AT THE GATE BEAUTIFUL.
The long hours of the morning had worn themselves away, the sunshine had
ceased to glitter on the wonderful carved brass of the great gate
Shushan some three hours since. One without, standing on the marble
pavement, might admire the marvels of Corinthian workmanship without an
undue dazzling of the vision; so also might the lame man, who lay on his
mat a little to one side of the entrance. Yet was he paying scant heed
to the grandeur of his surroundings. He lay at the gate of the temple,
which was called "Beautiful," not because it was beautiful, but because
through it passed a stream of worshippers to and from the well-nigh
ceaseless services of prayer and praise within. These all carried their
money within their hand, since it was not lawful to enter the sacred
enclosure having one's gold or silver within a purse nor indeed anywhere
about the person save in the hand only. So the lame man profited by the
law, inasmuch as many cast a coin into his bosom who might otherwise
have been in too much haste for prayer to have fetched out their purses
for a beggar.
On this day, however, the hands of the many had remained tightly closed
upon their treasure, not only when they went in to bow themselves before
the All-Giver, but also when they came out.
The lame man looked at them as they passed by him with unseeing eyes.
He wondered what blessing these men with their hard, worldly-wise faces
and closed fists had asked of the Almighty; he also wondered if they had
received. He himself went but seldom within the gates. He could not
approach too near the Holy Place because of his infirmity. God had
declared that such as the lame, the halt and the blind were unholy and
displeasing in his sight, so the priests taught. But he had been lame
from his birth and was sadly accustomed to this and other miseries of
his lot. For forty years his soul had looked from the windows of his
prison-house upon the world. In these forty years he had ceased to look
for happiness, but he had learned to be silent and to endure, which is
perhaps better.
He had heard tales of the man Jesus, who had healed many; once he had
begged his bearers to carry him to the healer that he also might be
restored, but they had refused.
"Thou art able to earn the bread which thou eatest, and also to
recompense us, who fetch thee back and forth from the temple gate; if
thou art healed, what canst thou do more? thou art already old. There
is no profit in having thee healed, therefore remain as thou art."
So he had remained as he was, and now the man Jesus was dead, crucified,
and there was no further chance that he might be healed. He regretted
it patiently; one learns to be patient even in one's regrets during
forty years. But he often thought of the man who had been crucified.
The priests had done it, he had been told; in secret he hated the
priests, and for this thing he hated them the more. Why should they
kill the man because he had healed upon the Sabbath day? he thought
bitterly; but he said nothing, for there was no one who cared for his
thoughts.
Presently he bethought himself to take account of his gains for the day,
since the hour of sunset was drawing on apace. "'Tis not enough," he
muttered, as he counted the copper coins from his greasy pouch. "I must
pay Nicolas and Obed, else they will not fetch me home; I like not to
stay here by night, the wind from the valley is chill." Then he lifted
his head and saw two men ascending the marble steps. They were not
rich, his experienced eye told him that, but it was not from the rich
that he expected alms. They were too busy thinking of the ritual which
they were going to repeat, or which perchance they had just repeated
without a flaw; and the pieces of money within their hand were sure to
be gold, or at least silver, neither meet for a beggar. No, it was from
women going humbly in to their outer court of worship, or from children,
that he received, or from such men as these in the plain garb of
Galilean peasants. Therefore the beggar lifted up his voice with some
confidence and cried aloud in the words which his mother--when she found
that he was a hopeless cripple--had taught him, and which he had
repeated many times each day since.
"Sons of Abraham! Chosen of Jehovah! have mercy, I beseech thee, on one
lame from his birth! Give unto me from thy heaven-bestowed bounty; so
will God recompense thee fourfold."
The two men stopped and looked at him intently, and the beggar repeated
his cry, stretching forth his lean hand imploringly and lifting his
ragged robe to show the helpless and shrunken limbs beneath. "They will
give," he thought within himself. "It will not be much, but it has been
a bad day with me so far, and every little helps."
"Look on us," said the older of the two men imperatively.
The beggar obeyed, marvelling within himself at the singular brightness
of the man's eyes. He began to think that perhaps for once he had been
mistaken, and that these men, despite their humble apparel, were after
all rich and important.
