Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/110

Rh much to do with the nobility of races and families. A Roman boasting his superiority on that account over a son of Israel will always fail when put to the proof. The founding of Rome was his beginning; the very best of them can not trace their descent beyond that period; few of them pretend to do so; and of such as do, I say not one could make good his claim expect by resort to tradition. Messala certainly could not. Let us look now to ourselves. Could we better?&quot;

A little more light would have enabled him to see the pride that diffused itself over her face.

&quot;Let us imagine the Roman putting us to the challenge. I would answer him, neither doubting nor boastful.&quot;

Her voice faltered; a tender thought changed the form of the argument.

&quot;Your father, O my Judah, is at rest with his fathers; yet I remember, as though it were this evening, the day he and I, with many rejoicing friends, went up into the Temple to present you to the Lord. We sacrificed the doves, and to the priest I gave your name, which he wrote in my presence—’Judah, son of Ithamar, of the House of Hur.’ The name was then carried away, and written in a book of the division of records devoted to the saintly family.

&quot;I cannot tell you when the custom of registration in this mode began. We know it prevailed before the flight from Egypt. I have heard Hillel say Abraham caused the record to be first opened with his own name, and the names of his sons, moved by the promises of the Lord which separated him and them from all other races, and made them the highest and noblest, the very chosen of the earth. The covenant with Jacob was of like effect. ’In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed’—so said the angel to Abraham in the place Jehovah-jireh. ’And the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed’—so the Lord himself said to Jacob asleep at Bethel on the way to Haran. Afterwards the wise men looked forward to a just division of the land of promise; and, that it might be known in the day of partition who were entitled to portions, the Book of Generations was begun. But not for that alone. The promise of a blessing to all the earth