Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1863-06-17
The Wandering Jew.
LEGEND OF THE MIDDLE AGES

LE1END OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
In the year of Our Lord 1900. the
BISHOP OF Slewick was travelling through
the country Of Wittenbers, on his way to
Hamburgh, TO visit the small CITY of Sa-
lem one OF his friends, Francis Eysen, a
learned philosopher and theolosian. After
the usual compliments were passed, the
conversation having turned on preacbino.
Francis Eysen remarked, that in fulfill
ment of duty, he was to preach on next
Monday, the feast of the Three Kipys or
Magl, and that he would be very anxious
to have all the company present. II
would afford me the greatest pleasure,
said he, and if you would remark any
fault IN my sermon, l would take it as a
mark of the greatest friendship to have
it pointed out and corrected
The day of the sermon being arrived
the friends kept their promise, and were
seated right before the pulpit During
the sermon the Bishop of Slewick bchcld
Il very old man, with, a large, flowing
white beard, who seemed TO take the most
marked interest i'll the discourse. Every
time he heard the name of Jesus. he
struck his breast violently, and uttered
deep and bitter groans of dispair. The
Bishop, thinking that the old man may
have been oppressed with some over
whc.ming grief, commissioned one of his
servants to watch him, and invite him to
the house of Francis Evsen. after church.
The stranger readily complied with the
Bishops invitation, and seated himself
among the numerous guests. At first he
hcsitatcd to reply to the Prclatcs question,
but, on being pressed by the guests, the
Wandering jew, for it was no other,
touched with the warm hospitality of the
German, consented TO relate his history.
We will lot linn HOW tell lis own story.
The narr'tion of his boyish sports unfol,ls
to us IN ingenious and touching legend on
the origin of the wood of the Holy Cross.
u was born of the tribe of NcpIltali.
i'll The year 1862 OF the creation of the
world, three years before Kin: IIcrod put
to death his two sons, Alexander and
Aristobulus, by order of the Emperor
Augustus. My name is Ahasucrus My
fab Was a carpenter by trade, and my
mother earned her livelihood as scam
stress. She WAS constantly employed on
the vestmcnts of the Lca,ites, which she
embroidered with perfection. NV parents
taught NE how 10 read and write, and
when | WAS of of IL more advanced AGE
they gave me the Cook oc &c Law and
the Prophets TO read. Besides these
books any fithcr had another, large, very
old one bound in parchment, which he in
hcritcd from his ancestors, and i'm which
have often read many wonderful things
some of which | will tell you briefly, be-
cause they are intimately connected with
my own personal history.
After our first parents, Adam and
his wife, Eve, had two children, Cain and
Abel, they believed that one of these two
children would be the Nessiah. and that
he would pardon them their sin of DISC
bctllcnce. This hope soon vanished, for
Cain killed his brother Abel, whose death
Adam bewailed for one hundred years
At last, having had several sons and
daughters afterwards, and seeing that the
time of his death was near, he called his
young son, Seth, and said to him, 60
to the earthly paradise, and request the
angel Gabriel, who guards, its gate
with flaming sword, to permit me to
enter once more before | die, its beauteous
enclosure. Seth, who was quite ignorant
of TINS fact, went thither according to
directions, found the angel and delivered
his message. But the angel answered
him thus - Neither your father
nor yourself nor your posterity,
can ever enter the earthly paradise; but
by the grace of the Redeemer TO come,
you, may be celestial Having said
this, he allowed him to see at a distance
this clysian place of beauty, where his
father and mother once had dwelt, and
where they committed the sin of disobedi-
ence. When Seth had beheld this charm
ing abode he was quite astonished, and
afflicted with such sudden grief that he
bust into tears. His sorrow was keen
and intense, he was going away downcast
and broken-hearted, when the angel called
him back and said to him - Your father
will soon die here are three kernals of the
fruit of the forbidden tree, take them, and
when your father is dead place these three
kernels Oh his tongue, and bury them with
his body Seth then departed, and full
filed exactly all the commands of the
angel.
| should here remark" said Ahasuc-
rus, g that in the same place where Adam
was inferred, there grew up, some time
afterwards, three trees, which bore fruit OF
4 II