain over the end of the tragedy of a wrecked world. -When men hold women to their hearts, their manhood -is enlarged and their queens become their angels, bearing -a ‘grail’ that catches for both the choice things of -heaven. But when a man turns his strength against a -woman, she ceases to be his charming, alluring helpmate. -He has brawn, and she, not having that, puts -on that cunning which is the natural arm of the weaker. -When the honey-suckle turns to poison-ivy, or the dove -to a fox, then weep; but when woman lays aside the -entrancings of her moral beauty to enter a desperate -strife with armed cunning, let men go mad over their -queens become witches. I tell you, hearers, when men -become demons women will give themselves to sorcery. -I speak not of spiritual possession, but of human deflowering. -Shall our queens be uncrowned, disrobed, -degraded? No, no, Satan alone could say ‘yea.’”</p> - -<p>When the burst of applause that had interrupted -him subsided, the Hospitaler continued:</p> - -<p>“We knights revere the sign of the cross because the -world’s Savior died thereon; it will be well for us to -revere womankind because it was given to woman, not -to man, to coöperate with God in bringing that Savior<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[507]</a></span> -to the world. A woman bore him with crucial pains, -as each of us was borne, before He bore the cross. -And reverently I say it, companions, woman’s cross is -ever set, and all the earth is her Calvary. I can not -but see, as must you who think, that all this pain to her -has in God’s great plan some vicarious element, some -blessing for mankind. We Christians pray for the -second coming of Jesus, the Jews wait and weep for -the dawn of a day of salvation, the Mohammedans, -like hosts of the Pagans, in every clime, are longing -for some golden day; better than the present. This -universal longing is a prophecy of good to come. I -can not believe that the All-Father would suffer this -universal and intuitive longing to end in disappointment -and mockery. He is too good for that. By this -longing I see standing out, less dimly, and yet dimly -enough to be by many unseen, some sublime, prophetic -hints. Read sacred Writ. Wherever therein you discern -a prophetic character, emblem of Christ, forerunner -of the golden age, you will find not far from -him, as his partner and help, fittingly a woman!</p> - -<p>“From the first it was so. Adam the first appeared, -and a woman was his partner, helpmate and more. -He fell. A way of recovery was provided for him, but -it was the woman who was given to bring forth the -One whose heel was to crush the head of the author -of humanity’s great catastrophe. Then came the -second Adam—Immanuel. At his advent the chief -figure, next after God the chief instrument in His -bringing in, by His side along the years in all helpful -ministries, a woman, Mary, the beautiful, the perfect, -the ideal of women.</p> - -<p>“Again and again we have puzzled over the records,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[508]</a></span> -wondering why Matthew traced the genealogy of Jesus -along the male line only, through David and Jacob -to Abraham the father of the faithful, and that Luke -traced that genealogy through Mary and her father, -Heli. But there’s method most wise in the records. -Matthew wrote for the Jews, Luke for the Gentiles. -The hint is herein given that when the Gentiles are -fully gathered in, woman will be recognized in the ultimate -religion, that knows neither race nor sex. As -in the royal line which gave man a Savior, as in a -queenly line having for man, society and home—the -emblem of heaven expressed on earth—blessing and -saving powers.”</p> - -<p>The knight closed with an appeal for the continuance -of the revival of the chivalrous spirit toward -woman, saying:</p> - -<p>“It matters little what becomes of the dust of the -pious dead; the past is secure, and Deity guards till -the resurrection all tombs in His own unfrustrated -way, but it matters much how we treat the living! -That is a puerile piety which is ready to die to defend -from foes that can not harm inanimate ashes that -appeal for no favor, while suffering, willingly, living -bodies encompassing bleeding hearts, to continue amid -untold agonies, their whole existence one long appeal -for succor! Christian knights, on with your new crusade, -and may the golden age come grandly in, its fruits—love, -joy, and peace in every clime, to every race, to -every man, woman, and child!”</p> - -<p>The speaker sat down; there was a moment of deep -silence, followed by an outburst of approving acclamations.</p> - -<p>Then ensued a hum of voices, the assembly breaking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[509]</a></span> -up into little groups, one and another attempting each -to prove his loyalty, his piety or his good sense to the -man next to him, by certifying his belief in the knight’s -words.</p> - -<p>Miriamne, half unconscious of her surroundings, exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“Oh, will not some one tell me how to begin?”</p> - -<p>“Can I aid my Miriamne?” asked her lover.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know; perhaps. But that Grail Knight -with the silver tongue sees, in his soul, what I would -reach. When he speaks my feet take wings. I can -not tell you what or how it all is. He speaks and I -see, as Moses in the mount, the outline of the tabernacle -of God that is to be with men.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[510]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV.<br /> -<span class="smaller">MEMORIALS AT BOZRAH.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“I’m footsore and very weary,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">But I travel to meet a Friend;</div> -<div class="verse">The way is long and dreary,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">But I know it soon must end.</div> -<div class="verse">He is traveling swiftly as whirlwinds,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">And though I creep slowly on,</div> -<div class="verse">We are drawing nearer and nearer,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">And the journey is almost done.</div> -<div class="verse">I know He will not fail me,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">So I count every hour a chime,</div> -<div class="verse">Every throb of my heart’s beating</div> -<div class="verse indent1">That tells of the flight of <span class="smcap">Time</span>.</div> -<div class="verse">I will not fear at His coming,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Although I must meet Him alone,</div> -<div class="verse">He will look in my eyes so gently</div> -<div class="verse indent1">And take my hand in His own.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-a.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">An uneventful year passed over the missioners, -but it was followed quickly by eventful -times.</p> - -<p>Two messages came, one after the other, -and not far apart, to Jerusalem, which moved all the -Christian colony at the latter place, but especially Cornelius -and his consort. The first was from Father -Adolphus and as follows:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Your parents, Sir Charleroy and Rizpah, have departed -Bozrah. They went out together, and their end was peace. -They compensated themselves for the needless miseries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[511]</a></span> -they had wrought in their younger days by keeping out of -all shadows during their journey after their reconciliation -by the tomb of their children, even until sunset. I could -not summon you, for they passed away quickly, only a few -days coming between their goings.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>Shortly after the foregoing, came the other message, -and that accidentally, for the link between Jerusalem -and Bozrah being broken by death, there was none -left in the Giant City to send after or for comforting to -the missioners. “Father Adolphus is dead.” That -was the report brought by chance to the Christians at -Zion. Hundreds in Jerusalem had heard of him, and -hearing of his death sighed mildly. The missioners -were his mourners—really, solely.</p> - -<p>Ere long Dorothea left Jerusalem of Syria for the -New Jerusalem, and this event not only brought sorrow -but also perplexity. Miriamne realized that she could -not now continue in the house of her betrothed, simply -as his betrothed, even if it were possible for the household -to continue, the head being absent. Whither -should she go, orphan and kinless as she was? Love -protested mightily against any thought of going far -from her affianced, and then she felt profound pity for -the man who mourned and felt a mother’s loss deeply, -as did Cornelius. He entreated for a speedy wedding, -and she, seeing then no alternative, consented thereto; -but as she assumed love’s yoke, she believed that the -ambition of her life was frustrated. She was not disconsolate, -neither was she tearless. She thought she -discerned the leadings of God and submitted promptly, -making it thenceforth her duty cheerfully to engage in -the, to her, seemingly commonplace works of a missionary -pastor’s wife. Her husband was a “man of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[512]</a></span> -the people,” and found acceptance with the lowly. He -was wont to call himself “a priest forever after the -order of Melchisedec.” Said he anon to his flock: “Like -that mysterious man who flits across your sacred histories -am I! You of the Jews, self-elect, as God’s elect, -though disgrafted, would put me, intending to do so or -not, by the unknown and unheralded Melchisedec. -You think me, without father, without mother, beginning -of days, or end of life, because you do not find -my name in the chronologies of your high families nor -myself in the covenants of the Hebrews. You Christians -doubt my authority because no ghostly ordaining -hands have been laid upon my head. But I’m the -child of a King, and a towel, such as my Master wore as -He ministered, is robing enough for me!” Old people, -women and children, gave the young man unquestioning -love, and thus was well indorsed the choiceness of -his ministerings. Miriamne beheld these manifestations -with secret joy, for she knew that through the -one she loved she was, in part, expressing her own -thoughts and sympathies. Once wed, she was too -honest, too tender-hearted, too noble to be less than all -that wifehood implied, and yet she felt at times as if -the ambitions and hopes of her life, nursed through -many years, had not been compassed. She tried to -settle down and humbly do the work of a missionary’s -helpmate, and to overcome, through Divine grace, the -ambition to do seemingly grander things than she was -doing. Sometimes, smiling through tears, she would -say to her husband as he sought to satisfy her heart’s -yearnings with mention of the good work they were -doing:</p> - -<p>“Well, a man has come between me and the ‘grail.’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[513]</a></span> -I’m following him, may he follow it, and God guide -both.”</p> - -<p>After a time Cornelius and Miriamne made a pilgrimage -to Bozrah, drawn thither by a desire common -to both to honor their loved ones departed. They -found the Giant City all pervaded by the spirit of the -moribund past. Even the Christian church, once a -light, a joy and a promise of a better day, had fallen -into decline at Bozrah. The edifice had become dilapidated, -the congregation was depleted.</p> - -<p>In name, Father Adolphus had a successor, younger, -more learned, more eloquent in his way, than the -saintly man now sleeping. But the infidels, the very -ones who were wont to confess that they could not, if -they would, make headway against the old priest’s godly -life, now laughed to scorn the stately and scholarly -arguments of the new leader. The converts under the -new regime were few, the common people did not from -him hear the word gladly; and the regular congregation -was rent by schisms.</p> - -<p>One chapel service sufficed both Miriamne and Cornelius. -They found in it nothing but cold formality -and the memory of what had been, but was now no -more.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Cornelius,” Miriamne cried, “reverently I say -it, but is it not strange that our faith edges its way -over the world so slowly, with such heralds?”</p> - -<p>“Leastwise, you may say, you do not see your -‘Grail’ here, Miriamne?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, now, I realize the worth of Von Gombard as I -never did before.”</p> - -<p>“Are you not sorrowed at his absence, Miriamne?”</p> - -<p>“Sorrowed! Truly not; but unspeakably glad that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[514]</a></span> -he walks with the sons of God; a very king, I know, -amid the greatest. Oh, how sad I’d be to see the poor, -dear, tired old man with his overfull heart and trembling -limbs now going about in painful ministries here! -God was twice good; in leaving him so long, then in -taking him. Ah, if there were more like that old saint, -those that there are would not need to tarry till their -twilight.”</p> - -<p>“Shall we prolong our stay?”</p> - -<p>“No! I’ve listened long enough to the lull of eternity -here. Bozrah’s past has taught me its all. I’m -ready to go home.”</p> - -<p>“Home! When, to-morrow?” ardently questioned -Cornelius, anxious himself to depart the Giant City.</p> - -<p>“After to-morrow; the coming day, at my instance, -the memorial of my parents is to be set up.”</p> - -<p>The following morning, just before sunrise, the husband -and wife repaired to the tomb of their loved -ones, to witness, by pre-arrangement, the unveiling of -a memorial. It consisted of two figures carved from -whitest marble; a woman’s form with a face expressive -of tenderness and beauty, marked with deepest grief, -but not with hopelessness. Across her lap there lay -the form of a young man, the rigors of death plainly -marked on his face and limbs. There was no mistaking -the representation, and Cornelius quickly exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“I know the one that sits thus holding that crucified -body! ’Tis real! Impressive! Awful!”</p> - -<p>“It is fitting, think you?”</p> - -<p>“I’m too much moved to judge, perhaps; though I -do wonder that you have not had carved upon the pedestal -the names of your dead, or some explanation.”</p> - -<p>“Names? What matter, to the stranger passing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[515]</a></span> -who lie beneath the stone? As for the meaning, let -those who come and go question till it appear.”</p> - -<p>“I’m the first questioner, Miriamne. The application?”</p> - -<p>“Remember that my mother, in her almost solitary -grief, held her dead children for a time against her broken -heart, but it was a heart filled with a mother-love -which never faltered. There is nothing in love surpassing -such on earth. Then at last, when her life -work was done, her cup full, my mother, as her final -consolation, held to her heart the Son whose death -gives life, as yon Madonna holds the Christ.”</p> - -<p>“I bow to Miriamne’s judgment; the creation is -appropriate; Glorious Madonna!”</p> - -<p>“I have a hope that it may stand here in the Hauran -an enduring sermon to the varied races who pass. -They who come and go here, reminded that the -Nephalim with all their arrogant might left little but -their crumbling tombs; that Astarte, once the potent, -dangerous goddess of the groves, here faded from the -love of her fevered hosts, who themselves in turn faded -from the face of the earth, may pause to question what -the meaning and power of this last, new, fresh presentment! -Perhaps they will hear from those made wise, -and in time learn to tell one another, that these two -figures speak of the Deathless Kingdom, its white loves, -its wondrous rewards and its Spirit of might expressed -by all who are in it through the power of an endless -life, and through the agency of immortal influence.”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, I see thee a palpitating angel in the -flesh! I can say no more!”</p> - -<p>As the young missioner thus spoke he stretched out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[516]</a></span> -his arms toward the woman he loved as if he would -restrain her. The motion came from his heart, which -was anxiously saying within: “She is growing upward -and away from her consort.” But he had neither courage -nor words to voice the vague thought which -brought admiration mixed with fears.</p> - -<p>They turned toward their temporary home in the -Giant City. As they went, the rising sun flooded the -marble forms by the graves with a golden light, and -the twain, beholding the glory of that morning benediction, -felt an illumining in their hearts that some -way made heaven seem very near.</p> - -<p>“And now, darling, we’ll return to Jerusalem, and -quietly pursue our work until we join those loved ones -gone on before,” spoke the husband the day after the -monument’s unveiling.</p> - -<p>“I trust we shall work in future with better plans -and grander results than we have had before.”</p> - -<p>“Are you discontented with what we accomplish?”</p> - -<p>“No, and yes,” was her measured reply.</p> - -<p>Cornelius turned his eyes full upon her, lifting -inquiringly his eyebrows.</p> - -<p>She continued: “I’m satisfied, if God so will, to -blend my work into my husband’s; I know this is my -duty as a wife, but I long to echo nobler music. Can -you make it?”</p> - -<p>“Annata, the Assyrian goddess, was content to be -the echo of her spouse, the mighty Ammon. I’d be -an Ammon if I could to be worthy being echoed by -Miriamne. But, little wife, your words sound almost -Delphic; and yet you are no such ambiguous oracle. -Is there any wish unmet?”</p> - -<p>“I’ve a misgiving.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[517]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Why, wife of mine, see how strong you’ve been, -each year adding health! See the shadows over our -people. We are sent to chase these away with Gospel -truth. We’ve hitherto only learned how to work -efficiently, and in the future will do braver, greater -things than ever. We’ll tarry, as Adolphus, ay, and by -grace renew strength, turning back the dial pointer, as -with prayer, did Hezekiah of old.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll not go, I know, until my work is done. None -go before such time.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, but we must go together everywhere, even to -death.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, beloved, I know your meaning. It’s the lover, -not the consecrated missionary, who speaks now.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t help it! I’ll be useless without you. I’m -useless now, except as you sustain me; as Abishag, -the Shunnamite, the fairest young maiden of all Israel, -brought heart to the bosom of David, old and shaken -by years, so you put into me all the ambition I have. -To my trembling heart you are what Deborah was to -Barak’s.”</p> - -<p>“God help you, Cornelius; I believe you, because I -know your trusting nature and have joyed in the fullness -of your lavish love, but let us bravely face this -matter as it comes. For God, I know, I must quickly -do my work and be gone.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, say not so, if I’m to be left alone! That must -not be! By your love for me I entreat you to stay; a -thousand ties bind my life to thine; it will kill me by -inches to have them severed!——</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, my own, nearer to God by far than am I; -plead with Him to spare us this agony!”</p> - -<p>“In spirit, my loyal spouse, we shall ever be near<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[518]</a></span> -each other, but I feel that in the body we shall not be -together long. I shall finish my course and then——”</p> - -<p>“No, not that,” vehemently exclaimed the husband. -“Say not that! I’ll work for you, with you, for God. -Help me to the end and let me so help you, beloved!”</p> - -<p>“You may help me while I tarry.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll joy to realize the prophet’s vision, who saw the -hands of a man under the wings of an angel. Here -are the hands and Miriamne is the angel.”</p> - -<p>“But your imagination glows, kindled by the torch -of a human heart almost idolatrous.”</p> - -<p>“Nay, not idolatrous; for the fire rises to things -holy. I only plead that God let me walk with Miriamne; -I know she will walk nigh Him. Go where -you will my feet will bear me thither, undertake -what you may, my heart and hand will help; point out -any goal of darling desire and thither I’ll carry you, -if need be. For you I’ll gladly die, if, at the dying, I -have the comforting assurance that soon my other self -will join me in the overshadowed land of life.”</p> - -<p>“How it would brighten the world, if all who take -the holy vows of marriage on their souls were as truly -wed in heart as we.” As the twain stood by the white -marble figures at sunrise the next morning, equipped -for departure, they made a striking picture. The living -and the dead; the exemplars of the purest, deepest -wedded love committed to serving their fellow man; -they rose grandly above the ruins of the place builded -by those mighty self-seeking devotees of Astarte.</p> - -<p>Bozrah sat in desolation, knowing no hope and having -a bitter past only and forever to contemplate; the -youthful gospel heralds had all life, rising to new life—hope -beyond hope, joy beyond joy, and then life, hope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[519]</a></span> -and joy in endless unfoldments, stretching way through -measureless eternities, all before them. Miriamne was -pensive; Cornelius was chastened by the remembrance -of the words she had spoken the day before, and both -subdued by the presence of the majestic monument before -them.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[520]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE SISTERS OF BETHANY.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Her eyes are homes of silent prayer,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">No thought her mind admits;</div> -<div class="verse indent1">But ‘He was dead and there he sits!</div> -<div class="verse">And He that brought him back is there!’</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“All subtle thought, all curious fears,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Borne down by gladness so complete;</div> -<div class="verse indent1">She bows, she bathes the Savior’s feet</div> -<div class="verse">With costly spikenard and with tears.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Alfred Tennyson.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“In the day time He was teaching in the temple, and at night -He went out and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of -Olives.”—<span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxi., 37.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Gethsemane on one side, Bethany on the other ... where -He was wont to pray for His people and weep for a sinful world; -where His feet stood on the eve of His ascension and where His -wondering disciples received from white-robed angels the promise -of His second advent. It will be admitted that above and beyond -all places in Palestine Olivet witnessed ‘God manifest in the flesh.’”—<i>Porter’s -“Giants of Bashan.”</i></p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-a.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">After Jesus had been driven from His native -Nazareth, He found a home in the house -of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, in the village -of Bethany, on the eastern slope of Olivet. -That was sweet, memorable Bethany of the Gospels; -“the perfection of repose,” amid the palm and oak-covered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[521]</a></span> -slopes of Olivet; hidden by its quiet life, as -well as its sequestering mountain, from Jerusalem, -that great, throbbing heart of Palestine.</p> - -<p>Thither, down the east steps of the Temple, through -the “Golden Gate,” along camel paths that wound past -Gethsemane and across fitful Kedron, the Son of Man -often went when worn out by His love ministries, -or harassed by the gainsayings of the great city. So, -preaching His new kingdom, He exalted its cornerstone, -the godly home, by electing one such, that of -Lazarus and his sisters, as a rest and a refuge for Himself. -Beyond this He proved His own humanity by -seeking earthly friendships, at the same time exhibiting -Himself, though the favored of heaven, the object -of constant angelic regard, as needing, because He was -human, that which humanity ever needs—congenial -human fellowships.</p> - -<p>The history of that ancient Bethany family, gathered -from various sources, but chiefly from the simple and -touching narrative of the Evangelist John, is full of -interest. The mother of that home, to us nameless, -was dead. Yet she was not fameless; that circle of -children in their several relationships witnessed full well -of a finest mother-culture, that had been theirs. The -father of that family was worse than dead; he was a -leper, buried alive in the Lazar keeps of the plague-stricken, -and the husband of Martha, the elder sister, -early had left his bride widowed.</p> - -<p>That was a circle cut through its center; but affliction -had knit together in deepened affection the few -left. The fatherly brother, Lazarus, well fulfilled his -double obligation, and wins admiration, as do ever -those sons and brothers who faithfully take the place<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[522]</a></span> -of dead fathers. That he was such a brother, the grief -of his sisters when he died fully proclaimed.</p> - -<p>With a few fine sentences John depicts those sisters. -Martha, widowed in life’s morning, but surmounting all -morbidness by giving herself to motherly ministries in -her home; and then was Mary, a clinging, trusting, pious -maiden; a poem of faith, a tear-bedewed rose-wreath. -When Christ joined that circle there was presented the -finest conceivable ideal of a home. They served and -He blessed, and though their bereavements could never -be forgotten, while His banner of love was over them, -they were able to alleviate the poignancy of their -griefs through the hope of a blessed resurrection and a -final, eternal reunion.