Category: Biographies

Mary: The Queen of the House of David and Mother of Jesus The Story of Her Life

“A form beloved comes again”—Inspired painters in a voyage of discovery—Tributes to Mary, honoring all womankind—Guido’s wish—Madonnas of many climes. Raphael’s “Transfigured Woman”—Savonarola’s bonfire—St. Luke’s picture of the Virgin—The Vandal spirit. Page 29

Chapters

69. CHAPTER XXVII.

“Rocked in the cradle of the deep, I lay me down in peace to sleep, Secure, I rest upon the wave, For Thou, oh Lord, hast power to save. I know Thou wilt not slight my call, For...

80. CHAPTER XXXVIII.

“Would I had fallen upon those happier days, And those Arcadian scenes.... Vain wish! Those days were never! airy dreams Sat for the picture, and the poet’s hand Imposed a gay d...

58. CHAPTER XVI.

“Sleep—the ghostly winds are blowing! No moon abroad—no star is glowing. The river is deep and the tide is flowing To the land where you and I are going! We are going afar, Beyo...

51. CHAPTER IX.

“They arise now like the stars before me Through the long, long night of years; Some are bright with heavenly radiance, And others shine out through our tears. They arise, too,...

59. CHAPTER XVII.

“Oh say to mothers, what a holy charge Is theirs! With what a queenly power, their love Can rule the fountain of a new-born mind. Warn them to wake at early dawn and sow Good se...

62. CHAPTER XX.

“Seraph of heaven; too gentle to be human, Veiled beneath the radiant form of woman. Sweet benediction of the eternal curse; Veiled glory of the lampless universe! Thou moon bey...

50. CHAPTER VIII.

“I may well remember the greatest day of my life; the day thou tookst me up yon hill over against Jericho; I saw, as Elisha, in the presence of his great master Elijah, the moun...

70. CHAPTER XXVIII.

For many days Sir Charleroy and Miriamne tarried at Acre, the latter seeking to banish repining on account of him whom she had sent away at the behest of conscience, by ministri...

60. CHAPTER XVIII.

Another Passover season was at hand, and the few Israelites in and about Bozrah, not being permitted to celebrate the feast, at Jerusalem were gathering for a “Little Passover”...

56. CHAPTER XIV.

“Once more we look and all is still as night, All desolate! Groves, temples, palaces Swept from the sight and nothing visible, ... Save here and there An empty tomb, a fragment...

53. CHAPTER XI.

Stealthily Ichabod, followed by Sir Charleroy, approached the place from which the trumpet call had sounded. The foliage was dense, the necessary way somewhat winding, and these...

73. CHAPTER XXXI.

“‘_Mother of sorrows_,’ many a heart, Half broken by despair, Hath laid its burden by the cross, And found a mother there. ‘_Mary_,’ the dearest name of all, The holiest and the...

66. CHAPTER XXIV.

“There is a vision, in the heart of each, Of justice, mercy, wisdom, tenderness To wrong and pain and knowledge of the cure; And these embodied in a woman’s form, That best tran...

52. CHAPTER X.

“Still slowly passed the melancholy day, And still the stranger wist not where to stray: The world was sad—the Garden was a wild; And man, the hermit, sighed—till woman smiled.”...

64. CHAPTER XXII.

“Day followed day, like any childhood passing; And silently Mary sat at her wheel And watched the boy Messiah as she span; And as a human child unto his mother, Subject the whil...

81. CHAPTER XXXIX.

“The VIRGIN MARY unquestionably holds forever a peculiar position among all women in the history of redemption. Perfectly natural, yea, essential to a sound religious feeling, i...

68. CHAPTER XXVI.

“I would I were an excellent divine That had the Bible at my fingers’ ends; That men might hear out of this mouth of mine How God doth make His enemies His friends; Rather than...

71. CHAPTER XXIX.

“Let us alone regret, ... ... Sorrow humanizes our race. Tears are the showers that fertilize the world; And memory of things precious keepeth warm The heart that once did hold...

