December 1931
555
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
fjunior KING’S BUSINESS .. . By HELEN HOWARTH LEMMEL
A &inrg of tif* R r a t C h r i s t m a s B y H e l e n H o w a r t h L e m m e l
ir ia m , come and play with me. 'My housetop is cool and shady. And my mother says we may have five figs. There are just that number—lovely ripe ones—that I can reach, on the branch hanging over the wall. And I will show thee the lovely filet my father brought me from Rome. There is one for thee, too. There—I should not have told thee. But it is beautiful, Miriam. Green, it is—oh, as green as a young fig leaf, and it will look lovely on thy shining, red-gold hair.” Not waiting for answer, the little Ro man, Junia, chattered on to the Jewish Miriam, across the narrow space between the roofs of their homes on the slope of one of the hills that encircled Jerusalem. Junia looked wistfully and in vain for the usual flash of the dark eyes, and the ready smile that curved at times the scarlet mouth of her friend—a mouth that, in re pose, was too sad for one so young. The two children, so different in race and religion, were yet close friends, as were their parents. Their fathers were united in a rare friendship, but because of their difference of race and conditions hav ing to do with it, their relation was not openly displayed. Both were important figures in the political and religious life of that unhappy period of Jewish history. Baruch, the father of Miriam—grave, learned, kindly—stood high in his own and in Roman circles—a thing unusual between the hated and despised Jew and the ruling Roman. Junia’s father—haughty and proud, dominant yet just—served well his imperial master and his country and was held in high honor. Only the adored and adoring daughters of each house knew what tenderness, what perfection of whim
[Miriam almost said aloud, “cruel”] Rome to thee. He found one Joseph, a carpenter who, for all that, is, like my father, of the line of our great King David. Oh, Junia, thou art of a great people, and,” with a proud lift of her shining head, “so am I.” Sadness clouded voice and eyes as she continued, “But, alas, we have lost our greatness.” “But Miriam, my father, Roman though he be, reads the strange writings of your strange religion that has but one God, while we have so many.” Junia’s voice was eager in her desire to comfort her friend. “He says that your seers all tell of even greater glory to come to the Jewish people, and that Rome—but that cannot be. Rome to fall? Rome is eternal.” And here the Roman head reared in pride, though the voice faltered somewhat, for was it not her father who had said it, ever with cau tion, and as a thing far distant? “He says, too, that you look for a God. Another God, is it? Messiah, you call Him, and He is to deliver you from—oh, Miriam, how strange, when thou and I love each other so—He is to deliver you from Rome! Are we, then, so cruel?” At this expression of her own thought, Miriam started and cried, “Not thou! Oh, not thou, beloved! But—thou wouldst know of the star; my father says that it means, perhaps, that He, the Messiah, has come.” “The sta r! That Babe, born in a man ger! Oh, Miriam!” Sensing a tinge of amusement in Junia’s tone, Miriam went on quietly and firmly, “But that is not all. The mother, who is the wife of Joseph the carpenter, is also of
Soon the two were together in the bower under the fig tree, but the figs were forgot ten, for Miriam again fell silent, while Junia, happy enough in the assurance of Miriam’s love and the forgiveness of a .childish hurt, waited in an unaccusomed silence. “Junia,” at last began Miriam, in an awed, still tone, “saidst any one aught to thee of a new and wonderful star that shone yesternight over Bethlehem yonder ?” “A star? But they are all so wonderful, even more wonderful than the stars that shine in the skies above my dear Rome, where I would rather—far rather be, if but thou, too,” shyly, as if still to make amends, “if but thou, too, couldst be there.” “Thou are dear. I should grieve sorely to have thee go. But,” startled at the sud den thought, “thou art not —going ? Oh, Junia!” • . “Perhaps, and soon. Seest thou not how I needed thee to come, and how slow thou wert? But what of the star?” “My father was in Bethlehem last night,” Miriam replied, “and he told us but now. of a Babe just born there in a manger, Junia, because there was no room in the inn. Thou knowest of the Emperor’s de cree that all of my race go to the place of birth to register for taxation. My father went to Bethlehem to see who of Nazareth might be there—little Nazareth among the hills, as dear to me as is thy great, splendid
sical comradship, homed in the hearts of the splendid, soldierly Roman and the equally impressive Jew, whom Junia often and f o n d l y c a l l e d “Pater Baruch.” Miriam walked slowly and quietly to the low wall that guarded the roof’s edge, toward her now frankly troubled friend. “Miriam, thou art not— not—angry with me? Oh, y e st e r d a y—I—did not mean—” Alive now , M i r i a m sprang to the wall, where she could almost touch the pleading hand of Junia, stretched across the nar row span that separated them. “Junia, sweet, how canst thou think it? No, no! I knew thou didst not mean it—-but it is not again to be spoken of.” “Thou art sweet to so forgive. But thou comest not to me, even yet. Do come.”
the royal house of David. Fair and sweet, I, though a tiny thing when iast I saw her, remember her to be. There is—” “Go on, I pray thee, go on,” as Miriam hesitated. “There is a strange scripture concerning the birth of the Messiah. I do not understand, but, in that and in the very time and place of His birth, my father says of this Babe that it is all as our Scrip tures foretell. A star, too, is spoken of.” So rapt had the children been in their conversation that the approach of their fathers had not been no ticed. But the little pair, now seeing them, sprang toward the two men and, tripping in their haste, each was hurled into the open arms of the wrong parent. Held there, they missed nothing of warmth in the embrace, nor were the laughing girls released until kisses, straightfor-
“WHERE IS HE THAT IS BORN KING OF THE JEWS ? FOR WE HAVE SEEN HIS STAR IN THE EAST, AND ARE COME TO WORSHIP H IM .”
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