andful of chips of wood, branches, and dried
leaves, in one corner, represented the fuel; and a heap of snow
underneath the hole showed that its influence was not potent.

On the heap of rags, five persons were lying, huddled close together for
warmth's sake--father, mother, and three children. How had they come
into such a condition as this? Ah, they had not always lived thus.
Only a few years ago, this man had been a prosperous silversmith at
Reading; his wife had been well dressed, his children well fed, his
acquaintance large, and himself generally respected. How had it come
about that they were now in this pitiable condition? Had the man been
idle and neglectful of his business? By no means; he had been diligent
and hard-working. Was he a drunken profligate? Not at all; he was, for
the age, unusually sober. Had he committed some terrible crime which
had brought him to ruin?

The only true answer seems scarcely possible: and yet the only answer
possible is awfully true. The man was born a Jew, and had become a
Christian. It was only natural that this should turn the Jewish
community against him; and all his acquaintances deserted him as a
matter of course. But surely this very fact should have made the
Christian community more friendly and helpful! Alas, the Christian
community, in bondage to the iron yoke of Rome, hated him more as a Jew
than they welcomed him as a Christian. Rome has always been the hater
and opponent of Israel. The law of England at that time was actually
this: that if a Jew became converted to Christianity, he forfeited
everything he possessed to the Crown, and had to begin the world again.
This had been the lot of poor David ben Mossi, and his wife Ruth, whose
conversion had taken place under Gerhardt's preaching. They were too
honest to hide the change in their convictions, though to reveal it
meant worldly ruin. They applied for baptism, and by so doing literally
gave up all for Christ--home, goods, gain, and occupation, not to speak
of friends. David obtained work as a woodcutter, which brought them in
just enough to keep life in them and rags about them; and he built with
his own hands, aided by his faithful Ruth, the mud hovel, wherein they
found the only shelter that this cold world had for them. They had left
Reading, preferring solitude to averted looks and abusive tongues; and
not a creature in Dorchester came near them. Alike as Jews and as poor
people, they were n