' Will my
brother tell this to his people?"
"It would do no good. They know that the land of Judea is reserved
by God for his chosen people, and they are not Jews. None but the
children of Israel can restore that land to its ancient fertility.
It would be useless for any other to attempt it. Armies have been
there, and it was once thought that a Christian kingdom was set up
on the spot; but neither the time nor the people had come. Jews
alone can make Judea what it was, and what it will be again. If my
people owned that land, they could not use it. There are also too
many of us now, to go away in canoes."
"Did not the fathers of the pale-faces come in canoes?" demanded
Peter, a little sternly.
"They did; but since that time their increase has been so great,
that canoes enough to hold them could not be found. No; the Great
Spirit, for his own wise ends, has brought my people hither; and
here must they remain to the end of time. It is not easy to make the
pigeons fly south in the spring."
This declaration, quietly but distinctly made, as it was the habit
of the missionary to speak, had its effect. It told Peter, and those
with him, as plainly as language could tell them, that there was no
reason to expect the pale-faces would ever willingly abandon the
country, and seemed the more distinctly, in all their uninstructed
minds, to place the issue on the armed hand.
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