 | XIV. Julian, or Scenes in Judea |  |
14. XIV.
I trust, my mother, that my letter from
Machærus by the worthy hands of our neighbor,
the Goldsmith, has been safely received.
It was not until nearly the last day of our tarrying
there, that, among the crowds coming
and going, my eye caught his familiar countenance,
which instantly returned with smiles and
friendly greetings my signs of recognition. His
affairs have greatly prospered, he assured me,
as we conversed at Machærus; inasmuch as, out
of many applicants, he has been chosen by
Herod to work in gold and ivory a gigantic cup
as a gift to Tiberius, and a vase of scarcely
less size or value for Sejanus, both which labors
he has undertaken, and trusts by the manner in
which he shall perform them to transmit his
name with honor to posterity. He will cover
them with histories, commemorating the principal
events in the life of each of the great personages
for whom they are designed. Truly he
is an eminent artist; but this appointment of his
is not, as his vanity would persuade him, the
greater. Nevertheless the little worker in gold
and ivory is an honest man, if vain, and I
doubt not that, as he promised to do, he has
borne my letter safely, and himself placed it in
your hands.
Upon arriving again at the house of Onias,
we were received, as you will believe, with joy
by the solitary Judith, — solitary I say, — for
though there are, as I have already represented,
many members of our wide spread family beneath
her roof, and under her care, yet are
there none to whom she can turn for that full
companionship which she shares with her
father, and now, though in less degrees, with
myself. But though we relieved her solitude
by our presence, I fear we brought little else to
comfort her; for it was evident that all the
news we imparted of the purposes of Herod
and of our partnership in them was anything
rather than agreeable to her. She could not,
nor did she essay to disguise her grief.
“No profiting, my father, I fear me,” she
said, “can come to Israel by such an instrument.
Herod is not he who should reign over
Israel. It is another head we need. Aims he
at anything save his own exaltation? The people
are every day looking for their king, and
Herod, building upon this fond expectation would
for Israel than his father? Could we think of
Herod the Great as the Christ?”
“He, my daughter, enslaved us to Rome,
great as he was; Antipas delivers and redeems
us.”
“And suppose, my father, we were redeemed
and delivered, and sat beneath an independent
prince; I see not how we should be the gainers.
How much differs Herod from Tiberius?
With the power I fear he would show the cruelty
and the lust of Tiberius. Such should
not be the Messiah of Israel. It is a prophet,
mighty in word and in deed, a teacher of
righteousness, a reformer of our manners whom
we want, not less, surely, than a King.”
“These, Judith, are the notions sown in thy
brain by thy Samaritan mother, (now in Abraham's
bosom,) and thy Samaritan nurse — a
people — save that God, as in them, hath appeared
in a few, cursed and reprobate. Reject
they not the Prophets, and through them the
counsels of God? How should they judge
worthily of the Saviour of Israel?”
“Yet they believe in Moses, and Moses hath
spoken of the Christ.”
“Moses, my child, knew and spoke but in
part; they who have come later have declared
more fully the purposes of God. Why have
to what was known before? And by them we
know that Messiah shall be King and Prince,
as well as Prophet. Teacher he shall be — but
Prince and Ruler also.”
“If so, my father, how shall Herod fulfil the
hope of Israel? He may be King and Prince,
but how shall he be Prophet and Instructer?”
“David, my daughter, was a sinner — but
he was a prophet also. Solomon, the wisest of
men was not the best — and Moses in his anger
slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
Herod is not without spot; but God may
pour into him what of his own wisdom he will,
and when he hath delivered Israel by the power
of his arm, he may also purge and cleanse the
soul, by the healing medicine of his truth.
God shall shine so through him, that he shall
be no longer himself, but shall be called Immanuel.
In the works he shall do, and the
words he shall speak, he shall be God with us.”
“Oh! far rather, my father, would I, that
even John were He. God, we may believe,
will, when he speaks, speak through a holy
mouth. John is holy and wise. The people
revere him.”
“Be not, my child, so easy to be led astray
by thy fancies, or, the false pretences of cunning
men. Thou knowest how many since
robberies, rebellion, and misery upon our land
through their own wicked ambition. John may
prove but another of these. If from God, he seems
to have no power but such as may be sufficient,
by and by, to inflame the multitude with some
mad expectation of dominion, which after a few
attempts to gain it, will end in confusion and
blood. Whom God shall clothe with his authority,
him will he strengthen with his arm,
and the signs of his power shall be manifest.
