Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/120

Rh are done: comparison ends there. But think then of the prophets—greatest of the great.&quot;

She laughed scornfully.

&quot;Pardon me. I was thinking of the soothsayer who warned Caius Julius against the ides of March, and fancied him looking for the omens of evil which his master despised in the entrails of a chicken. From that picture turn to Elijah sitting on the hill-top on the way to Samaria, amid the smoking bodies of the captains and their fifties, warning the son of Ahab of the wrath of our God. Finally, O my Judah if such speech be reverent how shall we judge Jehovah and Jupiter unless it be by what their servants have done in their names? And as for what you shall do—&quot;

She spoke the latter words slowly, and with a tremulous utterance.

&quot;As for what you shall do, my boy—serve the Lord, the Lord God of Israel, not Rome. For a child of Abraham there is no glory except in the Lord's ways, and in them there is much glory.&quot;

&quot;I may be a soldier then?&quot; Judah asked.

&quot;Why not? Did not Moses call God a man of war?&quot;

There was then a long silence in the summer chamber.

&quot;You have my permission,&quot; she said, finally; &quot;if only you serve the Lord instead of Cæsar.&quot;

He was content with the condition, and by-and-by fell asleep. She arose then, and put the cushion under his head, and, throwing a shawl over him and kissing him tenderly, went away.

good man, like the bad, must die; but, remembering the lesson of our faith, we say of him and the event, &quot;No matter, he will open his eyes in heaven.&quot; Nearest this in life is the waking from healthful sleep to a quick consciousness of happy sights and sounds.

When Judah awoke, the sun was up over the mountains; the pigeons were abroad in flocks, filling the air with the gleams of their white wings; and off southeast he beheld