"Question your souls, brethren," he said. "Hath Judea more to lose than it hath lost?" he asked in a lowered tone.
"Its identity," Eleazar responded shortly.
But the Levite looked expectantly at Saul.
"Its faith," Saul suggested quietly.
The Levite nodded eagerly.
"Its faith," Saul continued, as if speaking to himself, "and after that there is nothing more. Yea, restore unto it its kings and its dominions, yet withhold the faith and there is no Judea. Desolate it until the land is sown in salt and the people bound to the mills of the oppressor, so but the faith abide, Judea is Judea, glorified!"
"What then, O Rabbi," the Levite persisted, "if the land be sown in salt and the people bound to the mills of the oppressor, if the faith be abandoned—what then?"
"God can not perish," Eleazar put in. "Fear not; it can not come to pass."
"Nay, but evil can enter the souls of men and point them after false prophets so that God is forgotten," the Levite retorted. His lean figure bent at the hips and he thrust his face forward with triumph of prophecy on it. Saul looked at him.
"What hast thou to tell, Joel?" he asked with command in his voice. The Levite accepted the order as he had worked toward it—with energy.