CHAPTER XXXV
THE APPROACH OF THE DAY OF VISITATION
Marsyas sought through the Nazarene settlements in Joppa, Anthedon andCaesarea, but the people could not tell him of fugitive Alexandrians,who had with them a maid with yellow-brown hair. He went then toPtolemais, and there, after days of patient search, discovered thatthree strange women, two men and a maiden of gentle blood, who werechildren in Christ, has passed through the city, from Alexandria toJerusalem.
He did not pause to inquire after his former master, Peter the usurer,nor Eleazar, his steward. Instead he took the road, over which he andAgrippa had come long before, and hastened toward the City of David.
Within sight of the Tower of Hippicus, and the glittering Glory on thesummit of Moriah, he came upon a group, in abas and talliths, sittingon the soil while they ate. He would have passed around them, withoutspeaking, had he not seen the elder among them lift his hands andbeseech the blessing of Christ upon the bread and water set before them.
Marsyas stopped, and waited with as much grace as possible until themeal was finished and the Nazarene thanks returned, before heapproached.
"I behold that ye offer supplication to the Nazarene Prophet," he saidto the elder, "and though I come unto you a faithful follower of theGod of Abraham, I pray you, remember the charity ye assume, and give meaid!"
"We are children of Christ," the elder responded, "and brethren to all;wherefore speak, and if we can help thee, we dare not deny thee."
"I perceive that a bond of common acquaintance unites all of yourbelief; perchance certain Alexandrian Nazarenes with a maiden, who fledhither from the wrath of the Proconsul of Egypt, have come unto you forhospitality in Jerusalem."
"Save for the few apostles of the Church in Christ, who have hiddenthemselves, there are no Nazarenes in Jerusalem," the elder answered.
"No Nazarenes in Jerusalem!" Marsyas exclaimed, remembering Eleazar'sestimation of the host of schism in the Holy City. "Yet, two yearsago, they possessed the city from Ophlas to Bezetha."
"They have been scattered into far cities by the oppressor, or havepassed through the dust of the stoning-place into the Kingdom of God!"he answered in awed tones.
The young man made a gesture as if he drew his hands quickly away fromblood-stains, and a look of intense horror passed over his face.
"And Saul continueth to rage, unchecked?" he exclaimed, his oldimpatience with the passivity of the Nazarenes making itself felt oncemore.
"In the Lord's time, in the Lord's time, my son," the elder said mildly.
"I can not wait upon the Lord!" Marsyas cried. "The Lord gave meheart, feeling, intelligence and invention, for me to use to mine ownaid! I have labored for two years to this end, and Herod, the king,will help me!"
"Not so, my son!" the Nazarene said gravely. "Build no hope for us,upon Herod the king, for he hath joined himself with the Pharisees, andhe will not hinder the oppressor!"
"What?" Marsyas cried, growing black.
"A truth, my son!"
"But I crowned him!" Marsyas cried, clenching his hands. "I held offthe hand of death from him, and despoiled my soul for his sake! I soldmyself for him! By the Lord, if he help me not, I shall have back thelife that I preserved to him!"
The Nazarene crossed himself quickly, and shook his head.
"Peace! Peace! young brother. Even the Law, for which thou artzealous, forbids thee to kill! Behold the vanity of laying upconfidence in man! If thou hadst so built for the Master's favor, thouhadst not been forsaken, to-day!"
"Neither the God of Abraham, nor thy Prophet has shielded thee from theoppressor," he declared passionately. "Remember thy own words. But Iwill bring him down!"
"Build no hope upon Herod," the Nazarene continued, as if eager to stayMarsyas. "Whatever he promised thee, he knows that Saul standeth highamong the Pharisees, whom the king would propitiate! He hathdifficulty and prejudice to overcome, this grandson of an execratedgrandsire--so build nothing upon the Herod!"
Was it possible that, after all his months of patient work andlong-suffering, he had brought up at the point at which he had left offtwo years before? Was his punishment of Saul to be done, at his ownrisk, at last? He would see this altered Agrippa and learn for himself!
"I shall see this king and discover!" he declared.
