Naomi

by Mrs. J. B. Webb

"I am the son of Zadok the priest, and have long been a captive in the hands of the Romans. With danger and difficulty I escaped from them, when they were encamped on the shores of the Dead Sea. For months I have wandered among the mountains and the deserts, seeking vainly to find an opportunity of returning to my native city, and rouse my countrymen to a fiercer opposition against my hated captors. The approach of Vespasian so near the walls of Jerusalem long deterred me from the attempt to gain entrance, as I dreaded falling into the hands of any of his skirmishing parties; and though I burned to find myself upon the battlements of Zion, and to cast defiance at the infidels from her proud bulwarks, yet I was forced to loiter away my time in restless inactivity. When Vespasian withdrew his forces from the neighbourhood, I again approached my native district, but was again disappointed in my object, by finding that your valiant troops were contending with those ruffian Zealots. The succeeding war in Idumea prevented me from passing through that country, until you left it to seek vengeance for the insult offered to you by John of Gischala and his robber band. Then I entered Judea by a secret path through the mountains, and was anxiously watching for a moment of security, that I might present myself before the gates of the city and join her brave defenders, when I fell into the hands of your brave men."

Simon was satisfied that the prisoner was not deceiving him, and he replied,—

"Why then did you not boldly come to me, and join the ranks of my patriotic followers? You might have known that the welfare of Jerusalem is my only object; and that I seek to rid her of her present oppressors, that I may establish again the rules of order and good government, and restore the neglected worship of the temple to its former holiness and magnificence. My righteous efforts will doubtless be blessed with success, and the God of battles will put to rebuke those miscreants who now so audaciously trample on his holy sanctuary and despise his laws."

"Most noble Simon," replied the wily Javan, "your holy zeal finds an echo in my breast. Had I known the object of your enterprise, I should long ere this have hastened to enroll myself under your victorious banner, and have rejoiced to lend my aid to so meritorious a purpose. I am now ready to take an oath of fidelity to you and your cause; and, by the blessing of the Almighty, we shall soon triumph over the Zealots, and restore the city of the Great King to prosperity and peace."

Thus spoke Javan, partly actuated by a politic regard to his own safety, and partly prompted by his fanatical zeal and pride. He hoped that Simon's party might gain the ascendancy, if they once obtained a footing in the city; and he knew enough of their leader to be convinced that he would forward to the utmost all his own schemes and projects, for what he called the honour of God—by which he meant, the oppression and destruction of all who differed from the proud, self-righteous sect to which he belonged. He believed that in so doing he should promote the cause of religion, and strengthen the party of those whom he considered as the only true children of Abraham. He therefore made up his mind to attach himself to Simon, and, if possible, to gain his confidence, and penetrate all his schemes. Should they succeed, he would enter Jerusalem as his follower; but if he failed in opening her gates, either by force or by subtlety, Javan depended on his own cunning to make his escape from his adopted leader, and unite himself to whichever party he should find the most congenial to his own bigoted feelings, when he had succeeded in obtaining an entrance into the city.

A compact was soon entered into between these two crafty men, who both affected to conceal their own cruel and ambitious views under the disguise of zeal for religion. In this profession Javan was more sincere than Simon; he had devoted a great part of his early life to the study of the sacred writings, and still more sacred traditions, so profoundly reverenced by his sect; and for the honour of these voluminous and erudite productions, and the observance of the wearisome regulations which they enjoined, he held it to be his duty to consecrate his time and his strength, and even to abandon every tie of natural affection that might interfere with the views which he entertained. But with the son of Gioras, ambition and revenge were the darling objects; and religion was little more than a cloak, under which to exercise every violence and every cruelty that was dictated by his own evil heart. He once more resolved to defer his intended attack upon Jerusalem, and wait until the forces within the city had wasted yet more of their strength in civil contests; and also until he had further augmented his own army. He therefore retired again into Idumea, where for a considerable time he continued his former system of pillage and oppression.

