"Peace, children!" he said kindly but firmly. His hands lifted higher as the stature of his authority seemed to tower over the people. In the sudden silence those that had stood up sank down again, the pilgrim lowered his head and only Marsyas and the rabbi at his side seemed to resist the quieting influence of the pastor. The extended palms dropped and the Nazarene looked at the young Essene. "Vengeance is mine and I will repay, saith the Lord. Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is of the old Law and is passed away!" "There, O strange pastor of a human flock, our ways part. I am a Jew, thou a Nazarene--our laws differ. Yet if, as ye preach, the God of Moses is also the God of your Prophet, ye are delivered sentences and punishments for evil-doing. Wherefore, if ye evade them, ye evade a divine command!" "We do not punish; we correct. Punishment is God's portion." "Are ye not instruments?" the young man persisted. The preacher did not answer at once; his eyes searched Marsyas' face for some expression by which he might select his line of argument. "Bethink thee, young brother," he said finally. "How would Stephen answer thee in this?" Marsyas' demanding eyes wavered and fell; his lips parted and closed again; he frowned. "Whom then wouldst thou please in this vengeance? Not Stephen! Then wilt thou comfort thyself with bloody work, while the tomb stands between thee and Stephen's restraining hands?" Marsyas threw up his head defiantly, shaking off the influence of the argument. "Do ye in all truth follow the doctrine that bids you suffer without requital?" he demanded, even while feeling that his logic was impotent. "God directs all things; if it be His will that we shall suffer or escape, God's will be done!" "It is cowardly!" Marsyas declared with flashing eyes. The preacher came closer. "I believe that thou art determined and sincere. Suppose Saul fell into thy hands, as an evil-doer, and the Law was ready for his blood, and God bade thee withhold thy hand. Would it be easy?" "No, by my soul!" "Look then at me and answer. Is it easy for me, who hath suffered exactly thy sorrows, to stand still and wait on God?" Marsyas looked at the preacher. He was tall, spare and old, his hair and his beard were so white that they shone in the torch-light, and his face was so thin and colorless that he seemed already to have put off the flesh. But his eyes glowed with fire and youth. Here of a surety was no weakness to call into account. "No," he answered again. "Then, O my son, which of us is truly subject to the Lord?" "Ye crucify yourselves to an unnatural doctrine! It is not human to bow to it!" "When thou canst do as we strive to do, my son, thou shall know that it is divine." Marsyas looked at Eleazar, and the rabbi, who had his eyes fastened on the preacher, spoke for the first time.