"Sing to the Lord! Oh sing His praise!
Sons of Israel, loudly raise
Your voices to the King of kings—
Listen how all nature sings!
The golden spheres that roll above—
The air that breathes around—
And all created things that move,
Declare the great Jehovah's love,
To earth's remotest bound.
Angels, who dwell on high,
In realms beyond the sky,
Strike your immortal harps of gold,
And sing how Israel's God, of old
Displayed His power.
Now may His banner be again unfurled;
And shouts of triumph tell from land to land,
That God on high hath raised His mighty hand,
And, from their boasted height of glory, hurled
Our foes in this dark hour!"
"It is long since I have heard that song, my Naomi," said her mother. "It once was the hymn you loved best to sing: but latterly you have preferred more sorrowful strains."
"My spirit has lost that joyous feeling of confidence in the triumph of my country, that animated it when I first sang that song, dear mother. But Javan used to take delight in it; and I have tried to recall it now."
Naomi looked at her brother, hoping for a kind reply; but the forced smile had left his features, and their naturally stern expression had returned. He sat with folded arms, and his eyes cast down; while the compression of his lips and contraction of his brow betokened a fixed and a painful resolution. Probably he knew not that his sister had selected his favourite hymn to please him; though he was glad that the sound of her sweet voice gave him an excuse for continuing his moody silence.
The entrance of his father aroused him from his reverie, and the family assembled to partake of the evening meal. The ablutions prescribed by Jewish superstition were duly performed; and with this form Theophilus and Naomi always complied, as it was perfectly immaterial, and in no way opposed their private feelings. Javan watched his cousin during the performance of this simple ceremony with a look of scorn. He seemed to feel that Theophilus was committing profanation by sharing in the act; and lest he himself should contract defilement from sitting at meat with an apostate, he declined joining his family at supper, on the plea of indisposition, and remained silent and abstracted until the repast was finished, and the servants had retired. Then he turned to Theophilus and said,
"You promised us an interesting account of your walk this evening. I particularly wish to know in what direction you went, and whither you led my sister and Claudia. I would have joined you, but when I returned home, I found that you had left the house more than an hour before."
The imperious and contemptuous tone of Javan's voice struck all the party, and they saw that he suspected something wrong; while Claudia's changing countenance and evident agitation betrayed that there was some ground for his suspicions. Naomi had made up her mind to what would probably follow; and after all she had already undergone, she felt that her brother's hatred and scorn would be an additional sorrow sent to loosen her affections from this world. Theophilus was perfectly unmoved, and replied at once:—
"I perceive, Javan, that you have other reasons for your inquiries than mere curiosity as to the direction of our walk; therefore the most manly and ingenuous course will be at once to tell you, what I am convinced you already suspect, that I have this evening been to visit a poor Christian friend; and that the interest I take in her is not merely because she is aged and infirm, and on her deathbed, but because she is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ."
"Hear him, O righteous Zadok!" exclaimed the rabbi, starting from his seat, with uplifted hands. "The demon of heresy has again found his way into your family."
"Silence, Joazer," replied Zadok, who feared that in his zeal the rabbi would forget that Javan was ignorant of his sister's apostasy, and would inadvertently allude to it. "Silence, my friend, and suffer Theophilus to explain himself more fully before we condemn him."