The Childrens Portion | Page 6

into ruin, and
trained a choir of boys to sing thanks to God. But when all these things
had been accomplished, the year during which he was to have searched
for the Golden Age was within a few weeks of its close. And, what was
worse, it was too plain to his sister that the Prince's health had suffered

by his toils. Night and day he had labored in his service of love. Night
and day he had carried the burden of the sickness and infirmities of the
village in his heart. It had proved a burden greater than he could bear.
He had toiled on till he saw health restored to every home. He toiled
until he saw the village itself protected from a second visitation of the
plague. But his own strength was meanwhile ebbing away. The grateful
villagers observed with grief how heavily their deliverer had to lean on
his sister's arm in walking. And tears, which they strove in vain to
conceal, would gather in their eyes as they watched the voice that had
so often cheered them sinking into a whisper, and the pale face
becoming paler every day.
V.
RETURN OF THE SEARCHERS.
The year granted to the Princes by the King had now come to a close.
And he and his nobles and the chief men of his people assembled on
the appointed day to welcome the Princes on their return and to hear
their reports concerning the time of the Golden Age.
The first to arrive was Prince Yestergold. He was accompanied to the
platform on which the throne was set by the painter and poet, who had
been his companions during the year. Having embraced his father, he
stepped to the front and said:--
"Most high King and father beloved, and you, the honorable nobles and
people of his realm, on some future occasion my two companions will,
the one recite the songs in which the Age which we went to search for
is celebrated, and the other exhibit the pictures in which its life is
portrayed. On this occasion it belongs to me to tell the story of our
search, and of what we found and of what we failed to find. We went
forth to discover the time of the Golden Age. We went in the belief that
it was the time when our Lord was on the earth. How often have I
exclaimed in your hearing, 'Oh that I had been born in that age! How
much easier to have been a Christian then!' I have this day, with
humbleness of heart, to declare that I have found myself entirely in the
wrong. I have been in the country where images of the Ages are stored.

I have seen the very copy of the Age of our Lord. I was in it as if I had
been born in it. I saw the scenes which those who then lived saw. I saw
the crowds who moved in those scenes. I beheld the very person of the
Divine Lord. And oh! my father, and oh! neighbors and friends, shall I
shrink from saying to you, 'Be thankful it is in this Age and not in that
you have been born, and that you know the Lord as this Age knows
Him, and not as He was seen and known in His own.'
"We arrived at Bethany on the day when Lazarus was raised. I mingled
with the crowd around the grave. I saw the sisters. I was amazed to find
that nothing looked to me as I had expected it to do. Even the Lord had
not the appearance of One who could raise the dead. And when the
dead man came forth, I could not but mark that some who had seen the
mighty miracle turned away from the spot, jeering and scoffing at the
Lord, its worker.
"When I next saw the Lord He was in the hands of the scoffers who had
turned away from the grave of Lazarus. He was being led along the
streets of Jerusalem to Calvary. The streets on both sides were crowded
with stalls, and with people buying and selling as at a fair. Nobody
except a few women seemed to care that so great a sufferer was passing
by. He was bending under the weight of the Cross. His face was pale
and all streaked with blood. I said to myself: 'Can this be He who is
more beautiful than ten thousand?' My eyes filled with tears. Sickness
came over my heart. I was like one about to die. I hurried away from
the pitiless crowd, from the terrible spectacle, from the city accursed.
And straightway I turned my face toward my home. And as I came
within sight of my father's