</p> - -<p>The sacred associations gathering about the village -of Olivet made it a place peculiarly attractive to Cornelius -and Miriamne; for they, too, were bereaved; -neither in all the world having a single living kinsman -of whom they knew.</p> - -<p>They determined, shortly after their final farewell to -Bozrah, to take up their abode at the “House of Dates,” -and were unmeasurably delighted in being able to secure -for themselves a house reputed to have been the -identical one occupied by Christ and His choice friends. -If it were not the same, there seemed good reason to -believe it was at least on the site of that ancient sacred -domicile.</p> - -<p>One day they conversed of their work, their hopes, -and the needs of their field of labor.</p> - -<p>“I’m led to think that we should establish a refuge -for Magdalenes, Miriamne.”</p> - -<p>“If we did attempt the founding of an asylum for -outcasts we would not belie the memory of a noble<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[523]</a></span> -woman, who was never a harlot, by applying to it her -name. But my ‘grail’ does not lead me that way. -I’d go mad working for the utterly lost only! No; no, -our work must be more radical, by beginning back of -the falling so as to prevent it.”</p> - -<p>“Something must be done to educate the women of -this country to better living and higher conceptions of -womanhood. We need a school of some kind.”</p> - -<p>“A school? Good, if it be of the right kind; but -there have been schools and schools for men, such as -they were, and they have effectually proven that education -alone is not a savior. Learning does not transform -the soul, else God would have given Moses the -pattern of a college instead of that of a tabernacle. -My mother used often to tell me that the devil is -superbly educated. The more he knows the prouder -and more dangerous he becomes. I do not despise -learning, but since it is impotent to transform men, -why try it as the savior of woman? She who takes -counsel less of the intellect than of the conscience and -affections! We must seek for those we aim to help -something surpassing in direct efficacy any thing yet -attempted;” so saying, Miriamne paused.</p> - -<p>“Shall we organize a church, ‘fair as the moon, clear -as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?’”</p> - -<p>“There have been churches and churches. It would -be vain for me to attempt to prove to you, a theologian -and a churchman, that this you call the ‘Bride of -Christ’ is imperfect or lacking in any energy of reform; -but, though I heartily confess ’tis the choicest institution -this side of the stars, yet I see it professing to -have heavenly charity, abounding light, and measureless -joys, leaving the needy without hospitals, the heathen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[524]</a></span> -in ignorance, and most of the world, including many -churchmen, famishing for happiness. The trouble is, -it infolds too many wolves and repels too many lambs. -Your flocks are too much given to atoning for lean living -by fat believing; memorizing huge creeds instead of -incarnating them; putting their faith-confessions into -themselves rather than themselves into their faith professions. -You churchmen shut your ears to friendly -criticism, sneer at those that censure, and in branding -such heretics proclaim yourselves infallible. I’d not -be a vaporing railler, but I hear within your ecclesiastical -bodies of warring factions, of ambitious and multitudinous -leaders, a proof that they are of the church -militant; though theirs is an internecine militating. -I doubt if there has existed Christ’s ideal of a church -since Pentecost. He gave a glimpse of its true outlines -there, and it will yet come in its power and splendor; -then, for the pæans!”</p> - -<p>“You’d organize, perhaps, a <i>Vestal Band</i>?”</p> - -<p>“Vestals?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; an union of women of pure hearts, committed -solely to such works as those performed in part by the -holy sisters of our church fraternities.”</p> - -<p>“I revere such as are thus engaged with all my heart; -but, churchman, you are narrow in your plan; even -Pagan Rome, which honored Vesta, the fire goddess, -by having an altar to her in every community, held -that the State was a great family, and placed Vesta, -the goddess of virginal purity, near the Penates, or -gods of the household and family.”</p> - -<p>“I see nothing now in this juxtaposition.”</p> - -<p>“They saw that there was ruin to all society if their -girls were impure; hence buried alive a Vestal, if she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[525]</a></span> -fell from her vow of chastity. You have heard, Cornelius, -how good Romans were wont to invoke, often, -as their family guardians, the manes of their departed -kin; and this very naturally; they held to the belief -that the family tie, the finest, strongest known among -men, outlived, by virtue of its heavenliness, the -shock of death. Imperial Rome trusted much its -all-conquering swords, for this life, but for the life -to come it appealed to Jupiter omnipotent or Minerva, -the all-wise. No, no, a ‘Vestal Society,’ such -as you imply, would not suffice. I’ve a broader clientage -and vaster scheme in mind, good churchman husband—”</p> - -<p>“Shall I venture another guess?”</p> - -<p>“It would be needless. Let me explain myself -fully. Good Father Adolphus, founder of Bozrah’s -‘<i>Balsam Band</i>,’ which he sometimes called ‘nursing -preachers,’ told me that in olden times there was in this -country a fraternity of women, banded together to -perform works of charity. They were remembered -chiefly for their helpfulness to those that were in direst -need and utterly friendless. They befriended criminals -and social outcasts. He said that the women of Jerusalem -who followed Christ weeping, were, probably, -of that fraternity, since it was the custom of that pious -company to offer their tears for those on the way to -execution. More, these women were wont to furnish -the pain-dulling herbs to victims dying condemned. -You remember the Christ was offered such herbs? -When I remember the spirit that actuated Martha and -Mary, I readily believe they were members of that -pious fraternity. More, when I remember how, for -His own dear sake, they ministered to His human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[526]</a></span> -wants, there comes to my mind the possibility of a perpetual -organization, for God’s sake, ministering to -human want, taking the home as its palace, and to be -known to the world by the expressive, winning title, -‘<i>Sisters of Bethany</i>.’”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, if you were not Miriamne, I’d call you -Gabriel. I’m dazzled by these words. In truth, thy -‘<i>grail</i>’ is near, I believe.”</p> - -<p>“That I seek to build up I’ve explained, and here in -Bethany I’ll attempt it. We’ll have a fraternity of women, -Christ-guided, with burning hearts, and in methods -simple, direct and catholic, reaching after women.”</p> - -<p>“Now for our pillow prayer, Miriamne. Then side -by side, unto wondrous sleep land, side by side in heart -and being at awakening.</p> - -<p>“‘The sun of the millennium will rise from behind -the family altar,’ Father Adolphus was wont to say. -’Twas well said; redeemed homes are the fruits of the -restoration. Shall I read to-night?”</p> - -<p>“Surely we need the Word to understand the throbbings -of our own hearts when our prayers return, -dove-like, with olive branches from heaven.”</p> - -<p>“What shall I read?”</p> - -<p>“What came after Pentecost!”</p> - -<p>Then the husband opened to the Gospel Story, and -remarking the ‘Ascension,’ read:</p> - -<p>“He was taken up, after that He through the Holy -Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles -whom he had chosen:</p> - -<p>“To whom also He shewed himself alive after His -passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them -forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the -kingdom of God:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[527]</a></span></p> - -<p>“When they therefore were come together, they -asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore -again the kingdom of Israel?</p> - -<p>“And He said unto them, It is not for you to know -the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put -into His own power.</p> - -<p>“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy -Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses -unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, -and unto the uttermost part of the earth.</p> - -<p>“And when He had spoken these things, while -they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received -Him out of their sight.</p> - -<p>“And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven -as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in -white apparel;</p> - -<p>“Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye -gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is -taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like -manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.”</p> - -<p>“And His farewell happened at Bethany? It makes -our home seem still more like the gate of heaven, when I -remember this; ‘He’ll come so as He went;’ what if -that meant His next advent is to be at this very place?”</p> - -<p>“Or, what if it meant that He would appear the -second time, in glory, at the homes of men; since He -elected His home for the gateway of His earthly -exit,” replied the husband. Then they sat for a -little while in a blessed silence; that kind that falls -upon souls bowing to a benediction, or moved by -thoughts that are holy beyond expression.</p> - -<p>The wife broke in on their reverie: “I wonder how -His departure affected the disciples?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[528]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I have it all here, darling;” then he took one of -his parchments and read:</p> - -<p>“And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He -lifted up His hands, and blessed them.</p> - -<p>“And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was -parted from them, and carried up into heaven.</p> - -<p>“And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem -with great joy:</p> - -<p>“And were continually in the temple, praising and -blessing God.</p> - -<p>“And they went forth, and preached everywhere, -the Lord working with them, and confirming the word -with signs following.”</p> - -<p>“I knew it was as I thought! If believers are as -they say, enlisted soldiers, under the blood-stained -banners, our Christ has not been true to His word, or -there is universal treason in the camp! The world is -not gospeled and the soldiers have not the miracle -power. I tell you husband, there is need of a revolution, -a revival of zeal, an improvement of methods! -The Hospitaler was right. The Christian world needs -to be led along the <i>Via Dolorosa</i> after Jesus and Mary, -up to their measure of utter consecration, to their undying -love, to their lofty, soul consuming zeal!”</p> - -<p>And the young gospel herald was silent, for he could -not gainsay her.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[529]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“The harp the monarch minstrel swept,</div> -<div class="verse">The king of men, the loved of heaven.</div> -<div class="verse">...</div> -<div class="verse">It softened men of iron mold;</div> -<div class="verse">No ear so dull, no soul so cold</div> -<div class="verse">That felt not, fired not to the tone,</div> -<div class="verse">Till David’s lyre grew mightier than the throne;</div> -<div class="verse">Since then, though heard on earth no more,</div> -<div class="verse">Devotion, and her daughter, love,</div> -<div class="verse">Still bid the bursting spirit soar,</div> -<div class="verse">To sounds that seem as from above,</div> -<div class="verse">In dreams that day’s broad light can not remove.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, -... and caused a seat to be set for the king-mother, and she -sat at his right hand.”—<span class="smcap">1 Kings</span>, 2, 19.</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-m.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“Miriamne, the heavenly host we imagined -to be in bivouac about our Bethany home, -methinks were really present, and gave color -and form to my dreams. I was in a grail-quest -all night.”</p> - -<p>“What a golden day is such a night! But tell me -of the color and form of your visions, Cornelius.”</p> - -<p>“We fell asleep last night conversing of the Ascension; -my dreams carried me on to Pentecost.”</p> - -<p>“And what have you brought from the dream-land<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[530]</a></span> -to help in the stern and pressing waking -hours?”</p> - -<p>“A panting heart, as one having climbed mountain -above mountain. I burn to know and feel the whole -significance of Pentecost!</p> - -<p>“I’ve determined to seek holy companionship and -wise guiding by attendance at the next ‘Harvest Feast’ -at Jerusalem. I think I’ll get peculiar help at the great -city.”</p> - -<p>“The Israelites will not welcome a Christian to their -feast.”</p> - -<p>“The one I aim to attend is that that will be observed -by the Christian knights in an upper room, in the great -city. They think they have possession of the identical -apartment in which the disciples of our Lord met and -witnessed the glories of Pentecost, after the Ascension.”</p> - -<p>“In Joseph of Arimathæa’s house?”</p> - -<p>“That is the accepted report. The Hospitaler, -whom we believe to be a ‘Grail Knight’ of to-day, is -quite earnest in so affirming.”</p> - -<p>“Wondrous white-souled Arimathæa! Jewish and -a priest, yet secretly a disciple of Jesus! I dare to -liken myself unto that holy man, in a measure. He -left an old faith for a new one, and followed the cup -of the Passion, as I, my ideal.”</p> - -<p>“<i>A good man and a just</i>,” says the Testament.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>“We meet to-night in Arimathæa’s house,” said the -Hospitaler to Cornelius, shortly after the arrival and -welcome of the latter at Jerusalem.</p> - -<p>“Can the uninitiated attend?” questioned Cornelius.</p> - -<p>“Now, that’s the joy of it, they can; and more, we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[531]</a></span> -are to have a number of Jews present, among them -some once priests; but now like that Joseph of blessed -memory, seeing the true light.”</p> - -<p>“And the meeting?”</p> - -<p>“The exalting of the Word, that’s the need of the -hour, world-wide. I tell thee, young man, set to teach; -the needs are not more religions but more religion, not -more revelators or prophets but surer interpreters. The -world blooms with truth on every hand; who will -pluck the blossoms?”</p> - -<p>And the disciples were again, all with one accord, -in the holy upper chamber.</p> - -<p>The Hospitaler, with an abruptness of John the Baptist, -merely throwing back his tunic and exposing the -golden sign of knighthood for a moment to his companions, -as he entered, at once began to address the -assembly;</p> - -<p>“Jews and Gentiles, all children by creation of a -common Father—greeting! The fires of Pentecost are -kindled everywhere in Jerusalem, but they are the old -fires and cold enough; sacrifices smoke on the altars, -but the day of such offerings is past.</p> - -<p>“Methinks, the offered bulls, goats and lambs, if they -could speak, would cry out against the priestly hands -that shed their blood; ‘How long, how long the blood -of our flocks has pointed to the lamb of God, the All-Savior, -who died to save men from sin and beasts -from the altar; and yet we die as if our work were not -finished!’</p> - -<p>“The beasts join in the wailings of humanity.</p> - -<p>“For centuries God’s chosen people celebrated this -feast of the harvest, the joy of Jewry; and now the -world’s harvest advenes. Yet, for the most part, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[532]</a></span> -multitudes see not the ripening. For years the first -fruits were offered, and as yet, the people do not understand -that first fruits mean chosen, choice fruits, the -elect of God.</p> - -<p>“For centuries, Israel offered the shoulder and heart -of the lamb, and yet Israel waits under the overshadowing -smokes of its burnt offering, not discerning the -Lamb Priest, whose heart of eternal love and shoulder -of power, are given for the salvation of the people.</p> - -<p>“Israelites, hear me; out of the altar’s smoke emerges -to view the kingdom of the house of David, refined, purified—the -hope of the future. Ye have thought, hitherto, -that David’s kingdom, whatsoever it might have -been, is, in these ages, to be reckoned with the dynasties -and forces of an antiquity, whose influences long ago -ebbed away along the shores of the all-entombing past.</p> - -<p>“Yet such conclusion is as fallacious as it is evidently -superficial. The God who works in unbroken time -cycles, though men remit their tasks at the beck of sleep -or death, pushes forth His forceful, faultless projects -with a tireless consistency that knows no cross purposes. -A real and present kingdom is that with which -this Pentecost we have to do. We are not, <i>at that -time</i> when <i>they shall bring out the bones of the kings of -Judah and spread them before the sun</i>. David’s throne -is a verity, though long incrusted with neglects; it is a -symbol of power in a dynasty that is ordained to overspread -the earth. I’d summon my witnesses; first the -weeping Jeremiah. ‘Thus said the Lord: David shall -never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of -Israel.’ How bold! but amid the ruins about us, I cry -never! never! Now call the God-nourished captive -Daniel, who, sincere to the last, made all Babylon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[533]</a></span> -glow with his prayers and his visions. Saith Daniel:</p> - -<p>“‘The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom -that shall never be destroyed.’ The dream is certain; -the interpretation sure. He was proof against -the alluring blandishments of his royal captors, and as -pure to the last as a knight of San Grail.”</p> - -<p>Cornelius saw a light on the Hospitaler’s face, and -knew it was that that comes from a conscience clear -before God. The latter went on with a voice suddenly -become tenderer than it was before.</p> - -<p>“Let us hear the reply of the converted pagan king, -Nebuchadnezzar: ‘<i>Whose kingdom is from generation -to generation!</i>’</p> - -<p>“Hearken to Isaiah, to whom the scroll of human history -through a thousand generations then yet to come -was present and lucid: ‘Unto us a child is born ... -his name shall be called Wonderful ... The Prince -of Peace.’ ‘Of the <i>increase</i> of His government and -peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David -to <i>establish</i> it with judgment and with justice from -henceforth and <i>forever</i>.’ Surely he must be of dull -comprehension who saith this is only the spiritual, -heavenly kingdom of the glorified.</p> - -<p>“Let us stand for a little under the light of the -blazing tongues of Pentecost, enswathed in imagination -by the mighty, rushing tide of Spirit manifestation, -fresh from the Being of the Almighty. Now listen -to Peter, transfigured and illuminated within and -without. Error here, with him, was impossible! Untruth -at such a time would be a madness like that of -the attempted steadying of the ark. Saith Peter: ‘<i>David -being a prophet knowing that God had sworn to him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[534]</a></span> -that He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.</i>’ Peter -at last, a rock of God, I bless thee! Call that archangel, -who doth excel in strength, his name given him -in heaven being Gabriel, the ‘Champion of God.’ He -certified his mission to Mary in terms that can be -made no finer: ‘<i>I am Gabriel, that <span class="smcap">stand in the presence -of god</span> and sent to show thee glad tidings. -Thou shalt bring forth a son. And the Lord shall give -unto Him the throne of His father David.</i>’ Of His Kingdom -there shall be no end. These are ‘glad tidings,’ -indeed, sung as such to the joy and wonder of heaven, -as well as proclaimed as the sovereign comfort of -earth’s inhabiters.</p> - -<p>“The splendid, earthly Kingdom outlined so gloriously -by the prophets has suffered no syncope, and David’s -royal line has not found its end in sepulchral -palaces. That Kingdom and that line survives; their -zenith not yet attained.</p> - -<p>“In that zenith day, <i>Truth shall spring out of the -earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven</i>.</p> - -<p>“So it was settled forever in heaven, for earth and -to all eternity, that in the vocabulary of divine wisdom, -‘first-born’ means ‘choice-born.’ And he is choice-born -no matter how ill his beginning, who is reborn by -the all-uplifting, renewing Spirit of Grace! Jesus, in -marked manner, even in this respect, parallels David -in reäffirming in Himself this law of His refined, exalted -kingdom. The line of the Christ from remotest generations -is found to have deflected from the line of the -first born. His descent must be traced through Seth, -Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, Solomon -and Nathan, and still others, none of whom were first -in their advent into the families to which they belonged.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[535]</a></span> -Again, the Christ and his progenitor, David, antagonized -the barbarian tenet of all ages that a man was to -be honored merely because of his gigantesque figure or -prowess. In olden times men revered greatly the -giantly. Among the primitives to be a weakling was -to be pitiable, and to be huge to monstrosity was to be -respected, if not actually worshiped. Indeed, paganism -in its essence is but homage paid to the great, that -is terrible. The princely David began his career in -slaying wild beasts and monstrous giants, but we may -cease admiring the prowess he had physically in greater -admiration of the symbol that lies in his early exploits. -He was to be the giant-slayer; evil giants and giant -evils were to fall before him alike; and a shepherd’s -little sling, in pious hands, was shown to be invincible. -In Solomon’s time, there was more outward -splendor, but less spirituality than in David’s -time. The latter witnessed the gilded decline in its -beginnings. Decay followed swiftly. The world -sighed for a restoration; the heathen manufactured -gods; the Fire Worshipers followed stars; in the -groves, virgins were, after a sort, worshiped, as in -the forest night-services of the old England of some of -you, the Druids prayed to a mystical ‘virgin that was -to bring forth.’ There was a common yearning for the -coming of a Champion to lead and defend the races of -man. The yearning felt its way blindly toward the -wonder to be, that of a woman of the children of men, -mothering One all human, all divine, a Prince fit to link -together the parts of David’s kingdom, whether militant -here or triumphant above. That full day has -begun, but is only dimly seen by many. You Jews -have been wont to keep a Pentecost of males only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[536]</a></span> -while Egypt deifies a woman as goddess of the harvest. -One turns to brawn, the other to the bringer forth, and -neither gets the truth, the royal truth, found in the -faith that brings forth through all humanity!</p> - -<p>“Would you see a real Pentecost? Now, look how -the first was to the fathers. The holy ones, among -Christ’s followers, believing His promises, assembled -at Joseph of Arimathæa’s house, to await it. Hear the -word:</p> - -<p>“And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of -the disciples, the number of names together were about -a hundred and twenty.</p> - -<p>“These all continued with one accord in prayer and -supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of -Jesus, and with his brethren.”</p> - -<p>“Our holy Luke, said to have been an artist, artistically -presents the scene. As we read his record, we behold -the ‘Queen of the House of David,’ the representative -woman; as she should be, in the company and honor -of God’s people. Not there as a beautiful creature to -be admired; but there to pray with those who prayed -for the dawn and the glory. With the genius of an artist, -and the insight of a prophet, Luke displays his ideal -thus. The Scripture record closes, leaving the typical -woman amid God’s people, on her knees, waiting in -hopefulness for the full dawn; while for a little time -over all falls the earnest of the promise in miraculous -displays from above. There was a rushing of mighty -sounds, the providences of God in motion, the movements -of His spirits who minister, for a time made -visible! The scene was one never to be forgotten, and -the holy John, years after in the glowing visions of the -Apocalypse, had brought to his mind its central figure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[537]</a></span> -the woman clothed with the sun; the transfigured -woman, and she as woman in her highest estate; that -is mothering a child! He saw her rising above all -perils, all evils; but as she rose, she bore aloft her -child, a Man Child! Look at the picture, men and -brethren, ’till it possesses your souls! <span class="smcap">Behold the -Woman!</span> Behold the interlaced symbols! As a mother -holds above peril her child, so the peerless woman -held aloft her Divine Babe; as the church holds aloft its -offspring, so also in the apotheosis of the ideal mother, -comes the uplifting of man’s hopes, and the triumph of -all that is best, all that is promised. We see to-day, -but the smoke side of Pentecost, by and by we’ll see, -as do those in heaven, its fire side.”</p> - -<p>The speaker ceased his address, and all were filled -with great and moving thoughts.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[538]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE CORONATION OF THE QUEEN.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“My knowledge is so weak, oh, blissful queen,</div> -<div class="verse">To tell abroad thy mighty worthiness,</div> -<div class="verse">That I the weight of it may not sustain;</div> -<div class="verse">But as a child of twelve months’ old or less</div> -<div class="verse">That laboreth his language to express,</div> -<div class="verse">Even so fare I and therefore pray,</div> -<div class="verse">Guide thou my song which I of thee may say.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Wordsworth.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-i.