Bible. New Testament -- History of Biblical events -- Fiction; Biographical fiction; Jesus Christ -- Fiction
I seem to read supper in their eyes, he said, and having tied them up
supperless he visited the bitch and her puppies. Brother Ozias hasn't
forgotten to feed her. There is some food still in the platter. But they
must submit, he continued, his thoughts having returned to his dogs,
Theusa and Tharsa, and then he stood listening, for he could hear
Mathias' voice. The door of the lecture-room is closed; if I step softly
none will know that I have returned from the hills, and I can sit
unsuspected on the balcony till Mathias' allegories are ended, and
watching the evening descending on the cliff it may be that I shall be
able to examine the thoughts that assailed me as I ascended the
hillside; whether we pursue a corruptible or an incorruptible crown the
end is the same, he said. It was not enough for me to love God, I must
needs ask others to worship him, at first with words of love, and when
love failed I threatened, I raved; and the sin I fell into others will
fall into, for it s natural to man to wish to make his brother like
himself, thereby undoing the work of God. Myself am no paragon; I
condemned the priests whilst setting myself up as a priest, and spoke of
God and the will of God though in all truth I had very little more
reason than they to speak of these things. God has not created us to
know him, or only partially through our consciousness of good and evil.
Good and evil do not exist in God's eyes as in our eyes, for he is the
author of all, but it may be that our sense of good and evil was given
to us by him as a token of our divine nature. If this be true, why
should we puzzle and fret ourselves with distinctions like Mathias? It
were better to leave the mystery and attend to this life, casting out
desire to know what God is or what nature is, as well as desire for
particular things in this world which long ago I told men to
disregard.... A flight of doves distracted his attention, and a moment
after the door of the lecture-room opened and Saddoc and Manahem
appeared, carrying somebody dead or who had fainted. As they came across
the domed gallery towards the embrasure Jesus heard Manahem say: he will
return to himself as soon as we get him into the air. And they placed
him where Jesus had been sitting. A little water, Saddoc cried, and
Jesus ran to the well, and returning with a cup of water he stood by
sprinkling the worn, grey face. The heat overcame me, he murmured, but I
shall soon be well and then you will bear me back to hear--The sentence
did not finish, and Jesus said: thou'lt be better here with me, Hazael,
than listening to discourses that fatigue the mind. Mathias is very
insistent, Manahem muttered. He is indeed, Saddoc answered. And while
Jesus sat by Hazael, fearing that his life might go out at any moment,
Manahem reproved Saddoc, saying that whereas duty is the cause of all
good, we have only to look beyond our own doors to see evil everywhere.
Even so, Saddoc answered, what wouldst thou? That the world, Manahem
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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