The Childhood of Jesus
The Gospel of James
Biographical Gospel of the Lord
- Chapter 138 -
Love and Compassion Are Better Than Justice
CYRENIUS embraced Joseph with the greatest affection and told him in a few words what had happened in the citadel during the night.
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Joseph acknowledged: 'My very dear friend and brother in the Lord, what you want to tell me I already knew before it happened, and that in complete detail just as it afterward took place!
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But one thing you should not have done after that as you did.
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And this one thing is that you had the torn corpses buried in the public place.
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Of course you did this from a politically correct point of view in order to keep others from similar attempts by such an example,
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but that is a very short-lived expedient! See, nothing in the world has a shorter life than horror, fear and sadness!
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Hence an expedient which awakens these three emotions is no more justified than the by it awakened emotions themselves.
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When any man has shaken off these three emblems of judgment by means of his free spirit, he then becomes angry and thereupon attacks the cruel judge with redoubled fury.
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Do you therefore always lead the people with the love that lasts forever, and seek to hide such expedient, but for all that horrifying examples from the people, and you will constantly enjoy the people's love.
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'I tell you: A drop of compassion at every opportunity is better than a whole palace full of the best intentioned but very strict justice!
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For compassion betters the enemy as well as the friend, while the best intentioned but very strict justice makes the just one proud and overbearing,
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and the one guilty and so judged is filled with wrath and thinks only of how he may revenge himself against the one that is just.
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What you have now done cannot be made undone any more,
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but in the future remember this rule. It is better than gold, yes, better than purest gold.'
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Here Cyrenius again fell about Joseph's neck and thanked him for this teaching like a son his father.
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Thereupon the entire company went into the bed-chamber of Cyrenius which, as was always the custom with prominent Romans, consisted of a large hall.
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For the Romans said: During sleep man exhales his sickness,
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and if it does not have the proper space to scatter itself in the bed-chamber, it falls back on him again and he becomes sick. -
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For this reason wealthy Romans had fountains in their large sleeping-halls, which purified the air and absorbed the bad vapors.
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Thus the sleeping-hall of Cyrenius was also the greatest hall in the castle and was provided with two fountains with wide water basins in which floated several sea-onions.
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The entire hall was of great, old-Egyptian splendor, and the floor consisted of black and brown marble.
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The whole company was now present in this hall and discussed various matters of former times, while all the servants of Cyrenius were hurriedly putting the side-halls in the best possible order.