"_He_ said he was?" exclaimed David.

"Yes, to be sure he did."

"But you don't know. The Scriptures of the prophets declare that Messiah will be a great king."

"Yes," Matilda answered slowly, looking at him. "Jesus is a great King."

"No!" said David quickly. "He was crucified."

"But he rose again, and went back to heaven."

"They stole his body away," said David, "and made believe he was risen."

"O no, that was what the priests told the soldiers to say; but we _know_ he rose again, David, for they saw him--the apostles and Mary Magdalene, and all of them; over and over again."

"But the Scriptures say he shall, I mean Messiah, he shall conquer the enemies of Israel and deliver us."

"I think that means the _true_ Israel," said Matilda.

"The true Israel!" said David. "Who are the true Israel? I am one of them. Abraham's children."

The boy spoke proudly, defiantly, as if he felt the n.o.ble blood of kings and prophets in his veins, and the inheritance his own. Matilda found it very difficult to go on. So far she had been able to answer him, having given attention to her Sunday school teaching and that teaching having lately run in a course fitted to instruct her on some of the points that David started. But she did not know what to say now.

She was silent.

"Look here," said David in the same tone. He seized his Bible which lay at hand, and turning over the leaves stopped at the prophecy of Daniel, and read, not after the common English version--

"'I was seeing in the visions of the night, and lo, with the clouds of the heavens as a son of man was one coming, and unto the Ancient of Days he hath come, and before him they have brought him near. And to him is given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, and all peoples, nations and languages do serve him; his dominion is a dominion age-during, that pa.s.seth not away, and his kingdom that which is not destroyed.'" David read, and paused, and looked up at Matilda.

"Yes," said Matilda nodding; "that is just what the angel said about Jesus."

"What angel?"

"The angel that came to tell that he was coming. See, David, wait,--I'll find it; here it is! 'He shall be great; and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord G.o.d shall give unto him the throne of his father David; _and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end_.'" And in her turn Matilda looked up at David.

"But what kingdom has _he?_" David asked, between anxiously and scornfully.

"Why, I remember he said, 'All power is given unto me, in heaven and in earth.'"

"It don't shew," said David. "Christians are a small part of the world, and not the strongest part by any means."

"No, I didn't say they were. I only said Jesus is the King."

"And I say again, Tilly; you have nothing but words to shew for it. How is he king?"

"O but, David, wait; look here,--I'll find the place in a minute or two--"

She sought it eagerly, but it took a little while to find any of the words she wanted. David waited patiently, having evidently much on his mind. At last Matilda's face lighted up.

"Here, David; this is what I mean; I was afraid to put it in my own words. 'And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of G.o.d should come,'--you see they thought as you do;--'he answered them and said, The kingdom of G.o.d cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo, here! or Lo, there! for, behold, the kingdom of G.o.d is within you.' That's it, David, don't you see? He is king in people's hearts."

"The Messiah is to reign in another fashion than that," David returned.

"The Targum says, 'a King shall arise from Jacob, and Messiah be exalted from Israel; then he shall kill the great ones of Moab, and he shall rule over all the children of men;' and 'to him are all the kingdoms of earth to be subjected.' The Lord will destroy his enemies who rise to put his people to shame; he will thunder upon them with a loud voice from the heavens; the Lord shall exact vengeance from Magog, and from the army of the thundering nations who come with him from the ends of the earth, and he will give strength to his King, and magnify the kingdom of his Messiah.'"

"That isn't out of the Bible, is it?" said Matilda, bewildered.

"No; it's the Targums."

"I don't know what the Targum is."

"It is a book, or books rather, of the words of our wise Rabbis; explaining the Scripture."

"I don't know anything but the Bible," said Matilda meekly; "and I don't know but a little of that."

"Well, you see, Tilly, that _our_ Messiah is to be King in a grand fashion, and rule over all kingdoms; and make his people rule with him."

"O _that's_ like the New Testament!" Matilda cried.

"What part of it?"

"I don't know exactly where it is; I'll look; but David, Jesus is going to reign so by and by, I know."

"You know!" said David.

"Yes; for he said so."

"Who said so?"

"Why, Jesus. Here--stop!--no, here it is, one place. Listen, David, just to this. 'And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of G.o.d should immediately appear.'--That's what you thought, David."

"Well, but,--" David began.

"Just listen. 'He said therefore, A certain n.o.bleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.'"

"What's that?" said David.

"Why, don't you understand?"

"No. Not what it has to do with what I was talking about."

"Why, David, the far country is heaven; and Jesus is gone there until the kingdom is ready, or till he is ready to take it."

"You have nothing but words to shew for it."

"No, of course; but they are G.o.d's words, David; so they are true."

"Take care!" said he, and his dark eye fired and glowed; "you mustn't talk so. You know I don't believe that."

"Believe what?