That I the weight of it may not sustain;
But as a child of twelve months’ old or less
That laboreth his language to express,
Even so fare I and therefore pray,
Guide thou my song which I of thee may say.”
—Wordsworth.
“If I could only carry to Bethany what I feel now!” ejaculated the young chaplain, as he hurried along from the knights’ celebration of Pentecost, homeward, at the time that the Moslems were summoned to evening prayers by the minaret4 calls.
After his greeting, on arriving at his abode5, his first words were: “I’ve seen the crowns of fire, and now comprehend the meaning of Pentecost, where men gathered from varied6 climes, heard each the spirit’s message in his own tongue! The Spirit is the interpreter!”
“By what aid came this revelation?”
“God and the Hospitaler.”
“We have the first here; let us call the other, that the temple on the hill be made to feel the glow. The time is opportune7, for each day witnesses new triumphs of our cause.”
[539]
When the knight3 arrived a feast was in progress. His air awed8 those to whom he was a stranger, and there were not a few who thought within themselves,
“Is he a prophet?”
“Friends: I would that all hearts here were moved by justice to enthrone the Queen whose praise your frank youths have been sincerely singing. I am here to-day to proclaim her rights, and in so doing I shall appeal to that sure word which survives when all else fails. She was of David’s royal line; the noblest one of all the earth. To the proof? The Christian10 Scriptures11, from the hands of Matthew and Luke, present her ancestral descent. These apostles wrote as God directed, and, after all, only reaffirmed that already set forth12 in the most carefully, religiously guarded records of all antiquity13, the Jewish genealogical tables.
“You know that the ancient Jews held those tables in sacred regard, for on their integrity depended the proof of the things to them most dear, as they believed. By them every Jew could trace his Abrahamic descent, and to Abraham’s seed were all the great promises of the covenant14. By those tables they proved their title to the land of promise, Canaan. Every Jew, believing himself one of God’s chosen people, and that his advancement15 and the advancement of his posterity16 in the Divine favor, depended on the purity of the blood of both, felt that he needed the guidance of those tables to preserve him from any admixture with alien or Gentile blood. The Aaronic priesthood was hereditary17 and the priesthood was initial in the religious system of the Hebrews. Its legitimacy18 was preserved chiefly by these hereditary charters.[540] Then all true Israelites looked for the coming of a Savior, Priest and King to bring to the chosen transcendent glory, and to win an universal dominion19, marked by love, joy and peace. Every Jew knew that Great One was to spring from the house of David, and all within that Judaic line hoping that he or his children might be near akin20 to the One to come, carefully, constantly, proudly guarded and studied these records of descent. Birth was the foundation upon which all Jewish institutions were founded. ‘So all Israel was reckoned by genealogies21.’ They lived in a reign22 of blood, and in blood to be Jewishly thoroughbred was, they thought, to be most highly favored. They had not yet discerned the law of the new dispensation, which declares all men akin; a dispensation seeking to build up a superior humanity by first of all transforming and exalting23 the inner life. By the revered24 records of these Jewish patriarchs, both holy and love-ladened, place the writings of Matthew and Luke, and with concurrent25 testimony26, unimpeachable27 as well as conclusive28, the legitimacy of Jesus the son of Mary is proven! He was beyond a cavil29 of David’s kingly line. There were Christ-haters who contested at every point His claim of Messiahship. They forged lies freely; they hurled30 after Him slanders31 innumerable; they insinuated32 that He was born in fornication; they affected33 to flee from Him as one having a devil; they denounced Him to Jewish as well as Roman authorities as a liar34, a seducer35 of men and a traitor36. In a word, they howled Him down in every way they could, unabashed by the splendor37 of His baptismal indorsement, unsilenced by the awful warnings of His cross. But in their desperation they never dared to challenge[541] the records which proved Him ‘the son of David.’ Now had His claims rested upon His relations to His earthly father, Joseph, they would have been disproven. All Jewry would have quickly, fiercely proclaimed Him a pretender and not in the family of promise. The Christ was heir of David’s name and fame because His mother was, and so in exalting Him you crown the saintly woman who bore Him! He was the adopted son of Joseph, type of all His followers38, adopted sons of a Royal Father. He was legitimate39 through his mother, type of all his followers, brought into the royal family of God by the power of a mystic new birth.
