The brethren waxed rich, and after their midday meal they talked of theexceeding good fortune that had been vouchsafed to them, dwelling on thematter so earnestly that a scruple sometimes rose up in their hearts.Did we do well to forgo all troubles? Do the selfish find favour inGod's sight? they were asking, when Caleb said: we have visitors to-day,and looking across the chasm they saw three men emerging from the shadowof the high rock. They may be robbers, Benjamin cried, and we would dowell to tell the brethren working along the terraces to pass the worddown to him who stands by the bridge-head that he is to raise the bridgeand refuse to lower it till the strangers speak to him of theirintentions and convince him that they are peaceful. That is well said,Benjamin, Eleazar replied: Amos, who is standing by the fig-tree yonder,will pass on the word. They cried out to him and watched the warningbeing passed from Essene to Essene till it reached the brother standingby the bridge-head. He looked in the direction of the strangers comingdown the path, and then in haste set himself to pull the ropes and pressthe levers whereby the bridge was raised and lowered. Now they arespeaking across the brook to each other, Benjamin said: and the group onthe balcony saw the bridge being let down for the strangers to crossover. It seems to me, Benjamin continued, Bartholomew might have spentmore time inquiring out their intentions. But we are many and they arefew, Caleb answered, and the Essenes on the balcony watched somewhatanxiously Bartholomew conducting the strangers back and forth throughthe terraces. Is not Bartholomew as trustworthy as any amongst us?Eleazar asked. It isn't likely that he would mistake robbers forpilgrims; and as if Bartholomew divined the anxiety of those above himhe called up the rocks that the visitors he was bringing were Essenesfrom the lake. Essenes from the lake! Caleb cried. Then we shall learn,Eleazar replied, which is preferable, celibacy or marriage. But wemustn't speak at once to them of such matters. We must prepare food forthem, which they will require after their long journey. Our presidentwill be with you in a moment, Bartholomew said, addressing Shallum, atall thin man, whose long neck, sloping shoulders and dark round eyesreminded his brethren of an ungainly bird. His companions, Shaphan andEleakim, were of different appearances. Shaphan's skull, smooth andglistening, rose, a great dome above a crumpled face; he moped like asick monkey, dashing tears from his eyes continually, whereas Eleakim, asprightly little fellow with half-closed eyes like a pig, agreed thatShallum should speak for them. Shallum began: we are, as you havealready heard, from the great cenoby at the head of the lake and,therefore, I need not tell you the reason why you are here and why theresidue are yonder, but will confine myself to the story of our flightfrom the lake to the brook. Honourable President and Brethren, it isknown unto you that the division of our order was not brought about byany other reason than a dispute on both sides for the maintenance of theorder. We know that, Hazael answered, and attribute no sinfulness to thebrethren that differed from us. Our dream, Shallum continued, was toperpetuate holiness in this world, and our dream abides, for man is areality only in his dreams; his acts are but a grotesque of his dream.
At these words the Essenes gathered close together, and with brighteningeyes listened, for they interpreted these words to mean that thebrethren by the lake had fallen headlong into unseasonable pleasures,whereof they were now reaping the fruit: no sweet one, if the fruitmight be judged by the countenances of their visitors. As I have said,Shallum continued, it was with us as it has been with men always--ouracts became a mockery of our dreams almost from the beginning, for whenyou left us we gave out that we were willing to receive women who wouldshare our lives and with us perpetuate holiness. We gave out that wewere willing to view all who came and consider their qualifications, andto take them as wives if they should satisfy us, that they would obeyour rule and bear children; but the women that came in response to ouradvertisement, though seemingly of pious and honourable demeanour, werenot satisfied with us. Our rule is, as you brethren know well, to wearthe same smock till it be in rags, and never to ask for a new pair ofsandals till the last pieces of the old pair have left our feet. Wepresented, therefore, no fair show before the women who came to us, andwhen our rule was told to them, they withdrew, dissatisfied with ourappearances, with the food we ate, and the hours we kept, and of allwith the rule that they should live apart from us, only keeping companywith us at such times when women are believed to be most fruitful. Suchwas the first batch in brief; the second batch (they came in batches)pleaded that they could not be wives for us, it being that we were heldin little esteem by the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and we werereproved by them for not sending animals for sacrifice to the Temple, athing that we must do if we would have them live with us. But it beingagainst our rule to send animals to the Temple for sacrifice, we badethem farewell and sent forth messengers into other lands, inviting theGentiles to come to us to receive instruction in the Jewish religion,with promises to them that if our rule of life was agreeable to them,and they were exact in the appointments of all rites and ceremonies, weshould be willing to marry them after their time of probationship wasover. On this second advertisement, women came to us from Arabia andMesopotamia, and though we did not approve of