ofound to permit a doubt of its truth; indeed, there was nothing
left him desirable in the connection but assurances, if such were
to be had, pertaining exclusively to the consequences of the
amazing event.

And now there is wanting an explanation which the very discerning
may have heretofore demanded; certainly it can be no longer delayed.
Our tale begins, in point of date not less than fact, to trench close
upon the opening of the ministry of the Son of Mary, whom we have
seen but once since this same Balthasar left him worshipfully in
his mother's lap in the cave by Bethlehem. Henceforth to the end
the mysterious Child will be a subject of continual reference;
and slowly though surely the current of events with which we are
dealing will bring us nearer and nearer to him, until finally we
see him a man--we would like, if armed contrariety of opinion would
permit it, to add--A MAN WHOM THE WORLD COULD NOT DO WITHOUT. Of
this declaration, apparently so simple, a shrewd mind inspired by
faith will make much--and in welcome. Before his time, and since,
there have been men indispensable to particular people and periods;
but his indispensability was to the whole race, and for all time--a
respect in which it is unique, solitary, divine.

To Sheik Ilderim the story was not new. He had heard it from the
three wise men together under circumstances which left no room
for doubt; he had acted upon it seriously, for the helping a
fugitive escape from the anger of the first Herod was dangerous.
Now one of the three sat at his table again, a welcome guest and
revered friend. Sheik Ilderim certainly believed the story; yet,
in the nature of things, its mighty central fact could not come
home to him with the force and absorbing effect it came to Ben-Hur.
He was an Arab, whose interest in the consequences was but general;
on the other hand, Ben-Hur was an Israelite and a Jew, with more
than a special interest in--if the solecism can be pardoned--the
truth of the fact. He laid hold of the circumstance with a purely
Jewish mind.

From his cradle, let it be remembered, he had heard of the Messiah;
at the colleges he had been made familiar with all that was known
of that Being at once the hope, the fear, and the peculiar glory
of the chosen people; the prophets from the first to the last of
the heroic line foretold him; and the coming had been, and yet was,
the theme of endless exposition with the rabbis--in the synagogues,
in the scho