He was in Solomon's Porch long before the schools had begun to
assemble. He paced up and down under the triple colonnade, thinking
what questions he should ask the master.
The company that gathered around Hillel that day was smaller, but
there were more scribes and doctors of the law among them, and
they were speaking of the kingdom of the Messiah--the thing that
lay nearest to the Boy's heart. He took his place in the midst of
them, and they made room for him, for they liked young disciples
and encouraged them to ask after knowledge.
It was the prophecy of Daniel that they were discussing, and the
question was whether these things were written of the First Messiah
or of the Second Messiah; for many of the doctors held that there
must be two, and that the first would die in battle, but the second
would put down all his enemies and rule over the world.
“Rabbi,” asked the Boy, “if the first was really the Messiah, could
not God raise him up again and send him back to rule?”
“You ask wisely, son,” answered Hillel, “and I think the prophets
tell us that we must hope for only one Messiah. This book of Daniel
is full of heavenly words, but it is not counted among the prophets
whose writings are gathered in the Scripture. Which of them have
you read, and which do you love most, my son?”
“Isaiah,” said the Boy, “because he says God will have mercy with
everlasting-kindness. But I love Daniel, too, because he says they
that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever
and ever. But I do not understand what he says about the times
and a half-time and the days and the seasons before the coming of
Messiah.”
With this there rose a dispute among the doctors about the meaning
of those sayings, and some explained them one way and some another,
but Hillel sat silent. At last he said:
“It is better to hope and to wait patiently for Him than to reckon
the day of His coming. For if the reckoning is wrong, and He does
not come, then men despair, and no longer make ready for Him.”
“How does a man make ready for Him, Rabbi?” asked the Boy.
“By prayer, son, and by study of the law, and by good works, and
by sacrifices.”
“But when He comes He will rule over the whole world, and how can
all the world come to the Temple to sacrifice?”
“A way will be provided,” answered the old man, “though I do not
know how it will be. And there are offerings of the heart as well
as of the altar. It is written, 'I will have mercy and not sacrifice.'”
“Will His kingdom be for the poor as well as for the rich, and for
the ignorant as well as for the wise?”
[Illustration: From a painting by Holman Junt. The Finding of Christ
in The Temple]
“Yes, it will be for the poor and for the rich alike. But it will
not be for the ignorant, my son. For he who does not know the law
cannot be pious.”
“But, Rabbi,” said the Boy eagerly, “will He not have mercy on them
just because they are ignorant? Will He not pity them as a shepherd
pities his sheep when they are silly and go astray?”
“He is not only a Shepherd,” answered Hillel firmly, “but a great
King. They must all keep the law, even as it is written and as the
elders have taught it to us. There is no other way.”
The Boy was silent for a time, while the others talked of the law,
and of the Torah, and of the Talmud in which Hillel in those days
was writing down the traditions of the elders. When there was an
opportunity he spoke again.
“Rabbi, if most of the people should be both poor and ignorant
when the Messiah came, so ignorant that they did not even know Him,
wouldn't He save them just because they were poor?”
Hillel looked at the Boy with love, and hesitated before he answered.
At that moment a man and a woman came through the colonnade with
hurried steps. The man stopped at the edge of the circle, astonished
at what he saw. But the woman came into the centre and put her arm
around the Boy.
“My boy,” she cried, “why hast thou done this to us? See how sorrowful
thou hast made me and thy father, looking everywhere for thee.”
“Mother,” he answered, “why did you look everywhere for me with
sorrow? Did you not know that I would be in my Father's house? Must
I not begin to think of the things my Father wants me to do?”
Thus the lost Boy was found again, and went home with, his parents
to Nazareth. The old rabbi blessed him as he left the Temple.
But had he really been lost, or was he finding his way?