the fine garments theywore and the sweet perfumes that trailed after them, we liked thesethings, as all men do, with our senses; and our minds being filled withthoughts of the children that would continue the order of the Essenes,we spoke but little against the fine linen that these women brought andthe perfumes they exhaled, whereby our ruin was consummated. Joazabdus,our president, himself fell into the temptation of woman's beauty andwas led into sinful acquiescence of a display of the images she hadbrought with her; for without a display of them on either side of thebridal bed she would not permit his embraces. She was of our religion inall else, having abjured her gods and goddesses at every other moment ofthe day and night; but licence of her body she could not grant exceptunder the eyes of Astarte, and Joazabdus, being a weak man, allowed theimages to remain. As soon as the news of these images spread, we went indeputation to our president to beg him to cast out the images from ourmidst, but he answered us: but one image remains--that of Astarte: nonelooks upon it but she, and if I cast out the image that she reverencesshe will go hence and with the fruit of my body within her body, and asaint may be lost to us. But we answered him that even as Jacob set upparti-coloured rods before the conceiving ewes that they might bearparti-coloured lambs, so to gaze in the marriage-bed upon the image ofAstarte would surely stamp upon the children that might come the imageof that demon. But he was not to be moved, whereupon we withdrew, sayingto one another: we shall not move him out of his wickedness; and thatwas why we went to his brother Daddeus and asked him to accept theheadship of the community in his brother's place. And seeing that he wasunwilling to set himself against his brother, we said: our God comesbefore all things, and here we have heathen goddesses in our midst; andthe end of it was that Cozby, that was the Chaldean woman's name, putpoison into Daddeus' food, thinking to establish her rule thereby, butas soon as the death of Daddeus became known many left the cenobypolluted in their eyes by heathenism and murder.
So it always falls out, Hazael cried, wine and women have lost the worldmany saints. Wine deceives the minds of those that drink it, and itexalts men above themselves, and leads them into acts that in any othermoment they would shrink from, leaving them more stupid than theanimals. Nor is the temptation of women less violent than that of wine.Women's beauty is even more potent, for once a man perceives it hebecomes as if blind to all other things; his reason deserts him, hebroods upon it by day, and falls at last, as our brother has told us,into unseasonable pleasures, like Solomon himself, about whom manythings are related, but not so far as I know that he became sointoxicated with women's various beauty that he found his pleasure atlast in his own humiliation. If Solomon did not, others have; for thereis a story of a king that allowed his love of a certain queen to take sogreat a hold upon him that he asked her to come up the steps of histhrone to strike him on the face, to take his crown from his head andset it upon her own. This was
in his old age, and it is in old age thatmen fall under the unreasonable sway of women--he was once a wise man,so we should refrain from blame, and pity our brethren who have fallenheadlong into the sway of these Chaldean and Arabian women. I might saymuch more on this subject, but words are useless, so deeply is thepassion for women ingrained in the human heart. Proceed, therefore,Brother: we would hear the trouble that women have brought on thee,Brother Eleakim. At once all eyes were turned towards the little fellowwhose wandering odours put into everybody's mind thoughts of the greatprice he must have paid in bracelets and fine linen, but Eleakim told adifferent story--that he was sought for himself alone, too much so, forthe Arabian woman that fell to his lot was not content with the chasteand reasonable intercourse suitable for the begetting of children, thereason for which they had met, but would practise with him heathenrites, and of a kind so terrible that one night he fled to his presidentto ask for counsel. But the president, who was absorbed in his ownpleasures, drove him from his door, saying that every man must settlesuch questions with his wife. Hazael threw up his hands. Say no more,Brother Eleakim, thou didst well to leave that cenoby. We welcome thee,and having heard thee in brief we would now hear Brother Shaphan. Atonce all eyes were turned towards the short, thick, silent man, who hadtill now ventured into no words; and as they looked upon him theirthoughts dwelt on the strange choice the curator had made when he choseBrother Shaphan for a husband; for though they were without knowledge ofwomen, their sense told them that Brother Shaphan would not be pleasingto a woman. But Eleakim's story had prepared them for every strangetaste, and they waited eagerly for Shaphan. But Shaphan had not spokenmany words when tears began to roll down his cheeks, and the brethren ofthe Brook Kerith bethought themselves that it might be a kindly act toavert their eyes from him till he recovered his composure; but as hisgrief continued they sought to comfort him, telling him that histroubles were now ended. He would not, however, lift his face from hishands at their entreaty, and his companions said that the intervalsbetween his tears since he was married were never long. At these wordsShaphan lifted his face from his hands and dashed some tears from hiseyelids. He will tell us now, the brethren said to themselves, but heonly uttered a few incoherent words, and his face sank back into hishands.
