A TRIUMPHAL ENTRY
The people came to meet the Lord upon the Ripley road, and they were
not a few.
The first that found Mr. Treadman were Mrs. Powell and Harvey
Gifford. They took a fly from the station, bidding the driver drive
straight on. Nor had they gone far before they came on Mr. Treadman
sitting on a gate. They cried to him:
'What is the meaning of your telegram?'
'It means that the Lord has come again, in very surety and very
truth.'
'Are you in earnest?'
'Did they not ask that question of the prophets? Were they in
earnest? Then am I.'
'But where is He?'
'He has given me the slip.'
'Given you the slip? What do you mean?'
Mr. Treadman explained. While he did so, others arrived, men and
women of all sorts, ranks, and ages. They were agog with curiosity.
'What like is He to look at? Does the sight of Him blind, as it did
Moses?'
'Nothing of the sort. He is just an ordinary man, like you and me.'
'An ordinary man! Then how can you tell it is the Lord?'
'He is not to be mistaken. You cannot be in His presence twenty
seconds without being sure of it.'
'But--I don't understand! I thought that when He came again it was to
be with legions of angels, in pomp and glory, to be the Judge of all
the earth.'
'The Jews looked for a material display. They thought He was to come
in Majesty. And because, to their unseeing eyes, He appeared as one
of themselves, in their disappointment they nailed Him upon a tree.
Oh, my friends, don't let a similar mistake be ours! That is the
awful, immeasurable peril which already stares us in the face.
Because, in His infinite wisdom, for reasons which are beyond our
ken, and, perhaps, beyond our comprehension, He has again chosen to
put on the guise of our common manhood, let us not, on that account,
the less rejoice to see Him, nor let us fail to do Him all possible
honour. He has come again unto His children; let His children receive
Him with shouts and with Hosannas. It is possible, when He perceives
how complete is His dominion over your hearts and minds, that He will
be pleased to manifest Himself in that splendour of Godhead for which
I know some of you have been confidently looking. Only, until that
hour comes, let us not fail to do reverence to the God in man.'
'But where is He? You told us to meet Him on the Ripley road. How can
we do Him reverence if we do not know where He is?'
The question came in different forms from many throats. The crowd had
grown. The people were eager.
A boy threaded his way among them. He addressed himself to Mr.
Treadman.
'Please, sir, there's someone in the wood with Mr. Bates. When I took
Mr. Bates his dinner he called him "Lord."'
Presently the crowd were following the boy. He led them some little
distance along the road, and then across a field into a wood. There
they came upon the Stranger and the charcoal-burner eating together,
seated side by side; and the lame man also ate with them, sitting on
the ground. Mr. Treadman cried:
'Lord, we have found You again!'
He looked at the people, asking:
'Who are these?'
They are Your children--Your faithful, loving, eager children, who
have come to give You greeting.'
'My children? There are many that call themselves My children that I
know not of.'
Mr. Treadman cried:
'Oh, my friends, this is the Lord! Rejoice and give thanks. Many are
the days of the years in which you have watched for Him, and waited,
and He has come to you at last.'
For the most part the people were still. There were some that pressed
forward, but more that hung back. For now that they came near to the
Stranger's presence they began to be afraid. Yet Mrs. Powell went
close to Him, asking:
'Are you in very deed the Lord?'
He replied:
'Are you of the children of the Lord?
She drew a little back.
'I do not know Him; I do not know Him! Yet I am afraid.'
'Love casteth out fear; but where there is no love, there fear is.'
She drew still more away, saying again:
'I am afraid.'
Mr. Treadman explained:
'We are here to meet You, Lord, and to entreat You to let us come
with You to London.'
'Why should you come with Me?'
'Because we are Your children.'
'My children!'
'Yes, Lord, Your children, each in his or her own fashion, but each
with his or her whole heart. And because we are Your children, we are
here to meet You--many of us at no slight personal inconvenience--to
keep You company on the way, so that by our testimony we may begin to
make it known that the Lord has come again to be the Judge of all the
earth.'
'What know you of the why and wherefore of My coming?'
'Actually nothing. But I am very sure You are here for some great and
good purpose, and trust, before long, to prove myself worthy of the
Divine confidence. In the meantime I implore You to suffer those who
are here assembled to accompany You as a guard of honour, so that You
may make, though in a rough-and-ready fashion, a triumphant entry
into that great city which is the capital of Your kingdom here on
earth.'
'I will come with you.' To the lame man and to the
charcoal-burner He said: 'Come also.'
He went with them. And when they came into the road nothing would
content Mr. Treadman but that He should get into the fly which had
brought Mrs. Powell and Mr. Gifford from the station. The lame man
and the charcoal-burner rode with Him. As Mr. Treadman was preparing
to mount upon the box Mrs. Powell came.
'What am I to do? I cannot walk all the way. It is too far.'
'Get in also. There is room.'
She shuddered.
'I dare not--I am afraid.'
So the fly went on without her.
As they went the bands played and the people sang hymns. There were
some that shouted texts of Scripture and all manner of things. In the
towns and villages folk came running out to learn what was the cause
of all the hubbub.
'What is it?' they cried.