These are seen already in Herod and in only
him. And throughout the length and breadth
of the land are there those among the chief
men, and in Jerusalem especially, who stand
with their loins girded, and their lamps
burning, waiting for the cry that shall announce
him to have arisen, that he may enter
into his kingdom. John, in Herod's judgment,
is but a habitation of devils; and so, ere long,
he trusts to prove it upon him.”
But no arguings of Onias, nor of thy son, can
prevail to change the fixed mind of Judith.
Nor of her only. For more than ever are the
people drawn towards John with expectations
of they know not what. Great numbers still
flock to his preaching and his baptism, leaving
their homes and their employments; and although
he does not as yet give any evidence
yet they are persuaded that he will presently
give such evidence, or will, according to his frequent
declarations, be followed and accompanied
by one in whom all the prophecies of the
Scriptures, and all the wishes of the people
shall find their fulfilment.
Of late the declarations of the Baptist concerning
another, of whom he is but the precursor,
have become the more express and distinct.
The thoughts of those who come to him
are studiously turned from himself to one of
greater power, who is soon to succeed him.
Although John himself cannot intend to mark
out Herod by the mysterious language he uses,
yet it fails not to bring him before the minds
of others, as the only one from whom it seems
possible that help should come. So that
unconsciously he lends strength to our cause.
And we are persuaded, that were Herod's affairs
now so far advanced, that he could at once present
himself before the nation, as he did before
his few adherents at Machærus, there is no
doubt the people would gather round him with
a zeal, and with numbers and a power that
Pilate would in vain attempt to withstand.
But alas! very much remains to be done ere
such a step can be taken; yet so confident
of action, so uneasy under delay, that our chief
danger springs from the possibility of rash and
sudden outbreaks of zeal, before the measures
which we deem essential can be completed.
The greater need of caution exists here from
the so near neighborhood of the Romans in
Beth-Harem, and our frequent intercourse with
Saturninus. But Pilate believing himself to
have no ground of apprehension beyond Onias,
no suspicions attach to the many communications
which now take place between us and
Herod, and would not were they known to
Saturninus. But they are too well guarded to
become known.
We are, now that the force of the winter is
spent, full of cares. Messengers arrive and depart
by night, going and coming between
Beth-Harem, Machærus, Tiberias, Sepphoris,
and Jerusalem. Herod's adherents increase
day by day, and our confidence with them.
But as our confidence and hope increase the
disappointment and sorrow of Judith increase
more than in a just proportion to them. She
becomes now even vehement in her expressions
of disapprobation, or detestation I should rather
say, of Herod. All this Onias refers to her
Samaritan nurture, and so leaves it. But in the
sure, which demands more for its satisfaction
than that which he hath bestowed upon others.
It is not her rearing only that causes the
difference. One needs only to observe her
countenance, or listen to the sounds of her
voice, to know that another and higher sense is
in her; and this especially when she is seen or
heard reciting those parts of the Prophets
which most delight or instruct her, or in singing
to her harp at the close of a Sabbath day
the sacred hymns of David. Never did the
praise of the Divine Poet so exalt me, or his
strains of penitence and sadness so depress me,
as when borne to my ear on the voice of Judith.
Yet whatever she may draw from the Prophets
and the Law, and whatever she may impart to
others, she feels and confesses dissatisfaction.
Their words reach not high enough, they descend
not deep enough for the cravings of her
heart. What would she have?
The successes of John, and the language
which he continues to use concerning Herodias,
alarm and enrage the Tetrarch. To-day, a
messenger has arrived bearing letters to both
Onias and myself. Herod thus writes to Onias.
“Herod Antipas, Tetrarch, to Onias of Beth-Harem.
“We hear concerning John, that he still
preaches on the Jordan, and that yet greater
numbers attend him, drawn together in great
part by the violence with which he assaileth
ourself, our power, the priests, the chief men
among the Pharisees, and many others upon a
proper reverence of whom, however, our law
insisteth, and the welfare of the state dependeth.
The minds of the people are moreover
turned from us to him. We cannot look to obtain
a place in their regards where he hath first
entered, nor so long as he is allowed to keep
possession. It is our will therefore, if it also
seem good to you, that he be seized, and having
been first scourged, be forbidden to baptize
or preach within our realm, and dismissed from
its borders. And if in the malice of his heart
he should remain disobedient, that he be then
sent close prisoner to Machærus. Thus will
the way be made clear of what is now a hindrance.
“Philip of Iturea joins us; or which avails
as much, standeth neuter.
“These will be delivered by the hand of our
faithful Chuza.”
