ots_

AND when did men cease from worshipping them?' asked Fakredeen of
Tancred; 'before the Prophet?' 'When truth descended from Heaven in the
person of Christ Jesus.'

'But truth had descended from Heaven before Jesus,' replied Fakredeen;
'since, as you tell me, God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, and since
then to many of the prophets and the princes of Israel.'

'Of whom Jesus was one,' said Tancred; 'the descendant of King David
as well as the Son of God. But through this last and greatest of their
princes it was ordained that the inspired Hebrew mind should mould and
govern the world. Through Jesus God spoke to the Gentiles, and not to
the tribes of Israel only. That is the great worldly difference between
Jesus and his inspired predecessors. Christianity is Judaism for
the multitude, but still it is Judaism, and its development was the
death-blow of the Pagan idolatry.'

'Gentiles,' murmured Fakredeen; 'Gentiles! you are a Gentile, Tancred?'

'Alas! I am,' he answered, 'sprung from a horde of Baltic pirates, who
never were heard of during the greater annals of the world, a descent
which I have been educated to believe was the greatest of honours. What
we should have become, had not the Syro-Arabian creeds formed our minds,
I dare not contemplate. Probably we should have perished in mutual
destruction. However, though rude and modern Gentiles, unknown to the
Apostles, we also were in time touched with the sacred symbol, and
originally endowed with an organisation of a high class, for our
ancestors wandered from Caucasus; we have become kings and princes.'

'What a droll thing is history,' said Fakredeen. 'Ah! if I were only
acquainted with it, my education would be complete. Should you call me a
Gentile?'

'I have great doubts whether such an appellation could be extended to
the descendants of Ishmael. I always look upon you as a member of the
sacred race. It is a great thing for any man; for you it may tend to
empire.'

'Was Julius Caesar a Gentile?'

'Unquestionably.'

'And Iskander?' (Alexander of Macedon.)

'No doubt; the two most illustrious Gentiles that ever existed, and
representing the two great races on the shores of the Mediterranean, to
which the apostolic views were first directed.'

'Well, their blood, though Gentile, led to empire,' said Fakredeen.

'But what are their conquests to those of Jesus Christ?' said Tancred,
with great animation. 'Where are their dynasties? where their
sub