“But there is another line running backward, preserved through the centuries to connect the first Adam with this last one. This line runs from Christ through his mother to Eden. Behold40 the august truth suspended by that chain of names! Names; only names of the dead! names of the forgotten! Jesus by Mary is linked to the chain! It’s an old, old chain, but yet it has gems41 in its links. Each named is the child of another living before, and the history of each is recorded in two words, ‘begat,’ ‘died.’ A chain of dust! One man precedes another. Each in turn vanishes until immortality42 is confronted in the last sentence: ‘Adam, who was the son of God!’ The first mortal son of God uncrowned and led away from his kingdom, by a woman, to death! The twain go down together, each ruinous to the other, with nothing left them but a hope; and that hope rested upon a to them mysterious promise: ‘The seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent!’ It would have staggered their faith had one told them that in God’s revenges, all[542] compensating43, all healing, she that led down was of the sex that should lead upward. Out of their darkness there came a seeming dawn, and Eve cried ecstatically at the birth of Cain:
‘I have gotten a man from the Lord!’
“They thought he was a token of renewed favor and probably the redeemer from the curse. He turned out a murderer, and introduced them to the supreme44 horror of humanity—death. The conflict of light and darkness went on, and the first pair tasted death themselves, looking along the horizon of unrealized hopes to the last and waiting, as all their posterity through painful centuries waited, for the Man that was to save. The long years with leaden tread marched on, struggles amid suffering weighty and countless45, accompanied the race; of them all woman bore the heavier part, but she kept somehow the larger hope. Each Jewish mother, with a pride of sex secretly cherished, watched and longed for the coming from herself of the ONE who was to lift her up and crown her queen, indeed.
“God at last gathered all woman’s trustful hopings into one great answered prayer, and deigning46, in sovereign love, His marvelous co-operation, brought forth another and a perfect Adam.
“We are informed that Joseph and Mary went, about the time of Jesus’ birth, in compliance47 with Roman law, to Bethlehem to pay their personal taxes. The Roman tax lists were based upon the records of family descent so far as concerned the Jews.
“To make the collection certain beyond the possibility of any one’s escape, the law required each taxable subject to pay his allotted48 tribute in the city of his nativity. The father and mother of Jesus were cited[543] to the city of David. Thither49 they went. And so in the providence50 of God it happened that pagan Rome was summoned to the cradle of the infant Savior and made unwittingly an attester to all time that He was of a family by right recorded among those descended51 from great David.
“The son and the mother here stand or fall together. If Mary was not of David’s line, then the Son she bore was not, and He is left without proof of being of the seed of David.
“Joseph was not the father of the Christ after the flesh. The lives of mother and son are eternally intertwined. If we honor one we must needs honor the other; abating52 the fame of one we degrade the other.
“Jesus’ claims to being the Messiah depended upon the fact that His mother was of the tribe and family royal. The absolute requirements of prophecy can only be met in the Messiah by His being of the House of David. Jesus himself admitted and fairly met this necessity. So he questioned the Pharisees: ‘What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?’ ‘They say unto him, the Son of David.’ Admitting this, the Savior propounded53 the question involving sonship and spiritual unity54 with God which His questioners could not answer:
“‘If David then call him Lord, how is he son?’
“‘Neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions.’
“Had He denied the necessity of Davidic origin they could have overwhelmed Him with Scriptures. Had he not been of that family the most ignorant Jew would have promptly55 rejected His claims to being the Hope of Israel.
[544]
“Peter the apostle, amid the soul-trying solemnities of Pentecost, speaking to the representatives of people from all parts of the earth and for all time, cried: ‘Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you concerning the Patriarch David: Being a prophet, and knowing God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.’
“This orator56 spoke57 then with the accuracy of one in the presence of the Holy Ghost, and not only made sincere, but illuminated58, by the torch of God. This is conclusive, but the reiteratives of the inspired writers justify59 us in presenting their cumulative60 evidence.
“After Peter comes the learned Hebrew of the Hebrews, Paul; before his conversion61 to Christianity declaring himself to have been ‘after the most straightest sect62 a Pharisee;’ after that conversion, rejoicing to the end of life, as of the true, new Israel by faith in Him that makest all new.
“Twice Paul met Mary’s son mysteriously, face to face, within the very confines of Glory. Let Paul speak: ‘Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, separated unto the gospel of God, concerning His Son, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh!’
“Let us not longer make a mock of eternal, holy verities63! Christ was of David’s flesh through His mother, and born to be a real king of a real kingdom, not a phantom64 kingdom! That kingdom must come; yea, blessed be Jehovah! it is coming.
“Joseph, the putative65 father of Jesus, adopted Jesus as his son, but he could not, by that legal act, make[545] his foster son, whose father was the Holy Spirit of the seed of David, after the flesh! Jesus received, then, His royal blood from Mary, and bore His Kingly title after the flesh as ‘the crown wherewith his mother crowned Him.’ Revelations harmonize; Luke and Matthew must therefore agree with Paul and Peter.
