Volume 2

Rebecca's School
299
upon Sodom and Gomorrha formed a part of the instruction
given.
When Jesus visited the school, the young girls were
computing a chronological table upon the coming of the
Messiah. All agreed in their reckoning, which brought
the result down to their own time. Just at that moment, in
stepped Jesus and His disciples, a circumstance that produced
a very powerful inlpression upon the scholars.
Jesus took up the subject then engrossing their attention,
and explained to them with the utmost clearness that the
Messiah was already come, though not yet recognized.
He spoke of the unknown Messiah, and of the signs that
were to herald His coming, and that had already been
fulfilled. Of the words: "A virgin shall bring forth a son,"
Jesus spoke only in veiled terms, since those children
were too young to comprehend them. He exhorted them
to rejoice that they lived in a tinle after which the
Patriarchs and Prophets had so long sighed. He dwelt
upon the persecutions and sufferings the Messiah was to
endure, and explained some texts of Prophecy to that
effect. He told them to be on the watch for what would
take place in Jericho at the approaching feast of Tabernacles.
He spoke of miracles, and particularly of the curing
of the blind. He made for them also a chronology of
the Messiah, spoke of John and of the baptism, asked
whether they too wanted to be baptized, and, lastly, related
to them the parable of the lost drachma.
The girls sat in school cross-legged, sometimes with
one knee raised. Each was provided with a kind of table
and bench combined. She leaned sideways against the
one, and when writing, supported her roll on the other.
They often stood while listening to the instruction given
them.
In the house at which Jesus put up there was also a
boys' school. It was a kind of orphanage, an institution
for the education of children abandoned by their parents.