*.^-<: R.-r.;.; ^:J ^^m i >F CUIFORmi LIBRHRY OF THE UIIIVERSITy OF CUIFORNU (5V 3F CUIFORfllA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ■ii-^/a6a->>' 4, - k ^ IP ilNiVERSilY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN g^ ^^^ ^4^^ ^1%^^ ^p s s ^^OC^^p \\1.5? ^ -UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN D I fey ■= UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CUIFORII V •.. (5^ /TZ) X 0: ^ i I Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/commentaryonreviOOhumprich By James Freeman Clarke. THE LEGEND OF THOMAS DIDYMUS. 12mo. Cloth. $1.75. GO UP HIGHER; OB, RELIGION IN COMMON LIFE. 12mo. Cloth. $1.50. THE HOUR WHICH COMETH AND NOW IS. 12mo. Cloth. $1.50. Lee and ShEPARD, Publishers^ Boston, THE LEGEND THOMAS DIDYMTJS THE JEWISH SCEPTIC BY JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE il AUTHOB OF "TEN GBEAT RELIGIONS," '« SELF-CULTUBE," ETC. " 'Ov irpwTov TO iruevfjLariKOv, aWa to t/^vxitof ' eneira to jrcev/i*aTi»c6»'." "That is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual." — ! Cob. zv. 46 BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS NEW YORK CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 1881 Copyright, 1881, By JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. TO THE CHURCH OF THE DISCIPLES, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, MY FELLOW-STUDENTS, DURING MANY YEARS, OF STlje ILtfe of 3esu)5, THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 269532 ^ PEEFAOE. The purpose of this book is to reproduce the times in which Jesus appeared, the characters who surrounded him, the opinions, beliefs, and prejudices of the Jewish sects and "^ people. After this, Jesus himself comes before us, not as we now think of him, idealized by the reverence and wor- ship of centuries, but as he may have appeared to the peo- ple of his own day, — aj^rophet, one full of divine power, / yet a man like themselves. I have tried to show how some were attracted, and some repelled, by his claims and his character. Especially I have endeavored to enter into his own purpose and expectation, his own view of the Messiah and his kingdom.^ This book comprises the results of many years' study of the life of Jesus, and may be considered a brief commen- tary on the four Gospels. The number of those who have written on the life of Jesus within a few^ years shows that the interest in this * "I am persuaded that the Bible becomcB ever more beautiful, the more it is understood; that is, the more we consider that every word which we apply to our- selves has had at first a particular, peculiar, immediate reference to certain special circumstances.'* — GOETHB, Aus Makariens Archiv. W. Meister. V VI PREFACE. great story is by no means exhausted. The variety of the 1 interpretations indicates that the full secret of the phe- nomenon has not been discovered. The great range of -^ opinions, which includes such writers as Strauss, Renan, ^^ Neander, Hase, Farrar, Geikie, Furness, and the Dutch critics, may allow room for another view of Jesus, which differs somewhat from them all. Most of these writers arrange themselves in two classes. One class stands on the church tradition and creed, and, assuming Jesus to have been mysteriously and absolutely divine, tries to harmonize his human life according to this assumption. The defect of this mode of treatment is, that it allows little critical free- dom, and presents a character devoid of reality. Doubtful points are avoided, or touched very carefully, from the constant restraint of what may be called this theological prepossession. The other class, taking its stand on the simple humanity of Jesus, easily falls into the opposite, or anti- theological prepossession. Its tendency is to strip off all mystery, to explain away all that seems inexplicable, to deny" at once the possibility of whatever appears supernatural. But these elements form such an integral part of the narrative, that they can only be removed by reducing the historical value of the four Gospels to its minimum. The figure of Jesus which emerges from this treatment is often as unreal as the other, and has the additional disadvantage of being rather commonplace. When we read a critical narrative of the life of Jesus treated on this plan, we end by asking how it was, if he was no more than this, that he has ruled the religious thought of the most advanced races of men during so many centuries. PREFACE. VU The method adopted in the present work is different from either of these. I begin by taking the position of those around Jesus, who must have regarded him as a remarka- ble man, — inspired by God indeed, a great prophet, but yet, like all preceding prophets, purely and simply human. Whatever else Jesus was, he was certainly a man. Keep- ing this firmly in view, I have endeavored to see how far we are carried up by the legitimate influence of the narra- tive. Not seeking to accept, nor hastening to deny, what is unintelligible, I have left much, as I have found it, veiled in the obscurity of tradition. When so many things meet us in daily life which we can neither accept nor reject, but must allow to remain unexplained, how can we think it pos- sible to understand all that meets us in the story of a being so original and remarkable that his advent has created a new heaven and a new earth? Some jof__the_. seemingly supernatural events have been here interpreted according to natural law ; but there remains a large amount of this element which I leave in the story as I find it. The clew which I have followed is that contained in the saying of the apostle, which I have taken as a motto : "Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual." According to this plan, I have endeavored to place the reader and myself in the actual environment, looking at Jesus as he may have appeared to a liberal conservative like Nicodemus, a narrow zealot like Ben-Gamlah, a man of the world like Pilate, a Jewish Epicurean, a Jewish Stoic, a noble Roman matron like the wife of Pilate, a sceptic like Thomas, and an ardent, enthusiastic Jewish Vm PREFACE. woman like Miriam. I have also sought to give a picture of the time, the geography of the country, the customs of the synagogue and temple, the teaching of Philo, and the determined proselytism of the Pharisees. I present no list of the authorities from which my facts are derived,^ but will merely say that the result of much study may be sometimes contained in the form given to a single sentence. One advantage of putting these studies into a narrative form is, that the imagination is assisted in reproducing the times of Jesus by identifying ourselves with a single per- son, and following him through his experiences. Of course I cannot expect that this presentation of Jesus will satisfy all my readers. Those whose opinions are already formed in regard to the questions in dispute will naturally be often dissatisfied with my conclusions. But if those, who, like Thomas in this story, are in perplexity concerning Jesus, find him becoming more real, and brought nearer to them, by the present narrative, I shall be amply content. Some will consider the portrait of Jesus in this work too purely human and natural, others as too supernatural. But, as I have said, I am unable to read the story without the conviction that Jesus possessed some extraordinary power over nature and life. In what it consisted, we g-re not called to decide. It is evident that these deeds were not ^ Two exceptions I will make, — one in regard to the works on the gospel, by Dr. FurnesB of Philadelphia, which constitute, in my judgment, as valuable a con- tribution to this study as the present century has produced. The other is a book not widely known as yet, but containing some of the most original and profound investigations to be met with in any language, on the condition of the Jews and the Roman Empire at the coming of Christ. I refer to *' Judaism in Rome," by my brother and friend, Professor Frederic Huidekoper of Meadville, Penn. PREFACE. IX done to confute or confound opponents, but are a simple and natural outcome from the spirit of the Master. If such a spiritual force was actually exercised, it would naturally cause other actions of a simpler order to be regard- ed as being also marvellous. Every new wonder creates immediately around it a penumbra of imaginary wonders ; and I suppose some of the acts of Jesus which the dis- ciples believed to be marvellous works, were not so. I have thus interpreted the feeding of the five thousand, the cursing of the fig-tree, the piece of money in the fish's mouth, etc. The last of these I have explained as a misunderstood pro- verbial expression of the fishermen of the lake. To show how easily a proverbial expression may be turned into a fact, I will add this incident. On the day when John Brown was executed in Virginia, and the whole North was filled with sadness, I heard two very ignorant men talking behind me in the railroad train. One asked the other, *'What are they going to hang this Brown for?" The other answered, "I don't exactly know; but I heard tell that he set fire to a powder-magazine in Virginia." Some one had probably said in his hearing that Brown's course among the slaves was like bringing fire into a powder- magazine. Some of the interpretations given here are, I think, new. The reason for driving out the money-changers, though it appears sufficiently obvious, I have not seen mentioned elsewhere. The simple way of reconciling John's paschal narrative with that of the synoptics, by the supposition of two suppers, and of a slight misplacement of events by the amanuensis of John, I have not found in the commentaries. X PREFACE. The difficulties which surround the history of the resur- rection will probably be never wholly removed. In my nar- rative I have made much use of the results obtained by the penetrating insight of Dr. Furness. The main fact, that Jesus after his death came again to his disciples in visible form, and created a faith in immortality which transformed their whole being, seems to me undeniable. Without some such event, Christianity would have been buried forever in the Master's grave. The resurrection of Christ was the resurrection of Christianity. With all respect for those who believe that the apostles imagined they saw their Master, and that this self-illusion was the foundation on which the I religion was built which converted Europe to faith in a Jewish Messiah, the supposition appears to me historically incredible. The house which is to stand must be founded on the rock of reality, not on the sand of delusion. Since I first began this book, some years ago, several works of a somewhat similar kind have been printed. I have been obliged to deny myself the pleasure of reading these, — " Philo-Christus," for instance, — because I did not wish my own conception to be confused by the influence of a work written perhaps from a different point of view. The reader will often find the results of modem scholar- ship embodied in the narrative, without reference to the sources from which they are derived, or the reasons by which they are supported. Thus, in the first chapter, the celestial phenomenon commonly spoken of as "the star in the east" is described as a conjunction of planets. This theory, first suggested by Kepler, indorsed by Dr. Ludwig Ideler, in his work on ' ' Mathematical and Technical Chro- PREFACE. Zl nology, ' ' accepted by such orthodox commentators as Olshau- sen and Alford, seems the best explanation of the narration in Mattliew. In "Smith's Dictionary of the Bible" it is stated by an astronomer that such a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurred three times between May and Decem- ber B.C. 7. The astrologers of Persia, probably acquainted with the prophecies of Isaiah concerning a coming Jewish king, saw in these three planetary conjunctions a reason for believing his birth to be near at hand. The word translated *' star" in Matthew is used in Greek for celestial meteors of various kinds. It is sometimes urged as an argument against the authen- ticity of the Fourth Gospel, that it describes several visits made by Jesus to the feasts ; while the synoptic Gospels give only one. But the reason for this is not far to seek. John's Gospel was partly intended to supply what had been omitted by the other evangelists. They mentioned only the last Passover, because only on that occasion did Jesus appear in a public character (John vii. 4, 10). He worked few wonders in Jerusalem, and those seem to have been purposely done in a way to deprive them of their miracu- lous aspect. These early visits were therefore omitted by the synoptics, who related events rather than conversations, but were reported by John because of the peculiar nature of the discussions. This I have tried to make clear in the course of the narrative. In Miriam I have attempted to reproduce the character of those Jewish women who have been so conspicuous by their influence in the public life of Palestine and Rome. Such was Alexandra, who succeeded her husband Jannaeus as XU PREFACE. monarch of Judaea, a century before Christ, — a wise and energetic queen, during whose reign, says Josephus, the whole land was at rest. Such an one was that Herodias who wreaked her vengeance on John the Baptist, and whose influence on this very Herod Antipas was so great, that her ambition did the work which Miriam is represented as de- signing to do. She ruined him with Caligula, who deposed him, and banished him to Lyons. But in her case, too, the mixture of nobleness with wickedness appeared ; for, refusing to accept the pardon of Caligula, she followed her husband into exile. Such a woman, also, was the beautiful and un- happy Mariamne, wife of Herod the Great, — the only per- son before whose influence his iron will gave way ; and such another was Berenice, sister of King Agrippa, whose irre- sistible attractions at the court of Rome nearly compelled Titus to place a Jewish woman on the throne of the Roman Empire. It is a year and a half since this work wtis completed. I have gone over it several times with care, but I cannot hope that some errors may not remain undetected. I trust they will not be important. The book has been prepared, not without a grave sense of responsibility, and with a sin- cere desire that it may help some open minds into a deeper faith in the common Master. J. F. C. Jajviaica Plain, Mass. Feb. 16, 1881. CONTENTS. I CHAPTER I. FAOB. The Lakb of Gaxjlbb, and thk Synagoguk 1 CHAPTER n. Miriam of Migdol 20 CHAPTER in. I go to A School of the Scribes 35 CHAPTER IV. I ENTER Religion, and seek to save my Soul .... 69 CHAPTER V. I GO to Alexandbeia, and study the Higher Judaism . . 78 CHAPTER VI. The Fall of Miriam. — I go to the Monastebibs of the Es- SENES 100 CHAPTER VII. I RETURN AGAIN TO MY OlD HOME 121 CHAPTER Vm. / meet Jesus of Nazirah; and I listen to Him as He prophe- sies, AND teaches the People 141 CHAPTER IX. The Conversion of Miriam. — I become a Disciple of Jesus, and One of the Twelve Missionaries 164 xm XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. PAGE. The Mighty Signs and Wonders 177 CHAPTER XL Jesus in Galilee. — His Success. — Beginning of Opposition . 194 CHAPTER XH. What Jesus taught concebning the Coming Kingdom . . 204 CHAPTER XHI. Judas of Karioth and the Letters of Ben-Gamlah . . 234 CHAPTER XIV. Letters between the Rabbi Ben-Gamlah at Tiberias and the Rabbi Ishmael at Jerusalem 247 CHAPTER XV. Journal of Nicodemus, and Letter of Epinetus . . . 276 CHAPTER XVI. On the Way to Jerusalem, leaving Galilee fob the Last Time 300 CHAPTER XVII. Last Journey to Jerusalem, Narrative continued . , . 328 CHAPTER XVIH. Last Conversations of Jesus with his Disciples . . . 366 CHAPTER XIX. Letter prom Ben-Tabbai, a S adduces, at Jerusalem, to Sul- picius, AN Epicurean, at Rome. — The Dream of Pilate's Wife, written to Sabina Popp^ea, her Sister, in Rome . 393 CHAPTER XX. Miriam of Migdol relates the Wonderful Events which followed the Crucifixion. — What Thomas also saw. . 423 ( THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. CHAPTER I. THE LAKE OF GALILEE, AND THE SYNAGOGUE. I, Thomas, called the Twin, being an elder brother of the Assembly of God's children and of the Brotherhood in Jesus the Christ at Malabar, write this my memorial, for the help of those who may come after. I was bom in Syria, and belonged to the tribes called Jews. We learned, when we were children, that our God, whose name must not be uttered, was greater than all gods. He made the earth, the sun and the stars ; and the gods worshipped by other nations worship our God. His home was in our sacred city, the joy of the earth, "beautiful for situation," on a mountain-top, looking down toward the east on the Sea of Death, and toward the west on the great water which divides Africa, Asia, and Europe from each other. Our country was small ; but it stood in the very centre of the world. It was given to our Father Abraham by his friend Yahveh, the God of our nation, and given again to Jacob, his grandson. Here our people had lived, and they thought themselves God's own people, — the loved of Him who made heaven and earth. Here lived and reigned our great King Daweid (David) , who conquered the surrounding kings, and made our tribes great and rich. Here reigned the mighty Solyma, who was so wise that he knew all things on the 1 2 IHE LSOEIO> OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDTMUS. earth, — trees, beasts, birds, — all things in the water, and all gems in the caves, and the virtues and powers of all. Our people had been slaves in Egypt, but were delivered by the prophet Moses ; they had been slaves in Persia, but were delivered by the prophets Daniel and Nehemiah ; and now they were slaves again under the Romans : but we expected the greatest prophet of all, and the last, to come, who would expel the Latin legions, and make the great and lovely city of Yahveh once more the delight of the world. For in our sacred books it was written that a righteous king should come, and subdue the whole earth by the rod of his mouth, and slay all wicked men by the mere breath proceeding from his lips. When he should come, our holy land, defiled by the armies of aliens, would become again pure and free. For this great prophet we prayed and waited. And, indeed, many things showed that the time was near at hand. Some years before, when I was a little child in my father's house in the province of Galilee, a great rumor went abroad, that angels had been heard singing in the skies, and declar- ing that some great good was coming to men. Also it was said that a wonderful star had been seen in the air, sending a ray of light into the very village where the prophet was then born. And, indeed, the king, Herod, was terrified, and feared for his throne ; and it is said, though I know not the truth of the story, that he sent armed men to slay all the children in that village, thinking to kill the infant prophet. Foolish man ! to suppose that he could hinder the decree of the Most High from its fulfilment. What God determines, will come to pass, even by the very means men use to prevent it. Moreover, an old man who passed through our village when I was a boy, with a staff in his hand, journeying to Lebanon, sat in our gateway, and received milk and bread. And, when his hunger and thirst were appeased, he told how he had been in Jerusalem at the time when the star appeared sud- F THE LAKE OF GALILEE, AND THE SYNAGOGUE. 3 denly in the sky, and that it seemed like three bright planets assembled in one place as if for consultation. And he said that he had also seen some Persian priests in white robes, and with mitres on their heads, priests of Ormazd, who had come from Edessa to Jerusalem, saying that the Scriptures of Zerdusht, whom the Greeks call Zoroaster, had also tes- tified that a Saviour and Deliverer of man should be born in the west. And when the three stars were seen by them in the west, coming together to consult, they knew the time was at hand. So they had come by the way of Palmyra, or Tadmor in the Desert, to see that prophet who was also to be a king. And they said that while they travelled, and every night looked at the lights of heaven in the west, they saw the three stars go apart, and separate from each other. But when, in their journey, they had passed through Moab, and descended to the Jordan, and saw the dark mountains of Judaea rise before them, they beheld the three stars come together a second time, and remain standing side by side over our land. Then they knew that in this place the prophet was to come. But whether they found him, or did not find him, the old man knew not. After this, many years passed away, and the Deliverer came not ; so that the hearts of men were heavy with wait- ing. And the Roman soldiers were in camps, and in cities, and we were taxed to pay for their food and their wages. And they oppressed us, and carried away our wives and daughters into captivity, under pretence that we were rebel- lious ; and they cruelly beat and put to death our chief men, to inspire terror and produce submission. And yet no Deliv- erer appeared. And so the days went by. My home was on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is the water of Genesareth. The plain where I lived was called, in my own tongue, "The Garden of Riches," so fertile was it, and full of lovely flowers and stately trees, and like a Paradise of plenty. The water of the lake was 4 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. pure and fresh r it was full of fishes, and three hundred vessels sailed to and fro from the cities on the western shore to those on the eastern shore. So deep down lay our lake, that it was as if one should pour water into the bottom of his cap ; for the mountains rose high all around, and the sea nestled in their midst, sheltered from all cold winds by these high walls of stone. Perpetual spring reigned in this valley : the figs and grapes ripened during the whole year ; and the fruits and flowers and trees of all climates mingled peacefully together. The lofty palms, crowned with leaves which rustled and crackled in the wind, stood by the side of dark green walnuts, and the spectral olive-orchards. The Lord, who gave this land of Palestina to our people to dwell in, made it rich within with fertile valleys, great plains bear- ing corn and wine and oil, clear-flowing streams, beautiful forests of oaks and turpentine- trees, and palms towering aloft like sentinels to guard the people. But the Lord had also put mountains around it to protect our people from the tribes who roamed for prey all about us. So Palestina rose like a fortified island from the midst of the desert below, walled in by Hermon and Lebanon on the north, and the rocky peaks of Sinai on the south. Those mountains were our friends ; and all our land was a watch-tower, whence we could lift up our eyes, and overlook the plains below, reaching to the vast blue sea on the west, and across Jordan and its long valley to the mountains of Moab beyond. But I lived in my mother's house by the shore of the Lake of Waterfalls ; and to see these distant regions I must climb the hills. Many travellers, merchants of Babylon and Damascus, crossed our sea, journeying toward the coasts of Tyre and Sidon on the north, or to Egypt at the south. They pitched their tents by the side of the four great springs, from which the waters rushed in large streams toward the lake. And I, a boy, often walked through the plain when the sun of spring covered it with white and blue flowers, or THE LAKE OF GALILEE, AND THE SYNAGOGUE. 5 the summer caused it to bum with the red fire of the lilies. I talked with the birds, who made the air all alive with their song, and with the clustering blossoms, which seemed almost as alive as they, and thought of the wonderful history of our people. I pondered whether in my time the Great Deliverer would come. From my early childhood, my mother fed my heart with the stories of our heroes and kings. She was one who was waiting for the consolation of Israel, sure that the Lord had not forgotten his people, though he tarried long, and his voice had now been heard by no prophet for long years. As in the days of the boy Samuel, '' the word of the Lord was precious, for there was no open vision." But my mother told me, that, in the history of our jjeople, there came always the darkest and gloomiest hour before a new dawn. It was a dark hour for our people in Egypt when Moses was born, their Deliverer. We were now, indeed, slaves to the Romans ; but we were not ground into the earth, as our fathers were by the Egyptians. Caesar was not as cruel as Pharaoh. It was a dark time when our people were wander- ing through the wilderness for forty years, seeming about to become as rude and wild as the robber tribes around them. They drove their flocks and herds from one hillside to anoth- er, like the sons of Esau. They dwelt in tents, like the Ish- maelites. But so the Lord changed these weak slaves of the Egyptians into hardy soldiers ; and when they came to the shore of the Jordan, and saw the green hills of the land of promise glowing in the western sunset, they were strong enough and brave enough to enter into the land and take it. Then she talked to me concerning the wild times that fol- lowed the conquest, — when there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes. There was no law nor fixed government, nor any settled place for the altar of God. Some worshipped at Shiloh, and some at Bethel, and many continued to offer sacrifices at the places 6 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. where Baal had of old been worshipped, — at Baal-Hermon and Baal-Hazor and Baal-Judah. And then, when the calamities of the people were great, the Lord raised up men of might, and women of might, — Samson and Deborah, Gideon and Jephthah, — and under their strong hand, peace returned, and the tribes fought with each other no more, and had rest also from the Philistines of the plains. Moreover, my mother told me of the days that followed, when the Philistines rose up again against Israel, and brought great armies, with armor and shields and swords and lances, and drove our people before them, and took the ark of God ; and how, when the priest of God heard of this, he fell back and died. And they named the little child born to his daughter, Ichabod, because the glory was departed. And my mother told me that the glory departed from Israel, because the people had ceased to worship Yahveh, and worshipped the gods of the plain and the coast, — cruel Moloch, and licentious Ashtaroth, and all the Baals. They worshipped in the temples of the heathen, and in the groves of abomination, with shameful and horrid rites ; and the land was defiled with blood, and the ark taken away to the temple of the fish-God, Dagon. And then, in that darkness, the Lord raised up Samuel, a stem and awful prophet, who turned the hearts of the people to their own God and King, the God of the great and terrible name. And as soon as the people's hearts were right in his sight, their strength returned, and they smote the Phi- listines hip and thigh, and pursued them with great slaughter, even unto the spot where Samuel put up the stone which he called Eben-ezer, or the Stone of Help, because the Lord had helped them even unto that place. And so my mother told me of the wanderings of our Father Abraham, king of men, from whom every Israelite is descended. For we all had our genealogies, kept sure by the sons of Levi in their sanctuaries. No other nation had this THE LAKE OP GALILEE, AND THE SYNAGOGUE. 7 science as had the Jews ; for all our land belonged to fami- lies, and the scribes kept a record of the boundaries of every piece of land, so that, if it were sold, it should return to the same house at the end of fifty years. Among all nations, men are proud of being descended from great ancestors. At Rome, men were proud who belonged to the Cornelian or Fabian houses ; but, except with us, there was never known a nation all of whom were descended from the same ancestor. Every Jew in the whole world, whether he lived in Alexandreia, or Persia, or Rome, or Athens, could say, **I have Abraham, the friend of God, for my father." This made every Jew a brother to <'very other Jew, and gave to us all the same family pride. We were the patricians of the world. What were Roman knights or senators, or Macedonian kings, to our ancient race? They were plebeians, born yesterday. To-day they chanced to be more ix)werful than we, and were our rulers ; but to-morrow we should see them fall, as we had seen the fall of other vast monarchies which had also for a time been our rulers, — the Pharaohs of Egypt, oldest of empires, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Phojnicians. Cyrus the Great, conqueror of Babylon, had been our protector and friend. Hiram, King of Tyre, was an ally of Solyma. AVhat had become of Cambyses, whose armies overran Egypt ; of Sargon and Tiglath-Pileser ; of the ships of Sidon? These all were gone. The ruins of Nineveh and Babylon were overgrown with trees, and, as our prophets had foretold, desolation had come up into their palaces. Hades was moved from beneath to greet them at their com- ing. Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees, had become as Sodom and Gomorrah. The city of Damascus, most ancient on the earth, was only a village, its pride and power departed. Tyre, formerly sitting on the sea like a queen, and sending her ships of merchandise to unknown regions, was only a heap of stones. All the 8 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED Dn)YMUS. burdens and woes uttered against these mighty monarchies by Isaiah and Ezekiel had been fulfilled. All were gone ; but we, the children of Abraham, remained, in whose seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. God had put into our hands the destinies of mankind ; and when Messiah came, all other peoples, nations, languages, should submit, and bow down, and adore before Yahveh, Lord of lords and King of kings. I went one morning to our house of gathering (or syna- gogue) to listen to the reading of the law and the prophets. Ours was an open town, large enough to furnish the Ten Men of Leisure, whose duty it was to be always present, so that the worship might never wait for want of the necessary num- ber to make up a congregation. These Ten Men of Leisure sat on the high seats on each side of the ark, and presided over the affairs of the congregation. The house was on the summit of a hill, overlooking the sea, whose bright blue waters sparkled in the sun, and lay dark in the shadow of the hills which rose steeply from its eastern shore. Far away, at the upper end of our sweet lake of Galilee, were misty mountains, with the snowy top of Ilermon soaring above all into the heavens. The morning was calm, and the sabbath rest seemed to be shared by all living things. The lambs' bleat was not heard from the distant hills, on which the flocks showed like streaks of snow ; the birds were silent in their groves of olives ; and the lake, on other days alive with white sails, was now without a boat on its surface. . Our house of gathering, built of large stones, and cedars from Lebanon, stood on a raised platform of volcanic rocks, and was entered through a porch of four cedar columns. Before entering the house, I turned to take another look at the lake. The mountains, which swept around it, seemed to hold it in their protecting arms, as a mother holds her child. As it lay in their embrace, so we, the multitudes who lived on its shores, lay in the hollow of God's hand. How happy \ THE LAKE OF GALILEE, AND THE SYNAGOGUE. 9 our life in this delicious retreat ! — perpetual summer around, mountains and deserts, solemn sentinels, guarding us from the robber tribes which roamed to the east of us. As I stood above the fair scene, I looked along the level beach below, in some parts of snowy sand, and in others a speckled line of black and white stones. All round the lake ran this white beach, like a silver girdle around the waist of a queen. And our lake was a queen in her Ix'auty and riches. To the south rose the white walls of Til^erias, where dwelt our cruel ruler, whom the Roman emperor had confirmed as our tetrarch according to the will of his father Ilerod. Ilerod the father had left Galilee to be governed by Antipaa his son, bom of a Samaritan woman. Thus wc were ruled by a family of Arabs and Samaritans, who in their wicked hearts sought to put an end to the worship of our God, the Most High. They built temples to the Roman god Jupiter, and worshipped stone idols, carved by Greek artists, and made like men and women. Beyond Tiberias, men might see the faint mists rising from the hot springs of Ilammath. I, taught to abhor all heathen worship, looked with horror at this evil city of Herod Antipas, which he had built on our shores, and where he lived the life of a beast rather than a man. A rapacious plunderer, he sent his tax-gatherers (who were called publicans, or Telonai) to torment us with per- petual demands. They were like wolves and bears devour- ing the land. They had no modesty, no fear. They watched by the lake to see what was brought over in the boats, that they might accuse us of bringing what was forbidden ])y the Roman laws. They made us pay taxes on what we bought and sold, taxes on the sheep which we pastured on the bare hills, taxes when we crossed a river, a tax on each man*s head, a tax on the house we lived in, a tax on each door in our house. All this money was taken to Tiberias, and there was spent by Herod and his friends on their feasts, for I do not think that much of it ever went to the emperor at Rome. 10 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DTOYMUS. But this was not the worst evil this tetrarch did to us. Only a few weeks before the time of which I speak, I passed by a house near our town, and I heard a moaning sound, and went in. There, on the floor, lay the householder, with blood streaming from his face. When I had lifted him up, and bathed his face, he cried out, "Oh, woe, woe on this day ! May blackness and night settle on it forever. My child, my child ! Why did I not die when my child was taken away ! " And then I learned that soldiers from Tibe- rias, sent no doubt by wicked Herod, had seized his daughter, a girl of sixteen, and beautiful as sunrise, and carried her away to the city, for the tyrant's pleasure. Well may you think, my children, that we hated this devil- ish Antipas, this son of Satan, and that we never put foot in his polluted city. It stood fair on the distant shore ; but it was the home of all abominations. We hated Antipas, and we hated his tax-gatherers ; for no one had taught us at that time that we could love our enemies, and that love was stronger than hatred. Bless the Lord, my children, who has taught you this word of peace, which takes out of the heart its poisonous rage, its bitter hatred, and fills it with the calm of the angels of God. When I went into the house of gathering I found there the greater part of the community, and many strangers be- side ; for a renowned teacher had come among us, and was to speak that day. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, and very learned in the law. I went in, passing first through the wide portico, which represented the Court of the Gentiles in the temple at Jerusalem, which all our synagogues (as the Greeks called them) were made to resemble. Ascending some steps from this court, or walking-place, I entered the house. On the right hand was the place of the women, separated by a low partition from the place of the men. The light came from windows above, and the southern sun aent a ray through a single round window at the upper end, THE LAKE OF GALILEE, AND THE SYNAGOGUE. 