curse of your people will be fulfilled in
you--you heartless Jew!"

At that selfsame hour Simeon, the citizen, was sitting alone in his
house thinking over his fate, and he was sad. Since the ride into the
wilderness, from which he had returned beaten and robbed, he had,
following the word of the Prophet from whom he had sought happiness,
made many changes in his way of life. Impossible as it had then
seemed, much had become possible. He had emancipated his slaves,
broken up his harem, given the overflow of his possessions to the
needy, and dispensed with all show. And yet he was not happy--his
heart was bare and empty. He was pondering the matter when the
shouting of the crowd reached him from the street. What was happening
so early? He looked down, saw the spears of the soldiers glitter above
the people's heads, and noted how one of the malefactors who was to be
executed that day was being led out. Simeon was turning away from the
disagreeable sight when he saw that the man was carrying the cross
Himself, and how, ill-treated by the guards, He became weaker every
moment, so that the cross struck noisily against the stones. In a
flash he understood. Without stopping to think, he hurried into the
street, and pushed his way to the tortured creature in order to help
Him. And when he looked into the poor man's worn face, down which a
tear ran, he was so overcome with pity that he placed himself under the
cross, took it on his shoulder, and carried it along. The crowd
howled; insults and mud were thrown at Simeon. He paid no heed, he
scarcely observed it. He was absorbed in what he was doing; he only
thought of his desire to help the unhappy creature who staggered along
beside him to bear His load. A wondrous feeling stirred in him, an
eager gladness that he had never known before. All the joy of his life
was not to be compared with this bliss; he would have liked to go on
for ever and ever by the side of this Man, helping Him to bear His load
and loving Him.

Is that it? Is that what men call life? To be where Love is and to do
what Love enjoins?

CHAPTER XXXV

Anxiety increased in the quiet house at Nazareth. Mary determined to
go to Jerusalem for the holy festival to offer her sorrow as a
sacrifice to God, to implore Him to enlighten her erring son, and to
restore to Him the faith of His ancestors. As she journeyed through
Samaria and Judaea she thought of the days long past, when she had