true religion that demanded the sacrifice of one so good, so valuable as Theophilus, and led him to choose shame and death, and to leave those whose happiness was bound up in him to hopeless misery and desolation? Why should he not speak the word, and return to bless her with his presence? The Father Almighty had been the author of Judaism, and why should Theophilus die an ignominious death, rather than return to the religion in which he had been brought up? Weak and inefficient as these reasonings were, they had power to agitate the mind of Claudia, enfeebled by sorrow and anxiety. Her better feelings told her that such thoughts were both sinful and irrational; and yet she could not entirely conquer them, or still the repinings of her bursting heart. To Naomi she dared not breathe such doubts, for she felt how they would be condemned by her stronger-minded and more devoted friend; but to Salome she expressed her feelings, and even ventured to propose that she should herself address a letter to Theophilus, and send it by the hand of Zadok when he paid him his last visit that evening. She knew the power which she possessed over his affections, and she deceived herself into believing that she was right in employing it for the preservation of his life. Salome gladly heard her express this wish, and hastened to communicate it to her husband, who warmly approved the plan, and urged Claudia to omit no persuasions which might possibly work on the feelings of Theophilus, and induce him to abandon his present determination to brave the worst that the council could threaten, rather than deny his belief in the Nazarene. With renewed hopes but with a trembling hand, the mistaken girl sat down to address her unhappy Theophilus. Carried away by her own feelings, she suffered herself to become an instrument in the hand of Satan, to tempt the being whom she loved so devotedly to sacrifice his immortal soul for the sake of dwelling a few short years with her on earth! How does the father of lies ofttimes transform himself into an angel of light, and beguile the hearts and understandings of those who do not resist his first whispers, to believe that they are doing God's work, when all the while they are seconding the efforts of his arch-enemy!