11 falling on the ark of cedar, which held the sacred Thora, or books of the law of Moses. As we entered, we bowed toward this ark, and therefore toward Jerusalem ; for every synagogue in the world was so placed, that the people within, all but the elders, should look toward Jerusalem. The ark stood on a raised platform, which was reached by seven steps, and divided by a low rail from the rest of the building. The space within this rail represented the Court of the Priests, and the ark itself was a type of the Holy of Holies. A rich veil of Tyrian scarlet hung before it, in imitation of the veil of the temple ; and in front of this the candlestick with eight branches, unlighted. One lamp alone burned by the ark, and never was suffered to go out, — a symbol of the light which always streams from the one living and true God. Sitting on each side of the ark, on the raised platform, were the Ten Men of Leisure, the elders of the congrega- tion, with the three rulers of the house of gathering, the president, and some Pharisees and priests from Jerusalem. The ser\nce went on as usual ; but it was evident, through all the early readings and the eighteen prayers of Ezra, that the heart of the congregation was greatly moved, expect- ing what was to come. Indeed, the Jewish nation, which seemed crushed to death under the iron heel of the Roman legions, retained its life and freedom in its synagogues. The Romans, a nation of great strength and boundless pride, but slow of perception, saw us going eveiy seventh day to our houses of gathering ; and if they sometimes came and stood in the outer court, to which we ostentatiously invited them, they laughed with scorn at what they held to be an absurd superstition. They knew not that these synagogues were secret societies, organized in every part of the Roman Empire, with a discipline like that of their own legions. They perceived not that every adult Jew belonged to one of these congregations, and that his name was enrolled in its list 12 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED Dn)YMUS. of members, bound to obey the orders of the ruler of his synagogue and its council of elders. They had no knowl- edge of the organization which bound them together, and made them all subject to the chief Council of the Seventy at Jerusalem. The Romans were proud of their courts of law, and their judges, claiming jurisdiction in all the prov- inces. They knew not that every synagogue was a court, and that it called on the Roman law, only to enforce its own sentences. Though it had not the power to punish with death, it could do worse : it could excommunicate a mem- ber from its body, and so cut him off from his nation, making him an object of hatred to his household, and an alien from the commonwealth of Israel and the promises of God. They knew that each synagogue had its angel, or messen- ger, yet thought they not to ask what were the messages they carried from one to another ; for they said, *' These are all mere matters of religion, and pertain only to worship.'* They were blind to the fact that there was in their midst this army, drilled and organized, and ready to act when the mes- sage should be sent forth from Jerusalem. They saw a million of men collecting in our holy city at the great fes- tivals ; and to them it seemed a mere act of worship, like the mysteries of Eleusis. They were ignorant, that, to every Jew, religion and patriotism were one and the same thing. They heard us speak of the Christ who was to come, and the kingdom of heaven, and believed that our Christ was to be only a religious teacher, and the kingdom of heaven some holy life beyond this. And when, in the synagogues, they heard the elders read the denunciations of the prophets against Tyre and Egypt, Nineveh and Babylon, they under- stood notj that, though our lips spake of Babylon and Nine- veh and Nebuchadnezzar, our hearts spake of Rome, and Augustus and Tiberius Caesar. Fools and blind ! Even then the storm gathered which might dash in pieces their proud empire, and make Jerusalem the capital of the earth ; and THE LAKE OF GALILEE, AND THE SYNAGOGUE. 13 •» . in their cold pride they thought themselves rulers of man- kind, and Rome the mistress of the worid. And when we held converse, one with another, concerning the coming revolution, which was to overthrow at once the petty kingdom of Herod and the thirty legions of Rome, to place Judsea at the head of all the nations of the earth, and make one universal religion for all mankind, we called this catastrophe, the ** Kingdom of Heaven," or the '* Kingdom of God.** For the same God of Israel, with the unmentionable name, who had brought our fathers out of Egypt, who had beaten back the Assyrians, who had re- deemed us from the power of Babylon, would soon and utterly destroy the Romans. When the mighty leader, the son of Daweid, should appear, then the harvest would be ripe, and he would thrust in his sickle. But the Romans, who heard us speak of the kingdom of heaven, thought we meant only some heaven hereafter, and knew nothing of these hopes, nor the bitter vengeance which we expected to take on their idolatrous nation. After the psalms had been chanted, the law read, the responses made, the eighteen prayers recited, the strange rabbi came forward on the platform. There was put into his hand the roll containing the Prophecy of Joel. In a voice deep, and trembling with emotion, he read of the plague of locusts : — " Hear this, ye old men ! Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land I Hath such a thing happened in your days, Or in the days of your fathers? . . . That which one swarm of locusts left, hath a second swarm eaten! And that which the second left, hath a third swarm eaten ! And that which the third left, hath a fourth swarm eaten I " As he read these words, his voice trembled with strong feeling ; then he stopped, and looked round on the assembly. 14 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. A suppressed murmur ran through the congregation, sound- ing like the far-off roar of the sea. We understood his meaning well. These locusts were the Romans, the soldiers of Herod, and the hateful Telonai, or tax-gatherers. We knew that some of these very officers of Herod were at this moment standing in the outer court, but not one of the con- gregation looked at them. Then the reader went on, and described the terrors of the coming time : — " The day of Yahveh cometh ; it is near I A day of darkness and gloom — . A day of clouds and of thick darkness. There cometh a people numerous and strong; Like them have been none of old, And after them there shall not be. A fire devoureth before them, And behind them a flame burneth. The land is as the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness. Yea, nothing escapeth them 1 '* Another deep murmur went through the synagogue. Even so it was with our land, crushed under the leaden weight of the tyrants. All these lovely valleys, which God had given to our fathers to be the homes of happy families, were laid waste, and given as a prey to the spoiler. But the reader went on : — " Yet even now, saith Yahveh, Turn to me with all your heart;. Rend your hearts, and not your garments, And turn to Yahveh, your God. For he is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness, * And repenteth him of the evil. . . . Then will Yahveh be zealous for this land, And will remove far from you the northern host, THE LAKE OF GALILEE, AND THE SYNAGOGUE. 15 And drive it into a dry and desolate land. Its van toward the eastern sea, And its rear toward the western sea. . . . Then shall ye know that I am in the midst of Israel." The voice of the reader had been deep and stem. Sud- denly it changed, and became full of hope and expectation as he read again from the roll : — ** And it shall come to pass, afterward, says Yahveh, That I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. Even on your slaves, men and women. Will I pour out my spirit in those days." Once more the voice changed, and became full of exulta- tion and power, ringing like a trumpet through the room : — *♦ The day of the I^rd cometh, The great and terrible day. . . . Then shall I assemble all the nations, And bring them into the valley of Jehoshaphat, And there fight the battle of my people Israel, Because you divided my land among yourselves, And sold a Jewish maiden for wine. And sold to the Grecians the sons of Judah and daughters of Jerusalem. On your own heads will I return the injury : I will cause my people to sell your sons and your daughters.** At this moment a young Roman centurion, standing in the court, beckoned to me. I went out to him ; and he asked, with some excitement, "What meaneth this?'* — '*An old prophecy about locusts," I replied. "Why, then, are the people so stirred up?" he asked. "He is reading,'* said I, " of the wrongs done to our nation, ages ago, by the Philis- tines and the people of Tyre." Then he was content. He turned away, and I went back to my place. 16 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. But, as I sat down, I saw a face among the women that smote me like a sunbeam, — the face of a young maiden of singular beauty. Yet she resembled not a daughter of Israel ; for her hair was not dark as theirs, but shone and sparkled like red gold, and, being very long, hung over her shoulders like a veil. Her beauty was unlike the beauty of ordinary women ; for, while her face had the forms and the color of early youth, her brow and her deep-shaded eyes were full of thought, and of a serious and determined purpose. Those who stood near were drawn to gaze upon her wonderful beauty, as iron is drawn by the loadstone. But to me there was something in her face far more than beauty ; for it was lighted with a light from within that came and went, and thus seemed to shine with a radiance of its own. There were many thoughts and feelings contending in her face, and some might be clearly seen, and others were more vaguely and slightly expressed. Yet she knew not that any looked upon her ; for her own eyes were fixed upon the reader, full of intense longing, devouring his words. From that mo- ment, I seemed, somehow, to be drawn to her. Yet it was not any common love of man for woman which I felt for her. Afterward, when I could look quietly into my heart, I saw in it a worship and adoration for this great soul, — a worship content to stand afar off, and look up, asking no return. But at that moment I knew nothing : I only had this new and strange feeling in my mind. Absorbed by this strange impression, I ceased to hear the words of the reader. How much time passed I knew not. I sat as in a trance, with a vision before me which I saw and felt, but about which I did not think. At once I started, roused by some light which flashed from the young girl's eyes. I became aware again of the voice of the reader, who had laid aside the roll of the prophet, and was speaking with great boldness, in words hardly veiled, of the condition of Israel to-day. THE LAKE OF GALILEE, AND THE SYNAGOGUE. 17 ** To-day," said he, *' is this prophecy fulfilled, and he that runs may read it. Are not the locusts devouring the land now, swarm following swarm, ruler succeeding ruler? What one leaves, another eats : the wine, and oil, and grain are taken from the mouths of your children to fatten the wolves and foxes, — the wolves who rend, and the foxes who flatter the wolves. On my way here, I passed through the valley of Kishon and the plain of Jezrael, and saw houses standing empty, fields unsown, or left with the grain choked with weeds, the people having deserted their homes. Where are they? Hiding in the clefts of these mountains, the men turned robbers, and prowling around your houses by night to carry away your sheep, or plunder your vineyards. The land mourneth, because of the oppression of my people." A stern murmur ran through the synagogue, and the eyes of the young girl were lighted for a moment with angry fire. The speaker went on, — *' But the day of Yahveh cometh, — the great and terrible day. All things declare that it is at hand. Does not the prophet say that the sun shall be darkened, and the moon not give her light, and the stars cease to shine, before the coming of the day? Some of you can remember when the first of these signs happened. It was at noon, and the summer sun was shining brightly. As I passed to my own synagogue, which is by the mountains of Bethel, I saw the people looking up at the sky. I also looked up, and, lo ! a piece was eaten out of the sun. I came to the people, and we stood in fear, wondering what this should be. As the hour passed on, the piece grew larger, till at last the sun became as small as the moon when it is new. Then it grew still smaller, and we saw only a narrow rim of light, though burning bright. But the skies grew gi'ay, and the grass was gray also, as if with fear. Finally, when the sun had been consumed, all but a small thread of light, it broke to pieces into a number of stars, and then all of these disappeared 18 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED Dn>YMUS. but one.. Finally that too went out, and the sun was extin- guished wholly ; but in its place we saw suddenly appear in the heavens a round black sun, surrounded by waves of white light, brilliant as snow. The people screamed with terror ; but I cried out, ' Be not afraid ! this is a sign of the coming of the great King ! ' And siu-ely, in a few minutes the sun began to re-appear, and then the people knew that it was God's sign placed in the heavens, to tell us. to be pre- pared for the coming of the Wonderful One and the Coun- sellor. *' Another night I walked among these hills, and went up to a lonely peak above the lake. And I prayed the Lord to show me a sign. And suddenly I saw a star fall from the sky, leaving a long trail of fire behind it in the air. It was so bright, that it lighted up the whole region, and I saw all the streams, and woods, and valleys below. And the lake leaped out of the darkness, like a mighty mirror, such as the Tyrian merchants make of polished metal. For one moment, in that dazzling flash, I saw every nook and bay along its shore, and the opposite mountains, and the white walls of Tiberias. Then the star split in pieces, turned red, and dis- appeared ; and presently there came an awful roar, like thunder; and darkness fell, blacker than before, over the whole land. That was a second sign. The star seemed to be above Jerusalem. And so was fulfilled the saying of the prophet, ' The Lord roared from Zion, and uttered his voice from Jerusalem.' '' So I say the time is at hand, of which the prophet says, 'Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning- hooks into spears.' For we must march with our King to conquer all who oppose him. When the Christ comes, Anti- christ wiQ also come ; and the great hosts will meet together to decide the fate of the world in the valley of Jehoshaphat. For what saith the prophet ? — THE LAKE OF GALILEE, AND THE SYNAGOGUE. 19 " * Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of Decision 1 For the day of Yahveh has come in the valley of Decision,^* the valley of Jehoshaphat.' *' Perhaps you may say, *How can we, a people small and scattered, contend with the nations of the earth ? ' But, if Yahveh is on our side, one shall chase a thousand. And, beside this, you know well that we have friends in every nation, — among the Greeks, and among the Romans. Thou- sands of proselytes are in every country under heaven, ready to take our side, and fight for the one living and true God. Though we are oppressed here, and cnielly treated by foreigners, yet Caesar has always l)een our friend. Though some Romans hate us, yet Rome itself will help us. As soon as our mighty leader comes, men will flow to him from all lands, for the last great battle with the hosts of darkness. "And, after this last war, there will be no more war on the earth. Then the heavens shall rain down righteous- ness, the mountains drop with wine, and the hills flow with milk. Then shall Yahveh dwell in Zion, and all nations come to worship in his house. The smoke of its incense, flowing out of it, shall fill the earth. Peace shall reign, and plenty, as long as the sun and moon endure. All shall know God, from the least to the greatest. All shall gladly obey his law, for it shall be written in their minds, — not on tab- lets of stone, as Moses wrote it, but on the fieshly tables of the heart. No more sorrow, no more sin, no more death, in the world. The time is near." The voice of the reader ceased, and a solemn silence came. Only the sobs and tears of the people, sobs and tears of joy and triumph, broke the stillness of the place. When I looked up, the young girl with the wonderful face was gone. I tried to follow her ; but, when I reached the door, I saw her nowhere, and seai'ched for her in vain. 20 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. CHAPTER II. MIRIAM OF MIGDOL. Day after day I walked by the lake, whose deep violet waters sparkled in the sun. The blue sky hung over us, with clouds white as doves, drifting toward the western sea, their shadows creeping over the surface of Genesareth. Snowy Hermon stood as a giant sentinel on the north, its central summit a gleam of white where the snow covered its peaks, but lifting up on either side two vast arms, as if to protect the land it loved. It was my constant expectation that I should see again this strange girl, and that she was to be the star of my life. And truly it came to pass, but in another sense than I thought. One morning I climbed the steep hills above our valley. I passed through fields heavy with wheat, among which the golden amaryllis shone with its great yellow flowers. The tall palms rattled their long leaves together above my head, swaying to and fro in the soft air. Balsam-trees, carefully tended on account of their fragrant and healing gums, sent a pleasant odor around. On the sides of the rocks above me clung the old olive-trees, with strange uncouth forms, as though they were great drunken apes, staggering along, and reaching out their long arms to catch hold of some support. The farms below were hedged in with wild myrtles, and within them were orchards of figs and almonds. Before the door stood citron-trees, ripening their delicious fruit, and shading the children who played beneath. Climbing higher, the lake spread below me, the cloud-shadows running over its surface. MIRIAM OF MIGDOL. 21 and the white sails of fishing-boats bending before the fresh- ening wind. At last I reached an open level spot where stood an old sycamore ; from which was a fair view over the lake to the great hills of Bashan, which rose in a black wall, on the opposite side. To this place I loved to go, and here I often spent hours dreaming of the day when Messiah should come and restore all things. But as I now approached it, I was surprised by hearing a voice chanting in tones of murmuring melody a song, the words of which ran thus : — " Night is over the land, black as the darkness of Egypt. No light from prophet or seer, no word, no sign of his coming: No dawn reddens the east : we sit in the shadows of evil. *' Silence is over the land, hushed are the terrible voices Of Samuel, David, Elijah ; words which rolled like the thunder; Words which struck like a sword ; words wliich fought like an army. " Death is over the land. Priests stood dead at the altar; Scribes speak with dead lips ; this is the valley of vision. Speak, O Lord, to these bones ! — forth from our sepulchres call us 1" I listened to this voice, pure as a flute, rich and full as a trumpet, — a voice whose tones were a long wail of sadness, so profound that my heart almost broke in hearing it. When it ceased, I seemed drawn forward, and moved without my will toward the place whence the sound had come ; and there, sitting below the sycamore, I saw the figure of a woman. She sat on the grass, in the shadow of the tree, her head bent down, as if in deep thought ; but a sunbeam lay upon the shining waves of her long hair, and by this I recognized the maiden of the synagogue. Suddenly raising her eyes, she looked at me, without surprise or alarm, and said with a thoughtful smile, — " Thomas, is it thou? Come nearer : I have something to Siiy unto thee." ZJJ THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. As my face, no doubt, expressed astonishment, she went on, — ' ' Thou dost wonder because I know thy name ; but I have often heard of thee, and I saw thee in the synagogue lately. Shall not the daughter of Israel, who waits for the consola- tion which is to come, know all the youth of the land who may help on the day ? " I stammered forth, "But I am no one: I am yet a boy. What can I do?" She looked at me steadily ; and her clear, luminous eyes seemed to read my soul, as she said, — ' ' No one knows what he can do until the hour comes. Did the boy David think, when he watched his sheep on the hills, that he should slay the heathen giant, and become the mighty King of Israel? But I have an eye which is able to see many things in the soul ; and I see in thine heart two forces which may be used for great things." ''And what are they?" I said, deeply interested, as men are, when others find any thing in their natures worthy of being searched into. She answered simply, '' Sincerity and fidelity. Thou art true down to the roots of thy being. Thou canst not de- ceive, not even thyself. The Lord has made thee to seek truth with extraordinary courage. Nothing will ever satisfy thee but to see the truth with thine own eyes. Most men repeat what others say, and others repeat again what they hear repeated. All the scribes do so ; " and a slight curl of the lip, and a disdainful flash of the eye, spoke of a proud contempt in the maiden's soul. "But what is more, Thomas, thou art capable of being faithful to a leader or a cause. In a world full of traitors that is much. I think not thou couldst be bribed, or in any way tempted to betray thy friends.". "No," said I, looking boldly up. "What thou sayst about my love for truth, may be so — I cannot tell. But I am not a traitor : of that I am sure." MIRIAM OF MIGDOL. 23 " O Thomas ! " said this strange girl, ** never be too sure of any thing. By earth and heaven, I think so of myself. But when I feel these passions in my soul, these rivers of fire which run through my veins ; when I feel how I am some- times ready to hate all men for their meanness, — I can hard- ly trust myself. But," and the deep eyes turned again to me, *'I think I can trust in thee, Thomas, — a little. Thou dost not know me, not even my name. I am called Miriam, and live at Migdol. My father serves Herod An- tipas, and spends much time at Tiberias, at the king's court. But I, who hate the heathen, never go near them. All my thoughts are for my nation ; and I seek to know every one who can be made a helper in its cause. So, Thomas, I have heard of thee ; and now I see thee, and I believe in thee." Then I, full of joy: '* And I also, O Miriam! believe in thee ; and thy words rouse the soul in my bosom. Be my leader and teacher, and let me learn of thee what I can do for our nation." A darkness came over her face, as when the shadow of a cloud passes over the lake. She sat for a moment in silence ; then, without looking up, she held out her hand and took mine, and repeated, as though speaking to herself, "He has no sister : I will be his sister. I have no brother : he shall be my brother. Who knows what good to our nation may come of this, or to what it may lead? " She looked over the lake toward the dark mountain-wall beyond, and said, " As that gloomy wall can hardly be scaled by men, so hard is it to climb up to see the ways of the Lord. But look at Hermon, on our left, and see how that great mountain overlooks Moab and the lake, and sees Car- mel and the Mediterranean Sea. So the Lord overlooks every thing. He sees us here, Thomas. Is it not strange ? Till this morning we have never met, never spoken to each other ; and now we are as old friends. I seem to read thy soul, and know thee as I know myself." 24 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. "And I, Miriam, know thee. Yet I cannot tell what I know ; but I seem to know it, — not the largest part of thy nature, but the essential part of it. As he who finds a nut cannot tell how large a tree shall come from it, nor how its limbs shall be formed, but he knows it will be a nut-tree, so I appear to know thee." "And what dost thou find in me, Thomas? I have told thee what I have found in thee." "Be not offended, Miriam. I may be deceived. I may not be just to thee. I am ignorant of men. I would rather not speak." "Speak, speak ! " she said, looking straight into my eyes. And I spoke as one who is constrained, and who searches into his own thought. From her eyes there came a strong influence, and it compelled me to look at the thoughts slowly shaping themselves in my mind. So I answered, with difficulty, and only a little by little, as the thoughts and words came to me, and as if speaking to myself: "She is a woman who has many struggles with herself. . . . She is not simple, but one in whom many forces contend for mastery. . . . Above all is a burning love for what is highest, purest, best. But mists rise from below, and cloud that love. She seems one moment like Hermon, all pure and white, and untouched by any thing but heaven's air and heaven's sun ; then, all at once, black mists steam up from below, and wrap themselves around her. Ah, how dark it is ! . . . No — there is a golden ray of light rest- ing on the mountain's very crown. . . . Ah, but what a terrible strength of will ! What she wills, she wills like a giant. . . . And how she stands like a queen, too proud to stoop to mortal man or woman, almost too proud to bend before God. How hard she seems now, how cold ! Noth- ing can move her. . . . But now there is another change. What tenderness there is in her ! How she can pour out her heart in gratitude to one who does her any noble good ! How MIRIAM OP MIGDOL. 25 she can love and worship generosity and goodness ! yet what passions there are in her heart ! It seems as if all this lake below us were changed into a sea of fire. O Miriam ! there is so much that is grand, and yet so much that is terrible, in thee. Thou mayst be so good, that angels will love thee ; or thou mayst do what will make Satan glad.'* I stopped suddenly ; for she rose, and turned away. I was terrified at my own words. It did not appear to me that I had spoken out of my own mind, but as though I were the in- strument through which another mind had spoken. I feared to look at her, thinking I must have displeased her much. But when at last I raised my eyes, I saw hers looking upward, so full of supplication, of longing, of pathetic sadness, so very different from what I feared, 'that my heart melted within me from pity. *'Thou hast spoken truth," said the girl, again turning toward me. '' No one ever spoke thus to me before. I am all thou hast said : I am indeed more than that. There is much in me that neither thou nor any one else hath seen. But pride, passion, reverence — these are the deepest forces of my soul ! My God ! will they ever be made at peace ? " Thus speaking, she arose. I, also, stood up. We looked down on the broad sheet of water below. On the south-west vast masses of clouds were rising, yellow and purple, torn with wind, and rolling upward into majestic shapes. Far to the north, above Mount Hermon, all was peaceful. The great summit rose, unstained by a cloud, white with enormous fields of snow, and penetrating the pure blue sky as with the point of a Roman sword. The lake below us began to swell and be agitated with the approaching storm. " Come ! " said Miriam : " we must hasten." So, down- ward through the myrtles and pomegranates, downward along the narrow footpath, we proceeded, while the sky became more overspread with the lurid clouds. After this I saw her often, indeed almost eveiy day. 20 THE LEGEND OP THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. Never before had I known a mind of such activity, sucih penetrating force, such clearness. I had listened to the learned rabbis ; but how empty their minds seemed compared to that of this young girl ! While talking with her, I forgot her beauty, entranced by her words, which lighted up the world with a new kind of sunshine. She spoke of men and women, and a veil fell from between me and them : I saw the hidden, mysterious powers which moved each from within, and made each one himself. She spoke to me of myself, and I grew of value in my own eyes : I felt capable of. great things, and ready to labor patiently, to study industriously, so that at last I might fulfil the expectations of my noble friend. I reverenced her with all the force of my nature, and would have died fOr her sake. And yet something within me protested against her words of passion and pride. She seemed sometimes rapt, like an angel, into one of the heavens which our rabbis told u^ were above the earth ; and again a demon from beneath poured into her soul the fires of hatred, scorn, contempt against the priests, or the Romans, or the Jews who flattered Herod, and held offices from him. Was she a prophetess, inspired by God, or one possessed by a cruel demon? Whenever I left her, and asked myself what my feeling was toward her, it did not seem to me like the love of man for woman, but rather like an enchantment which a magician lays on the soul. I was no longer in my own power : I must think as she thought, feel as she felt, do as she did. And, indeed, her outbursts of pride and rage were few ; for usually she was calm and friendly, and her noble thoughts raised me above myself. While I spoke with her, life was worth living, the day not long enough in which to listen to her inspiring words. Sometimes, as we talked together amid the shades of evening, a light came from her eyes, so that I saw them when I could not see the rest of her face. My conscience and reason protested sometimes against the chain which bound me, but in vain. MmiAM OF MIGDOL. 27 Miriam often spoke bitterly against her position and her sex. " Why am I a woman ? " said she, '* and why am I com- pelled to live in this mean place ? My father and my brothers go where they please ; but I am a girl, I must stay in the house, or go to the synagogue only. It is true that my father has taught me to read Greek, and I have had my brain fed by the writings of Homer, and the poets of Hellas. Were I a man, I could cross the ^gean Sea, and go to Athens and talk with the philosophers ; I could go to Egypt, and talk with my countrymen there, and learn the mysterious wis- dom of that wisest of all lands ; I could go to Rome, and find the secret of the power of that mighty nation. I feel within me a force which would perhaps shatter the fetters which bind my people. But I am only a woman, — less than the meanest man who walks the streets of Tiberias." "Say not so, Miriam," cried I, touched with a mighty pity. " If thou art held by the customs of our nation in a narrow place, thy thoughts have gone out to the ends of the world. They have reached farther than the isles of the sea, and dug as deep as where men mine for gold ; they have ascended as high as where God sits on his throne. Some- times thou speakest like the mightiest of prophets, and some- times in sweet words like the songs of David. Are not such a world of thoughts a mighty kingdom ? Why ask more ? ' ' "Say, rather, a mighty chaos without form, and void," said she. "Is the man lost in a forest its king, because no one else is there but himself? My thoughts are like a great forest, or the labyrinth they speak of in Egypt. They have brought me to iron gateways which I. cannot pass. O Thomas ! what is life for, if it be so full of misery? Why does God let the good be crushed by the Evil One ? Where is the God, the Yahveh, whom we worship ? If he is good, he is not all-powerful, else he would put an end to human sin and woe. If he is all-powerful, he is not good ; and why, then, should we obey him, unless from fear? " 28 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED Dn)YMUS. I shuddered to hear her speak thus, for such questions had never entered my mind. Alas ! I became too familiar with them afterward. As I hesitated to reply, she said, — ' ' But we will not speak of these things ; and indeed I did not mean to say such words to thee, since they give thee only pain, and do me no good. Yet a stream too long dammed up will sometimes overflow, or break through its banks. And so the hidden stream of my thoughts has broken over its banks to-day. Forget it, Thomas, and let us talk of other things." And then she began to tell me of what she had read in the books of the Greeks, which her father had borrowed for her from the king's library in Tiberias. And the day flew by on happy wings, while she told me of the battles of Achilles and Hector around Troy, and the wanderings of Odysseus, of the one-eyed Cyclops, and the Island of Circe, of Aga- memnon and his cruel fate when he went back to Argos, and the grand stories of the tragic poets ^schylus and Sopho- cles. She also told me about the wise Socrates and his dis- ciples ; and as she spoke I saw the splendid city of Athens, with its white temples, and the philosophers walking in the gardens, and sitting in the groves, conversing on great themes. And she related to me the history of how the Greeks had resisted and conquered the armies of the Great King. Then I saw the plain of Marathon and the pass of Thermopylae before me, and the heroes struggling together in the tumult and dust of the conflict. Sometimes she would bring the rolls and read them aloud, as we sat in our favorite place among the old olives, with the dear lake below, sparkling in the sun, or sleeping in the shadow of the hills. I sat and watched the maiden, as her cheek glowed with the fire of her thoughts, and her eyes brightened with courage, or grew dim with tears. Ah, happy days of youth ! Could any thing be more joyful than to listen to these wonderful stories, and this lofty poetry, from the lips of one so dear and so beautiful ? MmiAM OF MIGDOL. 29 Then, on other days, she read to me of the stern Romans, and spoke to me of their mighty power, which had grown for many years, like a cedar of Lebanon, which battles with tempests, and looks in the face of storms, and ever reaches out farther its vast limbs. So the Romans, rulers of the world, wise and strong, had reached out, till they governed the world. But they were cruel and hard masters, who plunged their sword into the heart of every people, and plun- dered all nations. They led to Rome, in triumph and in chains, every king who resisted their power, and trampled out the hopes of mankind. And, as she six)ke of them, she became possessed with the demon of hatred, and a fierce tone was in her voice which I knew not before, and her celestial beauty was changed into another of a terrible kind. I feared and grieved as I beheld it. Yet, after a little while, this passion passed by, and the glory of her beauty returned. One day, as we sat together, she said, "The time has come, my brother, to let thee share in a great secret. I have tested thee, and found thee true to thy people and to thy religion. I have told of the vast strength of Rome, and how it holds with the grasp of its legions all the corners of the world. But there is an invisible power stronger than the armies and the sword of the Romans, — a power which is making ready to crush them. It is a power which the thirty legions of Rome cannot war against. It is a stone cut out of the mountains without hands, that shall roll on and on, till all things are made smooth for the coming of the Great King.- I heard her with surprise, and asked what she meant. " Know," answered the girl, " that there is a great league extended through the world, bound by solemn oaths to make proselytes to our law. It works in darkness ; and, though the lords of Rome suspect and fear it, they cannot discover it. It works under the direction of men chosen from the 80 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DmYMUS. Pharisees, and indeed its members are mostly Pharisees. They are all bound to go where they are sent, and to obey those who are above them. All is darkness and mystery in this league. Thy father, thy brother, may be members of it, and thou not know it. When one joins this holy company, he becomes like a corpse, having no longer any will of his own. The Roman legions are not more obedient to their centurions than the members of this body are to the orders of those to whom they are subject. Each man knows his own commander, but no one else. They take all disguises : they go as magicians and astrologers into the palaces of Roman senators, and even into the house of Caesar him- self. Women, as well as men, belong to this company. They practise all mechanical arts ; they go into every town in Italy and the provinces of Rome, to build the houses, tail the leather, make the tents, and forge the vessels of copper- and tin. They are the carpenters, the smiths, the musicians, the scribes, the gardeners, the carvers, the money-changers in all lands. And in all places their aim is the same, — to make proselytes to the law. All means are right to do this. Falsehood and force cease to be wrong when done in the cause of Yahveh. So say our wisest teachers.'