Stories from the New Testament, for children

Contents

CHAPTER

I.— The Baby in the Stable

II.— The Shepherds on the Hills .

Chapter I

A long time ago, on the other side of the world, there lived a beautiful young girl whose name was Mary. She had no brothers or sisters to play with, and her parents were quite old when she was born. They were called simply Joachim and Anna, for in those days people did not have surnames as we have now. Long afterward Anna was called a great saint, and millions of men and women still honour her name — just because she was the mother of the girl Mary, whose life was so beautiful that even now, after nearly two thousand years, she is loved by the whole world. Her pictures are in half the Christian churches ; and to this day many persons, when they pray to God, ask Him to answer their prayers and to give them what they want, "for Mary's sake."

But when she was a young girl no one dreamed of all the strange and sad and wonderful things that were going to happen to her in after years. She was much like the other girls in that far-away country, except perhaps tht.t she was lovelier to look at, more serious and thoughtful, and kinder than the others were to poor people and to the old.

If you close your eyes, perhaps you can see her in imagination, in her little red dress with a blue cape round her shoulders, going to the village well with a brown earthen jar to draw water for her mother to use in their little home. For in those days each family did not have a well of their own, or draw their water from a faucet in the house, as we do ; but they had a large public well, or fountain, where all the women went for water. Sometimes, when they were not too busy, the girls and women would stand a long time together at the well, and tell each other all the happenings of the day and the gossip of the neighbouring villages. They had no newspapers then, and the people had to learn from one another what was going on here and there.

And the little Mary used to help her mother with the spinning and the weaving, for they made all their own clothes, and usually the cloth of which the clothes were made. We may be sure, from what we learn of her in after life, that no girl in the village could weave a smoother cloth than hers, or sew a straighter seam. So she lived, quietly and happily like any other girl, until she had grown to be as tall as her mother, and was a young woman and no longer a little girl.

Now these people who lived in Judaea and Galilee were Jews, a very ancient race whose long history you can read in the Old Testament of the Bible; and for thousands of years they had suffered a great deal from the people of other nations, who had made wars against them, and had taken away many things which really belonged to the Jews, and had made them pay taxes for the support of foreign governments and kings. And the hearts of the Jews were sad, for they knew how many ages their forefathers had been free and independent ; and they did not like being ruled by foreign kings, whose fathers had been wild people of the woods. The Jews were very proud of their ancient race, and they treasured their old books and histories which told the stories of their ancestors, Abraham and Moses, King David and King Solomon, and Elijah the great prophet.

Mary had learned from her father and mother, and from the other old men and women who often came in the evenings to sit in the house of Joachim and Anna, all the stories of her ancient race : proud stories of the times gone by when they were free; sad stories of the present time when they were ruled by the Romans, whose emperor lived in the great far-away city of Rome, in the land which is now called Italy. And she also heard from the old people how the great prophets, the wise men of the days gone by, had said that after a long time, when the Jews should be sadder and more enslaved than they had ever been before, God Himself, whom they called Jehovah, would come down to the earth and be born as a man, a Jew, and deliver the people. And the deliverer who was to come, the man who would be God Himself, they called the Messiah- — which means the Christ.

All her life Mary had heard the old people talk about the Christ who was to come and make the Jewish people once more free. When she was alone she thought of it a great deal. And when she grew to be a young woman, as tall as her mother, she used to talk about it with her young friends ; and they said among themselves that surely the happiest woman in all the world would be she who should become the mother of the future Christ. For then, as now, it was considered a beautiful and sacred thing to be a mother; and to be the mother of the Christ would be the most wonderful thing that could come to any woman.

Sometimes, in the evening, she would go out and stand in the little path before her father's house, under the sky, and look up at the glittering stars, the verysame stars which you see now when the nights are clear; for though the nations of the earth may rise and pass away, the stars have always been and always will be. They are eternal, like God; and, like Him, they seem to watch the people on the earth. And the stillness of the stars seemed to tell Mary and the other dwellers in Judaea and Galilee, as it tells us, to be patient when things go wrong, and to wait until God is ready to help us set them right. But when Mary was looking at the stars she used to think, more than at any other time, about the Christ who was to come, and about her who should be his mother. And sometimes she asked God that the time of his coming might be soon. But she never dared to ask God more than that.

