"If so in Nature and history," said the Hebrew lady, "the lines are clear and distinct enough in our holy law. Why have countless victims been offered, even from the time of the Fall? Why was the dying lamb of Abel more acceptable than the bloodless offering of Cain? Why have thousands of guiltless creatures been slain on the altar of God; nay, not upon His alone, even on altars of the heathen who have never heard of His name, as if there were a deep instinct implanted in the soul of man, to testify that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin? Think we that the All-merciful can take pleasure in the death of bulls or of goats? Yet hath He Himself ordained it. Sacrifice, suffering, substitution, one life accepted as ransom for another, this idea pervades the law given by inspiration to Moses; yea, long before the birth of Moses, to Abraham, to Noah, to Abel!" "I grant it," Abishai replied. "As man is guilty in the sight of his Maker, there must be sacrifice for sin as long as the world shall last." The light of inspiration seemed to glow in the uplifted eyes of Hadassah, and her lips to breathe words not her own as she spoke again. "What if all these sacrifices but point to one great Sacrifice; what if the deep mystery of suffering be resolved into some deeper mystery of love; what if God Himself should provide the substitute, and if on some altar blood be shed which shall suffice to atone for transgressions past, present, and to come, even to the end of all time? May it not be--must it not so be--if we read the Scriptures aright?" "I cannot divine your meaning," said Abishai. "What is written here of the coming Messiah?" asked Hadassah, laying her hand on the roll of prophecy, as she turned her earnest, searching gaze upon her companion. "That He shall rule the nations with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel!" exclaimed Abishai with exultation; "is He not named Messiah the Prince?" "Who shall be _cut off, but not for Himself_" (Dan. ix. 26), said Hadassah, in low thrilling tones that made Abishai start, and look at her with surprise. "You," she continued, "see the PRINCE in prophecy, written as in characters of light; I see the SACRIFICE, ever in letters of deepening shadow. Behold here,"--and as the widow spoke, she opened the roll till her finger could point to the Twenty-second Psalm,--"what means this cry of mysterious sorrow, _My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?_" "It is David's cry of anguish," said Abishai. "Look farther on, my son, ponder the subject more deeply," cried Hadassah, and she proceeded to read aloud part of the inspired Word. "_The assembly of the wicked have inclosed Me: they pierced My hands and My feet. I may tell all My bones: they look and stare upon Me. They part My garments among them, and cast lots on My vesture_ (Ps. xxii. 16-18). These things never happened to David; the Psalmist speaks not here of himself."