“The tables of Luke and Matthew agree down to David’s time, but then they diverge66, until they are converged67 in Jesus, through the undoubted legitimacy of Mary as a descendant of David and the adoption68 of Jesus by Joseph, a scion69 of another branch of the same great family. Luke gives a sentence, all luminous70, but first puzzling: ‘Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli.’ ‘Ah, as was supposed!’ sneers71 the infidel. ‘As was supposed! supposed!!’ hatefully shouts some insinuating72, ignorant Jews! But now let us fill out, naturally, Luke’s statement, ‘as was supposed, the son of Joseph, but in reality the son of Heli.’ But here it may be asked, was Jesus the son of Heli? It is, I answer, not infrequently in the Scriptures that a grandson is called a son. Jesus was probably the grandson of Heli. It was a common custom of the Jews, except in cases of especial necessity, not to record the names of women in tracing lines of descent. Men kept the books, and it had become a habit with the lords of creation to thrust woman into the background. Mary was too insignificant73 a person, socially considered, in her time, to be registered in her own name in the hereditary charters. Joseph was put in her stead, as her representative. There was not any supposition about the descent of Mary, but these scribes, who had charge of the books, thought it were[546] more creditable to the male sex to record Joseph as the father of Jesus, and, by a little fiction, suppose him to have descended through the former from Heli, than to say Mary descended from Heli and Jesus descended from Mary. The Romans encouraged this, and also the politicians. Men were the only ones to fight or pay taxes, and, as political factors, were strictly74 watched by those in authority. Luke, in reality, gives Mary’s line. He was scholarly and accurate, besides that a physician, and we judge by all experience that there is that in the profession of medicine which makes its followers tender toward all suffering, consequently especially tender to women, the largest inheritors of the pains that beset75 our race. Doctor Luke, like those of his fraternity, by an act of graceful76 justice, in the spirit of Christianity which is essentially77 humane78, just, and courtly, accorded gladly the woman her place. But the ‘doomsday books’ of the Jews, containing their family trees or genealogies, perished with the perishing of the Jewish nation. Those records had done their work; it was time for them to go. They had become by misuse79 agencies of evil. They stood long enough to demonstrate that God works through cycles vastly wide, and that His definite promise made to Adam, Abraham and many of their successors, had finally been fulfilled, at the end of thousands of years, with a miraculous80 explicitness81. The records disappeared after Christ came, and herein was a providence saying to the watchers: ‘He is come. No need further of the patents of His ancestry82 to aid your watching.’ More than that, they being gone, no other could arise claiming to be Shiloh, with hope of convincing any by appeal to proof from the records of ancestry.
“Shiloh and his white kingdom have come. It is[547] ruling the earth; not in memories of its mighty dead, but by its regal, potent83 virtues85 and charities. The battering86 rams87 of Titus destroyed wall and Holy Temple, but thus was let in new dawn. Above the storm of that awful conflict the spiritual may discern in living letters the mightly words of God which dispelled88 disordering darkness from the universe at the beginning: ‘Let there be light,’ and, indeed, ‘light was.’ The obliterated89 records of Jewish ancestral lines, on which alone many a worthless child of Abraham based his claims to superiority, his right to despise and neglect his fellow men, his justification90 to tyrannize, and finally his hope of favor with God, ceased to present their sturdy barriers to the entering in of a better hope. Then came in the beginning of this new era; now the patent of nobility is noble character; this is the time to be marked by an universal recognition of universal brotherhood91 in a kingdom where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female. A kingdom where righteousness, impartial92 justice, liberty, equality, purity and humanity are to be the regnant potencies93. In this kingdom, how fittingly, Christ stands as the king and ideal of man, and how fittingly his mother supplements his sway by being presented herself to all womankind as a queenly ideal. Let him or her dispute her title, who can surely say the earth, in this redemption period, needs no such sublime94 epitome95 of womanly virtue84 and worthfulness.
“My words are ended for to-day, assembled men and women. Some of these things spoken may seem like deep sayings, but I leave them to find their lodgment in your hearts and minds. I trust them, knowing that Truth has a sword which cuts her way, each sweep of that sword making light.”
