Hebrew Heroes Part 6

"I have a complete copy of the Psalms and Prophets, and am making from it another," said Hada.s.sah, intuitively lowering her tone, and glancing at the door.

"A n.o.ble but dangerous work!" cried Abishai.

"Go and look yonder, my son, glance up the path to the right and the left, see whether any of the heathen be near," said Hada.s.sah, pointing to the door as she spoke. "If none of the enemy be in sight, I will show you the sacred treasure which I hold at risk of my life."

Abishai instantly left the dwelling, half closing the door behind him.

"Now Lycidas--oh, haste!" exclaimed Zarah in an eager whisper; she was terrified lest the opportunity of retreat which Hada.s.sah had given, should be lost by one moment's delay.

There was no need to repeat the word; Lycidas instantly drew back into his retreat behind the curtain, and the Hebrew ladies could breathe more freely again. Zarah gave a bright joyous glance at Hada.s.sah, but it met no answering smile, the widow's features wore a sad, almost indignant expression, the sight of which shot a keen pang through the gentle heart of Zarah. What had she done, what had she said, that her venerated relative should look on her thus? Had there been aught in her conduct unseemly? She had called the Gentile by his name, could it be that which had drawn upon her the unwonted displeasure of Hada.s.sah?

As she asked herself such questions, the cheek of Zarah became suffused with crimson; she scarcely knew what caused the painful embarra.s.sment which she felt; she seemed to herself like one detected in doing evil, and yet her conscience had nothing wherewith to reproach her as concerned her conduct towards her grandmother's guest. So uneasy was the maiden, however, that on Abishai's return she did not stay to hear the conversation which ensued between him and Hada.s.sah, but glided up the outer stair to the roof of the house, where, seated alone on the flat roof, with only heaven's blue canopy above her, she could commune with her own heart, and question it regarding the nature of the dangerous interest which she felt in the Gentile stranger.

CHAPTER XI.

DEEP THINGS.

When Abishai re-entered the dwelling of Hada.s.sah, he found her drawing forth, from a secret receptacle in the wall, a long roll of parchment, covered with writing in Hebrew characters within and without. The lady pressed it reverentially to her lips, and then resumed her seat, with the sacred roll laid across her knees. Abishai regarded with respect, almost amounting to awe, a woman to whom had been given the talent, wisdom, and courage to transcribe so large a portion of the oracles of G.o.d. He felt as Barak may have done towards Deborah, and stood leaning against the wall, listening with respectful attention to the words of this "Mother in Israel."

"These Scriptures, my son," said Hada.s.sah, "have been my study by day, and my meditation by night; and most earnestly have I sought, with fasting and prayer, to penetrate some of their deep meaning in regard to Him that shall come. I am yet as a child in knowledge, but the All-wise may be pleased to reveal something even to a child. It has seemed to me of late that I have been permitted to trace one word, written as in gigantic shadows--now fainter--now deeper--on Nature, in History, on the Law, in the Prophets. That single word is SACRIFICE.

Wherever I turn I see it; it seems to me as a law of being; yea, as the very essence of religion itself."

"I do not understand you," said Abishai; "how is the word Sacrifice written on Nature?"

"See we it not on all things around us?" replied Hada.s.sah. "Does not the seed die that the corn may spring up; doth not the decaying leaf nourish the living plant; doth not one creature maintain its existence by the destruction of others? There is a mystery of suffering in this fair world, some stern necessity for what we call evil, though from it a merciful G.o.d is ever evolving good. These things distressed and perplexed me, till I could dimly trace that word Sacrifice as written by G.o.d's finger upon His works; death the parent of life, pain and sorrow--of joy!"

"The primeval curse is on Nature," observed the Hebrew.

"Linked with the primeval blessing," said Hada.s.sah. "And now when I turn from natural objects to the history of our race, sacrifice and suffering are still ever before me. Isaac is devoted as a burnt-offering before he becomes the father of the chosen race; Joseph is sold for pieces of silver ere he can redeem his family from destruction; the storm is only stilled by Jonah's being cast out into the deep; Samson triumphs over the enemy by the sacrifice of his own life! All these historical facts seem to me as types, dim and shadowy indeed, yet legible to the eye of faith, and Sacrifice is the word which they form."

"Dim and shadowy," repeated Abishai, to whom Hada.s.sah's views on the subject appeared somewhat fanciful and vague.

"If so in Nature and history," said the Hebrew lady, "the lines are clear and distinct enough in our holy law. Why have countless victims been offered, even from the time of the Fall? Why was the dying lamb of Abel more acceptable than the bloodless offering of Cain? Why have thousands of guiltless creatures been slain on the altar of G.o.d; nay, not upon His alone, even on altars of the heathen who have never heard of His name, as if there were a deep instinct implanted in the soul of man, to testify that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin? Think we that the All-merciful can take pleasure in the death of bulls or of goats? Yet hath He Himself ordained it. Sacrifice, suffering, subst.i.tution, one life accepted as ransom for another, this idea pervades the law given by inspiration to Moses; yea, long before the birth of Moses, to Abraham, to Noah, to Abel!"

"I grant it," Abishai replied. "As man is guilty in the sight of his Maker, there must be sacrifice for sin as long as the world shall last."

The light of inspiration seemed to glow in the uplifted eyes of Hada.s.sah, and her lips to breathe words not her own as she spoke again.

"What if all these sacrifices but point to one great Sacrifice; what if the deep mystery of suffering be resolved into some deeper mystery of love; what if G.o.d Himself should provide the subst.i.tute, and if on some altar blood be shed which shall suffice to atone for transgressions past, present, and to come, even to the end of all time? May it not be--must it not so be--if we read the Scriptures aright?"

