Complete Works of George Moore

by George Moore

  Paul, who had seemed to Jesus to have recovered a great part of his strength, spoke with great volubility and vehemence, saying that angels were but the messengers of God, and to carry on the work of the world God must have messengers, but angels had no power to carry messages from man back to God. There was but one Mediator, and he was on the point of saying that this Mediator was Jesus Christ our Lord, but he checked himself, and said instead that the power to perform miracles was not transmitted from God to man by means of angels. Angels, he continued, were no more than God’s messengers, and he related that when he had shed a mist and darkness over the eyes of Elymas, the sooth-sayer in Cyprus, he had received the power to do so direct from God; he affirmed too, and in great earnestness, that it was not an angel but God himself that had prompted him to tell the cripple at Iconium to stand upright on his feet; he had been warned in a vision not to go into Bithynia; and at Troas a man had appeared to him in the night and ordered him to come over to Macedonia, which was his country; he did not know if the man was a real man in the flesh or the spirit of a man who had lived in the flesh: but he was not an angel. Of that Paul was sure and certain; then he related how he had taken ship and sailed to Samothrace, and next day to Neopolis, and the next day to Philippi, and how in the city of Thyatira he had bidden a demon depart out of a certain damsel who brought her master much gain by soothsaying. And for doing this he had been cast into prison. He knew not of angels, and it was an earthquake that caused the prison doors to open and not an angel. Peter had met angels, but he, Paul, had never met one, he knew naught of angels, except the terrible Kosmokratores, the rulers of this world, the planetary spirits of the Chaldeans, and he feared angel worship, and had spoken to the Colossians against it, saying: remember there is always but one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ our Lord, who came to deliver us from those usurping powers and their chief, the Prince of the Powers of the Air. They it was, as he had told the Corinthians, that crucified the Lord of glory. But perhaps even they may be saved, for they knew not what they did.

  Jesus was afraid that Paul’s vehemence would carry him on into another fit like the one that he had just come out of, and he was glad to meet a shepherd, who passed his water-bottle to Paul. Fill thy bottle from mine, the shepherd said to Jesus, and there is half-a-loaf of bread in my wallet which I’d like thee to have to share with thy traveller in the morning, else he will not be able to begin the journey again. Nay, do not fear to take it, he said, my wife’ll have prepared supper for me. Jesus took the bread and bade his mate farewell. There is a cave, Paul, Jesus said, in yonder valley which we can make safe against wolves and panthers. Lean on my arm. Thy head is still a trouble; drink a little more water. See, the shepherd has given me half-a-loaf, which we will share in the morning. Come, the cave is not far: in yon valley. Paul raised his eyes, and they reasoned with vague, pathetic appeal, for at that moment Jesus was the stronger. Since it must be so, I’ll try, he said, and he tottered, leaning heavily on Jesus for what seemed to him a long way and then stopped. I can go no farther; thou wouldst do well to leave me to the hyenas. Go thy way. But Jesus continued to encourage him, saying that the cave in which they were to rest was at the end of the valley, and when Paul asked how many yards distant, he did not answer the exact distance, but halved it, so that Paul might be heartened and encouraged, and when the distance mentioned had been traversed and the cave was still far away he bore with Paul’s reproaches and answered them with kindly voice: we shall soon be there, another few steps will bring us into it, and it isn’t a long valley; only a gutter, Paul answered, the way the rains have worn through the centuries. A strange desert, the strangest we have seen yet, and I have travelled a thousand leagues but never seen one so melancholy. I like better the great desert. I have lived all my life among these hills, Jesus replied, and to my eyes they have lost their melancholy.

