Jesus Christ -- Fiction; Jesus Christ -- Juvenile fiction; Short stories
They had to go through an old arch which had been there ever since the
time when the first Temple was erected on this spot; and near the arch,
propped against a wall, stood an old copper trumpet, enormous in length
and weight, almost like a pillar to raise to the mouth and play upon. It
stood there dented and battered, full of dust and spiders’ webs, inside
and outside, and covered with an almost invisible tracing of ancient
letters. Probably a thousand years had gone by since any one had tried
to coax a tone out of it.
But when the little boy saw the huge trumpet, he stopped—astonished!
“What is that?” he asked.
“That is the great trumpet called the Voice of the Prince of this
World,” replied the mother. “With this, Moses called together the
Children of Israel, when they were scattered over the wilderness. Since
his time no one has been able to coax a single tone from it. But he who
can do this, shall gather all the peoples of earth under his dominion.”
She smiled at this, which she believed to be an old myth; but the little
boy remained standing beside the big trumpet until she called him. This
trumpet was the first thing he had seen in the Temple that he liked.
They had not gone far before they came to a big, wide Temple-court.
Here, in the mountain-foundation itself, was a chasm, deep and
wide—just as it had been from time immemorial. This chasm King Solomon
had not wished to fill in when he built the Temple. No bridge had been
laid over it; no inclosure had he built around the steep abyss. But
instead, he had stretched across it a sword of steel, several feet long,
sharpened, and with the blade up. And after ages and ages and many
changes, the sword still lay across the chasm. Now it had almost rusted
away. It was no longer securely fastened at the ends, but trembled and
rocked as soon as any one walked with heavy steps in the Temple Court.
When the mother took the boy in a roundabout way past the chasm, he
asked: “What bridge is this?”
“It was placed there by King Solomon,” answered the mother, “and we call
it Paradise Bridge. If you can cross the chasm on this trembling bridge,
whose surface is thinner than a sunbeam, then you can be sure of getting
to Paradise.”
She smiled and moved away; but the boy stood still and looked at the
narrow, trembling steel blade until she called him.
When he obeyed her, she sighed because she had not shown him these two
remarkable things sooner, so that he might have had sufficient time to
view them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account