When Abishai re-entered the dwelling1 of Hadassah, he found her drawing forth2, from a secret receptacle in the wall, a long roll of parchment, covered with writing in Hebrew characters within and without. The lady pressed it reverentially to her lips, and then resumed her seat, with the sacred roll laid across her knees. Abishai regarded with respect, almost amounting to awe3, a woman to whom had been given the talent, wisdom, and courage to transcribe4 so large a portion of the oracles5 of God. He felt as Barak may have done towards Deborah, and stood leaning against the wall, listening with respectful attention to the words of this "Mother in Israel."
"These Scriptures7, my son," said Hadassah, "have been my study by day, and my meditation8 by night; and most earnestly have I sought, with fasting and prayer, to penetrate9 some of their deep meaning in regard to Him that shall come. I am yet as a child in knowledge, but the All-wise may be pleased to reveal something even to a child. It has seemed to me of late that I have been permitted to trace one word, written as in gigantic shadows--now fainter--now deeper--on Nature, in History, on the Law, in the Prophets. That single word is SACRIFICE. Wherever I turn I see it; it seems to me as a law of being; yea, as the very essence of religion itself."
"I do not understand you," said Abishai; "how is the word Sacrifice written on Nature?"
"See we it not on all things around us?" replied Hadassah. "Does not the seed die that the corn may spring up; doth not the decaying leaf nourish the living plant; doth not one creature maintain its existence by the destruction of others? There is a mystery of suffering in this fair world, some stern necessity for what we call evil, though from it a merciful God is ever evolving good. These things distressed10 and perplexed11 me, till I could dimly trace that word Sacrifice as written by God's finger upon His works; death the parent of life, pain and sorrow--of joy!"
"The primeval curse is on Nature," observed the Hebrew.
"Linked with the primeval blessing," said Hadassah. "And now when I turn from natural objects to the history of our race, sacrifice and suffering are still ever before me. Isaac is devoted12 as a burnt-offering before he becomes the father of the chosen race; Joseph is sold for pieces of silver ere he can redeem13 his family from destruction; the storm is only stilled by Jonah's being cast out into the deep; Samson triumphs over the enemy by the sacrifice of his own life! All these historical facts seem to me as types, dim and shadowy indeed, yet legible to the eye of faith, and Sacrifice is the word which they form."
"Dim and shadowy," repeated Abishai, to whom Hadassah's views on the subject appeared somewhat fanciful and vague.
"If so in Nature and history," said the Hebrew lady, "the lines are clear and distinct enough in our holy law. Why have countless14 victims been offered, even from the time of the Fall? Why was the dying lamb of Abel more acceptable than the bloodless offering of Cain? Why have thousands of guiltless creatures been slain15 on the altar of God; nay16, not upon His alone, even on altars of the heathen who have never heard of His name, as if there were a deep instinct implanted in the soul of man, to testify that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin? Think we that the All-merciful can take pleasure in the death of bulls or of goats? Yet hath He Himself ordained17 it. Sacrifice, suffering, substitution, one life accepted as ransom18 for another, this idea pervades19 the law given by inspiration to Moses; yea, long before the birth of Moses, to Abraham, to Noah, to Abel!"
"I grant it," Abishai replied. "As man is guilty in the sight of his Maker20, there must be sacrifice for sin as long as the world shall last."
The light of inspiration seemed to glow in the uplifted eyes of Hadassah, and her lips to breathe words not her own as she spoke21 again. "What if all these sacrifices but point to one great Sacrifice; what if the deep mystery of suffering be resolved into some deeper mystery of love; what if God Himself should provide the substitute, and if on some altar blood be shed which shall suffice to atone22 for transgressions24 past, present, and to come, even to the end of all time? May it not be--must it not so be--if we read the Scriptures aright?"
"I cannot divine your meaning," said Abishai.
"What is written here of the coming Messiah?" asked Hadassah, laying her hand on the roll of prophecy, as she turned her earnest, searching gaze upon her companion.
