ord on the seashore, his disciples, first secret,
then bold, spread throughout Smyrna the news of the Messiah's advent.

They were not all young, these first followers of Sabbatai. No one
proclaimed him more ardently than the grave, elderly man of science,
Moses Pinhero. But the sceptics far outnumbered the believers.
Sabbatai was scouted as a madman. The Jewry was torn by dissensions
and disturbances. But Sabbatai took no part in them. He had no
communion with the bulk of his brethren, save in religious ceremonies,
and for these he would go to the poorest houses in the most noisome
courts. It was in a house of one room, the raised part of which,
covered with a strip of carpet, made the bed-and living-room, and the
unraised part the kitchen, that his next manifestation of occult power
was made. The ceremony was the circumcision of the first-born son,
but as the _Mohel_ (surgeon) was about to operate he asked him to stay
his hand awhile. Half an hour passed.

"Why are we waiting?" the guests ventured to ask of him at last.

"Elijah the Prophet has not yet taken his seat," he said.

Presently he made a sign that the proceedings might be resumed. They
stared in reverential awe at the untenanted chair, where only the
inspired vision of Sabbatai could perceive the celestial form of the
ancient Prophet.

But the ancient Talmudical college frowned upon the new Prophet,
particularly when his disciples bruited abroad his declaration on the
sea-shore. He was cited before the _Chachamim_ (Rabbis).

"Thou didst dare pronounce the ineffable Name" cried Joseph Eskapha,
his old Master. "What! Shall thy unconsecrated lips pollute the sacred
letters that even in the time of Israel's glory only the High Priest
might breathe in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement!"

"'Tis a divine mystery known to me alone," said Sabbatai.

But the Rabbis shook their heads and laid the ban upon him and his
disciples. A strange radiance came in Sabbatai's face. He betook
himself to the fountain and prayed.

"I thank Thee, O my Father," he said, "inasmuch as Thou hast revealed
myself to myself. Now I know that my own penances have not been in
vain."

But the excommunication of the Sabbatians did not quiet the commotion
in the Jewish quarter of Smyrna, fed by Millennial dreams from the
West. In England, indeed, a sect of Old Testament Christians had
arisen, working for the adoption of the Mosaic Code as the law of the
State.

From land t