CHAPTER XVI
"If I could answer you," Balthasar said, in his simple, earnest,devout way--"oh, if I knew where he is, how quickly I would go tohim! The seas should not stay me, nor the mountains."
"You have tried to find him, then?" asked Ben-Hur.
A smile flitted across the face of the Egyptian.
"The first task I charged myself with after leaving the shelter givenme in the desert"--Balthasar cast a grateful look at Ilderim--"was tolearn what became of the Child. But a year had passed, and I darednot go up to Judea in person, for Herod still held the thronebloody-minded as ever. In Egypt, upon my return, there were afew friends to believe the wonderful things I told them of whatI had seen and heard--a few who rejoiced with me that a Redeemerwas born--a few who never tired of the story. Some of them cameup for me looking after the Child. They went first to Bethlehem,and found there the khan and the cave; but the steward--he who satat the gate the night of the birth, and the night we came followingthe star--was gone. The king had taken him away, and he was no moreseen."
"But they found some proofs, surely," said Ben-Hur, eagerly.
"Yes, proofs written in blood--a village in mourning; mothers yetcrying for their little ones. You must know, when Herod heardof our flight, he sent down and slew the youngest-born of thechildren of Bethlehem. Not one escaped. The faith of my messengerswas confirmed; but they came to me saying the Child was dead,slain with the other innocents."
"Dead!" exclaimed Ben-Hur, aghast. "Dead, sayest thou?"
"Nay, my son, I did not say so. I said they, my messengers, told methe Child was dead. I did not believe the report then; I do notbelieve it now."
"I see--thou hast some special knowledge."
"Not so, not so," said Balthasar, dropping his gaze. "The Spiritwas to go with us no farther than to the Child. When we cameout of the cave, after our presents were given and we had seenthe babe, we looked first thing for the star; but it was gone,and we knew we were left to ourselves. The last inspiration ofthe Holy One--the last I can recall--was that which sent us toIlderim for safety."
"Yes," said the sheik, fingering his beard nervously. "You toldme you were sent to me by a Spirit--I remember it."
"I have no special knowledge," Balthasar continued, observing thedejection which had fallen upon Ben-Hur; "but, my son, I havegiven the matter much thought--thought continuing through years,inspired by faith, which, I assure you, calling God for witness,is as strong in me now as in the hour I heard the voice of theSpirit calling me by the shore of the lake. If you will listen,I will tell you why I believe the Child is living."
Both Ilderim and Ben-Hur looked assent, and appeared to summon theirfaculties that they might understand as well as hear. The interestreached the servants, who drew near to the divan, and stood listening.Throughout the tent there was the profoundest silence.
"We three believe in God."
Balthasar bowed his head as he spoke.
"And he is the Truth," he resumed. "His word is God. The hills mayturn to dust, and the seas be drunk dry by south winds; but hisword shall stand, because it is the Truth."
The utterance was in a manner inexpressibly solemn.
"The voice, which was his, speaking to me by the lake, said,'Blessed art thou, O son of Mizraim! The Redemption cometh.With two others from the remotenesses of the earth, thou shaltsee the Savior.' I have seen the Savior--blessed be his name!--butthe Redemption, which was the second part of the promise, is yetto come. Seest thou now? If the Child be dead, there is no agentto bring the Redemption about, and the word is naught, and God--nay,I dare not say it!"
He threw up both hands in horror.
"The Redemption was the work for which the Child was born; and solong as the promise abides, not even death can separate himfrom his work until it is fulfilled, or at least in the wayof fulfilment. Take you that now as one reason for my belief;then give me further attention."
The good man paused.
"Wilt thou not taste the wine? It is at thy hand--see," said Ilderim,respectfully.
Balthasar drank, and, seeming refreshed, continued:
"The Savior I saw was born of woman, in nature like us, and subjectto all our ills--even death. Let that stand as the first proposition.Consider next the work set apart to him. Was it not a performance forwhich only a man is fitted?--a man wise, firm, discreet--a man, not achild? To become such he had to grow as we grow. Bethink you nowof the dangers his life was subject to in the interval--the longinterval between childhood and maturity. The existing powers werehis enemies; Herod was his enemy; and what would Rome have been?And as for Israel--that he should not be accepted by Israel wasthe motive for cutting him off. See you now. What better way wasthere to take care of his life in the helpless growing time thanby passing him into obscurity? Wherefore I say to myself, and tomy listening faith, which is never moved except by yearning oflove--I say he is not dead, but lost; and, his work remainingundone, he will come again. There you have the reasons for mybelief. Are they not good?"
