our customs. It
is deeply impressed upon the convictions of this land. Shaped as you
Christians offer the doctrine, it loses none of its sublimity; or its
associations, full at the same time of mystery, power, and solace. A
sacrificial Mediator with Jehovah, that expiatory intercessor born from
the chosen house of the chosen people, yet blending in his inexplicable
nature the divine essence with the human elements, appointed before all
time, and purifying, by his atoning blood, the myriads that preceded and
the myriads that will follow us, without distinction of creed or clime,
this is what you believe. I acknowledge the vast conception, dimly as my
brain can partially embrace it. I understand thus much: the human race
is saved; and, without the apparent agency of a Hebrew prince, it could
not have been saved. Now tell me: suppose the Jews had not prevailed
upon the Romans to crucify Jesus, what would have become of the
Atonement?'

'I cannot permit myself to contemplate such contingencies,' said
Tancred. 'The subject is too high for me to touch with speculation.
I must not even consider an event that had been pre-ordained by the
Creator of the world for countless ages.'

'Ah!' said the lady; 'pre-ordained by the Creator of the world for
countless ages! Where, then, was the inexpiable crime of those who
fulfilled the beneficent intention? The holy race supplied the victim
and the immolators. What other race could have been entrusted with such
a consummation? Was not Abraham prepared to sacrifice even his son? And
with such a doctrine, that embraces all space and time; nay more, chaos
and eternity; with divine persons for the agents, and the redemption of
the whole family of man for the subject; you can mix up the miserable
persecution of a single race! And this is practical, not doctrinal
Christianity. It is not found in your Christian books, which were all
written by Jews; it must have been made by some of those Churches to
which you have referred me. Persecute us! Why, if you believe what you
profess, you should kneel to us! You raise statues to the hero who saves
a country. We have saved the human race, and you persecute us for doing
it.'

'I am no persecutor,' said Tancred, with emotion; 'and, had I been so,
my visit to Bethany would have cleansed my heart of such dark thoughts.'

'We have some conclusions in common,' said his companion, rising. 'We
agree that half Christendom worships a Jewess, and the other ha