ARIUS THE LIBYAN (continued 3)

"But," moaned the stricken woman, "this chill and shadowy uncertainty will drive me mad. My soul yearneth after my loving, noble husband.--O boy, if thou knowest anything that bringest comfort in the very face of pitiless Death, speak thou to me, and speak thou truthfully; for I am sore afflicted and without hope! How, when all the gods of Egypt fail me--how can I trust the mercy of a strange and unknown God?"

Then the God-ordained minister stood up before them, and with that strange, continuous, rhythmic motion of the hand, with his fine head erect and bending toward her from the long and shapely neck, his luminous eyes agleam with strange mesmeric light, his voice sibilant, tremulous, incisive, began to preach his first little sermon in a way that grace and training made natural unto him: "Trouble not thine heart, O woman, with any thought about the gods of Egypt, for I tell thee that the unknown God to whom all men turn in time of sorest trial and sorrow, even as Am-nem-hat hath declared unto thee, is no more unknown, but is one God over all, blessed for evermore, and hath revealed himself unto men through his Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who loved us, and hath borne all of our sins upon himself, that we by faith in him may so be free; for, to them who believe in Jesus, life and immortality are brought to light in the gospel, and for them death hath no sting, the grave no victory.--What name do ye Egyptians give unto the burial-place of your dead?"

The boy paused, and looked upon her, demanding an answer with his eyes.

"We call it sarcophagus," she replied.

"Yea," he continued, "sarcophagus! The devourer of human flesh! But we Christians call it cemeterion--a sleeping-ground; because we know that Jesus arose from the dead for our justification, and know that all they who sleep in death shall rise again; for so our Lord hath taught us. Thou complainest that the light of nature is dim and chill, and giveth thee no certain guide nor hope! Thou meanest that the course of nature is stern, pitiless, implacable; teaching only that one must submit to the inevitable without hope; a forced resignation in which there is no comfort; an iron stoicism which teaches us to endure pain bravely but furnisheth no compensation for sorrow; the obedience of a slave who knows that it is impossible to resist and foolish to attempt it; not the faith and love of a child that obeys because he loves, and bears chastisement meekly because he knows that infinite wisdom and exhaustless love inflict it for his good. O woman, listen what the divine Son of God, who took our nature upon himself and was in all things touched with the feelings of our infirmities, saith unto thee: 'Come unto me, thou weary and heavy-laden, and I will give thee rest. Like as a father pitieth his children, the tender mercy of our God is over thee. He that believeth on me shall never die, for life and immortality are brought to light in the gospel, which is the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation for every one that believeth.' For Jesus loveth thee; he died to save thee and to give thee peace; and his blood can cleanse thee from all sin, so that thou mayst be justified by faith, and find peace in believing, and in all times of tribulation and distress thou mayst find Jesus a present help and saviour. O woman, sorely smitten! which one of the gods of Kem hath died to redeem thy soul?"

"None," she answered--"none!"

"Which one of them cleanseth thee from sin, and giveth thee a sure, unfailing promise of eternal life, thereby releasing thee from the fear of death that keepeth mankind in bondage, teaching that death is but a change through which the conscious spirit passeth into larger life?"

"None! not one," she answered. "I have never heard such glorious promises from any priest."

"But to make these glorious promises steadfast, abiding, true, the Son of God took upon himself our nature; became a man for our justification, and offered up himself a divine and perfect sacrifice for us, to make atonement for our sins; and having submitted himself to be crucified by Pontius Pilate, the third day he arose from the dead, whereby we know that we also shall rise. Seek thou for Christ by faith, for in him are joy and peace. In him are hope for all bereavement, consolation for all grief. He loveth thee. He so loved thee as to die for thee! Come thou to him, and thou shalt learn how kind, and compassionate, and merciful a loving God can be! For all that hath happened unto thee is not the cruel, blind, relentless infliction of merciless fate, working through nature; nor is it the vengeance of an angry God upon thee and thy husband; but is only the wise chastisement of thy Father, God, whereby he seeketh to wean thee away from the love of this vain and transitory life, and to draw thy spirit upward to himself, and to the glory of the world to come. Oh, if thou wilt believe in Christ, thou shalt find before his mercy-seat a refuge from every stormy wind that blows, and peace that passeth all understanding, that floweth as a river, that teacheth thee that these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall work out for thee a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory in that bright world to which we haste. Seek thou for Christ, and thou shalt know how good, and pure, and holy an exercise even thy human sorrow and yearning may become."

Then said the woman: "It is all very beautiful and comforting, and I would know more of it. But tell me where I may find a temple in which these things are taught, and a priest that knoweth them."

Then answered Arius: "We have no temple here; and Jesus is our only priest. But there are bishops and presbyters who preach the gospel, when the Christians assemble together. And in every Christian family there are daily religious exercises."

"Dost thou have such worship here in thy father's house?"

"Assuredly! on the evening of every day."

"And at what place?"

"In any place that may be most convenient. In thine own apartment, if thou wilt."

CHAPTER XI.

"FOR THE WORK'S SAKE."

That night, at the request of Hatasa, the whole family assembled in her room, and she insisted upon having them engage in their usual religious exercises, to which she listened with profoundest attention, and with a certain amazement; for it was hard for her to grasp at once the idea that God might be worshiped without a temple, a priest, and a sacrifice; but the fact furnished its own best explanation. And the sorrowful woman soon found herself following with a new, strange sort of interest the reading of the gospel, and the earnest, extemporaneous, sympathetic prayer of Ammonius, in which he pleaded with God not to suffer his dear and sorrowful guests, nor the aged and righteous priest, who had so long sought for the truth, to depart from his abode without having learned by blessed experience how freely Jesus can forgive, and what light and peace his gospel can afford to all who believe thereon.

After the conclusion of these exercises, Am-nem-hat saith to Ammonius, "There are some things connected with thy simple and beautiful religion about which I would question thee when thou shalt have leisure and inclination to answer me."

Then said Ammonius: "Whenever thou wilt! Even now, if thou wilt go with me into another room, where our conversation may not weary the others."

"Nay," cried Hatasa. "Go not hence, I beg; for I eagerly desire to hear such conversation."

Then said Am-nem-hat: "I know the Jewish scriptures, and also the new books which the Christians have written; but I desire thee to tell me plainly what the evidence is of the fact, upon which thou dost continually insist, that Jesus of Nazareth, whom Pilate crucified, is the Christ."

"The evidence is primarily historical and prophetic," said Ammonius, "based chiefly upon the Jewish laws and prophecies concerning him that were written centuries before the advent of our Lord, and that do testify of him."

"Yea," answered Am-nem-hat, "but these proofs only go to establish the coming of a Divine Man, in whom not only Plato and Socrates, who knew nothing of the Jews, but the Egyptians also, and many more, believed. I speak not of proofs that Messiah was to come, but of the proof that Jesus, whom Pilate crucified, was he."

"The evidences upon this point are twofold," answered Ammonius. "One line of proof which is the most satisfying, and which in fact amounts to positive knowledge, is the personal consciousness of the believer, experimental religion, whereby he knoweth that faith, the conviction of sin, the justification of the believer, and all of the phenomena which must necessarily attend the faith, are true. But this highest, most satisfactory, most scientific form of evidence is of course inaccessible to one that believeth not, except by the testimony of those who have personal experience of the truth. The other line of evidence is founded on the fact that the prophecies foretold for centuries just what Messiah should do and suffer when he might come, and we know that Jesus did and suffered just those things--many of them not possible to be done without the Divinity--as healing of the sick, unstopping the deaf ears, cleansing the lepers, restoring sight to the blind, raising the dead, and preaching good tidings to the poor; all of which things Jesus customarily did, all of which things his followers have done from that day to this; whereby we know that he is Christ indeed."

"Dost thou mean to assert that the Christians yet work miracles?" asked Am-nem-hat.

"Assuredly," replied Ammonius. "Jesus not only did the miracles himself, but did solemnly promise that, wherever his disciples should continue to obey him in all things, they should be able, by faith in his name, to do thaumaturgical works even unto the end of time; and they have certainly done so ever since."

"Dost thou really believe that thou hast seen a miracle with thine own eyes?"

"Yea, verily," said Ammonius, "and many of them."

The ancient paused a long time, and seemed lost in profoundest meditation. At length he answered in a tone of inexpressible sadness and weariness: "I was in the temple service at Thebes for nearly half a century, and much of the time a priest. At Ombos I was high-priest for five-and-twenty years, and until some five years ago. I have seen some wonders, indeed, which the people called miracles. but alas! alas! I know just how those things were done! The sun rises and sets, and no man hindereth it! The Nile overfloweth its banks, and refresheth all the land of Kem, and shrinketh back in his accustomed channel; the stars in heaven pursue their bright and tranquil way, and seed-time cometh, and the harvest; and life and death. All nature moves on in obedience to fixed, changeless, universal laws, which have been from the beginning; and I find myself unable to believe that these laws were ever violated, or suspended, in order to furnish evidences of any religion, or for any purpose whatever; although, no doubt, good men may believe that such things have occurred."