Now there lived, not far from the home of Mary and her parents, a man named Joseph. He was a good man, some years older than Mary, and he was a carpenter. In those days and among the Jews of Galilee, people were not ashamed to work with their hands. They thought it honourable, as it really is now; and the carpenter was often the most respected man in the village. It was so with Joseph. And when he told the parents of Mary that he wished to marry their daughter, they were glad ; for they knew that he would give her a good home and work hard for her, and that with him she would never lack the wool from which to weave the close red gown she liked so much to wear, and the full blue cape that kept her warm when the wind from the sea behind the hills blew cold over Galilee.

But as Mary was still very young, her mother, the good Anna who afterward was called a saint, thought it better to wait yet a few months before giving her daughter in marriage to Joseph the carpenter.

Now when Mary realised that she would soon be married, she began to spin and weave more busily than before; and often, in the quiet afternoons, as she sat with her distaff in her hand, her thoughts went back to the stories she had heard about the Messiah, the Christ who would be born among the Jews, to make them good and to set them free. And as she mused thus alone at her peaceful work, she thought more and more about the happy woman, perhaps even then living somewhere in Galilee, a maiden like herself, who would, in the time which God should choose, become the mother of the Christ.

And one moonlight night in spring, after she had gone to bed, she lay awake a long time, looking at the rays of blue-grey moonlight which filtered into her chamber through the one small window at her head. In those days the people of Galilee did not sleep on beds of wood or iron, as we do, but on mats, which they spread out each night upon the floor. As Mary lay there, she thought about the Christ who was to come. And her heart was so full of love for the Jewish people, her friends who suffered so much and still must suffer more, that her eyes filled with tears, and she saw the rays of blue-grey moonlight through a veil of water. And she asked God, more fervently than she had ever asked before, that He would send the Christ soon, very soon, to save the Jewish people.

Suddenly her heart seemed to stand still, for there — in the centre of the little room and close beside her bed — she saw a great angel, one of those that watch forever near the throne of God, and sometimes come to earth to do God's errands, when He wants to speak with men in words which they can understand. The angel was all glittering white from head to feet, and behind his shoulders were great white wings, now folded and at rest, as he stood there in the middle of Mary's room, in the flood of blue-grey moonlight. And the angel's face was more beautiful than any face that Mary had ever seen before; it was whiter and lovelier than the lilies that blossomed beside the lake in Galilee. And the angel's eyes were deep, deep blue, like the sky after a rain, when the clouds are chased away and the sun comes out, and heaven and earth seem to be smiling at each other. And the angel smiled at Mary now.

But though the angel was so beautiful and seemed so kind, Mary was just a little afraid; for she had never before seen an angel, and she did not know of any one who had. She had read in the Bible how God's angels sometimes came to earth to talk with wise old men ; but she was only a young girl — and so she was afraid.

Then the angel, still smiling, moved nearer to Mary, as she lay there on her little mat ; he came so near that a fold of his white robe touched her hand, which was on the edge of the coverlet. And Mary was no more afraid, for she knew that the angel loved her; and though he was so tall and shining, she felt as if she had known him all her life.

The angel spoke to Mary, and what he said was more wonderful than any words that man or angel ever spoke before; for he told Mary that God had chosen her to be the mother of the Christ who was to come. He said that in a few short months she would hold him in her arms, a little baby, her own baby.

And the angel told Mary that God was pleased with her, and that she should name her baby Jesus ; that he should be called God's son, and that there should never be an end to the kingdom which he would establish on the earth.

When Mary had prayed to God that He would send Christ soon to the world, she had never dared to pray for this ! She was so happy and so full of wonder at the message which the angel brought, that she forgot to thank him for bringing it. She could only whisper her gladness and her willingness to do anything God wanted; and she looked at the angel, and looked, and looked. She knew she was not dreaming, that she was wide awake. And she knew that the angel was real ; though as he stood there in the blue-grey moonlight, his form, instead of casting a shadow behind him on the floor, cast a circle of radiance all around. He seemed to shine with his own light.

