riest; "our vines and olives will bear more fruit at thine
approach, our gates will lift up their heads to receive thee, and Israel
rejoice with shouts to meet his lord doubly blessed if as lord of the
building--"

"Enough, priest, enough!" cried Cambyses. "Your first petition, I have
said it, shall not remain unfulfilled; for I have long desired to visit
the wealthy city of Tyre, the golden Sidon, and Jerusalem with its
strange superstitions; but were I to give permission for the building
now, what would remain for me to grant you in the coming year?"

"Thy servants will no more molest thee by their petitions, if thou
grant unto them this one, to finish the temple of the Lord their God,"
answered the priest.

"Strange beings, these men of Palestine!" exclaimed Cambyses. "I have
heard it said that ye believe in one God alone, who can be represented
by no likeness, and is a spirit. Think ye then that this omnipresent
Being requires a house? Verily, your great spirit can be but a weak and
miserable creature, if he need a covering from the wind and rain, and a
shelter from the heat which he himself has created. If your God be like
ours, omnipresent, fall down before him and worship as we do, in every
place, and feel certain that everywhere ye will be heard of him!"

"The God of Israel hears his people in every place," exclaimed the
high-priest. "He heard us when we pined in captivity under the Pharaohs
far from our land; he heard us weeping by the rivers of Babylon. He
chose thy father to be the instrument of our deliverance, and will hear
my prayer this day and soften thine heart like wise. O mighty king,
grant unto thy servants a common place of sacrifice, whither our
twelve tribes may repair, an altar on the steps of which they can
pray together, a house in which to keep their holy feasts! For this
permission we will call down the blessing of God upon thine head and his
curse upon thine enemies."

"Grant unto my brethren the permission to build their temple!" added
Belteshazzar, who was the richest and most honorable and respected of
the Jews yet remaining in Babylon; a man whom Cyrus had treated with
much consideration, and of whom he had even taken counsel from time to
time.

"Will ye then be peaceable, if I grant your petition?" asked the king.
"My father allowed you to begin the work and granted the means for its
completion. Of one mind, happy and content, ye returned to your native
land, but while pursuing y