点击收听单词发音
1 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 worthiness | |
价值,值得 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 minaret | |
n.(回教寺院的)尖塔 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 abode | |
n.住处,住所 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 opportune | |
adj.合适的,适当的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 awed | |
adj.充满敬畏的,表示敬畏的v.使敬畏,使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 scriptures | |
经文,圣典( scripture的名词复数 ); 经典 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 antiquity | |
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 covenant | |
n.盟约,契约;v.订盟约 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 advancement | |
n.前进,促进,提升 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 posterity | |
n.后裔,子孙,后代 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 hereditary | |
adj.遗传的,遗传性的,可继承的,世袭的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 legitimacy | |
n.合法,正当 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 dominion | |
n.统治,管辖,支配权;领土,版图 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 akin | |
adj.同族的,类似的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 genealogies | |
n.系谱,家系,宗谱( genealogy的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 exalting | |
a.令人激动的,令人喜悦的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 revered | |
v.崇敬,尊崇,敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 concurrent | |
adj.同时发生的,一致的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 unimpeachable | |
adj.无可指责的;adv.无可怀疑地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 conclusive | |
adj.最后的,结论的;确凿的,消除怀疑的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 cavil | |
v.挑毛病,吹毛求疵 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 hurled | |
v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 );大声叫骂 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 slanders | |
诽谤,诋毁( slander的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 insinuated | |
v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 );巧妙或迂回地潜入;(使)缓慢进入;慢慢伸入 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 liar | |
n.说谎的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 seducer | |
n.诱惑者,骗子,玩弄女性的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 traitor | |
n.叛徒,卖国贼 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 splendor | |
n.光彩;壮丽,华丽;显赫,辉煌 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 legitimate | |
adj.合法的,合理的,合乎逻辑的;v.使合法 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 gems | |
growth; economy; management; and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 immortality | |
n.不死,不朽 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 compensating | |
补偿,补助,修正 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 deigning | |
v.屈尊,俯就( deign的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 compliance | |
n.顺从;服从;附和;屈从 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 allotted | |
分配,拨给,摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52 abating | |
减少( abate的现在分词 ); 减去; 降价; 撤消(诉讼) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53 propounded | |
v.提出(问题、计划等)供考虑[讨论],提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54 unity | |
n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
55 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
56 orator | |
n.演说者,演讲者,雄辩家 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
57 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
58 illuminated | |
adj.被照明的;受启迪的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
59 justify | |
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
60 cumulative | |
adj.累积的,渐增的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
61 conversion | |
n.转化,转换,转变 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
62 sect | |
n.派别,宗教,学派,派系 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
63 verities | |
n.真实( verity的名词复数 );事实;真理;真实的陈述 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
64 phantom | |
n.幻影,虚位,幽灵;adj.错觉的,幻影的,幽灵的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
65 putative | |
adj.假定的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
66 diverge | |
v.分叉,分歧,离题,使...岔开,使转向 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
67 converged | |
v.(线条、运动的物体等)会于一点( converge的过去式 );(趋于)相似或相同;人或车辆汇集;聚集 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
68 adoption | |
n.采用,采纳,通过;收养 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
69 scion | |
n.嫩芽,子孙 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
70 luminous | |
adj.发光的,发亮的;光明的;明白易懂的;有启发的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
71 sneers | |
讥笑的表情(言语)( sneer的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
72 insinuating | |
adj.曲意巴结的,暗示的v.暗示( insinuate的现在分词 );巧妙或迂回地潜入;(使)缓慢进入;慢慢伸入 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
73 insignificant | |
adj.无关紧要的,可忽略的,无意义的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
74 strictly | |
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
75 beset | |
v.镶嵌;困扰,包围 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
76 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
77 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
78 humane | |
adj.人道的,富有同情心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
79 misuse | |
n.误用,滥用;vt.误用,滥用 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
80 miraculous | |
adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
81 explicitness | |
参考例句: |
|
|
82 ancestry | |
n.祖先,家世 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
83 potent | |
adj.强有力的,有权势的;有效力的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
84 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
85 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
86 battering | |
n.用坏,损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
87 rams | |
n.公羊( ram的名词复数 );(R-)白羊(星)座;夯;攻城槌v.夯实(土等)( ram的第三人称单数 );猛撞;猛压;反复灌输 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
88 dispelled | |
v.驱散,赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
89 obliterated | |
v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 );涂去;擦掉;彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
90 justification | |
n.正当的理由;辩解的理由 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
91 brotherhood | |
n.兄弟般的关系,手中情谊 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
92 impartial | |
adj.(in,to)公正的,无偏见的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
93 potencies | |
n.威力( potency的名词复数 );权力;效力;(男人的)性交能力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
94 sublime | |
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
95 epitome | |
n.典型,梗概 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |