CHAPTER XI.

"FOR THE WORK'S SAKE."

That night, at the request of Hatasa, the whole family assembled in her room, and she insisted upon having them engage in their usual religious exercises, to which she listened with profoundest attention, and with a certain amazement; for it was hard for her to grasp at once the idea that God might be worshiped without a temple, a priest, and a sacrifice; but the fact furnished its own best explanation. And the sorrowful woman soon found herself following with a new, strange sort of interest the reading of the gospel, and the earnest, extemporaneous, sympathetic prayer of Ammonius, in which he pleaded with God not to suffer his dear and sorrowful guests, nor the aged and righteous priest, who had so long sought for the truth, to depart from his abode without having learned by blessed experience how freely Jesus can forgive, and what light and peace his gospel can afford to all who believe thereon.

After the conclusion of these exercises, Am-nem-hat saith to Ammonius, "There are some things connected with thy simple and beautiful religion about which I would question thee when thou shalt have leisure and inclination to answer me."

Then said Ammonius: "Whenever thou wilt! Even now, if thou wilt go with me into another room, where our conversation may not weary the others."

"Nay," cried Hatasa. "Go not hence, I beg; for I eagerly desire to hear such conversation."

Then said Am-nem-hat: "I know the Jewish scriptures, and also the new books which the Christians have written; but I desire thee to tell me plainly what the evidence is of the fact, upon which thou dost continually insist, that Jesus of Nazareth, whom Pilate crucified, is the Christ."

"The evidence is primarily historical and prophetic," said Ammonius, "based chiefly upon the Jewish laws and prophecies concerning him that were written centuries before the advent of our Lord, and that do testify of him."

"Yea," answered Am-nem-hat, "but these proofs only go to establish the coming of a Divine Man, in whom not only Plato and Socrates, who knew nothing of the Jews, but the Egyptians also, and many more, believed. I speak not of proofs that Messiah was to come, but of the proof that Jesus, whom Pilate crucified, was he."

"The evidences upon this point are twofold," answered Ammonius. "One line of proof which is the most satisfying, and which in fact amounts to positive knowledge, is the personal consciousness of the believer, experimental religion, whereby he knoweth that faith, the conviction of sin, the justification of the believer, and all of the phenomena which must necessarily attend the faith, are true. But this highest, most satisfactory, most scientific form of evidence is of course inaccessible to one that believeth not, except by the testimony of those who have personal experience of the truth. The other line of evidence is founded on the fact that the prophecies foretold for centuries just what Messiah should do and suffer when he might come, and we know that Jesus did and suffered just those things--many of them not possible to be done without the Divinity--as healing of the sick, unstopping the deaf ears, cleansing the lepers, restoring sight to the blind, raising the dead, and preaching good tidings to the poor; all of which things Jesus customarily did, all of which things his followers have done from that day to this; whereby we know that he is Christ indeed."

"Dost thou mean to assert that the Christians yet work miracles?" asked Am-nem-hat.

"Assuredly," replied Ammonius. "Jesus not only did the miracles himself, but did solemnly promise that, wherever his disciples should continue to obey him in all things, they should be able, by faith in his name, to do thaumaturgical works even unto the end of time; and they have certainly done so ever since."

"Dost thou really believe that thou hast seen a miracle with thine own eyes?"

"Yea, verily," said Ammonius, "and many of them."

The ancient paused a long time, and seemed lost in profoundest meditation. At length he answered in a tone of inexpressible sadness and weariness: "I was in the temple service at Thebes for nearly half a century, and much of the time a priest. At Ombos I was high-priest for five-and-twenty years, and until some five years ago. I have seen some wonders, indeed, which the people called miracles. but alas! alas! I know just how those things were done! The sun rises and sets, and no man hindereth it! The Nile overfloweth its banks, and refresheth all the land of Kem, and shrinketh back in his accustomed channel; the stars in heaven pursue their bright and tranquil way, and seed-time cometh, and the harvest; and life and death. All nature moves on in obedience to fixed, changeless, universal laws, which have been from the beginning; and I find myself unable to believe that these laws were ever violated, or suspended, in order to furnish evidences of any religion, or for any purpose whatever; although, no doubt, good men may believe that such things have occurred."