* *' But thou thinkest not thus, O Miriam ! " cried I. " Say that this is not thy thought! " She looked steadily in my face, and answered, " What do I know, Thomas? I am only a woman. But this I know, that our holy league has dug away the very foundations of Roman power. There is treason in the emperor's palace. We have insinuated every- where fear and 'doubt. We have taught the Romans to despise their own religion, and to look with reverence on ours. We have persuaded them that Rome is soon to fall, that they are living in the ninth age of the world, and that when the tenth age begins, then Rome will sink in ruins. Our sacred writings are in the very temple of Jupiter, and the senators send to the Capitol to consult the sibyl, who only speaks our words." MIRIAM OF MIGDOL. 31 **How can this be? " said I, more and more confused in my thoughts. '* A hundred years ago, and more, the temple of their idol, whom they call Jupiter, standing on the sacred hill in the midst of Rome, took fire, and burned to the ground. I do not say that this was the work of our people ; but many think so. This idol was believed to be the guardian of the state and nation, powerful to wield the lightnings ; and all the power of Rome rested in his hands. But in an hour he was destroyed with his temple. And great fear came on the nation. In the temple, also, were destroyed the sacred books of Rome, the oracle of the sibyl who once dwelt at Cumse, on the Italian shore. And the Romans were in great terror because of the loss of these sacred books. Then some of our people told them of another ancient sibyl, who once lived on the coast of Asia, and prophesied, and how her prophecies were still to be found in that land. So the senate sent a delegation to find them ; and some of our scribes had written out carefully in Greek letters verses which rolled like the sea, and which had no sound in them like the voice of our Sacred Scriptures ; but the doctrine of those verses was taken from our books : so that now the wise Romans have been made fools by us, and read the words of our prophets. Also, their great singer, whom men call Maro, has sung in his poems of our kingdom and Messiah ; and he knew it not himself, but thought he was singing in Latin words the proph- ecy of the sibyl of Asia.'* I heard all this with wonder, and said, " When, O maiden of Migdol ! did all this knowledge come to thee? '* She answered thereupon, and said, "Wonder not, but listen. The women of Judah are not all like the pale and weak maidens of other lands ; nor do we hide in inner chambers, but go boldly forth. The chain of womanhood is indeed heavy ; but sometimes we break its iron, and cast off its burden, and live in the light of the sun. Our women 32 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DmTMUS. have done great deeds, and shall do more. They have ruled the kings who ruled the world. So did Hadassah, whom men called Esther or the planet Venus, rule the great King of Persia by her beauty and her wisdom. So did the beauty of Mariamne govern, in spite of himself, the stormy mind of Herod. When he was about to kill her, she looked at him, and the sword fell from his hand. So did the noble Alexan- dra rule the people in her day, and make the land at peace. For the beauty of other women is of slaves, but that of the daughters of Israel is that of queens. The pale loveliness of the women of other lands is mixed with snow, but ours with fire. Like Jael, we can smite with the sword ; like Deborah, we can lead armies to victory, and then chant the inspired song of triumph." So saying, she rose, and reached out her right arm, white and firm as marble, toward the sky, and her shining hair floated around her noble head like a glory. And then, still standing, and speaking as to herself, she said, " And why shall not our women to-day be like Esther, and Jael, and Deborah ? Have we less of beauty to charm, or of courage to dare, or of a terrible power to blast and destroy ? I feel in myself, Thomas my brother, that Yahveh, who chose a shepherd-boy to be the great king of Israel, may take me to be a scourge and a plague to our oppressors. Once, as I was passing with my father through the streets of Tiberias, we met the tetrarch, Herod Antipas. He stopped to speak to my father ; but, while he spoke to him, he looked steadily at me, and I felt, that, if I wished, I could make him my slave. Since that time, he has often sought to see me, and to speak to me, and has asked my father to lead me to his palace, and bring me to see the games in the Stadium. If he should make me his wife, I would bend his will, so that he should take the heavy taxes from our people, and put the children of Israel in all the places of power." '' But he is married," said I ; " and he has a queen, — the MIRIAM OF MIGDOL. 33 daughter of Aretas, the Arabian. Besides, O Miriam ! wouldst thou, a daughter of Israel, be the wife of that wicked man, a murderer, and full of all baseness and iniqui- ty, whose very palace is polluted, being built on ancient tombs ? Would it not be better to be the wife of one of the children of thine own people, even though thou must live in a humble place, than to wear fine linen and purple, and feast every day with this son of Satan? '* And I spoke angrily ; for the thought of her being the wife of Herod gave a sharp pain, like a dagger driven suddenly into my body. Then the wild and changeful girl laughed aloud, and said, "Fear not, O Thomas! this will never happen. Yet to live in a palace, and be a queen, is not an evil thing, if one is queenly. I saw this queen, the daughter of Aretas, as she rode in her chariot ; and though she wore jewels glittering from her nostrils, and bracelets on her wrists and ankles, and her dress was of woven gold, yet her face was tawny, and she looked like an image carved out of wood by some unskil- ful hand. They say she has a thousand garments, — some transparent as the thinnest mist, and others white with pearls. But, had I such splendor, I would make all who saw me say, ' It all belongs to her of right. She was born to be a queen. The jewels do not adorn her ; she adorns them.* '* And then she laughed her bright ringing laugh, which rippled gayly from her lips, like the sudden outburst of a bird's song. But I, still sad, though I sat in the sunlight of her beauty, said, " How proud art thou, O Miriam ! Is it not a danger- ous thing to be so proud ? The demons have power over us when we think too highly of ourselves. ' * And then, with one of those sweet smiles the like of which I have never seen on any other face, she answered gently, "O Thomas! that thou shouldst say this! Thou thinkest, then, that I am not fit for such a high place ; thou thinkest I have not beauty, nor courage, nor fire. I think too highly of myself, do I not, Thomas ? But I am fortunate ; for I 34 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. have a friend always ready to put me back in my place, when I try to go out of it." "No place on earth is too high for thee, O Miriam! I meant not that. Thou knowest that was not my thought. I believe not that Cleopatra of Egypt was more beautiful than thou. Thou art the wisest, the bravest, the loveliest, of all women" — "Hush, hush!" said she, putting her hand before my lips. " Now thou art my Satan, Thomas : thou dost fill my ears with what may make thy friend too proud. But indeed I am and will be proud of thine honest friendship. Remem- ber that, Thomas, but forget all else that I have said to- day." And she rose, calm as the blue sky above us, and we walked side by side down the hill toward our homes. I GO TO A SCHOOL OF TH£ SCRIBES. 35 CHAPTER ni. I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. The teacher who had charge of our synagogue was Mas- ter Jehuda. He was of the family of Ezra the scribe. He gave his whole mind to the study of the Thora, and of the traditions. He was filled with the spirit of understanding. He knew the sayings of renowned men, and could expound subtle parables. He sought out the wisdom of the ancients, and studied the meaning of prophecies. He not only knew and could repeat the whole written law, but also that which had never been written, but was sent down from one Sopher, or scribe, to another. I now see, my children, how dead this knowledge was ; but then we all reverenced our scribe as the very voice of God in our midst. I wished to go and sit at his feet, and learn his wisdom, but dared not say so, even to my mother. The thing seemed too great for me. One day I saw Rabbi Jehuda walking in the meadows which lay near the high hills on the western side of our valley. He walked, as was his custom, lost in thought. He seemed like a man moving in his sleep. They said of him that he had forgotten all common things. As one who goes to the bottom of a deep well, and looks up, and can see the stars in the day, but nothing else, so men said, "The Master Jehuda looks from the deep well of his knowledge, and sees the stars of eternal truth." They said of him that he would walk into a house, and think it his own, and sit down at the board spread for the mid-day meal, and eat and drink as if he were at home, not 36 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. speaking to any one, but plunged in thought. At other times, when he met any one, either a carpenter who was only wise in his work, or a potter who put his trust only in his wheel, he would begin to speak to him of whatever he was turning over in his mind, not knowing but that he was talking with some learned master in Israel. One day he met my brother on the shore of the lake, and immediately said to him, "It is prohibited to place the pots of victuals in a hot place on the sabbath, or to put together on the festival large loaves ; but thin cakes are allowed.*' And, having said this, he walked on ; so stupefied was he with his wisdom, like a man who has taken much strong wine. But when I saw him, on that day, walking in his medita- tion, a great longing came over me, and I ran after him. Yet, when I reached him, I was afraid, and followed slowly behind. Directly he turned and looked at me, and said, "What wilt thou?" I stooped, and lifted the hem of his garment, and kissed it, and said, "I wish for knowledge." Then light came into his eyes, and they seemed to be glad inward- ly ; and he replied, " No one has asked knowledge of me for many days. My best joy is first to leaTn, then to teach. Come to me, my son ; for thy face is eager, and I see in thine eyes a great hunger to know the truth." Accordingly I went to him, and learned from his wisdom. First he told me how Moses, when he remained so long on the mountain with the Lord, even forty days and forty nights, received, not only the written law, but also its expla- nations. And, while he gave the written law to be read aloud to the people, he taught the law of the mouth, which was its explanation, first to Aaron, and afterwards to Aaron and his two sons. And while Moses was teaching them, the seventy old men came in, and Moses recited a third time to them this word, which was to go from mouth to mouth. And then all the people came together, longing to hear the word ; and Moses repeated it a fourth time to the people I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 87 Thus the people heard it once, and the elders heard it twice, but the sons of Aaron three times, and Aaron himself four times. Thus, when Moses went back to his tent, Aaron, who already had heard it four times, repeated it again ; so that his sons also had now heard it four times. And then Aaron, also, went to his tent. Then the sons of Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar, who had now heard it four times, re- peated it again ; and so the elders had also heard it four times. And they repeated it to the people ; and then the people also knew the whole law perfectly. Afterward the law itself was written down ; but the explanation of the law was kept in the memory, and became the law of tradition, which is also called the law of the mouth. ''Thus," said Jehuda, ''there are two laws, — the written law and the spoken law, both coming from the Spirit of God. And without the law taught by the mouth, the other could not be understood or obeyed. For example, the written law said, concerning the feast of tents, ' Ye shall dwell in tents seven days.' But, after the Lord commanded Moses to write this precept, he told him to teach by mouth that this precept was not of obligation for women, nor for the sick, nor for travel- lers, also that the tents must not be covered with cloth, but with the boughs of trees. And other such things were taught. So, too, the Lord, in the Book of the Going-Forth, which de- scribes the going-out of Egypt, forbids that any work shall be done on the seventh day. But in the law of the mouth it was explained exactly what kind of servile work was for- bidden, and what was allowed ; so that, without the spoken law, the written law could not be understood or obeyed." Then I said, " O Master ! I would learn this spoken law." And he consented, and agreed to teach me. After this, I went every day to the house of Jehuda to study that which we called "Talmud," which by interpre- tation means tradition. And I grew very zealous in the study of this law. I believed that only by this knowledge, 38 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. and by obeying it, could our nation be saved ; for my master showed me, that, though the written law might be destroyed, this law in the mouths of the doctors could never be lost. He showed me, that, where the doctors were, the people who wished to obey God could always learn whether they were doing right or wrong. They might mis- understand the written law ; but, if so, they need only go to their master, or to the scribe of their synagogue, and he would tell them what was right. Where the scribe was, they had, as it were, Moses himself just come down from the Mount, standing by their side. He reminded me how, before the enslavement in Babylon, the Jewish nation had been inclined to rebellion and idolatry. '* What has altered them," said he, "so that now there is no idolater among all our people ? It is because, since the cap- tivity, we have had our schools and synagogues, in which the law of tradition has been taught, so that things have been kept in a fixed order. Thus oneness of belief prevails in all places. The heathen may rage, and the kings of the earth take counsel against us ; but, as long as the doctors of the law study and teach the one holy tradition, this is like a great anchor, holding the ship fast amid all storms. The law which God wrote upon stones may be broken to pieces by the hand of violence ; but the law which he wrote on the tables of the human heart and mind can never be demolished." Fully convinced by this argument that God himself was continually present with his people in the body of the rab- bis and scribes, all the love I felt for my nation, and all my love for Yahveh, made me the more zealous to study this great law. I said, " Every thing has a right way or a wrong way of being done, and I must learn to do every thing in the right way." The words of the scribes and the elders became so important to me, that they wholly took my mind away from the written law ; and the prophets seemed to me not so great as the doctors. I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 39 After this, I often went to see Jehuda ; and he received me gladly, and answered all my questions very willingly. One day he said, "My son, you must become a scribe." And I said, " Master, tell me truly what a scribe is." And Jehuda answered, "The scribes in Israel are the wise men and the holy men, on whom our whole nation depends for its life. " Without them we should be like a land in which the figs did not ripen, nor the com grow, nor the olives bear fruit. We should starve and die. For Moses says, ' Man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.' Now, the scribes hold the key of the knowledge of the spoken word. If we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, we live by the spoken word, or Talmud, which only the scribes know." Thomas. — " How do the scribes know this word, as no* one else can know it ? " Jehuda. — "They know it by the tradition. This word is so sacred, that it must not be written down ; nor must it be told to every one. So God appointed not only priests for sacrifices, but also ordained that there should be a body of scribes to guard and keep the law, and to teach the people what they are able to understand." Thomas. — "Tell me, master, if thou wilt, more of the scribes?" Jehuda. The scribes have kept the sacred books safe, and preserved them until now. They have copied them in the ancient language of the Hebrews, in which they were first written by Moses and the prophets, — a language which the common people do not understand. Had it not been for the scribes, you would not have to-day any sacred books ; for they would all have been lost in the great captivity of Baby- lon. But the scribes carefully concealed these books, and kept them safe, and thus they have been preserved to this time. They also copy them so carefully, that not a single 40 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. point of a single letter has ever been changed from the beginning. When the scribes make a new copy of the law, they are so careful, that it is impossible for them to make any mistake. They wipe their pen after each letter, and, if a single error is committed, the}^ destroy the whole roll : so much do they respect the written word. Therefore you owe it to the scribes that you know any thing of Moses and his law. And they have done for you much more than this." Thomas. — " But why do they not write the law in the lan- guage of the people, and let us read it ourselves, instead of keeping it in this ancient tongue of the Hebrews, — a lan- guage which is no longer known among us ? " Jehuda. — "Because the common people, if they were allowed to read the law, would not understand it aright. They would make great mistakes, and fall into much sin. They need to have the law not only read to them in the syn- agogues by the scribes, but also explained to them in their own language. Tell me, Thomas, hast thou belief in the resurrection of the dead? " Thomas. — " How shall I not believe it, O master? Is it not a part of our religion ? ' ' Jehuda. — "And yet Moses did not reveal it in the written law. His five books say nothing to us of a future life. Nor is it taught by the prophets, nor in any sacred writing. How, then, wouldst thou know that there is any future life but by the sacred tradition, which has come down from the fathers, and been taught the people by the scribes? And tell me, Thomas, dost thou believe in prayer? Dost thou think it is a duty to pray to God? " Thomas. — " Surely, master, I do. How can there be any religion without prayer ? " Jehuda. — " But, in all the five books of the law, Moses has said nothing about prayer. It is not once written, ' Thou shalt pray to God, and make thy wants known to him.' David in his Psalms, and the prophets, teach us to pray ; but I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 41 how could they have learned of this, except through the tra- ditions which the holy scribes have handed down to us ? A scribe is one, then, who preserves the life of the nation by keeping in safety both the written law and the traditions. He, also, is the teacher of the people, at whose feet they ought always to sit, and receive his words as coming from the Lord. And, more than this, the scribes are the judges, who explain when men have broken the law, and decide what penalty must be laid on them ; so that the scribes main- tain justice in the land, and cause the offender to be pun- ished. And some of us do more than this. I will tell thee, Thomas ; for thy soul seems to me to be pure, and able to understand deep things. The scribe sometimes gives up all other work, in order to search the Scriptures. He searches for the hidden meaning which lies below the letter ; for, in the holy word, there is nothing which is not filled full of mystical meanings. There is the meaning which lies on the surface, which all men can see ; below this there is another meaning, by which one thing is seen to be the reflection of another, as the image of a tree in the water reflects a tree on the land ; and below this, also, there is the meaning of the symbol and type, by which one person or one event holds in its heart the essence of another; and, deepest of all, there is another meaning, which we call Kabbala. He who at last sees that can leave his body, and go into the world of spir- its, and know all mystery. Sometimes, when I seem to you to be like one asleep, I am searching for the Kabbala, which shall lift me up so that I can talk with Abraham and David face to face. Thus, O Thomas ! thou mayst see what a great work is to be done by the scribes." Thomas. — "I see it, my master, and I understand their greatness. I have also heard it said that their work is to put a fence around the law. What does this mean? " Jehuda. — "It means, to make the law safe, so as not to be broken. A fence is put around a field to keep the flock 42 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. safe in the field, so that it shall not escape : so a fence is placed around the law to make the law safe. Thus the law says, 'Thou shalt not boil a kid in his mother's milk.' But to make that law safe, and to be sure that it shall not be broken, we make it more strict, and teach that no flesh shall be cooked with milk, not even the flesh of birds : for, my son, if we are so careful as not to eat any flesh and milk together, we shall be sure not to break the law concerning the flesh of a kid. So, also, the law of Moses tells us not to do any work on the sabbath day. But this law must have a fence around it to keep it safe ; and so the scribes tell us that we must not begin a work on the sabbath eve, lest we forget and go on with it during the sabbath. The inhabit- ants of Tiberias once carried a pipe of cold water through their hot spring to use it in their houses for washing ; but the scribes explained to them that they must not use that water on the first day of the week, because it had been heated in the spring on the sabbath. Nevertheless, 'there is necessary work which may be done on the sabbath : therefore the scribes explain distinctly what necessary work is, which may be done for the sick, or for food, or any thing made to be used during the sabbath, but not to last after- wards. Thus a man is taught that he may open a cask, to get dry figs from it, provided he does not do it for a future use. Men may do what is necessary for a corpse on the sab- bath, but nothing more than is necessary. All these things the scribes must understand distinctly, and these they learn in the schools of the rabMs." Then I said, " O master ! how shall one become a scribe? " And he answered, " Thou must go to a school of the scribes ; and the best of these schools are at Jerusalem. There the rabbi will examine thee, to see if thou art able to learn ; and, if thou art able, thou wilt become one of the chosen, and begin thy work as a scholar in a chamber of the temple. There thou wilt study all questions concerning the law ; and, I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 43 after thou hast reached the proper age, thou wilt be exam- ined again, and admitted to the work of the scribe by the rabbi, who will put his hand upon thee, and give unto thee tablets, and a key, as a sign that thou dost belong to this brotherhood. It will be well for thee, if thou canst enter on this way of knowledge. And I will write for thee a scroll to take to Jerusalem to a friend, — a rabbi held in much esteem, — asking him to admit thee into his school." So I went home, and told unto my mother all that the mas- ter had said. And my mother was astonished and grieved, and said, "How can I spare thee, and how can thy brother spare thee, to go from us and become a scribe ? ' ' But, because she loved me much more than she loved herself, she at last consented, and said, " Go, my son, in the name of the Lord. And let thy mind, when thou art in the school, not be like a funnel, which lets every thing go through ; but, rather, like a sponge, which sucks every thing up. And let it not be like a strainer, which lets the wine pass out, but keeps the lees ; but, rather, like the millstones which grind the hard grain into fine flour." Thus spake my mother. I grieved at the thought of leaving Miriam, and seeing her no more for many months. But she exhorted me earnestly to go, saying that I should by this journey and study grow stronger to help the great work which was to be done for the people. " In Jerusalem," she said, " is the seat of the Sepa- rate Society, of which I told thee. When thou returnest, thou wilt be able to tell me many things I desire to know con- cerning its purposes. Go, then, Thomas, but remember that thou and I are joined in friendship, and that some day we are to work together for the kingdom which is to come." Thus I took leave of the maiden, and went on my way to Jerusalem, the holy city of our nation. Ah ! can I tell you, my children, how my heart was moved at the sight of that great city, the holy city of our people ? There I saw the vast temple, rising like a mighty pyramid 44 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. of marble, court above court,, until behind and above all stood the Holy of Holies. And there I saw Mount Zion, which had been the city of King David, and where the great tent of the Lord stood, until Solyma built the temple on Mount Moriah. But I will not speak to you of these histo- ries, my children, but only of what I myself heard and saw in that sacred city. Well do I recall the day when I reached the summit of the mountain called the Mountain of Olives, because of the many orchards of olive-trees which clung to its sides, and lay around its base, like birds settling down into their nests. From this high summit, men looked far away, — to the mountains covered with snow at the north, to the distant hills of Moab rising to the east behind, like a dark and solemn wall shutting in that ancient land of wonder. On the south rose in the distance the summit of Hebron, while directly below, in front, lay the city itself, a mighty fortification of glitter- ing marble, lifted on a wall of massive hewn stones. How many words from the psalms which I had heard sung in our synagogue came to my mind ! — " Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces as a sure refuge." So near we were to the city, though the valley of Jehoshaphat lay between, that it looked as if one could cast a stone over the valley into its streets. Beyond the city the eye reached as far as the blue of the Middle Sea, while the sheet of water called "The Dead" lay in shadow behind us. But that which chiefly held the eye, so that one could scarcely look at any thing else, was the great temple, first built by the wisest of men, Solyma, and afterwards rebuilt by Herod. It stood on the very edge of a frightful precipice, dazzling white, and rising like a pyramid, court above court, terrace above terrace, each court surrounded by long walking-places, with many columns of marble. The one directly in front extended along the summit of the precipice, and above the I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 45 wall I could see its lofty pillars, with their heads crowned with golden fruit, and surrounded with silver leaves. On the highest part was the Holy Place itself, dazzling the eye with the reflection of the sunshine from its plates of gold. It seemed as if I could never tire of looking at this beauti- ful object. But at last I descended the hill, passed through the valley, and mounted the steep path which led through the eastern gate into the city. The streets were narrow and dark. The people sat in their doorways and in the streets, and, as I passed along, examined me curiously, seeing that I was a stranger ; so that I was glad when I reached the house of the scribe to whom I had been sent. He welcomed me kindly, ancl introduced me to the teacher in whose school I was to learn the wisdom of the ancients. And,. first of all, I was taught our sacred writings, and a knowledge of the holy language, called Hebrew, in which Moses and the prophets wrote. I also listened to the lectures of the rabbi who was the head of the school. We usually stood around him, or sat on the floor at his feet, with our tablets in our hands, on which we wrote the words of our master. My new teacher confirmed what I had heard from my old rabbi at home. He said that there were three kinds of tra- dition, without which the written law would be of no use. These are like the three veils before the tabernacle of Moses. Lift the first, and you enter into the vestibule ; pass through the second, and you enter the holy place ; remove the third, and you are in the Holy of Holies. The first he called Hal- ACA, the second Agada, and the third Kabbala. The Hala- ca teaches the art of reasoning, by which you can go to the root of the Word ; and the knowledge of this is necessary in order to understand and to obey the written law. It tells exactly how every thing shall be done which is commanded. For example, Moses said that the words which he taught should be bound for a sign upon the hand, and be as front- 46 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. lets between the eyes, and be written upon the posts of the house, and on the gates. But then the Talmud, or spoken law, comes to us to tell us how these frontlets, called tephiU lah, shall be written, and on what kind of parchment, and with what sort of ink, and how large they shall be, and in what kind of case they shall be kept, and with what sort of strings they shall be tied, and where they shall be put, — on the arm, — or on the forehead, and whether they shall have fringes to them, and what particular texts shall be written upon them, and on what days they are to be worn, and at what hours in the day they shall be read aloud. All this, and much more, must be known, or else the law of Moses cannot be properly obeyed. It is also necessary to know when to begin to wear them, namely at the age of thirteen, and that they must be put on before each prayer, saying these words, " Blessed art thou, O Lord our King, who hast sanctified us by thy commandments, and taught us to use the tephiUah. ' ' And at that moment he must fasten the tephillah on the arm by running the leather thong through its loop. And, if this is properly done, then great help will come to the soul. Our rabbi gave this to us as an example how every com- mand of Moses needs to be explained by the Halaca, other- wise not one of these commandments can be properly obeyed. Now, the law of Moses in the five books contains two hun- dred and forty-eight positive commands and three hundred and sixty-five negative commands : hence it may be seen how vast is the range of wisdom in the Halaca, which is neces- sary to be known. "But after the Halaca," said our teacher, "comes the Agada, which is a higher wisdom, taking the soul up into the region of philosophy, and also teaching what the proph- ets and saints, and angels of God, have done and are doing. But the Kabbala is a yet deeper knowledge, teaching what are numbers and proportions, and the forms which contain I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 47 all others. By means of this knowledge the rabbi can do miracles and wonders." Of these our teacher gave us the following examples. I will repeat one or two, my children, that you may perceive what was the knowledge taught in our schools. Our teacher informed us that the Prophet Elijah was still living, going about the world, — in appearance a venerable old man with a long beard ; and he added this story concern- ing him : — " On a certain day a rabbi named Benjamin, well taught in the Kabbala, met the Prophet Elijah, and saluted him, and said, ' I know that thou art Elijah the prophet, going about the world in the service of God ; and I wish to go with thee, and see what thou doest.* Elijah replied, 'I cannot refuse, since thou knowest the Kabbala. Thou mayst go with me and see what I do, but ask no questions ; for, when thou ask- est a question concerning what I do, the power of the Kab- bala will cease, and thou must leave me.' So they came to a town in which lived an old rabbi and his wife, who enter- tained them with hospitality. These two lived by means of a cow which gave a large quantity of milk ; and the wife of the rabbi sold the milk to the neighbors, and this was their sup- port. In the morning the good woman arose, and provided their morning repast. And, as Elijah and Benjamin went on their way, the woman came after them, and cried, saying, ' My lords, the cow, which is the support of my husband and myself, is dead ! * And Elijah answered, ' Verily, I asked the Lord that it might die, and he has heard my pray- er.' And so they went on their way. And Benjamin feared much, but dared not ask a question. "And, as they were travelling, they came to a certain place on the sabbath, and entered into the synagogue ; and, when the service was over, no man saluted them, or asked them to his house. This was strange to Benjamin ; for the Jews are taught to welcome strangers gladly. But Elijah 48 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. lifted up his voice, and prayed that each one of this congre- gation might be chosen a ruler of the people. "And on the next sabbath they came to another village, and again entered into the synagogue. But here the Jews of the congregation showed them much kindness, and took them to their homes. But this time Elijah prayed that only one of them might be made a ruler. And so they went on their way. " And now the Rabbi Benjamin was much disturbed in his mind, and wondered exceedingly, and said, ' Can this, in truth, be Elijah, the man of God ; for he does all things con- trary to reason ? ' But he dared not ask any question. And so they went on their way. And as they journeyed they saw a great palace upon a hill, where dwelt a rich Jew. And they knocked at the gate, and asked for hospitality. " But the master of the house, who was a man of a mean spirit, called them beggars, and ordered his servants to drive them away. But Elijah said, ' I will go, but first I must punish this man for his unkindness.' "Now, this house stood in the midst of a great garden, where were many noble trees and fountains, and a high wall around it. But in one place this wall was weak and totter- ing, and about to fall. And Elijah said, ' Stand up, O wall ! and become solid and upright.