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“If I could only carry to Bethany what I feel -now!” ejaculated the young chaplain, as he -hurried along from the knights’ celebration -of Pentecost, homeward, at the time that the -Moslems were summoned to evening prayers by the -minaret calls.</p> - -<p>After his greeting, on arriving at his abode, his first -words were: “I’ve seen the crowns of fire, and now -comprehend the meaning of Pentecost, where men -gathered from varied climes, heard each the spirit’s -message in his own tongue! The Spirit is the interpreter!”</p> - -<p>“By what aid came this revelation?”</p> - -<p>“God and the Hospitaler.”</p> - -<p>“We have the first here; let us call the other, that -the temple on the hill be made to feel the glow. The -time is opportune, for each day witnesses new triumphs -of our cause.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[539]</a></span></p> - -<p>When the knight arrived a feast was in progress. -His air awed those to whom he was a stranger, and -there were not a few who thought within themselves,</p> - -<p>“Is he a prophet?”</p> - -<p>Abruptly, as usual, he began:</p> - -<p>“Friends: I would that all hearts here were moved -by justice to enthrone the Queen whose praise your -frank youths have been sincerely singing. I am here -to-day to proclaim her rights, and in so doing I shall -appeal to that sure word which survives when all else -fails. She was of David’s royal line; the noblest one -of all the earth. To the proof? The Christian Scriptures, -from the hands of Matthew and Luke, present -her ancestral descent. These apostles wrote as God -directed, and, after all, only reaffirmed that already set -forth in the most carefully, religiously guarded records -of all antiquity, the Jewish genealogical tables.</p> - -<p>“You know that the ancient Jews held those tables -in sacred regard, for on their integrity depended the -proof of the things to them most dear, as they believed. -By them every Jew could trace his Abrahamic -descent, and to Abraham’s seed were all the great -promises of the covenant. By those tables they -proved their title to the land of promise, Canaan. -Every Jew, believing himself one of God’s chosen people, -and that his advancement and the advancement of -his posterity in the Divine favor, depended on the -purity of the blood of both, felt that he needed the -guidance of those tables to preserve him from any admixture -with alien or Gentile blood. The Aaronic -priesthood was hereditary and the priesthood was initial -in the religious system of the Hebrews. Its legitimacy -was preserved chiefly by these hereditary charters.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[540]</a></span> -Then all true Israelites looked for the coming of -a Savior, Priest and King to bring to the chosen transcendent -glory, and to win an universal dominion, -marked by love, joy and peace. Every Jew knew that -Great One was to spring from the house of David, and -all within that Judaic line hoping that he or his children -might be near akin to the One to come, carefully, -constantly, proudly guarded and studied these records -of descent. Birth was the foundation upon which all -Jewish institutions were founded. ‘<i>So all Israel was -reckoned by genealogies.</i>’ They lived in a reign of blood, -and in blood to be Jewishly thoroughbred was, they -thought, to be most highly favored. They had not yet -discerned the law of the new dispensation, which declares -all men akin; a dispensation seeking to build up -a superior humanity by first of all transforming and -exalting the inner life. By the revered records of -these Jewish patriarchs, both holy and love-ladened, -place the writings of Matthew and Luke, and with concurrent -testimony, unimpeachable as well as conclusive, -the legitimacy of Jesus the son of Mary is proven! -He was beyond a cavil of David’s kingly line. There -were Christ-haters who contested at every point His -claim of Messiahship. They forged lies freely; they -hurled after Him slanders innumerable; they insinuated -that He was born in fornication; they affected -to flee from Him as one having a devil; they -denounced Him to Jewish as well as Roman authorities -as a liar, a seducer of men and a traitor. In a -word, they howled Him down in every way they could, -unabashed by the splendor of His baptismal indorsement, -unsilenced by the awful warnings of His cross. -But in their desperation they never dared to challenge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[541]</a></span> -the records which proved Him ‘<i>the son of David</i>.’ -Now had His claims rested upon His relations to His -earthly father, Joseph, they would have been disproven. -All Jewry would have quickly, fiercely proclaimed Him -a pretender and not in the family of promise. The -Christ was heir of David’s name and fame because His -mother was, and so in exalting Him you crown the -saintly woman who bore Him! He was the adopted -son of Joseph, type of all His followers, adopted sons -of a Royal Father. He was legitimate through his -mother, type of all his followers, brought into the -royal family of God by the power of a mystic new -birth.</p> - -<p>“But there is another line running backward, preserved -through the centuries to connect the first Adam -with this last one. This line runs from Christ through -his mother to Eden. Behold the august truth suspended -by that chain of names! Names; only names -of the dead! names of the forgotten! Jesus by Mary -is linked to the chain! It’s an old, old chain, but yet -it has gems in its links. Each named is the child of -another living before, and the history of each is recorded -in two words, ‘begat,’ ‘died.’ A chain of dust! -One man precedes another. Each in turn vanishes -until immortality is confronted in the last sentence: -‘<i>Adam, who was the son of God!</i>’ The first mortal -son of God uncrowned and led away from his kingdom, -by a woman, to death! The twain go down together, -each ruinous to the other, with nothing left them but -a hope; and that hope rested upon a to them mysterious -promise: ‘<i>The seed of the woman shall crush the -head of the serpent!</i>’ It would have staggered their -faith had one told them that in God’s revenges, all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[542]</a></span> -compensating, all healing, she that led down was of -the sex that should lead upward. Out of their darkness -there came a seeming dawn, and Eve cried ecstatically -at the birth of Cain:</p> - -<p>‘I have gotten a man from the Lord!’</p> - -<p>“They thought he was a token of renewed favor -and probably the redeemer from the curse. He turned -out a murderer, and introduced them to the supreme -horror of humanity—death. The conflict of light and -darkness went on, and the first pair tasted death themselves, -looking along the horizon of unrealized hopes -to the last and waiting, as all their posterity through -painful centuries waited, for the Man that was to save. -The long years with leaden tread marched on, struggles -amid suffering weighty and countless, accompanied -the race; of them all woman bore the heavier part, but -she kept somehow the larger hope. Each Jewish mother, -with a pride of sex secretly cherished, watched and -longed for the coming from herself of the ONE who was -to lift her up and crown her queen, indeed.</p> - -<p>“God at last gathered all woman’s trustful hopings -into one great answered prayer, and deigning, in sovereign -love, His marvelous co-operation, brought forth -another and a perfect Adam.</p> - -<p>“We are informed that Joseph and Mary went, about -the time of Jesus’ birth, in compliance with Roman -law, to Bethlehem to pay their personal taxes. The -Roman tax lists were based upon the records of family -descent so far as concerned the Jews.</p> - -<p>“To make the collection certain beyond the possibility -of any one’s escape, the law required each taxable -subject to pay his allotted tribute in the city of his -nativity. The father and mother of Jesus were cited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[543]</a></span> -to the city of David. Thither they went. And so in -the providence of God it happened that pagan Rome -was summoned to the cradle of the infant Savior and -made unwittingly an attester to all time that He was -of a family by right recorded among those descended -from great David.</p> - -<p>“The son and the mother here stand or fall together. -If Mary was not of David’s line, then the Son she bore -was not, and He is left without proof of being of the -seed of David.</p> - -<p>“Joseph was not the father of the Christ <i>after the -flesh</i>. The lives of mother and son are eternally intertwined. -If we honor one we must needs honor the -other; abating the fame of one we degrade the other.</p> - -<p>“Jesus’ claims to being the Messiah depended upon -the fact that His mother was of the tribe and family -royal. The absolute requirements of prophecy can -only be met in the Messiah by His being of the House -of David. Jesus himself admitted and fairly met this -necessity. So he questioned the Pharisees: ‘What -think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?’ ‘They say -unto him, the Son of David.’ Admitting this, the -Savior propounded the question involving sonship -and spiritual unity with God which His questioners -could not answer:</p> - -<p>“‘If David then call him Lord, how is he son?’</p> - -<p>“‘<i>Neither durst any man from that day forth ask -Him any more questions.</i>’</p> - -<p>“Had He denied the necessity of Davidic origin they -could have overwhelmed Him with Scriptures. Had he -not been of that family the most ignorant Jew would -have promptly rejected His claims to being the Hope -of Israel.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[544]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Peter the apostle, amid the soul-trying solemnities -of Pentecost, speaking to the representatives of people -from all parts of the earth and for all time, cried: -‘Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you concerning -the Patriarch David: Being a prophet, and -knowing God had sworn with an oath to him that of -the fruit of his loins, <i>according to the flesh</i>, he would -raise up Christ to sit on his throne.’</p> - -<p>“This orator spoke then with the accuracy of one in -the presence of the Holy Ghost, and not only made -sincere, but illuminated, by the torch of God. This -is conclusive, but the reiteratives of the inspired -writers justify us in presenting their cumulative -evidence.</p> - -<p>“After Peter comes the learned Hebrew of the Hebrews, -Paul; before his conversion to Christianity declaring -himself to have been ‘after the most straightest -sect a Pharisee;’ after that conversion, rejoicing -to the end of life, as of the true, new Israel by faith in -Him that makest all new.</p> - -<p>“Twice Paul met Mary’s son mysteriously, face to -face, within the very confines of Glory. Let Paul -speak: ‘Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, separated -unto the gospel of God, concerning His Son, our Lord, -which was made of the seed of David according to the -flesh!’</p> - -<p>“Let us not longer make a mock of eternal, holy verities! -Christ was of David’s flesh through His mother, -and born to be a real king of a real kingdom, not a -phantom kingdom! That kingdom must come; yea, -blessed be Jehovah! it is coming.</p> - -<p>“Joseph, the putative father of Jesus, adopted Jesus -as his son, but he could not, by that legal act, make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[545]</a></span> -his foster son, whose father was the Holy Spirit of the -seed of David, <i>after the flesh</i>! Jesus received, then, -His royal blood from Mary, and bore His Kingly title -after the flesh as ‘<i>the crown wherewith his mother -crowned Him</i>.’ Revelations harmonize; Luke and -Matthew must therefore agree with Paul and Peter.</p> - -<p>“The tables of Luke and Matthew agree down to -David’s time, but then they diverge, until they are -converged in Jesus, through the undoubted legitimacy -of Mary as a descendant of David and the adoption of -Jesus by Joseph, a scion of another branch of the same -great family. Luke gives a sentence, all luminous, -but first puzzling: ‘<i>Jesus himself began to be about thirty -years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, -which was the son of Heli.</i>’ ‘Ah, as was <i>supposed!</i>’ -sneers the infidel. ‘As was <i>supposed!</i> <span class="smcap">supposed!!</span>’ -hatefully shouts some insinuating, ignorant Jews! But -now let us fill out, naturally, Luke’s statement, ‘as -was supposed, the son of Joseph, but in reality the son -of Heli.’ But here it may be asked, was Jesus the son -of Heli? It is, I answer, not infrequently in the Scriptures -that a grandson is called a son. Jesus was probably -the grandson of Heli. It was a common custom -of the Jews, except in cases of especial necessity, not -to record the names of women in tracing lines of descent. -Men kept the books, and it had become a habit -with the lords of creation to thrust woman into the -background. Mary was too insignificant a person, -socially considered, in her time, to be registered in her -own name in the hereditary charters. Joseph was put -in her stead, as her representative. There was not any -supposition about the descent of Mary, but these -scribes, who had charge of the books, thought it were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[546]</a></span> -more creditable to the male sex to record Joseph as the -father of Jesus, and, by a little fiction, suppose him to -have descended through the former from Heli, than to -say Mary descended from Heli and Jesus descended -from Mary. The Romans encouraged this, and also the -politicians. Men were the only ones to fight or pay -taxes, and, as political factors, were strictly watched by -those in authority. Luke, in reality, gives Mary’s line. -He was scholarly and accurate, besides that a physician, -and we judge by all experience that there is that -in the profession of medicine which makes its followers -tender toward all suffering, consequently especially -tender to women, the largest inheritors of the pains -that beset our race. Doctor Luke, like those of his -fraternity, by an act of graceful justice, in the spirit -of Christianity which is essentially humane, just, and -courtly, accorded gladly the woman her place. But the -‘<i>doomsday books</i>’ of the Jews, containing their family -trees or genealogies, perished with the perishing of the -Jewish nation. Those records had done their work; -it was time for them to go. They had become by misuse -agencies of evil. They stood long enough to demonstrate -that God works through cycles vastly wide, and -that His definite promise made to Adam, Abraham and -many of their successors, had finally been fulfilled, at -the end of thousands of years, with a miraculous explicitness. -The records disappeared after Christ came, -and herein was a providence saying to the watchers: -‘He is come. No need further of the patents of His -ancestry to aid your watching.’ More than that, they -being gone, no other could arise claiming to be Shiloh, -with hope of convincing any by appeal to proof from -the records of ancestry.</p> - -<p>“Shiloh and his white kingdom have come. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[547]</a></span> -ruling the earth; not in memories of its mighty dead, -but by its regal, potent virtues and charities. The -battering rams of Titus destroyed wall and Holy Temple, -but thus was let in new dawn. Above the storm -of that awful conflict the spiritual may discern in living -letters the mightly words of God which dispelled disordering -darkness from the universe at the beginning: -‘<i>Let there be light</i>,’ and, indeed, ‘light was.’ The -obliterated records of Jewish ancestral lines, on which -alone many a worthless child of Abraham based his -claims to superiority, his right to despise and neglect -his fellow men, his justification to tyrannize, and finally -his hope of favor with God, ceased to present their -sturdy barriers to the entering in of a better hope. -Then came in the beginning of this new era; now the -patent of nobility is noble character; this is the time -to be marked by an universal recognition of universal -brotherhood in a kingdom where there is neither Jew -nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female. A kingdom -where righteousness, impartial justice, liberty, -equality, purity and humanity are to be the regnant -potencies. In this kingdom, how fittingly, Christ -stands as the king and ideal of man, and how fittingly -his mother supplements his sway by being presented -herself to all womankind as a queenly ideal. Let him -or her dispute her title, who can surely say the earth, -in this redemption period, needs no such sublime epitome -of womanly virtue and worthfulness.</p> - -<p>“My words are ended for to-day, assembled men and -women. Some of these things spoken may seem like -deep sayings, but I leave them to find their lodgment -in your hearts and minds. I trust them, knowing that -Truth has a sword which cuts her way, each sweep of -that sword making light.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[548]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII">CHAPTER XXXVIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE “LIGHT OF THE HAREM” IN “THE TEMPLE OF -ALLEGORY.”</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Would I had fallen upon those happier days,</div> -<div class="verse">And those Arcadian scenes....</div> -<div class="verse">Vain wish! Those days were never! airy dreams</div> -<div class="verse">Sat for the picture, and the poet’s hand</div> -<div class="verse">Imposed a gay delirium for a truth.</div> -<div class="verse">Grant it; I still must envy them an age</div> -<div class="verse">That favored such a dream; in days like these</div> -<div class="verse">Impossible when virtue is so scarce,</div> -<div class="verse">That to suppose a scene where she presides</div> -<div class="verse">Is tramontane, and stumbles all belief.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Young.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“The glory of the Lord came from the way of the east, ... -and the earth shined with His glory. Thou son of man show the -house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities, -and let them measure the pattern.”—<span class="smcap">Ezekiel</span>, xliii.</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-m.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“My Cornelius once said I might expend the -fortune coming from my grandfather, Harrimai, -as I chose.”</p> - -<p>“Why, that’s so without my saying. I -did not court your grandfather, nor his ownings, and -have gotten affluence beyond the wildest dreams of a -lover in Miriamne’s self.”</p> - -<p>“I think the old church on the hill is smiling day by -day, more and more.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve noted the improvement, and it assures me our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[549]</a></span> -hearers are growing. A meanly kept sanctuary, witnesses -of starved worshipers. Some churches might be -called stables for all-devouring, nothing-giving, lean -kine.”</p> - -<p>“I’d like to be brought to confession; question me!”</p> - -<p>“Question? I can not doubt either Miriamne or her -doings; to question, one must doubt.”</p> - -<p>“Sir Courtly! But I’ll flank your courtesy; I’ve -purchased and furbished up the old ecclesiastical pile.”</p> - -<p>“I might have guessed it was Miriamne’s work! -Now, good Bishop of Bethany, appoint me Rector.”</p> - -<p>“Churchman forever! We’ll have no Rector.”</p> - -<p>“No Rector? No sermons? No congregation?”</p> - -<p>“We’ll have a multitude, if we can get into the place -the God-shine; that brightens and draws ever.”</p> - -<p>“Allurement by light! A new device. Are we to -have a tryst where lotus-dreamers may take sun-baths?”</p> - -<p>“Curiosity, too proud to question directly, travels -around with banterings.”</p> - -<p>“Incisive Miriamne, my ægis, thin as paper, is -shredded: I confess!”</p> - -<p>“Confession compels pardon and counsel. I’ll give -both. The restored sanctuary is to be the capitol of -our fraternity, the ‘<i>Sisters of Bethany</i>.’”</p> - -<p>“Capitol? Are you inviting the Sultan to take your -homes and your heads? A capitol sounds like politics, -revolution and things governmental.”</p> - -<p>“There is to be war and a revolution; our munitions -are to be solely moral agencies; our aim, to revolve the -world around toward Paradisiacal days. I’d have parting -streams flow out from Bethany to water the earth, -and sing anew the jubilant strains of Pison, Gihon, -Hiddekel and Euphrates.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[550]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Arcadia! Alas, how sad such dreams, because so -impossible to realize. The Arcadians, so charming in -the poet’s pictures, were, in fact, very warlike, very -loutish, very human.”</p> - -<p>“Say not that what has been must always be. Moses, -at a time when Israel was at its lowest dip, received of -God a pattern of the Tabernacle. The God of Moses -is unchangeable. I’ve gotten from Him a pattern, also.”</p> - -<p>“And now I question, as you wish!”</p> - -<p>“The old sanctuary is to be a ‘<i>Temple of Allegory</i>.’ -We shall attempt therein to picture the finest truths by -symbols that shall make them tangible and irresistible.”</p> - -<p>“A splendid ambition! Possess me of your intricacies -of canon and catechism. I’d accept them.”</p> - -<p>“You overlook our simplicity by expecting complexity. -We shall not walk like ghosts, hampered by -the grave-clothes of the dead, though august forms. -Seven words, enough for each day of the round week, -are our whole profession: ‘<i>Humanity toward humanity, -with godliness toward God.</i>’”</p> - -<p>As they conversed, they walked toward the old sanctuary -at the suburbs of Bethany, and now were drawing -near it.</p> - -<p>“Behold, Miriamne, the Hospitaler; yonder.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I’ve called the knights hither; the Hospitaler -will dedicate our temple to-day.”</p> - -<p>“But has he ecclesiastical authority so to do?”</p> - -<p>“The same authority that these growing shrubs and -vines have to make the place beautiful. See, I’ve -pierced the walls of the grim pile, wherever I could, to -make a window. The Hospitaler is to take them for a -theme.”</p> - -<p>“Windows for themes?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[551]</a></span></p> - -<p>“He is able; and understands by them that we’d -have let into musty beliefs floods of sweet light.”</p> - -<p>“The knights are singing!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, the Grail song, ‘<i>Faint though pursuing</i>;’ the -dedication has commenced.”</p> - -<p>The words sung recited the grail quest; but its -chorus, a simple one, was much the same as that sung -at the May-day festivities on a former occasion. The -people gathered, heartily joined in the chorus. When -the singing ceased, the Knight, in his usual abrupt -manner, began addressing the assembly:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“The beloved young missioners have undertaken, by -means of their handiwork here, to strikingly present the -noblest truths, and they have taken a step in the right direction. -Love for the pictorial, manifest especially in children, -grows with growth; those adult needing and seeking, as -they grow, finer, grander symbols. Our Divine Lord, who -‘<i>knew men</i>’ and ‘<i>knew</i> what was in man,’ did not rebuke, but -rather utilized this taste of man, by teaching the profoundest -things of His Kingdom by means of it. He came as -close as close could be to the very core of human life, as it -was or to all time will be. While He might have navigated -Galilee in a palatial barge, borne over be-flowered waves by -perfumed breezes and golden wings, with the aureoled -spirits, ‘<i>who do excel in strength</i>,’ by thousands, to escort -Him, He chose rather to journey in an all-winning humility, -borrowing, as He had need, the old boat of some poor -Tiberian fisherman. He might have entered Jerusalem, -that last time, in an Elijah-like chariot, dazzling the city -with splendors surpassing those that the rapt John beheld -on Patmos; but the King of Glory, seeking to be the King of -all men, elected in that supreme moment to get near to -men by approaching the august courts of Herod and Caiphas, -and the commons as well, on an ass—an humble beast, and -borrowed at that. All this allegorized the condescension -and sympathy of Jehovah. The universe is full of patterns! -The books of Nature, Revelation, and Providence, having a -common authority, are constant in the use of pictured -truth. Nature gives us the dawning of light and the marshaling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[552]</a></span> -of order out of darkness and chaos. There is the -low earth, the high firmament, ripe summer going down into -the winding sheets of winter and up to the resurrections -of spring. Twig, flower, seed, forest; insect that creeps, -and bird that flies; the speck-life moved, and the behemoth; -the atom and the planet-system—waning and -growing, dying and living, from formlessness to beauty, from -time to eternity! Then take the inspired picture-history: -Eden’s fall, Egyptian captivity, the Red Sea passage, the -wilderness, the manna by the way, the rest by the Mount of -the Law, the entrance to the Promised Land. Lastly, the -Incarnate One, an eternal symbol, the realization and fulfillment -of all preceding. ‘Which things are an allegory,’ exclaimed -Paul, with a sweeping back-look. The three books -present to the thoughtful pictured banners innumerable, to -wave him onward. This temple is dedicated to the purpose -of pointing to these pictures. Fitly the ‘angels of the -mount’ have determined to make prominent the beautiful, -patient, modest Mary, Mother of Jesus. And to study her -intelligently or profitably, it is necessary to know her not only -as an historical personage, but as one in the cavalcade of -symbolism unfolded by Sacred Writ and by Nature. She -passes by, herself every way unique, the exemplar of God to -those aspiring after gentle, devout girlhood, pure and wise -maiden-life, constant wifehood, and patient, consecrated, -and influential motherhood. Turn again to the Divine -Word, the beacon of the ages, the history of Providence, -the solver of life’s problems. It is made up of -an entrancing array of symbols, types, prophetic dramas, -and gorgeously constructed visions, constantly representing -or dextrously pointing, by countless trophies and allegories, -to its Ideal and Darling, Mary’s Son, <i>who ‘spoke as -man never spake, yet who without a parable spake nothing.’