"The king is not in Jerusalem," the Nazarene said. "He hath continuedunto Antioch to despatch a petition to Caesar!"
The young man's rage changed into dismay, but he made a last appeal.
"I seek my beloved," he said finally, in a helpless way. "She is aNazarene and pursued by the powers of Rome! Even besides her peril ofSaul, she is sought after by the mighty who would destroy her. If thouknowest of her--even where she might be in hiding, I pray thee, tellme, in the name of thy Prophet!"
"Who is she?" the Nazarene asked at once.
"She is Lydia Lysimachus, daughter to the alabarch in Alexandria."
"I turned such a maiden, and her protectors, away from the gates ofJerusalem, seven days ago. They were bidden to go to Damascus."
Marsyas pressed the Nazarene's hand to his lips, because his gratitudewould not be expressed otherwise. Safe, then, for the moment, and outof reach of Saul of Tarsus!
"Do ye fare thither? even now?" Marsyas asked, eager to attach himselfto the body of apostates, if they led him on to Lydia.
"Nay, we are certain of the faith on watch, lest any ignorant of theperil besetting the brethren should approach the city."
"Ye are close unto the oppressor," Marsyas said seriously.
"We abide in the will of the Lord."
Marsyas sighed. He had seen another, believing in the promise of theLamb, go down unto death. The recurring thought of Stephen, neverwholly forgotten, awakened in him another impulse. He would not gostraightway to Damascus, and continue to retreat from Saul. The handof the Lord had led him unto the Pharisee, and he would do that whichlay nearest him.
"And when I come unto Damascus, how shall I find her?" he asked of theNazarene.
"Go unto Ananias, a brother in the Lord, and tell him thy story. Lo,he is keeper of the Lord's flock, and filled with the Spirit. Thouwilt not ask in vain!"
"Thou hast my thanks, and my blessing!" Marsyas said. "And theforgiveness of the Lord cover you all!"
"Peace, young brother, and the love of Christ be with thee ever more!"
Marsyas went through the amber light of the late afternoon, toward themight of Hippicus and the majesty of the City of David.
He found, by inquiry among the Jews, that Agrippa had not lingered inJudea, having passed through Jerusalem to give commands concerning thepreparation of his palace, to receive the homage of the people and topropitiate the Pharisees, before he went on to Antioch. It was readilytold that the king was despatching messages to Caligula craving thepunishment of Flaccus.
"But could not the king have despatched these messages from Jerusalem?"Marsyas asked.
The Jews smiled and laid fingers alongside their noses.
"He is a Herod, and not ashamed of display. He was ill-treated inAntioch, by the proconsul, there, in the days of adversity. Wherefore,in his purple and gold, with the favor of Caesar behind him, he takethadvantage of an excuse to abash his old insulters!"
It was like Agrippa! But Marsyas was glad, even in the tumult of hissensations, that the Herod was pushing his work against Flaccus! Atleast, Alexandria should be safe for the alabarch. But to his mission!
It was still night in the City of David and the watcher on the pinnacleof the Temple had long to wait before the morning shone and the sky waslighted even unto Hebron. The greater stars sparkled like jewels inthe cold heavens, and there were already many people in the blue-mistedstreets below. They were of all classes, but of one nation, onedirection.
Straggling numbers joined the main body from each narrow passage whichintersected the marble-paved roadway leading toward the splendidTyropean bridge. It was a host, an army numbering thousands. But,
foot planted on the solid masonry that accomplished the ravine byflying arches two hundred feet above the dark abyss, conversation leftoff. The company passed silent, except for the multitudinous and softrustlings of garments and the chafing of feet upon rock. Far ahead theforemost were rising, an undulating sea of heads and shoulders, as thecyclopean stairs, a cold bank of white marble, broad and gentle ofslope, climbed toward the Royal Porch.
As soon as the Tyropean bridge was passed, the Temple was shut off fromview by the intervening cornices of the porch; and when the gate wasreached, the stream of worshipers entered into the demesnes of the HolyHouse.
Tunnel-like and drafty, the open gate revealed an immense length ofgloom, raftered and roofed with beams and vaults of darkness, upheld bydouble rows of dim columns of enormous girth. This, the RoyalColonnade, cloistered the Court of the Gentiles, through which theworshipers fared next.
