The Brook Kerith: A Syrian story

  CHAP. XXXIII.

  The Essenes, ten in number, were seated in an embrasure. A reader hadbeen chosen (an elder) to read the Scriptures, and the attention of thecommunity was now engaged in judgment of his attempt to reconcile twopassages, one taken from Numbers in which it is said that God is not asman, with another passage taken from Deuteronomy in which God is said tobe as man. He had just finished telling the brethren that these twopassages were not in contradiction, the second being introduced for theinstruction of the multitude and not because the nature of man is asGod's nature, and, on second thoughts, he added: nor must it beforgotten that the Book of Deuteronomy was written when we were awandering tribe come out of the desert of Arabia, without towns orcities, without a Temple, without an Ark--ours having fallen into thehands of the Philistines. He continued his gloss till Mathias held uphis hand and asked Hazael's permission to speak: the words that had beenquoted from Deuteronomy, those in which the Scriptures speak of God asif he were a man, attributing to him the acts and motives of man, wereaddressed, as our reader has pointed out, to men who had hardly advancedbeyond the intelligence of childhood, whose minds were still simple andunable to receive any idea of God except the primitive notion that Godis a greater man. Now the reason for my interruption is this: I shouldlike to point out that for those who have passed beyond this stage,whose intelligence is not limited to their imagination, and whose willis not governed by selfish fears and hopes, there is another lesson inthe words: we can rise to the consciousness of God as an absolute Being,of whom we know only that he is, and not what he is, and this is what ismeant when God is spoken of by the name I am that I am.

  Eleazar was minded to speak: Mathias begged of him not to withhold histhoughts, but to speak them, and it was at this moment that Paulentered, walking softly, lest his footsteps should interrupt Eleazar,whom he heard say that he disagreed with the last part of Mathias'speech, inasmuch as it would be against the word of the Scriptures andlikewise against all tradition to accept God as no more than theabsolute substance, which strictly taken would exclude all differencesand relation, even the differences and relation of subject and object inself-consciousness. I shall not be lacking in appreciation of the wisdomof our learned brother, Paul heard him say, if I venture to hold to theidea of a God whom we know at least to be conscious, for he says: I am,a statement which had much interest for Paul; and while considering ithe heard Manahem say: it is hard to conceive of God except as a highprinciple of being and well-being in the universe, who binds all thingsto each other in binding them to himself. Then there are two Gods andnot one God, Saddoc interposed quickly, an objection to which Manahemmade this answer: not two Gods but two aspects, thereby confuting Saddocfor the moment, who muttered: two aspects which have, however, to bereduced to unity.

  Paul's eyes went from Saddoc to Mathias, and he thought that Mathias'face wore an expression of amused contempt as he listened and calledupon other disputants to contribute their small thoughts to thediscussion. Encouraged by a wave of his hand, Caleb ventured to remark:there is God and there is the word of God, to which Hazael murmured thisreply: there is only one God; one who watches over his chosen people andover all the other nations of the earth. But does God love the othernations as dearly as the Hebrew people? Manahem asked, and Hazaelanswered him: we may not discriminate so far into the love of God, itbeing infinite, but this we may say, that it is through the Hebrewpeople that God makes manifest his love of mankind, on condition, let itbe understood, of their obedience to his revealed will. And if I may adda few words to the idea so eloquently suggested by our Brother Mathias,I would say that God is the primal substance out of which all thingsevolve. But these words must not be taken too literally, therebyrefusing to God a personal consciousness, for God knows certainly allthe differences and all the relations, and we should overturn all theteaching of Scripture and lose ourselves in the errors of Greekphilosophy if we held to the belief of a God, absolute, pure, simple,detached from all concern with his world and his people. But in whatmeasure, Manahem asked, laying his scroll upon his knees and leaningforward, his long chin resting on his hand, in what measure, he asked,speaking out of his deepest self, are we to look upon God as a consciousbeing; if Mathias could answer that question we should be grateful, forit is the question which torments every Essene in the solitude of hiscell.

