He at whom Herod had struck was not among the slaughtered innocents.
For Mary had no desire to show her babe to the king.
They kept in hiding with their great treasure. They remained in hiding
a long time. The rite of circumcision made the boy a member of the
nation which God had named His chosen people. The child's ancestors
reached back to Abraham, to whom the promise was made. And if
according to Holy Writ I trace his descent from the race of Abraham,
branch by branch, it comes at last to Joseph, Mary's husband. And it
is here that the glad tidings turn us aside with firm hand from all
earthly existence--to the Spirit through which Mary had borne Him, Him
whom with holy awe we call Jesus.
Now it came to pass one night that Joseph awoke from his sleep: "Arise,
Joseph, wake them, and flee!" The voice called to him clearly and
distinctly: twice, thrice.
"Flee? before whom? The shepherds protect us," Joseph ventured to say.
"The king will have the child. Make your preparations quickly and
flee."
Joseph looked at his wife and child. Their faces were white in the
moonlight. To think that such as they had an enemy on the earth!
Flee! But whither? Where could the king not reach them? His arm
extended throughout the whole of Judaea. We must not dream of going to
Nazareth; he would be sure to seek us there. Shall we go towards the
land where the sun rises? There dwell wild men of the desert. Or
towards the setting sun? There are the boundless waters, and we have
no boat in which to sail thither, where the heathens live who have
kinder hearts than the grim princes of Israel.
"Wake them!" called the voice clearly and urgingly. "Take them to the
land of the Pharaohs."
"To Egypt, where our forefathers were slaves, and were only delivered
with difficulty?" asked Joseph.
"Joseph, delay not. Go to the people whose faith is folly, but whose
will is just, yonder where the waters of the Nile make the land fertile
and bless it; There you will find peace and livelihood, safety for your
wife, and teaching for the child. When the time comes, God will lead
you back as once He led Moses and Joshua across the sea."
Joseph knew not whose voice it was; he did not seek to know, and
doubted not his soul rested trustfully in the arms of the Lord. He put
his hand on the shoulders of his dearest one, and said softly: "Mary,
awake, and be not afraid. Gather together our few possessions, put
them in a sack, and I will fasten it to the beast Ishmael gave us.
Then take the child. We must away."
Mary pushed her long, soft, silky hair from her face. Her husband's
sudden decision, the departure in the middle of the night, made her
wonder, but she said not a word. She gathered together their scanty
possessions, took the sleeping child in her arms, and mounted the ass,
who pricked up his ears and thought what a day's work must be before
him since it began so terribly early. His former owner had not
pampered him; his short legs were firm and willing. They gave one last
grateful look at the cave, the stones of which were softer than the
hearts of the men of Bethlehem. Joseph took his stick and a leathern
strap and walked beside the ass, leading it, the ass which carried his
whole world and his heaven, and--the heaven of the whole world.
After going some way, they thought to rest under some palm-trees, not
far from Hebron. But the ass would not stop, and they let him have his
will. Then soldiers of Herod rode that way; they saw a brown-skinned
woman with a child sitting on the sand.
"Is it a boy?" they called to her.
"A girl," answered the woman. "But strangers have just passed by, and
I think they had a boy with them, if you can come up with them."
And the horsemen galloped on. Meanwhile the fugitives from Nazareth
had reached bad roads, and were tired and wretched. Was not Jacob's
favourite son also taken into Egypt just like this child? What will
become of this one? They became aware of their pursuers galloping
behind over the bare plain. Not a tree, not a shrub which could afford
them protection. They took refuge in the cleft of a rock, but Joseph
said: "What is the use of hiding? They must have seen us." But as
soon as they were well inside the dark hole, down came a spider from
the mossy wall, summoned all her brood and her most distant relations
in great haste, and they speedily spun a web over the opening, a web
that was stronger than the iron railings in Solomon's temple, at the
entrance to the Holy of Holies. Hardly was the weaving finished when
the knaves came riding up. One said: "They crept into the hole in the
rock."
"What!" shouted another, "no one could have crept in there since the
time of David the shepherd. Look at the thick cobwebs."
"That's true," they laughed, and straightway rode off.
An old man who seemed to have risen from the grave now stood before the
dusky woman who had denied her own son and betrayed the stranger
wanderers. Whence he came he did not know himself. He loved the
lonely desert, the home of great thoughts. He did not fear the robbers
of the desert, for he was stronger than they because he had nothing.
Now and again the desire came to him to behold a human face, so that he
might read therein whether the souls of men looked upwards or sank
downwards. The old man went up to the woman who had denied her own son
and betrayed the fugitives. And he said: "Daughter of Uriah! twice
have you given your son life: once through pleasure, once through a
lie. So his life will be a lie. He will breathe without living, and
yet he will not be able to die!"
"Mercy!" she cried.
"He will see Jerusalem fall!"
"Woe is me!"
"He will see Rome burn!"
"Mercy!" she groaned.
"He will see the old world perish. He will see the barbarians of the
north prevail. He will wander restless, he will be ill-treated and
despised everywhere, he will suffer the boundless despair of universal
misery, and he will not be able to die. He will envy men their death
anguish and their right to die. He will learn how they suck sweet
poison from the loveliest blossoms, and how twelve-year-old boys kill
themselves from sheer weariness. He is the son of lies and is banished
into the kingdom of lies. He will lament over the torments of old age,
and he will not be able to die. He will call those children whom Herod
slew blessed, and gnash his teeth at the memory of the woman who saved
him through a lie."
"Oh, stop!" shrieked the woman. "When will he be redeemed?"
"Perhaps when the eternal Truth is come."