Then, after a little while, though she was still looking at the place where he had stood, she could not see him any longer. The angel had vanished. She did not even see him raise his broad white wings before he flew away. A moment before he had been there beside her, and now he was not there. But the whole room was filled with a delicious perfume, like the scent from a garden full of roses when the wind blows. Mary was so happy that she could not go to sleep all night; and when the grey dawn came in through the window, she was still lying there with her eyes wide open, looking at the spot where the mysterious visitor had stood.

The next day she could not spin or weave. When she took the earthen jar to the village well for water, the other girls who were there asked Mary what had happened to her, because she looked so beautiful and her eyes were shining so. But she did not tell them what had happened.

Now Mary had a cousin named Elizabeth, whom she much loved. Elizabeth was older than Mary; she was married, and lived with her husband in a village not far from Jerusalem. For many days Mary had not been able to think of anything but the great message which the angel had brought to her; and though she could not speak about it to the girls in Galilee, she wanted to tell her cousin Elizabeth that God had chosen her to be the mother of the Christ who was going to be born. It happened that some people she knew were going to Jerusalem about that time, and Mary went along with them. There were no railroads in those days, and they walked over the hills and through the valleys, stopping to rest at night in a tent which they carried with them on the back of a gentle, large-eyed mule.

When Mary reached her cousin's house, Elizabeth was very glad to see her. The two sat down together, hand in hand, and when Mary had told her cousin the wonderful news, Elizabeth said, "Blessed art thou among women" !

And Elizabeth told Mary how happy she was that the future mother of her Lord had come to visit her; and now, she said, all the great things which the prophets had foretold for the Jews would really happen.

Mary answered that she loved God, and wanted to be worthy of the gift which He was going to send her. It was because her heart was so full of inexpressible things that she spoke so simply.

She made her cousin a long visit, of about three months; and during all that time the two talked much together about the Christ who was coming to Mary as a little baby, and whose name should be called Jesus. And Mary told Elizabethan about Joseph, the carpenter, whom she was going to marry after she went home to Galilee. And when the visit was over, and another party of Mary's friends came to take her back to her home, Elizabeth kissed her on both cheeks and told her, for perhaps the hundredth time, that she was blessed among women.

Soon after Mary reached home she was married to Joseph the carpenter, and went to live in his house. Joseph knew how the angel had come down from heaven to tell Mary about the Christ who was going to be born, for one night in a dream an angel had also come to him and had told him the whole wonderful story. And he was very kind and tender with Mary, who was now his wife. When she was sad, he cheered her with long stories about the kings and prophets of the olden time; for Mary was still quite young, and she enjoyed hearing stories now almost as well as when she was a child. During the warm summer evenings she and Joseph used to wander hand in hand through the fields around the little village of Nazareth, which was their home ; and when the quiet stars came out in the sky, Joseph would tell Mary other stories, which he had learned from the Koman people who lived in Judaea, stories about the strange gods of the Romans that were named after the stars, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury. But though Mary loved the stars, she always enjoyed the Jewish stories best; for in so many of them there was some hint about the Christ who was to come.

When the winter came on, and the wind blew cold over the hills, and the wool of the sheep grew thick and long to shelter them from the storms, the people in Nazareth heard news which troubled them much. Caesar Augustus, Emperor of the Romans, who now ruled the country, sent out an order that all the Jews should be taxed; that is, that the people who had already been obliged to pay so much money to the Romans, would have to pay still more this year. And the Roman rulers ordered that every man among the Jews should go at a certain time to the town where he was born, in order that the tax-collectors might know just where each family belonged, and take what is called a census. So Joseph, who had been born in Bethlehem, a city of Judaea about seventy miles south of Nazareth, was obliged to go there and pay his tax. And though Mary was sad at the thought of taking such a long journey in the cold of winter, she went with her husband.

