ant; doth not one creature maintain its existence
by the destruction of others? There is a mystery of suffering in this
fair world, some stern necessity for what we call evil, though from it
a merciful God is ever evolving good. These things distressed and
perplexed me, till I could dimly trace that word Sacrifice as written
by God's finger upon His works; death the parent of life, pain and
sorrow--of joy!"

"The primeval curse is on Nature," observed the Hebrew.

"Linked with the primeval blessing," said Hadassah. "And now when I
turn from natural objects to the history of our race, sacrifice and
suffering are still ever before me. Isaac is devoted as a
burnt-offering before he becomes the father of the chosen race; Joseph
is sold for pieces of silver ere he can redeem his family from
destruction; the storm is only stilled by Jonah's being cast out into
the deep; Samson triumphs over the enemy by the sacrifice of his own
life! All these historical facts seem to me as types, dim and shadowy
indeed, yet legible to the eye of faith, and Sacrifice is the word
which they form."

"Dim and shadowy," repeated Abishai, to whom Hadassah's views on the
subject appeared somewhat fanciful and vague.

"If so in Nature and history," said the Hebrew lady, "the lines are
clear and distinct enough in our holy law. Why have countless victims
been offered, even from the time of the Fall? Why was the dying lamb
of Abel more acceptable than the bloodless offering of Cain? Why have
thousands of guiltless creatures been slain on the altar of God; nay,
not upon His alone, even on altars of the heathen who have never heard
of His name, as if there were a deep instinct implanted in the soul of
man, to testify that without shedding of blood there is no remission of
sin? Think we that the All-merciful can take pleasure in the death of
bulls or of goats? Yet hath He Himself ordained it. Sacrifice,
suffering, substitution, one life accepted as ransom for another, this
idea pervades the law given by inspiration to Moses; yea, long before
the birth of Moses, to Abraham, to Noah, to Abel!"

"I grant it," Abishai replied. "As man is guilty in the sight of his
Maker, there must be sacrifice for sin as long as the world shall last."

The light of inspiration seemed to glow in the uplifted eyes of
Hadassah, and her lips to breathe words not her own as she spoke again.
"What if all these sacrifices but point to one great Sacrifice; what if