</i> -Though the literary ages are strewn with long winrows of -dead books, no work of man long surviving the mutations -of time, God’s picturesque handiwork, the inspired volume, -as potently molds the thoughts, charms the affections and -quickens the hopes of our race with its tokens, types, idyls -and illustration as it did when the earth was younger by far -than it is now. It is a living fountain, not only giving, but -retaining its immortality! It abides because it masterfully -deals with the things that pertain to the wonderland of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[553]</a></span> -soul. How necessary its methods is at once apparent to -any one who considers, discerningly, man as a complex union -of spirit and matter; wonderful forever, but ‘<i>very good</i>,’ -since the All Holy, Great High Priest performed the nuptial -ceremony of that union. If there could be found a being -able to reason, as a man, who had not within himself this -unity, and who had never experienced its phenomena, such -would at once combat the possibility of its existence. Even -those so organized, and momentarily realizing the jointure -of the God-like spirit with the earthly body, the higher condescending -to and communing with the inferior, the inferior -at times over-persuading, dominating and utterly shipwrecking -its great spiritual co-partner, are compelled to -admit the whole as being a fact without parallel, alike inscrutable -and bewildering. A life-time of profoundest introspection -can carry the greatest mind, herein, only to the -confines of new wonders. But the interest in the study of -the unwritten, unvoiced language of symbolisms by which -the wonderfully united twain, soul and body, confer and -commune with each other deepens with the study. What a -fine, expressive, rapid, exact, exalted language that must -be! To each well understood; without their arcana unknown, -unheard, incomprehensible. And it is of necessity -all symbol, natural, intuitive, without a single arbitrary sign! -This sign-language acts by <i>symbol</i> in the royal temple of -memory and imagination. And so again we perceive the -representative, picturesque or typical is the medium of the -fine, the deep and the lofty in expressing truth. This is the -soul’s language, by which it communes with whatever else -there is in man, through which it receives the songs of -Heaven, and the august or tender messages of the Spirit, out -of the deathless land.</p> - -<p>“When this sphere of ours was rolling swiftly onward -through the shadows of night, as well as swiftly downward -through darker shadows of sin, Divine love said ‘Let there be -light.’ Then the hosts of heaven saw at Bethlehem a -mother and babe marking the place of world-dawn, unfolding -the design of Deity to effect redemption by touching the -race of man at infancy; the most effective because the most -plastic point; through motherhood the most influential because -the tenderest instrumentality. The never-to-be-forgotten -spectacle thrilled, with a new ecstasy, the beings of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[554]</a></span> -glory whose every throb of life is joy. They tracked the -heavens about with light as they sped out to keep abreast -the fleeing earth and shout over Bethlehem, ‘Glad tidings! -Glad tidings!’ They saw Eden restored through the advent -of a new, pure home; they saw a mystic covenant between -God and man typified in the child begotten of a human -mother in conjunction with the Eternal Father. By this there -seemed to be an attesting that humanity was to be raised to -Divine favor; there also was a symbol showing the value of -law; for through the incarnation, Deity, in the form of a babe, -became submissive to law administered by a mortal mother.</p> - -<p>“He is blind who can not see in all these things God’s purpose -to elect some of His creatures to be His co-laborers in -the choicest co-operations, and also to be exemplars of what -He does and would do. These things being so, we do well -to learn the alphabet of His goodness from His elect heroes, -heroines and saints; and I proclaim to-day my innermost -belief in Christ as the argument, logic and fruit of God’s -love; but, at the same time, I praise, as one enravished, -the character of her who was God’s poem, God’s peroration! -We now proclaim this temple dedicated to the purposes -of showing forth the things I have spoken.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>The Hospitaler abruptly ceased his address, as he began -it. There were other services consisting of psalm-singing -and prayers, and the service was ended.</p> - -<p>As the congregation dispersed, the young missioner, -Cornelius, exclaimed: “Miriamne, the Hospitaler has -awakened me as from sleep by God’s truth. Oh, the -heavens are not as full of shining stars as God’s truth -is full of beauty! It seems strange that men like myself, -and wiser, are so long in bringing these things to -their minds. You, my dear little mystic, are my interpreter.</p> - -<p>“It’s just as I told you, wife. We must go in pairs. -In the Egyptian mythologies, Osiris had his Isis, -Amen-Ra his Maut, and Kneph his Sate. Thank -God I have my adolescent other self!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[555]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I, a woman, help you? My sex is honored by the -praise. Are they worthy of all they need? Is it -madness to seek to gather all women having gifts and -needs into a helped and helping fraternity whose creed -is a fine example? If I help Cornelius, cannot a peerless -one like Mary help all?”</p> - -<p>“Pardon the thought, but one word haunts me—idolatry!”</p> - -<p>“Impossible! We all need soul company, and have -room within for such. We must have an inner population -of real heroines and heroes or be filled with -ghosts and myths. The empty soul, eaten up with -self-worship, goes mad; the myth-possessed becomes -an idolater. If we harbor the God-like, keeping the -highest place for Deity, our inner selves will be no -hideous chambers of imagery, but a counterpart of -heaven.”</p> - -<p>“But some have fallen into putting Mary before -Jesus, and so we’ve seen the advent of Mariolatry.”</p> - -<p>“But this only, and surely, here I know, no friend of -the Divine Son can dethrone Him by honoring her, -aright; indeed, as He, Himself, did. It was of Him -she spoke when exclaiming: ‘<i>My soul doth rejoice in -God my Savior!</i>’ Can one truly honor Him and -despise and ignore the woman who gave Him human -birth? Can one have His mind and forget her for -whom love was uppermost to Him in His supreme last -hours? Can one honor her aright, and yet dethrone -the Son whom she enthroned? She bore Him, then -lived for Him. She honored herself in bearing Him, -and was His mother, His teacher and His disciple. -He revered her, she worshiped Him. Awed by His -augustness, she was yet conscious of an ownership of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[556]</a></span> -His greatness; believing in His divinity, she yet enjoyed -the nearness to Him of a mother.”</p> - -<p>“I can not but believe that she is a queen, indeed, -high among the glorified who reign with God! I question -again: Who ever did, or could, become heretic or -carnal by sincerely revering the peerless woman whom -Christ enthroned on His heart?”</p> - -<p>“I know at least that the fathers at imperial and pagan -Rome placed a representation of Mary in their -Pantheon when public policy made it an imperative -necessity to overthrow the influence of the lewd, fanciful -and ungodly ideals that had been set up therein,” -responded Cornelius.</p> - -<p>“The world is a Pantheon full of corrupt ideas. Let -us raise high the choice ones God has sent us—But -see, yonder is the wife of a poor old Druse camel-driver. -She was once a sinner in the streets of Jerusalem. -Now she is a Sister of Bethany, allured to goodness by -our Temple’s allegories!”</p> - -<p>“A woman that was a sinner, a scarlet woman?”</p> - -<p>“Only such. No; all of that! One woman; a lost -one? How little to man; how much to God! Had -nothing else been done, heaven would have been set -singing, as ever, over a sinner’s return. That’s reward -enough for all we’ve attempted.”</p> - -<p>“Now I’m interested, indeed!”</p> - -<p>“Well you may be, when you hear all. We’ve here one -once a harem beauty, who, having lost her power to -fascinate, was committing her life to that hag-cunning -belonging to old women who supplement their decaying -power by wickedness, fox-like and serpentine.”</p> - -<p>“The old, old story; yet I thank God if her life be -sweetened.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[557]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Hers is a strange story.”</p> - -<p>“May I know it?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; it is, as I’ve gathered it in scraps, a sad -romance. She was born of Georgian parents, among -the mountains of Armenia, and gifted, in her youth, -as are most of those of her sex in that country, with unusual -personal beauty. She early attracted the attention -of the monsters who dealt in human flesh, and a -Georgian noble unrighteously claiming her family as -his serfs, bartered away Nourahmal to merchants seeking -recruits for Mameluke harems. She became, in -time, part of the retinue of a sheik by the name of -Azrael, a desperate adventurer, who, on account of his -blood-deeds, was called by his followers the ‘Angel of -Death,’ His luxurious and desperate way of living -justified his claim to Turkish extraction; his adroitness -and avidity for intrigue stamped him as a Mameluke.”</p> - -<p>“Nourahmal? Azrael? Why, these must be the -same of whom I’ve heard Sir Charleroy speak?” queried -Cornelius.</p> - -<p>“The same!”</p> - -<p>“She comes out of the past as one from the dead!”</p> - -<p>“And her story is a series of strange events. It is -as follows: Azrael suspected her of having abetted -the escape of my father and Ichabod, therefore determined -to kill her. She gained a temporary respite -through having saved her master’s life from an assassin -plotting to supplant him; though she periled her -own in so doing.</p> - -<p>“As Azrael awaited her recovery from the wounds -she had suffered in his behalf, he devised another scheme -which he hoped would compass his favorite’s destruction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[558]</a></span> -and his own elevation. He was ambitious to be -Sherif of Mecca. To attain that honor he saw he -must needs do something to enhance his popularity -greatly with his Mohammedan followers, and so conceived -the plan of getting into his power, Harrimai of -the Jews and Adolphus of the Christians. His purpose -was to rack those two leaders into apostasy and the -betrayal of their followers. Had he succeeded, the -event would have been crushing to Jews and Christians -east of Jordan. He promised Nourahmal her freedom -and restoration to her Georgian home if she aided him -in his design; though he did not disclose his purpose -to her beyond that of securing the presence of Von -Gombard and Harrimai in his camp. She felt that -there was some malign, hidden purpose in her master’s -breast, but deemed it expedient, at the outset, to seem -to co-operate in his plan.”</p> - -<p>“But how was the sheik using his strategy against -Nourahmal?”</p> - -<p>“As a fiend! He, having no conception of a friendship -between a man and a woman that was pure and -free from intrigue, suspected the relations between his -favorite and Ichabod. He thought the two only -needed the opportunity to precipitate into perfidy. He -laid his plan darkly, and, leaving a trusty follower to -carry it out, hastened forward to Mecca.”</p> - -<p>“But surely, Nourahmal was not what he thought -her!”</p> - -<p>“No; though training her as a plastic child, he judged -she was what he had tried to make her; at her worst she -was. But let me continue. The assault on my parents -and Ichabod, on the road between Gerash and Bozrah, -was the opening of the drama. The plan then was to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[559]</a></span> -seize Rizpah, and under pretense of negotiating for her -ransom, inveigle Harrimai into the hands of Azrael’s -followers. Nourahmal was to aid in this by affecting -tears, pleading for pity and suggesting the sending for -the girl’s father.”</p> - -<p>“What besetments perilous we pass through, all -unknown to us! Harrimai and your parents, to their -death, never suspected the devices worked against -them!”</p> - -<p>“Nor dreamed that a harem favorite, a mere girl, -and an utter stranger to them, was their good -angel!”</p> - -<p>“Good angel! How?”</p> - -<p>“She witnessed the assault from behind a sequestering -wall, in company with a follower of the sheik, commissioned -to kill her instantly if she faltered in the -part appointed her. This infernal guard was also -charged to insinuate into her mind the feasibility of -elopement with Ichabod. If she could be compromised, -Azrael knew he could justify her death to those -who remembered her heroic defense of himself. That -was to follow as soon as she had done her part in inveigling -Harrimai to Azrael’s camp.”</p> - -<p>“A demonstration of a personal devil, Miriamne.”</p> - -<p>“I’d say rather of an overruling God.”</p> - -<p>“How fared Nourahmal after Azrael’s chagrin?”</p> - -<p>“Cornelius anticipates me. When she saw Ichabod -fall, a sudden desire for liberty for herself and to help -the imperiled Rizpah, prompted her to drive a dagger -into the heart of her guard and cry, ‘Rescuers come!’ -That cry drove the remnants of the assailers of Sir -Charleroy to sudden flight. She asserted to the fugitives -that Laconic, the new runner, just passing, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[560]</a></span> -slain her guard, and so allayed suspicion until opportunity -of escape came. She soon made her way to -Bozrah, where she found among the Christians a temporary -home. From thence she drifted into Jerusalem.”</p> - -<p>“’Twas strange she did not turn toward Gerash.”</p> - -<p>“I said as much to her, but desire to get as far as -possible from Azrael, and as near as possible to the -Holy City, of which Ichabod had so glowingly spoken -to her, determined her course; besides that, Ichabod -being dead, Gerash was a strange place to her—Jerusalem -seemed to her, she said, near heaven.”</p> - -<p>“Had she only known it, she was near heaven in -Bozrah, being near Von Gombard.”</p> - -<p>“Her story weaves a chaplet for his tomb to-day; -for now it appears that from Nourahmal the old priest -foreknew the intention of those Saracens, who assailed -the city that day I was with him. Though they designed -capturing him to put him on the rack, he rushed into -the conflict, crying, ‘Kill the foe with kindness!’ The -assault would have been fatal to Bozrah, too, had not -the leader of one of the invading bands ordered a retreat, -just at the point of victory. This was indirectly -Nourahmal’s work; for that leader had been won by -her to esteem Christians far enough to be unwilling to -murder them, though not adverse to plundering them. -That was a great improvement in a Mohammedan.”</p> - -<p>“And Nourahmal knows from you that you are Sir -Charleroy’s daughter?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, by that I won her confidence. Indeed, she -began this confidence at first, by saying, ‘I love you, -because you so remind me, angel of the mount, of a -Christian knight, who was the dear friend of the only -pure and unselfish man I knew in all my youth! Such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[561]</a></span> -words led to questions and explanations. The rest you -know.”</p> - -<p>“And you have allured, comforted and enlightened -her?”</p> - -<p>“By God’s help, I have. I have told her of the universal -sisterhood, of all women, who take as their exemplar -the worthy mother of the One who proclaimed -the universal brotherhood of man. This knowledge is -her joy and inspiration. When I am with her, she -never tires of hearing of the ‘Queen of David’s House,’ -the mother of mothers.”</p> - -<p>“But how have you allured her hither, Miriamne?”</p> - -<p>“You have questioned curiously with your eyes, at -least, concerning those gated alcoves and curtained -balconies in our Temple of Allegory. They helped -her!”</p> - -<p>“Since you say they are not ‘Confessionals,’ as I call -them, tell me what they are?”</p> - -<p>“‘Rock clefts’ our sisterhood calls them; some are -doors to little adjacent chapels; some are quiet resting -places, where, in impressive solitude, souls in prayer -may find the mountain manna, for which the Savior -sought in many a lone night-watching; and some are -places where are presented, under entrancing symbols, -exalting truths.”</p> - -<p>“Words have failed to turn the world to faith: -may signs do better.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve put truth into visible form, that they who get -it here may learn that truth thus is only up to its full -might. I’d have my followers believe in visible, not -phantom, truth; so believing, truth will not be a ghostly -proclamation, the toy of the mind, but a force moving -hands and hearts!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[562]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And you have met Nourahmal’s case?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; fully in what we call the ‘Lover’s Bower,’ -yonder. Remember she has been the victim of mock -love, from first to last.”</p> - -<p>“The ‘Lover’s Bower’?”</p> - -<p>“Behold the trophy and the bower! There is Nourahmal, -now rapturously contemplating the picture of -Joseph putting the ring of espousal on the hand of the -Virgin Mary.”</p> - -<p>“Nourahmal? That gray-haired, hard-faced woman, -holding the hand of a charming girl?”</p> - -<p>“That is Nourahmal; the younger woman is Beulah, -her grand-daughter; they two are almost inseparable -now.”</p> - -<p>“An oleander by a limestone cliff! And so she -takes her station by a scene of betrothal, forgetting that -hymen’s altars can be fired by youth alone!”</p> - -<p>“The world says so; but yet a disappointed life may -sometimes learn why it has been a failure, by studying -the ashes of time gone in the light of quickened -memories.”</p> - -<p>“What finds Nourahmal there?”</p> - -<p>“Golden lessons. First for her grand-daughter, her -idol. She never tires of saying before yon picture to -that maiden now her charge: ‘My flower, my lamb, -be always as pure as the espoused of Joseph, and you -will be a jewel which your husband, if he be a true -man, will ever proudly wear on as his heart. My flower, -my lamb, no woman should leave all for any man, -unless she is certain of finding in him father, mother, -brother, sister, companion, as Mary found in Joseph!’”</p> - -<p>“But how did these things bless Nourahmal herself?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[563]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Love counterfeited, blasted her life. She believed -that it was only gross passion masquerading in attractive, -delusive colors. So believing, it was difficult to tell -her of the Love of God so she could realize its wealth. -Love was only great selfishness, excited and persistent, -to her mind. It was something to teach her that the -genuine affection was utterly otherwise; in fact the -foundation and crown of all the noblest sentiments implanted -by God in His choicest creations.</p> - -<p>“I have sought to allegorize here, true affection in all -its perfection. It seems to be fitting to do so, for my -ideal queen was ruled by it. She never could have -loved to the depths she did, as a mother, if she had not -had within her being all the possibilities of woman’s love. -And in a rightly balanced woman love is all-impressive, -all-controlling; with her worship is loving and loving is -worship. Here I shall seek to refine that sentiment in -the hearts of my sisters until each becomes an evangel in -its behalf. Then mankind will understand the wealth -a woman bestows on the man that wins her. There -is nothing in her career that surpasses it, except that -sovereign act wherein she lays herself a convert on -God’s altar. I am seeking to exalt this sacred act, the -loving of the gentler sex, until all men, brought to -revere it as they ought, shall become true knights; until -society shall be of one mind in crying traitor to every -man that contemns it in wedlock, and ready to lash -naked around the world every betrayer who awakens it -in innocency to lead it astray.”</p> - -<p>“I can only again exclaim, oh! how full of flowers -and honey is my Miriamne’s creed and gospel!”</p> - -<p>“And the churchman so exclaims because I’ve put -love where God put it, at the front of religion’s cohorts!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[564]</a></span> -Can there be a religion worth the name that does not -masterfully meet the requirements of the relations most -sacred between human beings?”</p> - -<p>As she spoke she led her husband under the splendid -painting of Joseph espousing Mary, toward the entrance -of the bower, remarking: “This vestibule, from -the Roman word Vesta, Goddess of Purity, is suggestive. -Rome placed Vesta among the household gods, -and was wont to have an altar at every outer door. If -Purity guard the door, Light and Love will dwell within. -See the laurel, emblem of victory, as the ancients put -it by Purity’s altar; so do I. Love, when pure, is all-victorious!”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, these old truths seem to me very charming -as you now present them; but can Nourahmal and -others like her enter into their meaning?”</p> - -<p>“A pious saint of our church says that the star which -guided to Bethlehem finally sank into a spring, where -it may be yet seen by women if they be pure.”</p> - -<p>As they thus communed he passed through an -arched doorway, and was admitted to a grand court, -three sides of which were inclosed by the temple and -two of its wings, the fourth side hedged by palms, -vine-interlaced. The sky was the roof, the carpet the -floor of that country. Just in front of the palm-hedge, -on a grassy hillock, conspicuous beyond all else, was -a colossal stone face. It seemed as if it had emerged -from the earth, bald of all life—desolation expressed in -mute stone.</p> - -<p>“Astarte here!” exclaimed Cornelius.</p> - -<p>“Yes; that’s part of my Bashan inheritance, from -Kunawat, the land of Job.”</p> - -<p>“A woman and a devil beset him; (the two are in this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[565]</a></span> -face, methinks). Its hideousness, as its import, seems -inappropriate in Love’s Bower.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, ’tis hideous now, though once the face had -beauty. It is not futile for young-love to remember -that time gouges deformity into beautifulness, nor for -all to remember how the Kings of the East in Moses’ -time overthrew the Rephaim, the fallen giant followers -of the goddess. The East is the home of light, and -light is fateful to evil lives. Where are the Astarte-devotees -now?”</p> - -<p>As the man listened his eyes wandered to the place -where the palm grove came up against the temple -wing, and there he observed a purling ribband of water.</p> - -<p>“Cornelius sees my poem of silver. It comes from -a grove of cedars and sharon roses, out of a spring in -the bosom of a hill. Look the other way. It passes -under the alcove, under the temple wall; a short, dark -passage brings it to liberty, ending in the Virgin’s -Pool of Kidron. The sun allures it up to the clouds -at last. But listen; it sings as it runs!”</p> - -<p>“I hear many blending melodies.”</p> - -<p>“Do you see that canopied dais? There the instructor, -or preacher if you will, stands. The stream -passes near it, getting impulse by a fall; true love is -speeded when it runs by truth. That’s my lesson. -Then there are Æolian harps this side and that of the -dark alcove, the latter the type of the tomb.”</p> - -<p>“But why?”</p> - -<p>“True love has music both sides of the grave.”</p> - -<p>“Mystic!”</p> - -<p>“Interpreter, say.”</p> - -<p>“But I hear the songs of birds?”</p> - -<p>“There they are, this side the dark exit: but in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[566]</a></span> -cage, supported above the current by an hour-glass and -sickle.”</p> - -<p>“Grim emblems.”</p> - -<p>“Yes; but it’s a grim truth that love’s joy notes here -are caged, hampered and transitory. The hour-glass -and sickle are, when those notes are sung, ever.</p> - -<p>“Look to the West.”</p> - -<p>“I look, and see nothing but the picture of a sunset.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, and that curtains the ‘Rest of the Aged’ in -our temple.”</p> - -<p>“But whither am I led by these words?”</p> - -<p>“Led to look toward sunset, for morning, by faith. -You remember the Christ was never old; neither are -they who draw their life from Him. The ‘Ancient of -Days’ not only has, but gives, eternal youth. Oh, there -were young men at His sepulcher; yet those angels -could count their years by centuries! Let the hour-glass -make record and the sickle reap; the passion -flower recalls a vernal life, where the oldest saints are -the youngest, where all existence is growth, refreshment, -glory, exultation! There, love is law and law is -love, and to love is to live and to live is to love. We -get a breath of this life here as we enter the vicinage -of the immortal pair, Jesus and Mary; and we get a -distant view of the whole from the mountains of the -gospel.”</p> - -<p>“I believe, and yet sometimes start back at the -question, ‘What if, after all, at the end almost of eternities -there come monotony, decadence, satiety—death?’ -Next after hell, and nigh as horrible, is annihilation; -and worst of all, eternal existence with nothing -for which to strive—a living death!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[567]</a></span></p> - -<p>“They say, that in Egypt, a palm bowed to give shade -to the mother, Mary; while the aspen refused to her -any comfort. Then Christ blessed the palm and it -became the fruitful evergreen, while the aspen leaf is -fated to the end of time by constant tremblings to -betoken the agues of a cursed life. But, under the sun -in submission, our aspen lives are turned to palms! -We, having His life, need never tremble at death, for -we shall ever throb with a loving like His.”</p> - -<p>“But there are many conditions and needs to womankind. -Let us speak of these, since the present is hers, -the future God’s.”