* And the wall stood up, and became firm. " But then Benjamin became full of indignation, and said, 'AH thy doings, O Elijah! have been opposed to* reason, and are intolerable. Why is it that thou hast done this ? * "Then Elijah replied, 'For thy good, O rabbi, have all these things been done. For the fault of the wise man is, that he thinks he knows the reason of all things, and that which ought and ought not to be ; and so he blames the Al- mighty because every thing is not as he considers best. Now I have done these things that thou mayst be convinced of thine ignorance. When the good woman rose in the morning I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 49 to prepare our meal, I perceived by inspiration that her days were numbered and finished, and that she would die before evening. And so I prayed the Lord, for the sake of the poor old man her husband, that her life might be spared, and that of the cow taken ; for the rabbi could get another cow, but never a wife as good as she. Moreover, when we came to the first synagogue, where no man saluted us, I prayed that all might become rulers ; knowing that they then would have no peace, but each be striving for the mastery. But in the second synagogue, where we were treated kindly, I prayed that there might be only one ruler in their midst ; for then all would look up to him, and the peace of God would be there. *' Moreover, Elijah proceeded, and said, 'Most of all, O Benjamin ! wert thou surprised because I punished the rich man for his cruelty to strangers by making his wall stand upright. But the reason was this. Long ago, when a great band of robbers came to plunder that town, the people buried all their jewels and gold under that very wall. But the peo- ple were carried away captive, and so the treasure remains there to this day. If the wall had fallen, the cruel man would have found the treasure ; but, by making the wall stand upright, it remains concealed from his eyes.' " Such parables did our teacher tell us, to show the power of the Kabbala. And I, being only a youth, then believed these stories to be true. On other days our teacher would explain to us the his- tories concerning Moses and Noah, and other patriarchs, and answer our questions concerning them. Thus one day we asked him how it was, that, if Noah were a man of God, he should have become drunk by means of the fruit of the vine. Then the rabbi gave to us this narration : — " When Noah planted the vine, he asked the Lord to cause it greatly to increase, so that the world might be full of its grapes. But Satan stood by, looking on, and said, ' The Lord has heard his prayer, and the vine will go through the 50 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. whole world. But I will make evil follow it.' Then the Devil, with his evil spirits, killed a lamb, a lion, and a hog, and caused the blood of each to run into the ground upon the roots of the vine. So, when the grapes were ripe, Noah crushed them, and made wine of the juice. First he drank a little, and his heart was glad, and his face shone with sweetness like that of a lamb. Then he drank more, and became excited with rage, and was like a lion, and his family feared exceedingly before him. Then he drank again, and became drowsy, and his mind departed from him, and he slept the sleep of the swine." And again we asked the rabbi how it was that Moses when he came down from the mount was so careless as to drop the tables of stone. And he told us that each of these stones weighed a ton ; but, the moment that the command- ments were traced upon them by the finger of God, they became as light as a feather. Now when Moses came down from the mount, and saw the multitude shouting around the molten calf, some rays of sunshine reflected from the idol touched the tables of stone, and immediately the letters flew away, and the tables became of their former weight. Then Moses could not support them, and was obliged to let them fall ; and that was why the stones were broken. Another day our teacher took us to the temple, that he might explain to us the services and the sacrifices. You must know, my children, that this great temple of the Jews was the sacred place for the whole nation, and that a multi- tude of people, both priests and the children of Levi, were appointed to perform its services. There sacrifices were offered every morning and evening for the sins of the Isra- elites in all lands ; and the whole nation was believed to be in reality offering those sacrifices for its sins, and asking God's blessing every day. No matter where the Jews were, all over the world, they sent to Jerusalem their tribute every year for the support of this their public worship of God, I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 51 each man sending his half-shekel. With this money and other contributions the daily worship was carried on, and the temple and its priests supported. A perpetual fire burned on the great altar where the lambs were sacrificed each day ; and every day the morning and evening incense of fragrant spices was burned on another altar of gold where no blood ever came ; and the fragrance went up to God as the nation's prayer. So the rabbi took us one morning to show us the temple. High walls arose all around. Through these walls, gates of brass and gold opened into the first court, which was called the Court of the Gentiles. The gate by which we entered was called the Gate of Beauty, and was wholly made of brass from Corinth, and so large that twenty men with all their strength could barely open it. Through this gate we entered into the Court of the Gentiles, where all the believers of other nations were allowed to come, but could go no farther. When we went into it, it was crowded with people going and coming, buying and selling, and seemed to us more like a market than a sacred place. Here sat women offering doves to those who wished to sacrifice them, and here were men with scales, weighing the pieces of gold and silver brought from foreign countries, which were Greek and Roman money, and changing them into the half-shekels which were to be paid as tribute. All around this court arose columns supporting roofs, and making shaded porticos, within which the people walked to and fro. We asked our master why this beautiful court was thus turned into a market-place, and he answered, "Because only the Gentiles come here ; and, as the Gentiles are profane, the place itself must always be profane, and cannot be made sacred, and therefore may lawfully be put to profane uses." Then from this Court of the Gentiles we ascended by a flight of steps through another gate, which opened through the inner portico, and went up into another spacious square. This 52 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DroYMTTS. was also surrounded by cloisters and columns, within which were chambers occupied by the priests and the Levites, who there kept the tools and furniture which were used in the services. All the noise and tumult which we had heard below was now gone. On the lower side was one court for the women, and on the other, above, were courts for the men. The courts of the men were a little higher than that of the women, and separated from it by a low railing of stone beau- tifully carved. When we reached this place, we heard the chanting of the psalms, and the sad wail of the trumpets blown by the priests in the inner court, which was still higher up, above where we were. And as this solemn chanting, broken by the long-drawn cry of the trumpets, came to our ears, and we saw the smoke which ascended from the great altar, going up against the blue sky, and thought how our nation forever worshipped God, the King of kings, in this place, it seemed as if this were the holiest -spot of all the earth, and that the whole nation were truly a priesthood for all mankind. Then we thanked God that we, also, were children of Abraham. Around this square were rows of lofty columns, like those in the Court of the Gentiles below ; but behind these col- umns were large rooms used in many ways by the priests and the Levites. In each of the four corners of the square were schools, kept by famous rabbis. In other chambers, behind the columns, were offices where the priests examined the lepers who were crowded around, each waiting his turn to enter. These wretched sufferers were miserably diseased. Fortunate is the nation where this disease is not known. The poor leper was declared to be unclean by the Hebrew priest who examined him, and was obliged to leave his fami- ly and friends, and go into an asylum made ready for him. When he went out into the streets, he must walk by himself, not going near any one, with bare head and torn clothes. If anyone came near to him, he must cry out, "Unclean!" I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 53 When healed of this disease, he still must not go home, or touch any one, until he had gone to the temple, to the Chamber of the Lepers, where the medical priests sat, who were to examine him again. If they declared him to be clean, he must then offer a sacrifice on the altar, by the hand of the priest, and then might go once more to his home. In other chambers were kept the instruments of music. One room was filled with trumpets, another with harps. In other rooms were deposited the precious and fragrant spices used for incense. Around the entrance to other chambers stood the parents who had brought their children to be circum- cised. Meantime . we saw many persons passing across the court in white dresses of fine linen singularly shaped. They wore on their heads caps of cloth made in the form of white lilies, and they walked with bare feet. We asked our master who they were, and he told us that they were all priests, and that these were the dresses of the priests. But our master told us that the priests, though all were children of Aaron, had lost much of the wisdom of their fathers. "To us,'* said he, ''the scribes, it has been given to understand and teach the Word ; and without the Word all the sacrifices of the priests would not avail." Nevertheless, the priests seemed to us to be full of labors ; for many of the people were waiting in the court with their victims, ready for sacrifice. So we asked our master to tell us the meaning of sacrifice ; for in Galilee we never offered sacrifices. We saw men waiting, some with oxen, some with sheep, others with goats, or with cages in which were doves ; and then we saw others, who were too poor to offer such victims, who had in their hands baskets with meal, or bread, or cakes, or ears of corn, or bottles of oil. All these stood, each waiting his turn, near some of the chambers. And therefore we asked our master the meaning of these sacri- fices. And the master spoke thus : — "All these sacrifices are the same as prayers, and without 64 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. the spirit of prayer they are of no avail. The sacrifice is the body, of which prayer is the soul. Men are so made, that they need to see the thought within them taking some outward form, else the thought is only a dream in the mind, and does not become an action. Therefore it has been ordained by Moses that the prayers of the people shall become visible in such sacrifices. If one has received a blessing from God, he brings a thank-offering, which is some sheep or lamb from his fold ; and the Lord accepts it as the outward sign, or sacrament, of his inward thought. And if he has committed a sin he brings a sin-offering, which is in like manner an expression to God of his desire for pardon. The priests take these animals, and offer them up for him ; and, after the victim is offered, they burn incense on the altar as a sign of the prayer which has gone up to God. Then the man who offers it goes home, and knows that the Lord has accepted his offering ; and his soul is at peace. But all this must be done at Jerusalem in the temple, that it may not become a superstition." Then one of my companions, who had read the Scripture, said to the master, " Why, then, do the prophets speak in the name of the Lord, and say, ' Incense is an abomination to me. To what purpose the multitude of your sacrifices ? I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he- goats. Who hath required this at your hands to tread my courts? ' " The master answered, "The prophets said this because the people foolishly thought that their sins against justice and mercy could be forgiven because of a sacrifice. But this is not the meaning of sacrifices. No man can offer a sacrifice for murder, or theft, or any other wickedness, and be for- given because of his sacrifice. Only that part of the sin is forgiven which makes him unclean, and separates him from the holy people. In order to be forgiven his iniquity against God and man, he must purify his heart by the sight of truth I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 55 and by his knowledge of the divine word. He can go free from the outer part of his sin by going to the priest, and offering his sacrifice ; but, in order to kill the heart of his sin, he must come to the scribes, and learn what they have to teach. Then he will know the truth, and the truth will make him free.'* Thus spoke my master, the wise and good scribe. And afterward I heard the same words from another master, greater than he. But I do not tell you about this now, my children, for every thing should be narrated in its order. Then, as we walked by the side of these chambers, we came to a larger hall, where there were many people assem- bled ; and over the portal of this hall was written in letters of gold these words, "The Gate of Justice." Our master told us that this was a seat of judgment, where offences against the law were tried every morning. Here were judges, who were scribe's and priests, and who sat on a high seat, and listened to every complaint, and heard the witnesses, and called upon the man who was accused to answer, if he could, and defend himself. And thus as we walked through this Court of the Jews it seemed to us that the temple was the great heart of the land. Here were its thought and its life. Here, on the sum- mit of all, stood the holy place glittering with gold. Here burned the perpetual fire on the vast altar ; and the priests in their white robes were daily chanting the psalms, blowing the trumpets, and offering sacrifices to God. And here in the court below were the rabbis, teaching the two laws, written and spoken, and in the courts executing justice between man and man. The scribes were also there, teaching every man his duty, and hearing all difficult cases. And outside of all was the great Gentile Court, where men of every nation under heaven might come, and worship before God. While we marvelled at all this, the rabbi said, "And yet in the first temple there were five wonders, which came down from 56 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. Moses, which we have not. That temple had in it the ark of the covenant, with its mercy-seat. There was also the fire which had been kindled from heaven, which had never gone out. That also contained the very Urim and Thummim which Aaron wore ; and the holy spirit of proph- ecy dwelt in it. But now we will go up to the Court of the Priests.*' As none but priests were allowed to enter this court, we stood outside the low wall of carved stone, and gazed with delight and wonder at what we saw within. First there rose before us the vast altar, so large that it seemed like a great marble building, but diminishing in size, from the foundation to the top, like a pyramid, of which the upper part had been taken away. The marble sides were covered with ornaments of brass, and a gentle ascent led on one side to the top. Here we saw burning the perpetual fire, symbol of the never-ending worship which our nation, sca,t- tered through the world, here gave to the one true God. As we looked at the great pure flame soaring up to heaven, fed forever with . smokeless fuel by the priests, we remembered what we had been told concerning it in our synagogue, — how it couched on the altar like a lion, how its light was far- darting like that of the sun, how the flame looked like solid silver, and how some said it was the same which fell from heaven in answer to Elijah's prayer. That this fire was the same as that, they said was proved by its having the power of burning water as though it were oil. But still more beautiful and wonderful than this great altar of burnt offering, where the sacrifices for all mankind went up to heaven, was the temple itself, which rose behind it. We had yet seen only its outworks and protecting courts. It stood on a platform of squared stone as high as two tall men standing on each other : steps behind the altar led up to this platform. We saw before us the portico, with its great carved columns, behind which, suspended on the walls, were I GO TO A SCHOOL OF THE SCRIBES. 57 hung, arranged in beautiful forms, gifts of gold, silver, and jewels, and a golden vine, with grapes clustered in such masses, that, when the sun shone on them, they dazzled the eye with their glory. In the midst, and before the door open- ing into the sanctuary behind, was a Babylonian veil of cloth-of-gold, through which the priests passed into the holy place to kindle the incense on the altar. While we looked, we saw the priests making their prepara- tions for the duties of the day. We had come early ; for our master wished to show us the whole daily service from the beginning. Every morning the priests bathed themselves, so as to begin the day with purity of body as well as purity of mind. Then, very early, two companies, with torches, made a circuit of the temple, to see that there was nothing in any part which would defile or injure it. After visiting and examining every part of the courts, they came together at what was called the room of the pastry-man, near the gate of Nicanor. Here they cast lots for their duties. Some were to remove the ashes from tlie high altar with silver shovels ; some were to carefully clean all the altars in every part ; some were to select and examine the victims, to light the lamps of the golden candlestick, to kindle the censer of incense, to bake the loaves of sacred bread. After all this was done, other priests took the keys and opened the seven gates of the court of Israel, so that the people might enter the temple. And now, as we stood and looked, the two companies of priests sounded their silver trumpets, that the service of the day might begin. The Levites who were to chant the psalms went in procession to their music-desks : those who had been selected to represent the nation before the temple took their places on either side of the altar. Then there was a silence ; and as we looked we saw two priests go up the twelve steps of the temple, and open the doors which led from the portico into the sanctuary. Then the lamb for the morn- ^8 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. ing sacrifice was led up upon the altar, and the tmmpets now ceased their prolonged wail, and all was silent while the inno- cent victim fell. The priests next went to pray for a l)less- ing to be given during that day to the Jewish nation through- out the world. After that anotlier priest recited aloud the Ten Commandments, and at the end of each the Levites chanted a petition that the nation might obey that divine command. Then the great bell of the temple was rung and the lamb put upon the altar, the blood sprinkled, the incense lighted, and the Levites and priests chanted the psalms which had been chosen for the service of the day. Finally the high priest came forward and blessed the nation, and the morning service ended with trumpets and a song of praise. Having witnessed all this solemn service, we retui*ned filled with many thoughts to our home. I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE MY SOUL. 59 CHAPTER IV. I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE MY SOUL. So I studied many months with my master the scribe. But now my mind was drawn to a new matter. In going through the streets I often met men who looked so strangely, that I could not help stopping to gaze at them. They had on their foreheads black bands which covered the whole of the head above the eyes. Broad purple stripes and long fringes hung from their robes. They walked forward as if they saw no one, being lost in meditation. Sometimes two or three would be standing together repeating prayers during a long time. I remember that one morning I passed one of them as I went to my school. He was standing at the corner of a street repeating prayers aloud ; and when I came back, some hours after, he was there still, and was still repeating his prayers. Many men and women looked at him wonder- ing. When I asked who these people were, the man to whom I spoke marvelled, and said, " Dost thou not know that they belong to the holy society? These men are those who pro- fess purity, and separate themselves from others, that they may lead pure lives. Some call them Pharisees, or the Separate Ones. And I tell thee, young man," continued he, '' that these holy men are the safety of our nation, and atone for all its sins." Then I wished to know more concerning this society of the Separate Ones. After I had learned about them, it seemed to me, that, what the scribes taught, the Separate Ones performed. They promised each other to keep free 60 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. from all sin against the law. When they joined the society, they bound themselves by strict rules. The first was to give to the Lord a tenth part of every thing which was bought or sold, or eaten or drunk, by them. And therefore they had a second rule, which was this, — never to eat or drink in the house of any who was not a Separate One, lest they should eat something of which the tenth part had not been paid to the Lord. Another rule was, not to touch any thing un- clean. And they were very strict about unclean things and about washings. They washed their hands continually to free themselves from any uncleanness, and they said that the hands became unclean, not only when they touched an unclean jar, but when they were put into the empty space inside of it , and that even touchmg the Scriptures made the hands unclean. Some of them, however, taught that only the Book of Songs, which is Solomon's Song, and the book Kohaleth, or Ecclesiastes, make the hands unclean. And when I heard how good and holy these men were, and how they lived poorly, and despised all pleasure and all repose, and how full of zeal they were for our holy religion, and gave their money to the poor, and fasted often, and denied themselves all enjoyment, for the sake of God, and went far away among the heathen to teach the law of Moses to all mankind, then I desired to become a member of this holy society ; for I longed for excellence, and I thought the Separate Ones were more holy than the scribes. I there- fore went to one of them and told him my wish ; and he said, "If thou wilt belong to our holy body, and enter religion, and obey the rules, and separate thyself, in order to be a saint, thou must first learn what thou wilt have to do. We are they who come out from the world, and oppose all mix- ture, wishing to be pure ; for as a little poison mixed in water may destroy life, and a little contagion in the air may carry disease, so a little mixture of the Roman and Greek customs may destroy our whole religion.** I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE MY SOUL. 61 Then he examined me to see whether I knew the law and the tradition; and he asked, "What, O Thomas! is the Shemah?'' And I replied, "It is the command of Moses, 'Hear, O Israel ; The Lord our God is one Lord : and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.' " " How often and how late must one repeat the Shemah? " I answered, " At least twice a day, and as late as midnight, or till the pillar of the morning ascends." "How often should one fast?" I said, "It is good to fast twice a week ; but the men who stand near the priest during the sacrifice, in place of the whole nation, may fast also on other days, only not on the sabbath, nor on the days before and after the sabbath." After asking many such questions, and being contented with my answers, he admitted me as a disciple of the holy society in the presence of witnesses. And I became very zealous for the law and the regulations. So I went into the work of religion, joining myself to the other members of the Separate Ones with the same force of soul with which I had studied the traditions in the house of the learned. I lived now with three members, in a room of a house belonging to the society. We were obliged to live together in order to be separate from the common peo- ple, and to obey our rules strictly. Each one wore the robe of the order, with its purple stripes and fringes, and its black band over the forehead. Every day we went to a hall in the temple to be taught the rules of the order. We sat on the ground around our teacher ; and, as he taught the rules, we repeated them after him three times, and before the end of the day we had to repeat them again to each other many times to fix them in our memory. All this I did with such zeal, and such full belief of my heart, that I could even now repeat to you, my children, a great multitude of such com- 62 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. mandments. These things at this time appear to me no better than the dust which the idle wind blows into the eyes of the traveller; but then we sincerely thought to save our souls, and to become pure from all evil, by perfect obedience to all these rules of religion. When I think of our strong and honest devotion to such empty practices, I remember what I have read in a letter written by my wise brother in Christ, Saul, who is also called Paul. He, too, had belonged to our society, and had strictly obeyed its rules. I remem- ber that he scarcely ate or slept, but prayed and fasted more than any of us. The good Lord has also broken his chain, and given to him the blessed liberty of those who are God's children, and not his slaves. But perhaps he was thinking of the vast edifice of minute rules which our teachers had built up, when he said, " If a man build a house of wood, or dried grass, or the stubble of corn, it will be burned, and all his labor thrown away ; but, if the builder be honest though ignorant, his own soul may be saved, though with difficulty, like a man who hardly escapes with his life from a burning house." Certainly God will not punish an honest man for his mistakes ; and yet he who spends his life in considering anxiously idle questions and empty distinctions must have a starved and puny soul. Only truth and reality make the true bread which strengthens man's heart. I am sure, that, if this religious discipline could do good, it would have done good to me ; for I spent all my time in learning the rules, and trying to obey them. We had rules for every thing we did, taught by our rabbis, and handed down by tradition. There were rules for prayer, telling us precisely how often to pray, and what to say. Our rabbi was Gamaliel, and there was sweetness and much lib- erty in his teaching, when compared with some others ; for he belonged to the school of Hillel, which gave more freedom than the school of Shammai. It was said that our rabbi, Gamaliel, repeated his prayers as usual on the evening of I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE ItfY SOUL. 63 his mc^rriage, and his disciples reminded him that he had taught that a bridegroom was exempt at such a time. He answered, " I will not withhold my homage from the kingdom of heaven for a single moment." He also bathed when his wife died, thus violating his own law of libert}^, and excused himself by saying, " I am not like other men: I am weak, and need to be more strict in my obedience." And when his slave Tabbi died he received visits of sympathy. Again his disciples reminded him that visits of consolation were not to be received for slaves. Then he replied, "My slave Tabbi was not like other slaves : he was a friend of God." Thus our rabbi himself sometimes modified his own rules according to the reason of the thing. We had rules for every thing we did ; and all our actions had to be carefully weighed and measured, as the tradesman weighs meal in scales, or measures cloth with a rod. The rules commanded us to say eighteen benedictions every day. If we were riding on an ass, we must dismount to say them ; if in a cart or ship, we must turn our thoughts to the Holy of Holies in the temple. We must pause before we prayed, to direct our heart to God. On some kinds of food we must ask a blessing ; on others not. Where different fruits were in One dish, we must ask separate blessings on each. A dif- ferent prayer was to be said for thunder, for the sight of mountains, for the sight of the ocean, for rain, for good news, and for bad news. Neither must we ask a blessing on any thing which belonged to an idolater. We had many rules in regard to washing. If we ate bread which was not consecrated, we must first wash our hands up. to the wrist ; but if it was consecrated, we must wash them twice in this way. We must not pour water on each other's hands, nor out of the bung-hole of a cask, nor water which had been used for any other purpose. The rules for the sabbath were very numerous, and we must distinctly remember them in order not to be sabbath- 64 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. breakers. Thus if a beggar took money with his own hand from the wallet which was handed to him, the beggar broke the sabbath, but the other not. We were taught that we broke the sabbath if we took a needle out of the cloth in which it was sticking, when not a single stitch had been made ; if we went out with a reed-pen in our hand ; if we read by candle-light ; or if we did any thing on the sabbath eve which might cause work to be done on the sabbath day. Lamps might be lighted on the sabbath with some kind of wicks, but not with others; nor must we put out a lamp already burning to save the oil or the wick. Meat must not be cooked on the sabbath, nor water heated. All these rules and many others I carefully learned, and endeavored faithfully to fulfil. But, instead of finding any peace or satisfaction from all this effort, I seemed only to be more dissatisfied with myself. I denied myself all pleas- ures and many comforts ; I spent much time in reciting my prayers ; I fasted often : but gloom, instead of peace, filled my mind. I groaned under a great weight of sin. The more I tried to do right, the more I seemed to go wrong. I had no comfort nor satisfaction in any thing which I did, or from which I abstained. All life seemed to be going away out of my heart. What made the matter worse was a doubt which now began to enter my mind in regard to the superior holiness of some of our society. There were three teachers whom I often met walking, who were much in each other's society, though very different from each other. One of them was our own teacher, ,Kabbi Gama-liel ; the second was named Rabbi Nehemiah ; and the third was Rabbi Ben Gamlah. Rabbi Gamaliel was a wise and kind man, and I could not help loving him ; but, somehow, every thing he said seemed to throw a gentle spray of moisture on the fire of my zeal. No doubt he loved our religion, and was very much interested in all its doctrines and its worship ; but I missed in him that burning I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE MY SOUL. 65 conviction that every thing not Jewish was hateful to God, which I had always thought essential to true piety. To hate with a holy hatred the idolatries and idolaters of the world I believed to be a main part of the Jewish faith. But Rabbi Gamaliel was in the habit of speaking of other religions as though they might contain some truth mixed with a great deal of error. He thought it very wrong to worship idols ; but he said that many who were called idolaters did not really worship the idol, but used it merely to fix their minds on God. He compared them to those whom you will some- times see looking at a painted likeness of a friend, and talk- ing to it lovingly, as though it were itself their friend. He said that they were not so foolish as really to confound their friend with his picture ; but they used it to fix their mind upon their friend. And thus, said he, do some idolaters use their idols. He wore a ring bearing upon it a head carved in the stone. And some thought that he broke the command- ment which says, '' Thou shalt not make any graven image the likeness of any thing in heaven or on earth." But he replied, that the law did not forbid the making, but only the worshipping ; for Moses himself who gave this law made a brazen serpent in the likeness of the serpents upon the earth. "Moreover," said he, "do you not see the golden grape-vine, with its leaves and clusters, on the holy place itself? That is made in the likeness of the vine and grapes on earth. It is not making these things, but worshipping them, that God forbids." I also heard that once, when Rabbi Gamaliel visited Tibe- rias, he went into a bath where was an image of a devil, very beautiful, called Venus, whom the Romans worshipped. And, when some men rebuked him for doing so, he said, "I went in to bathe, and not to worship that piece of stone. The stone is nothing : why should I fear it ? The bath was not made for the stone ; but the stone was put there because of the bath." And they greatly marvelled at him. 66 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. I sometimes walked in the fields with my master Gamaliel ; and once he took me to a height where we could see the snowy peak of Hermon to the north, and the great sea gleaming in the sunshine on the west, and the black moun- tains of Moab beyond the Dead Sea. Then he talked of the goodness of God who had made the world so beautiful. He also repeated passages from the Greeks, which showed them to be feeling after God ; and he told us that the Greeks had their prophets as we had, though much inferior to ours. I loved to hear my master Gamaliel talk in this way ; for, while he spoke, Jehovah seemed to fill the world, and not be confined only to our own small nation. But at the same time I found my zeal for my own religion growing less ; for if the religion of the heathens were not wholly false, and if they might also be saved, then why need we care so much about making them proselytes to our own religion? Thus my mind was filled with doubt ; and I carried with me the sense of sin, which was a burden hard to bear. I have said that there were two other rabbis who walked often with Gamaliel, but were unlike him. Rabbi Nehemiah was very kindly-natured, and merry of heart. I observed that he was fond of eating and drinking, and talked a great deal about his dinner and the kind of wine he liked best. He was often seen talking and laughing with the people at the corner of the street. All liked him, and came to him for advice. Some people told him that he laughed too much, and cared too much for the things of this world. But he quoted the Scripture, that " a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance," and that "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine ; " and the other Scripture which tells us to " drink our wine with a merry heart." And I knew that he, also, was a good man ; but somehow to see him, and to hear him talk, weakened my zeal for my religion. The third of these three was Rabbi Ben Gamlah, and he was different from the others. He smiled when he looked at I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE MY SOUL. 67 you, but never laughed. His eye watched every one with whom he spoke, and noticed every thing that happened. Like that creature which they call a chameleon, he changed his aspect wherever he was, and became like the people about him, and so was pleasant to all. His cheeks were thin and dark ; nor could any man tell from his face or his voice what he thought, for his tones were measured, and he spoke care- fully. He did not care much for knowledge, and still less for pleasure ; but what he desired most was power. He desired that the Pharisees should become powerful among the Jews, and that he should become iwwerful among the Pharisees. He cared not for the happiness of others nor for his own, so that he might gain power, and with it buihl up the society. He meant to do every thing for the glory of God ; and I think he would have been willing to sacrifice his own life or that of others for this end. Any thing was right which would help this great cause. It was fearful to see a man so strong and so determined in his own mind who was ready to run any risk himself, or inflict any pain on others, in what he considered the cause of God. And this fear which came over me at the sight of his dark face and glittering eye also increased my doubts and my discouragement. One day Rabbi Gamaliel sent for me to come to him in his chamber in the temple. I passed through the crowded streets, narrow and dark, from which the high walls on either side shut out the sun. Then I entered the Court of the Gentiles through the southern gate, which was like a great stone building with a double arch. Going through this gateway, I passed from the darkness and closeness of the outer streets into the grand Court of the Gentiles, filled with the sunshine on the pavement below. Double rows of Corinthian columns stretched from one end to the other of the vast enclosure. I came to the marble screen, which no Gentile must pass under peril of death, and went up through the Beautiful Gate, covered with gilding and carving, to the 68 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. chamber of the ral)bi. He said to rae, "I have sent for thee, Thomas, to give unto thee this roll, which contains a book thou hast not yet read ; but the time has now come for thee to read it. Thou hast studied the sacred language of our fathers, and thou art now able to read the Scripture. This is the Book of Job. Read it through, and then come to me, and say what it has done for thy soul." So I took it with me to my room, and spent the whole day in reading it. Even now, after many years, I remember the feelings roused within me by this wonderful poem. It seemed to take me into another world. There was a strange, solemn music in the verses. They marched on with the measured tramp of an army. The pictures of the vast earth, with its infinite varieties of animals and plants, mountains and rivers ; the solitude of the wilderness ; the crowds of cities ; the solemn night with great star-clusters moving on through the sky ; the north, with its fields of snow, and its rivers made solid with ice ; the hot winds of the south, making the desert like a furnace, with the sky burning above as a