"Better far to be a daughter of Israel," replied Naomi. "Better far to be one of God's own people, though now for our sins we are degraded and in sorrow, than to belong to that nation who are employed in the hand of Jehovah to chastise his chosen race! Soon will He, for whom we wait in eager expectation, appear in the clouds in glory, and rescue his children from all those that oppress them. Then shall the people who worship stocks and stones be driven away before the brightness of his coming, and his own adopted children be exalted for ever!" The colour mounted into the usually pale cheeks of Naomi, as she thus expressed her own enthusiastic feelings, while her eyes were fixed on the darkening sky above her, and her hands upraised, as if even then she awaited the sound of the trumpet, and the vision of the Messiah coming in the air. The expectation of his immediate appearance was, at that period, very widely diffused and strongly felt by the Jews; and it is supposed that this vain hope had greatly encouraged them in their revolt, and obstinate resistance against the power of the Romans. They entertained a firm conviction that their great Deliverer would shortly be manifested to his people, and that although for a time their oppressors had been permitted to triumph over them, yet their destruction as a people would never take place; and that in their hour of greatest extremity their King and Saviour would appear, to re-establish the throne of his father David, and to raise their nation to a glory and prosperity surpassing that of Solomon. Claudia was impressed by the vehemence of her friend's manner; but she regarded all her hopes as vain delusions, and, after a pause, she replied: