[Transcriber's notes: Inconsistent spellings of some words and names are as printed. The source book's list of illustrations did not include the full page illustrations. They have been added to this ebook.] NAOMI OR THE LAST DAYS OF JERUSALEM BY MRS. J. B. WEBB AUTHOR OF "HELEN MORDAUNT" WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL GLASGOW, MANCHESTER, AND NEW YORK BY THE SAME AUTHOR. HELEN MORDAUNT OR THE STANDARD OF LIFE. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN ABSOLON. PREFACE TO THE SEVENTEENTH EDITION. If when this book was first written the Author could say that the "signs of the times pointed strongly towards the Holy Land and the once glorious city of Jerusalem, and that the eyes of many--both Jews and Gentiles--were turned thither in anxious expectation," how much more emphatically may the same assertion now be made! The interest felt for God's ancient people, the Jews, has been gradually increasing; and their condition, as a people, has been greatly improved. Many decrees have been passed in their favour in various lands; and in few civilized countries are they now subjected to either persecution or contumely. Moreover, the hearts of multitudes of Christians are awakened to feelings of love and sympathy towards their elder brethren of the Jewish Church: the servants of Christ "think upon the stones of Jerusalem, and it pitieth them to see her in the dust." All this, combined with many other circumstances to which the attention of the world has been called of late years, leads us to hope that as the threatened _judgments_ of the Lord have been awfully accomplished in the dispersion of his chosen people, his promises for their restoration may ere long be found equally sure. We know that there is a "_tribulation_--the _great one_"--yet to be brought on the land of Israel, and on her gathered population; but that will usher in their final glory and redemption. Then the same Almighty power which has turned the fruitful field into a "desolate wilderness," will cause that "wilderness" to "blossom as the rose;" and the same hand that once scattered the Jews over the face of the world, and made them a proverb and a by-word to the Gentile nations, will "bring them again to their own land," and make them the "joy of the whole earth."