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Show HEROD AND THE BAPTIST Ancient Jerusalem. Who Is Herod? Gen-tleness Gen-tleness and Tyrany. Herod's Pride and Deceit Slaughter of the Innocent Children. Chil-dren. Escape of the Infant Savior. Blunt Conscience. The Baptist's Mission. Mis-sion. His Zeal and Burning Worda Bring Correction. All Deeply Impressed With His Sincerity. (Written tor The Intermountain Catholic.) Behold, they that are clotlvd in soft garments are in the houses of kings. Bat what went you to see! a prophet? Yea, I tell you, and more than a prophet. "or this is he of whom it is written: Be- f hold, I send My angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee Malt, xi, U-10 v. It is Jerusalem, but not the Jerusalem of patriarch patri-arch and prophet, high priest and king. The glory of Solomon has departed, the psalms of David aru sung in silence, the rites of Caiphas are performed, in secret. Jerusalem, thy power and tny glory ' have departed, and the Roman eagle floats abovo thy walls. Yes, above thy walls it floats, aud above yonder palace where Ilerod dwells. The loyal Jew passes the palace, and seeing the eagle burner floac there, his hands are clenched and his half-closed lips emit this whisper: "O, for the days of thv j valiant Josua!" The loyal Jewess, who values her honor as her life, passes, and she sees in the win- dows the flaring lights, and knowing from hear-1 say the wild revelry that takes place there under f the glare of these lights, with her eyes raised to heaven, she murmurs these words: "O, for the days of the chaste Susannah!" The high prie-t passes that palace. He shudders :is he thinks that within it are new gods, gods whn-e composition are wood and stone, gods formed by the carpenter's eh'sel, the sculptor's hands, and 'before tlue gods, tho ! smoking censor swings, before these gods, tin- : I proud Roman knee bends, before thc-o gods tho t ! learned Roman mind loses its intellectuality and its power. Seeing these things, knowing thee. I things, the high priest shudders, and in a voice sad . as-ThCvoiec 4- Jeremiah's, he gire-r vent to" these . i words: "O, for the God of Moses and Isaac and Jacob!' Yes, Jerusalem, thy glory h;'s -departed, I thy power now is as weak as the .-amis, the Roman 1 eagle floats above thy walls and Herod is. thy ma-- - . j ' ter. , Anel who is Herod? There is phrase which- those who read know. The phrase is: "He out- f Herod's Herod." Gentleness bi-longs u children, and aye, it belongs to men and women who aro I noble in purpose, God-like iu aim. Tyranny ami 1 blood, pride and lust, spring not from mind, but '$ from passion. Xo, no, ihe mind as God gave it, i is like His Essence, simple; is like Ill's Whito Throne, pure, but the body with its passions, tho vessel of clay and mud ofttimes smothers the work- ' $ ing of the mind and soul, and smothering them, - ' j man becomes lower than the beast, aud then come the unbridled reign of blood, passion, hist tha - j out-JIeroditig Ilerod. Xoble minds rule and win I obedience, noble hearts love and win love in re- ' ' j turn. Great minds and great hearts have no lit- ; j tleness except the knowledge of their own little- . I ness, and that knowledge brings in ifs train hiuniL ity, the foundation of la-ting greatness. The es- seuc-e of tyranny is pride, which will abuse ,owt r, pride which will stop at no means sordid Miar it may clothe itself iu more purple. Herod! pridu I was thy composition, and thy composition begot; j very ugly children they were sensuality and weakness, blood ami ttars. Wis." men came to the J and asked thee about Christ. King of the -lews. J Methinks you frowned when they said "King of the Jews," for were not you Ki.ig of the Jew-si Yet, Ilerod, you were urbane with them, and into thy mind came the thought of murder. I "A man can smile aud smile, . And be a villain." I Herod smiled and said these words: "Go and j find him, and when you have found him. como 5 and tell me that I may come and adore him." The wise kings went their way. They found the Christ, and the voice of God told them. "Go not back t I Herod." ' I Mary and Joseph and the Christ cross the desert. Before them is Egypt, behind them is Jerusalem, j : and what a Jerusalem. It is the Jerusalem o J Rachael weeping and wailing and unwilling to be 1 consoled, and why? On the walls of Jerusalem an edict is posted up: "All the children of two years old and under are to be put to death." Herod sit? f in his palace, pride and sensuality his attendants, and the cry of the mothers of Jerusalem as the child of their womb is torn from them reaches his ears, . but he heeds not. The children of Jerusalem, the Holy Innocents, suffer a ia.omentary.pain and then God takes them to His bosom forever. Herod, thy voice caused thai edict to be written, thy heart felt not one pang of sorrow as the mother's piercing? cry reached thine ears. Herod, you are king still, but blood and tears, lamentation and curses, hot as Vesuvius in e-uption well up about thy throne. I Wait awhile, it is only a matter of a few days, and Gods hand will be manifest: "The mills of God grind slowly, f . But they grind sure and small." Christ is iu Egypt, and Ilerod is still King of J the Jews. "Uneasy lies the head that wears tho crown," is a saying which is on everybody's lips. ' If the crown presses heavily upon the king whose t day is just and pure, and whose life is given for j. the .general good, how heavy must press that crown f upon the king who knows not justice, whose days f and nights are one mad round of re.dry that; scorches, of blood that reddens, of tears that choke ? . f All men have a conscience. D may be :-harp or it may be blunt. Herod, you had a conscience. Ir s was a blunt one, and pride with its evil sisters blunted it. But blunt as it was. ah. Ilerod, iu the t (Continued cn Pae o.) t . .,. : HEROD AND JOHN THE