Original - The Preterist Archive

i8
NAOMI.
of gratitude, and hope, and adoration which the ceremony was
so well calculated to excite ;
and his dignified form and noble
countenance well became the splendid robes in which as an
officiating priest he was attired. Salome looked upon him with
love and veneration; and the proud heart of his daughter
swelled with a pardonable emotion, as with her young companions
she passed before him, and met the affectionate eye of hor
father. Naomi loved both her parents most ardently ;
bat she
looked up to Zadok as to a being of superior nature, whose will
to her was law, and whose slightest word could control all her
wild thoughts and wayward fancies. "Ah," said she to her
mother as she returned to her side beneath the pillared cloisters,
when she had completed the circuit of the court in the solemn
procession, " if my father were but High Priest, or a chief of
one of the parties in Jerusalem, all would yet be well. His
wisdom, and courage, and virtue would surely reconcile all the
disputes which now- cause such tumult, and threaten such
danger to our beloved city and should the Romans dare to
;
bring their legions against our walls, with Zadok for our defender,
and the leader of our troops, how soon would they be
discomfited and driven !
away I almost wish to see their
boasted armies approach, for then would all the rival factions
unite to oppose them, and we should see my father go forth in
the power and protection of the Lord, with the holy band of
priests, to encounter the foe. And then, O my mother ! we
should behold the Messiah coming in the glory of Heaven to
finish the conflict, and to restore to our city and beautiful temple
the majesty and power which once dwelt here. I look round
this gorgeous building, and I see marble pillars and pinnacles
of gold, and carved roofs, and crowded ornaments of precious
materials. But where is the presence of God, which once abode
visibly among his people, to sanctify them, and to separate them
*
from all others ? It has departed from us, and therefore, do
'
the heathen so furiously rage together against us. But it will
return surely his presence will speedily return to us, in the
person of the Messiah, and we shall yet see Jerusalem exalted, to
be the glory of the whole earth."
"God grant it, Naomi," replied her less sanguine mother;
"but I confess I cannot utter my prayers in this temple,
without some awful forebodings that ere long the worship may
be interrupted, and even that fire and sword may lay waste
our beautiful, our rich, our joyous city. I fear that we may
yet have to sink far lower than we are now fallen, and endure
to drink far deeper of the cup of the Lord's vengeance before