Aleph, the Chaldean; or, the Messiah as Seen from Alexandria

by E. F. Burr

“My name is Legion, for we are many. What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God most High? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? If thou cast us out, suffer us to go into yonder herd of swine.”

Jesus said, Go!

Promptly at the word, the crowd of evil spirits that had captured that body, bound its inhabitant, and seized the reins of power, fled headlong. Nathan knew it from the mighty change that at once flashed over the demoniac. The monster became a man. The face just now terrible with the lightnings of hellish passions, more terrible than the storm on the Sea of Galilee or any other sea, suddenly became a new face—transformed almost beyond recognition into repose, sanity, sweetness, joy. Nathan was astonished at the transfiguration. He could not help crying out, Glory to God! and his heart cried louder than his lips. He had seen dispossessions before; and they were delightful things to see. But he had never before seen a man delivered from an entire synagogue of devils, from the Nemesis of a whole army of evil spirits. That was a deliverance past speech. That was an exodus to bring out the sun in the face of a man.

The man was saved, but the swine were lost. For the whole herd of about two thousand, just now stolidly feeding along the steep bank, pricked up their ears, stood snuffing the air, and then, as if possessed by as many whirlwinds, rushed headlong down the steep into the lake and perished. The disciples understood the judgment as well as the mercy. Those swine, kept contrary to the law, and serving as a standing defiance of the law through all that region, were felt to have been justly confiscated. But the owners were naturally sore at the loss of their property, and others were afraid of like losses; and so they persuaded the people of the district to go in a body to Jesus and beg him to leave. The people did it—though they saw the man who had been the terror of the whole country-side sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. Strange infatuation! The people themselves were possessed. The evil spirits that had forsaken the man, and forsaken the swine, had entered into them—as a legion of fools. Jesus did not refuse their suicidal request. So the two boats immediately returned to Capernaum.

This ended Nathan’s visit to Jesus. He left the same day for Egypt—left with stronger faith than ever in Jesus as the Messiah. The absence of all the usual magical preparations for his wonders, the exceeding magnitude and variety of them, the magnificent ease with which they were performed, the fearless manner in which they were exposed to the blaze of public observation, the universal consent to their reality on the part of even his worst enemies, the plain antagonism of his whole teaching to the idea that they were of Satanic origin, together with the sovereign and divine expression that reigned in his mien while doing them, seemed conclusive. It seemed impossible for any fair-minded man to look into that face and watch its expressions without getting the impression of unutterable genuineness and goodness. He could doubt neither the reality nor the divine origin of the miracles of Jesus.

But, somehow, the people at large were not impressed as he was. They were getting used to the wonderful works. And the leaders of the people were industriously encouraging the idea of a Satanic agency in them—and with growing success. About the Sea of Galilee, where most of his mighty works are done, Jesus has very few who believe in him. He does not conform to the current notion of what the Messiah should be. He gives no encouragement to political unrest; he makes no attempt to form a political party, collects no military stores, gathers no army, assumes no state. He seems to aim at no worldly grandeur for himself or nation. He has even been understood to say that rejection and suffering and even death await him—that, in short, his kingdom is not of this world. This is very unsatisfactory to the people at large. If he would only proclaim a temporal kingdom, set up the standard of revolt against Rome, and summon the people to rally about it, no doubt they would rush to him at once. But as it is, they will go from him. So it seemed to Nathan as he watched the people; and so it seemed to him it would be as he read the prophets. The more he studied them the more inclined was he to think that they had been misunderstood.

“I think very much as you do,” said Aleph, “and shall not be at all surprised if Jesus the Messiah should prove a Sacrifice as well as a king. King he certainly is—king of devils, king of diseases, king of the elements, king of teachers——”

Here he was interrupted by the door-keeper, who came to say that through the eyelet of the door he could see Antis approaching with what seemed a police force.

“Oh, do not let him enter,” exclaimed Miriam in great distress; “if he enters I shall die. You do not know all I know.” And she raised herself in the bed and wrung her hands in an agony of apprehension.

“Do not disturb yourself,” said Aleph calmly. “Though we do not know all, we know enough. But Jesus knew it all, and you have his promise. Trust it and reserve such strength as you have till it is needed. We will not desert you.”