is this,when the dogs do not bite, the sheep are not scared, the staff does notkill, or the fire scorch?' He called the stranger back, and said to him:'What kind of a night is this? And how does it happen that all thingsshow you compassion?'
"Then said the man: 'I cannot tell you if you yourself do not see it.'And he wished to go his way, that he might soon make a fire and warm hiswife and child.
"But the shepherd did not wish to lose sight of the man before he hadfound out what all this might portend. He got up and followed the mantill they came to the place where he lived.
"Then the shepherd saw that the man didn't have so much as a hut todwell in, but that his wife and babe were lying in a mountain grotto,where there was nothing except the cold and naked stone walls.
"But the shepherd thought that perhaps the poor innocent child mightfreeze to death there in the grotto; and, although he was a hard man, hewas touched, and thought he would like to help it. And he loosened hisknapsack from his shoulder, took from it a soft white sheepskin, gave itto the strange man, and said that he should let the child sleep on it.
"But just as soon as he showed that he, too, could be merciful, his eyeswere opened, and he saw what he had not been able to see before andheard what he could not have heard before.
"He saw that all around him stood a ring of little silver-winged angels,and each held a stringed instrument, and all sang in loud tones thatto-night the Saviour was born who should redeem the world from its sins.
"Then he understood how all things were so happy this night that theydidn't want to do anything wrong.
"And it was not only around the shepherd that there were angels, but hesaw them everywhere. They sat inside the grotto, they sat outside on themountain, and they flew under the heavens. They came marching in greatcompanies, and, as they passed, they paused and cast a glance at thechild.
"There were such jubilation and such gladness and songs and play! Andall this he saw in the dark night, whereas before he could not have madeout anything. He was so happy because his eyes had been opened that hefell upon his knees and thanked God."
Here grandmother sighed and said: "What that shepherd saw we might alsosee, for the angels fly down from heaven every Christmas Eve, if wecould only see them."
Then grandmother laid her hand on my head, and said: "You must rememberthis, for it is as true, as true as that I see you and you see me. It isnot revealed by the light of lamps or candles, and it does not dependupon sun and moon; but that which is needful is, that we have such eyesas can see God's glory."
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The Emperor's Vision]
THE EMPEROR'S VISION
It happened at the time when Augustus was Emperor in Rome and Herod wasKing in Jerusalem.
It was then that a very great and holy night sank down over the earth.It was the darkest night that any one had ever seen. One could havebelieved that the whole earth had fallen into a cellar-vault. It wasimpossible to distinguish water from land, and one could not find one'sway on the most familiar road. And it couldn't be otherwise, for not aray of light came from heaven. All the stars stayed at home in their ownhouses, and the fair moon held her face averted.
The silence and the stillness were as profound as the darkness. Therivers stood still in their courses, the wind did not stir, and even theaspen leaves had ceased to quiver. Had any one walked along theseashore, he would have found that the waves no longer dashed upon thesands; and had one wandered in the desert, the sand would not havecrunched under one's feet. Everything was as motionless as if turned tostone, so as not to disturb the holy night. The grass was afraid togrow, the dew could not fall, and the flowers dared not exhale theirperfume.
On this night the wild beasts did not seek their prey, the serpents didnot sting, and the dogs did not bark. And what was even more glorious,inanimate things would have been unwilling to disturb the night'ssanctity, by lending themselves to an evil deed. No false key could havepicked a lock, and no knife could possibly have drawn a drop of blood.
In Rome, during this very night, a small company of people came from theEmperor's palace at the Palatine and took the path across the Forumwhich led to the Capitol. During the day just ended the Senators hadasked the Emperor if he had any objections to their erecting a temple tohim on Rome's sacred hill. But Augustus had not immediately given hisconsent. He did not know if it would be agreeable to the gods that heshould own a temple next to theirs, and he had replied that first hewished to ascertain their will in the matter by offering a nocturnalsacrifice to his genius. It was he who, accompanied by a few trustedfriends, was on his way to perform this sacrifice.
Augustus let them carry him in his litter, for he was old, and it was aneffort for him to climb the long stairs leading to the Capitol. Hehimself held the cage with the doves for the sacrifice. No priests orsoldiers or senators accompanied him, only his nearest friends.Torch-bearers walked in front of him in order to light the way in thenight darkness and behind him followed the slaves, who carried thetripod, the knives, the charcoal, the sacred fire, and all the otherthings needed for the sacrifice.
On the way the Emperor chatted gaily with his faithful followers, andtherefore none of them noticed the infinite silence and stillness of thenight. Only when they had reached the highest point of the Capitol Hilland the vacant spot upon which they contemplated erecting the temple,did it dawn upon them that something unusual was taking place.
It could not be a night like all others, for up on the very edge of thecliff they saw the most remarkable being! At first they thought it wasan old, distorted olive-trunk; later they imagined that an ancient stonefigure from the temple of Jupiter had wandered out on the cliff. Finallyit was apparent to them that it could be only the old sibyl.
Anything so aged, so weather-beaten, and so giant-like in stature theyhad never seen. This old woman was awe-inspiring! If the Emperor had notbeen present, they would all have fled to their homes.
"It is she," they whispered to each other, "who has lived as many yearsas there are sand-grains on her native shores. Why has she come out fromher cave just to-night? What does she foretell for the Emperor and theEmpire--she, who writes her prophecies on the leaves of the trees andknows that the wind will carry the words of the oracle to the person forwhom they are intended?"
They were so terrified that they would have dropped on their knees withtheir foreheads pressed against the earth, had the sibyl stirred. Butshe sat as still as though she were lifeless. Crouching upon theoutermost edge of the cliff, and shading her eyes with her hand, shepeered out into the night. She sat there as if she had gone up on thehill that she might see more clearly something that was happening faraway. _She_ could see things on a night like this!
At that moment the Emperor and all his retinue marked how profound thedarkness was. None of them could see a hand's breadth in front of him.And what stillness! What silence! Not even the Tiber's hollow murmurcould they hear. The air seemed to suffocate them, cold sweat broke outon their foreheads, and their hands were numb and powerless. They fearedthat some dreadful disaster was impending.
But no one cared to show that he was afraid, and everyone told theEmperor that this was a good omen. All Nature held its breath to greet anew god.
They counseled Augustus to hurry with the sacrifice, and said that theold sibyl had evidently come out of her cave to greet his genius.
But the truth was that the old sibyl was so absorbed in a vision thatshe did not even know that Augustus had come up to the Capitol. She wastransported in spirit to a far-distant land, where she imagined that shewas wandering over a great plain. In the darkness she stubbed her footcontinually against something, which she believed to be grass-tufts. Shestooped down and felt with her hand. No, it was not grass, but sheep.She was walking between great sleeping flocks of sheep.
Then she noticed the shepherds' fire. It burned in the middle of thefield, and she groped her way to it. The shepherds lay asleep
by thefire, and beside them were the long, spiked staves with which theydefended their flocks from wild beasts. But the little animals with theglittering eyes and the bushy tails that stole up to the fire, were theynot jackals? And yet the shepherds did not fling their staves at them,the dogs continued to sleep, the sheep did not flee, and the wildanimals lay down to rest beside the human beings.
This the sibyl saw, but she knew nothing of what was being enacted onthe hill back of her. She did not know that there they were raising analtar, lighting charcoal and strewing incense, and that the Emperor tookone of the doves from the cage to sacrifice it. But his hands were sobenumbed that he could not hold the bird. With one stroke of the wing,it freed itself and disappeared in the night darkness.
When this happened, the courtiers glanced suspiciously at the old sibyl.They believed that it was she who caused the misfortune.
Could they know that