Ilderim's small Arab eyes were bright with understanding,and Ben-Hur, lifted from his dejection, said heartily, "I,at least, may not gainsay them. What further, pray?"
"Hast thou not enough, my son? Well," he began, in calmer tone,"seeing that the reasons were good--more plainly, seeing it wasGod's will that the Child should not be found--I settled my faithinto the keeping of patience, and took to waiting." He raised hiseyes, full of holy trust, and broke off abstractedly--"I am waitingnow. He lives, keeping well his mighty secret. What though I cannotgo to him, or name the hill or the vale of his abiding-place? Helives--it may be as the fruit in blossom, it may be as the fruitjust ripening; but by the certainty there is in the promise andreason of God, I know he lives."
A thrill of awe struck Ben-Hur--a thrill which was but the dyingof his half-formed doubt.
"Where thinkest thou he is?" he asked, in a low voice, and hesitating,like one who feels upon his lips the pressure of a sacred silence.
Balthasar looked at him kindly, and replied, his mind not entirelyfreed from its abstraction,
"In my house on the Nile, so close to the river that thepassers-by in boats see it and its reflection in the waterat the same time--in my house, a few weeks ago, I sat thinking.A man thirty years old, I said to myself, should have his fieldsof life all ploughed, and his planting well done; for after thatit is summer-time, with space scarce enough to ripen his sowing.The Child, I said further, is now twenty-seven--his time to plantmust be at hand. I asked myself, as you here asked me, my son,and answered by coming hither, as to a good resting-place closeby the land thy fathers had from God. Where else should he appear,if not in Judea? In what city should he begin his work, if not inJerusalem? Who should be first to receive the blessings he is tobring, if not the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; in love,at least, the children of the Lord? If I were bidden go seek him,I would search well the hamlets and villages on the slopes of themountains of Judea and Galilee falling eastwardly into the valleyof the Jordan. He is there now. Standing in a door or on a hill-top,only this evening he saw the sun set one day nearer the time when hehimself shall become the light of the world."
Balthasar ceased, with his hand raised and finger pointing as ifat Judea. All the listeners, even the dull servants outside thedivan, affected by his fervor, were startled as if by a majesticpresence suddenly apparent within the tent. Nor did the sensationdie away at once: of those at the table, each sat awhile thinking.The spell was finally broken by Ben-Hur.
"I see, good Balthasar," he said, "that thou hast been much andstrangely favored. I see, also, that thou art a wise man indeed.It is not in my power to tell how grateful I am for the thingsthou hast told me. I am warned of the coming of great events,and borrow somewhat from thy faith. Complete the obligation,I pray thee, by telling further of the mission of him for whomthou art waiting, and for whom from this night I too shall wait asbecomes a believing son of Judah. He is to be a Savior, thou saidst;is he not to be King of the Jews also?"
"My son," said Balthasar, in his benignant way, "the mission isyet a purpose in the bosom of God. All I think about it is wrungfrom the words of the Voice in connection with the prayer to whichthey were in answer. Shall we refer to them again?"
"Thou art the teacher."
"The cause of my disquiet," Balthasar began, calmly--"that whichmade me a preacher in Alexandria and in the villages of the Nile;that which drove me at last into the solitude where the Spirit foundme--was the fallen condition of men, occasioned, as I believed, by lossof the knowledge of God. I sorrowed for the sorrows of my kind--not ofone class, but all of them. So utterly were they fallen it seemedto me there could be no Redemption unless God himself would makeit his work; and I prayed him to come, and that I might see him.'Thy good works have conquered. The Redemption cometh; thou shaltsee the Savior'--thus the Voice spake; and with the answer I wentup to Jerusalem rejoicing. Now, to whom is the Redemption? To allthe world. And how shall it be? Strengthen thy faith, my son! Mensay, I know, that there will be no happiness until Rome is razedfrom her hills. That is to say, the ills of the time are not, as Ithought them, from ignorance of God, but from the misgovernmentof rulers. Do we need to be told that human governments are neverfor the sake of religion? How many kings have you heard of who werebetter than their subjects? Oh no, no! The Redemption cannot be fora political purpose--to pull down rulers and powers, and vacate theirplaces merely that others may take and enjoy them. If that were allof it, the wisdom of God would cease to be surpassing. I tell you,though it be but the saying of blind to blind, he that comes isto be a Savior of souls; and the Redemption means God once moreon earth, and righteousness, that his stay here may be tolerableto himself."