  Has any other brother here a word to say? Now you, Brother Caleb? I amsure there is a thought in your heart that we would all like to hear.Brother Saddoc, I call upon thee! Brother Saddoc seemed to have no wishto speak, but Mathias continued to press him, saying. Brother Saddoc,for what else hast thou been seeking in thy scroll but for a textwhereon to base an argument? And seeing that it was impossible for himto escape from the fray of argument, Brother Saddoc answered that hetook his stand upon Deuteronomy. Do we not read that the Lord thy Godthat goeth before thee shall fight for thee, and in the desert thou hastseen that he bore thee, as a man bears his sons, all the way that yewent till ye came unto this place. But Saddoc, Eleazar interrupted, hasforgotten that one of the leading thoughts in this discourse is that thewords in Deuteronomy were written for starving tribes that came out ofArabia rather than for us to whom God has given the land of Canaan. Wewere then among the rudiments of the world and man was but a child,incapable, as Mathias has said, of the knowledge of God as an absolutebeing. But then, answered Saddoc, the Scriptures were not written forall time. Was anything, Mathias murmured, written for all time? Paul wasabout to ask himself if Mathias numbered God among the many things thattime wastes away when his thought was interrupted by Manahem asking howwe are to understand the words, the heavens were created before theearth. Do the Scriptures mean that intelligence is prior to sense?Mathias' face lighted up, and, foreseeing his opportunity to make showof his Greek proficiency he began: heaven is our intelligence and theearth our sensibility. The spirit descended into matter, and God createdman according to his image, as Moses said and said well, for no creatureis more like to God than man: not in bodily form (God is without body),but in his intelligence; for the intelligence of every man is in alittle the intelligence of the universe, and it may be said that theintelligence lives in the flesh that bears it as God himself lives inthe universe, being in some sort a God of the body, which carries itabout like an image in a shrine. Thus the intelligence occupies the sameplace in man as the great President occupies in the universe--beingitself invisible while it sees everything, and having its own essencehidden while it penetrates the essences of all other things. Also, byits arts and sciences, it finds its way through the earth and throughthe seas, and searches out everything that is contained in them. Andthen again it rises on wings and, looking down upon the air and all itscommotions, it is borne upwards to the sky and the revolving heavens andaccompanies the choral dances of the planets and stars fixed accordingto the laws of music. And led by love, the guide of wisdom, it proceedsstill onward till it transcends all that is capable of being apprehendedby the senses, and rises to that which is perceptible only by theintellect. And there, seeing in their surpassing beauty the originalideas and archetypes of all the things which sense finds beautiful, itbecomes possessed by a sober intoxication, like the Corybantianrevellers, and is filled with a still stronger longing, which bears itup to the highest summit of the intelligible world till it seems toapproach to the great king of the intelligible world himself. And whileit is eagerly seeking to behold him in all his glory, rays of divinelight are pouring forth upon it which by their exceeding brilliancedazzle the eyes of the intelligence.

  Whilst he spoke, his periods constructed with regard for every comma,Mathias' eyes were directed so frequently towards Paul that Paul couldnot but think that Mathias was vaunting his knowledge of Greekexpressly, as if to reprove him, Paul, for the Aramaic idiom that he hadnever been able to wring out of his Greek, which he regretted, butwhich, after hearing Mathias, he would not be without; for to ridhimself of it he would have to sacrifice the spirit to the outer form;as well might he offer sacrifice to the heathen g
ods; and he could nottake his eyes off the tall, lean figure showing against the blue sky,for Mathias spoke from the balcony, flinging his grey locks from hisforehead, uncertain if he should break into another eloquent period orcall upon Paul to speak. He was curious to hear Paul, having divined aquick intelligence beneath an abrupt form that was withal not withoutbeauty; he advanced towards Hazael and, leaning over his chair,whispered to him. He is telling, Paul said to himself, that it would bewell to hear me as I am about to start for Rome to proclaim the truth inthat city wherein all nations assemble. Well, let it be so, since it wasto this I was called hither.

  Hazael raised his eyes and was about to ask Paul to speak, but at thatmoment the bakers arrived with their bread baskets, and the Essenesmoved from the deep embrasure in the wall into the domed gallery, eachone departing into his cell and returning clothed in a white garment andwhite veil. Paul was about to withdraw, but Hazael said to him: noneshares this repast with us; it is against the rule; but so many of therules of the brethren have been set aside in these later days that, withthe consent of all, I will break another rule and ask Paul of Tarsus tosit with us though he be not of our brotherhood, for is he not ourbrother in the love of God, which he has preached travelling over seaand land with it for ever in his mouth for the last twenty years.Preaching, Paul answered, the glad tidings of the resurrection,believing myself to have been bidden by the same will of God that calledme hither and saved me from death many times that I might continue to bethe humble instrument of his will. I will tell you that I was behoven topreach in Jericho--called out of myself--God knowing well they would nothear me and would drive me into the mountains and turn my feet by nightto this place. Be it so, Paul, thou shalt tell thy story, the presidentanswered, and the cook put a plate of lentils before the brethren andthe baker set by each plate a loaf of bread, and everyone waited tillthe grace had been repeated before he tasted food. The peace, concordand good will; all that he had recommended in his Epistles; Paul sawaround him, and he looked forward to teaching the Essenes of theapproaching end of the world, convinced that God in his great justicewould not allow him, Paul, to leave Palestine without every worthyservant hearing the truth. So he was impatient to make an end of thefood before him, for the sustenance of the body was of little importanceto him, its only use being to bear the spirit and to fortify it. He tookcounsel therefore with himself while eating as to the story he shouldtell, and his mind was ready with it when the president said: Paul, ourmeal is finished now; we would hear thee.