CHAPTER IV.

FINE TRAINING FOR A CHRISTIAN MAN!

The boy Arius increased in stature, and learned, even before he had learned the alphabet, to think that he knew and loved the Lord. For from the time that he could talk, daily, after the little family had completed their healthful tasks, they spent an hour in repeating to him, and in teaching him to repeat after them, some simple passage out of the New Testament, so that the child had memorized a whole gospel before he had learned to read the written text, and become familiar with the general course of the Old Testament Scriptures, particularly with the salient and beautiful narratives wherewith the sacred word abounds. After he grew older his father taught him both to speak and write the Latin and Hebrew equivalent of every word in the Greek text; so that Arius acquired the three languages together. The father watched with intense and painful anxiety to ascertain whether the singular affliction which his mother's terror of the python had entailed upon himself had been transmitted to his son, and rejoiced to see that, while some unmistakable traces thereof appeared in the boy's voice and manner, they were so slight as not only not to be unpleasantly obtrusive, but were even attractive, as perhaps every marked peculiarity, which is of a graceful character, is attractive in a man.

At twelve years of age, Arius was an unusually tall and slender lad, peculiar in the shape of his bold, shaggy head, peculiar in the length and litheness of his shapely neck, peculiar in the mesmeric luminosity of his dark and tender eyes, and in the singular but incisive sweetness of his voice. He spoke, wrote, and read Greek and Latin with fluency, and was well informed in the Hebrew tongue; and yet he was scarcely conscious of the fact that under his father's wise and careful training he had been a student almost from his infancy, so steadily, easily, and gradually, had he progressed in the acquisition of knowledge. The New Testament written on parchments in the uncial text; the "Pastor of Hermas," which, in those days, was thought to be of almost apostolical authority; and copies of some of the letters of Polycarp, Irenaeus, and Clement, were almost the only books which Ammonius owned, as the cost of a library in those days was enormous. From these they would read a few verses at a time, and translate them into Latin as they went along. A presbyter at Cyrene loaned them the Old Testament, from which the boy copied and memorized such parts as his father directed him to learn, as having the directest bearing upon the life and doctrine of Jesus. The boy did his full share of labor in all the working of the farm, and took the bath daily in the little bay on which it fronted (as in fact all the family were accustomed to do), and at night father, mother, and son, read and translated from the Scriptures; and occasionally the boy was made to stand up and repeat by rote the Apostles' Creed, the Paternoster, the Prayer of Agur, the son of Jakeh, Paul's beautiful hymn in praise of Agape, or some other favorite passage, sometimes in one language and sometimes in another. In these little recitations, as often as the boy's feelings were enlisted, there came a peculiar and fascinating sibilation into his voice; his hand, chiefly the right hand, would move and wave with a strange, easy, vibrant motion, almost as if it involuntarily strove to accentuate the syllables of the sonorous text; his head would dart up and lean slightly forward from the long and shapely neck, like the crest of some splendid cobra, peering forward toward the hearer, and his dark eyes dilated with a strange mesmeric light; and altogether the lad had a very peculiar and impressive appearance. But these slight hereditary traces of the python's influence were never unpleasantly obtrusive, and the father did not think it to be necessary to impose upon the son that life-long self-restraint and self-consciousness which, in his own case, had been requisite to guard himself against serpentine manifestations of emotion. But his own long and careful effort and study in this respect qualified him to impart to the boy a marvelously distinct and peculiar accentuation, which made every word he uttered as clear and perfect as a pearl--as distinct and resonant as trumpet-notes.

But while Ammonius was thus cautious and diligent in training his son to acquire critical exactness in his knowledge of the philology and history of the sacred text, he was not the less anxious to imbue his mind with the very spirit that distills upon the faithful heart out of the words of uncorrupted truth. This he strove to do by continually spurring the boy's intelligence to seek for the real significance of our Lord's life and teachings, the differences between his philosophy and ethics and those of other renowned moralists and teachers; the essential differences between the kingdom which Jesus established in the world and all worldly kingdoms; the great fact, indeed, that Jesus taught not only the purest ethics in a few sweeping principles which cover the whole range of human life and experience, but taught also social and political truth essential to the establishment and maintenance of human rights and liberty. Yet the man's instructions were not dogmatic; they belonged to no sect or system of religion or of philosophy; they consisted chiefly in exciting in the mind of the youth an honest desire to know the truth, and of questions and suggestions designed to aid him in discovering it for himself. The manner of instruction generally pursued by Ammonius may be gathered from one or two of their evening exercises, like the following.

The boy read this passage: "_Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me._"

Then said Ammonius, "What lesson dost thou understand to be taught in this place, Arius?"

"Obviously it teacheth," answered the boy, "that John desired to know of Jesus whether he might be 'he that should come,' that is, Christ. In place of answering the question directly, he pointed them to the miracles which they saw him even then performing, as if he knew that these wonderful works would be sufficient to satisfy John of his divinity. This and other passages seem also to show that miracles are the only proper evidence that can be offered that Jesus is the Christ."

"All that is on the surface," answered Ammonius, "and is well enough. But canst thou see nothing deeper in the words? Is there nothing strange in the answer of Jesus that provoketh inquiry, or needeth comment? Read the passage again, Arius, and see what else thou canst find in it."

