He must be of the family of the
prophet; he must possess miraculous powers of no common kind; and
his person must be overflowing with a peculiar sanctity. The
pious dwellers beside those distant waters, where holy men by
dint of a constant repetition of one of the ninety-nine names of
God, secured the protection of guardian angels, and where groups
of devotees, shaking their heads with a violence which would
unseat the reason of less athletic worshippers, attained to an
extraordinary beatitude, heard with awe of the young preacher
whose saintliness was almost more than mortal and whose miracles
brought amazement to the mind. Was he not also of the family of
the prophet? He himself had said so, and who would disbelieve the
holy man? When he appeared in person, every doubt was swept away.
There was a strange splendour in his presence, an overpowering
passion in the torrent of his speech. Great was the wickedness of
the people, and great was their punishment! Surely their miseries
were a visible sign of the wrath of the Lord. They had sinned,
and the cruel tax gatherers had come among them, and the corrupt
governors, and all the oppressions of the Egyptians. Yet these
things, 'Too, should have an end. The Lord would raise up his
chosen deliverer; the hearts of the people would be purified, and
their enemies would be laid low.
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