The three royal magi, or, The journey to Bethlehem

Front matter

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Introduction

The beautiful story which is presented in the following pages is a free translation of a tale by the author of “The Blind Orphan Boy,” one of the best German writers of books for the young.

It will be found a very suitable book for Sunday-schools, and for young persons of every class; and I have no doubt that it will be interesting to some of riper years. Its lessons of stern integrity, strict adherence to the precepts l* 5

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of the Bible, and firm reliance upon the promises of God, are most important in, forming the Christian character.

I have thought it advisable to omit various passages of the original, and to make some additions which I considered necessary to its usefulness in this country.

Carlisle , Pa.

C. E. B.

The Future

THE

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Chapter I. The Sacrifice

At the time of the emperor Augustus, when Rome and its citizens had already become the model of all that was refined, learned, and polished, Germany was still a savage and uncultivated region. Dark and gloomy forests intersected by innumerable marshes covered its soil. But darker than the shades of its woods was the night of ignorance and superstition that rested upon the inhabitants ; and more stagnant than its marshes, the stolidity with which they pursued the ways of their barbarous ancestors.

The Greeks and Romans had, long before

this period, erected those splendid structures, many of which are still existing, and are to this day admired as monuments of ancient architecture : hut the Germans dwelt still in caves or rudely constructed huts. While the former led a life of luxury and ease ; the latter lived upon the game of the forest, slain by their own hands, upon the milk of their cows, upon acorns, and a beverage made of barley or wheat. They worshipped the sun, the moon and the earth, and their priests practised the horrid rite of human sacrifice, sometimes to honor, and sometimes to appease their false gods.

The poor Germans were, indeed, in a very wretched spiritual and temporal condition, at the time in which the incidents of the following narrative are laid.

Black and gloomy were the shades of the night that rested upon the oak and beech forests of Germany: not even a ray of the moon or of the twinkling stars could penetrate the thick foliage. Beneath the wide-spreading branches, every thing was as silent as the grave. Men and animals were

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asleep ; and if a sound broke tbe death-like quiet, it was only caused by some bird of night flapping its wings, or a decayed branch falling to the ground.

About the hour of midnight, the glimmering of a light appeared between the giant trunks of the trees. Gradually, as it came nearer, it became more distinct, and proved to proceed from a torch in the hand of a man, who advanced with a slow step and with great caution from beneath the trees, towards an open place in the forest. The simple garment of the torch-bearer reached only to his knees, his legs were bare, and a girdle made of the untanned skin of the deer fastened his garment around his waist. His feet were protected by sandals, an article never worn by the Germans. His head was covered with thick, black curls, that shaded an olive complexion, and his neck, as well as the upper part of his body, was perfectly bare. He appeared to be a man about thirty or thirty-five years of age. Vexation and wrath were depicted in every lineament of his countenance.

As he passed along, he struck inadvert-

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ently with his foot against the body of a man, who, stretched out beneath the tree, was fast asleep. Several German warriors, who, with heavy clubs beside them, were lying near their companion, immediately raised their heads to examine the nightwanderer; but he satisfied their inquiring looks, by saying aloud, in broken German : “It is Perinthes, he goes to sharpen the knives of the priests for the coming sacrifice.”

Then he passed on, muttering to himself, in Greek: “Oh! that all these pale, redhaired and blue-eyed calves had but one throat and but one heart, so that I could with a single thrust destroy them all ! Who would have foretold me, three years ago, that I would become the slave of these Barbarian brutes ! Where is now my marble palace, with its pillars and lofty halls? Where now my table, covered with the choicest delicacies and noble wines ? Where are the soft carpets and silken garments? Where is my gold and silver? Far away in my sunny native land, in happy Greece. And I am the base slave of despicable Bar-

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barians ; my food is the food of swine ; my couch, the cold wet ground; my garments are those of a beggar ; and my most poignant grief is — that I cannot avenge myself upon these German brutes.”

Suddenly he stopped in the midst of his soliloquy. Raising his torch, so that its light fell upon two rows of men, whose hands and feet were bound with cords, and who appeared to be fast asleep, he scanned the features of the captives for a few seconds in silence, and then continued : “For your throats are these knives to be sharpened ! — Well, no matter ! you also are Barbarians, and this makes my task less unpleasant. They sleep ! It is their last sleep upon earth ! Doomed sacrifices to honor the sun, the moon, and Tuisko, the son of Nerthus ! And yet not a statue of either of these gods is ever seen here. These Barbarians are so stupid that they do not know even how to make an image of their divinity ! Oh ye gods of my country, have pity upon me ! Thundering Jupiter ! where are thy bolts, that they do not strike these Germans, and thus liberate

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thy worshipper ? Chaste Diana ! be thou my guide through these dark and gloomy forests ? And thou winged Mercury ! hasten to me, with a consoling message from my far off country ! Come Bacchus ! come, and intoxicate me with thy noble gift, the juice of the grape, that I may, if but for a time, forget the sufferings of my captivity!” Thus did this poor idolater lament in heathen blindness over his sorrows. But again he stopped and exclaimed : “Ha! what do I see here?” Bending down over one of the sleepers, he continued : “ This must be a native of my own country ! The black curls around his brow, his flowing beard, his olive complexion, all indicate it. He raises his dark eyes to look at me. My friend ! art thou not a Greek like myself? Oh ! say yes ! that I may have at least one consolation.”

“I am an Israelite,” replied the prisoner in broken Greek.

“Alas, alas !” exclaimed Perinthes — though in a subdued tone — “a Hebrew! a man without any gods !”

The Jew replied in a solemn lone : “ The

Lord our God is one God, and there is no other God beside him !”

“ Where is he then, thy God !” asked Perinthes, in a mocking tone. “ He does not seem to care much about thee just now.”

Again the Jew replied: “ The Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men. But the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

Here their conversation was interrupted by a loud whistle, a signal of one of the sentinels around the camp. Perinthes, who feared being detected in conversation with a prisoner set apart as a sacrifice, moved on, and finally disappeared at the entrance of a grotto in a neighboring rock.

Nothing further occurred during the night. Gradually a gray twilight began to dawn over the vast forest, and ushered in the day set apart for the offering up of the bloody sacrifice. Long before sunrise, the place before the grotto w T as filled with German warriors, who formed a semicircle, . leaving a sufficient space for the performance of the ceremonies. Heathen priests with long

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hair, flowing beards, and white loose garments, came forward and cut the cords with which the captives were bound; and then placed before each one his last meal. All the prisoners partook of it with stoical indifference, except the Jew: he gently but firmly refused the acorns that were offered to him.

A few minutes afterwards, the crowd that stood around the prisoners separated to make room for a double file of warriors, who preceded the German king Balthasar, in order to clear the way before him.

Balthasar, though a great king among his people, had no crown upon his head nor a sceptre in his hand. His royal mantle was merely a shaggy bearskin; and his powerful breast, undecorated by star or ribbon, was covered by a small wooden plate. But in his right hand he held the strong ashen lance of the German warrior, and his girdle supported the mighty German stone battle-axe, the favorite weapon of our Teutonic ancestors. He was a man of about thirty years of age, and only distinguished from his subjects, by his almost gigantic

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stature, and his lofty and noble bearing. His golden locks fell gracefully over his shoulders, and his honest blue eyes, characteristic of his race, harmonized finely with his fair and rosy face, and looked like forget-me-nots near a peaceful brook. He advanced with a slow and patriarchal step, between his warriors and the spectators. Every eye was bent upon him with feelings of love and sympathy, and all greeted him, by placing their right hands upon their hearts, while their left seized with a firmer grasp the lance which always accompanied the German freemen. They were living walls around their sovereign, and formed a better protection than the stony ramparts of the strongest castle.

Behind the king came four German girls, carrying a litter covered with soft skins, upon which a young maiden reclined. She was the only and beloved child of Balthasar, the treasure which his dying wife had recommended him to guard as the apple of his eye. But the princess was not like the rest of the girls in her country, who grew up lively and gay like the fawns, and strong

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as the oaks in their own native forests, she resembled more a pale white rose, raised in a hot-house. The priests and the superstitious soothsayers of the king insisted that the child was bewitched : and it was on her account mainly that they were about to shed the blood of human beings, upon the altar of their false gods, hoping thereby to appease their anger, and to induce them to restore the daughter of their prince to health and strength.

As soon as the king had reached the place reserved for him, the girls advanced and placed the litter beside him, and then ranged themselves behind it. Balthasar looked first at his child with all a father’s fondness, and then turned, with the rest of the people, toward the priests, who, with the high-priest Mamuh at their head, issued now from the grotto, muttering prayers, and advanced slowly toward the intended victims.

The prisoners that were to be sacrificed to the sun were ranged on an open space, where that orb, now just rising above the horizon, shed its first golden-colored beams through the thick foliage; those destined

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as an offering to the moon occupied a spot where that pale, waning luminary, threw still a sickly light upon our planet ; while the third division, reserved as a sacrifice to Nerthus, surrounded a newly dug pit, intended to receive the warm blood of these poor victims of heathen idolatry.

