For the Temple Part 39

"Why," Simon asked calmly, "what has detained you, Isaac?"

"A strange thing has happened," the old man said. "One of our wanderers has returned--not he whom we have hoped and prayed for most--but Jonas. He has been a slave, but has escaped, and come back to us."

"And what is his news?" Simon asked, rising to his feet; but even more imperative was the unspoken question on Mary's white face, and parted lips.

"He gives us hope," Isaac said to her. "So far as he knows, John may yet be alive."

"I knew it, I knew it!" Mary said, in a voice scarcely above a whisper.

"O Lord, I thank thee. Why have I doubted Thy mercy?"

And she stood, for a moment, with head thrown back and eyes upraised; then she swayed suddenly, and would have fallen, had not Isaac run forward and supported her until, at Martha's cry, two of the maids hastened up and placed her on a seat.

Some water was held to her lips. She drank a little, and then said, faintly, "Tell us more, Isaac."

"I have not much more to tell," he replied. "Jonas says that John certainly did not fall in Jerusalem--as, indeed, we were told by the young man of his band who returned--and that he believes that, like himself, he was sold as a slave.

"But Jonas is outside. I thought it better to tell you, first. Now, I will call him in to speak for himself."

When Jonas entered, Martha and Mary were clasped in each other's arms. Miriam, with the tears streaming down her cheeks, was repeating aloud one of the Psalms of thanksgiving; while Simon stood with head bent low, and his hands grasping the table, upon which the tears were raining down in heavy drops.

It was some little time before they could question Jonas further.

Martha and Mary had embraced him as if he had been the son of one, the brother of the other. Simon solemnly blessed him, and welcomed him as one from the dead. Then they gathered round to hear his story.

"John and I both escaped all the dangers of the siege," he said.

"We were wounded several times, but never seriously. G.o.d seemed to watch over us; and although at the last, of the six hundred men with which we entered Jerusalem there were but twelve who remained alive, we were among them."

"Yes, yes, we knew that," Martha said. "News was brought by a young man of his band, who belonged to a village on the lake, that twelve of you had escaped together on the day the Temple fell. The others all returned to their homes, but no news ever came of you; and they said that some party of Romans must have killed you--what else could have befallen you? And now we are in February--nearly six months have pa.s.sed--and no word of you!"

"We were carried off as slaves," Jonas said, "and taken, like Joseph, to be sold in Egypt."

"And have you seen him, since?" Simon asked.

"Yes, I saw him in Egypt."

"And he was well then?"

"Quite well," Jonas replied. "I was sent to Rome, and thence managed to make my way back by ship."

"We must purchase him back," Simon said. "Surely that must be possible! I have money, still. I will make the journey, myself, and buy him."

And he rose to his feet, as if to start at once.

"Well, not now," he went on, in answer to the hand which Martha laid on his shoulder, "but tomorrow."

While he was speaking, Mary had touched Jonas, gazing into his face with the same eager question her eyes had asked Isaac. The thought that Jonas was not alone had flashed across her. He nodded slightly, and looked towards the door. In a moment she was gone.

"John!" she cried, as she ran out of the house; at first in a low tone, but louder and louder as she ran on. "John! John! Where are you?"

A figure stepped out from among the trees, and Mary fell into his arms. A few minutes later, she re-entered the room.

"Father," she said, going up to Simon, while she took Martha's hand in hers, "do you remember you told me, once, that when you were a young man you went to hear the preaching of a teacher of the sect of the Essenes, whom they afterwards slew. You thought he was a good man, and a great teacher; and you said he told a parable, and you remembered the very words. I think I remember them, now:

"'And his father saw him, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and said, "Let us be merry, for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found."'

"And so, father, is it even unto us."

Ill.u.s.tration: The Return of John to his House on the Lake.

Martha gave a loud cry, and turned to the door and, in another moment, was clasped in John's arms. Then his father fell on his neck.

There was no happier household in the land than that which joined in the Psalms of thanksgiving that night. The news spread quickly to the fishermen's cottages, and the neighbours flocked in to congratulate Simon and Martha on the return of their son; and it was long since the strains of the songs of joy had floated out so clear and strong over the water of Galilee for, for years, strains of lamentation and humiliation, alone, had been on the lips of the Jewish maidens.

After the service of song was over, Miriam and the maids loaded the table, while Isaac fetched a skin of the oldest wine from the cellar, and all who had a.s.sembled were invited to join the feast.

When the neighbours had retired, John asked his father and Isaac to come down with him, and Jonas, to the side of the lake, to bring up a chest that was lying there.

"It is rather too heavy for Jonas and me to carry, alone."

"It would have been better, my son, to have asked some of our neighbours. They would gladly have a.s.sisted you, and Isaac and I have not, between us, the strength of one man."

"I know it, father, but I do not wish that any, besides ourselves, should know that the box is here. We will take a pole and a rope with us, and can adjust the weight so that your portion shall not be beyond your strength."

On arriving at the spot, Simon was surprised at seeing a small box, which it would be thought a woman could have lifted, with ease.

"Is this the box of which you spoke, John? Surely you want no aid to carry this up?"

"We do, indeed, father, as you will see."

With the a.s.sistance of Jonas, John put the rope round the box, and slung it to the pole near one end. He and Jonas then took this end.

Simon and Isaac lifted that farthest from the box, so that but a small share of the weight rested upon them. So the chest was carried up to the house.

"What is this you have brought home?" Martha asked, as they laid the box down in the princ.i.p.al room.

"It is gold, mother--gold to be used for the relief of the poor and distressed, for those who have been made homeless and fatherless in this war. It was a gift to me, as I will tell you, tomorrow; but I need not say that I would not touch one penny of it, for it is Roman gold. But it will place it in our power to do immense good, among the poor. We had best bury it, just beneath the floor, so that we can readily get at it when we have need."

"It is a great responsibility, my son," Simon said; "but truly, there are thousands of homeless and starving families who sought refuge among the hills, when their towns and villages were destroyed by the Romans and, with this store of gold, which must be of great value, truly great things can be done towards relieving their necessities."

The next morning, John related to his family the various incidents which had befallen him and Jonas since they had last parted; and their surprise was unbounded, when he produced the three doc.u.ments with which he had been furnished by t.i.tus. The letters, saying that the favour of Caesar had been bestowed upon John as a token of admiration, only, for the bravery with which he had fought, and ordering that all Romans should treat him as one having the favour and friendship of t.i.tus, gave them unbounded satisfaction. That appointing him procurator of the whole district bordering the lake to the east surprised, and almost bewildered them.

"But what are you going to do, my son? Are you goiug to leave us, and live in a palace, and appear as a Roman officer?"

"I am not thinking of doing that, father," John said, with a smile.

"For myself I would much rather that this dignity had not been conferred on me by t.i.tus; and I would gladly put this commission, with its imperial seal, into the fire. But I feel that I cannot do this, for it gives me great power of doing good to our neighbours.

I shall be able to protect them from all oppression by Roman soldiers, or by tax gatherers. There is no occasion for me to live in a palace, or to wear the garments of a Roman official. The letter of t.i.tus shows that it is to a Jew that he has given this power, and as a Jew I shall use it.

"While journeying here from Rome, I have thought much over the matter. At first, I thought of suppressing the order. Then, I felt that a power of good had been given into my hands; and that I had no right, from selfish reasons, to shrink from its execution.

Doubtless, at first I shall be misunderstood. They will say that I, like Josephus, have turned traitor, and have gone over to the Romans. Even were it so, I should have done no more than all the people of Tiberias, Sepphoris, and other cities which submitted to them.