; witnesses who were ready to go to the death
in support of their words, and who did so die, many of them."

"But," said David, "our Messiah was to be the King of our people; and
your Christ belongs to the Gentiles."

"Thank God he does!" said Mr. Richmond smiling. "But now let us see if
you are correct in that first statement."

"He was to be a King on David's throne," interrupted the boy.

"He is. Wait. Do you remember, in the promise to Abraham it was said
that all the families of the earth should be blessed in him?"

"Yes."

"And Isaiah declares, 'In that day there shall be a root of Jesse,
which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it _shall the
Gentiles seek_.'"

"Yes, but they will come to Messiah; not the Messiah go to them," said
David, lifting his head with the same air again.

Mr. Richmond answered in words of Isaiah. "'Behold my servant, whom I
uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit
upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.' And again in
the forty-ninth chapter--and Master Bartholomew, you know that these
words were spoken of Messiah--'And now, saith the Lord that formed me
from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him. Though
Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the
Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing
that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and
to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light
to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the
earth.'"

Matilda looked eagerly at David as these words were finished; the boy's
face was troubled and dark. He made no answer.

"Now let us see how those words were to be fulfilled," Mr. Richmond
went on. "It is a hard reading for you; but we are seeking the truth,
and you are seeking it. The apostle John, one of the servants and
witnesses of Christ, says, 'He came unto his own, and his own received
him not.'"

David looked up with a white face. "If that is true"--he said. "I just
want to know whether that is true!"

"You know Isaiah said it would be true. 'Who has believed our report?'
'He is despised and rejected of men;... we hid as it were our faces
from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.'"

"Some of the rabbis held that there were two Messiahs," David said.

"Because they knew not how to understand of one the various seemingly
contradictory