It was a great quadrangle, paved with sun-colored marbles, open to thesky and having about it the characteristic exhilarating airs whichinhabit the heights. Herod the Great spent princely sums upon thisportion allotted to the Gentiles, for the simple purpose of flatteringthe pagan. Perhaps for no other reason than an expression of theirdispleasure did the Jews commit the sacrilege of commercialism in thisspot. Here the money-changer, vender of sacrificial beasts, birds andwines made a busy market daily, for the indignation of the NazareneRabbi had driven them away for only so long as He watched. Theyreturned when He had vanished, like flies to a honey-pot.
Here also awaited the Temple servitors to receive the unblemishedofferings, the Shoterim to preserve order, the Levites of the gates andperchance the priests of the killing-pens and of the wood-chambers.Through the throng of attendants or venders, the worshipers continued,an uninterrupted stream of pilgrims, souls in distress, Pharisees andsouls under vows, and all the class and kind that would be diligent forthe Lord in the restful hours before daybreak. And the number was notlarge, in comparison to the host of Israel, for the Temple was buildedto contain the voice of two hundred and ten thousand.
North of the center of the Court of Gentiles, the Temple stood. A railset it off austerely from contact with the uncircumcised. Itsrelentless command of exclusion and its threat were set forth on stone,forbidding the admission of a Gentile on pain of death. But beyond, inmockery, rose the black bulk of Roman Antonia, the majesty of masonryupreared and prostituted to eavesdropping and espionage. Yet none whovisited the Temple was instantly to be led away from its glory tomeditate on its humiliation.
The worshipers passed around the angle of the structure to the eastwhere the Gate Beautiful was hung.
There was a momentary slackening in the movement, for the gate was yetto be opened. But, preceding the foremost, twenty Levites passed upthe flight of steps, and under the direction of a captain, laidshoulder to the valves and threw all their strength against them.There was a flash as the light of the coming dawn, concentrated andintensified, shifted across the Corinthian brass, and the GateBeautiful swung inward.
At the head of the column a young man, in ample robes, with hiskerchief skirts hanging close about his face, stepped aside from theline of advance. The crowd took up motion and went on.
Marsyas had washed himself in obedience to the Law; he had brought inhis hand his trespass offering, and in his soul he was a Jew. But hestood now, and watched the fours of people climb the steps abreast,with no mood in his heart that a man should carry into a sanctuary.
Series after series passed under his sharp scrutiny--extremes of rank,of reputation, of calling and of kind. Minute after minute the long,silent procession tramped by him and was swallowed up in the giganticgloom within. Ever the alert gaze, bright even under the obscuringshadow of the kerchief, slipped from rank to rank, and never oncelingered in doubt. No one looked at him; every eye was down, forthough, since the eighth day after his birth, no man in the long streamof worshipers had been ignorant of the Temple, it never failed to be aplace of awe, half-love, half-terror.
The hindmost appeared at the angle of the Temple, moved in turn aftertheir fellows, climbed the steps and disappeared.
Stragglers followed, in groups and singly, and finally Marsyas turnedup the steps and followed the last within.
Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee, would have been among the earliest toarrive. Perhaps by special dispensation he had entered before themultitude and by another gate.
The keeper at the Gate Beautiful glanced at the young man's snow-whiteEssenic garments and at the stamp of Jewish blood on his face, andpassed him without a word.
The Temple from the city had been a great glittering unit. But onapproaching its details, they became bewildering.
Within was a tremendous inclosure, floored with agate, galleried withimmense chambers which were screened with grills of beaten brass. Thearmy of worshipers was reduced, in comparison to the space theyentered, to a mere handful of pygmy, indistinct shapes, prostrate,kneeling, upright, silent, infinitesimal, moveless. At the extremeinner end of the men's court was a flight of fifteen semicircular stepswhich led up to the Gate Nicanor, now wide. It was hung in the middleof an open arcade--an altar screen no less a grace to the Templebecause it might have embattled a fortress. Beyond it as the eyepierced the holy gloom, was a second tier of courts, less spacious thanthe first, but no less magnificent; after it, yet a third, and then amassive pile of ancient brass, stained and smoked, arose above all elsebefore it. A tongue of clean blue unilluminating flame wavered in thecenter of its summit.