brazen mirror, — all this was a world of wonders passing before my eyes. So it is when the banks of a river, with its trees, houses, and hills, pass by a man drifting down the stream in a boat. I had been brought up in the strictest school of Hebrew piety. My awe for the great Creator, King of kings. Lord of lords, knew no bounds. But before I read this book, it was a blind and ignorant fear ; now it was a sacred fear filled with knowledge. I seemed to see the Being of beings in the very act of creation ; laying the foundation of the earth ; fixing its deep corner-stone ; gathering in his hands the vast ocean, and pouring it out into its deep abysses ; holding up his finger until the enormous waves subsided at his divine command. I heard his deep voice ordering the morning dawn, rosy red, to go to the east ; telling the light where to pass, the rain when to fall ; leading all the beauti- ful stars to then* places, and grouping them in well-ordered I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE MY SOUL. 69 families. And then appeared in the broad firmament of heaven the rejoicing multitude of angels and archangels, filling the universe with harmonies of celestial praise, even the stars sending forth music as they moved, and the sons of God shouting for joy. Again the picture changed, and there came before me the far-reaching sandy deserts, swept by steadfast winds. The hawk was hanging in the air above, poised on his motionless wings. Below, I saw the heedless ostrich sweeping in care- less flight over the desert plains. Presently there came upon the scene a wild Arab clan, with white turbans and glittering spears, watching the approach of a hostile tribe. They came toward me at full speed ; the wild fury of motion sweeping man and horse along, like a raging torrent which has broken its banks. I heard the scream of the trumpets, the thunder of the galloping horsemen, the awful crash when the battle joined and horses and men struggled together like writhing serpents. And now it was night, and the desert was silent. Pale in the solemn moonlight lay on the sand the horses and their riders. On far-stretching wings the eagles hovered above, waiting to descend upon their prey. Then as I read on, entranced by these wonderful pictures, I was carried into Egypt, and l^eheld the Nile rolling its majestic stream between the shores where grow the papyrus and the lotus, and where among the reeds wallow enormous monsters. On the land there stood a terrible unknown crea- ture, covered with impenetrable armor, breathing fire from his mouth, and full of such fierceness that the bravest trem- bled in his presence. But far more than these wonders of the world was the knowledge which this book gave me of the heart and life of man I . was carried back to those early days when God could be heard talking among his angels, and when good men were his friends. I heard the debate in heaven when 70 THE Lt-:GEND of THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. Yahveh held a council of angels, and listened to their judg- ments on the conduct of men below. They talked about Job, a chief of chiefs in Arabia, whom all men reverenced, whose cattle filled the valleys, and whose flocks whitened the hills. He was the friend of God and of men. The light of Yahveh shone on his path. He was the protector of the poor, and plucked the prey from the jaws of the tyrant. Honor and reverence waited on his steps. Then, by the permission of God, the searching angel was allowed to test his goodness with dreadful calamities. Yet he held fast his integrity, and accepted in silence the evil with the good, at the hands of God. Then came the three friends, and sat beside him, mourn- ing and weeping, till Job at last, weighed down by his awful sorrow, uttered a great cry of despair, cursing the day of his birth, and wishing that he had died before he was born. His friends, showing no sympathy with his sorrow, gave him advice, and told him, that, since he suffered, it must be as a punishment for some sins. They charged him to confess his sins, and said that God would then forgive him. "All suf- fering," said they, "is punishment; for even if a child be born blind, it must be a punishment for some sin of his parents, or for some sin of his own committed in a previous state of being." Therefore they asked Job to bethink him- self whether he had not been too proud of his uprightness, or trusted too much in his own piety, so as to excite the jeal- ousy of Yahveh. Some great crime he must certainly have committed, else he would not have been so severely punished. Now, this doctrine was exactly what I myself had always believed. It surprised me, therefore, to find Job declaring that he had not sinned at all, or, if he had, that he did not know it. " Convince me that I have sinned," said he, " and I will admit it ; or let God himself show me wherein I have done wrong, and then I will confess it. I know my words were rash and hasty ; but the words of a desperate man are I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE MY SOUL. 71 but air. Let the inspector of men show me what I have done amiss, and I will own it. But I will not tell a lie, even to please the Almighty. He is all-powerful ; he can destroy me when he will : but I will not profess what I do not be- lieve because he is the Almighty. I will hold fast my integ- rity, and not let it go : I will not speak words of wind in order to please the All-powerful." There was sublime strength in this, and a courage, which filled me with admiration, but also with fear. It shocked me to hear any man say he was not a sinner. To refuse to con- fess his sins until he saw them seemed a wicked audacity. I had been taught that it was impossible to say too much in confessing one's sins. Our rabbi used to quote continually the saying of the prophet, that " the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked ; " and that other saying, that ''all our righteousness is like filthy rags." Thus I thought that Job must be wrong in refusing to call himself a sinner ; and I read on, impatient to see the end thereof. As the conversation went on, and the discussion between Job and his friends became more hot, my interest increased. But my mind was divided, and I grew irresolute, unable to decide whether Job, or his friends, were right. All my old belief was on their side ; but my feelings were with Job. They seemed to me to be right in saying that he was a sin- ner, and that he ought to confess his sins, and submit to the will of God. I could not comprehend the lofty pride which clung to its own convictions of right, even against the Al- mighty. I thought the friends had the truth with them when they said that the creature had no right to doubt the justice of the Creator, and still less to deny his own sinfulness. Yet there was something which touched a deep place in my soul in this picture of a human being refusing to submit to mere power, and demanding to see that this power was guided by justice. That I might understand it better, I put into my own l^ninaora the substance of this conversation. 72 THE LEGEND OF THQMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. PART FIRST. 1. Job. — " I am so miserable I would I had never been born." 2. Eliphaz. — "Thou oughtest not to say that. Thou oughtest instead to ask God to forgive thy sin. Thou must be a sinner ; for even the angels are not pure before God. Thou art punished for thy sin, and it is for thy good. Only submit to God's will, and he will be thy friend again." 3. Job. — "I suppose I spoke hastily ; but it was because I was in such affliction. Ye ought to be patient with me, and sympathize with me ; but ye fail me in my affliction. Ye are like the brooks which dry up in summer, when they are most needed. Do not rebuke me, but convince me. Do not reproach me, but explain to me my fault. Do not object to my language : the words of a desperate man are only air." 4. BiLDAD. — " But thou oughtest not to complain of God ; since whatever he doth must be right." 5. Job. — "I know that well. He is infinite in every thing. But I complain of this, that God maketh no differ- ence in his treatment of good men and bad. This world is given into the hands of the wicked. If this is not the Lord's doing, whose doing is it? I do not pretend to answer the Almighty, for he is too high above me. But if there were some one who could stand between us, and put his hand upon us both, some mediator, then I might speak ; but now I can only say. Spare me ! " 6. ZoPHAR. — " This is all wicked talk. What canst thou understand of the ways of the Almighty? Repent of thy wickedness : that is the only thing for th5e to do." 7. Job. — "No doubt ye have all the wisdom there is in the world ; and it will die when ye are gone. I know that God is almighty as well as ye know it ; but what I want is the truth. Why manufacture lies, and put them in my I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE MY SOUL. 73 mouth ? Can I deceive the Lord by flattery, and please him with falsehood, as if he were a man? Ye are physicians of no value. Your maxims are lighter than dust, and your arguments fortresses of clay. But though I have no hope, and though God slay me, I will justify my ways before him." PART SECOND. 1. Eliphaz. — "If what thou sayest, O Job, be true, there is an end to piety, reverence for the Almighty, peni- tence, and prayer. This shows that thou must be wrong." 2. Job. — "It is very easy for ye to talk in this way; for ye have no suffering like mine. It does no good for me to speak, or be silent. Either way there lies nothing but misery ; and the best thing I can hope for is to die, and so there shall be an end to all." 3. BiLDAD. — " Why talk thus? Thou art only adding to thy sin, and therefore to thy misery. It is not true that God treats the good and the bad alike. No one is punished, except for his wickedness." 4. Job. — " O my friends, why revile me, and tear me in pieces with your words ? Have pity upon me, O my friends, have pity upon me in my utter misery ! I have asked only for justice. I have spoken only the truth. Would that all I have said were graven in deep letters on the face of a rock, where they would last forever ! For the time will come when all I say will be proved true. God himself shall be my vindicator, and show how wicked your accusations are." 5. ZopHAR only repeats what has been said before. 6. Job. — " God doth not punish the wicked. They grow old in comfort and peace, and all the time they neither fear God, nor regard man. Ye may say that their prosperity is unstable, and soon comes to an end. Not at all. The bad man dies full of years and full of comforts. Ye may say that they are punished in their children's disasters. But 74 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. why does not God punish the wicked man himself? What does he care for what may happen after he is gone, when he will know nothing about it ? " 7. Eliphaz. — ''What claim hast thou on God, or what rights hast thou against him? What good does thy good- ness do to him, even supposing that thou art good, which thou art not? All men are sinners, and thou art a sinner like the rest. Thine miquities, like those of all men, are num- berless, and thou hast no right to any thing but to be punished." 8. Job. — " Oh that I could find God, and speak to him ; for he would understand me, as ye do not. He would justify me ; for he knows that my wish has been to do right." 9. Bildad repeats that God is almighly, and that all men are sinners. As the other friends have nothing more to say, Job goes on, and declares that the one thing he believes in is truth. "As long as I have life," says he, " my lips shall not consent to any falsehood. I will never acknowledge that ye speak rightly. I will declare my integrity to my last breath. I will hold fast my innocence, and not let it go ; for my heart reproaches me for no part of my life. " But how shall I ever learn the meaning of these myste- ries? Man finds every thing else; he mines the earth for gold, he digs under the roots of the mountains : but he can- not find Truth. The deepest Cavern mutters, ' It is not in me.' Broad Ocean murmurs, 'It is not in me.' It cannot be bought with all the gold of the earth. Death and Destruc- tion have only heard of it. Truth belongs to God : man can never know it — all he can do is to fear and obey. ' ' And then I read how Job, his accusers being silent, de- scribed the nobleness and happiness of his past life ; how universal homage waited on him ; how the greatest princes reverenced his power, and the poorest child blessed his good- ness ; how he was on earth like God, protecting the weak, I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE MY SOUL. 7o and punishing the oppressor. And now how all was changed ! Now he was despised by those younger than himself, whose fathers he would have disdained to place with the dogs of his flock. Then he solemnly asserts his innocence of every crime, mentioning each sin one by one, and declaring him- self free of any offence which could justly bring down upon him so great a punishment. He had kept his life pure from inward and outward stain. He had done strict justice to the most humble of his servants. He had fed the hungry, and clothed the naked. He had not trusted in his riches. He had not worshipped the sun, moon, or stars, like the tribes who lived around him. He had been hospitable to strangers, even when they were his enemies. Finally he challenges all mankind to bring any charge against him. My whole heart was moved by this story. My soul melted within me on account of Job, he was so grand in his right- eousness and his truth. And yet all he said was sinful, ac- cording to what I had been taught in the schools of the Pharisees. The doctrine of my teachers declared man to be a sinner and always so. Else why these perpetual sacrifices, penances, washings, fastings, sin-offerings, trespass-offerings, and repeated ceremonies? And why, when Job justified himself, did he have nothing to say of these ceremonies and sacrifices? He must be wrong in clauning any merit for himself on account of his own goodness. No doubt, I said, he will be told in the end that he can have his sins pardoned only by offering sacrifices in the temple, by keeping the sabbath, the feasts and fasts, and giving tithes of all that he possessed. So I read on. Next came the speech of Elihu, who was angry with Job for calling himself righteous, and also angry with the three friends, because they were not able to answer Job. I said, "Here cometh the judge to settle the question. He will tell Job that he is a sinner, because all men are sin- ners ; and he will tell him that God has given us a way by 76 CALLED DIDYMUS. which sin can be forgiven ; namely, the Law of Moses and the Ritual of Aaron." What was my astonishment, then, in finding that Elihu said -nothing of this. He blamed Job for calling God unjust, and for being unpatient, and not willing to wait. He blamed him for thinking that he had a claim on God for comforts and happiness because of his righteous life. He did not tell him that he ought to say he was a sinner, but rather that he ought to say, "What I see not, teach thou me: if I have done wrong, I will do so no more." That was all. Then I said, ' ' Elihu does not know more than the others ; but the Lord himself will speak, and teach Job the right way." Then I read the wonderful words of Yahveh at the end of the book, and my astonishment was greater than before ; for still he said nothing of what I had expected to hear. The Lord said nothing about the law, or sacrifices, or keep- ing the sabbath, or any such thing. There was a glorious declaration of the power of God in creation, a wonderful account of his greatness and goodness in the universe. All nature seemed to pass before me in one grand march, like that of an army. I stood by, and beheld the creation of the world, the harmonies of the stars, and triumphant shouts of the angels. The waters were rushing with rejoicing around the whole earth. The new-born oceans roared exultingly, pouring their mighty waves on every side. Then a hand was stretched from the clouds ; a voice spoke, and the seas obeyed, and went to their own place ; then the rosy morning smiled on the green earth as it rose from the abysses of the deep. I read how the same great hand divided the light from the darkness ; heaping up the snows in the north ; with a touch of its finger sending the rain to its home in the clouds, and the glittering lightning to its hiding-place ; teaching all the burning stars to arrange themselves in shining groups, and so placing the whole world on its solid foundations. J I ENTER RELIGION, AND SEEK TO SAVE MY SOUL. 77 After this I read how all the animals were provided for by the same mighty power, — the lions in their dens, the wild- goats among the rocks, the ravens filling the air with their melancholy cries, the wild ass roaming over the desert, herds of great buffaloes trampling the earth with a sound like far-off thunder. I saw the ostrich with up-lifted wings sweeping gladly over the sand, and the horse in the rage of his courage devouring the ground. The hawk circled aloft in the air, and the eagle, with far-penetrating eyes, was sit- ting on the lofty crag. The mighty animals of the deep were also there, their terrible forms rushing through the water, and making it boil like a caldron. That was all. No word was added. The majestic picture of creation was shown to Job, and it was enough. He had learned his lesson, and he bowed in silence, only saying, " I spoke ignorantly ; but now I know and repent. In the pres- ence of the universe and its Maker man ought to wait and be patient.'* To complete my astonishment, the Lord Yahveh then declared that what Job had said concerning him was good, and what the friends had said was evil. Yet the friends had spoken as my masters the Pharisees spoke, and Job had said the contrary. So I went away much perplexed, but yet feeling as if I had escaped out of a narrow, close and dark room, into the open air, where all was sunshine and fresh breezes. My mind was full of wonder, and much dis- turbed. In my heart I cried, " O Lord, let me know thy will. I shall walk at liberty, if I seek thy precepts." From this day I resolved always to ask the Lord to open my eyes, that I might myself behold the wonderful things of his law. The truth was sweet to my taste, and I sought to understand all the ways of God. 78 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. CHAPTER V. I GO TO ALEXANDREIA, AND STUDY THE HIGHER JUDAISM. After reading the Book of Job, I went to see Rabbi Gamaliel. And, when he asked me what I thought of it, I said I knew not what to think, since it seemed to contradict much which I had learned in the school of the Pharisees. And I said, "O Master! which of these is true? for both cannot be true." And Gamaliel replied with a grave smile, "Why not, my son? There are different truths, — some higher, and some lower, — and they may seem to contradict each other ; but in reality they do not. It is true that the body needs food, and when we have fasted long we are hungry. But it is still more true, and a higher truth, that the mind needs food ; for, when the mind is hungry, the bodily hunger ceases. While thou wert reading that mighty poem, thy body was hungry, but thou didst not know it. Now thou hast become aware of thy hunger; for I observe that thine eye has wandered while speaking to those grapes on my table. Take a cluster, my son, and eat, and satisfy the bodily want, now that the soul has been fed." I then became aware that I had fasted all the day, and gladly took the grapes, and ate thereof ; and my wise teacher continued to speak : — " All the ceremonies and rites of our law — its temple and sacrifices, its sabbaths and festivals — are like the hunger of the body ; for religion has a body as well as a soul. The divine truths thou hast been reading to-day are food for the I GO TO ALEXANDREIA, AND STUDY THE HIGHER JUDAISM. 79 higher spirit which is in man. Thou hast seen the people going up the steps to the inner court of the temple. If there were no steps, they could not go up : when they have gone up, they need the steps no more. So the steps are necessary, and not necessary, — necessary as a way, not ne- cessary when we are at the end of the way. Listen, Thomas, and understand. The doctrine of the Pharisee is necessary, else were I not a Pharisee ; but it is necessary like steps by which to ascend to a higher knowledge. If thou hast gone up by these steps, do not despise them because thou dost no longer need them ; for they still may be very necessary for others." '' But," I said, *' there may be many others beside myself who need this higher knowledge. Why not tell to them also that which thou hast told me, that they may know that the doctrine of the Pharisees is only a ladder, and the temple worship only the steps by which to go up to something higher?" *' Every thing in its time," replied Gamaliel. '' The time has not come for this great doctrine to be widely known. Perhaps thirty or fifty years from this time, the Lord, who has sent so many prophets, rising up early and sending them, will send a prophet to teach this truth also. Yet I fear, when he comes, that the people will kill him, as they have killed others. I, my son, am not a prophet. The Lord has given me the word of wisdom, by which to understand the differ- ences between things ; and as I hear I teach. But he has not given to me the word of prophecy, which burns mightily in the heart, and helps a man to make his face like a flint against the faces of those who resist him. Such men are greatly needed, and without them the world would fall asleep. But men like myself are also needed, and may do good, also, in their way. Now, my son, the time has come that thou shouldst learn more of the inward meaning of our law. For that purpose thou must go to Alexandreia, where my brother 80 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. Philo teaches. He, like myself, is a Pharisee ; but he has gone far beyond the husk of the law, and feeds on the ker- nel. He will teach thee what thou art fitted to know. Moreover, thy mind will be enlarged by the sight of that great city, where all men congregate for study. It is the city of learning, as Rome is the city of power, and Athens the city of beauty, and Jerusalem the city of religion." I was well pleased with this advice, longing, like all young men, to see the world. I soon made myself ready^ sending a message by a Galilean to my home to say whither my journey tended. I then departed afoot to Caesarea Stratonis, on the shore of the sea, where I had the hope to find a ship going to Alexandria. I also had a desire to see this Roman capital, built by the great Herod, of which I had often heard; and I also longed to behold the vast sea, which reaches to Greece and Rome, and to almost all coun- tries of the world. Therefore one morning I set forth with my staff, and soon began the descent into the valleys. The plains were cov- ered with the growing corn, which gently bent before the soft airs coming up the valley from the distant sea. Through these fields of grain I walked all day alone, sometimes meet- ing a peasant and saying a few words to him, or asking him concerning the road. Sometimes the footpath would ascend so that I could overlook a large extent of country : in other places it would pass through a ravine of rocks, or a grove of palms. In a little village I stopped to take my noontide meal, and I asked what hill rose on the east. They told me it was the mountain of Gibeon, and away to the west was the vale of Ajalon. In the old war-songs of my people, contained in the Book of Jasher, it was sung, that, at Joshua's command, the sun stood still over the mountain of Gibeon, and the moon over the vale of Ajalon. Here was fought that great fight which gave the whole land of promise to my people. Here, in one mighty victory, were the assem- I GO TO ALEXANDREIA, AND STUDY THE HIGHER JUDAISM. 81 bled kings of the plain defeated. There was no day like this, before it, or after it. So I walked on, musing on these things. At Csesarea I found a large corn-ship bound from the mouth of the Orontes to Alexandreia for com. I took passage on this ship ; and the north winds blew steadily, and soon brought us in sight of the lofty lighthouse which stands at the mouth of the great harbor. We hauled up to the docks, near the vast mole of stone which joins the city to Pharos. As we drew near the shore, we saw it lined with palaces, and behind them the buildings of the Bruchion, or the theatre, the Temple of Neptune, the great Market, the Royal Palace of the Ptolemies, with the buildings of the Museum and the Amphitheatre, and the mountain of Pan behind. Far away toward the right soared aloft the white marble tower of the Serapeum. As we landed, I was con- fused by the tumult of the streets, and the crowds. People in the dresses of all nations were pushing past each other, cryiug out in all languages, buying, selling, bargaining to- gether. I heard two men talking in Greek, and I inquired in that language the way to the Jews' quarter of the city. The Greek civilly showed me the way, and I soon found myself among the familiar faces of my own people. I asked for the house of my mother's brother, who had long lived in the city. He received me kindly, and before many days I began to be at peace in this new home. During the first week of my stay I pleased myself in walking about Alexandreia, and looking at the buildings. From the top of the Paneum, which stood in the midst, and was higher than any other summit except that of the Serapeum, I could survey the whole city. I saw the two streets which intersected the whole place, — one going east and west, from the Gate of Canopus to the Gate of the Necropolis ; and the other north and south, from the Gate of the Sun opposite the mole to the Gate of the Moon near 82 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. Lake Mareotis. Near me, as I stood, on the west, rose the square fortress of red Egyptian stone, with towers at each of the four corners, which surrounded and defended the Temple of Serapis. This temple, called the Serapeum, one of the wonders of the world, soared upward to a great height. It was supported on arches below ; and a stairway of a hundred steps led up to the portico above, through which one entered the central hall. From the middle of this hall ascended a lofty column, which could be seen by ships far out at sea. The Corinthian capital of this column was covered with gold, as were also the roofs of the porticos, and the ranges of columns which surrounded the temple. Within this temple were chambers for the priests, and the sacrifices, and the great library, only second to that of the Museum. The statue of Serapis, made of gold, silver, and marble, stood in a dark room, and could be seen only at cer- tain appointed hours, when the priests opened a window, and allowed the rays of the sun to kiss its lips, and light up its face. It was with a hesitating step that I went one day to see this splendid idol ; for I had been taught to worship a God not made with hands. I knew, indeed, that an idol is nothing ; and yet I felt sinful in going into its temple. The Greeks worshipped it as Jupiter, and said it was like their Zeus, who was at Olympia. The Egyptians worshipped it as Osiris, whose scattered limbs the sad Isis sought to col- lect in all lands. And this Serapis was thought to protect mariners, and was the patron of merchants, and so was the protecting deity of this great city of traders. Beyond the Serapeum, on the west, as I stood on the high top of the Paneum, I saw the Necropolis, or city of the dead, filled with many monuments. To the north were the ships crowded in the smaller harbor of Eunostus. But toward the north-east was the most glorious part of the city. The tomb of Arsinoe was near me, just under the Paneum. Before it stood an obelisk eighty cubits high, I GO TO ALEXANDREIA, AND STUDY THE HIGHER JUDAISM. 83 which the queen's husband, Ptolemy Philadelphus, had caused to be brought down the Nile from the quarry, and set up here. Farther away was an amphitheatre, and beyond it the tomb of Alexander the Great, to which the body of the conqueror was brought in a long procession from the centre of Persia. I looked at it with awe, and said, " Here lies that heart once unresting, but now so still, — a heart that the conquest of the world could not satisfy. He needs only this little spot of earth now. Yet all I see around me is his monument ; for it was his mind which planned and created this wonderful city." Beyond the tonib (the Greeks called it, not the tomb, but the body ; for the body was more than the tomb) stood the palaces built by the different kings. They all joined each other, and also were connected by lofty porticos with the Museum, so named because in this place all the Muses had their home. This was founded by the wise Ptolemy, son of Lagus, chief captain, and friend of Alex- ander. Here he collected a library of Greek literature. To this place he invited scholars, artists, poets, men of all knowl- edge. In this great building he gave them a home. They dined together in the hall every day, surrounded by books, and in this hall they lectured, one by one, from morning till evening. In chambers around the hall sat the copyists, copy- ing the manuscripts. All students were made welcome here, either to read, or to take copies of the manuscripts. In this library were all the rolls which had belonged to the great Aris- totle, some in his own handwriting. These were the books he left to Theophrastus. But vast numbers had been de- stroyed by fire when Caesar took the city ; yet the Museum was rebuilt, and the Roman Antony brought another library from Pergamos, and gave it to Cleopatra. Part of this library was placed in the Serapeum, and a part in the new museum. All these buildings, and many more, I saw from the roof of the Paneum. Away to the east I beheld where the Nile entered the sea by the Canopus mouth, and behind 84 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. me rushed up on the shore the waves of the Lake Mareotis. A million of people swarmed in the streets, and merchants from all the world came to these markets to sell and buy. I found my kinsmen, the Jews, very numerous in Alexan- dria, occupying two wards out of five in the city. They were engaged in trade, were prosperous, and had full liberty to worship the God of their fathers in their own way. I knew that the Jews in Egypt had a temple which was imi- tated from the 'temple* at Jerusalem ; but I had been taught to believe that this was an abomination, as there ought to be only one temple for our whole nation wherein to offer up its worship. This temple was in the city of On, near Mem- phis, and had been given to Onias the Jewish priest by Ptolemy Philometor. It was an old Egyptian shrine, re- built by Onias, —perhaps that of which Joseph's father-in- law, Potiphera, was priest and prince. And this city of On was built by the Hebrews for Pharaoh. This place, therefore, was selected by Onias for a temple, because Joseph lived there, and the place itself had been built by the labors of our nation. Moreover, the old Egyptian shrine, which was thus turned into a Jewish temple, had from the beginning belonged to the one true God, unseen and almighty ; for such a God did those kings of Lower Egypt worship. These were the kings who knew Joseph, and who avoided idols. After I had satisfied my curiosity by going through this great city, and had looked at its wonders, I asked my uncle if he knew a philosopher named Philo, a Jew. " Cer- tainly I know him," he replied ; " for he is one of our chief men. He is the brother of Alexander, president of our colony. Alexander is one of the richest men, a dealer in money, and a friend of the Herods. Knowest thou not that Alexander sent the gold with which nine of the doors of the temple at Jerusalem are plated? His brother, our great philosopher, lives in a part of his house. If thou dost wish to meet him, I will show thee the way." I GO TO ALE:J^NDREIA, and study the higher JUDAISM. 85 When we reached the house, I followed my uncle into a chamber, where, amid rolls of papyrus piled around his seat, so that he could easily reach them, sat a man of middle age, whose hair had fallen away from his broad forehead. He had a long gray beard, and his eyes were large and dark, and full of thought. When I gave him the letter from Rabbi Gamaliel, he examined the seal, and said, "I know his signet. He is a wise and good man.*' Having cut the silk fastening, he unrolled the parchment, and read it, and said to me, '' Rabbi Gamaliel hath commended thee to me as a youth seeking the truth, and of a free and honest mind. I have a hall in this house, built for me by my brother, where I lecture every day at sunrise. If thou wilt come and listen, thou shalt be welcome. But sit on this couch, and I will tell thee what we seek." Then I sat ; and Philo continued : — " Thou seest this vast city, to which merchants resort from every land to exchange their merchandise, each bringing that of which his people have a superfluity, and taking away that in which their nation is deficient. Such is the meaning of commerce. But what the merchants of this city do for the bodily wants of men, the scholars of this place do for their souls. We exchange with each other clothing for the mind, food for the soul. The Greeks bring the truths taught them by Plato and Aristotle, the beautiful works of their poets, their learned histories of nations, their accounts of every thing which the Lord God has created in this outward world. And we bring his holy law given to Moses, his sacred hymns sung by David, the wisdom of Solomon, and the inspiration of the prophets. Thus are we merchants of the soul. Thomas. — " This is a great work, rabbi, if, indeed, these Greeks and Romans have any true knowledge. But how can they have any, while they worship idols of stone, wood, and silver? Much less, as it seems to me, can the Egyptians 86 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. give US any true knowledge ; for they worship monsters with the heads of rams and eagles." Philo. — " That they worship idols is their folly and their sin. Yet God has given to all men something good, and left something wanting, that each, by giving and receiving, may live in friendship with his neighbor. It is the part of wisdom, therefore, to know what others have which we have not, and what we have that others need. Then the com- merce of the mind begins. Thus we give to the Greeks the knowledge of the true God, sovereign ruler of all things, and they give to us their poetry and wisdom. For Greece is the only country which produces man, that heavenly plant, that divine offshoot. The Greeks alone possess that kind of accurate and refined reason which searches after knowl- edge. This is because God has given to them a dry soil, and an air full of lightness. They have given us Plato, of all writers the most sweet ; they have taught us astronomy, the queen of all knowledges ; they send to us Aristotle, who has a knowledge in some sense holy, so great is it. Then the Roman world is ruted by admirable laws, and all its parts are kept in great harmony, from the rising to the setting sun ; from the Euphrates its eastern boundary, to the Rhine which bridles the Germans. Thus we can learn from Rome how nations may be brought into unity, and kept in peace. But come, my son, thou shalt hear more of this hereafter. If thou wilt, thou shalt come to my lectures ; for I lecture in this house." Then I thanked him, and promised to come, and listen to his teaching, and be very attentive ; since for this I had come to Alexandreia. The next day I began to visit these lectures with many other students. On that day Philo taught us concerning cre- ation, as described by Moses in the Book of Beginnings. Till this time I had believed, as I had been taught, in the letter of the books of Mgses. I believed that God created the I GO TO ALEXANDREIA, AND STUDY THE HIGHER JUDAISM. 87 heavens and the earth in six days, and rested on the seventh. But Philo, after reading these words, spake thus : — ' ' It would be a proof of great simplicity to believe that the world was created in six days, or in any length of time. For what is time ? Is it not that which is measured by the movements of the sun, causing day and night, and the sea- sons, and years? How, then, could there be days before there was any sun ? or any time at all ? By ' six days * Moses means to use six as a perfect number; for it in- cludes unity and plurality, that which is odd and that which is even, matter divided and matter indivisible, solid mat- ter and fluid. And finally it includes all motion ; since motion is in six directions. All mortal beings are thus measured by six. To create in six days means to create all mortal things, alive and dead. '' Nor can we suppose," continued Philo, '' that God really rested, or needed rest, or could rest, on the seventh day; for God never ceases from making something. As it is the property of fire to burn, so is it the nature of God to create. He therefore rested on the seventh day from creating mortal beings, and began to create immortal and heavenly beings. Seven is a divine number, since all nature delights in the number seven. There are seven planets, and seven stars in the bear. The moon has seven motions ; there are seven pe- riods of human life, and seven vowels. A lyre has seven tones. There are seven tones to the voice ; and we have other such examples. This is what is meant by God's bless- ing the seventh day. "We are not, then, to remain in the mere words of the Scriptures. There is a much holier meaning in them than is in the letters. There is a divine spirit in the Scriptures which alone is of value. Of this I will give you some further examples to show that Scripture is like a fountain, from which having taken one draught, many more may be taken. The first draught is the outward fact; the second 88 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. IS the symbolic meaning ; the third is the spiritual meaning ; and the fourth is the mystical meaning. The common man remains in the outside meaning of Scripture ; one who goes deeper sees the allegorical meaning; by going still deeper, we come to the spiritual meaning ; and finally some few arrive at the most interior sense of all, which is the mystical meaning. This last can be known, but cannot be told to another. And, for this, preparation of the soul is also necessary, by retirement into solitude, fasting and prayer. By some, this mystical sense is also called the Kabbala. "But now, my children, we will speak of the symbolic sense of Scripture ; that is, the allegory. " You read in Scripture of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and 3'OU think of them as three men. They are so accord- ing to the outward sense ; but in reality they are three vir- tues, or three graces. Abraham signifies divine wisdom, or piety. Abraham's going out from his own country is leaving natural pleasure for divine joys. Sarah the wife is, allegorically, virtue. The King of Egypt who wished to take her from her husband is earthly wisdom, which would divorce morals from piety, and make it useful only for this world. Isaac is a name which signifies laughter; but this is not childish mirth, but a settled happiness of the soul. The wise man offers this as a sacrifice to God, being willino- to give up his happiness in order to fulfil God's will. But, when he does this, he finds his happiness again, as Isaac was restored to Abraham. Jacob is the prudence which struggles against the senses, and at last conquers them, and then it sees God, and is called Israel. "Thus you see, my children, how much more beautiful the Scriptures become, and how much more useful in build- ing up our soul, when we seek for their inward sense. What doth it profit us to know that there was a man called Abra- ham, and another named Isaac ? But to meditate on these names as signifying virtue — this elevates the soul. I GO TO ALEXANDREIA, AND STUDY THE HIGHER JUDAISM. 89 '' Moreover, there are many things in Scripture, which, according to the natural sense, are opposed to common rea- son and right judgment, and offend the mind of the Greeks, being a stumbling-stone by which they fall. These things cause them to reject our great doctrine of the oneness of God, and of spiritual worship. They are like children who have found a nut, the shell of which is too hard for them to crack with their teeth, and so they throw the nut away. But we, by our system of allegories, crack the shell, and throw it away, and eat the wholesome meat within. " Consider again the story of Adam and Eve in paradise, the serpent, and the eating of the tree of knowledge. If you read this to a wise Greek, he immediately says, ' How can you believe such foolish stories^? Does God plant gar- dens, and walk in them? Do serpents talk to men? Does an almighty God, full of good-will, punish his creatures for eating the very fruit he himself has put in their way ? ' Thus the story is a rock of offence, and blocks the waj^ and keeps many from believing in the only true and living God. "But, when we explain it as an allegory, all is simple. Adam, which means earth, is the earthly mind in us, which is first awakened by visible and earthly things. It gives names to them ; that is, it studies their natures. Adam's wife is Eve, which means life ; for all things become alive by the action of the natural mind. And thus Eve proceeds from Adam. " When we read that God planted a paradise in Eden, let no such impiety occupy our thoughts as to suppose that God cultivates the land, as though to make for himself a garden. Let no such fabulous nonsense enter our mind ; for God dwells in no one place, but is a place to himself. To plant a paradise means to sow the seeds of virtue in the human soul, and to educate the soul by favorable influences. Virtue is symbolically a paradise, and Eden means enjoyment. A paradise planted in Eden is the innocence of childhood, which 90 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. dwells in joy. In the midst of the paradise God plants the tree of life. This is a wonderful allegory ; for it teaches us that man is by nature immortal, and would never die if he continued to live in paradise ; that is, in virtue. For sin corrupts the body as well as the soul. There are also four rivers in paradise, which go out of it in four directions. These four rivers are prudence, temperance, courage, and justice. And all go forth from Eden to water paradise ; that is, the heart which is full of joy, and is satisfied, has these virtues ; and these virtues feed and support all virtue. '' Then we read that the Lord God takes the man he has made (that is, the higher and purer mind), and causes him to guard the virtues. He tells him he may eat of every tree in paradise ; that is, of all virtues. But, since he must not eat of the tree of knowledge, it is evident that this is not in paradise. If he eats it, he must die the death ; that is, he must go out of paradise in order to eat it, and thus die to the life of virtue. But who is ' the serpent ' who beguiles the woman? It is the pleasure of sense, which always tempts the woman in man, that is, desire ; and desire tempts Adam, that is, wisdom. But the pleasures of sense are cunning, like the serpent, not wise, like the man. This is, then, the allegory hidden within this story of Eden." Then I asked him this question : " If , O teacher ! the literal history is the shell, and the inner meaning the kernel, and if only the kernel is essential, need those who have reached the kernel follow the ceremonies and scripture of the Jews?" He answered, " Yes ; since the Jewish institutions are the appointed plan ordained by God to teach his truth. It is not safe, therefore, to neglect them. Just so, when thou art travelling in an unknown country, it is not safe to leave the main road, nor to try a shorter way through the woods." I did not answer; but I thought to myself, " Either our, Jewish system of sacrifices, circumcision, festivals, and I GO TO ALEXANDREIA, AND STUDY THE HIGHER JUDAISM. 91 scripture, is essential, or it is not essential. Our teacher says only the inward part, which is symbolized by this, is essential. But then why should I, having once found the inward truth, go back, and go over again forever the steps which lead to it? " On another day I heard Philo lecture on the creation of the world. And again he took the Book of Beginnings of Moses, and read from it how in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He said, that, before he created the visible heavens and earth, he created their types or ideas in an invisible heavens and an unseen earth. And all that we see as sky and earth and water, beasts, birds, fishes, men, had incorporeal forms, which were created at first, and then had their home in the divine reason. These were made the archetype and model of the world ; for all things must exist forever in the divine mind, which are to be created afterwards in time and space, since God, being infi- nite, sees all things from the beginning. These divine ideas are the living powers which continually create anew the outward world according to an eternal law. The eternal law of the everlasting God is the strong and lasting support of the universe. This law extends from the centre of the world to its extremities, and, again, back from the extremi- ties to the centre. Thus it works in the unwearied and irresistible course of nature, uniting and binding together all parts of the universe. This has the Father of all consti- tuted as the indissoluble bond of the creation. "All this," said Philo, "was intended by Moses, when he said, 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ; and the earth was invisible, and without solidity ; and darkness cc /- ered the abyss of being.' Thus he describes the creation of the world of ideas, the invisible archetypes of things seen." Then Philo continued to teach us that God, the most perfect being, can by no means come into contact with matter and visible things ; but he employs as instruments 92 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. his ideas, which ever surround him, and are his ministering spirits. These sometimes appear to men, and are called angels. "The highest of these," said Philo, "is 'the Word,' or ' Logos. ' All the ideas live in the Logos^ as the plan of a city is in the soul of the architect. There is a logos also in the soul of man, and of a twofold kind. There is the in- ward thought, and the uttered word which flows from it. So in the mind of God there is the inward logos., or reason, which is the world of ideas, and the expressed logos^ or word which goes out into the visible creation ; as when God says, 'Let there be light,' and light came. All this Moses taught when he said, ' God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female created he them.' For that which is true of man must also be true of the whole universe." While I listened to these and the like teachings of Philo, I for a time was greatly pleased. He told us how Hesiod and Plato and Aristotle had borrowed these truths from Moses, who lived long before them. But, as I became more fond of these studies, I found my old joy in the Jewish scriptures gradually leaving me. Philo explained them as having the same meaning as that which Plato taught ; yet it seemed to me that Plato had taught these truths more plainly than Moses ; and, indeed, if he had not taught them thus, we should never have known that they were taught by Moses. Thus there grew up in my mind a strong desire to learn the wisdom of the Greeks, and to study their books, from which Philo often quoted beautiful passages. When I told him my wish, he said, " Go, my son, to the museum, and there thou shalt hear all these Greek writings read aloud, and thou canst see how much loftier are the words of our own prophets." The museum, as I have said, stood in the centre of the city, in the quarter called Bruchium. There were shady I GO TO ALEXANDJIEIA, AND STUDY THE HIGHER JUDAISM. 93 porticos, where the philosophers walked, and discoursed with their disciples; gardens with statues, and seats under the wide-spreading trees. There was a large hall in the centre of the building, where the men of learning, scholars, and teachers took their daily meal, provided for them by the royal treasury. Here, also, were rooms where they slept. And around the hall, which was open to the sky in the centre, were long porches where were kept the rolls of books. In these porches sat students reading the books, and scribes copying them on rolls of papyrus manufactured in the city, or on parchment from Pergamos. The attendants went to and fro, carrying the rolls to those who demanded them, or returning them again to the shelves. There were also in the museum smaller halls, in which lectures were given on Homer, or Plato, or the Greek trage- dies, and other writers. First I went to a course of lec- tures on the history of the museum itself, given by the librarian, Cheremon, who was so eminent a scholar as to be selected by the Emperor Tiberius as the tutor of his nephew. I was glad to hear these lectures ; for I desired to learn how such a great institution of learning had grown up. I will therefore insert here what I wrote down at the time in my tablets. NOTES OF LECTURES BY CHEREMON, DIRECTOR OF THE MUSEUM AT ALEXANDRIA. I SHALL tell you in these lectures of the origin and history of this museum, which, as the name shows, is dedicated to all the Muses. This museum was founded by Ptolemy Lagus, first Greek king of Egypt, and one of the chief generals of Alexander. After the death of that hero, Ptolemy selected Egyi)t for his portion. Whether, as most men thought Ptolemy was really the brother of Alexander, or not, he resembled him in his genius. He chose Egypt as his province, and chose wisely. It was wealthy and 94 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. populous, and far removed from the rest of Alexander's kingdom. Here he could govern independently, till he should become really independent. He brought the body of Alexander and buried it in the Soma, which is close to us. He governed Egypt with justice, under good laws, and Alexandria was like a Greek democracy. All the citizens met in the gymnasium to discuss and vote on pub- lic questions. The Greeks lived together in this city, leaving the rest of Egypt under its own customs and its native governors. Thus all were satisfied and happy. This great city of Alexandreia, begun by order of Alexander, was finished by Ptolemy, son of Lagus, his successor, three hun- dred years ago. He it was who joined Pharos to the mainland by the long mole, who built the large docks for ships-of-war, the emporium for merchants, and other great buildings around us. And it was his wise mind which founded this museum, with its halls and porticos, its gardens and library. He appointed an income from the royal treasury to pay the professors and to sup- port them. He himself was a writer of no small repute. The palace of Ptolemy was in another part of this building. Beside the public table which he maintained, he often invited scholars and artists to dine at his own table, and talked with them like a friend and comrade. One of his guests was Euclid, who taught geometry in the museum. It is said that the king once asked him if he could teach him geometry in some easier way than that by which he taught his other pupils. Euclid answered that there was no royal road to geometry. Ptolemy also invited Stilpo, a famous philosopher, to come from Athens to visit him, and Theo- pompus the historian, and Erasistratus, founder of anatomy. This was he who first dissected human bodies in the surgical department of this museum. This was hateful to many, to whom the dead body of man was sacred; yet the surgeons persevered, and became acquainted with the organs of the human body. Ptolemy, our founder, was a plain man in his manners, without luxury or ostentation. He called himself only Ptolemy the Mace- donian. He was ready in his answers. Once, when marching, his soldiers found an anchor, and they said it was an omen teach- ing that they must stop, and go no farther. But Ptolemy said, " An anchor is to keep us from drifting backward, not to keep us from going forward." I GO TO ALEXANDREIA, AND STUDY THE HIGHER JUDAISM. 95 His son Ptolemy Philadelphus carried on his father's work. He bought books for our library in Athens and in Rhodes, and among the rest the library of Aristotle. Zenedotus was his libra- rian, and he collected all the copies of the poems of Homer, com- paring them to find which was the most correct text. Mechanical machines were also devised in our museum for useful purposes. One of the inventors was Ctesibius, who dis- covered the water-clock. We also had in the museum at this time two great poets, Theo- critus and Callimachus. One wrote poems in which shepherds and country-people speak, and the other sang hymns to the gods. These made Alexandreia the chief place in the world for poetic renown. In our museum, also, great discoveries were made in astronomy. Thus we have catalogues of the stars, and their places in the heavens. Aristarchus, in the reign of Philadelphus, declared what seems impossible, — that the sun stands still, and the earth goes round it in a circle. He also declared another paradox, — that the earth's circle round the sun is so small, compared with the distance of the stars, that it is only like the size of the point at the centre of a circle to its distance from the circumference. Ara- tus also wrote in this reign his great poem on the stars, of which the Roman poet Ovid has said that it will be read as long as the sun and moon shall shine. It was by order of Philadelphus that Manetho wrote in this museum the history of Ancient Egypt. Here, too, in the theatre, the king ordered the rhetoricians to read aloud the works of Herodotus and Homer, and all the people were invited to hear them. He also decorated his palaces and the museum with paint- ings and statues. He was a friend to all races, and redeemed from slavery one hundred and twenty thousand Jews who were held in bondage in Egypt; he himself paying their ransom, of thirty shekels each, in Jewish money. He also caused the seventy learned Jews to translate into Greek the Jewish Scriptures, and gave them a home in the museum while they did this work. So much delight did he take in other nations, and even in their religions. On the death of his wife, Arsinoe, Philadelphus built the tomb which is now called the Arsinoeum, and brought an obelisk eighty 96 THE LEGEND OP THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. cubits high, from Upper Egypt, to set up before it, where it liwiT stands. In the next reign, that of Ptolemy Euergetes, we had in our museum the great astronomer and geographer Eratosthenes. He first discovered how, by measuring the height of the sun, to fix the place of a city on the earth. He taught that the earth was round, like a ball, and found out how large was the circle that went round it. He also taught how far the sun's path in the sky was from the equator of the heavens. He was the keeper of our library during the reign of Philadelphus. After this reign, in the time of Ptolemy Philometer, we had here Hipparchus, mathematician and astronomer. He found the length of the year to be less than three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter. He also discovered that the year, as meas- ured by the stars, is not the same as that measured by the seasons. And many other things did our director of the museum teach us concerning its history and its wise men. But this will suffice for the present. After hearing these lectures, I studied in other rooms, under other teachers, and a long time I devoted to reading the works of the Greeks, until the language became familiar to me. Having learned the language, I went to the Hall of Homer, and for many days listened to the rhapsodist who recited his verses. Then I spent much time in listening to a lecturer in the Hall of Plato. Thus the weeks passed, and the months, until I found I had been more than two years in Alexandreia. But at last a great weariness came over me. I seemed, after hearing all these teachings, to know nothing certainly. I had ceased to be sure of any thing. My childish trust was gone, and nothing had come to take its place. The teaching of Philo did not satisfy me ; for he seemed rather to have put the meaning of Plato into the Jewish Scripture than to have found it there. I had taken great delight in this phi- losophy of Plato as taught in the museum. But then there I GO TO ALEXANDREIA, AND STUDY THE HIGHER JUDAISM. 97 was a Hall of Aristotle, where a different doctrine was taught. There was a Hall of Zeno, where still another was explained and defended. And there was also a Hall of Epicurus, where we were told that the gods had nothing to do with this world. It was not the work of wisdom, but of chance. Innumerable atoms, falling blindly through space, had made the world. Only matter and force governed the universe ; and the best thing in life was to enjoy our little day, for when it was over there was no hereafter. Tired out with a vain attempt to decide what was true among all these doctrines, I left the city one morning by the Gate of the Moon, and came to the beach washed by the waters of the great lake called Mareotis. Here I found a vessel about to cross the lake, and entered it. We could just see the high ground on the opposite shore. The Nile, being at its inundation, was pouring into the lake by nu- merous canals, and the waters swept us along in a strong current. After a while we reached islands, covered with vineyards, where the best Mareotic wine was made, which the patricians at Rome eagerly bought. Passing these islands, we approached, in some hours, the opposite shore, a strong northern breeze filling our sail. Landing, I found myself in a beautiful country, where the fig-tree and the vine were cul- tivated, with many other fruits. I longed for quiet, and I was on my way to the home of the healers, or tJierapeutce. They were so called because they could heal both the body and the soul by wise arts. They were men of my own race, Jews, who had retired from the world to live a life of prayer and contemplation. I said, " Here, perhaps, I shall find peace." When I reached the enclosure, within which were the houses of the therapeutce, I was met at the gate by one dressed in white linen, who civilly asked me what I desired. I then handed to him the tablet given me by Philo, addressed to the president of the Society of Healers. The watcher of 98 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. the gate, having looked at it, called one of the elders, who led me to a hall. There they offered me a meal consisting of bread and water, salt and cresses ; for this was their only food. They then told me that I might enter their company as a novice, to remain with them until I foimd whether their mode of life suited me. They lived thus. Each had his own cell. They rose at break of day, and prayed at the rising of the sun. They asked that their souls might be filled with heavenly light. In the evening they prayed again, asking that their minds might be freed from earthly cares, and rest in the peace of God. During the day they divided the time between work- ing in the fields, studying the Scriptures, and reading the writings of wise men. They also composed and sang hymns to God in a great variety of measures. On the seventh day they came together, both men and women, in a sacred assembly, and the men sat on one side, and the women on the other. An elder read, and then dis- coursed to them, not to delight their ears with rhetoric, but to penetrate the soul by the power of tmth. Atter this assembly, they united for a common feast, still eating only bread, and full of cheerfulness. They had no slaves to minister to them, believing slavery to be contrary to nature ; but they served each other in turn, of their free will. And, after the feast, they passed the night in singing hymns, the choirs of men and women responding to each other, till the sun rose, when they separated, and returned to their homes. Admitted into this society, I remained there during some weeks. Day followed day, each like the other. I felt happy in following the direction of the superiors in the community, whether I was told to work in the field, to copy books on papyrus in the library, or to carry the produce of the farms to Alexandria for sale. Day followed day in one long dream of quiet. I forgot my studies, my anxieties, my fears and I GO TO ALEXANDREIA, AND STUDY TIIE^ HIGHER JUDAISM. 99 hopes ; I forgot my home and friends. At last I aroused myself from this lethargy, and a wish came over me to go back to Palestine, and to my home. I left the therapeutce^ crossed Lake Mareotis, taking ship in Alexandreia. Landing again at Caesarea, I followed the road which led me toward Galilee by the foot of Mount Carmel, through a portion of the fair vale of Sharon. 100 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED Dn)YMUS. CHAPTER VI. THE FALL OF MIRLAJJI. — I GO TO THE MONASTERIES OF THE ESSENES. So I went back to my home, and once more stood on the summit which overhangs the lake of my love. It is said that men have in them a dark foreboding of the evil which is to come, as the dove in mid-heaven feels suddenly the shadow of the hawk thrown down on her from above. The wise men tell us that approaching sorrow is known, as the light- ning is known by the thunder, which, indeed, is the servant who follows one flash, but also the herald who goes before another. But I knew nothing of the woe before me, which was to change my life, kill my hope, and freeze my heart within me. The path which I took had carried me near the foot of Tabor. That fair mountain rose by itself from the plain, standing alone, like the altar of the land, to send the incense of its flowers up to God. I crossed brooks whose waters sparkled and leaped as they ran to join the River Kishon. I thought that these waters would, after a few hours, pass near the place where the host of Sisera was destroyed when the stars fought against him. I saw afar off the cliffs of Karmel, which I could reach in a three-hours' journey. They hung dark over the plain of Meggido, where the mighty f ung away their shields. I thought how Barak, and Deborah by his side, went down with their ten thousand troops from their camp on the level summit of Tabor, to attack this mighty host, terrible with its multitude of war-chariots. Then I THE FALL OF MlRT.VJMi 101 saw in ray fancy the clouds gather black and lurid in the eastern sky, and the torrents of rain and hail driven by the storm beating in the faces of the heathen. Then Barak's host uttered its war-cry, and rushed on the foe through the glen of the mountains. And then I saw how there came to the idolaters another terror ; how the falling torrents of rain filled the brooks, and swelled Kishon to a raging flood. The river below and the heavens above fought on our side. The plain, where the vast army was collected with its chariots, was turned into soft clay and deep pools. The chariots sank down ; the waters roared around the warriors of Kanaan ; and the men of Zebulun and Naphthali thundered in the rear of the struggling multitude, until they threw away sword and shield, and fled toward their own hills. This picture came before me as I stood and looked, first at green Tabor on my right, rolling upward, like a vast wave of verdure, into the sky ; and, on the other side, gazing at the blue precipices of Karmel, beneath which rushed the torrent of " that ancient river, the River Kishon," — a river which was even then, fifteen centuries before my time, full of stories of past days. I bathed in these memories of the years of ancient time, when the boys of Israel were warriors, and the women were captains, and the men were like gods on earth. I plunged in my fancy deep into their past. So, out of the hot and dusty air of noon, the diver leaps into the lake, going down into the dark and cold waters below. Thus I refreshed my soul, thinking of what Israel had once been. In the plain before me a man walked, carrying his light plough on his shoulders, and goading his oxen occasionally with the pointed staff, as they moved lazily before him. ' ' Such are we now, ' ' I said, — ' ' powerful like those oxen, which are strong enough to trample their driver to the earth ; but in our sloth we let ourselves be driven by a few Romans. Are not we as able to win our rights as were our fathers ? "^02'' < ""i^HE LE(jEJfD 'OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. They had been slaves for four hundred years, — cowardly slaves, only half men. But forty years in the wilderness, moving from pasture to pasture in Arabia, living in tents, fighting the robber tribes, had made of them a race of heroes. Why are we worse than they, but that they had great leaders ? A single voice, the voice of Deborah, roused them from their sleep to battle and victory. And here be- fore me, beyond the path where this ploughman goes, in the valley, is the town called after Deborah, which has borne her name for more than a thousand years." Then in my mind I saw Deborah standing, that mighty woman, who from her distant home amid the innumerable fountains of Mount Ephraim, from her tent under a great oak, sent messengers to Barak, the Son of Lightning, saying, "Arise, Barak, for the Lord will deliver Sisera and his host into thy hand." And Barak indeed refused to go, unless she, the mother in Israel, would go by his side. Men called her the Bee ; for she had honey for her friends, but a sting for her enemies. Her Song of Triumph sounded in my ears, and I repeated it. as I looked at the places where she had been ; for the place brought back to my mind, unconsciously, the song: and I repeated, before I understood why I was saying it, the Song of Triumph : — *' For the leaders of Israel, For the people who willingly ofEered themselves, Praise be to the Lord. " In the days of Shamgar, in the days of Jael, The highways were deserted, and the travellers walked by moun- tain-paths ; The inhabitants ceased from the villages. *' Then I arose, Deborah, a mother in Israel, For my people had chosen new gods, And there was no peace in the land ; And among forty thousand men of Israel not one had a shield or spear. THE FALL OF MIRIAM. 103 " Awake, awake, Deborah ! Awake, awake, and sing ! Arise, Barak, and lead captivity captive. " Kings came and fought, — Kings of Kanaan by the waters of Megiddo ; But they carried away no spoil. " For the heavens fought against them ; The stars in their courses fought against Sisera ; The River of Kishon swept them away, — That ancient river, the River of Kishon. " Trample down their strength, O my soul 1 The horses trampled down each other. And all their mighty men were crushed in the plunging, and the plunging." So I walked forward, repeating the words of this ancient song; and I said, *'Is there no Deborah to-day to say to some Barak, 'Arise'?" Then Miriam came to my mind, as strong, as proud, as majestic in her womanly beauty, as full of the high fire of the spirit, as Deborah herself could have been. I was no hero like Barak ; but I thought, if Miriam called me, I should have the soul of ten men within me to go against the Roman locusts ; and surely, like Barak, I should say, " If thou wilt go with me, then I will go ; but, if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go." And I saw myself in the midst of my army, two tents side by side, — the tent of Miriam near my own, and the children of Israel led against the enemy. The stars and the heavens, storms and lightning, the teiTor that walketh in darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noonday, should baffle and defeat the foe, till our land, our holy land, should be once again our own ; and then, when the land was at rest, Miriam might be mine. Feeding my soul with such hopes, I at last reached the 104 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DroTMUS. summit which divided the waters running into the lake from those which ran to the sea. Once more our dear lake lay before me in its peaceful mood ; the long shadows of the hills resting on its bosom, the white sails motionless on its blue surface, the snowy top of Hermon to the north, the black wall of Moab on the east. Passing down, I approached two men who were talking aloud. One said, "Miriam can do with the king as she will. They say her beauty has made him mad." " Of whom do you speak?" said I, sudden terror clutch- ing at my breast. " Of Miriam of Migdol," he answered. " Know you not that she is in the palace of Herod, and is his favorite wife? " I turned icy cold, and staggered, as if struck with an arrow. " How can that be? " I muttered. "It is strange, indeed," replied they. "All that is known is, that she disappeared from her home many weeks since. Lately she has been seen by the side of Herod, in his chariot, after the fashion of the Romans, covered with jewels and bracelets of gold. And men say that the king is frantic with the love of the maiden." Thus speaking, the men turned into a side-path, and left me. I stumbled onward for a few steps, and then sank on the ground. There was the lake as before, sparkling in the sun, or sleeping in the shadows ; but how were all things changed to me ! God seemed to have left the world, and gone away. All life had departed from sky and land, and it was empty. I sat on the ground in a stupor. At last my mind began to recover. I cried, "It is false! It is a lie, told by the father of lies. Not Miriam, not my Miriam ! No, it cannot be ! Why should I believe this ? Would she believe it of me, if she were told I had become a thief or a liar? No! It is false, and I will find out what it means." New life came back to me. My blood rushed through my THE FALL OF MIRIAM. 105 veins, and I leaped down the steep path, and did not stop till I reached my mother's home. She heard my step, and came forth, looked at me, and saw the pale despair on my cheek, and the, hungry, asking look in my eyes, and, putting her arms around my neck, said, "Yes, Thomas, it is true. Miriam has fallen away from her God and her people." So saying, she led me into the house, and I laid my head on her shoulder, and wept long. At last I rose, and said, " Only from her own mouth will I believe it. I go to the city of Herod, and will see her." My mother sought to prevent me, fearing the jealousy of the king ; but, seeing that nothing else would satisfy my mind, she said, "Go, my son ! and may the God of Israel give you a power and language to bring back this daughter of disaster to her old faith ! ' ' Then I went speedily, not thinking beforehand what to do or to say, but believing that the God of my fathers must help me to save this pearl of price from utter ruin, such hope mixed itself with the bitterness of my soul. " Not for myself," I cried, — "let her be henceforward nothing to me, — but for her own sake, and her father's house, and for the sake of our people, help me to save her, O my God ! " A Roman soldier in armor stood in the gateway of Tiberias, in the shadow of a lofty palm. As I passed him, he looked at me, but said nothing. The street I entered was straight, wide, and long, and on either side rose palaces of white marble. Along the sides of the streets were palms, and in the middle were fountains fed from the hot-springs a little way off. The streets were full of people coming from many lands, — from Damascus, men with baskets full of costly raiment woven on the looms of the East ; from Arabia, men bearing boxes of frankincense and rich spices ; there were singing-boys, black as the night, from India ; and merchants of Tyre, who trade in all the works of man in all the earth. I passed through these crowds till I saw a man of Galilee 106 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED Dn)YMUS. whom I had known ; and I asked him, '' Where is the palace of the king ? " He pointed to a marble building opposite, built of large stones, with columns in front of red porphyry. The gate into the inner court was open ; and the Galilean said to me, "Stand here with me, and see Herod and his officers ; for they will presently come forth." Then there came from the court the sound of flutes and horns, with the clang of cymbals. Directly a body of soldiers appeared, with helmets, large shields ornamented with gold, and spears whose handles were surrounded with rings of solid silver. Behind them I saw approaching the chariot of Herod, drawn by four white horses. It was cir- cular, and I looked in fear to see if Miriam was by his side. But he was alone ; and when the procession had passed out, and the gates were closed, I was confused, not knowing what to do. Directly the gates opened again ; and there issued forth another troop of men and women, on foot, with robes flow- ing to the breeze, following after Herod, but some distance behind. And, as they passed, one turned, and looked me full in the face, and I seemed to receive a blow. Was that my Miriam ? All the splendid beauty was there ; but how hard, how cold, was the look which met mine ! She turned, and spoke a few words to an attendant, who directly fell behind, and, leaving the procession, came to me, and said, " My mistress will see thee to-night. Be at the gate of the palace after dark." When night came, I went to the place as if moved by no will of my own, but forced on by some blind necessity. I was led into a room of the palace lighted by a tall candle- stick from which hung four lamps. A curtain moved, and Miriam stood before me. She looked at me long ; and, as I stood silent, she said in a hard and hollow voice, — "Speak, Thomas ; ask me if it is true. Say all thou pleas- est. Reproach me to the utmost. I know that I am a by- THE FALL OF MIRIAM. 