'
'You are, then, a Hebrew?'
'I am of the same blood as Mary whom you venerate, but do not adore.'
'You just now observed,' said Tancred, after a momentary pause, 'that it
sometimes almost seems to you that you ought to acknowledge my Lord and
Master. He made many converts at Bethany, and found here some of his
gentlest disciples. I wish that you had read the history of his life.'
'I have read it. The English bishop here has given me the book. It is a
good one, written, I observe, entirely by Jews. I find in it many things
with which I agree; and if there be some from which I dissent, it may be
that I do not comprehend them.'
'You are already half a Christian!' said Tancred, with animation.
'But the Christianity which I draw from your book does not agree with
the Christianity which you practise,' said the lady, 'and I fear,
therefore, it may be heretical.'
'The Christian Church would be your guide.'
'Which?' inquired the lady; 'there are so many in Jerusalem. There is
the good bishop who presented me with this volume, and who is himself a
Hebrew: he is a Church; there is the Latin Church, which was founded
by a Hebrew; there is the Armenian Church, which belongs to an Eastern
nation who, like the Hebrews, have lost their country and are scattered
in every clime; there is the Abyssinian Church, who hold us in great
honour, and practise many of our rites and ceremonies; and there are the
Greek, the Maronite, and the Coptic Churches, who do not favour us,
but who do not treat us as grossly as they treat each other.
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