the Holy Land. 'Happy the people that know the sound of the trumpet !" "

Helon's kindling glance, thanked Elisama for thus expressing the sentiment of which his own heart was full. But one of the elders replied, "The sound of the trumpet is heard also in Leontopolis, and the psalm might be repeated with equal propriety, before a journey to the nome of Heliopolis."

"I always maintain," said Elisama, "that Israel is Israel nowhere but in the Holy Land."

"But does not the law itself declare," said the elder, "Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land?* Did not the patriarchs of our nation always repair to Egypt in their distress, and did not the land of Ham almost always show a brotherly compassion for the children of Shem? Why did our forefathers always resort to this land of wonders, rather than to Syria or Mesopotamia? Does it not appear as if some secret guiding of Providence had always impelled

Deut. xxiii. 7.

Israel to unite himself with his brethren of Misraim? Was not our father Abraham himself in Egypt?" "And well did Pharaoh reward him by his treatment of Sarah," interrupted Elisama. "Jehovah himself forbad

Isaac to go down to Egypt." *

"Yet," replied the elder, "Jacob came hither with seventy souls; Joseph was proclaimed the father of the land, and Pharaoh said to him, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in the land of Egypt. + Moses was born here and brought up at court, and Jeremiah also was here. I When Alexander founded this city, he brought a multitude of our nation hither; the first Ptolemy settled a hundred thousand of them in different parts of the land, and because the kings thought us to be the brethren of the Egyptians, we have obtained the privileges of the highest rank of citizens, and are called, like the conquerors themselves, Macedonians. The Lord has moved the heart of the king and

Gen. xxvi. 2.

+ Gen. xli. 44.

Jer. xlii.

queen, and Onias, the son of Onias, has built us a temple in Leontopolis, which is an exact copy of that on mount Moriah. Soon shall we be still more highly exalted. You know that let the schemes of Ptolemy Lathyrus be what they may, his mother Cleopatra, who is joint regent with him, has the administration in her hands, and by her means (a thing unheard of in any other country) two of our nation, Hilkias and Ananias, the sons of Onias, are at the head of the army."

"The God of Israel bless Cleopatra our queen! May he increase her a thousandfold, and cause her seed to possess the gate of their enemies," exclaimed the elders.

"What thou hast said of our fathers, and of their journies into Egypt is true; but acknowledge also," said Elisama, "that they never failed to return to the Holy Land, when they had an opportunity; and we will do the same."

"No," said the elder, "we have our own temple in Egypt, our Oneion."

"But it is contrary to the law of the Lord; on Moriah only should the temple and the altar

stand.

Jehovah spoke to Moses saying, * "To the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall ye come, and thither shall ye bring your burnt-offerings: but take heed that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in any place that thou seest; in the place which the Lord shall choose there shalt thou offer thy burntofferings, and do all that the Lord thy God requires of thee.' And five hundred years after, when the temple was built, he said to Solomon, when he appeared to him in the night, 'I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place to myself, as a house of sacrifice. And this place is Moriah, where Abraham was about to offer up his own son."

"Knowest thou not," continued the elder, "what Isaiah, the greatest of all the prophets, said two hundred years later? Our high priest wrote the passage to the king and queen at the building of the Oneion. In that day shall five

* Deut. xii. 1-14.

+ 2 Chron. vii. 12.

cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of Hosts: one shall be called Irhaheres, Leontopolis."*

Elisama replied, "I adhere to the words of the psalm, The Lord hath chosen Zion and delights to dwell therein.'+ To Isaiah also the Lord spoke, saying, "I will comfort you as one whom his mother comforteth, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.' We might say to you of Alexandria, what the Lord said by the mouth of Jeremiah, Go up into Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt !'" §

"Yet Jehovah, in the same chapter, calls Egypt a fair heifer."

"True, but he threatens her; 'destruction cometh from the north,' and in us will his word be fulfilled, ye shall be ashamed of Egypt as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.'" ||

"Now accursed be he who reviles the Oneion, the temple of the Lord, and Egypt and the queen," exclaimed the elder, in vehement indignation. They had long ceased to eat, as

*Is. xix. 18. + Ps. cxxxii. 13.

§ Jer. xlvi. 11. 20.

Is. lxvi. 13.

|| Jer. ii, 36,