"And as to that," said Ammonius, "beyond any question thou art right. He hath but a poor conception of our God who thinketh that, in creating a world wherein he intended miracles to occur, he did not know enough to provide natural laws by which these phenomena might come to pass without violating or suspending the established order. But, if I could know that it violates or suspends any law of nature to raise the dead, I would not believe such a fact, although I have seen it done. But why dost thou suppose that the anastasis of the dead is contrary to natural law? Our Lord hath never said so; on the contrary, he came to fulfill, not to violate, the law. Surely thou canst not declare that any miracle violates or suspends, or is without law, unless thou canst first truthfully declare that all laws are known to thee, and that among them there is none by which the dead might be raised up. But although thou art wise and learned, thou knowest that Nature withholdeth many secrets yet from thee. Thou knowest that no man hath mastered all her laws; and even those which we know may be weak, and mean, and narrow, compared with those of which we are profoundly ignorant. But we Christians teach that God is not the author of confusion, but of order; that all laws of nature, physical, mental, spiritual, are but the expression of his will, which must be harmonious throughout, and can not be self-contradictory; and that just as he hath made some law by which water seeks a level, and by which heavy bodies tend toward the center of the world, and by which oil and water, that repel each other by nature, will unite with an alkali to make a new creature, just so he hath established laws by which the miracles are done; so that the anastasis of the dead, or any other miracle, must be as purely and truly a natural phenomenon as is the rising of the sun, or the falling of the dew--not so common, perhaps, because these phenomena involve powers and faculties of the human soul that do not act always and automatically as do the laws of physical nature; so neither does one sleep, or talk, or think always, but only when he wills to do so."

"That is a new, strange view of thaumaturgy! Thou sayst 'the miracles are under law'; perhaps, then, other men besides the Christians might be able to perform them."

"I know not to what extent it might be possible for other men to exercise the power of faith which is an essential condition in the working of miracles. I suppose they might do wonderful things, that would bear about the same relation to our Christian miracles that their various religions bear to our holy Christianity. And I suppose that the witchcraft and demonology denounced by Moses were the results of the exercise of faith in false gods. But a Christian miracle, depending upon faith in Christ as a primary condition for the exercise of thaumaturgical power, must remain impossible to all who possess not that faith. Thou hast read the Gospels, and thou knowest the Lord hath said, 'If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the midst of the sea, and it should obey you.' But he also said, 'Without me ye can do nothing.'"

"I infer," said Am-nem-hat, "that thou thinkest faith to be the law of miracles; thou thinkest that this faith is itself a force in nature sufficient for the accomplishment of physical results; and that they who sincerely believe may, by means of this force, even raise up the dead. Why, then, are not all the dead raised up?"

"Thou hast stated the law rather too broadly," answered Ammonius. "The faith that worketh miracles must be applied under proper conditions to be of any avail. Water, oil, and alkali do not always produce soap, but only when the proper conditions are observed. So I suppose that no man could be raised up from the dead against his will; and, while there be many Christians that have sought for martyrdom, there be but few that were willing to be raised again, and fewer still that ever requested the brethren to pray for their anastasis, because they preferred to depart, and to be with the Lord, which is far better."

"I do remember," said Am-nem-hat, "that many years ago, when Decius was Emperor of Rome, a bitter persecution raged against the Christians at Alexandria. I saw Julian, and Macar, and Epimachus, and Alexander burned at the stake; and truly many seemed to seek for martyrdom rather than to shun it, a fact which we attributed to a certain incorrigible and hopeless wickedness in them, and not, as thou dost, to their assurance of obtaining a better life. I suppose, indeed, that such men as those would not have desired to be restored to a life which they seemed anxious to lose; and it seemeth reasonable enough that, even if it had been possible to do so, they should not have been recalled against their will. Wilt thou not state more fully yet the conditions upon which thou thinkest this thaumaturgy may be exercised?"

"Faith in Jesus is the primary condition," said Ammonius, "but there are also others. Once a man came unto our Lord and besought him to heal his son, saying that the disciples had been unable to do so. Our Lord did heal him with a word. Afterward the disciples inquired of him why it was that they had failed in doing the same work, and he said unto them that it was because of their unbelief. Now thou must perceive that it was not because of their want of faith in him, for they were then following him; so that it must have been because of their unbelief in their own power and authority to do the work in his name. It seemeth, therefore, that faith on the part of the thaumaturgist in his own power to accomplish the miracle in the Lord's name is one of the conditions of thaumaturgy."

"That also seemeth to be a reasonable and proper condition," answered Am-nem-hat. "But are there yet others?"

"It is written that he did not many wonderful works at Capernaum because of their unbelief. He often said to those who asked his aid, 'Be it unto thee according to thy faith.' And from these facts it seems to follow that faith on the part of him for, or upon, whom the work was to be done, and on the part of those among whom it was to be done, was also one of the conditions upon which the exercise of thaumaturgical power depended."

"But," objected Am-nem-hat, "if he was in truth divine, why should he pay any attention to the unbelieving or to the unwilling? Why did he not do the miracles in defiance of them all, as well as if they had been faithful and willing?"

"Because," answered Ammonius, "our Lord teacheth and requireth only a willing obedience and faith. Not God himself will force the human will; for that which is of compulsion hath no morality. It is of necessity, therefore, neither holy nor unholy. A necessary holiness is a contradiction in terms. God's use of sovereignty hath been to make man free. Besides, faith itself is the law of miracles; to have wrought miracles where no faith was, would have been to violate the very law by which he worked, and so to have degraded miracles to the plane of an arbitrary and sporadic exhibition of divine power, instead of leaving them as they are, the highest result of the very highest form of universal law."

"That seemeth reasonable enough," rejoined Am-nem-hat, "and in accordance with my conception of the character of a holy and perfect God. But as I perceive thou clearly comprehendest the Christian system, upon which I have bestowed much thought almost in vain, suffer me to put one other case to thee which seemeth to me to be inexplicable upon any principles which thou hast stated as constituent elements of the law of miracles, if thou art not yet weary of my questions."

"Nay," said Ammonius, "I am not weary. Thou mayst ask many things, indeed, which I know not, and can not answer; but, so far as I can give thee any aid, it affordeth me pleasure to answer thee as intelligently as I can."

"The matter is this," said Am-nem-hat. "It is recorded in thy sacred books that when the apostles were going about Jerusalem, imparting the Paraclete by the laying on of their hands, and working divers miracles, one Simon, a magician, came unto them and offered money unto them if they would communicate unto him the same power, so that he also might become a thaumaturgist. But one of them, named Peter, did bitterly rebuke him, saying, 'Thy money perish with thee!' Now, the apostles had faith; the people who saw them doing all these wonderful works had faith, and were baptized by Philip. Simon Magus himself had faith as much as any one of them, and, when Peter rebuked him, with fear and trembling he besought Peter, saying, 'Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.' Now, here seem to have been all of the conditions of faith and willingness in Simon of which thou hast spoken, and yet Peter manifestly regarded the desire of Simon as a sort of sacrilege. Why was this so?"

"Why," said Ammonius, "Peter declared that his thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money was evil; and that his heart was not right in the sight of God, and that he should repent of his wickedness, and that his very thought showed that he was still in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity."

"That is very true," answered Am-nem-hat, "but his tender of money to the apostles only proves his appreciation of the value of the power which he desired to purchase. Peter saith not that Simon was a bad man, but that this particular thing was wicked; why was it so in him, and not in them?"

"Because," replied Ammonius, "it is manifest from the whole record that Simon desired to purchase this power for himself, and to use it for his own purposes."

"Certainly so," persisted Am-nem-hat, "but in what respect was it sacrilegious for him to desire to use the power for his own purposes, any more than it would have been to use his brain, or his hand, for his own advancement; or his learning, or skill, for the acquisition and cultivation of which he had, perhaps, expended money?"

"The answer to thy question," replied Ammonius, "involves some consideration of the very genius of Christianity as a system of divine truth. If, as thou seemest to suppose, the religion of our Lord had been only a system of spiritual truth, it might be difficult to deny that the apostles were selfish, and that Simon was very badly treated. But this is not at all true. Thou knowest that the legislation of Moses was for the Israelites only; that of Egypt for the land and people of Kem only; that of other lands and ages for certain peoples only. But thou canst not have read the scriptures so carefully without learning the fact that Jesus died for all men, and that his truth is designed for all mankind. Thou seest, therefore, that, if Simon Magus could have obtained this power to exercise it for his own purposes, he would have made it the agency by which to gain limitless authority and wealth unto himself, and oppress the poor. Thou seest also that, if any nation or government could exercise thaumaturgical powers, that nation or government would soon become the ruler and the tyrant of the world. Thou seest that, if any church that is in any way connected with, or bound unto, an earthly government, could exercise this power, ecclesiasticism would quickly make mankind its slaves: for manifestly no people could long resist a government that had thaumaturgical power wherewith to enforce obedience to its laws. Thou seest also that if the faith that is effective for miracles could be exercised for any purposes except the edification of the Church and the good of all men, the faith itself might have become a nameless and unappealable tyranny. Nay, if it were ever possible to exercise such power except under such conditions as necessarily and absolutely to preclude the use of it for any private purposes, thou seest that sooner or later, under the influence of inborn selfishness, the thaumaturgists would have made war upon each other, and, in place of seeing nations contending with sword, and bow, and spear, we would have seen them hurling against each other all of the destructive forces of nature, and only chaos and utter ruin could have ended the superhuman strife. It was therefore ordained that the thaumaturgic faith can not be exercised except under conditions which necessarily exclude the use of it for private purposes, and insure its exercise for the good of the common Church only."