"Silver and gold have I none," said the man, still holding the beggar's
expectant gaze with his powerful eye, "but such as I have, give I thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
A thrill of hope passed into the beggar's starved soul; his heart beat
violently, his eyes grew dim, he again stretched forth his hand,
scarcely knowing what he did; it was seized in a strong grasp, and he
felt himself raised to his feet--the feet upon which he had never stood
in all the forty years of his life. His heart leaped within his bosom
with a strange and wonderful joy. Involuntarily his feet leaped also,
he could not help it. He clung to his deliverers, weeping out incoherent
blessings and prayers. Then, walking and leaping, he entered into the
temple with them, and remembering that he was no longer a cripple, and
that now he might approach God freely, he cried aloud in his joy, not
standing according to the law, with feet close together, hands upon his
breast and head bowed, but walking and leaping and praising jubilantly
with a loud voice. He knew that he had received, therefore his full
soul overflowed its bounds.
As for the rest of the worshippers, who had prayed according to the law,
and in whose souls there surged no such tumultuous happiness--and why
indeed should there?--they were greatly disturbed at this unseemly
exhibition. They looked askance at the strange ragged figure singing
aloud of his wonderful deliverance, and they shook their heads and
frowned. "Go forth into the porch," commanded certain who were in
authority, "until we shall look into this matter."
And the beggar, nothing loth, obeyed, still clinging to his deliverers
and praising more loudly than ever.
"Who art thou?" he cried. "Tell me, for I would know; mayhap ye be
angels in the garb of men."
"Nay, we are but disciples of the crucified one, Jesus of Nazareth.
'Tis by faith in his name that we have been able to heal thee, and not
by our own power."
And when the beggar heard the name, Jesus, he praised God yet more
loudly.
Now all the people hearing the voice of the beggar ran together in the
porch, which is called Solomon's, to see what had happened; and when
they saw him that had been lame, walking and leaping as he praised God,
they were filled with wonder. Some ran to the gate Beautiful to make
sure that it was he and no other, but they found there only the empty
mat on which the beggar had lain, and they returned marvelling more than
ever.
"Behold!" they whispered, pointing out Peter one to another, "It was the
man yonder who performed the miracle. It must needs be that he is most
holy, that he hath kept the law without failure of jot or tittle, that
he can do such marvels."
But when Peter perceived this he said unto the people: "Ye men of
Israel, why wonder ye at this, or why look ye so earnestly upon us, as
though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The
God of Abraham, and of Israel, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers hath
glorified his son Jesus, whom ye delivered up and denied in the presence
of Pilate when he had determined to release him. Ye rejected the holy
and righteous one and asked that a murderer should be granted you; but
the giver of life ye killed. Yet hath God raised him again from the
dead, whereof we are witnesses. By faith in his name hath this man been
made whole, whom also ye see and have known. Yea, the faith which is by
him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance ye did these things, as also
your rulers; what God before announced by the mouth of all his prophets
that the Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore,
and turn ye, that your sins may be blotted out, so may the times of
refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send the
Christ who hath been before proclaimed unto you, even Jesus; yet he must
needs remain in the heavens till the time cometh when all things shall
be restored, which time hath God spoken of by the mouth of his holy
prophets since the world began. For Moses said unto the fathers, 'A
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like
unto me. To him shall ye harken in all things whatsoever he shall say
unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear
him shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.' Yea, and all the
prophets from Samuel and them that follow after, as many as have spoken,
have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the sons of the prophets,
and of the Covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto
Abraham, 'and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be
blessed.' Unto you first, God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent
him, that he might bless you in turning away every one of you from his
sins."
And all the people paid heed unto him; and many wept aloud for joy when
they heard that they might be forgiven for their part in the crucifixion
of Jesus. They had not forgotten that day, nor how they had cried "Away
with him--away with him! Crucify him--crucify him!" Nor had they
forgotten the terror of darkness at midday and the earthquake, nor the
terrible sentence which they had pronounced upon themselves: "His blood
be upon us and upon our children." Many times had they cried in secret
what also they had said on that day, "We are undone--we are undone!"
Therefore believed they with gladness the word which Peter had spoken
unto them, and they prayed aloud that God would forgive them their
blood-guiltiness. But as Peter and John would have spoken further unto
them, the Priests and officers of the temple and the Sadducees came
suddenly upon them.
"What mean ye, blasphemers?" they said, "that within the sacred
precincts of the temple ye do preach in the name of an accursed
malefactor the resurrection from the dead. These things shall not be."
And they locked them up until the next day, for it was now eventide. As
for the beggar that had been healed, they put him in hold also, that
they might examine him at their leisure.