Erna, the daughter of the king, looked timidly at those nearest to her, who stood silent and resigned, with downcast eyes and folded arms, awaiting their fate.

As soon as each priest had with one hand seized his victim, and with the other the long sharp, granite knife, which he drew from his belt, the bystanders commenced blowing their horns. And all the assembled multitude joined with loud cries in the prayers which the priests addressed to their imaginary gods.

Similar artifices have been employed in all ages, by idolatrous priests, to stifle the voice of nature in the spectators of their bloody rites. But notwithstanding all the efforts used in this instance to drown the cries and groans of the sufferers when in the last agony, there arose every now and then,

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some more piercing shriek, heard clearly and distinctly even above that almost unearthly din, and when it reached Erna’s ear it caused her whole frame to shudder and tremble.

Suddenly all became silent. The chorus of voices was hushed, and for a few seconds it appeared as if the stillness of the grave had fallen upon the assembly. It was broken by a clear voice, praying in a solemn and lofty tone : u Jehovah ! Adonai ! Lord our God ! If thou wilt abide with me, I care for nothing else, though my body suffer and die. Thou, Jehovah, art my hope and my consolation ! The Lord is on my side; I will not fear; what can man do unto me ?”

Erna, who heard the prayer, though she understood not the words in which it was uttered, was struck with the solemn and noble tone of the speaker, and turning her eyes toward the spot, she beheld a stranger with raven locks and a flowing beard kneeling by the hole in the ground, his face turned to the east and his hands lifted up in prayer.

Balthasar, who also seemed interested by

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the spectacle of the praying Israelite, made a sign to the priest, and the sacrificial knife, which was already lifted over the head of the Jew, was withdrawn. The king then turned to Perinthes, who stood near him, and said — “ Slave ! dost thou understand what yon stranger says?”

The cunning Greek replied, u 0 yes, my lord ! He is a Hebrew, and curses thy daughter because he has heard that on her account all these victims are slain. He acknowledged to me last night that he is a

mighty enchanter, and therefore . But

look, my lord ! the Hebrew’s incantations have already taken effect upon thy child.”

Erna, who had struggled for some time with feelings excited by the bloody scene to which she had been an eye-witness, was at last overcome, and fainted just as the stranger closed his prayer.

Painting and hysterics were rare and inexplicable phenomena among our ancestors, and whenever they occurred were always ascribed to the influence of some malignant power.

When Balthasar beheld his daughter pale and death-like, stretched upon her couch, he

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said hastily to the Greek : “ Go, Perinthes, and beseech the stranger to recall the maledictions which he has poured out upon the head of my poor and helpless child.”

“And what am I to offer him as an inducement to do so ?” inquired the Greek. “ I know hut one promise that would influence him to yield to thy wishes, and that is the promise to save him from the fate with which he is now threatened.”

“ So he it then,” replied the king, and he made a second sign to the priest, who still held his prisoner in his grasp, upon which the latter, though reluctantly, released his intended victim. At that time the priests had not as yet become bold enough to defy the will of the sovereign.

Perinthes then approached, and said to the Jew in Greek : “ Listen to me, stranger ! Although thou art only a superstitious Hebrew, yet have I taken thy part before this Barbarian king, and I have obtained a promise from him that thy life shall be spared. I hope thou wilt prove hereafter that thou art grateful for the service which I have rendered thee this day.”

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Although the Jew did not understand every word of what Perinthes said to him, yet he knew enough of Greek to comprehend his general meaning. But instead of expressing his thanks to his human deliverer, he lifted again his head and eyes toward heaven, and with a loud voice praised God, saying : “ Jehovah ! Thou art the God who sends help to those that trust in thee; Thou art the Lord who savest from death. Praised he thy holy name, Sela.”

The Greek then turned to Balthasar, and said: “He recalls the curse which he pronounced upon thy daughter, 0 king !

and behold ! already Erna revives. Why are not your gods as ready and powerful to give aid as those of our blessed Orient?”

Balthasar pretended not to hear the latter part of this speech, but busied himself with his child, who was still very pale. He ordered her attendants to carry her back to his dwelling, and then withdrew from the ground.

The people dispersed as soon as the king had left, and the place became as silent and lonely as it had been animated a short time before.

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Chapter II. The Greek And The Jew

On the evening of the same day, the Greek and the Jew were sitting beneath the wide-spreading branches of an old oak tree. On their right there was a small hut with a low opening, which resembled more the entrance to the lair of a wild beast than that to a human habitation. By the side of it was a board, which served for a door during the night, to prevent wild beasts from entering. Above them shone the full moon, surrounded by a host of twinkling stars.