BAPTIST. (Continued from Page 1.) dead silence of the night it -spoke. As you were alone -gazing upon the walls of "thy room, ft spoko, and it -reminded thee of thy incestuous life. It brought before thee the lewd dancer, and with the lewd dancer the head of John the Baptist; it brought before thee the mothers of Jerusalem, weeping over the lifeless bodies of their offspring l and calling upon the God of Abraham for justice; it brought before thee all which is known only to you 'and your God. Blunt was thy conscience, Herod, bad living makes a conscience blunt, but blunt though it was, in the dead stillness of the night it tortured thee. Dancing women, flaring lights, the sparkhi'of the wine cup, the adulation of thy courtiers emild not still it. Conscience, blunt "though it was. spoke through all these, spoke over all "these, and thy blunt conscience condemned thee, and its condemnation brought thee untold torture, sand the days of thy life came to :a close aud, like Judas, you went into your own place. We open the books of God, and after Herod's name we read these words: "Tie -who soweth in.thc flesh, of the flesh, shull reap eorruption." 'On the eastern bank of the -Jordan, opposite to Galgal, in a place called Bethabara, where in the olden day the valiant Joshua' pitched his tent, a strange man appears. lie carries not the purse of the rich, he wears not the garments of the wealthy, and his food consists of locusts 'and "wild honey. A great multitude 'surround him, attracted by the fame of his name, the strangeness of his words. Do pennanee, he tells the multitude, for the Kingdom King-dom of Christ is ut hand, and then in a voice strong us the 'eternal hills, come the words : "Every hill shall be made low, every valley shall be filled up, the crooked ways shall be made straight, the rough ways .plain,. and then rail flesh shall see the salvation of God." The multitude listen, there is in an earnest man a something which always compells the multitude to listen. In John the JBaptist there was an earnestness, equalled by no man born of woman, and to him sueceeds St. Paul, and that strong, "bright, pure earnestness which animated John the -Baptist, sprung from his Godly mission. The multitude hear him., His words have the strength, the ring of heaven about them, and carry conviction to Jewish hearts wedded more firmly to Jewish traditions than the oak is to its roots. Who is this man? we :ask the multitude, and in a whisper they tell us, "Some say he Is the Messiah," Mes-siah," others say he is Elias, and there are some who say "he is a great prophet." "Prepare ye the ways of the Lord," and the whisper of the multitude multi-tude is stilled. -"'Every mountain shall be made , low." Yes, destroy those mouutains of pride, that shut out from jour vision Jheaveu and its God, HI ' in m ii.Jui'l- ,' V "aniin. limiM.W .... ...i mmm, iii ... . . -.. Fill up those valleys, the valleys of omission, fill them up with good works, works performed with the pure intention of pleasing God; shovel into th? v!)l-leys. v!)l-leys. prayer, alms, repentance and charity, that the "hollows" may be filled up, aye, even to the city lighted up by God, There are crooked ways in thy life which must he made straight. Crooked ways, yes, the. truth must henceforth he sought for. be lived for, be died for. God is truth, and if men wish to live forever in the Heart of God. they must be like to JTim truthful. "The rough ways must be made plain' 3len! no more obscenity, no more blasphemy, no more these words that mock heaven and feast hell, no more these words, thy speech from henceforth is to be, -aye. aye, and nay, nay, thy speech from henceforth is to breathe a little of that perfume which came from the Angel's voice in the morning of their creation, when they first saw their God. Your speech from henceforth and forever is to be "Glory be to God.'' The multitude hear these words. They are silent, si-lent, and in silence they depart for the homes by Galilee's sea and despised Xazareth, but if you pluck one of them by the sleeve on tlie way home and say to him, "What think you of the man and his speech ?' -he wil hmswer, "lie is fearless; yes, lie is honest; yes, die is sincere; yes, He is a lover of the poor; yes, lie is an adherent of the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob;. yes, lie looks forward for-ward to the Light of Tk'thlchem, aye, sees that light;. yes, lie is a brave, -honest, pure rman. His aim is God, His life is God, His end will be God, and in a voice in every note of which is an intensity inten-sity of feeling comes the answer, "Yes." The multitude have departed. John the Hap-tist Hap-tist is alone. We approach him and say to him, "Art thou the Messiah?"' fl is look is a look of-fondness, of-fondness, his answer never shall die. "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the path -of the Lord." "I am unworthy "even to loose the latchet of His shoe." We leave John the Baptist and Ave approach the fessiah, the Christ. A multitude is around him, aud we catch this query as it falls from His lips: "But what went you out into the desert to see t A Teed shaken by the wind i ' But what -went' you '.out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold, they that are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. But what "went you out to see? A prophet? Yea, I tell you, 'and more than, a prophet, i'or this is He of whom it 13 written: Behold, I send 3Iy angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee." We leave the Christ. Xo, we shonld not say that, for no human being since the Babe of Bethlehem's Beth-lehem's smile lit up the world, should ever leave the Christ. No, we accompany Him up to heaven. He opens the Book of Life there, and after John 'the .Baptist's name we read these words: 'Tie who soweth in the spirit, of the spirit, shall reap eternal life." , . - - |