83. CHAPTER XLI.

“Oh, not alone, because his name is Christ; Oh, not alone, because Judea waits This man-child for her King—the star stands still! Its glory reinstates, Beyond humiliation’s utmo...

67. CHAPTER XXV.

“Furl we the sail and pass with tardy oar Through these bright regions, casting many a glance Upon the dream like issues and romance Of many-colored life that Fortune pours Roun...

74. CHAPTER XXXII.

“There now, never say that again! None on earth can dethrone in my heart my constant friend and guide; yea under God, my savior! Had there been no Father Adolphus there would ha...

65. CHAPTER XXIII.

“Under the shade of His mighty wings, One by one Are His secrets told, One by one. Lit by the rays of each morning sun, Shall a new flower its petals unfold, With its mystery hi...

72. CHAPTER XXX.

“Lost, lost are all our losses; Love set forever free; The full life heaves and tosses Like an eternal sea; One endless, living story; One poem spread abroad, And the sun of all...

82. CHAPTER XL.

“Oh, moist eyes, And hurrying lips and heaving heart! The world we’ve come to late is swollen hard With perishing generations and their sins; The civilizer’s spade grinds horrib...

55. CHAPTER XIII.

“Daughters of Eve! your mother did not well: ... The man was not deceived, nor yet could stand: He chose to lose for love of her, his throne,— With her could die, but could not...

75. CHAPTER XXXIII.

“I do not say that a social cyclone is impending; but the signs of the times certainly admonish us that if Christianity is to avert a revolution of the most gigantic proportions...

44. CHAPTER II.

“There is a fire— And motion of the soul which will not dwell, In its own narrow being, but aspire Beyond the fitting medium of desire; And but once kindled, quenchless ever mor...

54. CHAPTER XII.

“Who could resist; who in the universe? She did breathe ambrosia; so immerse My existence in a golden clime, She took me like a child of sucking time, And cradled me in roses. T...

47. CHAPTER V.

“This is indeed the blessed Mary’s land, Virgin and Mother of our dear Redeemer! All hearts are touched and softened by her name; Alike the bandit with the bloody hand, The prie...

57. CHAPTER XV.

“Rude fragments now Lie scattered where the shapely column stood. Her palaces are dust. In all the streets the sprightly chords Are silent. Revelry and dance and show Suffer a s...

61. CHAPTER XIX.

Miriamne, all aglow with pleasurable excitement and filled with a curiosity which at times rose to very serious questioning as to her own faith, anxiously sought to compass an e...

49. CHAPTER VII.

“Anyhow,” replied the chief, “we must try for a little food. We can neither fight nor flee with gaunt hunger on our flanks. Who knows, after all, but that we may happen on a hum...

79. CHAPTER XXXVII.

“My knowledge is so weak, oh, blissful queen, To tell abroad thy mighty worthiness, That I the weight of it may not sustain; But as a child of twelve months’ old or less That la...

63. CHAPTER XXI.

“It is curious to observe, as the worship of the Virgin mother expanded and gathered to itself the relics of many an ancient faith, now the new and the old elements became amalg...

76. CHAPTER XXXIV.

“I’m footsore and very weary, But I travel to meet a Friend; The way is long and dreary, But I know it soon must end. He is traveling swiftly as whirlwinds, And though I creep s...

85. CHAPTER XLIII.

Two travelers journeyed slowly along Mount Olivet, pausing anon to observe the flower-dells between them and Mount Zion, or to contemplate the wilder prospects where the wildern...

77. CHAPTER XXXV.

“In the day time He was teaching in the temple, and at night He went out and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives.”—LUKE xxi., 37.

78. CHAPTER XXXVI.

“The harp the monarch minstrel swept, The king of men, the loved of heaven. ... It softened men of iron mold; No ear so dull, no soul so cold That felt not, fired not to the ton...

