sure I am the remembrance of your true kindness and tender friendship
has been to me ever since an increase of sunshine and song; and, now
that you have come to me, the very temple itself shall look more
beautiful, and the songs of David catch a new inspiration.

_Eudora._ Still faithful, I see, to your temple and Jehovah; and so
may it ever be! But I trust you have more respect for the gods I
worship, and will not, as of yore, pronounce them false.

_Rachel._ Sorry should I be to pain a true heart, and, most of all,
that of my much-loved guest; but, still I _must_ say, the gods that
you worship are no gods. There is but one God, and that is Jehovah.

_Eudora._ As I came near Jerusalem, I remembered your earnest words on
that subject,--as what that you ever uttered have I forgotten? I
remembered, too, how nearly out of patience I often felt with you for
claiming your god to be the only God; and, so as I drew near, I felt a
desire to know him better. It being a time of worship in the temple, I
went with a Jewish friend of mine up the hill, and entered the outer
court, called, I believe, the Court of the Gentiles. And, verily, I
saw _no_ god there. Perchance he was in the temple itself.

_Rachel._ Yes, in the holy of holies: in the farther apartment of that
building which you saw rising amid all the courts, he dwells.

_Eudora._ I imagined that was his abode. But wherein differs your
worship from ours? You have a temple; so have we. You have priests
clothed in sacred robes; so have we. You have altars and sacrifices;
so have we. You have an oracle and prophets; so have we. You go up to
the dwelling-place of your God to worship and offer sacrifices; so do
we. Wherein, then, do we differ?

_Rachel._ If in nothing else, Eudora, yet in this: we have but _one_
temple and one God for our nation; you have many. And again, you
worship the work of men's hands,--images of wood and stone, that can
neither see nor feel.

_Rebecca (coming forward--Jezebel approaches)._ My heart is moved
within me; and though my sister, in her joy of seeing her friend, has
left me standing apart, yet your voice has drawn me to you.

_Eudora._ Surely the sister of my friend shall be my sister: would
that I could say her God shall be my God!

_Rebecca._ Even so may it be!

_Eudora._ And my gods hers!

_Rebecca._ But that is impossible.

_Eudora._ Why? Because, as she says, we have images for gods! But this
is not so. Is Jupiter the thunde