{"product_id":"2940012760470","title":"THE LOST WORD A Christmas Legend of Long Ago","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   I THE POVERTY OF HERMAS\u003cbr\u003e  II A CHRISTMAS LOSS\u003cbr\u003e III PARTING, BUT NO FAREWELL\u003cbr\u003e  IV LOVE IN SEARCH OF A WORD\u003cbr\u003e   V RICHES WITHOUT REST\u003cbr\u003e  VI GREAT FEAR AND RECOVERED JOY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE POVERTY OF HERMAS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"COME down, Hermas, come down! The night is past. It is time to be\u003cbr\u003estirring. Christ is born to-day. Peace be with you in His name. Make\u003cbr\u003ehaste and come down!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA little group of young men were standing in a street of Antioch, in\u003cbr\u003ethe dusk of early morning, fifteen hundred years ago. It was a class\u003cbr\u003eof candidates who had nearly finished their two years of training\u003cbr\u003efor the Christian church. They had come to call their fellow-student\u003cbr\u003eHermas from his lodging.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir voices rang out cheerily through the cool air. They were full\u003cbr\u003eof that glad sense of life which the young feel when they awake and\u003cbr\u003ecome to rouse one who is still sleeping. There was a note of\u003cbr\u003efriendly triumph in their call, as if they were exulting\u003cbr\u003eunconsciously in having begun the adventure of the new day before\u003cbr\u003etheir comrade.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut Hermas was not asleep. He had been waking for hours, and the\u003cbr\u003edark walls of his narrow lodging had been a prison to his restless\u003cbr\u003eheart. A nameless sorrow and discontent had fallen upon him, and he\u003cbr\u003ecould find no escape from the heaviness of his own thoughts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is a sadness of youth into which the old cannot enter. It\u003cbr\u003eseems to them unreal and causeless. But it is even more bitter and\u003cbr\u003eburdensome than the sadness of age. There is a sting of resentment\u003cbr\u003ein it, a fever of angry surprise that the world should so soon be a\u003cbr\u003edisappointment, and life so early take on the look of a failure. It\u003cbr\u003ehas little reason in it, perhaps, but it has all the more weariness\u003cbr\u003eand gloom, because the man who is oppressed by it feels dimly that\u003cbr\u003eit is an unnatural and an unreasonable thing, that he should be\u003cbr\u003eseparated from the joy of his companions, and tired of living before\u003cbr\u003ehe has fairly begun to live.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHermas had fallen into the very depths of this strange self-pity. He\u003cbr\u003ewas out of tune with everything around him. He had been thinking,\u003cbr\u003ethrough the dead, still night, of all that he had given up when he\u003cbr\u003eleft the house of his father, the wealthy pagan Demetrius, to join\u003cbr\u003ethe company of the Christians. Only two years ago he had been one of\u003cbr\u003ethe richest young men in Antioch. Now he was one of the poorest. And\u003cbr\u003ethe worst of it was that, though he had made the choice willingly\u003cbr\u003eand accepted the sacrifice with a kind of enthusiasm, he was already\u003cbr\u003edissatisfied with it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe new life was no happier than the old. He was weary of vigils and\u003cbr\u003efasts, weary of studies and penances, weary of prayers and sermons.\u003cbr\u003eHe felt like a slave in a treadmill. He knew that he must go on. His\u003cbr\u003ehonour, his conscience, his sense of duty, bound him. He could not\u003cbr\u003ego back to the old careless pagan life again; for something had\u003cbr\u003ehappened within him which made a return impossible. Doubtless he had\u003cbr\u003efound the true religion, but he had found it only as a task and a\u003cbr\u003eburden; its joy and peace had slipped away from him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe felt disillusioned and robbed. He sat beside his hard little\u003cbr\u003ecouch, waiting without expectancy for the gray dawn of another empty\u003cbr\u003eday, and hardly lifting his head at the shouts of his friends.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Come down, Hermas, you sluggard! Come down! It is Christmas morn.\u003cbr\u003eAwake and be glad with us!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I am coming,\" he answered listlessly; \"only have patience a moment.\u003cbr\u003eI have been awake since midnight, and waiting for the day.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You hear him!\" said his friends one to another. \"How he puts us all\u003cbr\u003eto shame! He is more watchful, more eager, than any of us. Our\u003cbr\u003emaster, John the Presbyter, does well to be proud of him. He is the\u003cbr\u003ebest man in our class. When he is baptized the church will get a\u003cbr\u003estrong member.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile they were talking the door opened and Hermas stepped out. He\u003cbr\u003ewas a figure to be remarked in any company--tall, broad-shouldered,\u003cbr\u003estraight-hipped, with a head proudly poised on the firm column of\u003cbr\u003ethe neck, and short brown curls clustering over the square forehead.\u003cbr\u003eIt was the perpetual type of vigourous and intelligent young manhood,\u003cbr\u003esuch as may be found in every century among the throngs of ordinary\u003cbr\u003emen, as if to show what the flower of the race should be. But the\u003cbr\u003elight in his dark blue eyes was clouded and uncertain; his smooth\u003cbr\u003echeeks were leaner than they should have been at twenty; and there\u003cbr\u003ewere downward lines about his mouth which spoke of desires unsatisfied\u003cbr\u003eand ambitions repressed. He joined his companions with brief\u003cbr\u003egreetings,--a nod to one, a word to another,--and they passed together\u003cbr\u003edown the steep street.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47166605263088,"sku":"2940012760470","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012760470_p0.jpg?v=1763572263","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012760470","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}