"That He shall rule the nations with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel25!" exclaimed Abishai with exultation26; "is He not named Messiah the Prince?"
"Who shall be cut off, but not for Himself" (Dan. ix. 26), said Hadassah, in low thrilling tones that made Abishai start, and look at her with surprise. "You," she continued, "see the PRINCE in prophecy, written as in characters of light; I see the SACRIFICE, ever in letters of deepening shadow. Behold27 here,"--and as the widow spoke, she opened the roll till her finger could point to the Twenty-second Psalm,--"what means this cry of mysterious sorrow, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken28 Me? "
"It is David's cry of anguish," said Abishai.
"Look farther on, my son, ponder the subject more deeply," cried Hadassah, and she proceeded to read aloud part of the inspired Word. "The assembly of the wicked have inclosed Me: they pierced My hands and My feet. I may tell all My bones: they look and stare upon Me. They part My garments among them, and cast lots on My vesture (Ps. xxii. 16-18). These things never happened to David; the Psalmist speaks not here of himself."
"Of whom then could he be speaking," said Abishai, looking perplexed. "Not surely of the Messiah, not of the seed of the woman who shall bruise29 the serpent's head" (Gen. iii. 15).
"Wherefore not?" asked Hadassah, "seeing that He Himself must be bruised30 in the conflict? If it be written, My Servant shall deal prudently31, He shall be exalted32 and extolled33, and be very high, the shadow lies close under the brightness, it is also written, His visage was so marred34 more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men, and why? because so shall He sprinkle many nations (Isa. lii. 13-15), it may be--with His own blood!"
"Yours are strange thoughts," muttered the son of Nathan.
"They are not my thoughts," replied Hadassah. "Behold, farther on in the roll, what was revealed to the prophet Isaiah? Is the note of triumph sounded here? He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed36 Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem35 Him stricken, smitten37 of God, and afflicted38. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities39: the chastisement40 of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity41 of us all. He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression23 of My people was He stricken (Isa. liii. 3-6, 8). Have we not here the Victim, the Substitute, the Sacrifice bound on the altar, bleeding, wounded, dying, and that for sins not His own?"
"It cannot be. It is impossible--quite impossible--that when the Messiah comes He should be despised and rejected," exclaimed Abishai, to whom this interpretation42 of prophecy was as unwelcome as it was new. "When He comes, all Israel shall triumph and rejoice, and welcome their King, the Ruler of the world."
Hadassah silently unrolled her parchment until she came to the thirteenth chapter[1] of the prophet Zechariah.
"Listen to this, son of Nathan," said she. "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts" (Zech. xiii. 7).
"Who is My Fellow?" repeated Abishai, in amazement43, for that portion of Scripture6 had never been brought to his attention before. "Can you have read the sentence correctly? Were that not written in the Word of God, methinks it were rank blasphemy44 even to think that the Lord of hosts could have an equal."
"There is mystery in that word which man cannot fathom," cried Hadassah, "The Divine Essence is One: the foundation of our faith is the most solemn declaration, Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God[2] is One Lord (Deut. vi. 4); and yet in that very declaration is conveyed the idea of unity45 combined with distinction of persons."
"Hadassah, Hadassah, into what wilderness46 of heresy47 are you wandering?" Abishai exclaimed.
The Hebrew lady appeared not to hear him, but went on, as if thinking aloud:
"No man hath seen God at any time, He Himself hath declared--No man shall see Me, and live" (Exod. xxxiii. 20). "But who, then, visibly appeared unto Abraham? Who was it who wrestled48 with Jacob? Who spake unto Gideon? On whose glory was Isaiah permitted to gaze? Who was soon to walk in the fiery49 furnace? Who was He, like the Son of Man, who came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days? " (Dan. vii. 18.)
"At one moment you would view Messiah as a Victim; at the next, as a God!" cried the Hebrew.
