“My Israel, the sun which woos the earth into making love to him with flowers never sets in thy brain; thou livest in the poet’s constant noon.”
“But we both are changing. Even the knight gets mellow. Hardship, the sun and faith are working in us both for good.”
“Getting to be? No; thou wert and art poet, painter and singer; all in one. If the world does not hear thee the Seraphim will, by and by.”
“I’ve noticed that souls unbent from some long, twisting pain, run, aspire and play. It is mercy’s rest, reward.”
“God fits some especially to catch passing joys, Ichabod.”
“Yea, and it all comes from a serene faith that all is very good as He made it. I’m just opening to the Sun Eternal, at whose right hand are pleasures evermore. I love thy wakening touch, my guide.”
“Ah, I’m a bungling player on the harp of thy soul, but I love thy melody. Child of nature, speak more and more to me.”
“I can but ill tell all. I’m dumb amid the waves of peace which enhalo, the hopes that thrill, the views of truth that fill my being.”
“I believe thee on my soul, Jew. I’d stop now to remember a little, perhaps to sleep, since so I can follow dreams that would craze me to contemplate awake; but if we now sleep, pray God our day-dreams go on and on. I think we are pilgrims following spiritual truths. They’ll lead us on high; let’s not miss their direction.”
“One may sleep, master, when he can not think; for me, now, I’d rather court, awake, my mind’s guests, for a time, meanwhile gainsaying the lullabys of cricket and nightingale now floating out from every bush.”
“So be it. How shall we proceed to pass the time?”
“Can we set up an Ebenezer? God hitherto hath helped us.”
“I have it; we’ll to the feast.”
“Well, we have what some great kings have not, and so shall find joy in a feast. We have appetite!”
“Thou dost miss my meaning, though thy point is prime. We seldom think to thank the Giver for the power to enjoy as well as for the enjoyable. I knew a French prince, once, who said he’d give his birthright for one good dinner, and he was no Esau, either. He had dinners and dinners, but what were they along with premature decay gnawing at his vitals like a rat, while he himself could eat less than a babe?”
“I see; the knight would have us thankfully commemorate to-day’s enjoyment of nature.”
“Just so; I think, in loving nature, because we begin to understand her, we will be on our way to all the natural joy of which she is God’s interpreter.”
“But our feast?”
“The stars are out on the blue; their queen will soon come up from the sea, then I’ll induct thee into the feast of the ‘Rose.’ The rose is the queen of flowers, and flowers the thoughts of God!”
“The feast of the Rose! I’ve heard it was a licencious, heathen orgy!”
“It was then a shameful misnomer. My Mary found it; transformed it. Out of it, through reverence of her, comes a beautiful observance. See here, Jew.”
So saying, the knight took from his bosom a string of precious stones and arranged them, as they glowed under the moonlight, on the ground heart-shaped.
The knight then questioningly observed the Jew.
The latter shook his head and remarked:
“I’ve seen such often among the Arabs. They have a prayer for each bead to be said the night after the death of one of their number, believing the shade departs not to Hades ’till the prayers are said. Thou dost not practice their enchantments?”
“Bah! Never. My gemmed circle has a deeper, holier significance. Each pendant is to recall to mind some virtue or event in the saintly Mary’s life. Then there are guilds called, ‘Brothers of the Rosary.’ I belong to one such; each member is sworn to pray for all the others wherever scattered. The Turks may have had a praying string, but the Crusaders have appropriated and applied it to nobler uses.”
“Tell me more of it, if there be more.”
“There are but fifteen in my brotherhood.”
“Only fifteen, no room for me?” said the Jew.
“Fifteen; to suggest the fifteen great events in Mary’s life; namely, the Annunciation; Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the Mother of Jesus; the Visitation; Mary in the Gospel spirit went quickly to tell her kinswoman of her promised favor; the Birth of Jesus, this was the crowning joy; then here is the gem that recalls the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Thou knowest, Jew, thy fathers often wondered how, after all, a lamb, an animal, could stand between offended Deity and man. Jesus in the Temple was the fulfillment or explanation of the mystery!”
“Yea, truly, I’ve seen this. Oh, that all my people could also see it!”
“Then, here is the jewel that reminds us of the ‘Scourging at the pillar’ of Him ‘by whose stripes we are healed.’ ”
“Israel reads Isaiah with darkened mind, my loving guide. I’ve seen this. Oh, that my people could.”
“Here is the jewel that recalls the ‘Crowning with thorns’ of Him that hath to give, at His right hand, ‘pleasures forever more.’ He wore that thorny coronet that His redeemed should return with singing, crowned with everlasting joy.”
“I’ve felt it; feel it now. Hallelujah!”
“This one is to commemorate ‘Jesus bearing the Cross;’ this one ‘His crucifixion,’ and this ‘His resurrection.’ ”
“The hope of hopes by our Saducees denied!”
“Then we have here another to remind us of our Saviour’s ‘Ascension,’ with His pregnant promise of a royal return to take at last His children home.”
“Come, Lord Jesus, even so, quickly!” cried Ichabod.
“ ‘Wait patiently for Him and He will give thee the desire of thy heart,’ oh, heir of faithful Abraham!”
“I weary sometimes, my loved teacher.”
“So do we, of our brotherhood; but here is a thought of rest; this bead recalls ‘Pentecost.’ We are led of the Spirit, which guides to all truth and comforts by the way.”
“But what has all this to do with Mary?”
“Oh, here are two beads; one reminds us of her ‘Assumption’ into heaven, the other of her ‘Crowning.’ ”
“Was she crowned?”
“Yea, in heaven, for the Son of Mary promised to His faithful ones this exaltation; ‘I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me, ye which have continued with me in my temptation.’ Surely, she that followed him from the pains of parturition, as an outcast, to the Cross and the sepulcher, continued!”
“I would I could have been there to enter the race for such crowning.”
“ ‘He hath made us kings and priests unto God; if we suffer we shall also reign with Him,’ Jew.”
“Hallelujah! would I could shout it to heaven; no, I