</p> - -<p>“The knights vainly tried swords; my King promised -to draw all men to Himself. You told me how Sir -Galahad, the pure knight, had made, about the Holy -Grail, when he found it, a chest of precious stones -and gold. Now, I’ve found the virgin pattern of perfection, -representative of the human-like beating heart -of God. Here I’ve set her, exalted her. This shall be -her golden precious palace. Though dead, here shall -be presented in the grandeur of her character, the -sweetness of her power. By and by, it may come about -that all mankind akin, shall make it the chief duty of -Church and State, to care, with a loyal tenderness, for -all women, all children, from first and last; that not one -such shall be left miserable. That will be the world -obeying the Crucified’s, ‘Behold thy mother.’”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[568]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXIX">CHAPTER XXXIX.<br /> -<span class="smaller">CROWN JEWELS.</span></h2> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“The <span class="smcap">Virgin Mary</span> unquestionably holds forever a peculiar -position among all women in the history of redemption. Perfectly -natural, yea, essential to a sound religious feeling, it is to associate -with Mary, the fairest traits of maidenly and maternal character, -and to revere her as the highest model of female love and power.”—<span class="smcap">Prof. -Philip Schaff’s</span> <i>Church History</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“There’s a footman at the door; the good -man that talks, I think; he would speak -with Cornelius.”</p> - -<p>With such words, at sunrise one morning -a few weeks after the May-day service, the missioners -of Bethany were aroused by an attendant. Quickly -robing himself, the young chaplain went forth, and, -sure enough, the Hospitaler stood before him.</p> - -<p>“Selamet; but what haste brings our ever-welcome -friend so early?”</p> - -<p>“To relieve your minds! I’ve purchased immunity! -The Mameluke sheik, at Jerusalem, has secured the -Sultan’s revocation of the order of razing and banishment,” -answered the knight. Cornelius gazed at the -Hospitaler with anxiety, questioning within himself as -to whether the knight had taken leave of his reason or -not.</p> - -<p>The abrupt soldier-priest perceiving the perplexity -of his hearer broke forth: “Why the edict that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[569]</a></span> -Temple on the hill be despoiled, and the ‘Angels of -the Mount’ be summarily driven out of Syria, has been -rescinded; the ‘Faithful,’ as those infidels style themselves, -have been converted; seen a great light which -came by mighty gold.”</p> - -<p>“All Saints defend us! I did not hear of this. Tell -me all!” exclaimed Cornelius.</p> - -<p>“Not now; the peril is past. I knew it was impending -sometime, and supposed ye did. I promised -a reward, if time were given. I got money help -from foreign knights. The vandals took it with a -mighty thirst, and then with a great show of piety -promised toleration.”</p> - -<p>“I see, as usual with them, great gain with godliness -is contentment; but what are we on the mount -to do?”</p> - -<p>“Go on; the Sultan isn’t God, nor his sheik the -Devil.”</p> - -<p>“The Hospitaler comforts. Now let us enter and -breakfast together, that we may get wisdom by conferring.”</p> - -<p>“I may not tarry longer; I staid all night without -the city’s wall so as not to be delayed by awaiting the -gate-opening. I must be with my companions by the -time the Moslems have ended their first prayers, or my -comrades will be alarmed. I’ll return to-morrow.”</p> - -<p>Another dawn, another noon, and another sunset, -came and went; but the knight did not reappear at -Bethany. The chaplain vainly tried to suppress his -anxiety. He feared some treachery on the sheik’s -part. Again and again the former went to the house-top -to look along the Jerusalem road. It was a hot -June day; the watchings flushed the young man’s face<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[570]</a></span> -but fears’ rigors in the heart paled it. He was a -picture of misery. Darkness followed sunset; then -came tidings:</p> - -<p>“There’s a company with garlands and torches coming -around the bend!”</p> - -<p>The news was brought by a company of Sisters of -Bethany. The missioner was excited, yet reasoned:</p> - -<p>“Garlands and torches! Their bearers can not have -baleful report nor evil designs.”</p> - -<p>The visitants quickly arrived, and singing a roundelay, -encircled the house of Cornelius and Miriamne. -With delight the latter recognized the Hospitaler and his -companion knights. With them were a number of the -friends of the new movement at Bethany. They also -observed, standing by his camel, a little aloof, a tall, -gaunt man, garbed as a Druse; by him, an elderly woman, -and also a maiden.</p> - -<p>“’Tis Nourahmal and her grand-child!” whispered -Miriamne, following her husband’s questioning eyes.</p> - -<p>“The maiden wears the flower crown of a bride, and -see, there is a young man by her side!”</p> - -<p>The Hospitaler interrupted their converse:</p> - -<p>“I’ve kept my promise to the ‘Angels of the Mount’ -and to God. I’m here, and to celebrate a proper -thanksgiving!”</p> - -<p>“Welcome! Now command us,” exclaimed Miriamne. -“Yea, welcome, though coming in mystery!”</p> - -<p>“Another surprise, good chaplain? Well, ’tis fitting, -since this one is cheering. There was need of -offset to thy painful astonishment of yesterday. I’ve -trapped a wolf for our festivities.”</p> - -<p>“A wolf!” exclaimed Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“Yes, even the sheik. He swore that he’d make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[571]</a></span> -all Bethany bald by fire and sword if it were attempted -here to establish a Christian church. To -him I explained that the work on the hill was festal. -Praise God, it is to be such, to all eternity! And -Miriamne’s disavowal of the title church, the use of -the appellations ‘Pool of Bethesda,’ ‘House of Mercy,’ -‘Temple of Allegory,’ and the like, by your followers -in the city, concerning your place of gathering, helped -the righteous diversion. I finished the argument by -parading with my cortege, as you see us now. Indeed -I even asked the sheik to come to the wedding!”</p> - -<p>“A wedding?”</p> - -<p>“The cruel sheik invited?”</p> - -<p>“Two questions and two questioners to be answered -with more surprises. Nourahmal’s grand-daughter, -Beulah, is to be joined to a Jewish convert! I asked -the sheik to attend with us as one of her next akin; -for I believe him to be a son of Azrael, though he -denies that parentage, as well he may, since the -‘Angel of Death’ was strangled at Bagdad for treason. -Be assured, Miriamne, the young Mohammedan will -not be present at our ceremonies to-night!”</p> - -<p>“Will wonders never cease?” spoke Cornelius, at a -loss to know what to say.</p> - -<p>“No. Let us be going now,” abruptly spoke the -Hospitaler.</p> - -<p>“Do you return to the city so soon?” queried Miriamne.</p> - -<p>The question was answered indirectly:</p> - -<p>“Let’s to the temple, or ‘House of Bethesda.’ I’ve -taken the liberty to order its illumination. Come, we’ll -see how its jasmines climb on its sturdy walls by the -light of the torches kindled for hymen!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[572]</a></span></p> - -<p>So saying, the Hospitaler turned in the direction -mentioned, and all, including the missioners, followed -him. The scene was fairy-like. There were lights and -flowers and songs. The feasters from Jerusalem were -in holiday attire, and those of the villagers that joined in -the concourse were hearty participants in the festivities.</p> - -<p>Arriving at the temple, the Hospitaler led Beulah -toward the speaker’s dais.</p> - -<p>“Will not the camel-driver enter?” questioned the -knight of a companion.</p> - -<p>“No; he’s half way back to the city by this time.”</p> - -<p>“Stand by thy other self,” said the knight to the -Jewish groom.</p> - -<p>The latter obeyed with alacrity; his zeal and his -bashfulness precluding grace of action.</p> - -<p>“Four hands clasped; crossed,” said the Hospitaler.</p> - -<p>The twain did as commanded, the youth with -avidity, the maid with a timorous, modest reserve. -The touch of each, electric to the other, was recorded -in their faces, over which passed rapidly a poem of -emotion. The audience became silent, hushed by -admiration akin to adoration. The old, old, yet ever -new, ever-entrancing spectacle of love’s full crowning, -brought to all minds the splendor and holiness of that -royal gift which finds in earth its completest unfoldment -in wedlock. Each of the auditors, conscious of -admiration of the presentment, was also conscious of -self-approving. There is a cleansing of conscience like -that which follows prayer in the act of heartily approbating -the thing which is good and beautiful. With -the espoused for his inspiration and his background of -light, the Hospitaler, with his usual abruptness, began -addressing the assembly:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[573]</a></span></p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“You of the East hear best when your eyes are treated -together with your ears, hence I speak at this time, most -propitious, of themes pertinent. You have heard how the -ancient Romans named this month, deemed by them favorable -to marriage, Junonius, in honor of their chaste and -prudent goddess of conjugal life. She was the <i>Hera</i> of the -Greeks, the only lawfully wedded goddess of all their -mythologies. The myths prove that those pagans discerned -the potency and beauty of holy wedlock. They polished -jewels and wove girdles for its personifications, and to-night, -in this temple dedicated to womanhood at her best, I’d take -the girdle and crown and place them upon the Queen of -Women, the peerless Virgin. For such a real woman the -ancients were seeking when they had their dream of the -myths. She was what they yearned for, and her exaltation -as the representative of all that she truly did represent, will -be found of lasting profit to all. Behold her, an orphan -girl, yet by faith having an Eternal Father. As a girl, abhorring -waywardness; as a woman, therefore, free from wantonness. -Mark me, ye maidens, the wayward becomes the -wanton. Coquetry brushes the down from the cheek of -the peach, and she that frivolously plays with passion in the -morning will be likely to seek the groves of Astarte at noon. -Our ideal woman reached maidenhood’s roses all portionless, -as world-help is counted, but with the inestimable -affluence of prudence, constancy and purity. Thus she set -the finest youths of all Jewry to striving for her heart and -hand. What Juno was to Rome, Mary was to Israel. The -Romans proclaimed their faith in the good wife as the producer -and conserver of wealth by putting their mint in -their temple of ‘<i>Juno-Moneta</i>.’ The carpenter of Nazareth, -building up a clean, honest, though humble home, by the -aid of his consort, built more enduringly, and presents a -finer historical figure, than that once mighty, once wise Solomon; -though the latter erected the wondrous Temple. The -home and love of Joseph and Mary will be praised by the -ages that abhor the ivory houses of pleasure of the great -and fallen king. The story of that home life at Nazareth -has not been written, and we must gather it from fragments -and eloquent silence. Mary’s jewels as a wife were unostentatiously -treasured within the four walls of her domicile. -The devastating tornado leaves enduring, though hateful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[574]</a></span> -history; but the constant, man-blessing tides of the ocean -come and go without having their recurring blessings recorded. -So the constant, loyal, patient woman of Nazareth -passed noiselessly by in her day. Her exclamation to the -Angel of the Annunciation, ‘<i>Behold the handmaid of the -Lord, be it unto me according to thy word</i>,’ was the keynote -of that life ever enhanced by the beauty of duty. There -was submission to right because it was righteous. And this -was not mere passiveness. You remember how she challenged -her Son in His early youth, that time He was absent -for a season from His parents, at first without explanation? -The words Mary spoke that day burn like polished gems -when considered aright: ‘<i>Why hast thou dealt thus with us? -Behold, thy father and I have sought thee, sorrowing.</i>’ She -did not forget her Son’s divine origin, but exalted the rights -of motherhood and fatherhood, confident that even Deity -could not ignore them. She challenged the right of a son -to cause parental sorrow without instant strong reason for -so doing. She put her husband’s cause before her own, and -made his honor her sacred wifely trust. There are in this -history some very fine things expressed by implication. We -know the woman was beautiful and much younger than her -husband; the disparity of years did not hinder full affinity. -She did not fall into the weakness of feeling self-sufficient -and all-complacent because feeling pretty. All she was and -all she had was centred in her consort as a commonwealth -between him and her. That the sycophant and flatterer -crossed her path there can be no doubt; but she who was -not intoxicated by Bethlehem’s <i>gloria in excelsis</i> could not -be dazzled by the honeyed words of mortals. Wearing such -a wife on his heart, Joseph was rich indeed. Silence is -once more eloquent. We know that the mother of Jesus, -having been widowed, never wed again. Her first love suffered -no eclipse. That she was courted, after her spouse’s -death, we must believe. The mother of a Son so famous -as was hers, and the possessor of personal charms enshrining -a soul that knew how to utilize sorrows until they became -refinements, doubtless had many suitors in her widowhood -days. And there was no law forbidding her a second marriage, -except the unwritten law of fine sentiment; but to -the Queen of the House of David the law of fine sentiment -was all-controlling. All her heart was filled with love for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[575]</a></span> -her husband, her Son and her Savior. When her consort -died, the niche in her heart that he occupied, the only part -with room for conjugal love, became a shrine. Its door was -sealed then until the final resurrection. Where such constancy -exists there is certainty of pure homes. Sanctity, -chastity and faithfulness were the lights of the temple, -dedicated to the mythical Juno, within whose precincts no -impure woman was suffered to enter. To-day I claim for -the True Ideal all that was accorded the mythical one.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>When the speaker paused, some of the men present -broke forth, as was the custom in the synagogue service, -with an “Amen,” and some exclaimed “Rabbi, -thine are good words for our women to hear!”</p> - -<p>The Hospitaler’s black eyes flashed; a hint of retort -of lightning-like directness to come. And it came, instantly:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“I shall fail of my duty if I give all to one-half. I shall -fail of my intent if my words seem like railings at the sex -most tender, most burdened. Since we are treating of the -weeds of the mourners, let us question why it is that widowers -more frequently seek remarriage than do widows. -The bereaved man easily says: ‘Get me another wife.’ -The bereaved woman more frequently says: ‘Let me hurry -on heavenward after my only and ever beloved.’</p> - -<p>“With the true woman marriage is a committal so utter -that it is difficult for her, generally, to make it more than -once. Again me thinks that marriage brings the graver, -heavier loads to women. Once experienced, there is need -of a mighty love to allure her to a second trial. The man -rises by self-assertion, and wedlock does not hinder him. -With the woman wedlock means self-denial; her name -changes, her career is merged into that of her consort; her -body is given, literally, to the new beings she bears. To -woman marriage has no parallel, except death. Her only -possible compensation is love, and that she should receive -with measures knowing no stint. Oh, men, all fair to other -men, all merciful to the beasts that toil, all prudent in keeping -in motion, by day and by night, the water-wheels in -your orange and mulberry groves, be fair and merciful to -your consorts. Yea, and evermore water with love’s most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[576]</a></span> -grateful refreshments the bearing vines whose tendrils intwine -your hearts, whose fruits enrich your homes. This is -religion; what is less is heresy, and he who deals unkindly, -cruelly or niggardly with his other self, can not face God. -The prayers of such are hindered and like unto a tree whose -leaves are storm-stripped. You know the race, by birth, -comes forth in two sexes, of equal numbers, a hint of God’s -plan to have mankind live as pairs; but the men are a constant -majority. Why? I answer that, notwithstanding the -perils falling upon the sterner sex, by exposure, by war, and -all such things, the trials falling to woman’s lot work the -greater havoc, keeping her sex in huge majority in the -places of the dead. Now you praise me, because I’ve told -your women to be like the glorious Mary? Praise me -again for telling them, as I do this instant, to be like her -in choice of consorts. If they can not find Josephs to begin -with, God grant to make the men they have like the choice -spouse who fell to Mary’s lot!”</p> - -</div> - -<p>The Hospitaler paused for a moment; there was a -wave of excitement, very near to applause, running over -the audience. The bride and the groom, together with -all the women present, by their faces expressed their delight. -The men who had exclaimed at the first, looked -blank and kept silent now.</p> - -<p>Abruptly, as before, again the knight spoke:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“I’ll touch now another pertinent theme—<i>Mary under the -shadows of scandal!</i> I’d exalt her as one having sounded -the depths of woman’s misery, and yet preserving her integrity. -I know that some here will think themselves offended, -since it’s the fashion so to think when listening to discourse -such as I now intend. Society, more prudish than sincere -or wise, has demanded that the burning, scarlet, social wrong -be spoken of only by scrupulous hint, half words and reserves, -at least among decent and happy folks. For once, -as God’s accredited ambassador, I’ll change all this, and by -Purity’s earthly throne, the marriage altar, denounce the -crime of crimes, the blasting curse of all mankind. Let him -that’s conscious of his own impurity mince words. I’ll not! -Jehovah might have brought forth the Christ without subjecting -Nazareth’s Virgin to the painful necessity of being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[577]</a></span> -doubted. It was as He decreed and wisely ordered. The -happening was not because Deity was frustrated, but because -He knew that she whose example was to be woman’s inspiration, -could be so more surely, if her career took her along -all lines of woman’s needs. There was a time when almost -all who knew Mary doubted her integrity; a time when her -name was banded about by the roués of her native place; -a time when even her betrothed was resolving to renounce, -if not to denounce her. First I’d speak of how impurity is -abhorred of God, and then of His wondrous effort to allure -those lost by it, as evinced in sending out after them the -two lambs—the Eternal Lamb and the lamb-like woman.</p> - -<p>“To say that they whose trend is toward things unclean are -abhorred of God is to re-echo the edicts of nature and history. -They say whenever a sin is committed a devil is -created to avenge it. What legions avenge this sin which, -most of all, brutalizes man and turns all social relations into -anarchy! Ask your men of science. They will tell you -that all the evils flesh is heir to seem to get their seeds -herein. Immortal revenge haunts it! You know, how in -the Christian’s holy book, it is affirmed that many sicken and -die because partaking of the cup of the holy communion -unworthily. Presumptuous hypocrisy thus meets the wrath -which paralyzed Uzzah and Jeroboam. But the cup of the -passion was love’s highest gift, and the offense is not -against the cup but against love in its sublimest display. -Therefore forever death is the penalty that overhangs those -who outrage this finest gem of angels and mortals. Treason -to love is suicidal as well as murderous! They say that -there is a demon whose touch causes hideous, coiling, stinging -serpents to grow from the bodies of those he touches. -I’ll tell you his name—Lasciviousness, and he works fatefully -wherever man abides. But the pure home is an invincible -bulwark against him, and hymen’s torch his blinding -horror.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>There were some of the knight’s auditors, both men -and women, who felt it their duty, because of custom, -to affect disapproval of the free speaking they heard. -Of these dissenters the women uttered no word, but -their eyes glared, and the color went and came in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[578]</a></span> -cheeks. The disapproving men exhibited faces as -hard as marble, while their lips mumbled incoherently.</p> - -<p>The knight was not slow to perceive the rising -storm, but he was undaunted. He waxed more earnest -and more eloquent; his words and theme inflamed -him.</p> - -<p>One favorable to his faithfulness remarked to a -comrade:</p> - -<p>“The Hospitaler seems to grow taller, as if filled and -enlarged by an inspiration.”</p> - -<p>His face shone as that of Moses when bearing the -law, and some cowered as if they heard coming toward -them, from afar, the rumblings of Sinai. Some white -souls present wept, moved more by the truth in its -beauty and power than they could have been by any -play on their emotions. It was an hour of true oratory’s -triumph; logic set on fire; a consecrated herald -grappling awful sin with the power of omnipotence.</p> - -<p>Presently, after the thunder and lightning, came “the -still, small voice.” The man of God spoke with loving -persuasiveness; he healed with words, the woundings -truth had made. Then he carried his audience with -him. Many bowed their heads to weep, as trees beaten -by winds that carried rain!</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“We can all entreat fallen men as to most sins, why not -as to the chief sins? We speak to the fathers, brothers and -sons faithfully, pleadingly; why not to the women who are -elect to companion creation’s lords? Alas, the women have -the greater need of helpful admonition, when they fall, for -revilings and black despair fill up the cup of their remorse! -You have heard of the Feast of Lanterns among the Chinese? -Those pagans, once a year, go out with many-colored -lights to symbolize Mercy seeking lost daughters. -Shall God’s choicest people fall behind the pagan? Never, -if true to the noble, tender, pure spirit that emanates from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[579]</a></span> -God’s own ideal of womanhood. No, no! let us vow with -unwonted zeal, amid the lights, lessons and joys of this -hour, to be knights of new order; knights of the white -cross; sworn to denounce all impure practices on our own -part, and on the other hand to strive to allure the fallen to -that that is clean and white as the souls of the angels which -do excel! Let us go to those whom sin has made drunk, -in their despairing. Let us tell them that doubt castles are -stormed! Let us proclaim the seed of the woman the serpent’s -destroyer! Go, women to women, in woman’s name, -remembering that pity in the soul makes him or her that -hath it successful suppliant for all mercies at the throne on -which forever the Interceding Son of the Virgin reigns! -Go, fathers, making your fatherhood godlike in its just tenderness! -Go, brothers, sons of women, as pure, strong -brothers indeed! There is many a scarlet woman to-day -with scalded eyes and ashen heart who is so because she -believed men brothers and fathers and found some wolves -and vultures. Go to those who have all days as nights, all -joys as apples of Sodom. They were not always so, and -need not so continue. Do not belittle their sin, yet seek to -allure them by a noble presentment of purity and by all encouragement -to attempt to win back their lost crowns. Tell -them of the woman that stood serenely amid bitterest scorns, -and say as did her Son to one like them: ‘<i>Go, and sin no -more.</i>’ Then teach those who have no such blot upon them -to be kind and helpful. We can never judge any soul’s -guilt until we at last know the measure of the temptation! -God alone knows that.</p> - -<p>“I could speak on this theme for hours; but this is -enough! The story of Mary has somehow ever had peculiar -efficacy with the blighted of her sex. They easily are -led, when all men fail them, to dare to trust the One who had -a mother so tender. Many a motherless outcast has found -Christ in trying to find mother-love in Mary. After the -phantasmagoria of illusive pleasure it is healing, through -faith in God’s exemplified love, to dream of how it seems -to have a real mother’s arms enfolding one. I hold that it -is profitable to the impure man, sometimes looking within -the Pantheon of memory, to find therein conceptions he -treasured in his purer days; but with more determined -assertion I find that it lifts up the soiled woman to come<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[580]</a></span> -in contact with the girdle of power and crown jewels of -that maiden and mother of Nazareth and Bethlehem. It -was she that stood against imperial Rome, in the person -of Herod; a chaste young Jewess against corsleted animality; -a country maiden, heaven-endowed, against an old -fox; the loyal mother-eagle against the python! But -she that was simply good evaded, outran, soared above, -and finally confounded the evil at its lowest dip, its -highest power!”</p> - -</div> - -<p>Then the orator-knight, waving his hand to Cornelius -to signify to him that the missioner was to conclude -the ceremonial, abruptly closed his address and -retired to one of the little alcove-chapels.</p> - -<p>A simple espousal service followed, and then the -company gathered dispersed, going to join in hastily-arranged -festivities in the park by the temple. The -Hospitaler and the missioners were auditors.</p> - -<p>“Nourahmal, I can well believe, was a rare beauty; -her grand-child has her features, and she’s a vision.”