  All thy life in these deserts, Paul replied eagerly, and his manner softened and became almost winning. Thou’lt forgive, he said, any abruptness there may have been in my speech, I am speaking differently from my wont, but to-morrow I shall be in health and able to follow thee and to listen with interest to thy tales of shepherding among these hills of which thou must know a goodly number. My speech is improving, isn’t it? answer me. Jesus answered that he understood Paul very well; and could tell him many stories of flocks, pillaging by robbers and fights between brave Thracian dogs and wolves, and if such stories interested Paul he could relate them. But here is our cave, he said, pointing to a passage between the rocks. We must go down on our hands and knees to enter it; and in answer to Paul, who was anxious to know the depth of the cave, Jesus averred that he only knew the cave through having once looked into it. The caves we know best are the vast caves into which the shepherd can gather his flocks, trusting to his dogs to scent the approach of a wild animal and to awaken him. Go first and I’ll follow thee, and Jesus crawled till the rocks opened above him and he stood up in what Paul described as a bowel in the mountain; a long cave it was, surely, twisting for miles through the darkness, and especially evil-smelling, Paul said. Because of the bats, Jesus answered, and looking up they saw the vermin hanging among the clefts, a sort of hideous fruit, measuring three feet from wing to wing, Paul muttered, and as large as rats. We shall see them drop from their roosts as the sky darkens and flit away in search of food, Jesus said. Paul asked what food they could find in the desert, and Jesus answered: we are not many miles from Jericho and these winged rats travel a long way. In Brook Kerith they are destructive among our figs; we take many in traps. Our rule forbids us to take life, but we cannot lose all our figs. I’ve often wondered why we hesitate to light bundles of damp straw in these caves, for that is the way to reduce the multitudes, which are worse than the locusts, for they are eaten; and Jesus told stories of the locust-eating hermits he had known, omitting, however, all mention of the Baptist, so afraid was he lest he might provoke Paul into disputation. See, he said, that great fellow clinging to that ledge, he is beginning to be conscious of the sun setting, and a moment after the bat flopped away, passing close over their heads into the evening air, followed soon after by dozens of male and female and many half-grown bats that were a few months before on the dug, a stinking colony, that the wayfarers were glad to be rid of. But they’ll be in and out the whole night, Jesus said, and I know of no other cave within reach where we can sleep safely. Sometimes the wild cats come after them and then there is much squealing. But think no more of them. I will roll up my sheepskin for a pillow for thee, and sleep as well as thou mayest, comrade, for to-morrow’s march is a long one.

  CHAP. XXXIX.

  IT WAS AS Jesus had said, the bats kept coming in and going out all the night through, and their squeakings as they settled themselves to sleep a little before dawn awakened Paul, who, lifting his head from the sheepskin that Jesus had rolled into a comfortable pillow for him, spied Jesus asleep in a corner, and he began to ask himself if he should awaken Jesus or let him sleep a little while longer. But myself, he said, must escape from the stifle of this cave and the reek of the bats, and, dropping on his hands and knees, he crawled into the air.

  It was a great joy to draw the pure air into his lungs, to drink a deep draught, and to look round for a wild cat. One may be lurking, he said, impatient for our departure, and as soon as we go will creep in and spring among the roosts and carry off the flopping, squeaking morsel. But if a cat had been there licking her fur, waiting for the tiresome wayfarers to depart, she would have remained undiscovered to Paul’s eyes, so thick was the shadow, and it was a long time before the valley lengthened out and the rocks reassumed their different shapes.

  He was in a long narrow valley between steep hills, with a path zigzagging up the hillside at the farther end, among rocks that set Paul thinking of the little that would remain of his sandals before they reached Cæsarea.

  A long day’s march of twelve or thirteen hours lay before him, one that he would have been able to undertake in the old days withou
t a thought of failure, but it was over and above his strength to-day. But was it? It seemed to him that he could walk a long way if the present breeze that had come up with the day were to continue. It came up the valley, delicious as spring water, but suddenly he recognised in it the smell of a wild animal; the sour smell of wolves, he said to himself, and looking among the rocks he spied two large wolves not more than fifty yards distant. It is fortunate, he said, that the wind is blowing from them to me, else they would have scented me; and Paul watched the lolloping gait of the wolves till they were out of sight, and then descending from the rock he returned to the cave, thinking he had done wrong to leave it, for he had entrusted himself to Jesus, and perforce to clear his conscience had to confide to him he had been out in the valley and seen two wolves go by. But they did not scent me, the wind being unfavourable. If they had, and been hungry, it might have gone hard with thee, Jesus said, and then he spoke of Bethennabrio, a village within a dozen miles of Cæsarea in which Paul would sleep that night. Thou canst not get to Cæsarea to-night, Jesus affirmed to him, and they resumed their journey through a country that seemed to grow more arid and melancholy as they advanced.

