Bethulia

“ OZIAS. It is thirty-four days since Holofernes took the wells. If you have received water up to yesterday your great-grandchild must indeed have thirsted that you might drink. I have distributed water by measure, but now the cisterns are empty, and women and young men fall down in the streets, and there is no water in Bethulia. We are all in like case, the high and the lowly. ”

“ According to the story, “Nabuchodonosor, the king of Nineveh,” being incensed against the Jews, had doomed them to destruction. He therefore sent Holofernes, with a large army to execute his vengeance. This army being re-enforced by the Ammonites and the sons of Esau, the mighty host, enters on the siege of Bethulia, a frontier city of Judah. Surrounding the city and filling the whole country, they seizeseize “the water and the fountain of waters,” upon which Bethulia depended for its supply. ”

“ And Judith went to Bethulia and remained in her own possession; and during her time she was held in honor throughout the country. 22 And many desired her, but none knew her all the days of her life, after Manasseh her husband was dead and was gathered to his people. 23 But she increased more and more in honor; and she grew old in her husband's house, reaching the age of one hundred five years; and she made her woman servant free. So she died in Bethulia, and they buried her in the cave of her husband Manasseh. 24 And the house of Israel lamented for her seven days. ”

“ In reference to the tradition that the knights of Jerusalem held the garrison of Bethulia forty years, Captain Mangles remarks, that the place is too small to have contained even half the number of men which would have been requisite to make any stand in such a country; and the ruins, though they may be those of a place once defended by Franks, appear to have had an earlier origin, as the architecture seems to be decidedly Roman. There can be little doubt, indeed, that it is one of the works of Herod the Great ”

“ And he cast down all their defenses, and cut down their sacred groves: and it had been given to him to destroy all the gods of the land, that all the nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar only, and that all their tongues and their tribes should call upon him as god. And he came towards Esdraelon near to Dotaea, which is over against the great ridge of Judaea. And he encamped between Geba and Scythopolis, and he was there a whole month, that he might gather together all the baggage of his host.
The Siege of Bethulia. ”

“ In the latter part of the verse, the Baptist declares himself unworthy to perform the lowest menial service for Christ. To loose the sandals of their masters was the business of slaves; yet for even such service to Christ the great Prophet confesses himself unfit.
28. Bethania, here mentioned, was situated in Peraea, east of the Jordan, and must be carefully distinguished from the town of the same name, in which Lazarus lived, about two miles east of Jerusalem, but west of the Jordan. Many ancient authorities read Bethabara, instead of Bethania. ”

“ Conan de Bethune made response for the Latins: “Go tell your master that the earth we tread upon does not belong to him, but is the heritage of the prince you see seated among us,” pointing to young Alexius. “A usurper is the enemy of all princes; a tyrant is the foe of mankind. Your master can escape the justice of God and men only by restoring his brother and nephew to the throne.”
Dandolo then tried the spirit of the people of Constantinople. A splendid galley bearing young Alexius moved close along the walls of the city. ”

“ For under plaster shaken down by calamity, and red dust that once was bricks, it is our own age that is lying; and the little things that lie about the floors are relics of the twentieth century. Therefore in the streets of Bethune the wistful appeal that is in all things lost far off and utterly passed away cries out with an insistence that is never felt in the older fallen cities. No doubt to future times the age that lies under plaster in Bethune, with thin, bare laths standing over it, will appear an age of glory ”

“ What a picture of the fickleness and treachery of the heart!—That excited populace who are now shouting their hosannahs, are ere long to be raising the cry, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Four days hence we shall find the palm branches lying withered on the Bethany road, [Pg 190] and the blazing torches of an assassin-band nigh the very spot where He is now passing with an applauding retinue! “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils.”
It does not belong to our narrative to record the remaining transactions of this day in Jerusalem. ”