And it was then that Jesus appeared at the end of the domed gallery.Hazael signed to one of the brethren to bring a chair to him, and whenJesus was seated Hazael told him who the strangers were in these words:great trouble has fallen upon our order, he said, the wives the brethrenhave taken unto themselves against my counsel have not obeyed theirhusbands. Wilt tell our Brother Jesus the trouble that has befallenthose that stayed by the lake, Shallum? I will, Shallum replied, for itwill please him to hear my story and it will be a satisfaction to me totell the quarrels that set my wife and me apart till at last I wasforced to send her back to her own people. My story will be profitableto you, though you are without wives, for to err is human. The brethrenwere at once all ear for the new story, but Shallum was so prolix in histelling of his misfortunes that the brethren begged him to tell themagain of the ranging of the gods and goddesses on either side of thepresident's marriage-bed. He paid no heed to them, however, butproceeded with his own story, and so slow was his procedure that Hazaelhad to interrupt him again. Shallum, he said, it is clear to me that ourshepherd has come with some important tidings to me, and it will bekind of thee to forgo the rest of thy story for the present at least,till I have conferred with our shepherd. I should have been loath, Jesusinterposed, to interrupt a discourse which seems to be pleasing to youall and which would be to me too if I had knowledge of the matters whichconcern you, but the differences of men with their wives and wives withtheir husbands are unknown to me, my life having been spent on the hillswith rams and ewes. As he said these words a smile came into his eyes.The first smile I have seen on his face for many years, Hazael said tohimself, and Jesus continued: I have left my flock in charge of myserving boy, for I have come to tell the president that he must not bedisappointed if many sheep are lost on the hills this year; robbershaving hidden themselves again in the caves and fortified themselvesamong cliffs so difficult that to capture them soldiers must be let downin chests and baskets--a perilous undertaking this is, for the robbersare armed and determined upon revolt against Herod, who they say is nota Jew, and holds his power in Judea from the Romans. They are robbersinasmuch as they steal my sheep, but they are men who value theircountry higher than their lives. This I know, for I have conferred withthem: and Jesus told the Essenes a story of an old man who lived in acave with his family of seven, all of whom besought him to allow them tosurrender to the Romans. Cowards, he said, under his breath, and madepact with them that they should come out of the cave one by one, whichthey did, and as they came he slew them and threw their bodies into theprecipice, sons and daughters, and then he slew his wife, and afterreproaching Herod with the meanness of his family, although he was thena king, he threw himself from the cliff's edge.
It is a great story that thou tellest, Jesus, Manahem said, and it iswell to hear that there are great souls still amongst us, as in the daysof the Maccabees. However this may be, Saddoc interposed, these men intheir strife against the Romans must look to our flocks for food. Threesheep were taken from me last night, Jesus answered, and the rest willgo one by one, two by two, three by three, unless the revolt be quelled.And if the revolt be not quelled, Saddoc continued, the robbers willneed all we have gotten, which is little; they may even need our cavehere, and unless we join them they will cast us over the precipices. Itwas to ask: are we to take up arms against these robbers that I camehither, Jesus said. You will confer amongst yourselves, brethren, Hazaelsaid, and will forgive me if I withdraw: Jesus would like to speak withme privately.
