They asked Ben-Hur his authority for the sayings, and he quoted the prophets, and told them of Balthasar in waiting over in Antioch; and they were satisfied, for it was the old much-loved legend of the Messiah, familiar to them almost as the name of the Lord; the long-cherished dream with a time fixed for its realization.

The King was not merely coming now; he was at hand.
So with Ben-Hur the winter months rolled by, and spring came, with gladdening showers blown over from the summering sea in the west; and by that time so earnestly and successfully had he toiled that he could say to himself and his followers, "Let the good King come.

He has only to tell us where he will have his throne set up.
We have the sword-hands to keep it for him." And in all his dealings with the many men they knew him only as a son of Judah, and by that name.
* * * * * * One evening, over in Trachonitis, Ben-Hur was sitting with some of his Galileans at the mouth of the cave in which he quartered, when an Arab courier rode to him, and delivered a letter.
Breaking the package, he read, "Jerusalem, Nisan IV.
"A prophet has appeared who men say is Elias.

He has been in the wilderness for years, and to our eyes he is a prophet; and such also is his speech, the burden of which is of one much greater than himself, who, he says, is to come presently, and for whom he is now waiting on the eastern shore of the River Jordan.

I have been to see and hear him, and the one he is waiting for is certainly the King you are awaiting.