  Paul complained often that he had come by a more direct and a better way with Timothy, but Jesus insisted that the way they were going was not many miles longer than the way Paul had come by. Moreover, the way he was taking was safer to follow. The Jews of Jericho had had many hours in which to lay plans for his capture, but Jesus thought that if Paul would believe in him he would be able to get him in safety to the village of Bethennabrio, where Paul thought he would be safe; the Jews would not dare to arrest a Roman prisoner, one who had been ordered by Festus to Italy to receive Cæsar’s judgment within a few miles of Cæsarea. Thou’lt be within two hours of Cæsarea, Jesus said, and can look forward to seeing your comrade Timothy the next day. Jesus’ words brought comfort to Paul’s heart and helped him to forget his feet that were beginning to pain him. But a long distance would still have to be traversed, and his eyes wandered over the outlines of the round-backed hills divided by steep valleys, so much alike that he asked himself how it was that Jesus could distinguish one from the other; but his guide seemed to divine the way as by instinct, and Paul struggled on, encouraged by a promise of a half-hour’s rest as soon as they reached the summit of the hill before them. But no sooner had they reached it than Jesus said, come behind this rock and hide thyself quickly. And when he was safely hidden Jesus said, now peep over the top and thou’lt see a shepherd leading his sheep along the hillside. What of that? Paul answered, and Jesus said, not much, only I am thinking whether it would be well to let him go his way without putting a question to him, or whether it would be better to leave thee here while I go to him with the intention of finding out from him if there be tidings going about that one Paul of Tarsus, a spreader of great heresies, a pestilential fellow, a stirrer-up of sedition, has been seen wandering, trying to find his way back to Cæsarea.

  The shepherd was passing away over the crest of the hill when Jesus said, the pretext will come to me on my way to him. Do thou abide here till I return, and Paul watched him running, lurching from side to side over the rough ground towards the shepherd, still far away. Will he overtake him before he passes out of sight and hearing? he asked himself.

  The sheep were running merrily, and the breeze carried down to Paul’s ear the sound of the pipe, setting him thinking of the Patriarchs and then of his guide; only mad, he said, in one corner of his brain, convinced that he returned to the Essenes because he had said in Jerusalem that he was the Messiah. A strange blasphemy, he muttered, and yet not strange enough to save the brethren from the infection of it. It would seem that they believe with him that he suffered under Pilate, without knowing, however, for what crime he was punished; and a terrible curiosity arose in Paul to learn the true story of his guide’s life, who, he judged, might be led into telling it if care were taken not to arouse his suspicion. But these madmen are full of cunning, he said to himself, and when Jesus returned Paul asked if he had discovered from the shepherd if an order was abroad from Jericho to arrest two itinerant preachers on their way to Cæsarea. Jesus answered him that he had put no direct question to the shepherd. He had talked to him of the prospect of future rains, and we were both agreed, Jesus said, that the sky looked like rain, and he told me we should find water in the valley collected in pools among the rocks; he mentioned one by a group of fig-trees which we could not miss seeing. Thou art safe, Paul, have no fear for thy safe arrival at Cæsarea at midday to-morrow. If a search had been ordered to arrest two wayfarers my shepherd would have heard of it, for it was about here that they would try to intercept us, and we shall do well to turn into a path that they will overlook even if they have sent out agents in pursuit of thee and Timothy.

  CHAP. XL.