The Essenes bowed, and Hazael walked up the domed gallery with Jesus,and as soon as they disappeared at the other end Shallum began: yourshepherd tells you the truth; the hills are once more infested with theremains of Theudas' army. But who may Theudas be? one of the brethrenasked. So you have not heard, Shallum cried, of Theudas, and you livinghere within a few miles of the track he followed with his army down toJordan. Little news reaches us here, Saddoc said, and he asked Shallumto tell of Theudas, and Shallum related how Theudas had gathered a greatfollowing together in Jerusalem and provoked a great uprising of thepeople whom he called to follow him through the gates of the city, whichthey did, and over the hills as far as Jordan. The current of the river,he said, will stop, and the water rise up in a great wall as soon as Iimpose my hands. We have no knowledge if the waters would have obeyedhis bidding, for before the waters had time to divide a Roman soldierstruck off the prophet's head and carried it to Jerusalem on a spear,where the sight of it was well received by the priests, for Theudaspreached against the Temple, against the law, and the traditions as Johnand his disciples had done beforetimes. A great number, he continued,were slain by the Roman soldiers, and the rest dispersed, having hiddenthemselves in the caves, and become robbers and rebels. Nor was Theudasthe last, he began again, there was another, an Egyptian, a prophet or asorcerer of great repute, at whose bidding the people assembled when heannounced that the walls of the city would fall as soon as he lifted uphis hands. They must follow him through the breach into the desert tomeet the day of judgment by the Dead Sea. And what befell this lastprophet? Saddoc asked. He was pursued by the Roman soldiers, Eleakimcried, starting out of a sudden reverie. And was he taken prisoner?Manahem asked. No, for he threw a rope into the air and climbed out ofsight, Eleakim answered. He must have been a great prophet or an angelmore like, for a prophet could not climb up a rope thrown into the air,Caleb said. No, a prophet could not do that. But it is easier, Shaphansnorted, to climb up a rope thrown into the air than to return to awife, if the flesh be always unwilling. At the words all eyes wereturned to Shaphan, who seemed to have recovered his composure. It is awoeful thing to be wedded, he cried. But why didst thou accept a wife?Manahem asked. Why were ye not guided by our counsels? We hoped, Shapha
nsaid, to bring saints into the world and we know not yet that robbersmay not be the fruit of our wives' wombs. But if the flesh was alwaysunwilling, Manahem answered, thou hast naught to fear. It would bebetter, Shallum interrupted, to turn us adrift on the hills than that weshould return to the lake where all is disorder now. Ye are not manyhere, Eleakim said, to defend yourselves against robbers, and we havehands that can draw swords. Our president alone can say if ye mayremain, Manahem said; he is in the gallery now and coming towards us.Our former brethren, Hazael, have renounced their wives, Manahem began,and would return to us and help to defend our cave. You come submissiveto our wisdom? Hazael asked. The three strangers replied that they didso, and Hazael stood, his eyes fixed on the three strangers. We willdefend you against robbers if these would seek to dispossess you of yourcave, Eleakim cried. We have but two cells vacant, Hazael said. Itmatters not to us where we sleep if we sleep alone; and the presidentsmiling at Shaphan's earnestness said: but three more mouths to feedwill be a strain upon our stores of grain. Even though there be threemore mouths to feed, Shallum answered, there will be six more hands tobuild a wall against the robbers. To build a wall against robbers?Hazael said. It is a long while we have been dreaming of that wall; andnow it seems the time has come to hold a council. We have been speakingof a wall to protect us against robbers ever since we came here, Manahemcried, and Saddoc answered: we have delayed too long, we must build: theyounger brethren will reap the benefit of our toil.
We all seem to be in favour of the wall, Hazael said. Are there nodissentients? None. For the next year or more we shall be buildersrather than interpreters of the Scriptures. Mathias will come to thewall to discourse to us, Caleb interjected, and Saddoc answered him:whatsoever may befall us, we are certain of one thing, we shall alwaysbe listening to Mathias. But Mathias is a man of great learning, Calebreplied. Of Greek learning may be, Saddoc answered. But even that is notsure, some years ago---- But if Greek wisdom be of no value why is ittaught here? Caleb interrupted, and the old Essene answered: that Greekwisdom was not taught in the Brook Kerith, but Greek reasoning wasapplied to the interpretation of Scripture. But there will be nooccasion for Mathias' teaching for some years. Years, sayest thou,Saddoc? Amos interjected. I spoke plainly, did I not? Saddoc answered.If it will take us years to build the wall, Amos said, we may as wellsave ourselves the trouble of becoming builders, for the robbers will beupon us before it is high enough to keep them out; we shall lose ourlives before a half-finished wall, and methinks I might as well havebeen left to my flock on the hills. Thou speakest truly, Saddoc replied,for I doubt if thou wilt prove a better builder than thou wast ashepherd. If my sheep were poor, thy interpretations of the Scripturesare poorer still, Amos said, and the twain fell to quarrelling apart,while the brethren took counsel together. If this mischief did notbefall them, and a wall twenty feet high and many feet in thickness wereraised, would they be able to store enough food in the cave to bear athree-months' siege? And would they be able to continue the cultivationof their figs along the terrace if robbers were at the gates? But asiege, Manahem answered these disputants, cannot well be, for theshepherds on the hills would carry the news of the siege to Jericho,whence troops would be sent to our help, and at their approach therobbers would flee into the hills. What we have to fear is not a siege,but a sudden assault; and from a successful assault a wall will save us.That is true, Saddoc said. And to defend the wall we must possessourselves of weapons, Caleb, Benjamin and Eleakim cried; and Shallumtold them that a certain hard wood, of which there was an abundance inJericho, could be shaped into cutlasses whereby a man's head might bestruck off at a blow.