"Canst thou specify by what means this restricted use of the power hath been enforced? For it seemeth to me that, if it exists, it must be beyond control."

"In order to exclude all worldly ambitions and selfishness from the kingdom which he established in the world, our Lord ordained that his Church should be a community in which all men are free and equal--brethren only. Hence he ordained, as the fundamental law of the kingdom, that all private rights of property (including estates, rank, offices, prerogatives) should be forever abolished in his Church, and that Christians should hold them all in common. Hence, the kingdom of heaven is an absolute democracy, social and political, based upon faith in Christ, and community of rights and property among all who believe. Of this community the apostles themselves were the divinely appointed type. They used thaumaturgy for the common good only, and not for personal aggrandizement. The common treasure was put into a bag, and, as if to show the divine scorn of wealth and of all human distinctions that grow out of it, the bag was intrusted to Judas, the only base one of the twelve. It was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, because the law of that kingdom imperatively required the consecration of all that he had to the common good. But, under the power of a living faith, many complied with this law, and the Church prospered. Thus did the bishops that were ordained by the apostles, as Linus at Rome, Polycarp at Smyrna, Evodius at Antioch, and others also. Thus did Paulinus, Cyprian, Hilary, and others. Such has been the law and practice of the common Church even unto this day. For the primary law of the kingdom of heaven demandeth the consecration of all property, and the abdication of all worldly honors, offices, and authority. And Simon Magus desired not part or lot in this kingdom, but his own advantage only. And thou must perceive that thaumaturgical power exercised by such a church must necessarily be for the common good of all, and not for any personal, political, or sectarian purposes; and the faith that worketh wonders must therefore be impossible to any human association except to the church organized upon the foundation which Jesus himself laid, even the communion of the holy; for the liberty, fraternity, and equality, which constitute the socialism and politics of the kingdom, can not exist upon any other foundation. And, of course, thaumaturgic power will vanish even out of the Church if the day shall ever come in which those who believe shall abandon the communal organization of the kingdom of heaven, and establish human statutes as the law thereof."

"I think," said Am-nem-hat, "that thy words remove many of the difficulties which have beset my study of thy sacred books. For I now perceive that the parables of Jesus--a species of literary composition unknown, perhaps impossible, to other men--which I supposed to refer to some spiritual, mystical doctrines, were in fact spoken concerning his Church, or kingdom, in this world."

"Assuredly so," replied Ammonius. "And thou hast done well to characterize the parable as 'a species of literary composition unknown and impossible to other men'; for no other man hath written a parable, nor do I suppose that any man ever will do so. For he spake as never man spake: he spake in parables; without a parable he spake not. The history, the poem, the fable, the allegory, may be used by other teachers also; but the parable is the language of Jesus alone; and no man can handle it but himself."

"I can now understand that strange parable of 'the unjust steward,'" said Am-nem-hat, "although, when I first read the words, 'I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations,' I did even suppose that Jesus represented eternal life to be a vendible thing, and that his religion, like every other, assured the rich that they could purchase salvation with money--although this seemed to be antagonistic to the general current of his teachings."

"Verily," replied Ammonius, "the words of Jesus would convey no other meaning, if, indeed, the fundamental law of the Church had not excluded therefrom all the private wealth, honors, and authority after which the Gentiles seek. But, if thou wilt consider that the unjust steward is any believer that useth his means, pecuniary, intellectual, physical, for his own aggrandizement, and not for the common good; that the Lord of that steward is Jesus; that unrighteous mammon is wealth held by private ownership, and that the true riches is wealth held by common title for the good of all--thou canst then understand how, even upon ceasing to be steward (the end of life), one may make amends for past selfishness and mammon-worship, by giving up his property to the common Church. Thou canst understand how it is just that those who come in even at the eleventh hour to work in his vine-yard shall have an equal reward with those who entered early and bore the heat and burden of the day. Thou wilt see that it is true that those who gave up houses and lands for his sake and the gospel's reaped manifold more 'now in this present life' by gaining a communal title in the property of all other believers--an increase which our Lord expressly promises as to all the interests and relationships of life, except as to the wife; for, while, if one leave houses, lands, father, mother, brother, sister, or children, for the gospel's sake, the severed interests and relationships are replaced a hundred-fold by his admission into the kingdom of heaven, monogamic marriage was and is the law of the Church. And thou canst thus give a practical and beautiful meaning to all that our Lord hath said and done; thou wilt see that the social and political system of the gospel is the only kingdom that can ever banish crime, hatred, and selfishness out of human life, and so regenerate the world; thou wilt see that the Scribes and Pharisees persecuted our Lord because his kingdom excluded war, slavery, private-property rights, estates, rank, offices, prerogatives--of all which things they were 'covetous'--just as the Romans and all other established governments persecute the Christians, even unto this day, for the same reasons. For Christ desireth the brotherhood of men; the liberty and equality of men; and that the average talents, energy, and prosperity of all may insure the common weal; and not that some shall be emperors, lords, and masters, whereby it cometh to pass that many must be slaves; not that some be inordinately rich, and others distressfully poor."

"I will read the gospels and the Acts again in the light of thine instructions," said Am-nem-hat. "But, verily, many passages thereof already come crowding into my mind that bear new and potent meanings; for I perceive clearly enough that Christianity is not only a system of spiritual truth, but also of social and political truth, that is founded upon the faith, and from that basis assaulteth selfishness in its strong citadel of private rights by elevating the common good into a higher thing than private aggrandizement, and separating the people of his kingdom from all personal honors, prerogatives, and wealth, after which the Gentiles seek."

"Thou wilt perceive this all the more clearly," said Ammonius, "if thou wilt reread the gospels with this thought in thy mind; for thou wilt at once perceive that many passages, which in any other view would seem strongly tainted with fanaticism, or rhapsody, or demagoguery, are precisely the things which Jesus ought to have said if his kingdom was, indeed, a social and political democracy founded upon faith and community of rights and property. For the Jews, who supposed that our Lord would overturn the Roman authority and establish a great Israelitish nation instead thereof, were not any more in error than are those who falsely suppose that he would establish no kingdom at all, and that he taught only spiritual truth, as do the Therapeutæ."

"I am familiar with the work of Philo 'On a Contemplative Life, or the Devout,'" answered Am-nem-hat, "in which he giveth a full and succinct account of the Therapeutæ; but, indeed, I had supposed that he therein intended to describe the first heralds of the gospel, and the practices handed down from the apostles."

"Beyond doubt the Therapeutæ were Christians," continued Ammonius, "but they separated themselves from the apostolical churches in order to lead a more devout life, and they gradually exalted all their conceptions of spiritual truth until they began to despise all temporal surroundings; and in this they departed from the teaching of our Lord: for there is no teacher of men more free from asceticism or stoicism than is Jesus. He was ever busied about and interested in the common, every-day life of common men; he was touched with the feeling of our infirmity in all things; sympathized in all the joys and sorrows of those about him, their trials and triumphs, seeking to lead them, not out of the world, but into a way of life wherein every pure and wholesome feeling, affection, and faculty of the human heart might find full development, exercise, and satisfaction. The vast difference, indeed, between Jesus and the philosophers subsists in the fact that, while they were ever painfully seeking for rules and actions by which the select and favored few might attain a perfect human life, he ordained a simple, perfect system by which to bring the higher, purer life within the reach of all men, especially the poor."

In such conversations the time passed quickly; and it was strange to note with what deep interest the sorrowful Hatasa, and also Theckla and Arius, listened to every word, and strove to catch the full signification of every phrase; while Arete heard it patiently, as one might listen to an oft-told but still pleasant story, and old Thopt, as if she knew little and cared less about the whole matter, being satisfied that whatever Ammonius and his wife might do must be right and true.

CHAPTER XII.

THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

On the same day began Arius to teach Theckla letters; for, although the girl had been remarkably well instructed for an Egyptian maiden, all of her tuition had been oral. But, in accordance with her strong wish to learn how to read and write, the boy began at once with the three alphabets, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and in a single day she learned all of the letters, and the relative power of each, and in a very short time she could make all of the characters with a sharp point of keil upon a leaf of papyrus. Then, as leisure served, he would take a single word, as, for example, "spirit," and would pronounce and spell it in the three languages (nishema, pneuma, animus), and she would repeat the three names for the same thing after him, and spell them, and write them down, over and over again, until she had become thoroughly familiar with the letters, the sound, and the form of the written word. The acquisition of a few words every day soon gave her command of a considerable vocabulary in each tongue, and she rapidly learned to associate the words with all familiar objects, and to call them by the right name in either tongue. Then he would select some short passage, generally from the sacred writings, and during the day she would write it over and over again, in each of the languages, while he was absent upon the various duties which pertained to his part of the farm-labor. The girl was continually learning; and it was pleasant to see how soon she began, of her own accord, to select and translate into the different tongues any passage which pleased her. This process of education continued, as we shall hereafter see, during the years which she spent at Baucalis, and finally Theckla became very familiar with the three languages in which the scriptures were then written.