“ No report would go to Rome from the High Priest, no fawning spies would tell how the Procurator had freed a cunning revolutionary, but Claudia had warned him not to judge the Galilean. Could his wife, by all the gods, be a secret follower of this mystic? Didn’t many high-placed women of Rome become devotees of this strange Jewish one-god religion? Could the Emperor’s stepdaughter, by great Jove, have become, of all persons, interested in religion, in any 303 religion? Could Claudia really feel strongly about this Nazarene fellow? ”

“ Had the glare existed merely in Aspasia's imagination? While recognising a Pathan (whose contempt for the Hindoo probably exceeded Baby's own) , Bethune knew that it was quite possible the irritable pride of the mountain man had taken fire at some real or fancied slight; but the betrayal could have been no more than a flash.
The Major of Guides smiled to himself. He knew his native: the man who will never give you more than an accidental peep of the bared blade in the velvet sheath—no, not till he means to strike! ”

“ Tancred, the bravest, if not the best, of all, was to follow within a very few years, and Baldwin found himself for the last six years of his reign without a single one of the old princes, except his cousin, Baldwin du Bourg, to quarrel with, to help, or to look to for help. And, still more to complicate matters, the crusade, which the ambition of Bohemond had directed against the Greek Empire for his own purposes, had alienated the sympathies, such as they were, and the assistance of the Greek Empire, and deprived the Christian Kingdom of every hope from that quarter. ”

“ The guest of the Old Ancient House had strolled out by himself to smoke a solitary meditative pipe in the wild avenue. Seeing Muhammed's flaming headgear, he had deliberately directed his steps towards him; for Bethune would not have been that self that India had made him, had he not felt instinctively lured into the company of the Eastern, all degenerate as he chose to consider him. Moreover, the personality of Sir Arthur's secretary baffled him, and Bethune resented being baffled. He fixed his eye keenly upon the Pathan, turned babu. ”

“ Oh, Ursula, I know a city in India where we might live, and you forget you ever ruled in Rome; yonder are other gods who are so old they have forgot to punish, and they would smile on you and me there, Ursula. Balthasar marches on the city, and you must be ruined and discovered—brought to an end so horrible. You have showed me a secret way out of the Vatican, use it now, this night. ”

“ The Shepherd is about to be smitten, and the sheep to be scattered! Rude hands arrest Him on His way. In vain shall Lazarus and his sisters wait for their expected Lord! For Him that night there is no voice of earthly comforter—no couch of needed rest;—when the shadows of darkness have gathered around Bethany, and the pale passover moon is lighting up its palm-trees, the Lord of glory is standing buffetted and insulted in the hall of Annas.
The Remembrances of Bethany are here absorbed and overshadowed for a time by the darker [Pg 215] memories of Gethsemane and Calvary. ”

“ For it is a disgrace to prevail over the enemy and then to shew yourselves vanquished by passion. So let all the possessions of these men suffice for you as the rewards of your valour, but let their wives, together with the children, be given back to the men. And let the conquered learn by experience what kind of friends they have forfeited by reason of foolish counsel."
After speaking thus, Belisarius released to the Neapolitans their women and children and the slaves, one and all, no insult having been experienced by them, and he reconciled the soldiers to the citizens. ”

“ HOW do I long to hear of God’s appearing for Georgia and Bethesda? I trust, the Indians have not, and will not be permitted to disturb a family planted by his own right hand, and for his own glory. But the divine judgments are a great deep. Lord, help us to adore, and cheerfully to submit to thy holy will! Some Bethesda letters, I trust, will soon put me out of suspense. I wrote to you by the convoy that took your new Governor. I hope he will behave friendly to the orphan-house. If we make the Lord Jesus our friend, all will be well. Many here are seeking his friendship. Satan is angry. ”

