“Will any thing be done to the women and children?”
“Does the lion discriminate between a kid and a goat? ‘Let your little ones also go with you.’ Even Pharaoh could say that—when he could not help allowing it.”
“I think I understand you, Friend Rubi, and I thank you.”
“You are not so badly off for brains,” said Rubi approvingly.
“But how far to act upon your warning I know not, until I lay it before the Lord, and receive His guidance.”
“You—a Gentile—receive guidance from the Holy One (blessed be He)!” Rubi’s tone was not precisely scornful; it seemed rather a mixture of surprise, curiosity, and perplexity.
“Ay, friend, I assure you, however strange it may seem to you, the good Lord deigns to guide even us Gentiles. And why not? Is it not written, ‘Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer’? and, ‘O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come’?”
“Those promises belong to the reign of the Messiah. He is not come yet. Do you new sort of Gentiles believe He is?”
It was a most difficult question to answer. “Yes” would probably drive Rubi away in anger—perhaps with a torrent of blasphemy on his lips. “No” would be false and cowardly.
“I believe,” said Gerhardt softly, “that He shall yet come to Zion, and turn away iniquity from Jacob. May thou and I, Rubi, be ready to welcome Him when He cometh!”