My Dear Father:
I have had the pleasure to-day, not only of hearing from you, but of
being assured of your continued welfare. The messages of parental
affection contained in your letter are cherished in my heart.
You need not fear, my dear father, that I shall be carried away from
the faith of Israel by any strange doctrines. I will take counsel by
your wisdom, and be cautious how I venture in my inquiries upon sacred
ground.
In my last letter I commenced giving you the narrative of John, with
which I shall now proceed.
"Having passed out of the city of Jericho, my friend of Arimathea and
myself crossed the plain toward Jordan. The morning was balmy; the sun
made all nature glad. The dew reflected a myriad lesser suns, and the
earth appeared strewn with diamonds. For a little way the road lay
between fields of corn and gardens, but soon it crossed the open plain,
on which were droves of wild asses, which lifted their small, spirited
heads on our approach, eyed us with timid curiosity, and then bounded
off to the wilderness southward with the speed of antelopes. As the
great body of the people took their way obliquely across the plain,
we knew the prophet must be in that direction. We at length found him
on the banks of Jordan, below the landing and ford, which is opposite
Jericho, on the great caravan road to Balbec.
"We drew near a dark mass of human beings which we had beheld afar
off, assembled around a small eminence near the river. Upon it, raised
a few cubits taller than their heads, stood a man upon whom all eyes
were fixed, and to whose words every ear was attentive. His clear,
rich, earnest tones had reached us as we approached, before we could
distinguish what he said. He was a young man not above thirty, with
a countenance such as the medallions of Egypt give to Joseph of our
nation, once their prince. His hair was long, and wildly free about his
neck; he wore a loose sack of camel's hair, and his right arm was naked
to the shoulder. His attitude was as free and commanding as that of a
Caucasian warrior, yet every gesture was gentle and graceful. With all
his ringing and persuasive eloquence there was an air of the deepest
humility upon his countenance, combined with an expression of the
holiest enthusiasm. His theme was the Messiah.
"'Oh, Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by
thine iniquity,' he was saying as we came up, as if in continuation of
what had gone before. 'Take with you words, and turn unto the Lord,
and say unto him: Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously.
Behold, he cometh who will heal your backsliding, and will love you
freely. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be delivered, for beside him there is no Savior.'
"'Of whom speaketh the prophet these things?' asked one who stood near
me.
"'Of Messiah--listen!' answered him a Scribe near, as if not pleased to
have his attention interrupted by this side talk. 'His words are plain.
Hear him.'
"'Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, for the day of the Lord cometh,'
continued the prophet, in a voice like that of a silver trumpet; 'for,
behold, the day is at hand when I will bring again the captivity of
Judah. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. The day is at
hand when the Lord shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from
Jerusalem.'
"'Art thou not Elias?' asked one aloud.
"'I am he of whom it is written. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, make straight a highway for our God. The day of the Lord is
at hand. I am but the herald who is sent before to prepare the way of
the Lord.'
"'Art thou not the Messiah?' asked a woman who stood near him, and
seemed to worship his very lips.
"'He who cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not
worthy to bear,' he responded, in an exultant tone, strangely at
variance with his words. 'Therefore, repent ye, repent ye, take words
and return unto the Lord our God. Repent and be baptized for the
remission of your sins.' Then he added, turning to some of the priests,
'Behold, even now is the axe laid unto the root of the trees; every
tree, therefore, that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and
cast into the fire.'
"'Master,' said a Levite, 'dost thou speak these things to us, who are
of Israel, or to these Gentiles and Samaritans?' for there were not a
few Roman soldiers among the multitude, drawn hither by curiosity, and
also many people from Samaria.
"'Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saith the Lord, for my people
have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living
waters, and hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold
no water. And yet thou sayest, O Israel, thou hast not sinned. Thine
own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backsliding shall reprove
thee. Repent and do works meet for repentance, every one of you, for
ye have polluted the land; neither say, Where is the Lord that brought
us up out of the land of Egypt? Trust not to lying words, saying, The
Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord! Ye
have made it a den of robbers. Your sacrifices therein are become an
abomination.'
"'This would touch us who are priests, master,' said a priest, with a
crimson brow. 'We are not robbers.'