On the next evening after that described in the last chapter, all the dwellers at the cottage assembled again in Hatasa's room, by her request, to hold the usual evening service; for the lady had seldom quitted her bed, and she remained deplorably weak, suffering with continual pain in her lungs, the result, perhaps, of her great exposure during the storm, and of the terrible depression of spirits that succeeded it. All through the pagan world, the only known refuge from hopeless sorrow was suicide, and the idea of self-destruction was ever present to her. Perhaps her maternal affection for Theckla alone deterred her from putting an end to her life; for it was not regarded by the heathen as cowardly, criminal, or even immoral, to seek that refuge from misfortune. Cato did it; Seneca approved of it; Epictetus, Aurelius, and all the great lights of pagan antiquity regarded self-immolation as a matter of choice, and often as an act of wisdom. But, from the moment in which Hatasa had been informed that the kind friends who surrounded her were Christians, she felt a desire to know more of them, and of their peculiar religion, strong enough to give her a new interest in life; and she had requested Ammonius to have the service in her room, and told him that, although she was too weak to take any part in their conversation about Christianity, she desired to hear himself and Am-nem-hat discuss any topic pertaining thereto in which they were interested. So, after the usual exercises of reading and prayer, the whole family remained together. The ancient remarked to Ammonius that during the day he had pondered much upon the things spoken of in their former conversation, and suggested, as a difficulty in the way of the acceptance of Christianity, something like the following: "I can understand how a kind and merciful God might lay down certain rules of action, and require obedience to his laws, under whatever penalties he might choose to impose; but it seemeth to me that to require one to believe, as the sole condition of justification, is arbitrary and unjust. Suppose that one hath some natural bent of mind, or hath been reared and educated in some such way that it is hard, perhaps impossible, for him to believe; yet thy books say: 'Believe and live; he that believeth not is condemned already.' Is not this an arbitrary demand for faith; and doth it not do violence to that very autonomy of the will which thou sayest Jesus himself always respected and venerated?"

"Thou dost somewhat mistake the matter," said Ammonius. "The Lord does not demand our faith; he simply stateth an actual fact, which is, that the believer is justified by faith, and that he who does not believe is condemned already."

"I hardly understand what thou sayest: 'he simply stateth an actual fact.'"

"I think thou wilt find that there is no arbitrary demand in it. Our Lord gave no command only because he had power and authority to do so; but he knew what was in man, and gave only such commands as his divine wisdom perceived to be necessary for the welfare of mankind. As to the necessity of faith upon which he insists, the case is thus: All men upon earth are under the conviction of sin, and all alike are forever seeking for some escape from the bonds of this conviction. Thou wilt perceive that this conviction hath no reference to any specific, sinful act; for, perhaps, the best and purest men have always been those who felt it most keenly. It is a consciousness of alienation between the human and the divine. It is a natural, intuitive perception, in the heart of every man, that he is not as good as he ought to be, less perfect than he might be. The universal desire to get rid of this conviction of sin hath filled the world with false and ineffectual religions from the very dawn of time; for all men, in every age and clime, have sought for some form of penance or of sacrifice, some means in faith or work, by which to make atonement and secure reconciliation, and thereby shake off this conviction of sin. Hast thou ever heard of any kindred, tribe, or tongue (or even of any individual), that professed to be perfect, sinless, needing no sacrifice, no atonement for sin--that is, for a consciously sinful condition independent of all specific acts of transgression?"

"Nay," answered Am-nem-hat; "for thou art clearly right in that. All men do by nature bewail their sinful state. Humanity standeth forever like the lepers in Israel, with uplifted hand, crying aloud to heaven and earth, 'Unclean! unclean!' It is a conviction upon which philosophy hath no power. It cometh some time into every human heart, resistless as the precession of the equinoxes, spontaneous as the flowing of the Nile--a natural thing, which a man can no more control than he can reach forth his puny hand and unloose the bands of Orion, or bind the sweet influence of Pleiades, or guide Arcturus and his suns. All literature, all monuments, all ages, and all men, testify unto this terrible truth."

"Now the work of Jesus," said Ammonius, "was not to burden this sick and sorrowful nature with any arbitrary law of faith, but was to provide a way by which this universal conviction of sin might be atoned for--a perfect righteousness and sacrifice available by faith for our justification; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. And faith is made the condition, because no other condition could be available for all men alike, whether great or small, rich or poor, learned or ignorant; and Jesus died for all! Thou must see that this faith, instead of being, as thou didst suppose, an arbitrary condition or command, is simply the enabling act, instituted by divine wisdom and compassion, by means whereof we may be able to attain unto reconciliation with God. And without this faith we could never be justified by holy life and works alone, because it is a law of our nature that, just as we become better and purer beings, our conception of the degree of fitness required of us necessarily becomes higher, so that it is impossible for us to get any nearer to it; so that without faith the best men are as much under conviction of sin as the worst; so that without faith it is impossible for us to be consciously justified, because our nature requires a perfect righteousness; and this perfect righteousness and sacrifice must be human, that we may be able to trust its love and willingness to aid us, and must be divine, that we may have faith in its power to save. Hast thou ever heard of any name given under heaven, or among men, which supplies these natural and necessary conditions for our conscious justification and reconciliation with God, and with our own hearts also, except the name of Jesus Christ? If thou hast, please utter it."

"Verily," answered Am-nem-hat, "there is none. No religion of which I have heard professeth to know any."

The old man seemed lost in profoundest meditation, and there was silence in the room, until Theckla said: "Father Am-nem-hat, do thou bid Arius repeat what things he said to me of this matter of faith when he was teaching the alphabets to me this morning. I think it was much plainer than thy learned discoursing with Ammonius."

"Yea," said Am-nem-hat, "I beg that Arius will do so, for I much desire to hear thereof."

The boy blushed vividly at being so called upon in the presence of his elders, but, at a sign from his father, he stood up before them, saying: "I did not suppose the talk of persons so young could interest those who are so much older and wiser, but, as ye desire to hear it, I can almost repeat it. As Theckla and I were running over the alphabets, in order to get the sound of the letters and the form of the characters, she came upon the letter 'A' a second time, and she cried out: 'Oh, I know that one; it is Latin A, Greek Alpha, Hebrew Aleph.' And I said unto her, 'Theckla, how knowest thou that the characters stand for these sounds?' and she answered, 'Thou didst tell me so, and I did believe thee, boy, and that is how I know it.' Then said I: 'Theckla, thou learnest the alphabet by faith only. If thou wert naturally constituted so that thou couldst not believe, thou couldst never learn anything not tangible to thy senses. If thou wert by nature even indifferent between faith and non-faith, thy progress in the acquisition of knowledge would be slow and painful. Thou shouldst therefore learn, from the learning of these alphabets, that faith is the first, most inevitable act of intelligence. Thou shouldst learn that belief precedes knowledge always, that Faith is the elder sister and leadeth Knowledge by the hand, and that without antecedent faith it is impossible to learn and to know anything except what is palpable to the senses; just as it would be impossible for thee to learn these alphabets without faith.' And thereupon Theckla did pinch mine ear, and laugh at me, saying, 'That all seemeth to be true and plain enough, thou odd boy, but why art thou preaching at me now?' And I did answer: 'Because, thou dear sister, some time thy faith may be demanded for another alphabet than this, even the alphabet of spiritual life; and, when that day shall come, I would have thee remember that just as all human knowledge is builded upon the basis of faith only, so it should not seem a hard thing unto thee that God hath fashioned thy nature so that thou must be incapable of learning even the alphabet of everlasting life except upon the very same condition of faith only. Faith precedeth all knowledge; believe and obey, and finally thou shalt know.' I think this was about what was spoken between us concerning faith."

"And it is most wise, beautiful, and instructive talk," said Am-nem-hat, "and serveth to complete the powerful utterances of thy father upon the same lofty and interesting subject. I do thank thee for repeating it."

Then spake Hatasa, saying to Ammonius, "Suppose that one hath died without having known the truth concerning Jesus, and without having exercised this faith, is there no hope for such a one?"

The trembling voice in which she spoke, and the look of timid, doubtful entreaty which accompanied these words, touched every heart, and made them all feel that by "such a one" the poor lady meant her young and gallant husband Amosis, whose memory seemed ever in her heart.