  BY MIDDAY THEY reached a region more rugged than the one they had come out of. The path they followed zigzagged up steep ascents and descended into crumbling valleys and plains filled with split stones, rubble and sand, a desert truly, without sign of a living thing till the shadow of an eagle’s wings passed over the hot stones. Jesus told Paul that the birds nested up among the clefts yonder and were most destructive in the spring when the ewes were lambing. Having to feed three or four eaglets, he said, the birds would descend on the flocks, the she-eagle, the larger, stronger and fiercer, will attack and drive off even the dog that does not fear a wolf, yet I have seen, he continued, a timid ewe, her youngling behind her in a coign in the hill, face the bird fiercely and butt it till she lost her eyes, poor ewe, for I came up too late with my staff. And the lamb? Paul inquired: was far away, Jesus answered, aloft among the eaglets.

  Jesus had stories of wolves and hyenas to beguile the way with, and he pointed with his staff to the narrow paths above them up which they would have to climb. But be not discouraged, he said, we shall be in a better country presently; as soon as we pass the hill yonder we shall begin to descend into the plain, another three leagues beyond yon hill we shall be where we bid each other farewell. Paul answered he was leaving Palestine for ever. His way was first to Italy and then to Spain and afterwards his life would be over, his mission fulfilled, but he was glad to have been to Jericho to have seen the Jordan, the river in which John had baptized Jesus. He was sorry now when it was too late that he had never been to Galilee, and Jesus told of wooded hills rising gently from the lake shore, and he took pleasure in relating the town of Magdala and the house of Dan of Arimathea, Joseph’s father, and the great industry he had established there; he continued talking, showing such an intimate and personal knowledge of Galilee that Paul could not doubt that he was what he professed to be, a Nazarene. There were hundreds of Nazarenes, many of which were called Jesus: but there was only one Jesus of Nazareth. He did not say this to Jesus; but after Jesus had asked him how it was that he who had travelled the world over had never turned into Galilee, he replied that the human life of Jesus in Galilee concerned him not at all and his teaching very little. He taught all the virtues, but these were known to humanity from the beginning; they are in the law that God revealed to Moses. Even pagans know of them. The Greeks have expounded them excellently well. A teacher Jesus was and a great teacher, but far more important was the fact that God had raised him from the dead, thereby placing him above all the prophets and near to God himself. So I have always taught that if Jesus were not raised from the dead our teaching is vain. A miracle, he said, and he looked into Jesus’ face just as if he suspected him to be thinking that something more than a miracle was needed to convince the world of the truth of Paul’s doctrine. A miracle, to the truth of which more than five hundred have already testified. First he appeared to Mary and Martha, afterwards to Cleophas and Khuza. On the way to Emmaus he stayed and supped with them and afterwards he appeared to the twelve. Hast met all the twelve and consulted with them? Jesus asked, and Paul, a little irritated by the interruption, answered that he had seen Peter and John and James and Philip but he knew not the othe
rs; and, of course, James, the brother of the Lord. Tell me about him, Jesus answered. He admits Jesus as a prophet among the others but no more, and observes the law more strictly than any other Jew, a narrow-minded bigot that has opposed my teaching as bitterly as the priests themselves. It was he who, Paul began, but Jesus interrupted and asked about Peter. Where was he? And what doctrine is he preaching? Paul answered that Peter was at Antioch, though why he should choose to live there has always seemed strange to me, for he does not speak Greek. But what trade does he follow? Jesus asked. There are marshes and lakes about Antioch, Paul replied, and these are well stocked with fish, of a quality inferior, however, to those he used to catch in the lake of Gennesaret, but still fish for which there is some sale. He and John own some boats and they ply up and down the marshes, and draw up a living in their nets, a poor and uncertain living I believe it to be, for they are often about telling stories to the faithful of our Lord Jesus Christ, who pay them for their recitals. One is always with them, a woman called Rachel. It is said that she poisoned a rival at a wedding, a girl called Ruth whom Jesus raised from the dead. Ruth went to her husband, but Rachel followed Jesus of Nazareth.... Thou’rt a Galilean, Paul said, and know these stories better than I.