Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/86

78 CHAPTER VI.

How I found not Salvation in the Worship of the Temple; nor in the Teachers of Galilee; nor in the Essenes; and how I first spake with Jesus of Nazareth.

many days after my discourse with Philo the Alexandrine, when I returned from the Great Library to my uncle's house, a messenger was waiting for me, bearing a letter from Rabbi Jonathan. Opening it, I read that my mother was suffering under a grievous disease, and being, as she thought, nigh unto death, she would fain see me before she died. So I straightway made all things ready for my journey, and having bidden farewell to my uncle, I set sail on the morrow from Alexandria, and on the fifth day arrived in Jerusalem; where, according to my mother's desire, I purposed to offer sacrifice unto the Lord, and to make vows for my mother's health.

The sun was well-nigh set when I came to Jerusalem. But on the morrow, as I went up to the Temple through the narrow ways, amid the throng of them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, new thoughts and doubts rose in my heart, such as I had never felt before when I had gone up to sacrifice during the three great feasts. Methought the Lord must needs turn His face from so much traffic and disorder and defilement of His Holy House. On both sides of the gate Horæa, as far as Solomon's porch, were shops of merchants and stalls of money-changers. Even in the Court of the Gentiles, which is a part of the Temple