"'Thus saith the Lord,' answered the youthful prophet, as if it were
God himself speaking from Horeb, so that we trembled: 'Woe be unto
the pastors that destroy my sheep. How is the gold become dim! how is
the most fine gold changed! The precious sons of Zion, comparable to
fine gold, how are they esteemed? Woe unto you, ye priests, for ye
have transgressed. My people have transgressed for lack of knowledge.
Therefore doth the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein
languisheth. Therefore do swearing and lying, and killing and stealing,
and committing adultery, break out in the land, because there is no
truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. Woe unto you, ye
priests!'
"Many of the Levites then turned and left him and went away greatly
murmuring; and they would gladly have done the prophet a mischief, but
they feared the multitude, who said he had spoken only the truth of
them.
"'But the elders of Israel, who are not priests, who spring from
Abraham, shall be saved by Abraham, master?' asserted, or rather
inquired, a rich ruler of our city, after the tumult caused by the
withdrawal of the Levites had a little subsided. The youthful prophet
rested his dark eyes, like two suns, upon the old man's face, and said
impressively, 'Begin not to say within yourself, We have Abraham to
our father; for I say unto you,' he added, pointing to the pebbles at
his feet, 'that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto
Abraham. He is of Abraham who doth righteousness; therefore repent, and
bring forth fruits meet for repentance.'
"Here was heard some murmuring among a group of many Pharisees and
Sadducees at these words, when, sending his lightning glance towards
them, as if he could read their very hearts, he cried:
"'O generation of vipers! Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to
come? The day cometh when he who is to come shall sit as a purifier by
his furnace. Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance. Turn
thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. Repent ye, for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
"'Hear, O Israel! Am I a God at hand and not a God afar off? saith the
Lord. Hear ye the message of the Most High, for the day hath come when
Jehovah shall once more visit the earth and talk face to face with his
creatures. Behold, the day hath come, saith the Lord, that I will raise
unto David a righteous branch, and a king to reign and prosper, who
shall execute judgment and justice on the earth.
"'Behold, the day hath come, saith the Lord, in which Judah shall be
saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; when I will set up shepherds over
them, which shall feed them, and they shall lack nothing.
"'Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee! Darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the
people, as saith Esaias; but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and his
glory shall be seen upon thee. The Gentiles shall come to his light,
and kings to the brightness of his rising. He shall be called the Lord
of our righteousness, and shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the
Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me to proclaim the acceptable year of his coming. He hath set
me a watchman upon thy walls, O Israel, and I may neither hold my peace
day nor night, nor keep silence, nor seek rest, till he come, who hath
sent me forth his messenger before his face. How can I refrain from my
message of joy? How shall I not speak of his fame? Incline your ear and
come unto him. Hear, and your soul shall live.
"'Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the ends of the
earth; for thus saith God the Lord, I have put my spirit upon him; a
bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not
quench. I, the Lord, saith Jehovah, addressing the Only Begotten, I
have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand and keep
thee, and will give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of
the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from
the prison. I have made him, my first-born, higher than the kings of
the earth. Look unto him, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.
The Lord of Hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.'
"All this was spoken with an enthusiasm and fire that made every pulse
bound.
"Such," said John, "was the extraordinary style of this mighty
prophet's preaching. I fancied I had only to look around to behold
the Messiah. The immense multitude stood awed and silent when he had
ceased. Leaving the eminence, he said, and I thought he fixed his eyes
upon me, 'Ye who desire to be baptized for the remission of sins, that
your hearts may be cleansed for the visitation of this Holy One of
God, follow me to the river side.' Thousands obeyed, and I one of the
first. I trembled all over with a sweet pleasure, when he took me by
the hand, and asked me if I believed in him who was to come, and would
prepare the way for his abode in my heart by being baptized, which rite
also was to be a sign and pledge that when I should behold the Shiloh
rising, I should acknowledge him. Not less than one thousand were
baptized by him that day in Jordan, confessing their sins, and hopes of
pardon through the name of the Unknown One, who was soon to come.
"After the baptism, the whole company dispersed in groups, and the
prophet returned into the wilderness till the cool of the evening,
where his repast was locusts and the wild honey of the desert."
With this, dear father, I close my long letter. I make no comments. I
will only say that my expectations are actively awake, and that I am
looking, with thousands of others, for the near advent of the Messiah.
Your daughter,
Adina.