CHAPTER XIV.

THE BLIND RECEIVE THEIR SIGHT.

The next day was the Sabbath again, and Christian families from the region round about Baucalis, to the number of some four hundred, assembled at the cottage for religious services. Some of them came on foot, some on horseback, and some of them in boats along the coast. Am-nem-hat informed the presbyter, who came to preach for them, of his desire, and that of Hatasa and her daughter, to be received into the kingdom of heaven. He also informed him that, at his cottage in the neighborhood, he had a considerable sum in gold and silver, which he desired to give to the Church, or in some other way consecrate to holy uses; and that the Egyptian ladies had property in Alexandria, all of which, or such portion as he might advise, they wished to use in the same way. The presbyter informed them that such a desire was natural and commendable in every one that sought to be a Christian; but that for the time being they must remain as stewards of their own estates, because the Christians of that region were all prosperous and needed nothing, and there was no application for aid from other communities. He further told them that, as soon as it might be considered safe for them to do so, the Christians of the vicinage purposed to erect a church for the accommodation of the numerous brethren around about, and that whenever they might enter upon this work the opportunity would be given to them to aid therein; and that, if any calamity should overtake another Christian community, in any part of the world, whereby they might be brought to need assistance, he would inform them of it as soon as the bishops communicated such facts to him; but that at that time there was no way in which the money could be used.

Early in the morning Arius and his father had set up some poles in holes in the ground already made to receive them, and had stretched strong cords from them unto the eaves of the cottage, and had unrolled and fastened thereon a canopy made of wide cotton cloth, which formed a shelter from the sunshine; and, while some of the congregation sat within the house, the greater part of them found places on the outside under the awning. Hatasa had her couch drawn up beside the open window, from which she could see and hear all that might be done. Theckla was here, there, and everywhere, making friends with nearly all the girls and boys that attended, and especially with one little fellow of twelve years of age who was stone-blind. In the course of her sympathetic talk with this lad he informed her that his parents had brought him there to have the Church pray that his sight might be restored to him.

"How long hast thou been thus blind?" asked Theckla.

"I do not know," said the boy. "I remember that I could once see, and the world was beautiful to me, and the people, and many things. But it has been so long since then!"

"Dost thou believe that their prayers can cure thy blindness?"

"Assuredly," said he, "whenever the Lord will."

"Why, then, hast thou not sought the prayers of the Church before this time, if so thou believest?"

"My parents wished not to have the miracle wrought on me until they thought me to be old enough both to understand how great an affliction loss of sight is and to remember the means whereby I regained it--if, indeed, the Lord will at this time grant our request."

"And thou surely wilt love Jesus much if he shall hear thee, wilt thou not?"

"Yea, will I! Indeed, I love him now with all my soul; but if he restoreth my sight unto me I could work for him far more when I am older; and chiefly for that reason do I pray for his mercy in this matter."

"And I shall pray for thee, also," said Theckla.

And she told Hatasa and Am-nem-hat about the boy, and they looked amazed thereat, but said nothing.

By nine o'clock in the morning all had assembled whom they expected; and, having set a watch on the only practicable road that led down from the mountains to Baucalis, to give them timely notice of the approach of any whose coming might endanger them, the exercises of the day were inaugurated with singing and prayer and the reading of the gospel. There were a wonderful simplicity and directness, both in songs and prayers. If Jesus Christ, the Saviour, Friend, and King, through whom their worship was addressed to God, had been visibly present regarding the manner of their devotions, the whole service could not have been more earnest, simple, and direct. If, indeed, he was not present, they thought and felt otherwise; and the sense of his presence was as real and actual unto them as if, on raising their eyes, they could have looked him in the face; and this unquestioning faith gave a strange sense of life and vividness to all of the exercises, the progress of which Am-nem-hat, Hatasa, and Theckla watched with joy and eagerness.

The presbyter preached with great simplicity and earnestness, describing the love of Jesus and the triumphs of the faith, and in the peroration his address swelled into a glorious paean of victory as he declared the steadfastness and faithfulness of certain Christians who had recently suffered martyrdom in other places, telling them that no man could foresee how soon some of them also might be called upon to tread the glorious path by which their brethren had been perfected in the Lord, and transferred to eternal felicity. But, looking into the flashing eyes and rapt faces turned upon him from every side, he deemed it prudent to give them solemn warning that the crown of martyrdom was not to be officiously sought after, any more than it was to be avoided by unfaithfulness; but that they must be alike ready to live unto Christ, or to die for him, as the providence of God might determine to be best for each of them.

