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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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