At these words the brethren took heart, and Hazael selected Shallum formessenger to go to Jericho for the wood, and a few days afterwards theEssenes were busy carving cutlasses for their defence, and designing agreat wall with towers, whilst others were among the cliffs hurling downgreat masses of stone out of which a wall would soon begin to rise.
And every day, an hour after sunrise, the Essenes were quarrying stoneand building their wall, and though they had designed it on a greatscale, it rose so fast that in two months they were bragging that itwould protect them against the great robber, Saulous, a pillager of manycaravans, of whom Jesus had much to say when he came down from thehills. The wall will save you, Jesus said, from him. But who will savemy flock from Saulous, who is besieged in a cave, and comes forth atnight to seek for food for himself and his followers? But if the cave isbesieged? Caleb said, laying down his trowel. The cave has twoentrances, Jesus answered, and he told them that his belief now was thatwhat remained of the flock should be sent to Jerusalem for sale. Therams, of course, should be kept, and a few of the best ewes for a flockto be raised in happier times. These were his words one sad evening, andthey were so convincing that the builders laid down their trowels andrepaired to the vaulted gallery to sit in council. But while they satthinking how they might send representatives to the procurator therobbers were preparing their own doom by seizing a caravan of more thanfifty camels laden with wheat for Jerusalem. A very welcome booty nodoubt it was considered by the robbers, but booty--was not their onlyobject? They hoped, as the procurator knew well, to bring about anuprising against Roman rule by means of bread riots, and this last raidprovided him with a reason for a grand punitive expedition. Many troopsof soldiers were sent out with orders to bring all that could be takenalive into Jerusalem for crucifixion, no mean punishment when carriedout as the procurator meditated it. He saw it in his thoughts reachingfrom Jerusalem to Jericho, and a death penalty for all. Pilate's methodsof smoking the robbers out of their caves has not proved a sufficientdeterrent, he said to himself, and a smile came into his face and herubbed his hands when the news of the first captures was brought to him,and every day small batches were announced. We shall wait, he said,until we have fifty-three, the exact number of camels that were stolen,and then the populace shall come out with me to view them. The spectaclewill perhaps quench the desire of robbery in everybody who is disposedto look upon it as an easy way of gaining a livelihood. And the renownof this crucifixion will spread through Judea. For three days at leastmalefactors will be seen dying at distances of half-a-mile, and lesttheir sufferings should inspire an attempt at rescue, a decree shall beplaced over every cross that any attempt at rescue will be punishable bycrucifixion, and to make certain that there shall be no tampering withRoman justice, the soldiers on guard shall be given extra crosses to beused if a comrade should cut down a robber or give him drugs to mitigatehis agony. And all this was done as had been commanded. The robbers wereexposed at once on the road from Jerusalem, and it was on the first dayof the great crucifixion that Jesus, coming round the shoulder of thehill with his flock, was brought to a sudden stop before a group ofthree.