Then he said that if there were any present who had not before publicly professed their faith in Christ, and desired to do so, the Church would then witness their good confession; and thereupon Am-nem-hat and Theckla both stepped forward and gave their hands to the presbyter. The presbyter then briefly stated to the people the facts which he had learned in regard to the past life and experience of the ancient, and the recital thereof at once rendered the old man an object of respect and affection to all of them. Their interest was enlisted by the exceptional fact that an aged and learned pagan priest had found the Saviour precious to his soul. Then Ammonius sent forward Arius and bade him relate to the assembly the story of the shipwreck of Hatasa and Theckla, and of their desire to become Christians; and the boy narrated the circumstances so vividly, and with such unconscious force and eloquence, that they twain also were welcomed into the hearts of all those Christians, and the sense of strangeness and restraint that naturally affects the mind at our first meeting with those whom we have not seen before was at once dissolved by the influence of fraternal interest and affection.

Am-nem-hat having signified his desire to be baptized by immersion, they all repaired to the shore of the little bay, where, with appropriate ceremony, that sacred rite was administered. But, owing to the debilitated condition of Hatasa, she and Theckla received the same sacred rite, after suitable explanations, by having the water sprinkled upon them at the house.

Many of those who were present, and especially those who had come in boats, brought prepared food with them, and soon this was distributed over clean cloths spread out under the trees, and all of them did eat together with gladness, as if it had been one large and loving family--Arete and old Thopt being diligent to supply from their own stores everything that was needed or had been forgotten.

Then in the afternoon the congregation was again assembled, and they engaged in singing and prayer. The presbyter informed the people that a blind boy had come, with his parents, to ask the prayers of the Church that God would restore his sight, explaining the reason why they had not sooner done so, very much as the boy had stated to Theckla, and saying that they should first partake of the holy communion, and afterward pray for the lad's recovery. Then this rite was administered; and all of them engaged in prayer, the presbyter leading and the people making occasional responses. And even while they were so engaged the lad sprang to his feet, and, throwing his arms about his mother's neck, he cried aloud: "O mother, I see! I see!--Brethren, thank God for me, for my sight is perfectly restored!"

And the presbyter changed the form of his words from supplication into praise and thanksgiving; and, when he had finished, many pressed forward to congratulate the lad upon his miraculous cure; and afterward, when they went away, he went also, seeing as well as other boys.

Then later in the evening, having first agreed upon the place of their next meeting, the congregation received a benediction at the mouth of the presbyter and quietly dispersed. But almost every head of a family first came unto Am-nem-hat and unto Hatasa and Theckla, and urged them with great kindness to come unto their homes and abide with them as long as might be convenient.

But, before the presbyter departed, Hatasa requested that he come unto her, and of him she asked concerning the baptism for the dead; and having diligently inquired of her concerning the character and manner of life of her husband, and having heard her firm declaration of her belief that he was one who ever sought to do that which he thought to be just, right, and true, so that if he had sufficiently learned of Jesus he would have been a Christian, the presbyter administered to her the baptism for the dead, from which the poor lady derived a strange and unmeasurable satisfaction and peace.

But Hatasa did not recover any strength, and the next day she was weaker than ever, and the next, and so on from day to day. She requested them to hold services in her room every evening, and seemed gladly to engage with them in prayer. But she said that she had no power to will or to wish that she might continue to live. She dreaded the pain and weariness of a lingering convalescence, and she said that the only earthly care that had troubled her was concern for her daughter's welfare, and that she would never separate her from her newly discovered but precious Christian friendships, and did not wish her to go among their pagan kindred. She informed Ammonius that there was much property in Alexandria that now belonged to Theckla, and asked him what disposition should be made of it. Ammonius at first said: "Let it go. Theckla shall lack for nothing; and riches are a snare to the young." But, upon considering that the estate would go to the pagan kindred, and never to the Church, unless the legal right of the girl thereto was asserted, he sent unto Cyrene for a proper officer, who came and took the depositions of Hatasa, Arius, Thopt, and Theckla, as to the shipwreck of Amosis and his family, and as to the identity and parentage of the maiden, to be laid before the orphans' court at Alexandria. She also made a written request that Theckla's relative Am-nem-hat should be appointed guardian of the maiden's person and estate, with her friend Ammonius to succeed him if the aged man should die during Theckla's minority. And, having accomplished these things in due and proper form, she began to fail more rapidly, and about midnight sank peacefully into rest, almost her last request being that she might be buried in the "sleeping-ground" of the Christians of that vicinity.

