Words could not paint the feelings that chased each other across the expressive but stern countenance of the priest, as this open avowal of her apostasy fell from the quivering lips of his daughter. Horror and amazement held him motionless for a few moments, and strong affection for his suppliant child restrained him from any violent expression of anger; but all the prejudices of his nation and all the pride of his sect repressed his rising pity. He looked on Naomi with an expression of bitter disappointment and contempt; and unable to command the grief that wrung his heart, he drew his garment from her convulsive grasp, and would have retired from the apartment had not Amaziah detained him. "Zadok, my brother," he said, "leave us not thus in anger; but hear your innocent, your most devoted daughter, towards whom I know your spirit yearns, though deep-rooted prejudice would prompt you to cast her from you. Hear me also, for I must encounter your wrath and your scorn. I must confess that the faith which now animates Naomi's soul has for many years been established in my own heart and that of my wife, and that we have been in part God's instruments in strengthening the same belief in your daughter's mind. The knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ was imparted to her many months ago by one of hie most enlightened and most favoured disciples; and when we found that she believed in him as the Messiah, the Son of the Most High God, we joyfully encouraged her, and instructed her in the truth." "Oh, fool that I was," exclaimed Zadok, "to suffer my treasure to be so long removed from my own care and my own watchful guardianship! But how could I look for such a return from a brother's hands, for all the love that I have ever borne towards him? Speak not to me, Amaziah. Had you plunged a dagger to Naomi's heart you would have less deeply injured me, than by thus instilling into her guileless breast the doctrines of the impostor of Nazareth. Oh! I have watched her from her infancy with feelings of anxiety and affection which none but a father can tell. I have exulted in her abilities, her graces, and still more, in her piety and zeal, and knowledge in our holy religion; and in her dutiful affection and gratitude I hoped to receive a rich reward for all my care and solicitude. But now what has she become? A curse and a shame to her parents--an apostate from the only true faith--a believer in a blasphemous creed, worse even than idolatry, founded on impostures, invented by a malefactor, who was unable to save himself or his followers from the punishment which they drew on themselves by their false pretensions. O God of Israel! avenge thy great name, and suffer not these deluded Nazarenes to draw away thy lambs from thy fold. Restore my child to her religion and her parents, and let her not be an outcast from thy people, a disgrace to the tribe of Aaron!"