</p> - -<p>“What time my friend here, the Hospitaler, did not -engage me I was admiring the groom,” Miriamne responded -to her husband.</p> - -<p>“He hails from the Jabbock country,” remarked the -knight.</p> - -<p>“Jabbock? Faithful Ichabod’s native place?” exclaimed -Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“He was the groom’s uncle,” quoth the knight.</p> - -<p>Then the trio were silent, the thoughts of each following -back over the past years and along God’s providences. -The way life’s lines were crossed, interwoven -and entangled seemed to each very wonderful.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[581]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XL">CHAPTER XL.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE QUEEN’S VISION OF THE “AGE OF GOLD AND -FIRE.”</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse indent7">“Oh, moist eyes,</div> -<div class="verse">And hurrying lips and heaving heart!</div> -<div class="verse">The world we’ve come to late is swollen hard</div> -<div class="verse">With perishing generations and their sins;</div> -<div class="verse">The civilizer’s spade grinds horribly</div> -<div class="verse">On dead men’s bones, and can not turn up soil,</div> -<div class="verse">That’s otherwise than fetid. All successes</div> -<div class="verse">Prove partial failure....</div> -<div class="verse indent3">... All governments, some wrong;</div> -<div class="verse">The rich men make the poor who curse the rich,</div> -<div class="verse">Who agonize together, rich and poor,</div> -<div class="verse">Under and over in the social spasm.</div> -<div class="verse">...</div> -<div class="verse">Who being man and human, can stand calmly by</div> -<div class="verse">And view these things, and never tease his soul</div> -<div class="verse">For some great cure.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Mrs. E. B. Browning</span>: “<i>Aurora Leigh</i>.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“They went up into an upper room,</div> -<div class="verse">With the woman and Mary the mother of Jesus.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Many signs and wonders were done.</div> -<div class="verse">All that believed had all things common.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Acts.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-i.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“I’m anxious for the coming of the people -to-day; Beulah said, a week ago, at her -wedding, that she’d have the old Druse -camel-driver at this service; though he ran -away from her marriage feast.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[582]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I’ve heard that she and her grandmother had a -convert to our faith, nearly ripe,” replied Cornelius to -his wife.</p> - -<p>At this instant one of the “Bethany Sisters” timidly -approached the speakers, evidently anxious to -deliver some communication.</p> - -<p>“’Tis ‘Brightness’ by name and by nature,” remarked -Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“Well, sister Ziha, what is it?” questioned the -chaplain.</p> - -<p>“Pardon me; but there is waiting without, a grave -and taciturn man who says he would speak with the -‘Prophetess.’ He means our Miriamne.”</p> - -<p>“Of what flavor is he, Ziha?”</p> - -<p>“Surely, I can not imagine, sister Miriamne! His -countenance is that of a Persian Jew; his turban is -Turkish; his tunic Christian. But his bearing is that of -a prince, though all his belongings, except his gorgeously -dressed camel, are those of a beggar!”</p> - -<p>“I’ll see him, Ziha; bid him enter,” exclaimed Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“That I did; but he says his haste is too great and -his limbs too stiff for dismounting. In truth, his brow, -bleached to the bone, tells of weighty years.”</p> - -<p>“Let’s go to him,” said the chaplain.</p> - -<p>The missioners going forth, at the easterly side of -their temple, were confronted by a majestic figure, -mounted on a splendidly caparisoned white camel, evidently -a borrowed one.</p> - -<p>“<i>Ullah makum</i>,” “God be with you,” said the man -on the camel with great courtliness and dignity, at the -same time extending to the chaplain a parchment -roll.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[583]</a></span></p> - -<p>“This for me?” questioned the latter.</p> - -<p>“For thee,” replied the rider, bowing as before, but -looking past the question with fixed, though reverent, -gaze at Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“But who are you?” again questions the chaplain.</p> - -<p>“God knows,” was the sententious reply of the -rider, his eyes still turning, not with curiosity, but with -a deferential and affectionate interest, toward the -chaplain’s wife.</p> - -<p>“What message here, my father?” questioned again -Cornelius, in the language of Galilee.</p> - -<p>The aged man’s dark face lightened at the words, -and turning his reverent gaze from Miriamne toward -the questioner, he slowly responded:</p> - -<p>“The ‘Angels of the Mount’ are not too proud to -call a poor camel driver ‘my father?’ Age has respect -here! I might have known this: Nourahmal is full of -the odors of this new Bethany!”</p> - -<p>“And do you come from Nourahmal?” quickly -interrogated Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“Nourahmal and I are one, by the voice of God -spoken through the holy Hospitaler, who is alluring -me daily from the secret faiths of my fathers to learn -the prayers that Nourahmal learns here.”</p> - -<p>“I see,” continued Miriamne; “I speak with Nourahmal’s -consort. Pray dismount for refreshment. We -bid you every welcome, Mahmood.”</p> - -<p>“Mahmood! called by such fine people by my proper -name; not ‘dog’ or ‘here you,’ or ‘old camel goad!’ -Wonderful!”</p> - -<p>“Will Nourahmal’s spouse dismount?”</p> - -<p>“Blessed woman, I’ve had great refreshment in -being thus permitted to see thee face to face, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[584]</a></span> -thank thee and thine for what thou hast done for me -and mine; but I can not tarry; old age and poverty -have bargained to make constant toil my master. I -must keep moving or the swifter youths will take away -my master and leave me to hire out to starvation;” so -saying, the speaker smote his camel and the beast -moved away, slowly, along the road toward Jerusalem.</p> - -<p>Cornelius, recovering himself from his meditations, -called after the departing Druse.</p> - -<p>“What of this parchment?”</p> - -<p>“The Hospitaler sent it! He said it would talk -with ‘the Angels of the Mount.’”</p> - -<p>The camel driver had stopped his beast to say this -much. For a moment he looked at the missioners, -then at their temple and its surroundings. There was -a world of questioning, and wonder, and yearning in -the old man’s countenance. Again his goad fell on -the beast he rode and the latter bore him along.</p> - -<p>“Shall we meet again, father?” Cornelius called -after him.</p> - -<p>“Stay master work! Go master want! ’Till good -shade Death takes to the cool rest-land the holy Hospitaler, -the Angels of the Mount, my Nourahmal, and -may be me; even me the poor, old, camel-driver, Mahmood!” -was the slow reply as the Druse departed. A -turn in the road soon shut him from view.</p> - -<p>“Well, my spouse, Miriamne, our new Bethany sees -strange visitants these days,” remarked her husband.</p> - -<p>“The mystic Druse is finding something that is finer -than the creeds of his mountain clans,” rejoined Miriamne.</p> - -<p>“Be not too certain; those Highlanders of Palestine -are ever politic; they’ll quote the Koran to one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[585]</a></span> -Islam, kiss the Bible in the company of Christians; but -once alone are Druse to the last.”</p> - -<p>“That is their character; but we’ve a transforming -gospel; no man as old as he and companion of such -advocates of the White Kingdom as the Hospitaler -and Nourahmal, could talk as did that old man to kill -time or conventionally.—But you do not study your -parchment.” Cornelius, recalled by Miriamne’s words, -unfolded the document given him by the camel-driver, -and read aloud:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“My son and my daughter: Greeting; the streams of -gospel blessing rising in the springs of your mountain -temple reach refreshingly even unto Jerusalem, as I daily -perceive. Therefore, for your consolation and for the -enkindling of your pious zeal, I herewith send these lines. -Work onward, beloved, believing, hoping you have arrived -at the dawn of a new revelation and well commenced a true -work for God. To-day, as I sought to interpret His prophecies, -it came to me that that you are attempting to do is -nigh to being a fulfillment of His word as recorded in the -manner following by Ezekiel:</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Then the glory of the Lord departed from off -the threshold of the house, and stood over the -cherubim.</p> - -<p>“And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and -mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they -went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every -one stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s -house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over -them above.</p> - -<p>“The word of the Lord came unto me, saying:</p> - -<p>“Thus saith the Lord God: I will assemble you out -of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I -will give you the land of Israel.</p> - -<p>“And they shall come thither, and they shall take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[586]</a></span> -away all the detestable things thereof and all the -abominations.</p> - -<p>“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a -new spirit within, and I will take the stony heart.</p> - -<p>“That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine -ordinances, and they shall be my people, and I will be -their God.</p> - -<p>“Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the -glory of the God of Israel was over them above.</p> - -<p>“And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst -of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on -the east side of the city.</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“These solemn words tell how the glory and favor of -God was driven from the people of old by their sinning; -how slowly, yearningly, God departed; how in every land -He provide <i>little sanctuaries</i> for the faithful few. And -more than all this, the Holy Word describes God in Spirit as -pausing on the mount to the east of Jerusalem. That pausing -place was your Olivet. The Jewish Rabbins in their -sacred histories affirm that for three years God, in manifest -form, tarried, near where your Temple of Allegory stands, repeating -over and over the solemn call, ‘<i>Return unto me, and -I will return unto you!</i>’ Beloved, since then the eternal -voice, through Jesus Christ, has spoken through three ministering -years from these mountains to the world. You are -now re-echoing the cry. God be with you, as He is, and -give you faith to call and call until the ascended Christ -come into all hearts.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>“No name to his letter, as usual?” remarked the -chaplain.</p> - -<p>“He seems to loathe names almost; but recently, -when I made bold to ask him his, he sententiously observed, -‘God knows; ’tis in a white stone, I’m to get; -for this life I’m only remembered by what I’ve -done.’ But what engages my husband’s attention -now?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[587]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I’m trying to interpret the picture yonder, over the -door, to the retreat you call the ‘<i>Mother’s Pillow</i>.’”</p> - -<p>“What think you of it? You perceive it’s the legend -of the mother pelican feeding her famishing young -with blood drawn from her own bosom, which she has -wounded for their food.”</p> - -<p>“I think the picture likely to depress nervous -mothers!”</p> - -<p>“That’s a picture of one side of mother life; look -beyond it.”</p> - -<p>At that the light from a distant window was let fall, -by some unseen attendant, all about the entrance to the -“<i>Mother’s Pillow</i>!”</p> - -<p>“I see a splendid ‘Gabriel’ above the pelican; the -angel’s hand points upward.”</p> - -<p>“Glorious Gabriel! Angel of mothers and victories, -by interpretation, ‘God’s champion!’ You’ve heard -his titles, Cornelius?”</p> - -<p>“I know that he bore victory to Gideon and lightened -the way for Daniel’s conquest of all Babylon; -nor do I forget that he was the angel which comforted -giant Samson’s mother before her child was -born.”</p> - -<p>“Yea, he that made the sign of the cross, doing wondrously, -above the smoke of Monoah’s altar, was after -commissioned to greet and guide Mary, the mother of -the Giant King of the new dispensation.”</p> - -<p>“You’ve fine insights, Miriamne, but there’s incompleteness -in your symbolism here.”</p> - -<p>“True, I feel that; all interpretation of motherhood -is inadequate; but look further.”</p> - -<p>“I see the ‘Queen of Mothers!’ Why have you left -her and the babe in such deep shadows?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[588]</a></span></p> - -<p>“That’s this life’s reality; but look higher.”</p> - -<p>The chaplain complied; a vine trellis was swung -aside, and he beheld, above the shadowed picture, in -an arch reaching nearly to the roof of the temple, -another, the latter a marvel of light and color.</p> - -<p>“Glorified Mary, uplifted by the babe, now grown -and Kingly!” exclaimed the chaplain.</p> - -<p>“And so is taught for mothers’ comfort, that the Son -of God honored her who bore Him, because she was to -Him a true mother. May we not believe that this love -for Mary, in the God heart, is widened into peculiar -tenderness toward all who give the earth its lords and -paradise its elect through the crucifixions of maternity?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Miriamne, I’ve learned in the past to stand, as -it were, with bared head, all reverential in the presence -of true motherhood; when I see it strengthened by -faith, enriched by suffering; the most entrancing example -of self-abnegation on earth! To-day I feel, if possible, -in these surroundings, a deeper reverence than -ever, for that estate of woman. Say on.”</p> - -<p>“Paganism worshiped the sun, the earth, woman; -whatever brought forth; it was its best attempt at expressing -a vaguely realized yet noble sentiment. The -religions that repudiated paganism, in their efforts to -extirpate all idolatry, went to the extreme of denying -merited honor to some most worthy. Then came the -Christian revolution, and God turned all eyes toward a -pure woman. He proclaimed forever the honors of -motherhood by presenting through it to the world His -Unspeakable Gift.”</p> - -<p>“So heaven’s last appeal to our race, after Sinai’s -thunders and the rapt visions of the prophets became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_589" id="Page_589">[589]</a></span> -ineffective, was made by the eloquence of the life of -the silent Mary.”</p> - -<p>“Well said! Now filled with that belief, herald the -White Kingdom!”</p> - -<p>“I’ll help Miriamne, encouraging, upholding her; -for the rest I’ve learned to lean and follow.”</p> - -<p>“I’m a column of dust, not a pillar of fire; and dust, -alas, to dust returns. There is much to do here, more -than I shall be able to compass. I’ve hitherto but -vaguely taught the meaning, power and blessings of -motherhood.”</p> - -<p>“I think more than vaguely.”</p> - -<p>“The sun rises in the east. I think we’ve sunrise, -but the depth, height and breadth have not been -sounded nor measured yet. Shall we go toward the -west wing?”</p> - -<p>“Yea, lead, though I’m charmed in this presence.”</p> - -<p>“I’d lead to the ‘<i>Rest of the Aged</i>.’”</p> - -<p>“To the retreat with door like a castle? What are -those amazon forms in armor?”</p> - -<p>“The Peri?”</p> - -<p>“I bid them welcome in Miriamne’s name, having -learned that she is serious as well as cunning in weaving -the manna-bearing garlands of every myth about -her ideals. Say on.”</p> - -<p>“They say there is beneath the Caucasian mountains -a wondrous city builded of pearls and precious stones, -in which dwells a race of surpassing beauty of person. -I’ve utilized the tradition.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, the fabled Peri; but I’m mystified.”</p> - -<p>“They also say,” continued Miriamne, “that Dives, -a wicked genus, wages constant war against the Peri, -hoping to possess the treasures of the Peri capital, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[590]</a></span> -that they successfully repel him and make their -happiness secure. I have a similitude of the Peri -city.”</p> - -<p>“In truth, I wonder now. What fitness for such an -allegory here?”</p> - -<p>“I think I have come near to a profound truth. -Listen; here at the west, I have planned to show what -makes approaching age a terror.”</p> - -<p>“There are many evils which fall upon man’s declining -years.”</p> - -<p>“Judge me if my philosophy is faulty. I see ever -that the fear of being left poor and also old here haunts -most lives. This fear is the parent of avarice, and -avarice is a serpent of glowing head and deadly sting. -It robs society and individuals of the two choicest -jewels, plenteous benevolence and serene hopefulness. -You will find that most of the wrongs from man to -man arise from hearts made cruel by the rigors of -avariciousness. If we could stay that master passion, -all streams of benevolence would rise to their flood, -and hoarding, now a seeming necessity, most frequently -a curse, become the occupation solely of a few -monomaniacs.”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne’s philosophy is as invulnerable as a -knight’s hauberk, but how can you make it a general -practice?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, very easily. I’ve planned to endow our Temple of -Allegory so that it may not only teach but also -do beautiful things. I’d have it a Pool of Bethesda, -stirred continuously to meet every human need.”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne will have a vast following; the masses -believe in loaves and fishes!”</p> - -<p>“True, avarice prompts some to a mean faith, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_591" id="Page_591">[591]</a></span> -I seek to slay avarice and blast the love of money, that -root of all evil.”</p> - -<p>“‘Enthusiast!’ a gainsaying world will cry.”</p> - -<p>“And the cry of the world will be then, as often -before, a burning lie! So be it. I’m holding up the -truth, the royal truth of Christianity. I’ll hold it up -while I have breath, and leave that truth, if God gives -me grace, as the beacon light on our hill to glow until -all Christendom puts on a charity as multiform and -broad as the needs of humanity.”</p> - -<p>“But there is a large and needy world.”</p> - -<p>“I have a rich Father; the earth is His and the -fullness thereof. The only difficulty is in securing -from His stewards an accounting and a beginning of -payment.”</p> - -<p>“This, Miriamne, sounds like the dream of a poet. -I’ll not waken you from your beautiful trance, but -still the rough fates of life as it is, and the very common -commonplace confront us.”</p> - -<p>“What a world this would be if all mankind was as -one family, realizing universal brotherhood!”</p> - -<p>“This, too, is the dream of the poet, Socialism; -Astarte’s devotees practiced it in the past.”</p> - -<p>“Now, I’ll say silence! You speak of heathen socialism. -Whatever its form, lust was its corner stone, -and a barbarous selfishness, which limited it to those -of each tribe or clan, its best expression! I speak of -a vastly finer, grander creed! I look out and forward -to a day when all shall know the Lord; a day when -law shall be love and love shall be law. Then earth -shall be an Eden, with plenty for all, such plenty as -Divine bounty bestows. Christianity means the bringing -in of that day; the ‘Precious Gift’ was an earnest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_592" id="Page_592">[592]</a></span> -of all needed gifts from on high. When that day -comes we shall understand why the Pentecostal fire -came to all hearts in the time when all worshipers -were thanking the All-Giver for the bounties of the -harvest. Then avarice shall cease from the earth, and -men, no more harassed by it, learn to practice all -bountifulness in youth and mid-life, and also serene -restfulness when their powers of bread-winning are -paralyzed by the burdens of years. All will be noble, -therefore none indolent. There will be no beggars, -for charity will run before want, ever glad to serve -those that can not serve themselves. Then those who -wear the glory-crowns of gray will be nourished reverently -and gladly, not as if they were useless paupers; -not with a niggardly service which seems to be constantly -saying, ‘How long are you going to live!’ -There will be no more worriment, no more crowdings -of each other, no more dishonesty among men! It is, -I say, the constant fear of coming, in the day when -the heart is beating the last strokes of its own funeral -march, to doled charity or to nothing, that makes men -pile up gain in dishonor and hoard it with miserly -grasping. Do you remember that Mary returned from -ministering to Elizabeth to sing her ‘Magnificat’ with -these prophetic strains:</p> - -<p>“‘His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation -to generation. He hath filled the hungry with -good things. He hath holpen His servant Israel.’</p> - -<p>“From the song she went to humble, painful ministries -in behalf of all the world. Mary supplemented -the wondrous work of her Son and King, all the way -bearing as best she could her part of His cross; all the -way her quivering heart pierced by the sword that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_593" id="Page_593">[593]</a></span> -finally slew Him. She saw His bloody tears turning -to crown jewels as He ascended from Olivet, and with -unfaltering faith knelt among His earthly followers -that she with them might receive her crown of flame. -That room was the highest point of outlook on earth. -It was the place of supreme beneficence; the place -where God gave Himself up freely for His followers -and established the memorial-superlative of the ages. -Thither they hasted that they might learn how all-receiving -comes from all-giving, that they might realize -the measure and splendor of perfect charity, which is -perfect love.”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, whence do you get such wondrous insights?”</p> - -<p>Then the young wife turned aside to her “own little -mountain,” as she called a secret praying place in the -chapel. She quickly returned, and handing a manuscript -to Cornelius, said:</p> - -<p>“Read, please, of Pentecost.”</p> - -<p>He complied:</p> - -<p>“Then they that gladly received His word were -baptized; and the same day there were added unto -them about three thousand souls.</p> - -<p>“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ -doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and -in prayers.</p> - -<p>“And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders -and signs were done by the apostles.</p> - -<p>“And all that believed were together, and had all -things common;</p> - -<p>“And sold their possessions and goods and parted -them to all men, as every man had need.</p> - -<p>“And they, continuing daily with one accord in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_594" id="Page_594">[594]</a></span> -temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did -eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,</p> - -<p>“Praising God, and having favor with all the people. -And the Lord added to the church daily such -as should be saved.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_595" id="Page_595">[595]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XLI">CHAPTER XLI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">A CHIME AND A DIRGE AT CHRISTMAS TIME.</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Oh, not alone, because his name is Christ;</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Oh, not alone, because Judea waits</div> -<div class="verse">This man-child for her King—the star stands still!</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Its glory reinstates,</div> -<div class="verse">Beyond humiliation’s utmost ill,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">On peerless throne which she alone can fill,</div> -<div class="verse">Each earthly woman! Motherhood is priced</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Of God, at price no man may dare</div> -<div class="verse">To lessen or misunderstand.</div> -<div class="verse">...</div> -<div class="verse">The crown of purest purity revealed</div> -<div class="verse">Virginity eternal, signed and sealed</div> -<div class="verse">Upon all motherhood.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">Helen Hunt.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“In sorrow thou shalt bring forth.”—Gen. iii. 16.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Thou shalt be saved in child-bearing.”—Tim. ii. 15.</p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-h.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Hundreds of willing hands, directed by -Miriamne, were engaged in preparations for -fitly celebrating the feast of the Nativity at -Bethany. There was cheerful expectation -everywhere in the village, and the Temple of Allegory -was smiling and glowing by day and by night with -flowers and lights.</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, look forth! There approaches our domicile<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_596" id="Page_596">[596]</a></span> -a company of singing maidens, wearing holly -wreaths and bearing a kline! What can it mean?”</p> - -<p>An instant of wonderment ready to echo the chaplain’s -question possessed Miriamne, then with a glow -of satisfaction on her pale face, she cried:</p> - -<p>“I know it all! The maidens of our fraternity have -been declaring for a month past they’d have me this -Christmas at our Temple on the Hill, if they must -needs carry me thither!”</p> - -<p>“And they knew you were drooping? Who told -them? Not I.”</p> - -<p>“Love has quick eyes, and my sisters love indeed!</p> - -<p>“But, Miriamne, you surely will not risk your life, -so precious to all, by going forth to-day?”</p> - -<p>“The holly, over-canopying the couch they bear, says -to me: ‘Yea, go.’ I told them the secret of the holly, -and how those ancient Romans, thinking their deities -largely sylvan, cherished this shrub, so persistently -evergreen, in the belief that it afforded a safe and certain -abiding place for their gods in bitter, biting days -of winter. The maidens remember their lesson.”</p> - -<p>And shortly after, all went forth toward the temple, -the physically weak but spiritually strong woman -borne by her followers in a sort of triumph, and Cornelius -leading; the latter, that day was one of the happiest, -proudest men in all Syria. He rejoiced and -exulted in being companion of a woman such as Miriamne -was.</p> - -<p>Miriamne entered the temple to find a vast congregation -awaiting her. There was a ripple of excitement, -a deep murmuring of satisfied voices almost -reaching the proportion of a masculine outbreak of -applause, as she appeared. Contentment was depicted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_597" id="Page_597">[597]</a></span> -on all faces, on many real happiness. Neither was it -transitory; there was a throbbing of gladness running -back and forth, rising higher and higher, until it finally -broke out into an impromptu “<i>Gloria in excelsis!</i>” -Then followed a scripture lesson:</p> - -<p>“And Ezra the priest brought the law before the -congregation both of men and women, and all that -could hear with understanding, upon the first day of -the seventh month.</p> - -<p>“And he read therein before the street that was before -the water-gate from the morning until midday, before -the men and the women, and those that could understand; -and the ears of the people were attentive unto -the book of the law.”</p> - -<p>And now the attention of all was drawn to the -sound of footsteps in the throbbings of a march, keeping -time to the tones of the organ and the flourishings -of cymbals. Nigh an hundred Syrian maidens, wearing -girdles and crowns of evergreen, moved with graceful -evolutions from the temple’s east entrance and -quickly formed in a crescent nigh to Cornelius and -Miriamne. They paused in their progress but still -kept time with their feet and swinging cymbals. Then -the crescent was broken; those in the center standing -in lines that made a cross; those at either end grouping -as stars.</p> - -<p>“Sisters, we’d hear the fitting song of this day,” -said Miriamne. Forthwith the gathered company of -garlanded maidens began to retire, but in perfect -order, the two star groups passing along as the company -making the cross went, so preserving the form of -the tableau, until the exits were reached. As the procession -went forth the temple bell tolled solemnly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_598" id="Page_598">[598]</a></span> -and the maidens sang, accompanied by organ-notes -which died away finally like the sigh of tired waves on -a beaten strand. Cornelius was silent, though his eyes -were like the eyes of a child awakened from a dream -of wonderland.</p> - -<p>Miriamne penetrating his thoughts remarked:</p> - -<p>“Is Cornelius weary of questioning?”</p> - -<p>“I listen as to autumn winds in a scared flight through -weeping forests, instead of to Christmas exultations!”</p> - -<p>“The singers are of my ‘Miriamne Band,’ as they -call themselves, in honor of the sister of Moses, Israel’s -greatest law giver.”</p> - -<p>“Methinks all here are mystics in thought and poets -in expression!”</p> - -<p>“Then so was God. We are but reproducing His -lessons! Remember now how the Egyptian Pharaoh -once commanded that all the male children of his -Israelitish captives be put to death, to the intent that -eventually all the females should become the prey of -his people.”</p> - -<p>“Miriamne journeys far from Bethlehem.”</p> - -<p>“The mother and the sister watched the ark in -which the infant Moses was given to the cruel mercies -of the Nile.”</p> - -<p>“I remember, but there come no carols from the -bullrushes.”</p> - -<p>“Yea, finer than from the reeds of Pan. Listen; the -ark, emblem of God’s covenant, carried the law. The -mother and sisters, by the ministries of a love which -never faltered, frustrated wily Egypt, saved themselves, -their male companions, and finally their whole race. -When God embalms a history it is well to look into it -for germs of mighty portent.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_599" id="Page_599">[599]</a></span></p> - -<p>“But thinking of this distant and bitter history, we -are kept from Bethlehem, Miriamne.”</p> - -<p>“So the Red Sea and the wilderness preceded the -Promised Land. You remember there were fears -and tears before Miriam and her mother saw their -babe safely adopted at the palace; so there were -pains and toils to Mary along the way from Bethlehem’s -manger to Bethany’s mount of Ascension.”</p> - -<p>The words of Miriamne were broken off by a strain -of the organ that was very like a moan of the distressed.</p> - -<p>“Look yonder!”</p> - -<p>The chaplain did as bidden, following a motion of -his wife’s hand, and saw the folds of a huge black curtain -slowly rising from in front of one of the temple -alcoves.</p> - -<p>“Woman’s sorrow is tardily lifted!” exclaimed his -wife; then there came to his ears words of human -voices, which were joining in the almost human-like -moanings of the organ;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“In Rama was there a voice heard;</div> -<div class="verse">Lamentation and weeping and great mourning;</div> -<div class="verse">Rachel weeping for her children,</div> -<div class="verse">And would not be comforted,</div> -<div class="verse">Because they are not.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“Rachel and funeral dirges seem still distant from -the songs of the angels in Judea!”</p> - -<p>“Rachel is here likened to Mary by the Apostle -Matthew.”</p> - -<p>“I liken Rachel to Miriamne: for the former Jacob -served fourteen years which, for the love he bore her, -seemed but a few days. Cornelius could have done as -much for Miriamne.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_600" id="Page_600">[600]</a></span></p> - -<p>“My knightly spouse goes from Bethlehem himself -toward Bethany. Go back now.”</p> - -<p>“I listen; lead me.”</p> - -<p>“At Rama, the site of the tomb of Mary’s son, the -converted publican, St. Matthew, told how death began -its cruel hunt of the Virgin’s loved Child at His -very cradle. Sorrow envies joy; death battles life, and -ever more woman’s love, the choicest rose of life, has -been crossed by the destroyer of human happiness; -that is human hatings.”</p> - -<p>“But how is Rachel so like Mary?”</p> - -<p>“A common agony and common needs make all -women akin.”</p> - -<p>“I accord great homage to the woman who taught -one so selfish, gnarled and rugged of soul as Jacob was -to love so deeply, as he was taught to love by her, and -yet almost infinitely I separate her from our Rose and -Queen.”</p> - -<p>“Rachel died a martyr in maternity and therefore is -worthy of place among the regal women of earth. -She was one of that line of women who gave their -lives for others. The line survives, and suffers through -the years; all-worthy, but not fully honored. Saint -Matthew touched an all-responsive chord when he -voiced the Divine pity for all motherhood, by placing -the sorrows of Rachel and of Mary side by side. The -plain man unconsciously soars to the plane of the -prophets and poets when he is moved by human need -or Divine justice.”</p> - -<p>“The lesson is irresistible, but still I’m waiting for -the celestial melodies that awakened the shepherd the -night of the Nativity!”</p> - -<p>“My partner shall get by giving. Here is a parchment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_601" id="Page_601">[601]</a></span> -given me years ago to read for my mother’s consolation -after the death of my brothers. Read it, thou, -to the matrons and maidens when the chantings -cease.”</p> - -<p>After a time there was silence! the hush of expectation, -for that gathering was wont at times to wait for -words of blessing from the missioners, as the hart for -the rivulet at the beginnings of the rain.</p> - -<p>“Read!” whispered Miriamne, “but not as the tragedian! -Read as a father and lover, both in one.” -The young man complied, and these were the words of -the parchment:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“There was a man named Jehoikim who, impressed of -God thereto, offered a lamb in sacrifice. As he slew it his -heart was touched with tenderness, and he would have -staid his hand, but God gave him strength to perform the -command. After this a daughter, called Mary, was born to -him. Whenever he looked upon her gentle face he remembered -the bleating lamb, and was certain that some way his -child was to be a sacrifice to God. And it was so; for she -bore a Son to whom she gave all the wealth of a mother’s -love, but at last He was offered for man’s sin upon a felon’s -cross, the agony He felt reaching the heart of his mother. -As the Son gave Himself up for the world, so she gave herself -up for her Son. She was sustained through it all by -a conscience void of offense, and by the ministry of angels. -Alone to the world, she had no solitude, for though her espousal -to God had no human witness, even as Eve’s to Adam -had none, and both were inexperienced, God was at her -nuptials, as He is ever with those who purely give themselves -to Him.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>Then the wife wept and was silent.</p> - -<p>“My darling, what so moves you? I’ve never -experienced such a Christmas. You make the feast as -solemn as the holy supper.”</p> - -<p>There came no answer; but ere the husband could -turn to seek a reason it came in a cry from the audience,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_602" id="Page_602">[602]</a></span> -and a thronging from all directions toward where the -missioners were.</p> - -<p>“Miriamne has fallen!”</p> - -<p>“’Tis a swoon?”</p> - -<p>“No, ’tis death!” There were surgings back and -forth, voices suggesting helps, voices filled with stifled -sobs, and voices of fright in the trebles of hysteria.</p> - -<p>The sick woman was borne by strong men to her -domicile, and then began the tension of waiting. The -young chaplain was entering the valley of poignant -pains by sympathy’s pathway, bound by that mystic -chain whose links are in the words: “These twain shall -be one flesh.” Herein is a mystery often repeated; -the man’s grief was supplemented by a consciousness -of vague pains passing along unseen lines from the -woman to himself. Slowly Miriamne recovered consciousness; -but still she hovered on the confines of -woman’s supreme hour, the hour when great fear haunts -great hopes, great weakness yields to miraculous -influxes of power, and great joy, in company with -unutterable yearnings, moves along under the shadows -and by the gulfs of greatest perils. About her -gathered a group of matrons of her sisterhood, pressing -to serve their beloved.</p> - -<p>One whispered to another: “Her face is unearthly, -like Mary’s as we saw it in the ‘Assumption’ to-day.”</p> - -<p>The one that heard the words answered with a sob. -The voice of pain called the drooping woman quickly -from her semi-stupor to ministry, and opening her eyes -she tenderly murmured to the woman that sobbed, -“Remember what he said: ‘Women of Jerusalem, weep -not for me; but weep for yourselves and children.’ If -I go ’twill be all well; yes, by His grace, all well with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_603" id="Page_603">[603]</a></span> -me. Let all your pity follow the pilgrims of our sex -who tarry to painfully journey through years of trial, -unrequited.”</p> - -<p>A little later Cornelius was hastily summoned by -one that sought him, from the shadows of an arch of -the roof, whither he had gone for a few moments’ solitude, -in which to plead, as only can a man who writhes -in the fear of having his life torn in two.</p> - -<p>“Miriamne asks for her husband.” He heard the -words and was by his consort’s side instantly. Her -eyes were closed, but taking her pale hand tenderly in -his he impressed a kiss on her brow. She opened her -eyes full upon him, with a gaze of undying love.</p> - -<p>“You kissed my brow, the first kiss as a lover. Then -you said it was given in the spirit of reverential admiration. -Has marriage ever changed the thought?”</p> - -<p>“Never!”</p> - -<p>“If I should leave you, do you think you could tell -others how to love so?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I can, surely; if I can do any thing, alone!” -And then came to him the silence of a dumb grief. She -saw his agony and pitied him, yet serenely she spoke:</p> - -<p>“Go onward, beloved, in the way of the prophet’s -vision; the power of Christ be with you; the life of -Mary is an open book; speak to, work for those most -needing, then will you have your constant Pentecost -with the ever present ‘Grail.’”</p> - -<p>Cornelius pressed the hand he held tenderly; he -could not speak.</p> - -<p>“Repeat to me the beautiful words concerning the -Harvest Feast which you heard out of Moses at the -service that so blessed you at Jerusalem,” she continued -again. Then, mastering his voice, he complied:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_604" id="Page_604">[604]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the -Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill-offering of -thine hand, which thou shalt give <i>unto the Lord thy -God</i>, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee:</p> - -<p>“And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, -thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, -and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is -within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, -and the widow, that are among you, in the place which -the Lord thy God hath chosen to place His name there.”</p> - -<p>When he finished the words he hid his face in his -hands.</p> - -<p>“Thou art weary, my good master,” spoke a Jewish -mother present. “Go now and rest. I’ll watch.”</p> - -<p>Quickly, gently, firmly he waved her away, as one -unwittingly trying to draw him from the gates of -heaven.</p> - -<p>“It is not usual,” she persisted, “for a man to serve -this way; then thou hast other and more important -duties, our holy missioner!”</p> - -<p>He found voice to speak, and needed to restrain -himself from indignant tone. It seemed as if it were -impiety now, so great his love, to speak of any duty as -higher than that he had toward this one woman, more -to him than all the world beside. “No; if I were on -the cross she would be there, another Mary; if I am now -in torture I’d be no Christian if I did not emulate Him -who, amid crucial agonies, between two worlds, cried -as inmost thought of His heart, ‘<i>Behold thy Mother!</i>’”</p> - -<p>He felt Miriamne’s hand pressing his, and drawing -him closer to herself.</p> - -<p>“Cornelius, I’m leaning now as never before upon -my husband’s loyal heart!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_605" id="Page_605">[605]</a></span></p> - -<p>It seemed to the man as if she were nigh to crying: -“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!” and -as if to answer his own thought he exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“He will be Father, I as a mother, Miriamne, my -Miriamne!”</p> - -<p>Grief had made him an interpreter. It was as he -thought, the heart of the young woman, woman-like, -had been groping about for mother-love. Memory -had been busy, but had sent the heart of the woman -back from groping amid the graves of Bozrah all weary, -to nestle and rest on the breast of him that gave -mother-love, and promised all else that loyal heart ere -gave.</p> - -<p>But all was not gloomful; the clouds were shot -through and tinted by some light-rays.</p> - -<p>“What if our forebodings prove untrue?”</p> - -<p>Hope’s question was as a north wind to a desert -noon.</p> - -<p>Once the man bashfully questioned his spouse, with -broken sentence that was half signs.</p> - -<p>“Does Miriamne feel aught of reproach toward the -great love, seemingly not far from utter selfishness, -which enchanted to this peril?”</p> - -<p>“Could Madonna reproach God when she felt the -heart-piercing sword? To Him she submitted, no less -do I in doing and suffering as He wills!”</p> - -<p>It has been said a woman’s heart is complex, but -this one’s was not now. It lay open, as a book, before -her lover-husband. He saw no idol there but himself. -Had there ever been hidden remembrance of some -girlish love, some secret scar left by a romance, both -burning and brief, it would have been opened or effaced -now.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_606" id="Page_606">[606]</a></span></p> - -<p>As she beheld her consort, this time more loved, if -possible, than ever before, knightly, courtly and tender, -alert and strong to help, lavish in caressing, she not -only felt conquered, but filled with desire to surrender -to the uttermost; for she joyed to place this man -on the throne of her being next after God, supremely -lord over all. So together they moved amid the -flowers of Beulah-land, under the glorious lights of -married love. She all compensated for the pangs the -trying hour brought; he thrilled, as he ascended -higher and higher from lover love to husband love, to -that holy delight that comes to a man beginning to -feel fatherhood, the gift of the woman his heart has -enthroned. For a little time both were too happy to -speak, so they let their thoughts wing their way upward -to the eternities where hopes eternally blossom. -She presently signaled him to draw close to her, then -his clasped hands lay on her heart, and their lips met. -She said nothing, yet by a sign-language well understood -by each, plainly entreated him to tell her over -and over, more and more, his inmost thought, that her -heart knew full well already.</p> - -<p>She heard his heart’s beatings, then she whispered: -“Don’t be anxious; all is well, for all is as He that loves -us wills.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Miriamne, I loved you never as now; God bless -you! bless you! bless you!”</p> - -<p>She interrupted him again. “The crisis is coming, -and I thought perhaps I might not survive, Cornelius, -but if I do not—”</p> - -<p>Her words were silenced by an impassioned kiss.</p> - -<p>She continued, “I dreamed, last night, that I saw -the shadow of a cross, but on it a woman’s form.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_607" id="Page_607">[607]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Oh, beloved, do not think of it!”</p> - -<p>“I do. I must! I understand it all.”</p> - -<p>Pity now silenced her.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Miriamne!” he cried anon, as he saw her descending -into the vale of agony, from which he could -not hold her back. He dare say no more. He feared -to voice his thoughts, lest his fears become ponderous -and huge, once they found escape in the garb of -words.</p> - -<p>Just past midnight the dispatched courier arrived, -bringing twain of the most-skilled physicians of Jerusalem.</p> - -<p>Cornelius watched them with an interest beyond -words. His heart sank down and down again, as he -saw them in serious consultation. Unable to restrain -himself, he seized the elder, and drawing him hastily -aside, demanded an opinion. The grave old man only -shook his head, saying: “We may save one.”</p> - -<p>“One? One!</p> - -<p>“Which? What?”</p> - -<p>“Young man, be quiet; do not let thy emotions -disturb the patient or the nurses. Prepare for the -worst.”</p> - -<p>The husband seized the wrinkled hand of the aged -practitioner, and then flung it from him, crying: “It -must not be! It shall not be!” Instantly he rushed -toward the couch, but the two men of healing intercepted -him. Then the elder one said: “We must be -obeyed, or else we will give no commands! Shall we -go or stay?”</p> - -<p>What a revulsion came! It seemed to Cornelius as -if these two men of skill were angels, and flinging his -arms about them, he hoarsely whispered: “Save,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_608" id="Page_608">[608]</a></span> -save! Stay and save! All I have I give you, only -save her!”</p> - -<p>Quietly they led him to the adjoining apartment; -then charged him, as he hoped for any good to his wife, -not to re-enter her chamber until sent for. Reluctantly -he consented, not daring to do otherwise and yet believing -in his very soul that in this hour of peril the -bestowment of love’s caresses on the invalid would be -better than any skill of the stranger. He withdrew to -the arch on the roof, where unmolested he could pray. -But his meditations were full of miserable sights. He -thought of the Egyptians in their feats of Osiris, leading -to sacrifice the heifer draped in black; then of Rizpah -defending her relatives; then of the monument in -Bozrah, with the mother holding her dead Son. He -thought, amid the latter meditations, of himself creeping -about that monument, in the night, until he came -to another, on which he deciphered the name, “<i>Miriamne</i>.” -The imagination gave him a shock, and he -gave way to it exhausted. An hour or so after he was -awakened from a sort of stupor by the younger of the -physicians, who, standing by his side, addressed him:</p> - -<p>“Sir Priest, thou mayst come now; but as thy profession -teaches, nerve thyself to confront any fate, good -or ill.”</p> - -<p>“How’s my wife?” exclaimed the stricken man, -leaping from his couch and approaching the speaker, -that he might devour with his eyes the thought of the -one he questioned.</p> - -<p>The emotionless features of the man accustomed to -confront human suffering softened a little to pity. The -quick eye of the missioner discerned the change, then -he cried:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_609" id="Page_609">[609]</a></span></p> - -<p>“What, dead!”</p> - -<p>“No; if thou wilt but control thyself, thou mayst -see her for a little while; there’ll be a change soon.”</p> - -<p>The man of healing had done and said his best, but -that was bad enough. He had tried to comfort, but -the exigencies were beyond human powers. “A -change soon!”</p> - -<p>Hard, mocking words. Apology for bad news! Stepping-stone -to saying the worst is at hand; words so -often used by the man of healing when his art is defeated! -How like a funeral knell breaking the heart -has come, again and again, to tingling ears those terrible -sounds: “In—a—little—while—there’ll—be—a—change!” -Cornelius felt all their stunning force, and -was instantly by the side of Miriamne. What a -change met his hungry eyes! The fever had died -away; fever, that blast from the shores of Death’s -ocean, had passed, because there was nothing longer -for it to attack. The tide was ebbing. She lay silent, -pale and haggard; motionless, except as to a feeble -breathing. The husband would have encircled her -with his arms. It was love’s impulse, but science, the -men of healing, restrained him. There was a little wail -just then, and he glanced around with a look of joy. -The nurse had brought the babe close to him, turning -away her own face to hide her tears, but holding the -little one out as if trying to say: “This shall compensate.” -Then again the grief-stricken man turned -to the physicians and whispered, in a half-fierce, half-terrified -way: “She’ll live—she’ll be better now.”</p> - -<p>The aged man, slowly adjusting the paraphernalia of -his profession preparatory to departure, replied: “Few -survive the Cæsarean section. It was a dire necessity.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_610" id="Page_610">[610]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Lord, behold whom Thou lovest is sick,” moaned -the young chaplain, as he knelt by the couch and -buried his face in its disordered covering. So the tide -of life ebbed at midnight, leaving a stranded wreck at -Bethany, and the Christmas chimes turned to dirges.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_611" id="Page_611">[611]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XLII">CHAPTER XLII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE MOTHER OF SORROWS TRIUMPHANT AT LAST</span></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Are we not kings? Both night and day.</div> -<div class="verse indent1">From early unto late,</div> -<div class="verse">About our bed, about our way,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">A guard of angels wait!</div> -<div class="verse">And so we watch and work and pray</div> -<div class="verse indent1">In more than royal state.</div> -<div class="verse">Are we not more? Out life shall be</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Immortal and divine;</div> -<div class="verse">The nature <span class="smcap">Mary</span> gave to <span class="smcap">Thee</span>,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Dear <span class="smcap">Jesus</span>, still is <span class="smcap">Thine</span>;</div> -<div class="verse">Adoring, in <span class="smcap">Thy</span> heart I see</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Such blood as beats in mine.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">—<span class="smcap">A. A. Proctor.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-h.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Hundreds were assembled within the -“<i>Temple of Allegory</i>,” and other hundreds, -unable to effect an entrance, tarried around -about it. The knell of Miriamne, the -Angel of the Mount, had called the vast congregation -together from Bethany, from the country round about -and from the City of Jerusalem.</p> - -<p>There were many signs of subdued sorrow, but the -intensive expression of grief common in the East was -absent; neither was there any of the paganish blackness, -which sometimes characterizes Christians’ funerals, -manifest. Though Miriamne was dead, her sweet, -trustful, cheerful spirit still survived and still ruled.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_612" id="Page_612">[612]</a></span></p> - -<p>The knights of Jerusalem, led by the Hospitaler, -were present, the latter to direct the services, by request -generally extended.</p> - -<p>After a “grail” song by his companions, and at its -last words, “<i>I shall be satisfied when I awake in His -likeness</i>,” the Hospitaler began discoursing.