Ammonius answered: "I do not know whether I could make thee understand fully the views which we Christians entertain about such a case as thou hast suggested, but we believe that there is hope for such a man. The great apostle Paul was Saul of Tarsus, and for a long time he did persecute the Christians because they were Christians, yet he declareth himself that he acted in all good conscience before God, believing that it was his duty to do so, and he afterward became the great apostle and a glorious martyr. I doubt not that there are among those who now persecute the Christians some good and just men, that would follow Jesus unto death if they could know him as he is. The conviction of sin, we know, hath no reference to any specific transgression, nor hath the forgiveness of sin. Whether an act be a sin or not dependeth largely upon the intent with which it is done. Now, when the heathen, who know not Jesus nor his divine truth, do yet live just and righteous lives according to the best light and knowledge they possess, and die without the consolation of the faith, the benefit of the atonement accrueth to them in some way, we know not precisely how far, nor to what effect; to all such, indeed, and especially to such as have some living Christian relative or friend that taketh upon himself the rite of baptism for the dead; for, if they have not the law, they are not judged by the law, but by their works and righteousness under the law which they have."

"How is that?" said Hatasa, with breathless interest. "Thou sayest a living Christian may be baptized for the dead?"

"Assuredly," answered Ammonius. "The apostles so taught, and the Church hath always so practiced. If any Christian hath a relative that died without knowledge of Jesus, and such Christian doth believe that the deceased was a just and righteous person according to the measure of light given unto him, and was such that he would have followed our Lord if he had known sufficiently of him, such Christian may receive baptism for the deceased, and the dead shall reap benefit of this vicarious faith and obedience, how and to what extent hath never been clearly revealed unto us."

"There is hope in that!" cried Hatasa. "There is consolation in that. Thy Lord must have been full of human love and pity to make provision not only for his friends, but for those good and just men, also, who have ignorantly been his enemies."

"Yea, verily," answered Ammonius. "He loveth all men; his mercy endureth forever; his loving-kindness is stronger than height, or depth, or life, or death, or any other creature, as thou mayest assuredly know for thyself if thou wilt believe on him."

Then Am-nem-hat said: "There is much in this religion that taketh fast hold upon both the heart and the mind; for it verily seemeth that Jesus seeketh not to impose a system upon man that is in any respect external to man, but rather that he seeketh to show unto man such spiritual food as is most divinely suitable to satisfy that hunger of the soul wherefrom the whole world suffereth already; and he seemeth to propose nothing as matter of faith which was not already a conscious want and need of nature: so that his teachings ought to be accepted as at least the highest utterance of philosophy if even not as divinely true."

"Thy profound criticism of the spirit of our religion striketh very nearly to the heart of the whole matter," said Ammonius. "For the world yearned after God whom it knew not, and Jesus plainly declareth that unknown God whom men ignorantly worship. The world groaned and sorrowed under the blind conviction of sin, and, wherever men acquired a local habitation and a name on earth, there they had their holy places also; and in some way--often in a crude and ignorant way, often in a gross and sensual way, often in a heathenish and cruel way--they sought, by sacred rites of penitence and sacrifice, to atone for their wrong deeds done; but the wrongs continually repeated themselves, and the unavailing religions left the world's heart like a troubled sea that can not rest. But Jesus saith the sin for which ye suffer is not a wrong thing done at all; these wicked deeds of yours are not sin, but are the outcroppings of the sin that lieth back of all your deeds. Can a bitter fountain send forth sweet waters? Doth an evil tree bear good fruits? Do ye gather figs from thistles? Cease now your world-old and unavailing efforts to regenerate the heart by the vain expiation of your wicked deeds. Purify the fountain, that the waters thereof may be sweet. Make the tree good, and its fruits shall be good also. For sin is non-conformity to the will of God, and your evil deeds are only the evidences of your enmity against him. So, when the blind yearnings of the world's heart after peace had made sacrifices, not only of every beast and creeping thing upon the earth, but of men also, he saith: 'All these things ye do in vain, for your righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, or ye shall likewise perish. I am the Light, the Truth, the Way--the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world--a perfect righteousness and sacrifice once for all offered for the sin of men. Believe in me, and ye shall be saved; all other sacrifices are in vain.' So every yearning want of the heart is met and satisfied in Christ. All other religions under heaven condemn actions which they suppose to be wicked, and prescribe certain forms of expiation for such as they suppose to be expiable; but Jesus proposes to pardon, not so much the sinful act as the sinner, the sinful nature out of which the act ariseth, and to regenerate this nature so that it will hate what it believes to be wicked, and love what it believes to be holy. For Christ atoneth for all sin, and the act of faith is to personally appropriate the benefit thereof to each one for himself."

"True," said Am-nem-hat, "and I undertake to assert that no other religion in the world hath so represented sin to be want of conformity to the will of God, rather than an evil deed; and in this whole matter of sin and the forgiveness thereof, thy religion differeth from paganism more radically than even in the doctrine of one God it differeth from polytheism."

And in this and such like conversation the evening wore away until bed-time came, and they separated for the night. The family at Baucalis did not speak or think of these matters as of mere abstract theories of truth, or of philosophy, but as actual, living verities. The Christians felt their religion to be the only real life. They regarded all earthly pursuits, passions, and pleasures, as mere incidents of existence, and religion as the one controlling and all-important thing. Their pleasant home was to them a merely temporary station on the highway whereby they were journeying to a better land; the flesh was only a tabernacle which the spirit must soon forsake; all that pertained to it was for a brief season only; the real life was only begun during their occupancy of this earthly tenement; Christian faith was to them the one thing real and permanent, and earthly existence was of little consequence except as it might stand related to eternal interests. Hence there was a freshness, a vigor, a sense of reality and earnestness, in their way of thinking and speaking of such things, that demonstrated their religion to be no beautiful, speculative philosophy, but a hard, experimental, and all-controlling fact. And so every night during that week the dwellers at Baucalis assembled in Hatasa's room, and passed long hours in the discussion of all the salient points of Christianity in a friendly, careful way, as if, indeed, they had a mutual interest in ascertaining the truth, especially concerning all those ideas upon which the antagonism between Christianity and paganism most plainly appeared. To set down all the various conversations in which they engaged would indeed be to write a treatise upon primitive Christianity, a work in which, perhaps, no interest would be felt in an age in which that system no longer exists upon earth, and is utterly unknown to all except a few self-poised, fearless, unpopular antiquarians, who have been eccentric and independent enough to exhume that ancient religion from out the accumulated débris of fifteen centuries of ecclesiastical "progress" which flourisheth over its ruins even as the vine ripens and the roses bloom over the wreck of buried Pompeii. Yet we can not resist the inclination that moveth us to write out our notes of one other evening's conversation that happened between this Christian family and their pagan guests.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE NET RESULT OF LAW.

On the next evening, after the conclusion of their usual daily services, the ancient Am-nem-hat began the conversation which occupied their attention during that meeting by saying to Ammonius: "Thou didst observe that the future state of just and good men who died without any sufficient knowledge of Christianity to lead them to embrace that faith 'hath never been clearly revealed unto us.' Is it not true also that the future state of all men hath been left almost entirely unrevealed? I ask thee this, because I have found myself altogether unable, from my readings of the sacred books, to locate heaven, either anywhere in this world or in any other sun or star. And either I have utterly failed to comprehend some of the things which I have carefully read, or else the scriptures leave this future state in a very misty, uncertain, indefinite condition. Wilt thou inform me how this matter may really stand?"

"Thy reading is in no respect at fault," replied Ammonius. "Our Lord hath left the future life altogether unrevealed, not only in respect to the locality thereof, but also in every other respect. Types and figures are used in reference thereto, whereby we know that it shall be eternal and blest; but, beyond this general assurance of exalted happiness and unfailing duration, we are not informed. To each Christian soul it will undoubtedly be the best that is possible for him: the place, the development, the environments thereof, and all else that belongeth thereto, are unrevealed."

"I know not whether it would have been more pleasing to have some definite knowledge of that future life; that is, I can not tell whether the system of religion would or would not appear unto me to have been more perfect if all had been revealed by it, or whether it is wiser and perhaps even more pleasing to have left it thus vague and undefined, with a general assurance of its beatitude," said Am-nem-hat, "yet I could wish that something tangible and satisfying were revealed in reference thereto. Why, thinkest thou, was it not more fully revealed?"

"I know not," answered Ammonius, "but I feel certain that it was purposely left as a thing to be held by faith, and not in knowledge. Either it may have been because it hath not yet entered into the heart of man to conceive what that life may be, so that human speech could not convey any adequate knowledge thereof; or, if it were possible to do so, the overpowering glory and splendor thereof, if definitely grasped and understood, and already realized, might render us impatient of this mundane existence, and too indifferent to all the duties and obligations thereof. I think, indeed, that those very Therapeutæ, of whom Philo speaketh, were to be censured for an unwarranted attempt to realize, in this present world, a spiritual life which our Lord expressly reserved for the future; an effort, indeed, necessarily impossible to succeed, and perhaps injurious both to these anchorites and to other men also. For the purpose of the gospel is not only to justify and save all who believe and obey it, but the declared purpose of our Lord is to regenerate mankind by the agency of his own kingdom; and surely it tendeth not to the accomplishment of this purpose to have Christians withdraw themselves permanently beyond the reach of common life and experience; so that it is manifestly an error to suppose that, because they have the assurance of a superlatively better life beyond, Christians should for that reason despise the life that now is. And, in accordance with this view, thou wilt find that the Church forbiddeth any man to go out of the world (by suicide) as the heathen commonly do; forbiddeth any man to seek for martyrdom, as many had done; and forbiddeth any man to flee from that place in which he was converted into the mountains and the deserts: because the kingdom of our Lord must exist in the world--not out of it--for the regeneration thereof."