"And as to that," said Ammonius, "beyond any question thou art right. He hath but a poor conception of our God who thinketh that, in creating a world wherein he intended miracles to occur, he did not know enough to provide natural laws by which these phenomena might come to pass without violating or suspending the established order. But, if I could know that it violates or suspends any law of nature to raise the dead, I would not believe such a fact, although I have seen it done. But why dost thou suppose that the anastasis of the dead is contrary to natural law? Our Lord hath never said so; on the contrary, he came to fulfill, not to violate, the law. Surely thou canst not declare that any miracle violates or suspends, or is without law, unless thou canst first truthfully declare that all laws are known to thee, and that among them there is none by which the dead might be raised up. But although thou art wise and learned, thou knowest that Nature withholdeth many secrets yet from thee. Thou knowest that no man hath mastered all her laws; and even those which we know may be weak, and mean, and narrow, compared with those of which we are profoundly ignorant. But we Christians teach that God is not the author of confusion, but of order; that all laws of nature, physical, mental, spiritual, are but the expression of his will, which must be harmonious throughout, and can not be self-contradictory; and that just as he hath made some law by which water seeks a level, and by which heavy bodies tend toward the center of the world, and by which oil and water, that repel each other by nature, will unite with an alkali to make a new creature, just so he hath established laws by which the miracles are done; so that the anastasis of the dead, or any other miracle, must be as purely and truly a natural phenomenon as is the rising of the sun, or the falling of the dew--not so common, perhaps, because these phenomena involve powers and faculties of the human soul that do not act always and automatically as do the laws of physical nature; so neither does one sleep, or talk, or think always, but only when he wills to do so."

"That is a new, strange view of thaumaturgy! Thou sayst 'the miracles are under law'; perhaps, then, other men besides the Christians might be able to perform them."

"I know not to what extent it might be possible for other men to exercise the power of faith which is an essential condition in the working of miracles. I suppose they might do wonderful things, that would bear about the same relation to our Christian miracles that their various religions bear to our holy Christianity. And I suppose that the witchcraft and demonology denounced by Moses were the results of the exercise of faith in false gods. But a Christian miracle, depending upon faith in Christ as a primary condition for the exercise of thaumaturgical power, must remain impossible to all who possess not that faith. Thou hast read the Gospels, and thou knowest the Lord hath said, 'If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the midst of the sea, and it should obey you.' But he also said, 'Without me ye can do nothing.'"

"I infer," said Am-nem-hat, "that thou thinkest faith to be the law of miracles; thou thinkest that this faith is itself a force in nature sufficient for the accomplishment of physical results; and that they who sincerely believe may, by means of this force, even raise up the dead. Why, then, are not all the dead raised up?"

"Thou hast stated the law rather too broadly," answered Ammonius. "The faith that worketh miracles must be applied under proper conditions to be of any avail. Water, oil, and alkali do not always produce soap, but only when the proper conditions are observed. So I suppose that no man could be raised up from the dead against his will; and, while there be many Christians that have sought for martyrdom, there be but few that were willing to be raised again, and fewer still that ever requested the brethren to pray for their anastasis, because they preferred to depart, and to be with the Lord, which is far better."

"I do remember," said Am-nem-hat, "that many years ago, when Decius was Emperor of Rome, a bitter persecution raged against the Christians at Alexandria. I saw Julian, and Macar, and Epimachus, and Alexander burned at the stake; and truly many seemed to seek for martyrdom rather than to shun it, a fact which we attributed to a certain incorrigible and hopeless wickedness in them, and not, as thou dost, to their assurance of obtaining a better life. I suppose, indeed, that such men as those would not have desired to be restored to a life which they seemed anxious to lose; and it seemeth reasonable enough that, even if it had been possible to do so, they should not have been recalled against their will. Wilt thou not state more fully yet the conditions upon which thou thinkest this thaumaturgy may be exercised?"

"Faith in Jesus is the primary condition," said Ammonius, "but there are also others. Once a man came unto our Lord and besought him to heal his son, saying that the disciples had been unable to do so. Our Lord did heal him with a word. Afterward the disciples inquired of him why it was that they had failed in doing the same work, and he said unto them that it was because of their unbelief. Now thou must perceive that it was not because of their want of faith in him, for they were then following him; so that it must have been because of their unbelief in their own power and authority to do the work in his name. It seemeth, therefore, that faith on the part of the thaumaturgist in his own power to accomplish the miracle in the Lord's name is one of the conditions of thaumaturgy."