</p> - -<p>“Men and women, death, the leveler, makes us all -akin; therefore all of us feel impoverished by the departure -of the angel who shone upon us here from -the form that lies yonder. Miriamne Woelfkin, daughter -of a knight, consort of a Gospel herald, devoted -friend of womankind, disciple of Jesus, was gifted with -almost prophetic insight and power of alluring unsurpassed -in our day. Hers was the power of a burning -heart entranced of a superb ideal, and therefore was it -the power of immortal influence. She will live not -more truly in the life she died to give than in the lives -she lived to save. She was an unique woman, but only -so because of her superior womanliness. Being dead, -she reaches the reward generally denied the living, full -appreciation. Her career was in part a parallel of her -choice exemplar’s. You have heard how the Mother of -our Lord sung her ‘<i>Magnificat</i>’ out of a heart as free -as a girl’s, yet as proud as that of a woman’s glowing -in the prospect of honoring maternity. But the last -note of her rapture died on her lips full soon, and she -never after in this life rose to such measure of joy. -God permitted her life to pass through a series of suppressions -and griefs, doubtless that she might exemplify -the sad side of woman’s career. The histories -of women, mostly written by men, are marred by the -conceits of their writers, and are at best but obscure -pictures. The man with the pen lacks insight as to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_613" id="Page_613">[613]</a></span> -being, whose life is so largely an expression of heart -and soul. The lordly writer clothes his heroes in the -light of his fevered imagination, depicting with bold -stroke the mighty deeds of stalwartness; but he sees -few heroines in his horizon. Those he does see are -beyond his power of analysis. He falls to actual -worship of his masculine demi-gods, perhaps as a partial -atonement for his failings toward the fine and -noble characters whose traits are too spiritual for his -thought-limits or vocabularies. The generality of those -who discourse concerning women, do it in a patronizing -way, and feel to praise themselves as paragons in doing -justice in this, even by halves. The queenship of Mary -is constantly disputed, and so her lot is more closely -linked with that of her sex. As she received the royal -gifts of the Magi, holding them as a sacred trust for -Him to whom her life was utterly devoted, so woman, -the bearer and nurse of the race, gives all that she has -without stint to others. Her life is a suppression; all -bestowing; her reward the joy she has in the lavishness -of her bestowals. Hers is the joy of the fountain -that sings because it flows.</p> - -<p>“But recently ye saw the Jewish priests deposit on -his mount, after a custom constant since Moses, the -ashes of the red heifer. They burned their sacrifice -with red wood. Red pointed to the blood that can -only atone for sin. But underneath all lies a deep lesson. -’Twas the female instead of the male thus offered, -and her ashes gave potency to the waters of purification. -I read this hidden truth: the sacrifices of the -gentler sex work out the purification of the race. As -the moss in the heart of the stone, I see this truth lying -in the heart of the ceremonial! As Christ’s cross<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_614" id="Page_614">[614]</a></span> -precedes the cleansing of regeneration, so woman’s cross -is the means by which the decays of life are offset by -new created beings. By the bier of the wondrous -comforter of others, I may surely appeal to those -who hear me and loved her to seek with quickened ardor -to offer the pain-assuaging myrrhs to those grand souls -who go along the way to life’s crucial glories. I’d have -such justice done as would cause all women to cease -pitying themselves because they are such, and go about -rejoicing that God gave them the superlative privileges -of womanhood.”</p> - -<p>There came forth a loud cry, with moanings, from -the part of the temple, called the “Mother’s Pillow,” -where the honored dead lay.</p> - -<p>“Miriamne, oh, Miriamne, you brought me through -Gethsemane to your Calvary!”</p> - -<p>A silence almost oppressive fell on the assembly. It -was the silence of a pity too deep for words.</p> - -<p>Then spake the Hospitaler, in words as invigorating -as a herald of God’s should be, and yet as soothing as -a mother’s to her child in pain:</p> - -<p>“Christ, who loved the young man who was very -good and yet not perfect, loves thee, for He is unchanging -in His mercy. Hear me, an old man, stricken -with the years that have schooled, and one who has experienced -the bitterness of widowerhood after loyal, full -loving. God’s hand is on thee. He is schooling thee -to carry on the work begun by thy wondrous consort -now asleep.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Miriamne, Miriamne! alone in the dark, I move -through Gethsemane toward thy Calvary!”</p> - -<p>Again the silence of pity was broken by the voice of -the knight.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_615" id="Page_615">[615]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Remember how David of the White Kingdom was -called and furnished for his kingship. ‘He chose -David, also, His servant, and took him from the sheep -folds, from following the ewes great with young. He -brought him to feed Jacob, His people, and Israel, His -inheritance.’</p> - -<p>“Missioner-shepherd, God calls thee to a ministry of -love, for those whose trials thou hast now been taught, in -part, to measure. You have heard how Hadadrimmon, -the fabled god of the harvest, ever comes, bearing -sheaves, with tears.</p> - -<p>“Thus speaks the prophet:</p> - -<p>“‘In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, -as the mourning of Hadadrimmon.</p> - -<p>“‘And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the -family of the house of David apart, and their wives -apart.’</p> - -<p>“Young man, God is giving thee a crown in David’s -royal line.</p> - -<p>“Once more I turn to her who was thy Miriamne’s -exemplar and queen. Let me tell you all of the last -hours of Mary, that you may find instructive parallels. -I’ll read from my treasured book of traditions:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“After the ascension of Jesus, our Mary dwelt in the -house of John upon Mount of Olives, and she spent her last -days in visiting places which had been hallowed by her -Divine Son; not as seeking the living among the dead, but -for consolation and for remembrance and that she might -perform works of charity.</p> - -<p>“In the twenty-second year after the ascension of the Lord, -she was filled with an inexpressible longing to be with her -Son; and, lo, an angel appearing with the salutation, ‘Hail, -Mary, I bring thee a palm-branch, gathered in paradise; -command that it be carried before thy bier, for thou shalt -enter where thy son awaits thee.’ And Mary prayed that it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_616" id="Page_616">[616]</a></span> -be permitted that the apostles, now widely scattered under -their great commission to gospel the world, be gathered -about her dying couch; also that her soul be not affrighted -in the passage through the pale realm of death. The angel -departed; the palm-branch beside her shed light like stars -from every leaf; the house was filled with splendor, and -angel voices chanted the celestial canticles. The Holy Spirit -caught up John as he was preaching at Ephesus, and -Peter, offering sacrifice at Rome, and Paul, from his place -of labor, Thomas, from India, while Matthew and James were -summoned from afar. After these were called, Philip, Andrew, -Luke, Simon, Mark and Bartholemew were awakened -from their sleep of death. These holy ones were carried to -the Virgin’s home on clouds bright as the morning, and -angels and powers gathered round about in multitudes. -There were Gabriel and Michael close beside her, fanning -her with their wings, which never cease their loving motions. -That night a supernal perfume of ravishing delightsomeness -filled the house, and immediately Jesus, with an innumerable -company of patriarchs and holy ones, the elect of God, -approached the dying mother. And Jesus stretched out -His hand in benediction as He did when ascending from the -world, long before at Bethany. Then Mary tenderly took the -hand and kissed it, saying: ‘I bow before the hand that made -heaven and earth. Oh, Lord, take me to Thyself!’ Thereupon -Christ said, ‘Arise, my beloved; come unto me.’ ‘My -heart is ready,’ she replied; a few moments after: ‘Lord, -unto thy hands I commend my spirit.’ Then having gently -closed her eyes, the holy Virgin expired without a malady; -simply of consuming love, permitted now by the loving Creator -to melt the golden cord binding spirit to body. And -triumphantly amid mourners who rejoiced exceedingly in -spirit, the body of this Queen of the House of David was -entombed amid the solemn cedars and olive trees of Gethsemane. -Now, this happened upon the day that the true -Ark of the Covenant was placed in the eternal temple of the -new heavenly Jerusalem, as they say; and the saying is good, -for surely, in her heart, this saintly woman kept the law; the -divine manna as well. Even more, she was the fulfillment -of God’s covenant that a woman should bear the masterers -of sin.”</p> - -</div> - -<p>The speaker then knelt; all heads were bowed; he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_617" id="Page_617">[617]</a></span> -spread out his hands as in benediction, but spoke not. -Yet all in the silence were blessed, for the manifestation -of Christ was there. After the benediction the -companion knights chanted an old grail psalm, repeating -again and again the stately words:</p> - -<p>“<i>I am the resurrection and the life.</i>”</p> - -<p>As they sang their eyes were turned upward in a -rapture as of men who saw a glorious appearing; and -indeed they had a vision of splendor; but they saw it -within, not without.</p> - -<p>“There are angels hovering round,” reverently whispered -Mahmood to his camel. He was too full to keep -silent; too distrustful of his wisdom to confide his -thoughts to a human being. But the thought of the -old Druse was as exalted as that of the Hospitaler, for -the latter exclaimed, as the congregation slowly moved -out to the strains of the organ:</p> - -<p>“Methinks I hear the beatings of mighty wings! -Not far away is Gabriel, the ‘angel of mothers’ and of -victories! Yea, verily, I believe that the spirits of -Adolphus, Rizpah, Sir Charleroy and Ichabod are ministering -nigh us!”</p> - -<p>Many looked up through their tears fixedly, as if -they felt what the knight had said in their souls.</p> - -<p>Then they laid the body of Miriamne in a new-made -tomb nigh the Garden of Olives, not far from the -burial-place of Mary the mother of Jesus.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_618" id="Page_618">[618]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XLIII">CHAPTER XLIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">A COFFIN FULL OF FLOWERS AND A GIRDLE WITH -WINGS.</span></h2> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“Behold thy mother!”—<span class="smcap">Jesus to John.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Two travelers journeyed slowly along Mount -Olivet, pausing anon to observe the flower-dells -between them and Mount Zion, or to -contemplate the wilder prospects where the -wilderness of Judea edged close up to the hills they traversed. -As the travelers passed, the natives looked -after them with curiosity; for the garments of the -former, though dust-covered, were those of personages -above the ranks of the common people; also of -a fashion that betokened them strangers in that -vicinity.</p> - -<p>One of these men was a youth, stalwart and comely; -the other was gray-haired and bent as if by the weight -of years, though a closer view suggested premature -blasting, rather than senile decline.</p> - -<p>“Winfred, before entering Bethany, we’ll to the -‘Hill of Solomon,’ the site of Chemosh, the black -image of the Roman Saturn.”</p> - -<p>Thereupon the twain turned away from the village -and soon came upon a company of revelers, each wearing -a crown of autumn fruits, and all gathered about -a platform crowded with hilarious dancers.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_619" id="Page_619">[619]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Saturnalia!” exclaimed the elder.</p> - -<p>“The worship of Saturn ceased ages ago, did it -not?”</p> - -<p>“Of the image, yes; but the folly, little changed, -continues.”</p> - -<p>“This is strange enough; and yet it’s a relief to -meet a few happy people in this land of solemn -faces; even if those happy ones do joy like fools.”</p> - -<p>“They celebrate the passing of summer-heat and -the coming of the rains of autumn. Say not fools; -they are trying to be glad about something good, -somehow coming from some one somewhere above -them. Perhaps God can resolve scraps of thanksgiving -out of it all.”</p> - -<p>“Theirs is the laughter of wine! the laughter of -the goat-god, Pan, whose face scared his mother and -whose voice scared the gods!”</p> - -<p>“We’ve a persistent custom here, son; and men do -not play the fool for generations after one manner, -at least, without cause.</p> - -<p>“These attempt to press into the court of Pleasure -to cajole her; all men do that; these have chosen -merely an old way. They cling to the myth of Saturn, -the subduer of the Titan of fiction. They say -that deity, dethroned in the god-world, fled to Italy, -where he gave happiness and plenty through life, and -the freedom of air and earth after death, which latter he -made to be only a little sleep.”</p> - -<p>“That was not more than a mock golden-age; it -never came, I think.”</p> - -<p>“But very alluring to those that long for it; they -dance half-naked, typifying the primitive times when -men had fewer cares, because fewer wants.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_620" id="Page_620">[620]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Can one laugh hard fates out of countenance, and -make his troubles run with a guffaw?”</p> - -<p>“The devotees of Saturn were wont to offer their -children in his altar-fires, and so ever more it happens; -he that bends to the materialistic solely, kindles -altar-fires for his posterity.”</p> - -<p>“After to-day what comes to these, peace?”</p> - -<p>“Nay, a year all dark and colorless; then another -spasm called a feast—a brief lightning-flash revealing -the darkness.”</p> - -<p>“And so the years come and go; one generation -of madmen, then another; death the only variety?”</p> - -<p>“Nay! I’d have you look upon pleasure of sense -deified, taking its pleasures under the shadows of -Chemosh, for a purpose. You remember we read together, -under the palms at Babylon, how the holy -Daniel saw in vision the four winds of heaven striving -on the sea?”</p> - -<p>“I remember the prophet’s reverie or revel.”</p> - -<p>“The four winds and the sea! the meaning, opened, is -conflict on every hand on earth! Out of the follies and -turmoils David’s White Kingdom will emerge at last. -Listen to the words of the inspired seer:</p> - -<p>“‘Behold one like the Son of Man! There was given -Him a dominion and a glory that all people should -serve Him; an everlasting dominion!’</p> - -<p>“It is coming; my poor faith, amid the conflicts and -revels of man, hears the voice of God crying through -the night, as in Eden’s dark hour: ‘<i>Where art thou?</i>’ -My last lesson to my son awaits us at Bethany; let’s -be going.”</p> - -<p>Ere long Cornelius Woelfkin and his son Winfred -stood silently, and with uncovered heads, before, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_621" id="Page_621">[621]</a></span> -a little apart from, a stately marble shaft that rose up -amid the olive trees of Gethsemane. It was night, -and they were alone. The father motioned the son -back, and alone glided under the shadowing trees, toward -the pillar. There the elder one threw himself -down on the earth, close beside the monument; the -youth, deeply moved, but unwilling to intrude upon -the scene of sacred, silent grief, stood aloof. In a -small way, there was a repetition of the grief of the -Man of Sorrows, who there, ages before, yearned in His -humanity over a lost world, over those from whom His -heart was soon to part for life. To be sure, the cross -of Cornelius Woelfkin was infinitely less galling, less -heavy than that borne by his Master; and yet it was -as heavy as he could bear, and hence the pitifulness of -his grief.</p> - -<p>Who can lift the curtain from his thoughts? The -years roll back and memory’s pictures pass through his -brain, at first in joyful train. The lovers in London; -the betrothal at sea; the wedding at Jerusalem; the -ecstatic consummation in years of marriage. Then -the painful, almost awful separation by death, that -never to be forgotten Christmas time. And then, -twenty years with leaden feet carrying the lone-hearted -man so painfully slow toward death’s portals, for -which he longed with unutterable yearning. “Oh, -Miriamne, Miriamne, let me come,” he cried. The -youth, hearing the agonized utterings, was instantly -by his father’s side. But the old man, still oblivious -to all but his sorrow and his memories, moaned on -with deepening fervor.</p> - -<p>“Father,” called out the son. The father rose to his -feet and calmly said: “My boy, pity me. I’m weak.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_622" id="Page_622">[622]</a></span> -But oh, you never knew what it is to have your life sawn -in twain and be compelled then to drag your half and -lacerated being along the over-clouded vales of an -undesired existence!”</p> - -<p>“My mother’s tomb?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. I promised, as my last service to you, to -bring you to it. Its study shall be the finish of your -schooling.”</p> - -<p>Just then the clouds broke away and the moonlight -fell full upon the monument. It was a shaft, terminating -in a crucifix; by its side were two forms, one -that of St. John, with face turned toward the figure of -the dying Savior; the other that of a woman kneeling, -her face buried in her hands. On the base of the -cross was the brief sentence: “Behold thy mother.” -As the youth gazed on the farewell charge of Jesus to -John, when He commended to the care of that beloved -disciple His sorrowing mother, he started. It seemed -as if the words had grown out of the marble suddenly -while he was gazing, and for himself only. He felt as -if he could almost embrace the stone.</p> - -<p>The two men were silent and heart full. After a long -time, they simultaneously turned away toward Bethany. -They came to a turn in the road that would shut -out all view of the garden of sorrow, and the elder -paused, loath to leave the place where his heart was -buried.</p> - -<p>Presently he spoke again, as if unconscious of any -other being with him: “Oh, Miriamne, I failed to -carry out the work thou left’st me! How could I, -alone? I was but half a man without thee, my other -self! Miriamne, Miriamne, I can be only nothing when -I can not be with thee.” Then the old man lifted his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_623" id="Page_623">[623]</a></span> -hands as in benediction or embrace, and continued: -“Farewell, a last farewell, sweet, white soul, until upon -the tearless, healing shores of light I say good morning!”</p> - -<p>There was a mighty pathos in the display of this -old, ripe, strong grief, which lived on a love that could -not die. The man was a study. He was of fine fibre, -almost effeminate, never firm, except in his affection -for that one woman. That was the one strong trend, -the one anchorage of his life. He need not study the -man far, who strove to know him, to discover that this -tenacity was not natural to him always. It had been -a growth under the influence of the peerless wife.</p> - -<p>“Shall we go on?” after a little asked the son. With -a shudder and a suppressed sob the elder moved on, -but with laggard step, which soon paused. Just now, -the moon being beclouded, it was very dark about -them, and the father reached out his hand and drew -the youth to his embrace. He whispered: “Winfred, -son of Miriamne, you bear her image in your face, bear -it ever in heart, as well. I’m glad you’re not so like -me.” The son tried to speak, but the elder interrupted:</p> - -<p>“You’ll ere long be fatherless as well as motherless, -but take your mother for your guiding-star. You -know what your birth cost her. By her death you -obtained life, as by the Christ’s, immortality. She -saved others, she could not save herself; but if you’re -true to her memory she’ll have a mother’s immortality, -that life that lives in the life of her child.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Let us gather up the <i>last</i> threads of our story. After -the death of Miriamne, the “Sisters of Bethany” soon -ceased to congregate at the “House of Bethesda,” in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_624" id="Page_624">[624]</a></span> -the city on Olivet. Cornelius Woelfkin attempted for -a time to carry forward the work of the mission, but, -utterly miserable himself, he did not know how to -bestow comfort on others; a man, without the intimate -companionship of the woman who had been his inspirer, -he had no discernment of the needs of woman, -nor power to interpret the truths that were in the Book -or in nature, those garners of manna.</p> - -<p>The Hospitaler was sent for as an aid. He came -but once, and then spoke as kindly as he could to the -women of Bethany and Jerusalem, and took his farewell -of them all, in closing words like these:</p> - -<p>“The blessed Miriamne, child of Jesus, and emulator -of Mary, has passed away, but Christ her Comforter -and Savior may be such to each of you, that wills -Mary’s example, as the inspiration of all women, can -never die. The world has been a battle-ground, and -each of you can here see over the whole field of conflict. -Shall all pleasures be found under the leadership -of Bacchus and Venus, or in Him that is the God -of Joy? Shall woman echo the passions of man or the -‘<i>Magnificat</i>’ of Mary? Shall the strength that man -seeks be that of the giants, brute force; the strength -of woman be, in her youth the bewitchings of personal -beauty, in old age the cunning of the witch-hag? Shall -it not rather be in the girdle of her moral worth?</p> - -<p>“The world needs to seek and find love, beauty and -light. Some go after it, vainly, as did the Egyptian -devotees of Phallic Khem; to whom, with pitiful incongruity, -were offered rampant goats and bulls, decorated -with most delicate flowers. They called Khem the -‘God of births,’ the ‘beautiful God,’ but we know to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_625" id="Page_625">[625]</a></span> -put mothers on the throne as the beautiful; their -flowers, their jewels, their glories being their offspring!</p> - -<p>“Women of Jerusalem, never forget the Savior’s own -words to the women that envied His mother, crying -that the one that bore Him and nursed Him was therefore -peculiarly blessed! His reply was: ‘<span class="smcap">Yea, rather -blessed are they that hear the word of God -and keep it.</span>’”</p> - -<p>Then the Hospitaler, bending his eyes upon the pale-faced, -widowed missioner, continued: “I’ll tell thee a -tradition of our Lord’s mother. Doubting Thomas, -laggard because doubting, came late to the burial-place -of Mary. He begged to have her coffin opened, that -once more he might gaze on the face of his Savior’s -mother. It was done. But there seemed to be nothing -in that coffin except lilies and roses, luxuriously -blooming. Then, looking up, he saw the spirit of the -woman ‘soaring heavenward in a glory of light.’ But -as she soared, she threw down to him her girdle. -Here is a beautiful parable. The graves of the holy -are to memory full of the ever-blooming roses of love -and the lilies of purity. If we may not have them we -loved with us always, we may have the virtues with -which they engirdled themselves, for our conflicts.”</p> - -<p>The Hospitaler paused, cast a glance of yearning -tenderness upon the assembled women and the heart-stricken -Cornelius; then exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“Long partings are painful. Farewell!” He glided -away ere any could clasp his hand. Not long after this -event the Sheik of Jerusalem, Azrael’s putative son, -raided Bethany, razing the “Temple of Allegory” to the -earth. He was maddened because, after the disappearance -of the Hospitaler, there came to him no stipend to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_626" id="Page_626">[626]</a></span> -buy immunity for the “Bethesda House” of the “Sisters -of Bethany.” He despoiled it, hoping to find a treasure -therein, but though there was in and about the -place a great wealth, it was all beyond his grasp or ken, -for he knew naught of the worth or power of precious -truths and precious memories. Cornelius, after this, -taking his infant son, soon departed from Syria. His -dream of evangelizing the world and the great designs -of Miriamne faded from his hopes, as the vision of universal -empire has faded often from the hopes of dying -conquerors. For years he devoted himself to being -father and mother to his child. At last we behold him, -as in the foregoing pages, looking toward sunset. -He stands finally in Bethany, his dismantled home and -Miriamne’s ruined temple not far away, her tomb close -at hand, himself like the fragment of a wreck; altogether -presenting a sad, dramatic tableau. He stands -there as the last of the new “Grail Knights,” the last of -those who in his time were devoted to the new grail -quest. It was Saturnalia-time, and it was night.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“<span class="smcap">Virgin and Mother of Our Dear Redeemer</span></div> -<div class="verse">...</div> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">If our Faith had given Us Nothing More</span></div> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Than this Example of all Womanhood,</span></div> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">So Mild, so Strong, so Good,</span></div> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">So Patient, Peaceful, Loyal, Loving, Pure,</span></div> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">This Were Enough to Prove It Higher and Truer</span></div> -<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Than All the Creeds the World Had Known Before.</span>”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="attr">HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="footnotes"> - -<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Jamison.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The Magnificat.</p> - -</div> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary: The Queen of the House of David -and Mother of Jesus, by A. 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