It was plain from this epistle of Herod,
that the spies whom he had constantly employed
had not returned to him an exact account
of either the doings of the Baptist, or of
people. For nothing could appear more evident
to Onias and myself, and to others who
were careful to observe narrowly, than that
John was, with however little intention, preparing
the way quite as much for Herod as for
himself or any other person. In respect to his
charges against the Tetrarch in the matter of
his brother's wife, the populace take but little
thought about them, not knowing how the truth
may stand, and leaving such affairs to be managed
as it may please the parties concerned.
The laws under which both Jews and Samaritans
change husband and wife are such, that
acts of divorcement take place continually,
and make but little stir. While therefore they
pay slight regard to what John hath said of
this, they have caught greedily at all that he
hath let drop concerning his follower. His
speech has indeed been ambiguous and obscure;
either with intention so, or because he is an
instrument merely in the hands of a Mightier
Power, and utters oracles, by himself not clearly
understood. No urgency of those who have
pressed about him has availed to make such
declarations more precise. The multitudes
therefore have interpreted his language as their
minds have prompted, and their secret wishes
have directed. Very many, accordingly, have
purpose of John, Herod is the person to whom
they are to look. He has thus been set before
the people more and more, and greater numbers
than before are coming to look upon his pretensions
with favor. The large sect of the
Herodians is beginning throughout their body
to unite to their attachment to the Herodian
family, and the Roman usages they have introduced,
a faith in Antipas as the great restorer,
who, at the same time that he shall reëstablish
the independence of Judea, shall with a proper
observance of the Law, freely allow the licenses
in which they now indulge, and which they
imagine to be needful to the extending of the
influence of their Law and religion, and the
gaining of proselytes beyond the bounds of
Judea.
Onias, considering these things, thought it
not best that John should either be driven from
the country, or suffer any injury at the hands of
Herod, and wrote thus to the Tetrarch.
“In the judgment,” said he, “of those in
whom thou art wont to put confidence, and to
whom thou hast left the determination of the
present affair, it would not tend to the furthering
of that which we have in hand, were the Baptist
driven from these regions, or by the soldiers
seized and scourged. The effects of his labors
own. For while he declares to the foolish
multitudes who surround him, that he is not
himself the Christ — a declaration not in truth
needed to those, who have any discernment at
all in the things of God — he at the same time
saith that he, as Elias, hath preceded him, and
that he shall soon appear. Wherefore it happens,
that the people believing him to be a
prophet, and seeking to discover whither he
would direct their thoughts, are in great numbers
led to thee! For in no other quarter
whatsoever can they behold a ray of light. If
John, they say, be not the Christ, and he doth
no miracle, nor giveth any other sign that he is
that prophet, to whom can they look but to
thee? So that while he intendeth quite otherwise,
John buildeth for thee; notwithstanding
that some, who are utterly without eyes or
judgment, he succeedeth in turning against thee.
But for thy brother Philip's wife, Great King,
all Israel were on thy side. May Jehovah
guide, and in due time exalt thee.”
Letters in reply to this have been received
from the Tetrarch, showing his acquiescence
in the judgment of Onias, and consenting also,
out of regard to urgent representations, to relinquish
the further prosecution of his affair
with Herodias. It was only on such consent
cause. With others also it was made a condition
of adherence.
Since these things have been determined, a
new vigor has been put into all his followers.
Redoubled efforts are making, and the time
draws instantly on, when what is now hidden
and concealed will be revealed in the plain
light of day.
I am not surprised to learn from thy letters,
that in Rome the same things are to be observed
among many as here; and I hear the
like also of our people wherever they are scattered,
whether in Greece, Egypt, or the farther
East. There is among them all, as letters from
all parts inform us, as well as the reports of
merchants and travellers, one and the same expectation.
Within the limits of Judea and
Galilee the thoughts of all orders of people
dwell upon this hope. The appearance, and
much more the prophetic declarations of John,
however dark and ambiguous, which of late
both Onias and myself have heard from him
with our own ears, have helped to impart to it
new ardor, and give it a yet deeper place in the
heart. All this works mightily for us; and I
trust before another moon it will be shown
throughout all the coasts of Israel, that the hope
poison nor ashes, but as the very food which
God himself hath provided to nourish the soul,
and be for the salvation of his people. Every
day do the people groan beneath new exactions
of our avaricious conquerors; every day do
they find their liberty abridged more and more,
themselves and their children subject to cruelties
the most wanton and oppressive. Pilate's
conduct in Cæsarea, his massacres in Jerusalem,
his slaughter of the Galileans while offering
their sacrifices, and the lesser acts of tyranny
of which none or few hear or know save those
who suffer, have served, together with what
hath taken place on the Jordan, to put fire
into men's bosoms, and to kindle there a new
and fiercer zeal for God, and his Law, and
Judea.
| XIV. Julian, or Scenes in Judea | |