"That also seemeth to be a reasonable and proper condition," answered Am-nem-hat. "But are there yet others?"

"It is written that he did not many wonderful works at Capernaum because of their unbelief. He often said to those who asked his aid, 'Be it unto thee according to thy faith.' And from these facts it seems to follow that faith on the part of him for, or upon, whom the work was to be done, and on the part of those among whom it was to be done, was also one of the conditions upon which the exercise of thaumaturgical power depended."

"But," objected Am-nem-hat, "if he was in truth divine, why should he pay any attention to the unbelieving or to the unwilling? Why did he not do the miracles in defiance of them all, as well as if they had been faithful and willing?"

"Because," answered Ammonius, "our Lord teacheth and requireth only a willing obedience and faith. Not God himself will force the human will; for that which is of compulsion hath no morality. It is of necessity, therefore, neither holy nor unholy. A necessary holiness is a contradiction in terms. God's use of sovereignty hath been to make man free. Besides, faith itself is the law of miracles; to have wrought miracles where no faith was, would have been to violate the very law by which he worked, and so to have degraded miracles to the plane of an arbitrary and sporadic exhibition of divine power, instead of leaving them as they are, the highest result of the very highest form of universal law."

"That seemeth reasonable enough," rejoined Am-nem-hat, "and in accordance with my conception of the character of a holy and perfect God. But as I perceive thou clearly comprehendest the Christian system, upon which I have bestowed much thought almost in vain, suffer me to put one other case to thee which seemeth to me to be inexplicable upon any principles which thou hast stated as constituent elements of the law of miracles, if thou art not yet weary of my questions."

"Nay," said Ammonius, "I am not weary. Thou mayst ask many things, indeed, which I know not, and can not answer; but, so far as I can give thee any aid, it affordeth me pleasure to answer thee as intelligently as I can."

"The matter is this," said Am-nem-hat. "It is recorded in thy sacred books that when the apostles were going about Jerusalem, imparting the Paraclete by the laying on of their hands, and working divers miracles, one Simon, a magician, came unto them and offered money unto them if they would communicate unto him the same power, so that he also might become a thaumaturgist. But one of them, named Peter, did bitterly rebuke him, saying, 'Thy money perish with thee!' Now, the apostles had faith; the people who saw them doing all these wonderful works had faith, and were baptized by Philip. Simon Magus himself had faith as much as any one of them, and, when Peter rebuked him, with fear and trembling he besought Peter, saying, 'Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.' Now, here seem to have been all of the conditions of faith and willingness in Simon of which thou hast spoken, and yet Peter manifestly regarded the desire of Simon as a sort of sacrilege. Why was this so?"

"Why," said Ammonius, "Peter declared that his thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money was evil; and that his heart was not right in the sight of God, and that he should repent of his wickedness, and that his very thought showed that he was still in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity."

"That is very true," answered Am-nem-hat, "but his tender of money to the apostles only proves his appreciation of the value of the power which he desired to purchase. Peter saith not that Simon was a bad man, but that this particular thing was wicked; why was it so in him, and not in them?"

"Because," replied Ammonius, "it is manifest from the whole record that Simon desired to purchase this power for himself, and to use it for his own purposes."

"Certainly so," persisted Am-nem-hat, "but in what respect was it sacrilegious for him to desire to use the power for his own purposes, any more than it would have been to use his brain, or his hand, for his own advancement; or his learning, or skill, for the acquisition and cultivation of which he had, perhaps, expended money?"

"The answer to thy question," replied Ammonius, "involves some consideration of the very genius of Christianity as a system of divine truth. If, as thou seemest to suppose, the religion of our Lord had been only a system of spiritual truth, it might be difficult to deny that the apostles were selfish, and that Simon was very badly treated. But this is not at all true. Thou knowest that the legislation of Moses was for the Israelites only; that of Egypt for the land and people of Kem only; that of other lands and ages for certain peoples only. But thou canst not have read the scriptures so carefully without learning the fact that Jesus died for all men, and that his truth is designed for all mankind. Thou seest, therefore, that, if Simon Magus could have obtained this power to exercise it for his own purposes, he would have made it the agency by which to gain limitless authority and wealth unto himself, and oppress the poor. Thou seest also that, if any nation or government could exercise thaumaturgical powers, that nation or government would soon become the ruler and the tyrant of the world. Thou seest that, if any church that is in any way connected with, or bound unto, an earthly government, could exercise this power, ecclesiasticism would quickly make mankind its slaves: for manifestly no people could long resist a government that had thaumaturgical power wherewith to enforce obedience to its laws. Thou seest also that if the faith that is effective for miracles could be exercised for any purposes except the edification of the Church and the good of all men, the faith itself might have become a nameless and unappealable tyranny. Nay, if it were ever possible to exercise such power except under such conditions as necessarily and absolutely to preclude the use of it for any private purposes, thou seest that sooner or later, under the influence of inborn selfishness, the thaumaturgists would have made war upon each other, and, in place of seeing nations contending with sword, and bow, and spear, we would have seen them hurling against each other all of the destructive forces of nature, and only chaos and utter ruin could have ended the superhuman strife. It was therefore ordained that the thaumaturgic faith can not be exercised except under conditions which necessarily exclude the use of it for private purposes, and insure its exercise for the good of the common Church only."

