The White Prophet, Volume 1 (of 2)Caine, Hall, Sir
General
The White Prophet, Volume 1 (of 2)
Caine, Hall, Sir
British -- Egypt -- Fiction; Egypt -- Fiction
Three weeks longer Ishmael lay in the grip of his fever, and day and
night Adila tended him, moistening his parched lips and cooling his hot
forehead, while he raged against his enemies in his strong delirium,
crying, "Down with the Christians! Drive them away! Kill them!" Then
the thunging and roaring in his poor brain ceased, and his body was like
a boat that had slid in an instant out of a stormy sea into a quiet
harbour. Opening his eyes, with his face to the red wall, in the cool
light of a breathless morning, he heard behind him the soft and mellow
voice of a woman who seemed to be whispering to herself or to Heaven,
and she was saying—
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for Thine is
the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Amen."
"What is that?" he asked, closing his eyes again, and at the next moment
the mellow voice came from somewhere above his face—
"So you are better? Oh, how good that is! I am Adila. Don’t you
remember me?"
"What was that you were saying, my girl?"
"That? Oh, that was the prayer of the Lord Isa (Jesus)."
"The Lord Isa?"
"Don’t you know? Long ago my father told me about Him, and I’ve not
forgotten it even yet. He was only a poor man, a poor Jewish man, a
carpenter, but He was so good that He loved all the world, especially
sinful women when they were sorry, and little helpless children. He
never did harm to His enemies either, but people were cruel and they
crucified Him. And now He is in heaven, sitting at God’s right hand,
with Mary His mother beside Him."
There was silence for a moment, and then—
"Say His prayer again, Adila."
So Adila, with more constraint than before, but still softly and
sweetly, began afresh—
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily
bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass
against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
for Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Amen."
Thus the little Coptic woman, in her soft and mellow voice, said her
Lord’s prayer in that mud hut on the edge of the desert, with only the
sick man to hear her, and he was a prisoner and in chains; but long
before she had finished, Ishmael’s face was hidden in his bed-clothes
and he was crying like a child.
There were three weeks more of a painless and dreamy convalescence, in
which Adila repeated other stories her father had told her, and Ishmael
saw Christianity for the first time as it used to be, and wondered to
find it a faith so sweet and so true, and above all, save for the
character of Jesus, so like his own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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