46. CHAPTER IV.

“Chained to excess, the slave of each extreme, How woke he from the wildness of his dream? Alas! he told not, but he did awake, To curse the withered heart that would not break....

84. CHAPTER XLII.

Are we not kings? Both night and day. From early unto late, About our bed, about our way, A guard of angels wait! And so we watch and work and pray In more than royal state. Are...

48. CHAPTER VI.

The fugitives slept, some in the obliviousness of complete fatigue and others restlessly, their minds perturbed by dreams of their impending perils. Dawn summoned all to renewed...

43. CHAPTER I.

“And breaking as from distant gloom, A face comes painted on the air; A presence walks the haunted room, Or sits within the vacant chair. And every object that I feel Seems char...

45. CHAPTER III.

“From the moist regions of the western star, The wandering hermits wake the storm of war; Their limbs all iron, their souls all flame; A countless host the Red Cross warriors ca...

42. CHAPTER XLIII.—A COFFIN FULL OF FLOWERS, AND A GIRDLE WITH

Cornelius and his son at Bethany—Changed scenes—Under the lights and shadows of Chemosh—A widower’s grief—Azrael’s putative son razes to the ground Miriamne’s home and temple—Th...

16. CHAPTER XVI.—A BATTLE OF GIANTS AT BOZRAH.

Houses forty centuries old—The old stone-house of an ancient giant becomes the home of the knight and his wife—How circumstances change people—Recriminations and reconciliation—...

8. CHAPTER VIII.—FROM JERICHO TO JORDAN.

The radiant proselyte—Climbing to glory—The ghostly forms hovering over submerged Sodom—Jordan’s sweetening—Siddim-angels among the willows and oleanders by the Dead Sea—Summons...

23. CHAPTER XXIV.—A HEROINE’S PILGRIMAGE.

The convert’s yearnings—“Go and tell”—When parents oppose each other which shall the child follow?—A child of the kingdom in a new family circle—Jesus, Mary and the elect—Miriam...

9. CHAPTER IX.—THE FEAST OF THE ROSE.

A breakfast of lentils and barley in the wilderness—The gloom of the Knight and the joy of the Jew—Sermons on fate and songs in flowers—The poetry of Ichabod—Celibacy a reward a...

14. CHAPTER XIV.—THE THEATER OF THE GIANTS.

The death of Harrimai—A honey-moon in the “Eye of the East”—To Bashan with the Mecca chaplet-seekers—Nature, art and desolation—Lejah’s black lava-sea—The frenzies of Gerash’s p...

7. CHAPTER VII.—ICHABOD.

Sir Charleroy’s band approach Shunem, the City of Elijah—The surprise—Sir Charleroy the captive of Azrael the Mameluke—The Mohammedan heaven depicted—“A hair, the bridge over he...

26. CHAPTER XXVII.—THE STAR OF THE SEA.

Sir Charleroy, partially restored, with Miriamne and Cornelius journeying toward Syria—Passing Cyprus—Olympus—A storm rising on the Mediterranean—Cornelius presses his love suit...

28. CHAPTER XXIX.—TWO DEAD HEARTS UNITING TWO LIVING ONES.

From Jerusalem to Bozrah—The tomb of Ichabod—Sir Charleroy argues against meeting Rizpah—Miriamne’s strong argument in behalf of the lasting obligations of marriage—A husband re...

27. CHAPTER XXVIII.—THE QUEEN IN THE VALLEY OF SORROWS.

Father and daughter at Acre—The mysterious Hospitaler—From Acre to Joppa—“The myths are as full of women as the women are full of myths”—The wars of men about women—At Jerusalem...

31. CHAPTER XXXII.—THE QUEEN AND THE GRAIL-SEEKERS.

“The gold of my heart to the man that piloted me to happiness”—Miriamne yearns for a world in sin—Has the Church or God failed?—A revolutionary reformer—The story of the grail q...