"Canst thou specify by what means this restricted use of the power hath been enforced? For it seemeth to me that, if it exists, it must be beyond control."

"In order to exclude all worldly ambitions and selfishness from the kingdom which he established in the world, our Lord ordained that his Church should be a community in which all men are free and equal--brethren only. Hence he ordained, as the fundamental law of the kingdom, that all private rights of property (including estates, rank, offices, prerogatives) should be forever abolished in his Church, and that Christians should hold them all in common. Hence, the kingdom of heaven is an absolute democracy, social and political, based upon faith in Christ, and community of rights and property among all who believe. Of this community the apostles themselves were the divinely appointed type. They used thaumaturgy for the common good only, and not for personal aggrandizement. The common treasure was put into a bag, and, as if to show the divine scorn of wealth and of all human distinctions that grow out of it, the bag was intrusted to Judas, the only base one of the twelve. It was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, because the law of that kingdom imperatively required the consecration of all that he had to the common good. But, under the power of a living faith, many complied with this law, and the Church prospered. Thus did the bishops that were ordained by the apostles, as Linus at Rome, Polycarp at Smyrna, Evodius at Antioch, and others also. Thus did Paulinus, Cyprian, Hilary, and others. Such has been the law and practice of the common Church even unto this day. For the primary law of the kingdom of heaven demandeth the consecration of all property, and the abdication of all worldly honors, offices, and authority. And Simon Magus desired not part or lot in this kingdom, but his own advantage only. And thou must perceive that thaumaturgical power exercised by such a church must necessarily be for the common good of all, and not for any personal, political, or sectarian purposes; and the faith that worketh wonders must therefore be impossible to any human association except to the church organized upon the foundation which Jesus himself laid, even the communion of the holy; for the liberty, fraternity, and equality, which constitute the socialism and politics of the kingdom, can not exist upon any other foundation. And, of course, thaumaturgic power will vanish even out of the Church if the day shall ever come in which those who believe shall abandon the communal organization of the kingdom of heaven, and establish human statutes as the law thereof."

"I think," said Am-nem-hat, "that thy words remove many of the difficulties which have beset my study of thy sacred books. For I now perceive that the parables of Jesus--a species of literary composition unknown, perhaps impossible, to other men--which I supposed to refer to some spiritual, mystical doctrines, were in fact spoken concerning his Church, or kingdom, in this world."

"Assuredly so," replied Ammonius. "And thou hast done well to characterize the parable as 'a species of literary composition unknown and impossible to other men'; for no other man hath written a parable, nor do I suppose that any man ever will do so. For he spake as never man spake: he spake in parables; without a parable he spake not. The history, the poem, the fable, the allegory, may be used by other teachers also; but the parable is the language of Jesus alone; and no man can handle it but himself."

"I can now understand that strange parable of 'the unjust steward,'" said Am-nem-hat, "although, when I first read the words, 'I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations,' I did even suppose that Jesus represented eternal life to be a vendible thing, and that his religion, like every other, assured the rich that they could purchase salvation with money--although this seemed to be antagonistic to the general current of his teachings."