"But he saith himself," suggested Am-nem-hat, "'My kingdom is not of this world.'"

"Verily," replied Ammonius. "And his kingdom is not 'of' the world, but is 'in' the world. Not surely a kingdom founded upon the social, religious, and political laws and customs of the world, like other kingdoms; but, not the less, a kingdom for men living in the world, and founded on its own social, religious, and political economies. And this temporal, earthly kingdom, established by our Lord in the world, is the very essence of the gospel, the most important part of the truth which he revealed to men."

"That is new to me," answered Am-nem-hat, "for I had supposed that the religious idea chiefly handleth the affairs of man with reference to the future life, and that his temporal condition is the affair of government, unto which he is kept in subjection by the sense of duty and obligation which religion supplieth."

"And thou art manifestly in the right as to all governments that exist or ever have existed among men, except only the kingdom of heaven. How many governments have existed in Egypt?"

"I know not that," answered the ancient. "Our records cover thirty full dynasties before the second Persian invasion, which occurred seven centuries ago, but each of these dynasties represents more than one Pharaoh, and several of them a great many; for government is not a permanent thing, and some form of revolution ever lieth in wait for it, as a tiger in a jungle watcheth a man to spring upon and strangle him."

"And how many governments have existed among other peoples and nations during the thousands of years covered by the records of thy land of Kem?"

"I know not that," said Am-nem-hat; "they are unknown and innumerable."

"Therefore," answered Ammonius, "each one of them must have contained, in its very constitution and nature, the seeds of its own dissolution; and, so far at least in human history, the science of government hath learned no secret by which to secure permanency for itself."

"The inference thou hast drawn seemeth to follow necessarily and undeniably from the known facts."

"And what hath been the net result of the science of government among all the peoples and nations of whom thou hast ever heard?"

"Misery!"

"Yea!--But state the net result of government in political or in philosophical terms!"

"State it for thyself; I desire to learn of thee."

"Hath not the net result of human government everywhere, in all climes and ages and among all men, been only to produce, or develop, a ruling class at the top of every social and political system, unto whom all the blessings of the government and civilization are given by law; an oppressed or enslaved people at the bottom, upon whose weary shoulders rest all of the burdens and the waste of life; and between these two extremes, some religious system and some armed force, seeking to adjust the correlative legal rights and duties of the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the class that ruleth and the class that is ruled over, by the agency of religion, so long as the religious sentiment serveth to keep the people in bondage, and by sword and spear when superstition faileth? Add to this result the fact that women are everywhere slaves, or chattels, legally lower and more debased than their husbands and fathers, no matter what position the men may occupy; and have we not plainly stated, in this terrible formula, the net result of the science of human government to which it infallibly leadeth, and from which it hath never escaped? If thy large learning hath ever taught thee the name and location of any nation or people of whom this is not true, wilt thou now declare it?"

"I can not name such a government or people," answered Am-nem-hat. "For history is but a dreary record of unceasing strife--among the fortunate for precedence and power, and among the poor for existence; and during the struggle it hath evermore happened that the women have been trampled into the filth and mud. I know not the reason thereof, but the fact is fearfully true."

"Doth it then seem to thee that to have ordained some system by which this net result of the science of government may be avoided; some truth by which war and slavery that have cursed the life and labor of every people under heaven, may be abolished; some social and political organization by which the false and cruel distinctions maintained by accidents of fortune, birth, rank, or by even genius and extraordinary abilities, between the rich and the poor, the great and the small, the feeble and the wise, may be utterly removed; and by which womanhood, wifehood, maternity, shall be redeemed from slavery and elevated to such a place that men can no more degrade them without consciously degrading themselves also; some divine and human law of brotherhood among men by which the race shall attain to liberty, equality, and fraternity--dost thou think that to devise and establish such a system is a work worthy of a God?"

"Yea, verily! most worthy of a God; perhaps impossible even unto him."

"This very system hath our Lord ordained; it is the kingdom of heaven upon earth; it is the common Church of Jesus Christ whereby the regeneration of mankind must be secured."

There was a long silence after this, during which all seemed to be pondering on what Ammonius had said, and it was finally broken by Arius, who spoke as follows: "I do not get all of thy meaning. Why is it true that all human governments of necessity result in the slavery of the many to the few, and in their own ultimate destruction? Why can not wise and good men organize some form of government that may secure both permanency for itself and the prosperity of the people also?"

"Yea, tell us that," said Am-nem-hat, "and also inform us by what means Jesus designeth to avoid in his kingdom the net result which seemeth necessarily to overtake all human governments sooner or later?"

"The same considerations," said Ammonius, "may furnish an answer to both questions. But first let me ask of thy great learning, Am-nem-hat, whether any man hath proposed, or even conceived, of some form of human government which hath never yet been tried among mankind?"

"I think not," said the ancient. "Both Plato and Aristotle have indulged in the attempt to define all the possible forms that government might assume; but, even in the political dream which Plato calleth 'The Republic,' he faileth to specify any form or machinery of government which hath not been repeatedly tried and found to fail; only the results he dreams of are imaginary; the government he devised hath been vainly experimented upon by others."

"The Greek philosopher erred in his delineation of an ideal government both by omitting therefrom the power of faith as the controlling principle thereof, and by denying the sanctity of monogamic marriage. His 'Republic' is, therefore, nugatory, for liberty can not exist in any community at all unless it exists for all alike; and polygamy denies the liberty of half the human race by enslaving women. But thou truly sayest that every possible form of government hath been tried among men, and that all of them alike have failed to secure either permanency for themselves or the welfare of the people. Thou must see, therefore, that the universal failure of government dependeth not upon the form of it, nor upon the age, or clime, or nation in which it existeth; nor upon the religion, language, laws, nor customs of the people; for all forms of it have failed alike, in all ages, among all peoples, under all imaginable religions, languages, customs, and laws. Seemeth this conclusion to be just and true?"

"Yea," answered Am-nem-hat, "I can see no escape therefrom whatever."

"Then it surely followeth," said Ammonius, "that whatever may be the cause of this universal failure of government, it existeth in all of them alike, and worketh the destruction and failure of them all, independently of the form, religion, laws, customs, or other things in regard to which they differ one from another; for the cause of this failure must be common to all of them. Seemeth this conclusion a valid one to thee?"

"Verily," said the ancient. "The cause must be one common to all governments, or else we might find somewhere a government in which this cause did not exist and operate; and so find a government that possesseth permanency and secureth the welfare of the people. But there hath never been, and is not, such a government on earth. The cause of failure must be common unto all."

"Wilt thou draw from out the store-house of thine erudition, and show unto us one law or custom that is common to all human governments? For in that one thing, whatever it may be, we shall assuredly find the sole cause of the failure of governments, and of all the tyranny, injustice, oppression, and wretchedness, that maketh human life a burden to the masses of mankind."

"Thou must state the law or custom that is common to all governments alike, for thyself," said Am-nem-hat, "for they differ almost inconceivably in form, religion, language, laws, and customs; and I recall none which is common to every human government."

"All human governments," said Ammonius, "have one thing in common: they agree in one pernicious law and custom which is the cause of failure in them all; for all human governments alike maintain the legal right of individuals to acquire, hold, and transmit private property-rights in estates, offices, prerogatives; even in women and in slaves. This is the idolatry of mammon, of which all nations are guilty, the only idolatry which Jesus ever denounced by name, the only one that opposeth his kingdom with a potent logic based upon selfishness. Many are learning to hate this idolatry in respect of the royal offices: even the debased Romans scorn the name of 'king,' and call their master 'imperator,' the commander of the army; some tribes hate it in its application to men, and own no slaves; the Scythians and some other nations deny the right of property in women, and take but one wife. Jesus Christ denies the right of private property, not only in women, slaves, offices, and prerogatives, but in houses, lands, and everything else. Hence the property-law of his kingdom imperatively demandeth the transfer of all that the believer hath unto the common Church; this sacrifice is hard to make if one hath great possessions, and, therefore, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. No rich man doeth this except under the power of a dominant faith which teacheth him that the thing which is best for all believers is best for him; and that the common good is better than self-aggrandizement. No sane man doubteth that the political economy of Jesus would bless the world, if men would adopt it; but not many great, not many wise, not many rich, not many noble, come into the kingdom, because selfishness revolts at the sacrifice of real or imaginary advantages, secured to them by mammon-worship. It is emphatically the gospel, the glad tidings, for the poor, and it is a regeneration that beginneth at the bottom, not at the top, of every social system. All human governments are founded upon the idolatrous faith that private rights of property are the sacredest thing in human life, and that government over the people is necessary to protect it. Jesus denieth this faith: he saith that liberty is better than wealth, equality better than rank, fraternity better than power. He, therefore, in his kingdom, abolisheth private rights of property in order to reach something that is infinitely higher and better for all men; and he summeth up human life, laws, governments, all that pertaineth to man's social condition, in one short sentence which containeth in itself the ultimate truth of all social and political economy and wisdom: 'Ye can not serve God and Mammon.' And the Pharisees hated Jesus only because they were 'covetous'; and the Romans and other nations persecute us even unto death because they know that the triumph of the kingdom of heaven is the overthrow of all government over the people; and they love power, and wealth, and rank."

