acher.

Every Sunday there pealed from the church the sounds of the organ and
the song of the congregation. The strains penetrated into the house
where the Jewish girl, industrious and faithful in all things, stood
at her work.

"Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath-day," said a voice within her, the
voice of the Law; but her Sabbath-day was a working day among the
Christians, and that seemed unfortunate to her. But then the thought
arose in her soul: "Doth God reckon by days and hours?" And when this
thought grew strong within her, it seemed a comfort that on the Sunday
of the Christians the hour of prayer remained undisturbed; and when
the sound of the organ and the songs of the congregation sounded
across to her as she stood in the kitchen at her work, then even that
place seemed to become a sacred one to her. Then she would read in the
Old Testament, the treasure and comfort of her people, and it was only
in this one she could read; for she kept faithfully in the depths of
her heart the words the teacher had spoken when she left the school,
and the promise her father had given to her dying mother, that she
should never receive Christian baptism, or deny the faith of her
ancestors. The New Testament was to be a sealed book to her; and yet
she knew much of it, and the Gospel echoed faintly among the
recollections of her youth.

[Illustration: SARA LISTENING TO THE SINGING IN THE CHURCH.]

One evening she was sitting in a corner of the living-room. Her master
was reading aloud; and she might listen to him, for it was not the
Gospel that he read, but an old story-book, therefore she might stay.
The book told of a Hungarian knight who was taken prisoner by a
Turkish pasha, who caused him to be yoked with his oxen to the plough,
and driven with blows of the whip till the blood came, and he almost
sank under the pain and ignominy he endured. The faithful wife of the
knight at home parted with all her jewels, and pledged castle and
land. The knight's friends amassed large sums, for the ransom demanded
was almost unattainably high: but it was collected at last, and the
knight was freed from servitude and misery. Sick and exhausted, he
reached his home. But soon another summons came to war against the
foes of Christianity: the knight heard the cry, and he could stay no
longer, for he had neither peace nor rest. He caused himself to be
lifted on his war-horse; and the blood came back to his cheek, his
strength appeared to ret