"Verily," replied Ammonius, "the words of Jesus would convey no other meaning, if, indeed, the fundamental law of the Church had not excluded therefrom all the private wealth, honors, and authority after which the Gentiles seek. But, if thou wilt consider that the unjust steward is any believer that useth his means, pecuniary, intellectual, physical, for his own aggrandizement, and not for the common good; that the Lord of that steward is Jesus; that unrighteous mammon is wealth held by private ownership, and that the true riches is wealth held by common title for the good of all--thou canst then understand how, even upon ceasing to be steward (the end of life), one may make amends for past selfishness and mammon-worship, by giving up his property to the common Church. Thou canst understand how it is just that those who come in even at the eleventh hour to work in his vine-yard shall have an equal reward with those who entered early and bore the heat and burden of the day. Thou wilt see that it is true that those who gave up houses and lands for his sake and the gospel's reaped manifold more 'now in this present life' by gaining a communal title in the property of all other believers--an increase which our Lord expressly promises as to all the interests and relationships of life, except as to the wife; for, while, if one leave houses, lands, father, mother, brother, sister, or children, for the gospel's sake, the severed interests and relationships are replaced a hundred-fold by his admission into the kingdom of heaven, monogamic marriage was and is the law of the Church. And thou canst thus give a practical and beautiful meaning to all that our Lord hath said and done; thou wilt see that the social and political system of the gospel is the only kingdom that can ever banish crime, hatred, and selfishness out of human life, and so regenerate the world; thou wilt see that the Scribes and Pharisees persecuted our Lord because his kingdom excluded war, slavery, private-property rights, estates, rank, offices, prerogatives--of all which things they were 'covetous'--just as the Romans and all other established governments persecute the Christians, even unto this day, for the same reasons. For Christ desireth the brotherhood of men; the liberty and equality of men; and that the average talents, energy, and prosperity of all may insure the common weal; and not that some shall be emperors, lords, and masters, whereby it cometh to pass that many must be slaves; not that some be inordinately rich, and others distressfully poor."

"I will read the gospels and the Acts again in the light of thine instructions," said Am-nem-hat. "But, verily, many passages thereof already come crowding into my mind that bear new and potent meanings; for I perceive clearly enough that Christianity is not only a system of spiritual truth, but also of social and political truth, that is founded upon the faith, and from that basis assaulteth selfishness in its strong citadel of private rights by elevating the common good into a higher thing than private aggrandizement, and separating the people of his kingdom from all personal honors, prerogatives, and wealth, after which the Gentiles seek."

"Thou wilt perceive this all the more clearly," said Ammonius, "if thou wilt reread the gospels with this thought in thy mind; for thou wilt at once perceive that many passages, which in any other view would seem strongly tainted with fanaticism, or rhapsody, or demagoguery, are precisely the things which Jesus ought to have said if his kingdom was, indeed, a social and political democracy founded upon faith and community of rights and property. For the Jews, who supposed that our Lord would overturn the Roman authority and establish a great Israelitish nation instead thereof, were not any more in error than are those who falsely suppose that he would establish no kingdom at all, and that he taught only spiritual truth, as do the Therapeutae."

"I am familiar with the work of Philo 'On a Contemplative Life, or the Devout,'" answered Am-nem-hat, "in which he giveth a full and succinct account of the Therapeutae; but, indeed, I had supposed that he therein intended to describe the first heralds of the gospel, and the practices handed down from the apostles."

"Beyond doubt the Therapeutae were Christians," continued Ammonius, "but they separated themselves from the apostolical churches in order to lead a more devout life, and they gradually exalted all their conceptions of spiritual truth until they began to despise all temporal surroundings; and in this they departed from the teaching of our Lord: for there is no teacher of men more free from asceticism or stoicism than is Jesus. He was ever busied about and interested in the common, every-day life of common men; he was touched with the feeling of our infirmity in all things; sympathized in all the joys and sorrows of those about him, their trials and triumphs, seeking to lead them, not out of the world, but into a way of life wherein every pure and wholesome feeling, affection, and faculty of the human heart might find full development, exercise, and satisfaction. The vast difference, indeed, between Jesus and the philosophers subsists in the fact that, while they were ever painfully seeking for rules and actions by which the select and favored few might attain a perfect human life, he ordained a simple, perfect system by which to bring the higher, purer life within the reach of all men, especially the poor."

In such conversations the time passed quickly; and it was strange to note with what deep interest the sorrowful Hatasa, and also Theckla and Arius, listened to every word, and strove to catch the full signification of every phrase; while Arete heard it patiently, as one might listen to an oft-told but still pleasant story, and old Thopt, as if she knew little and cared less about the whole matter, being satisfied that whatever Ammonius and his wife might do must be right and true.