Beyond that, Marsyas' gaze did not travel.
Spiritual subjection surrounded him; from behind the lattice whichscreened the women's court in the lofty galleries, there came no sound.The twilight of early morning and the hush of a sanctity were supreme.
He crossed his hands upon his breast and let his head fall as theelders had taught him.
Others came to stand beside him, the order of worship proceeded, andthe singing Levites ranged themselves on the steps before Nicanor, buthe was plunged in his spiritual difficulty and oppressed by the carefor himself and his own.
Finally there came a long, rich trumpet note above middle register; thevoice of a brazen tongue singing through a horn of silver. It was notsudden. Beginning as the sound of wind on a fine wire, it ripened intone as it grew in volume till it achieved the color, the shape ofharmony, the very fragrance of music. As it diminished, those wholistened caught the sound of a second note--the voice of a twintrumpet, save that the tones issued in the molds of enunciation. Itwas one singing among the Levites, as impossible to discover as to pickout the inspirited pipe in an organ.
"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world and theythat dwell therein--"
It was the voice of a young enthusiast, with the faith and spiritualuplift of patriarchal years, housed in a frame of youth--the voice of acreature of trance and frenzy, a martyr-elect from birth.
But as he clung to his final syllable in a vibrato of fervor, a secondsinger, duplicating the note in barytone, took up the second verse, andcarried it with the ease and repose of one filled with content, healthand the ripeness of years, of one who is the founder of a house, thepossessor of goods and a power among his fellow men. And his voice wasrich, level as the note of a 'cello, tender because it was strong,persuasive because it was believing:
"For he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon thefloods--"
Wresting the word from him, the tenor again on his altitudes of ecstasyflung out the inquisition:
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in hisholy place?--"
He made answer to himself with the barytone, but there was a third nowsinging, and his voice arose out of their attendance as a great, white,solemn, night-blooming flower might rise out of leafage.
"He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up hissoul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully."
The young fanatic might sing with the fervor of his bigotry, thecontented man from t
he comfort in his heart, but this one, makinganswer, now, sang as one who was experienced and understood as theothers could not. It was deep bass, too deliberate to be flexible, tooprofound to be hurried, and withal a great bell booming in a dome. Andlike a bell in travail under each stroke of its hammer, each word, inthe full poignancy of its meaning, fell from the lips of him who hadbeen tried by fire.
The voice of the one hundred and fifty on the steps of Nicanor, pickedfor beauty from a singing nation, burst about the trio, an eruption ofgreat harmony, overwhelming the echoes of the Temple, flooding thepurlieus of the Holy Hill, mounting the morning winds to float acrossthe hollow, reverberating ravines, to resound on the bosom of Zion, topenetrate the dark vale of Kedron, and to fail and be one with thereedy rushing of airs through the cedars of Olivet.
"He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up hissoul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully;
"He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness fromthe God of his salvation!"
Marsyas found himself coming under the influence of the psalm. Itseemed that the modifiers, describing the elect, had become lofty,solemn attributes not to be assumed by a simple claim to them, not tobe had after the commission of deeds not specifically interdicted, notto be obtained by the harkening to one's own will; nor yet to be haddid one fix himself in a chrysalis of form, wrap his soul in cleanlinen, and bury it in a remote spot, and keep hourly watch over it tokeep it white--white but wizened. He seemed to understand that he hadnot understood these things in the days of his Essenism, nor in thedays of his worldliness. And, remembering the meaning of his presencein the Temple, he felt peculiarly accused in his soul. What right hadhe, who had brought with him the spirit of murder, in the Holy Hill?
He could not shake off the self-accusation, but his resolution wasunweakened. He would depart!
The hand of one who stood beside him dropped upon his shoulder andlingered. He looked and saw beside him a great man, in the garments ofan artisan, that covered him, figure, head and face againstidentification. But Marsyas had known Eleazar under more effectivedisguise; the rabbi was not concealed from him now.