"I cannot divine your meaning," said Abishai.

"What is written here of the coming Messiah?" asked Hada.s.sah, laying her hand on the roll of prophecy, as she turned her earnest, searching gaze upon her companion.

"That He shall rule the nations with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel!" exclaimed Abishai with exultation; "is He not named Messiah the Prince?"

"Who shall be _cut off, but not for Himself_" (Dan. ix. 26), said Hada.s.sah, in low thrilling tones that made Abishai start, and look at her with surprise. "You," she continued, "see the PRINCE in prophecy, written as in characters of light; I see the SACRIFICE, ever in letters of deepening shadow. Behold here,"--and as the widow spoke, she opened the roll till her finger could point to the Twenty-second Psalm,--"what means this cry of mysterious sorrow, _My G.o.d, my G.o.d, why hast Thou forsaken Me?_"

"It is David's cry of anguish," said Abishai.

"Look farther on, my son, ponder the subject more deeply," cried Hada.s.sah, and she proceeded to read aloud part of the inspired Word.

"_The a.s.sembly of the wicked have inclosed Me: they pierced My hands and My feet. I may tell all My bones: they look and stare upon Me.

They part My garments among them, and cast lots on My vesture_ (Ps.

xxii. 16-18). These things never happened to David; the Psalmist speaks not here of himself."

"Of whom then could he be speaking," said Abishai, looking perplexed.

"Not surely of the Messiah, not of the seed of the woman who shall bruise the serpent's head" (Gen. iii. 15).

"Wherefore not?" asked Hada.s.sah, "seeing that He Himself must be bruised in the conflict? If it be written, _My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high_, the shadow lies close under the brightness, it is also written, _His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men, and why? because so shall He sprinkle many nations_ (Isa. lii.

13-15), it may be--with His own blood!"

"Yours are strange thoughts," muttered the son of Nathan.

"They are not my thoughts," replied Hada.s.sah. "Behold, farther on in the roll, what was revealed to the prophet Isaiah? Is the note of triumph sounded here? _He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of G.o.d, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastis.e.m.e.nt of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken_ (Isa. liii. 3-6, 8). Have we not here the Victim, the Subst.i.tute, the Sacrifice bound on the altar, bleeding, wounded, dying, and that for sins not His own?"

"It cannot be. It is impossible--quite impossible--that when the Messiah comes He should be despised and rejected," exclaimed Abishai, to whom this interpretation of prophecy was as unwelcome as it was new.

"When He comes, all Israel shall triumph and rejoice, and welcome their King, the Ruler of the world."

Hada.s.sah silently unrolled her parchment until she came to the thirteenth chapter[1] of the prophet Zechariah.

"Listen to this, son of Nathan," said she. "_Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts_" (Zech. xiii. 7).

"Who is My Fellow?" repeated Abishai, in amazement, for that portion of Scripture had never been brought to his attention before. "Can you have read the sentence correctly? Were that not written in the Word of G.o.d, methinks it were rank blasphemy even to think that the Lord of hosts could have an equal."

"There is mystery in that word which man cannot fathom," cried Hada.s.sah, "The Divine Essence is One: the foundation of our faith is the most solemn declaration, _Hear, O Israel! the Lord our G.o.d_[2] _is One Lord_ (Deut. vi. 4); and yet in that very declaration is conveyed the idea of unity combined with distinction of persons."

"Hada.s.sah, Hada.s.sah, into what wilderness of heresy are you wandering?"

Abishai exclaimed.

The Hebrew lady appeared not to hear him, but went on, as if thinking aloud:

"No man hath seen G.o.d at any time, He Himself hath declared--_No man shall see Me, and live_" (Exod. x.x.xiii. 20). "But who, then, visibly appeared unto Abraham? Who was it who wrestled with Jacob? Who spake unto Gideon? On whose glory was Isaiah permitted to gaze? Who was soon to walk in the fiery furnace? Who was He, _like the Son of Man, who came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days?_"

(Dan. vii. 18.)

"At one moment you would view Messiah as a Victim; at the next, as a G.o.d!" cried the Hebrew.

"If G.o.d should deign to take the form of Man, to bear Man's penalty, to suffer Man's death, might He not be _both_?" asked Hada.s.sah.

Seeing that Abishai started at the question, she turned to the portion of the roll which contained the prophecy of Isaiah, and read aloud:--

"_Unto us a Child is born_. Here is clearly an announcement of human birth; yet is this Child revealed to us as _the mighty G.o.d, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace_" (Isa. ix. 6).

"Such thoughts as these are too high, too difficult, for the human mind to grasp," exclaimed Abishai, pressing his brow. "The frail vessel must burst that has such hot molten gold poured within it. All that I can answer to what you have said is this. I believe not--and never will believe--that when Messiah, the Hope of Israel, shall come, He will be rejected by our nation. Were it so, such a fearful curse would fall upon our race that the memory of the Egyptian bondage, the Babylonish captivity, the Syrian persecution, would be forgotten in the greater horrors of what G.o.d's just vengeance would bring upon this people. We should become a by-word, a reproach, a hissing. We should be scattered far and wide amongst the nations, as chaff is scattered by the winds, until--"

Abishai paused, and clenched his hand and set his teeth, as if language failed him to describe the utter desolation and misery which such a crime as the rejection of the Messiah must bring upon the descendants of Abraham. As Abishai did not finish his sentence, Hada.s.sah completed it for him.

"Until," she said, with a brightening countenance--"until Judah repent of her sin, and turn to Him whom she once denied. Hear, son of Nathan, but one more prophecy from the Scriptures. Thus saith the Lord:--_I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon ME whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born_ (Zech. xii. 10). _And the Lord shall be King over all the earth_" (Zech. xiv. 9).