And, when Theckla saw that she was dead, the wild sorrow of her heart broke out in almost the very same words that her mother had used upon the death of Amosis, and she cried: "No more! no more! Ah, never more!"

But Ammonius said unto her, "Come hither, daughter!" And, when she had come, he laid his hand upon her head and he asked, "Art thou a Christian?"

And she answered, "Yea, I love the Lord."

Then he saith: "That is well, my child. But, if thou art a Christian, use not the vain and despairing lamentation of the heathen. Thou shouldst not think nor feel as they do when they cry out in their bitterness, 'No more.' Thy mother leaveth thee not forever, child. She hath only gone before thee by a little space at most, and thou shalt go unto her again. So the Lord whom thou lovest doth solemnly promise thee, and thou must never distrust his promise or his love."

"But I loved my mother! I must weep for her."

"Yea, daughter, weep as much as thou wilt. That is but natural and proper. So perhaps thou wouldst weep if she had gone to Alexandria, leaving thee behind; yet thou wouldst take comfort in the hope that she would come to thee again. So now she hath gone to Jesus, and is safe with him, and thou must take comfort in the hope, nay, in the very certainty, that, while she returneth not, perhaps, unto thee, thou shalt soon go unto her. And thou, being a Christian girl, shalt not vex thy heart with the hopeless sorrow that the heathen feel."

And the girl was comforted indeed, and her pleasant faith aided the buoyancy of health and youth in helping her to weary down the sorrow that followed the loss of her young, beautiful, and beloved mother; because the power of that faith brought the world's Consoler very near, and Death to her was shorn of his greatest terrors.

It was agreed among them that Theckla and Am-nem-hat should reside permanently at the cottage. The old man and Arius soon brought all of his possessions from the hermitage, even to his favorite goats; and, some of the neighbors assisting them, they built another room of stone, into which the ancient's manuscripts, his furniture, and his accumulation of coin, were all safely stowed away. And, all things having been thus satisfactorily arranged, the old man was conveyed in the boat around to Apollonia, and thence he took shipping unto Alexandria, where he produced before the orphans' court the depositions and other papers committed unto him by Hatasa; and, as guardian of Theckla, leased the houses which she owned in the city, and received and brought back to Baucalis with him some elegant personal effects that had belonged to Hatasa; her relatives consenting thereto without much opposition, and stipulating only that, if the girl should die, they were to be immediately informed of the fact; and that, if she should live, she was to come to the city as soon as she became of age. They were all pagans, and the old priest would have gone almost any length to avoid placing his young and beautiful Christian ward within the range of their influence. And, having transacted all things necessary, in a very few days the old man returned gladly to Baucalis--a place to which his heart seemed bound by stronger and more beautiful associations than had ever come into his long and lonely life elsewhere on earth, not even excepting Thebes and Ombos, nor his own quiet hermitage upon the mountain-side.

And the aged priest at once installed himself as the tutor of Theckla; and he taught to Arius, also, such science and literature as then were known unto the wisest men of Egypt; but some things he continued to learn from the boy himself.

And so the next four years glided quietly away, during which the routine of their peaceful lives pursued its usual course; and in their flight Arius became a tall and graceful youth of twenty; Theckla grew into a blooming and exquisitely beautiful woman of sixteen; for in the ardent Libyan latitudes the girls grow quickly into womanhood. These years made small changes in Ammonius and Arete; they told lightly upon the venerable Am-nem-hat, whose pure and quiet life had been favorable to longevity and to the preservation of his faculties unimpaired even unto an extreme old age; and Thopt herself bore the flight of time quite well, becoming almost imperceptibly more fixed and rigid in all her actions and opinions, and more and more impressed with the idea that Christianity was an excellent and beautiful thing for wise and perfect people like those among whom her lot was cast, and might even have suited her if it had not sought to abolish the relation of mistress and slave between herself and Arete, "contrary to nature and to common sense," she said; but that old grudge she could never entirely get over.