and
faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make
thee ruler over many things.' As bright crowns await the humble
home-workers as the great movers of earth, provided all be done 'as unto
the Lord.'"

"But," returned Amzi, impatiently, "my 'good works,' as you call them,
have not been done 'as unto the Lord.' My charities have been done
simply because the sight of misery caused me to feel unhappy. I felt
pity for the wretched, and in relieving them set my own mind at ease,
and gave satisfaction to myself. I feel that it is right to do certain
things, and so I do them under a sense of moral obligation."

"Then," said Yusuf, "has this acting under a sense of moral obligation
brought you perfect satisfaction, perfect rest?"

"Frankly, it has not."

Yusuf rose, and, placing both hands on Amzi's shoulders, said earnestly:
"My friend, who can say that every good impulse of man may not be an
outcome of the divine nature implanted in him by the Creator, and which,
if watered and developed, will surely burst into the flower of goodness
when once the influence of God's Spirit is fully recognized and ever
invoked? Amzi, you have many such seeds of innate good. Your very
longings for good, your tone of late, show me that you are near this
blessed recognition. Why will you not believe? Why will you not embrace
the Lord Jesus Christ? We are all weak of ourselves, but we have
strength in him. Amzi, my friend, pray for yourself."

He turned abruptly and left Amzi alone, to ponder long and earnestly
over the conversation of the past hour.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE FATE OF DUMAH.

"Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the
physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of
him whom time cannot console."--_Colton._

And now began a veritable reign of terror for the Jews of Medina. The
first evidence of the closing of Mohammed's iron hand was shown in his
forcing them to make Mecca, rather than Jerusalem, their kebla, or point
of prayer. Many refused to obey this command, and were consequently
dragged off to await the pleasure of the prophet.

At first the keenest edge of Moslem vindictiveness seemed to be directed
against the bards or poets, for the power of stirring and pathetic
poetry in arousing the passionate Oriental blood to revenge was
recognized as an instrument too potent to be overlooked.

Ere long even the form of imprisonment was, to a gr