Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-10-17

| tant mountains rejoiced in the pur-
pie with which it is so regally dress
ed them. In the city the temples,
palaces, towers, pinnacles, and all
points of beauty and prominence
seemed to lift themselves into the I'M
rivalled brilliance, as if they knew
the pride they were giving the many
who from time to time turned to look
at them. Suddenly a dimness began
to fill the sky and cover the earth
at first no more than a scarce per-
ceptible fading of the day; a twi-
| light out of time; an evening gliding
in upon the splendors of noon. But it
| deepened, and directly drew atten-
ton, whereat the noise of the shout
| ing and laughter fell off, and men,
doubling their senses, gazed at each
other curiously; then they looked to
the sun again; then at the mountains
getting farther away; at the sky
, and the near landscape, sinking in
shadow; at the hill upon which the
tragedy was enacting; and from all
these they gazed at each other again.
and turned pale and held their peace
ut is only mist or passing
! cloud Simonides said soothingly to
Esther, who was alarmed 1t will
brighten presently
"Ben-Hur did not think so.
1T is not a mist or a cloud he
said. The spirits who live in the
! a1r-the prophets and saints-are at
work in mercy to themselves and ma
ture. L say to you, o Simonides,
truly as God lives, he who hangs
yonder is the Son Of God
And leaving Simonides lost in
wonder at such a speech from him,
he went where BaHhaZar was kneel-
ing nearby, and laid his hand upon
the good mans shoulder.
% wise Egyptian, hearken! Thou
alone vert right-the Nazarene is in
deed the Son of God!
'Balthazar drew him down to
him, and replied, feebly, I saw
him child in the Manager where he
was first laid; it is not strang that
should live to see this day! Would
that L had died with my brethren!
Happy Melchoir! Happy.
Comfort thee" said Ben-Hur.
Doubtless they, too, are here"
Within the frame Of the story of
Christ is told the tole of Ben-Hur
the three Wise Men, BaIthazar, Mel
choir and Gaspar and ending with
the sublime tragedy on Golgotha.
From the days of the scenes at the
Manager until the elimination Of the
great story, the figure of Christ ap-
pears but once, and that for a mo-
ment, but over all that happens in
the intervening years hovers' the
semitic spirit; thrilling as the cpl
sodes are in themselves, strongly as
the characters are portrayed, they
are but preparation for waht Is to
follow, a mere worldly setting for
Him who was too great for all save
few to understand at that time
Some twenty-one years after the
scenes at the manager a young Jew,
Ben-Hur, prince Of Jerusalem, rich,
happy, ambitious, was standing by a
parapet of his palace, watching the
progress of Valerius Gratus, i'm
periaI governor of Judea. AS the
Roman passed beneath the wall amid
the jeers and insults of the Jews. the
young prince leaned far out to see
the new governor; a loose tile was
displaced, and, as bitter fate would
have it, fell full upon the governor
The accident was not fatal; but it
was an opportunity for exemplary
justice, especially as the estates of
the Jew were very desirable to the
governor and his friend Messiah,
hitherto almost brother to Ben-Hur
though the latter had been. The I'M
happy Jew was sent as a rover to
the galleys, where the limit of life
was at most but q year. His mother
and sister were immured in a secret
cell in the Tower of Antonio, where
they were doomed to the fate of lep-
ers. The only act of kindness Ben
Hur could remember during the years
that followed was on the day he was
dragged to the galleys. The hand
laid kindly upon his shoulder awoke
the unfortunate man, and looking up
he saw a face he never forgot-the
face of a boy about his own age.
shaded by locks of yellowish bright
chestnut hair; a face lighted by dark
blue eyes, at the time so soft, so APP
pealing, so full of love and holp pur-
pose, that they had all the power Of
command and will That was in
Nazareth.
How Ben-Hur in time became
rover on the flagship of Arrius,
Duumvir and admiral, how the
flagship was destroyed in a great
sea fight, how Ben-Hur rescued the
admiral, became his adopted son
and his heir, learned at Rome the
manner of Roman war and Roman
sports, returned to the east a Ro-