One morning in December they set out from Nazareth together. As Joseph had only one donkey, he placed Mary on its back, wrapped in her warm blue cape, and himself walked beside her the whole of the long way. There were many hills to climb, and the back of the donkey was not a comfortable seat; but Mary did not complain, for she knew that Joseph always felt very sad when she was not happy, because he loved her so much. So she made believe to enjoy the long ride over the rough roads and up and down the hills; though sometimes she was so tired that she nearly fell off the back of the donkey. She pointed out to her husband all the pretty places along the way, the orchards of apricot- trees, the green Aleppo pines that grow even to this day in Judaea, and here and there, standing solitary and august upon a hill top, a giant cedar of Lebanon.

When they reached Bethlehem, Mary was really tired. But when they went to the inn, the only hotel in the little city, they found that every room was full. There was a great crowd of travellers there, who had come, like themselves, to pay their taxes to the Romans. There was not a square foot of space for them in the whole house.

But the innkeeper, who was a kind man, felt sorry for Mary ; and he told Joseph that, if they wanted to, they could sleep that night in the stable. So they went out there into the cold stable, among the cows, the oxen, and the sheep. Mary had always before had a comfortable place to sleep, even though her people were poor; and when she saw the stable of the inn where they would have to stay that night, she was so discouraged that she would have cried — if she had not known that her tears would make Joseph so sad. So she smiled at him, and said that the stable was really quite homelike. They had a lantern, which they had brought to light them on the way, and Joseph hung it up on a wooden peg against the wall. It did not give much light; but it was better than nothing. And there were so many cows and oxen in the stable that their warm breath took away the chill of the bare place.

Joseph unstrapped their blankets from the back of the donkey, on which Mary had ridden; he spread a lot of straw on the floor of the stable to make a bed for her, and placed the blankets on the straw. Then he blew out the lantern, and they lay down to rest. After a while everything grew very still. There was no sound in all the place except the regular breathing of the sleeping oxen and the cows, and now and then a little clicking noise when the hoof of an ox fell against the floor, as he moved in his sleep. There was a sweet smell of hay in the stable, and here and there, through a chink in the stone walls, a ray of starlight filtered in. But Mary did not fall asleep.

It was twelve o'clock, the very middle of the night, when the wonderful thing happened. The baby, the Christ whose name was to be called Jesus, suddenly came to them — right there in the stable.

Perhaps an angel brought him, perhaps the same angel who had told Mary he was coming — I do not know. Anyway, Mary found him there beside her. He was little, and warm, and sweet. Now every mother thinks her baby is the most wonderful thing in the world; but we can understand why Mary knew that hers was. When she first felt his breath against her face, she was so happy that it seemed to her that she would fly right away to God, with the baby in her arms. She forgot that she was lying on the floor of a cold stable, among the cattle; she forgot everything except her baby.

Joseph took down the lantern from the peg in the wall, he lighted it, and brought it to Mary. In the pale, glimmering light the baby's face shone like a star, and it seemed to Mary that all round him was a radiance far brighter than the light of the lantern. Before she looked at him, when she had felt his warm little body against her, she had only known that he was her own baby; but when she saw his face she realised all that the angel had told her, all that the old prophets had said about him — that this little baby was really God Himself, who had come down to the world to make the people good.

And now that Mary had seen the baby's face, though she was even happier than she had been a moment before, she no longer wanted to fly away to God with the baby in her arms. For with the coming of the little Jesus, who was God, and who loved the world so much, there came to her also a great love for the world — for all the world and everybody in it. She felt as if she could take them all in her arms, the rich and the poor, the good people and the bad people, the old ones and the little children. She had never dreamed that she could love them so much ; but how could she help it — she who was now the mother oi Jesus?

Beside the bed where Mary lay there was a little low manger, a sort of box which was filled with hay for cows to eat. And Mary wrapped the little Jesus in swaddling clothes — long strips of cloth that poor people in those days always used in which to wrap their new-born babies — and she laid him beside her in the manger. And there, among the cows and oxen, who came to sniff at him with their soft warm noses, the baby went to sleep.

