The flight into Egypt I have assumed to have occurred about sixteen
months after the birth of Jesus. Guided by Christian tradition, and
holding the birth of our Lord to have taken place in December, it
follows that the period which I have assigned to the Flight into Egypt
is the second April in His life.
During the spring-time, rich in flowers and first-fruits, the HOLY
TRAVELLERS are represented as passing across the Philistine plain on
the road to Gaza at a distance of about thirty miles from their point
of departure. The night is far spent. While the declining moon sheds
its last rays on the natural objects in the picture, unearthly light
reveals the embodied spirits of the martyred Innocents advancing in
procession.
The Virgin is seated on a she-ass of the breed now known as the Mecca
race, and the foal follows its mother, as is seen to this day in the
East. Signal fires――still lit in Syria in time of trouble――are burning
on the slope looking down from the tableland. St. Joseph is watching
these fires intent on discovering any signs that may present themselves
of a movement of soldiery upon the road. Of the trees that enrich
the landscape, the nearest ones shelter a water-wheel used for the
irrigation of the land. The more remote group clusters round a village,
with its few huts visible by the lights that burn within. Having left
the colder climate of the high country, then thickly populated and
well cultivated, the fugitives have descended into the rich and more
balmy atmosphere of the plain. As they advance nearer and nearer to a
place of safety they feel the blessed relief of a sense of peace after
disturbance and terror.
Conscious of the divine mercy, the heart of Mary rejoicing over her
rescued son, feels compassion for the murdered Innocents, and for
the childless mothers less happy and less honoured than herself. It
is at this moment when the Virgin has been replacing the garments
in which the infant had been hurriedly wrapped at the time of the
escape from Bethlehem, that Jesus recognises the spirits of the slain
Innocents, His little neighbours of Bethlehem, children like Himself.
They reveal the signs of their martyrdom. Garlanded for the sacrifice,
bearing branches and blossoms of trees, they progressively mark their
understanding of the glory of their service. An infant spirit isolated
in wonder finds no mark of harm, where the sword wounded him, permitted
to appear on his glorified body. Behind in the air are the babes as yet
hardly awakened to the new life. In differing revelations of sorrow
they show the influence of earthly terror and suffering still impressed
upon them. Towards the front are other spirits of children triumphing
in completer knowledge of their service. One of them in priestly office
leads the band. Those who follow cast down their tokens of martyrdom
in the path of their recognised Lord. Others encircle the travel-worn
foal, wearily following its mother, and so bring it up to the onward
group. The shallow stream over which the procession passes, reflecting
the quiet beauty of the night sky, is unruffled except by the steps
of Joseph. The flood upon which the spiritual children advance forms
a contrast to this, by being in motion. The living fountains of
water――the streams of eternal life――furnish this, mystically portrayed
as ever rolling onward. Instead of being dissipated in natural vapour,
the play of its wavelets takes the form of airy globes which image the
Jewish belief in the millennium that is to follow the advent of the
Messiah.