CHAPTER 43.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Levi
Jesus and Ashbina visit Babylon and remark its desolation. The two masters remain in company seven days; then Jesus resumes his homeward journey. Arrives in Nazareth. His mother gives a feast in his honor. His brothers are displeased. Jesus tells his mother and aunt the story of his journeys.
The ruined Babylon was near, and Jesus and the sage went through her gates and walked among her fallen palaces.
2 They trod the streets where Israel once was held in base captivity.
3 They saw where Judah’s sons and daughters hung their harps upon the willows, and refused to sing.
4 They saw where Daniel and the Hebrew children stood as living witnesses of faith.
5 And Jesus lifted up his hands and said, Behold the grandeur of the works of man!
6 The king of Babylon destroyed the temple of the Lord in old Jerusalem; he burned the holy city, bound in chains my people and my kin, and brought them here as slaves.
7 But retribution comes; for whatsoever men shall do to other men the righteous Judge will do to them.
8 The sun of Babylon has gone down; the songs of pleasure will be heard no more within her walls.
9 And every kind of creeping thing and unclean bird will, in these ruins, find their homes.
10 And in the temple Belus, Jesus and Ashbina stood in silent thought.
11 Then Jesus spoke and said, Behold this monument of folly and of shame.
12 Man tried to shake the very throne of God, and he assayed to build a tower to reach to heaven, when, lo, his very speech was snatched away, because in lofty words he boasted of his power.
13 And on these heights the heathen Baal stood—the god wrought out by hands of man.
14 Upon yon altar, birds, and beasts, and men, yea children have been burned in awful sacrifice to Baal.
15 But now the gory priests are dead; the very rocks have shuddered and have fallen down; the place is desolate.
16 Now, in the plains of Shinar Jesus tarried yet for seven days, and, with Ashbina, meditated long upon the needs of men, and how the sages could best serve the coming age.
17 Then Jesus went his way, and after many days he crossed the Jordan to his native land. At once he sought his home in Nazareth.
18 His mother’s heart was filled with joy; she made a feast for him, inviting all her kindred and her friends.
19 But Jesus’ brothers were not pleased that such attention should be paid to one they deemed a sheer adventurer, and they went not in to the feast.
20 They laughed their brother’s claims to scorn; they called him indolent, ambitious, vain; a worthless fortune hunter; searcher of the world for fame, who, after many years returns to mother’s home with neither gold, nor any other wealth.
21 And Jesus called aside his mother and her sister, Miriam, and told them of his journey to the East.
22 He told them of the lessons he had learned, and of the works that he had done. To others he told not the story of his life.