"Pride and ambition and self-righteousness blinded their eyes," replied Mary. "They looked for a triumphant, kingly Messiah; and they would not receive the meek and lowly Jesus, who had not even where to lay his head, and who chose his own immediate attendants not from among the learned, or the rich, or the holy in their own eyes, but from among humble fishermen, and the yet more despised class of publicans." "It was the belief that Christ would appear in his glory at his first advent," replied Naomi, "that so long prevented me from fully comprehending that Jesus was indeed the Messiah spoken of by all the prophets; and it is the same error that causes my father and all his pious but mistaken friends to regard the Christians as deluded fanatics. Our people are accustomed to consider only those prophecies that speak of the glory and victory of Christ, and the restoration and happiness of our nation; and all those passages which you have pointed out to me, as so wonderfully describing the humility, and sufferings, and death of Jesus, are disregarded, or supposed to relate to some other person. It now appears unaccountable to me, how I could so often, in former days, have read the book of the prophet Isaiah, and yet have doubted who was spoken of as the 'Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief.' Truly was he 'despised and rejected of men,' and truly have the Jews 'hid their faces from him.' Oh, when will the time come that the report of the prophets and apostles shall be believed among God's chosen people, and the arm of the Lord revealed to that nation who are called by his name!" "It is not for us to know the times or the seasons which God hath put in his own power; but most clearly are we told by the mouths of the prophets that God has mercy yet in store for his people, and that at the end of the days they shall again be restored to greater power and greater happiness than they have ever yet enjoyed; and then will Messiah return the second time in glory, and then will all the majestic prophecies relating to his reign be accomplished. But ere that blessed time arrives our Lord himself has told us that there shall be wars and rumours of wars, and great tribulations and sorrows, such as never have been yet on the earth: but he has also told us that he that endures unto the end, the same shall be saved." "And do you believe, Mary, that those days of tribulation are now coming on the earth, and that the Messiah will shortly appear again in glory?"