Disappointment showed plainly on Ben-Hur's face--his head drooped;and if he was not convinced, he yet felt himself incapable thatmoment of disputing the opinion of the Egyptian. Not so Ilderim.
"By the splendor of God!" he cried, impulsively, "the judgment doesaway with all custom. The ways of the world are fixed, and cannotbe changed. There must be a leader in every community clothed withpower, else there is no reform."
Balthasar received the burst gravely.
"Thy wisdom, good sheik, is of the world; and thou dost forgetthat it is from the ways of the world we are to be redeemed.Man as a subject is the ambition of a king; the soul of a manfor its salvation is the desire of a God."
Ilderim, though silenced, shook his head, unwilling to believe.Ben-Hur took up the argument for him.
"Father--I call thee such by permission," he said--"for whom wertthou required to ask at the gates of Jerusalem?"
The sheik threw him a grateful look.
"I was to ask of the people," said Balthasar, quietly, "'Where ishe that is born King of the Jews?'"
"And you saw him in the cave by Bethlehem?"
"We saw and worshipped him, and gave him presents--Melchior, gold;Gaspar, frankincense; and I, myrrh."
"When thou dost speak of fact, O father, to hear thee is to believe,"said Ben-Hur; "but in the matter of opinion, I cannot understand thekind of king thou wouldst make of the Child--I cannot separate theruler from his powers and duties."
"Son," said Balthasar, "we have the habit of studying closely thethings which chance to lie at our feet, giving but a look at thegreater objects in the distance. Thou seest now but the title--KINGOF THE JEWS; wilt thou lift thine eyes to the mystery beyond it,the stumbling-block will disappear. Of the title, a word. Thy Israelhath seen better days--days in which God called thy people endearinglyhis people, and dealt with them through prophets. Now, if in thosedays he promised them the Savior I saw--promised him as KING OF THEJEWS--the appearance must be according to the promise, if only forthe word's sake. Ah, thou seest the reason of my question at thegate!--thou seest, and I will no more of it, but pass on. It maybe, next, thou art regarding the dignity of the Child; if so,bethink thee--what is it to be a successor of Herod?--by theworld's standard of honor, what? Could not God better by hisbeloved? If thou canst think of the Almighty Father in want ofa title, and stooping to borrow the inventions of men, why wasI not bidden ask for a Caesar at once? Oh, for the substance ofthat whereof we speak, look higher, I pray thee! Ask rather of whathe whom we await shall be king; for I do tell, my son, that is thekey to the mystery, which no man shall understand without the key."
Balthasar raised his eyes devoutly.
"There is a kingdom on the earth, though it is not of it--akingdom of wider bounds than the earth--wider than the sea andthe earth, though they were rolled together as finest gold andspread by the beating of hammers. Its existence is a fact as ourhearts are facts, and we journey through it from birth to deathwithout seeing it; nor shall any man see it until he hath firstknown his own soul; for the kingdom is not for him, but for hissoul. And in its dominion there is glory such as hath not enteredimagination--original, incomparable, impossible of increase."
"What thou sayest, father, is a riddle to me," said Ben-Hur."I never heard of such a kingdom."
"Nor did I," said Ilderim.
"And I may not tell more of it," Balthasar added, humbly droppinghis eyes. "What it is, what it is for, how it may be reached,none can know until the Child comes to take possession of it ashis own. He brings the key of the viewless gate, which he willopen for his beloved, among whom will be all who love him, for ofsuch only the redeemed will be."
After that there was a long silence, which Balthasar accepted asthe end of the conversation.
"Good sheik," he said, in his placid way, "to-morrow or the nextday I will go up to the city for a time. My daughter wishes tosee the preparations for the games. I will speak further aboutthe time of our going. And, my son, I will see you again. To youboth, peace and good-night."
They all arose from the table. The sheik and Ben-Hur remainedlooking after the Egyptian until he was conducted out of the tent.
"Sheik Ilderim," said Ben-Hur then, "I have heard strange thingstonight. Give me leave, I pray, to walk by the lake that I maythink of them."
"Go; and I will come after you."
They washed their hands again; after which, at a sign from themaster, a servant brought Ben-Hur his shoes, and directly hewent out.