“By the Styx!” said Perinthes to his companion, “ if it had not been for me, thou wouldst never more have looked upon the moon. The knife which was suspended over thy head, hung but by a hair. Well mightst thou ask why I turned it aside. I will tell thee ; because thou art a captive like myself, and a native of the East ; and I considered further that two men would be able to effect

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an escape better than one. All our efforts must hereafter be bent upon freeing ourselves from this hateful bondage. It would be impossible for me to find my way alone out of these woods, and to reach my native land ; neither would I be willing to expose myself, unaided, to the attacks of the wild beasts that frequent these forests : but with thee for a companion my courage is increased, and I hope to succeed in the undertaking. But, my good Isaiah,” continued Perinthes, with a sneer upon his lips, while he pushed a bowl full of acorns toward him, “ why dost thou not eat of these delicious pomegranates, figs, and grapes?” Then, after a few moments of silence, he said, with a sigh : “ Alas ! in this miserable country every thing is miserable. What a poor king is this Balthasar ! the slaves in my house are better dressed than he. Then, again, look at his palace ! the meanest peasant in my country would disdain to live in it.”

Isaiah, forgetting who was his companion, exclaimed: “ 0 thou lovely Zion ! thou magnificent temple of Jerusalem!”

Perinthes smiled contemptuously, and 3

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said, in a compassionate tone : “ It is very evident that thou hast never been in Greece, and that thou hast never seen the magnificent temple of Diana of Ephesus. One pillar of that Grecian temple is worth all the temples of the Hebrews.”

But Isaiah replied: “We have but one temple. We acknowledge but one God, and he is the only true God.”

“Ye are a poor people indeed,” said Perinthes. “But let us return to the main subject of our conversation. Our noble German masters, when not engaged in making war or in hunting, are as lazy as hogs. Barbarians ! they know no other pleasure, at such times, than that of munching acorns, feeding upon half-raw meat, or swilling their miserable beverage made of oats or barley, and spending their time in gambling. 0 ye gods of high Olyiiipus ! how can ye look down upon them, without having your just ire excited? Why do ye not smite them with your thunderbolts, as ye did the Titans of old?”

Perinthes was so excited that he did not notice the dark shadow which came over the

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countenance of his companion, whenever he called upon his false gods, and that Isaiah had moved farther off, and gazed upon him with a look of mingled horror and aversion.

In order to interrupt these impious exclamations, Isaiah inquired of his companion how he came to he a captive and a slave to these Barbarians. And then continued : “ As for me, I became their prisoner, when they attacked the Roman camp at Maguntia, where I spent a short time in some commercial transactions.”

“And I,” said Perinthes, “was travelling in my own vessel upon the Danube, to visit an almost unknown country, where I hoped to gather additional wealth, when my vessel was suddenly wrecked. A horde of Barbarians seized us, as we reached the shore. I was separated from my companions, dragged from one nation to another, until I became at last the property of this German king, who purchased me, thinking that I was a physician, and that I would cure his sick child. I did not undeceive him, for his mistake preserves me from falling a victim to their bloody superstition. Forced by necessity, I learned the language of the Barbarians, a language which is worse than gall to my Greek tongue. I wonder sometimes that I am still alive, when I recollect that I have already spent two winters in this country, a country cursed by the gods ; and which with its inhabitants, wild beasts, bitter acorns, cold fogs and deep snows, appears more horrible to me than Tartarus with all its torments.’ ’

“ Dost thou understand then how to cure diseases?” asked Isaiah. “Art thou really a physician ?”

“Yes, indeed,” replied Perinthes, with a laugh. “Just as much as Phaeton is like Phoebus. I cure hap-hazard, and am perfectly satisfied, as long as Erna only does not become worse. It is true, her father has promised to give me my liberty as soon as she gets well ; but I have no faith in his promise; on the contrary, I fear that, as soon as he thinks that he can do without my services, he will sacrifice me as a thank-offering to his bloody gods.”

To this Isaiah replied: “It is currently

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reported among the Romans, that the Barbarians consider their promises as sacred.”

“No, no,” said Perinthes, “I have no more confidence in these Germans than I have in the Romans; and I should think you Hebrews could tell something of Roman faith.”

A deep sigh was all the reply which Isaiah made to this remark. His thoughts were with his people, and he mourned to think that Israel, the chosen of the Lord, was tributary to the Romans, who, under the pretence of protecting the nation against its powerful enemies, had subdued it with their legions, and were now exhausting its resources, by means of their greedy procurators.