"If God should deign50 to take the form of Man, to bear Man's penalty, to suffer Man's death, might He not be both?" asked Hadassah.
Seeing that Abishai started at the question, she turned to the portion of the roll which contained the prophecy of Isaiah, and read aloud:--
"Unto us a Child is born. Here is clearly an announcement of human birth; yet is this Child revealed to us as the mighty51 God, the everlasting52 Father, the Prince of Peace" (Isa. ix. 6).
"Such thoughts as these are too high, too difficult, for the human mind to grasp," exclaimed Abishai, pressing his brow. "The frail53 vessel must burst that has such hot molten gold poured within it. All that I can answer to what you have said is this. I believe not--and never will believe--that when Messiah, the Hope of Israel, shall come, He will be rejected by our nation. Were it so, such a fearful curse would fall upon our race that the memory of the Egyptian bondage54, the Babylonish captivity55, the Syrian persecution56, would be forgotten in the greater horrors of what God's just vengeance57 would bring upon this people. We should become a by-word, a reproach, a hissing58. We should be scattered59 far and wide amongst the nations, as chaff60 is scattered by the winds, until--"
Abishai paused, and clenched61 his hand and set his teeth, as if language failed him to describe the utter desolation and misery62 which such a crime as the rejection63 of the Messiah must bring upon the descendants of Abraham. As Abishai did not finish his sentence, Hadassah completed it for him.
"Until," she said, with a brightening countenance--"until Judah repent64 of her sin, and turn to Him whom she once denied. Hear, son of Nathan, but one more prophecy from the Scriptures. Thus saith the Lord:--I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon ME whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born (Zech. xii. 10). And the Lord shall be King over all the earth" (Zech. xiv. 9).
Abishai left the dwelling of Hadassah with a perturbed65 spirit, unwilling66 to own to himself that views so widely differing from his own could have any foundation in truth. The idea of a rejected, suffering, dying Messiah was beyond measure repugnant to the soul of the Hebrew.
"See what comes of concentrating all the powers of the mind on abstruse67 study!" Abishai muttered to himself as he descended68 the hill. "Hadassah is going mad; her judgment69 is giving way under the strain."
[1] Of course, the Hebrew roll was not divided into chapters; they are but given for facility of reference.
[2] "God," in the original, is "Elohim," a plural70 word.
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1
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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2
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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transcribe
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| v.抄写，誉写；改编(乐曲)；复制，转录 | |
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oracles
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| 神示所( oracle的名词复数 )； 神谕； 圣贤； 哲人 | |
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scripture
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| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
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scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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9
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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10
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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11
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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12
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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13
redeem
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| v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等） | |
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14
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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15
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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16
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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17
ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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18
ransom
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| n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救 | |
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19
pervades
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的第三人称单数 ) | |
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20
maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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spoke
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| 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 | |
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22
atone
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| v.赎罪，补偿 | |
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transgression
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| n.违背；犯规；罪过 | |
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transgressions
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| n.违反，违法，罪过( transgression的名词复数 ) | |
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25
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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26
exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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27
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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28
Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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29
bruise
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| n.青肿，挫伤；伤痕；vt.打青；挫伤 | |
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30
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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31
prudently
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| adv. 谨慎地，慎重地 | |
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32
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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33
extolled
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| v.赞颂，赞扬，赞美( extol的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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35
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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36
esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
iniquities
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| n.邪恶( iniquity的名词复数 )；极不公正 | |
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40
chastisement
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| n.惩罚 | |
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41
iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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42
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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43
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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44
blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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45
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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46
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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47
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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48
wrestled
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| v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤 | |
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49
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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50
deign
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| v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事) | |
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51
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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52
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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53
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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54
bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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55
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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56
persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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57
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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58
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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59
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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60
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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61
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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63
rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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64
repent
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| v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔 | |
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65
perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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67
abstruse
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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68
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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69
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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70
plural
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| n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的 | |
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