107 word and a hissing to my people. Yes, I am Herod's wife, one of them. I am a queen, Thomas ! Didst thou ever see a queen before? Look at me, and see what a proud and happy woman a queen among the Romans may be ! " And she laughed aloud, — not her old bird-like laugh, but a laugh in which was no joy, but derision and contempt. I still stood silent ; for all the thoughts I had in my mind were gone in this great misery. She spoke again: "Sit on this seat, and I will tell thee all. Thou hast a right to know what I am and what I may become. " Thomas, I seem to myself to be driven by furies. The first demons who took possession of me were pride and am- bition. I was proud of my mind and my knowledge : I am proud of them still. Have I not a right? Who like myself can see through men, and read them like an open scroll? Who can bend them to her will, and make them come and go, as I ? I have power over souls : I move them by their secret wishes, which are no secret to me. ' ' Having such power, why was I not a man ? Is there any Agrippa or Herod of them all who could have made friends and wealth in the imperial court at Rome like me? I could move the Senate by my speech. I could make my people a name, and win for them their rights. " But I am a woman ; and therefore all this must be shut into my breast, and my powers can be of no use to any one. Do not the Pharisees say, ' Let not a woman learn beyond her distaff ; let the tribute of the temple be destroyed, rather than the words of the law be given to a woman ' ? Do not they class us with servants and children, saying that ' women, servants, and children are not bound to recite their phylacteries, or to wear them' ? But to a man they say, ' If thou dost pronounce the words of the phylacteries distinctly, exactly, and correctly, the shadow of death shall be cool to thee.' If a woman marries, cannot her husband divorce 108 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. her for any cause, — if she spoils his broth, or if he finds any other person more beautiful than his wife ? A fool may be my husband ; and I, who .know many times more than he ever dreamed, — am I to sit at home with my distaff? " No, Thomas, I will not submit to this. Since they allow- no open way to the daughters of Israel, to whom God has given power, we will make one. They shall find that women can go forward when men hold back. The Roman power totters, and. a woman shall give it the blow which will bring it down in ruin." " But thou art married to a Roman," said I. *' Thou art the wife of a RomaTi." She saw the anguish in my eyes, and said more tenderly, **Do not grieve for that, Thomas. I did not marry him because I loved him." Then, suddenly changing, she whis- pered in my ear with a hissing sound like that of a serpent, " I married him because T hated him ; and I hate him now with all the hatred of my soul. It would be sweet to me to do to him as Jael did to Sisera, and as Judith did to Holo- f ernes." I looked at her, and shuddered at the fierce light in her eye. She seemed possessed by a demon of fury. I whis- pered also, and said, " Thou shalt do no murder." "Well," said she, "what is murder? Was it murder when Jael took a tent-nail, and drove it into the forehead of Sisera ? He was her guest, guarded by the sacred rights of hospitality. He was at peace with her tribe. He was asleep, trusting to her care. She killed him ; and Deborah has glo- rified her name, and said, 'Blessed above women be Jael.' If I should kill, would not some prophet say, ' Blessed among women is Miriam ' ? " "It cannot make a wrong thing right," answered I, " even to be blessed by a prophet." " In truth," said she, " that is also my belief. I have not now much faith in those old scriptures, which, we were THE FALL OP MIRIAM. 109 taught, came from God. All nations have their sacred writ- ings. Why should we think ours more holy than the books of the Assyrians or the Egyptians ? Come to the reason of the matter. If a man is a tyrant and a murderer, it is right to kill him. Herod is black with crime, and she who slays him does a good deed." " Why, then, didst thou marry him? " " It was the work of Satan. I was tempted by a devil in the garb of a Pharisee. Dost thou remember Rabbi Ben Gamlah, that holy man, whom my father persuaded to be my teacher in all the wisdom of the Greeks and Romans ? How I reverenced that man ; for he seemed wise as an angel of light ! He taught me to read the books of the Greeks and the Romans ; but he taught me evil lessons, — lessons of contempt for every thing which was not either knowledge or power. He is a great man. He rules by his dark wisdom the company of the Pharisees, and they govern the Jewish people. Nothing is sacred to him which stands in the way of his purpose. He cares neither for God nor man, but only for the destruction of the Romans and the triumph of his party and people. He clothes himself in lies ; and he is so false, that he could cheat Gabriel, just come from the throne of God. He is a chief favorite with Herod, whom he flatters and deceives, and means to destroy. Without pity for my innocence, he determined to sacrifice me, soul and body, to his ends. He fed my ambition ; he encouraged my vanity and pride. He told me that all means were right which would lift up our nation. He tempted my love of luxury with the promise of splendor in Herod's court. I was to have jewels, slaves, chariots, a palace. I was to be a new Esther. But I resisted the serpent, though his poison ran into my veins. Then, one night, he agreed with Herod to have soldiers near by, and betrayed me into their hands. I was taken, a prisoner, to Herod's court. The king offered to make me his wife, or, if I refused, to compel me to marry 110 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. a deformed slave, a negro from Africa. Then the tempter came again ; and, when I cried to him for pity, he laughed at my tears, and told me, that if I would consent to be Herod's queen, all doors would be open to me, and the free- dom and power I longed for would be mine. So I yielded ; and here behold me, Thomas, a Roman queen." '' And art thou happy? " "Happy? No. lam the most miserable of women. I live in lies. I pretend to love Herod, and I hate hun. The freedom I hoped for is not mine. I am envied and watched by so many jealous eyes, that I am in perpetual bondage. I cannot pray to God ; for either there is no God, or he does not care for man. The gods are too far off, Thomas : they have their own matters to think of." So she laughed again, a hard, cold, miserable laugh. "One hope is left me," she continued, " and that is re- venge. I shall be the destruction of Herod and his court. I am watching for my time. And it will come ; it will come. If only, like Samson, I can pull down this temple of idols on their head, and on my own too, I shall be happy. But go, Thomas. Thou wert my friend once, though thou canst not care for me now. When I saw thy face to-day, I deter- mined to meet thee, and tell thee my story, although this meeting of ours is at the risk of both our lives." Then my mouth was opened, and my heart enlarged. I, who found it so hard to tell my thought, spoke to Miriam with the tongue of men and of angels. I implored her to fly, to quit that evil place, to forsake that dreadful life, — to fly with me to Egypt, to Babylon, anywhere. I would be her brother, her friend ; I would watch for her, and help her. Other and better doors should be open. We would begin a new life. I thought I must convince her, and that she would then yield, so full of faith I was in what I said. She listened quietly to my words, and then looked at me with a sadness so terrible, that tears gushed from my eyes. THE FALL OF MIRIAM. Ill *' Too late, too late ! " said she. " I have shown thee some of the devils which possess me, but not the worst. Thou hast looked into my heart, and seen there six demons, — Pride, Ambition, Falsehood, Murder, Luxury, Unbelief. There is another, worse than all ; for he makes it impossible for me to drive out the rest. His name, the king of tb** devils, is Despair. I cannot believe, I cannot hope. My soul is dead, lying in its tomb ; and on the tombstone above me, which shuts me down, is written Despair." At this moment an attendant ran in, and whispered some thing. Miriam disappeared ; and the woman, seizing my hand, drew me through a dark passage to the street, pushed me out, and closed the door. I went through the street like one stunned ; went out of the gate, walked by the shore of the lake, above which the moon was shining, making a tremulous highway of light over its water, and reached my mother's house. Struck down by this dreadful calamity, I fled again from my home. The sweet lake and its calm neighborhood had become hateful to me. I took my staff, and bade farewell to my mother, telling her that I must go away for a little space. And my mother blessed me, and told me not to for- get these two things, — first, that I should always have a mother's love, and, next, that I was a Jew, bound always to remember that I was a son of Abraham and a servant of Yahveh. And so I bade her farewell again, and left her with many tears. I thought now only to flee to some land where I should see no more any familiar face. I had supposed, before this event took place, that my faith had already gone ; but I found that there had remained one deep foundation-rock, which was now taken away also. I had before this time lost my belief in the religion of my country, and its long story had passed into emptiness and shadows. I had been like one who has looked at a great range of snowy mountains rising 112 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDTMUS. above the distant horizon in long ascending lines, up through A^ast moving sweeps of hills, into steep precipices of ice. All at once they begin to change, and fade away, and he sees that they are only clouds, misty exhalations from the soil. So had my faith passed into morning mist ; so Moses and the prophets, the heroic souls of saints and martyrs, had ceased to be real to me. I had ceased to believe in the God of my fathers : he had become one with the gods of the nations. I had thought my most sacred beliefs gone ; one only had remained, the most important, — faith in the reality of goodness, faith in human nobleness. On this founda- tion all the others had been built, and now this, also, was gone ; for my first aspirations after a higher life had been inspired by the soul of Miriam. She had roused in me the conviction that man might rise above himself, and make himself a tower, like the pharos of Alexandreia, to cast light during centuries over the stormy ocean of human existence, — a hope and comfort for all shipwrecked souls. My faith in this vast possibility rested on my trust in Miriam. And now this, also, was gone. "Cursed be those," I cried, "who show themselves to us as gods, and are in reality rotten within, who raise us so high only to cast us down again ! Let the robber of the wilderness take my life if he will ; let him drive his knife into my body — but these murder our souls. O Miriam ! thou hast killed all that was best in me — forever and forever. There is no such thing as goodness below or above." All ray desire now was to go far away, and be alone. The sight of men was hateful to me. First I bethought myself of returning to Egypt, and making myself one of the tliera- peutce with whom I had. stayed before. But I remem- bered that I had been told of some anchorites of a severer sort, who lived in the wilderness of Engeddi, in the holes of the rocks and in the clefts of the ragged rocks. These were called Essenes. When I went to the therapeutce, I THE FALL OF MIRIAM. 118 was seeking peace : I no longer hoped to find peace ; I asked only for the torpor of forgetfulness. Therefore, taking my staff once more in my hand, I went wearily to Jerusalem on my way to this wilderness, which was on the west of the Dead Sea. From Jerusalem I travelled southward unto the ancient city of Hebron, one of the old- est cities known among men. After leaving Jerusalem, I ascended a rocky hill from the valley of Hinnom, and then walked over a long and cultivated plain, to where the ground began to rise again toward the city of David, which is Bethle- hem, the House of Bread. On the road I saw near me a small stone building, and of a shepherd near by asked the name thereof. " Art thou a stranger here? " said he, " and knowest not the tomb of Rachel, the wife of our father Jacob, and beloved mother of Joseph and Benjamin?" Then I remembered having read in the Book of Begin- nings, "And Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem." There on my left rose the city of David ; and on these hills around me the young David kept his father's flocks, and sang his hymn of praise to God, — " The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want ; " and here, close by the tomb of Rachel, when Samuel had anointed Saul to be king, Saul met the messengers sent by his father Kish to seek him. Crossing a rocky slope, I went down until I saw before me a lovely valley filled with vineyards and gardens. There grew the fig and almond, and the pomegranate ; and the waters murmured pleasantly down the hillside from three large tanks of stone, raised, one above the other, on the side of the hill. These I knew to be the pools built by Solyma to supply Jerusalem and the temple with water, by conduits of stone which ran underground. The overflow of these great square stone pools made all 114 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. the valley below like a garden. And at once came into my memory the words of the Preacher: "I made me gardens and orchards ; and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits ; I made me pools of water with which to water my trees and my gardens." And it was of this valley, also, that he spoke in his song; "Awake, O north wind, and come thou south, and blow on my garden, that its fragrance may be scattered abroad." Along this road on which I walked, came the great king every morning, with his horsemen and his court, riding out to see his gardens, and to pass the day in the cool shade with his queens. Passing on farther, the road once more ascended, now crossing rocky ravines, and then rising again. Around me grew the oaks, with old forests of terebinth, and orchards of olives. Along the hillsides were large terraces covered with grape-vines ; and the clusters of grapes surprised me by their size. Then I remembered that this was Eshkol, from which the spies carried the great clusters of grapes. And I seemed to be living in the days of old. And from thence I passed on till I came to Hebron, the city of Abraham. Before me it rose, seen in the distance over the trees and the vines which covered the rolling surface of the plain. Here, then, was the plain of Mamre, where Abraham first encamped with his tribe, and built an altar to the most High God. On the other side of that high ridge of hills Lot had gone down to dwell in the fertile valley near to the Sea of Death. Here Abraham sat in the door of his tent, and received the three angels who came to tell him of the destruction hanging over Sodom. From the top of that high ridge, behind Hebron, he looked down into the valley beyond, and saw the smoke going up from the cities of the plain like the smoke of a furnace. Here, also, Sarah died, and Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah in which to bury her. And there before me stood the massive walls of the building which surrounds the cave. I went toward it, and THE FALL OF MIRIAM. 115 asked to be admitted. I entered by a gateway, and was led to an opening in the rock, where, as it is said, still rest the remains of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives, and the body of Joseph. So, once again, the history of Israel, which seemed so dim to me, became real. From this ancient city of my fathers, I passed down, by the narrow valley of a torrent, toward the Dead Sea. Black rocks rose on either side ; above me swept the eagle in long circles, a moving spot on the deep blue sky. After a while, I saw the dark opening of a cave ; and the shepherd-boy who guided me said, "This is the cave of Adullam, where David lived with his followers, when pursued by Saul. Here he remained, with his four hundred followers who had fled to him, pursued by debt or other trouble." The mouth of the cave was a black spot, high above the ravine, on the side of the great mountain. I climbed by a steep and narrow ledge along the rocks, where one man could resist a thousand. I entered the cave, into which some light came from the en- trance and from openings above. The passage to the cave was narrow, but led me into a large cavern ; so large that David and his four hundred men might have lived together, and had space and room. Out of this cavern dark pas- sages led to other underground halls and chambers. As I was about to enter one of them, a half-naked form came forth, and said, "Who art thou that dost disturb our si- lence?" I answered, "A man weary of the world, who seeks forget fulness." Then he held out his hand, and said, ' ' Then art thou a brother. Hast thou come to join the holy company of the Essenes ? " I answered that I had thus come, but knew not that this was one of their abodes. " I am a hermit of Engeddi," he answered. " I and my breth- ren live in these caves. We will receive thee, if thou art sincere. But thou must be tried, as gold is tested, even by the fire of sharp discipline." And I answered, " I am ready to endure it." 116 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. "For the present, then," said the elder, after asking me further of myself, "thou shalt be under my charge, and sleep in this cave near to mine. But the first test to which I shall put thy purpose is obedience. I shall be thy director in all things. It is not for thee to answer or question me, but to obey. Thou must be like a staff in my hands. Canst thou bear this trial ? If not, go hence ; for this is not thy place." And I answered, "Father, I am a man weary of myself. I have no will nor desire. Why should I not do as I am commanded? I am tired of freedom. Dost thou ask if I will be unto thine order as a staff? Willingly would I be a dead body. Yet it seems the act of a coward, or a fool, to die by his own hand, — of a coward, for it is to flee before the enemy. Life is my enemy ; and, if I cannot conquer it, I will flee not from it. It is the act of a fool to take his own life ; for he goeth blindly, he knoweth not whither or where- fore. Do thou command. I am ready to obey." The elder: "Listen, then, to our rules. Our company live in these caves, or in stone houses built in the secret recesses of these mountains. We and those called by the name of Pharisees once belonged to the same society, and together we sought holiness. We forsook the world ; and our law was, ' Touch not, taste not, handle not, any for- bidden thing.' But the Pharisees said, 'We need not leave the world, that we may be separate from it. We will surround ourselves with a wall, which shall encompass us whithersoever we go : we will have such rules, such cus- toms, and such a dress, that all shall see we are not of the world.' But we, the Essenes, think differently; for we believe that no one can live in the midst of disease, and not breathe thereof: therefore we say, 'Flee from it, and be alone.' They, the Pharisees, are the ' Separate Ones ; ' but we are the ' Solitary Ones.' " And he continued : "In our community there are four THE FALL OF MIRIAM. 117 classes. First, the class of Dovices, or beginners ; second, the class of experimenters ; third, the class of disciples ; fourth, the class of elders. During the first year thy place will be with the beginners. To-night thou shalt be initiated into that order, and receive thy instructions." And, when night had come, the members of the society came together in the large vaulted cavern, which was lighted with many torches. On one side sat the elders, clothed in white robes, which hid their whole body and almost all of their faces ; on their right sat the disciples, dressed in dark robes ; on their left, the initiated of the second and third year ; and on the fourth side stood the novices, with their hands on their mouths, as a token of silence and obedience. Then they called me forward into the midst, and demanded of me why I had come among them. I answered, " Because my desire is for silence, and rest of soul." Then the elders consulted ; and one said, " Brother, thou hast come to us for rest. We can give thee rest, but only as a reward for obedience. Art thou ready to take an oath to obey the rules of our order ? ' ' And I answered, "I am." Then the elder said, '' Repeat after me the oath : — " I swear by the name of the living God, Maker of heaven and earth, and as I hope to be forgiven my sins, and to be with the blessed in paradise, to obey these rules : " I will honor God in all things. "I will be just to all men, and do wrong to none. "I will injure no man willingly, nor will I be led by others to injure any one. i " I will hate wickedness. "I will help all good men. " I will obey my superiors. *' I will unmask liars. "These seven rules I will repeat morning and evening, and make it my purpose to keep them always." 118 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. When I had taken the oath, all those present cried out, "Amen and amen." Then the elder gave unto me an axe, an apron, and a white robe ; and he said, — "This axe which I give unto thee represents industry. Work is the key which opens the outer gate of heaven. It keeps the mind in content and peace. The apron represents obedience: it belongs to servants. The white robe repre- sents temperance and chastity. Remember, thou, these three duties, — work, obedience, purity." And I said, " I will remember them." Then I was placed under the control of a disciple, and told to take all my orders from him, and to do as he com- manded me in all things, even though what he commanded might seem unreasonable. And then all who were in the congregation sang a hymn, and the assembly was ended. During many months my days passed on in the same path. I arose early, and attended a meeting of the novices, presided over by a disciple, when hymns were sung, and prayers recited. I took my morning meal of bread, water, and herbs, and then spent the day in labor. Before sun- rise we were at work, and continued till after sunset, resting for a brief space in the heat of the day. Some tended sheep ; some cultivated the fields, and raised gram ; some took care of the cattle in the plains below, near the Sea of Death ; some kept bees, and raised honey ; some took the products of the farms to Bethlehem or Jerusalem ; some made baskets, or mats, or boxes, or seats. Thus the day passed by. But by degrees I learned that all was not peace in our community. I heard of envyings and jealousies, even among the elders. Grave disputes often arose about what seemed to me trifles. Then I saw that by flying from the THE FALL OF MIRIAM. 119 world one could not escape from one's self. We had taken with us into our solitude the same passions which we hoped to leave behind among men. I lived much alone during these months. During the middle of the day, when we rested, I sometimes read in the rolls which were preserved in one of the buildings of our order. It so chanced that I found the roll of the scripture which contained the sad book of Solyma, called ' ' The Preacher." This book seemed to speak to my present state. It reflected my own despair. Here was one, who, like myself, had lost all faith ; to whom life seemed to have no purpose ; existence, no meaning ; to whom all things were emptiness and vanity. His gloom was more black than my own. I shuddered in reading these words of dreadful an- guish: "Therefore I hated life, because the works wrought under the sun were grievous unto me. Therefore I praised the dead more than those who were yet alive : yea, better than both are they who have never been born. ' ' I asked what was the meaning of this book of unbelief and despair, and why it was numbered with the sacred writ- ings of our people. None of the elders could give me any answer. They only said, " It was written by King Solyma." As I read this book, and read it again, I seemed to enter into the mind of the great king. He had received all the blessings of this world, — power, wealth, wisdom, — and they left his soul empty ; yet I saw every day, in the valleys beneath, simple shepherds or laborers who went home at night to peaceful rest, and on whose brow cheerfulness had its seat. Then I saw that man was not made to enjoy, but to labor. "We are happy only when we are doing some- thing useful for others. Nor was man made to flee from the world, and so try to live alone with God. " God is no more here," I said, " than in the crowds of cities. If there be a God, and if, perchance, he careth for men, he careth also for those who live in society. But, if there be no God, then 120 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. are we better to be with our fellowmen, so that we may seek to do them some good." Thus I grew by degrees to dislike this hard, cold, and unnatural life ; and, when my year of beginnings was over, I spake unto the elders, and told them that I should continue no longer in their community, but leave it. Life indeed had moved on like a tranquil stream ; and, as I look back to that period, I am thankful that I had that season of rest in the midst of my troubled days. But my heart began to weary of this sameness. I felt a desire to see my home again. I longed for the society of my fellow- men. I said, " God has not made us to be apart from our race. He said, when he created the mother of all living, * It is not good for the man to be alone.' We grow selfish in solitude, even though it be a religious solitude. Men think only of saving their own souls, and forget that they should help to save the souls of others." Therefore I bade farewell to the elders, and thanked them for their hos- pitality. They blessed me, and bade me farewell with calmness, even as they had received me. To them all things were as one. And I became once more a wanderer, and took my way back unto Galilee. I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MY OLD HOME. 121 CHAPTER Vn. I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MT OLD HOME. The longing for my native land had* again seized me. I wished to see once more the peaceful shores of the inland sea framed with hills, which, during the years of my suffer- ing and struggle, had been always sleeping peacefully, or only swept by an occasional gust. That, at least, would be the same, if all else had changed. I had lost my God, my faith, my hopes ; the fire of my youth was quenched, and in ashes ; my life was darkened by shadows which no sun could disperse. But Nature, at least, would remain the same, — sun, trees, snow-capped mountains, the sea broken into a million sparkles of light, the summer air, and the mem- ories of the past. And my heart yearned for my mother's love. It seemed that I might perhaps feel young again on the shores of Gennesaret. One morning I took my staff in my hand, and departed, with a vague hope in my mind. To travel on foot in a land like ours, and so by bodily exercise to keep down painful thoughts, brings contentment to the heart. Day after day I journeyed on, climbing along the summits of the hills when I could, or descending into the valleys where the fields of grain were quietly ripening in the sun. Sometimes, on the upland, I could catch a white gleam from the great sea of the west, or a glimpse of some snowy summit in the north, or of the great black mountain-wall of Moab on the east. Shepherds sat under 122 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. the trees, watching their flocks ; and once I heard one sing- ing the Psalm of David : — " The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want." I hastened away ; for I could not say, ' ' Amen ! ' ' Alas ! Yahveh was no more my shepherd. There was only a great darkness above me, a vast emptiness around. Sometimes I met a Jewish priest, or a Levite, sometimes a Roman soldier. A feeling of rage which then took pos- session of me reminded me that I was still a Jew. That feeling of impotent hatred against my country's enemies was all that remained of my early passions and beliefs. But gradually, as I walked on alone, there came over me a certain calm. This vast Everywhere around me was not quite dead. Something whispered in me of life and of love coming down in the torrents of sunshine which fell from the sky, talking in the prattling leaves of the olives, and the stately contentment of the palms. I could not resist the influence of this sweet motherly smile which was on the face of land and sky. And there came to me an old saying of the sacred writing, which I could still listen to without resistance : ' ' Wait on the Lord, and he will comfort thy heart. Wait." ''Yes,*' I answered: "I can at least wait." It began to be about the ninth hour when I reached the summit of the ridge above the Sea of Gennesar. There it lay, the fair sweet maiden lake, the same gentle ripple on its bosom I had seen so often. There rose the vast hills, stern guardians of its peace, light vapors curling up their sides, and drifting away from their summits. There, far below me, were the villages and cities on the shore of the deep-lying Chinnereth, or Gennesar, or Gennesaret ; for we called our favorite lake in all these ways, as men give tender names to those they love. The waters lay deep down in the gulf below the black rocks which the fire had melted I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MY OLD HOME. 123 and burned in some former age, perhaps when the cities of the lower plain were devoured by flames out of the earth, and by brooks of fire. Nine cities and many towns, my children, cluster round this water, where summer prevails all the year. Wonderful kinds of trees and plants grow there, with strange flowers and fruits, such as we never saw on the upper plains or hills of Syria. As I looked down, I beheld the white walls of Kana, farther down those of Kapharnaum and Migdol and Magedan ; and, proudly domineering over all, the towers, walls, and marble palaces of the hateful Tiberias. But, from the height where I sat, they all seemed to slumber in peace, remote from hate or love. As I sat, still gazing on the familiar scene, two men came near, ascending the path. One of them, as he approached, threw aloft his arms, and spake eagerly to the other in the well-known tones and pronunciation of the lake-valley. His face seemed familiar too ; and, as he came near, I remem- bered him, and knew that he was a famous fisherman, called Simon, or Simon-bar- Johanan. His fellow-fishermen said often that Johanan his father was no prophet when he named him Simon, which in our language, my children, means "the hearer; " for he loved to speak more than to listen. He acted with quickness ; he always went before his com- panions ; he was prompt to speak and to do ; his boat led the others on the lake ; and on the land he ever walked in front, leading the way. He was so certain in his beliefs, that he made others do as he thought best ; and I have known a whole company of boats follow his boat across the lake to some bay where he thought certainly to find fish, and thus lose half a day fishing there in vain. Then Simon ever grieved, and that bitterly, and called himself a foolish per- son, and shed tears ; so that their anger against him was forgotten, seeing his sorrow. If any opposed him with words or blows, he was brave as a lion ; but if they were cold 124 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. to him, or seemed to laugh at him, he was sorely perplexed, making excuses, and saying any thing to please them. Nev- ertheless, he was so active, so open, so kind, that all men loved him. As he came near, sometimes turning to speak to the man behind, he saw me and stopped, and at last cried out, " It is he, — Thomas the twin!" And he came swiftly toward me, and cried, "The Lord bless thee!" and, lifting his arms, bowed his head in salutation, according to the custom. Then he asked me with eagerness whence I came, and many other questions. But I, answering him, also inquired concerning the towns and the people. Then he broke forth, like a swollen stream in the time of rains, which cannot be held back, but carries away all that is opposed to it : " O Thomas ! marvellous things have come to pass, and greater are to come. A new prophet has arisen, and once more there is open vision. He seeth through all veils, and the hidden worlds of God are all naked and open to his eyes. He reads the thoughts of men, and' shows unto each man his own soul. When he speaks of the kingdom of Him who is to come, he seems to be making pictures of it all. The power of Yahveh goes with him, and angels are by his side unseen. He loves to heal the sick ; and, when he touches them with his hand, the demon of disease flies affrighted away. I saw with my own eyes the spirit of madness leave a raging man of whom the moon- demon had taken possession. All these demons of wrath and pain hate him and fear him. Yet is he not such as I deemed a prophet must be. He hath in him no bitterness, but is ever gentle and kindly. He dwells not in deserts, but goes among men. Nor loves he that men should hold much discourse concerning him ; but ever, when the evil spirit is cast forth, he chargeth the man who is healed that he speak not of it to any. Neither will he receive thanks, but teaches men to thank God only, since all good things I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MY OLD HOME. 125 come from God. I asked him once why he forbade us to tell of all his goodness. And he said, " Call not me good ; none is good, save God. When I heal with my right hand, I let not my left hand know it." I replied, and asked, "But what, then, teacheth he con- cerning the kingdom which is to come ? ' ' " Strange things," replied Simon, " and such as I do not well understand. He tells us not to hate the Romans, nor doth he prophesy their desolation ; but at one time he said that those who would be children of the kingdom must love even the Romans, and pray for them." "Then," cried I, "he is no true prophet of Yahveh. What, then ! must we love the Romans, who trample down our worship, who defile our temples, who corrupt our people, who make slaves of the children of God ? How is the king- dom of the Anointed King and Priest of God to come, ex- cept we destroy totally out of the land these tigers and devouring plagues? How is the Lord's house to be above all other temples till all the rest are utterly overthrown ? ' ' " The thought of my heart resembled thine," said Simon. * ' And I marvel ever at these things when I am alone ; but, when I am with him, I hearken unto his words, and they fill my heart with such a hope, that I am sure he speaketh the truth, though I may not understand how. — How sayest thou, brother Andreas? " " In truth my thought is like thine," replied Andreas, who was a brother of Simon, "and has ever been such since I heard the Baptizer call him ' the Lamb of God.' But as yet thou hast not told Thomas who the prophet is. He comes from Nazirah, — that little place among the hills, on the side of the shoulder of Lebanon, where it descendeth into the great plain. His name with his people is Joshua-bar- Yosheph ; but the Greeks call him Jesus." "A poor place," said I, "is Nazirah, that it should send forth a prophet. It hath a people, if I remember aright, 126 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. who are a proverb in Israel for their ignorance of all sacred things ; a people who neglect the feasts, and are hardly children of Abraham." " Thou hast said truly," replied Andreas ; " but in a peck of chaff are ever to be found some kernels of wheat. Men say that Maria, the mother of Jesus, is a daughter of holi- ness : her feet walk ever in the paths of peace. And Yosheph, the father, is a just man and honorable." " These things may be," I answered; "yet I follow not a prophet whose teachings are of love toward the Romans. I am still a Jew ; and I hold to my hatred unto them, though the remainder of the faith of my fathers has gone from me. But how is it that ye, Simon and Andreas, are friends of one who differs greatly from your great master, Johanan the Baptizer? His fame came unto me even in the land of Egypt ; for men spake of his sternness, and of his holy life in the wilderness, and that he was set apart unto God by his father, the priest, from his childhood ; of his denying himself as no man hath done since the days of El-jah ; and how, when he came forth to prophesy, he feared not the face of man, but denounced the wrath of the Lord on all sinners, and set his face like a flint, and went in the heat and bitter- ness of his spirit to call men to repentance. Many related that men's hearts were shaken by his word, as when the tem- pest beats upon the branches of a wood, or as the earth is shaken when the demons below tremble at the name of Yah- veh. Ye call yourselves followers of this mighty prophet, whose word is with power. Why leave ye him for another, who concealeth even his good deeds, and whose words are so low and soft that unto this hour no man speaketh his name r V " " Is it not written," said Andreas, " that the Lord Yahveh came once to the prophet El-jah, not in the tempest, nor in the earthquake, nor the fire, but in the still small voice which followed them? We, also, have seen prophets of the fire and I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MY OLD HOME. 127 of the tempest. The Baptist, indeed, was like unto a shak- ing of the earth ; perchance he of whom we speak is the still small voice, and through him the Lord shall talk unto his people. *' Moreover, I tell unto thee, O Thomas, a thing marvel- lous, yet true. Johanan, even Johanan the Baptizer himself, has bowed himself before this man of Nazirah, saying, *■ I am not worthy to unfasten the thongs of thy sandals, O Joshua, Lamb of God.' And from Johanan received we this commandment, even to follow after Joshua-bar- Yosheph, and hearken unto the words of his mouth. For Johanan said, ' He shall baptize you with the spirit of God and with fire.