by Lew Wallace
CHAPTER XV
The shadows cast over the Orchard of Palms by the mountains atset of sun left no sweet margin time of violet sky and drowsingearth between the day and night. The latter came early and swift;and against its glooming in the tent this evening the servantsbrought four candlesticks of brass, and set them by the cornersof the table. To each candlestick there were four branches, and oneach branch a lighted silver lamp and a supply cup of olive-oil.In light ample, even brilliant, the group at dessert continuedtheir conversation, speaking in the Syriac dialect, familiar toall peoples in that part of the world.
The Egyptian told his story of the meeting of the three inthe desert, and agreed with the sheik that it was in December,twenty-seven years before, when he and his companions fleeing fromHerod arrived at the tent praying shelter. The narrative was heardwith intense interest; even the servants lingering when they couldto catch its details. Ben-Hur received it as became a man listeningto a revelation of deep concern to all humanity, and to none ofmore concern than the people of Israel. In his mind, as we shallpresently see, there was crystallizing an idea which was to changehis course of life, if not absorb it absolutely.
As the recital proceeded, the impression made by Balthasar uponthe young Jew increased; at its conclusion, his feeling was tooprofound to permit a doubt of its truth; indeed, there was nothingleft him desirable in the connection but assurances, if such wereto be had, pertaining exclusively to the consequences of theamazing event.
And now there is wanting an explanation which the very discerningmay have heretofore demanded; certainly it can be no longer delayed.Our tale begins, in point of date not less than fact, to trench closeupon the opening of the ministry of the Son of Mary, whom we haveseen but once since this same Balthasar left him worshipfully inhis mother's lap in the cave by Bethlehem. Henceforth to the endthe mysterious Child will be a subject of continual reference;and slowly though surely the current of events with which we aredealing will bring us nearer and nearer to him, until finally wesee him a man--we would like, if armed contrariety of opinion wouldpermit it, to add--A MAN WHOM THE WORLD COULD NOT DO WITHOUT. Ofthis declaration, apparently so simple, a shrewd mind inspired byfaith will make much--and in welcome. Before his time, and since,there have been men indispensable to particular people and periods;but his indispensability was to the whole race, and for all time--arespect in which it is unique, solitary, divine.
To Sheik Ilderim the story was not new. He had heard it from thethree wise men together under circumstances which left no roomfor doubt; he had acted upon it seriously, for the helping afugitive escape from the anger of the first Herod was dangerous.Now one of the three sat at his table again, a welcome guest andrevered friend. Sheik Ilderim certainly believed the story; yet,in the nature of things, its mighty central fact could not comehome to him with the force and absorbing effect it came to Ben-Hur.He was an Arab, whose interest in the consequences was but general;on the other hand, Ben-Hur was an Israelite and a Jew, with morethan a special interest in--if the solecism can be pardoned--thetruth of the fact. He laid hold of the circumstance with a purelyJewish mind.
From his cradle, let it be remembered, he had heard of the Messiah;at the colleges he had been made familiar with all that was knownof that Being at once the hope, the fear, and the peculiar gloryof the chosen people; the prophets from the first to the last ofthe heroic line foretold him; and the coming had been, and yet was,the theme of endless exposition with the rabbis--in the synagogues,in the schools, in the Temple, of fast-days and feast-days, in publicand in private, the national teachers expounded and kept expoundinguntil all the children of Abraham, wherever their lots were cast,bore the Messiah in expectation, and by it literally, and withiron severity, ruled and moulded their lives.
Doubtless, it will be understood from this that there was muchargument among the Jews themselves about the Messiah, and sothere was; but the disputation was all limited to one point,and one only--when would he come?
Disquisition is for the preacher; whereas the writer is but tellinga tale, and that he may not lose his character, the explanation heis making requires notice merely of a point connected with theMessiah about which the unanimity among the chosen people wasmatter of marvellous astonishment: he was to be, when come,the KING OF THE JEWS--their political King, their Caesar.By their instrumentality he was to make armed conquest ofthe earth, and then, for their profit and in the name of God,hold it down forever. On this faith, dear reader, the Phariseesor Separatists--the latter being rather a political term--in thecloisters and around the altars of the Temple, built an edifice ofhope far overtopping the dream of the Macedonian. His but coveredthe earth; theirs covered the earth and filled the skies; that isto say, in their bold, boundless fantasy of blasphemous egotism,God the Almighty was in effect to suffer them for their uses to nailhim by the ear to a door in sign of eternal servitude.
Returning directly to Ben-Hur, it is to be observed now that therewere two circumstances in his life the result of which had beento keep him in a state comparatively free from the influence andhard effects of the audacious faith of his Separatist countrymen.
