rophet. I
remember well that, when he rose in the synagogue, it seemed as if
some wisdom from on high touched his lips, and he would speak with
such hope and courage of the light that should yet shine in our
darkness and of the help that should yet arise to Judah, that the
people's faces would glow with joyful expectation."

Stephanus paused a moment and started forward, as his eye was turned
toward his own shadow upon the rock, cast by the rising moon. Did the
old man's figure that he saw remind him of the patriarch of whom he
was talking?

Soon he went on.

"Ah! but they should have heard my father talking here by night, under
the stars. It was here upon these hills where the royal shepherd used
to sing, that his tongue was loosed and he spoke wonderful words. So
it was that night, fifty years ago. I remember it as if it were
yesterday. My father sat in this very niche, where I am sitting now;
James and Hosea were on either side of him. I was lying at their feet,
as you now lie at mine. Their faces kindled and the tremor of deep
feeling was in their voices as they talked together; and the other two
had lingered here three or four hours after the sun had set. It was
not a moonlit night like this, but all the stars were out and all the
winds were still.

"Suddenly I saw my father rise to his feet. Then the other men sprang
up, with astonishment and wonder upon their faces. It had grown light
all at once, lighter than the brightest moon; and as I turned my face
in the direction in which the others were looking, I saw, standing
there upon that level place, a figure majestic and beautiful beyond
all the power of words to tell."

"Were you not afraid, grandfather?"

"Indeed, I was, my boy. My heart stopped beating. The others were
standing, but I had no power to rise. I lay there motionless upon the
earth. My eyes were fixed upon that wonderful face; upon those clear,
shining eyes; upon that brow that seemed to beam with the purity of
the soul within. It was not a smile with which that face was lighted.
It was something too noble and exalted to call by that name. It was a
look that told of power and peace, of joy and triumph."

"Did you know that it was an angel?"

"I knew not anything. I only knew that what I saw was glorious, too
glorious for mortal eyes to look upon. Yet, while I gazed, and in far
less time than I have now taken to tell you of what I saw, the
terribleness of the look began to disappear, the sw