"Surely," he said to himself, "I have seen the man; but where and when ?" That the look, so calm, so pitiful, so loving, had somewhere in a past time beamed upon him as that moment it was beaming upon Balthasar became an assurance.

Faintly at first, at last a clear light, a burst of sunshine, the scene by the well at Nazareth what time the Roman guard was dragging him to the galleys returned, and all his being thrilled.

Those hands had helped him when he was perishing.

The face was one of the pictures he had carried in mind ever since.

In the effusion of feeling excited, the explanation of the preacher was lost by him, all but the last words--words so marvellous that the world yet rings with them: "-- this is the SON OF GOD!" Ben-Hur leaped from his horse to render homage to his benefactor; but Iras cried to him, "Help, son of Hur, help, or my father will die!" He stopped, looked back, then hurried to her assistance.