21. CHAPTER XXII.—THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.

Rizpah dreading heresy yet charmed by the story of the “Girl Wife”—“Behold my mother and brethren”—Christ’s message to his widowed mother—The “Church of the Terror”—Rizpah’s vis...

38. CHAPTER XXXIX.—CROWN JEWELS.

The Hospitaler warns the Missioners of the Sheik of Jerusalem’s designs—The son of Azrael—Immunity purchased—The wedding of Beulah, Nourahmal’s grand-daughter to a Jewish conver...

20. CHAPTER XXI.—THE QUEEN AND HER FAMILY IN EGYPT.

Father Adolphus and Miriamne converse of the Holy Family’s sojourn in Egypt—Heliopolis and the Temple of the Sun—Fire-worshipers—At Memphis, the shrine of Apis the sacred bull—T...

29. CHAPTER XXX.—THE “KNIGHT OF SAINT MARY” AND RIZPAH AT THE

Father Adolphus and Sir Charleroy—A ruined temple and a ruined man—“A woman, a woman leading in religion!”—Jesus and Magdalena—The twelve appearings of the lingering Christ—The...

30. CHAPTER XXXI.—THE ROSE, QUEEN OF HEARTS IN BOZRAH.

A scene of domestic happiness—Love the vassal of the will—Neb-ta in the “Judgment Hall of Truth”—The lambs that are offered by sectarian hates—The Arcana of glorious wedded love...

15. CHAPTER XV.—THE REVELS OF MEN AND THE RITES OF THEIR GODDESSES.

Kunawat at the City of Job—The Shrine of Astarte—The Cyclopean image—Questioning the Soul, Time and God—Hugeness, greatness; littleness, caricature—The naked worshipers of the g...

25. CHAPTER XXVI.—THE WEDDING AT CANA.

Sir Charleroy giving signs of recovery under Miriamne’s Ministries—A remarkable service in the chapel of the Palestineans—The knight interested in the story of Cana—The address...

10. CHAPTER X.—AFTER EVE, ESTHER OR MARY?

By Jabbock, in the native place of Ichabod—Israelitish maidens keeping the feast of Esther—Religious love, filial love and lover’s love—The poetic Jew’s rhapsody concerning affe...

17. CHAPTER XVII.—RIZPAH THE ANCIENT MOTHER OF SORROWS.

After many years, Rizpah dwells in Bozrah with her three children—Rizpah of Bozrah fascinated by Rizpah of Gibeah—Miriamne the daughter of Rizpah—The daughter appalled by her mo...

18. CHAPTER XVIII.—THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED IN THE GIANT CITY.

The old and the young Jews—The old Christian priest and his Jewess proselyte—Attacked by Mamelukes—The “Old Clock Man”—The Balsam Band—Miriamne, the Jewess proselyte, questions...

24. CHAPTER XXV.—CONSOLATRIX AFFLICTORUM.

Miriamne’s welcome by the London Palestineans—The daughter meets her father in a mad-house—Disappointment—The flight—The search—The White Madonna of the Asylum Park—Love the rem...

32. CHAPTER XXXIII.—THE HOSPITALER’S ORATION.

The secret meeting of the Knights at the house of Phebe—Swords bent sickle-like and spears crossed—After war, social victories—Sunrise at midnight—Each career determined by the...

3. CHAPTER III.—ARMAGEDDON! “THE KEY AND SICKLE.

“The wandering hermit wakes the storms of war”—Acre and Esdrælon, the “Armageddon” or “Mountain of the Gospel” of the Scriptures—The battle-field of nations—The City of Jeanne d...

11. CHAPTER XI.—THE FEAST OF PURIM.

A night-scene by Jabbock—Harrimai the priest, and his daughter Rizpah—The religious ceremonial and the revel—Sir Charleroy and Rizpah as “Ahasuerus and Esther”—The Knight’s secr...

