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Once the decision had come to Joseph, that Mary must travel up with him to Bethlehem, many things that had been perplexing and worrying him were suddenly made straight.

None in Nazareth, save only Mary and himself, knew of the coming of the Angel to Mary. The time was fast coming when the revelation would have to be told. And he knew how the gentle Mary shrank from the comment and the disbelief which she could foresee. In her first bewilderment and timidity she had fled away and hidden herself those three months. And though he knew that she was content in his knowledge and his protection, he was sure that the problem of the future of her Son was pressing heavily upon her.

Many times he had thought of leaving Nazareth and taking her to some distant village. He had even spoken of the plan to Mary. But always she had demurred. It seemed that she .was not willing that the coming of her King should even seem to be in any way affected by the ignorant thought of the world. In all of her own humility and lowliness of mind, she. was fiercely, adoringly proud for Him. And she had steadfastly insisted that they should wait upon the word of the Lord, until He should indicate to them that which He wished.

Now the coming of the command of Caesar, through Herod, had opened a way to him, which he believed was no less than a part of the design of God. And Mary, too, when he had talked with her, was ready to agree that a way was pointed out.

So Joseph sold the furnishings of his household and the heavier tools and the bench and frames of his trade, for he had a presentiment that he should not soon return to Nazareth. His trade was one that he could practice in almost any place, and he was not as those who are bound to the land. From the sale he had money with which to buy an ass, and support for the journey.

Now they could fare forth, to follow the will of God, with some provision for the wants of the way, and with a reason for their going that was patent to all men.

Thus, Joseph leading and Mary riding upon the little beast, with the finer tools of Joseph’s trade and the bags of food and clothing slung on either side, they took the road which Mary had taken in troubled flight in the days of the Spring.

It was a journey altogether different from that which Mary had made, for now the cold was come and it was necessary to seek fire and shelter for the night. Also, the road now was crowded with travelers; for the command of Herod had set all Israel upon the move. From one end of the country to the other men were journeying, singly and by families and groups, each up or down to his own city. And the excitement of the road was intense, for many, many of the young men had taken to the hills to join themselves into bands and live upon the travelers of the road.

Out of the protection and comparative security which she now enjoyed, Mary wondered how she had ever found courage for that lone and terrifying journey which she had made.

On a morning early they came in through the north gate of the holy city and made their way up to the temple, for Joseph was minded that the Lord was their protection and their guidance.

There was tumult in all the streets of the city, for the crowd of those who had come up to be enrolled was very great. And men talked strange tongues, and stranger thoughts, in all the byways of the streets. And as they came up the hill towards the temple the crowds were denser and their talk more wild, so that Mary was frightened and ready to beg that they should go upon their way. But Joseph went on, looking neither to the right nor to the left, nor speaking to any man.

On the very steps of the temple the tumult was terrible.

Men swore strange, wild oaths here, even in the gates of God. And priests of the temple harangued madly, calling curses upon Herod and upon his master in Rome, that they were daring to invade the rights of the temple.

In the Court of the Heathen, where they went together, the sights and sounds that met them were of a nature to sadden the hearts of these two faithful ones. Their lives were lived far from the temple where the noises and the bickerings and the desecration that went on within it were scarcely even imagined by them. To them, the very name of the temple must have brought the thought of the calm of God. They could think of it only as the dwelling place of the heart of the Lord, where peace and purity and the vision ineffable were over all.

That was the temple of their God, as their souls pictured it in their distant dreams.

This was the reality which fell upon their hearts. Because of the multitudes that were in the city, the stalls of the money changers had been thrown open and they plied their thieving trade across their tables even as in the days preceding the Passover.

The booths of the sellers of doves and pigeons to the women crowded half the floor of the great court. Signs directing the crowds to the right or the left were posted everywhere as in the busiest and most bewildering marts of the world. Filth and the hot, crowding presence of many men made the air of the place insufferable.

Officers of the temple stood at special stalls to receive the money from the people and to give them in return leaden checks with which alone purchases of offerings could be made. Thus the poor were put under a double imposition. Coming up from far-flung districts of the country where their only coins were the coins of the Greek and eastern merchants who visited them, they had first to deal with the money changers to get the lawful money of the temple. And this they must exchange for the checks of the officers of the temple who were in secret league with the purveyors of the articles for the offerings.

And above all there rose the high, angry clamor that ever accompanies every sort of traffic in the East; the angry cry of disappointed greed; the shrill wail of the miser forced to pay a price; the forlorn cry of the poor finding their all too little.

Joseph dealt with the money changers and coming gave Mary her portion, that she might not be shamed to enter the temple without her free gift to the temple treasure.

Then they went to their separate courts to pray before the Lord.

Meeting again in the outer court, the peace of God was upon them both. But they were not minded to linger. The scenes of this outer court of the temple and the noise of passion that filled the streets made them hunger for the open road and the solitude of communion in the Mystery that was with them.

And now there fell upon them both, on the slow road, in the winter sunshine, a vision and a sight that was of God. And they were no longer Mary and Joseph, two simple, wearied people of outcast Nazareth. For the light that shone upon them was the light of God’s unfolding Mystery. And they were two whom God had chosen out of all the creatures of His hand to be nearest to Him.

They were the spirit and the soul of Israel, of Abraham and of David. They were the soul of all those who walked with clean heart in the Law. And they were the spirit of all those unnumbered millions who would walk in a new and higher Law in all the world and in all the times of the world.

Upon Mary the light of the vision fell and she saw not the darkness of the days that had gone, nor felt the fatigue nor the shadow of anguish. But looked even upon the throne of the King, her Son, and was melted in the glory of her vision. And in that hour her soul went to all the women of earth who bear a man child so that for one flooding hour of glory they see, every one, their man child a king.

And upon Joseph the edge of the vision fell, so that in that hour he was not a weary man plodding a dusty road. He was a mighty, glorious protecting angel of strength and light and beauty, and his heart fell down and worshipped in the tenderness of mighty strength.

So, in the evening, they climbed the hill road to the well where David in the long ago had so thirsted to drink. And the gate of David’s blessed city, Bethlehem, the little, stood open to them.