“ Our first and greatest care now,” Perinthes continued, “must be to prepare every thing for our escape ; for that must be accomplished before the winter sets in. It is true, we are suffered to wander about throughout the whole camp, wherever we please, but any attempt at flight, if discovered, would immediately be followed by 3 *

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the punishment of death. And yet it will be very difficult for us to find our way out of this labyrinth of woods, without the risk of falling into the hands of some other Barbarian tribe. Companion of my sufferings ! let us therefore rouse all our energies for the task ! But, my Hebrew friend, why dost thou not partake of this haunch of venison ? I have prepared it with some care ; it is certainly more palatable than their hog feed, which they call acorns.”

Isaiah declined the proffered food, saying : “ The religion of my fathers prohibits this kind of meat.”

Perinthes, with a contemptuous look at his companion, replied: “Very well, follow the superstition of thy fathers. I will now prepare for a good night’s rest ; and thou canst follow my example. Let us enter our sumptuous apartment,” here he pointed to the rude hut, “ and rely for safety upon our numerous guards.”

Isaiah excused himself, saying: “ Pardon me for again declining thy kind invitation. I have a solemn duty to perform before I retire.”

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Perinthes replied, gaping : “ If it is some act of worship connected with thy superstition, perform it, if it is any thing else, I object to it.”

Isaiah. I go to give thanks to my God, who has this day delivered me from death, as he delivered his prophet Daniel from the jaws of the lions. Our holy writings say: “ Give thanks unto the Lord, and pay thy vows to the Most High.”

Perinthes. But pray, what hast thou that thou couldst bring as an offering ? not even a poor libation of wine, much less sweet incense, to kindle upon an altar.

Isaiah. To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of rams.

Perinthes exclaimed impatiently: “To have a good night’s rest is the best thing just now for me.” With these words upon his lips, he crept into his hut, closing the aperture behind him with the board which was ordinarily used for that purpose.

Isaiah went forth into the woods, and when he had found an open space, he knelt down, with his face turned toward the east, according to the custom of his people, to

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thank God for the deliverance vouchsafed to him that day.

He was so much absorbed in his devotional exercises, that he did not observe a dusky figure standing in the shadow of a large oak tree, and apparently watching all his motions. When he had poured out his heart before God in prayer and praise, he rose from his knees and bent his steps toward the hut where Perinthes slept. But when he had arrived before the aperture which served as a door, he stopped, and said to himself: “And has it come to this! Must I, an Israelite, not only dwell beneath the roof of a heathen, but even share his couch ! How dare I thus voluntarily defile myself! No, no, beware Isaiah, better far to lie here exposed to cold and dampness, than knowingly to sin against the law.”

He then made himself a couch of leaves, beneath a large beech-tree, and, exhausted as he was from anxiety and loss of rest, sleep soon wrapped him, like a tender mother, in its gentle and soothing folds. When he awoke at the dawn of day, he perceived, with astonishment, that a bear-skin had

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been thrown over him, which diffused a pleasant warmth through his body. In vain did he task his ingenuity to discover his kind benefactor. It never occurred to him, that King Balthasar, having been a silent witness of his evening devotions, and seeing him afterwards asleep beneath the beech-tree, had covered him with his own bear-skin.

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Chapter III. The Princess

A few days after the event related in the previous chapter had taken place, Isaiah was ordered to appear before the king. He obeyed the royal mandate without delay, after he had humbly and devoutly spent a few moments in prayer, asking God to supply him with wisdom and strength for the interview. The hut of the king differed in nothing but size from those of his subjects. An immense oak occupied the centre, and constituted the main support of the building ; the walls were rude logs, fastened to a number of young beech and oak trees ; while skins of animals, sewed together, formed the doors, and the partitions in the interior. There was neither a window nor a loop-hole anywhere to be seen, the only aperture, besides the entrance to the hut, was a hole at the top, that suffered a few straggling sunbeams to penetrate into the in-

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terior. Several minutes elapsed after Isaiah had been conducted into one of the apartments of this hut, before he could distinguish the animate and inanimate objects which it contained. The first person who presented herself to his sight, after he had become somewhat accustomed to the dim light, was Erna the princess, a girl about fifteen years of age, and evidently afflicted with an unusual disease. She reclined upon a couch of soft skins; but her whole frame shook with violent convulsions. The muscles of her fair and rather beautiful face were agitated with a spasmodic emotion, and her outstretched arms beat the air, as if they were wings. Sometimes the poor girl would burst into hysterical laughter, followed by equally hysterical sobs, or would spring to her feet and begin to whirl about like a top, accompanying herself with an unmelodious singing.