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 paean 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.