During the whole of the winter the civil war raged in Jerusalem with unabated violence, and it was impossible for Naomi to rejoin her family. Occasionally Theophilus contrived to send intelligence to Pella of the proceedings in the city; and by his messengers Naomi received long and affectionate letters from her parents and Claudia, and enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing that her father's health was restored, and that he and his family were safe and unmolested. How long their security might last was very uncertain, as the robbers and assassins became daily more powerful and more insatiable, notwithstanding the efforts of the other party; and Naomi trembled for her friends. Her fervent prayers were joined to those of her Christian brethren for the preservation of those so dear to her, amid the destruction that threatened them; and still more fervently did she pray that they might be brought to the knowledge of the Gospel, and preserved from the far more terrible destruction which she believed was yet to come upon her nation, and to swallow up all who wilfully despised the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Every day did that grace become more precious to her, and her faith become more lively and more deep. The beautiful and simple forms of worship that were observed by the Christians powerfully affected her heart. In the meetings of this holy band all was calm and peaceful: tears of deep devotion and unaffected humility stole silently down the cheeks of many a once hardened sinner, and many a young and ardent convert, as they knelt together in their unadorned sanctuary, and joined in the prayers and confessions which were pronounced by the elders of the community. Meekly they bowed their knees; but there were no prostrations on the earth, no outward gestures or vehement excitement; and their prayers were offered up with the devotion of creatures before their Creator, the love of ransomed sinners before their Redeemer, and the confidence of children before a Father, who has promised, that wheresoever two or three are gathered together in his name, there will He be in the midst of them. Those who had witnessed the imposing magnificence of the temple-service, and beheld the thronging multitudes, the glittering gold and jewelled dresses of the priests, the costly sacrifices, the clouds of incense, the marble pavements and splendid altars, and listened to the brazen trumpets and united voices of the choristers, that were ordained to impress the senses, and fix the attention of the Jews, might have smiled at the simplicity of this little church in the wilderness. Frequently they held their meetings in the silence and the obscurity of night, and selected some neighbouring glen or rocky recess in the mountains as their place of worship. There, undisturbed by the Jews who dwelt in Pella, they united their voices in hymns of prayer and praise, while the caverns re-echoed the loud "Amen," and repeated the joyful "Hallelujahs" of these poor and