He kept his word; and for fear thieves might discover and steal the
valuable crucifix, he hid it beneath his vesture and carried it to the
mainland. The little plank meeting-house at the edge of Snow Hill was
filled with whites on the floor, but in the end gallery, amongst the
negroes, Issachar haughtily took his seat, an object of wonder to both
races, for his face and reputation were generally recognized. Perhaps
it was for this reason that the young preacher, a gentle, graceful
person, adapted his sermon to the sweetness of the Christian story
rather than bear upon those descriptions which might antagonize his
Jewish auditor.

He told the story of the world's selfishness when Christ appeared; how
the Jews, living in the straitest of sectarian aristocracies, inviting
and receiving no accessions, had finally fallen under the dogmatism of
the uncharitable Pharisees, who esteemed themselves the only righteous
devotees and doctrinaires amongst the millions of people on the earth.
Jesus, a youth of good Jewish extraction, and honorable family, had
been bold enough to denounce Phariseeism and make its votaries
ridiculous. He was scorned by them, if for no other crime, for the
cheap offence, in a bigoted age, denominated blasphemy. Here the
preacher, looking toward the Jew, paid a tribute to the antiquity and
loyalty of the better class of Jews, and said that it was well known
that one of his own forerunners in the Christian ministry, dying in
penury from the consequences of a marital mistake, had been befriended
in his death and in his posterity by a gallant follower of the House
of Israel.

The congregation, facing about to look at the Jew in the gallery,
amongst the negroes, were surprised to see tears on his gray