These, about six or seven hours, a Roman soldier said, in answer toJesus' question as to the length of time they had been on their crosses,not more than six hours, the soldier repeated, and he turned to hiscomrade for confirmation of his words. Put a lance into my side, arobber cried out, and God will reward thee in heaven. Thou hast notceased to groan since the first hour. But put a lance into my side, therobber cried again. I dare not, the soldier answered. Thou'lt hangeasier to-morrow. But all night I shall suffer; put a lance into myside, for my heart is like a fire within me. And do the same for me,cried the robbers hanging on either side. All night long, cried thefirst robber, the pain and the ache and the torment will last; if not alance, give me wine to drink, some strong, heady wine that will dull thepain. Thy brethren bear the cross better than thou. Take courage andbear thy pain. I was not a robber because I wished it, my house was seton fire as many another to obtain recruits. Yon shepherd is no betterthan I. Why am I on the cross and not he? His turn may come, who knows,though he stands so happy among his sheep. To-night he will sleep in acool cavern, but I shall linger in pain. Give me drink and I will tellthee where the money we have robbed is hidden. The money may not be inthe cave, and if it be we might not be able to find it, the
soldieranswered; and the crucified cried down to him that he could make plainthe spot. The soldier was not, however, to be bribed, and they told thecrucified that the procurator was coming out to visit the crosses on themorrow, and would be disappointed if he found dead men upon them insteadof dying men. Shepherd, the soldiers will not help us, canst thou nothelp us? Happy shepherd, that will sleep to-night amongst thy sheep.Come by night and give us poison when these soldiers are asleep. Wewill reward thee. Lift not thy hand against Roman justice, the soldiersaid to Jesus, lest thou takest his place on the cross. Such are ourorders.
Jesus hurried away through the hills, pursued by memories of thecrucified robbers, and he went on and on, with the intent of escapingfrom their cries and faces, till, unable to walk farther, he stopped,and, looking round, saw the tired sheep, their eyes mutely asking himwhy he had come so far, passing by so much good herbage without halting.Poor sheep, he said, I had forgotten you, but there is yet an hour oflight before folding-time. Go, seek the herbage among the rocks. Mydogs, too, are tired, he added, and want water, and when he had giventhem some to drink he sat down, hoping that the crucified might notreturn to his eyes and ears. But he need not have hoped: he was tootired to think of what he had seen and heard, and sat in peace watchingthe sunset till, as in a vision, a man in a garden, in an agony ofdoubt, appeared to him. He was betrayed by a disciple and taken beforethe priests and afterwards before Pilate, who ordered him to be scourgedand crucified, and beneath his cross the multitude passed, wagging theirheads, inviting him to descend if he could detach himself from thenails. A veil fell and when it was lifted Joseph was bending over him,and soon after was carrying him to his house. The people of that timerose up before him: Esora, Matred, and the camel-driver, the scent ofwhose sheepskin had led him back to his sheep, and he had given himselfto their service with profit to himself, for it had kept his thoughtsfrom straying backwards or forwards, fixing them in the present. He hadlived in the ever-fleeting present for many years--how many? Thequestion awoke him from his reverie, and he sat wondering how it was hecould think so quietly of things that he had put out of his mindinstinctively, till he seemed to himself to be a man detached as muchfrom hope as from regret. It was through such strict rule that I managedto live through the years behind me, he said; I felt that I must neverlook back, but in a moment of great physical fatigue the past returned,and it lies before me now, the sting taken out of it, like the eveningsky in tranquil waters. Even the memory that I once believed myself tobe the Messiah promised to the Jews ceases to hurt; what we deemmistakes are part and parcel of some great design. Nothing befalls butby the will of God. My mistakes! why do I speak of them as mistakes, forlike all else they were from the beginning of time, and still are andwill be till the end of time, in the mind of God. His thoughts continuedto unroll, it was not long before he felt himself thinking that theworld was right to defend itself against those that would repudiate it.For the world, he said to himself, cannot be else than the world, atruth that was hidden from me in those early days. The world does notbelong to us, but to God. It was he that made it, and it is for him tounmake it when he chooses and to remake us if he chooses. Meanwhile weshould do well to accept his decrees and to talk no more of destroyingthe Temple and building it up again in three days. Nor should we troubleourselves to reprove the keepers of the Temple for having madethemselves a God according to their own image and likeness, withpassions like a man and angers like a man, thereby falling intoidolatry, for what else is our God but an Assyrian king who sits on athrone and metes out punishments and rewards? It may be that the priestswill some day come into the knowledge that all things are equal in God'ssight, and that he is not to be won by sacrifices, observances orprayers, that he has no need of these things, not even of our love, orit may be that they will remain priests. But though God desires neithersacrifices, observances, nor even love, it cannot be that we are whollydivorced from God. It may be that we are united to him by the dailytasks which he has set us to perform.
Jesus was moved to put his pipes to his lips, and the sheep returned tohim and followed him into the cavern in which they were to sleep thatnight.