SWIFT MESSENGERS
As Martha had expected, Mary refused to go to rest and when all about
was quiet she went into the garden. For a moment she paused before the
stone bench, then with lingering step she sought the fountain. Under
the light of the moon the garden seemed to lie in a silver aura. Where
the lilies grew thick and white the aura seemed to be a cloud-like halo
lying close to earth and on the pool the light was caught in tiny
shining bars.
"How still the garden!" Mary said, speaking to herself. "Scarce
breathing is the summer night--waiting it doth seem for something to
give it life. The leaves wait--wait for the evening breeze to touch
them into morion. The valley waiteth--waiteth for the song of the
pilgrim to break its hush with gladness. So waiteth my soul for sight
of a face that shall drive back the shadows of fear. So waiteth my
heart for the sound of a voice that shall stir the silence of the
waiting into wild glad music. Will he come? Or will--but no, no--it
can not, can not be that he will come no more. The God that fashioned
me of dust formed likewise the mystery of life, my love for him and his
for me. . . . And lo, then did the hand of Jehovah make the feet of
him I love to enter in upon the path my feet do tread. So hath my soul
been bound to his soul and there are no more two souls, but one soul.
And having wrought thus blessedly, will God play with the love he hath
put in a woman's heart and bring to her soul such agony as doth wring
drops of blood from her? Nay, nay! It can not be! He must come! He
will come! Hasten, my beloved; I am waiting!"
Mary walked around the circular pool slowly. As she did so, the
crowing of a cock, its sharpness muffled by some distance, sounded on
the stillness. "The cock croweth the midnight hour," she said as the
last faint vibration died. "Until the crowing of the cock did he bid
me wait to see his face. Yea, until the breaking of the day will I
wait. Until the sunset of my life will I wait. Yea, even until the
Resurrection of the dead will I wait to see his face!"
She crossed the garden and back, paused, and raised her face to the
vault above where the moon was casting floods of silver over the
billowing clouds. She sighed and the words she spoke were breathed out
softly as if they too were a part of the passing night. "The hours
move on and naught there is but silence! What a silence it is! Like a
pall hangeth it over the Judean hills! Like a shroud falleth it over
Olivet! Like grave wrappings huggeth it the valley! God! The silence
of this night! Hath there been before such silence? It doth make of
itself feet that tread upon my soul and, treading, leave wounds with
living tongues which call in agony, 'I am waiting! I am waiting in the
garden!' No sound cometh to break this that oppresseth? The silence
deepens and its mystery doth affright my soul!"
For a moment she stood under the flood-light from above like a white
veiled statue, yet softer than marble, locked in the pervading and low
brooding hush. Then, suddenly, she turned her ear in the direction of
the highway. "A sound breaketh the stillness!" she exclaimed in an
excited undertone. "Faint and far it is--but a _sound_!" With light
steps she ran to her watching place by the stone wall. "Yea, a sound!"
and she leaned over the wall. "It groweth on the air. What cometh? A
speck it is against the gray! It moveth! It groweth larger! Aye, it
cometh! It cometh! It taketh on the shape of flying garments--yea,
flying garments! What meaneth this? He cometh as if pursued! Aye, if
danger threaten, may Israel's God lend speed to his feet!"
The first faint sounds had rapidly grown more distinct. Mary leaned as
far across the wall as safety permitted and peered into the roadway.
"What is it I see? There are two running as doth the hind run to
escape the pursuing dogs! On, on they come! Close--they draw nigh!
They are here! They pass!" With the last words she dropped from the
wall just as the runners dashed by.
"Ho! Stop!" cried one of them. "This is the place."
"The home of Lazarus?" the other panted.
"Yea! Hast thou voice left to shout?"
"Yea, while thou dost beat the door!"
Before Mary could reach the house she heard the runners pounding on the
door and shouting, "Open! Open!" and when she entered at the back her
brother was unbarring the front door. "What news?" he demanded as the
two rushed in.
"Be not loud of mouth. We bear news of Jesus," one of them answered.
Lazarus cast his eyes over them. One was a Galilean fisherman, the
other was naked save a fragment of garment about his loins. "Who art
thou, and what is thy message?"
"Disciples of Jesus are we both. Lo, was my coat torn from me in
resisting those who took him and I fled leaving it in the hands of a
soldier."
"Who hath taken Jesus?" It was Mary who asked, and her voice was
charged with apprehension.
"Yea, who hath taken Jesus?" Joseph asked as he appeared hastily
fastening his vestment.
"By the midnight Temple guard and soldiers from the Tower of Antonio
hath he been taken!"
"Lazarus--Joseph!" Mary cried. "Let us hasten to him--let us _fly_ to
him!"
"Soldiers have taken him who is to be King of the Jews?" Martha
exclaimed. "Not so!"
"Peace, women," Joseph said, lifting his hands. "Wisdom demandeth
there be no loss of time. Let the stranger make speech."
