"My heart goeth out in pity for you," he said sorrowfully. "Behind you the consuming fire, before you the overwhelming sea. I am newly come from Jerusalem; I know what awaits you if ye fly not. Even the Gentile can not be worse than he who breathes out threatenings and slaughter against you, in the name of the Law. Fare forth; the world can not be worse; it may be kindlier." Marsyas observed this man; in him was more promising material for his work than in the preacher. But the preacher looked over the congregation, by this time bowed and filled with distress. "It is your Gethsemane," he said, turning the pilgrim's declaration into comfort, "but He sleepeth not while ye pray." Marsyas looked over the congregation and saw here and there strong faces and bold, to whom the ordinance of submission must have been a bitter ordinance. He arose. "I behold that this is a council, in which men may speak," he said. "I take unto myself the privilege, as one akin to you in suffering if not in faith." His voice commanded by its Essenic calmness. Every eye turned toward him. They saw the habiliments of a slave covering the stature and dignity of a doctor of Laws. The preacher looked interested, and the congregation stirred toward the young man. "By the words of your teacher," he continued, "I see that ye are summoned here to be banished. I see your reluctance; I know your sorrow, for I, too, have been driven on, even by your enemy." "Who art thou, young friend?" the preacher asked. "I am an Essene." "An Essene!" many repeated, stirred into wonder at knowledge of the new apostleship. "As was John the Baptist!" one declared. "Nay, then;" a voice rose out of the comment, "thou shalt be kin to us in faith so thou acceptest Jesus of Nazareth." "Let us lay aside the discussion of doctrine, in which we can not agree," the young man went on, "and unite in our cause against Saul of Tarsus." The kindly eyes of the preacher became paternal as he gazed at the hardness growing in the young man's face. "Our cause," he said gently, "is not Saul of Tarsus, but Jesus Christ." "Are ye sincere in your boast that ye will not defend yourselves?" Marsyas demanded. "What need, young brother? God defends us." "Well enough; but what of the persecutor?" "God will overtake him." "When? When he hath desolated Israel, stained the holy judgment hall with tortured perjury, slandered the Jews before the world as slayers of the innocent? Your talk is all of the life hereafter; I, too, expect to live again; yet I am here to come and go at God's will, not Saul's! Even ye, in all your infatuation, will not call Saul's work God's work! I will not be driven and desolated by Abaddon!" He did not wait for the preacher, who seemed prepared to speak.