Perhaps he could learn from Eleazar the whereabouts of Saul of Tarsus,so he dropped his head again, and stayed.
The sun blazed on the spear-points, finishing the pinnacle of theTemple with glowing embers; the variegated marble of the Court ofGentiles was yellow as the gold of Ophir, and the morning radiancetrembled over the City of David, lying in the valley two hundred feetbelow or rising up the slopes beyond the ravine. The long windingstream of worshipers flowed from the Gate Beautiful, left, through thewell of the stairs to the level where entered the Gate of Akra, downthe long flight of steps into the vale of Gihon, and, dispersing, lostitself in the crowded passages of the Lower City.
Before they were out of the morning shadow of the giant retaining-wall,Marsyas spoke.
"Where is our enemy?"
"He is for a time gone hence, and my soul is escaped as a bird out of asnare of the fowlers. I can come now without much fear unto the HolyHouse."
"Hence?" Marsyas asked uneasily. "Whither?"
"I shall tell thee. Know thou, first, that I am here, since severalweeks, abiding among the weavers of Bezetha, and laboring with them;for Peter, the usurer of Ptolemais, is dead and his servants scatteredabroad. Since Jerusalem hath been purified of the heresy, there islittle search after the Nazarenes, so, as the robbed house is moresecure than the one as yet unentered by thieves, I am unmolested inBezetha. Yet, until this morning, I have not dared venture into theTemple."
"But Saul?" Marsyas urged impatiently.
"I am coming unto Saul. Jonathan, the High Priest, exhausted thepatience of Vitellius in ten months. The Roman's endurance worethrough and snapped on a sudden like an overstrained cord. On acertain day, in the Feast of Tabernacles, Jonathan was High Priest; erenightfall some respected Jew complained to the legate; the next day,Theophilus, brother to Jonathan, was clothed in the robes of Aaron.
"Saul was brought up for the instant, but thou knowest that he is nocautious weigher of conditions. He did that which hath proven him notthe unforeseeing time-server of a bloodthirsty man, but a follower ofhis own conscience and the servant of his own zeal. He went to the newHigh Priest while yet the robes retained the shape of Jonathan, andspake unto him: 'O ruler of my people, is the purification of the faithto be given over, seeing that it was the way of thy brother andabhorred of the Roman? Servest thou Vitellius or Jehovah?' It is nottold abroad among the people what answer was given, what further asked,except that the chastening of the heretics was continued unabated,until all Judea was cleansed. And yesterday, Saul was given letters toJews in Syria, permitting him to carry his examinations into Damascusand--"
"Damascus!" Marsyas cried, seizing the rabbi's arm.
"Yes; and to bring the offenders to Jerusalem for trial."
"Is he gone?" Marsyas demanded in a terrible voice.
"He passed out of the Damascus Gate at sunset last night."
"Come! Go with me! Let us overtake him! He shall not go on!"
"For revenge, Marsyas?" Eleazar asked mildly, but with reproof in hiseyes.
"To cut him off from desolating me wholly!" Marsyas declared.
Eleazar looked away over the hollows and gentler hills covered withhouses, toward the summit of Olivet, golden in the sun.
"Then I shall not dissuade thee, Marsyas; but I can not go with thee,"he said.
"Why?" Marsyas demanded, with a flush of feeling.
"I have suffered from oppression in the name of the Lord; it is theLord's will. I have changed in the days of my misfortunes."
Marsyas came close to him.
"Art thou a Nazarene, Eleazar?" he asked in a low tone.
"Nay, I am a good Jew, a better Jew, for I have become a Jew, again,through understanding."
But Marsyas was not willing to wait for the rabbi's philosophy; hemoved restlessly as he stood, and finally put forth his hand to sayfarewell, but Eleazar held it.
"Wait, but a moment," he said, "and let me speak. Thou sayest thouwouldst secure thyself from devastation at the Pharisee's hands; sincenothing can stop Saul, and nothing stop thee, there is death at the endof thy doing. I do not know what moves thee now; perchance it is morethan the vow sworn to avenge Stephen. But thou goest to help thyself;and--to assist in convincing the heathen that Israel is an oppressor inthe name of God!"