“ He selected not Bethlehem, where angel hosts had chanted His praise; nor Tabor, where celestial beings had hovered around Him in homage; nor Calvary, where riven rocks and bursting grave-stones had proclaimed His deity; nor the Temple-court, in all its sumptuous glory, where for ages His own Shekinah had blazed in mystic splendour; but He hallows afresh the name of a lowly Village; He consecrates a Home of love. Bethany is the last spot [Pg 227] which lingers on His view, as the cloud comes down and receives Him out of sight. ”

“ The Bedouin, on the contrary, is a Nomad; his horizon is bounded by the desert or the mountain; his property is limited to his weapons, his horse, or his camel; he lives by pillage alone, and his ideas of religion and morality are of the vaguest possible description. A story is told of a Bedouin, convicted of murder and theft, having been asked by a Frenchman—"What would you say to God, if you were summoned to appear before Him?" ”

“ There is another lower sect of gentiles called betua. Their business is to make salt, to plough and sow rice, and they do not live by anything else: they have houses in the [141] country apart from the roads where respectable people pass. These people have a form of idolatry of their own: they also are slaves of the king and of the nayrs. They live very miserably: the nayrs make them keep far aloof from them, and speak to them from a great distance: they have no intercourse with other people. They are married and their children inherit. ”

“ If, in following the opinions of other men, we have said anything false, we have not done so with the intention of deceiving anyone. We are grateful to God, the Redeemer of this holy City, through the efforts of our people. For when the siege of the city began, He himself revealed, to an anchorite living in Bethania, as the story has been reliably told to us, that the city would be besieged furiously, but that it would be entered on Easter day, at the hour at which Christ was brought to the cross, to demonstrate that He again redeemed it from its afflictions by the suffering of his own limbs. ”

“ The reserve hitherto maintained as to His kingly power is now to be set aside. “The hour is come in which the Son of man is to be glorified.” Bethany is one of the few places associated with recollections of the Redeemer’s royalty. The “despised and rejected” is, for once, the honoured and exalted. It is a glimpse of the crown before He ascends the cross; a foreshadowing of that blessed period when He shall be hailed by the loud acclaim of earth’s nations—the Gentile hosannah mingling with the Hebrew hallelujah in welcoming Him to the throne of universal empire. ”

“ Belisarius now forwarded an earnest entreaty to Justinian, praying for reinforcements, and representing that the hardships endured by the Romans might induce a renewal of their allegiance to the Goths. He also determined to empty the city of all {569} inhabitants who were useless for its defence; and this was done one night after the enemy had returned to their camp. An immense multitude—women, children, and slaves—were cast adrift, and some by boats down the Tiber, others on foot along the Appian Way, fled to the south, ultimately finding a refuge in Campania or Sicily. ”

“ The conquest of Italy was now undertaken in earnest, and, while a new general repaired the Roman disaster in Dalmatia, Belisarius crossed over to the continent and laid siege to Naples. Having drawn up his fleet and army in a threatening position, he called on the citizens to surrender the town. Colloquies were held by the townspeople, and, while one party urged that the example of Sicily be followed, another argued that the vengeance of the Goths, to whom they had given hostages, was more to be dreaded than the attack of Belisarius. ”

“ Taking with him a few knights, the king went himself and overran the country sword in hand. Some of them escaped by flight, leaving their flocks and herds behind; some buried themselves in the forests; some were made slaves; and some were mercilessly slaughtered. The booty in cattle and horses was immense, and Baldwin found, by this act of iniquity, a means of paying off, at least, the most pressing of his creditors. But his subsequent misfortunes 292were attributed to this perfidy, the worst which a Christian king of Jerusalem had as yet displayed. ”

“ Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and their humiliation, have nothing about them now to remind one that they once knew the high honor of the Saviour's presence; the hallowed spot where the shepherds watched their flocks by night, and where the angels sang Peace on earth, goodwill to men, is untenanted by any living creature, and unblessed by any feature that is pleasant to the eye. Renowned Jerusalem itself, the stateliest name in history, has lost all its ancient grandeur, and is become a pauper village ”