"The Passover feast we ate in an upper chamber," he said. "Before the
singing of the last hymn and the washing of hands Judas left, and it
doth seem that from his word or act, the Master did suspect him of
disloyalty. Soon we went into the streets which lay quiet save for the
sound of singing from those who tarried late at the feast. Leaving the
city by a side gate we followed a dim path to an old stone mill hard by
an olive orchard. A secluded and hidden place it is. At the entrance
to the grove the Master bade us tarry, save three, and watch with all
our eyes, for threats had been breathed against him. And the three
which went with him did he also bid watch while he went yet farther
under the trees to commune with Jehovah as oft he doeth. Secure would
he have been had not our eyes been heavy with sleep for then would we
have seen the crowd approaching that with clubs and torches and spears,
wormed its way across Kedron and up the hillside. And had we seen,
then would we have passed word to the inner watchers, and to the Master
would they have called. Then, lo! him whom Judas would betray, could
have escaped far down the hillside, and have safely hidden in some cave
or tomb. So hath he escaped aforetimes. But _woe_! _Woe_! Woe unto
him whose words thou hearest! The spirit was willing, but the flesh
was weak and around the old stone mill did we fall asleep. And, alas
for the misery that hath come upon us; those of the inner watch did
also fall asleep, and while we slept came the soldiers of Rome, the
Temple guards and the rabble. Scarce had we opened our eyes when they
were upon us, yet did not the inner watch awaken until Jesus, hearing
the uproar, came from the shadows and said, as he stood above the
sleeping forms of his disciples, 'What, could ye not watch with me one
hour?' And as he did stand, Judas hurried to him, kissing his cheek
and crying, 'Hail, Master!' At this the soldiers fell upon him, yet
fear did not move him, and at his command they fell back. Without the
twitching of a hair or the shadow of a fear he stood out before them
while he said, 'Why have ye come out against me as a robber? Daily
have I taught in the Temple. Why take me not there?' And because they
could make no answer they smote him on the mouth."
"Those he loved slept while his life was in peril! Those he trusted
have betrayed him? Those to whom he hath done no evil have smitten
him? It can not be so! Say it is not so!" and Mary's voice broke in
sobs.
"Smite the Master," angrily exclaimed Martha. "Him to be King of the
Jews?"
"Yea, they did smite him," the fisherman answered. "They did curse him
and as they turned away they spat upon him. Some of his disciples bore
arms and in the struggle the servant of the High Priest lost an ear.
Would God it had been the High Priest's head the sword severed! And as
they rudely pushed him on, he whispered a word in the ear of a disciple
asking that swift news of his arrest be brought to Lazarus of Bethany.
Then took they him."
"Where have they taken him?" Joseph asked.
"To Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin; to the Judgment Hall of Pilate; to the
scourger and the cross if they have power."
"To the Roman judgment seat--to the scourgers--to the cross--the cruel,
cruel cross? Nay, not the _cross_! Save him!
Lazarus--Joseph--Strangers--Men of Israel, save him whom we love! Let
not the hand of Rome hang his body on a cross!" Mary plead hysterically.
"Calm thyself, Mary," Joseph said. "The Jew hath not power to take the
life of Jesus, and Pilate doth hate the Sanhedrin with such fierce
hatred that for nothing short of Temple gold or fear of Caesar would he
sign a death-warrant that would please a Jew."
"Trust not to Pilate," plead the fisherman. "Pilate is but Rome in
Palestine and doth not Rome love the cross? Aye, in our own Galilee
were not two thousand of our sons and fathers crucified, and left for
dogs to gnaw because they followed the Gaulonite and refused Rome the
tax? The cross is fearful and bloody. Jesus of Nazareth must be saved
from the cross!"
"Yea, by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must he be saved!" Lazarus
shouted. "Let us away and arouse the hills and awake the valleys where
thousands of armed Galileans are sleeping. Other thousands there are
of Zealots whose hands are ever near a blade. And will not the
Nationalists strike for the honor of the nation? And the Essenes?
Aye, all these will we waken, and more, and by morning when the city
gates swing open such a populace will enter as proclaimed him King.
The time hath come for Israel to strike--aye, to strike with the sword!"
"A mob is not an army, Lazarus. Though the populace shout hosannahs or
breathe curses it is all one to the sword of Rome."
"Aye, Joseph, but the wrath of Israel will make of scythes and reaping
hooks, blades to strike off the shackles of Rome, and from the fastness
of Judean mountains will those who know not fear, engage Rome in such
warfare as she hath never known."
"The love of thy heart doth upset thy reason," Joseph answered, shaking
his head. "What to Rome is the fastness of Judean hills? Hath not
Rome crossed mountains and jungles and deserts in search of her prey?
Like sheep in a pen wouldst thou be made to stay in thy hiding-places
until thy bleached bones would tell that Rome findeth starvation oft
cheaper than the sword. From Dan to Beersheba doth the heathen purple
fly over tower and wall, and under the dark shadow of her mighty eagle
do the nations of the earth cower. Whence then could come thy succor?
To lift the sword is but to bring it down on thine own neck. If he
whom our hearts love escape, by the wit of man's mind must the thing be
accomplished. Go thou, Lazarus, with these disciples and rouse the
sleeping people that they be ready to swarm the city at the opening of
the gates. And I--I will hasten to Jerusalem and until daybreak keep
my eye where the Sanhedrin might hold meeting."
"It is not lawful for the Great Sanhedrin to meet until the sun is well
risen," said Lazarus eagerly.
"And what care murderers for the law of Moses when the fires of hatred
gnaw their souls? To their meeting place I will hasten, and if quietly
they seek to do evil before the break of day, I will, with innocent
words, seek an entanglement among them concerning the Law. And with
the daybreak will come the followers of Jesus and safety for another
day. Haste! Let us haste!"