Then the old man covered his face with his hands and wept; but soon raising his head he said, “Is it seemly that a son of Abraham should have so little trust in the Lord? Bethink thee of the times when the Holy Temple was burned with fire, and Judah led into captivity: did not all the Gentiles say in those days, ‘God hath forsaken them’? Yet did the Lord save Israel out of the hand of the daughter of Babylon, and out of the hand of the Assyrian and the Philistine, as also out of the hand of the Egyptian, in the days of old. Commit thy way therefore unto the Lord, and trust in Him, and He shall bring the word of His prophets to pass. “Is not the Lord our God perchance even now on the point to stop the mouths of them that complained? Is there not even now, after four hundred years, a prophet again in Israel? But if the Lord sendeth unto us a prophet after so long a time, as it were from the dead, surely it is like that He hath some great redemption in store for Sion. Even during this week have I heard that John the prophet, who hath these six months prophesied of a Deliverer shortly to come, hath of late prophesied that the Redeemer is even now amongst us; and some say that it is a certain Jesus, the son of Joseph, of the town of Nazareth, one famous in word and deed. This Jesus, as they report the matter, being baptized of John, beheld a vision of the Lord; and in that instant the Spirit of the Lord fell upon him; insomuch that, since that time, he both speaketh as a prophet and worketh signs as a man of God. Moreover, I had speech but yesterday with some that say he is come into Galilee, and is even now in these parts. Who knoweth whether this may not be true? But whether it be true or false, trust thou in the Lord God of Abraham and of Isaac and Jacob, whose arm is not shortened, and who is not a man that He should lie.” For an instant, my heart leaped up at the mention of the name of that Jesus whom I had seen in the house of the father of Raphael; but then it seemed not possible that one of so gentle an aspect should be the Redeemer of Israel. Howbeit, I asked Jonathan concerning the vision that had been reported to have been seen of Jesus; and he told me that it had not been a vision of flames of fire, nor of angels, nor of thrones, nor of seraphim, nor any such vision as had been seen of the prophets in times past, but a vision of a dove descending from heaven. Hereat I marvelled and I said, as I remember, in the bitterness and folly of my heart, that the times needed an eagle, and, lo, the new prophet brought a dove.