od. xxxiii. 20). "But who, then, visibly
appeared unto Abraham? Who was it who wrestled with Jacob? Who spake
unto Gideon? On whose glory was Isaiah permitted to gaze? Who was
soon to walk in the fiery furnace? Who was He, _like the Son of Man,
who came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days?_"
(Dan. vii. 18.)

"At one moment you would view Messiah as a Victim; at the next, as a
God!" cried the Hebrew.

"If God should deign to take the form of Man, to bear Man's penalty, to
suffer Man's death, might He not be _both_?" asked Hadassah.

Seeing that Abishai started at the question, she turned to the portion
of the roll which contained the prophecy of Isaiah, and read aloud:--

"_Unto us a Child is born_. Here is clearly an announcement of human
birth; yet is this Child revealed to us as _the mighty God, the
everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace_" (Isa. ix. 6).

"Such thoughts as these are too high, too difficult, for the human mind
to grasp," exclaimed Abishai, pressing his brow. "The frail vessel
must burst that has such hot molten gold poured within it. All that I
can answer to what you have said is this. I believe not--and never
will believe--that when Messiah, the Hope of Israel, shall come, He
will be rejected by our nation. Were it so, such a fearful curse would
fall upon our race that the memory of the Egyptian bondage, the
Babylonish captivity, the Syrian persecution, would be forgotten in the
greater horrors of what God's just vengeance would bring upon this
people. We should become a by-word, a reproach, a hissing. We should
be scattered far and wide amongst the nations, as chaff is scattered by
the winds, until--"

Abishai paused, and clenched his hand and set his teeth, as if language
failed him to describe the utter desolation and misery which such a
crime as the rejection of the Messiah must bring upon the descendants
of Abraham. As Abishai did not finish his sentence, Hadassah completed
it for him.

"Until," she said, with a brightening countenance--"until Judah repent
of her sin, and turn to Him whom she once denied. Hear, son of Nathan,
but one more prophecy from the Scriptures. Thus saith the Lord:--_I
will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall
look upon ME whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as
one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for