6. CHAPTER VI.—THE FUGITIVES.

A night bivouac amid sacred scenes—The “Knight of the Holy-Sepulcher” who fled on “a white charger with black wings”—The funeral at dawn—Mary’s palm-bearing angel-guard—The twel...

12. CHAPTER XII.—ASTARTE OR MARY?

The Knight of Saint Mary enslaved by a Hebrew beauty—The journey toward Bozrah—The Mameluke attack—The hand to hand fight—Sir Charleroy wounded and Ichabod slain—Rizpah’s herois...

40. CHAPTER XLI.—A CHIME AND A DIRGE AT CHRISTMAS-TIME.

“Motherhood priced”—“Thou shalt be saved in child-bearing”—Sylvan gods of Rome—“The Miriamites,”—“In Rama, weeping and great mourning”—Joachim’s bleating lamb slain—Woman’s supr...

1. CHAPTER I.—THE QUEEN’S PORTRAIT.

“A form beloved comes again”—Inspired painters in a voyage of discovery—Tributes to Mary, honoring all womankind—Guido’s wish—Madonnas of many climes. Raphael’s “Transfigured Wo...

36. CHAPTER XXXVII.—THE CORONATION OF THE QUEEN.

The Hospitaler deemed a prophet at Bethany. The legitimacy of Jesus as the “son of David” assured through His mother—“The reign of blood”—First born—Pagan Rome made sponsor for...

2. CHAPTER II.—THE PILGRIM, CRUSADER AND VIRGIN.

Life a pilgrimage—Pilgrims of many faiths—A struggle for holy places between the Pilgrim-Crusaders and Moslem—The harem and the home—The rise of Chivalry—The Knights and “Our La...

13. CHAPTER XIII.—FROM RAMOTH GILEAD TO DAMASCUS.

Teacher and pupil become patient and nurse—Perilous relations—Delights, assurances, fears and clouds—Harrimai’s discovery and his malediction—Love’s debate and decision—Elopemen...

34. CHAPTER XXXV.—THE SISTERS OF BETHANY.

The Missioners at Bethany—The site of the Home of Jesus—Miriamne’s ideal society—The miracle age—A home, not a throne, the place of Ascension—Will Jesus so return?—The angel biv...

41. CHAPTER XLII.—THE MOTHER OF SORROWS TRIUMPHANT AT LAST.

The funeral of Miriamne—The Hospitaler tells the traditions of Mary’s death and assumption—What the Druse convert said to his camel—“The beatings of mighty wings”—The tomb of Mi...

4. CHAPTER IV.—SIR CHARLEROY; THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE AND KNIGHT

The flight from Acre to Nazareth—The born-leader—Life estimates with Death holding the scales—A prince honors, a bishop blesses, and a mother loves—An epitome of paradoxes. Page 53

5. CHAPTER V.—NAZARETH.

Nazareth, the place of Mary’s nativity—The choice of a leader—The coward king—The Virgin’s Fount—English songsters—The Knights’ mountain Litany—Longings for home and mother—Nain...

33. CHAPTER XXXIV.—MEMORIALS AT BOZRAH.

The death of Dorothea—The priest of the wayside—The wedding of Cornelius and Miriamne—A pilgrimage to the tombs of Adolphus, Charleroy and Rizpah. Backlook, and outlooks. Page 510

39. CHAPTER XL.—THE QUEEN’S VISION OF THE AGE OF GOLD AND FIRE.

Nourahmal wed to the Druse camel-driver—the Druse converted—The Hospitaler’s message—Ezekiel prophecies fulfilled at Olivet—The “Mother’s pillow”—Gabriel, the “Angel of Mothers...

22. CHAPTER XXIII.—THE MISERERE AND THE EASTER ANTHEM.

35. CHAPTER XXXVI.—THE QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID.

19. CHAPTER XX.—THE WEDDING—THE BIRTH AND THE FLIGHT.

37. CHAPTER XXXVIII.—THE “LIGHT OF THE HAREM” IN THE “TEMPLE OF