"It is!" Marsyas cried passionately.
But the rabbi went on patiently.
"I did not go out after Stephen," he continued. "I was not seen at thecrucifixion of his Prophet. I do not urge bloodshed or urge on thework of Saul of Tarsus. So, who is Israel, O son of a shut house andof a hermit brotherhood? Saul, who knoweth no moderation? Certainfeeble and forward speakers in the synagogues, whom even an apostatecould overthrow in argument? Or the witnesses whom they suborned inrevenge? Say, be these Israel, or Gamaliel who discountenanced thepersecution? Or the people among whom the minions of the High PriestJonathan went cautiously to arrest the fathers of the Nazarene faith,lest the people stone the Shoterim? Forget not, brother, that ourlofty are the friends of Rome; our lowly, tributaries of Rome; ourchief priests, dependent upon Rome--and the greater Israel is theunheard, the unrecorded, the unpampered, the innocent!"
"But is it not just, then, that Saul be overtaken, who hath castobloquy on Israel, having shed innocent blood and made Judea to be fledby the righteous?"
"Defendest thou the innocent of Israel, Marsyas?"
"By the Lord, the innocent!"
"Wouldst trouble thyself, had the doom fallen on others, instead ofthine own, Marsyas?"
The young man frowned and made no answer.
"I shall not answer for thee," Eleazar went on, "but thou and the worldaccuse the innocent of Israel, when contempt is cast upon the race, asan entirety. But the slander of Israel hath been accomplished, evenbefore Saul, and ye may not run down a lie. So thou and I and our
kindhave the hard task of upholding the glory of the people, a labor fromwhich there can be no let nor easement! The multitude which crownsto-day and crucifies to-morrow establishes no standard. But they arewitnesses to the evil-speaking of the enemy; they are a slander whichmay not be denied. If thou join thyself with them, Marsyas, for thineown ends, in that much thou ungirdest Israel!"
"Brother, Saul of Tarsus consented unto the death of Stephen, anddespoiled me of my one love, as an Essene; he proceedeth, now, againstmy beloved, as a man of the world! I can not wait on conscience andthe welfare of Judea. She will not defend mine own; wherefore I mustdefend them, at whatever cost!"
Eleazar's face had grown inexpressibly sad during Marsyas' words. Hisheavily-shaded eyes turned absently away from the speaker. He seemedto see beyond the invincible walls and towers of the Holy City, evenbeyond the olive-orchards and the meeting of the earth and sky, intothe time which would come out of the east.
Perhaps he saw waste and desolate places, lands of destruction andcaptives of the mighty, dregs of the cup of trembling and dregs of thecup of fury and the hostility of all nations. The sadness in his eyesbecame fixed.
"Verily," he said, as if speaking of his own visions, "thou art a Godthat hidest thyself, O God of Israel!"
Marsyas heard him with a stir of emotion in his soul. He put out hishand to the rabbi.
"If I and my like be wrong, thou shall prevail, when the day of thejust man comes, in the Lord's time!"
"He called us His chosen people," Eleazar continued, suffering Marsyasto take his hand unnoticed, "even the appointed people, the markedpeople! Marked for His own purposes, how hidden! But what knows theclay of the potter's intent that passes it through fire? Chastening orvengeance, woe, woe unto them, by whom it cometh!"
He turned away, and Marsyas looked after him until the narrow windingstreets had obscured him.
Quickly then Marsyas continued toward the Gennath Gate; reared to theEssenic habit of traveling without preparation, he was ready to journeyfrom city to city in the dress he wore on the streets.
He went by the cenotaph of Mariamne, past Phasaelus, past the Praetorium,out of the gate, past the might of Hippicus, and on to the parting ofthe road, where he took the way to Damascus.
Presently he met a horseman and, stopping the traveler, bought withoutparley the beast, and mounted it. He knew that Saul would proceed bythe slow mule, and the forbidden, nobler animal, the horse, would soonmake up the distance the Pharisee had gained.
So, without relaxing from his fever of determination, Marsyas sped ontoward Damascus.
He knew that the hour had come!
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