In the first place, his father followed the faith of the Sadducees,who may, in a general way, be termed the Liberals of their time.They had some loose opinions in denial of the soul. They werestrict constructionists and rigorous observers of the Law asfound in the books of Moses; but they held the vast mass ofRabbinical addenda to those books in derisive contempt. They wereunquestionably a sect, yet their religion was more a philosophythan a creed; they did not deny themselves the enjoyments oflife, and saw many admirable methods and productions among theGentile divisions of the race. In politics they were the activeopposition of the Separatists. In the natural order of things,these circumstances and conditions, opinions and peculiarities,would have descended to the son as certainly and really as anyportion of his father's estate; and, as we have seen, he wasactually in course of acquiring them, when the second savingevent overtook him.
Upon a youth of Ben-Hur's mind and temperament the influence offive years of affluent life in Rome can be appreciated best byrecalling that the great city was then, in fact, the meeting-placeof the nations--their meeting-place politically and commercially,as well as for the indulgence of pleasure without restraint.Round and round the golden mile-stone in front of the Forum--nowin gloom of eclipse, now in unapproachable splendor--flowedall the active currents of humanity. If excellences of manner,refinements of society, attainments of intellect, and glory ofachievement made no impression upon him, how could he, as the sonof Arrius, pass day after day, through a period so long, from thebeautiful villa near Misenum into the receptions of Caesar, and bewholly uninfluenced by what he saw there of kings, princes, ambassadors,hostages, and delegates, suitors all of them from every known land,waiting humbly the yes or no which was to make or unmake them? Asmere assemblages, to be sure, there was nothing to compare with thegatherings at Jerusalem in celebration of the Passover; yet whenhe sat under the purple velaria of the Circus Maximus one of threehundred and fifty thousand spectators, he must have been visited bythe thought that possibly there might be some branches of the familyof man worthy divine consideration, if not mercy, though they were ofthe uncircumcised--some, by their sorrows, and, yet worse, by theirhopelessness in the midst of sorrows, fitted for brotherhood in thepromises to his countrymen.
That he should have had such a thought under such circumstances wasbut natural; we think so much, at least, will be admitted: but whenthe reflection came to him, and he gave himself up to it, he couldnot have been blind to a certain distinction. The wretchedness ofthe masses, and their hopeless condition, had no relation whateverto religion; their murmurs and groans were not against their godsor for want of gods. In the oak-woods of Britain the Druids heldtheir followers; Odin and Freya maintained their godships in Gauland Germany and among the Hyperboreans; Egypt was satisfied withher crocodiles and Anubis; the Persians were yet devoted to Ormuzdand Ahriman, holding them in equal honor; in hope of
the Nirvana,the Hindoos moved on patient as ever in the rayless paths of Brahm;the beautiful Greek mind, in pauses of philosophy, still sang theheroic gods of Homer; while in Rome nothing was so common and cheapas gods. According to whim, the masters of the world, because theywere masters, carried their worship and offerings indifferently fromaltar to altar, delighted in the pandemonium they had erected. Theirdiscontent, if they were discontented, was with the number of gods;for, after borrowing all the divinities of the earth they proceededto deify their Caesars, and vote them altars and holy service. No,the unhappy condition was not from religion, but misgovernmentand usurpations and countless tyrannies. The Avernus men had beentumbled into, and were praying to be relieved from, was terriblybut essentially political. The supplication--everywhere alike,in Lodinum, Alexandria, Athens, Jerusalem--was for a king toconquer with, not a god to worship.
Studying the situation after two thousand years, we can see andsay that religiously there was no relief from the universalconfusion except some God could prove himself a true God,and a masterful one, and come to the rescue; but the people ofthe time, even the discerning and philosophical, discovered nohope except in crushing Rome; that done, the relief would follow inrestorations and reorganizations; therefore they prayed, conspired,rebelled, fought, and died, drenching the soil to-day with blood,to-morrow with tears--and always with the same result.
It remains to be said now that Ben-Hur was in agreement with themass of men of his time not Romans. The five years' residence inthe capital served him with opportunity to see and study themiseries of the subjugated world; and in full belief that theevils which afflicted it were political, and to be cured onlyby the sword, he was going forth to fit himself for a part in theday of resort to the heroic remedy. By practice of arms he was aperfect soldier; but war has its higher fields, and he who wouldmove successfully in them must know more than to defend with shieldand thrust with spear. In those fields the general finds his tasks,the greatest of which is the reduction of the many into one, andthat one himself; the consummate captain is a fighting-man armedwith an army. This conception entered into the scheme of life towhich he was further swayed by the reflection that the vengeancehe dreamed of, in connection with his individual wrongs, would bemore surely found in some of the ways of war than in any pursuitof peace.
The feelings with which he listened to Balthasar can be now understood.The story touched two of the most sensitive points of his being sothey rang within him. His heart beat fast--and faster still when,searching himself, he found not a doubt either that the recitalwas true in every particular, or that the Child so miraculouslyfound was the Messiah. Marvelling much that Israel rested so deadto the revelation, and that he had never heard of it before thatday, two questions presented themselves to him as centring all itwas at that moment further desirable to know:
Where was the Child then?
And what was his mission?
With apologies for the interruptions, he proceeded to draw outthe opinions of Balthasar, who was in nowise loath to speak.