* Truly I knoyv not the meaning of this saying ;* but the words I repeat unto thee as spoken." '' And are the foUowei-s of this new prophet many? " asked I. ''It is easily to be believed; since he is a preacher of peace. For the courage of the Maccabees has fled from our people, and men love not the prophet who calls them ever forth to battle. The prophet who teaches love unto the Romans — many disciples will be his." Thus I spake in bitterness. " Many follow him ; but few adhere unto him," said Simon. " Most men desire that he should call down fire from heaven to drive these devouring locusts out of the land. If men hear, perchance, of some great work wrought by his hands, they throng after him, for men ever hasten after that which is new and strange. And at the speech of his lips they stand amazed, for there is a power in his words which hold- eth them, and willingly they leave him not. He speaketh not as some rabbis, who utter pompous words, and foam at the mouth, and would thus drive us where they will ; but, as he speaketh, our thoughts follow him willingly. Neither doth any man doubt aught that the prophet sayeth ; for he shows unto us the world of God above, as though he stood at its portal, and looked therein. He useth none of the arguments 128 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. of the scribes, but talketh to us with much simplicity. Some- times he teaches us with stories, which are like the nuts of the pistachio, which must be broken to find the meat inside. Often, as thou knowest, a nut is too hard to be broken by our teeth : and even thus oftentimes we see not the meaning of the tale. Yet we remember the story, for the manner of the tale causeth it to cleave unto our minds ; and after many days the truth contained therein becometh clear unto us. Thus we find the kernel, and it feedeth us. All his teaching is wholesome food to the soul." " Thy words," said Simon, " call to my mind his saying, that we should eat and drink him. Dost thou remember, Andreas, how we wondered, and were amazed, and knew not what to say ? But he loveth sometimes to say strange things, and hard things. We are astonished by such sayings, and our mind becomes wide open : so we ponder the dark saying until the light breaks in. Who was it who found out what he meant by saying that we must eat him and drink him, if we would get any real life out of him?" ''That man was Johanan. — Thou hast not forgotten our old partners in the fishing-boat, Thomas, — Jacob and Johann (or John as we call him for shortness), — the sons of old Zabdi, who owned so many boats on the lake? After the prophet had told us so gravely, that, to receive any life from bun, we must eat hun and drink him, I saw Johann walk- ing by himself, his head sunk on his bosom. At last he cried out, ' I see it ! Suppose I give two loaves to two men : one is hungry, and eats his loaf ; the other puts his away. After a time I say to them, "Where are your loaves ? " One says, "I have mine here," and shows it. The other says, " I cannot show it to you, for I have eaten it : I have made it a part of myself. But it has given me strength, so that I can work for you. I cannot give you back your loaf ; but I can give you back, instead of it, much work." Thus, if the prophet says, "What was the doctrine which I taught I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MY OLD HOME. 129 unto you many days ago?" one, who can remember words well, repeateth unto the prophet the words he said ; but an- other, who remembereth not the words, hath ah-eady begun to obey the truth, and live by it. The last hath eaten and drunken the truth, and so eaten and drunken the master ; for this teacher is the very truth made into flesh, and living in our midst.' Thus said Johann, and methinks he spoke well." Then I auswered, " That doctrine suits me well ; for words have ever escaped from me when I most desired to keep them, — even as a beautiful butterfly escapes out of the hand when we think to hold it, — but the sense remains long after the words have gone. And I see that if a man hungers for truth, and swallows it because he loves it, it may do him more good than to remember the words. In speaking thus, your teacher, methinks, spoke well. But tell me where he first was seen by you." Simon answered, and said, "We first saw him at the River Jordan, where great crowds had come to hear the Baptizer. Never man was braver than the Baptizer. He cared neither for Roman soldier nor Jewish priest. He taught that all were sinners, and that all must repent ; for the end of the old age had come, and a new age was to begin ; and, when the new age should begin, all who had not repented of their sins, and been washed in the holy river, would be swept away into the fires of Hinnom. So he spoke day by day, and no man dared oppose him. Certain priests went from Jerusalem, and were baptized, loudly confessing that they had taken money from widows and orphans, and kept it for them- selves. Others went away in anger, and told King Antipas at Tiberias, that the Baptizer had called him an adulterer, whom Heaven would destroy. This made the king wroth, and yet he dared not put the Baptizer to silence, so great was the power of his word. Many said Johann must be the Coming One. But Johann denied that he was the Coming 130 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. One, the great King. He said, ' I am only a sound and a voice, a cry which comes before him ; but he is close at hand — he is near by. I see him standing on the threshing- floor. The people of the land are the seeds of grain which have been beaten to pieces by cruel Roman soldiers and tyrannical kings. These kings are flails, in the hands of angels, to bruise the seed, and separate the chaff from the wheat. And now the great King of kings takes the fan in his hand, and will send the strong wind through the granary, and drive away the light chaff, and save the good wheat. Repent, repent, O ye who are only chaff ! Light and empty souls, repent, before ye are cast into unquenchable fire. I hear the trumpets blowing in the heavens, which proclaim his coming. He is here ! He is here ! Repent, or perish forever ! ' Thus spoke the Baptizer with a cry of terrible anguish ; and the people called aloud for mercy, and thronged to the water, seeking to be baptized. "On a certain day there came among them a young man, whom all looked upon with reverence. In his face was to be seen power and good will, and withal a piercing look, which entered the soul. As he drew near, the Baptizer ceased speaking, and gazed on him, and said, ' Why should I bap- tize thee, O thou pure of heart? Rather baptize thou me. Thou needest no repentance ; but I myself am also a sinner. O thou Lamb of God, take away my sins, and that of all the world.' But Joshua-bar- Yosheph bowed his head, saying, ' Yet suffer it to be so ; for it is becoming to fulfil every thing which is right. ' Then Johann baptized him ; and, when Joshua-bar- Yosheph came up out the water, Johann said, ' Behold, ye children, here is one on whom I see the spirit of Yahveh descending. It cometh down on him softly, flying like a dove, and resteth on him. Since his childhood it hath rested on him, and remaineth with him. The voice which commanded me to baptize said that when I should find one on whom the holy spirit of Yahveh remaineth always, he is I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MY OLD HOME. 131 the King who is to come ; he is the Son of God. ' Thus spoke the Baptizer ; and all who stood near heard him. My brother and I stood by and hearkened also, and asked, ' Who, then, is this youth? ' And they answered us, ' Joshua, also called Jesus, the son of Yosheph of Nazirah in Galilee.' Therefore we, desirous of knowing all goodness, followed him. But Andreas followed him first with another, and asked him where he dwelt, and he said unto them, 'Come with me.' All that day they staid with him, and he spake unto them of the great kingdom which is to come ; and spake with such knowledge, that they hastened to me, and said, * This must be he, — the One who is to come.' " " But why," asked I, " did the Baptizer, who believes in a kingdom of power, receive this peaceful prophet as the King who is to come ? ' * " They had known each other from childhood, and I think were cousins. ' Things which are different,' saith the prov- erb, 'cling more closely than things which are alike.' The Baptizer said that the new prophet was higher than himself. ' He Cometh after me,' said he, ' but is before me, for he was always better than I.' It was strange to see this proud man, who had withstood kings, become so humble in the presence of this youth of Nazirah, saying, ' He shall grow greater, and I shall become less.' But I think he was displeased with our prophet afterward, because he did not openly proclaim him- self the anointed King of Israel in the sight of all men. After Herod had put the Baptizer in prison, Johann became impatient, and could wait no longer, and sent two of his disciples unto Jesus (for so the people now call Joshua, where Greek is spoken) to rebuke him for his backwardness. Ah ! Johann knew well how to rebuke all men, even kings and Roman generals, and he dared to rebuke him whom he believed to be the Anointed ; for he feared no one." " But what said the two disciples of Johann? " " They came to where the poor people stood around Jesus, 132 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DTDYMUS. listening to bis words ; and, rudely interrupting him, cried out, ' Johann the Baptizer has sent us to ask whether thou art He that is to come, or whether we shall have to look uround to find another.' And we were angry at this speech. But Jesus lifted his hand, and said very quietly to the mes- sengers, 'Come with me, and judge for yourselves.' So he went to where a great multitude of sick and blind and lame persons were gathered together. They waited for the time when Jesus should cease speaking to the people words of comfort, in the hope that he might thereafter aid their in- firmities. And Jesus went down to the little hollow where they sat and lay in the shade of the tall palms : and, as he came near, all their sad eyes turned longingly toward him ; but none spake. The disciples of Johann came after him, wondering what this should mean. Then Jesus, having lifted up his eyes and hands to heaven, walked forward, raising his arms over them, and telling them to be full of cheer, for God forgave them their sins. And I saw the light of hope coming into their eyes. Some who were lame stretched out their hands to him ; and he said, ' Arise, and walk. ' In his voice there was a deep music such as I never heard : it was full of courage and power. The lame men staggered up on their feet, and cried out, 'We can walk, we can walk ! ' And the faces of the blind lost their sad- ness, and their eyes began to turn hither and thither, and they reached out their hands as if to touch what was before them, not believing that they saw. Near by was a group of white lepers, most unhappy of men. All the people avoided them ; but Jesus went, without pausing, unto them, touching them without fear; and in a voice which thrilled the soul said unto each of them, ' Be clean ! ' Then, O wonderful sight ! the white spots slowly disappeared, and, instead of the gloom in their faces, joy began to come like sunshine into their eyes. Yet they believed not that they were healed, until Jesus said, ' Go, show yourselves to the priest, that he I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MY OLD HOME. 133 may examine you, and see that you are well. Be washed and purified, and offer your two sparrows, as the law commands.' And when they all cried aloud, and blessed him, he said, ' Bless God, not man; for every good gift is from him.' And he turned to the messengers of Johann, and bade them that they should go and tell Johann what they had seen, and to say to him, moreover, that he is blessed who sees God's presence wherever there is any good done to man. He told them that no one ought to be offended, as Johann was offended, because, where he might expect a great power to conquer and destroy, he should find instead thereof a great power to help and to save. '' So the messengers of Johann went away, half ashamed, and much astonished. And we, when they were gone, were sorely displeased at Johann, because, after having seen the greatness of our prophet, he had thus dared to rebuke him for neglecting his work, saying that the people must leave him to try to find a better leader. For if Jesus were the greater of the two, as Johann said, how could he command him what he must do, and what forbear doing ? Is it right that a lesser prophet should rebuke a greater? Thus we were displeased because of these hard words of blame uttered in the presence of all the people. We feared that men would no longer honor our master, seeing that Johann, whom all reverenced as a just person, had openly threatened him that he should cease to be a prophet in Israel. ' ' Therefore we spoke angrily concerning Johann and his message, and his messengers, and said that he had a devil. But Jesus blamed us for this, and spoke in behalf of him who had rebuked him, saying that we must not censure Johann, since God had made him strong and brave, like a soldier, for his work, and not made him to be like those who speak daintily, and cover hard thoughts with smooth words. The voice which cried in the wilderness so mightily that all men went forth to hear it was not like the voices which mur- 134 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. mur soft things in the palaces of kings. ' Did you go out into the wilderness,' said he, 'to see a reed shaken by the wind ? or a man clothed in soft raiment ? No !, but to see a prophet, and one more than a prophet.' And thus he made us see and understand that a man who is sent py the Lord to do one work cannot be like the man who is sent to do another ; that the man of the wilderness cannot be like the man of the city. He whose work is to cry aloud and spare not in the fields and streets, so that all men must fain hear, will indeed have a voice sounding harshly. And he told us concerning Johann, that he was as great a prophet as any who had ever come to preach repentance to Israel ; that he had in him the very soul of the great El-jah, and that there- fore it was said that El-jah must come again before the new kingdom should be established. Thus we ceased to be wroth concerning Johann. And so was fulfilled the saying of the ancients, that ' as a large bowl will contain a smaller bowl and all its contents, but a smaller bowl will not hold a larger one, so a greater mind can see all the truth and goodness in a smaller one, but a smaller one cannot understand the wis- dom of the larger.' " But afterward, when I, Thomas, had learned to know Jesus, he talked with us more deeply concerning John, in words hard to be understood, and which I can scarcely remember. But this I know, that he taught us how Johann was the greatest of the prophets under the law, having in him the spirit of the law and the prophets ; but that, when the law was fulfilled in the kingdom of the Christ, the least child in that kingdom would be higher than Johann, knowing something which was above the knowledge of those born under the law. For the kingdom of heaven, he said, was higher than the law ; and all the children of the kingdom would see what the wisest men before them were not able to understand. And I, meditating on these words, thought thus : that the man who has the best eyes cannot see in the I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MY OLD HOME. 135 night what a man with poor eyesight can see in the day. For, my children, the law reigned during the darkness by fear and force, by the commandment and authority of the holy God ; but the age of the kingdom of Jesus is like the day. The time of the good news, in which we live, is a reign of love, in which we are drawn to what is right by the goodness of God and his forgiving grace. In the time of which I speak we were like those who were passing from the dark and cold night into a sunny day. The night was gone ; but the day had not come. It was neither night nor day. The law and the prophets ruled before the time of Johann, and ended with him. The day of the Christ began when he rose out of death into a higher life ; but between the two was the day of the Baptizer, when neither law nor love were wholly supreme. We were looking for the light, but were still in darkness. Thus I felt at that time in my cloudy mind. Nevertheless, I heard gladly this new prophet ; though, to speak the truth, I hoped not to receive any thing from him. Could a man of Nazirah give me back the faith I had lost? I believed it not at all, yet I asked to hear more concerning him. Then, sitting by my side, looking down over the olive- trees and palm-trees, to the valley below, to the blue lake, and to the black hills beyond, Simon and Andreas continued their narration : — "Tell Thomas," said Andreas, "of the draught of fishes." " I came back to the lake," replied Simon, " after having listened to the Baptizer, and I mused in my heart concerning this teacher from Nazirah, and desired much to see him again. At last I was told that he continued to teach and to work wonders on the coast and in the cities of the coast. It was the sabbath, and I sat in my own house ; for my wife was with her mother who had been taken with a fever, and was very sick. I heard a sound of many feet, and of voices, 136 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. outside the door. When I opened it, I saw the Prophet Jesus, and a multitude behind him, who cried, ' Glory ! ' and ' Hosanna ! ' for he had just driven an evil spirit from a man in the synagogue, and all rejoiced, and were telling of the wonder. To escape the throng, he came into my house. And, when I told him of the sickness of the woman, he went unto the bedside, and looked her in the face, and in a voice which seemed to penetrate to the dividing asunder of the heart said some words which I could not hear. But a great calmness came over the restless woman, and drops of mois- ture were on her forehead. Then she said, ' Lo ! I am already better ; the heat is gone, and the uneasiness.' After a time she rose from the bed, and brought to us bread and fruit, and we ate thereof. "But outside of the house the same noise continued, for all men were waiting to see what next thing should be done. As the sun descended behind these hills on which we now sit, and the burning heats of the day were over, they brought to my door many sick persons on mats, and on beds made of branches of palm. Then Jesus went out among them, and prayed, and spoke to them, and laid his hands on them. The sickness fled, and the illness faded away from them. And we wondered greatly at the power of God. " When the people came again to my house on the next day, to look for him, he had already departed. Early in the morning, as the day dawned, he went away, to avoid the crowd and the tumult ; and he went on foot, and alone, into the desert. Thus he stays but a short time in one place, teaching, and doing good works, and then goes elsewhere. Thus the peace of the people is not much disturbed, and calm returns to them. "But on another day I was near my boat on the shore, with this my brother Andreas. Near by was another boat, belonging to Zabdi the boat-owner, who was with his two sons, Jacob and Johann. We sat on the shore, and dried I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MY OLD HOME. 137 our nets on the grass, mending them where they were broken. Then came Jesus, talking. with the people, and answering their questions. As all wished to be near him, they crowded each other, and no one could well hear what he said. Jesus called to me, and said, * Simon, I will go into thy boat, and I beseech thee to push a little way from the shore, that I may speak to the people from the boat while they stand on the beach.' I did so. I heard him say many wise words, telling them of the love and the truth of Yahveh. But at last he said, ' Enough for this time. Push out, Simon, into the deep places of the lake, and let down thy net, and take fish.' But I answered, ' Master, there are no fish now in this part of the lake ; for both we and the sons of Zabdi have labored diligently all night long, and have caught nothing.' — ' Nevertheless,' he answered, ' suffer it for a time, and let down thy net here where we now are.' I did so; and, behold! when I began to raise it, a great number of fishes were enclosed, and we could see their white bellies and their fins as they were caught in the meshes of the net. And so many were they, that Andreas and I together could not raise them from the sea : so we called to Zabdi and his sons, and they, also, came with their boat. We pulled up the net at last, and poured the fishes into it ; and the boat lay over on its side with the weight. Great fear then came over my soul ; for it seemed as if the power of God were there. I thought of all my sins, and trembled before that face, so full of power and holiness. Then I said, ' Depart from me, master ; for I am too sinful to be near to thee.' He smiled, and an- swered, ' Be not afraid ; for thou shalt henceforth be a fisher of men.' What thinkest thou, Thomas, of all this? " I answered, as my mind impelled me: "I come from a land, even Egypt, where are many sorcerers and astrologers, and I have seen wonderful things done by enchantment. I have seen demons active, and the dead called from their 138 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. graves. But I think not that the great God doeth all this ; nor doth he send power to help men to astonish each other in such ways, or to win fame and riches by doing wonders. Many such things are done through deceit, and many are done ignorantly, by unwise men, who know not the secret powers hidden in the nature of things. I also have seen men cured of disease by the confident word of a physician. There is a true magical art, as my teacher in Egypt assured me, which is in use among the Persians. It is a knowledge of the book of nature, and a keen insight of the soul into many mysteries. Perhaps your master hath learned this wis- dom, and hence can speak to disease with power, and can see where the fishes most throng in the sea. But not because of this do I believe that he is He that is to come." Thus I spoke, for I had lost my faith in the mighty signs and wonders in which our people trusted, believing in the great power of Yahveh. But Andreas replied, — "To see is to believe. Come and look with thine own eyes, and hear his words, and faith will return unto thee." I answered, and said, "Verily, I suppose your prophet is clothed in wretched raiment, and liveth miserably on roots, and alone in the desert, and astonisheth all men by his pov- erty and self-denial, and long prayers, hating the joys of life. For thus have all prophets done, and the Baptizer more than all." They smiled at this, and answered, " But our prophet doth not at all on this wise. He seeketh no such glory. He eateth, drinketh, and sleepeth, and is dressed like others. He walketh in the streets, and eateth with Romans, and doth not refuse to go into rich men's houses, and yet he loveth better to be with the poor, and blesseth them greatly. He is not seen to pray, but goeth away alone, if he prays, and, indeed, hath no set hours for prayer. He goeth to see the glad and the sad alike. We will give unto thee a proof of this. "When he first began to preach and to teach on these I RETURN AGAIN UNTO MY OLD HOME. 139 shores of the lake, after the Baptizer had so greatly glorified hhn, all men were very attentive to his words and actions. And one day there was a wedding in the town called Kana, among the hills, which in truth is not far from Nazirah. The mother of Jesus, who is called Maria, a wise and noble woman, together with her sons, was a guest at the wedding. We, also, were there, and many more ; for the family had many friends. The feast lasted several days, and toward the end of it the wine had been all drunken and gone. And Miriam said to her son that the wine was gone, for she had confidence in his knowledge and power. What he answered I know not, but he commanded the servants that they should fill some large jars which stood near by with water. When they had done so, it became wine, and so good that no man had tasted better. Then they saw that this prophet was not like those who went before, but that he wished men to be glad and joyful. Many said, however, ' We do not call a man like this a prophet. How can a prophet go to weddings, and make wine for men to drink when they have already drunken much ? He is a wine- bibber and a glutton. And, besides this, he goeth among the sinners and Gentiles, and all baser people.' " *' And what answered your prophet unto this? '* "He said that he was like a physician, who goeth among the sick to heal them. If any should say, ' That man goeth ever among sick people, he canuot be a physician,' you would answer, ' Where, then, but among the sick, ought the physician to go ? ' Wherever men are, whether good men or bad, our master goeth to teach and help them. He is like the sunshine, which the Lord sends on .the good and bad alike. And, when they blamed him because he made wine for the wedding, he said, ' You are like the little children we saw to-day playing in the market. Some of them were angry, and would not play. The others entreated th'^ saying, ' ' We will play a wedding, or we will play a " 140 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. choose which." But they would play neither. Thus it is with you. Ye did not like Johann the Baptizer, because he was stern and serious, and would not eat nor drink with you ; and ye do not like me, and ye blame me because I eat and drink. But Johann was right in his way, and I am right in my way ; for wisdom has many different children, and no two are alike.' Something like this he said. For this prophet, Thomas, is not like the others who have come before. He is very gentle to the poor, the weak, the sinful, very tender to his friends ; and he behaves himself unto his enemies as if they also were his friends. But he is bold to show the people their sins, and to speak against all falsehood and hypocrisy, all guile and cruelty. One day thou wilt see him, and judge for thyself of these things." Then rising, they went their way ; and I descended, going toward the lake. I MEET JESUS OF NAZIRAH. 141 CHAPTER VIII. I MEET JESUS OF NAZIRAH ; AND I LISTEN TO HIM AS HE PROPHESIES, AND TEACHES THE PEOPLE. I DESCENDED the hill toward the lake, by the well-known path which wound among the olive-groves, with their light flickering leaves, and came unto a place where the houses stood surrounded by fig-trees in all their summer luxuriance. I thought of what I had heard of this new prophet. Truly I could not receive the belief that he might be the great Deliverer. How could this poor peasant of Nazirah do what the Baptizer could not do, before whose word all men trembled, — he whom Herod feared as well as hated, whom the priests and Pharisees dared not oppose? Jesus was ignorant of letters ; he went among the poor people ; he taught only peace and good will. As well try to break an iron bar with the blow of a feather as to shake off the chain of Roman power by such means as these. As to the wonder- ful works of which I had heard, I believed them not. I believed that he might have cured sick people by speaking with power to their minds, and creating faith in himself : such works had I seen in Alexandreia. Perhaps he had some magical charm with which to blind the eyes of those who beheld him ; but that the God of my fathers had given power to this prophet to break the laws of the world, that I could not believe. I had lost my faith in God's thus inter- fering in man's affairs. No, the world was left to go its own way. Force and craft ruled all things. Blind chance or iron destiny were the only gods I knew. Yet my thoughts 142 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. returned to this Joshua, or Jesus as they had named him. There was a strangeness in his ways which roused my curiosity. He followed not the paths of the prophets I had known. Most of the men of religion lived alone, in caves or woods : he went among the people. They ate only herbs, and drank only water : he ate meat, and drank wine. They prayed where men could see them, and might be moved to wonder at their holiness ; they knelt all day on the ground, and repeated a great multitude of prayers : but this man prayed not at any fixed hours, nor where men could see him. The others were mighty in proclaiming uhe vengeance of God, and calling down curses on his enemies and their own : this man was reported to speak only kind words, and to do good actions. No great power, I thought, could come from such a man ; but the sweetness of his life drew my thoughts to him. He could teach me nothing new, but I thought I should be glad to hear old words made new from such lips. And, thus thinking, I went on, and came at last to the shore road, and saw before me the rich and thriving Kaphar-nahum, or the City of Consolation. I walked along the pebbly beach ; and the little waves as they ran up to the shore, and sparkled in the sun, seemed to welcome back the wanderer. As I came near to the white walls of Kaphar-nahum, I beheld the house of the tax-gatherer, which stood by the gate, where all who brought any thing into the city must pay their taxes to the publican, or collector of taxes. There was a crowd around the house, and much talking ; and I said, "They are disputing his demands, and seeking to avoid paying the tax;" for very frequent and bitter were the quarrels concerning taxes. The great publicans at Rome bought from the Senate the right to tax our province of Syria, and sold this right again to other publicans. So each grasped all that he could extort from the nation. They were like robbers, or like hungry wolves, and were hated by the people. I had known well the man who held this place at )i I MEET JESUS OF NAZIRAH. 143 Kaphar-nahum, and loved him as a dear frieod. He was called Levi-Matthew, son of Alpheus. He was better than the others, and did much good with his badly-gained money. As I approached, I saw Levi talking with those who stood around, and some of his servants were collecting and pack- ing in boxes his rolls of accounts; and I said, "O Levi! may blessings wait on thee ! Dost thou go from this place, and hath thine office been taken from thee?" He replied, "Mine office hath not been taken ; but I have given it up, and collect taxes no more. These friends lament, for they think that perchance a more cruel man than I may come into my place ; yet I hope not, for the people have need of fill they have, and with difficulty pay their tax." I said, " But why dost thou quit thine office, O Levi ? Though they mock at thee because of it, and spit on the ground as they pas^, yet maiSy, I know, would willingly take it themselves, for it is full of profit." But Matthew (which is Levi), the son of Alpheus, answered and said, "I have been called to-day to be a follower and a scholar of the new prophet, my kinsman, Jesus of Nazirah. I so love and honor him, that I shall leave all, and go wherever he desires. But tell me, Thomas, whence comest thou? It is long since I have seen thee. Come with me to my home, and let us talk together ; and I will make thee known unto the prophet, for he cometh to- day unto the feast which I give those who have been my companions and friends in my business. All the great publi- cans will be there, and others also. Though many hate us, and will not speak to us, nor eat with us, many others, as thou knowest, refuse not to salute us." Thus we walked together into the city, and passed through the narrow streets, where the high houses cast down shadows even at noon, and make a pleasant coolness ; for Kaphar-nahum was rightly so called, and was indeed a place of many comforts. As we walked, I said, "I know, O Matthew! that many Jews are friendly unto thee and unto thy brethren ; but 144 THE LEGEND OF THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. very bitter is the hatred borne thee by the common people, and also by the Pharisees, leaders of the people. I, too, had I not well known thy manner of life, and that thou art a just man, would not have spoken unto thee to-day ; for thou servest the enemies of my country, even the Romans. How, then, has this prophet chosen thee to be one of his followers and friends ? All men will say, *■ This cannot be a prophet; since he has a servant of Rome,' even a publican, a robber of the people, for his companion.' Also I much marvel that he should consent to come unto thy feast ; since most men will cry out against him for eating with thee, and great will be his dishonor in the eyes of the multitude." Then Matthew said, " He indeed goeth with all persons, and maketh no difference between one and another. All men are dear to him, and I think those are dearest whom other men most despise. It is now a few days only since one of the Pharisees, a man of much wealth and power, asked him to eat meat in his house, and Jesus went ; for, though he loves most the poor and sorrowing, he also loves well the rich and prosperous, knowing, that, though outwardly fortunate, they may hide many secret griefs in their souls. His eyes search every man's heart, and he sees what is in man ; for is he not in truth my kinsman, whom I have known now for many years, though only to-day have I become one of those who follow him constantly, to be taught by him, and to be wit- nesses of all that he doeth ? ' ' Thus spake Levi, who is called Matthew ; and I went by his side in silence, astonished at the power which went forth from this man Jesus. But Matthew spake once more, and said, — " I have told thee of his eating meat in the house of Simon the Pharisee, where was a great company of the Pharisees. And, while we sat and talked, we lifted up our eyes, and, behold, a woman stood in the doorway. Her eyes were full of tears, and her dress was that of a strange I MEET JESUS OF MAZIRAH. 145 woman. She had sandals bright with gold on her feet, and her veil had dropped, and her face was like that of a fallen angel. And we knew her to be a woman full of sins, and wondered that she dare