“What do you mean?” exclaimed Simeon.  “His demands are quite impossible.”

“Must everything be taken so literally?” said James.  “The Master always puts the ideal high, and expresses it in lofty words, so that it may the better stay in the memory.”

Simeon waved them aside with his gold-encircled hand.  “To give up all I possess!  To become horribly poor——?”

Then another disciple stepped forward, stood before him in a sad-coloured garment, crying:  “Look at us.  Have we given up everything?  We never had much more than we have now, and what we had we have still.  Our brother Thomas has only one coat because he is full-blooded; I have two coats because I easily feel cold.  If I had poor legs the Master would allow me an ass like Thaddeus.  Every one has what he needs.  You need more than we do because you are accustomed to more.  But you cannot use all that you have for yourself.  And yet you need it for the many hundreds of men you employ, who work for the good of the country, and live by you.  I say that your property belongs to you by right just as my second coat to me, and that you can quite well be His disciple.”

“You chatter too much, Philip,” said James reprovingly.  “If a man makes a pilgrimage of repentance towards eternal life, he doesn’t travel like the Emperor of the Indies, or if he does, he doesn’t know what he wants.  Believe me, noble sir, wealth is always dangerous, even for life.  The best protection against envy, hate, and sudden attacks is poverty.”

There was a third disciple, Matthew, with them, and he addressed himself not to the stranger, but to his comrades, and said:  “Brothers, it must be clearly understood that he who desires the Kingdom of Heaven must give up everything that causes him unrest; otherwise he cannot be entirely with the Father.  But you,” turning to the great man from Jerusalem, “you do not wish to break with the world?  Well, then, do one thing, love your neighbour.  Keep your silken raiment, but clothe the naked.  Keep your riding-horse, but give crutches to the lame.  Keep your high position, but free your slaves.  Only if you think what is brought you from the fields, the mines, the workshops is yours, then woe be to you!”

“I would willingly do one thing,” said Simeon.  “Good! then say to your slaves, ’You are free.  If you will continue to serve me, I will treat you well.  If you prefer to go your own way, take what you require of good clothing and mules.’  Will you do that, stranger?”

“You fanatic!” shouted Simeon angrily.  “What notions you have about men.  They’re not like that.  Life’s very different from that!”

“But life will be like that some day,” said Matthew.

“He is a Messiah who destroys the Kingdom instead of building it,” exclaimed Simeon, jumping into his litter and giving the sign to depart.

The procession moved on slowly, its glitter showing up against the dark rocks of the desert track.  The disciples gazed after it in silence.