Then the lad reread the passage very carefully, and he said: "The blind receive sight: a miracle; the lame walk: a second miracle; the lepers are cleansed: a third miracle; the deaf hear: a fourth miracle; the dead are raised up: a fifth and greater miracle. It seemeth strange to me that our Lord should add, as if it were a greater miracle than all the others, and the crowning proof of his Messiahship, the fact that the poor have the gospel preached unto them. Is it a fact, father, that before the coming of Jesus the gospel had never been preached unto the poor? Was the Jewish scripture only for the rich?"

Ammonius smiled, but answered: "The rolls of the law, the Jewish scriptures, were read on the Sabbath-day in every synagogue, and both the rich and the poor were required to be present and hear it. Perhaps the gospel of which Jesus speaks was not in the Jewish scriptures, or else was only taught in laws and prophecies which the Jews had not correctly interpreted."

"But it could not have been our gospel," said Arius, "for no part of the New Testament was then written. I wonder what this gospel was; and why it was good news to the poor rather than to the rich; and why our Lord said that whoever should not take offense at the gospel was blessed. Why should any one take offense at it? Why did they crucify him for proclaiming it? Why did the chief priests and rulers of the people so bitterly hate the gospel?"

"If thou wilt follow up these questions and learn the true answers thereto," said Ammonius, "thou wilt get hold of a fine, large truth!"

"Wilt thou aid me therein?"

"Yea, so far as I am able to do so; and to that end I ask thee if thou canst tell what reason is repeatedly given in the gospels why the Pharisees 'were offended' at our Lord's teachings; why they 'derided' him; in a word, why they hated him and his gospel?"

"Yea! The reason that is always given for their hatred of Jesus is that they were 'covetous'?"

"Dost thou think that the fact that they were rich and covetous could account for their rejection of their own scriptures, which showed them the Messiah plainly, and in which they all believed, unless the gospel which Jesus taught in some way antagonized their legal right to their property?"

"Nay, verily," said the boy. "The gospel must have interfered with their property, or the fact that they were 'covetous' would not be given as the reason for their hatred of Jesus."

"Then let us examine what this gospel was that was 'good news to the poor.' Dost thou remember any other place in which the same words occur?"

"Yea," answered Arius. "It is written in Luke: '_And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is written, The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor: he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the captives; and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears._'"

"Now canst thou find the place in Isaiah referred to in the text?"

"Yea," replied Arius; "it readeth as follows: '_The spirit of the Lord God_ is upon me; because he hath anointed me to _preach good tidings_.'"

"Stop," said Ammonius; "thou seest that the 'gospel' is the same thing which the prophet calleth 'good tidings?'"

"Yea," answered the lad, "but whence cometh this expression of 'the acceptable year of the Lord,' and what signifieth it?"

"It cometh from the statute of the year of jubilee, set forth at large in the book of Leviticus. When thou shalt examine this statute fully, thou shalt find that it is emphatically a law against private property, providing that debts expire every seventh year, and that all Israel was prohibited from seeking to make gain every seventh year, and from saving what they had already made. Thou wilt see that it was a statute restoring all real estate every fiftieth year to the original possessors thereof, and providing for the release of all prisoners, the manumission of all slaves, the cessation of all oppressions--a year of joy to all that were poor and afflicted. Thou wilt see that Isaiah, and other prophets also, foretold that this great and acceptable year of jubilee was simply a type of the condition, social and political, which should be established permanently in the kingdom of heaven: and that our Lord declared that this prophecy was fulfilled in himself. Thou wilt find, if thou shalt grasp this one truth in its fullness, that the gospel which was good news to the poor was simply the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Christ--the permanent establishment of 'the acceptable year'; and that the Pharisees, who were rich and 'covetous,' hated the gospel because it required all who believe to hold all rights and property in common for the good of all; and they preferred their own selfish aggrandizement to the common good of all; and thou wilt see that the chief priests and rulers of the people conspired together to crucify Jesus, not because they ever doubted his divinity and Messiahship, but because they worshiped Mammon more than God. For the same reason, Rome, that welcomed every heathen superstition under heaven, and built a Pantheon for all the gods, persecuted the Christians from the very beginning, because the gospel of our Lord is eternally opposed to Mammon-worship, war, slavery, polygamy, and the princes and powers of the earth--a kingdom in which Christ only is king, and all men are brethren."

"And it must have been hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven," said Arius, "only because he had to consecrate all earthly possessions to the common Church, and abdicate all human titles and prerogatives."

"Yea," said Ammonius, "that was the property-law laid down by Jesus; and it was verily easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to comply with the law. But thou shouldst trace this truth through all the laws of the Jews, through all the prophecies and through all the parables of Christ; and thou wilt then understand how the law was a schoolmaster leading men to Jesus. Thou wilt understand how it is that in the Church all are free, equal, and fraternal, while in all other kingdoms there are kings, princes, lords; masters, and slaves; the rich and the poor; and universal selfishness, pride, ambition, usury, extortion, licentiousness, oppression, and wrong; and thou wilt more and more love and worship our blessed Lord for establishing the only system upon which true liberty and true religion ever will be possible for the masses of mankind."

Then the bright, patient, hopeful student resolved that he would never cease to read and to ponder upon the fullness of the gospel until he had thoroughly explored all the possible bearings of the divine, social, political, and spiritual system of our Lord upon human life, and its relations to all other kingdoms organized on earth. The lad had learned more than the meaning of an isolated text; he had found a broad principle that rests at the very basis of all profitable reading and interpretation of the sacred word.

And in this sort of school he learned the wisdom of the primitive Church.