Mr. Treadman standing up would shout: 'It is the Lord! He has come to
us again! Rejoice and give thanks. Come, all ye that are weary and
heavy laden, for He has brought you rest.'
They pressed round the fly, so that it could scarcely move.
In a certain place a great man who was driving with his wife, when he
saw the crowd and heard what they were saying, was angry, crying with
a loud voice:
'What ribaldry is this? What blasphemous words are these you utter? I
am ashamed to think that Englishmen should behave in such a fashion.'
Mr. Treadman answered:
'You foolish man! you don't know what it is you say. Yours is the
shame, not ours. It is the Lord in very deed!'
The other, still more angry, caused his coachman to place his
carriage close beside the fly, intending to reprimand Him whom he
supposed to be the cause of the commotion. But when he saw the
Stranger he was silent. His wife cried: 'It is the Lord!'
She went quickly from the carriage to the fly. When she reached it
she fell on her knees, hiding her face on the seat at the Stranger's
side.
'You have my son, my only son!'
He said:
'Be comforted. Your son I know and you I know. To neither of you
shall any harm come.'
Her husband called to her.
'Are you mad? What is the meaning of this extraordinary behaviour? Do
you wish to cause a public scandal?'
She answered:
'It is the Lord!'
But her husband commanded her:
'Come back into the carriage!'
She cried:
'Lord, let me stay with You. You have my boy; where my boy is I would
be also.'
The Stranger said:
'Return unto your husband. You shall stay with Me although you return
to him.'
She went back into the carriage weeping bitterly.
The news of the strange procession which was coming went on in front.
All the way were people waiting, so that the crowd grew more and
more. All that came had to make room for it, waiting till the press
was gone. Though the way was long, but few seemed to tire. Those that
were at the first continued to the end, the bands playing almost
without stopping, and the people singing hymns.
By the time they neared London it was evening. The throng had grown
so great the authorities began to be concerned. Policemen lined the
roads, ready if necessary to preserve order. But their services were
not needed, as Mr. Treadman proclaimed:
'Constables, we are, glad to see you. Representatives of the law, He
who comes is the Lord. Therefore shout Hosanna with the best of us
and give Him greeting.'
Presently someone pressed a piece of paper into his hand on which was
written:
'If the Lord would but stay this night in the house of the chief of
sinners.
'MIRIAM POWELL.'
He took a pencil from his pocket, and wrote beneath:
'He shall stay in your house this night, thou daughter of the Lord.
'W. S. T.'
From his seat on the box Mr. Treadman leaned over towards the fly.
'Lord, I entreat You to honour with Your presence the habitation of
Your very daughter, Miriam Powell, whose good works, done in Your
name, shine in the eyes of all men.'
He replied:
'Thy will, not Mine, be done!' Mr. Treadman shouted to the people:
'My friends, I am authorised by the Lord to announce that He will
rest in the house of His faithful servant, Miriam Powell, whose name,
as a single-minded labourer in Christ's vineyard, is so well-known to
all of you. To mark our sense of His appreciation of the manner in
which Mrs. Powell has borne the heat and burden of the day, let us
join in singing that beautiful hymn which has comforted so many of us
when the hours of darkness were drawing nigh, "Abide with me, fast
fall the eventide."'
Mrs. Powell's house was in Maida Vale. It was late when the
procession arrived. Even then it was some time before the fly could
gain the house itself. The crowd had been recruited from a less
desirable element since its advent in the streets of London, and this
reinforcement was disposed to show something of its more disreputable
side. The vehicle, with its weary horse and country driver, had to
force its way through a scuffling, howling mob. For some moments it
looked as if, unless the police arrived immediately in great force,
there would be mischief done; until the Stranger, standing up in the
fly, raised His hand, saying:
'I pray you, be still.'
And they were still. And He passed through the midst of them, with
the charcoal-burner and the lame man. Mr. Treadman came after.
When He entered the house, He sighed.
Now Mrs. Powell, when she had learned that the Stranger was to be her
guest, had hastened home to make ready for His coming, so that the
table was set for a meal. But when He saw that there was a place for
only one, He asked:
'What is this? Is there none that would eat with me?'
Mr. Treadman answered:
'Nay, Lord, there is none that is worthy. Suffer us first to wait
upon You. Then afterwards we will eat also.'
He said:
'Does not a father eat with his children? Are they not of him? If
there is any in this house that calls upon My name, let him sit down
with me and eat.'
So they sat down and ate together. While they continued at
table but little was said; for the day had been a long one, and they
were weary. When they had eaten, the Stranger was shown into the best
room, where was a bed which offered a pleasant resting-place for
tired limbs. But He did not lie on it, nor sought repose, but went
here and there about the room, as if His mind were troubled. And He
cried aloud:
'Father, is it for this I came?'
In the street were heard the voices of the people, and those that
cried:
'Christ has come again!'
And in the best room of the house the Stranger wept, lamenting:
'I have come unto Mine own, and Mine own know Me not. They make a
mock of Me, and say, He shall be as we would have Him; we will not
have Him as He is. They have made unto themselves graven images, not
fashioned alike, but each an image of his own, and each would have Me
to be like unto the image which he has made. For they murmur among
themselves: It is we that have made God; it is not God that has made
us.'