August, 1935
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
308
and beg Balthazar to do something before it was too late! But it was too late now, with guests arriving over there for the dance, and the feast about to be served in her own home. Too late! The passover feast was ready. The roasted lamb, with the bitter herbs and un leavened bread, was set upon the table. The relatives had arrived who were to eat the lamb with them. They were all gathered about the solemn board, and Miriam’s fa ther lifted his hands to ask a blessing on the feast. Into the hush of that moment broke the music of the orchestra in the Egyptian house, and when Miriam lifted her eyes, she could see the bright lights and the moving figures as the dancing be gan, The night went on. The solemn feast came to a close. The midnight hour drew near, and Israel waited with a hush of awe upon her homes. Miriam, suddenly glancing up at her brother Joseph, saw a look of wonder and exaltation upon his face such as she had never seen before. He was like one who has by some great act been set apart from others. There was a solemn beauty in his face that filled her with amazement. Then her heart suddenly stood still. For the orchestra across the way crashed away into utter silence, and into the foreboding hush caused by its ceasing, there came frightened voices, frantic calls, and she could see hurrying forms running hither and thither. A light sprang up on the housetop where she knew Balthazar had his room. Then, into the listening night, there rose a cry of anguish such as never had been heard before, reaching from the house across the hedge to the next house, and the next house, and the next, all across the borders of Goshen, Egypt weeping for her sons whom the death angel had taken. As they listened, with white faces lifted in awe and fear, there came a sound of footsteps flying down the path. The door burst open without ceremony, and Zelda burst in, her arms laden with bright silken garments, and her hands filled with chains and bracelets and jewels. She rushed up to Miriam: “Here! Take these, Miriam,” she cried with anguish in her eyes. “Take them quick, and ask your father to get the peo ple to go quickly! Oh, Miriam! My brother—is—DEAD!” Then she turned and fled back to her desolated home. ■ Solemnly the procession moved along. Out into the night went Miriam. Out un der the far cold stars. Out toward the Red Sea and the wilderness, and a grave in the wilderness. Out following that pillar of fire! Miriam in her place in the march was glad of the darkness to hide her tears. For every step of the way, this one wish beat itself into her soul: “Oh, if I had only told them about our God before it was too late! If only I had lived the faith which my fathers believed! Ah, if I had had a faith of my own to live, I might have led them to believe also! But how could I teach them when instead I was walking in their ways?" And then, suddenly, Miriam understood why God had commanded His people to be a separated people, His peculiar people, a royal generation, not expected to find their joy in the things of the world about them. It was because they had been called to higher, better things, promised by Him whose word could not be broken, and the promise was sealed with blood!
T he House Across the Hedge [Continued from page 289] mother go out and stop them? What an awful thing to do! Blood!" “It is pur God’s command,” said Miriam solemnly. “ ‘When I see the blood, I will .pass over you,’ He said. It is to save my brother’s life, Zelda.” Zelda looked at her scornfully. “How could blood on a doorpost pos sibly save anybody?” she asked. “You tell her, Mother,” said Miriam, suddenly dropping into a chair, her head buried in her arms on the window sill, her shoulders shaking with sobs. “Zelda, dear, it isn’t that blood out there that saves Joseph’s life. That blood is only a sign of our faith in a promise made long ago. Our God promised that some day He would send One who would be a lamb slain for the sins of the world, and that through His death all who believed would be saved. And when we put this blood on the door at His command to night, it is a sign that we trust in the blood of the Lamb that is to come. We are putting ourselves under the- blood cov enant, where we know we are safe. Do you understand ?” Then Miriam rose earnestly, with clasp ed hands and pleading eyes looking into the angry startled face of her friend: “Oh, Zelda, won’t you go home right away and ask your father to kill a lamb and put the blood on your door? For per haps God will see it and will pass over your house, too, and your brother will be saved! Oh, won’t you, Zelda ?” But Zelda met her with hard indig nant eyes ablaze: “What! Put blood on our doorposts when I am going to have a dance? Why, the guests would soil their beautiful gar ments ! Now I know that you are -not only superstitious but crazy! I hate you! I never want to see you any more.” And she dashed out of the door and down the path toward her home. All day long as Miriam went about her work with tears raining down her white cheeks, her heart was aching with sorrow. As she prepared the bitter herbs for the feast and made the unleavened bread, her eyes kept turning toward the lattice that looked over to Egypt, hoping against hope that perhaps after all Zelda had told her father. Perhaps before it was too late he might bring a lamb and put the needed sign upon his door also. But the day went steadily on and she saw him not. The afternoon was on the wane. The house was full of the smell of roasting lamb. The clothing was stack ed in convenient bundles for sudden going. Father and brother brought the sheep and cattle from the fields, and neighbors hur ried by doing the same, their faces "filled with grave apprehension. Miriam, as she laid the table for the passover feast, kept looking out the win dow toward the house across the way. She saw the caterers arrive, and a little later the orchestra carrying their instruments. She choked back her tears and wished that she dared pray to the God whom she had neglected. Lights were, springing up in the big house. Guests in bright garments were ar riving. Once she was sure she saw Bal thazar standing in the open door, silhouet ted against a blaze of light, directing the servant of a guest about his camel, Her heart leaped up with great longing to go
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