"How wouldst thou punish crime if all human governments were thus abolished?" asked the ancient.

"There would then be no crime to punish," answered Ammonius. "For human statutes, growing up out of the idolatry of private rights of property, both create and punish crimes. There could be neither treason nor war in the absence of government; and all other crimes, which in some shape are the out-put of the idolatry of mammon, would cease with the false social and political systems which generate and nourish them. Crimes are, and for nearly three centuries have been, utterly unknown among the Christian communities."

"What, then, standeth in the way of the triumph of the kingdom of heaven?"

"Naught except the selfishness of men intrenched behind the strong rampart of private property-rights--the one thing against which our Lord hath declared undying and uncompromising enmity."

The old man sat in silence for a long time, and his grave and noble face showed the traces of many conflicting emotions. Finally he said: "Thy son did once ask me why I am not a Christian, and I could not answer him, nor do I know. But Arius thought that thou mightst understand better than either he, or I, the exact attitude in which my soul standeth toward Christ and his religion. Canst thou tell me what the trouble is?"

"Then," said Ammonius unto him, "thou mayst believe that Jesus is the Christ; thou mayst believe that his religion is divinely true and perfect, best for thee and for mankind; thou mayst believe that he is ready and willing to accept and save every one that cometh unto him by faith; thou mayst believe that he will so accept and save thee whenever thou wilt come unto him thus; thou mayst believe and purpose that thou wilt come--but all this maketh no man a Christian! The thing which maketh thee a Christian is the voluntary surrender of thine own will to the will of Jesus; to abrogate all in his favor; to accept his will as thine only law. And this he saith thou canst do if thou wilt; no man on earth, no angel in heaven, can do this thing for thee, nor force thee to do it for thyself; nor can any enginery of earth or hell prevent thee from doing this thing if thou wilt. It is a matter between thee and thy Lord only; and thou and he must transact it. But if, freely and voluntarily, with a full purpose of heart and mind to obey Christ only, thou makest this grand surrender of thyself to him, the light, and peace, and blessedness which he imparteth to those who truly love him shall be thine own forever. Wilt thou have this man Christ Jesus to reign over thee?"

Then a glorious beauty shone from the old man's countenance, and his eyes grew bright with happy tears, and he exclaimed joyously: "I make this surrender now; the light breaketh in even upon my soul; it is as plain as the noonday sun: 'Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace; good-will to men!' The truth for which all my life long I have so vainly sought cometh unto me as to a little child. And it is pure, satisfying, beautiful! 'Praise the Lord, O my soul!'"

"'Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye can in no wise enter into the kingdom!'" said Ammonius.

"And all men, great and small, wise and ignorant, young and old, meet upon an exact equality before our Lord," said the boy Arius; "for God is no respecter of persons."

CHAPTER XIV.

THE BLIND RECEIVE THEIR SIGHT.

The next day was the Sabbath again, and Christian families from the region round about Baucalis, to the number of some four hundred, assembled at the cottage for religious services. Some of them came on foot, some on horseback, and some of them in boats along the coast. Am-nem-hat informed the presbyter, who came to preach for them, of his desire, and that of Hatasa and her daughter, to be received into the kingdom of heaven. He also informed him that, at his cottage in the neighborhood, he had a considerable sum in gold and silver, which he desired to give to the Church, or in some other way consecrate to holy uses; and that the Egyptian ladies had property in Alexandria, all of which, or such portion as he might advise, they wished to use in the same way. The presbyter informed them that such a desire was natural and commendable in every one that sought to be a Christian; but that for the time being they must remain as stewards of their own estates, because the Christians of that region were all prosperous and needed nothing, and there was no application for aid from other communities. He further told them that, as soon as it might be considered safe for them to do so, the Christians of the vicinage purposed to erect a church for the accommodation of the numerous brethren around about, and that whenever they might enter upon this work the opportunity would be given to them to aid therein; and that, if any calamity should overtake another Christian community, in any part of the world, whereby they might be brought to need assistance, he would inform them of it as soon as the bishops communicated such facts to him; but that at that time there was no way in which the money could be used.

Early in the morning Arius and his father had set up some poles in holes in the ground already made to receive them, and had stretched strong cords from them unto the eaves of the cottage, and had unrolled and fastened thereon a canopy made of wide cotton cloth, which formed a shelter from the sunshine; and, while some of the congregation sat within the house, the greater part of them found places on the outside under the awning. Hatasa had her couch drawn up beside the open window, from which she could see and hear all that might be done. Theckla was here, there, and everywhere, making friends with nearly all the girls and boys that attended, and especially with one little fellow of twelve years of age who was stone-blind. In the course of her sympathetic talk with this lad he informed her that his parents had brought him there to have the Church pray that his sight might be restored to him.

"How long hast thou been thus blind?" asked Theckla.

"I do not know," said the boy. "I remember that I could once see, and the world was beautiful to me, and the people, and many things. But it has been so long since then!"

"Dost thou believe that their prayers can cure thy blindness?"

"Assuredly," said he, "whenever the Lord will."

"Why, then, hast thou not sought the prayers of the Church before this time, if so thou believest?"

"My parents wished not to have the miracle wrought on me until they thought me to be old enough both to understand how great an affliction loss of sight is and to remember the means whereby I regained it--if, indeed, the Lord will at this time grant our request."

"And thou surely wilt love Jesus much if he shall hear thee, wilt thou not?"

"Yea, will I! Indeed, I love him now with all my soul; but if he restoreth my sight unto me I could work for him far more when I am older; and chiefly for that reason do I pray for his mercy in this matter."

"And I shall pray for thee, also," said Theckla.

And she told Hatasa and Am-nem-hat about the boy, and they looked amazed thereat, but said nothing.

By nine o'clock in the morning all had assembled whom they expected; and, having set a watch on the only practicable road that led down from the mountains to Baucalis, to give them timely notice of the approach of any whose coming might endanger them, the exercises of the day were inaugurated with singing and prayer and the reading of the gospel. There were a wonderful simplicity and directness, both in songs and prayers. If Jesus Christ, the Saviour, Friend, and King, through whom their worship was addressed to God, had been visibly present regarding the manner of their devotions, the whole service could not have been more earnest, simple, and direct. If, indeed, he was not present, they thought and felt otherwise; and the sense of his presence was as real and actual unto them as if, on raising their eyes, they could have looked him in the face; and this unquestioning faith gave a strange sense of life and vividness to all of the exercises, the progress of which Am-nem-hat, Hatasa, and Theckla watched with joy and eagerness.

The presbyter preached with great simplicity and earnestness, describing the love of Jesus and the triumphs of the faith, and in the peroration his address swelled into a glorious pæan of victory as he declared the steadfastness and faithfulness of certain Christians who had recently suffered martyrdom in other places, telling them that no man could foresee how soon some of them also might be called upon to tread the glorious path by which their brethren had been perfected in the Lord, and transferred to eternal felicity. But, looking into the flashing eyes and rapt faces turned upon him from every side, he deemed it prudent to give them solemn warning that the crown of martyrdom was not to be officiously sought after, any more than it was to be avoided by unfaithfulness; but that they must be alike ready to live unto Christ, or to die for him, as the providence of God might determine to be best for each of them.

Then he said that if there were any present who had not before publicly professed their faith in Christ, and desired to do so, the Church would then witness their good confession; and thereupon Am-nem-hat and Theckla both stepped forward and gave their hands to the presbyter. The presbyter then briefly stated to the people the facts which he had learned in regard to the past life and experience of the ancient, and the recital thereof at once rendered the old man an object of respect and affection to all of them. Their interest was enlisted by the exceptional fact that an aged and learned pagan priest had found the Saviour precious to his soul. Then Ammonius sent forward Arius and bade him relate to the assembly the story of the shipwreck of Hatasa and Theckla, and of their desire to become Christians; and the boy narrated the circumstances so vividly, and with such unconscious force and eloquence, that they twain also were welcomed into the hearts of all those Christians, and the sense of strangeness and restraint that naturally affects the mind at our first meeting with those whom we have not seen before was at once dissolved by the influence of fraternal interest and affection.

Am-nem-hat having signified his desire to be baptized by immersion, they all repaired to the shore of the little bay, where, with appropriate ceremony, that sacred rite was administered. But, owing to the debilitated condition of Hatasa, she and Theckla received the same sacred rite, after suitable explanations, by having the water sprinkled upon them at the house.

Many of those who were present, and especially those who had come in boats, brought prepared food with them, and soon this was distributed over clean cloths spread out under the trees, and all of them did eat together with gladness, as if it had been one large and loving family--Arete and old Thopt being diligent to supply from their own stores everything that was needed or had been forgotten.

Then in the afternoon the congregation was again assembled, and they engaged in singing and prayer. The presbyter informed the people that a blind boy had come, with his parents, to ask the prayers of the Church that God would restore his sight, explaining the reason why they had not sooner done so, very much as the boy had stated to Theckla, and saying that they should first partake of the holy communion, and afterward pray for the lad's recovery. Then this rite was administered; and all of them engaged in prayer, the presbyter leading and the people making occasional responses. And even while they were so engaged the lad sprang to his feet, and, throwing his arms about his mother's neck, he cried aloud: "O mother, I see! I see!--Brethren, thank God for me, for my sight is perfectly restored!"

And the presbyter changed the form of his words from supplication into praise and thanksgiving; and, when he had finished, many pressed forward to congratulate the lad upon his miraculous cure; and afterward, when they went away, he went also, seeing as well as other boys.

Then later in the evening, having first agreed upon the place of their next meeting, the congregation received a benediction at the mouth of the presbyter and quietly dispersed. But almost every head of a family first came unto Am-nem-hat and unto Hatasa and Theckla, and urged them with great kindness to come unto their homes and abide with them as long as might be convenient.

But, before the presbyter departed, Hatasa requested that he come unto her, and of him she asked concerning the baptism for the dead; and having diligently inquired of her concerning the character and manner of life of her husband, and having heard her firm declaration of her belief that he was one who ever sought to do that which he thought to be just, right, and true, so that if he had sufficiently learned of Jesus he would have been a Christian, the presbyter administered to her the baptism for the dead, from which the poor lady derived a strange and unmeasurable satisfaction and peace.

But Hatasa did not recover any strength, and the next day she was weaker than ever, and the next, and so on from day to day. She requested them to hold services in her room every evening, and seemed gladly to engage with them in prayer. But she said that she had no power to will or to wish that she might continue to live. She dreaded the pain and weariness of a lingering convalescence, and she said that the only earthly care that had troubled her was concern for her daughter's welfare, and that she would never separate her from her newly discovered but precious Christian friendships, and did not wish her to go among their pagan kindred. She informed Ammonius that there was much property in Alexandria that now belonged to Theckla, and asked him what disposition should be made of it. Ammonius at first said: "Let it go. Theckla shall lack for nothing; and riches are a snare to the young." But, upon considering that the estate would go to the pagan kindred, and never to the Church, unless the legal right of the girl thereto was asserted, he sent unto Cyrene for a proper officer, who came and took the depositions of Hatasa, Arius, Thopt, and Theckla, as to the shipwreck of Amosis and his family, and as to the identity and parentage of the maiden, to be laid before the orphans' court at Alexandria. She also made a written request that Theckla's relative Am-nem-hat should be appointed guardian of the maiden's person and estate, with her friend Ammonius to succeed him if the aged man should die during Theckla's minority. And, having accomplished these things in due and proper form, she began to fail more rapidly, and about midnight sank peacefully into rest, almost her last request being that she might be buried in the "sleeping-ground" of the Christians of that vicinity.

And, when Theckla saw that she was dead, the wild sorrow of her heart broke out in almost the very same words that her mother had used upon the death of Amosis, and she cried: "No more! no more! Ah, never more!"

But Ammonius said unto her, "Come hither, daughter!" And, when she had come, he laid his hand upon her head and he asked, "Art thou a Christian?"

And she answered, "Yea, I love the Lord."

Then he saith: "That is well, my child. But, if thou art a Christian, use not the vain and despairing lamentation of the heathen. Thou shouldst not think nor feel as they do when they cry out in their bitterness, 'No more.' Thy mother leaveth thee not forever, child. She hath only gone before thee by a little space at most, and thou shalt go unto her again. So the Lord whom thou lovest doth solemnly promise thee, and thou must never distrust his promise or his love."

"But I loved my mother! I must weep for her."

"Yea, daughter, weep as much as thou wilt. That is but natural and proper. So perhaps thou wouldst weep if she had gone to Alexandria, leaving thee behind; yet thou wouldst take comfort in the hope that she would come to thee again. So now she hath gone to Jesus, and is safe with him, and thou must take comfort in the hope, nay, in the very certainty, that, while she returneth not, perhaps, unto thee, thou shalt soon go unto her. And thou, being a Christian girl, shalt not vex thy heart with the hopeless sorrow that the heathen feel."

And the girl was comforted indeed, and her pleasant faith aided the buoyancy of health and youth in helping her to weary down the sorrow that followed the loss of her young, beautiful, and beloved mother; because the power of that faith brought the world's Consoler very near, and Death to her was shorn of his greatest terrors.

It was agreed among them that Theckla and Am-nem-hat should reside permanently at the cottage. The old man and Arius soon brought all of his possessions from the hermitage, even to his favorite goats; and, some of the neighbors assisting them, they built another room of stone, into which the ancient's manuscripts, his furniture, and his accumulation of coin, were all safely stowed away. And, all things having been thus satisfactorily arranged, the old man was conveyed in the boat around to Apollonia, and thence he took shipping unto Alexandria, where he produced before the orphans' court the depositions and other papers committed unto him by Hatasa; and, as guardian of Theckla, leased the houses which she owned in the city, and received and brought back to Baucalis with him some elegant personal effects that had belonged to Hatasa; her relatives consenting thereto without much opposition, and stipulating only that, if the girl should die, they were to be immediately informed of the fact; and that, if she should live, she was to come to the city as soon as she became of age. They were all pagans, and the old priest would have gone almost any length to avoid placing his young and beautiful Christian ward within the range of their influence. And, having transacted all things necessary, in a very few days the old man returned gladly to Baucalis--a place to which his heart seemed bound by stronger and more beautiful associations than had ever come into his long and lonely life elsewhere on earth, not even excepting Thebes and Ombos, nor his own quiet hermitage upon the mountain-side.

And the aged priest at once installed himself as the tutor of Theckla; and he taught to Arius, also, such science and literature as then were known unto the wisest men of Egypt; but some things he continued to learn from the boy himself.

And so the next four years glided quietly away, during which the routine of their peaceful lives pursued its usual course; and in their flight Arius became a tall and graceful youth of twenty; Theckla grew into a blooming and exquisitely beautiful woman of sixteen; for in the ardent Libyan latitudes the girls grow quickly into womanhood. These years made small changes in Ammonius and Arete; they told lightly upon the venerable Am-nem-hat, whose pure and quiet life had been favorable to longevity and to the preservation of his faculties unimpaired even unto an extreme old age; and Thopt herself bore the flight of time quite well, becoming almost imperceptibly more fixed and rigid in all her actions and opinions, and more and more impressed with the idea that Christianity was an excellent and beautiful thing for wise and perfect people like those among whom her lot was cast, and might even have suited her if it had not sought to abolish the relation of mistress and slave between herself and Arete, "contrary to nature and to common sense," she said; but that old grudge she could never entirely get over.

CHAPTER XV.

LOVE AND PARTING.

During these four years a great change had occurred in the heart and in the person of beautiful young Theckla. There came a gradually developing fullness and roundness over her whole form; the sharp, angular lines of childhood faded away in the softer curves of maturity; a deeper color bloomed upon her peachy cheeks; a sweeter, more unfathomable light burned in her dark, soft eyes; the delicate pink hue under the skin, which in all Egyptians of the higher classes, whose complexions are untanned by a hard life and constant exposure, proves the ancient race of the land of Kem to be consanguineous with the Aryan rather than with the Nigritian family of man, became more clearly and deliciously defined; and a sort of intangible self-consciousness grew up within her heart which intuitively led her to keep her hands off the boy companion whom she loved as a brother, and, without understanding why she did so, she ceased to romp and tumble around with him as she had been accustomed to do during the first year of her residence at Baucalis. In place of casting aside her gown and plunging into the waters of the bay with him, when she went to bathe, she went alone, or with Arete. Yet there was not the slightest tendency to prudishness in this gradual withdrawal of that tactual familiarity with Arius which had characterized her first intercourse with him; but, without ever having been talked to or lectured at on the subject, her chaste, pure soul instinctively drew from the very spirit of the gospel lessons fine boundaries of feeling that made her unconsciously observe even the most delicate bounds of maiden modesty. But this retiring somewhat within herself--this ceasing from the outward, demonstrative signs of trust and affection--was physical only: for the boy and girl grew daily nearer and dearer to each other; grew daily more trustful and confidential with each other; and daily became more and more identified in interest, thought, and feeling. They talked not of love any more than an affectionate brother and sister would have done, but the affection that united them to each other seeped down dew-like to the very roots of life in both. Ever his care and watchfulness for her grew more tender and respectful, and ever the smile with which she acknowledged his constant little attentions grew more bright and trustful; and, from this basis of evenly developing physical, intellectual, and spiritual progress and perfectness in both of them, their souls leaned unto each other, and mingled in an affection as chaste, strong, and intimate as human nature knows, growing together day by day, and attuning themselves to perfect concord in all the utterances and aspirations of their beautiful and happy lives--a human love that was impossible to pagan civilization, and is almost impossible to ours, but that flourished in its almost divine sweetness and beauty in the primitive Christian communities, side by side with thaumaturgy and the graces of that spiritual life which hath almost become a dream unto the world rather than a blessed reality.