The suspension of hostilities on the part of the Romans, and the departure of Simon, encouraged some of the Christians at Pella to forsake for a little time their place of refuge, and to return to Jerusalem, either to secure some of their effects which had been neglected at the time of their retreat, or to see again those members of their families who, though separated from them in faith and in hope, were yet united to them by the bonds of affection. Among those who thus visited the holy city at this time were Amaziah and Judith. They had come to the resolution of finally abandoning their devoted and rebellious country, and retiring to Ephesus with their son, who had hitherto remained in Jerusalem. They knew that they should there find a numerous and increasing church of Christians, and that the venerable apostle John then dwelt there, and watched over the spiritual welfare of his beloved brethren in Christ, with all the affection and all the zeal that glowed in his devoted heart. To enjoy the privilege of his presence and his instruction was one great motive that induced Amaziah and his wife to select Ephesus as the place of their retreat; and they also possessed friends and connexions among the believers established there. Before they undertook so long a journey, they wished to see and to bid farewell to their relations in Jerusalem; and they likewise intended to make an effort for the preservation of their dear Naomi, by endeavouring to persuade her parents to allow her to accompany them, and remain under their protection, until Judea should again be restored to tranquillity. Such a result of the war they did not themselves anticipate; for they looked confidently for the fulfilment of the denunciations of wrath pronounced against their countrymen by the Lord Jesus; and they feared that if Naomi remained in the city, she would share the fate of its obstinate inhabitants. Oh how gladly would they have persuaded Zadok and Salome also to be the companions of their exile! But that they knew to be a fruitless wish, so long as they despised the name of the Redeemer, and disbelieved alike his threatenings and his promises.

They found their niece unshaken in her faith, and fully resolved to hold fast to the religion which she had so boldly professed, in spite of all the sorrow which that profession had brought upon her. It is true that the influence of her kind and affectionate mother had preserved her from any severe manifestations of her father's wrath; but all the domestic comfort and happiness which she had so long enjoyed was gone. Zadok no longer regarded her with affection and pride, and no longer delighted in conversing with her, and instructing her in all the learning for which he was himself so celebrated. As much as possible he avoided seeing her, and when they met, his countenance expressed such deep grief and such repressed anger, that Naomi shrunk from his presence, and in her own apartment shed many bitter tears of sorrow, but not of weakness or indecision. The severest trial she had to undergo was when at stated periods she was summoned to attend her father and rabbi Joazer, to whom the secret of her apostasy had been confided, and in whose learned arguments her parents placed their only hope of her restoration to the true faith.

Rabbi Joazer spared neither time nor pains to accomplish this desired object; but all his tedious harangues, and all his copious appeals to the rabbinical writings and the traditions of the elders, only served to show to Naomi more plainly the folly and absurdity of exalting these human inventions above the word of God, and made her feel more devotedly attached to the faith she had adopted, and which she knew to be verified by Scripture, and founded on divine revelation. With humility, and yet with firmness, she replied to the assertions of the rabbi; and quoted the words of the prophets to prove that Jesus was indeed the Christ. Joazer would not listen to her; he only overwhelmed and silenced her, by long and rapid quotations from the cumbrous volumes on which he rested his creed; and at length dismissed her with anger and impatience to her chamber again.

Claudia was her constant companion, and her greatest earthly solace. She sympathised in the afflictions of her friend, and listened with an interest that daily increased, to the detail of all that she had seen and heard at Pella, and all the affecting narratives that had at first attracted Naomi's own attention, and excited her own curiosity, and led to her own adoption of the faith of Christ. The heart of Claudia was touched, and it was evident that the work of the Spirit had commenced within her, though it advanced but slowly, and she did not, as it were, grasp and comprehend the doctrines that were presented to her, with the rapidity that had characterized Naomi's conversion. Her less energetic disposition was alarmed at the wonder and the novelty of the religion that was proposed to her belief; and though in the mythology which she had been taught in her childhood, there were many pretended instances of the heathen divinities dwelling with men upon the earth, yet the history of Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, was altogether so different from these idle tales, and the miracles which glorified his earthly life were so astonishing and so awakening, that Claudia paused before she could give full credence to all that her friend related to her.