And once again it grew still in the stable, and the cows and oxen drew long breaths of drowsy content, and through the chinks in the stone wall the rays of starlight filtered in and seemed to lie in pools of silver on the floor. And the little Jesus slept sweetly in the manger beside his mother.

Chapter II The Shepherds On The Hills

On the night when the little Jesus was born in the stable at Bethlehem of Judaea, there were three shepherds who tended their flocks of sheep on the hills beyond the city. They were plain, simple men, with rough clothing and rough voices; but their hearts were warm and gentle. They loved the sheep, and from having watched the sheep so long as they grazed peacefully upon the hills, the shepherds had themselves become almost as quiet and slowmoving as the flocks they guarded.

Usually, when the sun went down in the evening, and the shades of night settled over the hills, and the sheep, weary with grazing, laid themselves down to sleep, the shepherds spread their blankets on the ground and went to rest beside the flocks. For in the morning, when the sun rose, the sheep would be awake and moving; and the shepherds also must be up and alert with the first coming of the daylight, that the flocks might not wander away from them and be lost.

But on the night when Jesus was born, though the shepherds had laid themselves down at the usual time, they could not sleep. They were restless, and moved from side to side. Then they lay a long time with their eyes wide open, looking at a very brilliant star in the sky, which had moved up slowly from the east until it seemed to stand right over Bethlehem. And they wondered what the star meant; for in the lands of the Far 15

East the stars mean much to the people, and they believe that they can read in the moving planets what is going to happen on the earth.

In the middle of that night the shepherds, being unable to sleep, got up and built a little fire of sticks and brushwood, for it was cold. They had shivered in their blankets, lying there on the ground. But as they gathered round the brushwood fire, and held out their hands to the blazing warmth, they felt as comfortable and happy and wide-awake as they had ever felt in the middle of the day. And sitting round the fire, they told each other stories from the ancient histories of the Jewish people; for shepherds are like children in their hearts, and they love stories.

At the close of a long narrative which one of them had been telling the others, they noticed that the hills and fields all round them were shining with a brilliant light. They would have thought the sun was going to rise, if they had not seen a few minutes before the stars of midnight ; for the shepherds could tell, from the places in the sky where the constellations stood, what hour of the night it was. When the shepherds saw the brilliant light, they could not imagine what it meant. They thought something terrible was going to happen, and they were afraid.

Suddenly they saw a great angel standing before them. His face and garments were all shining. He was so near them that the hem of his robe lay right in the blazing brushwood — but it did not catch fire! When the shepherds saw the angel they were still more afraid. They jumped up from the ground; they huddled together, holding each other by the arms, and their teeth chattered so that they could not speak. One of them, in leaping to his feet, had kicked over a drinking-cup ; and as it

THE SHEPHERDS ON THE HILLS 17

clattered against the stones the sound seemed to them like the rattle of thunder — which shows how frightened they really were.

Then the angel spoke. He told them not to be afraid; that he brought them tidings of great joy, which should be for all the people in the world. For this night, the angel said, there had been born in the city of David a Saviour for the Jews, who should be called Christ the Lord. The city of David was a name which the Jews had for Bethlehem; and when the angel said that, the shepherds knew that he meant the little city right beside them, whose buildings they could see in the starlight.

And the angel told the shepherds that when they found a new-born baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, they would know it was the little Christ, whom God had sent to save the world. The swaddling clothes and the manger should be to them a sign, the angel said.

Then suddenly there appeared with the angel who was talking to the shepherds, a great company of other angels. Some of them looked like men, only they had shining garments and two broad wings behind their shoulders ; these were the angels who sometimes walk on earth and do God's errands with men. Others were just winged heads, with faces like those of children, and no bodies at all; these were the cherubim, who sing always round the throne of God, and rejoice when little children are born upon the earth. Others had wonderful, rapt faces, and six long wings, which as they rested there in the air before the shepherds were folded round their bodies like a garment; these were the seraphim, who love God all the time and think of Him so much that they cannot sing, but are always silent.